Alexandria

"Eidolon, we possibly could have dealt with. Or Tattletale could have. Even Legend, possibly. Alexandria was something else. - Taylor in Cell 22.4"

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Alexandria</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

<label>Status</label><format>

{{{status}}}

</format>

<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox> Alexandria is a member of the Triumvirate, the former second-in-command of the Protectorate and leader of the Los Angeles Protectorate team.

Personality

Alexandria has a perfect memory, and as such, she has a vast understanding of many concepts. Her indestructibility and high position give her an extremely strong sense of confidence. She has an "air" about her, causing people to get out of her way, treat her with respect and hush their speaking.<ref name="22.3" />

She was initially unsure of her power, but willing to risk getting in the way of Behemoth's attacks in the hope she could survive them.<ref name="15.z" />

She dislikes lying as a result of her experience in a hospital as a child - "She was being poisoned by people with smiles on their faces." - and, early in her career, she was uncomfortable with Legend allowing the Siberian to kill a civilian as bait. However, she grew increasingly comfortable with such tactics as her career progressed.<ref name="15.z" /> Legend noted that since being injured by the Siberian, she was the most willing of the Triumvirate to "take the hard, ugly road."<ref name="14.y">Interlude 14.y</ref> However, she refused to condone allowing the Siberian to go free in order to further Cauldron's goals.<ref name="15.z" /> She claimed that all that she has done was to save lives.

Reputation

She was considered one of the top heroes in the Protectorate,<ref name=TOPH> Parahumans IRC said:
Wildbow: Armsmaster appears in the posters and such of the top Protectorate heroes.
Wildbow:When they do the image of everyone standing in a 'v' formation

Parahumans IRC said:
Wildbow: Nah. Legend in front, Alex and Eidolon to the left and right, respectively. Then Myrddin, Chev, Cinereal, Narwhal, Rime, Exalt, Armsmaster, Dragon suit silhouette in the background, wings echoing the wings of the PRT logo over their heads. - IRC conversation archived on Spacebattles</ref> and as the organization's enforcer.<ref>But Cinereal was scary as shit. She was almost scarier than Alexandria in pure attitude and disposition, and Alexandria had been the Protectorate’s enforcer, their scary woman in black and steel. - [Excerpt] from Polarize 10.11</ref> She headed a Critical Action Squad that deployed to trouble areas.

Appearance

<tabber>As Alexandria = Alexandria is a tall, muscular woman<ref name="8.1"/> with long, straight black hair.<ref name="22.3"/><ref name="8.1"/><ref name="spoiler-free">Cast Page (Spoiler Free)</ref> She is missing an eye, but it is replaced with an advanced prosthetic visually indistinguishable from a real one.<ref name="22.3"/><ref name="19.7">Scourge 19.7</ref> She stopped aging shortly after adolescence.<ref name="SB3">Wildbow: Alexandria continued to age/grow
Wildbow: She just slowed and stopped - Comment by Wildbow on IRC, archived on Spacebattles</ref>Rebecca was visibly hispanic, at least while out of costume.<ref name="22.3"/>

She wore a black costume with a skirt, knee-high boots and elbow-length gloves.<ref name="15.z"/> It was black and light gray, with an image of a tower in the center of her chest.<ref name="8.1">Extermination 8.1</ref> The costume featured a wide, heavy cape that flowed over her shoulders and draped onto the ground beside and behind her.<ref name="8.1"/><ref name="15.z"/> She designed the costume herself to be elegant without being attention-getting.<ref name="15.z"/>

Her costume originally included a visor that covered the upper half of her face and held back her hair.<ref name="15.z"/> Following her first encounter with the Siberian, which left her with one eye missing and a permanent scar, she began wearing a steel<ref name="24.5">Crushed 24.5</ref> helmet whenever she went out in costume.<ref name="13.x">Interlude 13</ref><ref name="spoiler-free"/> Her hair spilled out of the back of the helmet,<ref name="8.1"/><ref name="17.2">Migration 17.2</ref> and her eyes were visible.<ref name="24.5"/>

|-|Her Secret Identity= In her civilian identity as Rebecca Costa-Brown, she was the Chief Director of the Parahuman Response Team. There she often dressed in a suit and jacket.<ref name="22.4"/> She wore makeup to give the appearance of aging.<ref name="I24.y"/> Taylor described her as "the sort who could be forty but looked like she was in her late twenties".<ref name="22.3">Excerpt from Cell 22.3</ref> </tabber>

Abilities and Powers

Alexandria is considered the epitome of 'flying brick' capes. The triad of flight, strength, and invincibility reoccurs often enough, in enough variations, that it’s often referred to as ‘the Alexandria package’ in honor of her.<ref name="Cast2"/> According to experts, Alexandria is one of the strongest parahumans that has ever been recorded.<ref>The Doctor spoke, “She’s as strong as any parahuman we’ve recorded.  Flies at speeds that match your own, Legend.  Near-perfect memory retention, accelerated processing and learning.” - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z</ref>

She has the ability to fly at speeds nearly matching Legend.<ref name="Cast2"/> She was able to achieve incredible speeds in flight, being able to fly from halfway of US and Japan back to Cape Verde in under six minutes.<ref name="25.4"/> She could fly so fast people couldn't follow her with their eyes, zig-zagging, although Skitter could still sense her movements with her bugs. This made it impossible to spot or photograph her.<ref name="FTE">Alexandria had found an alley and promptly took to the air, zig-zagging between buildings and flying with enough speed that people couldn’t follow her with their eyes.
[...]
Alexandria arrived the same way she had after her last two excursions, through the hole in the roof. With the speed she moved, she didn’t risk being spotted. Even photography wasn’t in the cards.-Cell 22.4</ref>

Her body was virtually invincible.<ref name="Cast2"/> She could endure flame hot enough to melt sand into glass.<ref name="15.z"/> Her power didn't defend against abilities that made heavy use of inter-dimensional phenomena. Eidolon made use of this vulnerability to destroy her clones.<ref name="R527">HamiltonsGhost:
Obviously we don't know the mechanics of Alexandria's powers, but I have always guessed that it was some kind of interdimensional or multi-dimensional attack. Not that I have any evidence, but the all-powerful nature of Sting combined with the fact that all powers are cross-dimensional in nature to some extent (because the power source/computing substrate is in another dimension) makes me think that it had to be something like that.

Wildbow:
This would be an accurate guess, though the bit in brackets is a little off.
The likes of Scrub, Damsel, Foil, or March would be able to damage Alexandria. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref> She was, however, capable of being pushed around by external forces.<ref name="15.z" /> Alexandria had vastly enhanced strength.<ref name="List"/> She was capable of picking up Leviathan and slamming him to the ground,<ref name="8.3">Extermination 8.3</ref> and knocking Behemoth back.<ref name="15.z" /> She was capable of lifting over 1.75 million tonnes, although she had a limited ability to prevent such a massive object from breaking under its own weight.<ref name="29.8">Venom 29.8</ref> Her blows sometimes produced shock waves that shook the earth around her.<ref name="8.3"/>

She had near-perfect memory retention, and accelerated processing and learning, and - as a result - the ability to sense emotions based on body language.<ref name="Cast2">Alexandria – Second in command of the Protectorate. Flies and has enhanced strength, a virtually invincible body, eidetic memory, and senses emotions. The triad of flight, strength, and invincibility recurs often enough, in enough variations, that it’s often referred to as ‘the Alexandria package’. Runs the team based in Los Angeles. Member of the now-disbanded Triumvirate. - Cast (in depth)</ref> But those who could hide their emotions through expert training or the use of abilities of their own could still fool her.<ref name="SB1"/> She could also disbelieve the evidence of her own senses as any human could.<ref name="15.z e1">“So long as he’s active, people will be flocking to join the Protectorate-”

Alexandria slammed her hand on the stainless steel table beside her cot.

Silence rang between them in the wake of the destruction.

“I will not condone the loss of life for your ulterior motives. I will not let monsters walk free, to profit from the fear they spread.”

“You’re right,” the Doctor said. “I… must be more shaken by Manton’s betrayal than I’d thought. Forget I said anything.”

If Alexandria saw a hint of falsehood in the Doctor’s body language, she convinced herself it was the strain of one eye compensating for the job she’d used to perform with two. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z</ref> She never forgot a detail, absorbed information quickly, reading two pages of a book with a glance, and she learned quickly, retaining everything she picked up. She knew most commonly spoken languages, no less than ten styles of martial arts and she could match some of the best non-tinkers in the world when it came to computers. This gave her a high rating in the Thinker category.<ref name="14.y">Interlude 14.y</ref><ref name="List"/>

Her mental faculties were offloaded to her Passenger,<ref name="SB2">keyonte0:Why is Alexandria immune to Ziz, exactly?

Wildbow__:Her mental processes are offloaded to shard - Archived Comment by Wildbow</ref> this rendered her immune to the effects of those such as the Simurgh, and were the source of her thinker abilities.<ref name="SB2"/><ref>Rebecca allowed herself a smile, letting go of the girl’s hand. She could stand under her own power. Everything around her appeared sharp. She hadn’t realized how bad her vision had become.

Even her mind seemed to be operating like a well oiled machine. Had the drugs and poison made her stupid?

No. She’d never been like this. It was like her brain had been a bicycle and now it was a Ferarri. Even as her eyes flicked over the interior of the warehouse, she could tell she was processing faster, taking in details and sorting them better, as if her thoughts were no longer limited to the confines of her skull. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z</ref> Her seeming invincibility derives from the hardening and strengthening of her tissues that places her body in a form of stasis.<ref name="List">Rebecca Costa Brown Alexandria Invincibility via. body in stasis, flight and vastly enhanced strength, with perfect eidetic recall and consequent mastery of many skills Protectorate/Cauldron Brute Mover Thinker - Parahuman List, bolded edit by Wildbow.</ref> This manifested when she first gained her power and increased as she grew, eventually keeping her from aging.<ref name="SB3"/> Thus despite being a 'perfect' example of parahuman potential, she is as warped as any deviant case fingernails and hair kept from growing,<ref name="I24.y"/> her body more like a statue then flesh.<ref name="30.5" /> However, she was still capable of feeling pain when facing an opponent capable of injuring her.<ref name="15.z" /><ref name="30.5" />

History

Background

Rebecca contracted cancer in her teens and grew increasingly disaffected as a result of her perception that people were lying to her about her chances of survival. She was approached by Doctor Mother as an early test subject for Cauldron in exchange for service.

After gaining her powers, she spent two years guarding her doctor while earning a reputation as a superheroine. Alexandria first appeared in Los Angeles.

Eventually, Alexandria would be introduced to the other members of Cauldron. She presented a proposal she had come up with: that they form a team that followed the regulations and stipulations of the United States government, led by Hero or Legend. She told them that it was part of an eight-stage plan to incorporate parahumans into society before telling them how they could set up the organization she was proposing. Her civilian identity would take a position in the government to quietly steer things.<ref name="15.z">Interlude 15.z</ref>

She lost an eye to the Siberian during the same fight that led to Hero's death,<ref name="I13">Interlude 13</ref> and required Eidolon's powers to heal her enough to use a glass eye to maintain a normal appearance.<ref name="I24.y"/> Even he was unable to reattach the lost eye.<ref name="15.z" />

Shortly after this Alexandria had an incident where she publicly killed a villain during a desperate situation, setting a precedent.<ref>Around the time I joined the PRT proper, the Siberian killed one of the greatest heroes. Alexandria publically executed a person with powers that wouldn’t stand down; controversial then, but nowadays we don’t think about it.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.z</ref> She also settled as the leader of a smaller team based in Los Angeles.<ref name="R1">Around the time that they were a group, they were simply 'the Protectorate' or 'the guys at the top'. You could say, perhaps, that the loss of Hero splintered the team. They didn't hate each other or resent each other, but it was about time, and served as the catalyst to the group each going to their own individual cities - New York, LA, & Houston. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

Story Start

Alexandria was an internationally recognized cape.<ref name="Cast1">Alexandria – An internationally known cape, she flies, is durable and has super strength, as well as some mental augmentations from her powers. Member of the Triumvirate and runs the Protectorate branch in Los Angeles. Wears a black costume with a helmet and heavy cape, with long, straight black hair. - Cast (spoiler free)</ref><ref>Extermination 8.1]]</ref>

Post-Leviathan

Met at the oil-rig to discuss the situation of the world.<ref name="14.y">Interlude 14.y</ref><ref name="15.z" />

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

Alexandria participated in the Battle against Echidna. She was duplicated, creating Apocrypha,<ref name="19.5">Scourge 19.5</ref> whose appearance revealed her secret identity. Ignis Fatuus revealed her and her colleague's secret membership of Cauldron.

She made a plea with her fellow heroes and heroines not to reveal the information. Surprisingly she was backed up by the warlord Skitter.

Post-Echidna

After Tagg unsuccessfully tried to have Skitter captured by outing her secret identity, Director Costa-brown threatened to go to Saint to get the access to Dragon's technology just as Dragon and Defiant were threatening to withhold the same from the PRT.<ref>“No. We’ve been in contact with an individual who has a proven track record with Dragon’s technology. He feels equipped, eager, almost, to step into Dragon’s shoes should she take a leave of absence.”

“Saint,” Defiant said. “You’re talking about the leader of the <Dragonslayers. Criminal mercenaries.” - Excerpt from Interlude 20.x</ref>

Following the revelation that she was a parahuman, she was demoted to deputy director while she trained her replacement.<ref name="22.3" /> She had no authority, but rather obeyed the new Chief Director's instructions. Alexandria gave her notice that she intended to resign, but continued with the Protectorate until that time.<ref name="22.4" />

She confronted Skitter after she turned herself in to the PRT. In order to properly control the teenage villain, Alexandria tried to engineer a situation that would make Skitter try to attack her. This would then allow her to arrest Skitter and shore up her standing in the PRT.<ref name="SB1">Wildbow: Alexandria set up a perfectly arranged situation, aimed at cornering Taylor and effectively gaining control over her as a playing piece. It had nothing to do with moral event horizons. Her psychoanalysis and read of Taylor was perfect, but she wasn't dealing with just Taylor.
Wildbow: This is explicitly stated in story.
Logos01: I... can't agree with that tbqh.
Wildbow: This is explicitly stated in story.
chc4: Are you talking about the bug emotion offloading, or just not being able to anticipate her reaction to her friends "death"?
Logos01:I get that, and I recall reading it.
Logos01:But it doesn't *fit*.
Wildbow: Taylor defies being read, and actively fools powers and senses, because of the way her mind works.Logos01: It's not about being *Read*.
Logos01:I'm talking about profiling. In the forensics sense.
Wildbow: It fits fine, Log. Had it not been for this, Alexandria would have won with her approach.
Wildbow: 100%.
Wildbow: Nah. See, look at it from Alexandria's perspective. She wants to provoke a reaction, push Taylor to the state she was in pre-undersider, where Taylor is withdrawn, beaten down, and desperate. She wants a degree of lashing out, but in the ineffectual 'Carrie school shooting' sense that Taylor was approaching in chapter one. Alexandria and the tools were in place to deal with that.
Wildbow: Had taylor broken, raged out, in the sense of chapter one, they would have had a scapegoat for everything that happened in Brockton Bay. She could have tapped Cauldron resources and been on the alert. But Taylor offloaded all cues to her shard. She appeared far calmer and more subdued than she was, Alexandria calibrated her approach with this in mind, and things tilted off differently
Wildbow: Taylor was absolutely not a killer at that stage, unless she had a reasonable target, and Alexandria presented herself as that target. Alexandria looked at Taylor, talked to her, and saw someone different. All of the profiling and information worked -against- her.
Wildbow: Much like Contessa stumbling when her path to victory fails her.
Marcy: basically although alexandria is a powerful thinker, she wasn't the right thinker for the job
Wildbow: Well, she was, but leaning too heavily on a thinker power can screw one up when the thinker power isn't equipped to analyze a problem.
Wildbow: (See basically every thinker in story)
Wildbow: By presenting herself as a target, knowing who Taylor was [note: broken knowledge], gauging Taylor's state [note: broken gauge] and being able to anticipate the attack as it came [note; broken thinker power/read, again] she would have turned the situation around into a massive victory.
Wildbow: There was no Imp-like read on Taylor where "The bugs act funny around you while your emotions are riled up" came up and the PRT took particular note of it and put it in the files.
Marcy: yeah it's pretty subtle
chc4: So if Taylor actually had a swarm with her in the room, Alexandria wouldn't have died. That's...ironic -Conversation with Wildbow archived on Spacebattles</ref> What the heroine failed to account for was Skitter's ability to offload her emotional responses to her swarm, much as Alexandria did with her own mental abilities. This caused a severe miscalculation when Skitter snapped after thinking that Alexandria had butchered one of her friends and suffocated the fallen heroine with bugs, leaving her brain-dead.<ref name="22.4">Cell 22.4</ref><ref name="I24.y" /> She was widely reported to be truly dead.

She later seemingly returned from the dead in the Battle against Behemoth, where it turned out that her invulnerable body was possessed by Pretender.<ref name="I24.y">“She’s yours for keeps?”

“Brain dead. Her body’s peculiar. Doesn’t really age. Hair doesn’t grow, nails don’t grow. Wounds don’t really heal or get worse. She used cosmetics to look older, to throw people off. Only the brain was left pliable, adaptable. Even then, most of it was hardened, protected, those duties offloaded to her agent.”

Satyr studied Pretender’s new body without shame. His eyes rested on Pretender’s forehead. “I see. And with that plasticity, the brain was left more vulnerable.”

“Only a little. Enough to be an Achilles heel. She’s a case fifty-three, I suppose. All of us may be.” - Excerpt from Interlude 24.y</ref> She also participated in the battle against Khonsu.<ref name="25.4">Scarab 25.4</ref>

Gold Morning

Her body was finally destroyed during Gold Morning.<ref name="30.5">Speck 30.5</ref>

Quotes

"Threats is the wrong word … But English is a limited language in some ways. There's really no word to articulate what I mean. A threat with a measure of inevitability to it. A promise? Too feeble. People break promises too often. A curse? A malediction? Too... magical. An oath? The connotations are wrong. When I say I'll do something, I make it happen." ~ Alexandria to Skitter

Trivia

• The etymology of Alexandria effectively means 'Defender of Man'.
• Humans generally stop growing around the age of 25 when the final stages of bone development end with the clavicle fusing into a solid piece. People continue to have some bone development after this as a natural process of upkeep and adaptation.

Fanart Gallery

<tabber>Accurate=

• Fanart by Juilian Bautista.
  Fanart by Juilian Bautista.
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  Image by DerTodesbote on deviantart
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  Image by YunYunHakusho.
• Image by Babylonsheep on Spacebattles.
  Image by Babylonsheep on Spacebattles.
• Illustration by zhaomeng on deviantart
  Illustration by zhaomeng on deviantart
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  Illustration by Lonsheep
• Illustration by Zhaomeng
  Illustration by Zhaomeng
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  0.9 Lives commison for KerPop42

|-|Inaccurate=

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  Image by Babylonsheep on SpaceBattles
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  Image by pabelandnine.tumblr.com.
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  Illustration by Yun Yun Hakusho
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  Illustratoin by Lonsheep

</tabber>

References

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