Jim Jorgenson
Jim Jorgenson (a.k.a. XO)
Jim is a brilliant quantum theorist...or is that terrorist? Ugh. He discovered too late that the benevolent PRIMUS group he joined to work on his quantum multiplication project was actually just a rebranded VIPER, and now he's in deep trouble. You see, he stole his project, and destroyed all notes and evidence of his work in their databases and labs. Yeah, maybe that was a mistake, because now they want his quantum head on a pole!
Physical Description
Special abilities
Jim designed a quantum exoskeleton that is actually built into a set of underarmor bodywear. He likes the double-meaning in that. So it is not obvious to anyone else that this is what is giving him his powers.
Apparel & Accessories
Since Jim's exoskeleton is basically underwear/workout clothing, he wears a modified Jet Black PRIMUS suit (the Emblem modified) and a black spandex/nylon-like pullover mask to hide his face. He would like to someday get a real costume that he can quantumly switch to and store in his exoskeleton, so he can instant change back and forth as needed.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Jim's a good guy wanting to do some good in the world...and he's a nerd, so he wants to do good in nerdy ways, usually. He was really hoping to do good with PRIMUS,but since it isn't PRIMUS maybe he can do good on his own? He has a girlfriend, sort of. She wants more, but he is scares of the commitment, mostly because he doesn't want VIPER to get to her so they can get to him.
Young Quantum Scientist Genius invented a Quantum Multiplier Exoskeleton for an organization he thought were the good guys. Turns out they were the opposite, so he stole the suit, faked his death, and decided to use his suit for good.
Character Location
Children
Quotes & Catchphrases
"When you look at me...I WAVE!"
Gotta Get Back In Time
2024
The year was 2024. In a high-tech lab within Millennium City, the rebuilt and futuristic version of old Detroit, Jim Jorgenson, known to the world as the hero XO, stood before his latest invention: the Temporal Quantum Modulator (TQM). He was clad in his Quantum Multiplier Exoskeleton, a marvel of technology that granted him extraordinary abilities, and wore safety goggles for the experiment.
XO's goal was ambitious: to create Quantum Linkage, a method for instantaneous communication across vast distances using quantum entanglement. He believed this would revolutionize the way heroes coordinated their efforts, making them even more effective in their fight against evil.
Jim adjusted the controls, his fingers dancing over the holographic interface as he fine-tuned the TQM. The device hummed with energy, its core glowing a soft blue. The lab was quiet except for the soft hum of machinery, the perfect setting for an experiment of this magnitude.
Just then, a surge of quantum tachyons erupted from the TQM, colliding with a naturally occurring quantum singularity in the Earth's magnetic field. The room shook violently as a temporal rift began to form.
Meanwhile, in 2074, Honey Badger, whose real name was Klara Engelbrecht, was engaged in a friendly sparring session with Resin, a mysterious hero with strange, often unpredictable powers. Known for her resilience and regenerative abilities, she paused as a strange energy enveloped her.
"Resin, did you feel that?" Klara asked, her South African accent evident in her tone.
Before Resin could respond, the energy intensified. The quantum tachyons interacted with Klara's unique biology, anchoring her at the center of the temporal rift that was forming in 2024.
"Klara, something's wrong!" Resin shouted, trying to stabilize the anomaly with his powers, but the rift was too unstable.
A powerful force pulled both Jim and Klara towards the rift. Resin's form flickered as he exerted all his energy to control the surge, but in a blinding flash, both XO and Honey Badger were sucked through the temporal bridge.
Jim groaned as he opened his eyes, finding himself lying on a cobblestone street. The air was different, filled with the sounds of a bustling city that was unmistakably old. He looked around and saw a woman in combat gear stirring beside him, her eyes sharp with caution and readiness.
"Where am I?" HB asked, her form taught and ready for a fight.
Jim raised his hands, trying to appear non-threatening. "Easy there. My name is XO...Jim, and I am wondering the same thing. This does look like Millennium City, but something is off."
Jim tapped a few holographic buttons on his left forearm and seemed to freeze as he took in the data he saw.
"Oh no. Where are you? Well, it's Millennium City alright, but maybe you should have asked WHEN are you?"
Klara's eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you talking about! What kind of trick is this?"
Jim took a deep breath, trying to calm her down. "According to my suit, it's October 15, 2015."
"No. The year is 2074! You have to be kidding me!" Klara exclaimed, her tone aggressive and incredulous.
Jim kept his hands up, trying to show he meant no harm. "I'm not kidding. Something went very wrong with my experiment. The TQM interacted with a quantum singularity in the Earth's magnetic field, creating a Quantum Time-Slip Anomaly. We got pulled through a temporal rift."
Klara kept her distance, her muscles tense. "You expect me to believe that some experiment of yours pulled me back in time?"
"Look, I know it sounds crazy," Jim said. "But think about it. The only reason we're both here, in what looks like 2015, is because something powerful enough disrupted the flow of time."
Klara hesitated, then slowly relaxed her stance. "Alright, let's say I believe you for now. What do we do?"
Jim took a deep breath, relieved she was willing to listen. "First, we need to find a safe place to regroup. Then, we can figure out how to recreate the conditions of the experiment and get back to our own times."
Klara nodded, though her eyes still held a wary edge. "Fine. But if you try anything, I'll make sure you regret it."
"Understood," Jim said with a nod. "Let's move quickly and stay out of sight. The last thing we need is to draw attention to ourselves."
As they started heading off into the city, Jim glanced at her. "By the way, what's your name?"
"Honey Badger," she replied with a smirk.
Jim chuckled softly. "Fitting name. You really don't give a shit, do you?"
Klara grinned, her fierce determination evident. "Not a single one."
Together, XO and Honey Badger set out into the city, ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead in this unfamiliar past, determined to find their way back to their own time. As they navigated the streets, the tenuous alliance between them grew, forged by necessity and the shared goal of returning to their respective eras.
Finally in action with The TEAM!
9/5/21
How cool is this? I get to finally go into the field with the Team. And Chinatown even. So we got a call about one of the guys the Team met before acting all funny, like maybe he was being possessed or marionetted, or something. OK, let's go check it out, see what's up.
We arrive, and I quickly go Incognito...full Quantum Observer turned off, and I vanish from Sandcrab's Spacial Awareness, Wildthing's heartbeat Sense, sight, sound, etc. You know how things behave so differently in quantum physics depending on if the behavior is observed or not. Well, I found a way for remove "the observer" completely. All the Team can hear is me talking over comms. Pretty sweet. I don't think they know it but this is one of my first modifications to the EXO suit. I was able to tweak the Quantum Multiplication to allow me to actually slip between waves and particles, completely unobserved, and sort of phase in between all of these sensory wavelengths. A little compensation in the radio tech, and I can still communicate via radio waves. I truly believe that there is very little that we cannot do with Quantum Physics, and here I am proving it!
Kind of reminds me of that Invisible Boy in the movie Mystery Men...an oooold classic I dug up one time on Prime. No one paid any attention to him so much I could just disappear. This is like that without the comedy element. I can kind of "blind" the Quantum Observer, and if it can't sense, neither can anyone else. Friggin awesome that it works so well!
So I am out of sight and watching down the alley...there is a strange electrical mini-storm happening ahead. Fascinating. I wish I had some equipment here to study that thing! I am wondering if that has anything to do with Jasper's strange behavior. Or something to do with the location. Lots of strange stuff going on in these parts. Or is it something else totally unrelated? Who knows...but caution is warranted.
So, naturally, Ghost flies directly over to it.
Suddenly appearing out of the stormette, 3 flying drone gattling guns appear and start blasting away at Ghost. While I feel bad about that, I also am really glad I'm unobservable. The others are attacking the guns which makes sense, I think, but why are they here? What are they programmed to do and by who and why? If these are Destroyer drones, what is Destroyer's stake here? What is is he interested in enough to send resources? Does he specifically want the same things we want? Or is there something else? Could they just be here to investigate all the recent activity in the area? I think the Team wasn't really caught on camera or anything, but maybe someone or something somewhere documented the New Champs in action here and Dr. Dee has sent some drones to patrol?
Well if that's the case we just walked RIGHT into that, didn't we!
I shift the suit's energies (becoming observable again) and pump it up with quantum energy, and through a Quantum Reach punch...I'm like 30 meters away from one of those things, but this is not case in the quantum realm...Focusing on various possible outcomes, the suit quickly guides me in mind and body to find one that will work, so my punch lands from a distance without me actually touching it. Good thing, too, since it appears to have some kind of shielding that looks like it might sting a bit if I were to actually touch it! I don't think I hurt it much,. but I did knock it back a bit near the wall behind it. Cool.
Sandcrab does this cool thing where he grabs a bad guy and then just vanishes underground with him. Sweet move. And he did it again, grabbing a drone and digging down. He smashes it up a bit as he goes, but when he get below street level that dang thing explodes. I could hear the pain over comms! He's OK, right? He's just fine, yeah? Hope so. Sure he is...but man that blast was pretty big. It wrecked the ground all around there!
While the others make great progress on the drones as well, suddenly --again from the mini storm--a large humanoid robot steps into view, though clearly not fully tangible, as Ghosts quick swing at it passes right through. Crap, it's somehow out of phase too. How am I going to do anything about that?
Ah, maybe I can do something else useful other than attack it. I again shift quantum energy, directing power from the onboard storage into what I call "String Walking" where I also shift out of phase with the normal physical realms, still observable, but no longer affected by the physical world. The Destroid should have no problem seeing me, but should still be unable to harm me. I won't be able do much either, except jump up and down, yell, and wave my hands around...so that's what I do.
"Hey Destroid!! What did the robot have to do when his Uggs came off? He had to re-boot!" I yelled, taunting him. I am poised ready to dodge the imminent incoming flurry of attacks.
Well, in my head that is what I did. But in reality, it came our more like "Heyyyy!!! Uhhhh! Yoooo!!!!! Over Here!!!!"
Yeah, not as clever, but hey, I am still new at this. Be nice.
Everything happened so fast from there. People were obliterating what remained of the gun drones and attacking the Destroid. It seemed to be trying to acquire a target that was NOT me. Lil Rocket ran into the building to try to get to Jasper and get him to safety. Sandcrab flew up out of the ground and busted through the 3rd floor window (man, that dude is so cool, especially for an old guy!). And the Destroid went immediately to the same area. Yep, Jasper was the target...but why?
Sandcrab pitched Jasper out the window, and I leaped into action to catch him. Quantum reflexes charges, I bolted forward and innately calculated the most successful path to catch the babbling fool. Fly ball to left field...and he catches him! The crowd goes wild!!!
A quick hand-off to Ghost and she is off to the races to get him to safety. Pretty sweet coordination! Good thing Sandcrab and I practiced that a few times in the Danger Room already! He looked a little stressed that it might not actually work, though.
So the Team jumped in and blocked the Destroid from effectively following Ghost, and then is just took off, vanishing with the mini-storm below.
Sweet! First mission was a success! Time to find out what's wrong with Jasper and make sure Sandcrab is not hurt too badly from that explosion.
NAGA Agents Don't Eat At Chick-Fil-A
6-28-21
Jim poured over the data as it flashed across the displays looking for anything of interest.
Hm. This is interesting.
A NAGA train had an accident en route to Chicago? Sure...an accident. Let's see. Yep, part of the track destroyed. Oh, and and explosion and fire.
Oh...now here we go...missing cargo. BINGO.
His fingers danced across the keyboard as he instructed the system to export the data he selected to a thumb drive.
2%...oh Lord, this is going to take forever, isn't it? Why can't these guys all use faster computers? God knows they overspend on so much...even my project. Sure I didn't mind at the time, but geez guys buy some new hardware!
OK, 21%...come on, come on.
He looked up at the clock and whispered a curse. The dude would be back any minute now. Not good. Maybe the line at Chick-Fil-A is really long today. Who am I kidding...NAGA espionage agents don't eat at Chick-Fil-A...
52%...hurryhurryhurry!
He looked up and panicked. He could see the shadow of someone against the opaque glass on the door. Crap, he's back! There was whistling, too, but he didn't recognize the song. That guy…he glanced over at the nameplate on the desk…Barry…can't whistle for crap.
78%...crap…only 58%?!!...there was a beep as Barry…if that was his real name…badged to unlock his door. Quickly Jim jumped up from the desk and shoved the janitorial cart in front of the door.
"Still mopping! Floor's wet," Jim raised a grumbly version of his voice.
There was a pause at the door. "What?" Barry called back through the door.
"Mopping!"
Jim jumped back to the computer. Thank God this was a small office.
89%. It's not enough!
"What do you mean, mopping?!? My office has carpet!"
Jim looked down at the floor. He was never good at tracking all the unimportant details. He ripped the drive from the USB on the computer and ducked behind the door just as it opened, his black suit mask melting into place. The cart toppled as the door flew open. The man, Barry, swept the room with no-longer-concealed NAGA pistol as the door banged against the doorstop and swung a little bit back again.
The room was empty…all that remained of the janitor now was a flashing progress bar on the computer screen.
Copying Files
||============================>>|| 100% Complete.
"Damnit!" the NAGA agent yelled as he threw his Chick-Fil-A bag against the plate glass windows and it plopped to the ground.
In the hall outside, Jim came out of the wall like he was some kind of Ghost, tucked the thumb drive into his coat pocket, melted back into his janitor coveralls, and ran down the hall to the stairs. That was too close! And was that really Chick-Fil-A??? Wow.
Back at his office in the basement, Jim plugged in the drive, and went to work analyzing the data. He was absolutely curious if the New Champions were responsible for the train explosion or not. And if so, why? Did they really just need some NAGA equipment from that train? And what equipment would that be?
Wait…what is this bit here in this other communique about power cells?
Not a walk so much as a workout.
Crap. 30 minutes. That is all I get? I don't have time for recon, ensuring security...nothing! So what can I do? We can't just meet on 30 minutes notice and not expect someone else to also show up. I am sure there are lots of other smart guys listening in on our conversation. So what can I do? What's that answer?
Well, as my friend Terry Pratchett would say, "It's probably Quantum!" Yeah, that guy cracks me up every time.
OK, I got it.
He hits the PRINT button and runs over to the laser printer, then back to his bench. "Not safe for use at home, but these guys can handle heavy metals...I hope." Jim shot a glance at the clock..."Crap! 18 minutes..."
He clicked back his hair...and then smiled at the camera. Oh crap. Almost forgot. Jim activated his exoskeleton, and his lab outift melted away to be replaced by the fine, black suit and a black mask over his head. Nice!
"I'm XO. Nice to meet you. Well, it was brief, and this doesn't really count, and, dude, 30 minutes -- what were you thinking?"
...
He arrived at the park with no time to spare. Under the large ring of a sculpture, he squared off the poster board with his printed plane image against the steel plaque in the concrete. Stood up and started heading South as if he were just out for a stroll.
He got only a football field down the sidewalk when he spied something frightening through the plate glass in the building to his left. Holy crap! That guy is wearing power armor or something, and a huge power pack on his back. He froze and turned to walk back the other way, pretending he hadn't seen a thing.
Then ahead he say the man in the blue costume shrug off a hoodie as he stood under the large ring sculpture. From hind him to the right the wild woman leapt through the air to land next to him. They were here! And looks like they got his message. Good, now get the hell out of here!
But no...a flying villain approached them and challenged them. Then that armored guy ran out of the building and also took to the air.
Jim couldn't help it. He froze, unmoving...and then darted to the left to take cover under and behind the tree he saw the beast woman jump into and disappear. Maybe if she was still in the tree he could get her attention...
...Maybe that was a bad idea. He was still in his--what? My labcoat? Crap. You total nerd, Jim!
Then the third guy ran out of the building, slower, and maybe heavier, too...it looked like he was cracking the sidewalk where we ran. I think I better try to get across the street and out of here.
Well, I hope they get to safety, too.
And I hope they get my message.
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