Bodie: Bodie was the first successful implantation of the GM nanosuit into a living gerbil. As such, he gained the designation GM01 and is the de facto leader of the team. Unfortunately for everybody involved, he has a problem with following orders. He also doesn't take his training very seriously, which leads to his eventual capture by hamster forces.
Bodie has an unruly mop of purplish hair and a round spot on his upper dorsal side. Bodie's nanosuit of choice has a large pointed helmet. He's more comfortable with his nanites than Carl owing to his extra five weeks of having them, meaning he can control their shape and function even without suiting up entirely.
Carl: Carl (codenamed GM02) is the second gerbil to be granted the GM nanite enhancements. Although technically under Bodie's command, Carl's cool head and much larger size mean that his input is heard in (almost) any situation. He's constantly amazed and grateful that he was chosen to become a GM, so he follows the rules the Doctor lays down without question. In fact, he used to get exasperated with Bodie's constant attempts to undermine the Doctor's authority until he realized that the Doctor wasn't necessarily a nice guy.
Carl is a tall albino gerbil, recognizable mostly for the pink ring in his eyes. His preferred nanosuit has a simple round helmet. Although less attuned to his nanites than Bodie, Carl has mastered an array of non-lethal functions for his suit.
Wai: The newest addition to the GM team, she is the latest experiment of the Doctor. Wai is the genetic fusion of a gerbil and a cat: short nose, retractable claws, slitted pupils, and feline speed, strength, and agility. Her abilities make her nearly as cocky as Bodie, perhaps more so as she was born into power.
The Doctor raised Wai in a small cell for a year, her only interaction with the outside world coming through a computer terminal in one wall. Thus she is incredibly naive about everything a terminal couldn't directly teach her. She regarded the terminal as her mother figure, and just recently discovered that the Linguist was behind her education from the other end of the computer.
The Linguist: The Linguist is the most "normal" looking gerbil of the cast so far. She has no distinguishing markings or hairstyles, so beyond her dry matronly attitude there's nothing to pick her out of a crowd. That is possibly the reason she became a teacher: in gerbil culture, teachers take on small groups of children (4-10 kids) at a time and teach them all they can until their charges are ready to enter adult society. Teachers must therefore know something about every subject as well as possess a soothing neutral "everygerbil" appearance.
The Linguist's strongest subject is language, and in this area is something of a celebrity. This is why the Doctor chose her to teach Wai through the terminal link...she had Wai at a five-month Gerbish proficiency within three weeks, sight unseen. She also has a working knowledge of languages that don't even exist in her universe!
The Doctor: The head of GerbilMech Industries, Inc. ("Building the future for gerbils. One atom at a time.") Also the head scientist of GM's Research and Development division since the death of Alec. He wears thick glasses and always seems to know what's going on outside his office, especially if it involves the GM team.
Doctor got where he is by being ruthless and clinical. He always has a backup plan to get what he wants, although sometimes those backups depend on somebody other than himself.
Marc: Second-in-command to the Doctor, although he's officially only a "Senior Technician" in the company. The Doctor took him under his wing shortly after rising to power at GM, and Marc is always mindful of what would happen if the Doctor was removed. He's also supervisor of the GM team, usually in contact with Bodie and Carl through his headset or monitors.
Marc's most visible distinguishing feature is the black hair on his feet, even though it's usually out of frame. It's also the reason Bodie nicknamed him Bootsie, and unfortunately for him the name has stuck around the office.
Alec: The intellectual father of the GerbilMechs project. Alec was a brilliant scientist responsible for several breakthroughs in nanotechnology leading up to the implantation of nanites in live gerbils. His dream was to build an army of nano-augmented soldiers to ensure The Retreat never happened to gerbilkind again.
He injected himself with the first battle-nanite prototype (GM00) almost four years ago. As his lab assistants watched in awe, he successfully summoned up a full-body sheath of nanite armor. Unfortunately for Alec, the nanites did not retract as planned. He suffocated in silence as his assistants desperately tried to cut him free. It's rumored that one of these assistants was The Doctor himself. After Alec's death, the team heavily reprogrammed the nanites, ensuring that no tragedy of this sort would ever happen again. Among the failsafe devices added was the conversion to a passive nanite system that requires the user's conscious concentration to sustain it. If the subject is ever rendered unconscious or sufficiently distracted, the nanites automatically retract.
Alec's metal prison made him unsuitable for a traditional funeral feast, so he was donated as a ready-made statue to a local museum. His stiff form has inspired three generations of aspiring scientists from its pedestal. That was the story, anyway. It has since been revealed that Alec was the victim of a much more grotesque nanite malfunction, and that his assistants hid this fact in order to maintain public support for the GM nanite project.