REAL NAME: Brian Griffith
AGE: 60

BACKGROUND: Brian Griffith was born in a middle class home in Plymouth, UK.  His agile imagination, coupled with a talent for fixing things, led him to a career as an engineer at an early age.  Things seemed pretty cut and dry.  Only there was one slight complication.

Brian was a mutant.

Being a mutant was not illegal, it was not even a stigma.  And since his mutation did not make him look any different from anyone else Brian could have gone his entire life ignoring it.  But then there was another slight complication.

Brian had a sense of responsibility.

He had felt early on in his life that his powers set himself above normal people.  Not as a tyrant, but as a protector from those with abilities like his that would use them to harm others.  This sense of responsibility grew stronger as he grew older, until finally one night he resolved to act upon it.

His career as The Cavalier began modestly enough.  He used his engineering skills to design a portable scanner to monitor police frequencies, then when something happened the authorities could not handle he would act.  At first the police were skeptical; they had been fooled by criminals posing as heroes in the past, and there were those who were mere glory hounds seeking the adulation of the press.  But Brian quickly impressed them with his selfless heroism and the fact that he never stayed for interviews and refused to have his picture taken or to give interviews.  His modest manner and sense of patriotism quickly earned him both approval and affection from everyone who came to know him.

Also during this time Brian had formed a partnership with friends he had known at college.  They had developed an engineering company, quickly developing patents and securing government rights to investigate and exploit the Styf technology.  Brian began field testing the equipment developed in the lab, making him an even more effective hero.

Over the years The Cavalier became one of the United Kingdom's-then one of the world's-most respected and well-loved heroes.  But even heroes begin to grow old.  When Brian's wife died he decided to retire and spend more time with his daughter and focus more on his business and to contribute to society in other ways.  But the life of a hero is like a drug; it is very difficult to quit.  Brian found himself becoming The Cavalier time and again for "emergencies".  He had been lucky, until July of '97 when The Unicorn and a host of Lionheart's enemies attempted to destroy London.  The Cavalier suited up one last time, and it cost him his right leg and two fingers.

Enough was enough.

Brian at last hung up his costume for good.  His days of being a hero were over.

Or were they?

PERSONALITY: Brian is what many heroes aspire to become; noble, selfless, kind, and passionate about doing what is right.  But such sentiments do not lend well towards a sense of self-preservation; Brian should have died a hundred times over, and it was only the loss of a limb and the maiming of a hand that caused him to finally realize why there are few old heroes.  Still, it is difficult for old heroes to remain retired and all it would take is one more crisis to get him involved in "the game" once again...

POWERS: Brian has two powers.  The first is his ability to fly at high sub sonic speeds.  His body is adapted to this; his eyes, throat and skin are able to handle the stress of high velocity winds, low pressure and both frigid temperatures from high altitude and from the heat of friction.  His lungs are able to take in and process oxygen much more efficiently than a normal human's, allowing him to breath at altitudes that would kill most people.

Brian's other power is the ability to create force fields.  With these fields he can protect herself with a sheath around his body, or use them to protect a much wider area (his largest force field covered 10,000 square feet).  But the larger the force field the less effective it becomes.  He has developed a series of tricks with the fields.  He can carry several tons, or use them as grappling hands or as battering rams.  The strength of the force fields drop with the amount of area they have to cover.  At the widest stretch they are able to stop high calibre bullets.  Covering his body they can stop more but they do not stop intertia; if he were hit with an artillery shell, for example, The Cavalier would suffer from the concussive knockback and could easily be stunned.  For this reason he relies as much on mobility as he does his field.  Also, the more he uses the field in offense the weaker his defensive field becomes.

Brian is still an excellent aerialist and in his prime he had become a very effective hand-to-hand combatant, picking up techniques from a variety of experts over the years.

Brian is a brilliant and innovative engineer.

APPEARANCE: Brian looks good for his fifty seven years, appearing at least a decade younger than he truly is.  His noble features are creased with lines of tension but he smiles easily enough.  He wears his salt and pepper hair short and sports a well trimmed goatee.  Due to the loss of his right leg Brian walks with a limp as he has never grown used to his artificial replacement.  He also wears a prosthetic glove on his right hand.

EQUIPMENT: The list of The Cavalier's equipment is far to vast to mention here.

CAVALIER'S HOME: Brian lives in a two floored art deco home that was designed by his wife and constructed some thirty years ago.  Here is a link.