Wasp

Description
What is it that about Wasp that first draws attention? Is it her size, or more accurately the lack of it? Wasp is barely a foot and a half tall. Perhaps it's the quietly buzzing multi-hued dragonfly wings upon her back. Then there's her eyes, faceted like an insect and gleaming iridescently with all the colors of the rainbow. She is slender, with long light reddish-brown hair falling well below her shoulders. Her movements are graceful and fluid yet somehow indicative of a notable strength for such a diminative figure. She looks young, no more than eighteen or nineteen years of age.

Wasp is dressed in a almost skin-tight costume covering all except her head. The torso and upper limbs of her costume are white, while the arms, legs and vee fronted collar are a sky blue. There's a glowing blue dragonfly silhouette on her chest and back. Being her size makes carrying items tricky. Wasp has pockets sew into her costume on both thighs, no larger than a normal pocket but looking bulky on her. Pinned to the costume above her heart is a silver brooch shaped in the form of a small wasp.

Origin
Jackie had skipped out of school again, and today was exploring the ruins of the abandoned nuclear reactor near her new home. The ruins were fenced off and guarded but she found a hole in the fence and had avoided the guards and their dogs up to now. She heard the footsteps of a guard as he made his patrol around the site, and ducked into a rusting air-conditioning tunnel. Making her way further into the tunnel she heard a buzzing noise and saw a small blue glowing insect hovering in the air in front of her. Jackie grabbed at it and caught it in her hand. Pain exploded up her arm as the insect stung her. Biting down on a yelp of pain that would only alert the guard she swung her hand against the side of the tunnel. Flakes of rust cascaded down but the insect was as hard as stone and seemed totally undamaged as it flew away. She was feverish that night but recovered the next day and never mentioned what had happened to anyone.

A few months later she was in an alleyway at the rear of a sweetshop. Jackie had climbed onto a trash bin and had managed to get her arm and shoulder through the partially open window of the storeroom. If Jackie could just stretch out another few inches she could get to a box of chocolate bars. Suddenly there was a blue flash and she was inside the room. She was just a few inches high and hovering in the room with insect like wings buzzing on her back. The dimly lit room was now as bright as daylight to her eyes. She grabbed a handful of the chocolate bars and left.

Jackie started calling herself Wasp in her thoughts and dreamed of one day being a superheroine or supervillainess, it didn't matter which to her. Soon no sweetshop or toyshop in the town was safe from illicit visits. As she grew older it was music and fashion shops that began receiving night-time visits. Eventually she made one mistake too many, selling stolen music DVD's to a police informant. Breaking free of a policeman's grip when he tried to arrest her, Jackie fled to London and drifted into a life of yet more petty crime.

Then she was contacted by the Mafia when she visited a fence. Jackie didn't need much persuading before she agreed to join them. They promised more money than she had ever had before. And all she had to do was help them do a robbery. She was sent to America to help ambush and rob an armoured car carrying gold bullion. The Mafia criminals opened fire without warning on the guards, and killed several of them. Jackie was horrified at the callous brutality of the criminals and turned on them, assisting the guards in defeating the raid.

Jackie was handed over to the local police force. The police decided that in view of her activity in aiding the guards no charges would be pressed against her, but warned they would be keeping an eye on her future behaviour. She moved to Colonial Bay City and started a new life for herself in America.

Powers
Jackie gradually discovered some of what she could do. She could fly, growing insect wings on her back, and making a sound in flight just like a wasp. She was strong and faster than anyone else, could see in the dark as clearly as in the day and even behind herself with her large faceted eyes. When she made a mistake over stopping distance while trying out how fast she could fly, it was the brick wall she hit and not her head that was broken asunder. And she could shrink in size to an eighth of her normal height. The only problems she found was the sensitivity of her wing roots to damage and the dreadful burning effect of insecticides on her skin. Even if her wings were not extended any attacks affecting that area were highly painful. She could normally avoid being hurt there unless the attack was enveloping, such as being caught in an explosion.

Jackie found she could stay underwater as long as she wished. She didn't know that there was a fusion reaction going on inside her and her need for oxygen was being supplied by atomic disintegration of water molecules. She didn't know about the insect chitin layer beneath her skin that protected her from injury and would also protect her from the vacuum of space or the pressure of deep water. Heat and cold were painful to her but the chitin layer also served to prevent her being injured by them. Her insect altered flesh was immune from radiation damage and no disease germ could survive her internal radioactivity long enough to infect her.