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Description
Guardian, Aquarian, Beacon aka Don Branch, Geist, The Spider, Shroud (+ pre-hero outfit), Green Knight (x2), Max Proton (x2), Horus

Guardian:
Peter Baden's mother was a doctor and his father a scientist. He was also the head of the multinational technology & engineering company, MechTech. It was almost his son's destiny to be a nerd. While others played football, Peter read comics and studied his physics books quietly in the library. It should be much of a surprise that, child prodigy as he was, Peter had built an experimental rocket by the time he was in his twenties. His parents were both immensely proud of him but to much of the rest of the world, he was an oddity. The news reporters that came to monitor the launch laughed at the idea of a young man thinking his 'hyperlight shuttle pod' would be an improvement upon NASA. When the rocket broke the Earth's atmosphere they were shocked. However, when the craft exploded, it seemed their doubts were all justified. What they did not know was that the explosion was not a fault with Baden's engineering prowess but rather the result of sabotage. When the craft reached a key distance from the planet, a concealed robot, planted by the genius saboteur, unveiled itself and tore the ship apart. It's purpose was simple to ruin the mission, but also to cause the craft to crash back to Earth and in the process, for its experimental whitestar drive to explode and cause abject destruction in Baden's name. Thankfully Baden, in a space suit of his own making, designed from golden alloy composites, managed to disengage the whitestar drive and to use the suit's propulsion system to fly out in front of the craft and slow its descent, causing zero damage upon landing. Back on ground, Baden battled the robot and defeated it with his superior tech. Instead of the papers bearing headlines about a disastrous flight and a near catastrophic explosion, they showed images of a hero they dubbed Guardian, the Golden Gladiator. Guardian quickly became a heroic figure in his native Cedar City. Utilising the very same spacesuit, Baden was a champion of the people and battle giant monsters and technological foes alike, most frequently facing off against Irons, now going by the moniker of The Technician. In time though, threats would arise that were too much for one man. But with the growing emergence of new superpowered individuals, Peter took it upon himself to start the superhero team known as The Protectors.

Aquarian:
Joseph and Jenny Hart lived happily in the Sundown Cove lighthouse, just north of the bustling Cedar City. Their life was simple. Only one thing kept them from being truly content: they had never had a child. One day when Joseph was out fishing in his boat, Jenny prayed, as she had done many times before, that God would bring them a son. It was at that moment that a young boy broke the surface beside Joseph's boat. The elderly man hauled the boy from the water. A boy with blue skin. Taking him home and caring for the child, Joseph and Jenny discovered he was a prince from the secluded island nation of Hy-Brasil, a land in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. Centuries ago, a prophecy stated the technologically advanced utopia of Hy-Brasil would sink beneath the waves. Fearing disaster, its scientists sought to prepare the people by finding ways, through science and magic, of adapting them for life beneath the waves. The city never sunk but the people became semi-aquatic and decided to seal themselves off from the world, even as other lands fell into further violence and ruin. However their young prince wanted to see more. When oil drilling began not far from the Triangle he decided to go into the far oceans and explore. Unfortunately it was his first open ocean excursion and a tempest blew him far off course. Joseph and Jenny took him in and raised him as their son, giving him the human name Harry. As he grew, his new parents realised his unique abilities: immense strength, near-impregnable skin, the ability to breath underwater and swim at great speeds, and the remarkable gift of mimicking the abilities of any undersea creature, thanks to the small golden shell like amulet, handed down the royal line. Each ruler was meant to act as a totem for the life of the oceans. Before his departure, his mother birth mother had secretly bestowed him his birthright. As such, he used the camouflaging abilities of a mimic octopus to turn his skin the same colour as that of his adoptive family, thus blending in. Harry went to school, then college and eventually returned home to become a detective in the Sundown Cove police force. But soon threats challenged not just his family town, but the whole ocean. The drilling which had first piqued his interest in the outer world was now the centre of a vast ocean complex, a floating factory which was perceived as a direct threat bythe Hy-Brasilian ruling caste. They were to go to war. This was in fact, is precisely what the man behind the construction had wanted. Michael Arkwright had long believed in the tales of the lost city, now he would draw them out and use the mechanical oceanic army he'd been secretly building in his off-shore factory to crush the Hy-Brasilians, should they step from their protective Triangle. But war in the seas would soon come to land and both of the Harry Hart's homes were threatened. Harry had to step up and take up the mantle as a protector of his people. Both of them. So started a life as a superhero, quickly leading to him becoming a founding member of the Protectors.

Beacon/Don Branch:
Don Branch was the US Airforce's top scientific minds. He invented their prototype unmanned space fighter craft, capable of detecting interstellar threats to the planet and responding automatically. He was tinkering with its automated surveillance programming when it picked up one such threat threat entering the Milky Way. The craft activated and flew into space...with Don still inside. What had entered the atmosphere was not an enemy ship however, but a man. Of some description. Flying of its own accord, the being glowed with a brilliant purple light, seemingly powered and protected by the glowing aura around him. And he was gravely injured. The alien collided with the craft and both the being and ship plummeted to Earth. When Don awoke in the crater they’d caused, he was miraculously unharmed, the purple light surrounding him. Beyond the light he could see the military searching for them both at the crash site. It became apparent they could not perceive either the purple hue or what was hidden behind it. Beside Don lay the white-haired humanoid who shortly lost consciousness, causing their shielding to drop. Don and the alien were taken into containment and when the being came to, he pleaded with Don. He warned that a deadly planet-eating force, an insectoid race known as the Swarm, were coming like a plague to strip their planet bare. Apparently, he was part of an organisation of beings who wielded part of what he called the Flame Eternal, an energy burning at the heart of the universe. It was this energy source that gave him his powers. However, he explained, it had taken nearly all the power of the Flame Eternal to push back the Swarm and in the end the Flame itself was used up, all except that which he now wielded. He was the last of his order. And he was dying. Normally, wielders of the Flame could initiate another and open their mind to draw upon it. With the Flame gone, all this alien could do was to pass on his own portion of it. In essence, his body would fail but his very being, his mind, his thoughts, his soul and the power of his portion of the Flame, could be placed within another. He chose Don. Don agreed and the alien died. But in an instant, he felt himself sharing his body with another. He learnt then the alien's name, Komar-Ran. Don knew him to be a good, noble and mighty warrior - protector of all that was right. And Don felt an urge. He placed his fingers over his chest, forming a diamond pattern. And opened up his mind. Suddenly, Don Branch was replaced by the body of Komar-Ran reborn. Wielding the purple power of the Flame Eternal, and empowered by a new body, Komar-Ran took to space to do battle with the oncoming horde. Now, when imminent danger calls for it, Don Branch can swap between his own body and that of Komar-Ran by forming the same diamond pattern over his chest. When he does so he protects the Earth as the Beacon.

Geist:
Sophia Minerva was born Sophia DuVall. The daughter of a despotic monarch in a tiny Eastern European nation, she was placed by her father in a covert training programme at the age of ten with the intent of being the world's greatest spy. His intentions came to fruition but his actions led to disloyalty. Minerva had no interest in being her father's pawn and once she'd learnt all she could, she fled to the West and became a mercenary for hire. From this point on, all her history become a closely guarded secret. She remained at arm's length from almost everyone. She was known only by the carefully crafted persona she'd build for herself: an enigmatic, spectral entity, traversing the globe without a trace. Completing several wetworks jobs for a multitude of governments and private individuals, Minerva faced her biggest challenge when she was tasked with taking out the superhero known as the Spider. The matter was complicated, not by the fact that he proved to be a competent opponent, but that their flirtatious banter hid a deep-seated respect and growing affection over the course of their many clashes. In the end, she walked away from the hit. This put her in hot waters as a bounty was placed on her own head. She only managed to defeat her attackers with the aid of the Spider himself. After this, she went underground for some time but reemerged again when Peter Baden sought her ought to be a founding member of his new group, the Protectors.

The Spider:
Michael Dekker was a genius. A master inventor cursed with crippling shyness and a generally awkward demeanour. Despite that, his creations, and the patents he sold, meant he amassed a small fortune by the time he was twenty-five. But inventing was merely a hobby, not his true passion. His real love was for stories. Folklore and myths. Legends of heroes and gods. Comic books. In particular, Mike had a deep-rooted admiration for the masked mystery men of his dear Cedar City’s past. He began researching these crimefighters, trying to decipher the identities of these heroes of old. He studied those who’d passed and interviewed those still alive. One secret identity remained rock-solid. The one nut he could not crack. His idol: the Golden Age icon, The Spider. When he at last put the pieces together, all signs pointed to one Ted Brace. Mike tracked down his hero and the two became firm friends. It was moments before one of their weekly meetups that gunmen broke into Ted’s small apartment, themselves having also deduced the ex-hero’s alter ego. An elderly crime-boss seeking retribution had put out the hit. When Dekker arrived, the old man was dying. With his final breath, he guided Dekker to his bureau. Inside was a small wooden box. Dekker opened in. It contained Brace’s original Spinnerets and, more importantly, it held the spider amulet. Ted told Mike to use them well. And then he breathed his last. Picking up the amulet, Dekker found himself swamped by a swarm of black spiders. When they retreated, a new Spider remained. A Spider with a mission. Thanks to his considerable wealth, Mike managed to renovate his house to be utterly self-sufficient. Impenetrable and disconnected from the outside world, his home housed an underground bunker beneath a retractable tennis court. Within his bunker, known more commonly as the Spider Web, Michael focused his mind and body in the pursuit of justice. His technological prowess meant he was able to adapt the original Spinnerets into a new model capable of firing a powerful homemade adhesive, every bit as strong as a spider’s web. He equipped himself with a series of throwing disks shaped like the Spider Amulet, each with unique properties (acidic, explosive and boomerang models, to name a few), named Spider Bites. He also built himself the cutting edge Crawler, a flying spider-shaped craft. After what happened to Brace, Dekker prioritised his secret identity above all else. He became a superhero in his own right. And that’s all he’d ever wanted to be.

The Shroud:
John Hanks had always loved his mother. Always looked up to her. She had raised him alone, and for a single mother to raise a son to be a good kid in the middle of the ghetto was no mean feat. He made her proud and she made him good. But that didn’t meant the gangs left him alone. If ever he was by himself, some other kid from the neighbourhood would try to convince him to partake in some criminal escapade. It never worked. Instead, John would head home and help his Mom cook and clean. One day, the offers became more intense. Thugs pinned him to a wall and knocked all sense out of him, telling John he was now part of their family whether he liked it or not. And if he ever hurt his new family, they’d hurt him back. So John hung around with them. He tried not to get involved, but he couldn’t risk his Mom getting into danger because of him. So slowly, what with the being out at all hours and the change in his dress and behaviour, they drifted apart. He tried to do his bit and help out but things weren’t the same. And Mrs. Hanks was no fool. One day she tried to confront the gang leader about what they were doing to her son. It was the last thing she ever did. John didn’t lash out. He didn’t swear vengeance. Instead he simply walked away to mourn. He left the city and joined the Church. He started priestly training. And he prayed daily for the boys who still lived his old life. Then one day, a visiting priest from another diocese asked him if he wanted to make a difference. To clean up the streets. John did. The stranger, man named Father Lancaster, said together they would study a new way of helping sinners. The pair went away to Europe, to the hidden underworld of the City Below: a submerged civilization beneath the Vatican where the original Knights Templar had escaped with their stolen treasure. In shadows, John was trained. Philosophy, theology, Biblical studies, military tactics, weapons training and martial arts, he mastered them all. There, in the City Below, John Hanks became a Templar, wearing their ceremonial garb, honing his body and mind to unswerving loyalty to the cause. They would show the world how to help itself. That’s what he’d been told. Then the day came when they revealed their final plans. The robes, the training…it was not only symbolic. Another crusade was coming. They would save the sinners from themselves…by delivering them into the kingdom of Heaven. They would cleanse the Earth of evil and the sinners would go to judgement. John was to lead the army. Throughout his life, John had learnt to face of thugs and bullies. He saw that same face now as the scales fell from his eyes and he truly perceived Father Lancaster and the other Templar. John Hanks brought down the City Below. He did his best to preserve the Vatican above but what remained underneath was little more than ruins. He left them to die in the rubble. He had not wanted it, but a hard choice had to be made. In time, he returned to the Cedar of his youth and began cleaning the streets his own way: with measured, vigilante justice. From the night and the shadows, in the blazing white of a crusading knight, he is the Shroud.

Green Knight:
Hank Berkilak was just a car mechanic when his life changed. He was repairing a car in the front of his small garage when a man carrying a bag of stolen cash ran past him. Hank called out. The man turned, tripped and fell. The bag of stolen money was sent flying into the wind. The police cars arrived on the scene and took the thief away. He cursed Hank as he was shoved into the back of a squad car. Hank thought nothing of it. Not until a few months later, when he happened to see the very same man running from the back of a museum, alarms already blaring. Hank gave chase and tackled the crook to the ground, once more causing the man to drop his bag. The thief recognised Hank and, enraged, reached for his gun. Panicking, Hank reached for the bag of stolen artefacts, hoping to find something to protect his body. What he drew out was a sword. Not just any sword, but a mystical blade from English antiquity. At once he felt its pull, an urge to punish the wicked, to slay his foe. Hank resisted and was able to instead cut the man’s gun in two. From then on however, he had to make peace with the weapon that was now bonded to his soul. It hungered for an extreme form of justice. Hank bartered with it. Now he fights injustice and punishes the wicked, though never with death. He fights as a people’s champion, but he draws a line that the sword begs him to cross. This is his deal, this is his struggle. He is The Green Knight.

Max Proton:
Maxwell Patten is a research scientist and the fourth smartest man on the planet. This was precisely why he was approached by the FBI to help on a particularly bizarre case. For months people had been going missing. It started off as drifters; people whose absence wouldn’t be noticed. But the kidnapper had been getting less picky and more careless. The FBI had managed to track the location where the victims were taken. In an abandoned warehouse, they found the scant remains of a laboratory. And of the victims. Only a few were still alive. Where the rest were was unknown. But what disturbed them most was the condition of those who hadn't survived. Many were disproportioned, limbs enlarged or organs shrunk within them. Others had seemingly fused with the floor or walls. All were in intense agony. They needed an expert who studied scientific theories beyond most men’s imagining. Maxwell Proton went through the warehouse with a fine toothcomb, copying down the notes and equations in the rough makeshift laboratory found there. Returning to his own lab with a mound of research, he quickly discovered the kidnapper was himself a genius - someone deeply concerned with how to alter the molecular structure of objects and their relative dimensions. The kidnapper, whoever he was, was trying to work out how to shrink objects. The purposes were unknown but Max soon realised how close he had come. It was only a simply flaw in the math that had prevented him stabilising what Max now assumed had been test subjects. Max recalled seeing a note-book at the warehouse which was not now in his possession. Realising it must have been left behind, he ran through the night to the crime scene. Upon arrival, he found the police officers guarding the building gone. Max proceeded to enter. The lab was again full with notes and partially constructed devices, new equations scrawled on the chalkboard. With the corrected math. What happened next, Max couldn’t fully explain. Something struck him from behind. He span around in time to see a man in a bizarre suit holding an unusual instrument. Max fell. At first he thought he was merely toppling over, but as the desk and chair grew, and the ground rushed up to meet him, he realised the terrible truth. He had been shrunk. First he plummeted until he was the size of an ant. Then until he was but a speck of dust. By the time he stopped, atoms were the size of planets and the space between them would take millennia to cross. And that is when Max found the other kidnap victims. Dwelling in a glass dome the size of a city, suspending in the connective void between atoms, they waited in fear. And so Max worked on a plan to reverse the effects. The dome itself had a device atop it that presumably controlled the shrinking effects. Perhaps he could use it. Then something happened. The stars went out and a sound like a second Big Bang erupted. The sky above them shifted. Something was coming down. Max managed to reverse the effects of the dome in time and returned it to its regular size. Max did not. As the dome grew, so shrunk the criminal genius behind all this: Jeremiah Joyce. Once a hero of Max's, the shamed scientist now called himself Micron. When he matched Max’s size, he was filled with rage at seeing his colony of shrunken prisoners gone. Joyce pointed the gun once more at Max, promising to shrink him to the point where his molecules became unstable and his dissipated out of existence. But Max struck back. They fought. Max grabbed the gun from Joyce and knocked him to the ground. Noting the settings, Max reversed the device’s systems as he had with the dome and returned himself to normal size, believing he had trapped Joyce far below. But Joyce had a back-up: a wrist mounted device that could control the shrinking effects. Micron returned to full stature and another battle begun. Micron stole back his gun but Max found a second watch. They were evenly matched in technology and brawn. But Maxwell Patten is the fourth smartest men in the world. Joyce was out of his depth. Max managed to use his watch to cancel out the effects of Joyce’s. Still, Micron gained the upper hand and knocked Max to the ground. Standing over him he grabbed a shard of broken glass and vowed vengeance upon the man who had undone his life’ work. He had not counted on one of the escapees aiding his rescuer. Joyce was struck over the headed with a chair leg. The police arrived and Joyce was taken into custody. Realising the potential of the discoveries for both good and ill, Max took the watch and shrink-ray gun into his own hands. Still working as a researcher, he now has another public identity as the size changing hero, Max Proton. He has carved out a new life. Battling anything from invaders from other dimensions to evil super-geniuses, Max Proton is one of the Earth’s foremost defenders and in every way a pint size hero who packs a mighty punch.

Horus:
Michael Williams was a museum curator and Egyptologist on a trip to inspect the fabled Temple of Horus. When his party were killed by a band of international criminals tasked with retrieving the relics that lay within, Michael ran deeper into the tombs. In the dark, he was found and shot, falling before the feet of a shadowy statue of the Egyptian god Horus himself. It had been many years since Horus had taken a mortal vessel and entered the realm of the living. As Williams lay dying, he was offered a deal: a chance at life for the price of hosting a god. Michael took the deal. As his blood pooled about the feet of the statue, Horus arose. The tomb was filled with a blinding light emanating from Williams’ body. His assailants driven mad by the purity of it, they fell to the floor, bug-eyed and dribbling. With that, Michael Williams, the living god Horus, flew from his onetime home and returned, hidden in the body of a mere man, to Cedar City. Once more he would judge the wicked. Once more, gods walk with, and within, Mankind.

Description
Guardian, Aquarian, Beacon aka Don Branch, Geist, The Spider, Shroud (+ pre-hero outfit), Green Knight (x2), Max Proton (x2), Horus

Guardian:
Peter Baden's mother was a doctor and his father a scientist. He was also the head of the multinational technology & engineering company, MechTech. It was almost his son's destiny to be a nerd. While others played football, Peter read comics and studied his physics books quietly in the library. It should be much of a surprise that, child prodigy as he was, Peter had built an experimental rocket by the time he was in his twenties. His parents were both immensely proud of him but to much of the rest of the world, he was an oddity. The news reporters that came to monitor the launch laughed at the idea of a young man thinking his 'hyperlight shuttle pod' would be an improvement upon NASA. When the rocket broke the Earth's atmosphere they were shocked. However, when the craft exploded, it seemed their doubts were all justified. What they did not know was that the explosion was not a fault with Baden's engineering prowess but rather the result of sabotage. When the craft reached a key distance from the planet, a concealed robot, planted by the genius saboteur, unveiled itself and tore the ship apart. It's purpose was simple to ruin the mission, but also to cause the craft to crash back to Earth and in the process, for its experimental whitestar drive to explode and cause abject destruction in Baden's name. Thankfully Baden, in a space suit of his own making, designed from golden alloy composites, managed to disengage the whitestar drive and to use the suit's propulsion system to fly out in front of the craft and slow its descent, causing zero damage upon landing. Back on ground, Baden battled the robot and defeated it with his superior tech. Instead of the papers bearing headlines about a disastrous flight and a near catastrophic explosion, they showed images of a hero they dubbed Guardian, the Golden Gladiator. Guardian quickly became a heroic figure in his native Cedar City. Utilising the very same spacesuit, Baden was a champion of the people and battle giant monsters and technological foes alike, most frequently facing off against Irons, now going by the moniker of The Technician. In time though, threats would arise that were too much for one man. But with the growing emergence of new superpowered individuals, Peter took it upon himself to start the superhero team known as The Protectors.

Aquarian:
Joseph and Jenny Hart lived happily in the Sundown Cove lighthouse, just north of the bustling Cedar City. Their life was simple. Only one thing kept them from being truly content: they had never had a child. One day when Joseph was out fishing in his boat, Jenny prayed, as she had done many times before, that God would bring them a son. It was at that moment that a young boy broke the surface beside Joseph's boat. The elderly man hauled the boy from the water. A boy with blue skin. Taking him home and caring for the child, Joseph and Jenny discovered he was a prince from the secluded island nation of Hy-Brasil, a land in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. Centuries ago, a prophecy stated the technologically advanced utopia of Hy-Brasil would sink beneath the waves. Fearing disaster, its scientists sought to prepare the people by finding ways, through science and magic, of adapting them for life beneath the waves. The city never sunk but the people became semi-aquatic and decided to seal themselves off from the world, even as other lands fell into further violence and ruin. However their young prince wanted to see more. When oil drilling began not far from the Triangle he decided to go into the far oceans and explore. Unfortunately it was his first open ocean excursion and a tempest blew him far off course. Joseph and Jenny took him in and raised him as their son, giving him the human name Harry. As he grew, his new parents realised his unique abilities: immense strength, near-impregnable skin, the ability to breath underwater and swim at great speeds, and the remarkable gift of mimicking the abilities of any undersea creature, thanks to the small golden shell like amulet, handed down the royal line. Each ruler was meant to act as a totem for the life of the oceans. Before his departure, his mother birth mother had secretly bestowed him his birthright. As such, he used the camouflaging abilities of a mimic octopus to turn his skin the same colour as that of his adoptive family, thus blending in. Harry went to school, then college and eventually returned home to become a detective in the Sundown Cove police force. But soon threats challenged not just his family town, but the whole ocean. The drilling which had first piqued his interest in the outer world was now the centre of a vast ocean complex, a floating factory which was perceived as a direct threat bythe Hy-Brasilian ruling caste. They were to go to war. This was in fact, is precisely what the man behind the construction had wanted. Michael Arkwright had long believed in the tales of the lost city, now he would draw them out and use the mechanical oceanic army he'd been secretly building in his off-shore factory to crush the Hy-Brasilians, should they step from their protective Triangle. But war in the seas would soon come to land and both of the Harry Hart's homes were threatened. Harry had to step up and take up the mantle as a protector of his people. Both of them. So started a life as a superhero, quickly leading to him becoming a founding member of the Protectors.

Beacon/Don Branch:
Don Branch was the US Airforce's top scientific minds. He invented their prototype unmanned space fighter craft, capable of detecting interstellar threats to the planet and responding automatically. He was tinkering with its automated surveillance programming when it picked up one such threat threat entering the Milky Way. The craft activated and flew into space...with Don still inside. What had entered the atmosphere was not an enemy ship however, but a man. Of some description. Flying of its own accord, the being glowed with a brilliant purple light, seemingly powered and protected by the glowing aura around him. And he was gravely injured. The alien collided with the craft and both the being and ship plummeted to Earth. When Don awoke in the crater they’d caused, he was miraculously unharmed, the purple light surrounding him. Beyond the light he could see the military searching for them both at the crash site. It became apparent they could not perceive either the purple hue or what was hidden behind it. Beside Don lay the white-haired humanoid who shortly lost consciousness, causing their shielding to drop. Don and the alien were taken into containment and when the being came to, he pleaded with Don. He warned that a deadly planet-eating force, an insectoid race known as the Swarm, were coming like a plague to strip their planet bare. Apparently, he was part of an organisation of beings who wielded part of what he called the Flame Eternal, an energy burning at the heart of the universe. It was this energy source that gave him his powers. However, he explained, it had taken nearly all the power of the Flame Eternal to push back the Swarm and in the end the Flame itself was used up, all except that which he now wielded. He was the last of his order. And he was dying. Normally, wielders of the Flame could initiate another and open their mind to draw upon it. With the Flame gone, all this alien could do was to pass on his own portion of it. In essence, his body would fail but his very being, his mind, his thoughts, his soul and the power of his portion of the Flame, could be placed within another. He chose Don. Don agreed and the alien died. But in an instant, he felt himself sharing his body with another. He learnt then the alien's name, Komar-Ran. Don knew him to be a good, noble and mighty warrior - protector of all that was right. And Don felt an urge. He placed his fingers over his chest, forming a diamond pattern. And opened up his mind. Suddenly, Don Branch was replaced by the body of Komar-Ran reborn. Wielding the purple power of the Flame Eternal, and empowered by a new body, Komar-Ran took to space to do battle with the oncoming horde. Now, when imminent danger calls for it, Don Branch can swap between his own body and that of Komar-Ran by forming the same diamond pattern over his chest. When he does so he protects the Earth as the Beacon.

Geist:
Sophia Minerva was born Sophia DuVall. The daughter of a despotic monarch in a tiny Eastern European nation, she was placed by her father in a covert training programme at the age of ten with the intent of being the world's greatest spy. His intentions came to fruition but his actions led to disloyalty. Minerva had no interest in being her father's pawn and once she'd learnt all she could, she fled to the West and became a mercenary for hire. From this point on, all her history become a closely guarded secret. She remained at arm's length from almost everyone. She was known only by the carefully crafted persona she'd build for herself: an enigmatic, spectral entity, traversing the globe without a trace. Completing several wetworks jobs for a multitude of governments and private individuals, Minerva faced her biggest challenge when she was tasked with taking out the superhero known as the Spider. The matter was complicated, not by the fact that he proved to be a competent opponent, but that their flirtatious banter hid a deep-seated respect and growing affection over the course of their many clashes. In the end, she walked away from the hit. This put her in hot waters as a bounty was placed on her own head. She only managed to defeat her attackers with the aid of the Spider himself. After this, she went underground for some time but reemerged again when Peter Baden sought her ought to be a founding member of his new group, the Protectors.

The Spider:
Michael Dekker was a genius. A master inventor cursed with crippling shyness and a generally awkward demeanour. Despite that, his creations, and the patents he sold, meant he amassed a small fortune by the time he was twenty-five. But inventing was merely a hobby, not his true passion. His real love was for stories. Folklore and myths. Legends of heroes and gods. Comic books. In particular, Mike had a deep-rooted admiration for the masked mystery men of his dear Cedar City’s past. He began researching these crimefighters, trying to decipher the identities of these heroes of old. He studied those who’d passed and interviewed those still alive. One secret identity remained rock-solid. The one nut he could not crack. His idol: the Golden Age icon, The Spider. When he at last put the pieces together, all signs pointed to one Ted Brace. Mike tracked down his hero and the two became firm friends. It was moments before one of their weekly meetups that gunmen broke into Ted’s small apartment, themselves having also deduced the ex-hero’s alter ego. An elderly crime-boss seeking retribution had put out the hit. When Dekker arrived, the old man was dying. With his final breath, he guided Dekker to his bureau. Inside was a small wooden box. Dekker opened in. It contained Brace’s original Spinnerets and, more importantly, it held the spider amulet. Ted told Mike to use them well. And then he breathed his last. Picking up the amulet, Dekker found himself swamped by a swarm of black spiders. When they retreated, a new Spider remained. A Spider with a mission. Thanks to his considerable wealth, Mike managed to renovate his house to be utterly self-sufficient. Impenetrable and disconnected from the outside world, his home housed an underground bunker beneath a retractable tennis court. Within his bunker, known more commonly as the Spider Web, Michael focused his mind and body in the pursuit of justice. His technological prowess meant he was able to adapt the original Spinnerets into a new model capable of firing a powerful homemade adhesive, every bit as strong as a spider’s web. He equipped himself with a series of throwing disks shaped like the Spider Amulet, each with unique properties (acidic, explosive and boomerang models, to name a few), named Spider Bites. He also built himself the cutting edge Crawler, a flying spider-shaped craft. After what happened to Brace, Dekker prioritised his secret identity above all else. He became a superhero in his own right. And that’s all he’d ever wanted to be.

The Shroud:
John Hanks had always loved his mother. Always looked up to her. She had raised him alone, and for a single mother to raise a son to be a good kid in the middle of the ghetto was no mean feat. He made her proud and she made him good. But that didn’t meant the gangs left him alone. If ever he was by himself, some other kid from the neighbourhood would try to convince him to partake in some criminal escapade. It never worked. Instead, John would head home and help his Mom cook and clean. One day, the offers became more intense. Thugs pinned him to a wall and knocked all sense out of him, telling John he was now part of their family whether he liked it or not. And if he ever hurt his new family, they’d hurt him back. So John hung around with them. He tried not to get involved, but he couldn’t risk his Mom getting into danger because of him. So slowly, what with the being out at all hours and the change in his dress and behaviour, they drifted apart. He tried to do his bit and help out but things weren’t the same. And Mrs. Hanks was no fool. One day she tried to confront the gang leader about what they were doing to her son. It was the last thing she ever did. John didn’t lash out. He didn’t swear vengeance. Instead he simply walked away to mourn. He left the city and joined the Church. He started priestly training. And he prayed daily for the boys who still lived his old life. Then one day, a visiting priest from another diocese asked him if he wanted to make a difference. To clean up the streets. John did. The stranger, man named Father Lancaster, said together they would study a new way of helping sinners. The pair went away to Europe, to the hidden underworld of the City Below: a submerged civilization beneath the Vatican where the original Knights Templar had escaped with their stolen treasure. In shadows, John was trained. Philosophy, theology, Biblical studies, military tactics, weapons training and martial arts, he mastered them all. There, in the City Below, John Hanks became a Templar, wearing their ceremonial garb, honing his body and mind to unswerving loyalty to the cause. They would show the world how to help itself. That’s what he’d been told. Then the day came when they revealed their final plans. The robes, the training…it was not only symbolic. Another crusade was coming. They would save the sinners from themselves…by delivering them into the kingdom of Heaven. They would cleanse the Earth of evil and the sinners would go to judgement. John was to lead the army. Throughout his life, John had learnt to face of thugs and bullies. He saw that same face now as the scales fell from his eyes and he truly perceived Father Lancaster and the other Templar. John Hanks brought down the City Below. He did his best to preserve the Vatican above but what remained underneath was little more than ruins. He left them to die in the rubble. He had not wanted it, but a hard choice had to be made. In time, he returned to the Cedar of his youth and began cleaning the streets his own way: with measured, vigilante justice. From the night and the shadows, in the blazing white of a crusading knight, he is the Shroud.

Green Knight:
Hank Berkilak was just a car mechanic when his life changed. He was repairing a car in the front of his small garage when a man carrying a bag of stolen cash ran past him. Hank called out. The man turned, tripped and fell. The bag of stolen money was sent flying into the wind. The police cars arrived on the scene and took the thief away. He cursed Hank as he was shoved into the back of a squad car. Hank thought nothing of it. Not until a few months later, when he happened to see the very same man running from the back of a museum, alarms already blaring. Hank gave chase and tackled the crook to the ground, once more causing the man to drop his bag. The thief recognised Hank and, enraged, reached for his gun. Panicking, Hank reached for the bag of stolen artefacts, hoping to find something to protect his body. What he drew out was a sword. Not just any sword, but a mystical blade from English antiquity. At once he felt its pull, an urge to punish the wicked, to slay his foe. Hank resisted and was able to instead cut the man’s gun in two. From then on however, he had to make peace with the weapon that was now bonded to his soul. It hungered for an extreme form of justice. Hank bartered with it. Now he fights injustice and punishes the wicked, though never with death. He fights as a people’s champion, but he draws a line that the sword begs him to cross. This is his deal, this is his struggle. He is The Green Knight.

Max Proton:
Maxwell Patten is a research scientist and the fourth smartest man on the planet. This was precisely why he was approached by the FBI to help on a particularly bizarre case. For months people had been going missing. It started off as drifters; people whose absence wouldn’t be noticed. But the kidnapper had been getting less picky and more careless. The FBI had managed to track the location where the victims were taken. In an abandoned warehouse, they found the scant remains of a laboratory. And of the victims. Only a few were still alive. Where the rest were was unknown. But what disturbed them most was the condition of those who hadn't survived. Many were disproportioned, limbs enlarged or organs shrunk within them. Others had seemingly fused with the floor or walls. All were in intense agony. They needed an expert who studied scientific theories beyond most men’s imagining. Maxwell Proton went through the warehouse with a fine toothcomb, copying down the notes and equations in the rough makeshift laboratory found there. Returning to his own lab with a mound of research, he quickly discovered the kidnapper was himself a genius - someone deeply concerned with how to alter the molecular structure of objects and their relative dimensions. The kidnapper, whoever he was, was trying to work out how to shrink objects. The purposes were unknown but Max soon realised how close he had come. It was only a simply flaw in the math that had prevented him stabilising what Max now assumed had been test subjects. Max recalled seeing a note-book at the warehouse which was not now in his possession. Realising it must have been left behind, he ran through the night to the crime scene. Upon arrival, he found the police officers guarding the building gone. Max proceeded to enter. The lab was again full with notes and partially constructed devices, new equations scrawled on the chalkboard. With the corrected math. What happened next, Max couldn’t fully explain. Something struck him from behind. He span around in time to see a man in a bizarre suit holding an unusual instrument. Max fell. At first he thought he was merely toppling over, but as the desk and chair grew, and the ground rushed up to meet him, he realised the terrible truth. He had been shrunk. First he plummeted until he was the size of an ant. Then until he was but a speck of dust. By the time he stopped, atoms were the size of planets and the space between them would take millennia to cross. And that is when Max found the other kidnap victims. Dwelling in a glass dome the size of a city, suspending in the connective void between atoms, they waited in fear. And so Max worked on a plan to reverse the effects. The dome itself had a device atop it that presumably controlled the shrinking effects. Perhaps he could use it. Then something happened. The stars went out and a sound like a second Big Bang erupted. The sky above them shifted. Something was coming down. Max managed to reverse the effects of the dome in time and returned it to its regular size. Max did not. As the dome grew, so shrunk the criminal genius behind all this: Jeremiah Joyce. Once a hero of Max's, the shamed scientist now called himself Micron. When he matched Max’s size, he was filled with rage at seeing his colony of shrunken prisoners gone. Joyce pointed the gun once more at Max, promising to shrink him to the point where his molecules became unstable and his dissipated out of existence. But Max struck back. They fought. Max grabbed the gun from Joyce and knocked him to the ground. Noting the settings, Max reversed the device’s systems as he had with the dome and returned himself to normal size, believing he had trapped Joyce far below. But Joyce had a back-up: a wrist mounted device that could control the shrinking effects. Micron returned to full stature and another battle begun. Micron stole back his gun but Max found a second watch. They were evenly matched in technology and brawn. But Maxwell Patten is the fourth smartest men in the world. Joyce was out of his depth. Max managed to use his watch to cancel out the effects of Joyce’s. Still, Micron gained the upper hand and knocked Max to the ground. Standing over him he grabbed a shard of broken glass and vowed vengeance upon the man who had undone his life’ work. He had not counted on one of the escapees aiding his rescuer. Joyce was struck over the headed with a chair leg. The police arrived and Joyce was taken into custody. Realising the potential of the discoveries for both good and ill, Max took the watch and shrink-ray gun into his own hands. Still working as a researcher, he now has another public identity as the size changing hero, Max Proton. He has carved out a new life. Battling anything from invaders from other dimensions to evil super-geniuses, Max Proton is one of the Earth’s foremost defenders and in every way a pint size hero who packs a mighty punch.

Horus:
Michael Williams was a museum curator and Egyptologist on a trip to inspect the fabled Temple of Horus. When his party were killed by a band of international criminals tasked with retrieving the relics that lay within, Michael ran deeper into the tombs. In the dark, he was found and shot, falling before the feet of a shadowy statue of the Egyptian god Horus himself. It had been many years since Horus had taken a mortal vessel and entered the realm of the living. As Williams lay dying, he was offered a deal: a chance at life for the price of hosting a god. Michael took the deal. As his blood pooled about the feet of the statue, Horus arose. The tomb was filled with a blinding light emanating from Williams’ body. His assailants driven mad by the purity of it, they fell to the floor, bug-eyed and dribbling. With that, Michael Williams, the living god Horus, flew from his onetime home and returned, hidden in the body of a mere man, to Cedar City. Once more he would judge the wicked. Once more, gods walk with, and within, Mankind.