Trixie Gamble

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Forged in Hellfire
Trixie Gamble
Player: @McSpazz
Origin:	Technology & Mutation
Archetype:	Blaster/Tank
Security Level:	50
Personal Data
Real Name:	Trixie Gamble
Known Aliases:	Sergeant Gamble
Species:	Human Mutant
Age:	30
Height:	5'8"
Weight:	160 Lbs
Eye Color:	Green
Hair Color:	Orange
Biographical Data
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	Vanguard Combat Engineer
Place of Birth:	Louisiana
Base of Operations:	Paragon City
Marital Status:	Dating LGN-06
Known Relatives:	Jacob Gamble [Father; Missing], Jo Gamble [Mother; Missing], Felix Gamble [Brother], Bruce Heartman[Foster Father], Mary Heartman [Foster Mother], James Heartman [Foster Brother], Will Heartman [Foster Brother], June Heartman [Foster Sister], Lisa Heartman [Foster Sister], James Hugh[Foster Cousin]
Known Powers
Flammable substance generation
Known Abilities
Close quarters combat training, marksmanship
Equipment
Heavy powered armor (tank), light powered armor (blaster)
'

"I ain't gonna pretend the world is roses an' sunshine. It isn't hopeless, but I'm well beyond pretendin' I got the answers. All I know is that I got the power to burn th'worst of it away.
You better believe I'm going to."

History

Humble Beginnings

"Life was pretty good growing up. Aside from the obvious, of course. It was hard and unfair, but in hindsight, it was mostly alright."

ExpandSpoiler warning: Details about a player-created storyline, or information currently unrevealed about a character, within.
The Gamble family was always a standout in the small town of Antonville, Louisiana. In an area deep in the bayou, they were the only mutants for miles on end, let alone the only mixed race couple many in town knew of personally. Not that it was overly obvious as her father looked like a full on anthropomorphic fox. While her older brother only took after their mother in terms of mutations with his affinity with fire, Trix took after both; albeit with a more human visage than her father. They weren't the most liked in town, mainly due to both parents being quite vocal mutant rights activists. Trix was quite vocal about it herself, her passionate personality easily carrying over from her mother. While she initially had to suffer a good deal of bullying, she came to be known to fight back against her aggressors. While some were furious that her mother taught her some basic martial arts, Jo would much rather her daughter feel empowered with her fists than feel she had to set her fellow classmates on fire. Trixie grew into a young, spunky punk who didn't really take shit. She was even known to stand up for her older brother and throw fists if threatened. Some called her parents irresponsible, but despite fears of the young firebrand literally setting things ablaze, it never came to that. Despite generally struggling in school, Trixie was found to have a seriously good mind for mathematics and mechanics. She often hung out with her mother in the garage where she worked and eagerly soaked up as much as she could about car repair. To this day, she often wonders how her life would have played out if things continued as they were.
Spoilers end.

Rude Awakenings

"I'll never ferget that night. The fear. Ten miles is a long way to run for a kid, but you can accomplish a lot when you got hounds biting at your heels."

ExpandSpoiler warning: Details about a player-created storyline, or information currently unrevealed about a character, within.
Nobody questioned that the Gambles had made enemies. They were quite vocal in their activism and were undeterred by death threats and only grew less concerned as their children grew older. Through the organizations they were part of, the Gambles pushed many mutant rights causes into law. Put simply, they got results. Some say this made what happened inevitable, but even some of the most bigoted within the town thought that what happened to the Gamble family was unconscionable. It happened in the middle of the night when many were starting to settle down for bed. A group of mercenaries for a then publicly unknown group assaulted the Gamble household, escorting the family into black paneled vans. All except for Trixie. While the rest of the family was still downstairs, Trix was in her room and overheard the ruckus downstairs. Thinking quickly, Trix hid within a vent leading to the home's central climate control ventilation. When she thought the kidnappers had left, she ran out of her home, only to discover they had not yet left. With nowhere else to run, Trix fled into the swamps bordering their home. While she is generally tight lipped about what happened within, she has claimed that she fought off several hounds that had caught up to her and killed a handful of her pursuers by igniting swamp gas. While she has sworn up and down that some of those she had killed were members of the community, no bodies were ever recovered. After approximately ten miles of running and sustaining wounds from both dogs and a gunshot, she finally found sanctuary at the Heartman residence. Fortunately for Trix, the family was having a family gathering which meant that not just the family itself but much of their extended family were present. Even more fortunately, Bruce Heartman, the father of the household, was the town's sheriff. With the complications that would have come with killing so many unrelated civilians, Trix was spared and both the mercenaries as well as the remainder of the Gamble family disappeared into the night. While the Heartmans were no big fans of the Heartman family, let alone Trixie, their father was a principled man of the law and had a strong moral compass. While Trixie was without a home and extended family were looked for, he insisted he look after the girl. This ended up being a longer stay than expected as not only did the case turn cold, but she had no extended family to speak of that could be located. Her stay with the family ended up extending for years. While not all of her caretakers came to like the mutant, the vast majority of the family came to warm up to her. When she graduated high school, the Heartman's offered to formally adopt her into the family, which she accepted. While she kept her maiden name, she was happy to have a family to call her own. Even if some of them still couldn't stand her.
Spoilers end.

College Blues

"College was a blast! I know Etoli ain't where most people would get their degrees, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in th'mouth. In hindsight, yeah, really probably should've."

ExpandSpoiler warning: Details about a player-created storyline, or information currently unrevealed about a character, within.
Trix had a hard time getting accepted into a college. Not only did she not have an amazing GPA, but she also lacked any real funds to do so. While she had a great deal of nostalgia regarding car repair, she didn't want to spend the rest of her life fixing cars in the middle of nowhere. Her big break came in the form of a Aeon Corp scholarship program. All she had to do was attend university in Cap au Diable and intern at their local offices. The goal of the program was to find raw talent and young minds that could be shaped to not just be the best of the best, but also into working mindlessly for Aeon corp. Of course, Trix did not question any ulterior motives given her desperation and eagerly accepted. College was a mixture of learning and partying for Trix. She still believes that the best college parties are held in Etoli. Drugs, girls, and rock & roll. If anything, the time Trix in college helped shape not just skill as an engineer and mechanic, but also her views of heroes and Etoli. Just not in the way Aeon Corp was probably hoping for. While she saw the negative aspect "capes" from Paragon City posed, she was observant enough to see the other side of the coin as displayed by Etoli's social structure. Unlike many of her fellows in the scholarship program, she was not offered a job after graduation and moved back to the states. No harm done, she figures. She sometimes jokes that the only people she robbed in Etoli was Aeon's PR department.
Spoilers end.

The Cape Years

"I ain't got any rose tinted glasses for that time of my life. I was naive. I did a lot've good back then, don't get me wrong. I just couldn't see the gold for what it was. The fools kind."

ExpandSpoiler warning: Details about a player-created storyline, or information currently unrevealed about a character, within.
While the young fox girl initially hunted for a normal job, the allure of Paragon City was too much to resist. The idea of fighting crime and making her parents proud (both biological and foster) while at the same time developing new gadgets for sale was more than slightly appealing. She started out small, but eventually found herself working alongside well established and powerful heroes. She excelled in the space, developing powered armor not just for herself but for her comrades. Unable to stay away from her roots, she even opened up a small garage to serve as a basic source of income when the more exciting super hero related jobs dried up. It was here that she got a true sense of purpose and came to understand why her parents were willing to take on such risks in their activism. She had no idea that a place like Paragon could exist. Sure, there was still some bigotry, but it was clear that Paragon was what her parents always dreamed of in terms of where they wanted to see mutant rights go. It was by no means a utopia, but it was far better than she could have imagined. Eventually, she set herself up with a more established hero group and continued to fight for truth, justice, and the American way. While she doesn't regret a second of her time working as an established super hero, she considers this time something of a singularity in her life. Something she doesn't think she can come back to.
Spoilers end.

Tartarus

"Before I got shoved down tha' hole, I didn't know evil. Not really. There's a kind've selfish uncaring personality out there that can't even survive in Etoli without a stinkeye. It made me realize who my friends were. Who my enemies were. An' what ya do to monsters. Ya kill them."

ExpandSpoiler warning: Details about a player-created storyline, or information currently unrevealed about a character, within.
Almost as if they wanted to repeat history, they came for her in the night. Trixie was relaxing at home when the power went out. That's when the shadow attacked. A shadow monster by the name of Sin assaulted and bloodied Trix, easily evading her attacks and toying with her like a cat might a mouse. Once she was sufficiently injured and the creature had its fill of sadistic torment, it stole her away without a trace. Unknown to the rest of the world, Trixie had been noticed by the very same organization that helped make the rest of her family vanish. Tartarus: a secret organization aimed at the elimination and exploitation of abnormal humans. They were effectively the anti-mutant Illuminati with fingers in many pockets and many irons in many fires. While Trix was previously just a scared little girl that was not worth their time, she was now an established, powerful mutant hero with potential to make them some serious money in one of their many projects. Whenever they had a mutant they needed to disappear, that mutant might end up in the Tartarus Arena. A bloody underground fighting ring where kidnapped mutants were forced into bloody, sometimes lethal, combat. Age, race, creed, none of it mattered. If you had a particular kind of mutant you wanted to see thrashed, you could probably find a match for it in Tartarus. Trix was caged in with several other mutants and forced to fight both against and alongside her fellow prisoners as well as her cellmates; Ghost, Frostbite, and Strangleweed. Of her cellmates, she arguably became closest to Ghost. In large part, this is because of his age. He was only 16, the same age she was when Tartarus first came for her. She became well known as something of a bleeding heart among the prisoner population. Not only did she try and be friendly with her cellmates, but she would actively reject offers from the arena's owners to get better treatment in exchange for more brutal fights. If forced into a death match, she would purposefully aim to make the fight as short and anti-climactic as possible. In short, while she was a solid fighter, she refused to be broken and did not entertain the crowd willingly. She often spoke to her cellmates about what she did back in Paragon and the allies she had made. She was confident that they wouldn't forget her and come to not just her aid, but the entirety of those jailed there. Frustrated with their lack of progress in twisting her for their goals, they gave Trix an impossible match. Not impossible in that she couldn't win, but impossible in who she was expected to not just fight, but beat in mortal combat. Her cellmate Ghost. She made a show of it, somewhat to the owner's surprise. However, instead of ending in a kill, Trix simply fought Wes until she had him pinned with her fighting staff to his throat. After that, she simply waited. The fight might have ended with her victory and a joyous reception from the audience, but she had directly disobeyed orders and let her opponent win. Not only was this the second time she did this, but it was clear that she knew exactly what she was doing. This couldn't be chalked up to ignorance or being new in the arena. She was sent to solitary confinement and, after several days, was given her true punishment. Troy Mitchels, one of the arena handlers came to her cell with Ghost and made her watch as he snapped Ghost's neck in front of her. Their intent was to break Trix and force her to realize who was in control. Instead, she solidified her belief that no matter what happened, she was going to kill every last one of the monsters there. This was further enforced when, after letting his real name slip, Trix realized that one of the handlers, Phoenix, was none other than Felix. Her brother who, after being kidnapped and deemed to be "normal" enough for simple reeducation, was eventually placed at the arena as one of the people tasked with maintaining order. The revelation of their relation shook both siblings, but it didn't sway Trix's view. Tartarus was going to end by her own hands. Unknown to Trixie, an inside agent was working to dismantle the arena and found a crack in the acquisition of Trix. With a hero group interested in recovering her, he had a solid resource that couldn't be bought off. Not to mention that Trix within the arena was capable rallying her fellow prisoners to fight. So, with the hero group and a select force of UN enforcers, a plan was put into motion. First, the facility's generator and internal defenses were disabled. Unsurprisingly, Trix immediately broke from her cell and began to rally her fellow prisoners into a full scale riot. While her brother going rogue in this moment and disabling additional defenses was not in the plan, it certainly didn't hurt. While the majority of the facility's security went below to quell the riot, the heroes and UN forces converged on the site in a full scale assault. With both attacks occurring simultaneously, they didn't stand a chance to stop it. Not all was well, however. When the heroes finally breached the arena's prison and met up with Trix, the pleasantries halted when the heroes made it clear that Lazarus, the owner of the arena, was to be arrested and not killed. The prisoners and, to the heroes' surprise, Trix, were furious. They argued that Lazarus had too many resources, money, and power. If he was arrested, no matter which court he landed in, he would get off. If not as innocent, on a technicality. Or, even more likely, he would vanish before a trial could even take place. Even more to the horror of some of the heroes that had arrived, Trix made it clear that she was by no means playing it loose and had already killed Troy Mitchels with her bare hands upon escaping. She made it clear: Anyone who hadn't surrendered wasn't spared. And she wasn't going to berate any of her fellow prisoners for ignoring surrender. While the prison failed to break Trix the way they desired, they did accomplish one thing: she was no longer the bright eyed bushy tailed hero she used to be. And, when the heroes failed to stop one of her fellow prisoners from landing a killing blow on Lazarus, she was more offended that they would question her judgement on what had to be done. The arena collapsed the same way it ran: in bloodshed.
Spoilers end.

Tartarus Aftermath

"After all was said and done, there weren't nothin' done. Not really. Lazarus was still runnin' like nothin' happened and th'worst offenders were slippin' into the night. Too many people died in that hellhole. I wasn' gonna let it end like that. I couldn't. Even if it meant throwin' my life away."

ExpandSpoiler warning: Details about a player-created storyline, or information currently unrevealed about a character, within.
To say her return home was cold would be an understatement. Given that some of her fellow heroes had refused to participate in the final fight at all if the end result was to be an execution, it was no surprise that things did not go back to how they used to be. Trix spent most of her time in the months following Tartarus helping her fellow prisoners try and reintegrate into life as well as locating the families of those who died in the arena to give them closure. There were two things that were extremely hard for her to face. One was witnessing some of the victims of Tartarus willingly return to what they had been trained to do: fight and suppress. Truly broken, they only knew the life as a fighter or protector of evil. Even her brother, while he did not return to bad habits, was unable to do much more than retire and seclude himself in rural Australia. As far away from the worst of his past as possible. The other hard thing she had to face was none other than the parents of Ghost or, as she better remembered him as, Wes. She cried alongside them and wished she could have done more for them. All she had to give them was a picture he had drawn in secret of what he remembered of home on the back of a "bathroom out of order" sign. Even with the limited tools he had at his disposal, it was truly an amazing realization of home. But he, and the future he might have had as an artist was lost. It was of little closure to her, but she hoped that, at the very least, his parents would eventually find peace. But it wasn't enough for her or many of her fellow survivors. They watched as the news of the event gradually slipped from the papers. Stories of the horrors they were faced with were replaced with celebrity news or, even worse, criticism for allowing the vast majority of the leaders of the prison to escape justice. All the while, the full scope of the Lazarus organization was left untouched and operating normally. It was as if they barely felt the blow of losing that operation. What's more, her fellow heroes pushed back against Trix's demands that they pursue Tartarus. Not that they were against it, but, they argued, Trix was too close to it. Too emotional. They couldn't trust she wouldn't execute more of their leaders rather than risk they escape justice. They weren't wrong to worry about that. But she was furious they didn't understand why it had to be done. Furious that no one seemed to understand. One of the only times they actually took direct action against Tartarus was investigating one of their abandoned ventures for useful information. Within the deep recesses of the Amazon was the remains of a disassembled arena not unlike the one Trix was forced to fight in. A different setting with the same purpose. Deep within the facility, the team located an AI code named Eve who served as the automated operator of the arena and its prisoners. It was tasked with a more autonomous operation which was, apparently, too dry for the audience. When the operation was abandoned and reinstated elsewhere with a more organic means of operation, Eve was left behind. While they thought they wiped the data, an error in the process left Eve mostly intact and running a non-existent arena for an absent audience none the wiser. When Eve was convinced her primary purpose was no longer existent, she shut down. The group gathered the AI, Trix hopeful it could be useful later on. However, it wasn't enough for her. Trix was sick of the red tape and the fact that the only blow to Tartarus they managed was against its metaphorically shed skin was enough to send her up the wall. So, feeling she was out of options, she threw aside everything she had built up and did the only thing she found reasonable. She started a borderline terrorist organization aimed at destroying Tartarus.
Spoilers end.

Hellforged Legion

"We were somethin' Tartarus 'ad never been faced before. Th'vast majority've us were burned by their dirty dealings, but we weren't slinkin' into the shadows. I don't blame any of those that did, but we weren't having it. No matter what, Tartarus as a whole was goin' to burn. Forged in Hellfire, spurned by society, we would have justice. No matter the cost."

ExpandSpoiler warning: Details about a player-created storyline, or information currently unrevealed about a character, within.
The formation of the Hellforged Legion was simple enough. The first person Trix had spared turned out to have an extremely wealthy eccentric for a father who donated a massive airship to the cause which simply needed to be retrofitted for its new found purpose. The group's membership was filled with the spurned survivors of the arena who were frustrated with the lack of action against the arena's parent organization. Funds were garnered through multiple sources and pushed through slush funds to obscure their source. All they needed to do was act. And so they did. The first attack was on a Tartarus military compound in Japan. It was a brutal, bloody assault which left all future operation at that location impossible without costly renovations and recruitment. Their response was, of course, to twist the attack into an assault on a legal private military compound on sovereign soil without authorization. Which, while accurate, obscured the reason for the attack. It hardly mattered. The Hellforged Legion were declared a terrorist organization first by Japan and then, in large part thanks to Tartarus' vast connections, much of the free world. This was not a surprise to any of the Legion, least of all Trix. She had left a note behind for her former colleagues to find explaining her reasoning and that she didn't expect them to agree with her. Of course, they informed her that they intended to bring her to justice. Again, not a surprise to Trix. As she saw it, it was an inevitable result of their unwillingness to see past a black and white outlook of the world. While some of her former allies continued friendly, albeit clandestine communications, she accepted that she had no life to return to after all was said and done. What followed was over a year of guerilla fighting and the sacrifice of principles. While Trix does not regret her cause, she sometimes wishes she kept a tighter leash to stop them from going down a far grayer path than they started on. It was during this time that she met her first wife, Hel. What started with helping a fully realized AI obtain a sense of self and identity bloomed into something greater. It was a bedrock that helped Trix stop from sinking deeper into her righteous fury and keep the organization from becoming a dark reflection of the very thing they sought to destroy. In the end, it was not bloodshed that was the start of the end of the war but information. Trix, realizing she would not get another chance, had gathered the stolen former Tartarus AI from her former companions before initially leaving. Over time, she spoke to the AI and worked to try and talk it out of its current objectives. In the end, not only was she successfully able to convince Eve that her prior primary objectives were illogical and required alteration, but had also convinced Eve, now called Lilith, to turn on her former masters and assist them in gathering what they needed to drag the organization to the surface. While Tartarus thought the fighting was simply an assault on the hydra, the Legion were in fact going for the heart. The one thing protecting the organization from full retribution: anonymity and plausible deniability. What brought down Tartarus in the end was information. Blackmailing leaders of states with proof of their cooperation in exchange for dropping support for Tartarus, destroying key infrastructure only revealed by found documents, and, finally, the release of information regarding the organization to as many media outlets as they could manage. Any who didn't drop support were in that drop, leading to enough of a reckoning to make a difference. Tartarus as a whole was finally a dying beast without hope of returning as it once was. Suffocating on the sunlight. It wasn't easy, but thanks to the information released, Trix was able to negotiate pardons for not only herself but for the vast majority of her fellow members. They were still wanted in several countries, but they could once again exist outside of places like Etoli. Their war was finally over. They could rest.
Spoilers end.

Retirement

"A lot happened in a few years. Carried more than a few scars and I thought I needed to get away from it. Go back to how things used to be. But th'fire in me just wouldn't go out. Couldn't starve it."

{{Spoilers|Spoiler: Trixie couldn't rest. She certainly did try, though.

It started with her simply trying to give support to other survivors of the arena. Carry on the work she put on hold to start the Hellforged Legion. It was fulfilling, but at the same time very depressing. For every few success stories there was a few others of people barely managing to reclaim their lives. Or just vanishing. Sometimes they would turn up again, sometimes not. Either way, it felt like Lazarus was tearing them apart from beyond the grave. She has never stopped helping manage the support network, but she couldn't maintain doing it full time. Quite simply, it was messing with her own mental health.

She tried to go back to operating a simple garage, but that too became a drag for her. While it carried the same nostalgia, going from working on weapons, powered armor, and robots to simple automobiles was driving her innovative drive scream. There are few things as frustrating as having to send a car elsewhere because more and more of its parts rely on proprietary software that would screw the owner over long term to mess with themselves.

As Trix was mulling this over, Hel's own wonderlust was getting the better of her. While Trix's gaze was set firmly on Earth, Hel looked to the stars. While they loved each other to death, it was clear that Hel's path was taking her elsewhere. With a heavy heart, Trix watched her first real love fly into the sunset. Metaphorically of course. There were many places Hel wanted to explore, but the surface of the sun was not one of them.

Left to her own devices, Trix looked to her past. She wanted to make amazing tech like the good old days. But larger. Not just for her allies, but on a wider scale. Perhaps selling gear to heroes and groups like the Vanguard could help quell her need to do some good. So, using the money she made from selling her old airship to the US government (those crazies do love their military hardware), she got to work building her own to-order development company. It would wind up heavily automated and really only require her presence to operate at baseline capacity. She even found a way to incorporate Lilith into the whole infrastructure to give the AI something new to do beyond pilot a massive airship for the US military.

But even as she built up 9 Tail Laboratories, she still felt hollow. She was struggling to find fulfillment in what she was doing. It just couldn't scratch that itch.

Joining the Vanguard

"After everythin' that happened, I couldn' wear a cape no more. Felt sullied, almost. But the fight in me wouldn' die, so I decided to put it to good use. Somewhere I didn' have to be a hero. Somewhere there was a threat an' a job to do."

A New Family

"Wanna know the wildest thing about gettin' mixed up in that Legion business? I never saw it comin'. I think I was just as swept up in it as I swept up Elle."

Not Enough.

"The thing'bout just working for the Vanguard is that I still heard'bout the chaos outside those war walls. I doubt I'm ever going to pick that cape back up, but I figured...I could be a hero by my own principles. Take on big shit others weren't willing to and own it."