Nate Heywood

"I'm a historian. I specialize in deductive historical reconstruction. In layman's terms, I'm a time detective, which I really don't have to be to look at a calendar to see one week after you came to this city, Robin Hood showed up."

- Nate Heywood to Oliver Queen

Dr. Nate Heywood is a historian, specializing in deductive historical reconstruction. Due to his skills, he was able to deduce that an aberration-created reality, one in which the Nazis bombed New York City in 1942, due to the machinations of Damien Darhk and Eobard Thawne, and World War II continued until 1947, was started to cement in timeline, supplanting the previous reality. With the help of Oliver Queen, he was able to locate the submerged Waverider in 2016, waking Mick Rory from time stasis. Together with Rory, Dr. Heywood traveled through time, using his skills as a historian to find the locations and time periods in which different members of the Legends team were stranded. For his support, Nate was made a new member of the team.

Biography
Nate is a hemophiliac and as a result of overprotected parents he was never allowed outside after one scrapped knee at the age of 5. So he spent all of his time studying and took a special interest in history. However he was always interested in stories about his paternal grandfather that his dad told him eventually getting his Dog Tags passed down to him. Eventually Nate left home at 16 for collage.

He eventually became a historian, specializing in historical reconstruction and deduction, calling himself "a time detective". He observed the past and current events of Earth One, with special interest in vigilantes, as shown by him deducing the identities of Green Arrow and all members of Rip Hunter's team, identifying them as "the Legends" and figuring out their appearances in the past from research and overview of historical artifacts and written sources.

In fall 2016, Nate started to notice how historical artifacts, and thus reality itself, started to change from what he knew of it beforehand. Figuring out that the Legends ended up in trouble, Nate gathered his courage and tried to sneak past the security at Mayor Oliver Queen's office when he was not permitted through, trusting Queen to believe his findings as the Green Arrow and as a friend of Sara Lance and Ray Palmer. Oliver wasn't quick to trust, but eventually found Nate's arguments about the changed timeline, with a nuked New York City, convincing and arranged for a submarine to lower himself as well as Dr. Heywood to the submerged The Waverider. The two woke Mick Rory from stasis, apprehending him when the Legends member instinctively attacked the newcomers, but was quickly subdued by Oliver. Mick confirmed Nate's findings and suspicion and, on Oliver's advice, the two decided to travel through time and gather the Legends members that have been scattered throughout time, due to the ship's emergency function before it was hit by a nuke in 1942.

Nate and Mick eventually located and saved all team members sans Rip Hunter, before setting up to safeguard both Albert Einstein and Mileva Maric in case the Nazis, or a rogue time traveler, tries to kidnap them once again. The Legends, with Nate as the newest member, appeared in 1942 prior to Albert Einstein's physics symposium in the guise of CIA, convincing the big guy to tell the public of his ex-wife's accomplishments. Einstein happily obliged, making Mileva's support of his research public, and thus prompting the United States government to safeguard them both. Nate listened to Einstein's speech with wonder and adoration, barely able to believe that they changed history for the better. As Nate was ready to leave the premises along with the other Legends, they were halted by the Justice Society of America members.

Personality
Nate is an easily excitable individual, with great passion for his work and a tendency to ramble off when describing his findings or hypotheses, clashing in character with the no-nonsense attitude of Oliver Queen. Nate is altruistic, ready to go and save a team of complete strangers at the bat of an eye, just because he noticed something terrible might have happened to them in a certain period of history. He is also brave, risking his skin to get help from Oliver and revealing to the vigilante's face that he knows their secret identity; as well as resourceful, in securing both human resources (Oliver's help) and relevant historical artifacts that helped located the Legends throughout time.

Despite calling himself a "time detective", Nate is awed and humbled by the concept of time travel, at first refusing the call, saying that he only intended to go on a salvage mission, before being persuaded by Oliver that this adventure is something he's been waiting for his entire life. His adoration of time travel is further shown when he looks with awe at Einstein's speech, commenting on how he can't believe the Legends, him included, just changed history.

Powers

 * Steel Mimicry: As a result of Eobard Thawne's biomolecular enhancer that Ray made changes to, Nate now has the ability to transform his entire body in steel. This makes him extremely resistant to injury from knives and Ray's A.T.O.M. Exosuit blasts.

Abilities

 * Acrobatics: Nate was able to successfully escape and evade a number of security guards on his quest to reach Mayor Oliver Queen.
 * Genius-level intellect: Nate is an accomplished and resourceful historian, priding himself on deduction. With his deduction skills and extensive work with sources, Nate deduced the identity of Green Arrow and Rip Hunter's Legends, as well as the locations of time-scattered members of the Legends throughout history. Nate is also sharp-witted, able to recognize that the timeline was starting to change due to aberrations, despite previously not being acquainted with the mechanics of time travel. He immediately thought to bring his findings to Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, requesting assistance with saving the Legends.
 * Multilingual: Nate notes he is fluent in English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, and Latin.

Weaknesses

 * Hemophilia: Nate suffers from a condition where his blood doesn't clot properly, making his healing rate several diminished. To which, if injured enough, he could easily bleed to death.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, Nathaniel Heywood is a superhero known as "Citizen Steel", and a member of the Justice Society of America.