Plutonium Girl
Mutant Empathy/Radiation Defender (deleted from Infinity server)
Wendy Whitaker never knew her parents -- they refused to have anything to do with her from the moment she was born because she had green skin and hair, pointed ears, and the ability to emit hard radiation. In time, her control over her abilities improved, allowing her to harm her enemies and to heal and give other abilities to her friends. But she never got over her resentment over the way her parents and society rejected her for her looks and her powers.
After she finally left the orphanage, Wendy went to college and got a degree (majoring in anthropology with a computer science minor). She hoped she'd be able to live like a normal person, but she knew that her efforts were doomed to failure. She decided to become a superhero, patrolling the streets of Paragon City as Plutonium Girl. Part of her motive had to do with a desire to protect the innocent, but she freely admits that most of her desire to be a hero relates to her wish to let her absentee parents and the rest of the world see that she is not the freak they thought she was.
Wendy recently got a bad case of Urban Fatigue -- just generally sick and tired of living in the big city. She didn't want to retire as a superhero, however, so she joined up with the Las Vegas Vindicators -- it's still a city large enough and exotic enough to have plenty of crime to fight, but now, when she gets tired of concrete, steel, and skyscrapers, she can fly out into the desert and commune with nature. It's a pretty good life.
(Plutonium Girl has long been one of my very favorite characters. Unfortunately, she had trouble finding people to team with, so I decided to delete her to clear up space for characters that might have an easier time getting teams and leveling up. She was a good, fun character, and I think it's too bad she had to go.)