Aerospace, software, hardware, robotics, nanotech, or biotech: if it’s tech, it’s got a home in Emerald City. Leah Klein was born and raised in Emerald City and she thinks the high-tech metropolis is her combination playground and toy store. She’s a natural tinkerer who hasn’t yet found a device she couldn’t reverse engineer and improve. While she has a wide range of interests, her particular favorite is computer hacking. Hacking is also the interest that got her into the hero game, but more on that later.
Despite the “brainiac” stereotype, Leah’s enthusiasm and curiosity have led her to dabble in physical activities from rock climbing to scuba diving to hang gliding. She is especially fond of martial arts and has practiced just about every form she could find. However, she hasn’t mastered any of the martial arts she studied because she lacks the patience to stay with a single school for more than a few months.
Leah’s dad is a respected engineer who works for the multinational aerospace company headquartered in Emerald City. Her mother teaches neurosciences at Emerald City University. Leah has a twin brother, Luke, who is going to law school. Yes, you guessed it, mom and dad met at a sci-fi convention. Of course, mom and dad were naturally eager to support little Leah’s geeky enthusiasms. And because people have been calling Leah “princess” since she was little, “hime” had to become part of her hero identity.
Leah has been able to make a living and support her hobbies by working a wide variety of consulting jobs with Emerald City’s high-tech conglomerates. She is scared to death of the idea of working for a single corporation for her entire career like her dad.
A few months ago, Leah joined a lose affiliation of online hackers. Their modus operandi was someone would post a challenge and members would try to pull it off. Leah described the thrill of hacking as cyber parkour. By the way, Leah was an avid traceur for a while, but was asked not to join local events when she won a race by dashing across the Interstate at rush hour.
One day two seemingly unrelated challenges were posted to the hacking board that Leah cracked in one night. The targets were a popular MMO and a company that manufactured motion detectors. The security of both networks were no match for Cyberninja (as Leah called herself on the boards) and she thought nothing more about it until the news started talking about the murders. The police couldn’t tie the murders together, but Leah realized the victims all played the MMO and their homes had security systems that used motion sensors made by the second target company. After sleepless nights of furious hacking, Leah was able to track down the killer. She was able to get the killer’s ID and enough evidence to put him away on the police department’s computer network. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was responsible for his being able to kill as many people as he had.
A wise man once told Leah that the best defense is a strong offense, and she has taken this advice to heart. Instead of the random hacking and tinkering that could once again lead to strangers using her skills for evil, Leah is going to use her skills for good. The news has recently been talking about heroes. If masked geeks in capes are fighting crime, she may as well grab a mask and cape of her own. Besides it sounds like fun.
