Dante Ortega

Dante was built as a birthday gift from a Spanish dignitary, Domingo Ortega to his teenage son, Joaquin. There was a team of veteran designers and builders from an Italian omnic factory that produced luxury robots before the first crisis now operating in the underground building custom fighting robots. Joaquin gave his father a list of specifications and cosmetics he wanted, and it was passed on to the creative team. He was built, tested and delivered, and activated the day after he arrived.

The Ortegas were not kind masters. They, like many others in Spain, thought of omnics as objects and tools, and Dante was no different. The only one in the family to treat him kindly was Joaquin’s youngest sister Sofia, and she was often scolded for doing so. Joaquin named him El Matador (he was not an especially creative child) and began entering him in small time matches. Dante hated the name, but he was fairly good in the ring, and got even better with each match.

One night Joaquin had a group of friends over. Some drunk, some high, some both, they periodically harassed and attacked their own robots. Shortly after midnight the cocky teenagers decided to parade their fighting robots around town. The boys antagonized a group of gang members, who attacked them. They called to their robots for help, but Dante didn't move, and held an arm out to stop the few who reluctantly made to. While the boys were being beaten to death, Dante led the group away and into the city. The deaths made the news, and the omnics were presumed stolen by the gang. The Ortegas made no attempts to find him.

Not having many options, Dante and the others went their separate ways. Many, Dante included, joined the underground illegal fighting circuit. He gave himself a new name and spent many years building a successful career, going undefeated once he reached the higher ranks. He killed most of his opponents, many of them friends, several of them from the group he escaped with. He earned the nickname “El Hidalgo”, the gentleman, because he would not kill opponents rendered unable to fight back, even if still conscious.

He continued until he was pitted against his best friend. They fought, as viciously as they would have any other opponent, but midway through the fight he gave up, refusing to fight back. Rosario tried to goad him into it, but to no avail, and ended up refusing as well. The match was turned into a two-on-two, with Rosario and Dante fighting two other omnics. They won, and as soon as the bell rang, Dante left the ring without collecting his prize money and never came back.

Instead he took up illegal motorcycle racing. He’d always had an interest in it, and owned a couple of bikes that he bought with prize money from fighting. He spent a little more to prep one of them for racing, and a little more on mods for himself, both for practicality and to change his appearance. He primarily races against other omnics, where like fighting, the racers are generally owned by humans betting on them like racehorses, and the ones who are free never stay so for long. He has been seen spectating human races. He’s kept his nickname of The Gentleman, his morals carrying over into the racing scene as well.

One day he was scoping out a human-only race, fully intending to simply watch. Afterward the humans tried to chase him off anyway. He kept his cool and challenged the winner to a one-on-one race. The winner, overly self-assured, accepted, and lost miserably. The humans immediately accused Dante of cheating and chased him out anyway. Unbeknownst to him, they followed him out onto the street armed and ready to kill him. As they were about to make their move, Ryker saw them and interjected. They turned and attacked him instead, and the commotion caught Dante’s attention. He stepped in and beat all of them senseless, a couple running and the rest lying in agony. He thanked Ryker and, upon finding out that he was a racer as well, offered him protection any time they were in town together.