Strong Suit
 The author of this article has marked this as a creative work, and would prefer that other users not edit it. Please respect this, and unless repairing a typo, spelling, or other minor technical error, think of this page as read-only. |
Hispanic-American
Strong Suit, real name Terry Toledo, is a teen superhero and the daughter of 'El Cerebro Ceruleo' and 'Flor de Mayo', members of the 1980s South American super team 'Los Amigos Invencibles'. Born after her family resettled in Millennium City, she was perfectly prepared for when her powers inevitably manifested. At 16, she's developed powerful metal manipulation abilities. However, Terry never showed much interest in heroics, preferring instead to follow in her father's footsteps as an engineer. Still, things change - when a family nemesis that promised to destroy everything she holds dear arrived in Millennium City, Terry put aside her apathy for capes and tights, and instead obtained the experimental alloys that transform her into Strong Suit.
Contents
Biography
History
[WIP]
In the 1980s, three superheroes took the Greater Colombia region of Latin America by storm - el Cerebro Ceruleo, Flor de Mayo, and el Rayo Rojo. In English, they were known as the Blue Brain, Mayflower, and the Red Ray. Popular, young, and defacto representatives of their nations, Los Amigos Invencibles - the Invincible Friends - gave many people hope through the late 80s and as Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador entered the turbulent 90s. Still, even the brightest tights could not keep the darkness at bay for long. The team's resident hothead, known as Alvaro Villalobos when not in costume as the Red Ray, began associating with the Colombian drug cartels to fuel his burgeoning drug addiction.
With their friend taking increasingly darker actions to feed his addiction, and fearing the cartels would target them next, Villalobos's teammates were left with little choice. They exposed Red Ray's activities, sacrificing their own identities to make sure he was imprisoned for good. With their team disbanded and dangerous elements after them, Leonardo and Marisella Toledo hung up their capes, and left to America to greet the new millennium, as well as their first child - Teresa.
The years passed, and Teresa grew in relative peace. Her father, after some brief struggle, began finding well-paying jobs courtesy of his engineering talents, being sought after by several companies. After working some years at ARGENT, he was approached by the Peacemaker, who acquired Leo's talents as part of his Force Ten team of scientists. Terry, in the meantime, discovered her powers. Her parents, expecting as much and also noting their daughter's advanced intellect, began sending her to the Bracen Institute.
Terry, now a burgeoning metal manipulator, had been warned of the incoming danger by a vivid and impacting dream that left her with a deep fear of her father's death. This drove her to break into her father's workplace to acquire an alloy that she would use to protect him and others as Strong Suit, painfully unaware that her theft would play into the hands of those orchestrating her father's downfall.
Personality and Appearance
Teresa is taller than most girls her age, coming in at 5'7", and what an outwardly lanky appearance sets her apart from most of her peers. Still, she's inherited her mother's famed beauty, with gentle features and hazel eyes that peer out from behind a pair of glasses. When she dons the Strong Suit, she gains four inches in height, effective in making her an imposing opponent. The metal that composes the armor is dark grey, but Teresa painted portions red in order to better fit in as a costumed crime-fighter. The armor is sleek but heavy, yet when Teresa is moving, it appears almost impossibly fluid.
While in the suit, her voice is modulated to sound an octave lower, both to intimidate her opponents and to help hide her identity.
In most things, and school specially, she is very reserved, always expecting the worst when it comes to social interactions. Her strong focus on knowledgeable pursuits usually alienates most of her classmates, even the ones that are considered highly intelligent.
As Strong Suit, it's a different story. As a more or less reluctant hero, Teresa came into the field with a rather strict vision of what a superhero should be. As such, she's definitely not shy about making sure her colleagues know what she thinks is the best course of action, and chastising them when they fall below expectations. A life of being socially isolated due to her heightened intelligence has had the side effect of making her a rather confident and overbearing presence, if she's pushed towards it. Despite being moderately abrasive, she holds on to very strong convictions of compassion, loyalty, and honor, and is a pacifist at heart.
Powers and Abilities
Terry's principal superpower is ferrokinesis - the ability to manipulate metal. This power only began manifesting in the past couple of years, beginning as merely a parlor trick but growing rapidly into a formidable ability. She is able to exert a sort of telekinesis over moderate metal masses, and can even manipulate the physical properties of metals close to her.
Even so, Terry is still relatively inexperienced with the power, and though she has powerful capabilities, her ferrokinesis is limited by both her distance from and the mass of the metal she wishes to exert her power over.
- Further than 100 feet - Minimal kinetic control over small masses of metal.
- 70 to 100 feet - Can control the trajectory of smaller metallic masses. Free movement is limited.
- 50 to 70 feet - Can control the trajectory of medium metal masses. Full control over smaller masses.
- 20 to 50 feet - Slight influence over larger masses. Full control over medium masses. Able to slightly alter the molecular structure of smaller metal masses.
- 10 to 20 feet - Significant kinetic and molecular control over most metal masses.
- Immediate range - Maximum power. Complete control over the motion and physical properties of most metal masses.
Terry is even capable of bypassing the distance dampener between her and a metallic mass by finding a physical metallic link between her and the object. Usually, her cable-launcher serves to fulfill that purpose.
Terry is also extremely intelligent, showing almost unnatural intuition for science and engineering for someone her age. Her sharpened mind also allows for excellent reflexes, hand-eye coordination, and impressive aim. A couple of years of karate, insisted upon by her parents, have taught her basic combat skills, but her limited training makes her fighting style very rough and tumble.
Not that she minds - she is literally covered in 225 pounds of metal, all of which she has precise control over; the suit grants her artificial superstrength as a result, and Terry can use sheer momentum to become a human ram, able to crash into things with great force, specially if she gets a running start.
Equipment
Terry's main piece of equipment, of course, is the Strong Suit. It's made of an experimental metal called Decium, which was developed by Force Ten Technologies, with the help of her father, a member of the group and a materials scientist. While Terry could theoretically mold any metal to make the Strong Suit, Decium was specially crafted to be able to morph into different shapes through electrical discharges. Though she doesn't have that power, the molecular pliability makes it an ideal choice, giving Terry both fluidity and solid protection.
The design of the Strong Suit, which Terry developed herself, is completely free of any electric components, with the exception of the voice modulator Terry employs, and her communicator. All the functions of the suit are activated and controlled by Terry's ferrokinesis. Among the Suit's features are:
- Cable launchers - coiled within each of her gauntlets is carbon-reinforced length of cable, which serve Terry as tools, weapons, and as her main mode of transportation via grappling onto the environment and swinging with the help of her powers. The cables allow her to form a connection between her and metal objects at a distance, allowing her more control than she'd normally be able to exert over them. The cables are detachable from her gauntlet at several points in the coil, enabling her to launch them out at enemies to bind them, or to tie objects or people to each other.
- Shurikangs - The metal that lines the front of Terry's gauntlets is able to 'peel off' at will into projectiles that act as a mix between shuriken and boomerangs. Though they are sharp and durable, they are also light, allowing Terry to be able to control their trajectories even at longer distances. They're able to strike targets both with force and precision, and are her main ranged tool.
- Chain - When old school techniques are required, Terry has a length of chain wrapped around her waist that she can use as a melee weapon, to great effect. Of course, it can also be used to bind enemies.
Weaknesses
Strong Suit's greatest strength is also her greatest vulnerability. Metal's beneficial properties are offset by equally disadvantageous ones, specially when you cover your whole body in it.
- Electricity - there are no advanced systems in Strong Suit's armor to disrupt with an electrical current, except the most vital of all: the human body. Decium is specially adept at conducting electricity, meaning electrical attacks levied against Strong Suit are even more effective than they'd be against someone without any protection. Electrical attacks will not only stun Strong Suit, they'll often result in her metal manipulation abilities being stunted both by the effect on her and the effect on the metal she wears.
- Temperature - With metal being an adept conductor, Strong Suit is specially vulnerable to any kind of thermic attack, with the exception of her padded jumpsuit which provides little in the way of either heating or cooling. Not only will strong heat or cold hurt Strong Suit if directly applied, but it will also interfere with her ability to manipulate the affected metal, slowing her or preventing her from using it as a weapon.
- Masters of Magnet - Sufficiently strong magnets, or magnetism manipulators, are particularly dangerous. They can disable Strong Suit's abilities at range and can even toss her around or trap her in her own armor.
- Chewy Center - Terry herself has no regenerative or endurance abilities, giving her the same vulnerability as any 17-year-old teenage girl of good health - her injuries sustained as the Strong Suit heal at a regular human rate. This may put her out of a fight, force her to stop superhero work for some time, or even land her in the hospital or the morgue if severe enough.
- Stubbornness - Strong Suit is righteous and intelligent, a dangerous combination. It may be difficult to convince her to retreat in the face of insurmountable odds; an emotional liability highlighted by her relative inexperience and her tendency to get into the thick of things.
Friends and Foes
Friends
- The Progeny - Though not always as active with them as she wishes due to her familial and academic obligations, the Progeny have transformed from a lonely, begrudging vigilante into a more confident and wizened hero. She doesn't always get along with all of its members, but their leadership has provided role models Strong Suit herself didn't know she needed - and when she doesn't learn from their successes, she learns from their mistakes. She is specially friendly with Kid Ballistic, Deviate, Terrific Tiger, and Communick, the latter of whom she met before either of them joined the group and while he was developing his powers.
- The Peacemaker - Though they were at odds they first time they met in costume, the Peacemaker's made strides to repair his relationship with the Toledo family after Terry's father was framed for terrorism. Though they haven't crossed paths with any frequency since, the Peacemaker makes sure to keep tabs on Strong Suit's escapades, specially now that the Progeny are building a closer relationship with the Protectors of the World.
Opinions
"Strong Suit does exactly what it says on the tin. I'd say she's pretty damn metal." - Black Ice
"Strong Suit is incredibly bright, and incredibly versatile. I don't know her all that well right now, but I'm hoping for an opportunity to know her better." - Faith
"She's pretty dang smart, and that's coming from one of the most smartest members of the team, yours truly. I can't say I UNDERSTAND her powers but hey -- I'm just glad she's with us, not against us!" - Lash
Gallery
Trivia
| ||
|---|---|---|
| Leader: Faith | ||
| Members: Communick • Concrete Gospel • Dragonfly • Egress • Feuerdrache • Kid Ballistic Lash • Plumb • Starlet • Strong Suit • Terrific Tiger | ||
| Associates: Ace • Black Ice • Cait Sith • Deviate • Fletcher • Miss Pussycakes • Monster Mash | ||
