Tor is from Wisconsin originally, born to an unwed teenage mother, and had a relatively normal childhood on a small dairy farm owned by his maternal grandfather. It was just the three of them and they got by as best they could. Unfortunately for Tor and his small family, Tor's mutant genes kicked in at puberty causing him to slowly grow into a strangely mutated state, with rubbery skin and an altered skeletal structure more reminiscent of an octopus or squid during his 13th summer.
Tor's family tried to cope with this unforeseen occurance as best they could, but after he was seen by some of his school friends who came by to see if he could play, the neighbors werent as willing to make allowances. One evening the family farm was visited by a group of about 20 farmers with pitchforks, shotguns, and masks. However, there was no hiding the fact that the group was comprised of the menfolk from most of the nearby farms and some folk from in town. They called for Tor's family to give over "the demon-child", and when Tor's grandfather refused they shot him, boarded the farm up with Tor and his mother inside, and lit the place on fire.
Tor's mother quickly choked to death in the smoke, which enraged the nearly aphyxiated Tor. In a furious fugue he slingshotted himself through a window to the inviting darkness outside, and was promptly set open by the masked townsmen. Lashing out in a fury with suddenly oversized hands, Tor simply battered people out of his way with massively punishing slaps, and occasionally picking hapless members of the mob off the ground and slinging them through the air like a trebuchet. Meanwhile the attackers blows bounced off his malleable body to little or no effect, and some that tried to strike him were thrown back away from him by the recoil. The mob soon broke, decimated by the unexpected assualt and seemingly unable to affect the "demon child" with their own attacks.
Tor chased some of them off but his anger broke, and he was left there alone, his home and family burning behind him. He was arrested later that night when the cops showed up, accused of murdering his family and burning the building and held at the county jail for 2 weeks while "his case was considered". He would have gone up infront of a kangaroo court and been lucky to get off with a life sentence, but the mutant group M-Force heard about the case and stepped in. They hired one of the best law firms in the state, McCallister, McCallister, and Baer to represent him. One of the senior partners, David Baer himself, stepped in and took the case personally. His team of investigators were able to dig up enough evidence and clear Tor of all charges after a harrowing 8 week trial. During the trial Tor and David got along very well, and struck up a fast friendship. David did not seem to be bothered by Tor's appearance, and seemed genuinely angry at what the mutant-hating farmers had done to Tor's family.
After the trial, M-Force took Tor in and trained him in the use of his powers. When he was 18 he essentially "graduated" into M-Force, and fought against the IHA and other threats to mutant kind all around the world. He also met his wife Diane, saving her among others in an IHA internment camp hidden away in the rain forests of Brazil. Diane is a low powered mutant with reptillian skin and some snake-like features such as a forked tongue. The two fell in love, eventually got married, and Diane soon gave birth to triplet sons who have inherited some attributes of both parents.
Married and a father 3 times over, Tor felt dissatisfied with the living conditions available to him through M-Force and asked for special dispensation for his family, or else to retire. His unit leader in M-Force at the time, the militant Red Rover, did not react well to this and instead tried to guilt him into "sucking it up" in the interests of "the Cause", and played the guilt card on him when all else failed. M-Force had saved him after all; without them he'd be in prison or worse.
Feeling trapped, Tor orchestrated an escape plan, and split out on the unit during a mission to meet Diane and the kids, who had left the base camp while Red Rover was on the mission with Tor. Catching a plane out of Rio, Tor flew back to Wisconsin and reanewed his acquaintence with David Baer. David helped get Tor set up with a place to live, and got him his first job as a body guard for a wealthy client. After a few more jobs like that, Tor had saved up enough extra money to certify as a Bonded Security Agent, and his asking price went up. Some of the jobs he has worked have been a tad shady, acting as body guard and general "useful guy to have around". So far he's never done anything outright illegal per se, but he has "bent a few fingers the wrong way" so to speak, collecting and reminding debtors to pay up -- things like that.
His abandonment of M-Force did not sit well with Red Rover however, and he subsequently turned a few other team leaders against Tor with his spin of events, leaving him on shaky terms with the organization, depending on the individual. He still hates the IHA and would do anything reasonable to cause them harm, but now provides a better life for his family by turning jobs in the commercial and occasionally the criminal sector.
Slinger was recently contacted by Enforcers Inc in relation to a contract they got in for a powered body guard for some "business man" in L.A. Time will tell if he'll take on any other contracts for the company. He is not interested in overt criminal activity -- he sticks to body guard jobs, but will guard just about anybody. |
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