Arachne

Aliases: Jess/Jessie Drew
Date of Birth: December 7, 1925
Place of Birth: Principality of Madripoor
Age: 22
Known family: Meriem Drew/Ophelia Sarkissian/Madame HYDRA (mother), unknown father
Face Claim: Alexandra James


Hair: Brown, dyed black
Eyes: Green
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Legal Status: Adult
Affiliation: Neutral
Occupation: HYDRA agent
Powers:
Superhuman Strength: Arachne's muscular density and strength have been extraordinarily enhanced and enable her to lift about 7 tons.

Superhuman Speed: Arachne is capable of running and moving at speeds much greater than even the finest human athlete.

Superhuman Stamina: Arachne's musculature generates less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. She can exert herself at peak capacity for several hours before fatigue begins to impair her.

Superhuman Durability: Arachne's body is somewhat tougher and more resistant to injury than an ordinary human's, although she is far from invulnerable. She is capable of withstanding impact forces that would severely injure or kill an ordinary human with only mild to moderate discomfort.

Superhuman Agility: Arachne's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels beyond the human body's natural limits.

Superhuman Reflexes: Arachnes natural reaction time and reflexes are enhanced to levels beyond the human body's natural limits.

Superhuman Flexibility: Arachne's body is extraordinarily limber and her tendons and connective tissues are twice as flexible as the average human being's, despite the augmented musculature and its enhanced strength.

Superhuman Hearing: Arachne's hearing is superhumanly acute and enables her to detect sound at virtually any frequency, and she's been known to detect, sort out, and correctly identify sounds through thick steel doors, and across considerable distances.

Contaminant Immunity: Arachne's metabolism rapidly creates powerful immunities to all forms of toxins, poisons and drugs, after an initial exposure that usually makes her dizzy. Her body is totally immune to radiation.

Wall-Crawling: Arachne's limbs can adhere to surfaces via electrostatic attraction. Arachne can hold and carry a considerable amount of extra weight while sticking to walls without falling off; it's safe to assume that the weight she can carry is dozens of times her own, and the limits of how long she can do this before fatigue sets in are still unknown.

Venom Blasts: Her body possesses an inordinate amount of bio-electricity that she has learned to channel and discharge through her hands, in controlled bursts of what she calls "Venom Blasts". These energy projections vary in power; they mostly affect the nervous system in humans. Arachne can regulate them from simply a stun to potent enough to kill an average-sized man in the same way that a lightning bolt could kill him.

Pheromone Secretion: Her metabolism generates certain types of pheromones that can create fear, elicit attraction and/or repulsion on others, depending on unknown factors which might include gender and mood. This ability appears to be dormant at the moment.

Abilities:
Master Martial Artist: Jessica is a highly experienced fighter trained in armed and unarmed combat under the Taskmaster. Her tactics integrate different methods utilized in Karate, Boxing, Capoeira, Judo and swordfighting.

Skilled Spy: She is also extensively trained in espionage, covert operations and stealth.

Skilled Acrobat: She is a superb athlete and an Olympic-level gymnast.

Multilingual: Due to her HYDRA espionage training, she is fluent in several languages, including Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and German.

Weapons: Standard-issued sidearms and knives, though she prefers to use only her powers most of the time.

What's hidden behind the mask:

Personality: Jessica is, for the most part, a quiet, thinking sort of woman. She takes time to assess both situations and people, after all, that is what a good little spy is supposed to do. At first, she may appear to be aloof and distant, which she is, but that does not mean she isn't one to pay attention. She studies and learns people's special idiosyncrasies, hoping to use them to her advantage. Distancing herself from people emotionally is due to an incident in her past, one that made her what she is today but does not enjoy talking about, in fact remembering it sends her to a rather dark place. She does not have many friends, most likely due to her upbringing and social connections, but those that do know her, say that once her outer defenses are cracked, she can be rather courteous and well-mannered, but a person that demands or expects respect from others. However, warmth and generousness are somewhat foreign words to her.

That being said, Jessica does have her mother's temper and vindictiveness. Though she seems to have the patience of a saint, tweak the right nerve or piss her off and she will fly into an outrageous fury, a blind rage that brings her quick to action. She also has a very wicked sense of humor; dry, sardonic, and, though very rare, a bit cruel in her jests. The only one she truly cares for is her mother and is actually bold enough to toy and joke with her, knowing just what to say in order to get the right reaction from her.


History: Jessica Drew was born in the principality of Madripoor to a woman by the name of Meriem Drew. Growing up in such a city, Jessica had what she considered a fairly normal childhood, but most people outside of Madripoor would say otherwise. Normal school studies intertwined themselves with self-defense, tactical and strategic knowledge, and general handling of firearms and melee weapons. Her mother was a mercenary, so it seemed logical for her to follow in her footsteps. When her mother was out on a contract, Jessica would be watched by her ‘aunt’ Seraph, a small woman who ran a bar as well as acted as mentor to her mother. Seraph would train her in some aspects of mercenary work, but would also make her help with the bar when she was old enough.

When the second world war broke out, Jessica’s world changed completely. She was just fourteen years old when her mother, out of the blue, decided to move to Germany of all places. Jessica also then learned that Meriem was just an alias, that her mother was a member of an organization called HYDRA. This all came as quite a shock and, in a way, it forced a temporary wedge between them, at least from Jessica’s view. Needless to say, she had a rather rebellious teenage life, or at least tried to. You could only do so much when a war is going on, but she did manage to act out against the woman who raised her by grabbing a few assignments, mostly spying and scouting, all with very few direct conflicts, if any at all.

Thinking her mother was setting up all of these missions in order for her to work out whatever was going on in her head while also staying somewhat safe, towards the end of the war, Jessica took matters into her own hands. Hearing heard intelligence about Victor von Doom and his forces concentrating efforts in a nearby area, she defied orders and went to investigate. Unfortunately, despite her best efforts, Jessica was captured and brought to Lord Doom. Not pleased to see this intruder and unable to obtain anything from the insolent girl, Doom found a use for her as a lab experiment.

Jessica was subjected to experiments meant to bring her physicality to superhuman levels as well as integrate natural abilities from animal species, such as bio-electricity and any other combination of traits that might seem useful in order to make the perfect soldier. Finally, after weeks of this, she managed to escape Castle Doom, being the only person having managed to do such a feat. Once she returned and recuperated, with her mother essentially ensuring she would not leave their base until either she was satisfied with her behavior or the war ended, Jessica began learning and studying the extent of her powers and newfound abilities. Her mother was the one who suggested the code name of Arachne due to her wall-crawling abilities and ability to channel bio-electricity through her hands, what Jessica coined as ‘venom blasts’.

When the war ended, Jessica fled with her mother to Hungary, a country she knew even less about than Germany, but apparently her mother had a connection to. This time, however, she did not rebel. In fact, upon seeing Doom's forces spread across Europe, Jessica vowed that she would make the armored man pay for what he had done to her. His mask would be a nice trophy, after all.

Other: None.