So apparently we might just be getting
Freedom City on Monday. If this turns out to be a false flag
again ...
Not every legacy is a happy one.
When he was in his late teens, Billy Baldwin was exposed to a strange radiation and soon realized that he'd gained the power to alter his physical form in any way imaginable. He resolved to use this ability to protect the innocent, and became the superhero Morphogenesis and join the League in their Bronze Age incarnation. He was also a family man, marrying one Sophia Kellerman and having two children, Rachel (born 1970) and William Jr. (born 1976).
While times were tough for the young Baldwin family, they were happy and reasonably prosperous. It soon became apparent that Rahcel had inherited super-powers from her father, though hers were very different. Instead of being able to change her own body's substance, she was able to cause such molecular changes in objects that she touched. Her physiology was also every bit as robust as her father's, but that wouldn't become apparent for some time.
Tragically, Billy Baldwin was killed in 1983, fighting alongside the Atom Family against an invasion from Sub-Terra. Left destitute by this loss, Sophia Baldwin made an effort to re-connect with her father, expecting to be turned away again. Surprisingly, he agreed to let them live with him, but proved to be cold (and occasionally verbally cruel) to Rachel, and to a lesser extent towards her brother as well. Making matters worse, Rachel was home-schooled by a series of tutors, some of whom were physically abusive, and nearly all of whom called her a freak -- either to her face, or when they thought she couldn't hear.
Two years later, Rachel was manipulated by her mother into killing her grandfather with the heretofore unknown other side of her super-power -- a toxic touch attack. Tried as an adult due to the serious nature of the crime, Rachel was painted by the prosecution as being every bit as dangerous as the outlawed vigilantes called FORCE Ops. The prosecutors were unable to secure a first degree murder conviction, but did convince the jury to find her guilty of second-degree murder, and sentence her to twenty to life.
Dispatched to serve her sentence at Blackrock, Rachel wasn't exactly what the corrections officers would calle a model prisoner -- she basically moped around, passing up chances to improve herself, and never snitched. Still, she did win points when she passed up the chance to escape the prison during the Terminus Invasion. Even that, though, was apparently more due to her belief that this time the world was doomed, and she could see no point to escaping under those circumstances.
Finally, in 2006, she became eligible for parole. Most of the police officers and prosecutors who'd worked her case had become "unavailable" after the end of the Moore era, and her mother (who'd become the fifteenth wealthiest Freedonian after inheriting her father's fortune) didn't bother to show up for the hearing. With Warden Drummer's generally positive recommendation, the parole board granted Rachel early release, contingent on her doing community service with Freedom City's Project Freedom.
So Rachel (or Toxic, as the papers dubbed her) joined the Ex-Cons for what was expected to be a twenty year sentence. Her transmutation abilities proved an asset to the team's "regular" community projects, and she was surprised to find herself making friends with her teammates. During the events dubbed 'the Time of Vengeance', she played a crucial role in ending the rampage of the Death Angel, and was horrified to be the recipient of the latter's last words: "All I ever wanted was to be a hero like you."
Shaken by this, she was further startled over the next few months to discover evidence of her mother's misdeeds, resulting in her brother's imprisonment for a series of serial killings and her mother's flight from the country. Gradually, under the mentorship of Harriet Wainwright, and with the friendship of many of the members of Project Freedom, she came to realize that she wanted to be a hero ... and found herself confronted with the opportunities to do so, confronting Omega himself on two separate occasions.
After the last mission of Wainwright's Project Freedom, Toxic was offered a pardon but refused it. She believed that she had a responsibility to remain as part of Project Freedom to honor Wainwright's memory, at least until she could complete the terms of her probation. In the following years, she remained as one of the team's few constants, and often the team leader. She also maintained the romantic relationship she'd begun with fellow Project Freedom veteran Frederik 'Dr. Sane' Zane, even as he was active as the team's technical advisor.
Toxic, Zane and the rest of Project Freedom were highly involved in the secret wars in Freedom City between 2008 and 2013, and the end of the Grant administration was as much the result of their hard work as it was Daedelus and the Raven's investigation. Folowing the celebration of the election of Callie Summers, however, Toxic found herself pregnant with Zane's child, and gave birth to Billie in 2015. Anyone expecting motherhood to soften her a bit should probably kick themselves for idiocy ...
Not every legacy is a happy one ... but Toxic is bound and determined that her kid will get just that.
Toxic -- PL 12
Abilities: STR 1 |
STA 4 |
AGL 3 |
DEX 3 |
FGT 6 |
INT 1 |
AWE 3 |
PRE 3
Powers: Weird Aura (Array: Continuous Transform 15 [any non-living material into anything else, 12 tons], Precise, Quirk [injured and fatigued by transforming "exotic materials"], AP: Damage 15, Resisted by Fortitude, Reaction [physical contact], Secondary Effect, AP: Cumulative Progressive Affliction 10 (Resisted by Fortitude, Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated), Reaction [physical contact], Secondary Effect ),
Weird Constitution (Enhanced Fortitude 10, Impervious; Immunity 2 (critical hits); Protection 6; Impervious Toughness 10, Limited to Physical),
Weird Senses (Senses 3 [acute touch, analytical touch, detect life (mental)]),
Mental Link (Sense 1 [communication link with Frederik Zane]).
Advantages: Connected, Diehard, Extraordinary Effort, Inspire, Ultimate Effort (Fortitude)
Skills: Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+9), Deception 4 (+7), Expertise: Superheroes 8 (+9), Insight 6 (+9), Intimidation 5 (+8), Perception 4 (+7), Persuasion 8 (+11)
Offense: Initiative +3, Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 1), Lethal Setting +9 (Damage 15, Resisted by Fortitude), Not-As-Lethal-Setting +9 (Cumulative Progressive Fortitude 10).
Defenses: Dodge 14, Parry 6, Fortitude 14, Toughness 10, Will 10
Totals: Abilities 48+Advantages 5+Skills 19+Powers 120+Defenses 18=210
Complications: Doing Good--Motivation. Enemy (Toxic's worst enemy, her mother, remains at large and commands considerable resources),
Relationship (Toxic is firmly in love with Frederik Zane, and has friendships with Donnie Benis, Charlie Graham and Zalman.
She also looks out for any former members of Project Freedom. Except for Robin Greyfaulks, because BEEP her, man, BEEP her. And then there's her kid.)
Temper (Toxic has a bitter, cynical and sarcastic streak a mile long. She doesn't readily trust authority figures, and is particularly skeptical about the wealthy until she gets a chance to know them.),
Unreliable Power (Toxic's "not-as-lethal" aura has been known to 'flare' into its fully lethal levels without warning).
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."