An exceptionally bright engineering student at M.I.T., Andy Meadows eventually found himself in a bizarre group of people, a group that was really, really, really into high tech gear (though not as much as himself, mind you). They were the Troubleshooters, the best M.I.T. had to offer in 1986, and Andy was one of their brightest members, hands down!
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As an engineering student, it was inevitable that Andy would end up in Jenny Swensen’s engineering classes, as she was the head professor in that area on campus. Due to this fact, he and the other Troubleshooters couldn’t help but get involved with Jenny’s efforts to retrieve her father’s work after his death, which she believed was due to foul play on his employer, Fritz Krotze’s, part.
Adoring Jenny like the other four Troubleshooters, Andy indeed helped Jenny retrieve Doctor Swensen’s work, the prototype for the Mark 2 M.A.X. Armor. This involved breaking into Krotze International, of course, but Andy and the Troubleshooters nonetheless succeeded in their mission, stealing the armor and the lab that it was built in (it was mobile).
After defeating one of Krotze’s flunkies later on (who was piloting the Mark 1 M.A.X. prototype), Andy was instrumental in helping Jenny break down the M.A.X. technology in order to determine exactly how it worked. Of course, this work helped the Troubleshooters develop partial M.A.X. suits all their own, which would prove to be an incredibly bad thing down the road.
Eventually, the forces moving against Jenny Swensen landed her in jail, and the five students that were the Troubleshooters decided to use their technology to help Jenny, becoming accidental heroes in the process, having learned of a plot to slay the English Prime Minister in their search for proof of Jenny’s innocence. During this mission, Andy debuted his M.A.X. tech: the Beam-Splitter!
After this, however, the other Troubleshooters decided that being heroes was too dangerous, and went to give their M.A.X. tech back to Jenny (who’d since gotten out of jail). Andy was very, very reluctant to do so, though, as he’d begun to like the laser weapon he’d built, as well as the idea of being a hero. In fact, he told the others this when Steel Hawk struck.
The villain who tried to kill the Prime Minister, Steel Hawk wanted revenge, and had managed to track the Troubleshooters down. Knowing that Andy was the deadliest (with that ranged weapon, and all), Steel Hawk went after him first, and managed to grab the arm his Beam-Splitter was on. Triggering the device, Steel Hawk shot Andy’s laser right through him, killing him instantly…