Miss Rhyme is perhaps one the most aptly named of all Hub City's hero population, as her magical powers come from speaking poetic verses that end with off-rhymes, or mis-rhymes, to culminate them.  Couplets, sonnets, tercets, quattrains and rhyming odes are all part of her arsenal, and if she can recite a poem to commemorate it, she can pretty well cause it to happen. 

There are stipulations to her magical powers, however.  It seems that the more difficult or far-reaching the effects she wants to cause to occur, the more lengthy the poem she must compose.  Turning a single thug into a bird, or causing him to fall asleep, for instance, can be achieved with a simple couplet.  Affecting a large group of people or a large area might take more complex forms: a sonnet, an ode, or even a more obscure form of verse.

The second stipulation is one that is likely as much a curse of her powers as a nod to her chosen name.  Her verses must be recited aloud, and they must at least end in off-rhymes to have their magical effect.  What would happen if she completed a rhyme using her powers is unknown: whether it would simply be ineffective-- or if something far more odd would happen-- is anyone's guess, because Miss Rhyme isn't telling.

However, spells cast by speaking poetry aren't always an alternative, as many times the verses take time to work up.  So Ariel has done a more than passable job in teaching herself hand-to-hand fighting skills and simpler self-defense techniques-- including some judo and aikido-- that mostly work on the principle of using an opponent's movements against them.
 

Many would take a look at the garish Shakespearean player-esque get-up, hear Miss Rhyme's cultivated British accent (an effect Ariel plays up for her 'audience' when she dresses up as Miss Rhyme), and watch the way she recites literary works and speaks about the stage... and think right offhand that Miss Rhyme is a bookish pushover.  And they would likely laugh up until the point that she pounds their face in.  Ariel is deceptively fast and nimble, has a keen mind, and is not afraid of anyone. 

Part of that is due to the sheer fact that she hasn't really run into overpowering villains until setting foot in Hub City.   

Ariel Porter started her heroine career under the nom de guerre of Miss Rhyme in the smallish town of Oaklawn, where she'd grown up.  She was hardly an abnormal girl, growing up, or at least she was not a young woman that anyone would instantly peg as becoming a heroine later in life.  As a young woman, Ariel grew fond of literature in its myriad forms-- stories, poetry, essays and plays-- and that love had led to her excelling in school and eventually majoring in Liberal Arts in college.  She'd thoroughly enjoyed her internship under the English Lit professor while at a local university, and looked forward to teaching-- herself-- eventually, hoping to pass along her love of literature to others.

That, in turn, led her to the most fateful day of her young life.  While sifting through the discarded books a local library was selling to fund a new wing, Ariel happened upon a hidden treasure, a yellowing book dating back to the mid 1800's, which included pieces that she had never heard of by some of her favorite poets : some odd works by Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Coleridge, Marlowe and even translations of Horace and Homer-- none of the works, however, had she ever seen in print.  She gleefully paid for it, along with a few other purchases, and took it home to her apartment. 

Once home, she sat down and took a closer look, and began to realize that she'd stumbled upon something far more than just a simple book of poetry.  Besides having what she assumed was 'lost' works by authors she had and had not heard of, the book was scrawled with some odd symbols and markings she didn't recognize.  But she was undeterred by the symbols and instead began to sit back with a latte, enjoying the poetry. 

And then things got odd.  As Ariel read the poems, she began to realize that she was beginning to make sense of some of the symbols without having any idea how.  It was a puzzle, she decided; a sort of lyrical puzzle... a poem within a poem.  Over the next weeks, she read all of the lost poetry, each piece somehow deciphering more of the symbols, until she began to see full stanzas, but the rhyme scheme was completely off.  Reading the final product to herself put her into a sort of trance-like state, bringing her to a heightened state of awareness, and she only realized it before she passed out and began to dream.  She dreamed she could hear whispers in her mind: the voices of poets whose works were forgotten, whose works never were.  They told her of the power of poetry, of what could be done with off-tempos and especially, off-rhymes.

Ariel awoke on the floor, with a dull headache and a fledgling memory of the power of off-rhymes.  She recited a couplet to herself, "A headache I feel is killing me.  I need a cup of..."  and on impulse, switched her rhyme, 'herbal tea', to a nonsensical one, 'Seven Crown.'  To her surprise, a teacup filled with Seven Crown materialized out of thin air.  It took time for her to begin to realize the power the book-- whose symbols mysteriously disappeared-- had bestowed upon her.  But by all rights, that was the day Miss Rhyme was born.

Over the coming years, Miss Rhyme trained, chose a name for herself and adopted an avant-garde costume cadged from the university's theater department... and slowly but surely began to make a name for herself in the smallish community of Oaklawn.  She foiled small crimes such as robberies, muggings and kidnappings, and gained the enmity of a small, colorful and almost laughable rogue's gallery.  Ariel loved her new guise, surprised to find how much the adventure and the freedom of being a 'masked' heroine appealed to her.  But for someone with her abilities, cleaning up a small town like Oaklawn was hardly a challenge.  She began to think of moving to a bigger stage: the big city, a few miles away, began to call to her-- a place where her powers could be put to better use and more adventures beckoned.  And so, Ariel Porter packed up her belongings, got an apartment in Hub City, and Miss Rhyme soon began to ply her new trade, stopping crime sprees that would have made anything in Oaklawn look unimportant by comparison.

Ariel now calls Hub City home.  She lives in a midsize apartment and works at Hub City Community College, still teaching her favorite subjects, namely English and Literature.