Breach

Breach is a Czechoslovakian supervillain and member of the Temeraire Club.

## Biography

Derrick Buddieg was once a 'hacktivist'-- a cyber-terrorist who used his ability to infiltrate secured systems to expose the crimes of corporations and corrupt governments to the world. Unfortunately, he and his comrades-in-arms made the mistake of breaking into a secret cache of KGB data. This data, detailing a classified project involving gruesome human experimentation, was protected by the highest level of security and agents were swarming towards Derrick's apartment before he'd even realized he'd been detected.

Derrick and his friends were rounded up and shipped to the project headquarters. The scientists in charge felt that the hackers might survive "conversion" more easily than the other state criminals that had been used as test subjects until that point. The process was tweaked and improved with each subject killed, and finally Derrick proved to be the first successful test: a man converted directly into pure data!

Before the scientists knew what was happening, a crazed Derrick leapt into the nearby security systems and overwhelmed them almost immediately. The Russians, always ready to destroy and disavow their secret projects, had left failsafes for him to activate and Derrick was able to easily slip away after arming the lab's self destruct mechanism.

Once more free, Derrick found his perspective irrevocably changed along with his body. Even when confronted with evidence of guilt, none of the authorities had the courage or moral fortitude to really challenge groups like the KGB. It made him feel that all his hacktivism had been pointless, and he really should have been selling that classified data for his own profit all along. Now uniquely able to steal far greater quantities of data than ever before, Derrick began a campaign of cyberterror that eventually garnered the attention of the Temeraire Club. The Club offered him a safe haven and ready buyers for all his stolen information, and Derrick quickly joined up. Calling himself 'Breach,' he now works as a mercenary, an infiltration specialist almost without equal in a world where all security is run by computers.

## Personality

Once an idealist, Breach is an embittered young man whose torture and conversion into something other than human has warped his psyche. He loves his work and delights in the chaos sown by his thefts. Although he doesn't enjoy hurting people, he gleefully makes an exception for anyone employed by corrupt governments or particularly nasty corporations. He has been known to reduce or even waive his fee when taking on the Russian government in particular.

Breach isn't so much evil as he is disillusioned. Occasionally a pang of conscience will cause him to refuse a job against law enforcement groups like UNTIL, and from time to time he will steal data from VIPER or ARGENT and send it to the authorities anonymously. He might even work with heroes if the cause was clearly just, though they'd have to meet his steep retainer.

Breach has a special interest in the origin of the Grey Ghost, as he suspects that the machine-human interface that allowed the hero to download himself into a robotic body could be adapted to transfer his data into a human one. Breach fantasizes about return to a fully-human existence and eagerly follows up any lead that might shed light on the Grey Ghost's research.

## Powers

Breach has the ability to turn himself into a sentient cloud of electronic data. In this form he is immune to physical harm and can easily enter any computerized device.

Once inside a vulnerable system, Breach can hack the device and "possess" it, making it perform whatever tasks he wants. His favorite use of this power is to leap inside his enemy's power armor, using their weapons to attack his enemies and trapping his victim inside an unresponsive metal prison. While inside a computer he can transmit himself along its network, essentially teleporting himself to the location of any other device on the same network. He can use this ability to move quickly through a facility or even traverse the globe by passing through the internet.

Breach's abilities don't stop at turning himself into data. He can also convert other matter at a touch, though this is significantly harder than digitizing his own body. When non-living matter is converted this way it fritters apart into a cloud of incoherent electrons, essentially disintegrating it. If Breach uses this ability on a person, their force of will is usually sufficient to keep them stabilized, but they will still be stuck in the form of a ghostly cloud of data unable to move or interact with the world until the effect eventually wears off some hours later.

His unique physical attributes allow Breach to store information on every cell of his body, essentially giving him an enormous, infallible memory. He often steals great volumes of sensitive information while inside a corrupted computer network, storing the information inside himself indefinitely until he can find someone to buy it. He can sense electronic transmissions in his vicinity, passively listening in on any unguarded communications.

## Weaknesses

Breach's natural state is somewhat less than fully corporeal, and he must concentrate to keep his body totally "human." If he is hurt or distracted, he can quickly lose control and large portions of his body will begin to phase in and out, instantly revealing him for what he is.

While desolid, Breach's data-form can be disrupted by sufficient electronic "noise" in the atmosphere. Typically this is any sufficiently powerful signal that can overpower and disrupt his ability to maintain a coherent form, though strong radiation also has a similar effect. Manifesting inside a computer renders him vulnerable to attack by anti-virus software and he must be careful to avoid any security he cannot overpower.

Breach is not particularly durable in his solid form and cannot wear armor due to his body's constant phasing in and out. This renders him vulnerable to any surprise attack that he can't evade by turning incorporeal.