Psionica
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Spoiler Warning
The following details are about a player-created storyline, or is information currently unrevealed about a character.
Please do not use this information ICly unless given permission to do so.
This page is a work-in-progress for now.
Contents
History
Childhood
Michelle is the daughter of Kent Hampton, the psionic Protector Brainstorm, and Sarah Hampton, née Smith. Unfortunately, her mother Sarah contracted retinal cancer during her pregnancy and, in a strange quirk of genetics, Michelle was born without eyes. Sarah died in childbirth, labour and cancer having got the best of her.
Brainstorm was sufficiently worried about his duties as a Protector, and the fact that any enemy might sometime decide to go after what remained of his family, that he placed Michelle with her uncle, in one of the more select housing communities in the upper City Center. This decision, while apparently the best possible way to safeguard Michelle, was to become the seed of the biggest change in her early life:
Initially, Michelle grew up almost like any other, normal, blind child would. However she started manifesting minor telekinetic and telepathic abilities as early as three years old, and so her uncle Michael (after whom she is named) hired private tutors to home school her. It was no longer possible to pass her off as "normal" and send her to school with regular kids.
During these early years, her father's duties kept him away almost all the time, and he hardly ever saw his daughter; and Michael became a sort of surrogate father to his niece.
Then, disaster struck. Shortly after turning eleven, with the first signs of her oncoming puberty beginning to show, Michael forced himself on her, brutally raping her in an uncontrolled frenzy of lust. Michelle, who loved her uncle very much, was initially too stunned, and afterwards too weak, to resist him. She managed to scream out with her mind, calling for help. Her father heard her - luckily he was in Millennium City at the time - and Michelle was rescued and taken to hospital, while Michael was arrested.
The rape, and her mental scream, shook Michelle's psyche to the core, and it is then that her psi abilities were unleashed. She suddenly had access to powers almost as strong as her father's - but with absolutely no idea how to control them. This was evident to her father, if to no-one else: shortly after the arraignment, Michael Hampton went insane, and turned into a gibbering wreck, unable to speak or otherwise communicate except to scream in pain and terror several times a day. He was interned in the high-security wing of the psychiatric ward at Mercy Hospital, where he lived until recently.
Michelle's life, however, was torn apart, and no matter what her father tried, she didn't seem to be able to adjust. Neither her tutors, her psychiatric counsellor, nor anyone else seemed to be able to help her regain a modicum of stability in her life. A few days after her twelfth birthday, she packed a few clothes, stole whatever cash there was lying around the house, and took to the streets, where she remained for six years.
Teen Years
Michelle spent her teens in hiding, mostly in Millennium City's West Side. In her broken mind, she couldn't trust anyone, not even her ever-absent father, who had given her away to her uncle in the first place.
Michelle's funds soon ran out, and she was faced with the problem of securing food and shelter. A lonely girl in the streets of West Side has few options in that regard, and Michelle's ability to see into the minds of others soon cleared any doubt she might have had. Her self-esteem, damaged as it was by the rape, was definitely not sufficient to keep her from earning her food and board by becoming the plaything of West Side's more depraved denizens.
Over a period of two years, she spiralled ever lower between various circles of men and women, partaking of an ever more extravagant variety of drugs and sexual practices, until she found herself confronted by the ultimate perversion: the evening when her sexual “partners” were going to reach their apotheosis by killing her.
This marked a tuning-point in her life in more ways than one: not only did she fight back, killing her tormentors, but she also realised that she no longer had to be a victim, that she had the power to take charge, to fight back. Like a young phoenix rising from the ashes of her childhood, Michelle began a new “career” prowling the streets, meting out ruthless and terminal punishment on any felons and criminals unlucky enough to cross her path. Not only did she derive great satisfaction from this, but she soon discovered that there was plentiful bounty to be had by doing the work the MCPD was unable officially to take care of.
Over the next four years or so, she honed her physical and mental skills, becoming an accomplished telepath and telekinetic, able to perform such feats as using another's eyes to see through, or move any variety of objects at a distance, sometimes quite violently. But Michelle was still a deeply troubled young woman, and the ruthlessness with which she went about her business soon enough forced the authorities to step in, her executions becoming ever more spectacular and gory in her increasingly wild attempts to curb the tide of crime swelling out of West Side: a dedicated MCPD team, assisted by none other than the Protectors themselves, her father among them, finally ran her aground and she was arrested.
Her father called in every favour he was owed with the City, the MCPD and the Champions, and gave Michelle a clear choice: register officially as a super-hero and join him in the Protectors, or face a term in Stronghold. Given the alternatives, Michelle's decision was easy enough and, two days after her eighteenth birthday, she joined her father's organisation.
Early Adulthood
No sooner had Psionica joined the Protectors than the Qularr invaded Millennium City, giving her an opportunity both to prove her mettle, and score some positive credit with the authorities, as she was instrumental, like many heroes young and old, in helping the Champions defeat the invading fleet.
Later, her increasingly dangerous assignments took her to Canada and the South-West Desert, where she had the opportunity to fight alongside Ace, another Protector.
It was during one of her R&R breaks in Millennium City that she met Flintlock, her current boyfriend, and also Drake Sullivan and his Blood Hounds, with whom she has forged ever-closer ties, completing several dangerous assignments at their side. Psionica was also present at the battle against Daystar, her former friend, atop the ACI Building, during which Flintlock, Drake, Bear and herself were almost killed.
Personality
Known Relationships
Friends
- Ace (ex-fellow Protector)
- Alex Zero (alt)
- Chaingang
- Drake Sullivan
- Flintlock (Boyfriend, fellow Hound)
- Jessica Styles
- Lori Crawford
- Miss Servo (Fellow Hound)
- Nobody (alt)
- Pyrokinesis
- SteelRain
- Titan Lass
Uncertain
Enemies
- Deadly Nightshade (Nemesis)
