INSIDER INFO: Once part of the king’s honor guard, the Ku’whinde, in D’habu, Knockabout is a man with great responsibilities and an inherent nobility that knows little equal. As Edirin Okoloko, he was exposed to an explosive dose of his country’s prized sacred metal. This material impregnated his muscle tissue, enabling him to finely sense fields of vibration, gravity, kinetic energy, and sound, controlling them with only a thought. This gives him the added ability to create force-fields that protect him, and his beloved suits, from most damage. It is unknown how many individual targets he can manipulate when concentrating, but field tests indicate that the number is huge. While not particularly strong, he is an exceptionally gifted wrestler, and is not to be underestimated in close-quarters combat.

By the numbers

Identity: Edirin Okoloko (private)

Height: 6’2”

Birth Year: 1974

First Appearance: Chanson Noir

Nationality: Shishwila Valley (D’habu)

Powers: Knockabout uses the metal embedded in his body to control gravity, sound, and kinetic force. This enables him to pin an opponent beneath their own greatly increased weight, or send them into orbit, if he so chooses. He can sap the kinetic force from a cannonball or impart the force of a freight train into a tossed coin with little more than a thought. His sound control is fine enough that he can hear anything within line of sight if he cares to, and can project a whisper with the same unerring accuracy.

Personal base of operations: Luxury condo in Parkside neighborhood, Cobalt City

Team Affiliations: Protectorate

Check back here on the 7th to load up on books.

Me, a hero? You must be desperate!

She may look like a pulp-era hero with her rocket pack, goggles, and zap guns, but Kara Sparx is a bit more pragmatic. After some shady associations with the Society of Evil Geniuses, she and her robot companion, Lumien, stick to the fringes, working as support staff for a variety of heroes and last-chance saviors to those in Cobalt City with no other choice.

INSIDER INFO: With only limited duty as a crime-fighter, Kara Sparx is primarily an inventor and engineer. Her scientific interest is optical theory and robotics, passions she combined to create her robot companion Lumien. She makes her living doing light shows for concerts and private events, but has been known to strap on her goggles, jet pack, leather aviator jacket, and twin zap guns when circumstances call for it. She keeps her dark hair cut boyishly short, and wears contacts rather than hide her warm, brown eyes behind glasses.

Kara’s all-but constant companion, the massive, lens-studded robot known as Lumien possesses limited AI capabilities to better serve his primary duties as a hologram projector. In his natural form, he is an eight-foot humanoid made of burnished brass with countless lenses of varying sizes covering his body. Most people never see his natural state, as he projects a series of illusory disguises. He has a variety of wide-area illusion programs he can access at any given time, and has used them for purposes of entertainment as well as crowd control on several occasions. He is fiercely loyal to and frequently in love with his creator, Kara.

By the numbers

Identity: Kara Sparx (public)

Height: Kara – 5’2” Lumien – 8’1″

Birth Year: 1984

First Appearance: Cobalt City Timeslip

Nationality: U.S.A. (Taos, NM)

Powers: Kara possesses no powers other than a highly inventive mind. She has a pair of zap guns that fire electrical discharges, a high-speed rocket pack, and goggles with enhanced filters keyed to her robot Lumien. Lumien has considerable strength for practical purposes, but his primary powers are the generation of complex, large-scale illusory holograms with corresponding audio cues. He can also adjust his optics to provide blinding or disorienting flashes of light.

Personal base of operations: Small rental home in Morriston neighborhood, Cobalt City

Team Affiliations: Society of Evil Geniuses (former), Mysterious Five (former)

INSIDER INFO: The name John Gallows is an assumed name, one he chose when his life turned sideways. While visiting a friend at college, he got drunk and went for a walk, ending up on a desolate hilltop. There, the aliens found him. The man who would become John Gallows was abducted, and a chunk of time was lost. When he awoke on the hilltop he had been given his teleportation abilities and an instinctual understanding of how to use them. He does not know the reason why he has these powers, and recalls very little of his abduction.

Gallows found himself in the company of Archon while he attempted to hone his powers. They two of them traveled internationally, working as a crime-fighting duo before going to Cobalt City to join the Protectorate. Gallows wears jeans and a t-shirt under a brown leather jacket. When he activates his powers, his torso becomes a silhouette showing a vast field of stars.

By the numbers

Identity: John Gallows (private)

Height: 6’2”

Birth Year: 1978

First Appearance: Cobalt City Blues

Nationality: U.S.A. (Lake Chelan, WA)

Powers: Gallows has the ability to teleport himself and anyone/anything he’s touching to any place he has seen. He can also teleport people and things within his line of sight to a place of his choosing.

Personal base of operations: The Keep in Downtown, Cobalt City

Team Affiliations: Protectorate

INSIDER INFO: Of British extraction and birth, Wild Kat sought out her powers, financing experimental gene grafting performed by Dr. Sri Pataloo in India. Her family made its money during the Colonial period by exploiting indigenous populations of India and Africa, and she has been making up for it ever since reaching adulthood. Her great-uncle was the vigilante known as Wrecker of Engines in the 40′s and 50′s, and Kathrine was greatly inspired by his journals.

In her secret identity as Katherine Wilde, she maintains an art restoration and authentication company located in Parkside, in a rebuilt hotel named The Marco Polo. Turned into offices and condos in recent years, she owns several floors of the building, including the penthouse suite, formerly the Oriental Room, a mob-controlled nightclub where jazz musician Simon Floyd was murdered and then stored for 70 years. She was one of the original members of the Mysterious Five, and a founding member of The Protectorate. She has been linked romantically to Manuel de la Vega (Gato Loco) in the past.

By the numbers

Identity: Katherine Wilde (private)

Height: 5’4”

Birth Year: 1970

First Appearance: Chanson Noir

Nationality: British (London, UK)

Powers: Katherine Wilde has the ability to shift into a hominid cat form which possesses extremely heightened senses, extraordinary speed, agility, and strength, as well as durable, powerfully sharp claws.

Personal base of operations: Condo and top floors of Marco Polo Building across street in Parkside neighborhood, Cobalt City

Team Affiliations: Protectorate, former Mysterious Five