City of Heroes character file for Kat and Alex Prowess:

Empathy/Psychic Blast Defender class.
Age: 14
Origin: Mutation from alien (Rikti) mutagens through their "mole men" recruitment program in the gangs of the Lost in Boomtown, coupled with latent mutant gene that allowed her a psychic and symbiotic link with an alley cat. "Alex" maintains sentience and is a combat ready psychic when linked to Kat.

Powers:
Kat: Emits healing radiation from glowing gashes across arms and hands, in the same class as a high level Rikti Guardian.

Alex: Defends Kat with psychic blasts from his forehead. Able to confuse and dominate the minds of enemies, until other heroes can subdue them. Enemies are reported to make involuntary cat sounds for days after incarceration.


History: (Through careful psychic reconstruction): Kathy lost both of her parents during the 2002 Rikti Invasion in Baumton when she was 5 years old. She was rescued by homeless civilians who were snatched up into service of the Lost (See FILE: Rikti Recruitment) 2 years later.

Uninterested in recruiting a female child, the slowly mutating “mole men” cast her out to fend for herself, but the child was stubborn. She scavenged from soup kitchens and junkyards enough that they tolerated her presence. For 3 years, this emaciated scrounger eluded capture by soup kitchen volunteers that could have given her proper care, and was loyal to the mutant, monstrous gang. At age 10, she had a twisted sense of the world, hoping to one day become worthy enough to be mutated and recruited. In fact, she had become crafty enough to steal from the ‘tainted food’ that was filled with mutagens in an attempt to become more like her strange family.

In 2007, the Rikti attacked again. Although Baumton was no longer a strategic target, the distant explosions shook the weak foundations of the bombed-apart city, sending one of its buildings toppling down and caving in the underground hideout where Kathy had just begun to mutate. In the claustrophobic darkness, Kathy could hear the mewling of a kitten. Burying her fear, she crawled through the rubble toward that sound that she could start to hear words in her mind as her telepathy started to manifest and reach out to the animal. This was a little voice that needed help and needed her more than anything. As she touched the kitten’s fur, she felt the tiny injured kitten relax.

Without the kitten to care for, Kathy would have mutated into a powerfully psychic Pariah Prelate, hidden leaders of the Lost having transformed fully by the Rikti mutagens. But because of contact and the telepathic link with the kitten she named Alex coupled with a hidden mutant gene, the Lost mutagens made her more feline in appearance as it opened strange glowing gashes in her arms and legs where she could absorb pain and cast out a healing radiation like a Rikti Guardian. With so much of her energy poured into Alex, the kitten’s mental capacity increased immensely, becoming a sentient telepath as well, taking in all the psychic blast abilities of the Pariah Prelate mutagens.

When the dragon hero with the callsign Mandragora found her in an alley in Talos Island, Kathy had poured too much of her human thoughts into Alex, having no control of her psychic power, making her regress until she wasn’t much more than an animal scampering on all fours and lashing out at anyone that came near. Mandy brought Kathy into her supergroup Second Nature, having helped rehabilitate many mutated and transformed people back into citizens and heroes.

(The character is a member of the RP Congress on the Pinnacle server of City of Heroes Freedom).

By 2010, Kathy was educated enough to enroll at Paragon City University as a freshman in a special class for students with powers.