Powersurrge (Server: Protector)
Real Name: Jason Fontaine
Other Aliases: Pulsator
Identity: Secret; known to certain officals of the Canadian government and the former United Nations "Project: Protectors"
Occupation: Currently serving 5 year probation as an agent of Department H; formerly field commander of the Protectors
Legal Status: Citizen of Canada with a criminal record
Place of Birth: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Known Relatives: none
Base of Operations: (current) Departmeny H HQ in Ottawa, Ontario; (former) Alpha Base One off the coast of Athens, Greece, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
Group Affiliation: (current) Department H, (former) the Protectors, X-Men
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #171
Height: 6'
Weight: 175 lbs.
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
History:
Little is known about the mutant that would come to be known as Powersurge prior to the manifestation of his powers. Jason Fontaine is known to have been born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and, as far as can be told, he was your average Canadian teenager, noteworthy and distinguishable from his peers only in his religious interest in the heroes and deities of his NW European heritage.
The activation of his latent mutant powers came at the late age of 18, when returning home from a friend's late one night, he was jumped by a trio of thugs. As he attempted to defend himself, his stress level rose ever higher, and soon enough energy began to whisp and leak out of his body, until he was enveloped by a pulsating aura of it. The thugs fled at the sight, but the energy field continued to pulsate about Jason's body, growing more and more intense and smothering, before at last it erupted in one violent and far reaching explosion. When Jason regained his senses, he saw the surrounding park and a number of nearby office and residential buildings had been absolutely devasted, and scores of people undoubtedly killed. His parents amongst them.
Horrified at what he had done, Jason fled Winnipeg, seeking to put as much distance as he could between him and human life. He eventually came to rest in the Canadian northlands, where he was approached by Wolverine and offered both asylum and the oppurtunity to learn how to control his powers at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Upstate N.Y. After teaming up with the X-Man to fight off a sneak attack launched by Department H's Epsilon Troopers, Jason accepted the offer and accompanied Wolverine to the States.
After but a short time at the X-Mansion Jason proved himself to be an exceptional student, with strong mental discipline, a strong heroic ethic, and very strong leadership skills. Some even fancied him "another Cyclops". However, unlike Cyclops, Jason learned to control his powers with astounding speed and aptitude. Thus, it was not long before he was given his graduating costume and dubbed "Pulsator".
However, in spite of his quick rise to glory, Jason's stint as an X-Man did not last long. His only significant field mission with them took place when an interdimensional traveller calling himself Drathlor the Travelmaster hurled them into the Sentinel dominated future ... threatening to "align" this "time zone" with their own "time zone" if they failed to find a way back within a week. During the course of this mission, the X-Men contacted a mutant underground, led an ill-fated rebellion, and penetrated an installation rumoured to hold an experimental timetravel device. Reaching this device, they returned to their own time, where Drathlor forced them into battle by threatening to align the "time-zones" anyway. After a majour rumble however, Drathlor submitted and agreed to honour the terms of his game.
During the course of this mission, Jason and Rogue, whose relationship had always been something of a love-hate deal, ie. fear of hrting others with their powers, came to learn that their altnerate-future selves had not only married, but had also had a child; suggesting the possibility that they were able to touch each other without ill effects. Nevertheless, while an new level of intimacy began to evovle between them, their deeply ingrained fear of hurting others with their powers served as a great strain on both sides.
Thus, when mysteriously approached by an American representative of the United Nations soon after their return, and offered a place on a new superhero team called the Protectors, Jason was driven to accept.
The United Nations Project: Protectors was originally devised in order to ease super-powered responses to international threats and in answer to a growing awareness amongst certain segments of Earth's governments of the existence of extraterrestials.
Based on a small island off the coast of Athens, Greece, dubbed Alpha Base One, the Protectors were serviced by a staff of top-notch nutritionists, physical trainers, combat specialists, psychologists and various technical support staff. Perhaps the greatest feature of the AB1 however, was it's super-computer, Byte, which had a highly advanced form of Artifical Intelligence capable of incredible powers of deductive reasoing and logic, and patched into the memory banks of participant multi-national states from across the globe (to various degrees).
After a time of set-up, preparation and intensive study and training of the superhumans involved, the Protectors were offically unveiled to the world, with Pulsator renamend "Powersurge" and presented as the teams field commander. He was joined by the beautiful Russian light manipulator called Starlight, a surly German with absolutely massive energy absorption powers named Energon, a stunning British telepath named Psiona, a hotheaded Scotman capable of generating forcefields and kinetic bolts named Force, a technological genius and practioner of bushido named Examiner, and a Swede that claimed to be the kinsman, and in every way the equal of Thor who called himself Thak of Asgard.
As the leader of the Protectors, Powersurge fought such well known threats as the Kree and Ronan the Accuser, Terrax the Tamer and Dr. Doom, Gladiator and the Imperial Guard, the Super-Skrull, Galactus(!!!), such less known threats (ie. homebrew) as the Shadowlord, Dominion and the Geoforce, and Drathlor, and on the odd occassion even such hero-groups as the Avengers, the West Coast Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Alpha Flight.
Their battle with the Kree and Ronan revolved around a plot by the Supreme Intelligence to reignite the gene-pool of the Kree by using the genetic material of Earth's greatest heroes. This brought the enw team into direct conflict with a variety of Earth's hero teams, but thanks to various telepaths involved, the Protectors were ultimately able to free their peers and send both Ronan and the Kree packing.
Their battle with Galactus began when a starving Galactus again threatened to consume Earth; building his world-devouring machinery on Mount Olympus. Much of their success in this battle was based on Psiona's ability to link all minds to the Examiner, who could thus easily share his knowledge of Galactus' weak spots with the rest of his teammates. The finishing blow however was landed when all energy manipulators pumped everything they had into Energon, who redirected it all into Galactus' face.
However, the Examiner quickly noted an entropic field expanding from Galactus and gaining in intensity in direct correlation to the cosmic entity's dwindling life. Thus, using certain ideas picked up from an analysis of Galactus' "world devouring machinery", the Examiner headed the construction of a device that was able to syphon off the energies contained in both Powersurge and a fully charged Energon and then convert them into a form that restored Galactus to a relative state of health.
With power enough to find an alternative planet to feed his hunger, Galactus thence chose to uphold his oath and leave the Earth in peace.
As with a similar scenario that played itself out with the Fantastic Four, this invited a dire response from the Shi'ar Empire, who sent not only Gladiator, but also a number of members of the Imperial Guard to Earth in order to bring the Protectors to account for saving Galactus' life.
While ultimately successful in driving off the Shi'ar force, it was during this battle that Powersurge suffered a massive heart attack, when he fired off a focused "pulse-blast" at Gladiator in order to aid in his defeat without risking the lives of his teammates of damaging the surrounding city.
In the Shadowlord arc, the Protectors were sent in to the investigate a massive dome of darkness that had engulfed Moscow and which was slowly growing. All troops sent in to investigate had failed to return or report back.
After fighting their way past numerous "shadow demons", the Protectors at last confronted by a being calling itself the Shadowlord. He boasted that he was unleashing the stuff of the Darkforce Dimension into our world in hopes of transforming it to his liking and taking it for himself. In the end, the battle came down to Starlight and the Shadowlord, and it was she who sacrificed her life to hurl the Shadowlord back into his own dimension and bansih the stuff of his "shadow realm".
While other missions would follow, and rosters change, this mission was particualrly hard on Powersurge due to the romance that had begun to grow between him and Starlight.
Unfortunately, conflict with such participant nations as the USA and Russia, not to mention Canada-- which suspected that Powersurge was the same superbeing responsible for the "Winnipeg Incident" -- along with other completely unintelligable political nonsense ultimately led to the collapse of the program and the disbandment of the team.
As Rogue and the X-Men had since been reported dead in an incident that occurred in Dallas, Texas, Powersurge returned home to his native Canada after the dissolution of the Protectors, where he currently lives under a professionally crafted assumed identity.
Following the dissolution of the highly succussful Project: Protectors, Powersurge fell into a mild depression and returned to Winnipeg to work as an armoured car security guard under the name Thomas Hayes.
It eventually came to pass however that an Epsilon Shuttle crashlanded just outside of the city, and Powersurge could not help but investigate (c.UXM #263, AF #94). However, no sooner had he changed and arrived at the site of the wreckage, when he was confronted by the synthetic superbeing, Thunder, who claimed to be working for Department H and demanded that Powersurge surrender himself for questioning. This quickly resulted in a skirmish between the two heroes that ended when Powersurged slagged the engine of an approaching Epsilon Shuttle and escaped as Thunder went to it's rescue.
Early the next evening, the armoured car Powersurge was piloting in his civilian identity was attacked by a trio of superpowered thugs calling themselves the Powermongers. The surprise encounter left both Powersurge and his fellow guard unconscious, but when the former X-Man at last regained consciousness he heard a pitched battle being fought in the derelict section of downtown Winnipeg.
Once again unable to resist the urge to help, Powersurge activated his energy sheathe, burning off his clothes in the process, and then made for the site of the battle. There he found Thunder locked in combat with the Powermongers, and quickly came to the synthoid's assistance.
However, with two of the three Powermongers down and another Epsilon Shuttle approaching Powersurge made a hasty exit. When Thunder began to pursue, Powersurge began to race south for the Canada/US border, until at last giving in to Thunder's amplified pleas to stop and talk.
This talk was quite brief and filled with uncertainty on behalf of the synthoid, and much disdain on behalf of Powersurge. Thus, it was not long before another battle between the two erupt, with Thunder coming in close and attempting to sucker punch the renegade mutant. As a veteran of many battles, Powersurge anticipated this attack, and it was not long before the muchly weakened Thunder was knocked out. With that Powersurge abandoned his Thomas Hayes identity, and fled for Toronto and a back-up identity.
He would soon resurface when Toronto fell under attack by an alien threat known as the Consortium (c.AF #100); joining Alpha Flight, the Avengers, and Thunder in the city's defense. While some of the Alphans and Avengers were ill-at-ease with Powersurge's prescence, these feelings were eased by Captain America -- who formed a mutual respect with Powersurge while the mutant still led the Protectors. So, left in charge of the ground force meant ot fight back the tide of Consortium troops as Cap and his groups sought to strike at the heart of the Mother Ship, Powersurge proceeded to put on a clinic on platenrary defense.
When all was said and done, Powersurge and Captain America stepped aside for a private discussion in which Cap mourned Powersurge's abscence from the superhero community, and encouraged him to have faith in the system/s and the people they had both risked their lives to uphold and defend, and turn himself in to the Canadian authorites. He added that the circumstances of the Winnipeg Incident would not be overlooked anymore than Powersurge's track record as leader of the Protectors, and even if all of Wolverine's thoughts and fears of Department H came true, that powerful people would be tracking the matter.
Thus, with Cap's assurance, Powersurge turned himself into Alpha Flight and thence was handed over to the Canadian authorities.
After being turned over to the Canadian authorities, Powersurge spent a brief period in a detention cell in Department H's main HQ in Ottawa, as he awaited his trial.
This trial was attended by such noteables as Dr. Moira MacTaggert, as well as a number of UN officials connected to the old Protectors project, including two of Powersurge's former teammates, the Japanese Examiner and the Scottish Battlehammer. Various demonstrators outside of the courthouse ran the gamut from admirers and well-wishers to anti-mutant hate-mongerers, but the peace was nevertheless maintained.
The closed door trial was relatively brief, straight forward and matter-of-fact. In the end, Powersurge was "sentenced" to a five year term of service as a super-powered agent of Department H.
However, as Powersurge was being led out of the courthouse to an awaiting Epsilon Shuttle, a number of 10' tall robots, reminscient of Sentinels descended from the sky. Despite the best efforts of the Epsilon Guards, not to mention the attending Examiner, Battlehammer, and GenTech's newest synthoid hero, Morningstar, Powersurge was knocked unconscious and borne off.
The mutant was taken to a secret facility contained in Mount Caubvik (aka Mont d'Iberville) in the Torngat Mountains that span the border between Quebec and Labradour. There he briefly met the acquaintence of a man named Randal North, a former Lt. Colonel in the C.A.F. (Canadian Armed Forces) who lost his wife and family in the "Winnipeg Incident". North explained that it was his duty to do what the Canadian government refused to ... protect it's citizenry from rogue superpowered beings and ensure they are punished to the full extent for their crimes; without regard for the bleeding hearts, their agendas, special interests and double standards.
In fact, as North elaborated, years ago, when the government decided to scrap the Flight Program in favour of something more "obedient", his "Project: Failsafe" was one of the proposals offered up as an alternative. It lost the contract to Jeremy Clarke's Epsilon Program, and North retired soon after.
Nevertheless, North continued to pursue his "dream", and with the aid of certain "benefactors" was able to build this base ... which served as both a Sentinel production plant and as a detention facility. North went on to explain that, far from putting Powersurge to death, he would be detained and used as a power source in order to bring production to full and speed up the completion of his army of peacekeeping Sentinels.
In the end however, Powersurge was rescued thanks to the combined efforts of Morningstar, Examiner and Battlehammer, while North seemingly plummetted to his death and/or was destroyed in a subsequent explosion that blew the peak off of Mount Caubvik.
Severely weakened from this ordeal, Powersurge spent the next several weeks in Department H's medical facility. Upon regaining consciousness, he soon learned that both Rogue and the X-Men did not die in the Dallas Incident, but were indeed alive and well and currently involved in a SHIELD sanctioned mission to stop yet another of Magneto misguided plots (see X-Men #1 - 3).
As fate would have it, it was not long after his recovery that Powersurge was sent in to aid Alpha Flight in a battle being waged in downtown Toronto against a group of rogue mutants. This group of rogue mutants turned out to be none other than the X-Men. After recovering from his initial uncertainty, a reluctant Powersurge undertook his duty and half-heartedly entered the battle on the side of Alpha Flight. However, it was not long before both groups found themselves confronted by a group of fantasy superheroes drawn straight out of the comicbooks; the Justice League! As it turned out, these fantasy superheroes had been brought to life by the imagination of a young and very sick mutant, Brent Smithers. Following a titanic battle which saw AF and the X-Men standing united against the power of the JL, the young mutants power levels at last began to subside and the last of his creations, Superman, was defeated.
Prior to the return of the X-Men to the States, Powersurge and Rogue shared a moment; uninterrupted thanks to Wolverine. They discussed all that had transpired in their lives since they last saw each, their supposed "future" together and feelings for each other, and the mutual uncertainty of them getting together as a couple anytime soon. Nevertheless, they parted on good terms, wishing each other the best and leaving the metaphoric "bridge" intact and unburned.
As the X-Men left, Morningstar and Powersurge had a brief encounter in which the mutant thanked the synthoid for rescueing him from Randal North and his Project: Failsafe facility. The two clasped hands in mutual respect.
A couple of months later, Powersurge awoke one morning to find himself in a strange city... Paragon City. He does not know how he came to this alternate Earth, but he suspects that his old foe, Drathlor the Travelmaster, is again up to his old tricks.
As a citizen of Paragon City, he engages in the heroic acts that are at the core of his lifestyle even as he searches for answers to his predicament... and a way back home.
