Mick Rory

"Why do they call you people the heat? I'm the heat!"

- Mick confronting the CCPD

Mick Rory, nicknamed Heat Wave by Cisco Ramon, is a pyromaniac criminal and accomplice of Leonard Snart. Together with Snart, Rory was an opponent of the Flash for a time, before being recruited into Rip Hunter's team. Rory traveled through time, as both an ally and an enemy of the Time Masters, before finally vowing to kill Vandal Savage.

Biography
In 1990, a teenage Mick's house was burned down, which killed both of his parents, leaving him as a target for The Pilgrim. However The ATOM arrives to save him and the Legends bring him to the Waverider. After, a younger Sara Lance arrives on board. Mick tries to flirt with her, but only to receive a slap. Older Sara Lance appears to break them up. Later, Mick accompanies the team to the Refuge, where he only leans against the wall doing nothing. Older Mick appears and tells him not to do anything wrong in his life. Mick agrees and is returned to his timeline.

In 2014, Mick was working on a job with Leonard Snart, however it went wrong. Half of Rory's body was burnt in a resulting fire, and despite being taken to the hospital for medical attention, he escaped from the ambulance and fled.

Teaming up with Captain Cold
Later that year, Snart gave him a handheld flamethrower and offered to work a few more jobs with him in Central City. Mick, pleased at the offer and the heat gun, gladly accepted. Snart had him learn how to fix up the flamethrower when needed, which proved handy.

The two men began by crashing through a frozen door in to a building. Snart had hoped to wait for The Flash, rather than steal the expensive cars inside, though he failed to appear, resulting in them leaving the scene. Back at their base, Snart revealed his plan to steal an expensive painting, Fire & Ice, to Mick, which was being brought back to Central City by a rich couple. Sometime later, the men intercepted the couple as they were leaving their plane with the painting, requesting that they call the cops.

When the police arrived, Snart attempted to use his cold gun to freeze them, though it was no match against their specially-made shields. Instead, Mick showed himself, instead using his handheld flamethrower to burn them. He was momentarily mesmerized by the flames, but he was stopped when Detective West shot through his gun from afar. They returned to their base, where Mick began fixing the minor damage. Snart quickly approached him with his gun pointed towards him, arguing that his obsession with fire would get the better of him, as with their previous job. Mick in turn pointed his flamethrower back, rebutting that Leonard was just as obsessed, but with precision on their heists. Mick wished to simply stop at the painting, but Snart wished to further kill The Flash. He reasoned with Mick, who decided to burn Fire & Ice and continue on.

Realizing that The Flash had partners, they tracked down Caitlin Snow. They took her to their hideout and recorded an ultimatum for The Flash, asking him to come to a location at sundown. Mick tied up Caitlin, who remarked upon his third-degree burns over his body. He claimed to have had fire reveal his "true self". He wished to find out her true self, but was stopped by Snart, who wished to leave. Mick gagged Caitlin and placed a bomb attached to a tripwire under her seat. At the crossroads of their meeting with The Flash, they began shooting, missing him almost every time. However, they were able to hit him, knocking him down. Before he could be killed, Detective Thawne intervened with an element-proof shield. The Flash rushed him to safety and returned, deciding to take the blasts. He led the two beams towards each other, cancelling each other out and knocking the men away from The Flash. From there, they were arrested and taken back to the Central City Police Department. Mick attempted to escape, but was held back. They were soon on their way to Iron Heights Prison, before Leonard's plan came in to affect. The truck was intercepted and the back doors were opened by Leonard Snart's sister.

Aiding Rip Hunter
1 year later Snart and his partner Mick Rory conducted a heist on Central City Bullion exchange and making their escape in a mini-van when they were intercepted by Rip Hunter, who took them to Star City alongside the other heroes. At first, he was a helpful member of the team, working alongside the others, but tensions began to arise as time went on, such as when he attempted to stay behind in a possible 2046 where Star City was conquered by various gangs.

After finding out that he was only recruited by Rip because he was a package deal with Snart, Mick betrayed the team to a group of time pirates that had taken the Acheron and sought to take the Waverider. No longer trusted to be around the team safely, Snart brought Mick to an unknown time period and seemingly shot him with his cold gun, Snart however, intentionally missed and instead knocked Mick unconscious with the butt of his gun.

Hunting Rip Hunter's team
Mick was found by the Time Masters and brought to the Vanishing Point. Mick was trained by the Time Masters and became the very bounty hunter he and his former team had been fleeing from, Chronos.

Mick was sent by the Time Masters to bring Rip Hunter in after he commandeered the Waverider. Mick arrived in 2016 shortly after Rip Hunter's team departed to 1975. While investigating, he killed two onlookers whom he deemed to not be integral to the timeline. He then traveled back to 1975 in pursuit of Rip, where he found a camouflaged Waverider with only Jefferson Jackson inside. Mick began an assault on the vessel in an attempt to break through the hull, but was interrupted by Rip, Carter Hall, Kendra Saunders, Ray Palmer and Martin Stein, along with Aldus Boardman. They were soon joined by Sara Lance, Leonard Snart and his past self. The Atom and Firestorm tried their best to fend him off, before the team were able to time travel away to safety. During the battle, Aldus was dealt a mortal blow by one of Mick 's weapons, and he passed away aboard the Waverider shortly after.

Mick later followed the Waverider into 1986 into Soviet Russia. At the same time, a Russian jet intercepted them, which Rip tricked into disabling Mick 's ship. Surviving the crash, Mick worked with Time Master Druce into luring Rip into a trap with a false promise of amnesty. Before Mick could execute Rip, the latter revealed that Mick's past self warned him of the betrayal, as his team come out of hiding and force both Mick and Druce to retreat. Mick later pursued the Waverider in the timestream, the resulting dogfight causing the Waverider to emerge in Star City in 2046. Mick then tracked the Waverider down in 1958 and began to attack the team while inside. The Waverider was then forced to flee, leaving Ray, Kendra and Sara behind.

Mick knocked Rip unconscious and captured Snart aboard the Waverider, just as Jax and Stein merged together into Firestorm. Back on his ship, Mick revealed his retrieval by the Time Masters and conversion into Chronos after being knocked unconscious by Snart and abandoned, vowing that he would kill Lisa again and again, forcing Snart to watch each time. Mick tracked down the rest of the team to Nanda Parbat in 1960 where Kendra, Rip, Ray, Firestorm and Sara engaged him in combat where he was ultimately subdued by Ray. Before any further action could happen, Snart (now with his right hand missing after freezing it with his Cold Gun and shattering it to escape his handcuffs) stopped the team and forced Chronos to reveal himself as Mick. Mick lunged for his gun but was knocked out by Sara and woke up in a holding cell aboard the Waverider. Mick vowed to kill everyone once he got out with Rip and the others (minus Snart) believing that they could undo the Time Masters' training and get their old team member back.

In his holding cell, he was visited by Rip and Sara, the former apologized and took the blame for bringing Mick onto the team under false pretenses and the latter encouraging him to repair his partnership with Snart as he was still a loyal friend to Mick despite being sold out. Mick and Snart later get into a fist-fight inside of the cell with Mick overpowering Snart and refusing to kill him despite the promise of getting to take the jump ship and escape to freedom. Mick then warned the team about Hunters, a team of mercenaries working for the Time Masters that lack humanity and will pursue the team, including Mick as he failed to bring them in, and will stop at nothing until they are all dead.

Reformation
As a member of Rip Hunter's team once again, Mick proved himself an efficient fighter, with additional knowledge of time travel and the Time Masters organization, both of which helped when the team was hunted by the Pilgrim.

Mick opposed Rip Hunter's decision to bring the captured Vandal Savage to the Vanishing Point before the Time Masters, knowing that the organization would not suffer a "betrayal" and would execute the team's members. This proved true after Druce ordered the Waverider boarded and the crew captured.

However, the Time Masters had different designs for Mick, wanting to brainwash him into being Chronos once again. Tortured by Declan, Mick managed to keep his sanity, focusing on his feeling of being needed by the team, but pretended to be controlled once again. However, when Declan ordered Chronos to shoot Leonard Snart, Mick shot the Time Master himself and crushed his head with a boot. Mick's Chronos suit and its related list of commands was used by Ray Palmer and Gideon to send the entry codes to the Time Masters HQ, disengaging the Waverider from tractor beams. After escaping the captivity, the team formulated a plan to destroy the Oculus device, which allowed the Time Masters to predict and control the timeline, supporting the rise of Vandal Savage. Ray Palmer has set up the Oculus to explode, but realized the need to stay with the device to prevent the failsafe from blocking the explosion. Mick volunteered to stay in Ray's stead, only for Leonard Snart to knock him out and sacrifice his life, destroying the device and killing Druce. On the Waverider, Mick, shaken by the events, discussed Snart's sacrifice with Ray, and vowed to use his newly-gained free will to kill Vandal Savage, putting an end to the Time Masters' plans.

Future
He sent Rex Tyler from an unknown time period to warn Rip's team about entering the Waverider

Personality
Mick is obsessive, unstable, a pyromaniac, hot-headed and sometimes loses focus. He is highly impulsive, combative, and is somewhat hyperactive as he despises sitting around and doing nothing. He is certainly a man of action who prefers getting things done as opposed to analyzing them as thoroughly as his partner.

Despite his less than sophisticated demeanor, Mick is incredibly philosophical in his view of the nature of fire itself. He had poetically described it as being ever-changing, indefinable, and transformative. He views his burns as revealing the truth of who he really is, and as such, he has embraced this self-determined truth of who he is: A man who burns the world to reveal its own inner nature as it did to him. This is an unusual trait, but does show that he is much more than the image of the unstable pyromaniac that he projects himself as.

In spite of Mick's nature, he still has a code of honor, even though he initially claimed to Ray Palmer that his only loyalty is to Leonard Snart. During the rescue mission from the Russian gulag, Mick refused to abandon Ray, despite Leonard's insistence to leave him behind after Ray insulted the interrogator's mother and took a beating in order to keep Mick from being tortured further. However, it appears that any shred of loyalty and honor he has regarding Rip Hunter's team was gone when he learned that Rip only recruited him to the team to sway Leonard into joining and viewed him simply as a dumb psychopathic arsonist, causing Mick to betray Rip to the time pirates to give up The Waverider in exchange to be sent back to the present day; proving that he is a selfish person in the end.

As he was left in an unknown time, he became wild, eating raw animals until the Time Masters found him, brought him to the Vanishing Point. As he lost himself from being in an alien time for too long, they manipulated and trained him as a bounty hunter and assassin over what he described as "lifetimes" and "being reborn". He returned with extensive knowledge of temporal physics, Time Master protocols and futuristic weapons and technology, on par with that of Rip Hunter. However, despite his knowledge, he was still bent on avenging himself against the team and Snart. He threatened to kill Lisa Snart over and over by time traveling, as well as forcing Leonard to watch each time. However, he later returned to his old self while back on the Waverider and became a member of the team once more. He also became more emotionally reflective, forgiving himself for accidentally setting fire to his house and killing his family. He also seemed to forgive Snart and the team, becoming more friendly towards them.

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: Stemming from his violent nature, Mick is in top physical condition, shown to be very muscular. He is very resilient, as he was unyielding to most forms of torture.
 * Expert marksman: Mick has the skill to hit multiple police officers, although they were using shields to protect themselves at the time. He also could handle regular weapons, as he did in the Old West.
 * Master hand-to-hand combatant: Despite his unstable and hot-headed demeanor, Mick is a very capable unarmed fighter. When seemingly taken captive by a mafia boss, he and Leonard quickly broke free and killed all of the mafia boss and most of his men with ease. He was even able to fight on par with a highly skilled assassin, Sara Lance. After his training in the Vanishing Point, his abilities appear to have improved significantly as he is able to swiftly subdue and almost kill Snart with little difficulty, give the entire team trouble on numerous occasions as Chronos and defeat Vandal Savage.
 * Skilled engineer: Like Cold, Rory has shown himself to be adept at mechanical engineering and repairs, as he regularly repairs his heat gun and has memorized the entirety of its design and functionality, being more than capable of repairing the secondary internal fuel chamber without assistance.
 * Temporal agent training: After left stranded in time, the Time Masters found Mick and forcibly trained him as one of their agents over a span of countless years. Operating under the alias of "Chronos", Mick became one of their most skilled assassins, well-versed in the various future tech proved by the Time Masters. Also from this, Mick obtained a greater clarity and understanding of the manipulation of time. Like Rip, Mick now has full understanding of the time-space continuum, able to immediately comprehend how any changes in time will effect the rest of the timestream.
 * Indomitable will: Will at times seeing deranged or barbaric, Mick is shown to have a remarkable fortitude, unyielding to seemingly any form of torture, at times even seeming to revel in it. Even the Time Masters admitting their brainwashing of Mick into Chronos the first time was only a partial success. During their second attempt, Mick was shown to be very deceptive, feign being successfully broken fully consumed by his Chronos persona long enough to leave him prime to turn on them.

Equipment

 * Heat Gun: Can generate a beam of absolute hot temperature. When fired, the heat gun increases the temperature of the air dramatically, like some sort of "extreme heat wave". This wave achieves "absolute hot", or Klein temperature. When activated, certain lights on it turn red, in contrast to the Cold Gun's blue. The weapon can burn almost anything. The flame blast projects to any location and burns anything in its path.
 * Goggles: Mick also wears a pair of black wraparound goggles, which are designed to protect his eyes from the flashes given off by his heat gun.
 * Bounty Hunter armor: When Mick joined the time masters he was trained to be a temporal bounty hunter, when his training ended he was given armor to conceal his identity and keep protection from enemies.
 * Bounty Hunter rifle: Rory was also armed with a powerful blaster rifle that was given to him to kill Rip Hunter's team.

Trivia

 * His mom played Captain & Tenille records back in the '70s.
 * He mentioned whenever he sees Hawkman and Hawkgirl fly off, he gets hungry for chicken.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC Comics continuity Chronos is an alias used by three different, but loosely connected, super-villains, two of which being enemies of The Atom. The first was David Clinton (first appearing in The Atom #3, 1962), a meticulous thief who based his crimes on precise timing and used gimmick time themed weapons. This character did, in fact, create a time traveling machine which latter became the basis of his successors' own equipment. The second incarnation of the character is Walker Gabriel (debuting in Chronos #1, part of his 12-issue mini-series), an actual time traveler and a reluctant hero. The third incarnation of the character is Jia (intoduced in The Atom comics run of 2007), a Chinese woman who had been in a relationship with Ryan Choi, Ray Palmer's replacement as The Atom. She partnered up with Clinton in a scheme to torment Ryan Choi and destroy his life.
 * As the name implies, the characters relate to Chronos, a pre-Socratic Greek deity who personifies time.
 * Chronos has been called Darth Vader and Boba Fett, two characters from the Star Wars franchise.
 * Chronos interacting with his past self as Mick Rory and his teammates was the cause of a Predestination Paradox.
 * Although Mick referred to his Chronos armor as a "robot suit" in jest, it wasn't confirmed whether or not the suit could, in fact, act autonomously of its wearer. Some semi-autonomy is possible, since Ray Palmer and Gideon were able to use the suit's glove to send "Chronos's" commands to the Time Masters HQ.