Avalanche (Rachel Smurfette)

Early life
Rachel Summer Smurfette was born in Lower Flushing in New York to Jack and Hayley Smurfette, but moved to Crystal City at the young age of 5. Rachel went to college when she was 17, but remained in college for a third year to further her education. While in college, Rachel became best friends with a Welsh student named Filippa Brooks. Her courses included computing and physics. However in order to graduate from their third years in college, both Rachel and Filippa required work experience. So they both became student scientists at the Crystal City Scientific Testing Facility, where they were taught by the likes of Alex Breeze, Emma Miles and Connor Cox. In that same year, both became full-time scientists, and were offered to join Dr. Kurt Powers to join his crew to conduct his latest experiment to discover the reaction of the newly discovered element Xerozium to exposure from the Van Allen belt. Rachel and Filippa both accepted the offer.

Everything was going well until the fundings of the project was cut. Kurt, however, insisted that they go ahead with the experiment on that same night, despite being unprepared and unfinished. During the experiment, Kurt's crew, including Rachel, were rendered unconscious after a huge beam of light flooded the entire facility. Just a few days after the incident, the group found that their bodies and abilities have been dramatically altered. Rachel found that she had the ability to manipulate the mass of her muscles, being able to transform into a monstrous humanoid with tremendous strength and endurance. It was at Kurt Powers's suggestion that they decided to use their new abilities to serve mankind as the Crystal League under the cover of night. Rachel was then officially dubbed as Avalanche, serving as the youngest member of the team.

Crystal League
As the Crystal League, the team found themselves setting up their headquarters in an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city which was dubbed as the Crystal Fortress. The first villain they battled was the Tarantula, followed soon after that by the Venoboids. However one of Avalanche's most significant battles in her early career with the Crystal League was when she was kidnapped by a maniacal genius named Dr. Manipulate, who used a prototype of his mind control device to brainwash Avalanche into attacking her partners. Avalanche proved to be a big threat to the Crystal League, but eventually she managed to break free from her manipulation, despite allowing Dr. Manipulate to escape unharmed. Soon afterwards however, the Crystal League were forced into retirement when the Tarantula reveals their identities to the public, erupting riots across the city to ban the superheroes.

After six months of inactivity, Avalanche found herself returning to action as a member of the Crystal League once again by popular demand when Stoneheart held the mayor as hostage. Afterwards the Crystal League, now able to operate during the day and have been since considered as celebrities, have encountered several villains including Master Man and Hailstone, but more significantly was the return of the missing member of the team, Connor Cox, who has turned to a life of evil. Also on the first of November of that same year, the Tarantula returned to the streets, challenging the team to fight him. However during battle, he manages to poison Avalanche with his fear-inducing toxin, causing her to transform her into a hideous and monstrous beast. Consumed by her fears, Avalanche goes into a rampage across the city. Although she managed to fight off her partners from ending her rampage, she eventually managed to overcome her fears and defeat the Tarantula all by herself.

In the following year, Avalanche joined her fellow Crystal League members in a battle against a group of villains known as the Platinum League. In that same year, Avalanche briefly loses control of her powers, rapidly transforming herself into a hideous beast consumed by her own fears once again. As the transformation grew more and more grotesque, while the rest of the team were away, Avalanche locked herself in the Crystal Fortress in the hope that she cannot harm the city anymore than she already has. However she managed to gain control of her powers and return to her normal form. Finally Avalanche now has complete control over her power. As the rest of the Crystal League began to develop their abilities even further, the team were challenged by more and more obstacles. An evil sorceress named Morgana transformed the male members of the team into powerless females, Avalanche switched powers with every member of the team, and the team are stripped of their powers by Miss Danger. After two years, the Crystal League were invited to test out a new virtual reality device. However they were instead tricked by Emaou Yokoyama, who trapped the team in the virtual world of Datos. There, Avalanche battles a giant robot named Scarlet Dorg, and fights a much more powerful version of the Tarantula. Eventually the team are freed from Datos, and return to Crystal City, only to find that it has been overrun by the Platinum League, led by Maximillion Schroeder. In search of the billionaire's hidden location, Avalanche teams up with Bolt to gain some answers from Emaou Yokoyama, who managed to hire some protection in the form of Battle Ox. Soon the Crystal League find the location and defeat the billionaire, but not before Connor Cox sacrificed himself for the team.

More obstacles crossed paths with the Crystal League. The next two years saw the romantic affair between Stoneheart and the Heart Breaker, Zabrina's return to the realm of Magia, and the rise of Viper. But more significantly was Stoneheart's recruitment into the Crystal League after breaking up with the Heart Breaker. Out of the entire team, Avalanche was the most distrusting in allowing Stoneheart to join the team, despite being rescued by the team after she was kidnapped by Trigg. After several weeks Avalanche eventually leaves the team, being unable to trust the new team member any further, but returns once again when Stoneheart turns back to a life of evil by stealing an artifact known as the Bronze Stone and attacks the entire city. Stoneheart is eventually defeated and the team are reunited once again. However just one month later, the entire team are succumbed to the powers of the Blackout, who traps the team in the Nightmare Realm. The team manage to fight off his powers until they break free and return to Crystal City.

The Crystal League, including Avalanche, eventually became prisoners of Tera Elexis and her Demonic minions until they were freed by Silver Frost, who sacrificed herself in the process. But one year after these events pass, the team has been changed. The only members remaining in the team were Avalanche, Whiz Kid and Bolt, who struggled together to defend the city from injustice. Soon the team saw the resurrection of Trastámara Aragon, an ancient sorcerer who possessed all of the powers of the Crystal League, which led to an epic battle between the sorcerer and the Order of Magia that took place on Earth. During the battle, the team managed to open a portal which transported everything of Magian blood back to their home realm, which to the team's surprise, including their team leader, Whiz Kid, who was also transported back to Magia. Now with no leader, the Crystal League quickly began to crumble, and each team member went their own separate ways.

Powers and abilities
Avalanche possesses the ability to manipulate the mass of her muscles. This grants her the potential for near-limitless physical strength, depending on her hydrational state. Her durability, stamina and endurance also increase in proportion of her hydration. However as a side effect, the stronger Avalanche gets the more her skin turns into a Bluish-like colour, and given enough power, she can transform into a far more beastly form of herself.

Avalanche is capable of resistance to most forms of injury or damage. She has been shown to have both regenerative and adaptive healing abilities, including growing tissues to allow her to breathe underwater, surviving unprotected in space (yet still needing to breathe), and when injured, healing from almost any wound within seconds, depending on her hydrational state.

As an addition to her Muscle Manipulation skills, Rachel Smurfette also possesses telepathic skills, as well as the power of Empathy. Still learning to adapt to these powers however, Avalanche can already use her powers to Read the Minds of others, cast Illusions, Read the Feelings of others and create Mental Bolt Projections with enough concentration.

Nightmare Blackout
During the Nightmare Blackout story arc, Avalanche's nightmare saw her in a more monstrous form than any of her other transformations and under the control of Dr. Manipulate.

Trivia

 * Avalanche was the youngest member of the Crystal League.
 * Originally it was planned that Avalanche would only turn into a monster whenever she consumed enough water, rather than being able to manipulate her metamorphosis through her muscles.
 * Jack Smurfette, Avalanche's father, was born in Marseille, France.