Alec Sinclair is a genius, but was born awkward and gangly. He probably would've been a social outcast, with his prodigious intellect and lack of social graces, but for his older brother, Rick. His parents, Richard Sr. and Margaret, had their boys late in life, and were extremely thankful they'd been blessed with an older son with a heart of gold and a younger son with a towering intelligence.

By the time Alec was twelve, he'd been accepted to Stanford, where he did his undergraduate work in computer science. He transferred to the McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario to study electrical engineering and robotics, and then got his first PhD from MIT in human/computer interface systems. At 19, he invented a method for computers to interact directly with the human mind, and sold the patent for it to a large, multinational firm for several million dollars. Then he accepted a professorship at MIT, and had his tenure by 24.

Due to his secretive nature, he hasn't published as widely as might be expected, but is very well-respected by those who know of his work. Sadly, he is thought to be a decade ahead of his time. Even his crowning work will take a decade or more of testing before it's released for general use.

Meanwhile, Rick had travelled the world, backpacked through Europe, scaled mountains in Nepal, fed orphans in Africa, and generally lived the life of a crusader. Finally, his elderly parents' health failing, he returned to Boston, and immediately went to work for a local homeless shelter. Within a few years, his tireless advocacy made him a well-known figure in Boston, and he ended up managing three separate shelters.

Life seemed good. Alec was dating his childhood sweetheart, Shelly, took care of his frail parents, and secretly started working on a new project -- an environmental suit that incorporated his SlotSkill technology, allowing a computer to download skills directly into the mind of the wearer. Eventually, he quit his job at MIT, planning to produce the nearly-completed prototype.

Then Rick was murdered in what seemed like gangland assassination.

Alec's life was shook to the core, and in a frenzy of work, he modified his armor. Taking his name from a poster in his dead brother's room, he took the streets of Boston as Vigilance, armed with an advanced suit that gave him superhuman physical prowess and protection, as well as a silent, stealthy hoverbike of his own design, and working from the converted bomb shelter underneath his Cambridge home.

That was six months ago. Since then, Vigilance has earned the grudging respect of the few heroes who know of him, the fear of the Boston underworld, and the scorn of the Boston police, who are reeling under the public relations nightmare of a vigilante operating in their midst.

Alec Sinclair is a nerd. He's uncomfortable around any woman who isn't Shelly or his mother, he uses five dollar words when five cent words would suffice, and he's enamored of science. Vigilance, on the other hand, is almost like a split personality -- cold, grim and violent, though Alec has drawn a line in the sand -- he will not kill.

Since his brother's death, Alec has become obsessed with crimefighting. He's shelved the idea of productizing the Vigilance armor, instead pouring most of his remaining wealth into running RAS Designs, a small firm specializing in human/computer interface. However, he's stretching himself thin. When he's not patrolling as Vigilance, which is most every night, he's running his company, and it is starting to damage his relationships. Everyone close to him as noticed the change since Rick's death, and are forgiving because of it. But as time goes on, that may change.

In combat, Vigilance strikes with very little mercy. However, he usually first focuses on protecting any innocents who may be in harm's way. As previously mentioned, while he has no issue with breaking a few limbs, he will not intentionally kill anyone, and if he ever does so by accident, will likely be extremely traumatized.

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Alec Sinclair has no superhuman powers. Physically, he is weak, gangly, awkward and in poor health. He's near-sighted and highly allergic to bee stings. His real abilities lay in his intellect, which is so high as to defy categorizing. He is undoubtedly among the finest minds in cybernetics on the planet, but is also a brilliant long-term planner, with strategies upon strategies to enable him to deal with any situation. After all, who doesn't carry shark repellent with them, or has memorized the escape routes from every building in Boston, or thinks to hack a utility system to shut off the lights in a warehouse with a radioed command?

That said, all of Alec's superhuman abilities come from the Vigilance armor, a marvel of engineering. With a built-in power supply that needs to be recharged from any standard electrical outlet every twenty-four hours of use, it has numerous capabilities.

Physically, it has muscle enhancement systems that not only increase his strength, but also reduce the effort required to use it. The suit renders his legs so powerful that he can leap up to 60 feet forward and half that far upwards, and run at speeds up to 75 mph. The suit also enhances his physical agility to the level of an Olympic athlete. Alec practices yoga to enable him to be flexible enough to use the suit's combat abilities without injuring himself.

The suit is an armored and sealed environment, immune to heat, cold, pressure, radiation, toxins and biological invasion, as well as being resistant to high-caliber gunfire. It also as internal medical systems as well as systems designed to blunt the effect of sensory overload to touch and sight, increasing the wearer's resistance to pain and blinding light.

The suit also contains a multitude of sensors, including passive light amplification, a 360 degree camera strip around the helmet, and a broadband radio system. It also has enhancers for all five of the wearer's normal senses.

But the most amazing thing about the Vigilance armor is the SlotSkill technology. The suit comes hardwired with a suite of combat-oriented skills that allow Alec to mimic the abilities of a well-trained martial artist, using a style synthesized from all the available information he could find.

The suit also contains memory capacity to load and use virtually any skill in Alec's library, which is massive. He changes the skills by uploading them from storage on his armor directly into his mind via a non-invasive neural interface. However, he must be wearing the armor to use these skills, as the computer system that supports them is spread throughout the suit's infrastructure.

Finally, Vigilance also uses a completely closed hoverbike. The vehicle is immensely maneuverable, able to travel through air and water, and is both radar-invisible and almost completely silent. It's hide is as tough as a tank's, though its jets are more vulnerable to attack.

Alec Sinclair is a small, nerdy-looking fellow who tends to dress like a college professor -- lots of nondescript tweed suits. He has a long, thin nose and a high forehead, and wears thick prescription glasses. He is unassuming, unimpressive, and unattractive, his voice tending to squeak and whine a bit with a surprisingly thick Boston accent.

As Vigilance, Alec is six feet tall, and weighs about 275 lbs. The Vigilance armor is completely black, and is obviously armored, especially the plates forming a raised V on his chest. The eyepieces of the armor constantly glow a dim red.