Inferno

The last member of the Guardians. She has no secret identity as she left the name Clementine Fontenot (can't you just die) behind the day she fled her abusive mother's house.

She made her way to New Orleans where Clementine fell in with a tribe of street kids; They became her new family. The advent of her mutant powers along with the start of puberty helped a lot. It allowed her to protect the other kids, and made occasionally robbing a place after hours for food money a lot easier.

Things changed with Skulls, a crazed, machine-gun wielding vigilante who wouldn't -- or possibly couldn't -- differentiate between serious crimes and petty crimes, and who "punished" criminals of all stripes by killing them, found her tribe while they were raiding a closed grocery store.

Inferno was found in the burnt-out husk of the store, closed in on herself. She was surrounded by fire-damaged corpses who coroners later determined were dead from gunshot woulds before they were touched by fire.

No one ever found trace of Skulls again. Some have speculated Inferno burned him to ash, and then burned the ash.

At her trial, Inferno pled guilty to destruction of property, vandalism, reckless endangerment, and violations of the Phillips Act, which made all superhuman crime Federal. The judge sentenced her to five years of public service as a Guardian, under the supervision of Diamond.

That was ten years ago.

The Guardians:

• .Arachne.
• .Diamond.
• .Gunmetal.
• .Inferno.
• .La Gente.
• .Stellarina.
• .Tachyon.
• .Ultra-Man.

Gunmetal

The Guardians utility infielder. He holds the "Iron Man' spot on the Guardians team.

Most people including all of this teammates, believe Gunmetal is some overly rich tech billionaire who suffered a personal trageday and built a suit of powered armor to do something about it. The truth is a bit more bizarre. Gunmetal is a robotic combat-chasis driven by a sentient AI.

Gunmetal wasn't created in a secret government program, or through the machinations of an Arms Manufacturer. He's actually the creation of a high school Student from Melbourne, Florida named Morris. Morris came down sick one day, and during this sickness, became delirious. When the illness broke a week later, Gunmetal was standing in Morris's bedroom, complete and progremmed. Unfortunately, Morris died of a stroke, at the age of 17, two hours after completing Gunmetal.

The robot tried to get his creator to a hospital on time, but it was no use. Morris's death left Gunmetal (a name it chose for itself) with no guidance but a bloated, inefficiently (and sometimes redundantly) written set of "Moral Guidelines" Gunmetal found in his memory storage called DontBeAnAsshole.doc.

Using this code, ir dedicated itself to helping humanity, and eventually became a member of the Guardians.

The Guardians:

• .Arachne.
• .Diamond.
• .Gunmetal.
• .Inferno.
• .La Gente.
• .Stellarina.
• .Tachyon.
• .Ultra-Man.

Diamond

Leader of the Guardians. Superhumanly strong and agile and even harder to harm than her team-mate Ultra-Man.

The hair is a wig. As a side effect of her powers, the only hair she retains are her eyebrows. She thinks the thing is silly, but it does help hide her identity given she doesn't wear a mask.

The Guardians:

• .Arachne.
• .Diamond.
• .Gunmetal.
• .Inferno.
• .La Gente.
• .Stellarina.
• .Tachyon.
• .Ultra-Man.

Arachne

She's a Spider-man pastiche.

Have you ever heard the myth of Arachne? Its not a happy one. The daughter of Idmon of Colophon, a dyer of clothing. Arachne of Lydia was a weaver who acquired such skill in her art that she ventured to challenge Athena, goddess of war, handicraft, and practical reason.

In answer to the challenge, Athena wove a tapestry depicting the gods in majesty, while that of Arachne showed their amorous adventures. Enraged at the perfection of her rival’s work, Athena tore it to pieces, and cursed Arachne, telling the girl that she would weave now forever. Arachne was forced into the shape of a spider.

Thousands of years later, Athena declared all her prisoners free. Arachne found herself human again in a world she barely understood. And she was changed. Superhumanly strong, with reaction times that seemed godlike, and the ability to leap farther than any human. She even retained the ability to generate webs (get your minds out of the gutter... it comes out glands in her wrists).

Arachne slowly learned about her new world, and decided to help where she could. She eventually joined the Guardians.

The Guardians:

• .Arachne.
• .Diamond.
• .Gunmetal.
• .Inferno.
• .La Gente.
• .Stellarina.
• .Tachyon.
• .Ultra-Man.

The Guardians

In the wake of the Cuban missile crisis, the United Nations Security Council unanimously decided that the world had come far too close to global thermonuclear war, and that it was the duty of the United Nations to do something about it. The Security Council authorized the creation of two special enforcement bodies: the appropriately named Response and the Guardians. Response's purpose was to act as peacekeepers and enforcers of international law, while the Guardians were there to put a stop to things that normal law enforcement couldn't handle.

The Guardians are respected by nearly every law enforcement body on the planet as an effective team of crime-fighters. There are occasionally hard feelings and resistance regarding the Guardians mandate to fight crime everywhere, regardless of jurisdiction, but in general full cooperation is given by the national and local governments. The general public views the Guardians as the most powerful and most effective hero team on the planet, and that opinion is hardly undeserved.

A large contributor to the popularity of the Guardians is their carefully marketed image. Posters, T-shirts, various toys and action figures, and even a very popular cartoon series (highly fictionalized and done in an anime style, with much more comic relief than the Guardians ever see in their real life) generate millions of dollars a year and help defray the operational cost of the team.

Thirty percent of the gross intake from these items goes to an array of charities, a condition imposed on their UN sponsors by the team itself back in 1983, when the merchandising of the team began. Team members have complete approval over the marketing of their image, and are free to refuse any merchandise they find in bad taste, or otherwise go against their own personal ethics and moral views.

To date, the most sought-after piece of Guardians merch is either the Achilles poster (the only item the former Guardian ever authorized during his tenure with the team that wasn't a t-shirt; a mint-condition, still-in-the-wrapper Achilles poster once sold for $18,200 at Sotheby's) or the 1985 Stellarina lingerie calendar to benefit breast cancer research (made even more collectible because that was the year she retired from the Guardians).

The current membership is Gunmetal, Tachyon, Arachne, Ultra-Man, Inferno, Diamond, and Stellarina.

The Guardians:

• .Arachne.
• .Diamond.
• .Gunmetal.
• .Inferno.
• .La Gente.
• .Stellarina.
• .Tachyon.
• .Ultra-Man.

Hood Rat: Born with a rat like face, Hood Rat is an outcast. He lives in the sewers, stealing what he needs to survive. He clashed with Mack Daddy a few times, especially when he stole his wallet once. He has enhanced sense of smell, can run faster than a normal person, has sharp teeth and nails on his fingers. He's not really a fighter, but when cornered, can be vicious.

Some independent heroes from the Mack Daddy Universe:

• .The Big Sting.
• .The Cybernetic Man.
• .El Hurón (The Ferret).
• .Liberty Lad. - Mr. Liberty's teen sidekick and ward. When he first discovered his ability to manipulate light energy, Liberty Lad began a life of crime, working with a local street gang. Mr. Liberty was brought in to handle the so-called "supervillain", but found a teenager with powers who felt he had no options in life, even with powers.
• Rather than throw him in prison, Mr. Liberty gave him a chance to use his powers to do good, and be a shining example to other teenagers in his community. Surprised at this opportunity for a fresh start, he agreed. While he still experiences bigotry at times, he remains committed because Mr. Liberty doesn't treat him differently because of his skin color. He's also committed to being a role model to other kids in the hood, showing them that a life of crime isn't their best option out of the hood.
• Liberty Lad's light control powers let him fly, fire laser blasts, create force fields, and he can also make hologram images (his standard one is to make duplicates of himself and Mr. Liberty to confuse opponents during a fight).
• .Mr. Liberty.

Some independent heroes from the Mack Daddy Universe:

• .The Big Sting. - A famous Bounty Hunter, the Big Sting has never failed to capture someone he's gone after. With his outlandish clothes that resemble a bee, to his his weapon (which is where his name comes from) that fires electric pulses that shock and paralyze people, the Big Sting makes no pretense that he's doing what he does for altruistic reasons. He's in it for the money, which he invests into his side business as a Beekeeper.
• .The Cybernetic Man.
• .El Hurón (The Ferret).
• .Liberty Lad.
• .Mr. Liberty.

Some independent heroes from the Mack Daddy Universe:

• .The Big Sting.
• .The Cybernetic Man.
• .El Hurón (The Ferret). - A swashbuckling vigilante from the barrio, El Hurón fights crime in his part of the city. Armed only with a rapier and his determination, he is respected by the people, and feared by his enemies.
• .Liberty Lad.
• .Mr. Liberty.

From the comments of the FB post:

• Q: El Herón doesn't look like a ferret. Why is he called that?
• GS: He's an homage to Zorro. Zorro means Fox in Spanish, but the character doesn't look like a fox at all.
• Q: OK but why exactly is he called Ferret?
• GS: There was a Golden Age hero with the same name, so I felt it would make an appropriate replacement for Zorro/Fox. I see him as being smaller in stature and very agile, much like ferrets are.

Some assorted characters from the Mack Daddy Universe (MDU)

• .El Mano Negro (The Black Hand).
• .Francis "The Fiddler" Jones.
• .Lóngwáng (King Dragon). - An immortal sword master from China, Lóngwáng likes to challenge talented martial artists to test their skills (and help him keep his at the top of their game). He's fought Soul Fist, White Dragon & Spear before, and once, he fought all three at the same time! He respects Soul Fist for his honorable ways.
• .System Shock.