A.R.G.U.S. Threat Report
- CodeName: Wyrmhole
- Place of Origin: Birmingham, England, UK
- Real/Birth Name: Stephanie Jones
- Real Identity Status: Secret
- Age/Apparent Age: 19
- Height: 5'3"
- Gender: Female
- Category/Occupation: Hero/Student
- Superhero Affiliations: The Sentinels
- Real Identity Affiliations: Emerald City University
- Power Set: Ability to create "Wyrmholes" to allow teleportation-like ability for self or others, and related effects
- Power Origin: Stormer
- Player/Type: NPC
Appearance
Stephanie is often described as "cute". At 5'3" she is quite petite and has a slender frame - although being a fan and active participant of sports and martial arts is quite fit. Due to cross-cultural bleed she tends to dress in a mix of Japanese and American styles. She favours the Harajuku punk Gothic style popular in Japan amongst teens, and other Japanese fashion trends, but as that tends to get her negative attention in the USA, has been toning it down and dressing "a little more western-like" but the influence is still there. As such she usually favours t-shirts (usually geeky or Harajuku style) or with jeans, leggings or skirts. Sometimes she wears casual short dresses (often geeky ones, such as anime-themed dresses). When relaxing she favours an oversized jumper or sweater and shorts (optional). Stephanie's eyes and hazel, gearing more towards a light brown and her chestnut-brown hair is normally kept loose and cropped to shoulder-length in a bixie-like hairstyle, though occasionally she styles it differently (usually for special occasions). She is inconsistent in how she cares for and frequency of haircuts, so they can alternate from short bixies to fairly long and semi-straight, but she usually loses patience with her hair when it starts getting too long (ie about shoulder-length) and cuts it short again. She speaks with a notable British accent, laced with Japanese slang.
She looks a little more imposing in her form-fitting, superhero suit. It is coloured black with red styling and has a rec hood with black face mask to help protect her identity. Although her first "suit" was self-made from biker leather clothing, since the formation of the Sentinels and with MarsTech backing, Sophie Anderson designed a nanotech suits for her based on Stephanie's interests, so the suit resembles a cross between a ninja outfit and the style from the Assassin's Creed computer games. Although it appears to casual observers to be made out of leather and other fabrics, it is fully made of various types of nanobots that can be contracted into a neck choker or brought out at will like a second skin. Whilst Stephanie relies on her "shunting weave" or blind teleporting to avoid danger, the nanosuit is surprisingly tough and offers some protection if she were to be caught unaware. Perhaps more importantly, the suit is designed not only to protect but be comfortable and breathable over long periods - a lesson hard-learnt by Wyrmhole when her previous self-made full-body biker's leather suit nearly killed her from exhaustion and dehydration whilst fighting for extended periods in the hot summer sun. This new suit also offers life support and sensor capabilities (see equipment).
Background
Born in Birmingham (England) to Alicia Jones, a university student, Stephanie knows little of her father except that he was Greek and "a total dick who dated mum during Uni, then fled the country when he found out he knocked her up". Alicia became pregnant during her 2nd year of university, giving birth to Stephanie (named after Alicia's grandmother, with who Alicia had been close before her death earlier that year) during the first academic trimester of her final year. Stephanie really doesn't care about the lack of a father in her life - stating that her mother was all she ever needed. Stephanie has often praised her mother's strength "she raised me with a milk bottle in one hand and exam papers in the other" as encouragement to handle and make the most out of whatever life throws at you. The two are very close to this day.
When Stephanie was only six, her mother moved to Japan to work as a Language Teacher at the Yokohama International School, where Stephanie was inducted into the Elementary program until she eventually graduated High School with her International Baccalaureate Diploma. Stephanie therefore has spent most of her life in Japan and as such her sense of culture, fashion and interests reflect Japanese culture more than that of her birthplace. She is bilingual in Japanese (and fluent in Korean, which she also learnt at school), often dresses in Japanese fashion styles, enjoys japanese pop culture and martial arts - she started learning Okinawan Gōjū-ryū Karate during Elementary school. Oddly, she also discovered a passion for baseball (the national sport) and is a big fan of K-Pop and Korean tv, due in part to a childhood school friend from Korea who was in the same Elementary program as her.
Stephanie found herself enjoying art (no surprise as she loved anime, which was part of the curriculum) and learnt photography as part of her art lessons in middle school, where she joined the photography club. Although she initially joined to gain extra credit, she loved it from the start and ultimately decided to pursue it as a career. Wanting to travel, went to America to study Digital Media Arts at Emerald City University ("I liked the program").
Things did not initially go well as few people took much notice of "the weird, confused brit-kid who thinks she's Japanese" and found that americans were not as innately selfless and respectful as japanese people. Many students either treated her badly or took advantage of her cultural naivete. A string of broken relationships from bishounen who were nice to her until they'd gotten their fun (or more accurately, realised they weren't going to get the fun they wanted) and 'friends' that turned out to be vicious, manipulative, back-stabbing harpies left her feeling dejected and beginning to isolate herself further from society. Serious homesickness and missing her mother and high school friends only worsened the situation.
Stephanie was shopping in the Yellow Brick Row when the Silver Storm happened. She was at ground zero when it occurred, and in the aftermath realised she had new abilities... Although confused, she immediately set out to help first-responders with the injured and aid the superheroes Turbine, Princess and Ultramarine, guided by the remote eyes of superhacker Bonnet Blanc handle some villainous stormers that on getting powers suddenly began to cause deadly trouble.
Soon after, Stephanie began going out alongside Turbine as a superhero duo, along with the support of Bonnet Blanc, a hacker that would provide support. They frequently assisted or were aided by the superheroes Princess and Ultramarine. The working group was often referred to (mostly by Stephanie) as the Emerald City Knights (or "ECK" for short, which Stephanie liked as it sounded like a K-pop group name).
ECKs exploits came to the attention of Maximilian Mars of MarsTech who ended up financing the formation of a formal superhero group that became known as The Sentinels, of which the Emerald City Knights were the founding members, expanded to include various other local heroes, and were supervised by Bonnet Blanc who became formally employed (under her civilian name of Sophie Anderson) by MarsTech as the chief engineer and project lead and liaison with MarsTech. The Sentinels also established working relations with City Hall and local law enforcement to better coordinate their efforts, not step on the toes of local authorities, and be best directed where needed most. Mars paid for their Emerald Tower base (which Stephanie refairs to as "the lair") and equipment, providing manufacturing capabilities and access to MarTech equipment and research that was cutting edge.
Stephanie prospered in this group, becoming more accomplished and capable as a superhero and becoming like a family with several of the members - in particular, she made one good friend in the form of Princess, who's real identity was Jessica Prentiss, a sweet, mousy girl who was also into anime and similar pursuits. The two have bonded both on and off the battlefield, eventually moving in together into a shared University Dorm as both are ECU students. Stephanie eventually found other like-minded people in some of ECU's anime and geek student clubs and societies, but Jessica remains her undisputed best friend.
Stephanie is still close to her mother and tries to visit as often as she can (which is now comparatively faster, easier and cheaper than earlier), and keeps in contact with her (and old friends back in Japan) via online Social Media as much as possible. Although it took her a while to get around to plucking up the courage to do it ("more scary than facing Death Magnetic during the Silver Storm") Stephanie eventually revealed her superhero abilities and identity to her mother. Whilst concerned for her, Alicia was ultimately supportive of her daughter. The fact she can instantly "pop over" to Tokyo to join her mother for a bit daily and then instantly "pop back" home again with little effort in seconds, has gone a long way towards helping Stephanie's homesickness.
Personality
Stephanie epitomises the stereotype of "short but feisty" - when she's being herself she makes no attempt to hide her geekness and is a rabid fan of most Sci-Fi and fantasy tropes, regularly using pop culture quotes in daily conversations. Possibly surprising for a geek, Stephanie is a big baseball fan and follows both the ALW (American League West) and the Japanese NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball). She never misses an Emerald City Ospreys or Yomiuri Giants game. She can be usually found downtime watching Anime (in Japanese, without subtitles unless her dorm-mate Jessica Prentiss is joining her), playing video games, reading comics or geeky books or out and about taking photographs. She frequently uses japanese expressions and exclamations, especially when angered or amused (and still hasn't quite shaken the habit of instinctively bowing when greeting others). She knows how to play the guitar and has been described as having a sweet voice, and frequently plays music mostly for entertainment, or to entertain friends, but she has been known to record her songs and upload them to her YouTube channel, or perform at open mic nights or similar events.
When in her Wyrmhole persona, she is fearless and flippant. She is energetic, brave and willing to help out, with a penchant for witty (often sarcastic) comments. Her witty nature combined with Princess' bombastic nature makes the two of them popular together on the TV Chat Show circuits.
Whilst she is naturally kind, energetic and friendly - she hurts easily and is slow to forgive grudges. Whilst some people think the geek in her loving being a superhero makes her not realise the dangers she will be facing, and her energetic and amusing demeanour only reinforcing that, Wyrmhole is in fact extremely dedicated to what she does (she blames it on "Japanese honour" mentality). One of the original Emerald City Knights, she has trained very intensely with her powers since that day and wants to prove that she's no longer that kind, teleporting kid that needs to be protected by the serious heroes.
Motivation: Doing Good
Stephanie is a genuinely kind-hearted person and does what she does out of a genuine desire to help others in need. At the beginning, she all-too-often didn't take the reality of how dangerous being a superhero is seriously, thinking it was very cool and fun being a hero - and the harsh reality was a downer. She has since matured, and whilst still thinking it's cool, admits it can be terrifying, dangerous, and the regret and guilt that comes with the job when you fail to save people in need, can be crushing. But despite it all she still does it all - because it's the right thing to do.
Secret Identity
Early in Wyrmhole's superhero career she did not make an effort to conceal her identity - most Japanese superheroes are highly respected, almost national treasures, and she was proud to become one. But some clashes with criminal elements and advise from her team-mates led to her realisaton that although her mother was a long distance away, that her not concealing her identity could cause problems for her mother and/or her friends (and other Sentinels) and so she has taken to wearing a masked hood (the mask will sufficiently protect her identity even if the hood comes off) and keeping her superhero and personal life apart.
As she is a huge fan of anime and computer games, it is unsurprising that her "superhero outfit" resembles a cross between something from an anime and the Assassin's Creed game. The first iteration was home-made and relied mostly on leather outfits that she could modify but, after nearly dying of dehydration because of full leather gear and mask in the Californian summer, the latest versions (made for her by Sophie Anderson) use more advanced textiles that are harder-wearing, flexible and breathable, whilst still helping conceal her identity and offer a little protection.
She considers herself "out of costume" to be her real persona, and refers to donning her superhero outfit as a form of Cosplay and "getting into character." She is extremely likely to over-act her role, striking visible "hero poses" and heroic exclamations on arrival (but often "drops character" when things get serious and tends to rapidly repeat Japanese swear words until in the clear). Some have commented that she treats being in costume like it was a live-action roleplaying game, and that she doesn't understand the gravity and danger of what she does. Wyrmhole will counter this with saying that she does take it seriously and understands the risks, but that there's no harm in having a little fun and enjoying what she does.
Other Notes
Name (mis)Spelling
Wyrmhole is well aware that she has picked her code name after the spacial anomalies that are actually correctly spelt Wormholes. She claims that she did this for the following reasons:
- Worms are slithering, yicky things, whilst Wyrms are dragons. Dragons are cooler.
- It's spelt cooler that way. Like the difference between saying "cool" and "kewl."
The White Witch has never managed to understand the strange logic behind either argument, although it apparently makes perfect sense to Wyrmhole and she tends to get exasperated and let off Japanese expletives "when people get anal" about the spelling.
Combat Style
Wyrmhole is a surprise element in combat, usually relying on using her Wyrmholes in creative ways. Being of small statue and with a power base that is not traditionally dangerous, she is often under-estimated. Her ability to create Wyrmholes can make her dangerous, but she tends to rely on minimum force - trying hard to inflict as little harm as necessary. Most of the time she relies on her shunting field and dodging or parrying in order to avoid damage. Although the shunting field provides some degree of protection by dampening blows, without her shunting field she is comparatively vulnerable to damage. With it though, she is very hard to actually hit. She prefers to try to support her allies or disadvantage enemies to direct damage assault, for example teleporting enemies (or their weapons) away from the combat area (if fighting superhumanly tough opponents she has been known to teleport them a mile straight up instead), or creating "dovin basals" to redirect incoming ranged attacks to protect allies (often redirecting them back at the attackers). If she feels the need, she has recently developed the ability to create "projection wyrmholes" whereby she opens a wyrmhole to an elemental plane, projecting a stream of raw elemental energy at targets as a blast, or over an area if she "wide-angles" the wyrmhole created. As this tends to be highly destructive to the environment as "it is effectively like turning on an elemental hose and will leak and splash", Wyrmhole is not keen on using it except against meta-resilient villains when the need justifies the potential collateral property damage.
Additionally, Wyrmhole has studied Goju-Ryu (Okinawan Karate) since Elementary school (age 6) and as such is more resilient, agile and close-combat capable than people expect (especially considering her previously mentioned small stature) and as such tends to surprise people with her willingness to engage non-metahumans in close combat rather than keep her distance (and with her combat teleportation, this can be quite effective). Most of the time she'll rely on the traditional "hit them hard until they drop" method, but when fighting against greater odds will rely on her Wyrmholes and Shunting Field. A short while ago Sophie Anderson built her a collapsible Bo staff, which can be extended for normal usage or collapsed to baton-size and used as a baton, or concealed with greater ease. Wyrmhole was given this weapon because she is proficient with Kubudo weapons (part of her Goju-Ryu training). Against your typical criminal, her karate skills and the protection of her graphene suit usually suffice and unaugmented may well be one of the Sentinels most proficient in close combat.
Despite her size or lack of super-durability, Wyrmhole is not the type to stand back and play it safe in a fight unless clearly outmatched.
Social Style
Stephanie is a product of mixed-environment upbringings, and a legal alien - she feels like a fish out of water. Relatively new to Emerald City before the Silver Storm changed her, she has few friends as she found herself very different from most university students and had a few nasty or regretful moments that shook her confidence and ability to blend in. She reacts very positively to people who are nice to her and show kindness, and gives her friendship easily (many say TOO easily). If hurt by someone she trusts, she becomes highly unforgiving and irrational in her reaction and future relations with them. She holds grudges for a long time and even if she "forgives" a transgressor, they should never expect her to return to what she used to be like with them, and at best will be civil with them.
Whilst she can sometimes be madcap and hyperactive, her being raised in japanese culture has led to her having an innately polite and respectful manner.
Signature Powers & Special Abilities
In a holistic sense, Wyrmhole only has one actual power - the ability to sense and manipulate spatial points. Whilst Wyrmhole is usually referred to as a Teleporter, in actuality she cannot actually teleport at all and is in fact simply manipulating spatial points to "bring here, there". Wyrmhole describes what she does as "tearing open a hole in reality connecting two points, like creating a shortcut", and passes through it. She refers to these tears in reality as "Wyrmholes" and her innate sense for and control over them allows her to create a variety of different practical effects:
- Spatial Senses - an innate sense of direction, distance, and spatial location. This grants her the ability to innately know her exact location (and tell you her exact GPS coordinates) and sense teleporters and teleportation effects (she senses the shift in space). With a little effort, she can "feel" the spatial disturbances and track recent teleportation effects back to their point of origin (or where they're going, e.g. to trail a teleporting villain).
Wyrmholes
- Personal Wyrmholes - personal teleportation-like effects. Wyrmhole is a powerful teleporter and can effortlessly jump up to 4 miles in a blink, up to 2000 miles with a little concentration, or anywhere in the world with effort (but this tires her out).
- Wyrmhole Portals - this Wyrmhole allows groups to travel from one place to another. When she opens a portal she can maintain this as long as she concentrates. She can create a Wyrmhole Portal that can teleport up to 60 miles with little effort. If she concentrates (making her vulnerable to attack) she can create a Wyrmhole portal that can travel up to 2000 miles away - although this leaves her dazed and fatigued.
- Peepholes - create a small Wyrmhole that allows her to peek into distant locations up to 1000 miles away. This can be double-edged, as it is potentially possible for people on the other end to notice the small eyehole-socket-sized rift open and a pair of eyes peeking through.
- Dovin Basals - in combat Wyrmhole can open small portals that intercept incoming dangers (e.g. bullets) and redirect them to someplace harmless (or if desired, back at attackers).
- Shunting Field - Creating incomplete aura-like personal Wyrmhole around her creates a shunting field that displaces incoming attacks a few inches randomly away from her, making it difficult to strike her with direct attacks, and can even somewhat reduce damage from area effects.
- Portal Punch - opens a small portal (like peephole power above, though larger) and sticks her hand or leg through it to strike an opponent up to 1600 ft away as though they were next to her. She finds this ability useful for sucker-punching villainous guards or the likes.
- Grabhole - similar to Sucker punch, except Wyrmhole can instead pick up an item she knows the location of, or deposit something. She frequently uses to this place or retrieve items from her room (or the fridge) without having to move.
- Apport - Can create a Wyrmhole similar to personal Wyrmholes as she strikes a target, sending them away from her (she once accidentally used this on Mongrel when he tickled her, and then she "pushed" him from the Emerald Tower into the bay). She has been known to use a variant power to open portals underneath villains, causing them to drop into the portal and be deposited well away from the area.
Signature Equipment & Gear
- Nanosuit: Wyrmhole's superhero outfit can be retracted into a neck choker or expanded as desired and flows over her like a second skin. The suit provides life support capabilities, filtering out harmful contaminants in the air such as smoke and gas, primarily intended to aid Wyrmhole when she is in hazardous environments such as entering areas in fire to rescue people, without being affected by smoke damage to herself. Although the suit can filter and pull oxygen out of acrid environments, even being able to pull oxygen when underwater, it cannot operate in a vacuum as it essentially filters and/or recycles, but cannot work in absence of air. Whilst the hood/mask is on, it also provides limited protection from sensory effects such as blinding lights or deafening sounds, and allows her to see in low-light conditions or total darkness. In aquatic environments, nanobots in the legs reconfigure into swimfins and tiny turbines that allow for easy movement underwater. The external colours of the suit can be reconfigured if needed, allowing the suit to be made in white (or to some people's chagrin, rainbow-coloured during Pride Month) but for stealth missions can be put into an active camo mode that imitates the surroundings, allowing her to blend into shadows and surroundings easier and harder to spot. She refers to this as "Predator mode". Finally, the suit contains an in-built comm system for her to be able to be in contact with the Sentinels via the Emerald Tower base, and this functionality works even when it is collapsed into the neck choker. This radio comm has a range of about a mile but taps into local GSM/5G networks and so effectively provides coverage anywhere there is mobile signal.
- Collapsible Bo Staff: in collapsed form the staff appears like a police baton in size and functionality, but can be expanded to the size of a bo staff in an instant (or collapsed again). It is police-grade toughness but otherwise is an unremarkable weapon.
- Camera: Stephanie has a Canon EOS Rebel T6s DSLR Camera, a high-school graduation gift from her mother.
Signature Quotes
Most of Stephanie's common signature quotes are japanese exclamations. Common ones exclaimed include:
- Junbi o.k.! ("I'm ready!" - uses English O.K.)
- Wari wari ("Sorry, my bad.")
- Totto totto ("Whoa! Whoa!")
- Buru Hairu (Japanese expression meaning "Things aren't going right")
- Shimatta! ("Damn it!")
- Kuso! ("S**t!")
- Iku tochūdesu ("[I'm] On My Way!")