Statistics: PL8; Init: +2; Defense 17, flat-footed 15 (+5 base, +2 Dex); Spd 30 ft., Alt. Form 40 ft.; BAB +4; Atk punch +8 melee (+3S), ice shards +8 melee (+11S/L); SV Dmg +5, Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +5; Str 16, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 14.

Skills: Climb +14[8], Diplomacy +5[1], Drive +3[1], Profession (Mountaineer) +4[1], Sense Motive +8[5], Survival +11[8], Spot +6[3], .

Feats: All-Around Sight (Flaw: Alt. Form only), Attack Focus (Unarmed) (Flaw: Alt. Form only), Blind Fight (Flaw: Alt. Form only), Blindsight (Flaw: Alt. Form only), Great Fortitude, Immunity (Cold, Critical Hits, Disease, Exhaustion, Poison, Starvation, Suffocation; Flaw: Alt. Form only), Iron Will, Skll Focus (Climb; Flaw: Device), Toughness.

Powers: Alternate Form (Semisolid - Ice Cloud) +8 [Extra: Continuous; Stunt: Dual Damage, Extra Form (Explosive), Obscure +3; Source: Mutation; Cost: 7pp].

Vitals: Name: Jennifer Laroux; Gender: Female; Age: ; Height: ; Weight: ; Hair: ; Eyes: ; Languages: English; First Appearance: Project: Daedalus #3.  (123/123 PP spent)

Background: The dark haired woman sat up, her breathing heavy. The nightmare again. She clicked on the gold lamp next to the queen-sized bed, confirming her surroundings, reassuring herself she was back in her room. She was alright. It was just a dream. It wouldn’t ever happen again.

Even as she told herself this last statement, Jen knew it to be a lie. It did happen again, every night, the same dream, over and over. As she re-acclimated herself to the unfamiliar surroundings of her luxurious hotel room, her eyes lingered a second too long on the squat hotel minibar. Before she could even formulate the thought, she shook her head instinctively. No. Jen remembered her father, her brother. Two alcoholics, nobodies. She didn’t want to end up like them, to run away and crawl inside a bottle.

The dreams. It was why she didn’t want to go back. The white turned to black.

Realizing that no more sleep would come tonight, Jennifer slowly pulled herself out underneath the covers, padding over to the bathroom to splash some water on her face. As she turned on the main lamp, she winced, catching sight of the digital alarm. 3:30. Damn. Too early. She had been avoiding her work as of late, for good reason. She also had one, very important meeting with a member of the American government today.

It hadn’t always been like this, she reflected, staring into the bathroom mirror. Jennifer had begun her adult life fleeing from her father by enlisting in the United States Army a week after graduation. She didn’t want to spend the rest of the life taking care of her deadbeat, alcoholic father. She was content in the Army, and served two years with high marks from her superior officers.

Then came the Project, in Russia. Jennifer looked down for a minute. That was confidential. She wasn’t even supposed to think about that, to resist interrogation. After the Project and her time in Russia, she returned back to the States, revealing to her old acquaintances her new-found Elite powers, the somewhat disturbing ability to break apart into moving slivers of ice.

Avoiding her father and brother, not even returning their phone calls (probably just to hit her up for money to support their addiction), she returned to one of the few happy memories of her childhood: rock climbing. With her own natural athleticism, tempered by years of PT, and the survival training offered by the Army, Jen found herself quite adept at it. Catching the eye of a few more experienced climbers, she soon found herself scaling some of the most difficult peaks in the United States. But even that wasn’t enough. Jennifer hadn’t spent much of the money her time in the service earned her, and could afford to take several months off before looking for a real job.

Her break came when she was discussing survival techniques with a climbing acquaintance, Max Leontes. He disclosed he worked for Summit Outfitters, who was organizing an expedition for a mining firm looking to explore the wastes of Antarctica for possible deposits of rhodium. She jumped at the chance, hiring on as a consultant, and she gradually found more and more jobs through Max and Summit, exploring and climbing all over the world.

She attracted fame during a climb and publicity stunt atop Everest, when a surprise avalanche buried seven climbers. No one could get to them with the weather; no one, of course, except for an Elite capable of traveling quickly across uneven terrain and immune to the freezing cold and stinging wind.

She found the buried climbers quite quickly by moving up the mountain in the form of swirling ice crystals, and with great effort was able to shift the snow off the buried climbers. Jennifer hadn’t disclosed her Elite abilities to anyone before this, and she attracted quite a bit of fame since one of the climbers was the son of a wealthy politician, even warranting interviews with magazines like Time and Newsweek. Summit Outfitters hired her immediately afterwards to serve as their head spokesperson and public relations expert.

Life was good for Jennifer: she was well-paid, made a living from her hobby, and even helped save lives. Then, while attempting an extremely dangerous solo climb of K2, her life began to fall apart. While climbing, she heard a far-off boom, carried on the winds. Curious, Jen dismissed the noise and continued climbing, until she then began to notice the tell-tale signs of an avalanche. It struck like lightning, barely giving the woman time to shift to her fast moving blizzard form before she was buried under tons of snow and ice.

The brightness of the snow and ice quickly shifted to darkness, and the white turned to black. She was in no danger of death; while transformed, Jennifer was immune to potentially anything that could hurt her. She didn’t need to breathe, eat, drink, or sleep while transformed. She certainly wasn’t afraid of the cold. Nonetheless, she was entombed in ice, and she herself was only composed of shattered ice herself.

She was trapped motionless for more than two weeks, unable to free herself. Jennifer quickly lost track of time, and the seconds seemed to stretch into years. Several times, she contemplated attempting to shift back to her normal form, knowing that the freezing cold would quickly kill her. Anything to escape. She even experienced hallucinations of horrible visions.

The rescue workers didn’t expect to find anything more than a body. Instead, they found a living, unconscious woman, and carried her to safety. But each night, every night without fail, Jennifer revisited her tomb since her ‘rescue’ six months ago. She hadn’t returned to her old hobbies artic exploring or mountain climbing. Jennifer conjured excuses and made other plans to avoid such activities; now, even the most innocuous enclosed space Jen avoids with a passion. She doesn’t want to go to a shrink; all her life, she’s dealt with problems by herself. Involving someone else would just be cowardice.

The sound of a thousand panes of glass shattering exploded into the room as Jennifer’s bathrobe fell to the floor and a swirling cloud of ice flew back towards the bed. A single piece of ice switched on the TV, then quickly followed its brothers back towards the cloud, which then reconstituted itself into a woman. At least the job offered a way out with dignity, Jennifer thought, positioning herself comfortably in the bed. Her glance was momentarily diverted by the site of the minibar again, offering sweet oblivion, but Jen was resolute; she knew the alcoholic genes lurked in her DNA. Settling back, she watched the television and feared the coming of sleep.