Adam Michaels -

Born in 1970 in New York.

Ever since he was old enough to write, he would always write about everything that he could find to write about. His interests were varied to say the least. He would write about everything from Science fiction to horror. He knew even at that time, however, that he loved to write about what was happening around him. No matter what he had to do to find out what was happening, he was willing to do it. Whether it was simply talking to people, climbing onto a tree limb to get the story, then that is what he would do. He didnt fear anything at all. He would stand up to the bullies at school, as well as climb onto overhangs, tree limbs, and telephone poles. All that and more he did without any fear in him at all. His parents tried to instill in him common sense and good judgement since they knew he would never have any fear. Ever since that incident where he actually followed some Mafia family members to see where they were going and had gotten caught, his family simply came to the understanding that he would never fear anything at all. When the Mafia people found him, they took him to the head of the family. The man sitting behind the desk was simply amused that someone so young could walk in on someone in his family. He told the boy to go home and come back when he was a man. He would have a job open for him when he did that. Adam however just had an instinct that this wasn't what he wanted. He knew what kind of job he would have and vowed never to work for this man.

During the following years, Adam was a very active person. He was involved in sports and girls, but also found that his interests in writing were growing stronger. He was on the school newspaper and even had a small expose' on how the assistant principal was having sex with one of the high school girls. This led to the Assistant Principal's dismissal from school and a short prison sentence for him. Adam gained notoriety with that expose'. The New York Times used his story and then offered him a job after he would graduate college. Adam rocketed through college ending up with a 4.0 grade point average. He excelled in the sport interests that he had which included swimming, gymnastics and baseball. He was still prone to some acts of rashness. He had for example, taken and tied a red flag of defiance to the top of the Empire State building transmission tower. He did this to prove that the security people at the Empire State building were asleep at night and not doing their jobs. The New York Times also bought that story from him. To date, that red flag is still flying high on the Transmission tower. The management decided to leave it up there as a reminder to all that they should never shirk their duties.

After he graduated college, Adam took the job with the New York Times working as a reporter for them. The Mafia family that had offered him a job came to an understanding with Adam when he refused to join their family. They simple viewed Adam as a member of the family now, and would always let them know when a damaging story would be run on them. Adam did just that too. When there was a damaging story run, Adam came to the head of the family and let him be the first to read the story. The story consisted of exposing all the dealings in drug trafficking and money laundering along with prostitution that this Mafia family was involved in. Unfortunately for Adam, he couldn't uncover any hard evidence that would prove the head of the family knew about any of this. He did however uncover enough evidence that it would cost this family an estimated 10 million dollars in lost revenue over the next three years. Fifteen family members ended up being brought to trial for their participation. Adam received only a promotion in his job, and a warning that he had made a very serious enemy with this family. All and all he was pleased, as he had made a difference. During the next couple of years he investigated several types of stories, everything from natural disasters, bombing of the World Trade Center, PRIMUS corruption at the New York branch, UNTIL involvement inside the US, local Mafia activities, local family store owners being forced to give up their businesses because various Supervillains had taken to destroying the local neighborhoods in their battles with PRIMUS.

One of his more prominent investigations came about when he was looking into possible corruption at city hall. As it turned out, he had stumbled upon a VIPER operation at the building and planning offices. They were attempting to copy the plans and structural designs for AMERICAN JUSTICE's headquarters. With these plans, they could then destroy the headquarters of the New York Superhero team. As they made their move to copy the plans and head to their base of operations he simply followed them. They led him out of the city. From what Adam could put together, this was not a local nest of VIPER agents. He followed them for about three hours as they headed into the mountains southwest of New York. They seemed determined to get as far away from the city as possible. Before they could actually finish their journey, a falling ball of light coming out of the sky distracted them. When Adam saw the light, he felt an urge to follow the light, but didnt want to lose the VIPER agents he as following. Fortunately for him, they veered toward the light to find its source and Adam followed. After having to stop their vehicles and continue the trek on foot, they all came to a small clearing near the base of a mountain. There, they witnessed the craft, which seemed damaged as it was still smoking from obvious holes in its exterior. There was an opening in the craft and one of the VIPER agents went inside. What happened next, none of the people their would have expected. That VIPER agent that went inside came flying out as if he had been thrown. He traveled a distance of approximately 100 feet before landing on the ground. A man appeared. He looked to be in his eighties. He was short, approximately 5' 4" tall. Dressed in white robes, which were dirty from the smoke, and had red colored clothing on under them. He didnt look like he had been responsible for the VIPER agent being thrown. It was only when the next two VIPER agents had drawn their weapons and fired at the man did they find he was more than what he appeared. Both energy shots bounced off his body. At this point, he ran to the VIPER agents and picked both of them up and then proceeded to spin becoming almost a blur. At this point, he then let them go. Their momentum led them to go crashing into the trees some three hundred feet away. Adam simply couldn't believe that this man could possess super powers. He looked like someone's grandfather, not some super human. The remaining two VIPER agents attempted to rush the man. What he did was simply amazing; he jumped into the air behind both agents as they ran past him. He then caught both of them and held them high over his head. They were actually being held up off the ground. Adam noticed that this man could also hover in the air. He seemed to hold them there quite effortlessly. He looked at one agent and his eyes turned red and red energy beams burst out of them and into the VIPER agents' weapon melting it instantly. Then he started to spin in place again as he had before. Adam knew what the result was going to be and ran from his protective spot out into the open. He yelled to the man to stop. The man stopped spinning and simply threw both agents into the trees. He then settled back to the ground. Adam spent the next four hours talking to this man who he found out had a name that closely pronounced as T'chuin. He was able to speak English but it kept coming out as a bad dialect. It was similar to the old Japanese grade B movie dialect. This alone kept Adam amused most of the time. Tchuin explained that he comes from a star system that orbits a blue star. His planet consisted of higher temperatures than Earth. The average temperature on the planet was 125 degrees. This planet was much denser than Earth, and orbited farther away from its sun than Earth did. All of these factors led to his people over the thousands of years of their existence to being able to draw energy directly from their sun. They had found that this allowed them to perform feats of superhuman activities. They had a strong sense of religion. They believed that a great god had given birth to their race and once every year every K'lad would gather on their planet and spend a day in silence in reverence to this god. They had called this day, the Day of Birth. Except for that day, they were among the stars and the races that they encountered there. His people, known as the K'Lad, were respected among the star faring races. Long ago they had developed and became a renowned source of decency. They had taken to teaching and developing other races in the universe. This ability to draw energy from a sun enhanced them to the point of what humans would call Super Human. They spent decades in space teaching and helping where they could. Of all the known races they had encountered, they had found only one race of beings that didnt want their help and in fact were jealous of their abilities. This race, the N'Gothy, were warriorlike and were hated in the universe. A Great War was started among these two races by the N'Gothy. They felt that the K'Lad were a threat to their existence. They went out and tried to slaughter the K'lad. This war lasted several centuries. The N'Gothy had found the K'lad were vulnerable to a specific wavelength of energy. This wavelength, was not absorbed by the K'lad. In fact, it would help to drain off their own energy. The specific wavelength produced in the red spectrum would have just that effect. The K'lad had found that a red sun would also begin to drain their energy from them. It produced vast amounts of this energy waveform. The K'lad and N'Gothy fought terribly for years. The N'Gothy had developed a bomb based on this knowledge that they were sure would destroy every K'lad on their planet. To insure that this would work. The N'Gothy tried to lace the bomb with a devastating virus that consumes molecules. They had completed one device and were transporting to the staging area awaiting the second device. During the construction of the second device, the K'lad attacked the complex and sacrificed themselves to destroy the bomb. They believed that only one had been constructed and saw this as a worthwhile sacrifice. The bomb exploded and the virus that it contained spread through the N'Gothy homeworld killing every living thing and destroying everything else. Upon hearing news of this, the remaining ten N'Gothy aboard the staging area set out for the homeworld of the K'lad. There, they launched that first device and it too destroyed K'lad as the other bomb had destroyed N'Gothy. Only two K'lad were not there as they could not make it back to celebrate the great Day of Birth. The remaining two K'lad, which T'chuin was one of them, and his daughter T'chara was the other. They spent the next ten years hunting down and destroying all but two N'Gothy. It was above Earth that T'chuin had encountered the latest N'Gothy. They had a long drawn out struggle past our Moon when the N'Gothy had struck their critical blow which crippled his ship. He had barely been able to destroy the N'Gothy ship and then guide his ship down to Earth. He was old, and now his powers were beginning to wain because of his advanced age. He explained that long ago, when his daughter and he first went out to hunt down the remaining N'Gothy that they had nearly killed his daughter. They had managed to inflict her with a remaining molecule of that virus. It was only that T'chuin was there that he was able to save her. He imparted within her, 90 percent of his own life force. This fact alone helped his daughter to live as it was this massive energy that destroyed the molecule. They had then found a cure, but it was too late to save his people. Each molecule had a specific limit to what it could consume. He had managed to give it too much to survive. Unfortunately, it left him with only 10 percent of his own life force. After that, he and his daughter had separated so that they could track down the last of the N'Gothy. When the battle broke out past the Moon, he had sent a message to her, but didnt know when or if she would reach it. She too, might have been ambushed as he was.

He explained that his ship was too badly damaged to travel again. That he himself now lacked the power to travel among the stars without it. He was to spend the last of his days here now. Awaiting only the arrival of his daughter. It was the entrance of the VIPER agent that caused him to come into the open. This agent had shot and destroyed his communications system when he came into his ship. So, he took and removed the agent from his ship by force. He may be old, but was still more than a match for men armed with simple energy weapons.

When he sent the signal to his daughter, he knew that he might not make it to see her again. He also knew that there were still two N'Gothy alive out there somewhere and at least one of them was close to Earth. Without his ship, he was no match for them. When he crashed, he sent a probe out to find someone on this planet to help him. Someone that he could trust and that was compatible for his needs. That probe had found Adam Michaels and drawn him there. This was the light that Adam had noticed, and the urge he had felt to come. He explained that he wanted to impart some of his life force into Adam so that he could transcend human limitations and begin to become K'lad like himself. He wanted Adam for his lack of fear and his willingness to help people. He now needed help to correct the great crime that had been done by the N'Gothy. Adam explained that while the offer was wonderful, he didnt know if he could accept hunting and killing someone. He did however agree that if he could bring them to justice, then he would accept this. T'chuin did agree to that, he also told him that he must learn how to use this energy while it grew inside him. That once this was done, he would forever more be more than human and his new powers would continue to grow. Adam accepted this and T'chuin imparted in him some of his own life force.

Adam and T'chuin then picked up the VIPER agents and Adam brought them to the local jail. He then helped T'chuin hide his ship in the mountains because he knew that VIPER would come looking for it and them. Then he brought T'chuin to New York City to live with him while he waits for his daughter to come. T'chuin is also teaching his student how to use his powers. This teaching includes many hours of actual combat. T'chuin may be old and weak by his people's standards, but by human standards his is a force to be reckoned with still. He feels that Adam will best learn by combat as he will need that to survive against the N'Gothy. He can still punch his way through a tank or burn a hole through solid titanium. He uses his remaining abilities to train his young pupil as he taught his daughter. During the early part of his new 'career', a young new hero calling himself Spectrum, came to him and asked him to help form a new hero team in Chicago. Guardian as he is calling himself in his heroic identity had planned on asking for membership in American Justice, the New York super team. However, the idea of forming a new team in Chicago greatly appealed to him. He agreed and after several painful discussions with his teacher, they moved to Chicago. Adam Michaels now works for the Chicago Tribune as one of their investigative reporters. He along with Spectrum and Kahn helped to form the Chicago based Crusaders.

Guardian has the ability to move at superspeed and has enormous strength. He absorbs his energy from the sun and now his body can store vast amounts of that energy. He uses this to fly, utilize a touch only Telekinesis field, operate in space, project energy from his eyes, punch at superspeed for various effects, and is very resistant to injury. Guardian also can see through virtually any substance, and can see for great distances along with being able to hear transmissions of radio, microwave or televisions. T'chuin still continues to train him in the use of his powers and as new powers develop he will learn from him about those too. To date, T'chara has not contacted her father nor Adam. Guardian is one of three founding members of the Crusaders and continues to use his powers to watch for the N'Gothy and to fight against crime.