Jo Peters

Josephine "Jo" Mel Peters is the protagonist of the Fighter series, as well as the eldest daughter of Hannah and Sam Peters, the older sister of Drew, Hayden, Luke, and Seraphina Peters, the younger sister of Josh Peters, and the stepdaughter of Nathan Peters.

Description
''A tomboy with an unbreakable sense of courage and determination. Tragic as a situation may be, Jo can stand up and fight her way through it. She's a force to be reckoned with, but has a kind and compassionate demeanor when it comes to her friends and family.''

Physical Appearance
Jo is a 17 (later 18)-year-old girl with long, wavy brown hair (usually worn in a ponytail or a braid) blue eyes, and tan skin. She has a tall and slender build and usually wears jeans, T-shirts, a hoodie tied around her waist, and brown combat boots.

As the series progresses, however, we see that she is attempting to hide the fact that she has elemental powers, wearing Josh's hoodie frequently and also donning black finger-less gloves to conceal the veins on her hands.

As an adult in the sister series, Jo still maintains her slender and tall physique, but her appearance has undergone some drastic changes. Her hair now only reaches her shoulders and her choices in clothes have matured to causal dresses, jeans, and blouses.

Personality
Living on the streets for a couple years and raising her younger brothers has made Jo a very strong person, adopting a tough-girl, tomboyish demeanor over the years; giving her a fiery temper while also being able to go with the flow.

However, in the books, she is shown to be compassionate and kind to the people she loves, such as Cole and her brothers, revealing something a sensitive person she's hidden over several years.

Because of the house fire, she ails from pyrophobia, becoming increasingly scared, nervous, and lightheaded whenever fire is around or offered to her. She is also known to have nightmares and visions about the house fire. This is prominently shown in Return to Ghost Town, where a dream version of Josh gives her a lit match and she immediately jumps back.

Jo is also shown to suffer from extreme guilt from actions that were beyond her control, such as her younger brother, Sam Jr. dying and her feeling it was her fault for failing to be there, and leaving her older brother, Josh in the flaming house even when he had providentially pushed her out so she wouldn't be harmed.

Powers/Abilities
Pyrokinesis: Jo is able to create and manipulate fire with her mind, as well as to make a flame whip from her hand. This power is deprived from her anger and passion as well as her father's temper that she inherited. This power seems to resemble her father's and older brother's temperamental side of her.

Hydrokinesis: has the ability to make and control water (and maybe ice?) with her mind. She also shows the power to create a crystal blue trident from her hand. This power is pulled from her cool and calm personality and ability to go with the flow. This power seems to resemble her mother's compassionate side of her.

"Balanced" Powers: able to used mixed fire/water powers with enhanced ability. This is meant to symbolize the complicated love from her family, living or deceased. The full power of this love has not been unleashed yet, but part of it has, distracting a possessed Josh long enough for her and Cole to escape. Skilled Hand-To-Hand Combatant: trained in martial arts such as karate, Kung Fu, and Tae Kwon Do (is a black belt in karate). Jo is also seen taking MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) classes when she was twelve in Return to Ghost Town before her uncle Nathan catches her and forces her to stop.
 * Levitation: Jo is able to float off the ground a bit while in this state.
 * Mixed Elemental Wave Emission: when using this power, a wave of fire/water mixture is unleashed. The bigger the emotion the individual is feeling, the more powerful the wave grows.
 * Love Incantation: this incantation hasn't been revealed in a book yet, but might be unleashed by Ellie in the sister series. This demonstrates the ultimate power of love, and can be seen here.

Athleticism: Jo has demonstrated the ability to execute back-flips, sprint long distances without running out of breath, and do the splits without hurting herself.

Swordsmanship: trained by her older brother in the art of fighting with a weapon and is adept at sparring with a sword or staff in hand. Since she learned from Josh, she is considered to be one of the best sword fighters in existence.

Enhanced Physical Prowess: Jo is much stronger than an average teenage girl, able to kick and throw punches with much more force than a normal human being. Whether this is a result from her elemental powers is unclear.

Healing Tears: has the ability to heal wounds, even fatal ones, with her tears, although this is only seen once in the series. These tears are shown to come from extreme emotions, such as love, protectiveness, and being heart broken, all of which are seen when she accidentally heals Cole and brings him back to life.

Survival Skills: is adept to surviving in the wilderness due to living on the streets of Dallas for two years. This includes building fires, cooking, and surviving against the elements.

Josh
Josh is Jo's older brother, and she shares a deep brother-sister bond with him. She also tends to see him as a trustworthy father figure, as he cared for her like a father would after their dad left when she was only six. She is also shown to suffer from extreme guilt from failing to get her brother out of the house fire alive, unaware that Nathan had saved him and was taken to be his apprentice soon after.

Drew
Jo has a very strong sibling bond with her oldest younger brother, trusting him enough to let him in on the mystery of finding their father. She does, however, keep some things secret from him, such as her relationship with Cole, until it comes out in the open. This romantic relationship with their friend puts a strain on their relationship, but later comes out stronger than before.

Alex
Even though Alex is really her stepbrother and not her brother, she still treats him as such, taking him into her own family when he couldn't even remember his own surname and raising him as if he was her own brother.

Luke
Luke is Jo's youngest brother and they have a strong brother-sister bond. It is later revealed that this may be partly because of Luke imprinting on her shortly after he was born.

Seraphina
Seraphina is Jo's youngest sister. The two have a strong sisterly bond, as she acts like a mother towards her and Luke respectively.

Nathan
Nathan is Jo's stepfather, as well as her worst enemy.

Jo is shown to have been physically and psychologically abused by him, from being locked in a closet whenever she was "disobedient" to being wounded by him to the point of needing hospital care.

Issac & Logan
Issac and Logan are Jo's oldest cousins on her father's side, and they share a deep, mutual hatred between each other, although it is unknown why they do.

In Breaking Chains to Form Bonds, however, there is somewhat of an explanation, as the two brothers are seen burning Josh's stuff in a pile and forcing their younger cousin to watch. This might have caused Jo to start resenting them for burning her older brother's things after he'd (supposedly) passed away.

Cole Jones
When they first met, Cole was nothing more than a casual "guy friend", going on adventures together and solving the mystery behind Jo's long-lost father. As time went on, however, Cole began to develop romantic feelings for her, kissing under the stars in Facing the Elements and officially becoming a couple in Return to Ghost Town. In Breaking Chains to Form Bonds, it's revealed they got married and had two children: Ethan and Ellie Jones.

For more information, see Jole.

Owen Dickson
Jo and Owen first met when she was initiated into the Phantom Thieves, becoming close friends and later, boyfriend and girlfriend. The reason they broke up is still unknown, but it is implied it had something to do with Owen turning traitor and Jo leaving the Phantoms after they pressed her to do something immoral.

Nightmares and Fears Explained
Jo's nightmares normally revolve around Nathan and her past, but there's a few instances where we see Josh in them. Is she afraid of her older brother?

No. As tragic as it might be to be scared of your own siblings, Jo's nightmares with Josh in them are basically a physical manifestation of her guilt of supposedly letting him die. Josh does shout in her nightmares "Jo, why did you let me go?!", hinting that she feels responsible for his "death."

The dreams about Nathan and fire are also very similar. Fire reminds Jo of the house fire, as every time she sees the element, it takes her back to that day when she lost everything, including her brother and father figure.

The nightmares about Nathan are Jo's fear of being put back in his care, and the harsh memories of being mistreated and abused by him. In one dream (one that will be mentioned later in Jo's Journal), she explains in the dream Nathan socked her in the nose. She woke up, went to the bathroom mirror, and saw her nose was sore and was bleeding.

The other nightmares with him in them are her fear of turning into her uncle, or, more accurately, the version of her Nathan wants her to be. When the black ooze her uncle turned into consumes her, she looks in the mirror and sees a reflection of herself wearing a uniform similar to Nathan, her hair inky black and the veins on her arms creeping up to her elbows.

Trivia

 * Jo used to have a crush on Owen Dickson, but stopped liking him once he turned traitor.
 * She broke a kid's leg in the third grade when they called her a "weak, dumb girl".
 * Her weapons include a flame whip, a blue trident, and a purple dagger.
 * Her middle name is Mel.
 * Jo's father is half-Latino, making Jo of Latina descent.
 * Her full name, Josephine, is deprived from her mother's middle name, Joanne.