Deathlok

Dr. Michael Collins PHD is a leading mind in computer science, neuroscience and the design and programming of advanced cybernetics. Currently reported to be comatose and in the care of Cybertek a subsidiary of the Roxxon Corporation.

Deathlok is best known as one of the champions of the Crisis. Working with S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop supervillains and aliens alike. Some believed he died in the fighting but he has re-emerged on the public scene as a member of the Avengers. However some in covert military circles are aware of his work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and his work for Roxxon before that.

Background
Michael Collins was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Growing up, he lived an ordinary life that some might consider idyllic. This involved being a regular at church, being in his school's chess club, and things of that nature. By the time his college days arrived, he'd already gotten involved with a girl named Tracy who would be the love of his life. They would be nigh inseparable during the following years.

Michael's days in college would be a blast. During these years at the University of Pennsylvania he'd prove what people already suspected about him: that he's an undiscovered genius. What began as an ambition for a degree in Computer Science blossomed into a love of learning, and after blowing through the Associate's program with honors he found himself pursuing a Masters. Next thing he knew, he and Tracy were married and moving to Durham North Carolina when he got accepted into Duke University's Prosthetics program.

Michael's love of technology and talent for programming translated well into the avenue of education he had ventured on. He plied his knack to help pay the difference in his professional student lifestyle as a videogame design consultant, earning a fair bit on the side while vigorously plowing through his first doctoral program at this prestigious medical school. His wife became pregnant with their son Nick right about the time he enrolled in Duke's Neuroscience program and completed his Doctoral thesis to become Dr Michael Collins.

Roxxon first approached Michael shortly after he began working on his Doctorate in Neuroscience. A man as profoundly intrigued with the fields of prosthesis and integrated systems as he is a rare find, and Roxxon Corporation approached him with an offer to fund his second Doctorate pursuit if he agreed to come work for them afterwards. Doctor Michael Collins, being a man of first principles, was skeptical at first but Dr Harlan Ryker had a way with words. He persuaded him of the earnestness of his offer by spinning a tale of helping injured soldiers, thereby assuaging the damage caused by the wars over minerals their corporation coveted. Thus did Michael's at Roxxon begin.

A few years later, Michael completed his second doctorate and the Collins family moved for what they hoped would be their last time. After moving back to Pennsylvania, Michael was settled into his new position and career with the Roxxon subsidiary Cybertek. There, he was informed that he'd be working on the next generation of prosthesis technology. Specifically, he was writing programming for artificial neural interfacing for a variety of prosthetic limbs and even organs. Michael and his family would be happy for a long time, and he was actually grateful for his encounter with Dr Ryker.

The happiness of the Collins family was not to be, as a few years after settling in the suspicious would happen. Dr Collins would chance upon the real applications of his work with Cybertek. Dr Collins confronts Dr Ryker in his office with files containing footage of the Deathlok machine, and Ryker has him shot and implanted into the machine as its brain. As far as the world was concerned, the worst had befallen Michael but the truth was he was as alive as ever.

Dr Ryker had convinced the Collins family that he was comatose from a horrible accident at work and that the company hospital was seeing to his well being. Meanwhile, Michael woke up in a nightmare situation witnessing himself massacring a village. He discovered he had no control over his own actions, and had a voice in his head narrating the decisions taking place. The AI perceived his awareness and catalogued Michael as an organic malfunction, but before it could fry his brain he managed, through his computer savvy and strength of will, to assert himself over Deathlok's AI and soon after take control of his new body once he had been retrieved by his handlers. He was horrified by his new state as he learned more about his situation, and baffled to find that he had been in the South American country of Estrella participating in the civil war there. Almost immediately, he was forced to escape his captors by taking over his containment facility through Deathlok's neural uplink network then fight his way free. During this harrowing escape, he discovered the level of Roxxon's betrayal of him. Nearly everyone he'd been working with was complicit in the Deathlok program, including others he'd thought friends.

After he escaped, he tried to go him and get his wife's help with his situation. She was horrified by his new appearance, which still bore the face of the previous Deathlok rather than his own. This drove him to consider suicide, until he realized he could use his neural uplink to talk to his son through his favorite videogame via telephone. Doing this convinced himself of the rashness of his choice, and so he began using his abilities as a vigilante to attone for what he had become. He'd spend his nights capturing hoods and thwarting criminals while he worked out a way to confront Roxxon and Cybertek.

Mike would befriend a ne'erdowell named Jesus after saving his life from a bad holdup. It was here that he acquired his first shelter after losing virtually everything and started to get his feet back under him. This first breather in forever allowed him to get the presence of mind he needed to begin getting back at Roxxon through a real friend of his back with the company, once again through a neural uplink but this time to his friend's desk computer. After meeting with his friend to prove his identity, they collaborated to steal files from Roxxon proving their criminality. Little did either realize, this was what Harlan was waiting for and they zeroed in to attempt to capture Deathlok with a power armor strike team.

Michael managed to defeat the strike force with nearly no collateral loss of life, not even to the strike team itself. Furthermore, he captured a Dragonfly jet. This gave him what he needed to take his agenda to get back at Ryker to the next level. He returned to where he first awoke as Deathlok, the South American country of Estrella.

Micheal's return to Estrella would see him getting even with one of his betrayers while also putting an end to Roxxon's investments there and overthrowing the corporate invested government. This put him on SHIELD's radar well and truly, and soon after his return home he set about taking his fight to Harlan personally. This saw him meeting Colonel Nick Fury for the first time. Nick wanted him delivered alive for his information Cybertek's illegal weapons trafficking, but was affable on the matter as he mostly just wanted it ended.

This would lead to Mike's next adventure as after infiltrating, then blasting, his way into Harlan's base ended with Harlan bribing Mike to secure his escape by offering him what he wanted most: a chance to be restored to his human body. Nick would be perturbed but curious about this, meanwhile Harlan and Mike left for Japan where Harlan's scheme to sell arms to Japanese ultra-nationalists would be unveiled. This plot would be foiled by double crosses, and the mutant Sunfire would turn out to be unwittingly involved in a scheme he didn't realize. When the truth outed, Sunfire aided Deathlok and SHIELD in putting a stop to a plot to overthrow the government with Harlan's weapons. Harlan would be delivered to Nick personally by Mike in spite of a further effort to play Mike's emotions that only earned his ire as he realized the moral hypocrisy of falling for it a second time. Thus did Mike finally settle the score with Harlan, and in payment for this Nick would personally deliver a letter to Mike's family and vouch for his continued survival and wellbeing as a government contractor on a secret international mission.

Micheal's ongoing adventures would be continual and strange. He'd work extensively with SHIELD, mostly aiding their investigations against Cybertek and Roxxon's nefarious deeds and keeping Harlan behind bars as they tried to free him and destroy evidence against them. Harlan's first effort was a powerful transgenic cyborg named Warwolf that he sent to find and destroy all evidence against him and Cybertek. Later he would meet the X-Men, Misty Knight, and Fantastic Four for the first time while fighting Mechadoom.

Michael's adventures would sometimes be bizarre, such as those involving John Kelley. John Kelley was the previous Deathlok, and a soldier. His conscious, or a copy of it at least, was discovered in Computer's database and would for a time be in control of his cybernetics. After sorting this out and coming to an understanding, he'd eventually offload it into Cyberwarrior thus creating the hero Siege.

Michael would be in the fight during the Crisis. He stood his ground as best he could during the assault on Coney Island, which he calls home these days much like he did in the old days after he first became Deathlok. He and SHIELD forces protected the people as best they could and made a solid accounting of themselves with Deathlok's amazing firepower, but he would be significantly damaged by the end of it.

Michael would spend the next couple years in SHIELD care while they figured out how to replace or salvage the critical parts damage in the battle. Adamantium is hard to come by, even secondary adamantium. His plasma tech was a wonder to work with as well. Consequently, much of the time was spent just keeping his organics intact. When the day came for him to brought back online in earnest, he found the world a very different place.

Michael would spend the next month at least just reacquainting himself with his world. Places like Gotham and Metropolis were suddenly on the map. Things like Kryptonians had become reality, and just as amazing would be the discovery that life did in fact exist on Mars. Facilities like STAR Labs were being advertised, and a Metropolitan megabillionaire genius named Lex Luthor was making political waves. He has a lot to catch up on, but for now he's content to re familiarize himself with his old stomping grounds.

Personality

 * Optimist - Michael doesn't have much reason to be, but he refuses to give in to despair for long. He struggles constantly to make lemonade out of the lemons that life gives him. He firmly believes in the ability of individuals to make the world a better place through right deeds and sufficient sustained effort and intent.


 * Determined - Michael refuses to lay down for anyone. He doesn't quit until he sees something finished once he's started out on a task. He's a model completionist.


 * Pacifist - In spite of inhabiting a weapon, Michael refuses to kill. Even when someone deserves it in the eyes of most, it takes something special for him to pull the trigger in lethal fashion on someone personally. In spite of all that Harlan Ryker did to him, for example, he still refused to kill him and instead delivered him to Colonel Fury personally.


 * Moralist - Michael has a strict code of morality. He believes that upholding a strict system of right versus wrong is what separates him from the monster most perceive him as, and succeeding at it gives him the motivation to keep moving on in his existence. Even when he faces a personal shortcoming, he still does what he feels necessary to better himself as a person and pick himself back up.


 * Hopeful - Michael doesn't believe anything worth trying is actually a lost cause until it's been tried. The statement 'The Lost Causes are the only Causes worth fighting for' may truly describe him. He's a believer that with a solid plan and earnest effort, nearly any goal worth achieving is attainable no matter how daunting the odds. This belief is reinforced by his ideas about good deeds inspiring greatness in others. He has, at times, wondered how many times evil prevailed simply because the right person didn't try and how many would have joined him if they had.


 * Melancholy - Michael lost a lot. As a cyborg, he can't truly be with his wife the way she would like and he has to hide his true appearance to not startle his kids. For a long time, he couldn't even do that much. There are times that he is reminded of how much he doesn't have in spite of what he can do. Little things like seeing other people enjoy steak can at times damper his mood.