Ripley Ryan/Star

Subject Facts

Full Name: Ripley Ryan
Codename: Star
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Archetype: Super-Villain
Aliases: N/A
Marital Status: Single
Affiliation: N/A

Subject Attributes

Superhuman Abilities:
Infinity Stone Empowerment: Ripley Ryan became a host of the Reality Gem while locked within the super-human prison, The Raft. Using it, she was able to escape, and has since discovered she can alter reality on a whim, mentally commanding the stone residing within her to warp her surroundings (or indeed herself) as she wishes. As such, Star is an incredibly powerful being, limited only by her own imagination and understanding of the stone (which, in truth, remains an enigma.) Most commonly, Star uses simple mental commands to alter her own powerset - making herself physically more powerful and more durable, enabling her to fly and mimicking the powers of other heroes. She also uses to stone to change into her costume.

Standard Abilities:
Reporter: Before her empowerment by the Kree scientist, Minn-erva, and the resulting conflict with Captain Marvel, Ripley worked as a reporter and journalist, hired by numerous companies, including Stark Industries. She maintains a number of contacts in the business.

Paraphernalia:
Reality Stone: The Reality Stone is one of six Infinity Gems, and it grants its user control over reality. According to the most commonly accepted origin story, the six gems were once part of an all-powerful being who committed suicide out of loneliness. The being's power survived and manifest as six gems.

Subject Weaknesses:
Mortal: Despite acting as a host for the Reality Stone, Ripley Ryan is mortal, and thus suffers from all the weaknesses that entails.

Empowered: Star has been granted incredible power, capable of altering reality. However, without the Infinity Stone residing within her, she is an average human, with no real skills or training beyond that of a journalist.

Inexperienced: The power of the stone is new to Ripley. Her understanding of how to use it is far from secure, and commands she gives don't often have the results she intends. As such, she tends to stick to more simple tried and tested uses, or the risks could be catastrophic - even for her. She also lacks any training in the arts of 'heroics', and is thus hugely outmatched by the experienced super-heroes she comes up against.

Reality Alteration: Altering reality is incredibly dangerous. A huge toll is taken upon the multi-verse (and indeed Ryan) should she use the stone too frequently or for acts that target too wide an area.

Subject History

Ripley Ryan grew up in New York City, and on entering adult life, worked as a reporter for Ms. Magazine. She was hired by Tony Stark to interview Captain Marvel, who was rejoining the Avengers after returning from a long sabbatical. The article was meant to reintroduce her to the public eye, and build public trust in her. Ryan was all too happy to take the assignment, Captain Marvel something of an inspiration to her.

When she met Carol for the first time, they were attacked by the Nuclear Man, who managed to defeat both Captain Marvel and the Avengers long enough to kidnap Ryan and take her through a portal to the nearby Roosevelt Island, albeit a drastically different Roosevelt Island to the one expected. Captain Marvel was the only hero able to follow, though Spider-Woman, Hazmat, and Echo were already among the individuals trapped there. Eventually, Carol was able to defeat Nuclear Man by forming an army of the female civilians and heroes he had captured. Ripley was a part of that fight, and the prisoners, Ripley included, were able to return home.

Shortly after her run in with Nuclear Man, Ryan discovered the Kree scientist Minn-Erva, and learned of her efforts to engineer Human-Kree hybrids. Inspired by her run in with the Nuclear Man, and in awe of the adoration Captain Marvel received from the public, Ripley volunteered for the experiment, hoping to gain superpowers, and was the only survivor of Minn-Erva's extensive testing process. However, she gained nothing from her efforts – and thus Minn-Erva utilised Kree Power Siphons to drain some of Danvers' power (who was infected with the siphon technology when besting a Kraken unleashed by the Kree scientist) and transfered it to Ryan, implating a device in her chest that operated akin to an advanced battery.

Minn-Erva's reason for travelling to Earth was soon revealed: she was desperate for Carol to join the Kree's fight against extinction, since Carol was half-Kree herself. Unleashing an armada of Kraken on Manhattan, Ripley appeared to fight the invaders, and following her success, quickly gained popularity – while Carol's plummeted. However, Star learned of Minn-Erva's plan to recruit Danvers, not feeling that her experiment, 'Star', was a success, and Ryan nearly killed the scientist in anger. She left the message "You're not as smart as you think you are," written in Minn-Erva's own blood at the scientist's lab.

Carol eventually discovered Minn-Erva, and the injured woman told Captain Marvel who Star really was – a power-hungry individual who was desperate to be better than those around her. Carol confronted Star in Times Square, and Star was almost able to best her enemy, her power siphon rendering the heroine weak. Carol eventually ripped the device out of her own and Star's chest, depowering the former reporter and rendering her unconscious. She later awoke to find herself a prisoner in the Raft.

Since her imprisonment, Ripley has apparently become the host of the Reality Stone, and she was able to use its power to aid her escape. Struggling financially and to know exactly what to do with her life, she has returned to being 'Star' to fight for her survival.

Subject Interview

She flexed her fingers a little, blue eyes darting between the two men that barred her way. Both were bigger than her – one at least twice her height, while the other could easily have been four times her width. Beyond them lay the side door to her run-down apartment building; her destination before being cut-off by what she assumed were would-be-muggers. She'd been so focussed on looking at the floor and her tattered converse that she hadn't noticed them step out from wherever they'd been hiding – not until she'd bumped into the broader of the pair.

Having bounced off him a little, putting a stride or three between them, Ripley had affixed the duo with a long stare, almost matching the intensity with which they stared at her. However, unlike the rather sinister grins they wore, the reporter's face instead bore a look of mild apprehension and nervousness – perhaps not the abject fear back-alley criminals might have expected, but far from confidence or self-assuredness.

If they knew who she was, what she'd done, what she was capable of, said lack of obvious confidence would likely have been puzzling. For a woman who had gone toe-to-toe with Captain Marvel (and nearly killed her, before in turn nearly being killed), and then escaped The Raft, she'd previously stored more power in her little finger than both thugs combined. And that was all before she'd become the living host of the Reality Stone.

For some unknown reason, and through means totally beyond her comprehension, the red infinity stone had chosen to reside within her – a human, who had wanted to be a heroine but had ended up a villain. It had come to rest within someone who had, through rather unscrupulous means, gained more power than she'd dreamed of, and then been made weaker than she'd previously imagined possible.

In theory, with control of the stone, 'Star' existed as one of the most powerful beings on the planet Earth. And Ripley Ryan had no idea how to begin utilising the vast power she now wielded.

“You know the drill. Hand over your bag and you don't get hurt.” It was the taller, ganglier of the pair that spoke, while the stockier male cracked his knuckles, illustrating how she'd be hurt should she refuse his partner's request. “Nice and easy now, just pass it over.” Rather than comply, Ripley took a marked step back, her eyes narrowing a little. She clutched her bag tighter to herself, outwardly showing her defiance, lips pursed in a petulant pout.

The thugs shared a knowing look, one they'd no doubt shared before, and with surprising speed, the taller, thinner man lashed out with an open palm – his arm length easily making up the distance his quick stride didn't – catching Ripley firmly on the side of her face. Completely unprepared for the strike, Ryan's small form almost pirouetted on the spot, before she dropped to her knees and pressed her hands to her stinging cheek.

The flesh was warm from the blow, and she winced a little, before gritting her teeth.
“Now look what you made me do. If you just give us the bag, it won't have to happen again.”
Despite the men taking two steps closer to her, almost standing pressed to the side of her kneeling form, the words spoken seemed distant and quiet, for Riley wasn't focused on them. Instead, she had turned her attention inward, summoning the power of the Reality Stone.

Within moments, her eyes blazed a bright crimson, and she formed disparate mental instructions for the stone to follow – instructions that would only be carried out when given voice. Snapping her gaze upward toward her assailants, she glared, and both faces drained of colour upon seeing the colour of her irises.
“Now look what you made me do,” she quipped, before thrusting out a hand toward the broad male, directing one simple command. “Go away!”
Hurled from his feet, the thicker thug was cast back down the alley with incredible force. However, before he could collide with anything, Ripley added to her former thought. “Forever.” Upon that word leaving her lips, he vanished – his form crumbling into a fine dust that floated for a brief second on the humid New York air.

There was a strange, uneasy silence as both the remaining criminal and Ripley stared at the formerly inhabited spot. Then tall and gangly started to run, flailing his long arms and shouting for help.
“Watch out for that bottomless pit!” Ripley called after him, and before he'd made it ten feet from her, the ground beneath him gave way, and he dropped into a yawning darkness, most easily comparable to a black hole. Beneath his feet, or indeed, the space his feet had once been, the blackness swirled for almost a minute, before Star commanded, “Close the portal.”

And then it was gone, and the back steet looked just as it had before its reality had been stretched and warped.

Author's Notes

Player Alias: Star

Other Characters: Natasha Romanoff

How did you find MFT?: Admin