Robyn Mayfield is the daughter of Dr. Frank Mayfield, a respected but
eccentric inventor and designer. She learned
many of her inventing skills from her father, as well as inheriting his
enjoyment of tinkering with electronic equipment. Her father also
instilled in her a distrust of the military-industrial complex and a
desire to create non-lethal, non-destructive weapons for
law enforcement and military use.
At one time Dr. Mayfield worked for the Madt Institute, but had a
disagreement with the Director, Dr.
Clayton Forester, over the Institute’s acceptance of defense
contracts for weapons designs. Another Institute associate, Dr. Harold Huebner frequently tried
to (unsuccessfully) copy some of Dr. Mayfield’s designs. Robyn
has all of her father’s notes, blueprints, prototypes, and other
equipment. She works on improving his designs as well as building
items he designed but never had a chance to test.
When Dr. Mayfield learned he was terminally ill, he
planned to transfer his memories and experiences to a storage medium,
which would then be installed in a sophisticated android body so he
could continue working. Unfortunately, he died before he was able
to complete the android’s design. His memories and personality are
currently stored in a tiny robot, which has no limbs and is only 9
inches tall. Robyn is working on building the android, but she
doesn’t have sufficient technical skill yet to fill in the missing
parts of the blueprints. In the meantime she must put up with her
father’s complaints about being so small and unable to touch
anything. The tiny robot usually follows her around and harangues
her about its’ problems.
Robyn didn’t really have any intention of becoming a
superhero. She usually carries several of her devices around with
her at all times, and when the opportunity presented itself to use them
in a real combat situation, she eagerly joined the fray. She
discovered that catching bad guys was fun! She doesn’t like to
let anyone else use her equipment for fear they’ll damage or misuse it,
so she would be
reluctant to simply make gadgets and give them to others. She
hasn’t given any thought to a costume,
and the name Gadget is an old nickname her father gave her. She
usually wears protective padding because she may be testing a new
device that could be harmful; and she always has on her goggles because
she can use the x-ray and microscopic functions when working in her lab.
Robyn is an average-looking young woman with very
curly red hair and pale, heavily freckled skin. She commonly
wears a vest with lots of small pockets to carry tools and equipment,
military-style cargo pants (for the same reason), and heavy boots to
protect her toes from dropped tools. Most of her clothes have
scorches and stains. She doesn’t care much about her
appearance. If one of her new teammates encourages her to have an
actual costume she might think about finding some items that match, but
she’s not the spandex type. She isn’t really concerned about
anyone discovering her real identity, but she will avoid public
attention as much as possible. She’d rather be recognized for her
achievements as an inventor than as a costumed hero.
Robyn has two lab mascots, a dog named Sprocket and a cat named Gizmo. She doesn’t get along
well with her mother, Sylvia,
who’s disappointed that Robyn chose to follow her father’s career and
wants Robyn to be more feminine. Her mother is a sort of
Jewish-mother type who’s always trying to set Robyn up with blind
dates. She also complains if Robyn doesn’t call regularly, and
shows up at the lab at inopportune times. She wouldn’t be very
impressed if she learned her daughter is hanging out with
superhero-wannabes (unless one of them is a marriage prospect!).
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