From Mazeworld

A bionics workshop is a business in Mazeworld specialized in buying, selling, installing and removing bionic augmentations. People in charge of such businesses are called bio-engineers, but there is only one such person in the Mazes - this person is Lance Austin, who insists on being called "Chaosclaw".

The shop

Rules of a bionics workshop

• Sells Bases and Augmentations
• Buys back augmentations for 50% of their value
  • Will not buy back bases.
• Installation of either bases or augmentations is free. Removal and replacement of augmentations is free.
  • Removal of bases is impossible.
  • Augmentations that are removed are not kept, and must be bought back again if the client wishes them back.
• Accepts credit
• Accepts valuables and will exchange them for money or credit

If threatened, Lance will either remain indifferent, or explode in maniacal laughter at the face of whomever is threatening him. However, he will not attempt anything to defend himself. If Lance is killed in action, the contestant will not be able to use the bionics workshop anymore, and any subsequent room in which the bionics workshop was meant to be found will be instead considered a crime scene guarded by Maze Guards. Threatening or attacking Lance can give the contestant a code orange, and killing him can increase it to a code red.

If Lance dies, he will drop the following:

• His clothes: Shirt with tie, Lab coat, Pants with belt, Regular shoes
• A pair of fingerless gloves

The man himself

Early days

Born to a couple of prosperous but unremarkable parents, Lance's real family name is Austin. His father, Sylas was a scientist living a quiet life and career as part of the Science Team of Physics and Chemistry, while his mother Janet worked as a weapon shop owner. He was the oldest of three brothers. The second brother, Victor, died at the age of 14 in the children's realm under unknown circumstances (the official cause of death was listed as "heart failure"). The youngest brother, Falkner, went on to live as a librarian, but was known for his bad luck, leading to repeated and numerous injuries and ensuing trips to the hospital.

Lance was known, as a child, for being one of the most successful students in the history of the Mazes, scoring nearly perfect grades with seemingly very little effort. Avid for knowledge in all sorts of fields and subjects, Lance was particularly attracted by scientific subjects, and became one of the very rare denizens of the Mazes to have some sort of fame in the regular Mazes while still attending the children's realm education.

As a cheerful and passionate child, Lance only sought solitude by choice and solely to devote himself to what he likes best - he is surpisingly sociable, though many have described him as "quirky", "very charismatic" yet "very peculiar".

Over the years, however, the young Lance attracted the attention of several figures; his intellect, his abilities as a student, and generally speaking, his personality and quirky behavior, have been seen as the symptoms of an abnormal individual by many - he was repeatedly analyzed and diagnosed by various medics. At the age of 10, following his entry in E2, Lance was tested for IQ and scored 153, a score that would make him a genius and a child prodigy by the test's standards.

While he was aware of his performance at school, he felt that there was no accomplishment in scoring perfect grades or reaching a high score in IQ tests, which he deemed to be "foolish". Later on, at the age of 14, Lance attempted enrolling in EVERY Science Team program at once, rather than a single one, and to the amazement of his teachers, managed to score high grades in every single test, with perfect scores in tests that would have allowed him entry in the Science Teams of Biotechnology/Genetics and Quantum Physics. He also demonstrated remarkable skills as a conventional engineer, and became the first, and to this date, the only student in the Mazes to have managed to essentially graduate multiple times, qualifying himself for entry in multiple fields of work.

Birth of a new scientific field

At the time of his graduation from the Mazes' children realm and his entry in the real Mazes, his almost inhumane skills attracted the interest of the Administrator, who has made the decision to personally support and fund his projects. Developing a keen interest in robotics, bio-technology, and generally everything touching to what Lance perceived as the "improvement of life", he has invented the field of biological engineering (commonly abbreviated as bionics). Working closely with other STs, Lance imposed himself as a new authority in the Mazes' scientific world, managing to create successful prototypes of what was for a long time a scientist's pipe dream: the bionic augmentation ; an artificial limb designed to equal if not surpass its natural counterpart.

Lance quickly began drafting early versions of the Chest Augmentation Platform, alongside his first augmentation project, which would later become the prototype to the Guardian Life Support System augmentation series. As his prototype and his very first work, Lance was striving for it to be the very best work he had ever created up until that point. The Admin gave him unlimited funding and resources, on the condition that he produces a working prototype that can be safely implanted in a human being, with no risk to their lives. After 8 years of experimentation, Lance finally produced two working prototypes, which he dubbed the "Immortal Heart" and the "Immortal Mind". The former is described as a total replacement for the human heart, and the latter as a protective device that shields the brain from the inside, functioning as a sort of "super-skull".

The so-called Immortal Heart most notably had the ability to restart even when the subject is sustaining a deadly injury, while the Immortal Mind was designed to prevent the brain from undergoing cerebral death even when sustaining lethal injuries. These two prototypes, combined with the augmentation of the rest of the body with enhanced limbs, would allow their wearer to be virtually impossible to kill with conventional weapons, essentially allowing them to be "killed" multiple times and always come back alive.

This came at a great cost, however. In order to provide sufficient power to the augmentations, their wearer's body will need to have both arms and both legs replaced as well as getting an augmentation platform fitted to the chest and head, and they must be fitted with bulky, external power batteries to sustain the large amount of power the "Immortal" augmentations both required.

Despite the limitations, the Administrator was interested in testing out these augmentations on a worthy recipient. Having heard about the story of a certain Thomas Wight, then a Captain who had been the victim of an ambush perpetrated by youkai activists, which nearly cost him his life, the Admin saw fit to summon him alongside her and Lance, and offer Wight a deal: in exchange for a promotion to Colonel and becoming essentially the head of the Maze Military, he must subject himself to an experiment that can potentially kill him, but if successful, will drastically augment his physical capabilities, to the point that he should never have to fear getting killed ever again.

Wight accepted, and several days of bionic surgery followed, at the end of which Thomas Wight came out less man than machine, but certainly far more powerful than any human has ever been before. Despite the fact that he needs to live with large power tanks grafted to his back and that he needs frequent check-ups with Lance to ensure that his health is not degrading and that the augmentations are working on the long term, both Wight and Lance consider it a massive, resounding success.

The Administrator, satisfied that Lance's talents and skills were indeed beneficial for science and technology in the Mazes, did not forget to reward Lance. As a reward for successfully augmenting the first human being, she has granted him the right to be the head of his very own Science Team of Bionics, and the ability to set up a business to produce, sell, and install bionic augmentations on a commercial basis to any client he wishes, even allowing him to set his own prices.

Neither Lance nor Admin could imagine that Thomas Wight would not go on to use his newfound abilities for good... Instead, he went on to further increase his hardline anti-youkai stance, using the opportunity to personally participate in more battles alongside his men, striking terror in the youkai hearts and minds and becoming the face of evil for every youkai activist in the Mazes. Lance considers that he is not responsible for what augmented people do with their new powers, instead believing that "augmentations are the answer in and of themselves" and that if they want to stop an augmented person gone mad, he should be judged "not because he is augmented, but because he went mad."

Unfortunately for Lance, few youkai activists consider that stance to hold much water, and many wish to kill him and put an end to augmentation technology, both as a revenge against making a monster out of Wight and to ensure more people do not get augmented ever again. In response to that, Lance has made a point of living an exceedingly private life, and he now operates in secret, his whereabouts unknown. Nobody even knows in which town he lives, let alone where his workshop is located.

Origin of the nickname "Chaosclaw"

An avid fan of the science-fiction novel The Claw of Chaos ; Tales of a Mechanical Man by Martin Zeiger, which predates the birth of the bionics field. The novel, which was written roughly 900 years ago, is frequently cited as the primary source of inspiration for Lance's work and contributions to the scientific field, up to and including his personal nickname, "Chaosclaw". Lance himself claims to have read the sci-fi book over two hundred times and that he considers it not a work of fiction, but a "book of prophecies" and that it was his "duty to deliver it to the world". Most of his products are inspired, in one way or another, by the book itself.

The term "Claw of Chaos" refers to the book's protagonist, the "Mechanical Man", who is outfitted with a variety of modifications and enhancements (which would now be called augmentations) to his own body following an accident that would have otherwise left him paralyzed. The "Claw of Chaos" is a metaphor for these augmentations, seen by the author as being so powerful and unique, they bring chaos to a world, unprepared to the consequences of giving so much capability to a single human being.

Downfall, or skyrise?

Lance's own mind and psyche were, according to the medics who have routinely examined him throughout his childhood, riddled with personality disorders and troubles. Famous for his outbursts of nigh-stereotypical maniacal laughter, his slight speech impediments and his awkward social behavior, the various health experts who have examined Lance's case agreed on the following:

• Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD)
• Schizotypal personality disorder
• Narcissistic personality disorder
• Delusions of grandeur

Lance's obsession for his work and his perceived goal of improving the human race led to him being one of the first true trans-humanists of the Mazes. He is convinced, to the point of considering himself the "harbinger of a new era", that bionics are the Mazes' human race's future, and that until all of them choose to "improve" themselves with his augmentations, those who desire to be the best "will be the ones who chose to obtain augs".

Today, Lance owns the sole Bionics Workshop in the Mazes and happily sells his services and his products to all humans and halflings in the Mazes who know where to find him and who have the money and the will to "augment" themselves.

Gallery

Images needed!

See also

• Colonel Thomas Wight
• Administrator