Cryona
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Contents |
Background
Early Life
For Agatha (or Aggie to her few friends), growing up in a religion-dominated town was a difficult time. When she was born, Aggie did not show any immediate signs of mutation, other than an unusually low core body temperature (initially thought to be a strange form of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome). She grew up like all children in her community did; with an education and upbringing focused on the dominant religion in Sanctuary. This included a strict dress code and many daily activities some might consider borderline cult-like. Even extra-curricular activities were monitored to weed out what Sanctuary considered immoral. This included anything to do with Superheroes and Villains. To the people of Sanctuary, people with such powers were considered either spawns of evil (Those who had natural super powers) or servants of dark powers (Those who emulated powers through science/Technology).
For Aggie, this was difficult as she found herself drawn to these people given her unusual 'disease'. As she got older, she noticed people treated her differently even though her condition, at that time, was thought to be medical in nature. She began to look at her condition as those with super powers look upon theirs, trying to associate herself with others who were different as a means to find some meager measure of acceptance. Coupled with a sympathetic delivery boy who frequented Sanctuary on his rounds and secretly brought her news clippings and such about these 'heroes', Aggie's fascination with Supers grew. Despite the treatment she received at the hands of the other children (and even subtly by other parents), Aggie found a beacon of light to hold onto; a source of good in the world she could try and relate to.
But, like all good things, they must come to an end.
The Change
Two weeks before Aggie's 18th birthday, she began suffering from a severe drop in body temperature far worse than what she has lived with up until that point. As her temperature dropped, the doctors noticed her skin started to solidify, hardening into an almost unbreakable shell. Eventually, her entire body has frozen stiff and Aggie entered into what the doctors could only consider a coma as they had seen nothing like this before. It wasn't until a week later, 1 day after her birthday, that Agatha Sumner was reborn. Much to the dismay of the folks of Sanctuary.
On that day, her 'cocoon' shattered like ice and Aggie's mutations came to light; the most noticeable being her ice blue skin and pure white hair. When her parents saw this, they, like many Sanctuary residents, were shocked and horrified. They believed their daughter was somehow possessed by evil and, when they found her hidden stash of hero clippings and pictures, it only reaffirmed their belief that their daughter was tainted by evil. Her fate in Sanctuary was sealed when they brought in a priest in hopes that they could bring their daughter back from the jaws of hell. His actions scared her to the point of involuntarily triggering her mutant abilities and freezing the poor padre where he stood.
Realizing her life in Sanctuary was now over, Aggie did the only thing she could think of...
She ran.
A New Life
Having studied the superhero community extensively, Aggie ran to the one place she knew she could find a new kind of sanctuary, Paragon City. However, life for a young girl with little money and no prospects was not easy, but was still a hardship she was willing to endure. She began working a number of part-time jobs in order to make ends meet and afford the life she would need to to become a hero. After a year of secretly practicing with her powers and saving up enough money for her first costume, Aggie was finally able to register with City Hall as an official superhero; Cryona (She thought the name sounded pretty cool).
It was not long after her registration was accepted that she found her life radically changing in ways she never anticipated. Suddenly finding herself fighting for her life against gangs, demons, robots and more was both frightening and exhilarating for her. She worked hard to emulate the heroes she always idolized, doing what she could where ever she was needed. Unfortunately, her naivete about the hero life caught up to her when she began missing more and more work. By the time she realized that hero work would not keep her fed and housed, it was too late. She found herself a homeless, unemployed hero.
She loved the life of a superhero but realized she had problems balancing a normal life as well. Coupled with her normally shy personality, Aggie had no one to rely on to help her out of this situation. She was nearly at her wits end when a guardian angel came to her rescue. When she went to remove the last of her money from the bank, she was shocked to discover an extremely substantial amount of money in her account. The bank was unsure who made the deposit but was able to confirm that it was legitimate. Aggie was at a loss for words, unsure of who this mysterious benefactor was. She found more questions then answers when she received a letter not long after instructing her to continue fighting the good fight and that the funds were to help her establish herself as a guardian of Paragon City.
Today
The Secret Sanctum
With the funds she received from her mysterious guardian angel, Aggie was able to not only find a new place to live, but she was able to begin to build a secret place for herself. Still a bit socially awkward, she decided she would form her own super group rather than join one that already existed in Paragon City. And thus, The Secret Sanctum was born. Not much of a high-tech wizard, Aggie did the best she could, looking for an out-of-the-way place to establish The Sanctum. It was during her time in Kings Row that she discovered a number of old abandoned tenements that she thought would suit her best. So, she bought four with the funds from her benefactor and began renovating the basement levels for heroic work.
Currently, The Sanctum is nothing more than one building's basement. But, she hopes that with time, it will grow into a place worthy of heroes.
Personality
As mentioned before, Aggie is a little socially awkward when dealing with new people. At least, when she's not playing the hero. As Cryona, she finds herself tapping into a well of confidence that she always seems to lack when she's just plain Agatha. However, once she gets to know someone, she's typically a friendly, outgoing girl if not just a little bit naive at times. Due to her condition though, she tends to avoid touching people since she does not wish to freeze any new friends she makes.
Powers
Cryogenic Manipulation
Aggie's mutant abilities grant her the ability to manipulate the temperature of people and things towards sub-zero levels. She can make it snow all around her of freeze someone in a block of solid ice. Since she's gotten to Paragon, her powers have been developing at a rapid pace. A little faster than Aggie would like. This does mean that she doesn't often have the best control over what she can do...yet.
Weather Manipulation
This is not so much weather manipulation as a combination of telekineticlly controlling the air/water she freezes. She's learned rather quickly to create cold gusts of air and freeze the moisture around areas to create freezing rain. Like her cryogenic powers, these abilities have developed at an exponential rate since her arrival. Something that has frightened her a little since she does not want to lose control over such potentially damaging abilities.
Flight
Out of all the powers she developed, Aggie was overjoyed when she learned she could actually fly on gusts of cold air. She spent days mastering this ability and is the one thing she loves to do when she's not out saving the city.
Her "Condition"
The downside to Aggie's developed mutant abilities is not only the change in her skin tone or hair. Her core temperature is so low, anything that touches her bare skin would begin to freeze immediately. This is something she has not been able to control and is partially responsible for her awkwardness around people. She does not want to get too close and hurt someone.
