BASTION

 

BASTION

Real Name: Inapplicable

First Appearance: X-Men (Vol. 2) #52, May 1996

Powers: Bastion was the magically recreated form of the Nimrod/Mastermold Sentinel hybrid. During a battle with the X-Men, the hybrid was forced through the Siege Perilous, an inter-dimensional gateway bestowed upon the group by Roma, the Omniversal Majestrix. According to Roma, all who entered the portal were judged by “the highest of powers” and given a chance at rebirth. When it re-emerged from the portal, the Sentinel amalgamation was brought forth in a form no longer artificial, but one of flesh and blood. Unlike others who have gone through the same process, the Sentinel amalgamation would remember the process and assign his own beliefs to the motives of the “higher powers.” He would come to believe that the powers deemed him worthy of his most fervent desire. As such, this power, which he perceived to be feminine, transformed him into a man. Though now stripped of all artificiality and now a fully grown human male, the reborn Sentinel did not know what it was to be human. Furthermore, he had absolutely no memory of his former existence.

He originally appeared to be a synthezoid, a combination of mechanical and pseudo-organic parts which appeared outwardly human. He seemed to be stronger, faster, and possessed better sensory acuity than a normal person, and was immune to psionic probes. After Operation: Zero Tolerance was decommissioned, Bastion's old lives reasserted themselves somewhat, and he began to demonstrate the pre-programmed molecular conversion abilities possessed by Nimrod, reconfiguring his relatively normal techno-physiology to replicate many of the powers and technologies Nimrod once had. He even created an outer armored shell mimicking his old mechanical state. Since then, Bastion has frequently been reduced to little more than a disembodied head, but retains machine telepathy and contact molecular reconstructive abilities, enabling him to mentally override and control mechanical systems from a short distance away as well as fuse with other androids or robotics, converting them into new bodies for himself.

Briefly, he was transmoded into the being called Template after infusion with a techno-mechanical virus cultivated by Mainspring. A derivation of the transmode virus employed by the Technarchy and the Phalanx to convert organic matter into techno-organic matter, the techno-mechanical virus was capable of transfiguring inorganic matter in much the same way. Techno-mechanical substance was not self-powering, as it contained none of the "lifeglow" found in techno-organic matter, but was capable of advanced morphing and reconstruction when fed sufficient amounts of artificial power. As the core of Mainspring's techno-mechanical system, Template had adapted an entire space station as an extension of himself, and could use its satellite communications to transmit the techno-mechanical virus down to Earth, "infecting" computers and other receivers with the virus as well. This let him reshape and animate such receivers from a distance and spread the virus through anything they touched. Later, Bastion was reborn by connecting his head to the deactivated body of an alternate future Nimrod, giving him his original synthezoid body and yet the full power of a Nimrod.