Gizmo

True North Canada's Premier National Superteam Canadian Shield - Elizabeth Combs, Geokinetic Elizabeth Combs is the daughter of an RCD Corporal and a minor Igneous noble, of the subterranean civilization dwelling beneath much of the area surrounding Hudson Bay. Taking more after her human father, Liz is still easily recognizable, being nearly seven feet of somewhat ashen skin tone and subtle, scale-like mineral deposits that run across her cheeks and down her spine. Luckily her rugged good looks and confident charm made her an ideal poster woman for the government funded Canadian super team when her geokinetic powers, present from birth, began to develop in earnest. Favouring creating rocky armor and weapons to enhance her already considerable toughness and strength, Canadian Shield is also a decisive leader on and off the battlefield. She's a canny political player, but always stops short of compromising her high ideals, something that has earned her the respect of even her more difficult teammates. Notable Appearances: Molehills, Act of Union Bombardier - Paul Bouchard, Battlesuit Paul Bouchard was a young blue collar worker from Dorval whose chance at an athletic scholarship as a goalie had been cut short thanks to stepping out of the crease to throw down his gloves one time too many. Bouchard's stubborn streak manifested itself in his job as an assembly line worker where he drove himself to learn as much of the engineering principles behind the areospace components he helped build as he could on his own time. Because of that, when a rush order on a limited run of components came his way, he recognized them as pieces of a powered gauntlet moments before heavily armed technology pirates broke into the factory to steal them. Managing to cobble together the concussive blast weapon in the resulting chaos, Bouchard defeated the thieves and saved the lives of his coworkers. An instant media sensation, he was soon tapped to don the full, prototype armor as the one-man air force, Bombardier. Notable Appearances: Molehills Coyote III - Jim Pegahmagabow, Acrobat The latest in a line of First Nations heroes, Jim Pegahmagabow is easily an Olympic level acrobat and martial artist. Neither he nor any of his predecessors possessed any superpowers, although the original Coyote played on superstitions to cultivate an aura of mystery, some of which remains today. The very definition of a street-level hero, Coyote spends as much time helping around the community as he does fighting crime, but after demonstrating an ability to take down metahuman opponents well out of his supposed 'weight class' he was approached about joining the premier national team. Deciding he could do the most good in the spotlight, he agreed. A penchant for banter and minor issues with authority mark him as a young man still trying to find his own way to live up to his legacy, but his genuinely caring nature has made him a key part of bringing team's disparate members together as more than comrades-in-arms. Daniel Storm - Mystic/Survivalist Calling Daniel Storm a superhero would take an extremely generous use of the term. A stocky survivalist with a weathered face typically concealed by a full beard and a scowl, Storm spends most of his time in the undeveloped wilderness and would just as soon keep to himself if not for an uncanny habit of running into the varied preternatural strangeness of the Canadian North. From haunted cabins to feral wendigo to rogue nature spirits, without meaning to Storm has become one of the world's most experienced monster hunters, picking up more than a few mystical tricks of the trade along the way. Officially a consultant rather than a full member, Storm rarely accompanies the team into all-out brawls, but more than once he's been the deciding factor against a supernatural foe. Despite his gruff personality, Storm rarely refuses a call for help and takes a vaguely avuncular attitude towards the younger heroes. Notable Appearances: World Tour: Way to Go, Wendigo! Verglass - Adhira Zev, Super Speed/Ice Generation Adhira Zev was always a little odd, the sort of up-and-coming particle physicist who rode her bike to work, went rock climbing on weekends and made puns requiring multiple fluencies to appreciate. A lab accident made her much stranger, a kinetic energy sink who uncontrollably slowed the molecules around her to increase her own speed, resulting in severe temperature drops. Crafting a suit that let her channel that ability to good use, she took the name Verglass and became Victoria's most prominent superhero in short order. A brilliant thrill seeker, Adhira loves going fast and solving complicated problems on the fly, but being forced to wear her containment harness nearly all the time or endanger everyone around her wears on the gregarious woman more than she lets on. Some of that strain shows in her reckless attitude, but fortunately she's usually able to get out of trouble nearly as quickly as she gets into it. Notable Appearances: World Tour: Way to Go, Wendigo! Cosmic Constable - J'ou Dorah't, Alien J'ou Dorah't is a member of an interplanetary police force tasked with guarding their little corner of the Lor republic. Ending up on Earth on the trail of a criminal, he teamed with Canada's superheroes to bring the offender to justice and afterward decided to remain. This wasn't so odd: J'ou's particular rank suggests an anthropologist as much as a peacekeeper, seeking to understand the guilty while protecting the innocent. With bright red skin and a stately white uniform, the Cosmic Constable rides into battle on the back of his robotic steed and brandishing a pair of symbiotic sidearms that can form laser pistols or cavalry sabers. Unfailing polite and friendly, the mild empathic abilities of his people help him compensate for most cultural differences, making him surprisingly adept at making friends out of enemies. He spends most of his time in the prairie provinces when not with the rest of team on larger missions. Notable Appearances: Act of Union Wendy Go - Becky Shuster, Monster Becky Shuster was working a summer job as an airport attendant when a chance encounter with a group of visiting Claremont students ended with her possession by a wendigo spirit in the woods outside of Thunder Bay, transforming her into a creature of terrible strength and unspeakable hunger! Thankfully her new friends were able to subdue her and True North's consulting mystic Daniel Storm spent nearly two years training her to keep her bestial side under tenuous control. Now a junior member of the national superteam, Wendy Go is a young woman doing her best to prove herself in a suddenly much larger, stranger world. Curious and enthusiastic by nature, Becky is eager to learn from her more experienced teammates but her fear of losing control again has added a streak of glum introspection to her personality that matches the streak of white in her hair. Notable Appearances: World Tour: Way to Go, Wendigo!, Molehills, Act of Union

Project: Safeguard Project: Safeguard or simply the Safeguard is an American superhero team operating domestically as a part of the Air Force. Its membership is drawn from members of all branches of the armed forces along with select individuals recruited specifically for the initiative. The government sanctioned and funded team arguably takes inspiration from Canada's True North or the National Gendarmerie of France, though with a mission statement born of current events more so than either of those venerable organizations. In contrast to the international - even interplanetary - focus of the Freedom League, the Safeguard operates solely within the borders of the United States apart from rare exceptions where a foreign government has specifically requested their assistance. An outgrowth of pararescue units, the team's focus is on search and rescue, natural disaster intervention and combatting acts of domestic terrorism, particularly where it involves metahumans or sufficiently advanced hardware. The Safeguard somewhat pointedly does not fall under the purview of AEGIS which can lead to occasional disagreements over jurisdiction but it maintains a good working relationship with that organization as well as UNIQUE of the United Nations. Given their overlapping areas of focus the Safeguard works alongside the Freedom League semi-regularly but between natural rivalry and differing viewpoints individual interactions between members of the two teams can be strained. Spokespeople have stressed repeatedly that Project: Safeguard was not conceived as a replacement for independent good samaritans such as the League nor as part of any plan to draft metahumans into the armed forces. With any understandable skepticism in mind the team's members have been instructed to keep public relations always in mind but ultimately the good work they do is all the explanation necessary for their growing popularity. GM Notes: There is no government conspiracy or ulterior motive behind the Safeguard; they are as they seem, civic minded heroes with a desire to serve brought together with the best of goals. That doesn't mean they're easy to work with, however. Player characters are likely to find their self-imposed restrictions and bureaucracy and concern over public image frustrating in the middle of a crisis. By the same token members of the Safeguard tend to take a dim view of untrained, undisciplined vigilantes, particularly those who are underage or insist on operating in the shadows without any sort of oversight. That friction allows the Safeguard to serve as rivals and non-villainous antagonists for player characters, operating from a position of some authority and respect. They may just as easily fill the role of mentors or introductions into plots for player characters. Remember thought that they should be used mostly when another player character such as members of the Freedom League are unavailable or a poor fit for one reason or another. As NPCs the bulk of their adventures happen off-panel and they should never pull focus from the player characters.