Lady Lotus

Strength        Agility         Intellect       Willpower
5x              4d              7d              8d

Hand Size:      4 (25)
Edge:           2

Origin:

The woman known only as Lady Lotus has acquired her powers by several means. She was born with natural psionics, which she augmented with psionic training. Later, she further enhanced her powers with a sacred lotus flower, and then then acquired training in the arts arcane. I guess she could be considered the first example of a psychoturge (more or less) in the Marvel Universe.

Powers:

Natural Psionics (Psipathic Powers):

Telepathy (a) (w): Lady Lotus' primary telepathic power is her ability to achieve mind to mind contact with another being, regardless of their biology; as long as they are sentient, this power can be used to talk to them silently. She uses this ability with intensity 8 skill, and can talk to as many people as she likes; however, each doubling of contacted persons reduces its effective intensity by 2.

Mind Control (t) (w): the greatest weapon Lady Lotus has for the purposes of getting what she wants, this intensity 10 psionic talent allows her to impose her will on others, compelling them to do her bidding - even if they wouldn't otherwise consider working with her. Achieving this control and reinforcing it in tricky situations requires an easy mind control action, opposed by her target's Willpower score.

Mesmerism (s) (w): Lady Lotus' final telepathic power, this skill allows her to drop a target into a hypnotic trance, if she can pass an easy hypnosis action, opposed by said target's Willpower score. Once her victim is in this trance, she can implant all manner of post-hypnotic suggestions, or extract any information from them that they consciously knows. This is an intensity 10 power.

Schooling: Novice / Philosophical Magic (Evil)

After she decided that she'd become one with the Buddha, Lady Lotus studied the mystic arts for several years. Her studies followed a decidedly Philosophical bent, though the magic she'd mastered had been corrupted soon after she bent her mind towards the destruction of America, and assumed an overwhelmingly evil bent. Spells she is known to wield include:

Conjuration (u) (i): this spell allows Lady Lotus to summon forth any person, animal, or object she desires, doing so with intensity 8 ability. This handy spell even has the side effect of reassembling a conjured object, should it be broken, decayed, or otherwise dispersed. Should an unwilling being become the target of this spell, Lady Lotus must pass an easy conjuration (Willpower) action.

Illusion Projection (u) (w): Lady Lotus can use this intensity 10 spell to confuse and befuddle the minds of others. This basically allows her to insert false sensory input into the minds of anybody within her line-of-sight, and fooling victims with this power only requires an easy illusion action, opposed by her targets' Willpower score. Further checks are only necessary if Lady Lotus' illusions become too unbelievable.

Psychic Probe (u) (w): using this spell, Lady Lotus can burrow a tiny magical tendril into the mind of an opponent, and draw forth pertinent information about their identity and general situation. Functioning with intensity 10 ability, this spell enhances her mind control abilities, as it allows her to tailor her commands and deceptions to the history of her would-be tools.

Hindrances / Augmentations:

(none)

Equipment:

Power Gem (w): acquired by her servants, this mysterious gem greatly amplified the Lady Lotus' psionics. It seemed to increase her extant powers by +4, while also granting her the Flight, Force Field, and Telekinesis powers at intensity 13. These all new abilities also benefit from exposure to the sacred lotus flower, working at +2 while Lady Lotus has access to both.

Sacred Lotus Flower (w): thanks to this mystical plant, Lady Lotus has received a significant boost in the effectiveness of her psionic powers. As long as she is under the influence of this sorcerous organism, she can add +2 to any action she attempts with her psionics. The duration of this flower's power enhancing properties is unknown at this point.

Skills:

Business / Finance (w): Lady Lotus knows her way around money. Casually setting up business fronts for her criminal activities, she can bring her considerable Willpower to bear in any action concerning money management, whether it be legal or not. After all, she's a master of disguising her intentions, financial or otherwise - even before using her psionics!

Languages / English and Japanese (i): a native of Japan, Lady Lotus naturally has the ability to read, write, and speak the Japanese tongue fluently. However, she moved to America after her twenty-first birthday, and as such, has learned to master the English language as well, using it just as effectively as she can her native speech.

Martial Arts (a): though she typically prefers to leave physical violence to her minions, Lady Lotus nonetheless has considerable martial prowess. A master of multiple fighting styles, she may reduce the difficulty of striking an opponent, dodging attacks, or catching thrown weaponry by one difficulty level, and may use her Agility to determine initiative, if desired.

Contacts:

It would be nice for Lady Lotus if she could claim the members of the Super-Axis as contacts, but the sad truth is that she mind controlled them into acting as a team on her behalf. In fact, Baron Blood was the only member of her impromptu team that willingly assisted her in her mission to destroy America, and he may be on more cordial terms with her than the others.

Another villain Lady Lotus is acquainted with is the diabolical Yellow Claw, who was also scheming to destroy the United States.

Calling:

Vengeance: disgusted by America's treatment of its Japanese-American citizens during World War 2, Lady Lotus decided that the nation didn't deserve to exist. As such, she bent all of her energies towards destroying this land in retaliation for its policies towards her and her fellow immigrants. She will take every available opportunity to further this goal.

Costume:

While furthering her criminal agenda, Lady Lotus is most often clothed in a low cut, seductive indigo evening gown. It reaches down to her ankles, and is split on the side to show off her legs. She also wears black high heels and most often has a cigarette holder on her person, if mostly for effect. She never adopted a stereotypical 'super villain' costume.

Personality:

Lady Lotus is a vengeful woman with delusions of grandeur. Believing herself one with the Buddha, she acts as though her plots were simply the will of the cosmos. She is far from inner peace, however, as she has been incensed by the American incarceration of Japanese-Americans in detention centers, and wishes above all else to destroy the United States for its crimes.

Real Name: unknown
Occupation: criminal mastermind
Legal Status: naturalized American citizen who may or may not have a criminal record
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: she presumably has several, but none are specifically known
Group Affiliation: former member of the Super-Axis

Height: 5' 7"
Hair: raven black
Eyes: brown
Weight: 99 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: none

Story:

The woman known only as Lady Lotus has her roots in pre-War Japan. Having been born with potent psionic powers, she meditated for years to increase their inherent capabilities. Eventually, after years of such internal soul searching, the Lady thought that she had become one with Buddha, and inhaled the pollen of the sacred lotus flower to further enhance her psionic potential.

Lady Lotus then studied mystic teachings for several years, acquiring the ability to wield several magic incantations in addition to her psionic powers. Feeling her time in Japan was done, she collected her meager belongings and made for America, wishing to build a new life for herself in the so-called Land of Opportunity. Things changed after Japan entered World War 2, however.

When the United States military began detaining Japanese-American citizens in the irrational belief that it would prevent sabotage, Lady Lotus exploded in a rage, deciding that America had lost its right to exist. Using her magics to disguise herself as a Chinese shop-keeper, Lady Lotus began to weave together a scheme to achiever her vengeful goals.

Her first direct action towards the completion of this goal involved her enslaving the Atlantean renegade known as U-Man to her will, to help her abduct the Golden Girl, one of the Kid Commandos. Lady Lotus hoped to sway this other Japanese-American super-human to her cause. The girl loved her country, however, and refused to go along with Lady Lotus' agenda.

The girl then took apart Lady Lotus' hideout, and had pretty much freed herself when a hastily assembled rescue team arrived. However, Lady Lotus had fled by this time, and was already at work on her next dastardly scheme. She was going to assemble a whole team of super-powered villains to help her defeat these Invaders who felt the need to interfere with her plans!

She arranged for the resurrection of Baron Blood, who had been slain some months back. Originally, he didn't want to join this plot of the Lady's, but she convinced the vampire by offering him a large amount of his native soil, which he could have in exchange for being her resident assassin. With U-Man still under her sway, Lady Lotus only needed a few more thugs to round out her so-called Super-Axis.

These two minions came in the form of Master Man and Warrior Woman, who were also quite unimpressed by the concept of serving her. Not wishing to bargain with these fools any longer, Lady Lotus simply seized control of their minds, as she had done with the U-Man, and prepared them for action against the Invaders. However, one of those heroes found her first.

Sending her Super-Axis on to its destiny, Lady Lotus confronted the Human Torch, who had found her camouflaged shop. Entering his mind with her magic, she learned that the Torch envied Captain America for spending time with his would-be love, Spitfire, and made the deluded android believe that the star-spangled hero had in fact seduced her.

Enraged, the hero went to assault the Captain just as the Super-Axis attacked the Invaders. This quickly devolved into a chaotic mess, until Namor managed to douse the Torch's flames and snap him out of Lady Lotus' hypnotic suggestions. The tide of battle quickly turned after this, and the Super-Axis found themselves soundly beaten, the surviving members of the team fleeing for their lives.

Lady Lotus next appeared after acquiring a mysterious gem that greatly augmented her psionics - this on top of the effects her sacred lotus flowers provided for. Before she could use this gem to acquire ultimate power, however, Lady Lotus was ultimately denied the gem's potent ability by the Young Allies, who caused it to be buried beneath a Hollywood movie set after she set off an earthquake with it.

Craving its power but unable to recover it for the nonce, Lady Lotus then went underground, biding her time...