Characters: Lonestar & Longhorn
Lonestar
Real name: Elizabeth McAllister
Occupation: Adventurer
Identity: Known to the public
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with a juvenile criminal record (pardoned).
Place of Birth: Dallas, Texas
Known relatives: Samuel McAllister (father, deceased), Amy Bell McAllister (mother, deceased), Lawrence McAllister (uncle)
Group Affiliation: T.A.S.K.
Longhorn
Real name: Josiah CortlandOccupation: Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations
Identity: Known to the public
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Place of Birth: Odessa, Texas
Known relatives: Will Cortland Sr. (father), Dawn Cortland (mother), Will Cortland Jr. (brother), Savannah Cortland (sister)
Group Affiliation: Federal Bureau of Investigations, T.A.S.K.
Powers and Abilities:
Lonestar is a living cosmic energy battery and can exert control over various forms of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum. As a result of exposure to an extraterrestrial artifact her body was transformed from flesh and blood into raw cosmic energy. In her new form she can survive within any natural environment (including the vacuum of space) and does not require food, water or sleep. She can fly at many times the speed of sound within Earth's atmosphere and exceed the speed of light when travelling through space. She can manipulate many forms of energy but due to inexperience (and a lack of understanding of the full scope of her abilities) often resorts to simply projecting bolts of devastating force.
Josiah Cortland gained superhuman powers as a result of atrocious bio-engineering and cellular augmentation procedures carried out by Couteau. Longhorn was given superhuman strength, speed, endurance and superhumanly acute senses of sight, hearing and smell. As a result, Cortland can now lift approximately 5 tons under normal conditions and run at 50 mph for an extended period of time. His skin has been strengthened to the degree where it is superhumanly resistant to damage (he can survive most high caliber bullets and puncture wounds). The horns that were implanted onto his now altered skull are not in fact bone but a titanium steel alloy.
Josiah Cortland is a highly trained agent of the FBI and is an accomplished detective. He is an expert marksman and experienced hand to hand combatant.
Brief Personal History: FBI Special Agent Josiah Cortland was on medical leave when he became friends with his new neighbors, the McAllister family. He and Sam McAllister shared a love of football and the McAllister's young daughter Elizabeth (Liz) grew up playing in his backyard.
Time passed and Liz McAllister's teenaged years were filled with rebellious acts and numerous run-ins with the law. Josiah's many attempts to help the McAllister family get their daughter's life back on track failed to alter Liz's behavior or attitude. Eventually she was arrested and remanded to the Arden Home for Troubled Youth; a chain of juvenile correctional facilities funded by millionaire, philanthropist (and former crime lord) Valmond Arden. These correctional facilities were in fact a front for secret laboratories where experiments were conducted members of the facilities' populations. Soon after entering the facility Liz lost her parents to an automobile accident and she became an unwilling participant in the facility's experiments.
Agent Cortland visited Liz at the facility and became suspicious after she uttered a phrase she would always use when in deep trouble. This prompted Cortland to launch an investigation into the goings on at the facility. He discovered a trail of juvenile detainees whose parents or guardians had all mysteriously died or disappeared. He informed his superiors and was allowed to open an official investigation, unaware that these same superiors were receiving bribes from Arden.
One night while on a stake-out of the facility, Cortland was attacked by a group of guards and taken down to the labs. While there he was forced to watch as Liz was exposed to radiation from a strange meteor. The meteor's radiation wreaked havoc on Liz's body and she fell into a coma-like state so deep and indistinguishable from death that she was erroneously pronounced dead. Her body was placed into a cold storage locker to be studied at a later date. While in cold storage, Liz's s body began to change.
Enraged, Agent Cortland freed himself from his captors and raged through the facility -- freeing captives, damaging equipment and setting rooms on fire. Eventually he was subdued and brought to the man in charge of the facility; a man known only as Couteau. Upon comparing Agent Cortland to "a bull charging through my china shop," Couteau ordered that Cortland be made into a creature more befitting his actions. Over the next several weeks Agent Cortland underwent excruciating surgeries, bio-engineering therapies and genetic modifications that made him more animal than man -- remaking Josiah Cortland for all intents and purposes, into the savage Minotaur of myth. Couteau made sure that Cortland was fully appraised and aware of his condition at every stage of his modification and informed the FBI agent that his final torture would be to undergo brain surgery that would reduce his intelligence to that of a beast.
It was at this point that Liz's body finished its transformation and she burst out of cold storage using the vast powers of a living cosmic energy battery. She found Agent Cortland and together they liberated the rest of the prisoners and destroyed the laboratory; apprehending Couteau and most of his staff in the process. Agent Cortland also discovered documents in Couteau's files linking the sadistic surgeon to Cortland's own superiors. With this information Cortland was able to bring his corrupt FBI superiors to justice.
Elizabeth and Josiah's story became a national media sensation and the duo was invited to join T.A.S.K. Agent Cortland initially declined the invitation as he suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. It took the efforts of Liz and T.A.S.K. member White Buffalo (who also has the appearance of an anthropomorphized bovine) to urge Cortland back into the world again. After entering therapy, Agent Cortland took on the codename Longhorn and he and Liz (who had taken the codename Lonestar) commenced training to be T.A.S.K. operatives. Now that their training is complete, Lonestar and Longhorn operate as the protectors of the great state of Texas. Longhorn also serves as T.A.S.K.'s FBI liaison.
Written by Damion Gonzales
Character design by Sean Isaakse