Robot

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Powers and Abilities

Rudy “Robot” Conners possesses a scientific intellect of genius level, surpassing that of any know or intellectual besides the Mauler twins. He has made discoveries that reach beyond the scope of contemporary science.

He is easily capable of incredible feats of multitasking and multiprocessing. Conners can understand stimuli experienced by two separate bodies. Furthermore, he can perform complicated tasks with both human and robot forms simultaneously without confusion.

Robot’s robotic bodies are mechanically constructed humanoid automatons. Their actions and behaviours are remotely operated and controlled by Rudy himself via psychic-cybernetic impulses from an implanted interface in his brain.

With the interface, Robot can broadcast instructions to his automaton(s) instantly. He only need to will it to perform any action in order to cause the automaton(s) to do it.

Robot is able to perceive mentally the sensory data registered by his automatons. That is, he “sees” and “hears” what his automaton(s) perceive. Each automaton has a sophisticated array of sensory equipment, a durable outer casing made of a titanium based alloy, and superhuman strength.

In the event that Robot is sending his automaton outside of his broadcast range, Rudy utilizes a suit of armour that he can pilot manually from within the chest cavity. This suit is slightly huskier in design and capable of containing a 12-year old child within it.

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History

Rudy Conners was born with a genetic defect. It was so severe that it required him to live his entire life inside a life support tube full of purified saline and nutrient fluids. His stunted, deformed body would burn if it was exposed to the toxins in the open air. His frail lungs would fail within minutes without assistance.

His life support system was so expensive that his birth parents gave Rudy up and he became a ward of the state.

Rudy was moved to a government medical facility where he became somewhat of a medical curiosity. The doctors quickly recognized his uncanny intelligence and provided him with computer and communication technology in order to gage it. The results were amazing. His ability to absorb and process information were off the map and were increasing exponentially as he aged.

Super-genius

At the age of two, Rudy had designed a more effective breathing apparatus for himself. By the age of three, he invented a robotic cat that became instantly popular in Japan. By the age of five, Rudy simply disappeared from the government facility.

He had been planning his escape since his second birthday. He readied his medical trust fund (set up by the government) and used the profits from this robotic cat venture to invest in the foreign exchanges market, where he made a fortune. With this capital, he started several different high-tech companies specializing in robotics and genetic technologies.

He used these companies, run by proxies on his behalf, as R&D labs that served his secret plans. Through these firms, he developed a robotic command interface that allowed him to control his robotic automatons via a cybernetic interface in his brain.

He then created a secret headquarters with a life support chamber and a complete robotics lab. Then one night, his automatons secreted him away from the government medical facility to his new home. There, surrounded by robots and strange machines, Rudy created the first of his “Robot” automatons.

The Teen Team

Originally designed as a humanoid servant robot, the Robot automaton soon became something greater. Rudy began to explore the world through his mental interface with the automaton. Furthermore, he soon began dabbling in super-heroics under the guise of Robot.

He immediately determined that the most effective way for him to be a superhero was as the leader of a group. Thus he recruited a number of young heroes, forming a group named the “Teen Team.” The fledgling group was made up Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate, Atom Eve and Robot himself.

Working out of a secret base inside a huge bridge tower, the Teen Team operated for over three years with a winning record.

During the entire time, Robot’s teammates considered him an effective (yet condescending) leader. They never realized that he was nothing more than a puppet. Eventually, Robot’s performance was noticed by Cecil Stedman, the Guardians of the Globe’s government handler, and he offered him a position on the team.

Flattered and curious as to what he could do with the vast resources of the Guardian’s Team, Robot disbanded the Teen Team. He was about to join the Guardians when the entire team was murdered by Omni-man.

The Guardians

Shortly thereafter, Cecil appointed Robot the leader. He tasked him with the creation of a new Guardians team. Robot held tryouts and selected an eclectic group of individuals including the young girl known as Monster Girl. Robot immediately took an interest in her plight, as she grew physically younger every time she used her powers.

Robot led the new Guardians with precision and aloofness. But despite their continued success, Cecil felt that the new team and Robot’s leadership failed to live up to his expectations. As a result, Cecil replaced Robot with the recovered Immortal (who was killed twice by Omni-man).

However, Stedman asked Conners to remain with the Guardians as a team member since his scientific knowledge was undeniably valuable. Robot agreed to remain with the Guardians as it suited his needs at the time.

As his time with the Guardians progressed, Robot continued working towards his true goal. In his own secret lab, Robot had begun growing a clone. It was created from a DNA sample that he had harvested from Rex Splode months before.

Send in the clone

He intended to transfer his consciousness from his deformed and helpless body into this new cloned body. Yet, he lacked the expertise to perform such a process. However, during his time as a superhero, he had come across a pair of individuals who possessed the skill that he needed: the villainous Mauler Twins.

Robot hired the twins to help him copy his mind into the clone. The two worked diligently. Within a few weeks, they completed the work and initiated the transfer. The process was a complete success. The clone awoke with a full copy of Rudy’s memories and an immediate awareness of what he wanted.

With that, the new Robot disconnected the respiration tubes from his original body, and the air that filled its lungs killed it. After a moment of mourning, Robot then captured the Mauler Twins with an upgraded, more powerful version of the Robot automaton.

Brand new lives

With his new body ready, Robot travelled into the outside world for the first time in his short life. He travelled to the Guardians’ headquarters and revealed his newly cloned human identity to Cecil and his teammates. The Guardians responded to his secret with mixed reactions, but the only person’s opinion that he cared about was Monster Girl’s.

Robot approached her immediately. He confided in her that it was her own struggles with her curse that inspired him to find a way to leave the confines of his former self’s isolated life support chamber. Monster Girl was initially taken aback by Robot’s confession, but quickly adjusted to his new reality.

She made it abundantly clear that the two would not be having a romantic relationship but that a friendship between the two would be interesting. In Robot’s mind, Phase I of his overall plan was finally complete.

Despite Monster Girl’s reluctance to do so, the two found themselves falling in love. As the two became a couple, Robot came up several solutions for Amanda’s curse. Each one was a gross failure, either due to Amanda’s all too human intelligence or the need for the Monstrous alter ego’s raw physical power.

Despite this, Robot worked fervently on a cure for Amanda’s condition. Most of the time that was without her knowledge of his efforts due to his ability to split his attention amongst multiple tasks simultaneous and in a variety of different bodies.

Space wars

Time passed. The Guardians shared many adventures including a battle that led Robot and his teammates into the dark reaches of space against the oncoming Sequid invasion. For the first time in his short life, Robot was physically exposed to danger. That was because his automaton had to go out of his implant’s range of control.

He physically piloted a Robot exoskeleton and proved to be invaluable to the Guardians again. On the other hand, he got a taste of the pure adrenaline that comes with actually being physically involved in conflict.

Shortly after the Guardian’s return to Earth, the hero Invincible was attacked by Cecil and his Reanimen. That followed a disagreement on Cecil’s inclusion of former criminals and murderers to the Guardian’s team. Invincible came to Robot directly, looking for help disabling the device that Cecil was using to harm him.

When Cecil appeared and ordered the Robot and the Guardians to stand down, Robot immediately joined his friend’s side. Conners helped him to defeat the Reanimen. Once the conflict had ended, Robot and his allies quit the new Guardians of the Globe and reformed the Teen Team.

Invincible War

Robot reopened the Teen Team’s bridge headquarters. The group set up shop there once more. It was during this time, that Robot came up with a novel way to cure Monster Girl’s condition. It used a belt that monitored and regulated her genetic structure during her transformations. Thus, she would slowly begin to age once more.

Unfortunately, when the Invincible War began, the Teen Team was attacked by a particularly vicious alternate Invincible counterpart. He badly mauled the team. Making the ultimate sacrifice, Robot’s ally, Rex Splode distracted the alter-Invincible long enough for Robot and a helpless Monster Girl to get clear. Rex then charged the only thing he had left to attack with — his own skeleton.

The resulting explosion killed both Rex and the Invincible counterpart.

Back to the Guardians

Robot joined the many heroes who attended Rex’s funeral in the aftermath of the Invincible War. Heartbroken by Rex’s sacrifice, Robot made a heartfelt speech during his wake. He announced that he was legally changing his name to Rex as a way of honoring his fallen friend.

In the aftermath of the Invincible war, the Guardians were once again demolished. Their numbers had been whittled down to a handful of members and their most powerful member retired. Cecil approached Robot once more. He had been humbled by his latest defeat and realized that he needed the surviving members of the Teen Team if the Guardians were going to survive.

With that, Robot’s journey came full circle and he, along with Monster Girl and his other team mates, returned to the Guardians.

Description

Rudy/Rex appears to be a slim tween, with heart-throb looks and near shoulder length brown hair. His style of dress is quite simple, he can normally be found in a simple T-shirt and jeans. If he is physically taking part in a mission, he can be found wearing a simple pair of green fatigue-like overalls.

All of Robot’s automatons have the same distinct appearance. They are all humanoid in appearance, generally standing in at 6’ 0” and weighing approximately 300 lbs. They all have a dull brownish-orange colouring.

The automaton’s head is skull-like in appearance with large green ocular/optical sensors where the eye sockets would sit. A long round cylindrical stalk juts directly out of the centre of the back of the automatons head, and each joint of the automatons generally has a visible pivot point.

Mecha

In the cases where Robot has to be physically present at a battle, he pilots an automaton that has been converted into a suit of armour. While this automaton is slightly larger/huskier than his standard automaton it is otherwise indistinguishable from his standard unit.

In the past, Robot has employed other automatons with various additional limbs and weaponry attached to it. But these seem to be one-shots that he hasn’t employed since. On the other hand, he most recently employed an automaton that stood at least two stories high with anti-tank weaponry.

Personality

Robot is a somewhat mysterious young man, that seems to have the best intentions at heart. Initially, he came off as a being of pure emotionless intellect. But it appears that he did so on purpose to encourage the belief that he truly was a mechanical being.

As it stands, Robot is a excitable young man with a vast intellect and insatiable curiosity. He truly seems to enjoy his life as a superhero and is truly concerned with protecting the lives of innocents.

Throughout his short life, Robot has grown to value the friendship of a few key individuals. It appears that he would go to great lengths to protect and honour them. He obviously is loyal to Monster Girl, has a great respect for the power and heroism possessed by Invincible and generally loved Rex Splode despite his shortcomings.

Rex Splode’s death greatly effected Robot. Enough so that Robot changed his given name from Rudy to Rex in order to honour his memory.

Despite his better qualities, Robot has shown that he is a schemer and over the series has spoken about a master plan. He has shown that he will do almost anything to accomplish his objectives, from swallowing his pride or breaking the rules in order.

At times he has referred to different phases of his plan. Phase one involved getting a new body which he accomplished. Phase two seemed to involve starting a relationship with Monster Girl which was definitely successful. Whether or not this phase has been completed or not has not been revealed at this time.

Quotes

“Mechanisms in all the bombs were organic in nature. More than likely, human circulatory systems provide the catalyst. From that, it was merely process of elimination to determine the age and relation of the humans that are being used as bombs. I didn’t know they were all from your school in particular, but I’m sure I would have… eventually.”

“Yes Rex… with my numerous superior skills, I have no doubt I will be granted full membership… I’ll be able to do a lot more good with such a large organization.”

“It’s amazing. It’s as if I closed my eyes and awoke in a different body. My memories of my life — of being trapped in that tube — are all there. But my body is different, new — better. I am very satisfied.”

“I am not beyond using people of your… character to get what I want, but I am not a villain. I’m sending you back to prison.”

“From birth I was confined to that chamber — unable to live in the open air. I was left with only my intellect to occupy me. I was too hideous to have contact with the outside world — so I devised another way. A drone — an automation through which I could live my life — as someone — something else. Something free to move about the world as if I was normal. For a time, that was enough. Then I wanted more, I wanted to be human. I cloned this body — acquired your aid in placing my consciousness in it. So make no mistake… you have not killed Robot, you fools. I AM ROBOT. And that was far from my only automation with which to fight you.”

Monster Girl: “So you — you’re back at the base — transmitting to this thing ?”
Robot: “Yes. Right now I’m eating a sandwich. Pickle loaf — It’s delicious.”

“Not really [impressive]. It was just a simple matter of mapping possible outcomes and weighing the probabilities of said outcomes — and mapping the most likely situation that would yield the desired results and then …”

(After being questioned about playing a video game while his robot automaton is studying a probe)
“I assure you, splitting my focus like this doesn’t slow me down. In fact, I’m analyzing that probe you destroyed through a construct because it allows me to be much more precise. I’d really just slow myself down if I tried to help.”

“We’re going back with them — to attack when they least expect it ! Follow me !”

DC Universe History

Robot would be a perfect fit in the Teen Titans, especially if he replaced Victor Stone, the Cyborg. Moreover, he would make an interesting addition to the team alongside Cyborg, always there to offer a tempting solution to Victor’s predicament (well, actually not that viable of a solution since it would only result in a cloned human Victor, and a living cybernetic one).

Alternatively, Robot could make a great replacement for Robot Man in the Doom Patrol. His background is somewhat similar to that character’s experiences…

By Bryan Gittens.

Source of Character: Image Comic Book Series – Invincible, created and written by Robert Kirkman.

Helper(s): Roy Cowan, Frank Murdock, Darci, ChaplainChris1, Sébastien Andrivet, Azrael, Ethan Roe.