Freebooter

Born with a birth defect that left his spine twisted and underdeveloped, Jared McGinnis has been a paraplegic all his life. Despite a lack of physical skills, Jared’s mental development soared off the charts. After the age of four, though, Jared noticed he was treated differently, and that his parents seemed intimidated by his intellect. He continued to read and learn, but held himself back so as to not stand out on tests and exams. At the age of six, he began taking computer classes at home and quickly mastered the skills (and even improved upon both the hardware and software).
Chuck McGinnis succumbed to cancer when Jared was 14, and his wife Mary died in a car accident shortly after Jared turned 18, leaving their son on his own. By then, Jared had an IQ exceeding most of the faculty at the Hanover Institute of Technology and advanced degrees in electrical engineering, computer design, and software development. He became a shut-in after his mother’s death, allowing people into his Hanover brownstone only for deliveries.
At the same time, Jared cultivated a new life for himself on the Internet. He spent most of his time online as a member of the Legion, an underground alliance of “hacktivists,” breaking into computer systems worldwide and learning about the abuses of power that kept most people under the control of the rich and powerful. Using the handle “the Freebooter,” Jared became a notorious hacker. He always left behind a virtual “Letter of Marque” noting: “You have been boarded and plundered—by the Freebooter!”
Jared wanted to make the Legion into an anarchist group to bring down the corrupt “establishment” and radically redistribute wealth. When they would not acknowledge him as their leader, he vowed to show them what he could accomplish on his own. Jared spent the better part of a year building the Techno-Pirate android; for the first time in his life, he didn’t need others to act for him—he could act through the android as his proxy.
Jared patterned the android’s brain on his own. The Freebooter looks like an idealized version of Jared dressed as a futuristic swashbuckling pirate, though it can shift its appearance to look like Chuck McGinnis in his prime (and thus evade capture by camouflage, when necessary).
Now the Freebooter exists both online as Jared’s hacker persona and also haunting the streets and rooftops of Freedom City. More times than not, “Tech” remains at Jared’s brownstone and acts as his primary cook, butler, and sole friend.
What Jared perceives as the increasing failures of the hacktivist movement have made him embittered and jaded. He began working as an information broker and technical advisor to some underworld types, bringing to his name (and talents) to the attention of Dr. Simian, who recruited the Freebooter as a “consultant” for The Crime League. Once Jared got a taste of that, he found himself getting deeper and deeper in, until he was the League’s resident organizer and comptroller, ensuring their operations were secure and their gains were properly hidden away in “treasure caches” around the world (but accessible online). He misses some of his hacktivist activities, but enjoys his ill-gotten wealth.
More recently, the Freebooter has become aware of the Cybertribe and their greivances against Kessler Industrial Technologies. Their cause appeals to his hacker’s sense of justice, and he admires their technical savvy as well. If Motherboard were to offer McGinnis her unique brand of “help” to deal with his disability, he would seriously reevaluate his loyalty to the Crime League and their operations.

Physical Description

Specialized Equipment

Jared McGinnis has no power apart from his keen intellect and technical skills. He’s a brilliant computer hacker and engineer, skilled at breaking into secure online systems and encrypting and protecting such systems from others.
The Freebooter android is an advanced automaton with an artificial intelligence, programmed as Jared’s loyal servant and sidekick. It has the capabilities of a champion athlete along with enhanced leg hydraulics for jumping and running, a suite of advanced sensors, self-repair capabilities, and an armored outer shell, covered by realistic synthetic flesh and hair.
The android, programmed to fight with considerable skill, wields a high-tech energized cutlass, and is able to use it to deflect incoming projectiles.
McGinnis can override the android’s AI in order to “puppet” it, operating through its body and speaking with its voice as the Freebooter.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Jared is angry at an unjust world. He reacts, rather than acts, to what he perceives as social injustices. He’ll bring down a company for having laid off workers but giving their board members raises. He’ll dig up personal secrets of government officials and release them online if a Senator votes for a lobby rather than his constituents. He hates the idea of information restrictions and fights to “keep information free” regardless of the consequences. He sees himself as a romantic and misunderstood hero, even if he’s little more than an angry and immature mind lashing out at “the establishment.”
Lately, the Freebooter is occupied with his responsibilities networking and safeguarding his Crime League associates, justifying his activities as thumbing his nose at the authorities and securing his own position in the criminal underground. Still, some of the Crime League’s excesses weigh on his mind, and he does his best to ignore them.