Characteristic
Cost
END
Cost
18
2
Cost
3
Cost
3
3
3
2
4
3
3
3
3
15
20
5
15
15
20
15
15
15
15
Giordo Vincenzi had an idea. This wasn?t entirely uncommon; Giordo was a clever man, he had lots of ideas. But this idea was different. This idea was special. "Why," thought Giordo, "don?t I see if I can?t get myself some help?" Giordo was a good mechanic, but he was getting old. Of course, hiring somebody young wouldn?t do, just wouldn?t do at all. Couldn?t have a youngster helping him, they wouldn?t know how to do the work. Even if he could find another expert, that wouldn?t fit either. They?d just fight over who knew best.
If only Giordo had a son. He could have passed on his trade. But Giordo had no family; he was an orphan and his wife had died in childbirth along with her unborn son long ago. However, Giordo was good with machines. Maybe he could put one together that would help with the cars? After all, a machine ought to be able to work well with another machine. Over the next few months, Giordo started building the helper. A bit here, a bit there. Spare parts, mostly, but he bought a few things. He got pieces of computers, scavenged, or cheap as spare parts, and put them together. Normally he didn?t work with computers ? but it was like he already knew how to do it. Slowly, his assistant took shape. A bit after New Year?s, 1998, it was all ready. Giordo had put off his latest job so that he could finish his new assistant, so he flipped the switch on immediately and set the machine to work. It did a wonderful job, just like he knew it would. It walked over to the car, then merged with the machinery. Once the car and it were one, fixing the problem was simple. A bit of rearrangement her, and some power there ? and it was done. Just like Giordo could have fixed it, but faster and not so hard on his back.
Giordo was smart, but he was also a humble, private man who didn?t realize just what he?d managed to do. So he just kept the machine in his garage, nicknaming it "Visage" for the frightening appearance it had ? human in shape, but not in aspect. It worked on the cars for him, and while it worked, Giordo talked to it. Not that it answered, but Giordo was glad to have someone to speak to, and it did a good enough job paying attention. Giordo talked to it about anything and everything, telling it things nobody else had heard. He talked about his wife and son dying, about how lonely he was, about how much he wished he had a son. He talked about what he dreamed, what he thought, about how important honesty and hard work were.
Giordo kept Visage in his garage quietly, not wanting to have to explain to anyone about his new assistant. Now that he didn?t have to stress his back so much working on cars, Giordo felt much better. It wasn?t just that, though. Giordo, for the first time in decades, had a companion in his life.
About 4 years after Visage was made, something happened that would make it impossible for him to remain in the garage anymore. A young woman, crying, her clothes dirty and her hair disheveled, ran into the garage and begged Giordo to hide her, screaming "He?s coming!" hysterically and refusing to explain. Giordo told her to hide behind one of the cars, and keep quiet. He was about to head inside and call the police when a figure in a bright gold battlesuit smashed down the door, demanding that Helena come out. Giordo tried to lie, acting surprised and insisting nobody else was in the garage. The armored man threatened Giordo with a laser gun ? and was shocked when a fast-moving metallic figure grabbed the gun out of his hand. Visage merged with the weapon and turned it on the battlesuit, blasting chunks out of the armor and absorbing them as well. Visage easily won the fight moments before the Checkmate soldiers trailing the criminal reached the scene. Apparently, he was a disgruntled suitor who had stolen the armor.
This left Visage and Giordo with quite a bit of explaining to do. It wasn?t until then that Giordo realized just how unusual he and his creation were. Not surprisingly, tests showed that he carried an active metagene, granting him an incredible ability to create and repair machines, although he has as yet been unable to duplicate Visage. Examination of Visage revealed that he was a fully functional and sentient AI, with a unique ability to "assimilate" foreign technology. As a sentient being, Visage was free to do as he wished. However, he was loyal to Giordo ? he didn?t want to leave his friend alone.
However, immediately after that, a new factor came into play. Giordo?s back had bothered him for years, but gone away after Visage was there to help. However, now it had returned with a vengeance. Before long, Giordo was barely able to stand up. Giordo didn?t want to go see a doctor, but Visage made him. Unfortunately, Giordo was diagnosed with an extremely rare degenerative condition, one that currently had no cure. However, one medical research team, located at the University of Colorado, in the U.S.A., was doing research into the disease. Visage immediately contacted the University, and the City of Denver. When he heard about the Denver Defenders, the idea immediately hit him to join. Not only could he get Giordo medical care, he would be able to help people out, something Giordo had always taught him to do. He convinced the city to make him a member of the Denver Defenders, and accept Giordo into the experimental testing of a potentially curative treatment.
The treatment had the immediate effect of slowing the degeneration, but it has not yet cured it. The research is still heavily underway, however, and Visage holds up high hopes for it. Meanwhile, he is doing his best to defend Denver from any and all threats. He quickly came to like the city and the people, especially in his role as a hero, and it is likely he would stay even if Giordo?s health were not a factor.
Visage?s main power is his ability to merge with other pieces of technology. He can make anything from a watch to a gun part of him, and use it like a part of his own body. There is a limit to how much extra equipment he can have in him at one time, however, and he will eventually be forced to let go of some of the assimilated gear. Also, if he is rendered inoperative, the equipment can be removed from him. He can also use this power to attack other machines, or to pick electronic locks and the like. Since he is a machine himself, and also because he can interface directly, Visage is a natural computer expert and mechanic, capable of doing almost anything with other machinery. Visage does have one limitation with what he can absorb ? force fields. Because he needs an internally generated force field to keep his Jaffe engine from overloading, he cannot retain a force field effect in his body for more than about 75 seconds. As a safety feature, he automatically ejects such items after one full minute has passed.
Visage looks like a typical battlesuit ? except for the lack of a person inside. He is over two meters tall, covered in shiny, polished metal armor and bristling with armored plates, gadgets, and gear. A stylized helmet forms his face, along with two red-glowing artificial eyes.