Steve Coops

Beetle Drive and Danger Girl

L-R Darnell, Aliyah and Danger Girl

One good deed changed her life.


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Chloe Loring
  • Aliyah Tucker
  • Darnell Tucker

CLEA Classification:

  • Advanced Raider (Chloe)
  • Mecha Pilot (Aliyah and Darnell)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Nanobots give her greatly increased human attributes, including speed, strength, endurance and an exceptionally fast healing ability.
  • The Mecha are extremely powerful enabling then to defeat most “normal” opponents.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • EM attacks can disrupt her abilities and disable the mecha.
  • Mecha size makes the awkward in tight spaces and limits stealth.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

Danger Girl
Chloe Loring started her life under difficult circumstances. An only child, her mother absconded with a lover before her first birthday, and so she was brought up solely by her father. He adored her and would do anything for her, but love alone could not provide for the material things in life. He had limited qualifications and, so he was forced to take on any jobs he could find and worked long hours for meagre pay. Whatever cash was spare he tried to use it to make family life bearable.

However new things for Chloe was something of a luxury. Whilst her friends had the latest gadgets and clothes she made do with whatever was fashionable years earlier. She at least understood the situation although that did not make her school life any easier since the other children used to tease her about her poor background. Despite the hardships she got good grades and after settling into working life was able to hold down a job as a waitress. This became especially important since her father had taken ill and she became the sole bread winner. Having learned to manage on very little the fact that their financial circumstances had not changed did not really affect family life. Tragedy struck though before she was twenty-one. Her father’s illness rapidly escalated and he died just two days short of her birthday.

For a while she did not know what to do with herself. Father and daughter had struggled together for so long that she felt very alone. She thought a new career might be an answer but after several failed attempts returned to a job as a waitress. Then one day she saw a position become available for a social worker looking after under privileged children. This was her calling and though she felt she was underqualified she applied anyway and was astonished when she got the job. Having had a difficult childhood and being used to having very little she was able to get a deep understanding of those under her care. The work was very rewarding and for the first time in her life she felt that she was finally achieving something instead of a daily struggle. Her own past gave her valuable insight and that in turn allowed her to progress to a senior position.

Unfortunately, fate would once again interfere at the age of twenty-eight, when a drunk driver lost control of his car, mounted the sidewalk and run her over. The accident resulted in a fractured spine and would see her wheel chair bound with not much chance of recovery. Compensation paid her medical bills and afforded her a modest income, but she had to give up the job she adored. Sitting around in the apartment was not her style so she found work at a local charity shop as a means to keep herself occupied. Her life then took a completely drastic change when one night, she returned to her apartment complex and found a woman trying to break unto a janitor’s closet. The woman was wearing strange body armour and sporting a hefty gun that would not look out of place in a sci-fi movie. Though Chloe had heard of so called heroes and villains slugging it out on the streets around the world and even seen footage on the news she had never come face to face with one of the so called “super humans”.

The look of panic in the woman’s eyes indicated she was in trouble. Her old job had taught her how to spot the signs so despite the huge gun she was not afraid of the woman. She asked if she could help and the woman told her that she needed a place to “hide” because “they” were coming for her. Chloe suggested the police but the woman refused saying any police involvement would help her enemies find her quicker as they could monitor the police channels. Wanting to help, Chloe suggested the woman come to her apartment and  hide out there. The woman accepted, but for two days refused to leave, out of fear.

This surprised Chloe because she thought anyone wearing the sort of body armour the stranger was wearing could deal with anything, especially with that gun. Chloe tried to understand the situation better, but the woman refused to reveal anything other than she was not of “your Earth.” That comment did not make sense to Chloe, who wondered if she was perhaps harbouring a mad woman. However, the strangeness was set to get worse for the woman enquired why she needed a wheel chair.

Chloe explained her injury and thought nothing of it and then later that night she awoke to find her guest on top of her injecting her back with something. Panicking Chloe started screaming and her guest struck her knocking her out. The next morning her guest had gone without a trace. Chloe thought that it was a close call and then when she tried to shuffle off her bed and into her wheel chair she discovered she could “feel” her legs.

She thought she was imagining it but when she concentrated she realised she could move them as well. Risking everything she made it to the end of the bed and attempted to stand and for the first time in three years she was able to stay vertical without help. The realisation then struck her and she now knew that whatever her guest had done to her the previous night had cured her injury. Chloe did not believe in miracle cures and so went to see her doctor who like her was amazed and referred her to a specialist at the hospital to investigate. Under a scan at the hospital the specialist discovered some sort of artificial cell like metallic object in her blood stream that he could not identify but stated they seemed to be acting in unison and were repairing her damaged tissues.

That was too much for Chloe to cope with, so she fled the hospital. Deep down she knew the authorities would eventually come looking but was surprised two days later when two CLEA agents showed up. In a candid interview they explained that she had been “infected” with nanobots from a Raider but the design of them was far in advance of anything they had seen. They wanted to know how she had come by them or if she had designed them. Chloe could only tell them about her strange visitor and nothing else, simply because she did not know anything else. The agents tried to insist she come with them so the scientists could study the nanobots further but Chloe co-operated only so far as giving them a blood sample.

Having admitted she was not “contagious” or had broken any laws, Chloe simply wanted to get on with her life and now able to walk again she had plenty of things she wanted to try. The agents tried to persuade her that she would be useful to CLEA’s work but she was adamant about not going with her. She half expected them to come back at a later date but CLEA never returned. With a new lease of life she tried to return to doing the job she loved the most but the people had moved on and there was no position left that she felt would be useful. Taking advantage of her freedom, she decided on a complete break and tried a few jobs she never would have considered before, but none really gave her the buzz of helping people. In the mean time she found new hobbies to entertain herself and joined a gym and that’s when she discovered that whenever she tried to push herself her body easily adapted to meet her targets. If she needed to lift weights, then after only a few sessions she would be able to achieve her goal with little effort. Her fitness coach was amazed.

However it slowly started to dawn on Chloe that her success was not down to dedication but the nanobots inside her body. The truth was starkly revealed one day when she tripped and fell down some stone steps close to her apartment. One of her legs was badly gashed but before onlookers arrived to see what was a matter the cut had begun to heal. She tried to ignore what had happened until the day she stopped a street mugging. Normally as a person she would have avoided thugs on the street but something inside made her want to do something and taking down a mugger with ease gave her an idea. Now accepting that the nanobots were behind all her recent achievements she realised they could give her the means to help people in ways she could never have previously imagined before meeting the stranger. She chose to become a costumed adventurer. Since her body could repair itself quickly and the nanobots enhanced her muscles so she could run faster than normal people and perform seemingly impossible death defying acrobatics the media eventually dubbed her Danger Girl. In time she would establish a rapport with other heroes but her biggest breakthrough came when she encountered the Phoenix Alliance and they asked her to become a reserve member of their group and continue working out of Pacifica.

Through them she met with the Knight’s Forge and they provided her with an advanced “bike” that she could use to get to criminal incidents faster. As well as exceptional speeds the bike had the means to actually fly a short distance via small life engines and a jet thruster ahead of the rear wheel. The actual unit, designed by the Think Tank had been in storage for some time, since it was discovered during trials there was an inherent issue with stability. The computers and gyros could not act quick enough to stabilise it meaning the rider had to compensate with his/her balance. No human rider though had the necessary quick reflexes , so the project was mothballed. However, Chloe with her quick nanobot enhanced reflexes presented no such disadvantage.

In time CLEA would identify the “person” who altered Chloe as the Raider they knew as “Omega”, one of several people whom had “arrived” from parallel Earths on an event they had dubbed “Breach Day”.

Beetle Drive

Father of Aliyah and Darnell Tucker, Reginald was a well renowned engineer and scientist whose career had stalled after the death of his wife. Since both children where in primary education he felt it best to concentrate on his parental duties and thus opted to become a stay-at-home dad. By the time Aliyah and Darnell were both at High School, Reginald decided to look for work but could not really find a job which suited his skill set and have the hours he needed to be at home.

He bounced around several part time jobs before his prayers seemed answered when he was approached by a couple of shadowy types who claimed to work for the US Government and wanted his help on a research project that was vital to “National Security”. Seemingly aware of his family status, the pair told Reginald he would live on site with his children and they would receive free education. Though Aliyah and Darnell were not keen to abandon their friends and lives, being a close family they decided that they would “help out Dad” after the sacrifices he had made for them.

Since it was a highly secret project, Reginald thought nothing of why the transport that collected them had blacked out windows. The journey took the better part of two days and then once he and the family settled in the “residential” facilities, Reginald was finally taken to the work area, a large warehouse type building.

Once inside he was shown to large mechanical “insects” and it was explained to him that they were in fact recovered alien technology, and that the US government wanted to get them fully operational with a view to using them as weapons for threats to the country. Most of the work in repairing the machines seemed to have taken place so he did not see what his purpose was until it was explained that the controls of the mecha units involved a direct neural connection. This was his speciality.

After being given access to the implants extracted from the dead alien pilots, Reginald started work on trying to either fix them or make an alternative that would interface the human brain with the mecha. For months studied the alien devices but progress was slow. Clearly his superiors were not happy with the speed because when he thought he’d managed to recreate the implants, they immediately wanted human testing.

Reginald was not happy with rushing like this as he preferred a more lengthy period of testing. He first began to suspect that all was not what it seemed when the potential test pilot brought in happened to be a male teenager, barely older than Darnell. He realised the mecha cockpits were small but had assumed they would just use small adults as test pilots – not children. Realising that the US Government would never sanction such a move, Reginald finally guessed he was working for someone far more dangerous. He refused to carry out the test so his employers took his children from him.

Forced to continue with the test, when the interface was fitted to the boy and the mecha powered up it all went horribly wrong and the test subject’s brain was fried. Seemingly unperturbed by the outcome his employers insisted on him carrying on with his work. Over the period of several more months more tests followed and along with it more innocent lives. Every so often his employers would bring his children to visit via an armed escort as a means to encourage him.

Trapped and scared for his children Reginald had no choice but to continue. He contemplated taking his own life but could not do that for he knew with him gone, Darnell and Aliyah were surplus to requirements. Just when things reached an all time low, one of the guards reached out to him. Sickened by the senseless killing of children, the guard, whom Reginald knew only as Jack told him that they were working for “Citadel”. Jack explained he had joined the Criminal group as he believed they were the only ones doing something about the alien threat on Earth. Killing humans though was not what he had signed up for.

Via coded conversations the pair set about finding a way for Reginald and his family to escape. Reginald had no idea how this could be accomplished until one day, one of his test subjects successfully linked with the mecha. A sudden flash of inspiration entered Reginald’s mind and he shut down the test, faking a failure. At least this time the teenager did not die.

He informed Jack of what he had done, and the pair realised that they could use the mecha as a means to escape. However Jack warned Reginald that Citadel was not run by fools and it would not take other scientists working for the organisation to realise that the last test had been sabotaged. Reginald began building another pair of implants with due haste and the next time Aliyah and Darnell where brought for a visit the plan was set in motion.

Jack immediately opened fire on the other two guards killing them whilst Reginald locked down the building. That done they had gained precious time for Reginald to install the implants in his children. Jack reckoned they had a maximum of thirty minutes before other guards would realise something was wrong and try to gain access.

This did not leave much time for explanations but Aliyah and Darnell trusted their father and did everything as asked. Unfortunately for the Tucker family, the alarm was raised a lot earlier than expected and armed troops began trying to open the doors. Reginald had just managed to secure his children in the cockpits of the mecha when armed guards managed to break into the building and began shooting.

Connected to the mecha, Darnell and Aliyah found the controls rather intuitive due to them directly “talking” to the machines they were each sat in which was fortunate as all hell was breaking loose. To give his children extra time to “learn” he closed their cockpits. The mechas began to move, but neither pilot could find the weapons system.

Despite the intimidation the appearance of the machines on the more could create, the hostile guards still continued to fire. Jack did his best to hold them off but was rapidly running out of ammunition. Reginald grabbed another gun and joined in, having realised that they were not all going to make it.

More hostiles swarmed into the building Jack was felled and then Reginald was also shot. As he lay on the floor dying he shouted to Aliyah and Darnell to escape. Aliyah wanted to save he father but Darnell persuaded he to carry out her father’s wishes. Without weapons the pair were forced to smash their way out of the building and luckily for them the Citadels troops decided not to give chase.

The pair found an old abandoned farm in which to lay low for a few weeks, fearing that Citadel would  do anything to retrieve “their” tech. Despite the fact neither of them had any sighting of Citadel, their hypothesis was correct. However Citadel had guessed the pair had travelled south when they had gone north instead.

Eventually the food they had scavenged at the farm ran out and Darnell and Aliyah were forced out of hiding. Figuring they needed money they decided to travel to the nearest built up area under the cover of darkness with the intention of robbing a bank. The nearest town though happened to be the Pacifica, a mega city, which was a lot better policed than the average small town and therefore one of the worst types of places to perform an amateur heist. This though was more a act of desperation than any desire to become career criminals and to complicate matters further they did not realise was they were on Danger Girl’s territory.

As soon as the sirens began blaring out and the local police realised they were dealing with something they could not handle, Danger Girl chose to enter the fray. She engaged the pair and they exchanged fire, although in truth neither Darnell or Aliyah wanted to hurt anyone. Abandoning their goal the pair fled as quick as the mecha could take them, causing plenty of collateral damage to property and vehicles alike as they made their escape.

Danger Girl pursued and forced them to stand down when they were less than a mile from their “hideout” at the farm. Chloe had guessed she had not been dealing with experienced criminals  but was surprised when a pair of teenagers exited the mecha. Confused as to who they were and what they were doing, Chloe wanted answers. For the first time since escaping Citadel, Aliyah and Darnell were able to tell their story.

Having learned that they had lost their father and their lives had been ruined, Chloe did not want them to have a criminal record so called in a few favours with the Phoenix Alliance. In return for cleaning up the mess the Alliance wanted the mecha handing over since they felt it was far too dangerous to be left in the hands of “children”, but Aliyah and Darnell refused. Inspired by Chloe’s heroic actions they wanted to be like her and use the mecha to perform good deeds. They felt that it was their duty to ensure some good after their father’s death.

The Alliance did not like the idea of teenage “heroes” and insisted that the mecha be handed over. Stalemate ensued, until Chloe brokered a deal. Since the pair were never going to abandon their idea of becoming heroes then it was up to someone to ensure they were supervised. She chose to be that person, by becoming their legal guardian and their “teacher”. This was despite the fact she had no goals to ever wanting to start a family of her own.

Since Aliyah and Darnell had managed to remain undetected whilst hiding at the farm, the Phoenix Alliance decided to purchase the old property and add some upgrades to facilitate their “special” requirements. Now with a new home, Aliya and Darnell returned to school and took up the mantle of being heroes in their spare time under Chloe’s guidance. The slower pace of country life was a far cry from what Chloe was used to but even outlying “quiet” regions could still attract trouble and if they wanted any more action then Pacifica was only three quarters of an hour away.

Citadel would eventually find them and try to take back the mecha but against the trio they continually met with failure. About the only time the Phoenix Alliance interfered was when the Knight’s Forge had to modify the mecha cockpits to accommodate the growing youngsters.

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