Eager and energetic, teenager Fernanda Rodriguez is the Locust, protector of the lost and the nomadic. Equipped with legacy armor, she becomes one of the heroic Champions.
Locust Legacy
Fernanda Rodriguez is from San Diego, California. She is the only child in a family in which carries on the tradition of the Locust Brotherhood: to protect nomad tribes and vulnerable travelers. The Brotherhood was made up of skilled trackers, and it is thought that some could control insects. Each generation, the Brotherhood armor and the mission passes down to firstborn sons—all named Fernando in honor of Spain’s king—for centuries. Since her mother passed away before bearing any sons, Fernanda is given a chance to prove herself to the Locust Brotherhood, despite their disdain at having to pass the armor along to a girl, and takes the name Red Locust. For the last 100 years, the Brotherhood has been focused on finding and saving runaways. The locals who need help contact the Red Locust through the church downtown, per tradition.
When Fernanda as Red Locust tracks the missing Mateo Garza, she runs into the Synthezoid Viv Vision of the Champions, a group of teenage Super Heroes. When Viv detects and traces an R.F.I.D. chip in Mateo’s leg, the two heroes team up to see where the signal originates. They track the signal to a warehouse where Viv discovers the man the Champions have been searching for, who’s in contact with the criminal Mr. Gloom, and holding hostages. Viv advises Fernanda to infiltrate with caution but when Fernanda finds out there are a least two dozen hostages inside, she barrels through the window and gets shot at by numerous criminals. Her armor protects her from the onslaught of bullets and Viv jumps in front of her to deflect the firefight. They confront the man in charge who threatens to detonate all the implants currently located in their hostages, but Red Locust punches him in the face before he can trigger the detonation. Viv then asks if she’d be interested in joining the Champions and Fernanda responds with an resounding yes while excitedly hugging Viv by picking her up off the ground.
Locust Armor
Two hundred years ago, the Brotherhood built the armor that Fernanda wears, as a symbol of their cause. So much of it has been replaced over the years, with improvements made, leaving little left of the original armor. When Fernanda receives the armor, she immediately makes improvements to it, studying hydraulics and exoskeletons, giving it super strength and an ability to jump high.
Fernanda learns things quickly and is an expert engineer, able to make marked improvements to her Locust Armor. She is also bilingual, able to speak Spanish and English fluently.
Champion Comrades and Gun Goons
Fernanda starts out as a lone Locust, protecting the lost, the runaways, and vagabonds as part of the Locust Brotherhood’s mission. She soon teams up with Champions team member Viv Vision to free hostages from a child-trafficking ring, held there by order of Mr. Gloom. They end up in a firefight against his goons but make it out with the hostages unscathed.
After Fernanda joins the Champions per Viv’s recommendation and Kamala Khan, AKA Ms. Marvel’s invitation, she helps protect people from terrible threats, such as the hordes of Niffleheim and the Dísir, Valkyries of Bor. She also goes on a mission with a Champions strike team, along with fellow members Amka Aliyak, AKA Snowguard, Lana Baumgartner, AKA Bombshell, Qureshi Gupta, AKA Pinpoint, and Joaquin Torres, AKA Falcon to dismantle another child-trafficking ring. Locust fights alongside Champions members Miles Morales, AKA Spider-Man, Amadeus Cho, AKA Brawn, Victor Alvarez, AKA Power Man, Sooraya Qadir, AKA Dust, and Riri Williams, AKA Ironheart.
Locust Lore
When Red Locust came upon Rayshaun Lucas, AKA Patriot, and Joaquín Torres, AKA Falcon, at the U.S.-Mexico border liberating migrants stuck in a hot van, she thought them the enemy and punched Patriot. After the misunderstanding was cleared up, a group of people started shooting at them and the trio realized it was a setup. Just then Champions members Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel intervened and offered an assist. During the battle Patriot flirted with Red Locust. After they defeated the attackers, Ms. Marvel asked Red Locust to join the Champions and she attack-hugged her with a resounding yes. Spider-Man also asked Patriot and Falcon to join the Champions and they said yes as well. In her excitement, Red Locust offered to build everyone on the team armor, to cook, babysit, and do anything else they might need.
As Kamala continued to expand the Champions’ roster to help more people in more places, she instructed three teams to tackle three problems. Fernanda, now referred to as the Locust, was part of a strike team outside of Culiacán, Mexico to liberate young girls held prisoner in a child-trafficking ring. The team rescued 77 girls with no fatalities. A victory that the larger Champions team later celebrated. Locust trains with the new Champions members to hone her skills with the team’s, and they go up against the hordes of Niffleheim together.
Despite working on a team, Locust has a tendency to charge into situations without waiting for orders from team leaders such as Viv, and does so on a mission to a former S.H.I.E.L.D. facility now controlled by the military. When the Freelancers, a group of superpowered contractors posing as the military, enter the facility, and Sam showed up with the alien assassin Kaldera, Locust flied into action to stop them. During the battle, Sam retrieved his Nova helmet, which was being held at the facility, and the fighting between the groups ceased with the arrival of the Nova Corps. Without a break, the team went up against Champions teammate Riri Williams, AKA Ironheart, who was being controlled by the Hell demon Blackheart. Blackheart then takes control of the new Champions members, including the Locust, pitting them against the original members. The original team defeated Blackheart and freed their teammates from his hold, and Blackheart’s disappointed father Mephisto pulled him back to his realm.
After a tragedy at Coles Academic High School in New Jersey involving a dragon and the Champions, who attempted to protect the school, Ms. Marvel was gravely injured and Viv went missing. The remaining Champions attended a Legislative Hearing and after their testimony, the S.315 Underage Superhuman Welfare Act passed into law, which outlawed Super Hero activity for those under the age of 21. Armed forces rounded up the teenage heroes across the U.S. including Locust who was at the Champions Mobile Bunker.