Orchid

**Orchid** (also called the **Black Orchid** in tribute to her dark beauty) is a playable female fighter and a major signature character of the *Killer Instinct* games, having featured prominently in every installment of the series to date. A secret agent and highly trained assassin who boasts mysterious powers, Orchid was dispatched by a shadowy organization to uncover the truth behind Ultratech's nefarious activities. In *Killer Instinct (2013)*, she's a rogue counterintelligence operative who has embarked on a personal crusade against the megacorporation, and founded an underground resistance movement known as the Disavowed. Along with her younger half-brother, Jago, Orchid is one of the main protagonists of the *Killer Instinct* franchise.

## Biography

### Appearance

In the original *Killer Instinct (1994)*, Orchid is an athletic and dark-haired young woman wearing a green leotard that has the word "HOT" written on the side in yellow letters. The ends of her leotard feature a yellow lining around her thighs, and she wears green gloves and ankle-length, high-heeled boots. The boots also have yellow cut-offs and show extra weapons strapped to them. Orchid has a green and yellow headband wrapped around her head and wields two plasma-based eskrima sticks.

In *Killer Instinct 2*, Orchid had a slight redesign, with her leotard now possessing holes on the sides of her chest and cutting off at the 'v' between her legs, her boots extending all the way up to her thighs, and her eskrima sticks being replaced with electrified tonfas. She also has a pair of circular earrings.

In *Killer Instinct (2013)*, she receives a complete design overhaul but in comparison to many of the other characters she retains a design largely similar to her original appearance. Orchid now has a pair of nightvision goggles atop her head, a green armored bustier over a white top, green shorts with a belt around them, black cut-off gloves while on her left upper arm she has a green strap of cloth wrapped around her bicep, bandages wrapped around her wrists and a mini-computer on her right wrist. She wears a single shin-guard on her right knee along with another strap of cloth, and ankle high, high-heeled combat boots. Orchid once more uses electronic eskrima sticks in battle.

Orchid's retro costume closely mirrors her original 1994 appearance but also mixes in minor elements from her KI2 outfit, such as boots and a pair of circular earrings which are much bigger than she had in the previous game.

### Personality

 — Orchid's story mode description

A steadfast and intrepid servicewoman, Orchid's life changed dramatically when she was sent to investigate a RUMINT about the sinister ambitions and sprawling web of influence of the supposedly defunct Ultratech. Quickly uncovering that the corporation not only remains active but in fact has never been as powerful, Orchid becomes targeted by Ultratech's enigmatic CEO, ARIA, after she gathers information that threatens to expose the full extent of the company's influence over governments, mass media, financial institutions and the military-industrial complex.

Disavowed by her own organization and labelled a dangerous rogue, the Black Orchid responds by making Ultratech's smears her own, and establishes an underground spy network of agents who were similarly brought to ruin by the megacorporation. Bereft of official support, in constant danger, and under severe psychological strain, ARIA expected Orchid to falter. But the secret agent instead embarks on a crusade against Ultratech, and starts building out the Disavowed into a fully-fledged paramilitary resistance movement, bent on strategically sabotaging ARIA's operations across the world.

Pitted in a contest of wills against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, Orchid becomes increasingly volatile, until she is reunited with her long-lost half-brother, Jago; with the siblings resolving to support each other in their struggles, no matter the outcome.

### Abilities

Trained for most of her life as an elite field agent for covert operations, black ops and wetworks by the Special Warfare Department of the US military, the mysterious and beautiful woman known as the Black Orchid combines the qualities of a special forces operative and an assassin, rendering her deceptively lethal in combat. Orchid fights in a military CQC-style that emphasizes legwork, grappling and ground control techniques in order to subdue her victims, and utilizes various crowd control weaponry, such as stun batons and flashbang grenades, to control and disorient her mark before taking it down.

Because of a highly classified government experiment that has been performed on her paternal grandmother, the Black Orchid is capable of summoning a cat-like manifestation of energy (which she affectionately calls the "firecat") that obeys her every command and which assaults anything that is threatening her. Orchid has been known to assume this cat-like form of energy herself as well, implying that the "firecat" in actuality is the extension of her own life force.

## Quotes

 — Orchid's intro quote

 — Orchid derides Ultratech's assassin Sadira, after taking her down during the events of Shadow Lords

 — Orchid finally tracks down ARIA

 — B. Orchid, moments before performing her Ultra Combo (presumably on ARIA)

 — Orchid takes on Shadow Jago during Shadow Lords

 — Orchid in the *Killer Instinct* comics (1996)

 — B. Orchid being her usual self in the middle of the End Times

 — Orchid unleashing her Ichi Ni San attack

 — Orchid's air leg grapple technique

 — Orchid in the KI comics (1996)

## TMNT X Pokemon

Orchid takes her job seriously. She does stealth missions.

## Trivia

* The lyrics to Orchid's new theme song for *Killer Instinct (2013)*, aptly titled "*Touch Me And I'll Break Your Face*", seem to be directed at ARIA specifically (the colorful line "*you'll never see me coming, bitch!*" in particular), as they put into words B. Orchid's fearless defiance of Ultratech.
	+ Similarly, the line "*please man, I'm outta your league*" appears to be a jab aimed at Cinder, ARIA's lieutenant, who, like Orchid, has a distinguished service record in the US special forces in his backstory for KI 2013.
* In 1994, if the opponent is another Orchid during her breast flash No Mercy, instead of having a heart attack, she will throw her eskrimas down and stomp her heels in frustrated jealousy.
* Orchid's animation while using the Fire Cat in *Killer Instinct 2* is recycled from the first Killer Instinct game; the sprite reverts to her original appearance while transforming.
* In *Killer Instinct (2013)*, Orchid's *KI2* costume was meant to be her retro costume but it was later scrapped and gave her *Killer Instinct (1994)* appearance instead.
* During development of the original arcade version of *Killer Instinct* in 1994, which at the time was under the original name "Brute Force", Orchid was not yet created, and in her place were two scrapped female characters: Roxxy/Roxy Rave and Wanda.
	+ While Roxxy has not been used in the KI media at all *(due to her character being scrapped and replaced with Orchid)*, her concept appearance looks similar to Ultratech secretary Kara from the non-canon KI Special comics.
* When heard very closely in her intro, a voice can be heard talking to and supposedly directing Orchid from her unseen communication device, saying *"Orchid, confirm visual."* and *"What's your time estimate?"*. This is possibly a fellow member of the Disavowed or presumably her superior.