People will tell you that money can't buy happiness. For the first 20 years of her life, Kristen Omoreanwould have disagreed with you. Fashion talks, and thanks to Daddy, the young Kristen was always up with the trend. Blonde, pretty, popular. Not too tall, not too short, fashionably thin without hitting the waif look - she had everything a girl her age could want. Clothes? No problem. Shoes? Aplenty. Car? Daddy provided. Swinging university apartment? Complete with retro lava lamps a waffle iron. Boys? Who needed 'em! Besides, it was too much fun hitting the clubs, dressed to kill, laugh as the boys tripped over their own tongues, and then leave them all in the dust.

It was quite the pasttime really - the clubs, that is. Trouble is, you spend so much time calling the shots in the clubs, you can forget that there are real predators out there...

Enter Chad. He'd been "just another boy" one night. Nervous sweat on his brow as he approached, a slight squeak in his voice as he offered to buy her a drink. Kristen was feeling generous, so she acquiesced. The chocolate martini tasted a little funny as she drank it, but she thought nothing of it as she turned her back on Chad and went back to talking with her girlfriend. She could only imagine the crestfallen look on his face as she ignored him, and it made her smirk inside.

Ten minutes later, things got a little blurry. Excusing herself, Kristen stood and made her way towards the little girl's room. She never made it. Chad had caught her arm as she stumbled, and gently but firmly guided her towards the stairs and out of the building. Kristen was in a daze - colours made no sense, sounds were muted, and everything just made her feel so sleepy. As she finally drifted off into nothingness she heard a van door slide shut...

When she came around, nothing made sense. Everything she saw was veiled in green smoke, droning chants drowned out all other noise, and a large yellow demon was reaching towards her, grinning lasciviously... and with that, she blacked out again. Some things, a girl's mind just isn't ready to take just after waking, ya know?

Waking again, Kristen found herself in a room with white walls, steel trim, an inordinate number of beeping machines. Sitting up, she realised that she was on some sort of padded table, and that everything seemed... smaller... than it should have been. She'd been on operating tables before - when daddy paid for that nose job, for example - but this one seemed much shorter. Looking down, she saw why... and passed out again.

Let's sum up the following events, with less fainting, so we can get on with the story. Kristen had been about 5'5". She now stood close to 8' tall. Thankfully, the dress she had been wearing, while skintight, had a lot of stretch in it, so she was still able to protect her modesty... well, as much of her modesty as she had left, after her chest had expanded along with the rest of her. Her skin? No longer that lightly tanned look, but now a golden yellow. Muscles she never knew existed stretched and moved with her. And as if that wasn't enough, two enormous gauntlets covered her once lovingly manicured hands.

From behind a glass screen, a technician did his best to explain what had happened. Kristen, it seems, had been abducted by the Circle of Thorns, who had intended for her to be the new host shell for a demon - the big yellow one she had seen throught he smoke. The ritual was underway when agents of the Corporation - a group of super-powered men and women operating in Paragon under an efficient business model - had interevened, arresting the coven members and halting the ceremony. Unfortunately, the possession, while incomplete, had altered Kristen, turning her into a golden-yellow powerhouse. Her hands, however, were leaking a corrosive energy - anything it met aged, decayed, and withered away. This had been a real challenge for the Corporation scientists, but utilising force field technology they had manufactured a pair of containment gauntlets that would keep the energies at bay, while still allowing Kristen full tactile sensation. On the up side, no more decaying of everything she touched. On the down side, they could never be removed.

Time passed, and Kristen adjusted to her new self. Paragon City was constantly changing, and now, it seemed, so was she. Stronger, more powerful, able to withstand almost anything that was thrown at her, the Corporation deemed she was psychologically ready to rejoin Paragon City's populace... but the populace wasn't ready for her.

Her old friends didn't want anything to do with her. The boys? Couldn't handle the fact that she could benchpress their cars. The girls? Aside from the obvious hazards of hanging out with the new Kristen, not one of them was willing to be seen shopping in the "Big and Tall" stores. Her family? Daddy kept putting money in the bank account, but having a giant yellow freak as a daughter didn't really do a lot for him at the social club - even daddy withdrew emotionally.

It was while sitting by Silver Lake, deep in a funk about the loss of her old life, that she discovered a new one. Hurtling over the concrete wall at the North of the lake, squealing like a schoolgirl, a green-clad figure tumbled downward and slammed into the water. Rapelling down the wall after him, two Tsoo warriors landed deftly on the rocks and started flinging shuriken at their blubbering victim.

Kristen had always been raised to have at least some inkling of fair play, and this two-on-one didn't seem fair at all... besides, she was pretty certain those shuriken wouldn't cut through her new skin, right? Leaping to her feet she launched herself towards the two wannabe ninja - and overshot, slamming into the concrete wall behind them. Her new leg muscles packed a bit more shove than she had expected... dusting herself off, she stood to face the two Tsoo, who were staring quizically at the large yellow woman who had just faceplanted behind them.

As she clenched her fists, the first of the two ninja reacted by sending three shuriken spinning through the air towards her. The first two she batted aside with her gauntlets, while the third scratched a thin red line across her cheek. Alright, she realised, she wasn't completely immune to them, but if the best a shuriken could do was a light scratch, then these to clowns were in trouble.

Bearing down on the Tsoo with all the grace of a freight train, Kristen swung her left fist into the first Tsoo's chest, sending him flying across the lake and into the water near the far shore. His friend, she grapsed with her right hand. Swinging her arm back, she was startled as twin green beams lanced through the ninja. Dropping the now-unconscious ninja unceremoniously on his butt, she helped the sopping green "hero" from the lake.

Atomic Saint, once dried off, took Kristen to meet his superiors in the group none as Freedom Reborn - one of the larger groups dedicated to fighting crime in Paragon City. Kid Dynamo, Tortuga, Marmeille and Darkhart - the founders - were names well-known to Kristen, if only from third-party articles in various socialite magazines.Before long, Kristen was inducted into the group under the name Ms Knockout - K.O. for short - and assigned to work alongside Atomic Saint.

Many missions later, with her own name becoming well-known amongst the Tsoo, Sky Raiders, Freaks and Circle of Thorns, K.O. was promoted to Captain, and now she stands with the leadership of Freedom Reborn - Biffing heads with giant yellow gloves, cos it's the right thing to do.