Sigma
History
Early life
While potentially as smart, or smarter, than his older brother Bryan, Norman spent most of his time as a boy reading comic books and running around the house with a towel tied around his neck for a cape. He did have an aptitude for electronics, like his brother, but would never finish a project and did poorly in school. But luck was on Norman's side and one day he won a small lottery prize, enough to start his own comic book store and to float it along when it didn't turn a profit. As Norman grew older, he wanted more and more to be a real super hero and not just pretend. But every time he began to work on an idea, he would eventually grow tired of it and abandon it. The urge though was heightened even more after the supposed death of his brother Bryan, at an ARGENT laboratory.
Fortune would again step in when a super hero battle took place in the street outside his shop. It was a battle between the Silver Slider and the Incredible Plum. During the fight, the Slider's sliding disc, crashed into Norman's shop. The Slider lost the battle and was carted off in an ambulance while Norman quietly stashed the sliding disc in the basement of his shop before anyone noticed it was there. It was inoperable, but Norman was able to tinker it back into working order. It was then that the solution hit him. He could salvage super tech from hero-villain battles all across the city, maybe even the country. So that's what he did. He eventually gathered the parts to create a suit capable of projecting high voltage electrical bolts. This was particularly facilitated by his pilfering of Lightning Bug's super secret capacitor core. At first he looked a bit comical, his suit being made from mismatching parts, but Norman continued to upgrade his suit as he became a more experienced crime fighter and named himself, Sigma.
Then one day
Time passed, Norman had been working as a hero for nearly year now. He had begun to make a reputation for himself, though not always a good one. At times other heroes would accuse him of theft. The Silver Slider was especially troublesome and demanded the return of his sliding disc, despite having others. He enjoyed 'hanging out' with other heroes when he could, making friends with the likes of Rhino Beetle, Rocket Rider Theta and Quartermoon. One fateful day, Norman was closing his shop up early in order to work on his latest electro suit when he heard the police scanner report a Mega-Destroid loose in the city. He flew into action and proceeded to the battlefront. Inwardly, Norman secretly hoped a real heavyweight would show up the aid them. One that could knock pieces of the robot loose for him to recover. Studying technology designed by Dr. Destroyer himself would be amazing he thought. Norman realized he had arrived 'early', only a couple heroes had engaged the mechanical monstrosity. Norman steeled his resolve and dove in despite not being overly durable himself. He had only fought a Mega-Destroid once before and knew that his electricity attacks would not be terribly effective. More heroes began arriving and the Destroid ceased it's advance and took a more defensive stance. Norman noticed a rather slinky 'cat woman' attempting to rip away the machines foot hydraulics and catching the machine's attention. Norman saw it was charging it's own electrical attack to throw at the woman and that he might be the only one who could save her. He sprang into action, heedless of his own safety and intercepted the lightning bolt leveled at the unsuspecting woman. Norman's capacitor was overloaded and the resulting backlash blasted him backwards with pieces of his suit flying in every direction.
Norman awoke to see the battle had ended and himself still alive, though he suspected his heroic career might be over as his suit, including the all important super capacitor, was destroyed. He also noticed a figure bending over him, a man clad in a handsome suit of blue power armor. Norman was instantly jealous, but quickly was just as baffled when the figure said, "Norm?" Blast! he thought to himself, his cover was blown! The armor clad figure bent down and whispered closely, "Norm! It's me Bryan! Come on, if you can stand we need to get out of here and talk." Norman followed the figure as they flew across town to an apparently empty lot. Norman's flying disc had survived. After moving through a secret entrance the man removed his helmet to reveal his own brother's face. Norman couldn't believe his eyes. His brother Bryan was supposed to be dead, but here he was. Likewise, his brother regarded him with wonder, and asked how he had come to be a real live superhero at last. They exchanged their stories and reveled in their new found camaraderie. They had not been terribly close growing up, being somewhat intimidated by each others strengths rather than heartened by their flaws. Bryan Quinn had a whole secret lab to work out of and invited Norman to join him there for the time being. Over the next few weeks, Norman and Bryan shared their experiences and knowledge with each other with Bryan wanting to help Norman get back into the game with a whole new electro suit.
About the time that the two brothers had completed deigns for Norman's suit, an old friend of his, Quartermoon contacted him while seeking information about an armor clad hero he had only had brief contact within Africa. Quartermoon described him as wearing a red power suit, and Norman now knew that Bryan in fact had several armor suits built, and one of them was red. He decided to pass the query on and Bryan admitted it was probably him, since he had indeed assaulted a VIPER base in Africa wearing the red suit. Norman arranged a meeting and Quartermoon expressed his desire to have a power suit of his own, only much lighter and more conducive to his archery. Norman expected his brother to refuse, he had always been a rather private and solitary person, but he surprised them all in not only agreeing to help make the suit, but also inviting both of them to join him in forming a team. From that moment on, Strike Team Zulu was born.
Powers & Equipment
Norman is a human male of average build and moderate condition. He eats a lot of junk food and tends to spend more time tinkering on his equipment rather than using it. He is quite intelligent and has moderate knowledge of electronics and bio-mechanical engineering. He is extremely inventive and often designs new technology on a whim but is not likely to follow through on it's development.
Norman began his heroic career after 'acquiring' the Silver Slider's sliding disc and Lightning Bug's Super Capacitor core. With these two examples of super technology to work from, Norman constructed an insulated suit but it lacked any offensive capabilities until he was able to pilfer various emitters and other bits lost in super heroic battles. The Sigma suit went through 4 distinct iterations before Norman was reunited with his brother and they began designing a new wholly original suit for him. Norman had come up with many different possible upgrades to his suit but had lacked the resources and facilities to implement them. Now with the aid of his brother Brian and his patron Zoar, there was no limit to what Norman could create. Sigma 5 was a new light suit designed to test overall system stability and to aid in designing Quartermoon's suit. From that basis, Norman then designed and built Sigma 6, a heavy, full power battle suit. Following their adventure in Multifaria, Norman and Bryan took time off to revisit their suit designs and to come up with new technologies that would free them once and for all from the need to pilfer certain parts and equipment from their enemies. Sigma 7 represents a significant achievement for Norman and is the basis for all of the STZ's power systems. The suit is a full power armor but is geared toward high powered assault rather than durability and strength.
The outer shell is a super alloy consisting of Questionite, Titanium and Niobium. The inner layers are composed of many layers of insulation with give the suit a very bulky look despite it's light weight. The suit is able to deflect high powered rifle bullets and has a high refraction index that makes it impervious to high-powered lasers and heat. The artificial musculature included in the suit allows the wearer to lift (press) up to 10 tons. The suit is airtight and waterproof with an internal oxygen supply lasting for up to 6 hours. The offensive system is tied directly into the power system of the suit. It is able to project arcs of electricity up 50 feet at a peak capacity of 1.21 gigawatts. It is also able to produce arcs at much lower intensities and wattage. As a defensive measure, the suit can charge the local area in all directions, grounding to what ever, or who ever enters the field. Also as a defensive measure, the suit is able to absorb electrical, magnetic, and heat energy directed at it and then store, convert or dissipate this energy. There are various safeguards in place to prevent the explosive overloads previously experienced. The suit is also capable of producing free floating balls of charged, super heated plasma that are often used to distract and annoy opponents.
Prior to Norman's and Heron's invention of the sub-space power system, the suits depended on the super capacitor invented by Lightning Bug. The capacitor used a hyper-gamma wave reactor to produce electricity. This was nearly limitless in duration but also extremely dangerous. Now the secondary power system is powered by a small fusion reactor that can power the suit for several days if used conservatively.
