Mind Games: Starting Off Dark

In reading through Mind Games, I'm reminded of the fact that most of PSI are either victims or horrible opportunists.  The former are generally pitiful in some respect, the latter truly reprehensible.  In other words, it's a terrific villainous organization. Case in point, our first character...

Deuce is a young woman named Angela Baker.  She was born in Australia and lived there until her powers manifested at puberty.  Labeled a freak, with her family in hiding from the press, her parents shipped her off to the Parapsychological Studies Institute, never to return.

PSI's scientists discovered her powers were a manifestation of her psyche.  Under stress, a shadowy creature emerges from her, leaving her physical body unconscious.  This shadow form was composed of her hatred and fear.  Dr. Poe bullied her into submission and turned her into a weapon for PSI's use.  Dubbing her "Deuce," he keeps her on a short leash, playing on her fear of what PSI might do to her family.

Powers-wise, Deuce is no heavyweight (272 points), but her power combination makes her fairly hard to take on in a fair fight.  Because her shadow form manifests from her unconscious body, PSI's standard procedure for deploying it is to bring Angela near where she's needed, then force her to manifest the shadow form.  The shadow form is basically a Flying, Desolid, Ego Attack, so unless you can affect her shadow form or bring a mental attack to the party, you don't have much chance of hurting her.  And if you do, the shadow form dissipates, leaving the injured and unconscious Angela wherever PSI has her stashed.  So, she's pretty darned difficult to capture.

In a campaign, she's a great character to show how horrible PSI is, should her origin get out.  Perhaps her family contacts the heroes to try and rescue her.  While she's committed criminal acts, how much of that was by her own volition?  Would their presence be enough to turn her away from PSI?  Alternatively, what if in her sleep, her inner good manifests in a different form.  Suddenly, the heroes find themselves investigating a mysterious glowing figure whose dispensing justice and vanishing mysteriously (I'd call her Ace, but that's your business).

Anyway, she's a pretty cool character.  Good story bits, and an interesting build.  Next time, we get a major creep...