<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/QAi9yGJ.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Superpowered Alien; Paragon PL 10 (150 PP)</span></span><br/><br/><strong>Real Name:</strong>Athena<strong>Identity:</strong>Public<br/><strong>Alias:</strong>-<strong>Occupation:</strong>Professional Hero<br/><strong>Bases of Operations:</strong>Futura<strong>Affiliation:</strong>LIGA, Former US Agent<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Having superpowers changed a person -- and not just in the obvious ways. Who's to say what Paragon would have become if she had been born just another person? Psychology was a funny thing like that; twist one dial and ten different things can change in response.<br/><br/>Near invincibility was one of the more drastic examples. How many people could Athena say had genuinely hurt her? Three? Maybe four? Cracked ribs, a laceration across her shoulder that healed without a scar, a bloody nose; for the situations Paragon put herself in, it was a laughably short and disturbingly mild list. And without pain, fear has a way of atrophying like an unused muscle.<br/><br/>All of this is just to say that when Chrome jerked in response to something Paragon had said, the heroine didn't flinch. There was no instinctual moment of panic to raise her limbs in defense or to rouse the body into heightened awareness. Chrome's movement had, however, caught her attention. Athena's head turned slightly, green eyes finishing the rest of the journey as she half-looked at the teammate on her periphery. "Save it for where it'll do some actual good."<br/><br/>The rapidly approaching portal between the privacy of LIGA's headquarters and the public outside brought with it an end to the Midnight Angel discussion. One second, Athena was looking at Ryan from the corner of her eyes like a disappointed mother, and the next, an outside observer would have never been able to guess that anything had been wrong in the first place. Paragon plastered on her fake smile, her pretty face picking up the slack of selling the act left by her general lack of enthusiasm.<br/><br/>Look at the cameras. Smile. Wave. It had all become so routine by now -- or it<em>had</em>been routine until Perfect 10 came along. Her spine stiffened, noticeable only to Perfect 10's sense of touch, as his arm circled her slim, toned waist. He insisted on getting closer with every mission, much to Paragon's annoyance. Sometimes she wished that she had just agreed to wear the skirt.<br/><br/>When X had bent down, bringing his face closer to hers, he would have been able to read the message written upon her eyes. It was an intense stare somewhere between 'Ugh, let's just get this over with' and 'Don't you<em>fucking</em>dare.' The look hadn't stopped him before, and it didn't stop him now. Athena's eyes stayed open a split second longer after their lips had met. To the cameras, she looked like a woman surprised by her boyfriend's public display of affection, but inwardly, Paragon was debating pulling away and putting a stop to this fake relationship right here and right now. Instead, she shut her eyelids just in time to hide a roll of her eyes and let a huff of a sigh tickle X's face.<br/><br/>Hands that gripped Perfect 10 at the elbows firmly stopped his face from pulling away once he had finished tasting her lips. "<em>Two seconds</em>," Paragon hissed in a whisper. "That was the deal: two seconds of contractually obligated kissing. Stop pushing it." Athena's grip slackened, allowing their faces to separate. Immediately, she went back to beaming fake smiles at every camera pointed at her and leaning into Perfect 10 as they paraded their way to the jet.