Argon
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History
The Crucible
Nayrb Nniuq was a brilliant but lazy electronics prodigy. But although he would often come up with new designs for technology, he rarely brought those ideas to fruition. His brother, whom he naturally hated, would at times find his designs and finish them gaining the accolades of their parents and teachers which made Nayrb hate him even more. Part of Nayrb's apathy arose from the singular desire to be alone. He hated his family, which was perfectly natural, but he also hated all of humanity. Every tiny bit of it. He wished he existed alone in a quiet dead world. Despite his filial enmity, Nayrb's brother Namron, was uncommonly good to his brother, attempting to share his successes based on Nayrb's ideas and to help his brother when he could. Naybr assumed this was all some sort of complex game of humiliation, what else could it be? As they grew older Namron got a job at a company called A.R.G.ENT. whose reputation for greed and crueltiy was well known. Nayrb on the other hand barely graduated high school and was still living with their parents who were on the verge of kicking him out of the house as all good parents did. Namron offered to get his brother a job at ARGENT. Nayrb hated him for this ridiculous example of altruism, but he did have to eat, so he took the job, and hated his brother even more.
The job turned out to be nothing more than a janitor, but it allowed Namron to consult with his brother on projects after hours since Nayrb was the much more intuitively brilliant of the pair. Nayrb was intrigued by Namron's latest project, upgrading and augmenting ARGENT's standard powered armor and creating android troops to engage in 'community pacification' duties. Namron was competing with another division that wanted to use captured battle wounded prisoners and turn them into cybernetic killers. Nayrb was thrilled with possibilities for murder and mayhem and so enthusiastically helped his brother on the project. All the while of course, planning his demise. The cyborg project seemed to be gaining traction even though the Nniuq brother's technology seemed to be superior. Nayrb took it upon himself to sneak into their research area and read over their data when he made a horrifying discovery. The cybernetic project was not designed to produce killers, it was designed to replace lost limbs and organs for ordinary people. My Devil! he thought to himself, they want to help people! His disgust almost made him throw up. Further investigation also revealed that his brother's project was actually intended to be sold to heroes! An uncontrollable rage engulfed his mind. He stormed back to his brother's lab where the first prototype of their new power armor designs was stored ready for testing along with the first 5 androids. He quickly donned the suit, activated the droids and the suits control circuits, and went on a horrific rampage through the lab, destroying everything he could find. He destroyed the armor lab, the cybernetic lab and razed that wing of the building down to it's foundation with the help of the androids. From there he flew to his brother's apartment intending to pound him into jelly, but he was not there. By this time the police were on their way, looking for their slice of the action, and not having anyway to pay them off, Nayrb decided to flee. But he swore that night that he would not stop till ARGENT and his brother were destroyed and who knows, maybe the whole world after that.
The first thing Nayrb realized he needed to do was apply for a grant from the government to help fund his campaign against ARGENT. Of course a 'grant' was a euphemism meaning he would need to knock off a federal reserve bank. The reserve banks were well known to be extremely light on security and intentionally so, so that people like himself could fund their villainy properly. With the power of his armored suit and his androids, Nayrb was able to make off with a considerable sum in gold bullion. While he might be able steal all the things he needed to continue his armor development, and he would steal all he could from ARGENT, sometimes it was much more expedient to pay for things. Next he needed a hideout. Not only to keep people from stealing from him, but also to keep away the few wretched 'heroes' that liked to make life difficult for everyone else. He realized immediately that his androids would no doubt attract the attention of Organitron eventually, what a pain in the neck. This is where money was helpful as there were agencies that specialized in just this sort of thing. He found a 2 bed room 2 bath lair with a sizable work shop for a reasonable price. All the initial security and secrecy was taken care of provided the rent was never late, and no one else paid more to find out where you were. There were of course additional security deposits required for that. These agencies were fabulously wealthy.
Now Nayrb needed to solve the problem of production. His reconnaissance of the old lab told him that ARGENT was being very slow in the clean up and reclamation of the building he had damaged, and that the foundries in the sub-basements were still largely intact. He set his androids to burrow under ground into those foundries and steal the equipment with out anyone knowing for months to come. He immediately set about upgrading the suit and ridding it of his brother's influence. Making sure there were no 'backdoor' protocols installed, which there were. As he completed his new model and sent it into production, he began to contemplate a name for himself. Every proper villain should have one he thought. He thought about his desire for solitude, for aloneness. Even though he was 'alone' now in his lair, he could feel the mass of humanity out there, pressing on his psyche. He wanted nothing to do with them, any of them. As his mind wandered, he remembered his basic chemistry, the noble gasses that stubbornly refused to mix with other elements under natural conditions, and the most stubborn of all, Argon. He liked the sound of it. It had resonance. His enemies would soon learn to fear it.
The Mission
With his new suit, and 2 more androids constructed, Argon began his campaign of terror against ARGENT. They had never been directly targeted like this before, largely because no one had ever thought that they were anything other than they seemed, a ruthless corporation out to make a fast buck at any cost. But Nayrb saw through the lies. He saw their hazardous waste sites were far too safe. Their water 'appropriation' business was in fact building irrigation infrastructure. Their refugee work camps were actually relief centers. The list went on and on. It all had to be destroyed. ARGENTS usual security forces were no match for him, he knew their vulnerabilities and they had not yet had time to develop new designs. They had been upgrade in a certain fashion. Nayrb saw his brother's handiwork there, but without his own creativity, he knew that Namron had no chance of keeping up with his technology. One day, after destroying a 'young hostage' (daycare) center, everything changed.
Nayrb felt a sudden lightness and a flash of light and he was suddenly somewhere else. He felt a sudden charge of electricity through his suit and all of his systems shut down. He was carried away and laid on a table his suit was taken off of him, by strange metal arms and hands he saw, and he was hooked into a complicated apparatus, apparently designed for torture he soon found out. The pain was excruciating. Strange images and ideas passed through his mind as he was pumped full of drugs. Odd voices told him to obey or die. By the end of it, he wanted to, he really did. After an indeterminate amount of time, which felt like forever, Nayrb found himself floating in a tank of liquid, his wounds and mind healing. the relief was tremendous. He saw a dark figure moving about the room his tank was in, heard the sharp metalic clunk of it's feet as it walked around the room. It touched a console and he was lifted out of the tank. He could see now that it was a feminine form clad in exquisite black and red power armor, the slight hum audible now. He was dried and dressed by robots and she led him into a new chamber with a large pulsing orb inscribed with intricate designs at it's center. This was Raoz. Roaz he learned was an ancient computer left here to observe humanity and ensure it's demise by a long extinct race that had been bent on cosmic domination, which it had failed at. But a few of their machines were still operational. Raoz being one of them, it was following it's programming which was to cause the de-evolution of mankind and it's eventual extinction. Nayrb liked the sound of that. Raoz informed him that on occasion it needed agents to carry out it's commands on Earth. Usually this entailed assassinating certain individuals or even whole communities if needed. While Nayrb had no problem with the idea of murdering innocent people, he did have a problem with the idea of being a servant, even though his previous harsh treatment made him feel inclined to go along wit it. Raoz informed that he had a choice, he could serve willingly, in which case he would then have access to extremely advanced technology that would make him a true force to be reckoned with, or he could return to the treatment which would leave him begging for servitude. "The carrot or the stick, you choose" said the armor clad female. She had an odd timbre to her voice, but it was rather soothing, even seductive. But Nayrb realized that he had a tremendous opportunity here. "As long as I get to destroy my enemies, I'll destroy yours as well." He said.
From that point on, Nayrb became a minion of Raoz. One of three he came to find out. All of them supplied with advanced power armor. The woman who was named Aterg, but liked to call herself the Marquise, and another man named Cire. Raoz's technology was truly out of this world and it took Nayrb weeks to examine it and create a new armor design that was light years ahead of anything anyone one on Thrae had. He was also astonished to find that they were actually in the center of the moon, the ancient race having built the facility there aeons ago. Raoz also encouraged him to make new android designs based on it's technology, explaining that eventually, it's program of extermination would accelerate to a point that out right war would be the final phase and the android troops would be need to annihilate the last of the resistors. Over the course of 3 years, Argon and his androids obliterated most of ARGENT's holdings, it was only a desperate alliance with the usually pacifistic VIPER organization that kept them afloat. As he had anticipated, his extensive use of androids brought him into conflict with Organitron on numerous occasions. He lost many troops to it's benevolent reprogramming. He also had to contend with many many other villains attempting to replicate or abscond with his technology. These sometimes protracted distractions gave ARGENT the breathing room it needed to survive. He also formed a relationship with his female colleague, Aterg despite her being nearly insane. She had unfortunately chosen the stick, and the process of conformity had nearly broken her mind. She often spoke of serving her 'Mistress' and that they were all living on borrowed time anyway. She also often spoke of the 'great perversion' which she was sent to contend with occasionally by Raoz, though never in any detail. She was an incredible beauty, long black hair with a slight asian cast to her features. It had been lust at first sight.
The Turning Point
Then one day she returned from a mission and was completely unhinged. She had been in battle, her suit was badly damaged and she was hurt. Nayrb tried to help her, he removed her helmet and saw the insanity in her eyes, she was mumbling something about not betraying her Mistress when she saw Nayrb's face. Her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "You! You did this to me! I saw you!" She struggled out of his grip, he himself was not wearing his suit and was not prepared for her reaction. She pointed her sub-space canon at him, a incredibly dangerous weapon, and backed away. "You hurt me! Why why why?!" She screamed. Nayrb had had enough, no piece of tail was worth this. He slowly edged to the exit as she began pointing her canon at the androids moving toward her. he quickly ducked out while he had the chance and rushed to arm himself. The sounds of battle erupting behind him. Raoz controlled all of their armors, Nayrb didn't understand why she wasn't being neutralized. The sounds continued as he activated his armor recall and was quickly encased. As he strode back, he realized she had fled to the trans-mat room and was gone. "What the heaven was that about Raoz?" he asked but the machine made no reply, as it often did not, leaving him with his usual sense of frustration. He was better off without her anyway. But that would not be the last he would see of her. Not by a long shot. What Nayrb didn't know, as that Raoz's self professed omniscience, was not nearly as complete as it would have liked and the Marquise had ways of disappearing from it's observation. She had been able to employ her own agents and minions in ways that Raoz was not aware. Her addled mind now believed she had a vendetta against Nayrb and after a few weeks she came at him in full force.
Powers and Equipment
Nayrb Nniuq is a normal human male in excellent condition. He is exceptionally intelligent with aptitudes in electrical and bio-mechanical engineering. He is also adept at comprehending technology previously unknown to him. He is a skilled combatant and experienced power armor pilot. At some point in his youth Bryan severely broke his already largish nose which never healed properly. It is easily his most prominent feature.
