HeroMachine Character Portrait Creator

Name: Masami Matsumoto

Position: Team Doctor

Extra Info: Japanese-American, worked as a surgeon before working for The Protectors

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Name: Jamie Walters

Position: Tech Support

Extra Info: A Technopath (someone who can influence digital technology with their mind), hacker and part-time dj, she hacked NASA, the FBI, the CIA, the UN, the FSB (Federal Security Service of Russia) and the Chinese Military before she was 18 years old.

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Name: Gwen Peyton- Lance

Position: Team Coordinator

Extra Info: Former intelligence agent, in charge of relaying information to the team during operations, essentially team boss (The Titan might think he is, but he still ends up doing whatever Gwen tells him to do most of the time)

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Name: Gideon Mantel

Position: Tech Support

Extra Info: Has Inate Capability (ability to comprehend any subject or object down to the most minute detail within minutes of learning the basics), has Asperger's Syndrome and has extreme anxiety attacks when in high stress situations.

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So, both Jamie (Stinger) and Masami (Neuron) got removed from the team (Jamie being on the first version of A Division and then The Saviours, whilst Masami was on the second version of A Division). Well, I didn't like the idea of Jamie, being a disabled character, essentially being defined by her disability. The whole "needing a powersuit to be useful" wasn't how I intended it to play out, but since I did the A Division version of the character, I've been made aware of a few things that, at least to me, cast that sort of light on the characterisation I went with. So I scrapped it and just went with the layer beneath, as it were, of a girl who is tech-smart and just happens to be in a wheelchair.

As for Masami... well, she was actually going to be in this version of The Protectors, but she got removed last minute to make room for one character in particular (if you've been following me long enough, you should be able to guess which character got added last minute. She's the character that was never in any previous incarnation of The Protectors or A Division and might give you a clue as to what I might be doing next). It really sucked to have to remove Masami from the team, but she was the least essential of the female characters to be on the team and the character that replaced her was one that needed to go on this team or she was going to be written out of history in a way, and considering how much I love this character in particular that wasn't going to happen, hence her going in and Masami becoming Team Doctor.

Name: Michael Barnes

Codename: The Watchman

Powers: Light Manipulation, Teleportation, Telekinesis, Astral Projection, Object Animation

Bio: The inheritor of the Watchman title from Carl Barrett, Michael Barnes was a community outreach worker, running social clubs and the local community centre to try and keep kids in his neighbourhood areas away from gangs, crime and drugs. He gets his powers from a mysterious source known as "the light". Little is known about "the light" other than it is ancient, powerful and only manifests in a few people (and even then, only one person at a time can fully utilise the power of "the light"). Michael discovered his connection to "the light" after Carl Barretts' death, as "the light" manifested for the first time through him. This immediately got him an awful lot of unwanted attention, as Carl Barrett had made a lot of enemies during his time as the host of "the light" and as the superhero The Watchman. Fortunately, Barretts' enemies weren't the only people keeping tabs on "the light" and Michael was aided by The Titan and Andromeda. It was this event, alongside the return of Andromeda, that inspired The Titan to resurrect The Protectors, as Barrett had also been a part of that team.

- Michael is a preety good artist. He prefers to work with watercolour and mainly paints landscapes. One of the social clubs he ran during his time as a community outreach worker was a painting workshop and a lot of the paintings done in the club were displayed around the community centre he worked in.

- He has a young daughter with his ex-girlfriend. Obviously, with him and the mother being seperated, he doesn't see her as much as he'd like, but when he does see her, he spoils her rotten.

- He's quite a good handyman. His dad was a mechanic before he retired and his uncle worked as a plumber. Michael would help them sometimes when he was a teenager and he picked up a few skills.

- In a strange ironic twist, Michael went to school with Carl Barretts' daughter, Angela Velasquez (who would later become the superhero Warp), although neither of them knew who her father was nor the significance this would play in either of their lives.

Name: Lucy Falkner

Codename: Superstar

Powers: Flight, Superstrength, Energy Projection

Bio: As a teenager, Lucy Falkner came across the wreckage of a crashed alien spacecraft. Unfortunately, the crafts engines were very badly damaged and it imploded, but not before Lucy was showered in a strange radiation. She was unharmed by the experiance, other than a few cuts and bruises escaping from the blast radius, but the radation had contaminated her system and given her the ability to fly and to control background cosmic radiation, even to project it in energy blasts. When her father, a failing publicist and PR man, found out, he saw an opportunity to get rich by turning his daughter into a work for hire superhero. Very quickly Lucy, under the pseudonym Star-Girl, became a bonefide celebrity and one of the most high profile superhumans on the planet, but she didn’t see much rewards from it. Her father took a large percentage of the profit, forcing Lucy to live off of an allowance and controlling every aspect of her life, from what she ate to who she was friends with. Lucy managed to find her way out of her fathers control when he began to get physical in his control of her life, taking him to court and making her identity public in the process. Though she did take a break from heroics in the aftermath of winning the court case, she found that she couldn't live a peaceful life outside of the public eye anymore. Beyond that, she struggled to stop herself falling back into being a superhero, though at least she had control over what she did with her life now. When she was first approached by The Titan to join The Protectors, Lucy turned him down, feeling a team would restrict her freedom that she had fought so hard to achieve. However, as more and more of her friends joined as members, Lucy started to come round and would eventually join.

- Lucy is bisexual, but was forced to hide that fact when she was working for her father. In fact, he wouldn't let her see any guys romantically, let alone any girls, trying to keep her public appearance as "wholesome" as possible.

- As Star-Girl, Lucy had long, bleached blonde hair (again enforced by her father, blondes are more marketable), which she absolutely hated. As soon as she was free from her father she cut it all off. She nearly went as far as shaving her head, but fortunately thought the better of it. All of the piercings she has are also post Star-Girl, as is the tattoo (which references her new superhero name, Superstar, a sarcastic nod to her previous "celebrity superhero" life). Also, she had to wear contact lenses all the time as Star-Girl and they were forever falling out. She much prefers the goggles she has currently.

- Though she didn't see the majority of the money she earned as a work-for-hire superhero, her fees were such that the allowance she did get, plus the winnings from her court case against her father, was substantial enough to make Lucy a multi-millionaire in her early twenties. Though Lucy does still use her money for herself (she has a very nice and very large house, as well as an expensive car), most of her fortune has gone to the victims of superhuman crime and various global disaster relief funds.

- Being one of the most high profile superheroes before joining The Protectors, Lucy knew pretty much everyone on the team before joining (the exceptions being Andromeda, who went missing before Lucy became a hero, and The Watchman, who only recently took over the role from his predecessor). Outside of The Protectors, she is very close friends to Lance and Leigh Walker, who, in their civilian roles, provided Lucy with legal counsil during her court battle.

Name: Adam Bateman

Codename: Mr. Mass

Powers: Size Manipulation

Bio: An expert in nanotechnology, Adam Bateman worked under contract for the military as part of a team trying to create a method of shrinking equipment in size and mass for easy transportation. After nearly a decades worth of work, the team had managed to create an unstable substance infused with nanites that could, theoretically, be coated onto equipment and that would shrink it in reaction to a certain audio frequency. However, before any proper test trials could be carried out and accident in the lab caused a fire that destroyed most of the research. Bateman tried, rather recklessly, to save his research, but the heat caused it to literally blow up in his face, dousing him in the substance, causing him to inhale its fumes and leaving him with some rather nasty injuries. However, whilst Bateman was in hospital recovering, he found that the substance had been absorbed into his body thanks to the nanites. He was now able to shrink or grow to different sizes by listening to different, almost inaudible frequencies through a headset. Unfortunately, due to the accident his funding was cut off by the military, leaving Bateman stuggling to find a source of income to finish his projects. But he didn't let his new abilities go to waste. He decided to use his newly acquired powers to essentially advertise himself to any prospective backers. The plan didn't go exactly as he wanted, but he did get enough attention to recieve an invitation to join The Protectors.

- He holds 6 masters degrees in subjects ranging from physics to mechanical engineering and has published 2 research papers, as well as giving numerous guest lectures at a number of prestigious universities.

- He's something of an amatuer paleontologist and likes to collects fossils. His holidays will often be spent in places known for being rich bone-beds. He's also managed to leverage his academic credentials to get onto one or two digs for a day.

- He's named after Adam West. His parents were big fans of a certain 60's superhero TV show, even though he was born a good decade after it was on the air.

- He's partially deaf in his left ear, due to the accident that gave him his powers. Unfortunately, he only created nanites for size manipulation rather than for injury repair.