Knockout

Background

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Powers & Abilities

Superhumanly strong and tough, Knockout can endure extreme amounts of damage.

She further has regenerative abilities that have brought her back from near-fatal injuries to full health in days.

She also appears to have some kind of mental abilities or training that let her avoid Dubbilex reading her mind.

History

(A history of her time with the Secret Six can be found in the team entry.)

Knockout was a student of Granny Goodness on Apokolips. While loyal, she often ended up punished for some indiscretion or another. Looking up to Female Fury leader Big Barda, Knockout kept going and graduated.

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Big Barda running away with Scott Free shook something in Knockout. Soon chained to a wall in the fire pits as punishment, she broke her chains and leapt into the fires to be free.

A Boom Tube opened under her and deposited her in Hawaii (created by a mysterious man — Himon — she’d assumed to be a hallucination earlier in her imprisonment).

She became an exotic dancer, attracted by the costumes, and named her club the Boom Boom Room.

Superboy

When Superboy moved to Hawaii Knockout couldn’t resist the lure of combat any longer. Donning her costume, she committed a crime to draw his attention. When he gave chase she beat him around a bit, flirting all the while.

They continued to clash, and she ended up working alongside him when recruited to the Suicide Squad to attack the Silicon Dragons crime cartel.

They survived betrayals from within the team. Finally, when the explosives strapped to King Shark threatened to kill them all, Knockout tackled him and leapt into the depths of the base. It exploded, and she was considered lost.

She soon turned up alive and well, and bothering Superboy again as an adversary and ally. She decided to teach him how to fight, while also toying with and manipulating him. Unfortunately her public appearances saw her recognised by Apokoliptian spies on Earth, and the Female Furies arrived to hunt her down.

Their overwhelming numbers threatened to end the pair until Superboy’s ally Dubbilex used his powers to make the Furies experience an illusion of Knockout dying at their hands, and they left. Knockout wasn’t happy with this.

Criminal

Dubbilex also aided the police in piecing together who’d been responsible for the death of a police officer during the fight. It’d been Knockout, absently knocking the ’cannon fodder‘ out of her way.

The police hired Snare to help apprehend Knockout. Her attitude saw things go quickly bad as Superboy defended Knockout against what he saw as false allegations. The pair ran, as Knockout continued to work on turning the “pup” into her weapon.

Her final test for him came when they encountered Victor Volcaneum in his recently risen island base. Knockout manipulated them so Superboy attacked Volcaneum in a jealous rage, and she incited him to kill.

Superboy refused, at which point Knockout killed Volcaneum herself. Superboy turned on her, they fought, and Knockout was beaten and handed over to police custody.

Scandal

Eventually free from prison, Knockout met and fell in love with Scandal Savage. When super-villains were recruited into a Society, Knockout joined as a mole for Scandal – who joined the anti-Society group, the Secret Six.

Knockout was a member of the Society forces that clashed with the Six a few times, including the final battle where she switched sides to save Scandal.

She joined the Secret Six when they continued as a mercenary outfit. When Scandal’s father, Vandal Savage, sent assassins after members of the group Knockout was badly injured. She was shot by Pistolera using a Thangarian sniper rifle, which implanted a bomb under her skin.

Knockout survived, her Apokoliptian body recovering from the wound after a short while in a coma. Scandal’s relief was short lived as she soon found Knockout in bed with Deadshot.

Knockout didn’t understand Scandal’s reaction, since her Apokoliptian upbringing separated sex and love, so she considered the recreational sex meaningless.

Death

Scandal stormed off back to her father, promising to do as he wished if he left the Six alone. The team followed her and clashed with Vandal’s forces. They won, and Scandal forgave Knockout her indiscretion.

On a mission in Russia the Six clashed with the Birds of Prey, among whom was Big Barda. Knockout leapt at the chance to battle her former idol, and it was a close thing with neither of them really winning before the battle was halted.

After Scandal later joked about Barda having won, Knockout stormed out to seek a rematch. She was intercepted en route by the shadowy figure hunting and killing the New Gods.

Recognising him, and knowing she was outmatched, Knockout begged for a moment before he killed her. She phoned Scandal and made peace with her. Then she was shot and hurled to her death.

In Hell

Trapped in Hell for a while, Knockout ended up brainwashed and given to Ragdoll as his bride. She fought the rest of the Six when they travelled there, but after the team confronted the manipulator of events, Lady Blaze, they were all allowed to leave, including Knockout.

Returning to life, Knockout remained slightly detached. She only managed to break out of it when once again experiencing the joy of battle.

She learned Scandal had begun a relationship with Liana Kerzner, a dancer who bore a resemblance to Knockout. Deciding she had feelings for both of them, Scandal asked that the three of them be married, and they agreed.

Not long after her return the Six faced their final fight, as their actions under Bane’s lead drew too many superheroes into a battle in Gotham. Unwilling to surrender, they all used Bane’s venom and charged the awaiting heroes.

Knockout was downed by a blast in the face from Captain Atom, falling next to Scandal. They presumably ended up in jail.

Personality

Knockout loves combat, and is often the first into a fight and the last out. It doesn’t overwhelm her to a degree that it endangers her allies, but she has little interest in the safety of bystanders who happen to get in her way. She rarely interacts with many non-combatants anyway, and doesn’t pay them much regard.

She can get territorial over battles, taking affront at any allies who try to help her. She can also be touchy at claims that fights which maybe weren’t decisive in their outcome reflect poorly on her. Her pride in her combat skills is one thing she doesn’t easily laugh off.

During her time toying with Superboy pretty much most of what she said was pretty blunt innuendo as she manipulated his attraction to her to try turning him into her slave. She uses her sexuality as a weapon, and her upbringing led her to consider it simply a tool, so she had trouble seeing why Scandal conflated it with love.

Kay does love Scandal though, and has tried to adapt her ways to better fit in on Earth.

Quotes

“Oh, come on ! Don’t tell me it’s over already ! You’re young — I thought you’d last a couple of hours at least !”

“It’s your first time, isn’t it Superboy ? Fighting a woman, I mean. Maybe I should start a little more gentle.”

“Scoping for me, boys ? I’m flattered ! Just remember, if you want to pick me up, you’ll have to hit on me… before I hit on you !”

“Dread Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips, wielder of the Omega effect, he whom I live for and will one day die for, I have failed you ! I have fallen in battle, but am not dead ! I seek penance… I deserve the pain of the pit ? I will do what I can. I will show that I am worthy of all that you have given me !”

“Beauty’s only skin deep, girl ! I’ll give you a hurt that goes all the way to the bone !”

“Sounds like you want the pup for your own ! Sorry, girl — I’m not done with him yet !”

“The sulfurous smell… The savage beauty… The desolation ! I didn’t realize how much I missed it !”

“What we had wasn’t love, pup ! All we had was fun… but fun’s over ! Too bad. I don’t think I’ll ever find a better lapdog.”

“This world is not so different from where I was born. You fool yourselves to think otherwise.”

Scandal: “Thank you for this, Kay. I adore this city.”
Knockout: “Do you ? I must conquer it for you sometime, then.”

“Thank you, Lord Darkseid, for the gift of regeneration. And thank you, wet blue orb, for the gift of shampoo.”

“If they move I’ll explain rage to them in small, staccato bursts.”

Knockout: “Treachery. How I adore it.”
Scandal: “You melt at the most awful things, beloved. Thanks all the gods there are.”

“I had a daughter where I came from. Genetically unfit to be a warrior. She was taken from me at three days old. I was glad for her, not to have me for a mother. I dream about her sometimes.”

“You’ve all been good friends. It makes my heart sing that you would fight and likely die for Scandal. But let me make this one thing perfectly clear: Vandal Savage belongs to me. Anyone else touches him dies limbless.”

(On fighting) “Better than sex. And almost as brutal.”

“In my incarceration… in Hell… The worst things would happen when we thought we were safest. My body remembers the cruelty my mind has blacked out. Scandal. I know that at one time a million eons ago, you had the right to avail yourself of my flesh. But I feel it only fair to tell you that I am compelled to rip your arm off if you touch me again without express permission and beat you with it until you cease to exist in any recognizable form. … I think I might be a little bit off my temper.”

Knockout: “Yes. Laugh. I remember that. I remember laughter in combat. I remember the blood and broken bones and the terror of the dying enemy ! I remember how they would void their bladders, robbing them of even their dignity ! And I remember you, poppet !”
Scandal: “Uh. Hooray ?”

By Gareth Lewis.

Source of Character: DC Comics.

Writeup completed on the 1^st of October, 2013.