Geoffrey St. John

Geoffrey St. John is the leader of the Kingdom of Acorn's Royal Secret Service, having reestablished the organization following its destruction at the hands of Dr. Robotnik in honor of his father, Ian St. John, who was also his predecessor. Following Robotnik's Coup d'état, he gathered the few remaining members of the old Secret Service and formed them into the Rebel Underground, an organization originally proposed to King Maximillian Acorn but never put into action. After some time working independently, his group met the Knothole Freedom Fighters, and after a number of meetings began working together with them. For a time, Geoffrey even contended with Sonic the Hedgehog for the hand of Princess Sally Acorn, but eventually found his true love in Hershey Cat, a member of the new Secret Service team formed following Robotnik's defeat. Since then, Geoffrey has been leading missions against Dr. Eggman and other villains in the service of Kings Max and later Elias Acorn.

Childhood
Old enough to have been a young child during the last years before the Overlanders fled Mobius and traveled into space, Geoffrey idolized his father Ian St. John. The last he saw of his father was when Ian departed on a mission to transport Queen Alicia Acorn and her son Prince Elias Acorn to Angel Island for their protection. When the vessel they were traveling on was shot down by Overlanders, Ian perished. Afterwards, Geoffrey presumably went into hiding after Dr. Robotnik seized power, and remained so for years until becoming an adult.

Rebel Underground
Geoffrey established the Rebel Underground towards the latter end of Robotnik's dictatorship, determined to strike a blow for his kingdom and for his lost father. On one particular mission into Robotropolis, he ran into none other than Sally Acorn, who had just set an explosive device in one of Robotnik's facilities. Naturally suspicious due to his years of training, Geoffrey held her at crossbow point up until the bomb went off, knocking them both off their feet with the explosion. Realizing that the same facility he himself had been targeting was now gone, Geoffrey thanked Sally and introduced himself. Given the anonymity of his group, Sally was skeptical, but that didn't keep her from being intrigued. The two then came under attack by SWATbots, and with a little teamwork were able to make and escape to rejoin Sally's temporary backup team, the Substitute Freedom Fighters back when they were still recruits. Geoffrey immediately gone on the wrong foot with Hamlin due to their similarly volatile personalities, and Sally had to intervene to get them to stop fighting. With that done, Sally introduced Geoffrey to the other members of the group-Arlo, Penelope Platypus, and Dylan-and announced that he would be joining them on their current mission. The nature of that mission: to knock out three energy substations providing power to the Robotropolis defense grid, leaving the city open to ground attacks. Joining in the attack on the first station, Geoffrey helped the team as they dealt with Robotnik's Orb-Bots, security robots armed with lasers that held the group pinned down. Fortunately, they managed to turn the tables and escape, with Geoffrey even rescuing Hamlin from being crushed by a falling robot. Despite this act, Hamlin remained suspicious, and the two continued to be at each other's throats as time went on. (StH: #20, Princess Sally Miniseries #1)

Hamlin soon approached Geoffrey for combat training, though he seemed more eager for a chance to beat the Skunk to a pulp. Geoffrey soon demonstrated his superior skill, only to have Princess Sally show him up in a similar contest. He then accompanied the group in the attack on the final substation, infiltrating the installation by using hang gliders. Landing, they made their way into the interior of the island holding the station, and had almost completed their task when an Octo-Pod robot attacked, grabbing Sally. Evading the attacker, Geoffrey planted the last of the group's explosives, including setting one on the pod, and then ran alongside the others in escaping. He then reported in to Dr. Robotnik, having apparently placed Sally in a stasis pod and replaced her with an Auto-Automaton duplicate in order to sabotage the Freedom Fighters. His absence from the group's following mission elicited further suspicion from Hamlin, which appeared to be well-founded. When they broke into the command center of the base they were attacking, Geoffrey was there waiting for them with Robotnik. Sally then held the group at weapon point before they could attack, and Robotnik revealed that the energy substations had been a ruse, and that Sally had been replaced by a duplicate he had created in order to lead the Freedom Fighters to their doom. However, when he attempted to Roboticize the "real" Sally in her pod, the process was halted by a feedback loop caused by the Roboticizer trying to Roboticize a robot. The Sally Robotnik had thought to be his creation turned out to be the genuine article, and Geoffrey turned out to have duped both Robotnik and the Substitute Freedom Fighters. Unworried, Robotnik activated his Stealth Bot sentinels and ordered them to attack, but Geoffrey's Rebel Underground arrived just in time, burrowing through the floor and disabling the automatons. Greeting his associates Fleming and Smiley, Geoffrey accompanied them and Sally's team in escaping Robotnik's self-destructing base. Afterwards, Geoffrey and Sally told the Substitute Freedom Fighters the whole story behind their deception, and how Geoffrey had told Sally of Robotnik's planned deception. By activating the robot prematurely, he had let it pose as Sally so he could figure out the specifics of Robotnik's plan, and then placed it in stasis while reawakening the real Sally. His mission done, Geoffrey took his leave, determining that it would be best for his group to remain separate from the Freedom Fighters. To remember him by, he left Sally with a kiss, and in doing so planted the seeds of a romantic rivalry for her heart between himself and Sonic the Hedgehog. (Princess Sally Miniseries #2, #3)

Geoffrey and Sally crossed paths once again some time later, when both the Knothole Freedom Fighters and the Rebel Underground went after the same target: the robot Dynamac 3000, an adaptable combat machine being shipped to the western part of the continent both groups inhabited. The two ran into each other in the compartment of one of Robotnik's trains where the robot was being stored, Geoffrey proving as coy as ever by suggesting that they were more than just friends. While his men worked to stop the engine, Geoffrey had come after the robot itself, only for it to activate due to a fail-safe installed by Robotnik to work with the engines cutting out. In the course of the ensuing battle, Geoffrey met Sonic for the first time, and immediately assumed that he was another of Sally's Freedom Fighter trainees, much to Sonic's anger. Just as with Hamlin, Geoffrey found himself butting heads with the Hedgehog as they struggled to defeat Dynamac. Not even trying to work together, each tried his own method to bring down the robot, but neither Sonic's speed nor Geoffrey's gadgetry prevailed. The robot was soon destroyed, however, and Geoffrey took the train for the use of his Rebel Underground, leaving Sally with yet another kiss as he went off. Not long afterwards, Sally called upon Geoffrey to accompany her into the Zone of Silence along with Sonic to rescue King Max and plant the Neutralizer device to prevent the Zone from collapsing. At Geoffrey insisted that he go alone, and his view of Sonic as a juvenile-despite being only a few years older than him-brought them both to the point of an argument yet again. The trio made their way into the Zone and found themselves confronted with visions of King Acorn's past in the zone, and before they could make any progress the Zone began to collapse, dragging them down into a destructive vortex. Putting aside their differences as the King, his mind disrupted by his years in the Zone, attacked, Geoffrey took Sally to safety while Sonic stayed behind to confront the monarch. The Neutralizer proved effective, and Geoffrey and his friends escaped the Zone with the King in tow. (StH: #31, #41)

As King Max's body began crystallizing as a result of a deal made with the sorcerer Ixis Naugus while in the Zone, Geoffrey returned to Knothole to support Sally through the difficult experience. When Dr. Quack then proposed a way to travel into the King's fevered dreams and try to get through to him, Geoffrey flipped a coin with Sonic to see which of them would go, only to lose. Sonic proved successful in bringing the King at least partially back to his senses, and Geoffrey had to admit to a grudging admiration for him. Like members of other major resistance groups, he would then arrive at a wilderness retreat proposed by Sally to help her friends unwind, only to disrupt their relaxation with his suspicions of Sonic's uncle Sir Charles Hedgehog being a spy for Robotnik. Geoffrey quickly angered the remainder of the Freedom Fighters, referring to them as children fighting a war best left to adults. When he persisted in his accusations of Uncle Chuck, Sonic attacked him, only to be defeated by Geoffrey's tactical skill. However, any satisfaction from that victory was short-lived as Geoffrey took a punch from Antoine D'Coolette, another Freedom Fighter who accused Geoffrey of being a traitor, as he claimed that the Rebel Underground had never really existed. Questioned as to his source, he revealed the history of the Rebel Underground's proposal by his father, Armand D'Coolette, as a precaution against King Acorn's enemies, but that it had never been put into place before Robotnik's coup. The two then continued fighting briefly until Sally stepped in to break them up, and Geoffrey left the group in as bad a temper as those he had angered. (StH: #43, #46)

Barely any time passed before Geoffrey was back, this time serving as King Max's agent in arresting Sonic for his alleged part in murdering Sally. Taking him into custody, he brought Sonic before the King to stand trial, and soon saw his rival being sent to Devil's Gulag for life imprisonment. Geoffrey was charged with escorting him to the transport that would take him to the prison, and took grim satisfaction in beating on the manacled Hedgehog. En route to the prison, however, the plane was shot down by SWATbots and Sonic escaped. Geoffrey and his men soon came in hot pursuit, determined to bring Sonic to justice. Having placed a bug in Sonic's restraints, Geoffrey soon caught up to him in a tunnel network, where the two fought a grueling battle. Fully convinced of Sonic's guilt, Geoffrey attacked him while professing his love for Sally, while Sonic replied with his own declaration. In the end, Sonic proved too powerful for Geoffrey but was then forced to dive off a cliff to escape him. Surviving through his quick thinking, Sonic was able to evade Geoffrey's pursuit long enough to enlist the aid of Dulcy, his dragon ally who flew him out of Geoffrey's reach-temporarily, at least. Following his quarry to Angel Island, Geoffrey found himself dealing with another of Sonic's rivals as well: Knuckles the Echidna, Guardian of the island and another old friend of Sally's. Geoffrey briefly convinced the Echidna that Sonic had killed Sally, inciting Knuckles to go after Sonic himself. However, with the intervention of Espio the Chameleon and a little time for Knuckles' temper to cool off, St. John found his pursuit blocked by Knuckles' jurisdiction over the island. Dulcy soon returned and with a dragon's inability to lie informed Geoffrey and Knuckles that Sonic had been framed by Robotnik. Humbled, Geoffrey redirected his efforts at an attack on Robotnik, which Sonic and Knuckles joined without hesitation. Together, the trio proved too much for Robotnik's minions, and Geoffrey kept up the fight while Sonic and Robotnik had their final showdown. In the end, everything turned out all right: Sally was revealed to have merely been badly injured and had recovered, Robotnik was dead, and Geoffrey was officially instated as the head of a new Secret Service by King Acorn, whose Auto-Automaton duplicate had been the one to rule against Sonic. Around this time was also when Geoffrey met Hershey Cat for the first time, following her unwitting part in the murder attempt against Sally. (StH: #47, #48, #49, #50)