Three Generations
- Back in the day, Richard "Dick" Tracy built a reputation as America's "top cop". As a detective he built a major crimes unit that became the model for police departments across the nation who were trying to deal with an increased presence of both organized crime and theme and powered criminals. Detective Tracy's exploits against colorful criminals known by monikers such as Pruneface, Flattop and Big Boy became the stuff of legend and inspired movie serials, television shows and even a comic strip.
- Eventually, Dick Tracy and his wife, Tess, adopted a young street urchin by the monikor of Junior. As a kid and a teenager, Junior is precocious and involves himself in a number of his father's cases, like it or not. When he grows up, Junior becomes first a police sketch artist and then a full detective in the MCU.
- Meanwhile, famed inventor Diet Smith played around with a new invention designed for long distance teleportation. An energy surge allows his device to briefly reach through a temporary crack in the Spectre's Judgement and bring an alien named Mysta to Earth. He is unable to return her and tries to help her adjust to life on Earth. Due to language issues, at first Diet believes Mysta is from the moon. She is, in fact, from a moon - just not the Earth's moon.
- Diet introduces Mysta to his friends, the Tracys. They help her fit in on Earth. Eventually, Mysta and Junior fall in love and are married. It isn't long before they are blessed with a baby girl who they named Honeymoon. Honeymoon's early childhood is wonderful. She is loved by her parents, grandparents, her godfather Diet Smith and the extended MCU family.
- When Honeymoon is a toddler a dying mobster named Big Boy places a bounty on Dick Tracy, determined to see his rival go before he does. Dozens try for the money. One would-be assassin rigs a bomb to Tracy's car. When Mysta goes to start the car it blows up. She dies, instantly in front of her entire family.
Growing Up Tracy
- Despite the loss of his wife, Junior struggles on and raises his daughter as best he can. Since she was so young, Honeymoon's memories of her mother fade. She never forgets but it doesn't traumatize her as much as it might have had she been older. She spends a great deal of time in the MCU's offices and learnes the tools of the trade directly from some of the best detectives in the country. She also spent time in California with famed actor and family friend Vitamin Flintheart and on the Yakima Indian Reservation with her aunt Bonnie.
- As a tween Honeymoon and her friends, inspired by the MCU, formed the Crimestoppers. A club for kids interested in fighting crime, information from the Crimestoppers proved instrumental in helping the MCU crack several cases including a stolen goods trafficking operation, a dogfighting ring and a bootleg DVD operation.
- Around her thirteenth birthday Junior married his childhood sweetheart and friend, Sparkle Plenty. Already a family friend, Sparkle treated Honeymoon like her own daughter and the two quickly and happily bonded. As she grew older, Honeymoon continued to spend time at the MCU when she could, learning about modern investigation techniques.
- As Honeymoon approached her sixteenth birthday strange things began to happen. Paperclips stuck to her fingers. She gave people static shocks when touching then with her hands. Worried, she went to her godfather Diet. Until now, the only sign of her alien heritage were small hornlike buds just above her hairline which she kept hidden. Now, though, it seems she was developing some minor powers. With the help of Diet and her family, Honeymoon learned to control her magnetic fingertips.
- As she approached her eighteenth birthday Honeymoon had a decision to make. Her grades were fantastic and with her family legacy she was guaranteed admission to any police academy or university in the country. However, she decided that she wanted to find her own way. While she wanted to go into the family business she didn't want to follow the same path as her grandfather or father. Instead, with her family's blessing, after turning eighteen she has moved to New York City to see if she can make her way as a private detective.
Analytical
Honeymoon learned how to see the world from a family of detectives. She learned that any situation can be broken down into component parts and explored for inconsistencies and then put back together to search for patterns. Despite her young age, Honeymoon has learned this lesson well. She never takes anything for granted and always, always, always pays attention. Honeymoon also has years of practice at staying calm no matter the situation. She knows the difference between survival and death is the difference between panic and reason.
Impulsive
Despite her analytical mind or, perhaps, because of it, Honeymoon can be impulsive. She's gotten so used to having an almost innate understanding of a situation that she relies heavily on intuition and snap judgements. Of course, these decisions aren't always the best. There's that time, for example, when she was thirteen and she stowed away in the back of a truck to follow some bad guys to their hideout. Only the timely intervention of her family kept her from being killed.
Cheerful
Life's thrown a lot at Honeymoon. Her mother died when she was young. She's faced down some horrible criminals. She's developed powers because of her half-alien heritage. And yet, despite it all, she has always been loved. Always been encouraged to see the bright side of life. Her family and her friends have always given her nothing but support and she's thrived because of it. Honeymoon Tracy has a sunny outlook on life because of it. For her, the glass is always half full.
Justice
Honeymoon's dad is a cop. Her grandfather literally wrote the book on the subject. She has any number of uncles and aunts who are cops and for each and every one of them being a cop is a calling, not a job. The same is true for Honeymoon. She believes in justice the way some people believe in God. She believes that criminals need to be brought to justice both for their own sake and the sake of their victims. She believes that everyone is weak at some point. Anyone can be a victim. And it is her duty as a Tracy to protect those people when she can and bring them justice when she cannot.
Goals
Honeymoon Tracy is going into the family business because she believes that is where she belongs. However, she wants to forge her own path which is why she's becoming a private investigator instead of attending a police academy or a university. In the end, her primary goal is doing her family proud - serving the cause of justice and helping make the lives of others better by it.
Motivation
Tracy's motivation is pretty simple. She wants to make the world a better place through investigation. In the back of her mind, she'd also like to learn more about her mother's side of the family but that's secondary. In truth, she wants to become the best private investigator she can be and help people while doing it.
Magnetic Fingertips
As a result of Honeymoon's alien heritage she has magnetic fingertips - she can, at will, direct bioenergy into iron deposits in her fingertips and temporarily turn them into strong electromagnets able to pull small metal objects to her from roughly a foot away. While this is a relatively minor power it does have several applications. Examples include:
- Opening safes by feeling the tumblers through her magnetic fingertips.
- Unlocking deadbolts, window latches and level locks.
- Helping to climb walls with high metal content.
- Clinging to the tops of automobiles or trains in motion.
- Delivering intense static shocks to people through her hands. They do no real damage but can be quite distracting.
- Erasing magnetic based storage media. The more media there is the longer she needs to maintain contact.
- Temporarily powering up lightbulbs and small electronic devices.
The effect works through thin gloves but is dampened by bulky ones and negated by rubber or insulating gloves.
Family & Friends
Honeymoon's got quite the family. Her "pop pop" Tracy is, despite his advanced age, quite spry and sharp as a tack and still acts as a consultant and lecturer for police academies and departments across the country. Her father's still a member of the Major Crimes Unit back home. Her adopted mother, Sparkle Plenty, is a retired fashion model and has some fame as a country singer. She has any number of unofficial aunts and uncles who are also cops as well as friends the Tracy family has made over the years such as veteran Hollywood actor Vitamin Flintheart, billionare industrialist Oliver Warbucks and newspaper reporter Brenda Starr. In short, Honeymoon has a wide range of people she can go to for advice on a number of topics.
Diet Smith
Diet Smith is an inventor who has been on top of every technological trend for decades. Transistors. Microchips. The internet. And as a result he holds an amazing variety of patents. Diet Smith invented the famous two-way wrist radio which has been upgraded over the years. Because he is independently wealthy he can, in his twilight years, focus on any pet project he likes. He is an excellent resource when it comes to strange technology and he's always happy to spend time with his goddaughter.
Wrist Wizard
A present from her godfather, the wrist wizard is the latest incarnation of the famous two-way wrist radio. This incarnation, however, is much more advanced. It seems to be a simple bracelet but is one of the most advanced smart phones on the planet. In addition to acting like a smart phone, allowing Honeymoon to call, text and run apps, it also sends and receives encrypted signals to and from any other wrist wizard on the planet. The wrist wizard comes complete with a holographic projector which creates a keyboard on the back of the hand and produces full color holographic images up to one foot by one foot square and up to three feet away. The holographs are most often used as a substitute for a screen or to allow video conferencing.
Crimestoppers
While Honeymoon and her friends have outgrown their tween club days they haven't lost touch. Thanks to the magic of the internet, Honeymoon has a network of friends her own age all across the country. They are entering colleges in several cities and haven't forgotten what they learned about vigilance. If Honeymoon needs to put together an impromptu spy network her friends are just a text away.
Alien DNA
Honeymoon is half-alien and this has produced some benefits beyond her powers. For example, she is very resistant to human diseases. She's never had the cold or the flu. She isn't entirely immune but she generally doesn't have to worry about germs.
Permits
Thanks to a little help from her family, Honeymoon Tracy is a fully licenses private investigator. She also has a conceal carry permit. She carries a snub nose .38 revolver - a vintage gift from her pop pop. It doesn't have much range but if she's pulling a gun chances are the threat's right in front of her.
Investigation
Honeymoon was born into a family of top investigators and practically grew up in the Major Crimes Unit. She learned quite a bit through osmosis and observation. She learned more thanks to careful training by her family and the other members of the MCU who always answered her questions with patience and respect for her intelligence. She understands observation of a crime scene and modern forensics. She knows police procedure and quite a bit about interrogation techniques. Honeymoon understands the value of research and how to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to information. As a result, Honeymoon's already as strong an investigator as most detectives on the force.
Athletics
Honeymoon has a ritual. Every year she undergoes the same physical examination and test required of police academy graduates. Every year she passes with flying colors. In other words, Honeymoon's in great shape and capable of performing the climbing, jumping, crawling, sprinting and long distance running that might be required of her as an investigator. She's never going to be a professional athlete but she can give most high school athletes a run for their money.
Driving
Most kids learn how to drive a car at sixteen and the most difficult challenge is parallel parking. Honeymoon, on the other hand, learned how to drive at the local police academy. She knows the same offensive and defensive driving techniques taught to any patrol officer. That includes how to tail a suspect covertly and chase them in the open. She also knows how to, if needed, use a car as a weapon.
Stealth
Even a kid as good as Honeymoon has found the need to sneak past her folks on occasion. And given that her dad is a cop, she's learned how to do so with skill. Honeymoon has also learned techniques for shadowing suspects. This is all urban - she has no real clue how to sneak through the woods without making a sound - but in an urban environment she can tail a perp and go unnoticed as well as any private investigator.
Technology
Honeymoon isn't a hacker but she's an excellent operator of technology. She knows how to put a computer through its paces and, of course, she understands the ins and outs of texting and smartphones. Honeymoon probably couldn't make heads or tails of computer code but she could probably find a suspect's hidden files with time and effort.
True Crime
Believe it or not, Honeymoon pretty much has the criminal statues memorized. She knows quite a bit about modern crime and criminal techniques. From murder to burglary, from organized crime to phishing. She isn't the expert that her grandfather is but what she knows about criminal law would surprise many law students and what she knows about criminal techniques and operations would make her quite valuable were she working on the other side of the law.
Judo
The death of Honeymoon's mother proved that Dick Tracy's family is always in danger. As a result, Honeymoon has been taking lessons in judo from a very young age. As one might imagine, she's quite skilled and was taught by the same people who teach police officers. In other words, the judo she knows isn't for sport but for self-defense and combat. Honeymoon won't last long against a truly disciplined martial artist but she's capable of dealing with the average punk on the street handily.
Firearms
Honeymoon's also been on the range at least once a week since she was ten. She's a crack shot though, thankfully, this has never been tested in an actual fight. Honeymoon's best with a pistol and ten times out of ten she can put three bullets into the center of a target's mass in an area the size of a quarter. Of course she knows how to clean and care for her weapon as well.
Half-Alien
Hollywood Tracy is half-human and half-alien. Which alien species, Honeymoon doesn't know. It is one that is humanoid and biologically compatible with humans but Honeymoon knows little beyond that. So far, this hasn't caused her a problem medically but it might cause a problem in the future. It also means collectors of alien DNA or alien body parts or aliens might want her for their own nefarious purposes.
Family Enemies
No matter how many bad guys Dick and Junior Tracy put away or put into the ground there always seemed to be more. Worse, many of them have family members who want revenge. Every few years another member of the Flattop family seems to pop up looking to avenge their family's loses at the hands of the Tracys. Such enemies might see Honeymoon as the weak link and try to harm her to get to the rest of her family and criminals looking to make their rep might think the same.
Power Limits
Honeymoon's powers can malfunction in the presence of a very strong electromagnet. There was an embarassing moment in high school physics class when she got stuck to her teacher's large electromagnet during a demonstration for example. In addition, her powers don't work through insulated materials such as rubber. Luckily, she doesn't get shorted out by water.
Bleeding Heart
Honeymoon was raised to believe in the idea of public service. That it is her duty to help others any way she can. As a result, she cannot turn away someone in need. She can't walk past someone on the street who needs help without trying to do something to make their life a little better. In a city like New York there are a lot of people who need help and a woman with a good heart can be swallowed whole if she's not careful.
A place to install your character's public reputation
