Toro
| F Gd 10 |
A Ex 20 |
S Gd 10 |
E Rm 30 |
R Ty 6 |
I Gd 10 |
P Ex 20 |
Res Gd 10 |
Pop In +40 |
| Health: Karma: |
70 36 |
Origin:
Due to irregularities in both his parents' genes, Thomas Raymond was born a mutant. Exposure to the Horton cells used to build the original Human Torch altered the expression of said powers however, making them manifest identically to those of that android hero!
Known Powers:
Fire Generation: Thomas can generate large amounts of fire at will, inflicting Incredible (40) SD Energy damage per strike. These fiery assaults take the form of miniature fireballs, which Thomas can fling within three areas of his person. He has mastered these power stunts:
* Aura / Fire: by surrounding his body in an envelope of open flames, Thomas can cause Incredible (40) SD Energy damage to anyone foolish enough to touch him - though he can suppress this effect while, say, carrying someone. These flames offer him this protection:
Rm 30 / In 40 / Ty 6 / Fe 2 / Shift 0
* Fire Control: Thomas also has a certain level of control over fiery energy, control he exercised with Remarkable (30) ability. Any fiery shapes or other tricks attempted utilizing this power would be based upon this rank, making them quite dangerous in scope.
* Flight: by projecting a cushion of heat under himself, and then propelling himself forward with his fiery power, Thomas can achieve Excellent (20) ranked flight, which allows him to move through the air at approximately 150 miles per hour.
* Resistance to Fire and Heat: though he isn't truly invulnerable to sources of fire and heat, Thomas is resistant to such energies at Unearthly (100) rank, which protects him from all but the most powerful sources of flame - including most super-humans.
* Regeneration: finally, it has been revealed that 'flaming on' allows Thomas to rapidly recover from seemingly critical injuries in relatively short order. He possesses this power at Feeble (2) rank, allowing him to recover one lost Health point every five turns.
Limitations / Enhancements:
Achilles' Heel: Thomas' fiery powers are especially vulnerable to cold, water, or wind attacks. Cold attacks ignore his aura's protection altogether, and either water of five or more gallons or wind attacks of Amazing (50) intensity or greater can douse his flames for 1d10 turns.
Equipment:
(none)
Quirks:
(none)
Talents:
Martial Arts type B: trained how to fight by Bucky, his fellow Invader and Kid Commando, Thomas can protect himself in a fight should he find himself without his powers. He may attempt unarmed melee attacks as though his Fighting score was +1 CS in rank.
Skill / Fire Generation: practicing non-stop in the use of his powers, Thomas wield them with great proficiency. He's so good at performing various actions with his fiery abilities that he should gain a +1 CS on all FEAT rolls (save for damage) when doing so.
Trivia / Comic Books: when he wasn't Invading or Kid Commando-ing or otherwise fighting crime, Thomas made sure he enjoyed a handful or two of comics in his down time. His Reason score in such Trivial matters should be considered +1 CS higher than is listed above.
Contacts:
Thomas was a founding member of the Invaders, the All-Winners Squad, and the Kid Commandos, and can readily rely upon individuals from these groups for aid should he but ask. A celebrated super-powered war hero, Thomas can also use his Popularity to great advantage.
Costume:
Thomas originally wore a minimal costume while fighting evil. But then his powers are good at wrecking clothes, and you almost never see him without his flaming aura active in a fight, anyway. His costume includes dark green shorts and boots, presumably made of asbestos.
In our modern era of unstable molecules, he's adopted something a bit more... modest. It consists of a black and gray stretch fabric body suit, which occasionally doesn't cover his arms below his biceps, and is adorned with a golden belt and a golden choker.
Personality:
Despite his truly bizarre history, Thomas behaved like a typical teenager. He was cocky in most situations (that didn't involve girls, at least), believing that his fiery powers could protect him from most any form of harm. He was very close to his heroic partner, the Human Torch.
Real Name: Thomas Raymond
Occupation: adventurer, former circus fire-eater
Legal Status: American citizen with no criminal record, legally deceased for quite some time
Marital Status: married
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: former member of the Invaders, former member of the the Kid Commandos, former member of the the All-Winners Squad
Height: 5' 11"
Hair: blue
Eyes: brown
Weight: 170 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: none
Story:
Even before he was born, Thomas' history was rife with peculiarities. You see, his father Fred was an expert in asbestos flame-proofing, and worked with Professor Phineas T. Horton - creator of the Human Torch and other oddball androids like Volton and Adam II.
Prolonged exposure to asbestos had given the poor man cancer. Meanwhile, his mother Nora was a scientist who experimented with various nuclear compounds, including radium. Of course radiation shielding wasn't what it is these days, and her dedicated work had made her ill.
Despite their physical ailments, the two were blessed with a son, Thomas, who they tended to call Toro - a reminder of the romantic bull fights they'd seen down in Mexico. They weren't able to raise him as they would've liked though, thanks to their scientific connections.
You see, they were targeted by the Asbestos Girl, a criminal mastermind who set fires in the course of her crimes and needed the Raymonds' expertise in building a Human Torch-proof suit. Suspecting she would try something like this, the Human Torch showed up to chase her off.
All too easily, the Asbestos Girl harbored a grudge, and as such she arranged a terrible demise for the Thomas family. Causing a train they were riding to derail shortly thereafter, Fred and Nora were killed in the subsequent blaze - but Thomas survived just fine.
As it turned out, he was completely immune to the fire and heat which has claimed his parents. Found by a traveling circus, Thomas was taken in by Tom and Ellie Alexander, the circus' fire eaters, who thought he'd make a great addition to the traveling show's nightly performance.
News spread about the fire-proof boy, and both the Human Torch and the Asbestos Girl came looking for him. After dealing with his would-be nemesis, the Torch found Thomas at the circus, and his mere proximity caused the youth to ignite - his powers fully manifesting at last.
Taking him under his wing, the Human Torch became Thomas' legal guardian, and the two eventually developed a crime fighting partnership. In other words, Thomas was the Human Torch's side kick, but he didn't mind second billing because he was just glad to help people.
When World War II broke out, Thomas and the Human Torch felt a need to lend their country a hand, and formed the mighty Invaders with both Captain America and his own side kick, Bucky, and Namor: the Sub-Mariner! Thomas was a member for the duration of the War.
When he wasn't engaged in side-projects like the Kid Commandos, at least. Or keeping up with the latest comics. Or ogling girls. Hey, the guy's still a teenager, after all! Of course once the War was over, the need for heroes remained, and Thomas didn't shy away from this.
Alongside the Human Torch, he joined up with the All-Winners Squad, fighting bizarre villains and heading off disasters as the world recovered from the War. When the Squad eventually went its separate ways, Thomas and the Torch resumed acting as a crime-fighting duo.
This lasted until 1949, when criminals neutralized both the Torch and Thomas' powers with stolen Soviet Solution X-R. They buried the Torch out in the Mojave desert to be rid of him once and for all, though they simply left poor Thomas to his own devices, possibly to taunt him.
Several years later, an atomic bomb test reactivated the Torch, who then resumed his partnership with Toro once again (once the latter's powers were similarly reinstated). The problem was that the Torch's powers had been growing out of control thanks to radiation exposure.
Heading back out to the desert once more, the Torch went 'nova', lest he become a menace to society once more. Seeing nothing else for it, Thomas then retired from the heroic life, settling down with a wife, Ann, and generally trying to be a normal person.
Thomas was drawn back into heroic conflict years later, however, when the Mad Thinker revived the Human Torch's body once again, and intended to use it against mankind. Naturally, Thomas was opposed to this, and sacrificed his life to end the Thinker's plot.
And that would've been the end of things for Thomas, save for some oddities here and there. For a time, a strange man calling himself Mr. Raymond made himself known to the youthful super heroes known as the Power Pack - a man with fiery powers similar to Thomas'.
The true identity of this man was never revealed, though it should be noted that no body was ever found in the explosive end of the Mad Thinker's attempt to control the Torch. Either way, the point was rendered moot when Bucky used the Cosmic Cube to revive his dead friend.
Having traveled into the present from the 1940s, the Invaders learned of their various fates, and when Bucky got a hold of the Cube during their effort to get home and fix various issues the Cube had caused, he 'wished' his friend back to life - and suddenly Thomas rose from the grave!
Doing so after the Invaders got home, presumably to avoid even more temporal snarls, Thomas was met by the mysterious Vision. Dedicated to helping Cosmic Cubes mature, the Vision took it upon himself to help its handiwork, Thomas, acclimatize to the present.
Despondent that his wife had moved on and that the world thought him dead, Thomas decided that he was going to take out his ire on the man responsible for his predicament: the Mad Thinker! While he died ending the Thinker's scheme, the Thinker himself had lived on to plot anew!
Chasing off after the man, Thomas was stymied by his own powers, which petered out at the worst possible moment. Vivisected by the villain, who had since reacquired the newly deactivated (again) Human Torch, it was discovered that Thomas' body was riddled with Horton cells!
These artificial cells, the basis upon which Horton's android life was built, had altered the expression of Thomas' mutant abilities. Furthermore, they made them dependent somewhat on the presence of the Torch's own Horton cells, and by extension, his astoundingly hot flames.
After exposure to them, Thomas' powers ultimately returned yet again, and he used them to interrupt yet another of the Thinker's attempts to control and weaponize the Torch. Of course, this repeat of that previous plot was only a stepping stone to something bigger!
Tracking the Thinker down, Thomas and the Torch discovered him in a subterranean Nazi town peopled entirely by androids! There, the Thinker aided the town's architect, Herr Sigmund Fell, in the creation of his greatest android to date: the so-called Inhuman Torch!
Though it was one of their most difficult battles ever, the two heroes ultimately put the Inhuman Torch down, along with Fell and his fascist creations. They then returned to civilization, only to team up with the rest of the Invaders to put down a menace from their pasts.
Thomas' current activities are as of yet unrevealed, but he is now active as a hero once more!
Extra Goodies:
The Toro entry originally written with Keith Kilburn!
Return to the Golden Age Toro!
Return to the All-Winners Squad main page!
Return to the Marvel Universe Miscellany main page!
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