Please enjoy the profile of War Wolf's stealthy sidekick Spectra!

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Name: Janet O’Connell

Superhero name: Spectra

DOB: October 20th, 1989

POB: Tallaght, South Dublin, Ireland

Age: 23

Gender: Female

Species: Lioness

Nationality: Irish/American

Height: 5’10’’

Weight: 145

Eye color: Blue

Hair Color: Auburn

Physical Appearance: Lithe and toned physique, golden yellow fur and short auburn hair.

Outfits:

-Spectra: Black and gray synthweave leggings, purple bustier top and miniskirt. Black leather gloves and boots. Black eyemask and hooded cape. Black and silver utility belt.

-Janet: Business suit and skirt while at work. Casual clothes and leather jacket in off time.

Occupation:

-Administrative Assistant to Erica Decker of Decker Security Innovations

Areas of Operation:

-Grant City
-Colmaton

Weapons/items:

-Steelight blades and objects
-Binoculars, foldable, with infrared and snapshot capability
-Flashlight
-Grapple gun
-Adhesive tracer bug
-Compact First-Aid kit
-Thin air filter/underwater breather with five minute oxygen reserve
-Folding knife
-Lockpick
-Explosive, flash, and gas discs: thin black pucks designed for breaching, confusion, and incapacitation, respectively
-Zip-ties

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Personal Transport:

- Spectra: Black motorcycle
- Janet: Gray Harley-Davidson


Powers/abilities:

-Spectra has the ability to summon objects in her hands comprised of steelight, purple phosphorescent and translucent matter comprised of an interaction between light particles and atmospheric gasses. Objects constructed of steelight possess roughly the same integrity as steel and can be shattered if struck with enough force. These objects also lose strength and integrity once they leave spectra’s hands, evaporating about five seconds after contact is lost.

-Control of her steelight reflex has given Spectra the ability to shape her summoned objects as she wishes, allowing her to create simple combat implements and items to use in combat, such as sharp and blunt melee weapons, shields, and throwing shards to name a few.

-To compliment her steelight reflex, she has been masterfully trained in fencing (rapier and saber), throwing weapons, shield techniques, and staff combat.

-Proficient in Taekwondo and Ninjitsu, taught by War Wolf.

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Strengths:

- Spectra is extremely agile and nimble, with reflexes to match, and has adapted her background in gymnastics to her combat style. Sticking to the shadows and high ground, she can rush between opponents, strike with speed, and make her escape while War Wolf takes the brunt of the enemies’ attacks.
- Since she can quickly summon steelight clones of most any simple handheld object, this gives her great versatility in combat, able to switch weapons and tactics and keep the enemy constantly surprised.
- Personable and kind, able to work well with others.
- A tarnished past gives her extra drive to use her powers for good and fight crime and villainy.


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Weaknesses:

-Though toned and stronger than the average person, she is not as strong as War Wolf or most villains she faces, and relies on her agility to fight. If grappled or pushed into a contest of strength, she would be at a stark disadvantage.

-Spectra’s steelight weapons and objects are breakable and will shatter if significant force is applied. Additionally, they will deteriorate and vanish quickly after leaving her touch.

-Should she fail to block or dodge them, she is vulnerable to blades, bullets, and blunt trauma.

-She can be willful, hotheaded, impulsive, and short on discipline, having not received any formal military training.

-In order to use her steelight reflex, at least a slight gesture of her hands must be made. Thus, if her hands are bound tightly or restrained in certain ways, she will be unable to summon weapons and objects.


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Bio:

Janet O’Connell was born on October 10th, 1989 in Tallaght, Ireland, to Daniel and Sophie O’Connell, an old money and high society couple. Growing up in the elevated culture of the societal elite, Janet was attending million-dollar social functions before she even learned how to ride a bike. However, the parties and propriety didn’t interest her as they did her older sister and she found herself yearning to have fun the way other kids in town were, outdoors and playing sports. Despite her parents’ chagrin and her sisters teasing of her tomboy ways, she frequently stole away to play with the other kids and came home covered in dirt and scratches.

Though her parents tolerated her rebellious and “lower-class” tastes well into her teens (so long as she tolerated attending their social functions in return), when the time came to choose a university, they were sternly unflinching in their resolve to send their daughter to Cambridge, their alma mater to which they heavily donated as alumni, and follow her father and sister’s path in business. Janet refused, unsure of what she wanted in life but knowing that she wasn’t ready to settle into a set and forced path, and certainly not the boring and stuffy path of her family’s lifestyle. Though she and Daniel fiercely butted horns, Sophie mediated between the two hot heads and convinced her husband to loosen his grip a little. In the end, Janet wanted to seek her own path. Her parents gave her money enough to reach any destination she wanted, but warned her that if she left, she’d be cut off from the family estate and inheritance. The next morning, with only a suitcase and enough money for a plane ticket, Janet was on her way to Grant City, Maryland, where her best friend had gone to attend college.

Though she found her liberation to be rather difficult, what with sharing a small, cheap apartment with her friend, navigating the web of student loans and tuition fees, and being a far way from her homeland, Janet loved being able to make her own choices and being a part of the big city. She entered Grant City University with an undeclared major and worked part time at a small local paper called the Grant Gazette as an assistant. She also took an interest in the school gymnastics program and loved it so much that every moment not spent studying or working kept her on the tumbling mats and exercising.

After a year working at the Grant Gazette and learning about how the press worked, Janet declared a major in journalism her sophomore year, thrilled at the possibilities of investigative reporting. She wrote articles for the school paper and tried to become published in the Gazette, getting rejected multiple times but still determined to try. Her junior year, she poured nearly a month’s worth of research and writing into an article about Grant City’s resident superheroine War Wolf, scathingly indicting her vigilante methods and tactics and calling for her to take off the mask and put on a badge if she really wanted to fight crime. To her surprise, the article was accepted and she was officially published in the Grant Gazette.

At age 20, Janet wanted to get a head start on her senior journalism project by outdoing herself and breaking a big story rather than just writing about a known issue. She surreptitiously accessed the files of some established reporters and, not knowing how dangerous the story potentially was, picked out a lead on a suspected corrupt biotechnology corporation called Faraday Biotech and a rumored experiment called the Steelight Project. With only the potential for further publication and an ace on her project clouding her better judgment, Janet decided to sneak into Faraday Biotech’s headquarters in Grant City after closing and crack the story.

Unfortunately for her, Faraday Biotech’s security system had recently been expanded upon by prominent local company Decker Security Innovations, and though she thought she slipped in undetected, a hidden backup failsafe sent an alert to one person in Grant City, a person who had kept her eyes on Faraday for some time, gathering evidence of their illicit activities.

But before she could arrive, Janet broke her way into the labs where a science team was commencing a Steelight experiment under the supervision of CEO Jonas Faraday. In the amphitheater, a man lay strapped to a table with a large prism above him humming with power. Jan snapped pictures and kept her distance until she overheard the science team discussing that the man, a kidnapped vagrant, was the project’s seventeenth test subject, after sixteen trials that ended in immediate fatality. Spectra, unable to bear sitting by while this happened, leapt into the amphitheater and shoved Faraday away from the console. As three security guards moved toward her, guns drawn, a shadowy figure leapt from above and tackled one before engaging the others. Janet recognized her immediately from her research into her break-out article: War Wolf!

In the confusion of the fight, Janet backed away and tried to stop Faraday as he made his way to the door. However, the strong jackal overpowered her and used her as a hostage, creating a standoff with War Wolf as she finished taking down the three guards. War Wolf hesitated, but only so long as she needed to slip her hand to her bet and palm a shuriken. She flung it and took Faraday in the shoulder, but the rescue proved disastrous. Crying out in pain, Faraday jerked backward, flinging his feline hostage against the Steelight control console. The equipment burst into a shower of sparks and overloaded the prism capacitor. Before War Wolf could get Janet or the captive man free of the area, the prism exploded in a shower of purple beams that struck both of them. When the smoke cleared, the man on the table lay dead.

Though dazed, Janet still breathed.

War Wolf knelt over her to help her, but recoiled slightly when she saw that the lioness’s hands glowed a faint purple. Janet herself broke into a cold sweat on the verge of panic as she looked at her hands. When she stood and pointed at War Wolf, demanding to know what happened to her, a monstrous scythe of sharp, deadly light arced from her hand, slicing through equipment and walls and barely missing the superheroine. Hysterical, Janet ran from the amphitheater and the building, disappearing into the night. She huddled in a dark alley until sunrise, crying and quivering with fear.

After searching for the young lioness all night, a spike in police activity downtown caught War Wolf’s attention. Janet was on foot being pursued by police, leaving a swathe of destruction in her wake, misshapen steelight constructs flying from her hands and wrecking cars and building fronts. As War Wolf prepared to engage her, she could see that Janet was frightened and wasn’t meaning to do all this. Her power was completely out of her control. War Wolf dropped to the street before her and stood in her way. She stayed firm as Janet cried and screamed at her, blaming her for all that had happened to her, purple steelight blades cutting so close that they ruffled War Wolf’s fur.

The lioness collapsed to the ground in sobs as the police closed in. War Wolf knew that jail or a lab was no place for her. She’d seen that Janet was a good person, willing to endanger herself for another. She didn’t need containment, she needed help. With guilt at her part in Janet’s condition gnawing at her, War Wolf stole away with Janet, taking her back to her base.

After trying to make Janet as comfortable as possible in the bunker, War Wolf retrieved what files she could on the Steelight Project from the Faraday Biotech database and discovered that the effect the prism had on Janet would be considered a success for the project, and that the steelight reflex was theorized to be controllable. Using the data, she helped Janet over the next several months to gain mastery over her power and learn how to make it work for her.

Though all Janet wanted was a cure and to go home, Faraday Biotech had not developed a reversal procedure. War Wolf also discovered that Jonas Faraday had put a large bounty on the lioness, for her to be delivered alive. He wanted his one and only successful test subject back. Fortunately, he did not know her name.

In the months spent as War Wolf’s guest, Janet grew appreciative of her and friendly, though the wolfess kept her at a distance. One day, while Janet was supposed to be practicing forming simple steelight shapes, cabin fever became too much and she set about trying to find a way out of the bunker. Using steelight blades, she was able to pry open the locked elevator doors and ride up. At the top, she pushed open a wooden door that she discovered to be the back of a swinging bookcase hiding the elevator. A luxurious office sprawled before her. The nameplate on the desk near the floor-to-ceiling windows read, “Erica Decker.”

Moments later, Erica herself entered and blinked in surprise at the sight of the lioness. Janet forced a grin and waved, knowing she was in trouble as the wolfess narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.

With her identity no longer a secret, and Janet constantly coaxing her, Erica explained her entire story and why she fights as War Wolf. Janet listened and felt like she understood, embarrassed now that she had been arrogant enough to disparage her in her first published article. After what had happened to her at Faraday Biotech, Janet knew what evils lurked in Grant City, and that War Wolf had a good and generous heart for helping her when she didn’t have to.

To War Wolf’s surprise, Janet blurted out the desire to join her. Even if she could go back to her old life, the lioness explained, journalism wasn’t for her. She realized from the Faraday Biotech incident that she wanted to be involved and help people, not sit back and report on them. She wanted to right wrongs, not write about what’s wrong. And with her steelight power and training from the great heroine War Wolf, she could help make a difference.

War Wolf knew she couldn’t keep Janet in the bunker forever, but the outside world would be dangerous with Faraday Biotech constantly hunting her. Not to mention the snooping feline knew her identity. However, War Wolf’s war was her own, and she had grown accustomed to stalking the Grant City night alone. Her mind undecided, the heroine at least offered her a job and a home. Janet accepted, but promised War Wolf that she wouldn’t give up until she convinced her to take her on as a partner.

Eight months of tireless effort and devoted training later, War Wolf stood atop the dark Grant City skyline with a new figure beside her. An adopted child of Grant City, power forced upon her but responsibility chosen, devoted to her partner, her city, and every person who needed her ability. She is the bump in the night, the tangible shadow, the steel wind. She is the light that burns with the ferocity necessary to keep Grant City’s darkness at bay.

She is Spectra.



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Personality:

Janet is bubbly and energetic, very personable and pleasant to others. With her background in propriety and high society etiquette, she is a thoroughly professional administrative assistant at DSI and a graceful presence at any social function to which she accompanies Erica. Her wit, beauty, and enchanting Irish accent enable her to gain favor at most any party. But when she lets her hair down, she loves to get down and dirty in training, outdoors activities, and helping Erica with mechanical work.

When the mask comes on, Janet retains her soulful energy. Unlike her partner, she does not live and breathe the war, and always finds time for a quip or joke to make the nighttime patrols less dark and try (futilely) to make War Wolf smile. Though she may seem to take crime fighting less seriously, when combat is initiated or a citizen is in danger, she will fight as hard as she can and bear the brunt of any danger to do what is right. She learned not only physical skill from War Wolf’s training, but has also internalized her sense of morality and justice.

In combat, Spectra makes use of the shadows, distraction, and her agility, moving into position for a surprise strike with her steelight weapons. She attempts to use bladed steelight to cut through enemy armor and weapons, opening them up to being subdued. Her versatility allows her the ability to use many variations of weapons, shields, and objects, making each fight unique and her style unpredictable to enemies.

Spectra is not in a relationship, but is interested in meeting the right man someday…though she has no idea how she’d explain what she does, or even if she could.

Though War Wolf has warned her that she may have to some day if an urgent situation arises, Spectra has never killed.

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Relationship with Bureau of Superheroes (Colmaton universe):

Spectra is accustomed to working with her partner and best friend War Wolf. She remains unregistered, though she is more accepting of the BOS and even eager to work with other heroes. However, she follows War Wolf’s command and though she may disagree with her partner’s heightened suspicion and mistrust of the BOS, she is loyal to her.