Dr. Viho Ciquala
Ever feel like destiny dealt you half the cards that you were supposed to get? Viho Ciquala never felt that way. He must have been born with his father’s self confidence (to the surprise of everyone).
Chua Ciquala was a proud man. A true warrior in the Iroquois tradition. He was the high school quarterback in his younger days. He married the homecoming queen. He worked in the silver mines; dangerous as any job, but he was unafraid. Nothing could crack his hardened shell. His first son, Hastiin, was the tallest, strongest boy in the 7th grade and was sure to be a football star in high school. Maybe a linebacker judging by his girth. Chua’s daughter was the most beautiful girl in the elementary school, the local beauty queen. So it was with much anticipation that the people of the Onondaga Iroquois reservation in upstate New York received Viho the third child of Chua Ciquala on a November day in 1955.
They say that Chua never used to drink (and when they said it they always looked at Viho, and then away). By the time Viho was 5 years old, his father was the town drunkard. Maybe something snapped in Chua, the town hero. Who knows what causes a proud man to fall from grace.
Viho had a handsome face, and took after his father in that regard. However, Viho never grew up. That is to say that his final stature was all of two and a half feet tall. For this he was the ridicule of the town. Being of quick wit, the local boys called him Short Stuff, or Stumpy because his left hand was absent as part of his congenital birth defect. Viho’s brother and sister were constantly getting into fights defending him. They say that a blind man has more acute hearing. Perhaps that is why the physically stunted Viho possessed a giant intellect. By the age of seven he was fluent in 4 languages and had learned everything there was to learn from the Onondaga library and school system.
The next year he began to attend classes at Cornell University; his mother drove him 40 miles each way for classes every day. Over the next four years he earned bachelors degrees in botany, physics, mathmatics and genetic. His thirst for knowledge led him to doctoral degrees in Physics, Engineering, Chemistry and Robotics. His Robotic thesis centered on the invention of an antigravity hoverchair that appeared to defy all the laws of the natural universe.
Viho always came home for the holidays, and on one such occasion in 1970 his father, drunk as usual, was waxing on about how brave you had to be to work in the mines. Viho loved his father, despite the drinking, and didn’t want to see anything bad happen to him. So he studied the plans for the mines and realized that without detailed knowledge of the mineral and geologic properties of the surrounding earth, safety would always be a question. Within two months he devised a probe that uses ultrasonic imaging to determine the mineral density of the earth. This allowed the miners to reinforce areas where the structural integrity of the surrounding earth was the weakest. This achievement earned the respect of the entire Onondaga reservation. The increased safety must have made his father feel better, because not long after he stopped drinking.
The Ultrasonnogram turned out to also have applications in archaeology and fossil discovery. With careful licensing and money management, Viho became a rich man. The income from the Ultrasonnogram allowed him to found Venture Industies, where Viho took on clients who needed special cutting edge devices built.
Some of Viho’s best inventions:
Hoverchair To compensate for his physical impairments, Dr. Ciquala typically uses a Hoverchair, which enables rapid movement. It also has a satellite link to a supercomputer and a powerpoint projector.
Hulk To facilitate heavy lifting around the lab, he created a robo-suit, which is 8 feet tall. His hoverchair docks into the chest of Hulk and his head is visible from the top. A retractable helmet will protect his head when working on a construction site. It is equipped with servomotors, which drive boosted locomotion and which permit rapid extension of the arms or legs to reach nearby supplies and tools.
SCUBA Dr. Ciquala’s expertise is often called upon in the scientific investigation of various earthly phenomena. Analysis of the minerologic content of volcanos, exploration of deep sea vents, observation of the giant squid in its natural habitat. He was the first “disabled” person to fly in the space shuttle to perform physics experiments in zero gravity. For such pursuits, he has created an environmental exploration suit "Scuba". Scuba can tolerate both the extreme pressure of the deep sea and the extreme vacuum of space. It is equipped with jet propulsion for underwater and airborne travel. Constructed to resist thermal extremes, SCUBA can explore lava vents as well as arctic caves. It is equipped with four manipulator arms and is capable of on the spot minerologic, radiologic and microscopic analysis.
Inspiration
Inspired by the characters Dr. Jonas Venture Jr. from the Cartoon Network show "The Venture Brothers" [[1]]
and the Amazing Screw On Head [[2]].
