Jack-O

In 2073, That Man used Aria Hale’s mind and body for the creation of ultimate Gear, Justice. She was meant to control other Gears and prevent the ongoing conflict between Gears and humanity. Due to Universal Will sabotaging Aria before this could happen, Justice went haywire. That Man had to take extreme measures, trying to destroy her along the Island where the procedure took place. Justice later awakened without any memory and waged war on humanity. To save her, That Man created a substitute body, Jack-O, that would have parts of Aria’s soul and memory. The plan was to have Jack-O download the remaining portion of Aria’s soul from Justice and, in a way, revive Aria as a normal human being. 

Nearly one hundred years later, I-No prematurely awakened Jack-O before the download could be complete. With her mood unstable, Jack-O begins complaining about That Man before running away to experience the world. Throughout her short journey, she gets injured in a fight with Bedman, meets Jam Kuradoberi, and stumbles across I-No and Axl. Before long, she is caught by Sin Kiske, Ramlethal, and Sol, who is shocked to discover that she’s an artificial human created to revive his girlfriend, Aria. Before he can come to grips with this fact, Raven appears and teleports away with Jack-O so they can safely await That Man’s return from Bedman’s prison.

Once That Man has returned, he takes Jack-O to Illarya Castle, where he has a discussion with Dr. Paradigm, Leo Whitefang, Ky Kiske, and Sol Badguy. He reveals a lot of important information about Jack-O, Ariels, and Universal Will, and they form a temporary truce to fight the common threat. During their confrontation with Ariels, Jack-O manages to completely merge with the part of Aria that remained in Justice.

While her soul is restored, Aria’s consciousness still refused to come out, with Jack-O having to retreat inside herself to converse with Aria. In the meantime, Jack-O went on to work alongside Sol Badguy as a bounty hunter. After one of their bounty runs, Ky contacts the two about I-No taking something from Ariel. Despite this news, they head on vacation, but before long, Axl teleports to them to warn them about something terrible going down. The trouble comes shortly after as they get into a chase with Happy Chaos, and news comes of I-No willingly getting captured.

After she’s fruitlessly interrogated by Sol and Ky, Jack-O explains I-No’s origin as a being who was born out of humanity’s collective wish for a brighter tomorrow. Jack-O gains some sympathy for I-No, as both of them struggle to find their place and role in this life. Aria speaks to Jack-O about this and tells her to understand how valuable her world is. After I-No and Jack-O share a short talk, Ky takes the latter to the G4 summit.

Sometime later, Happy Chaos takes control of Tome of Origin and merges with I-No, making her ascent to godhood. Jack-O sees this as an opportunity to fulfill her purpose tries to merge with I-No, making her human at the expense of her life. Before she can do so, Sol stops her and convinces Jack-O wants her to stay and values her for who she is and not for the possibility of Aria coming back. Later, Sol manages to defeat I-No, and after the situation is resolved, Jack-O accepts her new self. Together with Sol, they begin living in a small house away from the city.

Personality

Due to her rushed awakening and fragmented, distorted memory, Jack-O's personality fluctuates between two states. Sometimes she’s a mature and refined lady with an outdated lexicon and sensibilities of the 21st-century world. Other times she behaves like an excited and cheerful kid. Due to her origin and purpose, Jack-O struggles with accepting her sense of self, with real emotions and thoughts.

Appearance

Jack-O is a woman with green eyes and red hair. She wears black shoes with red soles, black gloves, a black mask with glowing green eyes and mouth, an ankh necklace, and a ball and chain attached to her leg. Her outfit is a white bodysuit with flared, slit pants and a deep decollete. Above her head floats a cracked yellow halo.

Playstyle

Jack-O is an all-around tricky character that’s difficult to use well and challenging to fight. She has a unique mechanic that consists of summoning minions, which she can then command or hit to send them in various directions like a projectile. When she’s able to set up minions, Jack-O becomes increasingly more intimidating. One or two out of three is enough to enable an incredibly oppressive offense and provide multiple options for controlling the neutral. Even if she fails to open up opponents to do a combo, Jack-O can amass a good amount of chip damage and R.I.S.C.

Without her summons, Jack-O is significantly less powerful. Her toolkit is versatile but requires a lot of practice to use well as she is forced to take risks and carefully place more committal moves. Summoning minions is not a very easy task either. Each minion can be taken out in one hit, and hitting Jack-O would remove all of them. As such, it can be immensely challenging for Jack-O to establish her game plan.