JC Denton

JC Denton is a pivotal character in the Deus Ex games series. He and his brother, Paul, start off as UNATCO agents having been augmented and developed at Area 51, to then switch to the "terrorist" NSF, stop Bob Page's Conspiracy and cause The Collapse.

Name
JC Denton is a codename, his real name can be designated by the player in character customisation stage at the beginning of Deus Ex. The initials JC were originally meant to be unisex as for players to select the character's gender, though this was dropped. "Denton" came from Warren Spector's friends Bradley and Barbara Denton.

Additionally, during the development of the game, an idea was put forward that JC was a descendant of Jesus Christ; however, this was never implemented into the final game.

Personal History
In 2028, the mother of Paul Denton, wanting another child but unable to conceive, was approached by MJ-12 operatives posing as fertility experts. She was told they could preform a low-risk experimental procedure that would allow her to bear another child and that they would pay her handsomely for their participation in the experiment. They impregnated her with a clone of Paul, whom they had determined had the most promising genetic makeup for their nano-augmentation project. Nine months later, in 2029, JC Denton was born.

In 2035, Majestic-12, displeased with Paul's progress, decided that his parents should not be allowed to raise JC. Paul and JC's parents were killed and JC was sent to Majestic-12's Swiss School where he spent the next 12 years of his life. During this time Majestic-12 attempted to instill in JC unquestioning loyalty to superiors and a willingness to obey orders. Instead JC developed a hidden rebellious attitude.

Sometime between his brother becoming UNATCO's first nano-augmented agent in 2050 and his own recruitment by UNATCO in 2051 JC's adopted parents were killed.

In 2052, JC is nano-augmented and becomes a UNATCO agent.

Events of Deus Ex (2052)
JC starts the game as a new anti-terrorist agent working for the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition, based on Liberty Island. His first mission is to investigate an NSF terrorist attack on the island itself, and find the leader in the Statue of Liberty. After this he is sent to follow the terrorists' trail to recover stolen Ambrosia, a cure for the Gray Death virus that is plaguing the planet. Once he has found the final stolen barrel of Ambrosia, he is given the choice of killing the terrorist leader, Juan Lebedev, allowing his partner Anna Navarre to kill Lebedev, or to kill agent Navarre himself. Regardless of his decision, he returns to UNATCO headquarters and is sent on a mission to Hong Kong. Before leaving, he rebels against UNATCO and is captured and imprisoned in an MJ12 base beneath UNATCO headquarters. He escapes to Hong Kong to meet Tracer Tong, whom he is told can deactivate his killswitch.

After uncovering a conspiracy in Hong Kong and uniting the warring triads, JC goes to a naval shipyard to investigate ties the Illuminati may have to the global conspiracy. Stanton Dowd, owner of the ship and high-ranking Illuminatus, sends JC to Paris to meet the leader of the Illuminati, Morgan Everett. Everett sends JC to Vandenberg, where he meets and helps a group of scientists called X-51 who are trying to make their own cure for the virus.

JC finally goes to Area 51, and is given three choices: Kill Bob Page, leader of Majestic-12, allowing the Illuminati to come to power; Merge with Helios, an artificial intelligence and rule the world; or destroy Area 51, plunging the world into a new dark age.

Events of Deus Ex: Invisible War (2072)
In the sequel, it is revealed that JC killed Bob Page, merged with Helios and destroyed Area 51. In doing this, he was responsible for the worldwide Collapse which followed 2052. However, the merger with Helios was imperfect, and JC was forced to put himself into stasis in an abandoned VersaLife base in Antarctica until a suitable nanite architectural match could be found for the Helios AI. JC's allies, ApostleCorp, were working to do just that.

ApostleCorp found and trained Alex Denton, the third Denton prototype. Alex eventually travelled to Antarctica and awoke JC. JC then returned to Liberty Island and started using his Universal Constructor powers to rebuild the Statue of Liberty. Alex could choose to side with JC and upload the Aquinas Hub to ApostleCorp before merging with Helios, or kill JC and allow one of ApostleCorp's rival factions to come to power. If Alex turns against his brother, JC will fight to the death to defend Helios.