[hider= The Spirit of St. Louis]

Name: Sonja Simpson

Codename: The Spirit of St. Louis (often abbreviated SSTL, pronounced "still")

Age: 31

Gender: Female

Place of Birth: Saint Louis, Missouri

Affiliations: Sonja is an honorary officer of both the Saint Louis City and Saint Louis County police forces, working closely with both. In addition, she enjoys a corporate sponsorship from the multi-industry conglomerate Barclay-Hoffmeyer.

Occupation: Superhero, corporate spokesperson

Appearance: Sonja is a very slender African-American woman, possessing something of a boyish figure. Her hands are especially delicate, with long, thin fingers. When "working" she tends to wear business attire- always with a good pair of sneakers, because in this line of work there's a lot of running.

Powers: Sonja is the living conduit of all the latent magical potential in the city of Saint Louis. She generally channels this magic in the way most familiar to her, stage magic, making her capable of such feats as creating fireballs in her palm, unlocking handcuffs, pulling candy from midair, or reading minds. However, given time to research and prepare, she can also channel it into other kinds of ritual magic, such as performing a rain dance. Her magical ability is dependent on the people of the city- they are making a more or less voluntary contribution to her, dependent on how much faith they have in her. More on this below.

Skills: Sonja's career as a stage magician has given her a solid grasp of the fundamentals of the art. She specializes in sleight of hand and escapology. The related skills of public speaking, misdirection, and social engineering also come into play- knowing how to work a crowd is always helpful. In addition, she has some limited training in hand-to-hand combat.

Equipment: As a primary weapon, Sonja carries the autographed baseball bat of legendary Cardinal Stan Musial. The bat is, like her, imbued with the admiration and faith of the good people of St Louis. In her hands, this simple Louisville Slugger is nigh unbreakable and hits many times above its weight. Aside from the bat, Sonja carries a deck of cards and some simple police gear- a walkie-talkie, handcuffs, a pen and notebook, a police-issue bulletproof vest, and a can of Mace.

Weaknesses: As noted above, Sonja's magical ability stems from her mystical link to her hometown. As such, the faith and confidence of St. Louisans greatly influences her power. When she enjoys high popularity, her abilities are at a peak. When St. Louisans lose faith in her, for instance due to a scandal or successful mudslinging, her power level plummets. She employs several PR consultants to keep her popular and visible, but of course there is only so much they can do with the hearts and minds of the fickle public. If Saint Louis were to be destroyed, her magical power would be permanently gone. In addition, her power is active, not passive- for instance, she would need to be aware of someone shooting at her before she could catch or deflect the bullet.

Psychological Profile: Sonja is an entertainer at heart, and is a bit of a showoff. She will forgo a simple solution in favor of a flashier one, and "giving the people their money's worth" is often a higher consideration than her safety or everyone's general welfare. Sonja is also concerned with her own financial success and is often looking for money-making opportunities. That's not to say she doesn't take her job seriously- she will gladly give up her time to help others and makes frequent donations to charity. In sum, she genuinely means well, but wants everyone to know it.

Biography: Born to two brewery workers and raised in the Tower Grove neighborhood of St. Louis, Sonja was very much a citizen of St. Louis. Square-cut pizza, the Cardinals, horrific mispronunciations of French and German words - she was a vocal proponent of all of these things. After her father took her to a Penn and Teller show at the age of eight, Sonja also became fascinated in stage magic. She immediately began to teach herself simple illusions, gradually moving on to more complex tricks and amassing a library of how-to books. She was a natural, her thin fingers and natural dexterity aiding her in picking locks, marking cards, and the like. She would often impress friends and was frequently invited to high school parties for the purpose of showing off her act. Upon graduation from Roosevelt High School, she was able to find a few bookings in local clubs, bars, and parties, initially under the name "Sonja the Stupendous" and later just "Sonja".

On the day of the Awakening, when her magic powers first manifested, Sonja was different in that she somehow knew, deep in her spinal cord, just how it worked. Saint Louis has always been a city on the edges of reality- Native Americans living in Cahokia built gigantic mounds to honor the occult significance of the place, ghosts and demons are often reported there. Sonja knew without knowing that everything that was just off about the place was being funneled into her. And suddenly her illusions were not illusions, but fact and reality.

Call it civic responsibility, call it Christian guilt, call it whatever you like, but Sonja knew that she represented the city, and drew strength from it. It stood to reason she should defend it. Her first major piece of public exposure came when she exposed systematic abuse in an Oakville nursing home, winning her a great deal of sympathetic press (and a significant power boost as a result). She began to tackle more serious crimes, such as racketeering, police corruption, and even armed robbery. As her fame grew within Saint Louis, she found her powers growing, as well as her ego. The governments of both the city and the outlying areas recognized that she was there to help, naming her an honorary police officer. The publicity greatly increased her demand as a magician, she used the proceeds to buy an autographed Stan Musial bat, reasoning (correctly) that owning a relic from one of the town's great heroes would concentrate her power further.

However, problems came when gunmen attacked a public performance at a local casino. While the attack was foiled with minimal injuries, it raised questions about her ability to protect the general public, giving her power something of a hit and her bank account a larger one.

Enter Barclay-Hoffmeyer.

The international company, with fingers in many pies, was looking for one of the new metahumans as a spokesperson for their products, as well as an ad hoc private contractor for thorny problems facing the company. While the more cynical said she had sold out, BH's expert team of publicists have managed to rebuild and cultivate her image, and Sonja was once more a darling of the local media. The formation of the League was viewed with great interest in particular, and Sonja feels they've helped to do a lot of good.

However, lately her powers have been slipping as she spends more time working with the League and less time protecting her hometown. Time spent fighting gangs in Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Detroit has led some to question which city holds her loyalty. [/hider]

[hider= Sixgun]

Name: Benjamin Brady/ Black

Codename: Sixgun

Age: 34, or maybe 158, depending on how you keep track

Gender: Male

Place of Birth: Chino Valley, Arizona

Affiliations: Sixgun is mostly an independent operator, though he does have sympathetic contacts in the Phoenix PD and is cut some berth. His main partner/ confidant/ adviser is a Phoenix-area Catholic priest, Father Julio Ochoa

Occupation: Barback, part-time vigilante

Appearance: Ben Brady is a tall and rawboned white man, dried up and constantly looking sunburned. In his Sixgun persona, he wears a modernized version of the classic cowboy ensemble: brown leather cowboy boots, blue jeans, a pistol belt, work shirt, brown motorcycle jacket, and white Stetson. He protects his identity through the simple expedient of a bandanna tied around the lower half of his face and secured with spirit gum.

Powers: Sixgun is pretty sure he has no powers, though he is unsure of what might happen if he's killed a second time. He's in no hurry to find out.

Skills: Sixgun's main skill lies in his extraordinary skill with firearms, particularly single-action revolvers. Having honed an innate talent with countless hours of practice, he is able to draw and let off aimed shots in a very small amount of time, less than a second on a good day. In addition, he is also skilled with a lariat and a Bowie knife, though not nearly to the same degree. He is also a competent (though untrained) hand-to-hand combatant, depending on a rough and ready combination of boxing and wrestling fundamentals. Sixgun also has some proficiency in riding and tracking, though these skills have gotten rusty with disuse.

Equipment/Resources: Sixgun carries two Ruger Blackhawk revolvers (.357 Magnum) on his pistol belt. A 10-inch Bowie knife is tucked into his right boot, and a rope lariat is ready to go at the small of his back. He also wears light body armor underneath his jacket. He has confiscated money stockpiled as well, taken from criminals and used to cover his expenses.

Weaknesses: Sixgun possesses all the frailties of a normal human being. In addition, he is still struggling to adjust to modern times- not only technology, but also changes in values, attitudes, and language.

Psychological Profile: Sixgun used to be a very greedy, bitter, and hateful man. Those inherent traits have not vanished, but he is now making a constant effort to suppress them and behave in a more ethical fashion. He feels a great deal of guilt over his previous life and wishes to make amends, "break even" as he puts it. In a crisis, he often has to stop himself from going with a first instinct in order to do something responsible instead. That said, Sixgun loves adventure and the thrill of a good fight.

Biography: Benjamin Black was born in the Arizona Territory in 1859. His mother died giving birth, leaving him with just his father Arnold, the operator of a remote trading post. The two were close, operating the business together and supplementing their income by hunting game in the high desert. Young Ben discovered a talent for shooting on these hunting excursions, and took to taking game with a revolver as a self-imposed challenge.

His peaceful life was interrupted in 1876, when a few escaped fugitives came upon the Blacks' post. Not content with ransacking the store for valuables and supplies, the leader of the band callously shot Arnold Black dead. Ben flew into a berserk rage, beginning a gunfight that killed two of the gang and sent the others in flight. Benjamin Black discovered at that moment that he had rather a taste for violence. With no further income, he abandoned the trading post and drifted into a life of crime.

Several audacious armed robberies later, Ben "the Sixgun Kid" Black was the leader of his own band of cutthroats. However, he had become cold, greedy, and crueler over time. In 1888, after killing a sheriff's deputy for no real reason except to pick a fight with the county's lawmen, Ben's gang tired of his reckless antics and put two rounds of buckshot in his back outside of Phoenix. He was carted away and given an unmarked pauper's grave in a little Catholic mission.

Fast forward to 2012 and the chaos of the Awakening.

Unnoticed amidst the darkness, panic, and lawlessness, a naked man clawed his way out of a grave in a churchyard that was now the Laveen district of metropolitan Phoenix. Confused and frightened, thinking for sure he was dead, Ben Black stumbled to the nearest building and pounded on the door, asking for help. The building happened to be the rectory for a sparsely attended, almost forgotten little Catholic church. The priest, Father Julio Ochoa, took him in, assuming him to be yet another victim of the disaster. As news of the Awakening came out and Ben discovered to his horror it was now more than a hundred years after his death, Ochoa realized that this man had been brought back to life after certain death, restored to the body of a 29-year-old man. The priest listened sympathetically as Ben haltingly recounted his past life, all of his misdeeds and cruelties. Looking back on his life, Ben realized it had been a waste. Why, he wondered, would such an evil man be brought back to life?

Father Ochoa contemplated this, and then made the simple suggestion that this was his opportunity to correct his mistakes, to lead a good and worthy life.

Ben embraced the idea wholeheartedly, particularly once the news of costumed crimefighters came out. Working with the priest, he was able to use the parish records of a Benjamin Brady who died as an infant in 1982. Overworked civil servants assumed he was one of the thousands who lost paperwork in the Awakening and issued him everything he needed to start anew. Though the transition to modern times was a bit rocky, Ben was still able to get a job as a barback at a popular Phoenix cop bar. Eavesdropping on officers discussing casework, he used his combat skills and knowledge of criminal minds (unchanged after all these years) to help apprehend drug dealers, gangsters, and other criminals. Gaining confidence and understanding of the new world of Phoenix, Ben has been slowly but steadily moving up the ladder of crime, gearing up to take on the Cartel presence in Phoenix. He has gained contacts and informants on both sides of the law. As far as anyone knows, he's a modern man who assumed a cowboy theme, only Ochoa knows of his resurrection.

Having offered his services to the League, Sixgun now works as a street-level point man, gathering information and intelligence on gangs that can be used to build a plan of attack. [/hider]