The House of L
On the once lush and vibrant world of Krypton, the House of El was one with a long and storied history, reaching back through the birthing matrices to the very dawn of Kryptonian civilization. And like any such long-running family tree, through the millennia there were many branches that spread far and wide. Most of those branches, by the very nature of Krypton's history and culture, remained close to the root of the tree. Those that spread far away largely dwindled and faded away. But there were a few branches that managed to settle themselves and build a new root, eventually growing a whole new tree. That tree - the House of L - would never develop the prestige of the House of El. But they stayed within each other's orbit, following a deep tradition of service and science.
So it would be that the House of L would volunteer to join an expedition to establish a colony on Krypton's second moon, Koron. When, centuries later, the first moon, Wegthorn, was destroyed by Jax-Ur, the resulting war that would follow would lead to the decision to abandon all space flight, enforced by the Science Council. This cut off the colony of Koron, leaving them to their own devices. With their self-sufficient advanced Kryptonian technology, the colony continued to thrive, while remaining ostensibly under the command of the Science Council of Krypton. They remained in close contact, sharing communications and data easily.
Plans to Escape
Centuries later, that close contact and cooperation would bring together Zor-L of Koron with his cousin, Jor-El of Krypton. The two scientists were each doing all they could to improve the lives of their fellow citizens. Their research together would span far and wide over the years, but with Zor-L's access to the sensors on Koron, they would eventually start collaborating on their biggest and most fateful research: the geological instabilities of Krypton herself. And as both men became convinced of the dire and devastating fate which awaited their shared homeworld, so too they shared a desperation to overcome that fate by whatever means they could. Failing to convince the Science Council to undertake missions to stabilize the planet's core, they would eventually share research once again, to rekindle the seeds of long-lost space flight. Zor-L would share with Jor-El all of the data the colony of Koron had on their own space vessels, propulsion and guidance, as they both worked to develop a means to escape the forthcoming devastation.
While Jor-El and his wife Lara would eschew the standard methods of their Kryptonian heritage - the birthing matrices - and instead gestate Kal-El naturally, Zor-L and his wife Allura (Van-Lor by birth) made a different decision. They instead stole the birth matrix of the Koron colony, and planned their own escape vessel to include the birthing matrix, that their child would be generated in the same fashion as all Kryptonian children had been for millenia: via genetic engineering.
The Last Daughter of Koran
When the fateful time arose, and no more could either man delay, both wished each other luck, and they did what they both felt had to be done, launching those vessels and their precious cargo deep into space, towards a far-off world where they hoped their offspring would survive and thrive. They headed for Earth, where Jor-El himself had once operated as a hero amongst humanity.
The child who would bear the name Kara Zor-L would be created by the birthing matrix of the Koran colony, carefully selecting genetic material from Zor-L and his wife Allura to create the best possible offspring, based on parameters not set by the Koran colony computers or the Science Council, but based on the parameters assigned by the couple themselves. Kara would be their one and only hope for the future, and they would not stint on that last hope. That tiny seed of life would be nurtured by the technology of the small escape ship, assembled and implanted in the artificial womb within minutes of launch, still bathing in the red rays of Rao. The zygote would grow and mature across many months, as the ship crossed tremendous interstellar distances in hyperspace.
The Arrival of Karen Starr
The ship managed to pass through one of the ever-growing 'cracks' in the barrier surrounding Earth as established by the Spectre. Its targeting, however, would be affected by an unplanned alteration in heading caused by that passage. Rather than landing in the flat expanse of Kansas, there hopefully to join Kara with her distant cousin Kal in their new world together, Kara's ship would land - quite roughly - in the Cascades north of Mount Ranier, amidst a brilliant but ephemeral meteor shower in January of 1996.
Kara's ship would be discovered by Geraldine and Richard Starr, after it landed on their land. The couple investigated the damage in the woods at the back of their property, and discovered the small alien vessel within. At their approach, the hatch unsealed, revealing to their gaze the towheaded girl resting in the cradle and retracting safety harness inside, wrapped now in a swath of crimson cloth. Unable to fathom abandoning what was clearly a child of only a year or two in age, they took the child home. In the weeks that followed, Richard and Geraldine would move the small alien craft several times, until finally stowing it in a hastily excavated cellar dug beneath their garage. The ship would remain largely undisturbed for over a decade, while the girl would find herself blessed with the name Karen Lee Starr, and adopted as a daughter into the family of this Terran couple.
Blending in and Early Education
Karen's alien nature was relatively easy to ignore for much of her early life, with only minor and usually intermittent anomalies. There were times when she would hit something too hard, moments when she would prove herself inordinately resistant to injury, flashes of speed or moments of intense perception. Overall, however, Karen and her adopted parents were able to largely ignore this and live their lives. Karen proved to be a very bright and able student at an early age. She was also highly active, but the Starrs gently discouraged her from participating in most public sports displays, as they had seen just enough to suspect that their daughter was exceptional, and they had no desire to see a spotlight shined on that in curiosity. No one seemed to pay nearly as much attention to the fact that she was just very smart, and never - ever - seemed to get sick.
Karen proved an early and able user and manipulator of technology, often astounding Richard with her insights and ability, himself an early master programmer, a phreaker turned hacker. By the time Karen was eight, Richard and Geraldine had decided to explain everything to their beautiful daughter, including where they found her and what little they knew or had learned through the years. Always having known that the Starrs had chosen to raise and love her, Karen was not threatened by this knowledge, and found it all fascinating. She would eventually insist on accessing the ship buried in the cellar beneath the garage. Accessing the still-active core of the symbioship allowed Karen to continue her education far beyond the confines of school, immersing herself in Kryptonian science, language and history, combined with a wealth of knowledge about Earth itself, thanks in no small part to everything Jor-El himself had learned during his sojourn there in the 1940s. After a few difficulties in school science classes, Karen soon learned to limit what she revealed of what she was really learning and capable of.
Pre- and Early Teen Years
Karen's middle school years were increasingly challenging, as her body and mind matured, and as her Kryptonian education picked up pace. By the time she was approaching high school, she had already proven herself a science fair champion and was being actively recruited by several private high schools looking to add her academic might to their reputations. But the Starrs kept their daughter in public school, believing that best for her long term socialization. Karen's biggest challenge wasn't school, or keeping her alien heritage and abilities secret, however. Those were things she had long since adapted to and coped with quite naturally. Her biggest challenge was the fact that she was quickly the tallest, and most outwardly mature of her classmates. This drew a whole new kind of attention to Karen, and she had to learn how to deal with it. Thankfully, while the Starrs couldn't help her much with much of her alien heritage, they could help guide their beloved daughter through these kinds of personal and social challenges with aplumb and gentle support.
Karen's high school years were very active, with the increasing tall and beautiful blonde always seemingly running thither and yon - though only rarely at speeds so great that others would realize her secrets. She joined the Model Legislature club, which would also lead to Model United Nations later on. She joined the Astronomy Club as well as the Science Olympiad and the Academic Challenge teams. Her increasing popularity and social grace also leant themselves to election as class treasurer, and to the Student Government Council as one of the representatives to the school administration, Parents Teachers Association and the local School Board.
WorldWatching app and Earliest Heroing
Karen's continued efforts in programming would result in the WorldWatching app, which took off with the advent of the major smartphone platforms. WorldWatching established a social media hub for crowdsourced news and information: anyone with a smartphone could take pictures or video with the app and post it, along with their own commentary. The app took off and quickly became one of the most popular apps and platforms. Of course, it also made it possible for Karen to follow the goings-on that she might otherwise miss, being so busy. Which led to the third thing that started to chip away at her time.
With the continued rise of costumed criminals, and ongoing 'strangeness,' Karen's high school career didn't just focus on school, extracurriculars and her programming. Though she had not yet settled on a costumed identity, this gifted young woman couldn't do nothing when she knew others were in danger. Trusting to her luck, her smarts, and her sometimes-handy powers, Karen did what she could to help, while struggling to - of course - keep her secret. As if high school wasn't challenging enough!
Full Power and Power Woman
Those challenges increased with the end of 2009 and the fall of the Spectre's curse. Karen's alien heritage truly came to the fore, as she grew stronger, faster and more durable than she ever could have imagined previously. Her supersenses were a constant now. Only Jor-El's journal entries on his time on Earth in the 1940s gave her any real guidance on the difficulties she faced. Yet reading those entries couldn't prepare her for the wonder and magnificence of flying. Once she flew, she knew she would never be the same. Somehow, she knew a threshold had been crossed, and Karen prepared for it as best she could, with the help of her parents - Kryptonian and adopted alike.
All of that preparation came to a head in April of 2010. Karen's Science Olympiad team traveled to Metropolis to attend the National event, a week-long trip across the country. And as huge and exciting as all of that as - and visiting the new home of the Stock Exchange and of LexCorp was beyond words - it couldn't hold a candle to what else happened on that trip. A prototype scramjet-powered orbital-capable plane, developed by Hammer Industries in their ongoing strides to compete with the likes of Stark Enterprises and Ferris Aviation, fell from the sky and would have crashed into the city quite explosively. But when Karen spotted the problem - well in advance of anyone else, thanks to telescopic vision - she ducked out and changed into the costume, making a very spectacular debut as Power Woman, catching the plane in mid-air - flying for cameras to see - and then lowering it safely to the ground.
StarrWare, Inc., Metropolis or Bust
The debut of Power Woman brought a lot of attention, and Karen had to figure out how to deal with that. Eventually, she headed off the continuing efforts to track her down by the press, approaching the reporter she had saved that day aboard the plane: Trish Tilby of CBNC. She gave the reporter a one on one interview, explaining some of who she was and what she was doing. She made a point of explaining that her intent was to use her abilities, just like those seemingly mythical predecessors of the 1940s, to help those in need. Overnight, of course, Power Woman became a household name.
Karen herself still had to finish high school. But with her rather full schedule of activities - including her heroing - she still seemed to juggle it all. Surely, her speed and tremendous endurance helped a lot. And Karen did not slack off. She even managed to complete the requirements for graduation a year early. She also parlayed the continuing success and revenue of WorldWatching into seed money, and begged her father's help as they shopped around to pick up investors, eventually founding StarrWare. Richard became the CEO of the company, running the day to day operations as the adult and respected face to investors and banks. But he made no secret that the ideas of the company came from his brilliant daughter. Their deal, however, included the provision that Karen's salary would remain just $1, until she graduated college. Only then would she be allowed to take up a full time position in the company that her dreams and vision started.
Even as Karen was applying to Universities, she was also pushing the future of StarrWare, starting research and development in several areas including wearable personal computing, privatized space exploration and advanced sensor technologies. The company quickly became the little startup that could, and that raised Karen's profile right along, which certainly didn't hurt her bid for Metropolis University. She enrolled as both an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science major, playing to her obvious strengths, and making no secret of her desire to investigate the unique alien technologies left behind which could only operate in that single city. Indeed, some investors believe - and Karen certainly has not corrected them - that her advancements come from inspirations gleaned from studying that alien tech.
Best of Both Worlds
Raised by human parents from the age of two to the age of twenty, most of Karen's socialization and interaction comes from humanity and Earth, specifically the Western world and America's northwest. But that is not the whole of Karen's experience. She spent most of her first two years nestled within a virtual reality created by the symbioship, based on Kryptonian culture, traditions and history. And she has spent a good deal of time through her formative years immersed in the ship's virtual realities, as a means of learning all that it has to offer.
The result of all of this is that Karen has taken the best of both worlds into herself and who she has chosen to be. She is not cold and emotionless like the Kryptonian ideals. But she has learned all she could of their knowledge and science, and that helps to shape her worldview and the options she believes must exist for the world. She has seen what befall a world that isolated itself, and their denial of the doom that lay before them. And she will do all in her power not to let Earth make that mistake.
Bright
Karen has always been an incredibly bright, smart person. From her earliest days, she has proven exceptionally adept intellectually. Part of this is due to her engineered genetics. Part of it may be due to the virtual reality inculcation she experienced while aboard the symbioship prior to being discovered by the Starrs. But certainly a lot of it has to do with the Starr's support for her education, always trying to offer her the best and broadest exposure to new concepts, new ideas and opportunities.
Karen is not natively quite as creatively brilliant as perhaps a Tony Stark. But paired with her exceptional mental speed and her exposure to science and technology that is literally hundreds of thousands of years in advance of modern day Earth, she certainly seems it. She is always looking for the better way, the way to make things better than they are. That natural curiosity and insistence upon looking at every situation and bit of information from every angle is what makes her so bright.
Zesty
Karen is a vivacious, active and open young woman with a great lust for life, and she's not shy about that. She may keep secrets and maintain her privacy to some degree, but beyond that she is very open with everyone she meets, making no secret of what she wants, what she thinks and feels. She can very much be an unbridled fury of activity and inspiration, and she likes to spread that around to those around her. She will tend to bristle at limits, especially those imposed by mere social convention.
Confident
Karen has been instilled with a great well of personal confidence, backed up by the unconditional love of not one, but two sets of parents. She believes in herself; in her capabilities, in her knowledge, her intelligence, and other abilities, and most importantly in her own mind, beliefs and ideals. She doesn't wither from or back down under criticism or derision, and she doesn't let others tell her who she should be, how she should act, or how she should dress. She trusts in her own viewpoint, and projects that confidence to others.
Idealistic
Karen is a visionary. She sees the way the world - and people - ought to be, and she believes in doing all she can to make that possibility into a reality. She knows that reality sometimes falls short of those ideals, but believes it best to try and strive, and never to yield. She doesn't take the easy or the simply practical or pragmatic solutions, no matter how difficult the alternatives may be.
Heroic Motivation
Karen's heroic motivation is her belief that the world and the people in it need all the help they can get, and she believes that she has the capability to offer that help. She knows she can save lives, and help even the longer-term crises and problems, and she strives to do all she can for all of them. She wants to make the world a better place, sometimes one small life at a time.
Dreams Big
Karen dreams big, not small. It's not that she thinks the small things have no value; she indeed recognizes that sometimes - often times, indeed - the path to those big things is paved with those little things. But Karen aims big. She wants to save the whole world. Save the environment. Clean the skies and the oceans. Feed the hungry and make starvation a thing of the past. Bring people together in peace and end war and strife. All the things the realists say can never happen? Those are the things at the top of her list.
Solar Battery
Karen's body acts as a constant solar battery, absorbing solar energy and solar radiation from her environment. That energy, contained within her body, is what powers most of her other abilities. The hotter the spectrum of solar radiation Karen's body absorbs, the stronger her reserves become, which is why the radiant yellow sun of Earth's solar system is such a benefit.
The more Karen uses her powers, at higher levels, the more of the energy she is using up. The theory holds that if she could be held in an environment completely sealed off from solar radiation, and forced to use up what she's already holding, her powers could be reduced dramatically.
Strength
Karen is amazingly, improbably strong. The truth is, she has only the slightest of ideas just what her upper limit might be, and she certainly hasn't encountered it yet. She can punch through steel and reinforced concrete, tear apart armor, and catch and hold whole airliners in her hands. Even more amazingly, she seems somehow able to use her strength and hold up objects in such a way that they don't collapse under their own mass and momentum, despite the rules of physics.
Given the knowledge from Jor-El's journals of his time on Earth, Karen is aware of - intellectually, at least - the existence of some materials she might find difficult to bend or break. Vibranium, especially like that found in Captain America's shield, would be largely as impervious to her blows as it would be to other tremendously strong forces. Less ideal vibranium constructs might be bendable with severe effort on her part, but that's only theoretical. Similarly, properly forged adamantium would not bend or break under her strength unless denatured with extreme heat.
Invulnerability
Karen is incredibly impervious to damage, be it direct physical force or energy. She is bulletproof, even to heavy-caliber weapons. Even many tons of force will not do much lasting damage to Karen, though if she isn't prepared for the blow, it's likely to send her hurtling away, and may rock her head one way or another in surprise. Blows in the hundreds of tons range might bloody her up a bit, but are still unlikely to do any permanent damage. She is similarly resistant to energy attacks, unaffected even by huge fiery blazes and high-energy blasts, though high-yield actual electrical jolts can sometimes stun or phase her. She is also virtually immune to high pressure and extreme low-pressure or vacuum, and most radiation.
Endurance
Karen's endurance is prodigious. Fueled by the solar energy in her cells, she can seemingly go forever, or at least so long as that energy holds out, while showing little signs of tiring. The truth is that she doesn't need to sleep more than a couple of hours a night to stay in optimal shape, and she can go without for days if necessary so long as she keeps her solar energies up. She can also hold her breath for hours at a time, enabling her to operate in space or underwater without additional gear.
Speed
Karen can move at incredible speed, and do so with exceptional accuracy. She can run at least a few times the speed of sound, and she can react as well to sudden surprises at that speed as a top sprinter can react to course corrections at those speeds. As such, she is capable of tracking the firing and path of a bullet or even most directed energy weapons and intercepting them. Note that when moving at such speeds, she is generally a blur, at most, to the human eye or even most human technology. And typing up code or term papers is a breeze! Just as long as the computer and keyboard and keep up and don't short out.
Senses
Karen's senses are prodigious. Her visual acuity is such that she can see out to ranges of dozens of miles with the kind of accuracy most would expect at a range of twenty feet or so. She can also focus at close ranges down to truly microscopic levels. She can even shift her vision to focus on wavelengths of energy which grant her X-Ray like abilities to see through physical matter and make out its inner structure, picking out the skeletons of animals and any unusual additions (steel plates, cybernetic implants, etc.). Only the densest of metals - lead - is able to block this vision.
Karen's hearing is such that she can not only make out sounds at ranges miles away, but she can even sift through the wealth of sound common in even urban areas at such ranges and pick out particular sounds, either those to which she has become especially attuned - the voice of a friend in distress - or those she is specifically trying to find.
Karen's senses of smell, touch and taste are also greatly enhanced, though she has much less practice with them. She can often pick up a whiff of something without knowing what it means, unless the scent is somehow already familiar to her. She can also pick up the tiniest marks and imperfections in a surface at a touch.
Flight
Karen has the ability to hover or fly about as she wills, with the same agility as her own imagination and achieving speeds in excess of the fastest jets. Karen can even keep herself in mid-air while holding massive objects, though she is going to fly more slowly when holding more massive objects (airliners, large ships, aircraft carriers). Additionally, if she has people to care for, she has to fly much slower for their safety.
Freed of the limitations of Earth's atmosphere, and surrounded by the much less diluted solar radiation, Karen can even achieve high fractional-C speeds, able to reach even the most distant planets in the solar system in a few hours.
Heat Vision
Karen can project the solar energy contained within her cells out through her eyes in beams intense enough to superheat and slag most metals, burn most materials, and can focus it sufficient to cut like a laser with pinpoint - even surgical - precision. The beams can strike with reasonable - if not quite surgical - accuracy many miles away, and can do serious collateral damage, which is why she doesn't use this ability much.
It should also be noted that this ability uses up more of her solar energy than any other power she has, much more quickly. If she is unable to restore her energy from available solar radiation, overuse of this ability could quickly deplete her reserves and weaken her powers.
Breath
Karen's lungs are just as strong and supercharged as the rest of her. As such, she is capable of stupendous (ludicrous?) inhales or exhales, including sucking all of the air out of a moderate-sized space (a high school gymnasium or the like), or blowing a potentially mighty cone of forceful wind, enough that she could capsize a sailing vessel, or potentially put out a medium-sized blaze or a section of forest fire. Most amazingly, Karen can cause her breath to blow very, very cold, rapidly dropping the temperature or even freezing anything subject to her breath.
Healing
Despite the fact that Karen is exceptionally durable, it is possible to do her injury. However, with sufficient solar radiation, her enhanced physiology can rapidly heal injuries. Minor cuts and bruises can vanish in several seconds. Heavier bruising and deeper cuts may take a few minutes. Anything like broken bones or serious internal injuries may take hours. However, the one thing of note is that these injuries will usually heal without any scarring. This usually requires that she stay outside under clear sunlight while healing.
It should be noted that this same effect is also very likely to greatly retard if not completely halt Karen's biological aging.
Alien Physiology
Karen may look human, but she's not. Her physiology is human, and genetically engineered for perfection to boot. The net result of this is that she is largely resistant if not outright immune to most toxins and diseases that adversely affect humans.
Mental Speed
Thanks to the incredible speed of which Karen is capable, her mind moves at similarly rapid pace. This means that Karen is capable of processing incoming information with exceptional speed, even going over it multiple times in a fraction of the time a normal person would take. This is a big part of the reason why Karen comes off as being so brilliant, since she can process dozens of ideas and avenues around a thought process in seconds. It is also part of the reason that she learns incredibly quickly.
Memory
Karen also has an incredible eidetic memory, with perfect recall of everything she has ever seen, heard or experienced. This is the second factor that leads to her incredible learning speed.
Beauty
Karen is a very tall, blonde, buxom, fit, athletic and beautiful young woman, a real looker who draws a lot of attention. She may try to tone down the impact a bit, but that is more a factor of maintaining some degree of separation in her secret identity than anything else. It's still darned hard to miss.
Parents
Karen may no longer live with her adopted parents, but Geraldine and Richard Starr are still a big part of her life and her support structure. Both are reasonably healthy, in their early to mid-fifties. Gerry is still a public middle school science teacher in Snohomish county schools, though she is fully vested and could retire any year she wishes at this point. Ric now works full time as the CEO of StarrWare, Inc., directing the company that he helped his daughter to found, using his reputation built from almost four decades in the growing information technology and programming sector to provide a stable lynchpin.
The Starrs are well aware of their daughter's secrets, from her alien origin and heritage to her powers, her weaknesses - at least those of which Karen herself is aware - and more. They have done and continue to do all they can to help, support and guide her. Gerry and Karen even worked together to develop her costume and persona as Power Woman, right down to changes in hairstyle and makeup to differentiate from Karen's everyday. They love her as their own daughter, of whom they are more proud than words can say. In her turn, Karen loves and adores her parents, and does her best with every day to continue to make them proud and live up to the potential they see in her.
Symbioship
Karen's one greatest link to her origins and to her biological parents is the ship in which she arrived. Her ship is a powerful piece of Kryptonian legacy and technology, considering it contains a fully-functioning birthing matrix, a full virtual reality interface, and a computer library containing most of Kryptonian knowledge, science and history. The ship has been a big part of her development and education. It no longer hides in the cellar beneath the Starr family garage, but is hidden in her secret lair.
Secret Lair
Within a series of dormant volcanic magma chambers and flues within Mount Baker, well north of Seattle in the Cascade Mountains, Karen has created a secret lair. Sealed off with two giant boulders, covering the massive reinforced metal doors, the space is very much a giant geode formation, beautiful gleaming crystals surrounding an open inner space, within the heart of 'plain' and unremarkable stone. The lair is a bastion of Kryptonian science and construction, with its own central computer system, all grown from a Kryptonian crystal Karen found within her Symbioship. The Symbioship is now here, within one of the side chambers, its computer interfaced with the lair's. The lair's computers operate with projected holograms for interface.
StarrWare, Inc.
Using as seed money the original funds from the WorldWatching app, Karen established StarrWare, Inc. with her father's help as part of her goal to find the means to make the world a better place. The company has had great successes in just a bit over six years, including managing to win one of the vaunted X-Prizes for privately developed manned space flight. The company has a significant reputation, but it is no multi-national conglomerate. It brings in perhaps around ten million a year, but it expends almost ninety-five percent of that, continually re-investing in new projects, new research, and gathering some of the best and brightest minds from around the world.
Karen is currently but a simple employee of the company, despite having founded it and being openly acknowledged as the driving force behind several of its best known products. And she currently only collects a salary of $1 annually, a contractual stipulation that will remain in place until she graduates from university. In addition, all of the patents for Karen's inventions are held by the company.
Richard Starr, as CEO, does make a sizable salary - two-hundred thousand annually - but that is merely comparable to what he made as a programmer and IT specialist before 'retirement.' The company does not maintain many of the luxuries that many others do, but instead makes do with business class commercial flights, moderate business suites in any cities being visited, and simple town car rentals in place of private jets, posh company condos, limousines and fleets of company vehicles.
Metropolis University
Karen is currently a junior at Metropolis University, dual-majoring in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. She has access to all of the resources of the university for undergraduate studies and students, as well as access to certain computer and engineering labs usually reserved for graduate students, thanks to her acknowledged 'star pupil' status, and the fact that she has reached upperclassman status in a combined graduate studies programming. (Electrical Engineering is a Masters level program.) Karen even lives in a dormitory room in campus, though admittedly it is a private room rather than one shared with a roommate. With three years of experience dealing with her, the university and her professors don't even bat an eye these days if she misses a class, given she is never late with an assignment, and has maintained a superlative GPA.
Personal Wealth & Resources
Karen isn't rich, despite building her own well-reputed technology company. In fact, she lives largely off of her middle-class (admittedly, upper middle-class) parents, who continue to cover her college education, provide for her clothing, food and other essentials. She is not quite as cash-strapped as some college students, but she isn't tossing money around like nobody's business, either. She still eats more often on campus with her meal plan card than otherwise. She doesn't have her own car. Her one exceptional resource that everyone can see is that she has quite a collection of personal tech, including her own rack of servers in her dorm room, a top of the line laptop, several top of the line tablets and smartphones used for product development and testing, and her own personal StarrWare wearable computing accessories.
Fame and Reputation - Karen Starr
Karen Starr is pretty well known and a bit famous, in certain circles. She is not instantly recognizable, except to those who follow technology news. But to those in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) circles, hers is a name many have heard of, as a child prodigy and genius in the fields. There are even those who lament the fact that she seems now to have been distracted by pursuing what they see as the transitory glory of consumer electronics instead of bigger things, greater advances in science and mathematics. Even the continued advancements made by the research of StarrWare, Inc. haven't silenced the critics. Nevertheless, she has a rep, and it is only growing, spreading from the STEM circles to the general public with the spread of StarrWare tech.
Fame and Reputation - Power Woman
Power Woman is a face, a figure and a name known around the world. She made a huge and splashy display of her first public act, and she has not shied away from media coverage and attention in the five years since then. In fact, she has gone out of her way to establish a loose but ongoing relationship with Trish Tilby of CBNC, granting Trish several exclusive interviews over the years. She has openly acknowledged in those interviews her connections to the Superman of World War II and her admiration for all of the heroes - men and women - of that bygone age. She has in turn earned a lot of respect from the authorities, especially in the Western world, and a lot of good will. People like and trust her - she's Power Woman!
Power Woman's likeness has been spread pretty far and wide in the last five years. What few know is that Power Woman arranged with a lawyer within days of her debut to establish an ongoing contract with anyone wishing to use her likeness, granting permission with a 'licensing fee' that is paid to a trust, which in turn donates 99%% of that income to various charities around the world. The 1%% is not paid to Power Woman herself, but is paid to the law offices that maintain the contracts and the trust.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Karen is, in human terms. a bona fide genius - if not supergenius - in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She has a natural aptitude for these studies, which is dramatically augmented by the advantages she experiences as a Kryptonian under Earth's yellow sun radiation. And all of that is further augmented by the wealth of advanced Kryptonian studies in these areas, gleaned from the wealth of Kryptonian knowledge held within the symbioship and transferred through her learning simulations.
In terms of science, Karen's knowledge in areas as diverse as gravitics and astronomy to biology, geology, physics, organic and inorganic chemistry is would easily equate to advanced graduate students in the fields. And she is capable of puzzling out science that is beyond Earth's general current ability with study and effort.
In terms of technology, Karen's advantages mean that she is capable of comprehending and working with technologies well in advance of Earth's current levels. She understands the underpinnings of the like of quantum crystal computing on near-zero energy levels in multi-state processing and even artificial intelligence programming. However, she is limited in what she can actually build by available materials and manufacturing processes. She is exceptionally gifted in using and modifying or customizing available technologies.
In terms of engineering Karen is a capable study in every area of engineering, from physical and mechanical to chemical, material, electrical and aeronautical and even civil. Her specific education is in electrical engineering, and the depth of her knowledge in that field exceeds others. But she is capable of analyzing and grasping the designs and plans for most anything from a space ship to a city to a computer or a suit of armor or a robot, given some time to do so.
In terms of mathematics, Karen is capable of completing complex high-order calculations at speeds that would match if not exceed supercomputers. Her grasp of advanced mathematical principles and proofs equal some of the greatest minds in the field, past or present.
The major limitations to Karen's skills in these area come down to the fact that while she may have a great deal of knowledge, some of it far in advance of modern Earth, she largely lacks the creative drive and spark that causes the likes of a Reed Richards or a Tony Stark to step beyond what they know or have learned, to push the boundaries and develop whole new science and math. She can use what others have done well, and can grasp and potentially repair what she finds, but her inventiveness is very limited by what she has learned on her own, outside the hidebound and rigid knowledge and thinking of Kryptonian science. Hence why her 'genius' has expressed itself largely with incremental advances in electrical and physical engineering, consumer electronics and programming.
People Skills
Karen is quite good with people, able to interface with and reach folks regardless of their cultural biases, social or economic standing. She is pretty much equally good in front of groups or with individuals one on one, and has proven very good at empathizing with others despite her Kryptonian heritage. She's a pretty good leader, understanding how to motivate others, how to synthesize unifying goals from disparate views and tap into the talents of individuals in a group to achieve those goals. Her one limitation is that she does not tend to conform to culturally ingrained biases for women, playing soft, nice, or demure. She is strong, capable and up-front, and those who can't deal with it had best get out of her way. She won't drub them over the head, but she won't bow to them either.
Languages
Karen is effectively a polyglot. With her speed of learning and her perfect memory, she tends to pick up new languages after limited exposure. As it is, she has proven fluent in Kryptonian, English, French, Spanish, Greek, Cantonese, Russian, German, Japanese and Swedish, as well as a smattering of other alien languages picked up during recent contact with their members on Earth.
History
Karen's perfect memory has left her with a gifted facility for history, including studies of Earth history around the world from many perspectives, and Kryptonian history. Since she also reads and remembers historical analysis, she has a pretty keen understanding of not just what those histories say, but how and why they say them, and where they have been shown to be inaccurate or biased. It all gives her a long view on the potential of her adopted homeworld, and its people.
Business
Karen is no great business genius. But she has read the laws of the United States, most of their trade partners, and specifically the states of Washington and Delaware. She knows what businesses can and cannot do, and she works hard to stay within the rules, while offering her guidance and desires to the Board of Directors and the CEO of StarrWare, Inc.
Kryptonite
Like all Kryptonians, Karen is deathly 'allergic' or susceptible to Krptonite and Kryptonite radiation. Even a small amount, a few ounces, can produce waves of dizziness and weakness within a range of a few feet. Larger samples have been known to sufficiently blanket small to medium-sized rooms, the fields strong enough that its weakening effects would leave Karen too weak to even crawl away to safety.
Mere exposure to the energy is enough for moments of weakness, as powers fluctuate downward rapidly towards a normal human's abilities. Several seconds or more can reduce this to even less, causing her to collapse, as the radiation sets in to poison her Kryptonian physiology. Within a minute or so, high levels of such radiation could prove fatal. Kryptonite that can actually make physical contact is even worse, as it will tend to poison the very blood stream, reaching fatal levels quickly unless somehow neutralized.Like it or not, Kryptonite is the great equalizer to the incredible power of Kryptonians.
It should be noted that what is described thus far here is green Kryptonite, or 'classic' Kryptonite. There are other kinds of Kryptonite out there - other colors, with other various effects - and all would affect her with similar severity, but in very different ways. In theory, Red Kryptonite lowers inhibitions and generally lets out the 'dark side'; Gold Kryptonite destroys a Kryptonian's ability to store and process solar energy, erasing all of their powers permanently; Blue Kryptonite suppresses Kryptonian powers but also removes sensitivity to Green Kryptonite for as long as exposed. There are other colors, with a wide array of strange effects.
Magic
The profound power of the natural Kryptonian is largely ineffective against magic. Magical spells will generally prove as effective against Karen as they would against any other hero. Physical force from direct magic can do harm, where equal levels of force from non-magical means could not. Magical blades can pierce her skin. Magical fire can burn. And so forth.
Equally problematic, Karen's great power is much less effective against magical defenses. Her strongest punches may still be effective, but they will also deliver equal force to her hands, causing serious injury, and their effect will be blunted more than a little.
Red Sun Radiation
Because Karen's body is a solar battery, it will absorb whatever solar energy reaches it. But the strength of her powers is based on her body processing yellow sun radiation. If she is exposed instead to red sun radiation, this will progressively reduce her stores of yellow sun radiation, and fill her solar battery with energy she cannot use to power her abilities, weakening her. If she should use up her stores of yellow sun energy while being restricted to only taking in red sun radiation, she could in fact be rendered powerless. Red Sun radiation that is used aggressively, as a weapon, can even 'poison' the yellow sun energy within Karen, twisting it to relatively useless red sun energy to exacerbate and speed up the weakening effects.
Girl Scout
Karen is a 'girl scout'. No, the truth is, she was never a member of Girl Scouts of America. But the point is that she believes in right. She's an idealist, not a pragmatist. She will obey the rules, take care of innocents, won't kill if she can find any other way to deal with a problem - and she's smart, so she can almost always think of /some/ other way - etc. She's a 'goody two boots'. And she likes it that way. It does mean, however, that it's possible for others to use those ideals against her to manipulate her, or to act in ways she won't initially think of or have a ready counter handy.
Alien
As human as Karen may look, she's not. She's an alien life form. This means that if she gets hurt or sick, human science and medicine will be of limited if any use in treating her. It's even possible that human attempts to deal with the problem could make things worse.
Secret Identity
Karen is doing all she can manage to keep the secret that Karen Lee Starr is also the world-renowned superheroine Power Woman. In spite of the fact that she doesn't wear a mask, she does what she can in changing hairstyle, makeup, posture and tone of voice to maintain separation. She also makes a point of choosing various outfits as Karen that help to downplay her figure a bit, and she rarely appears in public without a StarrGaze headset of glasses, which nicely breaks up the lines of her face for facial recognition. She will also do what she must - or perhaps not do what she would wish to do - in order to keep that secret, as much to protect the others in her life more than herself. That and the fact she treasures her ability to interact with folks as an equal.
Big Target
Like it or not - and usually Karen likes it a lot - Power Woman is a very big target. She has one of the highest profiles and biggest names amongst the modern heroes. She has made a splash, and kept on coming, never shying away from the hardest challenges or the spotlights that come with them. And that makes her one of the biggest targets out there. The bad guys with an urge to prove something will often take aim at Power Woman before anyone else, because if they can take her down, they are sure it'll intimidate the most people into going along, or just to say that they did it or see how they can measure up. It should also be noted that as the last known Kryptonian currently, Karen would be a huge attraction to such enemies as Braniac, the Collector, and others with interest in such matters.
Hackable
Karen uses a lot of computing resources. She depends on her WorldWatching network to gather information on where she is needed. She uses her StarrGaze headset and her KordPhone to stay in touch and keep up on the latest information, or to get access to the information she needs when she needs it. And like it or not, her tech and programming are not immune to being hacked. It's not easy, or rife with weaknesses. But there are those out there with the skills, the gifts, the talents and resources to find and exploit weaknesses who could shut down her network, shut off her remote systems, and attack the things she depends on every day, forcing her to devote her time and effort to resisting that instead of being out there doing the heroic works the world depends on Power Woman to do.
