Ada Josephine Kross was born into a traditional home deep in southern Georgia, though her family wasn't quite as traditional as the area was used to. Her parents, Reinhold and Liesel Kross (nee Geist), emigrated from Germany in 1950 following the aftermath of World War II. In the small town of Thunderbolt, Georgia, the couple's appearance did not stand out, as the community was used to semi-wealthy new arrivals settling in for the yachting scene. Ada's childhood was fairly normal and uneventful, at least so much any childhood can be considered normal. She did moderately well in her studies, her chief interests in academia being art and the sciences. Luckily, what interested her also happened to be what she was best at: her paintings placed in state art shows six years running, and in the eleventh grade her human biology project made second at the Chatham County science fair. Both of these accomplishments brought her parents great pride, and Reinhold was more than happy to use his funds to pay for her university schooling. That is, until Ada made clear just what sort of schooling she wanted. She sent in applications and portfolios to (and was accepted and given scholarships from) exclusively art institutes, including Maryland Institute College of Art, Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, and Pratt Institute. Reinhold very much did not approve, and proceeded to argue the point with his daughter about whether or not a degree in the arts would ever prove to be at all of use in providing Ada a career and a livable income. The debate lasted a few hours, but between her own arguments and Liesel's prodding, Ada managed to convince her father. He would pay for her to attend a specialized art school with the understanding that she would later attend, at the very least, a two-year community or business college to ensure a greater likelihood of a viable career.
Ada went above and beyond. She attended eight semesters at Pratt Institute in New York, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in painting. The idea of business colleges did not appeal to her; she had no head nor interest for such things. She had, however, maintained her interest in the sciences, most particularly biology. After a year's hiatus from schooling, in which she lived in a small studio apartment in NYC and supported herself through her artwork and a job at a small bookstore, she decided to continue her education in pre-med at New York University, and then, New York Medical College. Though she received some opposition based on her gender, she persevered, and graduated in 1987 with a Doctor of Medicine degree (M.D.) in Emergency treatment. By 1991, at the age of 34, she had completed her residency at Lenox Hill Hospital, earning her board certification and the title of attending physician.
The next eight years continued in relative normalcy for Ada: she and continued to serve in the ER at Lenox Hill, and to create, sell and show painted works, several of which she managed to get into the local galleries. She kept herself busy, making fast friends with coworkers in the ER as well as a few peers in the art community, keeping in close and friendly contact with her parents (whom she visited often), and generally maintaining the steadiness of her life. In 1999, the administrator of the Lenox Hill ER, Lauren Brent, an older woman with whom Ada was fairly friendly, set the younger woman up on a date with her son, Jacob Brent, an Assistant District Attorney. The two hit it off fairly well, despite their spats and differences, and married in 2001.
In 2002, at the age of 45 and despite all belief that such was beyond possibility for someone her age, Ada gave birth to twins, Henry and Sharon Brent. Even though they had been completely unexpected and though Ada went back and forth a dozen times in the first month of her pregnancy about whether to carry them to term, once the twins were born, she adored them. She doted on them constantly, adjusting her schedule at the hospital to spend as much of their waking time with them as possible, hiring only the absolutely best nanny possible to watch over them when neither parent could be there, buying them many and unnecessary presents, and painting their portraits every three months during their first year and each following year on their birthday. Even the scandal Jacob was involved in shortly after the twins' birth, which resulted in his resignation from the barely-acquired position of DA, could not dampen her spirits nearly so much with the twins to keep her occupied.
In 2006, in the month of October, Ada began to notice something interesting. Since the eclipse that occurred on the first of the month, she had, in her own mind, suddenly become somehow more aware. She could tell when people were lying, effortlessly and without fail. She attributed it to experience of years, perhaps the fact that she could more accurately interpret body language and tone of voice, though none of these were ever consciously noted as the "lie detection" occurred. Unbeknownst to Ada, the eclipse had marked the awakening in her, as in so many others, of a dormant Evolved power: essentially, she had become a human polygraph with nearly one-hundred percent accuracy. No part of her ever considered this "gift" to be anything other than a natural (not supernatural) awakening of the mind, and while she certainly did not ignore its usefulness, at work as well as at home, she made no fuss about its presence.
In November of the same year, Ada and Jacob took what was intended to be a short vacation to a villa they owned on the southern coast of Spain. It was the first time in four years that the two of them vacationed without the twins, whom the couple left with their beloved nanny for the week-long getaway. The bomb exploded in Kirby plaza two days into the vacation. Though in all the chaos it took Ada and Jacob weeks to confirm it, both Henry and Sharon were killed in the blast. Ada was heartbroken. She and her husband remained abroad until 2007, waiting for power restoration and cleanup before returning to find a new apartment — their original home had been lost in the blast.
Ada was never the same after the loss of her children. Though she returned to work, and worked more hours and with great fervor in attempt to help get the rest of the city back on its feet, it took nearly a year for her to be able to put her heart back into her work again. She didn't finish a painting from the time of the bomb until Christmas of 2007, and the first was a melancholy street scene of broken New York under snow, painted in shades of blue. Only recently, since about April of 2008, has she begun to seem more like her old self, smiling with greater frequency and painting cheery subjects once again. She now works at St. Luke's Hospital, as it is one of the most-used and better-functioning in the city, and does her best to keep morale high, both for herself and for the city's residents.
