Leonard Hohenberger

Leonard Hohenberger is the husband of Pearl, and the father of Joseph. He was a human biologist who conceived the IRO-bot race and formed the group KBI, which was comprised of the first three IRO-bots he made and focused on thwarting Wilhelm Ryan and his United Red Army's plans at any and every turn, making them a terrorist group.

Early Life
Little is known about the doctor's early life. He was described as having been rather arrogant when he was younger by his wife, Pearl. He chooses to focus all of his attention on his research, going months without even a trim (the reason for his long hair), and owning five pairs of identical pieces of clothing. His home was situated in a relatively isolated area, not having any immediate neighbors and being very close to a forest, in which his son, Joseph liked to go to daydream in a glade he called, "inspiration hideout." Due to his award-winning discoveries, breakthroughs, and advances in human biology, Hohenberger had a comfortable amount of money and a very high reputation among peers and the general population of The Fence, even if they didn't necessarily know his face.

Loss of Son
During the Mage War, many inhabitants in Heaven's Fence were killed in crossfire between the two factions—Wilhelm Ryan's and Covert Marth's. Seeing the destruction and death, Hohenberger's son, Joseph, begged to go to a "demonstration"—a protest against the violence and a call to remind the Mages that they are meant to serve and protect the people of the Fence. Hohenberger reluctantly agreed to let him go, but after telling his wife, Pearl, about it, she furiously scolded him and demanded they go retrieve him. Sure enough, when they finally found him, he had been caught in the crossfire and died in Pearl's arms.

Pearl withdrew into herself, full of rage and sorrow. Eventually, Pearl was determined to see Ryan come to a final end. Skeptical, (after all, 11 other mages, at some point, tried and failed to do that) Hohenberger tried to comfort her, but she was still too upset. Hohenberger was also upset, but felt that they simply needed to move on and accept that this was the way of things now. Pearl would not accept this answer. The next day, the Black Rainbow appeared in the sky and this became a new focus for Pearl, who was convinced it was Ryan's doing. As many people debated what if any role God played in the matter, Hohenberger was unconvinced it was Ryan's doing (though not entirely sure about God's role) the two found themselves arguing. Hohenberger went to visit Joseph's grave—a little plot under Joseph's favorite spot in a glade only a mile from their home marked by an old bolder they had carved his name onto. There, a Prise, previously something only described to him in literature, gave him a "divine spark" to help in the pair's mission to stop Ryan.

Creating KBI
Upon receiving this spark, Hohenberger instantly knew what he needed to do to create an artificial organism that would be able to take on Ryan and his forces. He enlisted the help of two other scientists to help him accomplish this task: Geneticist Inaid, and Biomedical Engineer Stockmeyer. Using his own DNA, he first created Inferno, nearly a clone of himself, the so-called IRO-bot would be the mastermind of their operation. Next, they created Beast and Knowledge. Though designed to be emotionless, asexual weapons, Beast seemed immediately attracted to Knowledge in a biological way. Hohenberger wanted to keep his resistance force small so it would remain manageable and inconspicuous. Beast in particular was also outfitted with biomechanical weaponry and the DNA used to create Knowledge granted her psionic abilities of her own.

The three IRO-bots, codenamed KBI, began training as soon as they were online. After they had proved themselves in training, they began to go on missions. One of their first missions was to the planet Howling Earth where the United Red Army had set up a large mining facility, even though the planet had nothing of value to mine. They had also detected a low level of Keywork bonding. The pair infiltrated the facility and discovered that the URA was harvesting the Keywork's energy and putting it in monoliths. They ended up engaging in battle, even facing off against Mayo Deftinwolf. Not having the ability to investigate further, they decided to blow up the facility rather than continue to allow Ryan to have access to the mine.

KBI continued to wreak havoc against Ryan's forces, even facing Ryan himself at one point, but Ryan's usual abilities proved useless against the team. Any time Ryan tried to mobilize the URA, Knowledge and Beast would be there to punish him for it; growing a sense of rebellion against Ryan. Their attention became their demise however, as Hohenberger who was alone during one of the team's missions on NulKigh-Cutta, came home to an empty house.

Capture of Pearl
Just as he began to panic, Deftinwolf stood in his living room. Taken completely by surprise, Hohenberger was confronted with truth by the General, and though he tried to protest, his demeanor (stuttering, frightened, and generally suspicious) gave him away. Deftinwolf revealed that they had captured Pearl, showing him a vidchip stream of her hanging suspended in a glass coffin above a yawning pit. The General explained that if Hohenberger gave them what they wanted, they would return her, unhurt. And what they wanted was the apprehended Beast and Knowledge and for the doctor, with his background in biology, to complete their work on a virus: the Monstar Virus. Hohenberger had no choice but to agree.

Of course, KBI came back, and Hohenberger told them everything. An argument about how to proceed ensued, but ultimately, knew what he had to do. He finished the virus and ordered Inferno to his ship (The Grail Arbor, given to him by the Agostis as show of support in KBI), and await further command. After he departed, Hohenberger used a failsafe word he had installed in the remaining pair. They collapsed to the floor and remain motionless. He moved them to his lab and put the core disease into Knowledge, and the virulence of the disease into Beast. Beast would retain immunity to Knowledge, and simply combining their blood wouldn't give Ryan the virus in its pure form, ensuring the both of them would be protected, at least for a little while. Of course, this upset Deftinwolf who demanded Hohenberger give him the pure version, but Hohenberger insisted that he has done as was asked of him; Ryan hadn't specified how or in what form the virus was to be presented.

This was his last, personal act of rebellion against Ryan. After Deftinwolf left, Hohenberger went to a hidden room, originally meant as a secure area against unwanted visitors, where he was working on his fourth and final IRO-bot, named Josephine, after his son. In her, he cultivated a cure, an antibody against the Monstar he created. Though Hohenberger wasn't sure how to synthesize the cure, she would need a gestation period to bring it to full strength. She was not given any accelerants for this reason; she would grow up a normal child. Then, he recorded a vidchip that would respond only to his voice—the voice he shared with Inferno, explaining everything should he somehow die. Tired, still worried, and still having much work ahead of him (conveying all the information to Pearl and Inferno, and putting his grand plan into action), he fell onto his living room couch and had a terrible nightmare about Pearl and Joseph and being swallowed by a chasm similar to the one Pearl dangled above.

Pearl's Return
Of course, Ryan had no choice but to agree that Hohenberger did as was asked and released Pearl. She arrived right after his terrible nightmare and threw open the door just as the shuttlecraft took off. He ran to meet her in the woods where she had been dropped off. As he got closer, he realized she was holding a pulsar gun, and stopped. She hysterically confronted him about his part in her release; asked about the Monstar. Hohenberger tried to explain it's complicated answer, but Pearl wanted a simple yes or no. He answered yes, since she said if he lied, she'd kill him, but when he tried to elaborate, she swung her cane at his head. He struggled to gather his thoughts and speak to her, but she hit him again, knocking him out. When he came to, Hohenberger was alone. He noted the cane left digs in the ground and followed the trail to Joseph's resting place, but ultimately was too late. Just as he came out of the forest into the glade, he heard the heavy thud and wet splat. Bursting into the glade, Hohenberger saw her body, crumpled like a puppet, resting against the pseudo headstone of Joseph's grave. Hohenberger completely broke down, devastated. But now he had nothing left and was determined to see things through himself.

Ryan had organized another celebration, and Hohenberger, with Pearl's discarded pulsar, showed up on his mission. He locked eyes with Deftinwolf and the General told everyone not to move and fired a warning shot at the doctor, shocking him and causing him to drop his weapon. The whole incident put Deftinwolf in a difficult position. He had just been telling the crowd that the enemies of Ryan would all meet their doom and that the URA would protect them from all threats. That said, if Deftinwolf actually killed Hohenberger here, in front of a crowd, he would be hailed as a martyr to any pockets of rebellion that might be thinking of taking up his mantle. Instead, he ordered the doctor to be moved to a secure and private area. Hohenberger wouldn't let it be easy for him, spitting on his cheek as he was being taken away. The action caused a diversion just big enough for Hohenberger to take one of the restraining soldier's pulsars and aim to fire at the General. Deftinwolf was trained for these kinds of scenarios, however, and though the doctor's shot sailed over his head harmlessly, his responding shot carved a hole in Hohenberger's chest. Falling flat on his face, Hohenberger smiled up at the General, saying that Deftinwolf was dead and damned and didn't even know it, before succumbing to his wound and dying.

Legacy
Though Deftinwolf was worried the doctor would become a martyr, the URA quickly spread twisted falsehoods that the doctor was hired to form an anti-terrorist unit during the Mage War, but sabotaged the operation by infecting two of the three members with special, viral components; a virus known as Monstar. The members became that which they were suppose to work against: terrorists. The project was supposedly terminated and the members' minds were all supposedly erased with the doctor presumably killed.

Pearl Hohenberger
Like her husband, Pearl was a scientist—specifically an entomologist with a home greenhouse laboratory. Pearl was a spunky, hotheaded, success-driven or determined person. One of her most notable successes, was the development of the syringa dragonfly. Prior to Joseph's death, the Hohenbergers were a close, loving family. After Joseph's death, Pearl blamed Leonard for allowing their son to go to the protest which was inadvertently fired upon, leading to his death. She becomes torn between her love for him and her love for her son, and feels that the only way to feel better again is to see Ryan die. She helps Leonard build the IRO-bots: she thinks Inferno is like a young Leonard (which he is, in a way), and has a particular fondness for Beast (since he was made with Joseph's DNA), and apologizes to him as though she were apologizing to her actual son.

Following her capture, she is mentally tortured by Ryan and subsequently tricked by Deftinwolf to believe that Leonard not only gave his cooperation, but that he also gave them the virus and Knowledge and Beast without explaining how difficult he made it for them to actually take advantage of any of them. Though Pearl initially wouldn't believe him, Deftinwolf left a pulsar gun with her anyway. She confronted Hohenberger about these things, but a struggle ensued, ending after she knocked him out with a cane. She thought about killing him, but she's conflicted, seeing and hearing Ryan and his voice in her head telling her to do it and not wanting to listen to him. His face then morphs into a dragonfly—one of her syringas. She dropped the pulsar, and followed the fly through the forest. It went up a tree and still, she followed it. The tree she climbed became one with arms and hands for branches, but she continued on. Finally, she reached the top of the tree, and the dragonfly, beaconed her to dance with it. The tree's arms waved goodbye to her, and she leaped off the tree to dance with the fly. Unfortunately, all this was in her head, and Pearl fell from the tree, landing square on Joseph's headstone rock, dying on impact.

Joseph Hohenberger
Also known by the nickname Joey, Joseph is the only son of Pearl and Leonard Hohenberger. A seventeen year-old, Joseph is active in the political circles of The Fence, but a staunch pacifist. He has a strong sense of justice and had always been urged to do what he felt was right by his parents. For these reasons, he begs to go to a protest for the Mage War that has been long ongoing, believing that the Mages should remember that they are suppose to be serving the people of The Fence, not fighting amongst themselves for power. Unfortunately, the protest he and his friends attend is caught in the crossfire between Ryan and his last standing adversary, Covert Marth. He is shot and tries to hold on, but ultimately dies just as his parents find him, dying in his mother's arms. He is buried in a glade located a mile away from his family's home called the "inspiration hideout."

Gallery
To be added...

Trivia

 * Hohenberger is named for the friend that introduced Stever and Sanchez, Rory Hohenberger, who is often included in the special thanks on their albums.
 * Though ironically, Hohenberger was NOT listed in their Year of the Black Rainbow booklet; the album the character features the most in.