Conviction
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Contents
Origin
Sarah 'Conviction' Carano is one of the most celebrated heroes in North America. Carano is originally from Las Vegas, Nevada. There she grew up as a high school sports star, leading her team to the State Championships in Basketball, Volleyball, and Softball. However none of these sports would lead her to the life she currently lives now. While attending college in the Las Vegas area, she met Johnny 'Hitman' Lane, a budding Mixed Martial Arts star. He turned Carano onto Muay Thai fighting, and from there she would practice and fight in Muay Thai competition for the next 3 years.
After attaining a Psychology Degree, Sarah joined a professional MMA organization, quickly becoming a top draw, and ended up becoming the first ever Women's MMA champion in North America. In January 2006, Sarah was set to face Sandra 'Cyborg' Santos in what was billed as one of the top Mixed Martial Arts matchups of all-time. However, while Carano was in the locker room preparing for her match-up, she received grim news.
On his way to Millennium City to promote a special kick-boxing program for under-privileged kids by Primus, the plane carrying Johnny Lane was shot down by Viper Armored Techs. Carano was devastated, but vowed to go out and fight Santos anyway, knowing that is what Johnny would've wanted her to do. Angry and an emotional wreck, Carano did not possess the focus in order to defeat Santos. She was defeated by TKO with 1 second left in the first round. Crying in the locker room after the match, Sarah was surprisingly approached by the Silver Avenger to join a secret task force that Primus was setting up to attack a special Viper base located on Monster Island. Only feeling anger and pain in her heart, Carano accepted, and promise to avenge her boyfriend's death and rid the world of Viper's taint.
Elements Taskforce
While Carano showed exceptional fighting skills in hand to hand combat, she and Primus both knew that it would not be enough for her to prove to be a formidable opponent against Viper. Primus then decided to use Carano for their top-secret program, Project: Sovereign. Carano had sophisticated cybernetic computer chips put slightly beneath her skin. The chips greatly enhanced her twitch muscles, allowing her to move much faster than an Olympic level athlete and also greatly enhanced her strength. After months of training, Carano joined up with the hero Telecron and began fighting to stop Viper's efforts to take over Millennium City.
Fortunately, the ship carrying Carano went unscathed as it reached the island. With all of her teammates defeated except for the hero Pentheslia, Carano was forced to abandon the original battle plan. Carano hid in the wilderness of Monster Island for 3 months, scouting and waiting to launch an attack on Viper. After completing a body count, Danner realized his valued test subject was not among the dead found in the attack on Primus. Basically being the motherboard for all technology in Project Sovereign, Danner shut off the cybernetic chips found in Carano's body. Not only that, but he then convinced Sandra Santos to use undergo his experiments so she could receive the glory and global recognition she felt she deserved.
Basically left as just a human martial arts fighter, Carano refused to back down. The locals on Monster Island helped her determine which Viper base Santos resided at. Carano infiltrated the base, leading to a 1 on 1 showdown with Cyborg Santos. Using nothing but pure determination, adrenaline, and her lethal hand to hand combat abilities, Carano was able to turn back her foe. Carano then used Viper weaponry acquired from Santos's base to infiltrate the huge base that Danner resided in. She stealthily attacked Danner in the commander room. Knowing there was no way to take down the whole base, Carano killed Danner and quickly escaped. This postponed Viper's attack on the mainland and ended the threat of the technology created from Project Sovereign. Retreating back to the wilderness, Carano did not know how she would make it back to the Primus base located at the eastern beach of monster island. Viper put a 100 million dollar bounty on Carano's head, leading to multiple villanous organizations to begin searching for her. Carano was forced to retreat to the mountainous region of Monster Island, where she would meet a powerful ally.
Herald of Simorgh
While hiding in the mountainous region of Monster Island, Carano was approached by a powerful yet unexpected guest. The amazingly powerful spirit creature Simorgh appeared to her. Simorgh had been watching Carano, as he was looking for a being on Earth who would be loyal and strong enough to help him accomplish his tasks. Carano figured that joining Simorgh would be the only way for her to escape Monster Island alive, and to possess the power necessary to stop Viper. Simorgh performed a special ceremony, fusing Sarah Carano with Cosmic Energy. Chosen as his herald because of her determination and drive to succeed and extract revenge, her conviction to prevail no matter what the circumstances, Simorgh knighted her as "Conviction".
Conviction can use her cosmic energy to heal others as well as greatly harm them. Conviction also can focus her energies to become nigh invulnerable. Conviction has the ability to focus her energy to perform extremely devastating feats, however this leaves her very susceptible to damage. Most notably, Conviction's power levels seem to fluctuate with her confidence.
Viper and the surrounding local enemy organizations quickly proved no match for the new Herald and were quickly defeated by Conviction. At this point, Conviction cut all ties with Primus in order to fully serve her new leader. Much of Carano's time was spent between training with Simorgh to better harness her powers, fighting in the Hero Games, and going on special missions against Millennium City's greatest foes, including Kigatilik. Carano has often come under criticism from the local media for seeming to forget the reason's she became a hero in the first place (in their opinion). Carano has all but ended her war against Viper and other local threats as Simorgh deems them as to weak. She solely seems involved in his agenda, and battling the strongest villains in the galaxy.
Conviction would would not falter from the case however. Conviction instead joined up with close friends Ashanta, Keobia, and Vermithrax in order to hunt down Destroyer. After battling through Destroyer's Gladiator base, a head to head confrontation ensued between the four heroes and Destroyer. Never having faced a force this destructive, Conviction's confidence began to waver in the final battle. Destroyer, seeing that the heroes seemed well equipped to defeat him, noticed Conviction seemed to be the weakest of the four. After opening a portal to the Quliphotic realm, he quickly sucked Conviction inside, escaping with her temporarily.
In the Shadows
About 6 months after the disappearance of Conviction, notable public figures were either assassinated or escaped assassination attempts. At the same time, a shadowy figure began participating in the Hero Games, calling herself 'Shadow Conviction'. Shadow Conviction showed great skills at using munitions weaponry and swords. So much so, that 'SC' walked away with 1.3k hero defeats in the lowest ranks of the hero games. After honing her skills in these competitions, the new Conviction approached her old friends, telling them that she was the Conviction of old. Her old friends accepted her, even though she appeared to be infused with qliphotic energy, no longer possessing the Cosmic energy given to her by Simorgh.
For the next several months, Conviction went on fighting alongside her friends in Red October, however things proved to be noticeably different. Conviction would often want to kill her friendly adversaries in the Hero Games, often having to be stopped by Keobia. Even out in the real battlefield, Conviction was often reprimanded by the group for her use of foul language, and for often killing her enemies instead of incarcerating them. Shadow Conviction then began to use politics to turn her friends against each other. This led to Keobia attacking her fellow friends and leaving Red October for good. Not long after that, Ashanta was also influenced to leave the group as well. Millennium City's hallmark group was falling apart slowly but systematically. Thankfully, an old ally returned to help expose Shadow Conviction's evil plot.
Returning to earth after battling Destroyer's cronies in the Qliphotic realm, Simorgh contacted the sentient being, Jessica Dynamo, with the information he had learned. Shadow Conviction truly was Sarah Carano, however she had been killed and then reanimated with Qliphotic Energy. Shadow Destroyer then brainwashed her to do his bidding, and she developed similar tendencies to Destroyer. Posing as a powerful threat, Simorgh knew that taking out Destroyer's pawn would pose as a problem for any hero. With Red October's forces dwindled, and most other heroes simply not powerful enough to enlist in the battle against Shadow Conviction, Simorgh sent Jessica Dynamo to succeed where her teammates had failed...Back to that dreadful battle against Shadow Destroyer. Adding a fifth member to the foray, Red October's forces were able to defeat Destroyer this time.
Guardian of Liberty
Jessica Dynamo decided to form a group that would replace Red October from the history books. This group would stand for all the right reasons, unlike Red October, who seemingly fell due to the fame and selfish desires of a couple of members. Sarah Carano would happen to be one of the five founding Guardians, along with Vermithrax, Ashanta, Dynamo, and Mobs. While the ranks of the guard has grown quick, these 5 Guardians are five of the most experienced heroes in the history of Millennium City, and definitely lead the charge for the most important battles.
Conviction is more of an honorary member however, as she is more a herald of Simorgh than anything else. Simorgh has decided to keep her under close watch, trying to prohibit another opportunity for Conviction to be controlled by an adversary. If anything, Shadow Conviction showed Carano's true potential, being much more powerful than Simorgh though Carano could be. Now, Conviction is often training under his wing so to speak, as she is much more battle savvy and powerful than she was before her initial fight with Shadow Destroyer.
Since the Liberty Guards have dedicated themselves to be a much more public faction than their fore-group, Red October, Carano has made herself much more accessible to the public. When not training, she often signs many autographs before Hero Games matches, and sometimes even takes up a color commentary position for the fights. She makes many promotional appearances during the City's many costume contests and often fights alongside the 'Champions'. After running into the Champion 'Sapphire' during a promo tour for her 1 on 1 street fight against Foxbat, the two have become great friends and now often train together. Having much of the power potential of Conviction and confidence issues, Carano has sorta took Sapphire under her wing and are often seen out in public and at clubs together.
Powers and Abilities
Currently, Simorgh has given Conviction the ability to harness her cosmic powers through the computer chips located directly under her skin. Her cosmic energy is causing the electrons in the computer chips to emit powerful electrical energy, many times more powerful than that which can kill human beings. While she is still learning how to completely harness this power, she wears battlesuits with mini-guns strapped to them and other small mechanisms to aid her in battle.
Showtime!
Trivia
1) Sarah Carano is the all-time leader in reinforcements called in 'Apocalypse: Stronghold'.
2) Sarah Carano ranks top 10 all-time in 'Apocalypse: Stronghold' Victories.
3) Sarah Carano once went on a date with Foxbat while she was still an MMA fighter.
