Editing SURGE (section)

==History & Heroic Origin==
Growing up in Freedom City, you learn a lot about heroes, but the kinds of heroes Mary Todd Mathers learned about didn’t wear capes or shoot beams from their eyes, they stood up for what they believed in and penned speeches and letters that can still move people from 200 years away. Mary was a history nut, ever since she saw ‘1776’ as a child, and even though it never made her popular, she was happy that way.

Of course, growing up in Freedom City, you learn a lot about heroes, so when her car collided with that Oratek courier car and she was doused in a glowing chemical from a cooler in the back seat, a remote little corner somewhere in the back of her half-conscious mind said ‘I hope this gives me super powers.”

Mary had been on her way to pick up Damien, her little brother, from soccer practice, just like she had every Thursday since her parents let her get her license. The accident hadn’t necessarily been her fault, but a better driver could certainly have avoided it. It was a moot point, though, because nobody ever suspects that a 17-year-old wasn’t at fault in an accident.
Her hospital stay was mercifully short, but even a week’s stay in ICU comes up to more than John and Amanda Mathers could afford. The side-effects from the chemical bath only added to their financial burden: Mary kept destroying electrical machinery she came in contact with. Left at the wit’s end, the family sued Oratek for medical costs, as well as treatment for their daughters new handicap. The law offices of Cabbot, Cunningham, and Crowley managed to turn the case around in favor of Oratek; after all, who ever heard of suing a company for GIVING you super powers? And Mary’s ability to destroy electronics, although uncontrollable, was certainly a super-power. Oratek was ultimately declared innocent of any fault and the Mathers had a sizable legal bill to add to their woes.

Being middle class, they certainly weren’t out on the street, but the costs and legal battle had taken their toll emotionally. The entire family was spent, and fights became commonplace. Mary, in particular, began to lash out, especially once she learned to control her abilities. Swollen with the false pride of teenager who just discovered she had super-powers, Mary undertook a quest for revenge against Oratek CEO Walter Winston. However, never having been a particularly ‘mean’ person, her revenge was a bit… immature (and harmless). Before long, Walter’s realized that the harassment he’d been enduring was the work of an electrical superhuman, and managed to trick Next Gen into chasing her off.

Afraid to go home now that ‘the authorities’ were on to her, Mary took on the name Control Freak and started surviving by her powers and wits, stealing what she needed but usually running from any superhuman confrontations. Eventually, she signed up with a young mastermind calling himself Brain Child and became a member of the Red Guard, but even in the company of other young superhumans, Mary didn’t feel fulfilled. Just before she was about to defect and turn herself into the police, Next Gen located and busted the entire group, save for their ringleader.
After cooperating with the police and showing remarkably good behavior in Freedom Juvenile Hall, a 19-year-old Mary was released on parole and her juvenile record sealed to help her start her life anew.

Mary has been attending Freedom City University for six months now as a history major, and has done a good job of impressing her professors thus far. Dorm life is more-or-less agreeing with her, although she’d prefer quieter neighbors and a roommate who wasn’t so…. Teenaged. She manages to hold down a job at the natural history museum on campus and maintain a stellar GPA, all while working on a manuscript for a biography on Benjamin Franklin (Tentatively titled: Franklin: The Drunken, Womanizing, Arse and Why We Love Him). Relations with her parents have grown strong since her capture and they get along at least as well now as they ever did before her accident, though her little brother is still at that awkward age where he hates everyone he has blood ties to.

Despite her good behavior, Mary is only on parole and is considered to be under ‘house arrest’. She is required to wear an electronic tracking bracelet on her ankle and isn’t permitted to leave the area of the FCU and her parents’ home. Luckily, the sealing of her juvenile records means that the corrections system (including her parole officer) is completely unaware of the nature of her powers. As a mistress of machinery, Mary can slip out of the bracelet any time she wants, and by popping it onto something that moves around but can’t leave the dorm (like, say, her cat Jefferson), Mary can come and go as she pleases.

Besides history, Mary’s favorite things to do include wandering the internet and using her electrical form to teleport across phone lines to visit national monuments and historical sites.