Zeramite Lattice

Hey, Folks. Zeramite Lattice was the second of my primary toons, finding her origin in that "other superhero game." This is a reboot of that concept fit for The Millennium City setting. Enjoy and I hope to meet you in-game! ^_^

Zeramite Lattice
Player: @Lady-Immolatasia
"Even something as simple as altruism can come back to haunt you in ways you'd never imagine."
Character Build
Class Focus:	Ranged DPS
Power Level:	40
Research & Development:	Arms
Biographical Data
Real Name:	Jennifer Scott Mordin
Known Aliases:	Zeramite Lattice
Gender:	Female
Species:	Human
Ethnicity:	American
Place of Birth:	San Diego, California
Base of Operations:	Millennium City
Relatives:	Regina and Christian Aris (Mother/Father)
Characteristics
Age:	34
Height:	5'8
Weight:	130 lbs Unarmored/1200 lbs Armored
Eyes:	Brown
Hair:	Black
Complexion:	Caucasian
Physical Build:	Slim Athletic
Physical Features:	French/European
Status
Alignment:	██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ Chaotic Good
Reputation:	██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ Prominent
Identity:	Public
Years Active:	1
Citizenship:	American
Occupation:	Head of Mordin Futures
Education:	MD - Chemisty/Environmental Studies
Marital Status:	Widowed - David Mordin
Known Powers and Abilities
Genius Level Intellect, Production of Zeramite epidermis, Mach-IV Flight, Superior Strength, Durability, Weaponization of Zeramite into Liquid, Gas, Solid forms, Plasma/Energy Blasts, Highly Educated Chemist and Environmental Technologist, Skilled Firearms, Skilled First Aid, Novice Unarmed Combat, Expertise in Armored Frames both building and piloting
Equipment and Paraphernalia
ZFrame Mark IV - VI Combat Powered Armors

Attributes
	Strength	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Endurance	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Agility	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Speed	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Fighting	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Projectiles	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Durability	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Resistance	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Intelligence	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Psyche	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Intuition	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Charisma	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
ReldinBox Template

Character Summary

Jennifer Scott Mordin is the head of Mordin Futures, an environmental research company that attempts to solve the energy crisis worldwide through innovative means. Jennifer, as head of research, works on refining zeramite, a substance of her creation that produces near limitless amounts of power, but presents a danger in its instability and toxicity. Simultaneously, she enacts her own campaign of vengeance upon the organization known as VIPER for killing her husband and causing the accident that caused Zeramite to grow on her own body.

Her intelligence vastly increased by Zeramite, heightening the synapses of her brain, Jennifer reverse engineered a suit of powered armor, teaching herself how to build, replicate and eventually create her own armored weapons platforms. Using the zeramite growing from her skin, she powers her suits. To maintain a public face, she uses an inhibitor glove that relegates the zeramite growth to her right (and concealed) hand.

Waging a campaign of vengeance and funded by her organization, Jennifer goes by the moniker Zeramite Lattice, battling VIPER primarily and wreaking havoc on criminal organizations throughout Millennium and the world. Someday, Jennifer hopes to end the burden of war and the battle for resources, fighting for the vision she and her husband shared. Her methods are obtuse to many in Millennium, but few could question her integrity, or her dream for a world at peace.

Origin and Backstory

Youth and Missionary Work

Jennifer Scott Aris was born in San Diego, California on March 19th, 1978. Her parents, Regina and Christian Aris were a nurse and military Lieutenant Colonel, respectively, and granted their daughter a life of relative comfort.

Jennifer was a charismatic, bright-minded optimist from an early age. Giving back to society was what drove her, even from a young age. She applied herself to the sciences, philosophy and was very much a bookworm throughout her youth and teens. Many speculated that the young Jennifer was a minor prodigy of sorts, well-ahead of her peers academically.

Jennifer gained a dual degree in environmental science and chemistry. Furthering her studies and following encouragement from her father and mother, she volunteered for United Outreach and Aid organization (UOA), a subgroup under UN's MONUSCO. Her journey led her deep into the political conflicts in Africa where she was on the fringes of violent outbreaks, tending to the sick and wounded. Her life changed when she met an acquaintance from college abroad, David Mordin. David was cut from a similar cloth as Jennifer, deep into medicinal and political studies. The two grew closer, bringing food, water and medicine to many of the conflicted regions. Eventually, they fell in love.

One day, David noticed the lack of United States invention into the conflict when despot warlords would steal from the very people the UOA were trying to aid. Dictators and tribal wars would results in the pilfering of goods from the have-nots into the pockets of marauders. Neither side was innocent in the conflict, but seeking to set up a democratic foothold, the UN and subsequently UOA, chose the Tanim people of the region for their powerbase. Little did Jennifer know that she and her organization were not just embroiled in a conflict between people, but interfering into the cult of VIPER. VIPER's used the instability in their search for desperate individuals to recruit into their fold. The Tanim would meet head-to-head with their sponsored militant power, The Sons of Gatish.

David and Jennifer decided to helm up a rebellion by the United States’ favored Tanim tribes. Backing in their eyes, were the favored, more democratic regime, the pair attempted to rouse the populace. The peasant rebellion literally took the warlords of Gatish by surprise, crushing them and leaving their leader, Arngrim Tsani presumably dead. He was killed by David, Jennifer and the people at his back. The act culled the chaos, but let the Tanim overrun and pillage the Gatish people as an act of retribution. It was an outcome that would come back to haunt them both, an act that Jennifer had seen at the time as a moral victory over oppression, but in reality did nothing to quell the conflict. It was, in fact, something that Jennifer would wholly come to regret for the rest of her life.

Return and Tragedy

Upon returning to the United States, David and Jennifer married and decided to follow their dream. Basing the entire philosophical basis of conflict at the dearth of resources, Jennifer and David founded Mordin Futures. The company’s sole purpose was the research, completion and delivery of water purification systems, revolutionary farming and solar equipment. The company also had a big ace project up and coming.

Jennifer helmed an experimental project to act as a perpetual means of energy and clean power. Utilizing a substance discovered in a Qu’larr wreck and several other chemical reactants, Jennifer synthesized a new element. It was known as zeramite: a crystalline, emerald lattice capable of producing massive amounts of energy naturally. zeramite’s flaw, however, was its causticity and volatile nature. zeramite would literally bond to and devour organic matter. Jennifer’s crux and life’s work was to render the substance safe and useable for public consumption. If she could do that, then nothing would hold back a world free from poverty, hunger and war in her eyes.

For Seven years, Jennifer worked and stayed beside her husband. Their son, Zack, died tragically of pneumonia when he was a year and a half old. It was a blow that crushed Jennifer’s heart. With David’s support and love she struggled onward. They remained in the limelight, garnering attention for their goodwill project. There was hope on the horizon.

VIPER took notice of the work, thinking of ways to acquire and implement Zeramite as a weapon against their enemy helmed by Arngrim T'sani, a man who had never forgotten the deaths of his family and friends at the hands of Jennifer and David Mordin.

On December 14th, 2007, VIPER broke into the main laboratory. Arngrim, his face hidden behind his VIPER helmet, gunned down David. Defying orders in rage, he fired at the Zeramite containment unit. Pure, gaseous Zeramite bonded to Jennifer’s skin. Her screams pierced the laboratory as Zeramite burned and bored into her flesh. The material altered and bonded with her genetic code, the surface of her skin bearing zeramite buds that grew over her flesh.

Arngrim took Jennifer’s broken body back to VIPER on pain of death for disobeying orders. Ironically, the Commander was assigned to keeping Jennifer alive. The van carrying her writhing body drove quietly away as the city lights reflected off of Mordin Futures' dark windows.

Incarceration Under VIPER

Security protocols in Jennifer’s lab were programmed to delete the majority of the information upon a break-in. VIPER, unfortunately, had found an even greater resource in Jennifer's own body, taking samples of the crystal to work with on their own. Still, they needed Jennifer's expertise to truly claim zeramite as their own in a way that could utilized to their ends.

Months had passed, but Jennifer remained silent. She had nothing more to be stripped from her, nor anything effective that could be pried from her, torture or otherwise. She lied to them, withholding the formula, playing secrets close to her chest. The beatings continued, but Jennifer was already numb. Her own face in the mirror was horror enough.

VIPER had to keep diligent watch on Jennifer at all times as the Zeramite coating on her body could eat through raw metal, or a cell. Utilizing experimental methods used to subdue metahuman regeneration and metabolism, VIPER created an inhibitor that would render the zeramite crystals unable to break from her skin, but they couldn't alter the zeramite that had taken hold in her own body.

Zeramite had somehow fused with Jennifer's brain without killing her. Her own body had adapted to it, and she found her intelligence had increased in several factors of magnitude. She found she could recall recall places, numbers and information with perfect clarity.

With her improved intelligence, Jennifer plotted and waited. Biding her time over the course of an entire year, she took note of patrols, the make and structure of the base, the layout and technology present. She watched as VIPER would build spare inhibitor mechanisms during her forced times in the laboratories. Her mind memorized keypad entries, data, names of guards, entrances and exits.

She had one chance. Using a sharpened splinter, she managed to crack open the circuitry on the inhibitor in the dead of night. Waiting until the guards left her room, Her crystal coated hands touched the door, melting it and making a break as the alarms blared. Her heart pounded as she ran down corridors, bypassing locks through rote. She took two guards by surprise, muffling their mouths and filling their lungs with caustic shards of zeramite.

She broke into the armory, the doors sizzling away into a heap of melted slag. Inside were many varied suits of powered armor. She reactivated her inhibitor, and strapped herself into a light armored frame. Awkwardly,she smashed through the walls and dove off the cliff-face fortress she had been imprisoned within for a year. Frantically, she managed to kick in the jet thrusters and make her way towards freedom.

Isolation and Return

Jennifer’s condition made her return to society a challenge. She needed the materials to remake the inhibitor as it had been damaged in the flight. Mere skin contact in her presence would kill anyone, not to mention the humiliation and shame of her physical appearance. She had to reach out to someone for help. That ‘someone’ was Julian Kendrick. At the time a young manager in the company R&D division, he was also a close friend of her late husband’s inner circle. Desperate, and needing his help, she had Julian met her on the outskirts of the countryside of Detroit, taking shelter in an underground sewer that, over the years, had shifted over time into a research lab.

Her first step was rebuilding the inhibitor and returning to her company in due time. It was a grueling project that took six months. After that, she wasn't sure what to do next. Her mind burned with vengeance, anger over David's death and the frustration of having lost so much. Still, her husband's dream, her own dreams, drove her. She looked at the VIPER armored suit gathering dust in the corner and finally found her inspiration.

Battling for over four years, Jennifer had two goals: curing her condition and vengeance. When Jennifer found that removing all traces of Zeramite in her system would be impossible, she instead looked toward using it to her advantage. Using the very Zeramite growing on her skin, she decided to reverse engineer the entire VIPER suit. Building, disassembling and rebuilding, using stray materials through inside help in Mordin Futures and Julian’s contacts, she succeeded in creating an armored suit of her own. Through three prototypes, she finally had built, from scratch a dangerous powered armor frame.

Though her first sorties were shoddy at best, she stole newer and more advanced materials in raids on tertiary VIPER facilities. The more she took down, the more intelligence she had accrued on the organization's layout. Driven and empowered, she extended her network of strikes towards Argent and other criminal organizations.

Finally, at the end of the first year since the incident she had perfected the inhibitor. Acting not only as an armored glove that could contain a single powered armor suit, it repressed zeramite in such a way that was controllable. With the zeramite in her body held at bay, Jennifer finally had her life back. Still, the problem would remain at the back of her mind, the zeramite only contained, and never truly gone. Every time the glove came off, she was looking at the same crystal visage in the mirror.

To the present day, Jennifer has come back to the head of Mordin Futures, fearlessly working towards bringing the same services and technologies to impoverished countries, while at the same time battling meta-human threats and seeking vengeance on VIPER. Jennifer would avenge her husband and carry on the torch of the dream of a world without war. It was the dream she and David shared, and the one she would pursue to her grave.

Unsuited Abilities

Jennifer’s body is laced with the experimental substance known as Zeramite. Dormant, it is still capable of producing massive amounts of energy. Her appearance sans her inhibitor glove results in a thin layer of emerald greenish crystal on her body. Without constant control her mere touch can cause burns to biological or mechanical entities and eat through solid matter.

Laced within her brain, Zeramite improves on Jennifer’s already high intelligence, giving her near photographic memory and the ability to adapt and learn new methods, sciences and ideas on the fly. The presence of Zeramite in her cells gives her a natural ability to ward off diseases. She is a mildly capable unarmed combatant, and has hours of experience in armored frames. Jennifer is a shrewd and capable businesswoman. Her experience as a foreign aid missionary has given her moderate skill in first-aid techniques.

Suit Capabilities - ZFrame – Mk. IV

Art by Taclobanon - [1]

Strength - Endows Jennifer with the means to lift up to 1500 lbs given the suit’s generally light to medium frame.

Composition and Durability- The bulk of the suit is composed of Titanium alloy with an experimental steel composite originally developed by VIPER. Capable of enduring explosions and small arms fire. Can absorb HEAT rounds with minor damage if Zeramite crystalline shielding is active. Derived and streamlined into an original design based on VIPER light armor specifications. The suit is fully enviro-sealed with oxygen filtration, life support, recycling and medical fluids, even capable of underwater operations. While capable of protection, The Z-frame Mk. IV is generally a light armored frame and built for speed; while capable of absorbing small arms and even moderate heavy arms fire, Jennifer prefers to use her maneuverability to her advantage against meta-opponents and hi-powered weaponry as the suit only has so much tolerance.

AI - Fully capable suite, providing up to date battle information, GPS, and targeting capabilities. Suit is capable of hacking a rival AI target and performing full data sweeps. Despite having no uniform personality, it is codenamed Proteus.

Power Source and Interior - The interior of the Mk IV suit is lined with various plugs along the sides of the biceps and thighs that allow Jennifer to “grow” Zeramite from her skin and feed it directly into the suit. This acts as the suit’s primary power source, by-passing traditional methods and limitations of power. In addition, an auxiliary generator is built into the interior of the back plate that collects run-off energy as a back-up should Jennifer be unable to power the suit herself, for a short awhile.

Despite Zeramite's boundless potential, Jennifer still must produce enough on her body to continue to operate it. Generally, she maintains an equilibrium to endlessly power it in moderate combat situations. In great stress, however, sometimes her suit will consume more than she can produce. The suit stores excess run-off in case of such situations to temporarily power it, or shut down. Jennifer can override this manually, however the sheer metabolic strain can prove potentially deadly to her.

Flight Capabilities - Hi-grade thrusters are embedded in the back, hands and boots of the suit, allowing variable flight speeds of up to Mach IV. The maneuverability granted by the thrusters allows quick bursts of speed for dodges, and excellent traction and control due to the rotational position of each propulsion jet on the boots, hands and shoulders of the suit. Jennifer prefers to run circles around her opponent and lay down a hail of fire than engage up close.

ZFrame - Mk.IV: Weapons/Defenses

V.Z.A. System (Variable Zeramite Assault) - With firing points housed in the shoulders, joints and hands, weaponizing Zeramite is the suit’s greatest system. Through nanomachines and different chemical additives, Zeramite can be used in its raw form to encase targets in caustic geode formations, weaponized in a choking acidic cloud, or painfully encase a target in Zeramite crystalline growths.

Charon Cannon Mk. II - The Charon cannons are a set of variable plasma guns, designed by Jennifer and streamlined from VIPER prototypes. They are the suit's primary direct offense. Extending from the forearm, the weapon is capable of three firing modes. The Primary setting fires Zeramite shards laced in a plasma ‘envelope,’ exploding viciously on contact with the enemy. The second is a conical plasma beam. The third fire mode is a short range conic burst of Zeramite shards.

V.Z. Shield - Located in the thigh and bicep units, the variable shielding allows for brunt absorption of impacts through an exterior shield, increasing the protection and safety of the wearer to a minor degree. The suit is also capable of laying a light coating of Zeramite on its dermal layer for light impact absorption.

Orpheus Cannon - An experimental weapon system integrated into the entire back plate of the armor. Separation of the shoulders reveals a honeycomb style launcher capable of raining plasma infused Zeramite in a swarm upon the enemy.

Support Drones Vergil A and Aeneas B - A pair of hover drones that assist Jennifer in battle, the two remain burrowed into the suit. Upon release, they are capable of light repairs to the armor frame as well as light combat duties with Zeramite turrets of their own.

Weaknesses

Only Human - Outside of her suit, despite her abilities with Zeramite, Jennifer is a flesh and blood human.

Durability - Jennifer's main armor sacrifices durability for speed and firepower. While capable of absorbing moderate weapons fire, her armor would be better not going toe-to-toe with metahumans or taking the brunt of impacts unshielded. Her other suits of armor have varying durability at sacrifices of speed and/or fire power.

Zeramite, Metabolism and Power - Under extreme stressful situations, Jennifer must fuel her suit with her own body's zeramite production, including weaponry, main power and more. Despite backup systems, Jenn can be pushed too far to the limit, harming her own health and limiting the suit's capabilities. The armor is an extension of the woman within.

Psionics - Jennifer has almost no defense against psionic attacks.

Theme Songs/Art/Misc

- Art by Jos Fouts - [2]

Main Theme Songs

"System Anomaly" by Frontline Assembly. Album - Airmech [3]

"Silent Ceremony" by Frontline Assembly. Album - Implode [4]

"Arise" by Frontline Assembly. Album - Airmech [5]

"Watching Over You" by Faderhead. Album - World of Faderhead [6]

Artists

Profile, Armor and HUD Art

Drawn by Taclobanon - An excellent artist who I would highly recommend. Turnaround, colors, dedication are all excellent. http://taclobanon.deviantart.com/

B&W Pic

Drawn by Jos Fouts - Another Longtime and reliable commission artist. Big recommendation here, too. http://www.playworkart.deviantart.com/

Continuing Fiction

"Silhouettes"

[7]