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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8177096" data-attributes="member: 30538">Doctor Freeze<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-HWvWxFp/0/1f357cb6/S/139962-S.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The story of how a twenty-five-year-old amateur inventor named Henry Meddows ended the rampage of the Protean entity, using a device that projected what appeared to be a ray of 'cold', has already been told. But the story is deeper and stranger than that simple summary would indicate.Henry Meddows' earliest memories were of the funeral of the man whom he believed to be his father, who passed away when he was six. Thereafter, it was just himself and his widowed mother in the old house outside of Chicora. She spent most of her late husband's fortune arranging for her son's private education, hiring tutors and buying texts. Henry's technical genius was apparent from a young age, and his first inventions were labor-saving devices allowing them to maintain their home, followed soon by a skin cream to help both himself and his mother to cope with their albinism.In his late teens and early twenties, Henry found himself fascinated by snow and ice, notably by the way that water tended to expand its volume when it froze, unlike most liquids. He developed the somewhat outré theory that there were other liquids that had this property which had just not yet been discovered yet, and set about changing that. When asked, by one of his few friends, how this would benefit the world, he admitted that he wasn't sure, and volunteered the confidence that he sometimes felt like a sculptor 'discovering' the shape of a statue in a rock.Regardless, he did in fact discover his 'infrawater' -- a substance that absorbed heat from its surroundings as it froze at room temperature, and expanded in volume several hundred-fold as it did. The discovery occurred just a day or so before the Protean began its rampage, which Meddows, horrified by the loss of life, naturally tried to stop. After hearing that a teenager had managed to momentarily escape from the creature after using a fire extinguisher on it, Henry theorized that infrawater could incapacitate the entity. And his theory proved correct.That evening, while he recounted the episode to his mother, who had been bed-ridden for the past several years, she listened in somber silence until he reached the end of the somewhat rambling tale, and then nodded before telling him that there was something he needed to know. She had thought that it would be best to take this secret to her grave, but Henry was clearly walking the same path, and it would be cruel to hide it from him. The man he had always thought of as his father had not been.In the early 1930s, Rosalind Richards had been romantically involved with a noteworthy surgeon and philanthropist in her native New York. Accounts of his discomfort around women had been slightly exaggerated in a series of juvenile novels about his activities. Rosalind had known much of his past, about the strange way he had been raised, and about his ambivalent feelings towards that way. But she also knew that, regardless of his ambivalence, he believed that it would be the best way for any child of his to be raised.She disagreed. And so, when she discovered that she would bear his child, she made the impossible choice to walk away from their relationship, marry another man, and never see the great love of her life and the father of her son again. She had raised Henry to become a different sort of person, hopefully more happy in his life than his father had been. But nature would apparently tell, regardless of her intentions.Henry was stunned at this revelation. At first, he tried to comfort his mother by assuring her that this episode had been a unique one, that he had no intention of going off to become some sort of crusader. And he meant it when he said it, continuing his experiments and caring for her in her final illness. When she finally passed away a few months later, he made an attempt to contact the man she'd told him about, but that individual had already departed for what would become his own last adventure. Alone in a world that was clearly stranger than he'd ever imagined, Henry Meddows chose to do the only thing that made sense to him. And so Doctor Freeze, cold-wielding superhero, was born.He joined the Institute, and served as its leader over two terms, striving to lead by example. He was well-known for observing a code against killing that applied to all life, not just humans; this led him to clash with the military when they wanted his help to permanently end the Protean, and with Stardust on multiple occasions. Well, to call the latter 'clashes' is an exaggeration -- he would get angry and even raise his voice with Stardust, who would respond with stoic indifference. He was never mad enough to attack the other man, though Henry would and did try to get him thrown out of the Institute on several occasions.His end came early in the final battle. Attempting to cover the withdrawal of civilians from the area under attack, he employed an experimental version of his Freeze Gun that produced a larger amount of 'ice' than he had ever managed before, shaping it into a wall designed to slow Stardust down. The Super-Wizard proceeded to reduce the material to its liquid form, resulting in a torrent that drowned Henry Meddows before he could escape. His body was recovered and lies buried in Chicora's cemetery; there is a small museum devoted to his activities there, based out of his former headquarters. Versions of his freeze ray have been used by several others, heroic and villainous, in the decades since.As far as anyone knows, he had no children of his own. But most believe that to be the case of his father, too.Dr. Freeze -- PL 8Abilities:STR 1 | STA 1 | AGL 3 | DEX 3 | FGT 3 | INT 7 | AWE 3 | PRE 2Powers:Freeze Gun: Array (31 points); Easily Removable (-13 points) <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Blasting: Linked Ranged Damage 8; Linked Ranged Affliction 8 (Resisted by Fortitude, Overcome by Damage; Hindered, Immobile, Paralyzed); Reduced Range - 31 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Sculpting: Continuous Create 8, Innate - 1 point</li> </ul>Protective Gear: Immunity 6 (cold damage, cold environment); Protection 4; Removable (-2 points)Advantages:Benefit 2 (independently wealthy), Equipment 10, Evasion, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-all-Trades, Leadership, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Technology), Uncanny DodgeEquipment:Utility Belt (10 points of equipment as needed)The Icebox: Size Large; Toughness 10; Features: Communications, Computer [1960s computer], Fire Prevention System, Hangar, Holding Cells, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Power System, Security System, Workshop - 15 pointsIcewing: Size Huge; Strength 8; Speed 7 (air); Defense 6; Toughness 10; Feature Immunity 10 (cold effects) - 25 pointsSkills:Athletics 6 (+7), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+7), Expertise: Science 6 (+13), Insight 6 (+9), Investigation 3 (+10), Perception 8 (+11), Ranged Combat: Freeze Gun 5 (+8), Technology 5 (+12), Vehicles 5 (+8).Offense:Initiative +3Unarmed +7 (Close Damage 1)Freeze Gun +8 (Ranged Damage 8 and Fortitude 8)Defense:Dodge 9, Parry 7, Fortitude 5, Toughness 5/1, Will 9Totals:Abilities 46 + Powers 27 + Advantages 20 + Skills 24 + Defense 20 = 137 pointsComplications:Discovery--Motivation. Albinism. Fame. Honor (code against killing.)</blockquote>

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