Breaker

Breaker is one of the twelve power classifications created by the PRT still in modern day use. Breakers have the ability to alter themselves to a different state in which they maintain different abilities, although Breakers with permanently altered states also exist.

Description
Nearly all powers have some small element of Breaker to them: the innate defenses of parahumans that keep their own powers from harming them are generally Breaker powers. This does lead to some confusion however.

Powers that earn a true Breaker rating are those that cause the user to alter their physical (and sometimes mental) state to something alien and power-generated. This altered state can have a singular benefit that breaks the defined laws of reality (as any power does, but centered around the parahuman’s capabilities) or a state that contains a suite of powers.

The altered state may have costs when adopting it, costs to maintain it, or costs and complications in other forms. Breakers have a strong connection to their Shard but this leads to a high degree of flux in power expression.

Trigger events
Breaker triggers are perhaps the hardest to define. On one hand, Breakers emerge from triggers that blur the line between physical and mental. It's not enough for trigger event to have a physical and mental element: The two must be indivisibly linked.

On the other hand, Breaker powers emerge from abstract stressors, or from threats that are hard to define or explain. They often involve self-contradictory feelings. For a Mover, this might include things like wanting to escape on a physical level while mentally feeling that the situation is safe, the inverse, or something more abstract, like wanting to escape reality on a spiritual level and finding oneself unable, or wanting to escape a concept or wanting to escape something that cannot be avoided on a fundamental level.

Drugs, poisons, medical conditions and mental illnesses very frequently involved in the unusual scenarios that make Breaker triggers possible.

Common combinations with other ratings
As previously stated all powers have some small element of Breaker to them, Breakers generally express other ratings through their alternate state. A Shaker classification is common, as is a Stranger classification. The Trump classification, particularly through edge cases, is also frequently combined with Breaker.

PRT countermeasures
PRT-teams generally try to target Breakers outside of their enhanced state where possible. Because of the nature of Breaker powers, all other specific countermeasure depend on the parahuman's sub-classifications.