Barret Blanc (“White Hat”)

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Barret Blanc is “the man who wasn’t there”. He has the power to become invisible at will to any or all five senses, even touch, becoming insubstantial (although he still lets go some vibrations and heat imprints). With some effort (Power Trick) he has even managed to use his powers on things he grabs.

But that’s only a side manifestation of his power. Unknown to him, the real power of this metahuman is to constantly and effortlessly evade mental and mystic scans and scrying. His position is almost impossible to plot on any map, except for the most powerful telepaths.

His invisibility may well be a manifestation of this, as it doesn’t seem to have a physical origin (and any use of supersenses usually detects him): on the other hand, his intangibility is pretty “real”, so there must be more than just a psionic “hiding field” into it.

Other assets

Oliver is a good engineer, an expert in electronic security. He is one of the best non-supers in the field of digital identity and hacking. He has developed ID software capable of recognizing even shape-changing villains, which is in use at Arkham Asylum and Stryker’s Island medium security facilities.

He occasionally exercises, hiking in the wilderness, trekking or playing soccer.

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History

Being born on Feb. 29^th, 1976 (the “invisible day”) would seem, knowing the things to come, quite premonitory of Oliver Llàtzer’s destiny. But in fact things came as they did on their own accord, without Oliver really wanting them to shape in such an incredible way. Perhaps *that* is what we call “destiny”.

In any case, fate hid any plans he had for Oliver during his early years. His childhood in the Sants neighborhood  was happy, his grades at the Catholic (yet modern) school a little over the average. If anything, he paid a tad more attention than expected to his mother’s explanations about the quirks and peculiarities of art dealing.

Thinking it well, maybe that was the seed that started it all. He caught glimpses of trivial information about impressionists, expressionists, surrealists and futurists. But what really fascinated Oliver was his father’s naïve yet ingenious conceptions to improve mom’s gallery’s security.

Security

Oliver became an expert in the field of security. In six years he got two major degrees, in Telecom Engineering and Computer Science.

In 2000, his student project with a “viral antivirus” that roamed the net in search of menaces instead of awaiting for them to infect other computers, caught the attention of Wayne Tech. They awarded him with one of its bi-yearly International Science Awards for Promising Youths.

Oliver spent a whole year in the US, working with Wayne’s computer geeks at Chicago and Gotham. He even met Lucius Fox, who praised his innovative “white hat” hacker mind. Llàtzer was on the East Coast during the Reign of the Supermen. He visited Superman’s burial memorial and ever got to glimpse him once after his return.

His second year under the ISAPY took him to Tōkyō. Upon discovering the effects of the Brainiac 13’s Y2K virus he asked to be sent to Metropolis, but Wayne Tech deemed the zone as too dangerous and refused to allow it. On 2002 he returned to Spain and worked for Microsoft, developing the security protocols that would lead to DRM.

On el Rey’s secret service

General Raimundo de Tarazona personally contacted Oliver early on 2003. He asked him if he was a man of discretion, if he had any trouble working for his country’s military and if he wanted to take part on Spain’s most amazing scientific experiment in a century. Oliver just asked if it was a weapon, as he would refuse such a project.

“Even pencils become weapons in the hands of the army”, the general said. But he liked the young engineer’s answer and ensured him that the experiment was about stealth, not weaponry. Oliver accepted and thus he was enrolled into the “Cueva de Montesinos” secret project.

In 1982 the Spanish ufologists met the clearest sighting since Roswell. A charter flight heading Manises airport (Valencia), including King Juan Carlos and a host of journalists, was followed and bypassed by a pale blue light.

Fighters were sent after it. But it seemed to dodge them very smartly and after crossing over Zaragoza at match 2, the blue thing sped up in a sudden burst and disappeared.

Unknown to the citizenry, it took the military scientists three years to find it. It had crashed in Galicia, close to the Costa Da Morte . And it wasn’t a UFO but a meteorite of a substance which, under certain circumstances, became invisible and, more important, turned things invisible and inaudible.

Stealth

Since 1992, after a ten year period of quarantine, it had been General Raimundo’s task to develop a literally invisible plane. Over 2003-2004 it was Oliver’s, too.

He found the project quite advanced. Yet some fundamental aspects of it had still not been solved. The afterburner mix couldn’t be exposed to the meteor’s radiation in time for its flash to be disguised. And the on-board computer stopped working once it disappeared.

That last part, in addition to testing the extent of the plane’s “undetectability”, was Oliver’s work for the next 21 months.

He had been made a Captain to give him access to the classified material, to keep him under military secrecy and law, and to help him in the task to give orders to the military technicians on the project. This included the right to stay alone in the complex and full access to every single room of it.

It was a cold, damp night in the end of October, All Hallow’s Eve almost knocking on the door. Oliver was stuck at a particular point of his “invisible computers” problem and felt he had the solution at arm’s reach, but as invisible as the plane.

At 3 AM he went to the special lab where the meteorite was stored, but the remote analysis device wouldn’t work properly.

The accident

Frustrated, he hastily donned a hazmat suit and entered the sealed chamber. He tried to fix the robot’s arm, but toppled the container where the rock was. His instinctive reaction was to grab the rock before it crashed against the floor. Only then he understood that, in his hurry, he was missing a glove. His left hand and the rock disappeared.

After the initial shock of surprise he remembered the special qualities of the meteor. But not only had his fingers gone transparent: he could neither touch them with his right hand. It was as if they had disintegrated, and yet he still felt his hand grabbing the rock, and the barest throbbing, a numbing sting, going up his arm.

Suddenly he felt something slipping around him: it was the anti-radiation suit. He had gone through it. Running in despair, falling and raising again, he somehow reached his room. He had opened some doors and just went through others. Now he opened his eyes and found his self complete and again visible.

Finally recovering from his shock, he decided to return the stone (which he still grabbed) to the vault. First he had to check nobody else had entered the lab in this time. To his surprise, the computer answered “Captain Llàtzer has entered but not yet exited the Vault Lab”. Had nothing of this been registered by the AI?

He used a little invisibility and dispersion to get past the vault guard. It was incredible how fast he was adapting to his new capabilities: in a couple of minutes it had become as natural as walking. Llàtzer thus returned the wonder meteorite to his place and left the vault never again to enter.

He left the project, much against the opinion of General Raimundo, who thought he was one of the best members of the team. Oliver knew the meteorite was radioactive and feared the consequences. But even after medical checks showed no trace of cancer, he felt that, would have he stayed, HE would’ve became the secret military project.

Back to civilian life

He found a job at an important Catalan software firm: MMM, Multi-Mèdia Mundial (WorldWide Multimedia). Founded by Jordi Freixes in 1980 as a gaming brand, it became a strong firm on the 1990s when it designed some of the first multimedia players and internet browsers.

By the 2000s, MMM did robotics, bespoke software, state of the art virtual gaming, a great antivirus (the Almogaver) and one OS project (codenamed “Catalunya”) that promised to rival Windows and Mac OS. Mr. Freixes offered Oliver the managing of the digital security section. During the following year the sales of Almogaver grew by 60%.

Meanwhile, in 2005, the Patrulla Barna appeared. As other metahumans, Oliver was inspired by them to create a heroic identity: in his case, that of Barret Blanc. Thanks to his powers he managed to keep a low profile while defeating thieves and giving the police enough evidence to jail one of the mob leaders of the town.

After that came Supernova and a chance to better aid the citizenry. He has furnished the group’s secret hideout (the Dragon Cave) with a temporary security system and a S.T.A.R. computer he intends to improve in the close future.

In recent times his powers have started to work against his will in moments of stress, a dangerous fact he is investigating (Power Complication subplot).

Secret origins

The meteor which gave Oliver his powers was of Lansinan origin. In fact it was part of Hippolyta’s spaceship. In 1952, the time displaced Amazon Queen of 2003 (filling the role of the first Wonder Woman) crossed the boundaries of time and took the JSA, doomed to die of starvation while their minds “fought the Ragnarok”, to Themyscira.

She was under attack at the moment and her timejump to modern Themyscira couldn’t be accurate enough. Yet she knew right when she was going to land: 1979. She met herself on that era, who didn’t recognized her and thought she was sent by Olympus, and left the JSA under a sustaining charm at Healing Island, in the hope someday they would break their enchantment.

Six of the Lansinar bullets she had shot when flying to Themyscira melt together and flew after the invisible plane in the hope of reintegrating. But when Hyppolita returned to her native 2003 the melted fragments lost track and wandered around. This happened over Spain and the lost bullets were thought to be an UFO, first, and a meteorite later.

When the “UFO” suddenly sped after being chased by fighters, it had located another source of Lansinar substance, far in the Azores Islands (King Arthur’s coffin in Avalon). But it was already too feeble due to extended separation with the bigger body and fell to earth at Galicia, most of his special attributes and empathy lost.

Description

Clothing is one of the few aspects in his life where Oliver is not worried to spend. He dresses casual or sport, but always brand names, and he has a whole dressing room with more luxurious clothes for wherever he has a special night.

Barret Blanc wears a brown trenchcoat and good quality shirts, jeans and shoes. But his trademark is his face: he turns every feature in his face, except for his eyes, invisible: given the part psychic, part physical source of his powers people just see plain skin instead of his insides.

Personality

Oliver is a calm, down to earth scientist. That is something his Barret Blanc persona clearly displays.

He tries to analyze every situation and get with the best solution before acting. This sometimes makes him a bit slow in action moments where lots of things happen around him. But his answer to those moments, if delayed, his hunches and the natural use of his powers make him one of the most valued members of Supernova, both to the team and to Barcelona’s police.

His two years abroad put him in touch with a variety of cultures and aesthetics that made him renew his interest in artwork. This shows in his speech when he’s on the mood. He since liked to sprinkle bits of luxury into his otherwise middle-class lifestyle.

For example, he lives on an old (though renewed) penthouse on Sants, yet has bought an ancient tower in Sitges  and on week-ends he goes there and rebuild the lost parts. Both houses have some surprising paintings by quite acknowledged artists, though nothing as luxurious as a Dalí or a Mirò.

Lately he is worried his powers go really out of control. Nothing scares him most that being stuck in invisible, inaudible, untouchable form, slowly disappearing from everyone’s perception and memory and finally falling to the Earth’s core.

Quotes

“I never was there. Even if you check now, I’m not here, neither. At least if you trust your senses.”

“Hacking the high security military files on that super secret project should take weeks for a genius hacker. But this is Spain : give me a couple of hours.”

By Oscar Làzaro.

Helper(s): KalEl el Vigilante.

Source of Character: Patrulla Barna homemade setting in the DCU.