1975.  A year that ended in an American unemployment rate of 9.2%, the introduction of the first blockbuster-type movie called "Jaws", an United States and Soviet Apollo and Soyuz joint space mission, the introduction of the first mobile phone, the introduction of personal computers and the Cray-1 supercomputer, and to top that off, the year the San Francisco-based superhero group called "The Protectors" was formed. All, strangely enough, tied together.

 

In 1975, a band of extraordinary people in and about California were brought together to help 'protect' businesses and eventually US government interests that year. That band of people were part of the unofficial "Project: Protector" plan.  Under President Gerald Ford, the project got the green light to help the CIA, FBI and other 'involved civilian businesses' from potential sabotage and spy-based actions from either Soviet and/or other 'villainous' organizations.  As such this band of 'heroes' (to this day still unknown) helped in stopping sabotage of the Apollo/Soyuz mission (from which neither the U.S. nor the Soviets did the sabotage). They also provided the necessary technological boost to Motorola in their first mobile phone design, as well and the ground-breaking microchip designs provided to Micro-Soft systems, Apple and Cray for their respective computers, all of which were happily and readily made available to US government agencies (for a price, of course) and to the Protectors for free.  The team even went out with maintenance teams to help fix the broken "Jaws" shark on the movie set when the shark wouldn't work at all, thus saving the film and helping land a historic box office return (which the Protectors received an unrequested 5% profit for helping).  The team was moved into a converted old abandoned shore artillery battery block house from World War II off the coast, part of the Presidio of San Francisco.

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In 1976, however, the nation's Bicentennial year, the Protectors were asked to intervene in the 1976 Winter Olympics by 'attending and sabotaging' the East German team (which was believed to be cheating with enhancement drugs, steroids and other unverified illegal tricks) from winning any medals. The Protectors voted 'no', to which the US Government, at that time still under President Gerald Ford, retaliated and took away the Protectors US Government clearances and access.  The Protectors, within days, filed to become a non-profit organization through which they would also work to 'help' the people and law enforcement agencies of San Francisco should the Protectors help be requested.

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For the next decade, the members of the Protectors helped solve and stop hundreds of criminal plots and nefarious illegal operations in the region.  They also went out of their way to help save people by showing up at fires, disasters, oil spills, ships sinkings, etc., to do what they could to help save lives and help save the environment.  With their access to their own CRAY-1 supercomputer, they were able to provide services to help analyze and correlate data to help with investigations, environmental impacts, college-assisted programs and projects (primarily with the University of California, Berkeley), and many other progressive investigations.

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In 1987, however, the Protectors team members began to age-out and got disillusioned with the threat of nuclear war and the burgeoning of local technological corporate entities.  In March of that year, the Protectors were once again asked to 'help' the US government, this time, in helping to get people out of the Soviet Bloc nations safely.  As such, the Protectors aided 70 families in escaping from the Soviet controlled region, helping them get past the Berlin wall and to the United States. It wasn't until the last (70th) family was brought across in 1989, that the Protectors realized that only 'specific families'...families that had vital scientific information or spy-level knowledge of Soviet operations...were the focus of the operation. Hundreds of other families that didn't provide enough valuable information or skills to the US government were ignored and/or killed as a result. The Protectors, at that point, swore never again to align themselves with the US Government no matter what.  That's when most of the team's members quit, leaving only two members to quietly run the group until 2000 - the year the Earth was invaded by the Soltan Star Empire.

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In January 2000, the Soltan Star Empire invaded Earth. The Protectors base was one of the first buildings destroyed in San Francisco the day of the invasion. The two remaining superhero members, Electronomo and Redwood, were severely injured, but lived, nonetheless.  A band of non-super-powered San Francisco resistance fighters that fought the Soltans at every turn took the name "The Protectors" in honor of the hero group. The used the bombed-out Protectors base as their operations center until nearly all 120 of them were either killed, maimed or incapacitated by July of 2000. In August 2000, Earth's heroes, military forces and the Knights Arcanus banded together to drive the Soltans from Earth. The legacy of the Protectors was supposed to be shutdown, however, in the aftermath of destruction, it was the least thing people were concerned with; the city needed to rebuild. Crime was on the rise and a new wave of Protectors was needed.

 

In May of 2001, the superhero Redwood returned back to limited duty. He was able to cobble together temporary teams of people and heroes as needed to help stave off the criminal elements, however, most of the time, the heroes got killed or simply 'disappeared'. As a result, Redwood dropped the superhero service function from the group's actions, and instead focused on helping out people in emergencies only. It took its toll on him, hospitalizing him several more times, until he finally 'retired' from superheroing and instead spent th next few years out to 2015 to rebuild the base to a modern, 21st century operations center for which he wanted to establish an Emergency Services Operations Center for the city of San Francisco, applying state of the art communications, computers and monitoring systems to operate as a hub for emergency management.  This included a massive emergency communications & management room, a helo-pad and a Vertical Take-Off & Landing (VTOL) platform and enclosed hangar, as well as a massive storage bay for emergency rations, food and supplies. Sadly, with Redwood's failing health, criminal organizations taking over much of the region and the lack of city funding, the center was officially shutdown in 2017.  When the media told the news of the city's plans for the center's shutdown, Redwood suffered a major heart attack and died hours later, leaving the Protectors legacy, again, without anyone to carry on.

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Hours after the announcement of Redwood's death, every single villainous faction came out of hiding.  They tore through the businesses and warehouses up and down Oakland and San Francisco, unafraid of any repercussions. At one point, a villainous group got control of a local TV camera crew and forced them to record the 'sacking of the great Protector's base'.  Aired on every channel, the broadcast set an air of despair to all in San Francisco...that is until one hero showed up at the base to defend it.  His name was PROTECHTOR.

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Protechtor flew in wearing his new untested Mark II armor attempting to stop several villain organizations and faction from taking over and raiding the ex-Protectors base/Emergency Operations Center at the Presidio. He fought like a valiant knight and superhero, with every action recorded live on TV for all to see. Protechtor pleaded with anyone who would listen over the TV to come help him and to band together and 'protect' San Francisco from the villains and organizations now trying to kill him.  Minutes later, several relatively unknown heroes arrived on site and teamed-up with Protechtor to not only battle the bad guys attacking Protechtor, but all of them immediately went out on patrol and stopped hundreds of robberies, hostage situations, destruction of property and attempted murders all happening in and around the streets of San Francisco.  Even the severely beaten Protechtor, whose armor was barely functional, went to UC Berkeley to successfully stop a villain from creating a 'China Syndrome' with the campus' only operational nuclear reactor. In the end, these new "Protectors" were lauded as true heroes.

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After the Mayor of San Francisco proclaimed "Protectors Day", giving the key to the city to each of the heroes, the team went back to the still-locked out base and fought about the premise and nature of even wanting to be a 'Protector'. No one wanted the hassle, nor the attention of being a superhero, and as such, had their own agendas to follow. It took several days before Protechtor was finally able to get them each to agree to give it a go for at least one year at a "Protector" and then do an official unanimous vote to decide to stay together. They got the the rights back to the base (and the deed to the land) and updated the base with new initial funding from Protechtor's personal funds.

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A year later, the team unanimously agreed to stay together.

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Today, the Protectors do just as their name implies - protect.  They've worked out an agreement with the state of California to 'help' (only on agreement with a majority team vote) as well as help police the cities in and around San Francisco and Oakland. Locally, they were registered to provide police services and to support all forms of emergency Services assistance when called upon. As a result, the state of California supplies $5 million per year to the team for its services, which are only to be used in an organization application and not for individual profit. That, coupled with Protechtor's amazing multi-million dollar patents and trademark design rights (and hundreds of other financial (specifically in the tech industry) donors), have allowed the Protector's base to once again be used as a superhero base.  It was modified to accommodate the needs of the super-group, as well as provide the protection the team would need against any attacks and/or attempted technological thefts. They are a true, died-in-the-wool hero team, even though they act more like individuals than a team most of the time.

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The Protectors - here to protect the people, the environment and the planet from all forms of dangers and attacks.

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