CYBERNETIKS

HISTORY

The Cybernetiks are a team of hackers and high-tech thieves formed by Hi-Rez. Hi-Rez sought out fellow computer-based villains to form his own team after working for other organizations over the years. The Cybernetiks specialize in getting information out of systems and places that are supposed to be impregnable.

The first known appearance of the Cybernetiks was in Superior City when they were hired by the Silver Path criminal organization to help them against the heroic Enforcers of Justice. The Cybernetiks in turn hired other villains to face off against the heroes, not with the intent for them to defeat the Enforcers but to allow the Cybernetiks to gather intelligence on the heroes. The information they found was enough that Hi-Rez was able to infiltrate the Enforcers' headquarters through a computer network connection, though he could not learn its physical location at that time.

The Cybernetiks were again seen in Superior City when the Crime Cartel hired them to break a group of villains out of Mercy Island Prison. Once again the Enforcers of Justice were the ultimate target, and this time the Cybernetiks were able to pinpoint the location of the team's headquarters, which was subsequently attacked and destroyed by the Demolition Squad.

At this point in time the Cybernetiks remain at large.

MEMBERS

The members of the Cybernetiks are:

HI-REZ

PERSONAL DATA

HISTORY

Christian Lochley was a computer programmer who developed a revolutionary information processing system. Instead of getting fame and glory for his work, the company Christian worked for stole the software and gave him no credit. Seeking revenge, Christian broke into the company's main server farm, intent on sabotage. Christian disabled the electrical protection systems on the facility, intending to create a power surge to destroy the hardware, but a freak lightning strike pre-empted Christian's own attempt while he was still in the building. The lightning strike and subsequent massive power surge succeeded in destroying all of the servers and their data, but also transformed Christian.

Initially puzzled at his survival of the incident, Christian soon discovered his new powers. He decided to use these new abilities to make himself rich and created the costumed identity of Hi-Rez. Seeking criminal opportunities, Hi-Rez was put in contact with the being known as Paradox and became a member of the new incarnation of the Fearsome Five villain team that Paradox was putting together. With the Fearsome Five, Hi-Rez faced off against Justice Inc. but avoided capture after the encounter. This incarnation of the Fearsome Five effectively dissolved after this and Hi-Rez would join up with a splinter group from the organization H.I.V.E. along with fellow Fearsome Five member Blaze. With H.I.V.E., Hi-Rez would again come into conflict with Justice Inc. and this time wound up being partially responsible for the death of the hero Goldstar.

It was this incident that prompted Hi-Rez to move away from groups managed by others and instead decided to form his own, the group that would become the Cybernetiks. Hi-Rez has seen more success with the Cybernetiks, though he has still crossed paths with various hero groups. In one instance, however, he found himself in the employ of a super-hero when Blur hired him to find the location of the mercenary assassins known as the Sharpshooters.

POWERS & WEAPONS

Hi-Rez possesses a variety of electricity-based powers as a result of the accident that transformed him. His has the ability to project powerful bolts of electricity, but this is only the most direct application of his powers. Hi-Rez can transform his body into pure electricity, and by doing so he can also project himself into computer and telecom systems, and includes the ability to transport himself at the speed of light across communication networks. Hi-Rez also has an affinity for electrical systems, notably computers. By sensing and manipulating electromagnetic fields he can remotely communicate and manipulate computer systems, an ability that extends to exerting control over computer-controlled machinery.

MATRIX

PERSONAL DATA

HISTORY

Matrix is the veteran criminal of the Cybernetiks, having gotten her start as a juvenile delinquent growing up in Chicago. Matrix and her gang of friends graduated to criminals when they grew up, simply referring to themselves as The Gang, with Matrix going by the moniker "Brains". The Gang would cross paths with Power Girl and occasionally worked for a criminal organization known as the Council. During one of the jobs the group were doing for the Council, Brains wound up with her mind transferred into the body of a robot known as Matrix Prime. With her body comatose Brains, as Matrix Prime, would encounter Power Girl several more times.

Seeking to improve her capabilities, Brains arranged for the Matrix Prime robot to be enhanced with nanotechnology. In this new and improved form she began referring to herself simply as Matrix. Matrix seems to prefer her new form and does not appear to be in any hurry to return to her comatose body, though it is believed she is keeping it in a secure location. When Hi-Rez invited her to become a founding member of the Cybernetiks, Matrix happily agreed.

POWERS & WEAPONS

Matrix is a brilliant scientist and engineer, skills she puts to good use as a member of the Cybernetiks. The Matrix robot body that her brain inhabits possesses superhuman strength and resilience, but its real power is in the nanotechnology that powers it. Thanks to the nanotech Matrix has complete control over the form of the robot body and is able to reshape it at will. This can be as simple as stretching or distorting the body, to reforming limbs into whatever complex machinery and weaponry that Matrix can come up with.

CURSOR

PERSONAL DATA

HISTORY

Donald Weissinger was a highly skilled computer thief who managed to get his hands on the blueprints for equipment that had been used by the supervillain The Calculator. Using his own skills with computers and electronics, Donald created an improved design for the equipment which called the Cursor, a name he also opted to use as his new alter ego. The advanced predictive capabilities the Cursor, combined with its more esoteric powers, opened up new criminal avenues for Donald. Based on the reputation he built as Cursor, Donald was invited by Hi-Rez to join the Cybernetiks. The Cursor is now the main strategist and planner for the Cybernetiks' activities.

POWERS & WEAPONS

Donald is already an accomplished computer hacker and data thief, as well as a talented inventor and engineer. The Cursor is an advanced wearable computer system that runs complex predictive software. Capable of processing vast amounts of data, the Cursor system can predict near-future events with close to 100% accuracy. Cursor primarily uses this capability for planning the crimes of the Cybernetiks, to predict potential obstacles so they can be accounted for in the scheme. Cursor can also use the algorithms during combat to predict that actions of his opponent, giving him an extra edge. The Cursor system is also capable of manipulating subatomic fields, which combined with its computational and predictive power lets it create and control force patterns that can manifest as complex shapes, effectively creating solid objects from virtual nothingness.

WETWARE

PERSONAL DATA

HISTORY

By his early twenties Malcolm Brody had already earned a reputation as a cybernetics expert, a reputation that earned him a research position at the west coast branch of the Banzai Institute. There he found himself working with Marie Ste. Claire, who was secretly the hero Mystère and was using the resources at the Institute to understand her own abilities. Curious about Marie's secret research, and somewhat jealous that her level of expertise in cybernetics seemed to be more advanced than his own, Malcolm would hack into Marie's files. Using Marie's research as a starting point, and making liberal use of other advanced technologies at the Institute, Malcolm was able to achieve his own breakthroughs on brain-cybernetic interfaces.

A security review turned up some of Malcolm's activities, so he fled with everything he had developed before the authorities could arrive. Using the stolen materials, Malcolm developed his programmable skills technology and began offering his services as Wetware. It was shortly after this that Hi-Rez invited Wetware into the Cybernetiks.

POWERS & WEAPONS

Malcolm is an expert in software, cybernetics, and physiology. His greatest creation is his programmable skills technology, special bio-software that can be plugged into a person's brain and grant them expertise in the skills programmed into them. Malcolm has created bio-softs that make the user an expert in multiple forms of martial arts and weapons, one that gives them all the skills of an intelligence operative, one granting them the knowledge and skill of a multi-disciplinary scientist, and even one that can override the body's natural hormones and chemicals to enhance the user's strength, reflexes and resilience as well as giving them incredible pain tolerance and accelerated healing ability.

As Wetware, Malcolm makes use of all of the bio-softs he has developed, but continuous use of them for more than about an hour can start to cause painful nerve damage. So far Malcolm has kept his use of the bio-softs below a level where this nerve damage might become permanent while he seeks a means to extend the benefits, or until he can find a way to make them permanent.

MAINFRAME

PERSONAL DATA

HISTORY

A brilliant engineer, Peter Sykes was left paraplegic after an industrial accident. Sykes turned his genius to restoring his mobility and came up with the design of what would become his Mainframe robot body. Using all the money from the settlement he won because of his injury, Peter was able to build the prototype of the robot body. When the company he used to work for attempted to claim ownership of the design and prototype, Sykes retaliated by attacking the company's head office with the robot. He fled, using the robot to carry his paralyzed body to a safe place. Now a fugitive, Sykes used the robot to rob a bank so he could have money to survive. Hi-Rez tracked down Sykes and offered him membership in his new team, the Cybernetiks. With funding and assistance from the Cybernetiks, Sykes has built a more advanced version of the Mainframe robot, which he uses to operate as the team's muscle on their operations.

POWERS & WEAPONS

The Mainframe robot is superhumanly strong, capable of lifting nearly 40 tons, and is tough enough to withstand a strike from an air-to-air missile. It is equipped with a wide range of sensor systems, including a spotlight, night vision and radar; and it is capable of supersonic flight. It also has a variety of offensive systems, including an energy blaster, a literal disintegration ray, and the ability to increase the intensity of the spotlight so it can blind targets. The robot has a compact fusion power source and can channel additional power into several systems; it can increase the lifting capacity to several hundreds of times more than normal or it can increase the intensity of the energy blaster or the disintegration ray.

The Mainframe robot is not capable of autonomous or remote operation. In fact the only way it can be controlled is by direct interface with a human mind. Sykes has calibrated the interface system so that his is the only mind that can inhabit and operate the Mainframe robot.

Warp Zone | DC Heroes | Villains | Cybernetiks