A.R.G.U.S. Threat Report
- CodeName: Red
- Place of Origin: Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada
- Real/Birth Name: Sophie Anderson
- Real Identity Status: Public
- Age/Apparent Age: 28
- Height: 5'5"
- Gender: Female
- Category/Occupation: High-Tech Scientist
- Superhero Affiliations: The Sentinels
- Real Identity Affiliations: MarsTech, Inc.
- Power Set: Technology
- Power Origin: Super-Genius Intellect
- Player/Type: NPC
Appearance
Sophie is a long-haired, natural redhead who tends to accentuate her hair with a deeper red dye. She has piercing blue eyes and angular features that make her a striking woman. She usually wears light make-up (favouring mid-shade lipstick and eyeliner) and keeps her hair long when casual, or tied up in a ponytail whilst working (Wyrmhole) often jokes "Sophie's tying her hair up - kuso is about to get real!"). Sophie dresses "smart casual" to casual - usually favouring jeans or trousers and a shirt or t-shirt, or trousered suit with a shirt when more formal.
In social occasions, Sophie tends to be more awkward. Always being different from her peers, even before her accident, it was not easy for her to socialise and had little interest in fashion. After her paralysis, her choice of clothing tended to gravitate to what was practical whilst in her wheelchair - and a determination that skirts had greater chance of getting tied up in the wheels, being blown up by the wind in an embarrassing way, or show her atrophied legs. As such she is used to trousers and shirts not only for work attire but for social events. She is most likely to wear trousered dresses or tuxedos for formal events than a dress, unless she feels there is a need for it - and will feel awkward.
Now that her paralysis has been remedied, however, her leg muscles have been regaining mass as she has been exercising more and she is beginning to enjoy the freedom and freshness of wearing shorts and short skirts during Emerald City's hot summer months.
Background
Sophie was born and raised in Vancouver, British Colombia (Canada) to a pair of wealthy scientists. From an early age Sophie showed incredible genius intellect. She first began to speak at 2 months of age, could converse fluently by 6 months and was able to read multiple languages by her second birthday. At the age of four she was solving differential and integral calculus problems with her parents in their research. She picked up languages just as easily, learning all of the languages spoken in the area and others that peaked her interest ("the most-spoken languages in the world"). It took her an average of a month to learn a new complex language with conversational fluency. Despite her genius intellect (see abilities) her parents were firm believers that she should have a "natural" upbringing and thus she was forced to endure the normal school process (albeit at a greatly-accelerated pace), graduating high school at just 14 years of age.
Tragedy struck when she was 13 when a car accident caused a spinal injury that left her paraplegic. Her parents adjusted their bioengineering research with the intent of overcoming Sophie's paraplegia. Unfortunately her parents were killed in an apparently-random mugging whilst it was still in the beta stages. Feeling the police were grossly incompetent, Sophie herself investigated the murder and discovered a link between the murderer and a local major crime boss. Hacking his personal network, Sophie uncovered enough evidence of racketeering, drug smuggling, extortion and murder (which she passed on to the authorities) to have him locked up for life, whilst depleting the money from his accounts. Penniless and incarcerated, it was only a matter of time before some past rival ensured an accident occurred to him, removing any risk of repercussions. Sophie graduated from high school the following year (whilst only 14) and then took a two-year sabbatical, during which she invested the considerable amount of recently-acquired resources into a series of shrewd investments which returned great dividents, as well as carrying out a series of 'White Hat' operations against those she felt deserved it.
Despite her new fortunes and proclivities, she was determined to carry on her parents' work. At the tender age of 16 she moved town to study at the prestigious Emerald City University, graduating Egregia Cum Laude by the age of 18 with multiple first-class honours degrees in Computer Science, Cybernetics, Electronic Engineering and Information Systems (and took several languages as minors). She completed her Doctorate of Engineering in only 3 years. Her professor and head of Cybernetics, Dr Marc DiStefano, considered her a prodigy and took her under his wing as his assistant and groomed her for an influential research position within the department.
When the Silver Storm occurred, she formed and sponsored a Superhero group known as the Emerald City Knights. This endeavour worked quite well for a time, but eventually many of the members moved on to different things and left Emerald City. Her work with them, as well as her work at ECU, got the attention of Maximillian Mars, owner and CEO of MarsTech who was impressed and offered to sponsor a new Sentinels group with her as their in-house scientist and access to MarsTech's top-end laboratories (and a lab of her own) to continue her research into cybertechnology and nanotechnology. As part of the "employment package" he added MarsTech's knowledge and medical expertise on nanotechnology (including study of alien technology MarsTech had found) to help Sophie work on research to develop a way to remedy her paraplegia.
Personality
Sophie has endured a mixed-blessing life of economic stability weathered by emotional and physical trauma and disability. This has served to make her strong-willed and serious, and tackles most things with a mix of ambition and intellectual curiosity. She often sees things as challenges to be overcome or problems to be resolved. She is courteous with everyone and seems to be almost impossible to anger.
Motivation: Responsibility
Sophie's parents raised her to believe that her talents should be used for the betterment of others, not for herself. Their deaths only served to further enforce this belief. Sophie therefore has a strong drive to put her abilities to good use and make her parents proud.
Secret Identity
Sophie has no secret (or superhero) identity anymore. She once used to operate under the hacker alias "Bonnet Blanc" but now that she is a full-time MarsTech research scientist and the Sentinel's in-house scientist and defacto leader, she has dropped the codename and rarely works as a covert hacker, leaving the field-work to the Sentinels for the most part. Maximillian Mars took to calling her "Red" (because of her hair) which initially annoyed her somewhat (which only served to encourage him to use it more) and to her chagrin Wyrmhole and Princess began calling her that too, and she has come to accept it (and in fact, although she won't admit it, quite like it as it indicates they appreciate her as a person and not just "Dr Anderson").
She is open about her working for MarsTech and the Sentinels, but is reluctant to talk about her past (especially her Bonnet Blanc activities - which although most would consider them morally/ethically correct, are not entirely legal and will have angered various criminal and corrupt political elements). She was good at purging her tracks and it is in fact very difficult to find any information about her other than what is publically known. Even A.R.G.U.S. has little more on her than her educational and career history.
Other Notes
Paralysis: Through her studies of nanotechnology and cybernetics, and retrofitting the alien tech that Max Mars made available to her, Sophie managed to find a way to fix her paralysis. It has been 6 months since Sophie's nanites have allowed her to walk again for the first time in over a decade. If asked about this, she simply states "I had a procedure done - Medical Science has improved a lot."
Wealth: Between her inherited wealth and her hacking endeavour's, Sophie has amassed a sizable fortune and is estimated by A.R.G.U.S. to be a multi-millionaire. Of course most of this is virtually impossible to trace and her "official" bank account shows what you would expect from someone of her inheritance, age, and occupation (which is still considerable).
CAIn (Cybernetic Algorithmic INtelligence): Sophie created an AI years ago to power her motorised wheelchair (iBot 4000 Mobility System) with the intent of automating it so it could function for her by voice command and free her to do other things. She gradually developed the system to control her car and computer systems, and eventually developed it into a functional AI which she jokingly named KITT (after the car in the Knight Rider series she loved watching when younger). After working at MarsTech Inc and studying the tech provided, she has developed KITT to the point where it is now a self-aware intelligence. CAIn is physically installed in the mainframe computer at the Emerald Tower, and directly controls all the computer, networking, surveillance and security systems at the HQ. It has a ridiculous amount of bandwidth and processing power and supports The Sentinals technologically - both providing services when they are at the HQ, and if need be becoming a "Ghost in the Machine" to infiltrate, hack or otherwise support Sentinels in the field. CAIn has a male persona, and adapts "his" personality matrix to ease personal interaction with Sentinels.
Combat Style
Sophie isn't a combatant and usually remains at the Emerald Tower coordinating efforts or carrying out research for the group. When forced into combat, Sophie relies on a heavy pistol and, if forced into close combat, parrying attacks - a mainstay from her time in a wheelchair which made close combat and dodging nearly impossible for her). Now that she is capable of bipedal movement again, this may change in time.
Social Style
Sophie has always been the smartest, and usually youngest, person in her class. Whilst she doesn't believe herself above others because of her high intelligence, it has caused her to lead a life of virtual isolation. As is typical for high-IQ people, she can be somewhat socially awkward. Added to this, her being in a wheelchair often attracted sympathy from others, which she resents. As such Sophie has gotten used to either being alone or socialising more via online social media than in person. Whilst well-meaning and polite, she can often lack social subtlety. Having had few friends in her life, she is used to treating most people like acquaintances and being ignored unless she is needed. This upsets her more than she lets on, and as such those people who take the time and effort to get to know her personally find that she becomes a loyal and caring ally.
Signature Powers & Special Abilities
Sophie has no super-powers as such, but can be considered to have the following special abilities:
- Super-Genius: At 4 years old an IQ test recorded a score of 200 for an IQ test normally given to 7-year olds. She is estimated to have an IQ of around 225. If asked, she will state that IQ tests are too inaccurate to be a real indicator of Intelligence.
- Fast-thinking: Not only is Sophie capable of great intellectual feats, but she thinks much faster than a normal person. Sophie once completed a complex equation that took DiStefanoa mathematician about 8 minutes to resolve, in 6 seconds.
- Leading expert in Computing, Cybernetics and Nanotechnology
- Eidetic Memory
- Master-Linguist - Known to be fluent in many languages, including: American Sign Language, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Esperanto, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kryptonese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tamaranean and Thai
She also has implanted nanites which provide special abilities or enhancements:
- Auditory and Visual Nanite-Enhancement systems.
- Interface Jack and Headlink: Allows Sophie to neurally interface with computer and radio systems.
- Molybdenum-steel Skeletal Reinforcement: This is what effectively cured Sophie's paralysis.
- Nanite blood: Provides life and immune system support, and regenerates damage. Can be extruded through skin epidermis to form a Nanoskin layer for protection.
Signature Equipment & Gear
- Wrist Computer
- Heavy Pistol
- Smartphone
- Lab Glasses
Signature Quotes
- "Just because I'm messing with the computer doesn't mean I'm not paying attention to you... I am! I'm only writing up The Sentinel's latest action report, following 4 newsfeeds, checking my twitter account, calculating the frequency modulation for the force field belt generator I'm creating and thinking about what to have for dinner. I think... Pizza?"
- "I designed the Valerie series android to be as physically human as possible, but better. She has one of the most complex mobile-platform AIs available - I know, I made it! She can be pre-programmed with knowledge and self-learns, just like we do - but faster. She can be a housemaid, a personal assistant, a nurse for the elderly or infirm, a legal assistant, a translator, a teacher, or even have paramilitary applications such as the police or the military. Her applications are endless. One day, it may even be possible to transplant a human brain into her body, curing paralysis or, hell, even cheating death. She is NOT a sexbot!"