Origin

Pollyanna Shale was a notorious but short-lived figure in the criminal underworld of Pacific City. Her violent end led to her raising from the dead as a wraith, a vengeful spirit. However, she rejected that path and joined the Nocturnals, largely as a non-aggressive ally of Doc Horror.

Creation

Polychrome first appeared in the 1995 miniseries, The Nocturnals by Dan Brereton

Major Story Arcs

Black Planet

Doc Horror was kidnapped by Antonio Zampa, the heir to Narn K, who wanted to wipe out The Nocturnals from messing with their operation. His team, including Polly, tracked him down to a Zampa safehouse and broke him out. It was easier thanks to Zampa being taken out by a former ally of the Nocturnals, Raccoon, who had dreams of becoming a gangster. He had killed Zampa to replace him in the criminal organization. While disposing of the body, Raccoon found a strange red octopus stuck under Zampa’s armpit. This information concerned Doc Horror, who believed the Crim had followed him to Earth.

Doc was originally from a different planet, where he refused to share his wormhole technology with the parasitic Crim, who wanted to use it to take over more worlds. To confirm his suspicions, he brought a few of his Nocturnals to the cemetery to dig up Zampa’s body. Once confirmed, he told the story of his journey to Earth to his fellow Nocturnals, who all committed to taking the Crim out. After a close call with Fane’s men, Eve was instructed to stay home by her father. Instead, she convinced Komodo that Doc wanted the two of them to find a new way into the monster shop so they could free more of the test subjects.

Unfortunately, they were caught by facility security in the tunnels underneath it and needed rescue. The Nocturnals, with Raccoon as their guide, teleported into the tunnels where Komodo and Eve were surrounded by Crims. Fane tried to run off with Eve, but Raccoon and Komodo managed to break all the hybrids out while the Crims were busy with the other Nocturnals. Together, they overwhelmed Fane, freeing Eve and ending the Crim’s world takeover.

The Dark Forever

With Doc preoccupied by a mysterious archaeological find under the Tomb, Poly answered a distress call from Raccoon. His employees were turning up as zombies and needed Doc’s help. Unfortunately, Poly was unable to heal an undead human. She was also growing in concern over Doc, who entered a mysterious door which sealed behind him. When they investigated the door, Poly was affected by the magic of the door, causing an ectoplasmic explosion after warning Eve and Gunwitch to run away.

Trapped on the wrong side of the door, Eve and Gunny explored further, eventually finding Poly being cared for by the ghosts of fish-people. Soon after, they were reunited with Doc, who was accompanied by very alive fish-people, called Skerrl, as well as a young girl who had been trapped for 70 years, kept young but mutated by the Skerrl. While the girl told her story, the ghosts of the fish-people told Eve that she allied with the Skerrl and sicced them on her own parents. When Eve called her out, she had the Skerrl attack the Nocturnals, who narrowly escaped using a portal.

They teleported to the beach where Starfish, Raccoon, and Firelion were investigating zombies. Poly had absorbed the spirits that powered Skerrl magic and released them to the afterlife, however, it was too late. The Skerrl had already summoned a leviathan from the ocean floor. The Nocturnals were ready to run, but Star was able to command the leviathan as the last of the original fish-people. She sent it back to the ocean depths.

Powers & Abilities

Ghost: Polly is an undead spirit. As such, she is capable of becoming intangible and floating.

• Invisibility: Polly is capable of becoming invisible and psychically clouds other people’s minds to make other people and things invisible to observers.
• Healer: Polly can heal wounds with a touch.
• Postcognition: Polly can usually demonstrate knowledge of nearby people she could not have known.