History
Rebecca Hailey, using the codename Thermal, joined the superhero team Brigade to write an exposé for her editor Jack Bonner.[2] She fought alongside Battlestone, Coldsnap, Kayo, Seahawk, Stasis and Atlas, with Martin Grant doing assists. Her boss wanted her to deliver the exposé, and was given a week to obtain it. That day, she and Brigade freed a group of hostages from terrorists.[3] A week later, Rebecca still hadn't delivered the exposé. When an alien named Genocide arrived with a spaceship in Los Angeles challenging Brigade, the team answered the challenge. They were able to knock the alien out, but they were all teleported to Genocide's home planet, D'Vor.[4] Brigade appeared in an arena, where the D'Voran Imperial High Council Magistrate declared Brigade had challenged Genocide first and for that crime they had to be executed. With no room for discussion, Brigade escaped the arena they were in, but when they were swarmed by an army of D'Voran fighters, Thermal blasted a hole through the ground, leading them into The Tunnels, a sewage system. There, they defeated a gruesome monster. Afterwards, they were intercepted by a D'Voran task force called The Factor, composed by Knockdown, Reign and Trek, who overpowered Brigade until they were stopped by the arrival of a group of freedom fighters who called themselves the Birds of Prey.[1] Not wanting to fight the Birds of Prey in their territory, The Factor fled.[5]
A few days later, both teams were found by Imperial High Guard. Fighting through the imperial forces, they were led back towards the Citadel, where Genocide was waiting for them. Genocide challenged Battlestone to a one-on-one match. If Battlestone won, the Magistrate would teleport Brigade back to Earth, but if he lost, they would all become Genocide's personal slaves. Genocide exacted the combat by opening the floor and dropping himself and Stone into a pit. Brigade and the Birds of Prey rushed to join them by bursting through the wall to join in. Battlestone insisted on fighting Genocide alone, and left the teams to take care of the guards. Sadly, Genocide murdered Atlas. Afterwards, the surviving members of Brigade boarded a ship and barely managed to escape the Citadel, heading for open space, and Earth. While Kayo drove, Rebecca tried to tell Battlestone Atlas' death wasn't his fault, but Stone disagreed.[5]
After three months in space, Brigade returned to Earth and landed their spacecraft in their Malibu headquarters. Kayo and Thermal begged Stone to stop shutting them out and to give the team some guidance, but Stone was too blinded by grief and fury to respond in any productive way. Blaming him for Atlas’s death, Stasis quit the team. As she left, she was shot in the head and killed by Battlestone’s brother, Cabbot Stone. He had come with his team Bloodstrike to capture or kill Brigade under orders of Washington. In the course of the ensuing battle, Bloodstrike member Shogun knocked out Thermal and blasted Coldsnap, damaging the apparatus that regulated his powers, which then raged out of control. Deadlock shot Seahawk multiple times, and Fourplay broke Kayo's jaw. Battlestone was about to be defeated by Cabbot and his partner Tag when Martin Grant crashed Brigade's alien ship into the building, granting Battlestone a distraction and allowing him to escape with Thermal, Coldsnap, and Stasis’s corpse.[6]
They flew to the Los Angeles branch of G.A.T.E. International, where Battlestone called in a favor with a scientist there, Dr. Sandler. Afterwards, John brooded and Thermal tried to discuss things with him, but he angrily refused to. Later, Sandler treated Coldsnap and placed Stasis’s body in a nutrient bath connected to special equipment.[6] An hour later, Battlestone brought in two past allies of his as reinforcements, Boone and Hacker. Rebecca excused herself to answer a call from her editor, who told her to deliver the exposé or be fired. Feeling she couldn't do the story anymore after what had happened to Stasis and Coldsnap, Rebecca decided her Brigade teammates had become her friends, and Bonner could fire her if she wanted. Afterwards, she was informed there was a fight going on in the compound, so she headed there.[2]
Arriving on the scene, Thermal discovered all of Bloodstrike was fighting against against Bloodstone, Boone and Coldsnap, who had mutated after the apparatus regulating his powers broke, and now looked like a hulking ice monster. Coldsnap took on Bloodstrike, giving Battlestone, Boone, and Thermal time to regroup. The two teams battled until Shogun blasted Coldsnap through a wall, revealing Stasis’s body in a resurrection chamber in the next room. Cabbot was enraged and vowed to stop Stasis's resurrection. Just then, an old ally of Brigade named Lethal and Seahawk teleported in.[7]
Amidst the fighting, Shogun shot at Stasis’s rejuvenation chamber under Cabbot's orders, preventing her resurrection. Infuriated, Battlestone lashed out at Cabbot while Thermal fought Tag. Battlestone and Cabbot argued and beat the crap out of each other until Battlestone told Cabbot to leave Brigade alone or else he would expose Project: Born Again to the public. Thermal was shaken by Bloodstone's deranged and self-possessed tone, but if what he was saying about the government being a sham was true, maybe she had been wrong about him for the last few months. Finally, Cabbot told Battlestone to kill him, but Battlestone refused, saying letting him live was even worse, and left with Brigade. Brigade flew away in their jet, and Battlestone warned the team that Bloodstrike would come after them again, but letting them go sent a message to the puppet masters controlling their strings.[8]