Paragon







Description
Paragon

This tall figure stands at about 6 feet tall, covered in articulated, form fitting high tech heavy armor. It gleams like bluish-gray metal. The body is broad chested, muscular and athletic. The plating along more flexible areas, such as the abdomen and sides of the torso, are banded and flexible. The front chestplate has angled edges and looks like a solid piece, save for some hairline seams. In between the plates and in areas where there is no armor, a black armor mesh material shows through that doesnt quite look like fabric. This can be best observed on the figure's hands. The backs of the hands are plated, but the rest is just covered by the resistant armor mesh like gloves. The front of the helm has a flat profile with no nose, a thin line seam that represents a mouth, and two black eye-slots covered by dark glass that reflects surrounding light and a solid faceplate, completely encasing the head. From deeper within the helm, one can see the "eyes"; two glowing white orbs with a red fringe that blink out in unison from time to time or narrow into lines of determination.

When Paragon talks, the voice is tinny and echoes from within the metallic helm. But the tone of the voice doesn't match the imposing figure. It sounds young and not very deep, and has friendly overtones, which sometimes boom with heroic or chivalrous overtones. There's a robotic quality to Paragon's actions, but also a humane aspect.

Third

She's a tall, young woman in her mid twenties with deathly pale white skin and straight chestnut colored hair. The hair tumbles down to mid-shoulder blade, and loose with long side bangs parted to the right. Her lips are ashen, and her eyes are hazel with green flecks. Her eyes look a little sunken with vaguely lavender hue eyelids. She stands at about 6 feet tall, with a well-toned athletic build. While she looks like someone who keeps in shape, her deathly pallor makes her appear unhealthy.

Currently, she's wearing a black peacoat that reaches down to mid-thigh, black leggings, and brown leather lace-up knee-high boots. A long, deep red cotton jersey scarf is wrapped loosely twice around her neck, the ends left hanging long and billowing.

A 2-inch wide brown leather wrist cuff sits on her right wrist embossed with a stylized lightning bolt. Wrapped several times around the outside of the wrist cuff is a black rawhide strip. The strip is threaded through the center of a 5 yen coin centered in the middle of the cuff.

Personality
She was a blank slate when she was broken/freed from the control of the Mechaneer, without any knowledge of who she was before she was resurrected. Having spent extensive time under Captain Amazing's supervision, shes adopted his swashbuckling, optimistic, and chivalrous manner. Many experiences are new to her, and she enjoys the good with the bad. Better to feel something than nothing at all. Life and free will is such a gift that she will do anything to protect it, even if it means sacrificing her own life. That's just what heroes do.

Powers
Paragon was resurrected specifically for her superhuman strength and toughness. Having no knowledge of her past, she's unaware of the origin of these powers. The cybernetic armor implants from the Mechaneer offer some protection from deadly blows, as well as some visual enhancements from the helms UI. Most of her cybernetic systems were damaged and went offline after the fight with the Guardians, including most of the repair systems and the control chip that suppressed her free will.

Skills
Paragon was trained by her mentor in the arts of combat and teamwork in efforts to turn her into a hero. But what he hadn't expected to impart to her was his sense of chivalry, duty, and charm. She spends most of her free time volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, or cooking for food drives or her teammates as part of her chores. As part of normal maintenance, shes learned how to bang out the dents in her armor and fix minor problems with her wiring, but she still depends on a more skilled mechanic for major repairs.

Complications
The Mechaneer is spending some of his resources to recapture Paragon and reprogram her, or disassemble her to find out what went wrong with her control systems. He sends his other soldiers to try and recapture her. Another rogue soldier, the fourth in the series, still has a tentative network connection to Paragon and has been tracking her down, but his motives are different from the Mechaneer's. The bonded pair can sense when the other is near, and Paragon can feel that he's followed her to this new city. They've fought in the past, but Fourth seems more intent on capturing Paragon rather than hurting her. His exact motives are a mystery to Paragon, but she has a feeling Fourth may be malfunctioning.

On her road trip to Colonial Bay, she encountered Exostructure Generation when a group of Exo-Sapiens were sent to kill one of the local heroes while she was visiting New York City. Paragon helped save the hero, got filled in on the details about Exo-gen, and then teamed up with some other heroes in assaulting the Exo-gen lab in the city. She couldn't ignore the parallels to her own history, taking pity on the exo-sapiens. While most of the exo-sapiens self-destructed or were destroyed, Paragon managed to capture her opponent. Without orders from Exo-Gen to follow, he surrendered, and was handed over to the local superhero team for rehabilitation and Paragon continued her road trip. A day after getting settled into Colonial Bay, the Exo-Sapien showed up on her doorstep. Seeing much of herself in him, she took him under her wing as Captain Amazing had done with her. In time, Paragon hopes to teach him how to do more than just follow orders. Seeing how Exo-Gen uses people just as the Mechaneer does, she's made it her goal to root them out and free other Exo-Sapiens. Meanwhile, Exo-Gen is determined to find and destroy Paragon and her new charge to keep the Human stage of the exo-sapiens a secret, and to protect their investments.

Her unusual resurrection has had side effects. She's not quite living or dead, and so can be bound by necromatic magics, and she has no memory of the person she was before she died.

Origin
ElectroLad's last-ditch electro-magnetic pulse washed over Captain Amazing and his opponent as he collapsed to his hands and knees, at the point of exhaustion. His vision blurred in and out of focus as he stared at the back of his opponent's feet, unable to crane his gaze upward. Blood was dripping down to its feet, but that THING inside the armor was still standing, even after a crushing blow to the back of the head. The feet turned towards the Captain and stalked towards him slowly, stopping just in front of him, the helmet clanging to the ground along the way, shattered and useless.

"This is it," Captain Amazing thought grimly. He had drawn on all his reserves and had nothing left. He clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the end to come. After a few moments of waiting, he opened an eye and stole a glance up at the face of his foe. Now helm-less, a young woman's face stared back at him, head tilted curiously. He stared back in confusion. Why did it stop? His opponent continued to stare with a lack of comprehension, and then slowly stuck out a hand, offering to help the injured hero up.



The Guardians had been tracking down the Mechaneer for weeks after Boston was introduced to his small army of superbeings. Although failing to capture him at his lab, they did manage to capture one of his creations, as well as the villain's notes. What they discovered was horrifying. The Mechaneer was a modern day Frankenstein, working with an unnamed party to bring dead superhumans back to life and then integrate his armor and weapon systems to upgrade and control them into doing his bidding, adding their innate abilities to his arsenal. While the notes didn't detail the identities of the superhumans used in the Mechaneer's experiments, they did deduce that they had captured the third in the series of prototypes. There was also indications that the Mechaneer was about to expand his operations. The team debated dismantling their captive to find a weakness, but Captain Amazing, the team leader, vetoed that plan.

Life History
Captain Amazing took the then named Third under his wing. She was a blank slate, but learned quickly. He spent time helping to integrate her into society and trained her in the ways of being a hero. Proving herself a loyal asset to the team, he eventually named her Paragon. She tried her best to live up to the name, living up to the example the Captain set, to the point where teammates joked that she was almost a copy of Captain Amazing's personality. But she didn't mind. She was happy to be useful to the team.

But things changed after seeing a news report of an event in Colonial Bay. Something felt...familiar. She had always wondered who she was before she became Paragon, but she had no luck in finding out her identity. This was the first time she had ever felt some sense of familiarity. Maybe she could find answers about her past there. It took weeks for her to get the courage to tell the Guardians she wanted to leave, but when she finally got the nerve to tell the only family she'd ever known about her intentions, they gave her their support and encouragement. The Captain even offered her use of his summer home in Colonial Bay and a credit card for living essentials to help her get settled.

So with her meager possessions packed into a single duffle bag, she traveled to Colonial Bay by foot to get a chance to see more of the country on her own for the first time, hitching rides and stopping crimes in towns she visited along the way.

Hopping off the top of a freight truck at the first off ramp to Colonial Bay, she readjusted the duffle bag slung over her shoulder and glanced at the road ahead of her. Perhaps here, she would have better luck finding answers.

Appearances
Log:A Pickpocket in Chinatown, Scene 4 - First Appearance!

Log:Gridlocked!, Scene 4

Log:Return of the Sword Dancer

Log:The Fate of Crystal

Log:Quickstop Returns, Scene 1

Log:Princesses' Guard Revived, Scene 14

Log:Icelantic Holiday, Scene 5

Log:Icelantic Holiday, Scene 7

Log:Icelantic Holiday, Scene 8

Log:Icelantic Holiday, Scene 9

Log:Gunpowder and Flintlocks

Log:Golden Genes, Scene 1

Log:Golden Genes, Scene 2

Log:Forget Me Not, Scene 1

Log:Forget Me Not, Scene 2

Log:Prisoners of War

Log:Forget Me Not, Scene 3

Log:Forget Me Not, Scene 4

Log:The Holy One Returns

Log:Ruined Memories

Log:The Imperfect Heist

Log:Ghost and Rice Wine

Log:Aftershock

Log:The Final Resting Place of Matthew Regent

Log:Restless Dreams

Log:The Regent's Legacy

Log:Death of an Innocent

Log:Enter Arion

Log:And Then There Were Two

Log:The Council Meets

Log:Shadow Dies

Log:Arion Awakes: Treachery Revealed

Log:The Council Seeks Retribution

Log:Enemy Revealed

Log:Arion's Compulsion

Log:Preparing for the Final Battle

Log:A Watery End

Log:Finale Part II, Regent Reborn

Log:Rescue in Boston

Log:Ghosts of Mars, Scene 1

Log:Ghosts of Mars, Scene 2

Log:The Signal

Log:Contact

Log:Eighth Man In

Log:Three's Company, Eighth's a Crowd

Log:Unlucky Finds

Log:Simply Human

Log:Your Honey or Your Life

Log:Jailbreaking Last Month's Model

Log:An Audience with the Queen

Log:The Call of the Queen

Log:The First Rule

Log:Patient Zero

Log:A Blessing or a Curse: Paragon Lives!

Log:Unbidden Memories

Log:The Last Queen Egg, Scene 1

Log:Assault on Prometheus Labs

Log:Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot

Log:Paragon Imprisoned

Log:Reconciling with Nicky

Log:Bailing

Log:Breaking in the New Year (and Malcolm)

Log:Ninthmares and Dreamscapes

Log:Eighth Man Out

Log:Curious Goods

Log:The Regent Obligation

Log:Threesome

Log:Greatest Fears

Log:Kysmette and Hobbes

Plot: Hope Must Die


 * Log:Greatest Fears


 * Log:It Wasn't Me Technically


 * Log:Different Degrees in a Love Triangle


 * Log:You Have to Have Hope


 * Log:Games of the Heart

Log:Communication Breakdown: The Wedding Present of The Twin Thunders