Mirage

In the world of classical twentieth century rock and roll fandom the name Ellen Wild is already well known. Since she joined the Asteroids rock band as their lead singer the group has been playing to packed houses in the bars and clubs of Colonial Bay City. It's only a matter of time, and probably not much time either, before the group hits the big time. The name Mirage on the other hand is almost unknown in the city. That will change when the vigilante starts her relentless campaign against the evils of organized crime. Mirage is no laughing caviler cape fighting crime with a ready quip on her lips. For Mirage it's a battle to the finish with no quarter to be given nor asked for.

Ellen Wild lives at the south end of Bridgend close to the Yacht Club in a luxury mansion overlooking the ocean and Sandy Bottom Island. She lives there with her younger brother Martin, the house having been altered to make it wheelchair friendly. Martin attends the Colonial Heights High School and is a member of the Speed-Wheels basketball team playing in the local and state paraplegic basketball leagues. The mansion's basement has been extended and soundproofed to provide a place for the Asteroids rock group to practice. Nobody except Ellen and Martin know of the secret second extention to the basement where Mirage's battlesuit is concealed.

Since Ellen joined the Asteroids rock band barely a handful of weeks ago the group has been in sufficient demand they can pick and choose their venues. Mark Harris and Melvin Brooks are the two bass guitarists, Hank Benford is on keyboard, and Pete Smythe handles the drums. They have had a regular weekly spot on Friday nights at The Matrix for over a year and are continuing that gig out of loyalty to their long term fans. They play other venues two or night nights a week, with Sunday evenings now tending to be at one of the larger clubs in the city.

Cypher
In her costumed identity Mirage wears a midnight blue anime styled CyberMech outfit with fully enclosed visored helm. The visor is illuminated from within by a constantly changing head-up display. When facing the possibility of danger a bluish-green force field surrounds her. There's some risk of confusion as another heroine who has been occasionally seen in the city also wears a CyberMech battlesuit. However Cypher hasn't been seen recently, so it's likely Mirage that's on hand when you see the battlesuit.

Ellen Wild
When relaxed and in the city Ellen usually dresses casually in slacks and tee-shirt. Her choice of tee-shirt motifs naturally tends towards rock and roll bands. She's fairly tall at 5ft 8" in height with a firm full figure. Her hair is a thick and lusterous chestnut hue brushed back to hang over her back and shoulders. On stage she favours red slit thigh dresses for mobility and impact with long white fingerless gloves and knee length white boots.

Powers
Ellen Wild, aka Mirage, has very powerful but slightly unreliable psionic talents. She's built psionic amplification devices into a pair of earrings that allow her to control her talents. Without the earrings she is equally as powerful a psionic but cannot always create the effect she wishes.

She possesses the full range of talents usually associated with the psionically gifted. She can move herself telekinetically from one place to another without passing through the intervening space and create a telekinetic shield around herself. She can even extend her telekinetic reach beyond herself although that's much harder for her and she can only manipulate a small mass.

She can read and send thoughts, control another person's mind, and has a special affinity for altering and manipulating other people's senses. She can even borrow someone's senses and see and hear through their eyes and ears. In fact there's little she cannot do when affecting someone's sensory impressions. There does, however, seem to be a limit of about 500m radius to her talents when not directed against a single visible target.

She can, and does, use her talent to enhance the effect of her singing performances, subtly absorbing the emotions of the audience which heightens her perceived presense and attractiveness. She can also easily manipulate the emotional state of an audience with her singing.

Skills
Ellen wanted to be a singer from a very early age. Indulging her wishes, she was enrolled into the South London Stage School by her parents, where she learnt acting, dancing, oratory, and singing in addition to the usual school subjects. With limited success. She could not, and cannot, dance at a professional standard to save her life. She simply lacks sufficient physical coordination. She also learned the basics of psionic engineering while helping her father in his University research during school holidays.

Her serious lack of confidence didn't help. In class and rehearsals she was perfectly fine. As soon as she got out in front of an audience she froze up. On graduating from the stage school Ellen joined a music academy in Fukuoka, Japan. Her father hoped the calm meditative atmosphere of that academy could help with Ellen's lack of confidence. Although it did nothing for her confidence the years spent there, as a student and then as an instructor, gave her a thorough grounding in music and a fluent command of Japanese.

Disadvantages
Nobody knows that the cheerful casually friendly and outgoing Ellen Wild is also the implacable opponent of organized crime known as Mirage. She wants to keep it that way.

There are people close to her who's vulnerability could be used to compel and coerce her. Her young bother has suffered enough. What happened to him wasn't her fault but that doesn't relieve her of the feeling of survivor's guilt. She also knows the band members of The Asteroids are highly protective of their singer and would quickly put themselves in danger in an effort to help her if she didn't act to keep them safe.

CyberMech Corporation, a large powerful and ruthlessly corrupt organization headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, but with branch facilities throughout the world, thinks the entire Wild (Southerby) family is dead. However Mirage was seen leaving the demolished laboratory building and is believed responsible for the destructive incident. They are intent on revenge.

Being the only unharmed survivor of the CyberMech incident when so many innocents were killed has had its effect on Mirage. She will not stand by and allow more innocents to be harmed if she can prevent it. Neither will she withhold any effort in dealing with the corrupt organizations and individuals who put innocents at risk.

Origin
Ellen was twenty-three, her much younger brother Martin a mere fourteen, when CyberMech wanted a field test of the mental interface technology her father had contracted to develop. Knowing the technology was neither stable nor safe her father refused. That's not something you get to do where CyberMech is involved. The entire family, father, mother, daughter and brother were kidnapped and taken to a secret laboratory in Japan.

The CyberMech executive in charge of the project had Martin imprisoned in a building which was then set alight. The rest of the family being captive in the laboratory. CyberMech had arranged matters so the only way Martin could be saved was to use a disarmed BattleMech fitted with the experimental mental interface. In desperation, her father activated the interface.

Her father's warnings proved correct. Although it wouldn't have had a fraction as bad a result if Ellen hadn't been in the laboratory. In the wild unstable feedback between Ellen, a hitherto unsuspected natural psionic of immense power, and the unstable interface technology the resultant explosion killed everyone in the laboratory except Ellen. She instinctively raised a protective force field around herself.

The explosion also demolished the building in which Martin was trapped blasting him clear of the fire but breaking his back in the process. Putting on the disarmed battlesuit to protect her from some of the effects of the raging fires, not confident in her untested personal psionic force field, she rescued Martin and fled from the facility. Thus was born Mirage.

Personality
There's little if anything left of the shy introverted woman who used to be Ellen Southerby. On the surface Ellen Wild, the name she adopted after the CyberMech incident, is a cheerful casually friendly outgoing young woman with a ready smile. She's always willing to sign autographs, chat to members of her audience before and after performances. There's likely to be a man friend hovering near her when she's dining or out clubbing. Rarely the same one twice however. And they are never invited back to her home where she lives with Martin.

That's an act. At the core she is close to being consumed by her irrational guilt at surviving unharmed when her brother is in a wheelchair and her parents are dead. Fueled by that guilt is an implacable hatred of organized crime and criminals. From the lowliest minion to the mastermind criminal or seemingly respected businessman who hides corruption under a mask. Ellen is a singer. Mirage a relentless vigilante hunter of all who would do harm to the innocent victims of their crimes.

History
Ellen Southerby, stage name Ellen Wild, was born twenty-four years ago in London to Joan and Michael Southerby. Her younger brother Martin came along when she was nine. Her father was a researcher in psionic technology at London University. Her mother a ballet dancer who retired after marrying her father and giving birth to Ellen.

From an early age Ellen wanted to be a singer. A strange choice for a girl with a painfully shy and introverted personality. Indulging her, her parents allowed her to attend the South London Stage School. Ellen's deceased grandfather, who had disapproved of his own son but fell for the charm of his granddaughter, had left Ellen a large trust fund, which meant Ellen didn't have to worry about the consequence of an education unlikely to provide a career path.

Her lack of confidence prevented a stage career. So she joined the Washen Musical Academy as a student, and then later became an instructor. She might have spend her life there if it wasn't for CyberMech Corporation. After the kidnapping and events following it Ellen changed her name to Ellen Wild and moved to Colonial Bay City.

The inner core of rage and hatred induced by her experience at the laboratory gave her the impetus and drive to overcome her shyness. She joined a local classic rock and roll band, the Asteroids, and is quickly developing a reputation as an exceptionally talented singer. Only her brother Martin knows that Ellen is also Mirage. She's been practicing her talents and working on the psionic amplifier earrings. Now it's time for Mirage to make an appearance.