Bucky Buenaventura was a young technological genius.
History
Youth
Bucky Buenaventura[1] was the son of scientists and inventors Rudy and Gloria Buenaventura. Born and raised in Tumbleweed, New Mexico, Bucky soon found he was considerably smarter than his parents, and had to fix all their faulty contraptions. Unable to further handle him, and unable to bear the humiliation, his parents sent Bucky to the Sorben Institute.[2]
Nuisance
At the Sorben Institute, he came to a conflict with the others - he was by far the youngest, and arguably the smartest of the scientists employed by the Institute. One of his most powerful inventions - the Inductance Controller - caused his temporary banishment from the institute as a trial run in dean Donald Tannor's office caused all the machinery to go haywire.
O his way out, he first sees Zeta. Upon hearing the synthoid's speech synthesizer, Bucky concludes that Zeta is a robot, and hacks NSA files to learn that is in fact an Infiltration Unit. With his Inductance Controller, he hijacks Zeta's motor functions. At first, he uses Zeta's weapons to destroy his colleagues' inventions, but after he learned Tannor stole the Controller's designs to win the Innovation Awards, he turned his attention to his former dean. Angered, he sets Zeta on Tannor, intending to scare him into admitting that he stole his invention and others, as well as being a parasite, which he broadcasted to the entire fair. He then had Zeta advance on Tannor, only for Ro to take control of Tannor's remote to knock Bucky down. Zeta then brought up his saw blades and scared Bucky into promising that he would never use his remote again.[3]
After Tannor was fired, the campus hammered down on Bucky even more when he caused an explosion in a science lab. The new dean suspended him and locked him in his room, stripped of Net access. However, he had a backup and went cruising around the net. He hacked into the NSA mainframe, learning that they were sending a more advanced unit than Zeta, IU7, to take out weapons dealer Roland de Fleures in San Palago. Seeking to gain respect, he sneaked off campus. Because he couldn't attend a flight without adult supervision, he jammed the flight Zeta and Ro were planning to take. Reluctantly, they agreed to accompany Bucky to San Palago. They did impound the Controller to keep him from pulling any mischief.
When the team confronted IU7, Bucky recovered his remote but finds out that IU7 has an override and is thus immune. He makes up for it by controlling various machinery to throw IU7 into an arsenal in the docks, which explodes.[4]
Tannor, still bearing a grudge against Bucky for his dismissal from the Institute, had kidnapped Bucky's parents. Tannor now operated a rejuvenation spa, but his rejuvenation machine was faulty. The first patients were turned into man-apes; after the Buenaventura's "fixed" the machine, patients were changed into toddlers. With his shady business partners breathing down his neck, Tannor realized only Bucky could properly repair the rejuvenation machine. Bucky called on Zee and Ro, who once again reluctantly agreed, and together they manage to retrieve Bucky's parents and stop Tannor.[5]
Ally
Bucky gets on friendlier terms with Ro, and provided her with updates on the NSA's actions. During a chase, he found his signal jammed and lost contact with Zee and Ro. He found out it was in fact the work of three "fans" of Zeta - Meg, Plug and Buss - who offered shelter to the two fugitives. However, Bucky learned their actual plan - stripping Zeta and selling him for parts. He managed to warn Ro, but the NSA arrived and captured Zeta.[6] Ro tracked the NSA to a nearby government facility, but Bucky refused to help her, fearing contact via an unprotected VidPhone would lead the NSA to him.[7]
Eventually, the NSA did trace Bucky's hacks and arrested him, believing that he had a connection to Brother's Day. Upon his arrest, he activated a hidden transmitter linked with Zeta, to alert him to his peril. Ro is once again reluctant to come to Bucky's aid, but Zeta reminds her that Bucky has helped them so many times in the past - including with the tracking of Ro's brother,[8] that they owed him.
In the mean time, Agent Bennet has Bucky boarded on a plane, and commences his questioning. Much to the senior agent's annoyance, Bucky shrugs all the questions off. Bennet leaves and orders West to guard him. Bucky recognizes the incompetence of West, and plans to use it to his advantage. After some small talk about games (especially Sentries of the Last Cosmos), Bucky convinced West to untie him, and Bucky distracts him with a VidGame. Bucky downloaded the jet's data into his Inductance Controller, and escaped as he took over the plane's control. He ran straight into Ro. Though Bucky lost his Inductance Controller, Ro and Bucky managed to get to an escape pod, and retrieved Zeta who was fighting with Bennet and Rush on the plane's hull. Back on the ground, Bucky installed a variable inductance circuit so that Zeta was also immune to the Inductance Controller, now in possession of the NSA.[1]
For his escape from captivity, Bucky was considered a fugitive, and had to go into hiding. Luckily, he could rely on an uncle in the tech underground.[1]
Abilities and Equipment
Although himself lacking in any particular physical abilities, Bucky possessed incredible skills in the field of science and technology. It was this that allowed him to invent the Inductance Controller, which he used to control Zeta and any other piece of technology he could download blueprints of. This also extended to computer wizardry, as evidenced when he effortlessly hacked into the NSA files in order to get Zeta's blueprints.[3]
Appearances
The Zeta Project
- "Remote Control"
- "The Next Gen"
- "Kid Genius"
- "Wired"
- "Lost and Found"
- "On the Wire"
- "Cabin Pressure"
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Zeta Project, "Cabin Pressure"
- ↑ Idem, "Kid Genius"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Idem, "Remote Control"
- ↑ Idem, "The Next Gen"
- ↑ Idem, "Kid Genius"
- ↑ Idem, "Wired, Part I"
- ↑ Idem, "Wired, Part II"
- ↑ Idem, "On the Wire"