Spectrum (Riley Andersen)

### Alias

Riley Andersen, Subject C-16 (by the Doctor), Spectrum, Spectacular Spectrum, Monkey (Her Parents), Limelight Light (by Judge Sludge)

### Family

Bill Andersen (Father), Jill Andersen (Mother)

### Occupation

Middle School Student, Hockey Player, Superhero, Sidekick to Limelight, Honorary Member of the Big Four

### Origin

*Inside Out (2015)*

**Riley Andersen** (known as **Spectrum** to the public) was once an average San Francisco girl before she was kidnapped and used as a lab rat, resulting in the appearance of her powers. Nowadays, the newly dubbed hero Spectrum uses her powers training as Limelight's apprentice, making her an honorary member of the Big Four.

## Background

Riley was born to Bill and Jill Anderson in an unknown town in Minnesota. She grew up loved by her parents, immersed in hockey and well-liked by her peers. Her life changed drastically upon her family moving to San Francisco. After a brief time of difficulty, Riley adjusted and became happy in her new home.

Some time after adjusting, Riley was selected for a program for upcoming hockey players to be paired off and train with professionals, herself being paired off with Jack Overland in Berk (secretly the superhero Frost). Riley left a good impression on the hockey player with her determination and cheerful nature.

During a brief layover on her trip home, Riley was kidnapped by an unidentified organization. The lead scientist, nicknamed "the Doctor" by Riley, injected her with the experimental PX-43 serum, intent on generating a superhuman. Riley survived the serum, unlike an unspecified number of previous subjects, and was forced into a large number of tests to determine if she had developed abilities. However, no results were displayed, and Riley slowly became despondent. However, after experiencing a collection of the five base human emotions, Riley's abilities emerged. She attempted to escape by instinctively using her electrical and teleporting abilities and was pinned by the doctor and his guards. Refusing to return, Riley inadvertently destroyed their marine facility with her pyrokinetic ability and washed up on the shores of Corona City.

Determining that her new abilities and lack of control made her dangerous, Riley lived on the streets for several days, thoroughly miserable. Coincidentally, Riley was present at the site of a car crash where the hero Limelight arrived to help. Overjoyed at seeing her favorite hero in action, Riley inadvertently accessed her latent telekinetic abilities and began floating, attracting the attention of Limelight. Limelight asked the young girl if she was okay, causing Riley's sadness to reach a breaking point. The older super brought Riley to her home and took care of her, eventually arranging for Riley to return to her own home under her watch.

Upon arriving in San Francisco, Riley was reunited with her parents, but accidentally revealed her newfound powers as well as her lack of control. Richard Dicker, director of the NSA, had deduced Riley's identity and encouraged Bill and Jill to allow the NSA to teach Riley to control her powers. After some time, Riley accepted the offer and was taught by Agent Rebecca "PH" of the Fantasia Unit. After several months, Riley was deemed skilled enough to return to school.

After returning to school, Riley was tracked down by the Doctor, who held her schoolmates hostage in order to force her to reveal herself. Limelight, in the city to visit Riley, came across their plan and intervened. Easily dispatching the Doctor's guards, even enhanced by PX-41 serum, the doctor injected himself with a more advanced serum and took Limelight by surprise with his power. Unable to watch the Doctor hurt her hero or her friends, Riley intervened as well and kept the Doctor off-balance until Limelight was able to finish him off.

During the Doctor's arrest and that of his men, Director Dicker brought up a proposition with the Andersons, one he had already mentioned to Bill and Jill. He proposed a "Hero Apprenticeship Program" that would pair Riley with a hero to help her learn to be a superhero herself. Riley was enthusiastic about the idea and limelight agreed to teach her.

Before her debut, Riley was trained in a more hands-on use of her powers, as well as strategy, quick-thinking, and martial arts by the Big Four. Her debut, announcing her alias of "Spectrum" was crashed by the Sons of Hades, who were defeated by Limelight, Archer, and Riley herself.

## Personality

Riley is a bright and cheerful young woman, with a strong sense of enthusiasm, fun and humor. Riley is something of a tomboy, with few traditionally "feminine" interests, though the onset of puberty has begun to introduce some of these, such as interest in boys. Riley is passionate about her interests, such as hockey and heroics, and strives to do the best she can in all things. She is fond of superheroes and jumps at the chance to be one; she is particularly admiring of Limelight and ecstatic to be her apprentice.

Riley has shown a remarkable willpower, refusing to lose herself during her experimentation and rebelling against the Doctor's orders. She showed this trait again when fighting to protect Limelight, despite no formal training or experience. She has also shown an impressive learning curve when motivated, as seen in her relatively quick mastery of her powers and the Big Four's training regimen.

As a teenager, Riley has shown a tendency to rebel against authority, such as her investigation of a part of the Iron Giant or her struggle against the Omnidroids with Hiro. However, she acts out of a sense of purpose and morality, rather than disrespect, and is willing to accede when she is wrong, but will fiercely argue her point if she knows she is right. She is prone to outbursts of anger, though will calm down quickly and make amends if necessary.

## ​Appearance

Riley is an adolescent girl with a round face and slim physique. She possesses fair skin (common to her native Minnesota), dirty-blonde hair grown to her shoulders, and light blue eyes.

It is also noted that she has been called pretty by Hiro Hamada and has attracted interest from both Jordan and Dash Parr.

When utilizing her various psychic abilities, Riley's hair and eyes will change color to reflect her use.

Riley's "Spectrum" outfit consists of a black body suit with a white circle on the chest, along with black-and-white striped forearm-length gloves and knee-high boots. She also wears a striped scarf and a black domino mask. A trademark feature of her suit, designed by Edna Mode, allows the suit to act as a type of "mood ring", her stripes and chest emblem changing color when she uses her powers to mirror her hair and eyes.

## Powers & Abilities

After being injected with PX-43 and placed under physical and emotional stress, Riley's brain was stimulated in ways foreign to normal humans, embuing her with psychic abilities. Each ability is tied to her emotions, her eyes and hair changing color depending on each emotion.

* **Telekinesis (Yellow)**: When happy, Riley unconsciously generates a telekinetic field that surrounds her body, which in turn allows her to simulate a number of physical superpowers.
	+ **Levitation**: Using her telekinetic powers, Riley is capable of defying gravity and propelling herself through the air in unassisted flight. When going fast enough, she leaves a bright golden trail in the wake of her flight. She has been measured flying at speeds just under Mach 1.
		- **Superhuman Speed:** In addition to propelling herself through the air, Riley is capable of using her personal telekinesis to move her along the ground, allowing her to run at superhuman speeds. She has been clocked at a maximum 150 mph when running.
	+ **Superhuman Strength**: When touching an object, Riley surrounds that object in her telekinetic field, allowing her to telekinetically affect it. She can use this power to lift heavy weight and to reshape things any way she can imagine (eg, bending a metal pipe), as well as exert tremendous force (eg, punching something). She is incapable of affecting things at a distance, though.
	+ **Invulnerability**: Riley's telekinetic field also acts as a personal force field, protecting her from all sorts of physical trauma and to great degrees of it. However, sufficient force can overwhelm this protection, which will in turn hurt her, albeit with less severity.
* **Electrokinesis (Blue)**: When sad, Riley's body generates powerful electrical discharge, manifesting as blue electricity. She is capable of channeling these bolts of electricity in any form she chooses, most often through her hands. Riley has been measured generating enough electricity to incapacitate one hundred men. (estimations clock in at around 2.1 to over 200 milliamps)
* **Pyrokinesis (Red)**: When angry, Riley is able to mentally generate fire, whether by firing streams of flames, simple sustained bursts similar to a welding torch, or with the concussive force of an explosion. Her flames have been measured at hot enough to melt steel. (around 1370°C/2500°F) She herself seems immune to this fire (see *invulnerability* above). When using her pyrokinesis, Riley's hair often catches fire in addition to turning red.
* **Teleportation (Purple)**: When afraid, Riley's reflexive "fight or flight" response causes her to teleport, allowing her to instantly move from one place to another without crossing the intervening distance. She teleports in a flash of purple light. She has mentioned that she can only teleport within a mile radius and prefers to teleport where she can see.
* **Nausea Inducement (Green)**: Arguably her most unusual power. Whenever Riley is disgusted, she is able to telepathically suggest intense feelings of disgust in those around her, causing their bodies to react and vomit uncontrollability.

While having learn to control her powers with the help of PH and the NSA, she learns to harness her powers constructively through extensive training under the Big Four. She has also been trained in basic martial arts by Archer.

## Relationships

### Mr. and Mrs. Andersen

Riley dearly loves her parents and has a strong positive relationship with them. When captured, it was the thought of her parents that allowed her to maintain hope, which in turn triggered her powers and allowed her to escape. Upon escaping, Riley remained on the streets out of fear for their safety, as well as fear that they would no longer love her. Upon reuniting with her parents, despite an initial misunderstanding, Riley was overjoyed and relieved that their love for her had not changed.

### Rapunzel/Limelight

Riley harbors a deep respect and admiration for Limelight that extended before they even met. After being taken under her wing, she describes Limelight as the "big sister [Riley] never had" and looks up to her as a hero and mentor. She is quite proud of being apprenticed under her. PH has theorized that this admiration and desire to emulate her hero influences some of Riley's powers, particularly her telekinesis.

However, Riley is not above arguing with her mentor when she believes it is necessary, such as her stance on the Iron Giant or Limelight's later coddling attitude. This shows that, despite her loyalty to her mentor, Riley is able to think for herself.

### Jackson Overland/Frost

Riley respects and is strong friends with Frost, having befriended him during her trip to Berk. She enjoys Jack's company and seems to see him as something of an older brother. Aside from Rapunzel, she is closest to jack among the Big Four.

Even before she met him, Riley admired both Jack as a professional hockey player and Frost as a hero.

### The Rest of the Big Four

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## Trivia

* Riley's powers are all inspired by the emotions that operate Riley's life from the original movie.
* It was stated by Cjupsher himself that her supersuit's design was strongly inspired by Lady WiFi and Evillustrator from *Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir*