Nyke
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| PLAYER | Valtyr |
| Super Group | Guardian Force |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Current Affliations | Aegis High Knights, Neo Pantheon |
| Former Affiliations | |
| Real Name | Summer Strong |
| Known Aliases | Coach, SASsy, Malice in Punderland |
| Gender | Female |
| Species | Human |
| Birthdate | June 21 |
| Place of Birth | Santa Barbara, CA, USA |
| Current Location | Paragon City, RI, USA |
| Relatives | Parents, Siblings |
| Apparent Age | Mid - Late 20s |
| Height | 6'0" |
| Weight | Appropriate |
| Eyes | Gray |
| Hair | Dark |
| Complexion | Medium |
| Build | Strong |
| Notable Features | Typical |
| Identity | Public |
| Citizenship | Yes |
| Marital Status | No |
| Occupation | Physical Education |
| Education | Masters |
| Fame |
Citywide |
| Strength, Intelligence, Force of Will | |
| Olympium Bands, Athenian Aegis | |
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Intellect |
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| Combat |
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Durability |
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| Speed |
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Agility |
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| Dexterity |
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Charisma |
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| Weaponry |
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Sorcery |
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| Energy |
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Psionics |
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In Game Synopsis
It was just a coin. An ancient one, sure, but otherwise ordinary. It was in with group of artifacts. I was cateloging them for the Natural History Museum.
I heard something drop on the ground and there it was. Without really thining about it I just reached down to pick it up and when I touched it ...
It was like grabbing a live wire. Every nerve in my body felt like it was set on fire. I must have passed out. When I came-to, I was changed.
The Story Begins
My name is Summer Alexa Strong. I love to run. So the story goes, I took my first step and ever since then I was running. I was rarely IT for long on the playground, and never for very long. I was even faster than the older kids. I started on the track team in junior high (go Fawns!). Coach was the first to teach me that there’s more to running than moving your feet. Then I hit my growth spurt. Hitting nearly six foot before high school meant long legs could easily eat up the distance – any distance.
It was in high school that I branched out into some of the field events. Where I also competed well. I started setting school records. Then city records. Then state records. By the time I was a senior I had big schools coming to scout for me. But they would have to wait. I was training for the Olympics. More important than that, I actually qualified for the team.
Then I was in a terrific car accident. It crushed the left side of my body. I remember going out with friends. We had dinner and were on our way... somewhere. The next memory I have is waking up in a hospital bed four days later. I spent the next few weeks in bed, in a body cast for a couple of months after that and physical therapy for a year after. The good news is that I would certainly be ambulatory again. Though with great difficulty. But running was right out.
I could do the physical therapy. That wasn’t much different than training for events. Just without the cheering crowds and gold medals. Unless you can consider your therapist and parents being happy that you took a step “cheering” or consider going to the bathroom by yourself a gold medal. It was my mind that was wasting away. Even my spirit. I don’t have to tell you that even if you can be content about some things you can be depressed about other stuff. It was my dad who finally moved me to move on with my life. My kind, quiet, rock of a person dad. He rarely says a lot all together but the things he does say are Important. (Note the capital.) All he said was, “It’s time, Sassy. Time to move.”
The hard part was learning to redirect my passion from doing to being. I ended up just getting through university. Liberal Arts as a major with a minor in history. I was able to swing a job working for Paragon City Museum of Natural History of all things. Obviously not where I thought I would find myself, but there I was.
I was cataloging some new artifacts. It was thankless paper shuffling busy work for the most part. I distinctly remember bumping one box of small bits and bobs and I heard something drop to the floor. I looked down and sure enough, I saw what looked like an old quarter. Without really thinking about it I reached down to pick it up. I was wearing inspection gloves to protect the objects so I couldn't get the right leverage or grip to grab it. I removed the gloves and went to retrieve the coin. I felt, well, everything. Every cell in my body reacted. It felt likeI was on fire in the bottom of a hole at the South Pole. I must have passed out.
I found myself in, I don't know, a cave or a temple. There were three women around me. They were chanting or praying. In the dream I knew what they were saying even if in my current mind I didn't - the way you just know things in dreams. I felt a pressure, a strange sensation. There was a pulling at my feet. Extra gravity. Just more of it. Drawing me down. Pushing, pulling, compressing.
It kept drawing me until I was nothing. Or, not exactly nothing, until everything I was existed in the same coin I had reached for just a moment ago.
I woke up with a start. I opened my eyes and sat straight up. I looked around for the coin but it wasn't anywhere I could see. And I looked. Under, behind, around - nowhere.
Then I stood up.
That doesn't sound like anything. Except that my knees and hip didn't hurt doing it. For the first time in ... well, a very long time, I wasn't in any pain at all.
I had my body back. More than that. In the blink of an eye, a flash of light, I was whole again. And, as I would go on to discover, I was stronger and faster than before.
I wanted to do everything all at once. I wanted to shout from the rooftops at my triumph. I wanted to keep it a secret. You know? Share and celebrate my joy, but tempered with the what-the-fuck-just-happened and how do I explain this. Cognitive dissonance with some extra oxymoronic on special, aisle 3.
I did start running again. Just for myself. For “exercise” as I called it. In the morning. At night. In the middle of the night. Just to do it. To figure out what I could do. This was for me, mind you. I had no intention of fighting crime or any such notion.
See. Up until recently crime – even big Paragon City crime – hasn’t intruded terribly on my life. Sure, I know people who’ve been mugged and read about the morass of crap that happens. But it never hit me as directly. Or maybe there’s this build up of a bullshit tolerance that we all get. The level of normal, the stuff we tolerate is subjective and mutable. I don’t know.
Then it happened to me.
Well, not to me exactly. To my mechanic.
I had to take my car in for service one day and Terry was “missing.” That’s what the other guys at the shop said. He’d been out for a couple of days, no word, nothing. They were concerned but no one else was doing anything. No one else could do anything.
There was me. The stronger, faster, hopefully smarter me.
I poked around, asked questions. Looked into things. You know? The boring part. He’d been captured by some Clockworks. Nasty little buggers if you’re not expecting it. Which, at the time, I wasn’t. They had him corralled in some dank hole.
My first instinct was to let somebody know. The police. Some random mask wearing do-gooder. But I was the one who was there. What those little roaches had done wasn’t right. Something inside of me broke. A wall fell, a dam burst. However you want to describe it. It happened. I got angry.
I kicked that flimsy rusted door off its hinges. Before I could tell those fudgers what I thought of them or whatever little scheme they were running I was hit with what felt like a billion volts of their zappy lightning. I should have been frozen in paralytic shock. I should have felt my toenails melting. I think my hair may have stood out a little but otherwise nothing. I think I laughed. Not because it was funny but just from the, yes I think I’ll pun on purpose, but just from the shock.
Then it was my turn. My intent was just to beat them into pieces if I could. But I didn’t. From that pit of righteousness, the center of my being – much to my own surprise – I struck back at them with my own lightning. Have you ever “accidentally” touched a live wire? A car battery or an outlet? It was nothing like that. Except it was like that, only orders of magnitude more. A power coursed through me and out of me that... that I just can’t describe. Touching that coin didn’t just heal my body. It made me powerful.