Gear - Head
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Gear Head is an original character created by Jynx_Lucky_J (aka JynxLuckyJ). He was originally created for a Pen and Paper Role-playing Game called Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition. Gear Head is the epitome of a gadgeteer, but limited in scope by outside forces beyond his control.
Gear Head's creator is an avid roleplayer, and is always up for a round of in-character interaction as long as he does not have a prior commitment.
| [[Image:|300px|]] | |
| None | |
| Gear - Head | |
| Player: @JynxLuckyJ | |
| Origin: | Technology/Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Blaster |
| Security Level: | 22 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Jerrick Jadar |
| Known Aliases: | None Known |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 16 |
| Height: | 5' 5" |
| Weight: | 132lbs |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | High School Student, Junk Yard Mechanic |
| Place of Birth: | ' |
| Base of Operations: | ' |
| Marital Status: | Dating |
| Known Relatives: | Janet Jadar (Mother), Gerald Jadar (Father) |
| Known Powers | |
| Super Intelligence, Enhanced Mental Speed, Machine Control, Data Link, Signal Sensory Perception | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Invention, Repair, Academics, Programming | |
| Equipment | |
| Gravity Belt, Concussion Blaster, Tech Specs, Misc Gadgets | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Affiliations
Allies
Ambiguous
Enemies
- Chess Queen (Arch-Nemesis)
- Jester's Wild
Supergroup
Paragon Universe (Solo Artist)
Personality
Most people observe Gear Head to be quiet and reserved. Others notice in him, the strange kind of loneliness that stems from living out of sync with the rest of the world. In his civilian guise he goes out of his way not to be noticed, dressing and behaving in the most unremarkable manner he can. As Gear Head, he is a bit more outgoing, but still somewhat quiet and reserve. Though he is incredibly intelligent, Gear Head doesn't like to show off just how smart he truly is. He has found that most people do not like to be around an individual that vastly surpasses them in intellect. He often seems distracted, as if he is not paying any attention to the world around him. The only person that he has met so far that has even come close to reviling his true capability to his girlfriend, Emily Bridges, who is also of genius level intellect.
Powers
Super Intelligence
Gear Head has a genius level intellect; a true polymath with an eidetic memory, though his true talent lies in all things mechanical and technology. He has the ability to almost instantly memorize and recall any information with great accuracy in a seemingly unlimited volume. Early experimentation on himself has revealed that his brain and nervous system are actually quite unique. While his brain is average sized, it has nearly double the surface area of an average human's and is nearly completely lacking in the fissures normally found within the brain. In addition neural impulses travel much more quickly through his brain and nervous system with much lower latency, this results in his enhanced mental speed (see below).Enhanced Mental Speed
Gear Head's brain functions at about x100 faster than the average human's. Unfortunately his body is still limited to normal human speed. As a result Gear Head perceives the world in slow motion, with the world appearing to progress at 1/100th of its actual speed. This grants Gear Head the illusion of enhanced reflexes, as he is given more time for his mind to react to any stimulus and move with greater confidence at higher speeds. As a result of this condition, Gear Head largely focused on mental pursuits as even the most simple physical tasks seem to take a frustrating amount of time to complete
Machine Control
Gear Head as the ability to operate any machine or electronic device with but a thought. This power does not give him ability to operate a device outside of its normal abilities (at least not without physically modifying a device first: See Invention below). Even the most simple or complex machines can be operated in this way. This ability has a range of roughly one mile. Gear Head has yet to discover how this power truly functions. Early on he believed that he may be transmitting some sort of radio or electromagnetic signal, or even some form of telekinesis, but as of yet he has been unable to detect any sort of emanations coming from him while activating this power. On a less scientific level he describes this ability as a deeper understanding of machines, "I understand them in ways that nobody else can comprehend." This ability also allows him to fully understand the operation of any device with only a few moments of mental observation.
Examples of what this power is and is not capable of follow: He cannot cause you washing machine to attack you...but he can change the settings and ruin you linens. He cannot actually stop a gun from firing...but he can turn on the safety. He cannot levitate and/or cause a gun to aim itself...but he can cause a gun to fire the just happens to be pointing in the right direction, thought the recoil will cause a loose gun to spin and fly off to another location. He can drive a car...but cannot make it defy the laws of physics, and is limited to his own driving skills.
Data Link
This ability allows gear head to mentally interface with electronic devices, such as computers, cell phones, and IPods. This power is similar yet different to the Machine Control Power (see above). While machine control would allow him to cause a keyboard to type to a computer, he could instead send mental commands to the computer directly with this power. This power also lets him mentally interact with data on said electronic device, deleting, recording, modifying, "downloading", or otherwise manipulating the data directly. Otherwise this power functions exactly like Machine Control.
Signal Sensory Perception
Gear Head perceives and can interpret all manner of wireless signals. He cannot turn off this ability any more than a normal human can turn off their ability to see or hear, less so even as there is no sensory organ to block. When he first moved to Paragon City this ability caused him to be completely overwhelmed by the bombardment of cell phone signals, radio stations, wireless internet, Rikti distress signals, and other signal of every other kind. He has since learned to tune out these signals to the point of "white noise" in the background. With concentration however he is able to "tune in" on individual signals. He has recently learned how to mentally broadcast his own signals, giving him the ability to perform such tasks as mentally speaking to people through their cell phones and mentally connecting to wireless networks. He currently working on the ability to send video signals, thus far he can manage colors in basic patterns coupled with sound.
Inventions
The combination of all his powers, make Gear Head a master inventor. His only true limitation is the limited resources he has available to him. He often frustratingly finds himself without the tools to make the tools, to make the tools, to make the tools, to make the tools, to make the tools to make his inventions. Because of this he keeps schematics of an untold number of unrealized inventions. The advanced components that he has available to him are very limited and thus he often cannibalizes older inventions to create new ones, and rarely is carrying the exact same assortment of devices on any given day. Though there are a few inventions that he is rarely found without (these are detailed below). Gear Head is well aware that a great many over his invention could be turned towards ends that he would not agree with, and thus designs nearly all of his devices to function only in conjunction with his Machine Control power (see above), as well as an anti-tampering device that destructs all the crucial components with can only be deactivate by the same power.
Concussion Blaster
Often described to those on the receiving end as "a sledge hammer to the face," the concussion blaster is Gear Heads primary weapon. It fires a blast of energized force and has various setting for amount force applied as well as dispersion and concentration of the blast. The most unique component of this device is a regulator that ensures that the blasts are never lethal no matter how high they are set or how frail the opponent.
Gravity Belt
The Gravity Belt is one of Gear Heads first inventions, it's primary function is to enable flight, but has had a couple new features added to it since its original conception. The belt functions by changing direction of gravity for the wearer causing them to "fall" in any direction. The wearer is still affected by earth’s gravity so actual flight speed varies depending on the direction of travel. Gear Head has reached terminal velocity at 321mph strait upwards, 422 mph horizontally, and 547 mph strait down. The first modification to the Gravity Belt was to effect outside objects as well, this was originally to reduce air resistance due to a heavy case of whiplash gear head received during the initial testing of this device. This modification also allowed for increased speed as well as the ability to defect incoming attack. The degree to which the belt can deflect an attack is in direct proportion to the speed and mass of the attack, from complete change of direction for light low speed attacks, to a few centimeters for laser beams, but couple with Gear Head's increased reaction time can often turn the most accurate lethal blows in to something much less serious. The other modification was a setting to automatically set earth equivalent gravity at any angle, allowing the wearer to stand, walk, run, jump, or even drink tea on walls and ceilings as if they were on the ground.
Tech Specs
These are a special pair of goggles designed by Gear Head. The Tech Specs automatically provide Gear Head with innumerable amounts of technical information about the targets within in a HUD (Heads Up Display) at speeds that only Gear Head could comprehend. This includes information such as: range, composition, structural integrity, temperature, face recognition and more. It also allows him a number of different types of vision, including night vision, infrared, ultraviolet, and echolocation converted to 3D models.
Character History
Birth of a Technopath
Gear Head was born it a very small agriculture town with a population of just over 100. It was the type of town that many people don't realize exists anymore, it exists today much as it did 50 years ago. Throughout the town there may be a few older computers, Cell phone still have no coverage there through a number of people use two way radios, and a couple satellite companies reach out that far but the signal is weak. Hours away from the next sizable town, Tipton is one of the most isolated towns in the country, and the most unlikely place for a technophile to be born.
Unlike many mutants, whose powers manifest suddenly during puberty Gear Head was born with his amazing abilities. As such it was many years before he realized there was something different about himself. In his early years Jerrick Jadar, as he was known then, had difficulty interacting with the world and didn't even begin to speak until he was well into his sixth year. Very early his parents began to worry that that their son may be "simple." When he did finally begin to speak it was in full sentences, and he was able to express concepts that other children his age still had difficulty comprehending. Despite this apparent turn around and his excellent performance on his school work, Jerrick had trouble paying attention and concentrating on one task for very long, in addition he would occasionally react to stimulus that simply wasn't there.
The many problems he experienced as a child were the direct result of his unique mind and powers (see the Powers section below).
Jerrick Meets Machines
Everyone in town new that Jerrick was "special," but none suspected he may be harboring a hidden talent. Until one day when Jerrick was 8 years old; Jerrick's father, while working in the fields, notice his son staring at an old broken down tractor. This wasn't particularly odd since Jerrick would space out just staring into space rather often, though it did make his father uncomfortable to see it. Checking back several minutes later he saw that Jerrick had grabbed the toolbox from the shed and was digging around inside the tractor's engine. At this point his father simply thought that it was good for the boy to finally take some interest in a normal activity, and that tractor was completely dead so it's not like he could do any harm to it. By the time his father took a break for lunch Jerrick had nearly completely disassembled that engine and had the pieces laying in strange patterns on the ground. When asked what he was doing Jerrick replied "I'm fixing your tractor," so matter-of-factly that his father couldn't help but laugh. The thought left a smile on his face the rest of the day, but the smile melted to astonishment when he came home at the end of the day and all the engine parts were gone from the ground and Jerrick sat in the driver’s seat. When asked where all the parts had gone, Jerrick simply turned the key watching his father's jaw drop as the engine started.
Later on of their neighbors told them of an article they had read about how some mentally challenged people can display genius level qualities in certain areas. Jerrick's parents were simply amazed at the idea that their simple son, may also be a master mechanic.
Time to Move
The Town of Tipton had been slowly dying for years, though nobody wanted to admit it. As time moved on more and more children growing up and moving away, and more and more of the elderly passed away, and the influx of new citizens was almost nonexistent. The money slowed over time as well, as the family run businesses found it harder and harder to compete with the agriculture giants. Jerrick's family too was struck by this dilemma, and after a very lengthy discussion Jerrick's parents decided that their son shouldn't be trapped in this sinking ship of a town, and deserved the opportunities that could be found in the city. So, they saved up their money, packed up their belonging, and moved from Tipton when Jerrick was 14, bound for Paragon City.
Technology Can Be So Overwhelming
As they grew closer to their new home in Paragon City, and into more populated areas, Jerrick began to become more and more restless. when ask what was wrong. he responded that these places were far noisier than home. His parents assumed he was speaking figuratively of the overall business and amount of activity. By the time they reached Paragon City Jerrick was constantly squirming and holding his ears, as the ambient noise from the various wireless networks became too much to bare. While this noise had always existed, the signals had always been very weak and much less intrusive. Unable to concentrate, unable to sleep, Jerrick parents soon realized that something was definitely wrong, and rush Jerrick to a doctor. The doctor was unable to find anything physically wrong, and after speaking with Jerrick parents the doctor concluded that Jerrick likely suffered from a form of autism. Withdrawal from the world around him, lack of social skills, difficulty dealing with new environments, increased sensitivity to sensory input were all possible signs. The doctor recommended sessions in a sensory deprivation chamber until he became accustomed to his new environment. The chamber was completely light and sound proof, and filled with a small pool of water. Inside Jerrick was completely cut off from the outside world...except for the constant barrage of electronic signals. When he tried to tell the doctor that it wasn't working, the doctor brushed it off saying that it was all in his head, it was impossible to hear anything outside while inside that chamber. Used to being ignored, Jerrick began working for his own solution, at some point he began to pick out individual signals, soon after came the realization of the true nature of all this "noise." Jerrick kept this revelation to himself, and worked towards getting this ability under control, eventually he was able to relegate the signals to background noise, to something that could be ignored, allowing everyone else to believe that the doctor had "cured" him.
School and Work
Having gained some measure of control over the early signs of his powers, Jerrick was finally able to begin going to school once again. Jerrick had always done well academically (at least on paper), always having perfect schools an all his test and written assignments, he had never had a benchmark to be measured against. In his old school there were only a handful of students in any particular grade, and throughout the whole school there were only a few individual of above average intelligence. His new school however was huge, it seemed there must have been thousands of students. They even had "clubs" dedicated to just about any academic study you could think of. They even offered a number of advanced classes for their most exceptional students. When he was first enrolled the school was concerned that he may not be on par with the other students coming from such a back country school, so he was given an academic placement test. The faculty was shocked by the results, not only did he get a perfect score, but he completed the 2 hour test in just 15 minutes. They tested him 3 more times under direct observation, assuming he must have cheated somehow, all with similar results. This placed him firmly into the advanced classes, and he was touted as a prodigy. This caused no small amount of jealousy from the other students, especially those that were formally considered to be the intellectual elite. This group constantly picked on and hazed Jerrick. It wasn't long before Jerrick decided this was not where he wanted to be, and so he began to fail his assignments on purpose. Without any explanation to his sudden academic decline, the school had no choice but to remove him from the advanced courses and place him in the standard classes instead. Jerrick has since chosen to maintain a low A- average, high enough as not to hurt his chances post high school, but low enough to avoid undue attention (though one of his teachers has started to notice that he always gets the same score on every assignment and the he always misses the same question numbers.)
Life in the city is much more expensive than in the country. Jerrick father works late hard hours in construction, and his mother works two part time jobs as a cashier and cleaning lady. Though Jerrick doesn't get to see them as much as he used to, they manage to eke out an existence in the low middle class. Jerrick too, wanted to find some way to contribute, he found that and more one day while digging through a locale junkyard. He was searching for an outlook for his newfound knowledge and abilities. As his mind wondered he began absently repairing various devices. When the proprietor saw how effortlessly Jerrick breezed through the repairs, he was quick to offer him a job, paying a percentage of the selling price of anything he repaired, and well as the option of taking home any choice parts he may come across. Jerrick had one further condition however, should his parents ever call looking for him to tell them he was here working, the owner having had a rather wild childhood readily agreed.
Jerrick's Greatest Invention: Gear Head
Every once in a blue moon Jerrick would come across an exceptional component that wound up in the junk yard through either poor paperwork, laziness, or sheer luck; components that could be used to build advanced technology. He would often receive various broadcasts regarding both heroes and villains, perhaps it was fate when he heard a report on an energy blaster just as he uncovered the primary component of what would become Gear Head's Concussion Blasters the report continued Jerrick couldn't help but think "I could do that." Many inventors and scientists over the years had had to contend with their inventions and discoveries being used in ways contrary to their original intentions. At this point Jerrick realized that instead of creating inventions to make a difference the world he could use the inventions to make a difference himself. He created his costume from an old pilot helmet, a leather flight jacket, and a pair of leather pants all purchased from thrift stores.
As fate would have it, his earliest super-human battle was not as Gear Head, but as Jerrick Jadar. For unknown reasons the Chess Queen, a villain that would soon become Gear Head’s arch-nemesis , had taken all of the A students of his school captive. She made a deal with them, she would challenge each of them to a chess match using a life size chess board populated by robotic pieces; if any of them won they would all go free, if she won every match she would kill them all. Needless to say she handily beat them all with no real effort. Jerrick, who had arrived at school late due to stopping a bank robbery as Gear Head, arrive just before she carried out the promised execution. She gave Jerrick the same ultimatum as the others. Being unable to change into Gear Head without revealing his identity Jerrick accepted the challenge, and soon the battle of wits ensued. The Chess Queen quickly realized that she wasn’t up against an ordinary student, and that it would require every bit of her skill to win this match. Meanwhile, Jerrick realized that while it was indeed an incredibly close match he was not quite a match for her strategically. Realizing he couldn’t win, and being unwilling to reveal himself as Gear Head, Jerrick realized that his only option was to cheat. He distracted The Chess Queen, while he used his Machine Control to subtly reposition a piece, setting himself up for a close win. True to her word the defeated Chess Queen released the captured students and fled. Since that day Jerrick, as Gear Head, and The Chess Queen have had numerous actual battles Gear Head always seems to manage a win by the skin of his teeth, though in each instance The Chess Queen has managed to escape.
Unwanted Advances
Coming Soon!!!
Random Trivia, OOC Info, and More
- Gear Head's machine/electronic based powers have a range limit of roughly 1 mile.
- While he has no true defense against mind readers, they tend to have great difficulty understanding his surface thoughts. This is due the sheer speed at which his mind operates and he is usually thinking about many different topics at once. Most psychics are lucky to catch the gist of his thoughts. Deeper mind reading and general emotion reading are unaffected.
- Gear Head's Data Link power works differently in regard to intelligent machines, such as AI's and self-aware robots. Rather than allowing them to control these entities,it grants him a special form of telepathy towards them. Enabling him to mentally communicate with them, and even read their "thoughts."
- Gear Head often seems distracted, or stares off into space. This is due to the fact that the physical world seems to be moving so slow for him. He is a huge mental multi-tasker, often thinking about a great many subjects at once. Not to worry though, at least one of those subjects are the events going on around him. Though feel free to bring up his seeming lack of attentiveness in RP.
- Gear Head is a Liberal Nondenominational Christian, though he is not actively practicing. This rarely comes up or becomes an issue uness someone else brings up religion
- Theme Song" Daft Punk - Technologic go to great lengths to keep it that way.
