Subject 217



Subject 217
aka Todd Marshall First Appearance: Minor League #24 Member of: The Minors

Prowess 4 Coordination 3 Strength 2 Intellect 3 Awareness 4 Willpower 3

Stamina 5 Determination 1

Powers Transformation 5 (real-world Animals only) Growth 3 (when in animal form only) Shrinking 5 (when in animal form only) Telepathy 2 (when in animal form only) Regeneration 5 (when in human form only)

Specialities Stealth Expert Sleight of Hand Expert Martial Arts Expert

Qualities Epithet : Master of Animal Forms Motivation : Preventing anyone else suffering at the hands of SWD Identity : The invisibility of the homeless

Challenges Enemy : Special Weapons Division Social : Wanted "Terrorist" One step away from villainy (Todd is bitter, vengeful and has criminal tendencies because of being on the run, all which mean he is walking a very fine line between being a hero and being a villain)  Weakness : Susceptible to telepathic control.

Physical Description
Todd Marshall is 15 years old, approximately 5'5” in height and weighs 120lbs. He has blond hair and green eyes. There is a scar across the brow of his nose and below each eye, the result of a training accident. As with all test subjects, his ID is tattooed on his left forearm.

Background
Todd was born in Dayton to Sam and Marie Marshall. A natural-born mutant (as opposed to a created or triggered mutant), his abilities first showed themselves shortly after Todd's seventh birthday. While being chased through farmland near his home by a group of older kids who bullied Todd at school, he spontaneously manifested the ability to transform into a fox and escape. Over the next few weeks, he learned to control his new found ability to the point where he could transform at will. During this time, his surprised parents took him to a number of specialists to try and determine where his power had come from. It was during one of these tests that his status as a natural-born mutant was determined. This also triggered a secret monitoring system watching the computer systems of various hospitals and medical centres.

The system sent an alert to Special Weapons Division; a top-secret research group working deep-within the US Department of Defence and on off-shoot of DARPA. SWD's mission was to study and experiment with unusual or powerful mutations in order to see if they could be replicated or used for military purposes. Ultimately, this meant they needed test subjects and for the sort of experiments that needed to conduct, willing volunteers were not exactly forthcoming. Todd's ability to shapechange into an animal form that was nearly indistinguishable from the real thing was rare and potentially very useful.

SWD Operatives travelled to Ohio where they abducted the boy and quickly spirited him out of the state. As far as Todd's parents were concerned, their seven-year-old son vanished from the back yard, never to be seen again. Shortly after arriving at SWD's North Dakota facility, an agency telepath implanted a suggestion in the mind of the drugged and disorientated boy to make him believe sold to the government by uncaring parents because they needed the money.

Todd’s (or Subject 217 as he was called by SWD personnel) potential for infiltration and covert surveillance was soon noted and he was selected for the Project Bloodhound; a programme to train metahumans for intelligence gathering operations and assassinations. However, soon after being transferred to the Nebraska training camp, it was clear that the despite the telepathic suggestion, Todd rejected the training and indoctrination methods of his instructors. Even after repeated punishments and their best efforts, Todd proved unsuitable for the program and was transferred back to the SWD research labs in North Dakota after four months.

Over the next seven years, Todd underwent numerous experimental procedures in order to determine the exact nature of his abilities. During this time, Todd spent a great deal of time in solitary confinement. Frequent discipline problems and behavioural issues resulted in administrative punishments being imposed on a regular basis.

On the 16th of August 2009, a failure of the facilities main and backup power systems resulted in the shutdown of the dampening field and security. The resulting riot cost the lives of 12 inmates and 19 guards. During the chaos, Todd manifested the ability to shape shift into a hawk for the first time and escaped the facility.

Todd, now 14, had long ago worked out that what had been forced to believe about his parents was a lie and the first thing he did once he escaped was track them down. They still lived in the same house where he had once lived. But as he approached the house in animal form (a house cat) he noticed the tell-tale signs of SWD surveillance. They were watching his parents, he believed, hoping that he would try to contact them. He spent sometime observing them from a distance, watching as his mother picked up a six-year-old boy from the local elementary school; a brother he had never met. Todd realised that he couldn't risk contacting them, not because he was in danger of being recaptured, but because he could place his family in harms way.

Giving them one last look, he flew away into the night.

Since then, he has learnt the hard way that SWD have used their government connections to place "Subject 217" on terrorist watch lists maintained by the US Department of Homeworld Security and the UN Overwatch, accusing him of attacking a government research lab, murdering the research staff, stealing valuable research data and selling it an unknown rouge state.

Mutant Abilities
Todd possesses the ability to alter his physical form to that of an animal. While in SWD custody, he only demonstrated the ability to transform into one specific animal; that of a common red fox (Vulpes vulpes). However, during his escape he assumed the form of a Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis). Since his escape, he has gained the ability to shape shift into a number of other animal forms (and only real-world animals)

The transformation that Todd undergoes is not purely a physical or biological one, since the mass of a fox or hawk is significantly less than that of a human being. Also, clothing and is transformed along with the boy’s own body. Because of this, SWD believed that the transformation takes place on the quantum level rather than the molecular level.

One other factor to note is that despite the differing sizes of the human and fox brain, there is no measureable reduction in intelligence and mental faculties. However, whilst Todd is in his animal form, he has a rudimentary telepathic ability that is absent in his human form. Possibly an adaption developed to compensate for his inability to use human speech whilst in animal form.

During his imprisonment by SWD, Todd also gained the ability to regenerate wounds and injuries inflicted by the researchers but only while he is in human form.

Notes: 45 point build, build and art by blaster219