| Angel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Vital Statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ID # / Designation | GA096 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team # - Team Title | Team 003 - Team Super Cool | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Real Name | Rachael Richardson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Age | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current Residence | River's Fork | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General
Physical Description
Rachael and her alter egos, past and present.
Body Built: Petite in size both height and weight; she has a gymnast’s body.
Body Details: Her nails are a bit shiny that’s because she puts clear nail polish on them, a habit from when she was trying to break herself from chewing on her nails.
At Home:
Since she rarely leaves home, she prefers comfort over style. So her clothes look like a hodgepodge of different types of clothing. Due to the fact she gets cold easily she tends to dress in layers. Often she would wear a t-shirt with some sort of geeky design on it, a long sleeve shirt under that, shorts (as they’re more comfortable than pants) and leg warmers. If one didn’t know any better, one would say she is colour blind.
Outside:
Due to the fact she gets nervous around strangers and crowds, she would prefer no one really notice her. She tends to wear jeans and hoodies out. Rachael is particular fond of hoodies as she can use the pockets to hold things.
Personality
General Personality[]
Shy, has a nervous disposition. Her social interaction is pretty much nil, but can bribed with technology to go to social functions.
- Good Traits: High intelligence, likes to be useful
- Bad Traits: Tends to go into an irrational panic mode when in a large social gathering or party.
- Quirks: Puts her knuckles together when she talks to those she doesn't know.
Hopes[]
Rachael's first goal and priority is to find her aunt (Ebony Fist) and then stop being a superhero.
Fears[]
List of Things that Make Her Nervous:
Her Mother: Not that her mother is bad perse, it is just her mother is overbearing and not able to empathize with her daughter makes it worse. Unable to understand her daughter needs to be introduced to things slowly, Rachael’s mother seems to think that large social gatherings will eventually make Rachael immune to crowds if she attends them enough. It doesn’t help that her mother doesn’t quite approve of her geeky ways.
School/Peers: Back when Rachael attended school to say she was picked on, on occasion would be an understatement. She was picked on for a variety of things, such as having a high academic mark, looking like a boy, being a computer geek, for being a hacker, not being the pop culture version of a hacker, and in general just being easy to be picked on. Rachael had very, very few friends in school, and so she was happy to be homeschooled when given the chance.
Social Gatherings: In a small social gathering, Rachael would probably do very well, but due to her mother’s interference Rachael tends to forget that a social gathering doesn’t mean large groups of strangers and uncomfortable clothes. She highly associates social gatherings with socialite gatherings and so tends to get into a panic attack when social gatherings in which she has to attend are mentioned.
Authority Figures: Not all authority figures frighten Rachael, only ones that really assert their authority instead of treating her somewhat like an equal. This mainly stems from a large misunderstanding of what a hacker is. While Rachael does not do security hacking, she does recognize potential gaps in security such as a simple school firewall. When she attempted to help the school fix what she determined was a severe security gap she got into trouble. There was a misunderstanding on the role of the hacker as to most adults all hackers are delinquents. Since then Rachael does not like dealing with people who like to throw around their authority.
Batman: He’s a very scary person, enough said.
Batman (Idol Fearing Relationship):
While Rachael has never met Batman it had been decided a long time ago she was terrified of him. This mainly because, Rachael knows a great deal about Batman, because he is the one she looks up to. Batman is Rachael’s idol because he has no superpowers and is the ultimate tinker inventor. To Rachael, Batman is brilliant in his ability to take technology and then change it to suit his needs; however, she is also aware of his reputation. His imposing personality would send her into nervous fits.
Memorable Quote(s)[]
"Don't freak out, don't freak out, don't freak out....." - Rachael
Relationships
Family[]
- Mother: Cynthia Richardson: budding socialite. She loves anything to do with fashion and gossip, but can be quite overbearing at times. She is worried that her daughter might be gay due to lack of boyfriend. At the moment she is in a custody dispute with her husband.
- Father: West Richardson: is a scientist engineer who climbed the ranks of his company to be a department head. He could care less about his place in the social ladder, but loves technology and is very proud of his daughter. Has divorced his wife and is in a custody battle over Rachael.
- Sibling(s): None.
- Other: Deborah Chance: Is Rachael’s aunt on her mother’s side. Known as Ebony Fist, Deborah was caught in the middle of her sister’s divorce as she was assigned temporary guardianship over Rachael until the custody agreement could be worked out.
Friends[]
Terry Chance: Is Rachael’s other aunt, who is Deborah’s life partner. While appearing to be a female African American human, Terry is actually an alien. Terry isn’t even her real name but her real name is unpronounceable to most except for those who might know a language or two from the African continent.
Cowboy Allen: Is a detective working in River’s Fork. He has somehow managed to gain the trust of Angel, the local superhero and sometimes can be found chatting with her at his desk. He has twins and a wife, and his peers tease him for being named Cowboy.
Raoul Desjardins: Is a thirty-something martial arts instructor living in River’s Fork, he taught Ebony Fist the basics back when she first started. She was his first student back when he started out. He is now Rachael’s parkour instructor.
"'Sébastien Desjardins:"' A former Mystery Man, Sébastien hails from France and served in the military. He now owns a ‘training facility’ in River’s Fork, which is now run by his grandson Raoul. The old man has taken a liking to young Rachael, and likes taking her under his wing sometimes.
Ethan Calaway: Also known as Dresden Dark, who is also known as the Dark Diviner. At 19 his intelligence matches Rachael’s only he has the resources to make his ideas come to life. He likes spending time with Angel as he considers her his equal. At the moment he is helping her locate her Aunt Ebony Fist.
Enemies[]
...
Love Interest[]
None.
- Past: None.
- Current: Unknown.
Battle
Powers & Skills[]
Angel has no superpowers, she relies upon her mix of alien and Earth technology to save the day.
Rachael is very intelligent.
Her ability to parkour allows her to run away easily from potential threats and also to easily and safely get around Rivers Fork.
The ability to take apart a piece of technology physically and 'hack' into it, then making something out of it entirely different from it's original use.
Weapons[]
Goggle Girl:
Goggle Girl’s creation was supposed to be a one time thing (just like Angel was supposed to be temporary). Rachael, after discovering her aunt’s alter ego had often helped in the background doing research and support. It hadn’t even occurred to her to become a sidekick until life forced her into the role. While the details of exactly how she became Goggle Girl is fuzzy, what is known (to her and her aunts) is that Goggle Girl was thrown together with a set of clothes that Rachael had lying around and prototypes that she didn’t even know was going to work. The costume since it was first created hadn’t changed overly that much, which speaks to how little she is seen as she is more of a scout than a sidekick. The technology though has much improved despite the fact Rachael pretty much worked with what she had.
Goggle Girl Technology:
The Google Girl technology are all prototypes (though they had improved since she first began using them, they were still very much in testing phase). What they were, were bits and pieces of technology she could get a hold of and then manipulate, that being said, nothing she initially had was created from scratch.
The Goggles
The goggles are technically a ski mask mounted onto large headphone and mic set. The bulky piece head set had the lenses replaced with a clear overlay screen and it fit snugly the way a helmet would as much of the electronics were located in the ear pieces and back of the head. The goggles were created to connect wirelessly to the Internet so Goggle Girl could get easy access of information. To process that information the lens was overlaid with a screen that she could read off of or see images through. Using small cameras that she could stick to walls and windows, she could increase her field of vision as the cameras would wirelessly transmit as well.
The problem with this technology was two fold; Goggle Girl would have to go into the area herself to place the cameras. While she could throw and stick the cameras to wall (with a lot of practice), it was not a perfect system. In addition, wireless Internet was only accessible by wireless router, as a wireless Internet stick is far too traceable (she would have to pay for its use after all). So, if Goggle Girl needed access to the Internet she was limited in where she could go.
The Gloves
The gloves worked in conjunction with the goggles using augmented reality technology. Using the goggle’s screen overlay, Goggle Girl could see a keyboard, and using the gloves that had motion sensor tips could interact with that keyboard and tip upon it. No one else however, can see the keyboard as it only visually appears on her goggle’s screen. So it makes her look a bit strange typing it.
The draw back of the gloves is the fact the keyboard isn’t real at all. Errors are created if she taps on the keys “too hard” or she will miss type because we all touch by touch typing and since they do not exist she cannot feel. She would for best accuracy need to be looking at her “keyboard” to type which is problematic.
Angel:
Angel’s creation in a way had and hadn’t been expected. She hadn’t been expected because Rachael never wanted to become a superhero, but when her aunt disappeared without warning Rachael, knowing how much her aunt loved the city decided to protect it in her stead. At least until her Aunt came back, whenever that would be. In the way Angel’s creation had been expected was that Rachael had already been working improvements to her prototypes thanks to her Auntie Terry. Angel is far better known than Goggle Girl as she is more in the public eye, and because Angel does depend on working nicely with the local police force, which has made her very popular and far more accessible than other heroes.
Of course, it sort of helps that Angel doesn’t quite think the same way other heroes do. After all, she never planned this to be her second profession in life, and certainly she doesn’t know what to make of the hype around her.
Angel Technology:
There is something to be said about having your aunt fall in love with your other aunt who in reality is an alien. Traumatizing experience aside (brain bleach is love), Auntie Terry had given Rachael access to technology that she would never get a hold of normally. However, Rachael being human and therefore technologically decades (if not centuries) behind Terry’s people could not begin to wrap her mind around the inner workings of that technology. In reality, most of the alien technology is really alien material, and if it is alien technology, it isn’t technology that hasn’t already been convinced on Earth.
The Visor
Replacing the goggles is the visor, which is still based off of the headphones and mic design, but the goggles have been replaced with a thin yellow visor that displays the data now. Again, the visor is wireless and links to the gloves for augmented reality usage. The visor now connects to the Angel’s birds, which now act as her cameras.
The Gloves
The gloves are less bulker thanks to the alien technology, and thanks to the help of Terry the gloves are wired with an exoskeleton to prevent the troubles Goggle Girl had with the augmented reality program. The exoskeleton is designed to put pressure onto Angel’s hands anytime she touches anything in augmented reality. Through this system she can “feel” a keyboard or “work” out a puzzle. In fact, Angel has several reality puzzles programmed just for kicks. It is unknown exactly the full potential of the augmented reality technology, but Angel will figure something out eventually.
The Birds (Background):
Angel owns five birds (seven if you include Sputnik and Who). They were originally created to do what she used to do for her aunt, as well as solve the wireless connection issue she had as Google Girl. Overtime though, the birds were change to be more specialized as they were incapable of doing everything due to their small size.
The Birds (Schematics):
The five core birds are the size of songbirds that use a hybrid of alien and human technology to function. In basic creation they are all the same. The body shell is made from a light weight alien alloy, and the ‘feathers’ on the wings are made from an alien mineral that when introduced to electricity has the ability to float. That being said, the birds, while they appear to fly, are actually floating. When in flight they use the wings to propel them through the air and the tail to steer.
Even though they’re machines they do act like pet birds. They will move their heads from side to side (to show Angel what is going on) and they do react to being petted or touched. They were even programmed with their own personality.
The birds act like wireless routers, piggy backing off of other routers and each other to give Angel access to the Internet. Internet access can be gained in one of two ways, either the birds are in contact with Who, who is a wireless amplifier located in Rachael’s bedroom, or they can gain access using wireless found in restaurants and coffee shops. This though required Rachael to apply to every single major outlet that offered wireless and then implanting the data into her birds. Finally, when the birds pick up wireless signals they encrypt them so whatever data they send cannot be accessed by other people.
The use of the birds as wireless routers is useful as they can perch where wireless is and even perch themselves high for maximum coverage. This ability has also allowed them to be scouts as all the birds have cameras located in their eyes and mics in their ears.
The final general feature that Rachael managed to squeeze into her birds was that they were able to act like radio communicators. In the case she needed to get a hold of anyone she could leave a bird with them and talk with them, again the birds would piggyback off each other, but this was because she had used a common communication service that ran through the Internet. This means each of her birds has their own account and screen name.
The Birds (Weakness):
While the small size of the birds allows them to scout without being noticed too much, there are disadvantages to being that small. The first, being the possibility of them being blown about by very strong winds. If the city in question has a lot of tall buildings packed together, the wind tunnel effect would need to be taken into account.
In addition, because they still need to be small and light there wasn’t any room to put solar panels on the birds. Instead their crest is a battery back which supplies power. While they could be running for 36 full hours (depending) they are better off being recharged every night, which they do so on their specially made perches. Angel also keeps an extra battery back for Blanche as that is the one she uses to contact her Aunt Terry.
The cameras at the side of their heads were problematic as birds tend to have blind spots like this. Angel has tried to decrease the blind spots by having the cameras rotate (the camera is covered by a clear dome to protect the lens and make the bird appear more like a bird). In addition she has programmed the birds to react to sound, but there is no promise that they might not be caught off guard.
Finally, the largest issue is that the birds are dependent on human technology, specifically the need to connect to the Internet. Wireless is not a sure thing; there can be interference from other wireless technology, and thick concrete. Should the power grid go down or the servers that provide the Internet to the city, Angel would not be able to do her job.
Blanche
While all of the birds can communicate, Blanche is Angel’s favourite and so often is riding on her owner’s shoulder. Blanche can ‘sing’ but only as a bird, but can convert songs into ‘birdsong’. This was mainly done for fun though.
Azure
Azure’s battery life is actually the longest out of all the birds. The reason for this is so he can create a small electric charge for a short while. He’s used as a guard bird and is often used to warn Angel if someone is sneaking up behind her. He’s programmed to tell the different afflictions in her voice and will tackle attack on command and if Angel appears to be in danger. As a result of his programming, he is responsive to most vocal commands and seems to be a bit possessive of Angel (he pecks and she didn’t plan it that way).
Azure’s voltage is 5V, and while that doesn’t seem like a lot, there are enough amps in it for the person to really feel it. As a safety precaution, Azure is programmed to go for the legs or arms if they are holding weapons.
Emerald
Emerald is probably the smartest out of all the birds, but that’s because she gets her programmed adjusted daily. She was made to sneak into buildings and lock them from the inside (or unlock them if needed be). She also knows how to trigger alarms and trip up bad guys. She’ll do tricks for people if asked to.
Violet
Violet is Angel’s search bird. Even though all the birds can be used as scouts, Violet is the one with the far sighted technology. Violet is also used to retrieve small items that have gotten into small places or need to be picked up like the flash disks. That being said, Violet is also good at playing fetch.
Reed
Reed is Angel’s radio; he has access to the police communications (thanks to a particular detective). He is the only one besides Blanche that spends a lot of time near or on Angel’s shoulder. He’s programmed to pick up when there are problems abound according to police code so Angel isn’t listening in all the time. When Reed isn’t belting out police communication he doubles as Angel’s music player and can be very loud if Angel wishes.
Sputnik
Sputnik was the second non-core bird that Angel created, out of a desperate attempt to find her aunt. Since Angel cannot leave her city (as she promised to look after it until her aunt’s return) Sputnik travels to wherever a lead might be. In the shape of a falcon, Sputnik is bigger than the core birds for reason of long distance travel. He can fly further and faster than his core bird counterparts, and due to his large wing span and body size has solar cells along the his back and the back of his wings.
He also has much more memory than his counterparts due to his complex behavioural program and the need to record what he sees in case he has no access to wireless Internet. Sputnik is programmed for survival; this includes but is not limited to:
• Avoiding bad weather
• Finding shelter
• Appearing defenceless
• Avoiding projectiles
• Finding a way home if injured
How the last part works no one has a clue.
Who
Who is the first non-core bird Angel created. In the shape of a horned owl, Who is the largest bird that Angel owns and arguably the smartest (or most annoying). Originally created to simply be a wireless amplifier and even after equipping Who with the general features found in all her birds there was still a large shell left for improvement.
So she made him into a verbal chatbot. Who works by processing a person’s verbal language into a written language, and then processes the written language using a standard chatbot program that gets updated by Angel daily. He then takes his written response and converts it back into speech, thereby “talking to the person”. To give him the appearance of being intelligent she also gave him a facial recognition program, so at least he recognizes when someone is talking to him and he can remember faces. There are though at least two major draw backs of Who, the first is that Who is only as smart as his programming allows, he is not an AI and so cannot understand the complexities of human language, nor will he have a response to everything. He will however try his best by steering the conversation, using a net search or just out right admitting he has no clue what the person is talking about. The latter happens more often than people would like. The other problem is, Who has a very hard time telling who is talking to him and who isn’t. Even though Angel has tried her best using facial recognition it only takes her so far. So sometimes Who has a habit of answering when the conversation isn’t directed at him. However, things that he is use to, he’s very good at. Who is capable of waking Rachael up in the morning, telling her what work she needs to be done for that day, or what assignments she should get done. He’s also good at basic searches and system diagnosis of the other birds. Of course that said, he’s only good with Rachael and no one else.
Who’s basic chatbot responses are kept in his memory, but his extensive conversation responses are kept on his own computer which he has access to wirelessly. So if he is (on the very, very rare occasion) sent out, he can only answer really basic questions and after that he’s just annoying.
Other Angel Gear:
Since Angel is not capable of hand to hand combat, she has to depend on not only the police but her own other bits of gear to help her take down criminals. Most of what she has are made to stun or stop a person.
Flash Disk: Not the same as a flash bomb, as that would require explosive chemicals; the flash disk is a disk which is the size of a large dollar. It emits a sudden 10 second burst of very bright light. This is Angel’s most common way of taking down criminals.
Chilli Bomb: Based after a smoke bomb it releases a misty spray of Angel’s secret “Death by Chillies” recipe. The mist is very fine as it is meant to be inhaled and get into the eyes; the chemical that makes chillies hot is what causes the irritation to skin, and eyes. Rachael also likes to put Death by Chillies in her tomato sauce.
Smoke Bomb: A regular staple and quite common. Though Angel has been known to set a timer on her flash disk and leave those in her place using her smoke bomb as a cover.
Handcuffs: Given to her by Detective Allen.
Plastic Ties: She only has one set of handcuffs and fortunately being a geek she has a good excuse to get plastic ties on a regular basis.
Other Equipment[]
Hero / Protagonist
Fighting Style[]
Fighting style? What fighting style? Rachael goal is to stun and detain the crimminals for the police to arrest. As such, she is more likely to use sneak attacks and stunning methods than to get into a full out fight. If a fight does occur, she is more likely to remove herself from the fight and use other methods to subdue the offender. As a result her methods are more in strategic planning.
- Strengths:
Unlike other superheroes, especially other teenager ones, Rachael knows when to ask for help. She is not prideful and sees nothing wrong in asking for assistance. After all, Ebony Fist never had a problem with calling in her friends from the various Leagues!
- Weaknesses:
Supervillians are generally out of her league.
A good rule of thumb to remember is that many of the more memorable villains out of Gotham, she could probably handle to an extent or at least be of help to whoever is trying to take them down.
However, if it has supernatural/augmented/manufacted/etc. powers, then Rachael is better off on the sidelines or back home.
Background and Biography
Life before Goggle Girl:
Rachael had come from a very well off middle class family, that is, they were rich enough to send her to a good school (when she went), but not rich enough to rub elbows with the ridiculously wealthy or famous on a regular basis. It didn’t stop her mother from however from being a socialite and had hoped for bigger and better things for her daughter. This was all well and good except Rachael had a somewhat shy deposition. Her father was the first to try and help, an engineer who had climbed the ranks in his company he tried to get her out of her shell by introducing her to technology. In his mind, kids loved cool gadgets and he had always heard that chatting (as in texting) was a big thing for her generation. Since texting was different from talking to someone in person he thought it would help. He even showed Rachael how the latest phone, computer or tablet worked, thereby introducing her to his own passion.
This had really mixed results. On the one hand, it was from this techie, geeky introduction to high tech technology and its inner workings that Rachael discovered she had a talent for hacking, and puzzles. It opened up her mind to the possibilities that existed with technology and allowed her to strive to better herself in the fields of mathematics, science and physics. However, it revealed that Rachael thought very differently than the rest of her peers. While Rachael was not the first child to excel in school, nor was the first child to at times prefer computers over people, but as anyone would know children are very cruel.
In addition, Rachel really did not fit in anywhere among her age group. While she was academically bright, she wasn’t the type spend all her time studying and in fact has no real defined interest in post secondary education beyond wanting to make “very accessible technology”. Her growing shyness, which had over time developed into a somewhat nervous nature, had made it so large crowds of people made her uneasy. It wasn’t in her nature to party (though it really could have been the result of her shyness). Even among the other “computer geeks” she didn’t fit in, and especially she didn’t fit in with the other “hackers”.
Rachael was not a security hacker. While she could hack into a secured location if it didn’t have the proper protections, finding weak spots in security didn’t do it for her. Rachael, for her age was a rare breed, a technology hacker, a person who hacked programs and physical pieces of technology to use them in ways they were not originally intended to be used. She took technology that already existed and turned them into something more. The kids of her generation had forgotten (or simply did not know) that being a hacker was more than just breaking into things. It was solving a problem, or innovating something new. In the future, Rachael would prefer to call herself a tinkerer rather than a hacker, because people were less likely to try and break into her things that way.
That being said, as already said, children can be very cruel. Without a group to belong to, Rachael became a target for bullying and teasing (and if she was online the occasional hack). It had, effectively turned Rachael from just being shy, to being nervously wary.
Then, there was her mother. Her mother had a great deal of difficulty understanding her daughter. Rachael seemed to defy all fashion sense, didn’t like to interact with anyone and seemed to be off in her own little world. She couldn’t even justify bribing her daughter with the latest gadgets because Rachael kept taking them apart and making things out of them! Rachael’s father though, seemed to be quite thrilled with his daughter’s abilities which did not impress the Mrs at all. Mrs. Richardson was determined to make her daughter ‘normal’ even if it killed her.
It didn’t kill her, but it made Rachael a quivering mess by the time she reached her freshman year. Worse yet, Mrs. Richardson’s domineering personality had finally worn thin on Mr. Richardson. The man was an engineer, not some “stuffy rich man” as he would put it. Seeing as his wife’s attempt to become a socialite was not helping anyone, he filed for divorce and custody of his daughter. While the couple were not spewing hate about each other, there certainly was a lot of tension about who was getting what, and the top of the list was Rachael. Mrs. Richardson felt that a man couldn’t possibly look after a young girl, especially not when said girl was just entering the most important teenage years of her life. Besides, look what he turned her daughter into! Mr. Richardson felt that a lot of his daughter’s social issues stemmed from his wife and she shouldn’t be allowed near children. He liked Rachael just the way she was!
As one could imagine, this was not helping Rachael’s psyche at all.
Fortunately for Rachael, her parents were at least reasonable enough to come to a compromise of sorts. In that while they were fighting who would have custody over Rachael (and the husband’s estate), Rachael would go live with her Aunt Deborah. In truth, Mrs. Richardson wasn’t fond of Aunt Deborah, she was as odd as her “life partner”, but Deborah was family and at least Rachael would be staying with her family. Certainly for Mr. Richardson he wasn’t fond of the idea of Rachael staying with his ex-wife’s family, but Deborah had promised to home school his daughter seeing how traumatizing Rachael found school. Someone who was willing to do that couldn’t be half bad at all. So it was that Rachael came to live with her Aunt Deborah, known to the folks of River’s Fork as the Ebony Fist.
Life as Google Girl:
In the beginning it was quite a rocky start, Deborah had never imagined herself with children. It didn’t help she was in a relationship with a bi-gender alien who felt she was mentally female, and therefore had her human hologram was a dark skinned human female. To say her parents were shocked to find out their daughter was a lesbian was an understatement. While it made for really awkward family reunions (which was why Deborah stopped going), her parents trusted her more than her older sister. This was why Rachael ended up on Deborah’s front door, much to Deborah’s dismay.
It wasn’t just that Deborah felt she was no good with children (though that was a small part of it) or the fact she was always cleaning up after her sister (which was a large part of it). The main reason why Deborah didn’t originally want to have Rachael around was because she would have to hide the fact she was the Ebony Fist while at home, something she never had to do before. Whatever arguments she would have about having Rachael in her home, she couldn’t say no to the pitiful sight that was her niece when she first arrived.
Rachael by this point had been reduced to a nervous, jittery young girl who couldn’t look people in the eye and tended to press her knuckles together often. It took a lot of effort for her to become even comfortable with her two aunts. It helped that at first Auntie Terry toned down her attitude and both aunts had come to discover that Rachael was really bright when she wasn’t being backed into a corner like some feral animal. The real turning point however was when Rachael stumbled upon the fact that her Aunt Debbie was a superhero and her Aunt Terry was an alien (both cases were highly traumatizing in their own ways).
Rachael though, had become inspired by her aunt. Not to become a superhero, but her aunt who was for the most part an average person (minus the super strength) had decided to help her city become better because she just loved her city. Even when her aunt was just herself she was doing what she loved, and that was helping her city. Professionally, her aunt was a fundraiser and event coordinator, it was her job to come up or help support events that would make the city better. It was this that inspired Rachael to try and help her aunt when she could. Of course, Rachael wasn’t good with people, and crime fighting wasn’t really her thing. So she settled on the next best thing, researching and working on piecing together technology she hoped would be useful to her aunt.
It was this inspiration the reason why Rachael began working on the prototypes for what would become her alter ego’s visor and gloves. Both her aunts encouraged her passion, because they found it gave Rachael confidence to know what she could do, would be appreciated. What no one had expected was that Rachael would end up becoming Deborah’s sidekick. In fact, the very idea was laughable; Rachael was more like tech support than sidekick. However, times had changed since Deborah had started nearly twenty years ago. Even though super villains in River Forks was rare, the garden variety were getting more high tech. While the Ebony Fist had her super strength, she certainly was not bullet proof. It came to the point where she needed someone to be her eyes and ears out on the field, and it was from that need suddenly, late one night that Goggle Girl was born. Goggle Girl, slowly became a permanent fixture as Rachael needed a costume to go out when Ebony Fist needed on field tech support. Eventually, all that technically Rachael created, she began to use herself, and her duties were tend extended from simple tech support to field scout.
As her responsibilities grew, and she became more of a side kick than tech support, Ebony Fist decided that Rachael needed to know martial arts to stay safe. With this in mind she sent her niece to the very man who first taught her the basics, Raoul Desjardins. Raoul and Deborah had met during her beginnings as a superhero. At first, the seasoned martial arts instructor attempted to teach Rachael basic self defence. An attempt that did not work as Rachael was still suffering from some form of social nervousness. In addition, Rachael didn’t seem cut out to fight ahead on, which he had hoped to later do. Deciding that her lack of self esteem he decided he would fall back on a practice from his grandfather’s country and make Rachael a traceur. A traceur is a person who practices parkour, or as some would call it, the art of running away. It is the belief that the skill to parkour gives people self esteem and leadership skills. In addition Parkour one of the other philosophies behind parkour is that it is an expression of freedom, and has been used for self development. Since Rachael had a background in gymnastics before meeting her aunt, she took to that better than anything else. As a traceur, Rachael was trained to have a high level of spatial awareness, and to take the most direct route possible while effectively avoiding injury. As Raoul had hoped, Rachael’s self esteem improved, and while she would probably never be able to take up a leaderhship role, she is at her best, emotionally, mentally and physically when she is parkouring. Though, for Raoul, there is always room for improvement, and he hopes to show her how far she can go.
There is a sense of irony that Rachael had come out of her shell by doing the one thing that should have sent her into a state of panic. It is ironic that a woman who had claimed she could never raised a child, was the one who begun mending Rachael. Yet these things are the reason, when Ebony Fist disappeared “Angel” decided she would watch the city until her aunt’s return.
Life as Angel (Present Day):
It was never Rachael’s intention to be called something so simple, or as cheesy as Angel. She didn’t know what to call herself, but she knew she needed an identity in which to protect the city her aunt loved. Her Aunt Terry, was the one who helped her with the costume, proclaiming if Rachael was going to go out more she wasn’t going to have a hideous costume this time. The girl probably should have ended up with a name with the word ‘techno’ in it, yet, like many superheroes, their names were pulled from the tabloids and as it happened, Rachael’s first heroic act was to pull a person from a burning wreck. Seeing this girl in cream white and yellow with birds flying around her, the person somehow thought she was an angel, and so it was Angel came to be.
Angel is unlike other superheroes, and even calling her a superhero is a bit of a stretch at times. She is very dependent on the local police to arrest the criminal in question, and super villains are often out of her league. At least, the super villains that just smash things for no reason, the smarter ones she could probably out smart, though the event might leave her a bit traumatized. Despite it all, she has received a lot of goodwill from the city, mainly as a by product of helping the police instead of taking justice into her own hands. In additional Angel acts like a person, she is quick to help out no matter how small the task and she likes talking to people she knows or have gotten use to. She’s not fond of the media though and hides from them constantly (though the public contacts her through a newspaper column). As Angel, it is a common sight to see her dancing on roof tops and sitting on a desk in the police station talking to her favourite detective.
At the moment Angel has two confidants (not including her Aunt Terry), is detective Cowboy Allen and her parkour instructor Raoul . As a superhero, Angel is not really ambitious at all. She has no will to join the Young Justice League or any League for that matter (as it would mean to leave the city unprotected). Even if she was not bound to the city by her aunt’s unspoken will, it is highly unlikely she would join. Though she likes interacting with the younger superheroes (they are the few people who could keep up with her mentally) there isn’t that drive to remain a superhero for the rest of her life.
Recently, Angel had come into contact with the Young Justice League as a result of someone finding Sputnik by accident.
The Future of Angel:
Whatever the future holds for Rachael it will both be full and devoid of the superhero business. While she has the potential of being on the same level as Oracle, and her ability to high stress situations will improve as she goes along her end temperament will never be suited for the life of a superhero. It is without a doubt that once her aunt returns Angel will disappear and Rachael will probably try and head to college as soon as possible.
As for the birds, they’ll probably become her personal pets.
However, to say that Rachael’s life will no longer have adventure is laughable. She lives in a world of superheroes and she is an unusual and unique genius. There is also some unspoken rule that once in the superhero business; one is never too far away from it. Rachael will probably one day be a scientist, engineer, researcher or more likely a toy maker. She will probably on occasion be kidnapped, tempted to the dark side, hired by a manic and/or running for her life, because super villains do not know when to quit. One day, someone else will probably discover she was once a superhero, because how many scientists, engineers, researchers, or toy makers can parkour across buildings? Whatever Rachael’s future, it will be an eventful one.
Other Information
Batman (Idol Fearing Relationship):
While Rachael has never met Batman it had been decided a long time ago she was terrified of him. This mainly because, Rachael knows a great deal about Batman, because he is the one she looks up to. Batman is Rachael’s idol because he has no superpowers and is the ultimate tinker inventor. To Rachael, Batman is brilliant in his ability to take technology and then change it to suit his needs; however, she is also aware of his reputation. His imposing personality would send her into nervous fits.
Social Interaction Notes:
Rachael has a nervous deposition, mainly when it comes to interacting with most people her age, most adults (especially authority figures), and crowds. It would probably be safe to say for the most part, Rachael would be happy if she was left alone to do her own thing. Not to say she’s anti-social, but she is somewhat prone to panicking before thinking on occasion.
When in the presence of someone who makes her nervous she tends to lean back a bit as if to get away from them. When put into a situation that would make her nervous (such as being in the presence of someone who makes her nervous) she will press her knuckles together.
She does not have a panic disorder or a social interaction disorder as her symptoms are far too mild or do not fit the typical definition of neither disorder. Not only that, but if put in the presence of someone who fascinates her (i.e. keep up with her mind) and is open and friendly she is likely to come out of that nervous deposition.
Though one has to wonder if she doesn’t have some sort of mental disorder as such a thing occurs to offset brilliant minds.
While it would not be fair to say that something (or several somethings) caused her social problems, as it is probably part of her natural personality, it is fair to say they certainly made it worse.
Trivia
Rachael’s favourite drink is cola, but she’s trying to cut back and so is often found drinking water out of a water bottle that looks like a cola bottle.
Her least favourite drink is the nutrition smooth that Raoul makes her drink on occasion.
Rachael has subscriptions to 2600, Computer World, Linux Journal, Mac World, Network World, PC World, Sys Admin, IEEE, and Technology Review
She programs sites and does basic security checks under an assume name with her Aunt Terry being her proxy when she gets paid. It’s through this side job that she earns money for her toys and magazines.
Rachael is a fan of causal games rather than the so called “hardcore” games because of their puzzle content and storylines. She also likes strategy games.
Her favourite game is a turn based online war fantasy game called Weird World.
She often dictates her orders to Who, who carries them out for her. He also reports to her how she did every day.
She likes canecanes (it is always more pepperminty when it’s a candycane to her).
Her favourite food is pizza (because you can put everything on pizza).
Her room is full of her inventions, and toys, and magazines on the floor.
Her favourite pair of shoes are these hideous yellow runners (see Google Girl). Who is programmed to protect those shoes.
Has a monthly calendar with puppies and kitties on them and uses stickers to mark important days.