Cammi
Cammi: “I own you. The Skrull guy gave you to me.”
Context
Cammi is a sociopathic little girl who became mixed in alien wars. She first appeared in 2005, in the ramp-up toward the excellent Annihilation Marvel publishing event.
This profile only covers her 2005-2007 appearances. She did return later, but that was years after this character profile was done.
Unless you’re well familiar with the Annihilation and Drax (2005) events, it is best that you first read our character profiles for Drax the Destroyer.
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Background
- Real Name: Cammi’s last name is unrevealed, and “Cammi” is likely a nickname. Her actual first name might be something along the lines of Cameron, Camilla, Catherine Michelle, etc.. Though the writeups.org crew suspects she might actually be named after video game character Cammy).
- Marital Status: Single (minor).
- Known Relatives: Mavis (mother, deceased), unnamed father (status unrevealed).
- Group Affiliation: Sort-of partner of Drax the Destroyer ; sort-of member of the United Front.
- Base Of Operations: Mobile (formerly Coot’s Bluff, Alaska).
- Height: 4’7” Weight: 80 lbs Age: 11
- Eyes: Brown Hair: Brown, perennially covered by a woollen hat.
Powers and Abilities
Cammi may be 11, but she’s genuinely smart, manipulative, perceptive, canny. She has a cynical understanding of what makes people tick that eludes most adults. Thus, she is very good at having people do what she wants them to, as long as there are enough confusion and ambiguities for her to work with. Cammi is a user.
For instance, though Paibok had never told her that she owned Drax, Cammi acted so convinced that he had that Paibok eventually assumed that he must have said something to that effect.
She even bullshitted the Blood Brothers into carrying stuff around for her. She seemed so confident and insistent that they assumed that Paibok must have had delegated some authority to her for some reason. Cammi has staggering amounts of chutzpah, and ruthlessly exploits those who assume her to be harmless and innocent. She’s neither.
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Other assets
Cammi is also a true survivor, having more Hero Points than the vast majority of adults. She will always somehow manage to end up in relative safety and with tough people to protect her. She could achieve this even in the middle of something as absurdly destructive as the Annihilation War.
Secondary sources indicate that Cammi has an intuitive ability to pilot starships. However, this was based on a planned scene the writers eventually decided to write differently. I’ve assumed authorial intention had changed and, beside, primary sources over secondaries and all that.
History
Cammi is from Coot’s Bluff, Alaska. This is a desperately dead-end small town in the middle of nowhere. She was not-actually-raised by a severely alcoholic and depressive single mother, and grew up a very lonely girl. Her father apparently disappeared when Cammi was about five.
The only friend she had was Dex. Dex was a sort of nerd who was smart enough to talk to, but whom Cammi usually victimised out of boredom and squalid anger at everything. In school she was the creepy, manipulative weirdo with a self-destructive bent and a chip on her shoulder.
Alien invasion
When a galactic prison transport crashed near Coot’s Bluff, five aliens survived. These were the Blood Brothers, Drax the Destroyer, Lunatik, and Paibok (aka the Power Skrull). Cammi investigated in the hope that something cool was actually happening, and met the addled Drax.
The enormous, confused brute vaguely thought Cammi was his daughter. This was because Drax had died when his daughter Heather was about Cammi’s age. The kid seized the occasion and manipulated him into renewing his brawl with the Blood Brothers. Though she thought the superhuman fight she had reignited was cool, she found that manipulating Drax was disappointingly easy.
The long fight ended when Paibok and Lunatik killed the diminished Drax. At this point, they had also taken over Coot’s Bluff. The aliens killed those who resisted them and enslaved the rest. The humans were used to comb the crash site and find working debris to rebuild a spaceship.
Cammi very, very liberally interpreted Paibok’s words as giving her ownership of Drax’s corpse. Then, she fast-talked the Blood Brothers into carrying the body to her house. Finally realising that she was bullshitting them, they dumped the body near a river.
The Destroyer restored
Cammi remained to watch “her” corpse, hoping that something interesting would happen. And indeed it started smoking and hardening, like pottery being cooked. Hours later, a transformed Destroyer emerged from the cadaver.
Cammi explained to Drax that she owned him, but what the Destroyer wanted was information. He telepathically scanned her to have a sitrep . Despite the distressing experience of the teep contact, Cammi kept accompanying “her” Drax. The Destroyer, who had seen a bit of her mind during the teep, tolerated her and even seemed to feel some low-key affection for her.
The powerful space alien told the completely indifferent Cammi that he would save all the lives he could. Drax performed a bloody commando strike against the other extraterrestrials, seemingly killing Lunatik and one of the Blood Brothers.
Coot’s Bluff had suffered a significant body count, though, including Cammi’s mother. Cammi did not appear to particularly care.
Xandar
Meanwhile, since the odds of getting out of Earth were dismal, Paibok activated a beacon for the space cops of the Nova Corps to come recapture them. Drax decided to get recaptured too. Cammi adamantly stuck by him, presumably arguing that she had no parents left anyway (and, of course, that she had been given ownership of Drax “by the Skrull guy”).
Before the Nova cops would show up, she left for Dex a message scribbled in alien blood. It said that she was finally going to be happy.
As Drax had hoped, he was soon released by the Nova Corps. The authorities could not prove that he was the same individual as Drax the Destroyer. Cammi was diagnosed as evidencing an antisocial personality disorder by Corps psychologists, but this was not sufficient to detain a kid with no criminal record.
Drax and Cammi thus were free on Xandar, but the famous space port was on full lockdown.
“This is really bad, right ? I mean, really *really* bad ? Like 9/11 bad ?”
The lockdown had been triggered by the rapid arrival of the Annihilation Wave, for whom Xandar was a high-priority target. Thankfully for Cammi, “her” alien was one of the deadliest and most competent warriors in the galaxy. Drax immediately understood what was going on.
Grabbing the sprog, he ran to an escape pod, jammed her in and managed to launch free. Minutes later the gargantuan spaceport was destroyed, likely killing hundred of thousands. They landed on one of the devastated clusters, which was rapidly losing life support and was crawling with Negative Zone bugs.
Drax found the last living Nova, Richard Rider of Earth. The Human was shellshocked by the carnage and overwhelmed by the sum of the Nova Force which was now hosted within him. Continuing to massacre whatever was attacking, Drax helped Nova focus. Cammi sort of helped in her own way by being annoying and subtly insulting. The trio managed to leave Xandar.
Cammi was on Nycos Aristedes when Nova and Quasar (Wendell Vaughn) helped a huge number of ships above this planet evacuate. Using tactical advice from Drax, the two Terran heroes managed to strike at Annihilus to disrupt the C3 of the Annihilation Wave. However, it cost Quasar his life.
Cammi, the Destroyer and Nova narrowly escaped thanks to Quasar’s sacrifice, and a not-actually-off-hand remark by Cammi led Drax to become less dismissive of the heroism and altruism Quasar and Nova both had amply demonstrated.
Warchild
Thus Cammi ended up being a member of the United Front, the ragged and diverse military resistance opposing the Annihilation Wave. A camp follower, she generally stayed with Drax and lived among a motley crew of heavily armed and desperate alien soldiers, many of whom were Kree.
The United Front was commanded by Richard Rider. The Human had developed into a far stronger man under Drax’s guidance.
The Front also included such badasses as :
- Gamora (allegedly the most dangerous woman in the galaxy).
- Ronan the Accuser (a hulking powerhouse and one of the most important men in the Kree Empire).
- Peter Quill (formerly the famous Starlord).
- Two former heralds of Galactus (Firelord and Stardust).
- Quirk Sociopathic disposition.
- Exile Cammi no longer has any roots or living relatives and is lost in space.
- Trade-off areas Attack & Effect PL -1, Dodge/Toughness PL 1, Parry/Toughness PL 0, Fort & Will PL 1.
- Point total 22. Abilities 2, Defences 1, Skills 11, Powers 3, Devices 0, Advantages 5. Equiv. PL 2.
For months they went from defeat to defeat. Yet the Front eventually managed to carve out a credible hardpoint on the planet Daedalus Five.
The battle of Daedalus Five
Cammi thrived living amidst the armed alien grunts, the wounded, the mud, the assaults and counter strikes, the force field hardpoints and artillery emplacements, hearing about the suicide runs of Gamora’s teams to perform strategic precision strikes, etc..
Drax argued that he wanted to be alone and started leaving Cammi behind so she’d leave him be, but she always managed to find him. Presumably the Destroyer was starting to train her in his own way.
However, the alliance of the Annihilation Wave with Thanos turned the Daedalus Five stand into a disaster. Thanos-designed teleportation tech was used to drop the Negative Zone Centurions on top of the United Front forces.
Cammi was lost in the carnage, but Drax told Peter Quill that the kid would find her way to the evac perimeter. She did – somehow dodging the mass death around her.
Unknown to Cammi, Quill and Drax had a plan. As soon as she arrived, Quill strapped Cammi in the last shuttle that managed to leave Daedalus Five. The launch was made possible by Drax staying behind to delay the crushing Negative Zone hordes.
At this point Cammi both realised how much Drax cared for her despite his gruff attitude, and lost him. Unbeknownst to her, though, the Destroyer survived both the Annihilation hordes and the destruction of Daedalus Five.
The undead who would destroy death
After Daedalus Five, the miserable remnants of the United Front were relieved from duty by Gamora. Many started waging some kind of guerilla warfare, including the hardcore officers of the Front such as Nova, Gamora, Quill, etc.
A non-combatant by virtue of being a 11-year-old in a skirt and woolly hat, Cammi was brought to safety. Gamora did take her to a safe haven (presumably at Quill’s request). But in the chaos the former Front officers later lost track of her.
Meanwhile, Drax was doing some serious destroying – and eventually struck the most telling blow of the war. He liberated Galactus, who had been captured and weaponised by Thanos and the Annihilation Wave. Less than pleased by how he had been used, the Devourer of Worlds expressed his cosmic rage by vaporising most of the Annihilation Wave and several solar systems.
In the process of unleashing Galactus, Drax accomplished his destiny and killed Thanos.
A girl and her mite
Thanos had a pet of sorts, Skreet, a sort of winged miniature elf woman. Being the only known primordial chaos mite left in the universe, Skreet was essentially indestructible. Thus, she survived even the cosmic rage of Galactus. She was, however, now alone.
Somehow the very dangerous Skreet — who looks like Tinkerbell’s punk rock sister — ended up becoming Cammi’s friend. The Alaskan girl remains at large in the cosmos with her deadly diminutive ally, and has not been seen since the end of the Annihilation War.
In recent months Drax has made a number of attempts at finding her, but even the Destroyer has so far come up empty-handed.
Description
See illustration.
Personality
Cammi is seriously damaged and badly hardened. The Nova Corps correctly diagnosed an antisocial personality disorder. She grew up in a tiny snow-covered dead-end where nothing good ever happens, an intellectually gifted child in a dreadfully banal place with few cultural riches.
Mostly she was raised by a terminally alcoholic, depressive wreck of a mother who couldn’t even take care of herself. Her best evenings were spent eaten crappy TV dinners alone in her room whilst failing to find something good on telly. That was good because nothing was happening, but that was bad since nothing was happening.
Cammi has learned remarkable perceptive and manipulative skills to defend herself. Physically she’s just a scrawny little girl, and without those abilities all she could be would be a victim.
She’s genuinely shrewd, and even among smart adults will often be the only one understanding the motivations, fears and drives at work around her. She’s somewhat reminiscent of Gorgeous in that respect.
Antisocial
The problem is that she’s also bored, irresponsible and thinks that violence and fighting are cool. She thought instigating a brawl between powerful aliens was neat, especially the bit where one was messily killed. To her it was just entertainment, and she doesn’t really care about other people anyway. She just uses everyone to protect and entertain herself.
It’s unclear whether exposure to some reality during the Annihilation War, and the presence of Drax, have changed that. On one hand Cammi is smart and can genuinely learn, but on the other… she might be damaged for life. And her attitude kills most of the odds she might have to find a nurturing environment.
Cammi is a sort of macabre collector. She is fascinated by the morbid and unusual, and often wants to own such souvenirs. When Thanos had Phyla-Vell bring Moondragon’s ripped-off ear to send a message not to intervene to Drax, Cammi’s reaction was to ask the shellshocked Phyla (Moondragon’s lover) is she could… keep the bloody ear, which she thought was cool, after poking it a bit.
Cammi’s blunt, often annoying remarks (of the “yeah, whatever” school of attitude) seem intended to make sure people can’t stand her and that it leads to interesting, hopefully violent things.
In some ways she seems to want to get in trouble, perhaps to test if the people she has manipulated to be her protectors actually defend her. This may be the closest thing to feeling loved she knows.
The Destroyer
Though neither would admit it under any normal circumstances, Drax and Cammi actually developed something of a father/daughter relationship. Cammi couldn’t influence the stony-faced Drax in her usual ways, yet the Destroyer protected her, treated her like a smart and mature person. In his own gruff way, Drax was perhaps the first adult to actually care about her.
When Drax stayed behind the shuttle on Daedalus Five, Cammi uncharacteristically panicked and cried as she realised that the Destroyer loved her and that she was about to lose him. Drax, on his end, seems to silently empathise with Cammi’s awful life, to appreciate her smarts and to want to raise a little human girl to make up for having been away while his daughter Heather was growing up.
He can’t really tell any of that to Cammi, though, as she would just cruelly mock him. And he simply wouldn’t see the point of speaking about that in the first place.
Cammi likes attention. If she can’t impress people with her wit and crappy, evil attitude (which is seldom), she’ll find another way.
Quotes
Cammi: “Let’s hope it gets weirder.”
Dex : “Why would we hope that ?”
Cammi : “To alleviate the crushing boredom that defines our day-to-day existence in this sinkhole of a town ?”
(Cammi is facing Lunatik and Paibok)
“You’re green, you smell like the rendering truck and your friend there doesn’t have a face.”
Cammi (pointing at Drax’s corpse) : “Can I have that ?”
Paibok : “Drax ?”
Cammi : “Okay. Drax. Can I have Drax ?”
Paibok : “Shouldn’t you be at the school with the rest of the pups ?”
Cammi : “No.”
Drax : “Actually, you just might be of moderate use.”
Cammi, looking at the naked Drax : “We talking pants ?”
Drax : “You’re not listening to me at all, aren’t you ?”
Cammi : “Say something worth listening to.”
Drax : “What manner of little girl are you ?”
Cammi : “You were in my head. You tell me.”
Cammi : “Still think you should have gone with the shotgun.”
Drax : “I want them dead, not amused.”
Cammi : “Like it up close and personal, eh ?”
Drax : “Don’t you have any parents ?”
Cammi : “Stop changing the subject.”
Drax : “How old are you, child ?”
Cammi : “Ten — 11 next month. Why ?”
Drax : “With an attitude like that, I’ll be surprised if you reach 12.”
Cammi : “Okay… let me see if I’ve got this straight. I’m being lectured on ’attitude‘ by a guy who calls himself the Destroyer.”
Drax : “What happened to you ? [..]”
Cammi : “Life happened. Mine came without a warranty. Do you care ?”
Drax : “Good point.”
Cammi : “That’s it ? You’re not gonna clean his clock ?”
Drax : “What purpose would it serve ?”
Cammi : “I know *I’d* feel better.”
“Can we leave now ? Bo-RING !”
(Vaguely pointing toward Drax) “Ask us if we care.”
Cammi : “I’m from Coot’s Bluff, Alaska.”
Nova : “Don’t know it.”
Cammi: “Lucky you.”
“I was just trying to be nice, and then I got bored of trying.”
“Are we there yet ?”
Quasar : “The Destroyer ? Didn’t you used to be taller ?”
Cammi (visibly pleased by the joke she’s about to make): “It was a phase. He grew out of it.”
Cammi (facing Nova and Quasar (Vaughn)): “I’m trying to figure it out… would it be worse having to wear a cape in public, or a bucket on your head ?”
Nova : “… oh, and this is Cammi. She says out loud stuff most people just think.”
“Are we there yet ?”
(In the middle of a bloody battle that has just degenerated into melee fighting, a surviving Kree soldier grabs Cammi to bring her back into a controlled sector)
“Let go of me ! I want to stay with Drax ! Hey ! Kree boy ! Watch the hands !”
“Are we there yet ?”
Cammi (chewing gum): “Huh. Can’t fool me. The only reason you’re fighting this war is to get at [this Thanos guy].”
(Silence, then Drax starts smiling)
Drax : “Clever girl.”
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Cammi
| Dex: 02 | Str: 01 | Bod: 02 | Motivation: Thrill/Survival |
| Int: 04 | Wil: 04 | Min: 03 | Occupation: Drifter |
| Inf: 03 | Aur: 05 | Spi: 03 | Resources {or Wealth}: 001 |
| Init: 009 | HP: 010 |
Powers:
Shrinking: 01
Bonuses and Limitations:
Shrinking is Always On and Already Factored In until she grows up.
Skills:
Charisma (Bullshitting): 05, Charisma (Persuasion): 04, Thief (Stealth): 03
Advantages:
Area Knowledge (Coot’s Bluff – an Advantage worth two whole points, though she’d consider it a Drawback), Expertise (Perceiving emotions and motives), Iron Nerves ; Misc.: Cammi holds undetermined knowledge ever since her telepathic contact with Drax.
Connections:
Drax the Destroyer (High), former United Front officers (Low).
Drawbacks:
SIA toward having an attitude, Age (Young), Misc.:body mass is 1 AP, Misc.: Cammi is reportedly tainted by Drax’s telepathic touch, which makes other humans uncomfortable due to an alien vibe. No such effect has been apparent so far.
Game Stats — DC Adventures RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Cammi — Averaged PL 0.6
| STR | STA | AGL | DEX | FGT | INT | AWE | PRE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -2 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 01 | 01 | 01 |
Powers
Child-sized ● 3 points(Permanent – until she grows up, at least)
Enhanced Dodge 1, Enhanced Skill (Stealth) 2, Enhanced Advantage (Improved Defense).
Combat Advantages
Improved Defense.
Other Advantages
Benefit 1 (Friend of Drax), Daze (Deception), Second chance 3 (Intimidation, Persuasion, Deception).
Skills
Deception 6 (+7), Insight 7 (+8), Perception 3 (+4), Persuasion 3 (+4), Stealth 2 (+4).
Offense
| Initiative +0 |
| Unarmed +0, Close, Damage -2 |
Defense
| Dodge | 1 | Fortitude | 0 |
| Parry | 0 | Toughness | 0 |
| Will | 2 |
Complications
Power levels
Notes
This entry exmplifies the surprisingly squished scale for DCA social skills. The bonuses in the official writeups are normally in the single-digit range and we’ve followed suit.
Source of Character: Marvel Universe (Annihilation stuff).
Helper(s): Darci.