L'ombre de Sabre
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Ninjutsu
Weapon Mastery
L'ombre de Sabre is a cybernetic assassin of the Stalker classification. Having held a long history in this career, she currently works for the Nexus Corps.
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Appearance
While many superheroes express their superiority in their outfits, de Sabre opts normally not to be seen at all. When one does see her, beyond the ominous glow of her 'skull' HUD, one normally sees a 6-foot assassin dressed in onyx grey or black armor, with cybernetic arms and legs, as well as her hood obscuring her visage, and a single-shoulder impervium mantle. Belt straps arm her with her various tools of choice. She seldom lowers her hood, due to her appearance when decked with her HUD utility apparatus, making her appear bald; without it her short, white and apparently synthetic hair shows. Her skin is pallid due to white blood flowing in her, and her shimmering grey eyes show an old soul. Occasionally her eyes turn red in certain modes, giving her a very albino appearance.
Personality
de Sabre is often cool, quiet and collected. She tends to be courteous to others and will opt to accept invitations or requests into team-based wetwork, but she often does her own missions solo and seldom accepts backup. de Sabre adheres to a sort of jostled form of chivalry; she respects formidable opponents as well as her teammates. A stealth expert, she enters quietly, chooses her targets carefully and aims to end the situation swiftly and fiercely. She is not beyond befriending others and establishing contacts, and often relates to similar cybernetic beings.
It becomes more clear, over time, that de Sabre is more willing to accept help from those she trusts. Few things shake her, but she is known to be a bit more stressed when faced against an exceptionally powerful opponent. Nemesis has also been able to get under her skin - a long standing source of ire for his deep, seething schemes.
de Sabre speaks with a firm voice and a mild French accent. While she is fluent in English she often incorporates French words and phrases into her casual talk.
Sabre does not often confront others casually, preferring to observe as if she is collecting information. Her thermoptic camouflage is constantly triggered when on the move, often making her seem like a true ghost to others. She seems to get some enjoyment out of surprising others with her camouflage, making her presence known by fading into existence.
Abilities and Weapons
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As is her nature, tech and weaponry are key to de Sabre's operations. Her frame is state-of-the-art, and could be considered years ahead of its time depending on an individual's perspective. By default, de Sabre's cybernetics grant her exceptional speed, strength, endurance and agility, added to her experience as a master assassin. She can shrug off damage that could physically cripple or even kill a normal human, such as jumping extreme heights and lengths, or receiving heavy blows. It is known that de Sabre has lived a long, long time, and it as been attributed to her adoption of this prosthesis helping to cease her age.
de Sabre's brain is augmented for electronic telepathy, which allows her silently communicate with electronic individuals or those with open comm devices. She is also able to physically, or sometimes remotely, to interface with machines and equipment, usually to extract data. Her brain is protected by many firewalls that make her more-or-less immune to enemy hacking. Further defense can be raised on her brain to help protect from psychic interference.
Claws
Her principle weapons are her blades. On her left arm she wields dual viper blades, and on her right is a concealed arm blade; seemingly old-fashioned these have high frequency capabilities that allow them to cleave metal in twine. They are an essential weapon to someone of her type and quite deadly.
Ninjutsu, Miscellaneous
de Sabre's secondary principle tool is her thermoptic camouflage. This allows her to evade near any enemy passively and is important to selecting targets and accomplishing missions. Additionally, she has acquired other tools to assist her in other missions, such as her combat HUD - allowing her to read enemies and environments; frequency spikes (caltrops), targeting drones, smoke-flash bombs, jetpacks, armor, tasers and even a stolen Nemesis Staff. By concentrating pressure to specific points, de Sabre can focus and make her further resistant for a time. These seem to be enhanced from antiquated beliefs toward vital points.
Perhaps the most crucial of these focus boosts is her T9 Overdrive system, which pushes her defense, stamina and agility outputs to their limits, making her remarkably resistant going toe-to-toe with powerful enemies for a limited time. So as to not compromise her integrity, the Overdrive will give in after a set time, draining her of all stamina momentarily.
History
Timeless
Solange Chevalier was born in 6 June 1767, in France, Her mother was a noblewoman, and her biological father was an assassin known to be a chivalrous womanizer; Solange's birth was the result of an affair. As such, moments were tense in her upbringing, and her mother did not wish her to follow an unwomanly path. However, the noblewoman was married to a top Squire to the king, and he decided that he would accept Solange as his own daughter. Raising her with the men he trained, and training her as well, she grew up to a hardened standard. When she was older, she became a royal guard to the king, Louis XVI, himself. Things began to turn around when one day, in 1789, at the onset of the French Revolution, Solange was captured in a raid. Upon recovering, she discovered to be in the hands of none other than Gerhardt Eisenstadt - Nemesis, albeit younger, had already began his time-honored tradition of manipulating the world around him to his liking. Alongside other shadowy puppeteers, the French Revolution was driven to be a means of tearing France, the greatest power in Europe at the time, apart to conquer it.
In the meantime, Nemesis sought to indoctrinate people into his followers, including Solange, who Nemesis saw potential in. He started by replacing parts of her body with revolutionary (perhaps primitive by today's standard) robotics, starting with her right arm. However, this is only as far as he got before he himself was under attack -- assassins. In a bit of setback, the assassins rescued several prisoners, including Chevalier, and devastated portions of his equipment.
To her shock, Solange had finally met with her true father, a master assassin in the brotherhood, the father she never got to truly know. Under his word, Sabre learned further revelations - about Nemesis, and about how Louis XVI was a puppet of Nemesis and his fellow conspirators... With Solange knowing too much and having nowhere to return, she followed her assassin father's tutelage as an assassin herself.
Solange learned quickly, coming to grips with her strange robotic arm and how to wield the blade. Eventually she played the role of assassin in the shadows of the French Revolution, fighting Nemesis at every other turn, helping to lead to the assassination of Louis XVI himself.
Later, Solange played both roles in the Napoleonic Wars, another Nemesis plot by establishing Napoleon as ruler, and later held some role in the Bourbon restoration and July Revolution. By the point of Napoleon III's rule, Solange feared that her age was catching up with her, and sought to remedy that. With Nemesis still very active, attention returned to her prosthetic arm; what else could be possible?
And thus, Solange began the process of enhancing herself through stolen and reverse-engineered (more or less) Nemesis technology... and it seemed to work. She would manage to successfully exceed her lifespan, keeping toe-to-toe with Nemesis. It is still questioned if she was nigh-immortal or not, but the oldest cyborg continued to be active - The Great War, World War II... VE Day was soon marked thereafter by Nemesis' own personal debut in the United States, what has been considered a "darkest hour". With the knowledge of Nemesis' newfound presence in America, the Blade Phantom shifted her sights.
As the 20th century progressed, technology met more and more advancements, allowing L'ombre de Sabre to move away from her Nemesis prosthetics and gain more and more refinements, more and more augments.
The Rikti War saw good and bad opportunities for de Sabre. In participation of the conflict, de Sabre was nearly killed, suffering devastating blows that left her out of commission for years, forcing her to become even less organic. However, the War saw a spark in technological achievement, which would allow her to build towards her most advance cyborg status.
Current
de Sabre's current involvement in Paragon began after an upgrade to brand new state-of-the-art prosthesis and augments, with the downside that she needed to build up her ability once more through training. As such, she started tackling several assignments in the city, gathering utilities and garnering much attention along the way. Her option to seek a base of operations led her to work for the fledgling Nexus Corps, a mercenary-geared organization led by Agent RedDawn. Her participation rose her quickly to a Captain's status, and as well she assisted in the acquisition of the Corps' supercomputer, to the ire of Malta Group.
As she continued, her progress granted her more recognition as an infiltrator in the Nexus Corps. While investigating the Revenant Hero Project, she was promoted to General. She remains diligent as far as Nexus activity goes, as she assisted when Agent RedDawn was attacked by his double.
Finally, she began to clash again with Nemesis, hoping again to track him down and settle old scores. As she was directed to strike, the Council intervened and began conflict against the seemingly weakened Nemesis; however, this turned out to be a ruse as Nemesis attempted to usurp the Council's network. While she shut down their stations, however, Nemesis abducted Nosferatu, the Council scientist, prompting de Sabre to pursue them again. With the assistance of her allies RedDawn and Burst Knight, Nosferatu was captured, and they learned that Nemesis, evidently reduced to a dying brain in a robotic body, was intent on transferring to a new synthetic brain. They stopped his system and fought Nemesis himself, and it seemed that the Prussian Prince was finally gone... for now.
Meanwhile, the Nemesis Army remained active, and de Sabre discovered a significant conflict between Nemesis forces. It was found that an alternate dimension Nemesis, known as Nemesis Rex, had conquered the world in the 1940s and was making moves against the Nemesis in Primal Earth. Upon finding his location, de Sabre faced him and left victoriously, shutting down his inter-dimensional connection.
In her follow-up, de Sabre also discovered that Nemesis had been using advanced control of the weather for the past two years. Finding the coordinates, de Sabre tracked down these stations and wiped them out, rendering their tech useless and the weather control moot.
Working with Vanguard, de Sabre discovered to her dismay that Nemesis had instigated the Rikti War. Working with an ally from Unnatural Union, Tiana Tigress, de Sabre blew a hole wide open on the conspiracy, and in spite of Nemesis resistance - letting the world know the truth, and setting off a firestorm in the Rikti Homeworld.
When War God Hro'Dtohz sought to end it all by bolstering the gate between Earth and the Homeworld to bring his entire military might through, de Sabre, Tiana and Vanguard confronted him - only to be interrupted by Nemesis, who intended to insert his mind into the Rikti mental network. Enraged, Sabre faced down Nemesis once more, striking him down, while Tiana took down Hro'Dtohz, sparing the world of both threats again for the time being.
Due Vendetta
Sabre's persistent interventions against the facets of Nemesis' plans had made the Prussian Prince bitter, and perhaps a tad envious. It became clear that Sabre's technology was exceptional, if not superb, and he had decided to exact his own revenge and benefit off of it. He began to make preparation for a new wave of automatons that Sabre had quickly caught wind of; to handle, Nemesis planted a trap in the form of a Rikti hideout purported to be remnants of Hro'Dtohz's legion. Directed by Vanguard, Sabre investigated the hideout, only to be subdued by the Nemesis army and Rikti automatons - but not before leaving encrypted data in a Rikti computer; should an ally come looking for her, they would have a lead to go by.
Once more, Sabre was under Nemesis control, where he took pleasure in having her interrogated and tortured, before extracting her very brain, placing it in the stolen and modified frame of a Praetorian Clockwork. Under this imprisonment, Nemesis was free to make use of Sabre's fascinating body -- beginning plans to replicate it into a new generation of carbon-copy assassination automatons. At the same time, he ordered his army to oversee production of automatons to mimic the rest of Nexus Corps, in an effort to systematically erase them.
Sabre had been gone, uncharacteristically and without warning, for several days, concerning some like Burst Knight. As a meeting was organized to discuss such matters, met with some members of the coalition like Tiana, Burst had received a distress call from what was apparently Sabre herself, captured and held for question by Malta operatives when she was investigation suspicious activity. Nexus and company infiltrated the Malta base and successfully extracted Sabre, then seeking to get to the bottom of what Malta was planning-- only to find it wasn't Malta at all; it was a Nemesis trap! The Nemesis Army struck, and what seemed to be Sabre turned out to be an automaton as well, in addition to each of the operatives they had just fought, all in an effort to wipe out the Nexus team.
Having defeated the automaton Sabre and Nemesis assault, Burst, Tiana and the team returned to track Sabre's activity, or lack thereof, leading them into the Rikti hideout Sabre had investigated. Allying with Longbow, Nexus fought off Nemesis and the Rikti automatons to find the data Sabre had left behind. This took them to an established Nemesis front company, where they were building mimics of the Nexus Corps team. Afterward, their intel reported of a separate factory coined "Point Sabre", devoted around Sabre specifically.
What they found at the Point Sabre facility was jarring; dozens upon dozens of automaton modeled after Sabre, many unfinished or unrefined, were under production. Slowly but surely, Nexus shut down the facility, defeating the staff and destroying every Sabre automaton they could find. However, they were taunted by the fact that a small batch of automatons, had already been shipped straight to Lord Nemesis. Helped by Vanguard, this led them straight to a key Nemesis base in the Shadow Shard.
Aided by Sabre's friends in Vanguard and Longbow alike, the Nexus team infiltrated the base perimeters, destroyed the remaining automatons and hunted down Nemesis, but were not prepared to find Nemesis' mind occupying the original Sabre body! In the grueling fight that followed, the team endured Sabre's T9 Overdrive and struck the Nemesis Sabre down, leaving the body critically damaged and rendered useless. Afterward, Nemesis challenged them to a final bout in his traditional armor, gloating about his success over Sabre. Again, Nemesis fell, cursing the name of Burst Knight and the rest of Nexus Corps, swearing his eternal reign.
Finally, Nexus freed the true Sabre, still in the Clockwork's body, and it was to her grief and understanding that she found her heavily-damaged real body. Repairs would be extensive, and all that built up to this weighed heavily on her. These bittersweet results affected the rescue party as well, especially Burst Knight, saddened by Sabre's current condition, and worried for her sake.
Sabre slowly began the repairs on her original body, while still in the Clockwork's. As a favor, the Portal Corporation offered her an IDF MK-VI Victoria frame. Outfitted with some of her equipment and additional Vanguard arm blades, Sabre was able to take remote mental control of the Victoria for temporary use in combat operations.
Relationships
- "Capable is an understatement ... She's quite amazing."
Agent RedDawn
Since RedDawn hired Sabre into Nexus Corps, Sabre has worked diligently under his leadership and acted to his orders whenever she could. For much of the time, their relationship has been professional at most, but out of nature between the two of them, they cannot help having a friendly backing toward one another. Within the organization itself, perhaps Red trusts Sabre the most, even to lead.
Burst Knight
Sabre has become akin to liken to beings of similar nature to her, of cyborgs or otherwise, so it was only natural that she would be interested in the Burst Knight, a fellow agent. While her cool nature offers some difference to Burst's more outward personality, they've connected through experience, and hold a mutual trust. Some things have been left unsaid, as Sabre obligates herself to her work, but when it comes to it she knows she at least has a confidant, while Burst herself holds high respect for Sabre. Sabre holds the strongest friendship within the Nexus Corps with Burst.
Tiana Tigress
An ally from an affiliated group. Visually it seems that she and Sabre are a stark contrast from one another, distinct among Sabre's friends; Tiana's superb stature manages to dwarf Sabre's six-foot frame. Sabre is mostly cybernetic at this point, trusting on a multitude of state-of-the-art weaponry, while Tiana is very natural, relying on very little else but her trusted shield and bludgeon. While Sabre lurks in stealth and strikes with precision at specific targets, Tiana charges head-on against any foe in her way. In spite of their many differences, they see eye-to-eye in long-term goals, and as such are willing to fight alongside one another when it is necessary.
Other Versions
Praetorian
In Praetoria, Solange Chevalier's desire for self-preservation became desperate, and by the inspiration of new technology she turned to her sources. Unfortunately, this led her straight to Neuron. What was a promise for help clearly became an act of deceit, and it was too late for her to stop it. Solange's entire body was replaced with one of Neuron's Clockwork, and her memory and personality were suppressed by safeguards. Once a proud assassin was now a loyal and distinct robotic agent of the state, assigned to Powers Division to track down opposition wherever they hide, and subsequently execute them.
