Artwork by Kerry Connell
Forethought's Character Sheet (6th Edition) in PDF
Name: Karen McCall Kirby
Occupation: Mother/Homemaker
Birth Date: May 30, 1979
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 105 lbs
Hair: Blonde (Black as Forethought)
Eyes: Blue
Place of Birth: Bakersfield, CA
As Michael and Susan McCall's youngest child and only daughter, you preferred solitary pursuits like movies and gymnastics. You did eventually open up more, but continued these pursuits, making it to the state gymnastics championships your senior year.
After high school, you enrolled in secretarial school but during your first term, your life changed forever. You don't recall the details but based on what you've been told, you were taking a short cut when a man attacked and tried to rape you. Fortunately, your mental powers clicked in and you put him in a coma for two months.
The attack left you withdrawn and afraid of these new powers. An examination by the psionic studies branch led to the idea of joining the new SuperSquad America. After meeting the team, you agreed. Taking the name Forethought, you chose to forego a flashy costume, but instead wear an outfit resembling a black turtleneck and slacks, along with domino mask, and a brunette wig.
In 1988, you met the former hero Brainstorm (now the mystical White Shield), who began training you covertly for the role you were to play in an upcoming mystical battle. In August 2000, the White Shield used the last of his life force to send you and the rest of the Squad to an alternate dimension to fight that battle. Your histories there were different and in your case, your assault never occurred and your mental powers never triggered. Unfortunately, before you could defeat the Cult of the Black Sword, you all had to accept your true selves. While the others did this with ease, it was only with the tenderness of Jerry Curtis that you could do it.
You and Jerry began dating. With his patience and love, you gained confidence and were almost ready to take the relationship to the next level. But events of July 2003 changed all that. Trapped in a virtual reality world by the traitorous Jeffery Knox, you pushed your powers to the limit to destroy the computer controlling the simulation and, free the team. However, the stress was too much and it burnt out almost all your mental powers and left your memory full of gaps--amongst other things, you had no memory of the assault that had apparently triggered your powers. But the worst was yet to come.
While you recovered, the team debated if you should be told of your assault. Jerry grew frustrated and chose to take things into his own hands. He burst into the base sick bay and told you point blank how your powers had triggered. The revelation left you stunned -- you didn't know how to react. When Jerry realized what he had done, he raced out of the base. Three days later, the Squad found his dead body with an empty body of pills beside it and a note apologizing for what he had done. Taking a leave from the team, you began to put your life back together. Five months of therapy from Chicago's Dr. Theresa Bryant (aided by the powers of her alter ego, Brain Teaser of the Samaritan Squad) helped you regain much of your memory and made you much more self-assured. Next, with the aid of EAGLES combat training, you improved your combat fitness and learned Jujutsu. With the strong emphasis on combat and the lack of clutter from other powers, you found you had a previously unknown precognitive ability. You can predict an opponent's action and counter it with your own move. Finally, you realized you might be able to replace you lost mental powers with magic. With help from the Order of the White Shield and Silver Bow's parents (now living in the magical dimension of Eyratha), you learned several spells to do just that.
In June 2004, just after your return, the Squad faced DeathTap who created portals into the Realm of the Dead to draw upon the powers of dead superbeings, including Crimson Fist, who you could sense through the portal asking for help. This was your chance to get him back. You and the rest of the Squad entered the Realm of the Dead and found Jerry who subconsciously was very unhappy in the afterlife he had built for himself. To free Jerry, you needed to convince the Guardian of the Afterlife to let him go. Noticing that the Guardian did not seem to understand emotions like love, the team convinced him that if lived as a human, he could gain that understanding. So, you and Jerry volunteered to give birth to him as a twin to another child.
With Jerry back among the living, albeit in his new Jackson Kirby ID, you two finally consummated your relationship and on March 15, 2005, you gave birth to Michael and Jerry. In September 2005, the Squad went to Ukraine to stop Red Fury and his dream machine powered by his comatose father, the great Soviet hero Champion. You learned Champion was also Nightingale's father. You freed Champion from his 24 year coma which was caused by Zyzzaxx, the first known alien, who became stuck in the Soviet hero's mind when he was sent to determine if his planet should invade Earth. After the Squad talked him into not recommending a fate for earth before learning more, all involved agreed to remain silent about his existence. For his silence, Red Fury got a pardon and joined the Squad as Impact. And when Zyzzaxx had to merge with a human body to survive, he too joined as the Mysterious Mr. Z. In the midst of all that, Jackson proposed, and on March 15 2006, your twins' first birthday, you two were wed.
On September 18 2006, DeathGrip murdered Dianne Armstrong Kennedy who was David's wife, Bernie's mother, the team's administrative assistant, and everybody's friend. It was an event that seemed to suck the life out of the entire team. David retired as Challenger and Bernie disappeared, seemingly intent on using time travel to get his mother back. You definitely know that he or some other time traveler is up to something big as you have recently felt several large disturbances in the time stream.
Note: This background is written in a second person style as it is the background provided to the player playing the character in the SuperSquad America event.