Shortcut (from the Mizfits)

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Shortcut (74)

Project: Comic (Mizfits)

Known as: Shortcut

Real name: Jaimie Winters

Group affiliation: CounterAct

Physical description: Shortcut is young (18), petite, and is usually wearing a smile.

Personality: Shorcut is an adrenaline junky. Surfing, snowboarding, skydiving, bungee jumping, you name it. The main reason she is a “bad guy” is that the rush of crime and battle is one of the best highs she has encountered. She generally avoids harming people too much (though she won’t be overwhelmed with guilt if she does – that’s life).

History: Jaimie was an action kid that was the child of action parents. Extreme sports heroes, her parents actually made a decent living endorsing skateboards, snowboards, and the like. This allowed the family a great deal of freedom in pursuing extreme experiences.

Looking to follow in their footsteps, Jaimie began competing as a teenager (motocross). She never seriously considered college, as she only barely managed to get her high school degree (she was just too distracted). Her relationships mirrored her hobbies and she dated a string of edgy people she was never serious about.

Recently, she and her parents were extreme skiing and got caught in an avalanche. Jaimie barely escaped, and her parents were not so lucky. While many might find this a life-altering experience, for Jaimie it only fueled her extreme nature. She knew her parents lived life hard and died the way they wanted to. She missed them terribly but felt she could honor them best by continuing to push the envelope.

She was free scaling a skyscraper when All-Saints Anarchy hit (the even were Boost overloaded Random’s powers and the laws of reality were suspended). Jaimie gained the ability to create portals linking two distant locations, which saved her life when the building she was climbing turned into a pile of yak hair. She found that she could dismiss the portals at will. Anything partially through the portals when they were dismissed is instantly severed (part stays at one location, the other part stays at the other location). So far, this has not failed to neatly sever anything (including a steel beam). She gave herself the name “Shortcut” both for her ability to go to distant places while skipping the distance between and the side effect of being able to sever things.

Puzzle approached Shortcut to join the Mizfits but Shortcut turned her down. The Mizfits are about learning control and cooperation, and Puzzle’s ability focuses primarily on order. This was not appealing to Shortcut, who was more on the chaos/danger side of things. Counter’s offer (heh), however, was more appealing. The rush of committing crimes, getting shot at, etc. was just too tempting.

Shortcut is not particularly a bad person, but neither is she good. At the end of the day she is self-centered, and perhaps suicidal.

Role in the narrative: Shortcut and Swap could have some crazy battles.

Abilities: Shortcut can open round portal connecting two distant locations. She can control the size of these portals, up to a maximum of about 2’ across (enough for her to dive through fairly easily). One portal must be opened within a few feet of her, while the second can be at any location she has visited before. The portals have a direction and she can control which side is “open.”

While transportation is an obvious benefit, her powers have several non-obvious applications. For example, Shorcut has been deep-sea diving. She can open a portal to a deep-water location she has been to and create a geyser of high-pressure water at her current location. She’s also been on airplanes, so she can connect to a lower-pressure area and create an explosive decompression effect.

Inspirations: The name is a nod to the Bionic Woman. The Spider-man villain the Spot has a similar power (though his is more amped up) and lots of teleporters are around (e.g., Nightcrawler, Keith’s wolf on the new Voltron, etc.). I had an idea years ago for another “Shortcut” (a friend of mine even drew a picture of him – thanks Dan). But while reusing the power concept (which in turn isn’t that original) the character above is a new one.