Susan Storm
This page is about the Phase 2 incarnation of the character. For other uses, see Susan Storm (disambiguation).
Susan Storm | |
---|---|
Portrayed by Sarah Grey | |
Codename: | Invisible Girl |
Affiliations: | X-Factor |
Birthdate: | August 20, 1991 |
Journal: | Now You See Me |
Player: | AJ |
Thief, Engineer, Socialite, Sarcastic One, there are many words that can be used to describe Sue, but boring is not one. After having her apartment trashed, which was totally not her fault, Sue is at the mansion for safety and security. At least that's what Julian says, but people here came back from Asgard where they're supposed to be dead and dress up in leather and go and fight people. She's not sure how safe the mansion is, but it's a lot of fun.
Contents
Details
Character Journal: Now You See Me
Real Name: Susanne Mary Storm
Codename: Invisible Woman
Aliases: Invisible Super ninja Chick if she gets her way
First Appearance: January 21, 2015
Date of Birth: 20/08/1991
Place of Birth: Long Island
Citizenship: American
Relatives: Storm Family
Education: High School: Bronx High School of Science (Valedictorian). College: MIT (Double degree in Robotics and Control systems and Business (with a minor in physics)(Valedictorian), Graduate: MBA and MA in Aeronautics (Harvard and MIT), Currently working on a PhD in control systems at Princeton.
Relationship Status: Single
Occupation: Engineer, Socialite, Scientist, Board Member, Thief and ex-gangleader
Team Affiliation: X-Factor
Biography
Childhood
Born in 1991 to scientists Franklin and Mary Storm, Sue was the eldest of their 2 children. It was soon apparent that Sue had inherited her parent’s intellect and at age 8 she followed her father affinity for science and built a sugar-power rocket which accidentally destroyed her father's car. Shortly after this incident the family relocated to New York where Franklin Storm opened his own research lab and think tank, the Baxter research group. During the summer before he took up his position Franklin rented an RV and took his family on a road trip across the US stopping at all the normal tourist stops; The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the Griffith Observatory and the CDC. At the end of the trip he took the kids to a Yankee’s game,. The trip is one of the best memories Sue has of her father and she still has the hat, t-shirt and glove he brought her on the day in her closet.
That was, sadly, the last good memory the Storm family would share together. The next year Sue’s mother abandoned her family in favour of continuing her research and her career. Sue had never been as close to her mother as she had been to her father before this, in part because her mother was considerably more career focused than her father and in part because of their widely different intellectual affinities. Both Sue and her father took Mary’s betrayal hard. While Franklin threw himself into his work Sue had to grow up quickly and look after her younger brother. The elder Storm sibling couldn’t understand why their father had turned away from his only remaining family, unable to see the turmoil and anguish he himself was going through.
Although they had never been particularly close before, Sue and Johnny’s relationship was completely altered after their mother’s departure. Left to their own devices the Storm siblings formed a very close bond. Sue kept up a positive face for her brother masking her own feelings over this incident although she felt the loss of her mother and abandonment by her father deeply, she secretly felt that instead of losing her mother, her father had been the one to disappear from her life. While she struggled to keep up a positive face for her brother Sue’s school work began to suffer. Where previously she looked forward to class and actively strove to learn more and be at the top of her class, in the months following her mother’s departure, as Franklin turned away from his children, Sue started to put less effort into her work, relying upon her natural intelligence to see her through her classes instead of working at it. Consequently she slipped from her position at the top of the class, much to Franklin’s consternation.
This slip in grades, as well as the visible change in Sue’s behavior finally cause the school to call Franklin with worry about the situation. His talk with the headmaster shook Franklin out of his stupor and forced him to re-examine the living conditions of himself and his children. He became aware of how unfair it was to force an 11 year old to take care of herself, her brother, and her father. Realizing he barely knew his children or what to do with them anymore he turned to his parents for help. The siblings were sent to California for the rest of the year while Franklin sorted things out at home. While in California Sue first met her future friend Julian Keller, and her second love after science. Surfing. Meanwhile in New York, by hiring more managers and vice presidents Franklin was able to free up some of his time, although he still had a lot of work to do he could at last do more of it from home and spend some more time with his children. He started to reconnect with them and take them on more trips and activities as a family, things that they’d missed out on in the past years.
Alas the good times didn’t last and just under 2 years later the Sue was involved in an incident involving the then head of the research lab Dr Arthur Molekevic. She had heard some of Dr Molekevic’s assistants talking about a delivery for the doctor’s special lab, determined to find out what the guards were talking about Sue borrowed her father’s security card and went hunting around the classified areas of the building. Sue wasn't prepared for what she discovered, mutants caged and in the middle of torturous experiments as Molekevic sought to experiment upon them. The sight of Dr. Molekevic torturing the mutants during his experiments terrified Sue and she turned to flee. Molekevic saw the movement and gave chase. Terrified, Sue hid in a nearby cupboard and tried to call her father. It was at this time her power manifested; although he looked directly at her, the Dr couldn't see her. Receiving a panicked, broken and barely intelligible call from his daughter Franklin rushed back to the labs where he’d left her only to have security discover that she’d vanished from their cameras. Gathering everyone one he could Franklin descended upon the basements, while down there Franklin made two discoveries, a lab containing horrific experiments and his terrified daughter curled up into a foetal ball in a cupboard in a long abandoned room. It took the scientist over an hour to calm down his daughter and coax the story out of her. An hour during which Arthur Molekevic made good his escape from the building. Franklin publically fired Molekevic while also (and perhaps more importantly in Molekevic’s eyes) revealed his experiments to the wider scientific community effectively destroying Arthur’s reputation.
Through a combination of experimentation and searching the internet Sue was able to finally develop a basic control over her powers, putting an end to her accidental disappearances and force fields. Much to the delight of her younger brother who often tried, with varying degrees of success, to convince her to take part in his various ideas for jokes. The powers which had seemed to be a blessing soon turned into a curse when Molekevic showed back up in the Storm’s lives. Ignoring all the security measures Franklin had established and kidnapped Sue right after school had ended. The scientist blamed the young teenager for his discovery and vilification. Although she fought against her abductor’s the men Molekevic had sent were too strong for Sue and she found herself in the scientist lab again. He revealed the cumulation of all his research to the terrified girl, before revealing that he was able to implant them with powers through the use of mutant’s stem cells. Before revealing the chair he used and ordering his men to strap her into it. Taunting the girl Dr Molekevic proceeded to extract several vials of her stem cells for use in his creations before tossing her into a cell. In the meantime Franklin had gone to SHIELD seeking help, and an assault team starting searching the city, locating the Dr’s lab after a few days and assaulting it and rescuing his prisoner. During the fight Arthur Molekevic was assumed to have been killed when the roof collapsed on him during the hostage rescue.
After being safely reunited with both of his children Franklin realized that he couldn’t just hope for good luck again in the future. To help protect them he enrolled them, forcibly if necessary, in self defence and protection classes as well as asking his head of security to show them a few tricks like picking locks and escaping from restraints which he thought might come in useful. Things changed one day on the way home from school. Sue knew that she could turn invisible and the building was full of camera’s and security so she thought it would be fun to see if she could get into the apartment unseen. Obviously it didn’t go well for her. But it set her a challenge, her breakthrough came when she started applying engineering to the problem. The security was just a system like any other. It took Sue some time to beat the cameras and guard systems but the chief of security was always one step ahead of her. Being constantly beaten wasn’t something the elder Storm scion particularly enjoyed or was used to, determined to win this game Sue started developing more advanced techniques and tools to help her in her quest.
Frustrated, one night after another failure Sue went for a walk, and as you do ended up outside the library, a wonderful place to go and relax. When it wasn’t closed. Dispirited Sue turned away before a thought niggled at her, she thought she was pretty good at this sneaking thing, maybe. Why not give it a shot? And why not, without the pressure, without the stress she found it almost too easy
Breaking into her father's building may have been impossible, but the lax security at the library wasn't even a challenge and Sue was curious to see what else she could do. The teenager picked a more difficult target to go after and so the habit began. Sue was never really interested in stealing anything, she was far more interested in the system and watching how the humans and technology could mesh together and how she could beat it. She left off trying to break into the original target until a year later when she tried again, but this time she knew better. Not all of Sue’s early attempts went well, she was caught in the act and only judicious use of her powers kept her out of trouble. It wasn’t just her skill with invisibility which were put to the test, many of her targets were protected by security guards who weren’t hesitant about using their weapons to defend the property of their owners forcing the girl to use her force fields to defend herself against attack. It wasn’t just Sue’s powers that developed, as she went further and further down this path she also pushed her engineering skills.
Having to constantly develop new tools to bypass security systems kept the young girl on her toes and pushing her limits. She found talking to her father about an obscure or roundabout point of engineering often gave her new idea on how to approach the problems she faced and it wasn’t unusual for father and daughter to spend much of the night talking about electronics. Sue’s rather unique practical experience gave her new view on those discussions and even let her develop some concepts which her father was able to use in other areas of the company, which of course lead to the proud father boasting to all his friends. As such it was quite possible for Sue to get her hands on components of a security system and she spent hours taking them apart to figure out how they worked and how she could get around them.
Despite these setbacks Sue continued her excursions, but decided to adopt the moniker Ghost referring to her ability to just vanish and appear apparently out of this air thanks to her powers. The moniker and disguise also helped to protect the girl from the attention of anyone who might come after her, or would have tried to use her status against herself or her family. Although her skills and infamy had grown Sue’s motivations never changed. All she was interested in was the challenge of beating a system. That isn’t to say that she never did anything more than that, her ‘friends’ sometimes came up with situations not about the money but about actually helping someone that piqued the young mutant’s attention. She gathered a small following in the ghost persona as people appreciated her proving that no location was 100% secure. He became obsessed by her, constructing a world in his head which allowed him to live out his fantasies of joining the ghost as she made fools of the ‘corporate overlords’. John started hanging around with that crowd trying to get close to the ghost. Sadly their eye’s didn’t meet across the room as she recognized a kindred spirit, Sue didn’t even notice John on the few times their paths crossed.
While John had been haunting her footsteps Sue had been enjoying her time at high school and had graduated as Valedictorian from the Bronx High School of science. Sue planned to leave New York for Boston after being accepted into MIT. Unable to resist the temptation she made one last job, one she announced to the crew. Although they turned out only John managed to spot her leaving and desperate to make contact with the Ghost before she vanished he followed her while Sue exhilarated after a last challenge was less careful than normal and failed to notice the tail. Imagine John’s horror when the anti-corporate figure he had idolized turned out to be one of those very plutocrats who was giving it all up to follow the plutocratic dream.
Shattered he stumbled away while Sue returned happily to her family’s embrace John returned to his apartment shattered. His admiration and obsession soured, he had been betrayed. That night the rhetoric in him hardened, if he couldn’t rely on others then he’d have to act himself. That night John vanished, it wasn’t until a few years later that rumours started cropping up of a mercenary going by the name ghost. Something that worried Sue when she heard about it through her contacts.
Due to the number of AP and college classes she’d taken in high school Sue was able to place out of the majority of her GERs and with the use of summer school and getting permission to overload her schedule was able to finish her Bachelor’s in 2 years. Sue went on to pick up an MBA from Harvard before moving back to NYC and acquiring an MA from Princeton and starting on her PhD. While at college Sue kept her hand in the game but never as flashy or as high profile as when she was the ghost. She just wanted to field-test new technology she had developed in the labs while at university.
The Mansion
It was almost a year after graduation when she was back working for her father that Sue heard about a virulent anti mutant protester who had been pushing a hardline anti-mutant agenda and about whom her contacts were suspicious. Deciding to see what she could turn up she broke into his house only to come face to face with another mutant, Gabriel, who had broken into the house for a similar reason. The two argued for a brief time before deciding to leave. The appearance of the other mutant had shaken Sue but she thought nothing more if it, until a few weeks later she and Julian were attacked on their way to lunch. A group of thugs descended on them and tried to abduct the pair, with no luck it turned out as Franklin's defensive driving lessons came in handy, Sue outmaneuvering the pursuers and Julian blasting hte wheels of their van. Confronted by her friend Sue admitted what had happened and Julian turned over the data Sue had gathered to XFI.
The team soon discovered that Sue had only stumbled onto the tip of an iceberg. After tailing the suspect to a warehouse Sue and Arthur discovered that he was involved in a group which was dissecting mutants for their parts. Unable to approach the subject through normal channels Sue and Warren planned a sting operation using IAB to catch the rogue police cell red handed and toss them in jail. With her apartment trashed Sue was convinced by Julian to move into the mansion where she ended up joining XFI as a consultant and junior business partner.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5'6
Weight: 110 pounds
Eyes: Light Blue
Hair: Straight blonde hair falling to her mid back, Sue’s hair is quite light, almost a bleached blonde due to the effects of the Sun and Sea water.
Other Features: Sue has both ear lobes pierced.
Powers
Sue can generate and manipulate force fields. These force fields bend light around the enclosed area, rendering Sue invisible. They also block both energy and physical attacks providing her with a powerful defensive capability.
It is important to note that while Sue’s powers may appear similar to those of psychics she is not telekinetic herself. Instead her force fields are mental projections; Sue feels the inertia of the blows taken by the force fields. Some of this inertia can be dissipated by creating force fields which brace on other objects thereby bracing against the impact. She has attempted, unsuccessfully, to alter the density and porousness of her force fields. She has, however, had success altering the shape of her force fields. If Sue’s force field is hit while it is not braced, at the moment, then she physically feels the full effect of the hit, that is to say if she were to be hit by a punch from Kyle on an unbraced force field she would still be thrown across the room.
Due to her feeling the full effect of impacts on her force field when it is unbraced her ability to block attacks is limited by her physical capabilities. The force field dissipates the effect of a blow across her entire body which lessen the impact of any one blow. As such she can absorb several human level punches without feeling the effects. However if subjected to a significant amount of repeated impacts will start to subject her to a cumulative effect. This effect will manifest with a cumulative effect, normally a headache and nose bleed before the pain starts to drive her into unconsciousness if she doesn’t lose focus and drop the field. The headaches are a mental side-effect while the nosebleed is a physiological one; another side effect of repeated attacks would be, given enough repeated impacts, she would develop bruising after the fight.
A sufficiently massive attack will instantly break through the field, and quite probably knock Sue out, or nearly cause her to black out. Unassisted she can probably hold the field against an impact equivalent equal to a handgun bullet without too much of a problem. However she is limited by the impact her body could take, so the maximum energy she can hold of at the moment is about 100 kilo-joules. This is about the energy transferred by a bull moving at 20 mph. It must be noted, however that this is the maximum energy she can stop and should be considered a dangerous level, the energy backlash across her entire body would undoubtedly result in severe bodily damage for Sue (along the lines of multiple broken bones and internal damage).
Sue's invisibility, is just an application of her force-field. One that doesn’t have the physiological trauma of defensive use but instead is much more mentally demanding. At the present time Sue is capable of cloaking herself for a limit of 20 minutes. If she is cloaking other people then the time she can hide them is significantly reduced. Cloaking an area covering 2 people can only be held for about 10 minutes. As she cloaks more people the time a force field can be held is reduced in turn.At present she can expand her fields to cover about 6 people. Sue is also capable of shaping her force fields, forming them into shapes suchs as containers and even mechanical parts or weapons. The more complex a shape the harder it is for her to sustain it, and the more force exerted on it the shorter time she can sustain them. A trick she has learned is to only create force fields at the moment she needs them and then let them fade away. While more mentally tiring this has the added benefit of allowing her to last longer in any kind of fight or conflict.
Equipment
Trivia
Sue and Clinton Barton shared some of the same science classes.
External Links
Plots
2015
Case File: The Triskelion Files
2016
The Two Sided Coin of Ambition
2017
2018
2019
2021
2022
Case File: Clan Akkaba - Inception
Meta
Player: AJ
Player Icon Base: Gabriella Wilde
Meta Trivia
AJ also played the Phase 1 of Sue before killing her off and aging her up for Phase 2.