Ricochet
Personal Information
Name: Ricochet
Real Name: Rikki Shaefer
Former Aliases: N/A
First Appearance: Savage Dragon #1
Group Affiliation: Freak Force, The M.M.M.S, The Special Operations Strikeforce
Height: 4′ 11″
Weight: 90 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Red
Date of Birth: 06/12/79
Place of Birth: Mt. Vernon, Washington
Base of Operations: Chicago, Illinois
Other Distinguishing Features: N/A
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Barney “Barbaric” Runningbear (husband), Sharona Runningbear (daughter, deceased), Blake Shaefer (father), Uma Shaefer (mother), Cody Runningbear (son), Hunter Runningbear (daughter), Tiffany Runningbear, (daughter)
Powers: Ricochet can bounce like a ball. Her body is very rubber-like and she is able to land safely from falls as high as 6000 feet. Her skin is far tougher than a normal person’s and she resists scratches and injuries. Ricochet’s legs are strong enough to enable her to leap a maximum height of 90 feet straight up in the air, and a maximum distance of 150 feet. She is, however, capable of bouncing farther given the proper momentum. She can usually bounce as high as the height from which she drops, for instance, if she jumped off a ten story building, she could jump onto another ten story building. Although she is unable to stretch on her own, her body does posses some elastic like qualities, enabling her to get smashed and reform, to be stretched up to twice her normal height and to bounce.
History
Rikki Shaefer was born a mutant with the ability to bounce like a rubber ball. Her parents were disturbed that their daughter was a mutant and tried to prevent her from using her powers. Rikki loved to use them, however, and this caused friction in her family. When it came to an ultimatum from her father, the girl ran away from her home and took to the streets.
Falling on hard times, Rikki became a petty thief and met the freak named Barney Runningbear, whom she befriended immediately. Both superhuman youngsters were both arrested for their crimes and eventually relocated to Arizona and the Mutate Manpower Management Service, a super-villain detainment and rehabilitation unit that was, in fact, a freak work camp headed up by Dr. Verlag. It was there that Barney was codenamed Barbaric and Rikki Shaefer was codenamed Ricochet. When the M.M.M.S. started to develop mind control devices to keep prisoners in line that wouldn’t do their bidding, Barbaric, Ricochet and Jerry (Inhabiter) Steele made a break for it. When it appeared that Jerry had been shot dead, Barbaric and Ricochet escaped on their own, deserting their best friend.
The two fugitives set out on a desperate quest to remain free and could not afford to stay settled for long. They found their way to Chicago where they hid out in the city’s underground, living with other homeless freaks. It was there they met and befriended Officer Dragon. The super-powered policeman persuaded Barbaric to join the Police Department, Ricochet being too young at the time, and joined up with what they unofficially called their “Freak Force” program. While involved in this project, the couple were introduced to some of the closest friends that he’d ever meet; Dart, Rapture, and Horridus. Due to restrictions imposed by the local government and their police superiors, the freak officers quit the police force and struck out on their own as bounty hunters, joining up with the veteran hero SuperPatriot and the new Mighty Man.
Freak Force went on to battle a number of menaces, ranging from the supervillains like the Fantastical Force, the Covenant of the Sword, the Throwaways, Master Atom, Bludgeon, their own evil clones and the Frightening Force, to the extraterrestrial Martians, Matrix Swarm and Cosmic Cops. They even faced off against other heroes like Badrock, the Wildcats and Cyber Force.
Eventually, Ricochet accompanied most of her teammates in joining the United States government’s new super-team to replace Youngblood (presumed dead from the Martian attack), the Special Operations Strikeforce. Within the first few months of her tour of duty, Ricochet was proposed to by her long-time boyfriend Barbaric, mostly to try out his ill-fated toy line. The couple were married and had their first child, named after their deceased friend Rapture.
In the other reality that Dragon came to call home, Ricochet and Barbaric never joined up with the Chicago Police Department’s Freak Force and instead remained on the run. They were eventually apprehended by the M.M.M.S. and taken away to Australia. Dr. Verlag relocated to this country during CyberFace’s rise to power. He had struck up an alliance with the new Prime Minister of Australia, BrainiApe, and used his M.M.M.S. slaves as the super-powered security force for his new leader.
All of the imprisoned superhumans were kept hidden from society until Dragon arrived after his escape from Atlantis. He ended up fighting Barbaric and another brain-washed guard, Badrock, before he brought down the M.M.M.S. and BrainiApe. When power was restored to Australia, CyberFace added the country to his empire, abducting almost all of the superhumans present.
Barbaric had avoided this mass kidnapping along with Ricochet, meeting up with another former prisoner, Horridus. The trio soon began an attempt to cross the ocean to the United States, meeting up with the castaways within the Coral Sea, Mako and Dart. This quintet soon became a fighting unit, working together to not only return to the United States but in aiding Dragon on occasion.
Over the next few months, Barbaric and Ricochet landed their own television show which prompted them to lose enthusiasm for crime fighting. They both put on a great deal of weight and only met up with their former allies at the funeral of Dart when she was accidentally killed by an angry Mako. The couple was later lured back into action with both the short-lived Freak Force venture and the mission to take down the renegade Billy Berman Mighty Man.
Barbaric and Ricochet are later fired from their TV show due to being beaten in the ratings by Lamp Chop. After a battle with Kill Crazy they decide that it’s time to join the S.O.S. and fight crime again. Ricochet is not seen for awhile, and she next returns when she is training Elizabeth Bradford to become Mighty Man. She later helps fight off the aliens invasion of Earth. Once the realities merge, she leaves SOS to join the new Freak Force.
Appearances
ALTERED IMAGE
1
BADROCK ANNUAL
Oneshot
BADROCK AND COMPANY
1 (Image), 2
DART
3 (Image)
DEADLY DUO VOL.2
2
FREAK FORCE VOL.1
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
GLORY VOL.1
1
MIGHTY MAN ONE SHOT VOL.1
Oneshot
MIGHTY MAN ONE SHOT VOL.2
1
SAVAGE DRAGON
1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 15, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 32, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50 (F/B B/U) , 51, 52, 54, 55, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63 (Dream), 65, 72, 84, 85, 93, 95, 96, 100, 104, 112, 113, 115 (B/U), 116 (B/U), 135, 169, 179, 194(B/U), 199, 200 (B/U), 224, 225, 226, 233, 235 , 239, 240, 250, 252, 262, 263, 267
SAVAGE DRAGON: RED HORIZON
2, 3
VANGUARD: STRANGE VISITORS
4
WILDC.A.T.S
14
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