Robyn Mayfield is the daughter of Dr. Frank Mayfield, a respected but eccentric inventor and designer.  She learned many of her inventing skills from her father, as well as inheriting his enjoyment of tinkering with electronic equipment.  Her father also instilled in her a distrust of the military-industrial complex and a desire to create non-lethal, non-destructive weapons for law enforcement and military use.

    At one time Dr. Mayfield worked for the Madt Institute, but had a disagreement with the Director, Dr. Clayton Forester, over the Institute’s acceptance of defense contracts for weapons designs.  Another Institute associate, Dr. Harold Huebner frequently tried to (unsuccessfully) copy some of Dr. Mayfield’s designs.  Robyn has all of her father’s notes, blueprints, prototypes, and other equipment.  She works on improving his designs as well as building items he designed but never had a chance to test.

    When Dr. Mayfield learned he was terminally ill, he planned to transfer his memories and experiences to a storage medium, which would then be installed in a sophisticated android body so he could continue working.  Unfortunately, he died before he was able to complete the android’s design. His memories and personality are currently stored in a tiny robot, which has no limbs and is only 9 inches tall.  Robyn is working on building the android, but she doesn’t have sufficient technical skill yet to fill in the missing parts of the blueprints.  In the meantime she must put up with her father’s complaints about being so small and unable to touch anything.  The tiny robot usually follows her around and harangues her about its’ problems.

    Robyn didn’t really have any intention of becoming a superhero.  She usually carries several of her devices around with her at all times, and when the opportunity presented itself to use them in a real combat situation, she eagerly joined the fray.  She discovered that catching bad guys was fun!  She doesn’t like to let anyone else use her equipment for fear they’ll damage or misuse it, so she would be reluctant to simply make gadgets and give them to others.  She hasn’t given any thought to a costume, and the name Gadget is an old nickname her father gave her.  She usually wears protective padding because she may be testing a new device that could be harmful; and she always has on her goggles because she can use the x-ray and microscopic functions when working in her lab.

    Robyn is an average-looking young woman with very curly red hair and pale, heavily freckled skin.  She commonly wears a vest with lots of small pockets to carry tools and equipment, military-style cargo pants (for the same reason), and heavy boots to protect her toes from dropped tools.  Most of her clothes have scorches and stains.  She doesn’t care much about her appearance.  If one of her new teammates encourages her to have an actual costume she might think about finding some items that match, but she’s not the spandex type.  She isn’t really concerned about anyone discovering her real identity, but she will avoid public attention as much as possible.  She’d rather be recognized for her achievements as an inventor than as a costumed hero.

    Robyn has two lab mascots, a dog named Sprocket and a cat named Gizmo.  She doesn’t get along well with her mother, Sylvia, who’s disappointed that Robyn chose to follow her father’s career and wants Robyn to be more feminine.  Her mother is a sort of Jewish-mother type who’s always trying to set Robyn up with blind dates.  She also complains if Robyn doesn’t call regularly, and shows up at the lab at inopportune times.  She wouldn’t be very impressed if she learned her daughter is hanging out with superhero-wannabes (unless one of them is a marriage prospect!).