GUARDIAN
Secret Identity: Rick Jones

Calling: Outcast

Strength: 10D

Intelligence: 5C
Agility: 8B
Willpower: 6D
Edge/Hand: 1/3

Skills:

Powers:

Equipment:

Projective Electro-Imager

Personal History:

Rick Jones was raised in an orphanage in the American Southwest, and was always in and out of scrapes with the law. When troubled (which was fairly often) Rick would drive out into the desert, gazing at the stars. One night, he saw a shooting star land in the desert. He went to investigate, and discovered the crash site of a small alien spacecraft.


Entering the wreckage, he discovered the dying pilot, who used the ship computer to translate - the pilot had been part of a recon force who was investigating this planet, which (unbeknownst to its inhabitants) was guarded by a large Skrull automated defense system (based on the far side of the moon).

While communicating with Rick, the Kree pilot was also having the computer scan Rick's genetic code - if Rick's genetic structure proved compatible enough, the Kree would attempt to have his essence transferred into Rick's body; the pilot was confident that his own strength of will would prevail over Rick's. Rick's body proved more than compatible - he showed evidence that one of his grand-parents had been a Kree! The computer began the transfer, and woe would have been Rick - except that the damage to the ship was causing a cascading systems failure, and the computer failed when the process was halfway through.

Rick stumbled away from the craft, his mind under assault from the jumbled, incomplete Rick In Kree Battle Uniformpersona and memories from within and the klaxons of the failing systems without. In his hands he clutched a small case, the Emergency Survival Unit from the craft. The craft red-lined, and the explosion tossed Rick into unconsciousness.

Rick awoke in an Arizona hospital; an astronomer at the University Of Arizona (Phoenix) had noticed the "meteor"'s descent, and a small group of amateur astronomers had found Rick and his jeep, and called for an ambulance. One of the amateur astronomers was a Skrull, who returned after the others had left, to find Rick trying on the Kree uniform contained in the ESU.

The Skrull shifted to attack the "kreeman" he found in the hospital room. Rick discovers new combat skills and physical strength as he escapes the Skrull through the window, just as Federal investigators are coming through the door - they had read the reports of the "meteor", and wanted to check Rick for ET contact in case the meteor hadn't been a meteor at all. The Feds distract the Skrull long enough for Rick to escape both parties.

Rick fled to New York City, where he met the other heroes who would come to be known as the Avengers. On their first mission together, they foiled a plot by the Kree to assimilate the population of Nueva Mesa (and then...the world!). Returning to New York City, he took up residence in a clock tower high above the city. He was contemplating what to do next, when a voice boomed out from a corner of his "aerie."

"RICK JONES! FINALLY, I FIND YOU!"

The form of a small bird shimmered, and became the Skrull which had attacked Rick back in the hospital; the Skrullian Spymaster, the protector of Earth against the threat of the Kree assimilation. He told Rick ""The Supreme Intelligence is like a cancer. It is not disappeared, merely dormant. By surrounding yourself, clothing yourself, with remnants of the Kree, that cancer will fester, grow stronger, and eventually overwhelm you. You can, of course, destroy the Kree accoutrements you have acquired. This will leave you feeling totally and utterly alone, to the point of suicidal depression, but you will stem the tide of having the cancer consume you. Consider it wisely. You may become empty handed, but there will be something that will take its place." With that, he transformed into a hawk, and flew away.

Rick meditated on the Spymaster's words. Although he couldn't say why, he could feel the truth of the Skrull's advice deep within his psyche. He thought about how his body had changed, how is reflexes and knowledge had become that of a Kree warrior-drone. Slowly, a resolve built within him. "If this uniform, my weapons, are like an addiction, like a cancer", he mused, "it would be best if I gave it up now, before it becomes too late." Using his projective electro-imager, he called Baron Zemo; Zemo seemed to have the resources to study the Kree equipment, and keep it safe - both from the conspirators who sought it, and from Rick himself.

Zemo's men retrieved the Kree equipment, and Rick set about designing a new costume, modifying elements of the old, and a new name. He would call himself the Guardian, and set himself to guard mankind against the incursions of the Kree, and any other aliens who would threaten the freedom of mankind.