Team Identities:
- Centurion – Biped automaton
- Tech Knight – humanoid female
- Arion – Quadruped Horse
CLEA Classification:
- Robot – Centurion
- Robot – Tech Knight
- Robot – Arion
Special Skills and/or Abilities:
- Centurion is outfitted with the brain patterns of the male members of the Night Rangers. He (regards itself as male) is faster and stronger than a human.
Centurion is also armed with a highly advanced “tech”staff which can be thrown or used to fire bursts of heat and/or electricity. At close range he uses the weapon as a staff, where his ability to move at faster than human speed enables him to confront opponents with a near impenetrable wall of whirling metal. - Tech Knight is a “female” robot designed to be approximately average female height and build. She is faster, stronger and more agile than a human and her artificial brain is based on the combined female personalities of the Night Rangers. Her tough polymer outer layer is flexible and mimics human skin but is far more resilient so her opponents have a difficult time hitting and of her sensitive internal systems.
To improve her offensive capabilities she was later given an energy sword which as well as being an “ordinary” sword it can disable electronic systems and stun most targets. At maximum power it can also emit a blast. - Arion is a large quadruped robot that serves both as Tech Knight’s transport and her means to recharge her energy cells. Offensive capabilities include massive strength to its “legs” and it can fire an energy blast from its face. It is also able to electrify its outer casing. Arion is also equipped with various “undisclosed sensors”.
Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):
- Tech Knight is the least “resilient” of the robots and also has to shortest endurance. Without Mercury she would last little more than an hour before shutting down.
- If Tech Knight uses the energy blast from her sword she can rapidly deplete her own power as well as damaging the weapon so it is a last ditch option.
- Centurion having limited agility can be defeated by an agile opponent that can get behind him.
- Hermes internal generator is his main vulnerability. If an enemy can shut that down he effectively neutralises both Mercury and Tech Knight. Mercury also has a less “developed” brain which is limited more to protecting Tech Knight and its own defence.
Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:
- N/A
Notes/History
With the formation of Night Rangers, in return for being rescued from the Protectorate by Shane Wright (Mind Storm) and the others, Alicia wanted to prove her worth by bolstering the team with artificial members. As she had an Alpha ability that enabled her to design and build almost anything she could think off she set to work. Having a strong interest in ancient history she decided to create her first robot to have the resemblance of roman centurion. Giving it intelligence though was not as straightforward until she “invented” a brain pattern recorder. Then with the permission of the male team members she installed her robot with the combined brain patterns. Within hours it became sentient due to its self-learning capabilities. Believing that forcing it to obey commands would result in little more than a drone as opposed to a valuable individual asset to the team, Alicia left out any normal restrictions but did place a manual override to be used if Centurion became hostile.
The override though was not needed for once sentient Centurion was happy to serve its creator by helping her achieve her goals and since Alicia’s goals were the same as the Night Rangers he elected to help the group in general. In time she took a big risk and removed the override altogether for as long as the programming existed there was a chance one of the team enemies would be able to use it to disable Centurion. With this gone he now was an individual with control over his own destiny but despite this he continued to willingly serve the Night Rangers, all the while building a “personality” based on experiences.
Sometime after several months had passed a chance encounter with CLARA inspired Alicia to build Centurion a “sister”. By this time he had fully developed his own personality and was making choices for himself without waiting for permission from his creator. He had also learned how human beings treated those different from their own race and was growing concerned that the Night Rangers might eventually reject him and he would be left alone. The chance to have a companion therefore appealed to Centurion and he asked to assist in the project. Alicia honoured the request as she believed it would further add to Centurion’s “personal” development.
Having built the skeleton, Alicia discovered her new robot was too small to carry a large capacity battery. This had not been an issue with Centurion since his systems were less advanced and drew less power. With the project nearing completion it was too late for a redesign, so Alicia decided to have a rethink. The female robot would obviously need frequent recharging and that would be a major practical problem because her creation could not exactly tow around a generator, nor plug itself into a power socket in the middle of a battle.
In thinking about what motivated her to design her first creation as a roman warrior, Alicia had an idea in solving the power problem by sticking with the ancient soldier theme. She decided her new robot could perhaps be a “knight” and therefore if she built a horse then it would have the space to carry a mobile generator. The female robot therefore became “Tech Knight” and the robotic steed built for her, Alicia called “Arion” after the fast horse of Greek Mythology. To make full use of the quadruped platform Alicia decided to include a full sensor suit and gave it offensive capabilities in the form of an energy blast and a means to electrify its outer shell.
As Centurion has been brought to life via the brain patterns of the male members of the Night Rangers, Tech Knight was brought to life using the brain patterns of the female members of the group. Hermes was given a less advanced individuality, more geared towards being subservient to its rider since Alicia intended it to work as a team with Tech Knight. Despite this it was given some autonomy in order to protect itself and its rider from danger. Being of a more advanced design than Centurion, Tech Knight achieved sentience in less than an hour.
Just as with her “brother” she was keen to serve her creator and became an active member of the Night Rangers. However Tech Knight’s “personality” presented itself in less than a couple of months and she even developed her first “emotions” quicker than Centurion. As Tech Knight continued to expand her mind she felt the desire to learn and that mean she developed a taste for adventure. Consequently the time spent waiting around between missions was irritating for her.
In time Tech Knight concluded that she had out grown her ability to function within the Night Rangers limited “mission parameters” of fighting anti Alpha criminals and concluded the wasted down time would better served another way. Having developed an understanding of what was right and wrong, Tech Knight decided that her time would be better spent fighting crime on a broader scale. She therefore approached Alicia and requested she be granted leave from the Night Rangers and take her own path. Though to many people she would just be regarded as a machine, Tech Knight had the capacity to care about her “friends” and was concerned if she left the team would suffer by being down a member. Consequently she would not leave unless it was alright with everyone else, so Alicia agreed to talk things through with Wright.
He was none too pleased with the idea but could not fault Alicia’s logic which essentially boiled down to the fact that if the Night Rangers were fighting to prevent the rights of Alpha’s being abused then they had no right to choose to subjugate Tech Knight. The outcome of the discussions was Tech Knight was allowed to leave, without any stipulations. It was then that the team was struck with another bombshell for, Centurion decided that Tech Knight should not be left to fight her battles alone. Since he was older he had more experience in the outside world than Tech Knight and already aware that humans could be hostile towards something they did not understand he felt obliged to protect his “sister”. Though Shane did not want to lose another member of the team, he granted the request, for having allowed Tech Knight to leave could not be seen to change the rules in regards to different “people”.
Now on their own they were able to choose their own goals and use their unique abilities to hand out justice. From time to time they have returned and reunited with Alicia but have never reintegrated with the team full time. As well as this they have also allied themselves to other hero groups both as individuals and as a airing but normally they prefer to fight crime on their own terms.
Though CLEA does not regard the pairing as a special asset they are recognised for their heroic deeds, hence their inclusion on the database.
