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Personality and Demeanour

Jennifer-Anne Tapley is many things to many people. Loving mother/sister and fiercely devoted friend, she is also a community basketball star, Michigan state senator, egalitarian icon and Coordinator of State Emergency Services And Disaster Response (ESADR). She is also well known for her prior role as Chief Medical Director of Mercy Hospital.

Jen is who she is. She doesn't try to make people like her and refuses to compromise on her personal integrity. Capable, fearless and intelligent, her presence draws people to her like a moth to flame. A model citizen and everyday hero, she is nonetheless self-effacing and modest such that she rarely makes a big deal about her fame or intellect. A true alpha female.

Jen has a reputation for being callous of other people's feelings at times and ruthless at others. She believes strongly in benevolence, providing she is the benefactor, is fiercely territorial (acting with distaste towards 'pretenders') and is convinced she is right most of the time, which annoyingly she often is. Cool, calm and collected and driven by an unquenchable inner fire, Jen has an uncanny, intangible knack for winning; the higher the stakes, the more focused she becomes, excelling in pressure or emergency situations. Whenever people are hurt or frightened, she is often the first one on the scene and the last one to leave.

In extreme situations, Jen sometimes reverts to an earlier version of her personality she calls the "Tyrant". This is not a form change or a split personality, simply a devolution of self. If you think along the lines of Gordon Ramsay and Simon Cowell (the good and the bad), you're on the right track. While the Tyrant, Jen's main concern is herself and she will manipulate others to get what she wants with no regard for what they want. These states are rare and usually brief.

Fun stuff: Cosmic archetype: The Ruler (central conflict: benevolence vs tyranny)
Personality type: ESTj
Sun sign: Scorpio/Sagittarius cusp
If Jen were an animal she would be: a lioness
If Jen were a mythical creature: an ancient Gold Wyrm
Jen's songs: "You Shook Me All Night Long" - AC/DC

The Making of Jen

This section is for people who find character and story design as fascinating as I do.

I have written many characters in many different settings, but Jen was the first of her lineage. Inspired by my love of characters such as Dr. Cox (Scrubs), Jordan Sullivan (Scrubs) and Buffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), upon which her human personality was based, I quickly fell in love with Jen's vulnerable, hard-bitten personality more than any character before her. Writing her was effortless, like she was an extension of myself; Jen taught me more about who I am than any character before her and as such she will forever hold a special place in my heart. Never before had I managed to get the balance between strength and vulnerability so perfect. Others can sense that Jen needs them and yet she presents as such a supremely capable, confident woman that it creates an interesting dichotomy with her natural tendency to try and put distance between herself and other characters for the sake of maintaining her ego.

When some friends broke through this barrier, a very different Jen began to emerge. Increasingly at odds with her selfishness and tyrannical nature, Jen metamorphosed into something truly breathtaking, a character whose inner need for control became an expressed desire to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all people, a sort of anti-Loki. Selfishness became selflessness. Equal parts Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, for four years I considered her personality so strong that she didn't warrant powers of any kind.

Her visual design was deliberate. My guiding principle in this, as in her personality, was the power of contrast. The right use of contrast and conflicting elements effortlessly creates depth in a character. So wide, almost child-like green eyes and an iconic red mane that curled against the side of her neck were joined by a deliberately small nose to give her an innocent, almost sweet look that contrasted with the acerbic, bitter character she had at conception. Her attractiveness drew people in, simulating her natural charisma while her (initial) personality repelled people. It created a fascinating push/pull dynamic in roleplay. As she matured and her hostile attitude to people began to change, her beauty only amplified her powerful, loving personality, creating an unmistakable raw charisma that effortlessly drew others to her.

I wanted her to be tall from the very start. Initially chosen as an unconscious expression of power, it later took on a whole new significance, for perspective is best maintained by looking down on a subject, not at them. Thus her height doubled as giving her an imposing sort of physicality and enabling her to get a good look at the environment and watch out for other people. Initially slim (ish), I realised that her love of physical exercise and her attitude to life befitted a more fully figured woman, so I adjusted that early on. Later on, after she obtained her powers, I enhanced her physicality further, putting her on par with superstar athletes. Her physique came to be affectionately termed by her best friend, Connor, as a "basketballer physique". Jen is resilient, mentally and physically, therefore her body needed to reflect this on every level.

Jen favours the 'action girl' philsophy when it comes to dress sense. Jeans and a t-shirt or tank top are all she needs. She shuns the idea of costumes, but has recently begun to revise that opinion and she generally avoids dresses or other forms of open feminine expression. Jewellery and makeup are minimal and dresses are only worn when absolutely necessary. Despite this, she looks stunning in any dress and on the rare occasions that she wears one she is a real head turner. Her favourite colour is purple, especially royal, deep purple and she prefers dark, intense colours that match her personality.

Powers, Skills, and Attributes

In addition to having worked as a surgeon and having excellent medical and anatomical knowledge, Jen possesses a range of powers, mainly aquatic, owing to her nature as a hybrid Atlantean/human. These powers come in three varieties, aquatic mutation, Atlantean (bloodline), and powerset. Note that this information is classified and included only for player interest and the sake of completeness. Most of her capabilities remain unknown. What is known is that she makes everyone around her significantly better (Aura of Primal Majesty), but as this is a function of her raw personal magnetism and stellar leadership skill and not a power in and of itself, it's not included.

===Living Armour (Aquatic Mutation)===: Part-fish, Lady Lantaea's primary defense is her natural armour. Composed of deep sea abalone and natural metal composites formed over thousands of years of pressure, her scales are naturally regenerative, weigh a fraction as heavy as steel and are a magnitude of strength harder than titanium. Biological in nature, her scale armour activates when she feels threatened and retract into the skin when not in use. The scales are also coated by a natural aquatic oil, which makes her extremely slippery and hard to grab or pin as well as unnaturally swift underwater. Her durability value (base) is 4, +1 (costume/body armour) +3 (scale armour). Her scales count as Strength 9 against all blunt/crushing force. If underwater, her agility increases to 7 (+2) and her Speed increases to 6 (+3).

===Water Sense (Aquatic Mutation)===: Lady Lantaea's second home lies deep under the waves. She is able to sense water as a divining rod, getting a sense of direction and distance to bodies of water. Initially limited to large expanses of water (ie.e the ocean/lakes), as she became more skilled in it's use, she found that she began to sense smaller senses, such as taps, or even the water that constitutes the human body. This gives her a preternatural sense of where water-based life-forms are around her. Stealth, invisibility and other forms of evading detection are useless, unless they first shield the body in heavy metals such as lead which blocks her detection.

===Aquatic Camoflague (Aquatic Mutation)===: In or near water, Lady Lantaea's skin hue-shifts to match her surroundings. In shallow water (<1m deep), this doesn't amount to much, but in anything much deeper, she is afforded increasing levels of effective invisibility. In more than 3m of water, she receives partial invisibility and in more than 3m she becomes almost completely invisible. Coupled with her underwater agility and the fact that she doesn't need to breathe, she becomes extremely difficult to locate with normal means.

===Underwater Breathing (Atlantean)===: Lady Lantaea's skin contains extremely thin, delicate membranes that open in the presence of a body of water. These enable her to breath for hours or even days underwater.

===Resistances (Atlantean)===: Lady Lantaea's body is heavily adapted to the deep ocean, including massively increased bone density. She is extremely resilient to crushing forces, including fists, hammers, falling damage and even pressure or force and she can effectively dive as deep as any deep-sea submarine without sustaining damage. She also has some resistance to electricity and extreme resistance to fear.

===Immunities (Atlantean)===: She is immune to all natural diseases and illnesses and resistant to non-biological equivalents.

===Superior Genetics (Atlantean)===: As an Atlantean, Lady Lantaea possesses a superior gene-spliced genome. As she carries the Atlantean Super X gene which includes the dominant red hair gene, Lady Lantaea's hair is unlikely to ever fall out. Any offspring she has have a very high chance of being born with red hair. Female children are very likely to inherit the full genome, while male children can go either way, taking after their mother or their father. The gene also enables access to genelocked Atlantean-only technology.

===Hyperfertility (Atlantean)===: Owing to her superior genetics, Lady Lantaea is hyperfertile. She can conceive much easier and many times faster than a normal human woman, has a very low chance of stillbirth or congenital defect and can even choose what sex she wants the baby to be.

===Water Addiction (Atlantean)===: Water naturally replenishes her body, especially the enzymes and nutrients needed to regenerate her armour and produce the oil that coats her scales. She must return to the water daily, but can go without for a few days before her scales stop functioning altogether. After a week, her breathing will become increasingly laboured and she will feel lethargic and unfocused.

===The Grid===: Lady Lantaea is aware of is the remnants of a teleportation network built along the Earth's natural ley lines and deep under the surface of the water. This network, called The Grid, enables near-instantaneous transportation to any known location within an area serviced by the grid. The machine receives coordinates from relays built into her silver tattoos and a few seconds later, after it's powered up, instantaneously re-materializes her form at the target location (or nearby, if the space is occupied). Once active, the Grid can teleport instantly until a period of disuse longer than an hour occurs, whereupon it shuts down again to conserve energy.

The Story so Far

Prologue: The Story of Atlantis

Thousands of years before Jen was born, Atlantea was a highly advanced, peaceful, water-borne civilisation that became embroiled in an ideological split called the Collapse that descended into outright genocide. The noble houses of Atlantea were divided in their loyalties to their kind and to Earth as a whole. They had long been the guardians of ancient knowledge, called the Flame. The Flame (later deified as the Greek God Promotheus and his flame) was an artificially intelligent database that contained the sum memories and knowledge of the Atlantean people and was freely gifted, genetically, to all new members of the race. Prior to the Collapse, Atlantea had been actively involved in observing and even aiding the fledgling creature that was man, but as man began to transcend his limitation, some among Atlantea began to view his rise to power as a threat. When a primitive human fishing expedition accidentally strayed into Atlantean waters and was observed wantonly killing and poaching the creatures of the sea, rather than viewing this as an opportunity to build Atlantean-human relations, House Mesozoa and it's warlike and overly protective seat, Tethys (deified as the Greek god Ares), looked upon the incident as a threat to national sovereignty, a prehistoric act of terrorism.

Opposing Tethys was Miocenes of House Pangaea, a woman of considerable dignity and thoughtful character (the greek Goddess Athena). She believed the humans were a simple, unprincipled people, much as the Atlanteans had once been. She said that it was their perogative as an ethically superior species to aid the humans. This difference in opinion over how to resolve the incursion into their sovereign waters caused the original rift between the warlike House Mesozoa and diplomatic House Pangaea. Over time, the rift widened, becoming an open division among the people of Atlantea. With neither house willing to back down, other houses and the populace writ large became galvanised behind these two titans as the people turned against one another.

Soon after, the Atlanteans hated enemy, the Lemurians, breached the state wall and began to invade. The great houses blamed each other for gross negligence, even as they prepared to evacuate. Plans were put in place to seal the Flame from human and Lemurian eyes, but disagreements soon broke out between the Great Houses as to what should be done with the database. Tethys believed firmly that the humans couldn't be trusted, while Miocenes believed they should open negotiations with the human race. A cease fire was called during which the Flame database was split into two, with each Great House charged with guarding one of the sacred relic. Tethys, driven by desperation and fear of humanity and the Lemurian invasion, masterminded a brilliant plot under the guise of calling a truce with his hated rival. This plot lured House Pangea into a trap under diplomatic auspices, whereupon his troops opened fire, wiping out the noble house. At least, so he thought ...

Unbeknownst to him, some few Pangean children had escaped, with copies of the Flame sealed within their genetic structure and instructions to seek out the human race and intermingle with them in order to survive. They survived by mastering the arts of stealth and subterfuge, traits that went against the very nobility the house had always stood for. Millenia passed as the descendents of Tethys pursued Miocene's children across the surface of the new, human world. Possessed of their half of the Flame, they took up the name of the Illumined Ones (The Illuminati) and instituted the largest wholesale genocide of magical peoples and shamanistic cultures in history, all in the name of eradicating the evidence of their original betrayal. Time passed and no new reports of Miocenes children surfaced. Thinking their work done, the Illumined turned their attentions to humanity, intending to enslave them with the knowledge in the sacred relic.

It is here that our main story begins, with the descendant of one of the few members of the family who escaped the purge.

Early Years

"What would you do if you had been hunted your entire life? Forced to flee from one place of safety to the next, worrying when word would come that you'd been spotted and would have to start over. Consumed by paranoia, forever looking over your shoulder and wondering if that friend you made was genuine or planned on sticking a knife between your ribs? Balanced precariously, a mere knife's edge from death at any time. All it would take was a slip of your tongue ... I wonder, would you continue to let fear dictate your life or would you turn the tables on those who sought to persecute you? Such is the measure of a woman's resolve. And I've never been lacking in that area." - Jen

Jennifer Anne Pangaea was born Jennifer Anne Tapley on the 22nd November, 1981 at Rhode Island, New York. A strong willed, precocious child, Jen quickly proved a handful for a couple seeking shelter from the harsh realities of life on the run and who were determined to keep a low profile. Pursued relentlessly from birth by the twisted, modern day incarnation of an ideological, family split thousands of years before she was born, Jen inherited a lifelong enemy from the moment she first drew breath.

All this because she was born to an ancient bloodline marked for death.

Her early pre-school life was spent mostly in the company of people she didn't know, as both her parents were doctors and she was left in the care of trusted allies of the family. She shared those early years with an unruly and at times spoiled little sister, Harriet Samantha Tapley. She and her sibling were taught from a young age how to blend in and avoid attention, and it was perhaps this continued insistence on leading such unremarkable lives that led Jen and Harriet to grow up in opposition to their parents. Where their parents shied from attention, fearful of what might follow, the sisters would end up embracing it.

This pleased neither of their parents, but it did ultimately force a rethink in family policy.

At school the sisters drew attention wherever the went, but for the wrong reasons. Jen was a willowy girl, tall for her age but socially awkward and a favourite of the local bullies, while Harriet was the life of the party, but was disruptive, even confrontational and became a nightmare for teaching staff. Growing up, both girls were academically gifted, though Harriet eschewed the life of a student for that of a prima-donna and cheerleader, the embodiment of the prototypical plastic girl, while Jen became increasingly withdrawn and shy, harbouring resentment and hatred towards those who had oppressed her. This resulted in Jen's alignment shifting towards Lawful Evil (LE) where it would remain for much of her life.

That all changed when they hit puberty. Jen, long since the outcast, blossomed into a beautiful young woman. Combined with a keen intellect, this gave her a newfound sense of power. Unable to direct her anger towards her real enemy, Jen began to abuse her power by taking her anger out on fellow students. She found a sense of freedom and personal identity in being as mean-spirited, spiteful and manipulative towards her fellow students as the enemy had been toward her. Were it not for her stellar grades, no doubt she would've been labelled a 'problem child' by the school system.

After high school Jen began to study medicine, not out of a concern for her fellows, but out of a fascination for "how disgusting and yet magnificent" the human body was. Against her parent's advice, she went to the university of Southern California in San Francisco, one of the best medical schools in the country. Here she excelled, both as a student and a prospective doctor. Despite thriving, Jen found herself stifled, unable to exercise her darker impulses for fear of being cast out. Directing her troubles inward, she became a profoundly disturbed, though brilliant young woman.

At twenty two, half way through her degree, Harriet was discovered after attending a political rally, her stunt captured and broadcast on YouTube where it quickly turned viral. Forced to flee after an assassination attempt was foiled at the last moment by her parents, Jen reluctantly took Harriet back to New York and cut all contact with them, going dark per family protocol and following the logic that her enemies wouldn't expect her to return somewhere she'd been. It worked and for the next two years as Jen worked in low key jobs, finding relief from her frustrations in the form of the alternative sexuality (BDSM) scene, she grew increasingly disquiet as for the first time in her life, she was making decisions for herself, not in reaction to a nebulous threat hanging over her head. In the alternate scene, Jen found power to coincide with her growing sense of agency. Here she ruled as a tyrant and queen. For once, Jen felt as she imagined other people did, the architect of her own destiny.

An increasingly frustrated and disenfranchised Jen decided to return to her medical studies, but this time in New York. Reasoning that the more people there were, the harder it would be for her enemy to locate her, she finished her medical training at the less prestigious Cornell University. With no incident since San Francisco, Jen had began to put the threat of the enemy behind her and in her eagerness to be tested against the most deplorable conditions in the country, she accepted an intern program with Mercy Hospital in Detroit. Harriet, meanwhile, elected to stay in the big apple to begin her Law degree.

It was in Detroit, shortly to be renamed Millennium City, that a twenty something Jen would meet another intern who would go on to become her best friend in life and the emotional core of her being, Connor Jensen.

Internship at Mercy Hospital

Jen and Connor clicked right away. He was sarcastic, wise cracking and had a big heart while Jen was stoic, serious and driven, the straight (wo)man to his comic relief. She found comfort in him, relief from both the intense feelings within her and her circumstances in general. Despite her serious, demanding, type A persona, she showed signs of who she would later become and it was probably these glimpses that caused him to quietly adore her. During these moments, Jen found a calmness. She became profoundly disturbed to realise that, despite her bluster and insistence that she didn't need anyone, she cared what he and others thought about her.

At 31, she was now in her second year of residency, third overall at Mercy. Even as an intern, Jen's remarkable ability to focus under immense pressure was noted and so it wasn't long before she caught the eye of the Chief of Surgery. After a gruelling selection process, during which a mistake in the Operating Room (OR) had threatened the lives of a half dozen transplant patients affected by rabies, resulted in Jen's quick thinking resolving the situation, the answer was pushed beyond doubt. Jen was unanimously selected as the next Chief of Surgery despite criticisms of her ability to relate with patients and a storied complaint history from staff. Jen wasn't perhaps the surgeon the hospital wanted, but it was the one it needed.

Despite boasting the worst patient-doctor record in recent history, Jen was given the nod from Chief Medical Director Dr Harry Cox with the proviso that she work hard on improving her patient rapport.

Lawful Intelligent

It was during her tenure as Chief of Surgery that Jen began to open up. She first met and then befriended some locals at Club Caprice, Aisling "Ai" Narakyo, Briana and Evelyn. To their credit, they saw through Jen's demanding facade. As the months passed, they showed her more kindness and consideration than she had experienced in her thirty one years, welcoming even her impetuous "queen bee" attitude to them and anyone else in her life. As time passed, she found herself increasingly at odds with her demanding need for attention and the deplorable way she viewed other people. It was only later in life when she realised just what a gift they had been, after the group fell apart and went their separate ways.

In the aftermath of losing the only people she had ever really cared about, Jen was forced to confront the changes within her that had led her to this point. The person she saw staring back at her was a far cry from the woman who had taken an almost perverse joy in making others uncomfortable or even fearful around her. It occured to her that she felt happiest when other people were happy and fit neatly within the roles that she envisioned for them. She resolved from then on to treat other people with the kindness that her friends had shown her and to do everything in her power to make other people feel protected and valued by her. In the words of a fellow doctor with whom Jen shared an antagonistic relationship at Mercy, "She's found her place in life. At long last." . Put another way, at long last Jen's state of arrested development was over.

Chief of Surgery

Professionally, Jen was considered a freak. Able to distance herself from all emotional considerations, she was the surgeon's surgeon. Impeccable and meticulous, despite ongoing complaints about her doctor-patient interaction, her surgical record was flawless. It was during this time that Jen became involved in emergency services. Finding herself naturally adapted for the worst possible situations (when other people tended to fall to pieces) Jen quickly climbed the ladder to become the co-ordinator for Millenium City Emergency Services Accident and Disaster Response (ESADR). It was here that she developed the foundation she needed to begin transitioning into an administrative position at Mercy.

While she was the Chief of Surgery, Jen displayed a natural aptitude for handling both the trappings of power and the bureaucracy that came with it, without being corrupted by either. This caught the eye of Dr Harry Cox, the then Chief Medical Director. He began grooming her without her knowledge or consent, involving her in classes aimed at improving her poor patient rapport as well as mundane things like book-keeping. She grew increasingly disconsolate, both with his apparent need to force extra duties on her (and only her) and the continued lack of explanation for why. Finally, a frustrated Jen confronted him in his office and proceeded to yell at him for ten minutes about what he was doing to her, how she didn't like it and how she wouldn't stand for it anymore.

Dr Cox grinned at and said calmly "Jen, I'm stepping down as Chief Medical Director soon. I want you take my place."

Jen was speechless as he put his hands on the arms of his high-backed executive chair and rose from his seat. He paced over to a large oil painting of Nike, the Goddess of Victory, holding her flaming torch aloft, her triumphant, smirking visage looming over him.

"Do you know why I keep this here?" he asked her

She shook her head mutely.

"It's to remind me that it doesn't matter what I have to do, how much I have to sacrifice - for make no mistake Jen, this job is all about compromise and self-sacrifice - what matters is winning. Sometimes, that means having the stomach to play the bad guy. Something tells me you already have that down." He smiled at her wryly, a twinkle in his eye.

"It wasn't your ability to handle pressure." he confirmed, a hint of fondness for her in his voice "Nor was it your surgical record, which I'm led to believe is one of the best in the state."

"I put your name forward because you remind me so much of Her. You know what's important in life, Jen." his grin became almost chesire-like, "There is no one more fiercely dedicated to staff or patients than you and certainly no one with your gift for pulling out the win in impossible situations ... In a city as bad as this, reeling from catastrophe to catastrophe on a daily basis, the hospital needs someone like that at the helm. Someone to make the play with five seconds on the clock when we're down by two."

He went on, listing the sorts of things she would have to do and reminding her that she would need to continue working on her patient rapport if she were ever to last in the big chair, but Jen was barely listening. She already knew all those things. Before her, the world opened with possibility.

Chief Medical Director

Jen's tenure as Chief Medical Director, a position that lasted two and half years, was one of the most divisive yet fondly remembered in hospital history. The early months saw Jen revert to type, imposing her will on everyone else and generally stifling individual agency as she tried to micromanage everyone. Complaints were leveled and a few of the senior doctors even resigned, citing personal and professional conflicts with the Chief. As she settled in though and with the continued support of her friends, Jen learned to take her hands off.

Under her ever watchful and masterful eye, Mercy flourished. She revitalised the tired, old hospital which had grown run down under Dr Cox's last years before retirement. She revamped the logistical systems, designed new training packages and masterminded a brilliant scheme to see hospital policy bring alternative healing under the hospital's operational umbrella. With new policy in hand, Jen approached the Superhero community and after a short, pitched battle, managed to sell the Board of Directors on the idea of healers and physicians working side by side. Six months later, Mercy's first healer clinic opened up and began to invite credible healers from all walks of life, including those who harnessed the arcane arts.

Long since understaffed and crippled by frequent budget cuts, Jen's gamble on the Superhero community paid off spectactularly. With a sudden marked loss in stress reported by many staff, Jen immediately handed out blanket raises, offering the Board publically that she would take a pay cut if necessary to help fund it. The once hated Dragon of Mercy had become it's darling. Patients and staff alike were stunned at the change. As one doctor put it

"Nobody expected Jen's heel-face turn. She seemed to flip from being the queen bitch of the universe to one of the most benevolent people I have ever known. No one thought it would last, but it did. When she encouraged and supported us without clipping our wings? We noticed. When she brought the supers in -and- increased our pay? We noticed. And when she declared mandatory breaks and cut work hours while maintaining our overall salary? We -definitely- noticed. How could you not love someone who looked out for you like that? It's as if she had changed from putting herself first, to putting everyone else first." - Dr Maria Hill

Jen's reign as Chief Medical Director was two and a half years of peaceful bliss (with the notable exception of a major incident under The Enemy section) before she was approached by a representative from the city council with an offer. Not for the first time, Jen would be headhunted.

Political Career

Approached by a member of city council impressed with how she handled Mercy, it was suggested to Jen that she run for local office. On the back of her sterling stewardship of Mercy as well as her career with ESADR, Jen's political campaign was a tight ship. In a close race with a fellow candidate, CEO of one of the city's many research and development organisations, she narrowly lost the vote. When the CEO stepped down from being a councillor three months later citing 'private concerns', Jen's place was assured.

For eighteen months Jen worked as a Councillor of Millenium City on the back of mainly health related reforms. In all, she did well, but her insistence on a medical focus exasperated her colleagues, who wanted her to adopt a broader attitude to council policy. It was quietly suggested to Jen that she step down, but not before she caught the eye of someone at national.

National Senate and the Present

Jen's dalliance with national congress was a brief and unhappy one. Seduced by the promise of making a difference in people's lives, a naieve Jen joined the Republican party and fell under the sway of a manipulative, power hungry politican (later revealed to be one of the Enemy in disguise). With the aid of his scheming son, they woo'ed Jen and his son proposed to her. She accepted the engagement. Without her realising it, the Enemy had successfully broken her spirit by causing her to turn her back on the things she valued.

A week later, a distraught Jen found herself sitting by -that- pool of water in central D.C, questioning her life. Something in the moonlit surface caused Jen to cast her thoughts back to the last time she was happy. The answer was obvious. Millenium City.

And so it was that a broken Jen fled the national scene and turned to the one person she knew could provide comfort. Connor.

And that's how he found her late one night at Mercy, dressed in a days old, crinkled suit, hair dishevelled and looking like she hadn't slept in a week, sporting a giant, jewel encrusted engagement ring on one finger ...

The Enemy (a.k.a The Illuminati)

Most heroes find a nemesis partway through their heroing career, someone diametrically opposed to them and what they stand for.

Jen inherited one at birth.

<<<to finish>>>

In the waning months of her two and a half year tenure as Chief of Surgery, Jen's enemies at last caught up with her. A failed assassination attempt, the bullet intended for Jen, saw her sister put in the emergency room on deathwatch. A frustrated follow up saw a private mercenary killer, Malice, sent after Jen personally, but after the initial attempt put her and Connor on high alert, Jen made sure everyone was on notice about future attempts. It was because of this that Malice arrived to find her and Connor in his apartment, only to be blindsided by Ai and Calilla (a female super whose life she had once saved years ago) arriving soon after. In a pitched battle Jen was injured, Connor's reactor overloaded and the apartment was reduced to a ruin, but Malice was fended off.

An angry Jen, went public about the attempts on her life and upped the stakes, by declaring that future attempts would cause her to release the information she had obtained on the Illuminati and their operational procedures onto the Internet.

Aware of the breach and fearful of being exposed, the attacks stopped immediately and an uneasy truce was called.

For the first time ever, Jen had won a battle against her hated enemy.