SURGE
Contents
Surge
M&M2e Stats
PL: 10 (120 pp)
Age: 20
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 130lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
First Appearance: Next Gen #28 (as Mary Todd Mathers), Next Gen #31 (as Control Freak), The Tribe #1 (as Surge)
Personality
Mary Todd Mathers is a bit of a bookworm; not necessarily shy so much as quiet and a touch cynical. She's fairly intelligent, but definately knows she's no Einstein; still, she often uses very cerebral humor and always seems confused when no one but her gets it. She can be anal retentive to a fault and likes things to be clean.
As Surge, she doesn't really have much of a mean streak and made a terrible villain. She's not terribly violent and worries about hurting people with her powers. Still, while inside a machine Mary gets a little bit of a rush from feeling so much bigger and stronger than her little frame could everhave hoped to be, and she is a little more confident and less cynical while controlling a device.
Mary has a great love of history, especially American history, and usually prefers to read or debate with other history or civics geeks. Her heroes are Abraham Lincoln, Samuel Adams, and Franklin Roosevelt, and her primary motivation for heroics is to try and pay some respect to those patriot's legacies.
Part Time Jobs or Internships
Mary works part-time at the Hunter Museum of Natural History (ironically, a museum she herself once robbed) as a filing clerk. She spends her hours organizing the museum's thousands of tons of archeological minutia, especially Pre-Columbian Meso- and North-American pot sherds. Her two co-workers are Edmond and Francine, a married couple who possibly pre-date the museum (they met there) and are as disgustingly romantic at age 85 as they were at 20.
Mary's department is run by the ham-fisted Pension Hughs, a short man just bright enough to think he should have gotten better in life. Despite his dreams of archeological granduer, Hughs is a beuracrat through and through; he loves needless organization, feels paperwork is the foundation of western civilization, and loves nothing more than lording his imaginary power over others. He's aware of Mary's status as a juvenile delinquent (he had to fill out a number of forms when she was hired to that effect) and lords it over her while threatening to fire her over any percieved official or personal infaction. His is completely unaware that his newest clerk has powers, however, and would likely be terrified of her if he did.
School Funding
Thanks to an outstanding high school record, impressive SAT scores, and several letters of recomendation from various educators both pre- and post-arrest (including Duncan Summers), Mary is handling a great deal of her schooling through scholarships. Many of them are dependant on her maintaining her ties with the Hunter Museum of Natural History (she'd much prefer working at the Freedom City Historical Museum by the park, but such is life).
What scholarships don't cover, her parents help pay for. The Mathers' are happy to have their daughter back and thrilled that she's working on the straight and narrow towards her degree.
Relationship
Not being a very big 'people person', Surge tends to shy away from romantic encounters; they're the one area of personal interaction she's actually uncomfortable with, not just uninterested in.
Like most high school girls, Mary lost her virginity awkwardly and quickly, after her homecoming dance sophmore year. She was 16 at the time, and hasn't had a real relationship to speak of since. She does, however, harbor a secret crush on her history professor, Mr. Niya.
Where do you like to Hang Out when not in class or at work
Where else is their besides class and work? Libraries and museums are Mary's two favorite places, followed closely by auction houses, archives, and large personal collections. She gets excited about the Constitution like most college girls get excited over Madman Finale.
There's an old-fashioned soda fountain near Liberty Park that her parents used to take her to when she was younger. On rainy days, she likes to head out that way and try to drown her troubles in their home-brewed ginger ale. Unfortunately, Mary technically has to violate her parole to do so, slipping off her ankle bracelette and popping it onto the cat while she's out.
Physical Appearance
Mary isn't unattractive, but she's no looker, either. She lets her shoulder-length, chocolatey-brown hair cover half her face more out of grudging surrender than desire (it's never been 'style' hair) and carries a few extra pounds in her hips. She has nice eyes and a genuine smile, usually being shown off while discovering a new manuscript in the museum's archives or finding an error in a history textbook.
Surge's old 'Control Freak' costume was a work shirt and trousers along with old army boots and a long coat with a black-and-blue lightning-bolt motif. Obviously she has no desire to take on her old mantle and hasn't really thought of a new costume idea yet. She's definately thinking MASK this time, though.
Heroic Motivations
Mary wants to repent for her awkward year spent trying to take hat she wanted... a year she remembers as amazingly unfulfilling. She also wants to live up to the sorts of ideals put forward by great (and amusingly perverted) patriots like Franklin and Jefferson.
Allegiance
Mary believes in the Constitution, Bjork, Jimmy Carter, choclate eclairs, public radio, Saturday-morning cartoons, and trying to be a decent human being.
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.
Powers and Battle Tactics
Surge's powers allow her to transform into a being of pure electricity, but she can't maintain it for more than a few moments unless she can 'rest' inside something conductive. Among other things, this allows her to leap like lightning for hundreds of feet or even teleport along conductors and phone lines. By far, her most impressve ability is to 'hop' into and control electrical machinery, from household appliances to industrial machinery to supertech. The capacitance gel in her body also allows her to absorb and redirect electricty, even from a distance.
Surge is well aware of the fact that she's not much of a fighter. If trouble starts, her primary concern is not getting in anyone's way and, if possible, cause a distraction (in you consider ramming someone with a '97 Lincoln Continental distracting).
3x3 NPCs
FRIENDS
- John and Amanda Mathers - Mary's Parents. They've forgiven their daughter for her youthful indescretions and are just happy to have her home again and pulling her life together. The subject of her powers is still an uncomfortable one, but at least they've finally gotten used to Mary popping in and out through the telephone.
- Edmond and Francine Botz - A geriatric couple who work with Mary at the museum. They love waxing poetic about the good old days and the War, something that would drive most other college students away; Mary loves listening to their stories, though.
- Madeline "Maddie" Cable - A girl from several of Mary's History classes and the closest thing Mary has to a friend her own age. They often team up for group projects, and occassionally sit together at lunch to debate the Louisiana Purchase or the Munroe Doctrine, but they have different ideas of 'fun' for their down time and don't hang out much.
CONTACTS
- Adriane - Adriane isn't a person you meet, he's a person other people introduce you to. A FreeSA fashion-design grad who never quite hit it big, Adriane has a gift for sewing spandex that doesn't look ridiculous. He runs a small business out of his day job where he makes costumes, no questions asked, for whoever has the cash. Many small-time villains, neophyte heroes, and professional wrestlers do their best to keep on the fickle man's good side.
- Damien Mathers - Mary's 15-year-old brother. Damien is at the stage where he hates everyone and everything, and is going through a phase where he blames his sister's accident and her breif life of crime for him not being 100% happy. He tends to give her the cold should when she visits unless she's buying his something.
- Gertie - Gertie is the usual soda jerk/waitress at the Sodableu, a small restaurant and ice cream shop where Mary usually studies when she's not in the library or the museum. She's worked at the shop for nearly 30 years and knows most of the regulars.
ENEMIES
- Pension Hughes - Mary's boss at her part-time job at the Hunter Museum. Hughes is a terrible little man who enjoys beuracratic power more than most anything and doesn't understand much about pre-Columbian culture (unfortunate, since that's his department). He enjoys threatening to fire people, but doesn't know enough about the work they do to ever hope to replace them on his own.
- Brain Child - Mervin Tecker is the supergenius who first organized the Red Guard (Surge's old superteam). He was the only member who escaped capture at the hands of Next Gen 18 months ago and hasn't been heard since. His modus opperandi was a clear plastic dome head (he likes for others to see his brain) and his self-designed 'Omni-Gun', an over-sized pistol with a variety of cartridge plug-ins that do everything from inflict damage to shrink to transform people into ducks. Mervin was constantly working to develop new cartridges to make him 'the most versatile mastermind in history!' and mostly used the team to steal new technology for him (or create distractions so he could steal it himself).
- Neriad and Megastar - While most members of Next Gen are overjoyed when a former supervillain turns over a new leaf and goes straight, some just can't drop it all and let bygones be bygones. Surge tangled with Next Gen on four different occassions (two independant and two with the team); three times resulted in runnng away as quickly as possible and the fourth resulted in her capture. Megastar just loves to harass everybody, but Neriad still bares a grudge from the only time she and Surge actually fought; neither will discuss the matter, but apparently it involved an industrial cake mixer.
LOCATIONS
- Sodableu - An old-fashioned soda fountain near Liberty Park. The tiny shop makes most of their sodas and ice cream from scratch, using the same recipies they had when the shop opened just after WWII. One wall is covered with photographs of heroes picking up something to snack on at the bar, including the original Johnny Rocket, the Centurion, Foreshadow, and more recently, Neriad and Sonic of Next Gen.
- The Pym Building - Mary's dorm building, located near the FCU science buildings. Most of the building houses science geeks and various nerds, but the 6th floor (right above Mary's) is known for it's wild parties.
- Francine Dox Memorial High School - A typical suburban high school lacated in Grenville; the Dox Dragons. Mary never officially graduated from this school, but considers it 'her' high school.
ORGANIZATIONS
- Oratek - Oratek is a small think-tank owned by Majestic Industries. They're primary goal is the research of superconductors and energy storage technology, but they've only met with limited success thus far and the company is constantly on the verge of being shut down. They aren't evil, per se, but there are things deperate men will do that comforable men would never consider. The current CEO of Oratek is Walter Wilson.
- Hunter Museum of Natural History - A museum located on the FCU campus dedicated primary to archeology. It's collection is vast and it's archives are impressive, extending several stories underground.
- The FCU History Club - A small study group for history majors where Mary tutors when she has spare time.
