Signal

__FORCETOC__
== Appearance ==
Mel is tall and gangly. He's pale from a childhood spent primarily as an indoor kid, but freckly. He has brown eyes and dark curly hair. It was originally cut very close on one side and long on the other, with the ends dyed red. It's now a much shorter, shaggy mop, but still has a patch dyed red. He dresses very comfortably and casually in civilian wear, lots of soft t-shirts, flannels, and sweatshirts.
Mel's original, homemade costume was all black clothing, a toolbelt, and a purple ninja turtles-style mask. As Bolt, and with access to the costume machine, he adopted a black and purple bodysuit with an emblem of a black octagon inside a purple disc. He also designed a purple visor that extends from a single earpiece that he used to communicate with Wingnut at a distance.
After partnering with Smoke as Signal, he started wearing a suit designed by Smoke to boost his powers. It largely mirrors his mentors armored suit, but features a design of branching purple lines from his hands up to his elbows, that glow when he uses his powers. He also has a new emblem: a stylized S with similar branching. He now has a helmet with a purple faceplate that functions similarly to his visor - though he still has the visor for when he doesn't want to wear the helmet. He still has a toolbelt, just in case.
== Powers ==
Mel is a technopath. Through physical contact with a piece of technology, he can interface and exchange information, and make requests. Unfortunately for him, just because he can talk to a machine doesn't mean it will listen to him. Thanks to a suit made for him by Smoke, Mel can use his technopathy at range while wearing it. 
He got his technopathy from an accident while transferring his then soon-to-be companion Wingnut's AI from the computer she was housed in to her robotic body. 
Mel is stealthy from years and years of practice. He originally started as a game of pretending to be a ninja and sneaking up on people, but took the game increasingly seriously over the years until it developed into a real skill. 
His best friend and companion is Wingnut, a robotic raven with an AI he rescued/stole from a wannabe-supervillain. 
He has a robotic dinosaur named Lugnut that he built with Epoch. Lugnut is designed for running and jumping and Mel uses him as his default method of transportation. While interfacing with Lugnut, Mel can also use his powers at range. In the season four finale, Lugnut was sent away somewhere into the future by Tempus Fugit. 
After inadvertently discovering that he was a robot and activating something inside him, Mel has started developing new and strange powers that he struggles to use and control. Most notable are a pair of large bladed wings, very similar to those he has in the Dataverse. While most of the time he can only manage to sprout his wings at will, under duress he has manifested more varied and useful abilities. 
== Background ==
=== Pre-Big Team ===
Mel is the result of a project to create a robot that functions and grows like a human being. Aside from his parents, Smokescreen and Prometheus both worked on the project. Allegedly, the purpose of the project was to develop a way to save Dan Mercury's life from his mysterious (and likely supernatural) illness - but Mel has his doubts.
He has lived in Halcyon his entire life with his parents Dan and Amy and his older sister Cassiopeia, entirely unaware of his origins.
He initially used his technopathy primarily to keep the wannabe-supervillain Gearhead in check; after stealing/rescuing Wingnut, he semi-regularly would dress in all black, put on a purple ninja turtles-style mask, break into Gearhead's house and delete or corrupt the files for his various plans and blueprints.
=== Post-Big Team ===
Mel was invited to join Big Team by The Weatherman after they, Whisper, and Taxon faced down Gearhead in a warehouse near the docks and liberated Metatron, a giant version of Wingnut.
Mel clashed several times with AEGIS, Bishop, and Mirror over the course of season four. He quickly earned a reputation for breaking and entering after developing a habit of using less-than-legal means to get into places he wasn't wanted in the name of hero work. This came to a head when he talked Cypher, Epoch, and Shade into helping him break Smoke out of AEGIS prison, which went disastrously.
In the season four finale, he helped Rewind, Phoenix, and Taxon defend an AEGIS base from Zodiac sap-fueled monsters. Afterwards, they talked Director Hussain into allowing Smoke to become AEGIS liaison to Big Team, and Mel swore to turn over a new leaf and stop committing crimes.
While investigating his parents' history with Box and Shade, Mel learned about the project that his parents worked on with Smokescreen - the project that resulted in his creation. He only inadvertently discovered that he himself was the result when he tried to use his powers on himself to prove exactly the opposite. He resolved to learn more about the purpose of the project, and in the meantime he moved in to the Ostenberg-Welles house to avoid his parents.
After confronting Prometheus and the FutureSite+ with Shade and Epoch, Mel confessed to Smoke his doubts about his own mistakes and desire to start over, as well as the admiration he had for Smoke even as a vigilante. The two agreed to work together and make each other better, and Mel adopted the new hero name Signal to match his new mentor.
Mel spent much of season five struggling to deal with his family - his new distance from Cassiopeia, his parents' demands on him, his newly discovered evil dads, navigating his new mentor relationship with Smoke, and trying to find his place in the Ostenberg-Welles house when what was supposed to be a temporary refuge turned into a months-long stay. He also spent a good while persecuting old grudges - in particular, everyone associated with the Black Magic Club due to their role in the disastrous prison break and especially Mirror's escape.
In the season five finale, he teamed up once again with Kairos, as well as Star Shine and A-Vis, to stop Ragnarok - and also clashed once again with Director Hussain over AEGIS's continued surveillance of Big Team.
== Relationships ==
=== Family ===
Dan and Amy Mercury
Mel's parents are both engineers. They're distant from their children, both working long hours and spending minimal time with them. With his sister's help, Mel hid his heroic identity from them until they eventually revealed that they knew the truth. After discovering his parents were friends with a number of people in college who went on to become superheroes or supervillains (including Cyclone, Ellen Drummond, Sledge, and The Valkyrie), Mel became paranoid that they might secretly be supervillains.
While his initial investigation turned up very little information on their present day activities, Mel learned several things about his parents' past. He learned that his father had his vitality drained on a trip to the Amazon in college and didn't seem to recover. He learned that afterwards, both his parents worked on a project with Smokescreen creating artificial life, supposedly to combat something. After being kidnapped and forced to talk to his parents, he was told that the project that created him was in fact designed as a stepping stone towards a machine to turn his father into an android to save his life. A conversation with Smokescreen seemed to confirm this.
He also learned that his mother was not only childhood friends with Cyclone and Valkyrie, but she's actually Valkyrie's cousin - making him and Boon second cousins.
Cassiopeia Mercury
Cassi is Mel's older sister. She knows about his superheroics, but thinks they're too dangerous for him. He often regales her with the stories of his adventures which she finds very stressful. Even though she disapproves of him being a superhero, she helps cover for him with their parents. She tries to hold Mel to a higher standard of heroing.
Cassi studies medicine at a university in Halcyon City.
=== Friends ===
=== On the team ===
Together, Signal, Aeon, and Shade make up 'the Tech Gremlins,' an unstoppable force of chaos and surprisingly effective team - as long as they can stay focused on their goal.
Aeon
Tiago is Mel's best friend and boyfriend. They met when they were both investigating the treequakes in Zodiac City. The two hit it off immediately and made plans to build a mech together, which eventually became Mel's beloved Lugnut. Tiago became one of Mel's favorite people the instant he agreed to turn a stealth mission into a smash 'n' grab on the fly while investigating one of Bishop's secret basement labs together. Their relationship hit a hurdle when Tiago spent a few years (from his perspective) merged with time and came back very different (and less interested in friendship) as Epoch. When his save state project kicked in and replaced Epoch with the much friendlier Aeon, the two quickly picked back up where they left off. Rekindling their friendship with a new level of emotional honesty led to both of them realizing they had feelings for each other, and they started dating. Possibly before realizing they were doing it. They were pretty dumb about it.
Shade
Hana is Mel's other best friend. She's fun, she's up for anything, and they share the same lack of a brain cell. He has utmost faith in her, and would do just about anything as long as Shade was the one leading the charge. They are usually on the same wavelength, and it's usually bad news for everyone else around them.
Kairos
Ryan and Mel were thrown together when Lugnut was kidnapped by Tempus Fugit, Ryan's evil alternate universe older sister, in order to send Ryan a message. They worked together to make a plan and ultimately rescued both Lugnut and Ryan's mom from a post-apocalyptic future Halcyon. Mel likes Ryan and respects their steadfast responsibility, even if he thinks they can be kind of a stick in the mud sometimes. He knows he can rely on Ryan. They're still the biggest nerd on Big Team.
Cadenza
Nat is the first person Mel invited to join Big Team, and she has been a pain in his ass ever since - especially once she stopped avoiding him. She's like the annoying little sister he never wanted. Still, it's fun to get a rise out of her, and it's hard not to admire her ability to level a building by singing along to Radio Disney.
Serendipity
Mel and Jenny have weird bio-android solidarity. He likes Jenny a lot, and tries to look out for her when he can.
Arcana
Mel held a grudge against Cambria for a long time for her ties to the Black Magic Club, and only very begrudgingly tried to get along with her for Tiago's sake. After recapturing Mirror, Mel realized the futility of his grudge and apologized to Cambria, and the two began building a real friendship.
Echo
As far as Mel is concerned, Echo is his little brother. He knows Echo looks up to him, and feels immensely responsible for being somebody worth looking up to.
=== Former Big Team members ===
Cypher
Cypher is cool, competent, and put together. Mel always feels better when she's around because he trusts her to get the team through whatever nonsense they've gotten themselves into. He has nothing but the utmost faith in her. Plus, she can and will use her magic to set his robots on fire, and that's just awesome.
Whisper
Mel and Whisper met while fighting Gearhead, and have worked together a couple times since. Mel is of the opinion she's the coolest person he's ever met, and takes every opportunity to hang out with her. They dated for a while before agreeing they were doing a bad job of it and broke up. Frankie is still one of Mel's favorite people.
Overgrowth
Mel met Overgrowth when they went to the Dataverse to rescue the League of Heroes, and have worked together several times since then. Mel loves hanging out with OG and dragging him into shenanigans that he's definitely only going along with to keep everyone from causing too much trouble. Also, Swolevergrowth and Fluttergrowth are awesome. OG was the first person on the team to become Mel's honorary older sibling, and Mel loves him a lot.
The Weatherman
Ernest invited Mel to join Big Team. Mel admires him a lot and will always be grateful to him for the invitation. He and Ernest oscillate between friendly rivalry and teaming up to make life difficult for everyone around them. They also share a love of food crimes, and co-host Chimera Cooking on Ernest's B-Tube channel. They haven't always gotten along perfectly, but Ernest is one of Mel's closest friends. Ernest leaving Big Team had a big impact on him, and left him determined to step up in a major way.
Infrared & Ultraviolet
Mel thinks Tay and Ellen are some of the coolest people, like, ever. They're somewhere between older sisters and moms to him and he loves them dearly. Also they give him space tech to play with. Ellen is one of the only people he's fine with calling him Melchior.
Verve
Wingnut has taken a particular liking to Verve, so she's automatically a-okay in Mel's book. He's pretty sure she's spicier than most people are giving her credit for, but that's another point in her favor. He likes teasing Atlanta in a very little brother-esque way, even though he's technically older than her. 
Friðr
Boon can be easily swayed into any manner of shenanigans, and they get excited at pretty much all the same stuff. An excellent partner in crime. They're also basically another older sibling, and one of the first people he goes to in a crisis. He's only gotten closer to them since discovering they're actually family.
The Jackal
Melody is a huge badass, super cool, and probably loves Wingnut more than anybody besides Mel himself, so of course he loves her. Plus they have the special Mel connection, and she took it upon herself to teach him how to defend himself. He's scared of her mentor, though.
=== Off the team ===
Mel first encountered Smoke when he and Mirror broke into AEGIS HQ while Mel was there (with Verve, the Jackal, and Phoenix) being recruited. While the encounter ended in a fight, Mel nevertheless left with the conviction that he could be trusted. Their future encounters only increased his belief that Smoke was, while occasionally misguided in his plans, a hero at heart. He identified heavily with Smoke's struggles with doing the wrong thing for the right reason, and loudly protested anyone labeling him as a villain. This came to a head when he rallied his friends to break Smoke out of prison - catalyzed by needing him to save Sam's life, but at heart because Mel believe he didn't deserve to be punished so harshly. The disastrous prison break, ironically, served as a wake-up call to his own failings as a hero. Ultimately, he approached Smoke, confessed his doubts about his heroic career, and asked for help. Smoke agreed to mentor him. While now a little more willing to admit his mentor's past mistakes instead of blindly defending his actions, Mel still has the utmost faith in him. After several months of working together, intense teasing from the rest of the team, and an excruciatingly awkward conversation, Smoke is now also his dad.
After establishing Mel as Smoke's protege, Old Jackal took issue with his (lack of) athleticism and combat prowess and, much like her younger counterpart, took it upon herself to whip him into shape. Much to Mel's chagrin. This ultimately led to her forcibly recruiting him to her community hockey team, the Coyotes, where despite all odds he discovered a love of skating. Mel has a lot of respect for Old Jackal, even beyond his rightful fear of her, and admires her as a coach and mentor. Even if she won't stop calling him Ribaldi, and now the whole hockey team does, too.
Mel met Nathan Claw while investigating his parents' nightclub for supervillain activity. The two hit it off immediately, and when Nate held no hard feelings for the building almost being destroyed in the ensuing fight, they exchanged numbers and started dating.
Mel initially held a grudge against Savior on behalf of the Endangerers, but after a brief altercation followed by a longer heart-to-heart, he got over it and now considers him a friend.
One of these days Agent Carson is gonna admit that deep down he likes Mel. Just you wait.
Mel took Hayeli's betrayal very personally at first, but after realizing she's no friend of Mirror's, the two have reconciled and made a pact to help each other hunt her down.
== Journal Entries ==
=== Wingnut's Audio Logs ===
== Additional Scenes ==
* Less of a Descent into Villainy, More of a Slip 'n' Slide: an ambiguously canon alternate universe villain origin story
* Tech Gremlin Initiation: Mel and Cypher introduce a new friend.
* Boldd Move: Mel goes on a date with Tadd.
* That's Rough, Buddy: Mel and Hana fix a robot and talk about everything that's going on in their lives.
* Days of FutureSites Past: Tiago tries to tell Mel about his Shame while they investigate some shady characters down at the docks.
* Lazers and Feelings: Mel, Tay, and Ellen talk about lazers and feelings, not in that order.
* Second Cousins, Second Guessing: Boon ambushes Mel to talk about family. And robots.
* A Robot and a Valkyrie walk into a Hospital Room...: Mel and Boon hang out with Atlanta in the hospital after she was stabbed.
* Fruit Loops and Feelings: Mel and Ernest have a late night conversation after Mel talks to his parents, and commit some emotional support food crimes.
* An Overdue Reunion: Mel finally tells his sister the truth about his origins.
* No Time Like Home: Mel, Boon, and Ernest reconvene back at the Ostenberg-Welles house and recount their various adventures through time.
* Dog Day Afternoon: Mel brings Lugnut back to his secret base to check him over after getting him back from the future.
* Hot Pockets and Feelings: Ernest tracks Mel down to his secret base where he's been hiding after the disastrous fight with Robo-Smokescreen.
* 2 Mel 2 Furious: Melody offers to teach Mel how to fight. It escalates quickly.
* 2 bros chillin in a space station five feet apart cuz theres a new emotional distance between them: While in space with Team The Best One, Mel talks to Tiago about their friendship and how things have changed since he became Epoch.
* The Gym of Theseus: Violet takes pity on a clueless Mel and teaches him how to weight lift. Bonding ensues.
*So You Had A Bad Day: Tay, Ellen, Atlanta, and Mel take a minute to process what a bad time they had on their adventure through the Mirrorverse.
*A Star in the Snow: Maggie Ostenberg tries to distract Mel from his woes with a tarot reading, which ends up actually dredging up everything he's been bottling up. Whoops.
*The Mentor Trap: Mel and Hana talk about parents and the future and definitely learn the true meaning of a parent trap.
*Doin An Engineering: Inge comes to see Mel with a request.
*2 bros chillin at the O-W house, three feet apart cuz this whole situation is really fuckin weird but also they wanna be friends again: After Aeon!Tiago is forcibly pulled back into the timeline, he visits a grounded Mel to catch up.
== Quotes ==
"Mission priority one: fight the clown. Priority two: stunts. [...] I'm willing to move stunts up." - Mel, S4E18
"If breaking in and stealing things makes you a villain, then I am also a villain." - Mel, S4E46
"I've heard some people on the team refer to you as 'kind of an animal'." - Princess Anaya, S4E51
"Hey, who wants to beat up an old man?" - Mel, S4E59
"It's not gambling if I'm cheating!" - Mel, S4E68
"Why did we ever want to recruit you?" - Agent Carson, S4E82
"Look, the people have spoken, and they want a paint tornado." - Mel, S4.5 OVA The Breakfast Club
"I just wanna tousle your hair and go on adventures." - Boon, S4.5 OVA Get in the Zone, Zoning CodeMel: Are you--are you good now?Box: Oh god, this is real?Mel: Yes. Hi, sorry. I'm still here, and I'm still making your life harder. - Mel and Box, "Bolt, Box, and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day""Guys, huddle up? Huddle up real quick? I want to destroy that man." - Mel, S4.5 OVA Paul Blart: Mall Corp
"And Bolt. You're here because you're a wildcard. Every team needs a wildcard." - Uda Solman, S4.5 OVA This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Two of Us
"You know, usually when I hear a sentence that starts with 'Bolt and I,' I expect the next word to be 'broke'." - Rewind, S4.5 OVA Heart of the DawnMel: Ernest? I think I'm a robot.Ernest: That... might be a possibility. - Mel and Ernest, moments after a large robotic wing burst from Mel's shoulder, S4.5 OVA P.I. Parental Investigations"Bolt, I understand you've got these new wings, and you're trying to make friends, but I need to know that in this civil war brewing between me and A-Vis, you're on my side." - Whiz, S5 Hangout: Orientation!
"It's like High School Musical says: we're all in this together." - Mel, S5E30
"Knock me out once, shame on it. Knock me out twice, shame on me." - Mel, S5.5 OVA Team The Best One... In London!, who proceeded to get KO'd two more times.
"Apparently I have to repeat myself. I'm not leaving without Flourish." - Mel, S5.5 OVA Lasers & Cupcakes, after being thrown out the window of an airship, turning himself into a metal juggernaut, and crashing back in through the window.
"I'm famously uncooperative. It's one of my best qualities." - Mel, S6E5
== Playlists ==
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Category:Characters
Category:PC
Category:B-Verse
Category:Bolt
Category:Signal