She was born to a woman named Doreen Storme, an illegal British immigrant who struck a deal with some unknown being so she might legally live in the States. Doreen became pregant, by who is unknown, but the unborn child was somehow a kind of payment for the bargain made by Doreen. She was to hand the child over after the baby was born, but at the last moment she had a change of heart and absconded with Chalyss, fleeing into the dark morning. For thirteen years, Chalyss and Doreen ran and hid from those who hunted them. Doreen's mother, Colleen, owner of StormeKings Shipping in England, often managed to supply her daughter and granddaughter with money to use. Sometimes Doreen would use a ruse of magicks like palm reading or tarot cards and, Chalyss suspects, her body for the times when Colleen could not risk sending aid. Chalyss has lived, at least for a week, in almost every country.

Never around long enough in one place to make friends, her life was a hectic one, full of fear and fleeing from someone she did not know. Eventually, the hunter caught up with them on Chalyss' 13th birthday. Hidden by more than a drape, the girl watched her mother be murdered. Chalyss, however, could not be found. The authorities took possession of the child until her Grandmother could move into the States and care for her. It was Colleen who arranged for a birth certificate and pushed enough money in the right places to keep her Granddaughter from being sent to therapists. When Chalyss was 18, Colleen fell ill of a rare blood disease and flew back to England to enlist the help of doctors there.

During the next three and a half years, Chalyss (called Rachel) went to college studying to become a jazz musician, and met Sherron Keefer there. The two became fast friends, closer than sisters. Rachel became the "adopted" daughter of Sherron's parents and caught the eye of Sherron's younger brother, Emmanuel. Rachel often had nightmares of her mother's brutal murder, but as she reached her 21st birthday, the dreams were worse than ever. A new serial killer emerged in the streets, dubbed the Scarlet Slasher by the idiot media, and Rachel would dream of the murders knowing the details before they were released. She eventually told Sherron of this as it was causing her great distress, and Sherron advised professional help, which Rae flatly refused. Both young women believed Rae to be somehow bonded to the Slasher psychically. The dreams of the killing continued until the night Rachel dreamt of Sherron's death, the last she would dream. But it still wasn't until after the funeral that Rachel learned she had been the Slasher. It''s conjectured that her abilities took so long to surface that they created a dichotomy in her mind. Her murderous spree was the supressed powers within her struggling to break surface.

Chalyss is a serial killer and has murdered men, women and children alike, for the sport, though she was unaware of her actions at the time. She bears this burden of slayings which include her best friend, Sherron Keefer, who's body will never fully be found. Attempting suicide, she discovered she could not cut herself, and even small caliber weapons cannot harm her.

Only a being stronger than she may hurt her. Chalyss has low level shape-shifting abilities, healing, and the ability to speak in tongues. She almost always recognizes a lie, but may not know the truth. Power-wise, Chalyss is a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. All her talents are, for now at least, low-level ones. She is not a telepath, but she has some psionic abilities, mostly in communication and defense. Her physical strength is many times that of a natural humans, but not great when it comes to unnatural powers. Chalyss can lift/press almost 30 tons. Her greatest assets are her super-tough skin and bones and her shape-shifting, which she uses to turn her fingers to claws and daggers in a fight. Occasionally, she will use her powers to create wings for flight or other appendages like a prehensile tail. Her 'red side' is a strange phenomenon. She has her abilities no matter what she looks like, but it seems that the armor she gains from the red incarnation offers better protection from energy-based attacks to which she is weaker. It may offer more advantages than she is unaware of, too. The armor cannot be removed and she has no control over its appearance, but it never rips and it cleans itself after a switch, so she prefers to fight in it rather than street clothes. When in her armor, she cannot change the color of her skin, hair or eyes. Otherwise, these have become arbitrary. Her rifts are something she uses only as a last resort; she isn't sure what they are exactly and doesn't want to tempt fate.

Chalyss has taken to using her powers to try and make up for the lives she stole. It isn't really working, her guilt is as strong as ever, but she roamed the streets at night as something of a vigilante until the GUARD tracker Chameleon talked her into the organization. She now happily serves GUARD, which tries to keep people like her from hurting those who cannot defend against unnaturals. It also seems that she can feel some unnaturals despite them not having the ability to truly hurt her. She has no idea if this is random or how it works but she's warming up to it.