Overview
Janice, known as Lithe Speed, is a track star turned superhero. Her abilities stem from illegal genetic experiments, which granted her superhuman speed and the unique power to manipulate time locally.
Background
Her transformation from a young athlete to a superhero was catalyzed by her mother’s ambition and a scientist’s unethical experiments. The resulting powers and their consequences forced her to rebel and chart her own path.
Powers and Abilities
- Superhuman Speed: Can move at incredible velocities, upwards of 400 mph.
- Time Manipulation: Ability to create bubbles where time moves differently.
- Accelerated Healing: Rapid regeneration from injuries.
- Phasing: Can vibrate through solid objects.
- Wind Funnels: Creates powerful gusts through rapid motion.
Backstory
Janice never knew her father, who died in a car accident when she was very young. Her mother Karen became obsessively determined to mold Janice into a star track athlete as compensation for her own failed athletic ambitions. Despite Janice’s repeated protests that she hated running, her mother pressured her relentlessly, living vicariously through her daughter.
By age 16, Janice was a decent runner, but nowhere near the elites her mother demanded she beat. In desperation, Karen paid an unethical scientist named Dr. Kendrick to secretly perform illegal genetic experiments to enhance Janice’s physiology. The treatments worked at first, gifting Janice with incredible superhuman speed, reflexes and accelerated cellular regeneration that boosted her performance.
However, the gene therapy soon began destabilizing. The cellular breakdown forced Janice to keep returning to Dr. Kendrick for painful follow-up procedures just to stabilize her genome and health. When Janice begged her mother let her stop the experiments, Karen refused and even tried to physically force her daughter to keep undergoing more gene therapy.
During their last altercation, Janice’s powers erupted uncontrollably in self-defense, accidentally killing Dr. Kendrick and exposing the human trial violations to authorities. With her mother disowning her for refusing more treatments, the traumatized Janice fled authorities who wanted to apprehend her. Homeless and alone, she took shelter almost went to the dark side before she met
