Jack's Prosthetic Arm is a mechanical prosthesis made by Max Epper for Jack West Jr to replace his severed left arm.
History[]
Early History[]
After Jack West Jr and Max Epper tracked the kidnapped Malena Okombo to a volcano in Uganda, where Francisco del Piero took her first-born child while Jack and Epper recovered the second-born daughter, the pair found the entrance way covered by a curtain of lava. With the release lever behind some of the lava, and seeing no other way to escape, Jack asked Epper if he could build him a new arm. Epper, knowing that they had no other options, promised that he would make Jack a new arm that was better than the one he was born with. With that, Jack plunged his left arm into a waterfall of lava to pull the lever, managing to do so before his arm was severed off at the elbow.
Over the first few years the Coalition of Minnows spent raising Lily at Victoria Station in Kenya, Epper worked on building a mechanical prosthetic for Jack until, one day in 2000, the arm was completed. Epper integrated the prosthetic onto Jack's elbow with Zoe Kissane's help, and then spent a number of hours making sure its CPU would not be interfered with from other electronic devices until he was satisfied. Jack proceeded to test the capabilities of his new arm, finding that he could grip things more tightly than his natural one ever had.
Jack elected to not let too many people outside of the Coalition (who were already aware he had lost his arm during their first meeting) know about his prosthetic arm, instead keeping to wearing long-sleeved shirts or jackets and a glove to keep it hidden from view. Epper also built some spare arms and parts for the prosthesis, which he kept at the farm. Over the years, Jack helped Epper continue to develop and upgrade the prosthetics, to the point where Jack was confident he could manage retrofitting it by himself.
Seven Ancient Wonders[]
Upon being left dangling from the ceiling in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Jack was able to maintain his grip on the handholds with ease thanks to his prosthetic hand. As Pooh Bear struggled to keep his own grip, Jack had his friend instead hold on to his waist, knowing that his artificial arm could take their combined weight.
While fighting Cal Kallis on top of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the nearly-defeated Jack threw a devastating punch with his artificial arm, and the blow from the titanium-alloyed fist was severe enough to dent Kallis's nose inward and leave him barely conscious.
Between Seven Ancient Wonders and The Six Sacred Stones[]
During his parent-teacher interview with Lily's sports teacher Todd Naismith, Jack used his prosthetic arm to snatch the baseball Naismith was throwing around in midair. After noting that Lily got her stubbornness from him, Jack proceeded to crush the ball with his artificial hand, surprising Naismith.
The Six Sacred Stones[]
As Jack was crucified to a stone slab by his father in the Lalibela mine, the Ethiopian Christian guard hammering the nails into his hands managed to somehow get one through the metallic fist to keep it in place. As his enemies prepared to drop another stone slab on top of him, Jack struggled to get his prosthetic arm free, managing to do so and brace it just before it crushed him, though the force of the impact crunched some of the fingers.
After spending the next several hours getting his other hand free, Jack detached the arm and used some of the C4 he kept inside it to break the slab. Once he had freed himself and the arm, Jack reattached it.
Later, after he and Pooh Bear had returned to their old base at Victoria Station, Jack replaced the damaged parts of his prosthetic arm.
The Five Greatest Warriors[]
During Jack, Lily and Zoe's temporary truce with the CIEF inside the Third Vertex, Jack removed his jacket due to the heat given off by the lake of tar, exposing his artifcial arm. As one of the CIEF soldiers gawked at it, Lily questioned if he'd never seen a bionic arm before.
Between The Five Greatest Warriors and The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]
After moving to the Simpson Desert Farm with his family, Jack brought along his spare prosthetic arms and stored them there.
The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]
When he was brought to the Underworld to participate in the Great Games of the Hydra, a slight glint of metal from Jack's artificial arm could be seen in the small gap between the unprepared Jack's glove and long-sleeved t-shirt.
Upon properly meeting Shane Schofield during a break between the Third and Fourth Challenges, the Marine asked what was with Jack's arm, having been able to spot it; Jack simply replied that he'd lost the old one in a tight spot and that his new one was better.
The Three Secret Cities[]
After Alby Calvin's left hand was cruelly severed off by Dion DeSaxe, Pooh Bear would suggest that Alby for one of Jack's spare arms, however Jack promised that once they were done with their current crisis, they would build Alby a prosthetic hand of his own.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
During the interim between the Trial of the Cities and the Trial of the Mountains, Jack and Alby headed to the former's farm to collect some important files and texts he had stored there. During their time there, Jack grabbed one of his spare prosthetic arms and began retrofitting it to serve as a prosthetic hand for Alby.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
As they navigated the Four-Sided Maze in the Supreme Labyrinth, Jack and Alby used the titanium fists of their prosthetic appendages to punch handholds into the walls, allowing them to hang from the ceiling until the maze rotated back into a more favourable angle.
During his fight with General Garthon Rastor, Jack was quickly overpowered by his larger and stronger opponent, who also stomped on the hand of his artificial limb, denting its thinner struts and breaking its fingers. When Jack reached the last overhang leading to the Throne of Death, he realised that he could not make the final climb because of the damage Rastor had done to his hand, and Sphinx snorted that victory was now literally out of his grasp. Luckily for Jack, Alby removed his prosthetic hand, threw it up to Lily, and from her on to Zoe, so that they could pass it on to Jack. Jack quickly unclipped the damaged part of his prosthesis and integrated Alby's into place, which allowed him to make the final climb to the top of the pinnacle.
In the time after Jack prevented the Omega Event, the prosthetic hand was returned to Alby while Jack's artificial arm was fitted with a new hand.
Attributes[]
As an advanced robotic arm, Jack's prosthetic was designed by Epper to be better than his natural left arm had been. Constructed largely out of a metal alloy, the arm is extremely strong and sturdy, allowing Jack to perform some extraordinary feats such as crushing a baseball with the hand and bear the weight of himself and another person while hanging from a ceiling with ease. Though the exact material used is not mentioned, it is strong enough to bear most of the weight of a stone slab, though it crushed two of the artificial fingers.
It has a central processing unit that allows Jack to control the arm's mechanisms (such as rotating the hand and flexing the fingers) with his thoughts. There is also a hidden compartment in the arm, in which Jack stores small wads of C4 for emergency situations.
Trivia[]
.