BIOGRAPHY
Francine Diane Belle was born in Los Angeles, California. From her birth she had the early sparks of her power, but it wouldn't be until later in life that they developed in to anything noteworthy. She was born to a pop star and an actress, the product of a one night stand and raised deep in the showbiz industry. From the time she was in diapers Francine has known and been on the stage, playing bit roles in commercials and television shows and even picking up roles from big name production titanss like Tigershead and Iger Studios. It was a high stress life, but Francine lived for the attention and the spotlight and she was more than happy to throw herself in to the roles and murky politics of Hollywood. In her early teens Francine first started showing her mutant powers, able to produce light at will at that point in her life. Afraid of it ruining her burgeoning career she hid it from the world and instead became the latest in a a series of "Iger kids", picked to be one of the youthful faces of the company for television shows and ad bumpers galore.[break][break]
It wasn't until her later teens that a super fight broke out in her town between two of LA's prominent super people. Put in danger by their brawl Francine projected her first plasma blast and her first heroic pep talk from a real hero. Solara was already her idol growing up, the opportunity to become her own hero in her footsteps played in to her craving for the spotlight. By the end of that week LA had a brand new hero; Nova, your solar powered sweetheart! At the time she believed herself to be a solar hero like Solara and she played up the potential connection in interviews with the local journalists and paparazzi. Living her double life as a super hero and an actress she found an acceptance in the hero community that drove her to treat it as more than just another vanity project. She became an actual hero, revealing her identity to the world and committing a lot of her money as a celebrity to charities around the world. At age 22 her world was shaken to its core when Solara was killed in a super brawl in Wayport City and she was tapped as one of Aegis' founding heroes.[break][break]
The story from there is history. As Nova, Francine fought against injustice the world over and honed her skills to a fine point. She was beloved, she had everything; a stable romance, friends by her side, young heroes looking up to her the way she once had Solara, a life where eyes all over the world were on her. But as the years dragged on it seemed something was off. She started to shy away from all the attention, taken by most of her friends as her finally maturing a bit more, but the truth was she'd been betrayed. In a super fight no one knew about her hero lover revealed himself to be an agent of Reign and very nearly killed her. Only Aegis' upper leading heroes were told about it, she started to look on her colleagues with suspicion and mounting fear. Things escalated two years ago when the adventuring heroine found an alien artifact. The Star Heart, unknown to any of them, was a relic of a long thought dead race of beings born from the stars, it was a sort of prison for the power and spirit of an empress who had once tried to take control of the galaxy. The plasma reacted with her own powers and caused an immediate reaction, causing her to come to the conclusion that her friends had been in on the attempt on her life and were working with the shadowy organization.[break][break]
Something in Nova broke that day and before the end of the month she spiraled in to madness, convinced that Reign was out to get her
personally and attempting to attack her former friends in Wayport City. Even with her enhanced abilities her friends knew how she operated and she fled in a blinding flash of light. Now calling herself Radiance and convinced she has to take down the shadow organization she knows next to nothing about, she resurfaces now and again to terrorize the agents of Aegis and Reign alike. Two years on many now wonder if the former hero is a lost cause, and whether or not the world would be better off with her behind bars...
CHARACTER POWERS
✰ PLASMA MANIPULATION [break]
Wiki [break][break]
Radiance is a wildly powerful plasma manipulator. Capable of generating and wielding plasma in gross displays of cosmic power she burns as hot and bright as a star. Her massive power is regulated only by her own body. Her body is effectively a small star, fusing different elements within her body with unstoppable force and fueling her powers.[break][break]
X - Despite her incredible plasma powers, Francine's body is only enhanced while she is projecting a plasma barrier. She's as vulnerable to physical harm as any forty year old woman would be, be it bullets or fists. Interestingly her psychosis makes her slightly more resistant to telepathy; she's already deluded, what's one more voice to ignore?[break][break]
Living Power Plant: A quirk of her being, Radiance's body is essentially a tiny star and produces vast amounts of plasmic energy that she uses to sustain herself and produce her overwhelming energy attacks. She doesn't need to eat, drink, sleep or even really breathe to operate at full capacity. She also produces a tremendous amount of heat which is vented whenever she uses her powers, making her easier to find. The plasma she projects can be either positive or negative in polarity, at her will, but tend to be of positive polarity if she isn't actively choosing.[break][break]
X - Thanks to the Star Heart's power mingling with hers, Radiance's power production has gone haywire and caused her mind to race and her sanity to rapidly break down. If the power builds too much it overwhelms her, resulting in random plasma phenomenon until she's burned off enough energy to return to a stable state. She can also run on just the power generated by her body, but she still suffers the effects of hunger, thirst and sleep deprivation if she doesn't tend to her basic needs. [break][break]
Plasma Attacks: Frankie can unleash destructive plasma blasts from any part of her body, piercing golden rays with great destructive potential. She can pour as much power as she pleases in to her blasts, from simple tiny explosive bolts to wave motion rays that can vaporize stone and shatter all but the most powerful defenses. According to Aegis' measurements her plasma blasts can easily hit with twenty tons of force with ease, and just like the intensity of the heat she can control the force of the blasts.[break][break]
X - Frankie produces vast quantities of energy and her years of service as a hero have put her in a good position to use them, but projecting energy uses up her stamina. The larger the blast, the more stamina it takes to pull off. Additionally even in her mentally vulnerable state she rarely attacks with killing intent. The ionized plasma she produces can also be redirected with powerful enough magnetic fields.[break][break]
Ionokinetic Constructs: In addition to simple energy blasts, Radiance is capable of forming constructs with her plasma. Ranging from simple contained bolts to powerful energy shields. Their effectiveness is determined by how much power is put in to them, and she almost always maintains a plasma sheath around her body to protect her from counterattack. Like her plasma blasts she can pump tremendous amounts of strength in to these constructs, able to lift many tons with ease using them.[break][break]
X - While powerful, Francine's shields and constructs can be broken. If she isn't actively maintaining them the plasma disperses almost immediately, while reversed polarity magnetism can disrupt them until she changes polarity as well. They can be broken with sufficient applications of powerful enough attacks and they drain her stamina like the rest of her abilities.
Elemental Flight: Frankie can use her powers to fly through the air at incredibly high speeds, depending on her power output. In fact, she prefers to float rather than walk when given the opportunity! Her maximum air speed tops out somewhere above Mach Three, three times the speed of sound. [break][break]
X - Like her energy blasts, Francine has to expend energy to fly and using the two powers together drains her stamina faster. The faster she flies, the more energy she expends. She also leaves a very distinct golden corona when she flies, making her easy to find.[break][break]
Plasma Absorption: Francine is completely immune to plasma based weapons and attacks; the energy is absorbed in to her body and has something of a refreshing effect on her. She naturally drains plasma from the atmosphere and the world around her at a low level, but she can directly pull from the relatively rare state of matter if it presents itself.[break][break]
X - While absorbing plasma has a healing effect on her body, too much plasma can cause a runaway effect on her natural internal production and overload her ability to take it and having the bonus effect of knocking her out cold. This overload comes with her body venting excess plasma however, endangering whoever's around.[break][break]
Plasma Solidification: When projecting her plasma Francine is capable of freezing the charged ions in place to create objects or trap things, such as turning an orb solid for a physical impact or dousing someone in energy to encase them in solid plasma.[break][break]
X - While useful, Francine's plasma solidification doesn't last long. The tenuous ionic bonds break down within moments if she isn't actively maintaining them. If she is maintaining them they can be broken with magnetic force, sufficient super strength and abilities that let the individual slip away. Additionally this must be agreed upon IC before holding a character captive.[break][break]
MISC.
⍟ QUOTE/CATCHPHRASE:[break][break]
"They still don't believe me, but I'll show them. I'll show everyone the truth!" [break][break]
✽ ACTING [break][break]
An actor with a long history in Hollywood, Francine has won many awards for her acting skills and was incredibly popular before her breakdown. She's exceptionally good at cloaking herself in the guise of somebody else in mannerisms and can even throw her voice. It also gives her a wide variety of esorteric knowledge she's picked up here and there.[break][break]
✽ POWER MASTERY [break][break]
Francine has been a super hero for nearly twenty years and has an incredibly fine degree of control over her abilities. She knows how to do everything from how to project a plasma blast without the intense heat generally created by ionization to the precise body movements and regulations she has to take to keep herself balanced and healthy. The discovery of the Star Heart kicked her body's natural plasma production in to wild overdrive so her usual tricks aren't working so well, but even still she's incredibly skilled with her abilities.[break][break]
✽ THE STAR HEART [break][break]
An alien artifact from a civilization long thought dead, the Star Heart was rumored to belong to a race of plasma beings born from the stars themselves. When their empress was struck down and her powers taken they were sealed in this artifact and abandoned on a lifeless world millennia ago. Containing whispers of her spirit and a massive well of power, simply being in proximity to it sent Francine's plasma production in to overdrive and increased her already tremendous power. It is little more than a trinket now, but it may hold the key to bringing her back down to normal.[break][break]
✽ VAST RICHES [break][break]
When you're as big a movie star as Francine was you end up amassing a vast fortune. Most of her assets have been frozen by Aegis in an attempt to keep a handle on her, but she still has access to more money than most people will earn in an entire lifetime to help her hide and meet her needs even on the run. [break][break]
✽ CLOSE COMBAT [break][break]
You'd think a hero with as much power as Nova, now Radiance, wouldn't need to worry about being involved in hand to hand combat. Generally speaking you'd be right about that, but the world is full of people who can match or hard counter her powers and so she undertook training with her fellow heroes to defend herself up close. She's not going to be outfighting any dedicated fighters, but she can hold her own against unskilled brawlers and people who'd rather rely on their powers than their brains.
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