*makes sure there are no pointy sticks around before re-appearing*<br/><br/>My apologies for holding you guys up.  I make a sincere effort to stay on top of all my games but nevertheless fail more often than I would like.  I don't think I'm<em>much </em>less on-the-ball than most others on E, but if my tardiness ever becomes an unacceptable drag on the game, Cogs, please let me know so I can politely withdraw.  I wouldn't want to make things less fun for the rest of you.<br/><br/>I'm assuming that's not the case quite yet  *fingers crossed*  , so here's my guy.  This is a rewritten and altered version of what I sent you before, Cogs.<br/><br/>Name:  Jacob D. Lieber, goes by "J. D."<br/>Picture:  forthcoming<br/>Stats:  5' 7", 135 lbs., brown hair, blue-green eyes (may change a bit depending on what pic I use).  Fair complexion, average-to-slight build, 19 years old, a sophomore physics major at Forbush University in Brooklyn, but taking a leave of indefinite length to work for the military<br/>Codename:  Agreed to a codename upon the insistence of his military handlers; he chose "Happy Trails" for numerous personal reasons.  Teammates and the press frequently shorten it to "Happy" or "Hap" in actual usage.<br/><br/>Although he resisted the suggestion of a codename at first, he's since grown to like it and started using his name as a farewell quip to defeated foes, usually coupled with derogatory expletives, i.e. "Happy trails, motherfucker ..."<br/><br/>Background:  J. D. is a physics and mathematics prodigy who accidentally discovered an equation that allows him to accelerate his body and anything he's directly touching to super-speed.  This discovery occurred about two months prior to his recruitment for Freedom Force.  Although he has a scientific researcher's curiosity about testing his new ability, his early attempts inevitably resulted in him getting hurt or destroying something around him.  He's still learning about his power and has some reticence about using it, given those early injuries.<br/><br/>Military representatives tracked him down in the hospital after one of his many accidents causing himself physical harm from experimenting with his power.  The exact extent of his powers and the ways he can make use of them remains to be discovered; this is much of his motivation for joining the Force, making use of military resources and Dr. Wilson's assistance in exploring his power.<br/><br/>It takes him about fifteen seconds to activate his power whenever he wants to use it.  He does so by mentally reciting the long, complex mathematical equation he discovered.  There are two other major limitations on his power, accounting for his early accidents:  first, he lacks any kind of physical invulnerability or unusual shielding, so the wind friction caused by his high-speed movements causes burns to exposed areas of his skin.  This means he restricts himself to short, not-top-speed movements whenever he's out of costume and wants to use his power.  The gift of his costume, a shielded full-body uniform, was what convinced him to sign up for the Force; it was designed by military researchers (perhaps under Wilson's initiative, if you like, Cogs) to give him the necessary wind-friction resistance to run at high speed and use his powers more extensively.  His other major limitation is a lack of heightened physical strength, which means that although he can move at super-speed, there's not much he can do to overpower stronger opponents.  Apart from his top-percentile (but not superhuman) intelligence, he has no other unusual traits.<br/><br/>Personality:  J. D. is an unrepentant smart-ass, sometimes a jerk, but with a heart of gold, so to speak -- he will go to great lengths to use his power to help others, and he can be depended upon to come through for his teammates, despite the bad attitude he projects.  He's not a thoroughly-altruistic person, however; he plans to eventually exploit commercial uses of his equation for personal gain, after his experience with the Force has taught him the full extent of his powers.  He's also a typically-hormone-addled young adult -- something of a sarcastic, self-effacing pervert -- and the sexual opportunities presented by super-speed are near the top of his priority list of things to explore.  (One of his least pleasant and most embarrassing hospitalizations occurred from imprudently activating his powers during an enthusiastic moment of private sexual self-stimulation.)  Dr. Wilson, Janet, and Athena's physical attributes provide large additional incentives to J. D. to stay on the team, however slim his chances with such impressive older women.<br/><br/>He's got more than a little skepticism and even scorn for the military and the uses it intends to make of Freedom Force (even the name strikes him as hilarious, and he's always tacking other alliterative adjectives onto it, including less-than-flattering ones.)  It takes a bit of an effort for him to restrain himself from letting his inner punk out ("Eff you!", etc.) during briefings and in front of the press.  Although always finding ways to poke fun at himself and his team, he takes the missions seriously when it comes to helping people, and he hesitantly tolerates the military rigamarole and publicity requirements.  Apart from a young person's standard preoccupations with technology and pop culture (the internet, TV, music, movies, etc.), his principle pastimes are experimenting further with his powers and flirting with powered or non-powered peers, not necessarily in that order.<br/><br/>---------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>I hope that covers enough bases to put J. D. into the game and to let us all get started playing.  Cogs, or anyone else, if I've left out important details, please let me know, I'm happy to make needed additions or edits.  I've deliberately made J. D.'s powers recently-acquired so that their extent and uses can become known gradually over the course of the game.  Cogs, thanks for the suggestions about speed-power applications, I hope to use some of those ideas eventually as J. D. learns more about his powers.<br/><br/>Also, as Cogs knows, I know nothing about roleplaying outside of online forums, much less about the Marvel game, so please everyone bear with me if I make novice errors in my writing, in terms of working with the behind-the-scenes game mechanics.  I'll try to learn as I go and be flexible when it comes to making changes.<br/><br/>Thanks again for everyone's patience, I'm looking forward to the game.  :)