Knockout

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

Knockout
Player: @Ultra Rank Grunt
Origin:	Technology
Archetype:	Tanker
Security Level:	50
Personal Data
Real Name:	Confidential
Known Aliases:	Vinnie (Not widely known, but can be found out with a bit of digging.)
Species:	Robot, if that counts as a species. If not, none.
Age:	14 (Built in 1998)
Height:	7'6
Weight:	560 lbs.
Eye Color:	Blue
Hair Color:	Confidential
Biographical Data
Nationality:	Was built in America.
Occupation:	Boxer
Place of Birth:	He was first turned on somewhere in the middle of Iowa.
Base of Operations:	He has always considered the little lab in Nebraska in which he was programmed 'home'.
Marital Status:	Confidential
Known Relatives:	There were many attempts to build bots like him in the project that he was in, but most of them never made it past their first activation.
Known Powers
Knockout is abnormally strong compared to humans and very durable.
Known Abilities
Knockout can learn the moves of his opponents in order to fight them better and, if given enough time, can identify their weaknesses.
Equipment
A pair of red boxing gloves, some shorts with a pocket that seems to carry a large amount of things (Including tickets to his matches and autographed posters of himself), a boxing championship belt, which doesn't do too much aside from look good.
No additional information available.

If you don't already know about Knockout, here's some basic little things that you should know.

1. He's a robot. (Obvious, feels condescending to say it)

2. He's very famous for his boxing and how fast he can beat down a War Walker.

3. He will only fight you if you are causing problems, insulting his friends, or if you ask him if he wants to fight. Now with that out of the way, let's get on to the backstory stuff that you're probably here for, eh?

Creation

Knockout wasn't originally built to be the strong boxing robot that he is today, beleive it or not. He was originally built to prove that robots could move as smoothly as any human could. This was a very difficult task for the ten engineers who worked on him, and an even more difficult task for the five programmers. As the programmers created his AI, they became more attatched to him as he started responding to lines of code that meant sentances to machines. Eventually, they sent the AI to the Engineers to test him. They watched the Engineers test Knockout (Or 'Vinnie' as thay called him at the time), and saw that not only did they succeed, but they did better than they expected. They then took 'Vinnie' to the Director and showed them what he could do. The Director approved of the movements, and thought that the 'mirror program' that the Programmers had slipped in was a good idea. But the Director questioned one thing. Is it strong enough? They didn't know how to test this, so they armored 'Vinnie' up a bit and took him to some underground fighting syndicate. The fighting syndicate didn't just send in any old fighter or thug. They sent in a Freakshow tank. After about five rounds, Vinnie beat the tank. In the middle of the fifth round, Vinnie found a weak spot where the shoulders connected to the torso, and he punched it's arms straight off. The Director was impressed, and wanted to mass-produce Vinnie, but the programmers and engineers didn't think that he could be duplicated. So, the Programmers took Vinnie's designs from the computer and ran off, bringing Vinnie with them. The Programmers' funding was cut, so they couldn't figure out what to do with Vinnie to continue making money to maintain him, pay the bills, and upgrade him.

First real fights

The Programmers eventually figured out what to do with Vinnie to make money, and took him to the nearest fighting club. They bet the strongest fighter in there several thousand dollars that he couldn't beat Vinnie. Being a headstrong idiot, he accepted with gusto. Vinnie beat the fighter in only one round, causing near-fatal injuries due to not having any gloves. The fighter didn't pay, but he didn't make the Programmers pay for his medical bills, so the Programmers called it good. Eventually they found another underground fighting ring that used mostly modified robots, including Praetorian Clockwork, Warworks and other such things. The people who ran the ring offered $7,000 for the small fights (Smaller robots, lower weight classes, etc.), and $50,000 for each round with what was currently considered the strongest robot there. The Programmers, being rather levelheaded people, accepted the smaller fights. Vinnie was introduced as 'Knockout' when he stepped into the ring for the first fight with a modified clockwork. The Programmers liked that name, so they introduced Vinnie as 'Knockout' in the future fights. Vinnie easily defeated the clockwork, and the other small-time 'bots in the ring, so the Programmers decided to go to the main event. They were horrified to see what it was. 'Frankenbot', a multi-ton mass of stolen parts stomped into the ring. They doubted that Vinnie could even put a dent on this monstrosity. Vinnie fought the monstorous thing for ten rounds, mostly surviving by moving out of the way of any strikes, and leaning in the corner to stay standing. Then, in the tenth round, Vinnie delivered a deadly punch to the neck of the 'Frankenbot', sending it's head flying off. The Programmers decided to keep the Frankenbot's head as a trophy, and they received their money. The Programmers then bought Vinnie superior armor, and a better power source.

First official fight

The Programmers took Vinnie from fight club to fight club, seeing how many people and robots Vinnie could defeat, and then they were eventually invited to an official fight. The Programmers were shocked, but of course, they took him to the fight. The officials at the fight noted that Knockouts punches would be lethal unless they gave him gloves. So, the Programmers not only gave him the gloves, but they went all the way through with the look and gave him a display champions belt, and black shorts. They put Vinnie (Or 'Knockout' as they introduced him as) into the ring. A rather large man stepped up into the ring, and then the bell rung. Vinnie stood where he was and took the Boxers punches, staring down at him. After a while, the Boxer got tired, and Vinnie just pushed him down. This was the first time that this boxer had ever been defeated, so Knockout was given a real champions belt. The Programmers were very proud of Vinnie.

Death of the Programmers

The Mafia noticed "Knockout's" success in the ring after multiple fights. They went to the Programmers and threatened to kill them if they didn't have "Knockout" take a fall. They scoffed and thought of these threats as hollow words, and took Vinnie to the fight that night. Vinnie stepped into the ring and beat the professional down with ease. The Programmers brought him back to the house to repair the slight damages that had been done, and set him into the 'Mirror mode' in order to get him up on the table. There just happened to be a mirror set up by Vinnie (Which he was looking at to keep him in place). The Mafia then knocked on the door and forced the Programmers outside by gunpoint. While they were being killed, Vinnie was just sitting there staring at the mirror, waiting for himself to make the first move.

Gaining Sentience

After about five months staring at that mirror, Vinnie finally made the first move for himself and stood up. He ran outside to see what was happening (Five months too late) and didn't find anything. He looked around for quite a while before eventually finding a little warehouse filled with people from the Mafia. Remembering the men in suits that killed his Programmers, he charged in and beat each and every one of them to near-death. Vinnie eventually found that his creators were dead and was devastated, but he continued going to fighting matches in their memory. After some time, Vinnie basically forgot about his real name, and just went by 'Knockout', as it was too emotionally painful for him to be called 'Vinnie'.

What he's doing now

Knockout now fights large number of War Walkers as practice fights for fighting with other robots that were made in an attempt to go toe-to-toe with a bot like him. Knockout always wins these matches, and keeps their heads (Or their entire bodies if they're small enough), and puts them in different bags labeled 'Praetorians' and 'Former opponents'. Knockout also wanders around Pocket D in his spare time, trying to make friends or find sparring partners. Knockout is generally polite when he first meets people, then gets more friendly or generally more hateful towards them depending upon how they treat him. He is shocked and overjoyed when he is recognized from TV. Occasionally, he'll hand out free tickets to his next fight to his friends.

Letters from Gus and the Director

Dear Director,

We are generally hesitant about allowing you to mass-produce Vinnie, especially with what you plan upon doing. We don't think that he could handle the trauma of being in the millitary or being forced to kill people. Furthermore, we don't think that he could be very effeciently mass-produced in the first place, with the parts required to build him. In fact, any attempt to mass-produce him would more likely end up as a second-rate knockoff.

We all know that you are a busy man, and so, we will gladly wait for your opinion on this matter.

Signed, Gus Comargi.

Dear Mr. Comargi,

I understand your predicament, however, I must intervene. We have no chance of knowing exactly what result could be achieved unless you truly do decide to begin his mass production. The chances of his, despite their appearance as less than likely, must still by all means by attempted. So I must ask that you get to work upon this project post haste.

Signed, the Director.

Dear Director,

Despite what you have stated, it feels to us like you do not understand what is happening here, so allow us to word this more clearly. Vinnie simply cannot be mass-produced. At least, his AI can't. He was only allowed to come about due to special circumstances on a certain computer due to very very specific errors in lines of code. If you are so confident about being able to replicate this, then by all means, do so yourself. Also, his mass-production won't only be inefficient, but it will be expensive. The parts and materials costed us thousands to obtain, and that is not including any of the materials that we had to smuggle in from Praetoria. Although we don't think that Vinnie could be mass-produced, we have an idea for some form of compromise. We could build a smaller and slightly cheaper version of Vinnie, use the same basic template as Vinnie, but try to use mostly materials that we already have. This probably won't end up working quite as well, but it would be something that would be more easily mass-produced.

Once again, we know that you have many other things to do with your time aside from read these letters, so we will wait patiently for your response.

Signed, Gus Comargi.

Dear Mr. Comargi,

Your adamance on this situation is not exactly thrilling. I think it'd be best for you to meet my demands, seeing as despite whatever outcomes may exist, the chance for success is existent, and I demand that we work on it. You must continue with the project anyway. As for the compromise, I believe that if you want to even bother with the smaller scale creation, it'd be best for both of us for it to turn out as best as possible. While I do think your carefulness on this matter is a positive thing, you'd best learn risk as well.

Signed, the Director.

Dear Director.

We have built the other robot, and it didn't end up quite as we would have liked, as we expected. This just proves that Vinnie cannot be replicated. The AI ended up working just fine, but the body just didn't work as well as Vinnie's. I doubt that you are willing to fund this project to create second-rate KNOCKOFFS of what we have done. We refuse to allow anything less than perfection for Vinnie, and you expecting us to do with anything less than that is the dumbest move that has been made with this project. So tell us, Director, do you want indestructible war machines or do you want barely-functioning rust heaps? Some of your statements suggest the latter. Besides, we still doubt that his AI could handle the former, but that is what is needed for him to learn, to progress. Two things that we are beginning to doubt that you are capable of, Director.

Signed, Gus Comargi.