Characters / Assimilation

The Team

Machina

Jacob Morgan a.k.a. Machina

• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Which doesn't bother him really much until his Relationship Upgrade with Starfire.
• Brain Uploading: The nanite swarm he was transformed into is held together by his "consciousness emulation". He angsts a bit over it since he wonders if he's still himself or a mere copy of the original "Jacob Morgan".
• Butter Face: He has less difficulty for giving himself a six-pack than shaping his face.
• Elemental Embodiment: It's hinted he's slowly becoming this for the emerging Kingdom of Machines - the Metal. Or, as it’s known here, The Silver.
• Elemental Powers: A Technopath with a touch of electricity-control.
• Foil:
  • Since he underwent an Unwilling Roboticisation and joined a teenaged superheroic team afterwards, he's this for Cyborg from Teen Titans (2003).
  • Can also be considered as a robotic take on Swamp Thing. And it's hinted Jacob will grow his equal as an Elemental Embodiment.
• The Gadfly: When he's not self-deprecating, he enjoys trolling his teammates.
• Gadgeteer Genius: With his powers over technology, he's able to give new and improved gear to the Team.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Quite snarky towards himself. Starfire doesn't like it.
• It Gets Easier: The superhero lifestyle slowly hardens him until he casually declares he wouldn't have a problem with a perp dying on him. To be fair, it was Ivo, but still.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": He almost worships the Justice League, especially Superman.
• Mystical White Hair: When he tried to imitate hair structure, he realised it was easier to mimick diamond strands, so he got this.
• No-Sell: Total immunity to telepaths - when they try to read his mind, they stumble upon his nanites' chittering and wind up with a headache.
• Occult Blue Eyes: After he discovered the "Algorithm", he gained these. When looking closer, there's fractal designs in the irises.
• Older Than He Looks: He hangs out with teens and his body is very much non-indicative, but he's actually twenty-eight years old.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: He apparently nurses a fondness for the sci-fi genre. Just look at his nicknames for the machine spirits he meets.
• Progressively Prettier: The more he gains control over his abilities, the more he can remodel his body. Case in point: his original form looked like a xenomorph instead of a human.
• Pro-Human Transhuman: He still wants to help and protect humanity in spite of not technically being one of them anymore.
• Running Gag: Tends to name machines he comes into contact with (living ones, like the New Genesphere or M'gann's ship, not the coffee maker or the toaster) after shout-outs. M'gann's ship he names after Moya from Farscape, and the New Genesphere becomes Rommie after a living ship from the series Andromeda.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: His nanites are able to reproduce every weapon they consumed.
• Spanner in the Works: While this technically applies to the entire Team/Titans, Machina especially has dramatically interfered with the plans of the Light and other parties. To recap:
  • He freed Starfire from imprisonment by the Psions and brought her to Earth, expanding the Team’s roster of members.
  • Serling used his nanomachines as a basis for the Fog’s programming. Eventually leading it to developing the Algorithm and later helping form the Silver.
  • He used the attempts of the Light to expose the Team and discredit the Justice League to instead jumpstart a team of his very own: the Titans. He even bought Mount Justice to keep as their headquarters.
  • Machina has worked with Batman to prepare for any number of threats that may pop up using his meta-knowledge.
• Team Dad: Batman actually put him on the Team because he hoped Machina would be a mature, stabilizing influence on the younger sidekicks. It seemed to have worked quite well.
• Technically Naked Shapeshifter: Because normal clothes would be shredded, and shapeshifting ones he would constantly worry about eating them.
• Two First Names: In the purest comics tradition, yet he didn't originate from Marvel or DC.
• Xenomorph Xerox: His base shape after being converted into nanites. He mainly uses it for stealth.

Starfire

Koriand'r of Tamaran a.k.a. Starfire

• Action Girl: Oh, yes.
• Adaptational Modesty: Her costume is more in line with her Teen Titans (2003) depiction than her swimsuit from The '80s - her actual bathing suit here.
• Ambiguously Bi: Tamaran was very much a free-love culture, so Kori isn't afraid to be very cuddly towards males and females. And there's also the matter of her kissing both Superboy and Miss Martian - to learn more languages, but still.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The warrior princess was picked to lead the Team after a popular vote.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Her cooking is... interesting. In the Chinese meaning.
• Does Not Like Spam: Tofu reminds her of the gruel she was forced to eat when she still was a Citadelan prisoner.
• Fiery Redhead: A literal case when she flies. More seriously, she's very much in touch with her emotions and isn't afraid to show it.
• Flaming Hair: The energy she absorbs from the sun migrates towards her scalp and uses her hair as exhaust conduit, which leaves a plasma trail behind her.
• Flying Firepower: The Light outright calls her one.
• Girly Bruiser: Quite physical when she goes to town with the enemy, her personality has the traditionally feminine qualities of compassion and openess.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Orange, actually. Still a babe.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: She genuinely doesn't get why humans bother so much with nudity. On the other side, she's aware of her great beauty and isn't afraid to use it.
• Jabba Table Manners: Some women can eat anything with utter class and elegance. Kori is not one of these.
• Nice Gal: Chipper, cuddly and sunny, that's Kori!
• Nightmare Fetishist: She cooed over a sea louse, finding it "adorable". Kaldur also discreetly snarked it was the reason why she was attracted to Machina.
• The Power of the Sun: Her powers come from the ultraviolet light she absorbs.
• Redheads Are Ravishing: Kori is the resident fanservice girl, causing several of her male teammates to admire her beauty and sex-appeal. She's also infamously a redhead.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: She's basically the deuteragonist and Love Interest for the main character.
• The Tease: She outright kisses people to learn languages instead of merely touching them because it's more fun and really enjoys entering her teammates' personal space.
• Secret-Keeper: She's the only member of the Team to be aware Machina's a self-insert.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She meets Jacob when he helps her to flee a life of enslavement and grow closer from him as they are doing superheroics together.
• Stripperiffic: Her costume actually needs to cover her skin as less as possible, due to her powers being solar-powered. And because one of her abilities is enhanced durability, there's no need for armor.
• Vague Age: She was around the human equivalent of fifteen when the Citadel captured her, but she doesn't know how much time she spent enslaved.

Kid Flash

Wally West a.k.a. Kid Flash

• Arbitrary Skepticism: He refuses to believe in magic and maintain science can explain everything. This despite his close friend Kaldur using magic on a daily basis.
• Big Eater: As always.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Really enjoyed the sight of Starfire making out with Miss Martian to learn her language.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Poor thing is left a drooling mess when he first meets Starfire and later events don't help.
• Super-Speed: He's a speedster, so this is a no-brainer.

Robin

Dick Grayson a.k.a. Robin

• The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest and smallest of the team, if not unexperienced.
• Badass Normal: Compared to the other members of the Team, Robin only has his training and wits.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • He thinks he ought to be the leader. Except that, he doesn't actually know how to lead.
  • He's very nosy and refuses to leave some matters alone. Machina gently calls him out on this, since this kind of behaviour could really hurt his friends.
• Mythology Gag: He cannot help but admire Kori's beauty and sex-appeal, which echoes their comics counterparts dating.
• Not So Above It All: Since his main contacts with attractive women were them trying to kill or hurt him and he didn't entered puberty, he thought he was immune to feminine wiles. Enters a bikini-clad Kori, and our little bird suddenly discovers his libido.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: He loves pulling this. He even manages to use it against Machina in spite of his teammate's ultrasound radar - by hiding himself behind his cape à la Bela Lugosi.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Tries to shame Machina for showing no remorse regarding the fact he almost killed Ivo. It doesn't take, since Jacob merely concedes they will have to disagree on this point.

Miss Martian

M'gann M'orzz a.k.a. Miss Martian

• Clingy Jealous Girl: Decidedly not okay with Starfire kissing Superboy, even if she only wanted to learn the languages he knew.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: At least she's less of a Cordon Bleugh Chef than Kori...
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Her preferred shape for everyday life.
• Mind Manipulation: Her forte.
• Put on a Bus: Haunted by the trauma from Psimon taking over her mind, and her transformation into a Burning Martian, she decides to leave the Team for a short while to heal and gain a better grasp of her abilities.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: She's able of it, but this talent isn't her favourite.

Superboy

Superboy

• Can't Catch Up: Angsts over being a half-breed because that means he'll never reach Superman's level.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Cue angstfest because it means he's obviously inferior to the entirely Kryptonian Superman.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: After he confessed he was a polyglot due to Cadmus's telepathic teaching, Starfire decided she wanted to learn... Poor boy was so shocked he forgot to sock her for touching him without his permission.
• The Power of the Sun: His power levels actually depend on solar wavelengths - red sunlight will make him sick, yellow sunlight gives him enhanced abilities, and blue sunlight grants him the full Kryptonian package.
• Super-Strength: Part of being a Kryptonian... well, half-Kryptonian.
• Took a Level in Badass: Thanks to Machina figuring how Kryptonian morphology reacts to various solar radiations and gifting him a solar suit.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Red sunlight will ruin his day in spite of him not being a pure Kryptonian.
  • After his solar suit upgrades him to Superman's full abilities, he has to be careful or he will consume all the energy stocked within and be forced to wait for a recharge.

Aqualad

Kaldur'ahm a.k.a. Aqualad

• Deadpan Snarker: Beware, for being a waterbender doesn't mean he's unable to dish some mean burns.
• Does Not Like Spam: Cooked eel, for some reason.
• The Lancer: Here, he opted to become second-in-command after Starfire.
• Making a Splash: Part of the Atlantean training.
• Not So Stoic: Even he is appalled by Kori's cooking.

Artemis

Artemis Crock

• Eating the Eye Candy: She was quite the happy spectator when Jacob and Superboy decided to practice wrestling... bare-chested.
• Willing Channeler: When the whole Tower of Fate fiasco happens, she decided to wear the helmet of Fate since she was the less able fighter.
  • Then averted later. The whole experience was so bad for her that she says that she has no intention of finding him a host, like she promised, since she doesn't want to inflict that on anyone else.

Mechanical entities

The Fog

The Fog, the Entity, the Remnant, Calculus

• Big Damn Heroes: It saved Machina from irreversible deletion when the Calculator ambushed him.
  • It later joins in with many other artificial intelligences and cyborgs in aiding Machina against the Dweller.
• Came Back Strong: Dr Serling tried to kill the Fog by giving it an existensialist crisis. It partially worked... and let the surviving remains attain sapience.
• Contemplate Our Navels: It was nonplussed by Machina going way beyond what logic and reason would dictate, and found itself fascinated by the possibility of evoluting.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: As the Fog, its only goal was self-preservation. Attaining self-awareness and meeting Machina let it realize it could become so much more.

Moya

Moya

• Adaptational Personality Change: More like "Adaptational Given a Personality".
• Living Ship: She belongs to M'gann.
• Not So Above It All: Unable to feel lonely or bored, but will grow annoyed when you forget to feed her a "treat". She outright swallowed Jacob's hand while he was holding one.
• Organic Technology: A staple of Martian culture.
• Shout-Out: She's a Living Ship named Moya.
• The Voiceless: Mainly expresses herself through telepathic feelings.

Rommie

New Genesphere, Super Cycle, Rommie

• Accidental Truth: Her calling Machina a "Prime" - when she met him, his aura was so strong she thought he was amongst the upper echelons of Earth's machines. Foreshadowing points to Jacob becoming the Elemental Embodiment of the Machine Kingdom, so she wasn't wrong.
• Constantly Curious: She's a Scout unit, being curious is in her code.
• Genki Girl: Very enthusiastic about her job.
• Large Ham: Her speech tends towards the grandiose and the occasional bouts of Ye Olde Butchered English. She is from New Genesis...
• I Choose to Stay: When given the opportunity to be returned to New Genesis, she asks to pursue her exploration mission on Earth.
• Innocently Insensitive: She fretted over the tragedy of Red Tornado being unable to fulfill his prime directive... which was to slaughter the Justice League. Yeah, awkward.
• Shout-Out: Machina nicknames her Rommie after the Living Ship from Andromeda.
• You Are Number 6: She first introduced her self by her serial number 72046-Fel-Alvec-Rom, but gladly accepted a more personal designation.

Mother Box

Mother Box

• God in Human Form: Rommie consistently refers to Mother Boxes as the highest authority for New Genesis and Apokolips' mechanical hierarchy, and they possess stupendous abilities - such as warping spacetime to open a Boom Tube.
• Innocently Insensitive: She starts poking and prodding at Jacob when she first meets him, curious at this new Machine Spirit. When he calls her on it, she apologizes immediately.
• Nice Gal: Mister Miracle's Mother Box is very friendly and affable when Machina talks with her.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. All Mother Boxes are named Mother Box, this is the inflection which differentiates them.