Freight Train

California Mutant Registry Name CHELSEA ELIZABETH WAGNER Aliases FREIGHT TRAIN Ability STRENGTH/DURABILITY Registration Date 11/28/1995 Last Known Location LOS SANTOS, CA Threat Level 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

Biography

Chelsea Elizabeth Wagner was born in northern Ohio to a middle-class family. Her parents encouraged her to be active, limiting her time indoors, especially in front of a TV or video game console. She tried several sports before choosing basketball as her favorite. She practiced hard with her father, who signed her up to play recreationally starting at age seven.

Her powers manifested on the playground while she was in the sixth grade. A group of high schoolers had approached them and tried to bully them off the court. Chelsea, not to be shooed off without a fight, tackled one of them when he threatened them with violence. The force of her 80 pound shrimp body sent his 200 pound, all-muscle physique skidding nearly eight feet across the court. His compatriots laughed, and one of them said the phrase that she would later draw her codename from:

"Babygirl done freight train'ed yo' sorry butt, son!" However, both her opponents and her friends quickly realized that such a feat should not have been possible, and Chelsea ran from the court, afraid that they would turn her in and feeling guilty about what she had done. Her parents withdrew her from school for a year, helping her to cope with her new powers and researching helpful institutions that could help her further. At last they settled on Cullen's Institute, and sent her with their well-wishes. Chelsea settled on her "code-name", Freight Train, shortly before going to the Institute. While there she was brash and loud about the nature of her power and assigned nicknames and code-names to any of her peers who would reveal their powers to her. She made friends with several mutants, notably her best friend, Taya Robbins. However, her happiness there was short-lived.

A mutant criminal, The Boulder, broke into the Cullen's research laboratory in the hopes of finding a cancer cure for his ailing grandmother. Freight Train, wandering about out of restlessness, heard the noise and went to investigate, finding her professor Vipul Chandrashekar engaged in a battle with the earth-wielding Boulder. As she and Vipul overpowered him, Boulder lost control of himself and slew Vipul's clones. Chelsea, being unable to withstand the sight of the killing, fled the scene. After spending several months trying to cope with the brutal murder of her math teacher's clones (and the uncomfortableness of attending classes with his original self), Freight Train fled Cullen's and wandered west, where she eventually found at Anna Fernandez's Rendención House.

At the House, Freight Train showed only shades of her former attitude. She allowed herself to be called Chelsea, and except for rare outbursts of temper or pride, showed none of her former brashness. However, with the help of her friend Jamie Morrigan, and with a little exploration of her powers under the guidance of Feral, she began to recover some of her old swagger. After a gang fight broke out on Rendención's front lawn, Chelsea ran away again, this time to her home in Ohio. There, she stayed in relative quiet and safety with her parents, recovering with their help and living the life of a normal kid to escape the problem. Now, she returns to Los Santos to confront her fears regarding fights between mutants, the altercation at the House, and just to visit her friends.

Tropes

Much of the planning and writing of Freight Train has been influenced by tropes as defined by TvTropes.org. The tropes that apply to her follow.

Boisterous Bruiser--At Cullen's Institute.

Cute Bruiser--Thanks to being fun-sized with the Juggernaut's power set.

Personality Powers--A tomboy with physically destructive powers.

Puberty Superpower--Comes with the setting.

Tomboy and Girly Girl--Has shades of this, playing Tomboy to Taya's Girly Girl.