Galatea Dawning (GotDS)

"You had to do it, didn't you? You had to play God!"
Galatea Dawning
Details
Author(s):	David 2/BattlerockX
Games:	City of Heroes
First Issue:	Guardians of the Dawn Spotlight #23
Date Published:	2011
Last Issue:	Guardians of the Dawn Spotlight #25
Date Published:	2011
Total Number of Issues:	3
Main Character(s)
Galatea Powers, Lyon Powers, Icon Powers, Ms. Maple, Leona Powers, Dr. Len Zarus
Series Involved
Guardians of the Dawn Spotlight
Additional Notes
Follow-up from the "Time and Changes" storyline

"Galatea Dawning" is a three-issue storyline focusing on the changes made to Galatea Powers. This follows directly from the events seen in the five-part "Time and Changes" storyline.

According to author David 2, changes to several of his "key" characters were needed to minimize comparrisons to certain "mainstream publication" characters. "Time and Changes" provided the means for many of those changes to take place, although the main character needing changes, Galatea Powers, was absent for most of the storyline. This was done so the storyline could continue until her new appearance could be finalized.

Story History

Prologue

Issue 1

Issue 01

Galatea Powers discusses with "Mike and Melissa" about her recent activities as "Kara Hamilton", including her transfer from the Icon store in Steel Canyon (where she has a nearby apartment) to the one in Independence Port. Meeting with Lauren proves to be difficult, compounded by her false arrest by Crey private police officers. In order to escape from her imprisonment without changing into Galatea Powers, she transforms into her third identity, the tech-suit, and overpowers the Crey police officers. She acquires the necessary incriminating evidence to implicate Crey and then destroys all of the information on her.

Later, back as Kara, she gives the evidence to the real PPD agents and talks with Mrs. Carlisle about her false arrest. She is then changed from a tailor's apprentice to a management trainee.

Mike and Melissa tell Captain Paragonna that Galatea was less-than forthcoming about the tech-suit appearance and they believe she intentionally held certain things out. The Captain reveals that Galatea's own history was altered several times in her life and she considers this something to be concerned about since Galatea is also the most powerful member of the group.

Issue 8

Issue 08

Working with Icon Powers to clear Midnight Arachnia's name, Galatea dons the covert suit to break into the Federal offices where Deputy District Attorney Edward "The Trust" Vance was working as a special federal prosecutor to get all of the evidence associated with their teammate's treason case.

While wearing the suit, Galatea is very aggressive, using her powers to take on as many of Vance's "Secret Service" agents as possible. This forces Icon to remotely block all communication so the agents could not call for help or sound any alarms. After guiding Galatea to the right locations, she gathers all evidence before being told to quickly leave.

Later, she explained to Midnight Arachnia on the need for the covert suit and how the technology was from her home universe that could not be duplicated and would be considered priceless.

Issue 19

• (See "Time and Changes")

Issue 19

As Icon Powers recounts his own history, we see the first appearance of a young Leona Powers, the "daughter" of Lionel Powers. It is eventaually revealed that she is the genetic result of combining the DNA of Lionel with those of Kent's parents. Her DNA is futher encoded to start thinking and behaving in accordance to Lionel's machiavellian philosophy when she reaches her teenage years.

To prevent her from becoming even worse than her father, Icon and Photonis quietly subject Leona to a series of genetic alterations using DNA from Icon himself. This creates a new personality which would override "Leona", which they named "Karen" (after the sister of both Jonathan and Lionel Powers). The change in her personality also changes her perspective of past events, which is seen as a changing of her history. The transformation also changes her hair color from bright red to blond, and Icon comments that the hair color is a symbolic shift in Karen's mindset from Lionel's family to his own.

Issue 22

Issue 22

Having been an unwilling "guest" of Ouroboros for several months, Galatea Powers is told she is allowed to return home. She is given no explination as to why she was kept there for so long, only that several months had passed and that she should be "ready" for any changes that have happened since then.

Returning to Paragon City in the start of 2011, she first encounters Ms. Liberty, who notes that Galatea's hair has mysteriously changed from lemon-blond to orange.

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Main Story

Much of the main story is narrated by Lyon Powers, describing the incidents as they occur in each issue.

Issue 23

Issue 23

Galatea returns to Paragon City, but clearly changed from her time away. This change becomes visible not only in her attire, but also in her demeanor. This change is noticed by several other Guardians, including Lyon Powers.

Unbeknown to her teammates, Galatea, while disguised in her tech-based bodysuit, has been making frequent trips to the Subgenetics store in Steel Canyon to purchase supplies. Her tone is pompous and aggressive to the staff and she threatens to destroy the store when she learns that the District Attorney's Office has been investigating her visits. The store employees promise confidentiality, but she claims that she has all that she needs and would not bother them anymore.

The next morning, Deputy District Attorney Edward Vance visits the local Vault and demands to see their account files, which they refused to show without a warrant. While Vance tries to get an all-purpose search warrant, he is told that the Department of Justice has ordered they drop the investigation, saying that the operative involved was working for the Midnight Squad at the time.

Galatea's outfit changes even further, abandoning her cape for a leather jacket to hide her physical assets. She has also become more callous and indifferent to the plight of the people, as well as has trouble sleeping. This change is also noticed by Lyon, who turns to her old friend in the Dawn Patrol for help. The Celtic Brawler pledges his support.

Meanwhile, Midnight Arachnia discovers through Lady Templar that Arktic Chill has been responsible for providing online gossip about Galatea's activities through the popular website "We Heart Galatea Powers". Chill says that everything he provided was not only to protect Galatea's secrets, but was done at her insistence.

At the Icon Tailor store in Steel Canyon, Street Justice, working with Galatea in their civilian identities, witnesses Galatea having a verbal meltdown with designer Lauren, bringing up the designer's shortcomings before quitting her job and publicly changing into her tech-based outfit, thus linking it to "Kara Hamilton". That night, Galatea consumes the formula that she was working on and her apartment explodes. Jimmy Hellfighter is one of the first heroes to respond to the explosion and enacts "Protocol One".

The next day, billboards sponsored by "We Heart Galatea Powers" are sabotaged by a woman wearing the tech-based outfit. She appears before PNN's Matt Myers for an impromptu interview and removes her hood and mask, revealing a woman with long and dark red hair.

She then identifies herself as Leona Powers.

Issue 24

Issue 24

Continuing her on-air impromptu interview with Matt Myers, Leona Powers gives a quick history of her and her father's history from Universe XHT-S7, painting Lionel Powers as a super-genius whose talents went ignored compared to the achievements of John and Kent Powers.

Meanwhile, Pyrogurl returns to the Guardian base after being away in Boston with her family. Upon returning, she watches a pre-recorded message from Jimmy Hellfighter, explaining that the Guardians are under Protocol One alert, he orders the young teen to remain at the base until one of the Guardians arrive to bring her to safety at the Dawn Patrol headquarters in England.

Shut out from the Guardian base herself because of Protocol One, Leona decides to reach out to the Rocinante Group for assistance, and after a brief confrontation with NovaPrima, she reaches out to Ms. Maple and offers her services in exchange for assistance in purging herself of the last genetic changes made by Icon Powers.

As Leona uses Dr. Len Zarus and his equipment, MidKnight X makes preparations to deal with her, including bringing Icon Powers out of his recovery chamber early. Due to the severity of his injuries and the lack of his original tech-suit, Icon would never be as powerful as he previously was.

The next morning, Leona attacks the Guardian base using low-level seismic blows, which rattle Pyrogurl but doesn't cause damage to the base itself. The attacks were meant to call out Icon, though, and after a quick conversation, the elder hero proceeds to goad her into chasing him. Leona attempts to attack him using laser-vision, a power she demonstrated having in the past, but discovers she no longer has that ability.

She is lured to Skyway City, where the chase is picked up by Ryder Lightning, giving Icon the chance to meet with Pyrogurl at City Hall and escort her to the Vanguard headquarters, and from there to the portal that links to the Dawn Patrol headquarters in Cardiff, UK.

Resuming her pursuit of her cousin, Leona tries to goad other heroes out by attacking and injuring Ms. Liberty, but this only serves to bring out members of the Dawn Patrol and ExGemini.

Meeting with the arriving Icon Powers and Pyrogurl, Jimmy Hellfighter and Lady Jane update them on the combat in Atlas Park, and then takes them to a Crey bio-stasis tube holding the body of Galatea Powers.

Issue 25

Issue 25

At the Dawn Patrol base in Cardiff, Jimmy Hellfighter explains to PyroGurl and Icon Powers what happened when he responded to the explosion in Kara Hamilton's apartment. According to him, he saw the badly injured body of Galatea Powers lying on floor. Then, after issuing "Protocol One", he spotted another figure (Leona) wearing the covert-tech suit hovering outside of the apartment.

Omega Shift continues the explanation, pointing out that the years of genetic modifications made by Icon and Photonis did not recombine her DNA (as told in Issue #19), but rather they had overlapped her base DNA. The combination then began to come apart when Galatea began wearing the covert-tech bodysuit, which was based on Icon's original tech suit. Since Icon's original suit bolstered his powers on a genetic level, the same technology in Galatea's tech suit began to bring up the base DNA strands containing "Leona" every time she wore it. Over a while, "Leona's" personality would become more and more dominant until it reached a point when "Leona" would become self-aware. Developing a split personality, Galatea had no idea that "Leona" was quietly working on the means to chemically purge herself of the other DNA. The combination of the genetic mixture and the stored solar energy in her body resulted in the explosion that physically split Galatea into two separate women.

In Atlas Park, MidKnight X directs the members of the Dawn Patrol and ExGemini in their efforts to keep Leona Powers contained and busy. The battle is televised around the world through the Paragon News Network and is viewed by John Cole, who tries to offer help but is physically stopped by Libra.

Back in Cardiff, the Guardians work on restoring Galatea's DNA. Omega Shift transforms into Dr. Dev Ellison, whose expert knowledge in genetics would allow him to recombine Galatea's DNA with base DNA donated by the late Faith Powers; Lyon's older sister who was killed in the Rikti Invasion of 2002, and whose genetics were an actual match. Galatea's abilities are recharged through a joint effort by Coeur Du Feu, PyroGurl, Daybright, and England's legendary Stonehenge Witches that would turn the Dawn Patrol's secondary reactor into a miniature sun. Finally, with Ryder Lightning's assistance, Freedom Phalanx member Sister Psyche was able to sort through the various disjointed memories and thoughts in Galatea's mind to give her one cohesive identity and history.

In Atlas Park, Leona's mind begins to unravel from the stress of the battle, as she begins to spout platitudes from her father's manifesto. Don Juan, Dawn Patrol's field telepath and who has been updating Sister Psyche on the status of the battle, tells MidKnight X that he detects an overriding presense of Lionel Powers in Leona's mind, and that soon she would become psychotic. Before Dawn Patrol and ExGemini can respond, though, Leona is pummelled up and over the War Walls repeatedly before landing in the middle of the destroyed district of Boomtown. It is then that Leona discovers that her assailant was NovaPrima, briefly dishing out payback for her own viscious assault earlier before being recalled back to the Rocinante Group. Members of the Dawn Patrol resume their attack on Leona before a new presence arrives.

Galatea Powers, now fully restored and wearing a new black outfit, confronts Leona for the first time, and it is clear that the two of them are evenly matched. After battling in the air and on the ground, Galatea manages to overwhelm a clearly exhausted Leona, and finally beats her. But before Leona can be taken into custody, her body is teleported away.

Lyon explains that Galatea's "return" had to be carefully orchestrated by Vanguard so the public would believe that Leona was really Galatea's "sister", and that she "stole" the identity of Kara Hamilton before "killing" her. While this would explain Kara's behavior in front of Lauren, it also meant that Galatea could no longer be Kara Hamilton.

Meanwhile, Leona Powers is seen kept in stasis by Dr. Zarus until he could figure a way to prevent Lionel's "trap" from triggering in Leona's mind. Ms. Maple comments that the technology they gained from the venture would also be used for his own "Anti-Guardian" program.

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Epilogue

Following the events in "Galatea Dawning"...

• Icon Powers is significantly weaker and no longer has his tech-based suit to rely on. Because of his diminished power levels, he has again placed himself on "inactive" status, helping the Guardians in a support-only role. His relations with the other Guardians are also badly strained, especially with Galatea, who is now aware of what he did to her in her youth. The strain of his relationship with other Guardians will be seen in "The Guardian Powers".

• Galatea's "civilian identity" of Kara Hamilton is officially declared dead. The explanation given is that "Kara" was kidnapped and impersonated by Leona Powers, and then killed when Kara was of no further use. Vanguard eventually gives Galatea a new civilian identity as "Faith Karl", which is seen in the "Guardians of the Dawn AFTERMATH" special.

• MidKnight X follows a lead given by the Celtic Brawler to track down Simon Barrister. Daybright also takes some time away, initially for an undisclosed reason, but it is later revealed that she would be using her newly-given ability to become completely human to work undercover for Stevie Walker-Rodgers.

• Midnight Arachnia takes some time off to stay with ExGemini on his private island. ExGemini will appear in a future issue of "The Guardian Powers" to try to find what happened to her after she returned.

• John Cole's defiance of Libra created an "imbalance" that would allow another member of The Libra Order to try to carry out payback against the Guardians, as was seen in Issue #27. His eventual disappearance will also be covered in a future issue of "The Guardian Powers".