Pictured left to right: Chicle, Chemigal, Dirigibelle, Iron Maiden, Lion Queen, Miss Appearance, Phosphora, Raptor Girl
The Octette is one of the oldest intact superhero teams in America. Formed in 2012 and staying together without any lineup changes since, the Octette have proven to be one of the best in their field.
The team was formed all thanks to one chase in Savannah, Georgia.
While fleeing some local superheroes, the late supervillain Optimus splashed passerby Ashley Powell with mutagen containing Kalishari DNA as a distraction. Ashley's torso ended up inflating to over a hundred times its normal size with a helium isotope, causing her to float like a balloon. Luckily, a flying hero was able to keep her from floating off into the stratosphere.
Afterwards, Ashley became really sad that she had blown up like a balloon on local TV, and that got worse after she found out strong emotions, electric shocks, and even just thinking too much about inflating would cause her to reinflate.
However, Ashley's father, a veteran in the Jhinu War, knew that the Kalishari were some of the best heroes in the war, and his daughter could be a hero with that power. So, to remedy her sadness, he sent out an ad for other superpowered ladies around his daughter's age to come to their home and show him what they had. Seven people applied:
Julie "Chicle" West, a former teen actress from LA who was trying to branch out into a music career before her jilted ex turned her into bubblegum
Iris "Chemigal" Tillman, a child prodigy from Philadelphia who had an experiment blow up in her face, giving her the ability to shoot any type of gas from her pores
Vanessa "Iron Maiden" Scott, an aspiring swimmer and former mean girl from Miami who was turned into iron by a victim of her bullying
Deshondra "Lion Queen" Thornton, a vigilante and super-nerd from St. Louis who cleaned up her neighborhood's streets with a utility afro full of gadgets
Andrea "Miss Appearance" Alvarez, a mutant from Dallas who was born invisible, but helped take out a supervillain by ditching her power-nullifying bracelet
Tomoko "Phosphora" Nakayama, a Seattle native with pyrophoric skin who made headlines after future FBS member Burning Man gave her his old containment suit
Allison "Raptor Girl" Nylund, a tomboy from Rapid City who nicked herself with an irradiated velociraptor claw and was mutated into a velociraptor-person
The other girls were able to help Ashley see that she could use her mutated body to prevent villains from messing up peoples' lives, and they formed a team, with Ashley taking on the name "Dirgibelle".
When the team formed, they originally didn’t have a name, but the media latched onto the fact all the members were girls and called them The Octette, complete with feminine -ette ending. (Strange how all-male teams never get cute masculine nicknames.)
The Octette was mostly a local team at first, but in 2013, they were thrust into the national stage after they helped defeat Dr. Destruction at the Battle of Tacoma. During the battle, Dirigibelle proved her usefulness by using her rapidly expanding body to break up crowds of Destructoids. Since then, they've helped stop plots by teams ranging from The Crowns of Hell to The Sick Six to Crash Site Omega. This has won the team many Supie awards, and even more Supie nominations.
The Octette have also become quite the pop culture phenomenon. You might remember the time Dirigibelle shilled for Gas-X, the time Lion Queen shilled for Dove shampoo, or the time Chicle shilled for Trident. They even cameoed in the superhero-themed sitcom "How to Save the World".
All in all, the Octette have proven themselves one of America's premier superhero teams.
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