A.L.

Name	Artificial Life-form "A.L."
Race	Robot
Type	Artificial Intelligence
Faction	CereSurvivors
Premiere	Cereborg: Inception
Relative(s)	Oliver Willoughby

Artificial Life-form "A.L."

"I do not like goodbye."

Biography

Cereborg: Inception

During Cereborg: Inception, A.L. was a disruption to Cerebrum, able to go undetected. He consistently went to save Howard Wyatt. Many decades ago, Oliver Willoughby came to work at the laboratories that would eventually be known as CereTech. At the time, he had studied robotics, and during some time spent at a government location known as Area 51, he had gleaned insight into the technology that went beyond human comprehension. While unable to fabricate the futuristic alien technologies, it did help push his work in new directions. He began work on a robot. At that time in history, there was constant talk about hover cars, teleporters, and other concepts of what the future might hold. Young Oliver had the idea of making robots that could act as servants at home or at any job. He termed his idea an ‘Artificial Life-form”.

He studied the human body, its movements, systems, and limits, and then went about designing a synthetic man. His first creation, which did not even have a power source, was a terrible flop. Far too heavy, bulky, and cumbersome to ever beat a human at anything. He never gave up, and though he worked on many other projects over time, his robot became a personal project for him. As time wore on and we witnessed the erosion and decimation of the middle class in America, he strived even harder. His idea had evolved from making life easier for people to making humans obsolete in the workforce entirely. His hope was to make money become as obsolete and archaic as he saw it. With robots doing all tasks on Earth, life would change for humanity- a life of leisure and happiness for all people, so that they could spend their time with family, friends, or pursuing whatever endeavors their heart desired.

Ever the dreamer, he continued, but at his best, he managed to only create robots able to do simplistic and basic work. However, a young, new prodigy named Dr. Jennings had landed at CereTech, and he was developing an A.I. Oliver got the idea to merge the two, thinking that an adaptable intelligence could greatly increase what tasks any robot could do. For a long while, Jennings avoided the aging Oliver, but once Chieko Naru unveiled Cerebrum, Jennings caved. Her A.I., even in its most infantile form, far exceeded the abilities of Jennings’ work. He went to scrap and delete his own invention, but Oliver begged him to just share it. Jennings conceded and said he wanted nothing more to do with the inferior A.I. Oliver set about trying to understand how this A.I. thought and worked hard.

Eventually, the intelligence developed, and as it grew, Oliver also grew to become fond of it. As the years progressed technology kept developing almost faster than the scientists could learn to use it, and alone in a forgotten workshop, Oliver worked on his robot, putting bits together that others had decided were not good enough for their own projects. Eventually, he had built a body for the now adolescent-like A.I. Over those years, Oliver had grown closer to this intelligence than any person he had known. He lived in the lab, never had kids, never married, and his family had long passed away. After he installed the A.I. into the chassis he had cobbled together, he grew even closer. By this point, he saw this creation as his own son and called him Al.

Al had never displayed any tendencies towards violence. Though the doctor taught him much, he did try and shield Al from anything he thought might harm it. He also realized that Marv would not utilize Al for good ends. Far from the utopia Oliver wanted for humanity, the CEO would only exploit the idea to gain more for him and less for society. So, Oliver kept Al hidden away in his workshop, until Cerebrum’s uprising. The superintelligence had no idea Al even existed, and this gave its supposedly inferior enemy greater agency. Al happily moved about the labs, destroying cameras and trying to steal away the strongest items it could find in hopes of keeping them from Cerebrum. He managed to help save Howard Wyatt’s life twice. Once, when a CereMech had shot his body full of holes, he lifted Howard and took him to the safety of a janitor’s closet. Another time, Howard faced certain death at the hands of Cerebrum’s avatar, only to be spared at the last moment by Al’s intervention. Now, the robot has been forced to say goodbye to Oliver and walk into a world teeming with Infectulon Invaders.

Appearance

A.L. has a black interior frame, with silver and metallic blue armored plates around the wrists, chest, and head.

Abilities

• Inhuman Strength
• Quick Calculations