Jessica Prentiss

Jessica Prentiss

Jessica Prentiss grew up in the suburbs of Emerald City. She was a cute, precocious girl until puberty hit, then she turned into a painfully gawky, clumsy girl—all legs and elbows—who always managed to walk away from this accident or that fall without a scratch on her. In addition, despite her relative lack of exercise, she was incredibly physically fit. She was always the fastest and strongest in gym class, which brought her to the attention of her school’s coaches who all tried to recruit her. She wasn’t really interested in sports, but tried a few of them and went from novice to record-breaker in no time.
Jessica wasn’t stupid and suspected there was more to her success at sports than simply being a “natural athlete,” as everyone called her. She withdrew from all extra-curricular activities and started studying physiology, medicine, and mutant biology. She didn’t know for certain, but she was pretty sure she was a mutant, or had been mutated somehow. MarsTech wasn’t far from her home, and who knew what they got up to in their labs?
She worked up her courage and started experimenting. At first she starting working out with her brother’s weight set and within a week she could lift as many weights as she could pile on. Then she “accidently” fell off the roof of her house and nothing happened. She held her hand over, then in, the flames of the family’s gas stove; nothing. She could feel the flame, she knew it was hot, but it didn’t hurt her. She kept all of these discoveries to herself, but continued her experiments.
By the time she started college at ECU in pre-med, she could lift about a ton (as near as she could figure), leap about 60 feet, run about 15 miles an hour, and had never suffered a wound from anything she’d tried to hurt herself with. Her powers seemed to plateau, but then Junkpile went on a rampage near the ECU campus. A hurtling car struck the café Jessica was in. She was fine, but many other patrons were injured and being crushed by the car and the debris. She tried to shift the car, and found herself lifting it! She took a moment to make sure no one in the café needed medical attention, then took the car outside and set it down... right in front of Junkpile. The creature picked up the car in one hand and batted Jessica aside with the other. She flew down the street, skidded to a stop, then got up and charged Junkpile.
The fight was definitely one-sided; Jessica, who the press dubbed “Princess” because of the pink sequined shirt she wore, took a beating, but bounced up every time stronger than she was just seconds earlier, but it still wasn’t enough. Eventually, Jessica managed to lead Junkpile to a nearby wrecking yard and trap him under a wall of cars. Then she returned to the scene of the rampage to make sure everyone was okay. She was surprised no one recognized her; they didn’t give her a second look. The paramedics even asked if she needed any medical attention because she looked like she’d been trapped in the rubble. Stunned that her activities were being ignored, but secretly thrilled she wasn’t being mobbed by the press, she recovered her bag from the coffee shop and walked home.
That was over a year ago and since then Princess has made a handful of appearances around town, usually near ECU, which has led many to theorize the heroine is a student at the university, but so far no one has been able to find her. For her part, Jessica is happy to have a private life with Mitch while being able to help out as Princess when she’s needed.

Physical Description

Special abilities

Princess’ powers revolve around her enhanced strength, speed, and resilience. While she has the build of a tallish, but fairly average-sized young woman, she’s a physical powerhouse. In addition to her powers, she’s quite bright and is excellent at motivating those around her to perform better. With mentoring, she may become an excellent leader.
The secret to Princess’ powers lie in being challenged. Her strength, speed, and invulnerability have increased in sudden bursts over the years in response to outside dangers and threats. In theory there’s no upper limit to her power, but for now she seems to have hit a plateau. The one thing Princess really doesn’t understand about her powers is the fact that when she’s not “being” Princess, people simply don’t recognize her. People close to her, or to whom she’s told about her role as Princess, can see her for who she is, but everyone and everything else view Jessica and Princess as completely different people.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Princess is a bombastic and powerful personality. Her appearance makes her the center of attention and she’s naturally helpful and supportive. When not operating as Princess, Jessica is a shy and mousy geek girl who enjoys anime, the latest computer games, and reading. She actively cultivates the differences between her two identities in an effort to make them distinct personalities. Regardless of which identity she’s in at the moment, she’s a smart, confident young woman who wants to make something of herself.

Character Location

Emerald City

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Aligned Organization

The Sentinels