Iris McClure was a martial arts prodigy. Her father, an aikido practitioner himself got her into the sport when she was eight years old. Iris, a gifted athlete, won her age division every year she competed. Her reflexes were legendary and it was surmized that she was borderline superhuman by many rivals and opposing instructors. She loved the sport and competing. When she was 18 she moved to Japan and studied under instructors there, learning the language and developing her own techniques. She studied the older, more direct Aikijutsu, and weapons elements. She added from Karate and other arts she observed until she had what she consided a "perfect" combat technique. She openned her own dojo when she returned to the states four years later. One evening, she and some of her students were in a tavern when a scene between a rather abusive man and the woman he was with interrupted their relaxation. Never one to let abuse carry on in front of her, and never being shy about butting in, Iris confronted the man. In his anger, the man swung at her and Iris quickly and painfully disabled him. The bar errupted in cheers and the embarassed man was thrown out. When she and her students left, Iris had the feeling they were being followed. After they went their separate ways, she began her walk home, only to be confronted by the angry and abusive man. The man, a VIPER agent, had gathered a few (read: a dozen) of his buddies to help him get revenge. A brief but violent confrontation errupted and Iris found herself in the unfamiliar place of facing multiple, combat trained individuals. Her amazing physical prowess and training allowed her to hold her own until a costumed man appeared. Iris recognized him as Shugoshin, a local vigilante. Shugoshin, who had been trailing the VIPER agents all night helped Iris send the agents to dreamland and then complemented her on her form. After this mildly traumatic experience, Iris began to think the was maybe destined for something more than being an aikido instructor. Taking one of her "dress" uniforms (hakama?), she added some full contact armor (sans headgear) and dubbed her self Aikido. She often sparred with Shugoshin in the early days and he gave her pointers on handling the "Superhero Biz". Later, she found herself with four other heroes encountering the villain Holocaust and sme hired cronies and they formed what would become Westguard. A strong desire to see that the strong do not prey on the weak and a love of martial arts combat have been her main motivations. She has become a slightly more well rounded heroine, adding teamwork and some skulking skills, but she's more of a footwork type investigator rather than clue analysis. She has studied the more esoteric martial arts skills and has some pretty amazing Ki manipulation abilities to show for it. "Bring it on." An upfront fighter despite her relative lack of offense or defense, she spends much of combat keeping her opponents off balance. She has raised the ability to temporarily restrain opponents for her allies benefit to an art form. She knocks them over, grapples them, redirects them towards incoming attacks, and basically makes it seem that they are trying to get hit. Aikido is a pretty good rival for a pc martial artist, her competative nature makes her strive to be the premier practitioner in the area. She's not an unfriendly rival though and forms strong bonds with other Martial Artists, loving to compare styles. If she's too powerful for your game, drop her damage classes and Find Weakness. If she's not tough enough, give her a little more defense and increase her combat skill levels. A stunning redhead with green eyes and a tall "comic book amazon" build. In costume she wears a white aikido jacket and black billowy pants (I beleive that is the hakama) with a black lightly armored "sports bra" and red hand and foot armor (a la Ryu and Ken from Streetfighter fame). She doesn't wear a mask and doesn't go out of her way hide her identity but she stil maintains her anonymity in her private life.