Meriem Cecilbie Cooper is born in July 1980 to parents Robert Addam Cooper and Gail Nicole Reicher, in the town of Marshville, Oregon. After Robert dies of unknown causes, Gail turns to drugs, which leads her to fall in with an unsavory group of men. Eventually wanting to sever her ties with this group for Meriem's sake, Gail seeks the help of Meriem's scientist-inventor grandfather, Francis Peacock Reicher, affectionately called "Gramp." After first being thwarted, Gramp makes a mysteriously superhuman return, defeating the men easily and taking Meriem away on a hovercycle from the future.