Miss Nox
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Not as serious as she looks. | |
| Miss Nox | |
| Player: @Miss Nox | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Jessica Knox |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 25 |
| Height: | 5'3" |
| Weight: | 140 |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Varies (naturally brown) |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Registered hero; grad student of Theoretical Physics; occasional bartender |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City (Kings Row) |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None (all known relatives are deceased) |
| Known Powers | |
| Melee combat, self-defense powers, self-healing abilities, and flight, all derived from manipulation of 'negative energy.' | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Scientific genius, drinking tankers under the table, baking cupcakes | |
| Equipment | |
| Teleporters, iPod, various corsets | |
| She would have likely become a technology-origin hero (or villain) if not for the laboratory accident. | |
Miss Nox is a Security Level 50, Science-origin Dark Melee/Dark Armor Scrapper.
Contents |
Affiliations
Supergroup: Hero Force - Alpha
Relatives: Thomas and Linda Knox (parents, deceased); Jay Knox (uncle, deceased); no others known
Miss Nox is a registered Hero of Paragon City, who works for S.E.R.A.P.H.; she is also a graduate student of Theoretical Physics at Paragon City University.
Personality
She is a touch temperamental and impulsive, prone to leaping before looking; she's not terribly good at controlling her feelings and tends to be a bit intense where such things are concerned.
Her demeanor is often described as 'perky' or 'saucy' by those who don't know her; those who do might add a modifier like 'wry' or even 'sardonic'. (As in, 'sardonically perky'.)
Powers
Miss Nox's powers are derived from the peculiar energy form known only as "negative energy." She uses them to amplify her melee abilities both from a physical and energy-based standpoint, as well as for self-defense and even healing herself. This energy can also be channeled within herself to allow her to fly, and seems to have a low-level psionic effect on those around her that increases their focus on targets as well as the damage inflicted upon said targets.
Abilities
She displays considerable prowess in melee combat, enhanced by her manipulation of negative energy; she also possesses a reputed genius-level intellect, though she refuses to submit to an IQ test (she thinks they're pointless and inaccurate). She also has quite the affinity for working with and on mechanical objects, from household appliances to car engines.
Character History
Short version (aka TL;DR):
Jessica Knox grew up poor in Kings Row, was a science prodigy, went to college on scholarship, got caught in a lab accident that gave her superpowers, and became a Paragon Hero.
Long Version:
Jessica Winifred Knox was born in the Kings Row area of Paragon City, the first and only child of Thomas and Linda Knox. The Knox family-- which also included Thomas' younger brother Jay, who lived with them-- was poor, supported by her father's part-time work at a steel mill, her mother's housecleaning, and her uncle's "odd jobs." Apart from the rather threadbare life, her childhood was remarkable only in that Jessica soon showed signs of a great gift for academics, science in particular; she loved to see how things worked, often getting in trouble with her parents for dismantling mechanical household items (even if the items didn't necessarily work in the first place).
More often than not, her parents viewed her as a nuisance; there was some affection, sure, but it was fairly well-hidden beneath layers of bitterness, stress, and weariness from a difficult life taking its toll. Her main source of familial affection ended up being her uncle Jay, who was-- at eight years her senior-- more of an adored older brother figure. He never failed to remember her birthday, was often the one who would be present for her at school functions (especially Science Fairs), and even took care of her when she was sick. He was no saint, by any means; though he tried to keep it hidden from her, she learned that he was involved with the Skulls, one of Paragon City's various gangs and one especially active in Kings Row. Ultimately she didn't care, though she was careful to avoid such people as he told her to do-- he didn't want her hurt because of him.
Jessica's first true lesson in the reality of her station in life came when she was the first student in ten years from Kings Row Middle School to go on to the Paragon City Science Fair finals; her sponsor was her science teacher, Mr. Sokowoski, and they both had high hopes for young Miss Knox winning first place. The judges, however, felt differently; they did not believe a girl her age, especially one from a school known for 'disadvantaged' students, could have produced what she did-- which was in fact a homemade laser built from household appliances and materials. Despite having no evidence of such, they decided to disqualify her project because they refused to believe it was her own work, and Jessica went home empty-handed, realizing she'd been judged on her background more than her work.
The next lesson came the day before she turned thirteen, when she had her first direct encounter with one of Paragon City's heroes-- in fact, two of them. She came upon them as they were looking to arrest her beloved uncle and presumably for no reason except he was suspected of being one of the Skulls; he had been doing nothing wrong at the time, nor was there proof of such, but there were those defenders a little too eager to do their job, one would imagine. He was accused of theft, after they found a piece of jewelry on him that wasn't his own; in her eavesdropping Jessica learned that it was a birthday present for her, bought and paid for. It would be the first bit of nice jewelry she would have owned in her life-- and those heroes were about to confiscate it. The young girl, angry at the heroes for harassing her uncle anyway, ran at the pair, hitting the nearest one with all the might she had in her skinny arms, only to be knocked backward from an electrically-charged punch. It had been an automatic reaction; the hero-- 'Arcflash' as his partner called him-- hadn't intentionally hit a presumably helpless girl.
Regardless, it drove her uncle to jump at him with a knife drawn…and the 'heroic' pair did not hesitate to strike back forcefully. A little too forcefully; by the end of the fight the young man, barely twenty, lay dead on the ground at his niece's feet. The heroes, realizing what they had done, fled the scene, leaving the heartbroken girl sobbing at her dead relative's side for the police to find.
Jessica gradually adjusted to life without the one person she truly loved, though she never removed the gift from her uncle-- a silver chain with a pendant in the shape of an atom boasting tiny sapphires for electrons around a nucleus of tiny rubies and emeralds, that he had someone craft just for her. She grew from a skinny, mousy girl with oversized glasses to a rather well-proportioned beauty, and reveled in the attention her looks garnered. Her reputation in high school took quite a beating; though she didn't hide her intellect, she didn't boast about it either, and was known more for being somewhat…fast, more than intelligent. She never kept a boyfriend for long, and never actively pursued those belonging to other girls, but as usual in such situations it was the female who suffered from the rumor mill rather than the various males. She had acquaintances, mostly among the boys, but no true friends. Still, it was just high school, and she was one of those few from her school who would go on to college afterward, thanks to academic scholarships providing a full ride plus extra.
It didn't take long for her to get caught up in another affair upon starting college: this time it was with one of her professors. Dr. Graeme Newell, tenured professor of Physics and twenty years Jessica's senior, was at least unmarried, and the pair was very discreet-- after all, it was technically against university policy. More than that, they were partners in science: Dr. Newell was researching the theory of 'negative fuel', a potentially self-sustaining power based on the relatively new knowledge of 'negative energy', and found in the young woman a mind every bit as inquisitive and sharp as he would have wanted in any of his contemporaries. Together they accomplished a great deal in research and experimentation regarding this energy form, working easily and well together over the next few years. Though not in love, they developed a great respect for each other and a genuine friendship; both of their names would appear on their final work when submitted to prominent scientific journals, as both would deserve equal credit and Dr. Newell-- despite the questionable nature of an affair with a student-- was too ethical to claim said student's work as his own.
One day they were setting up one of their final series of experiments in the darkened laboratory, to test (and confirm) their theories and research regarding the nature of this 'negative energy'. Unbeknownst to them a photographer from the student-run 'Tattler'-- little more than a campus tabloid-- had snuck into the lab to catch a picture of the two, having been tipped off by someone suspicious about the nature of the student/professor relationship. In celebration of what was to be their triumphant moment, the two of them decided they both would flip the switches and press the buttons to start the experimental process; the photographer sprung into action to catch the moment for publication, the camera flashing repeatedly.
The flashes blinded the pair, startling Jessica enough that she knocked into one of the components of their delicate machinery; the light itself-- the lab was dark for a reason, with just a couple of dim red lights providing limited illumination-- interacted unpredictably with the glass tubes funneling the inky violet energy between components. When combined with the disruption of the equipment the results were potentially dangerous, even catastrophic-- when she realized the situation could not be saved she threw herself between the equipment and her professor, knocking him down and taking the brunt of the blast that came a split-second later. The photographer managed to escape upon realizing something Potentially Very Bad was happening.
When she woke up, she was in the main hospital in Atlas Park; the first thing she heard was a comment from her mother complaining about potential hospital bills, followed by reassurance of the bills being covered by someone called 'Seraph'. She soon learned that it was not someone, but an organization-- Scientific Experimentation Research and Application to Paranormal Humans, aka SERAPH. An organization interested in her now because of the result of the lab accident: Jessica found herself imbued with negative energy, told that she was now one of those who would be counted among the 'superpowered' whether she used her newfound powers or not. Dr. Newell was unharmed and unchanged, much to her relief; she didn't know who the photographer had been, but she never saw any photographs published of the lab situation so it was assumed those pictures had been destroyed in the process, somehow.
Jessica wrestled with the idea of becoming a Hero, as she very keenly remembered what had happened with her uncle; at length she decided she could not only be a hero, but one who could also potentially keep others in check so that no other person lost a loved one to a bad situation of assumption and 'being in the wrong place'. With that in mind she finished up her schooling then made her way to the Hero Corps Registrar. For her identity she chose Miss Nox, both as a play on her real name and a nod to the 'dark' nature of her powers. After all, at that point in time she no longer had any family to be threatened; her parents had died in a Clockwork-caused accident in Skyway City, her uncle had been dead for years, the affair with Dr. Newell had ended, and she at the time didn't really have any friends…so she didn't care about the similarity between her normal identity and that as a hero.
From there, the sky was the limit for Miss Nox.
Appearance
Miss Nox is fairly short, standing just a few inches past five feet; she often wears high heeled shoes to give a little more height. Her build is solid, quite hourglassish (which in the realm of the heroic is not exactly unusual), with a wiry strength developed from use of her melee abilities. Ordinarily her hair is an unremarkable shade of brown, but she's rather fond of changing that on a regular basis; her eyes are a fairly average blue (versus 'ice' blue or some such). Though she has a few different uniforms for hero business, they generally involve a corset of some kind-- her favorite is as seen in the picture, made of black leather and silver buckles.
Trivia
She occasionally moonlights as a bartender at an establishment that caters to the superpowered sorts, to earn a bit of extra money for herself. Also, she has already earned her Master of Science degree and will soon have her PhD in Theoretical Physics.
