Then, when she was 22 years old, she was selected for the Miss America contest. Her parents were both ecstatic, and Esther thought for sure that this would somehow bring her parents together. She traveled to NYC for the pageant, checked into the hotel with all the other contestants and began the 3-week prep and promotional period.

The first day was incredible! She met so many wonderful and talented women from all over the country. She also met with dozens of the event organizers, sponsors, investors and even casting directors from major Hollywood studios and marketing agencies. Everyone was so nice and gracious. She was sure that this event would lead to more opportunities, regardless of where she finished. She went to sleep that night feeling amazing.

The next morning, however, everything was different – or at least everything was different for Esther. She was startled awake by the sound of hundreds of voices in her head. After taking a minute to gather herself, she realized she could hear the thoughts of everyone in the hotel. She was a hyper-being!

Her new ability was fascinating. However, what she was hearing was not. In fact, the voices she was hearing were full of doubt and insecurity. She heard the frustrations of all of the women and the stress that came with attempting to obtain a standard of beauty that was impossible to reach. She heard all of the dark, depressing thoughts that plagues all of these seemingly wonderful and amazing women.

But worst of all, she heard the thoughts of the people in charge of the contest. Their thoughts were vile and disgusting. She learned that they didn’t care about the talents and aspirations of the women in the contest. They only cared about what they looked like in evening gowns and bathing suits. These idea were not something that Esther was new to, however, she had no idea of the depths of depravity that existed in the minds and hearts of so many of the men in charge. She felt icky all over.

She walked through the hotel listening to more and more of the thoughts. Then, as she was getting off the elevator on the second floor, she was able to pick up on the thoughts of a group of contest organizers having their morning meeting. And that’s when she learned that these people were making hundreds of million dollars from this beauty pageant and that almost none of that money was going to the charities or college scholarships for women that had been advertised. None of the money was being designated for programs that would help young girls aspire for a variety of careers and life paths. They actually laughed about how all of the women in the contest were nothing but pretty little pawns.

Esther was infuriated! In that moment she made a decision – she would take down the pageant once and for all! She went through the next two and a half weeks as if nothing was wrong. She went to all of the rehearsals and promotional photo shoots and meetings and dinners. She began to take extra time to encourage some of the women who were having especially troubling thoughts. And she made sure to endear herself to the contest organizers as much as possible.

Then on the weekend of the pageant, she put her plan into motion. Miss Texas had chosen to put on a target practice display for her talent portion, and to that end she had a collection of firearms. Esther waited until the swimsuit portion of the contest, but when she walked on stage to pose for all of the oglers, she was wearing more than just a swimsuit, she was also wearing a shoulder holster and two hand guns.

She looked over to the area of the hall where the people from the second floor meeting were all sitting. Then before the crowd realized what was going on, Esther pulled out the guns and opened fire! All hell broke lose as several of the organizers were hit. A number of security guards and police officers jumped into action, but when they fired their weapons at her, Esther learned that she was also telekinetic! She stopped the bullets in mid-air, and threw them back at the officers.

Esther was happy with the chaos she had caused at the event. But then she heard the horrified thoughts of her fellow contestants. Many of them had given up so much and worked so hard and made so many compromises to be in this position and now it was all ruined. She wanted to tell them that they were so much more valuable than this contest. But at this point it was too late. She had to flee.

She sent text messages to her parents, telling them sorry and goodbye, then she destroyed her phone and went into hiding. She  ended up in Platinum City where laid low for a few years before taking on the name of “Ecstasy” and becoming a violent vigilante. Her ability to control bullets with her mind made her very dangerous and despite her actions against bad guys, several superheroes branded her a villain, and from time to time some of them would take cracks at bringing her down.

On this night, it was the super bratty teenage vigilante known as Kid Gen. Ecstasy had just set fire to a laundromat that she knew to be a cover-up for a group of petty mobsters. Kid Gen heard about the vandalism on his police scanner and immediately set out to track down the perpetrator. He found Ecstasy and confronted her in an alley about a mile from where the explosion had taken place. He demanded that she give herself up. She of course refused, and a fight quickly ensued. Kid Gen, however, was no match for her telekinesis and she proceeded to whip him from pillar to post. However, because of his quick regen healing powers, he was able to get back up and keep fighting. Next, Ecstasy pulled out her guns. But again, the bullets would only stun him momentarily before he was coming at her again.

She continued to beat him down for several minutes until suddenly the super soldier, Lt. Rashard Bonds showed up. Bonds had been in Platinum City for a number of reasons – one of which was recruiting heroes to join his elite squad. He had, however, just come from helping out an ex-soldier Gary “Sentinel” Allen, who had been under the mental control of an evil telepathic being. Bonds had secured the services of a psionic teenager named Chineke who was able to break the mental control. And now the Lieutenant was back on task and hoping to recruit Kid Gen to his squad.

He jumped into the fray and immediately confronted Ecstasy. The Bullet Babe fired off a succession of bullets, but Rashard Bonds was able to dodge all of them except for one, which he caught with his teeth! Ecstasy was totally blown away. Bonds spit the bullet out and said he just wanted to talk. But Kid Gen was not finished and he charged at the woman while she was distracted by the conversation. Lou immediately turned and caught the kid with a punch to the face that knocked him unconscious.

Bonds and Ecstasy had heard of each other, but had never met. Bonds, after deciding he no longer had any interest in recruiting Kid Gen, thought about asking the Bullet Babe to join his squad. However, before he could say anything, she told him no. Bonds was surprised and impressed as he was not aware that she was telepathic. She told him that her powers had been just as much of a curse as they were a blessing. She hated being able to hear the dark inner thoughts of everyone around her. And she hated that people always wanted to use her beauty, gifts and talents for their own benefit.

Bonds quickly apologized for making her feel that way. She responded, however, saying that he was not the problem. She was actually flattered that he would consider asking her to join his squad. The problem was people like her parents, and the organizers of the beauty pageants that wanted to use her. And most recently it was the group of evil scientists who had kidnapped her and tried to experiment on her. Suddenly Lou’s interest was piqued.

She showed him a scar on her head, where the scientists had made a few incisions in an effort to harvest her telepathic brain. She said she was held captive in an Ebb-cell (which mutes hyper-abilities) with nearly a dozen other hyper-cogs. She would have definitely been killed if not for a group of superheroes that broke in and set them free. Lou asked who the heroes were and she told him it was members of the super squad known as The Sista Clique – Ember Brook, Girl Six, Madam Deadhead, Cybernetica and their leader, Kharma Lucky.

She recounted the wild story to him, then asked if he was done with her. He encouraged her to seek him out if she changed her mind about joining his crew, then allowed her to go.

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