Black Pawn / Lois London (Earth-2299)

History

Lois London was born to Katherine (later changed her name to Barbara) London, a music teacher, and Nick Brown. It's assumed that she grew up a normal childhood life with her mother and father. In her teenage years, she found out that her mother had been previously married to lawyer Carter Blaire, and that she has a half-sister, Alison Blaire. Surprised by this, Lois attended her sister's performance at Carnegie Hall. Lois and the rest of her family worked out their differences.

Curious as to how her sister was, Lois decided to get to know Alison. The two bonded from the start. Though she accepted Alison's mutation, she found being a mutant dangerous as they were attacked by Mystique, Rogue and their Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Lois's life was once endangered by Rogue, but was saved by her sister. Over the next weeks, Lois had various headaches and even fainted a few times. Finally, as she took a walk to get some air while Alison performed in a club, Lois was attacked by a would-be mugger. She panicked, her hand started to glow and the mugger died, revealing that Lois was a mutant as well. Lois went to Dazzler for help and Ali, with memories of her own murder trial still fresh, didn't think Lois would be treated fairly. The sisters decided to hit the road and travel to California. As people kept recognizing Ali, she disguised herself with a black wig. However, they were still followed, as someone blackmailed them with photos of Lois and the mugger. The photos had a phone number attached to them. They called the number and were told that Lois and her sister had to break into a certain house and kill the man sleeping inside.

At night, they broke into the house and, after a short fight, it turned out that the owner was Nick Brown, Lois‘ father. After becoming a successful agent and financier, he had been paying his butler to track down Lois. The butler witnessed the death of the mugger and it was he who had blackmailed the sisters into trying to kill his master, as he wanted to steal Brown’s fortune. Thanks to Angel's timely arrival, the crime was prevented and, with the pictures, Lois was easily cleared of all charges. They showed that she was actually defending herself and, fortunately, the crackling aura of energy was not even seen on the photos. Lois' father showered the two sisters with riches, buying gifts for Lois and getting Alison gigs at important events. After discovering that her father had purposefully put her in danger to generate publicity, Alison became angry and decided to leave her stepfather once and for all. Alison thought that Lois would leave as well, but Lois felt that she needed somebody to protect her and Nick seemed the best choice.

Necrosha

Lois resurfaced a long time later as a member of Selene's Inner Circle.

Over the years, Lois had grown more bitter and resentful of Alison, and was haunted by killing the homeless man. Nick was an alcoholic and took his drunken rages out on Lois. One day in his office, he berated Lois for destroying his family and slapped her, and Lois put her hand out to his chest, stopping his heart and killing him. As he died, her father told her he loved her. Selene, initially disguised as Nick's secretary Claudia, came in and reassured her, saying that death was her gift - Selene then revealed herself and recruited Mortis to her Inner Circle.

Working for Selene, Mortis murdered Diamond Lil in an initial confrontation with the X-Men, ignoring her sister's confusion and horror.

In a final battle Mortis fought with Wolfsbane and was critically wounded by her. Following Selene's death at the hands of X-Force, Blink teleported Mortis away, making them the only two members of the Inner Circle who escaped the remains of Genosha.

Lois recuperated and then hired Arcade and Klaw to kill Dazzler. When Dazzler fought through Arcade's Murderworld, Lois confronted her directly, only to find out that her death touch was useless on her own sister. Dazzler knocked Lois out and took her into captivity on Utopia. She was placed into a psychically induced coma by Psylocke who volunteered to help her undo the psychological damage of her past and her brainwashing by Selene.

Hellfire Club

Recently Lois London joined the inner circle of the Hellfire Club as a new Black Pawn. Lois London had realized that her whole life would be nothing more than a creature of darkness and that sometimes the path of darkness was not an imposition and that if she was a doomed soul she would at least rule over her personal hell.

Powers and Abilities

The Mortis' powers are derived from the from the mutagenically altered cells that allow you to manipulate the extra dimensional energy known as Dark Force.

Foremost among the bands' powers is the ability to tap into a limitless energy source called the "Dark Force Zone". Mortis can project Dark Force energy in the form of devastating beams of negative energy. Lois London more commonly employs them to fashion incredibly durable constructs of dark force solid energy, such as containment spheres or pincers. She protects himself with a personal force field of dark force energy.

She also exert control over many other types of negative energy that are part of the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, Lois London once caused a star to emit radiation of sunspots. She is also possible to absorb and redirect the cosmic energy wielded by such powerful dark cosmic beings as the Lord Thanos of Titan, Armageddon (Arm'Chedon), Magus, The Stranger, Dark Phoenix and The Unseen, siphoning their power and using it to augment the dark force energy. Forms of energy that she also allow she to control include include magic and the Quantum energy.

Although she apparently cannot overtly affect psionic energy, Lois London her programmed them to render her impervious to psionic mental control. Even such powerful psychics as Professor X and Emma Frost have proven unable to overcome this defense. This does not protect she from magical forms of compulsion.

It is possible to create apertures into and out of the Dark Force Zone, thus allowing passage through its infinite, featureless expanse. Lois London mainly uses this ability to traverse great distances in a manner similar to teleportation, which she refers to as a "Dark Force Jump". A Dark Force Jump has a destructive side effect on the local environment, violently upheaving gravity and tearing holes in the atmosphere (on Earth, it would damage the ozone layer). Lois London initially refrains from using this ability except when in space or in dire circumstances, but eventually discovers that he can prevent this effect by surrounding himself with a barrier of solid dark force energy before jumping. She is also possible to shunt matter into the Dark Force Zone, provided that the Mortis is in physical contact with it.

The Dark Force enable their wearer to fly by manipulating gravitons. The maximum obtainable flight speed is unknown, but Lois London once made a trip from Earth to Uranus in approximately four years flying non-stop (this was before he learned how to quantum jump). That would require a constant speed of roughly 50,000 miles per hour (80,000 km/h). This doesn't take into account the velocity that can be achieved in a short burst of acceleration.

The Dark Force some capability to analyze and process information as if they were extremely advanced computers. This makes it possible to navigate the Dark Force Zone and the depths of space. The Dark Force are able to detect, analyze, and track energy emissions across vast distances. They can also "program" Mortis' Dark Force energy to register and react to certain preset conditions. For instance, at one time Lois London had the Earth surrounded with an invisible lattice-work of energy that was designed to act as a global alert system against potential extraterrestrial threats. The energy field could detect any surges of exotic energy emanating from the planet's surface and any object larger than a micrometeorite passing through it; in either case, the field would react by transmitting an alert signal to the Dark Force.

Lois London, which provides ready access to their Cosmic Awareness.