Born to a wealthy upper class family, Robert was always a weak and sickly child, but brilliant beyond comprehension. Educated in the finest private prep schools, he was snubbed by his classmates at every turn, and just never could seem to fit in. His health was never good, and he seldom left the protective confines of a building, prefering to study and experiment with various projects. He had a genius for Physics, and an inventive mind. He turned his genius to good use and already held 7 patents by the time he graduated High School at age 14 and went to MIT. He graduated MIT with Honors 4 years later with 3 doctorates, and went to work as a contractor in the Aerospace industry for a company called Aeronautix.
Despite his brilliance and accomplishments, he still had no friends and never felt accepted. His parents died in a plane crash later that same year, leaving him all their worldly possessions, and bereft of anyone close to him. As usual, he took shelter in his work. A few years later he stumbled across an amazing thing while researching an idea he had formulated; he discovered a previously undetected means of manipulating trajectories and vectors by direct manipulation of kinetic energy. Astounded by this, he was preparred to share this information with his colleagues, but as he went up to the executive offices to do this, he made a bathroom stop in the executive washroom first. While he was in a stall, 2 people walked into the restroom talking. He recognized the voices as his immediate supervisor, the Head of Research and Development, and the CEO of the company. Not realizing he was in the room the two spoke openly, and Robert was shocked to hear the CEO congratulating his supervisor on work that he, Robert had done! The idea-thief was taking credit for Robert's ideas and work!
This struck Robert to the core. He might be small, ugly, and weak, but the one thing he had that no one could discount was his brilliant mind and the work that he produced! The idea that even that was being taken from him filled the previously mild-mannered young scientist with an incredible anger. Immediately his incredible intellect turned to thoughts of revenge, and settled on his latest discovery, the Richochet Effect as the perfect means to go about it. No one else knew about it but him, and it could never be linked back to him! Combining his knowledge of Aerospace technology, space suit design, robotic servos, and the new-found Richochet Effect technology, he created an armored power-assisted suit that generated a field of coherent force, using the Ricochet Effect to turn attacks and damage away from him. Integrated into the suits circuitry and helmet he built a device allowing him to project globes of pure kinetic force, applying the Ricochet Effect to send them bouncing off of objects with pool-hall precision.
With the suit build Robert set out to wreck Aeronautix, striking it seemingly at random, using his insider knowledge to cause the most damage without seeming to have a pattern. To disguise the attacks as corporate espionage/sabotage he stole some documents and samples, being careful to steal some of his own as well. The attacks continued for several months, and eventually the damages drove Aeronautix into bankruptcy. Robert was laid off, and put up a good show of being upset, but secretly pleased that his plan had worked. Success of this kind fulfilled him and he found he did not want to give up the feeling of power he enjoyed as Ricochet. So, now wealthy thanks to his inheritance and the funds generated by royalties on his patents, he became a private scientist, setting up labs on his personal estate. Primarily he continues to work as a scientist, but when the mood strikes him he'll set out as Ricochet for kicks. He has taken to working as a contract villain, as he can review potential jobs and take the ones that seem safest, and doesnt have to spend a lot of time planning; he can just suit up and go. For him being a criminal is more like a game or a sport. He's not really in it for the money, but for the feeling of empowerment. He has yet to be captured, but he knows that if his Secret ID is revealed he will be in a world of trouble. |
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