A Brief History

Sarah McCain was a rather ideal child. Good natured, sweet, friendly, did well in school, played in the band, served on the cheerleading squad. She grew up very physically fit and very beautiful. Tall, strong, long red hair, piercing blue eyes, and enough curves that she could cause car crashes simply by walking across the street.

Like many mutants, Sarah's mutation took hold at puberty. The young mutant, awed by stories and comic books, decided that she would devote herself to doing good - to become a Super Hero. She kept her mutant abilities a secret from all around her. She began her crime fighting career by sneaking out of the house late at night and performing vigilante hunts through the streets downtown. Sarah learned to channel the power of negative energy through her body, focusing her powers to increase the damage done by her physical attacks. She also began healing at extraordinary rates, and eventually she began to learn how to move faster than normal for short periods of time. As her metabolism and physical prowess increased, Sarah gained the ability to run at super speeds. She took on the name "Charisma" and soon became an urban legend - the beautiful avenger who prowls the alleys at night.

One night on patrol she rescued a person who called himself Myrrlyn, and who claimed to be the ancient wizard of Arthurian Legend. The two paired up and Myrrlyn helped Sarah learn to control and develop her powers and her fighting abilities. Myrrlyn also instilled in Sarah his particular disregard for governments and laws, perferring to focus on doing good even when that meant breaking the law. The two shared many adventures over several years, and shared an odd intimacy that often confused everyone (including themselves). During her time with Myrrlyn, Sarah had graduated high school and began college in her home town. Eventually the mysterious Myrrlyn disappeared without warning, leaving Sarah alone, hurt, and frightened. She finished her degree and left her home town to head to Paragon City. She believes that Myrrlyn may be in trouble in either an alternate dimension or in a different time within our own dimension. Charisma has been working hard to gain the trust of the Portal Corp., as she feels they are her best chance at exploring other dimensions, and also because she feels they are the best chance at controlled time travel.

Charisma: Arrival in Paragon City

Paragon City was something of a new beast for the vigilante known as Charisma. For the first time she was not only appreciated for her powers and desire to fight crime, she was sanctioned in doing so. Not only did she no longer have to hide her actions from the people in her life, she found that she was no longer in the minority. Thousands of other Super Powered Beings had flocked to Paragon City, and soon it seemed that the heroes outnumbered the citizens.

Starting off at the bottom of the totem pole, Sarah had a long way to go to reach the clearance level that would let her begin hunting for Myrrlyn. She started out slow, but quickly began climbing the ranks within Paragon City. In her early days in Paragon City, she met another young mutant named Nightling, an electric dynamo who had formed a small group of heroes into an organization called "Stormguard." Charisma joined the Stormguard and adventured with them for several months. However, as time went on the members of the Stormguard began to have less and less time to patrol the city, and soon Charisma found herself alone, again.

Charisma spent some time by herself working to clean up the city, but finally she began to ache for the companionship of a group again. However, each time she has been a part of teams, it has resulted in her winding up alone and hurt again...

Charisma: Equal Opportunity Bitch

There's really nothing special about a glowing streak of light zooming through Steel Canyon, happens all the time. *This* glowing streak, however, happens to be in a bad mood today, but sadly villains aren't empathetic enough to grasp that fact. Certainly the various Outcasts, Trolls, Tsoo, and Council that the streak passes couldn't say "That looks like an unhappy streak, I'll just leave it alone today." They couldn't say that because by the time the streak registers in their optic nerves, their jaw (and other various bones) are broken, they're on the ground, and they're happy that Paragon City is kind enough to teleport them directly to the Zigguraut's Hospital wing. After all, in most of these organizations, it's cheaper to train a new member than to fix one who's just been arrested with extreme prejudice by Charisma.

"What would this City do without you?" calls yet another helpless Citizen as the streak pauses for a moment to grind her stilleto into the Outcase Torch she had just knocked down.

"This city would fall apart without you, Charisma!" replies another helpless citizen, who has just caught up to his rescuer.

"Guess that answers that, eh?" says Charisma, grinning mirthlessly. She streaks off towards the Green line, the molecules of air glowing with the heat generated by the friction of her passage.

Charisma sat on the train and fumed all the way to Brickstown.

Colleen Nelson shrank back against the building as an unhappy looking streak zoomed up to her. When Charisma suddenly came into focus and the streak began to fade, Colleen pressed up against the building at the look on Charisma's face. She'd seen happier looking thunderheads.

"Oh stop looking like I'm going to kill your cat, Colleen," growled Charisma. "Here."

Colleen took the disk tentatively and thanked Charisma. Charisma smiled grimly and pulled out a chunk of complex looking machinery, which she dropped on the ground.

"The Kellermans are safe, and Crey's little mind control machinery seems to have malfunctioned. I'm beginning to get a little tired of the Countess, Colleen," said Charisma.

"I understand - sometimes it seems like the Countess Crey is barely in control of her company. What frightens me more is that I think she's in complete control of her company. The Countess seems to have taken a rather particular interest in you and your actions, however. She's just publicly thanked you live on T.V., and announced plans to create a scholarship program named after you to show her appreciation. The Countess has also expressed an interest in possibly retaining your services as an outside contractor monitoring company activity... with the power to correct problems regardless of corporate ranking, since you would be outside their normal organization's controls and limits."

"Tell the Countess that I'm not going to bought off, and I will not be a direct employee of Crey Industries."

"You might want to consider some of the good that could do you, Charisma. You've managed to get just about ever villain organization in this city extremely pissed at you. Crey itself may not like you, but working directly for them may offer you some level of protection from retaliation. I'm sure that part of this job 'offer' is so Crey can keep a closer eye on you as well, but it's something I think you should consider."

"I'm a hero. They're criminals. They're supposed to hate and fear me. They're supposed to have vendettas against me. It's part of my job description. Nothing personal, I'm an equal opportunity bitch. If you're a criminal, I'm a hero and I will stop you. There's something fishy going on at Crey, and I plan to stop them. Maybe you're right. Maybe I can do that better from within, but I don't trust the Countess as far as I can throw her, and after what the Kellerman's have been through, I don't want to put myself under Crey's control at all."

From a building across the way, a Vigilant Crey Special Operative kept Charisma carefully within his scope. Though it looked like a sniper rifle, it was in fact just a high powered camera with an ultra-sonic microphone. As Charisma finished her speech to Colleen, the Vigilant stopped recording and began packing up his equipment. He pressed a button on his headset and waited for the operator to pick up.

"This is agent AC943-BC. Designate: Charisma has declined offer. Activate contingency plan for capture and analysis." The agent's voice droned on monotonously as he efficiently packed up his equipment and moved off.

Had he left his camera running a bit longer, he would have seen Charisma's lips curl in a slight smile, right as he finished the first line of his report...