Neutral Ray
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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Neutral Ray (born Andrew Stephen Lautner, 21 January 1990) is an American intermediate part-time hero, Department of Advanced Technology Application (DATA) intern, and college student from Paragon City, Rhode Island. He began operating as a hero around October 2011 doing minor tasks around the city and briefly monitored activities of Clockwork up until the New Year when he continued his internship with DATA to earn his BS in Electrical Engineering. He is also very well-versed and very knowledgeable in computer science, quantum physics, and mechanical engineering.
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Early Life
Neutral Ray was born as Andrew Stephen Lautner on 21 January 1990 while his mother, Kimberly Lautner, was serving in the U.S. Army as a Sergeant Major while stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. Five days after her birth, his mother was promptly temporarily discharged to take care of her newborn son and returned to Paragon City, Rhode Island. He led a relatively normal childhood, though mostly raised by his father while his mother returned to active duty, especially during Operation Desert Storm.
Coming Apart and Together
Growing up, Andrew had a curious personality. As a child, he would ask his father what everything was. What is this? What does it do? How does it do that? Where does it get to do that? At the age of 6, he was naturally given some toys either from Christmas or birthday presents. Instead of playing with them, however, he would take them apart. He was once given a Star Wars beam sword on his birthday and instead of playing with his older brother or older sister, he took it apart and tried to figure out where goes why, why that goes here, why this circuit board works the way it does. At first, he was punished for allegedly breaking his toys so he would not get any more for the next year and a half.
At the age of 8, his father bought a family PC so that the others could use it for business or school. His brother Roger had a bad habit of being distracted very easily and not saving his book reports. During a power outage at their house, his brother freaked out and screamed bloody murder because the book report meant he would finally get a passing grade in English and not get kicked out of the football team. The power came back on half an hour later and Andrew showed him that he still had his book report in the computer. He also showed him (and the rest of the family at this point) about auto-save features, margins, spacing, and other nifty features that Microsoft Word had. Their father, Roger, and his older sister Gwen were astounded.
Because the family (excluding Andrew) wore out the computer due to overuse, the computer was being thrown away but Andrew managed to actually take it apart and see if there were any salvageable parts. He only ended up saving the hard drive and the CD drive. A local trip to Cooke's Electronics would get him the knowledge on how to mount a hard drive to an existing computer system. Once the family got another one, Andrew opened the case and mounted the old hard drive which was still fully functional. This would be when he would discover that his older brother had been using the computer for "naughty" reasons. He would later use this as blackmail and throw his older brother under the bus. He would also discover that his older sister was using the computer for lots of shopping.
Andrew would begin building his own computer at the age of 9 and it would run even better than the family computer and cost hundreds of dollars less. This is when the family would notice that he really had a knack for electronics and computers. They weren't sure if they should be glad, annoyed, or scared. Into his teenage years, his older brother and sister moved out of the house for college but still kept in contact. He would be in his high school's Engineering Club and then graduate with high honors.
Paragon City University
Andrew started his freshman year of college on September 2008 on a full-ride 4-year scholarship sponsored by Exarch Industries. He, unfortunately, would find college uninteresting, unmotivating, and boring. Having discussions with a career counselor changed all of that. All of his general ed classes, he tested out of. He also tested out of all the junior division classes so he could start on his major. He earned a 4-year bachelor's degree in computer science in three semesters (a year and a half). At the same time, he also minored in business studies.
He is currently working on a second degree for mechanical engineering and is currently interning at DATA which, in turn, he helps technology-based companies around Paragon City with their research materials and experiments and trials. He had previously worked with researchers in Kord Technologies (against his wishes) and is now interning for Exarch Industries. He is also taking quantum physics courses in college.
Projects
There are several projects that Andrew is working on.
Exoframe
With his intense knowledge of circuitry, mechanical and electrical engineering, Andrew has a fully functional built (but still work-in-progress) exoframe. It is engineered to help his movement, monitor his vital signs, monitor his surroundings, give him access to flight for travel, among others.
Beam Sniper Rifle
When beam sniper rifles became prominent in Paragon City in September 2011, Andrew got his hands on one of these and quickly took it apart to see what it was made out of. The particular model he received was the same as the ones given to Vanguard for initial testing. He has modified his own sniper rifle and replaced all its repulsor nodes and target sensors for better accuracy and for more powerful blasts.
Artificial Intelligence system
Andrew is currently trying to initiate an artifical intelligence system in his lab apartment but currently has no direction on how to go about it. AI's are not his strengths but he does want to get better at it.
Heads-Up Display
Constructing it from simple blue sunglass shades, Andrew created an HUD in conjunction with his Exoframe. With this, he can browse the internet, calculate approximate mass and weight of any one given object or living person, identify items, objects, and other things. With the modules and programming he has put in, he also has access to DirecTV satellites and Verizon Wireless towers allowing him to watch television and movies, send and receive phone calls and text, and give commands to his exoframe. The operating system used for the HUD is a modified version of Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with the ability to modify firmware that acts like CyanogenMod.
Notices
Some things about Andrew that people may or may not be interested in.
- His mother is still in active duty in the U.S. Army, having done some reconnaissance and intelligence work with the events pertaining to Afghanistan and the al'Qaida. She is scheduled to retire in or around the year 2015 after serving for 35 years. She would be approximately 54 years old.
- His father is a successful day-trader, often making trips to Wall Street. Because of this, the Lautner family would live life very comfortably.
- The Lautner kids (Roger, Gwen, and Andrew) were all setup with a trust fund of about $300,000 which they can touch once they have reached the age of 18. Of the three, Andrew has the least amount left due to his technological endeavors.
- more to follow
Playlist
Andrew does listen to music. Here's what you'll find in his music folder, if you could even access it in the first place.
Comments
If your character knows Andrew and has a comment or three, they can leave it here.
