Miss Megajoule
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Miss Megajoule | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Defender |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Identity | |
| Real Name: | Julie Vernon |
| Known Aliases: | Megs, MJ, "the Vixen" (disguise) |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Hero, graduate student, freedom fighter |
| Place of Birth: | Rose City, OR |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, RI; Gamma Upsilon 28-3 (a "Nemesis Earth") |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Kyle and Tracy Vernon (parents), Tom Vernon (brother) |
| Physical Data | |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 28 |
| Height / Weight : | 5' 6" / 120 pounds |
| Eye / Hair Color: | Brown / Dark brown |
| Known Powers | |
| Force Fields, Energy Blasts, Flight, Force Mastery | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Scientist; trained in leadership and guerilla warfare | |
| Equipment | |
| Remote control for city teleporter grid (others-to-self only) | |
| Updated: 10/1/2012 - Player: @Megajoule | |
A knight is sworn to valor. Her heart knows only virtue. Her blade defends the helpless. Her might upholds the weak. Her word speaks only truth. Her wrath undoes the wicked.
-- the Old Code (adapted), Dragonheart
Contents |
Affiliations
Miss Megajoule began working for S.E.R.A.P.H. soon after her arrival in Paragon City and retains strong ties to that organization, even spending some time as a member of one of their field teams under team leader Lightweight. She later became affiliated with the Kings Row-based D.F.B. - Death From Below, but was never entirely comfortable as (in her own words) "the token spandex girl." She found a better fit for her more classically heroic style in the Do-Gooders, her current supergroup. She is also a reserve member of the Freedom Phalanx.
After being named a Hero of the City, Miss Megajoule decided that she was needed more in a world without heroes, and joined the resistance movement against Nemesis Rex in the alternate timeline catalogued as Gamma Upsilon 28-3. She continues to visit her friends in Paragon City when circumstances allow.
Personality
Julie tends to be serious, analytical, and dedicated. She dislikes uncertainty or ambiguity; when something is in question, her natural response is to try to find the answer(s). She often thinks of others before herself, believing firmly that "with great power comes great responsibility." She is an honest person with a strong sense of right and wrong, and stalwart in her defense of what she believes to be right. She has been known to "geek out" when it comes to scientific matters, rambling on about technical details until she's brought back to earth.
Powers
Miss Megajoule is able to consciously emit unclassified high-energy particles which couple with ordinary matter to produce kinetic and photonic effects. She is also able to shape these emissions into standing waveforms at various frequencies, intensities and distances. This ability seems to be due to a serendipitous alteration of her body's quantum field, the result of an accident in a university physics lab. The particles appear a few centimeters from her skin, allowing her to wear gloves and clothing without problems; the actual source of this energy is unknown, but "other dimension" and "zero-point energy" are the leading candidates.
Force Fields
Most of the standing waves take the shape of hollow spherical or hemispherical "bubbles" of force. These bubbles are gas-permeable but deflect, slow, and even bounce or push back larger and faster-moving objects. They also slightly bend or refract the beams of energy weapons, causing them to miss. Miss Megajoule can project these fields around herself or anchor them to others.
Energy Blasts
Miss Megajoule can approximate the effects of a particle beam weapon, forming and shaping the energy stream with her hands. (Theoretically she should be able to emit such beams from any part of her body, but doing so from the arms greatly assists her concentration and aim.) Those struck by these blasts are subject to flash burns as well as concussive or even explosive force.
Flight
Miss Megajoule can fly at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, apparently by using her powers like a reaction engine. "Apparently" is the word, because while she reports the expected "pushing off" sensation, the observed particle density is only a fraction of what would be required to produce the necessary thrust (and is not normally visible to the naked eye). The prevailing theory at this time is that most of the energy is either emitted in one of the subatomic dimensions predicted by string theory, or somehow transferred directly to an inertial frame.
Force Mastery
With time and experience, Miss Megajoule has learned how to push her powers to the limits without serious injury. This mastery manifests in two forms: first, she can build up a "supercharge" of energy before releasing it (which she usually does to enhance her "Nova" blast); second, she can create a personal force field that is both strong enough to stop most incoming attacks cold and form-fitting enough to allow her to fire back (unlike her first attempt at a protective bubble, which left her all but useless in a fight).
Abilities
Miss Megajoule possesses a graduate-level knowledge of physics and a solid grounding in the other sciences. She is an experienced hero with basic knowledge of law enforcement procedures, disarming explosives, first aid, tactics, and other skills common to costumed adventurers. Since her "retirement" to Gamma Upsilon 28-3, she has gained experience in guerilla warfare and public speaking.
Miss Megajoule is in excellent physical condition and has the strength and agility of a woman who engages in regular exercise. She is a good swimmer and can perform complex aerial maneuvers.
Equipment
Through her contacts at S.E.R.A.P.H., Miss Megajoule has acquired a small remote device which is able to momentarily retask the Paragon City medical teleporter grid to allow site-to-self transport of team members. Because the device does not have to contain a teleporter module and the associated power supply, targeting scanners, etc., it is very compact; it is useless outside the city, however, and does not allow the user to teleport herself.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Miss Megajoule is an idealist and perfectionist who sets high standards for herself and is very sensitive to failure (actual or perceived). She is prone to episodes of guilt, depression, and overwork. She has difficulty with situations that are not morally black-and-white and can sometimes oversimplify complex issues in her search for clarity.
She also distrusts and (when possible) avoids magic; she complains that it's unpredictable and "doesn't make sense," operating on seemingly arbitrary rules of symbolism and metaphor rather than the tidy, balanced equations and reproducible results of science.
Character History
Julie Vernon was pursuing an advanced degree at Rose City University when a fellow student's experiment went wild, spraying the lab with quasi-real particles and badly injuring her. She became aware of her new abilities during the months of recovery and physical therapy that followed. Putting her studies aside, she answered the call for heroes and moved across the country to Paragon City at the beginning of September 2004.
As her security level passed 20, Miss Megajoule began to have more encounters with magic and its practitioners. She sabotaged a Banished Pantheon ritual to trap a goddess and recovered the Wheel of Destruction from the Tsoo before it could be used. She had a brief, doomed relationship with the spirit of Ashton Fletcher, a young man who died 400 years ago and was trapped in a Circle of Thorns crystal ever since; at his request, she shattered the crystal and allowed his soul to find its final rest and reward. These experiences led her to consider magic as extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, and not entirely trustworthy in the "right" ones (like Azuria's).
At about this time, she also suffered her first major setback. Defeated by Banished Pantheon cultists, she witnessed the sacrifice of the spirit she'd been trying to save. Even though the man (one of the ghosts of Dark Astoria) was already "dead," she blamed herself and sought out her new friend Elisa, who gave her some typically practical advice for dealing with it and moving on.
As Miss Megajoule became more associated with D.F.B. Crew, she also began to attract the notice of their enemies, particularly Crey. This would eventually lead to her being framed for various crimes and forced to find refuge with the Night Fox, a retired hero. Julie borrowed the costume and identity of the Night Fox's former sidekick, the Vixen, to clear her name. She was able to do so and even defeated Countess Crey, though the arrest didn't stick. The full story can be found in Conversations in Dark Places.
While attending a Halloween party in her secret identity, she was surprised and taken prisoner by the Carnival of Shadows. She began to fall under the mental domination of Vanessa deVore, but was eventually saved by her friends and teammates. She felt terribly guilty about her "weakness," but was able to redeem herself by helping a wayward Ring Mistress to escape the Carnival's clutches (see Cutting Strings).
On Christmas Eve of 2005, Miss Megajoule took it upon herself to cleanse the city of her old foes, the Vahzilok. Though they eventually regrouped and restored their numbers, she worked around the clock to ensure that no one in Paragon City was "harvested" that day.
Now entering the big leagues of heroism, Miss Megajoule frequently found herself facing off against the forces of Nemesis, both here in Paragon and in other dimensions. (She preferred this sort of fight to the shadowy world of spycraft that Crimson, Indigo and the Malta Group inhabit.) She was the first to explore a dead alternate Earth that had been destroyed by Nemesis' automatons, which she named "Ozymandias," and traveled to several worlds that had been conquered by the local version of Nemesis. On one of these, she came to the aid of an underground resistance cell and found it to be led by a counterpart of the woman who, on Primal Earth, took the identity of Countess Crey.
Seeing this as an opportunity to balance the cosmic scales and do some good in a world with few heroes of its own, Miss Megajoule announced her semi-retirement at her Hero of the City ceremony in Atlas Park (where she was awarded the medal by her hero and inspiration, Ms. Liberty). She now spends most of her time on that alternate Earth, being a high-profile thorn in the side of Nemesis Rex and lending her powers and inspiration to her fellow resistance fighters.
Miss Megajoule came back to defend her homeworld during the second Rikti invasion and was often in the thick of the fighting, including several raids on the downed mothership in the War Zone. She earned full membership in Vanguard and even assisted Lady Grey herself with a task that may have changed the course of the war; ironically, this involved confronting and defeating our own dimension's Nemesis once again. She spent a few more weeks in town once the main assault was repelled, assisting with the mopping-up and reconnecting with old friends, but has since returned to Gamma Upsilon 28-3.
Trivia
- Usually displays the "Protector of Innocents" badge title.
- Rose City is intended to be the CoH version of Portland, Oregon.
- Julie's favorite science fiction show, from her teenage years, is Babylon 5.
- One of her souvenirs is a moon rock, retrieved for her from the lunar surface by Capt. Starfall.
- Her civilian identity and the particulars of her origin are not public knowledge.
- She likes both cats and dogs, but has no room in her life for a pet right now.
- While visiting her home dimension during the winter holidays in 2006, she met mercenary commander El Halcon at the Pocket D's ski chalet and ended up in bed with him. She was not aware of his villainous affiliation at the time, and angrily confronted him with it at their next meeting; he managed to convince her that he was a good and honorable man in a bad situation, and they have continued their unusual annual relationship despite the obstacles and distance between them. She has lately been trying to get him to "go rogue" and come over to the side of Good.
- Besides Ms. Liberty, her heroes are various members of the pantheon of famous scientists (Curie, Einstein, Feynman, et al).
- In the hypothetical Virtue movie, she would be played by Sandra Bullock.
