Orion Granger - Dark Future Style
Orion Nathaniel Granger
AdamBaldwinDFClose.jpg
Portrayed By Adam Baldwin
Gender Male
Date of Birth October 31, 1981
Age 27
Zodiac Sign Libra
Aliases 'hunky metal guy'
Place of Birth Harrisburg, PA, USA
Current Location New York City, NY, USA
Occupation Ex-Company Agent, Freelance Rebellion Assassin
Known Relatives Natalia Granger (mother), Nathaniel Granger (father; deceased)
Significant Other Claudine Salonga
Known Abilities Metallic Exoskeleton
First Appearance Interrogation & Posturing

Orion Granger was born a poor boy to a poor family in rural Pennsylvania, but he found that he could coat his body in a metallic ooze and control its properties. Feelings of isolation disappeared when the Company found him and recruited him at a young age, giving him hope of a tomorrow where he would be able to hang out with others like himself. For a long time, Orion served the Company faithfully; but then they began doing things with which Orion could not reconcile. Hunting and killing the innocent Evolved, sending out both Sylar and Project K-311E as attack dogs to sow seeds of chaos, and more all drove Orion to retreat from the Company. With him, he took his girlfriend, Claudine Salonga, and together they manage the Underground Railroad, saving the unevolved from the new government and whatever other operations the Rebellion might require of the freelancers. Smart, efficient, and somewhat paranoid, Orion is driven toward redemption for his past sins, none of which he elaborates on beyond confirming their existence.

History

AdamBaldwinDFOrion.jpg

Orion Nathaniel Granger was born 31 October 1981 to Nathaniel and Natalia Granger in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was named for both his father and the constellation that sparkled over his parents' first date some three years earlier. Orion was never like most other children, being unusually large for his age and his growth steadily off the typical pediatric growth charts. He was accepted and well-liked in elementary school, though only for childish reasons like his ability to reach that which the other children could not.

His world-view changed when he started middle school. Orion's father was laid-off from work at a Pittsburgh steel mill and the family moved back to the Harrisburg area where Natalia's side of the family lived. While Nathaniel sought out work, Orion learned from his parents and his more extended relations that everything comes at a price. During this time though, Orion was also rapidly growing toward puberty and the realization that he was different from the other children for reasons other than his great height and somewhat higher intelligence; he could release a metallic ooze from the flesh on the palms of his hands, which although dense and obviously fluid, stuck close to his flesh and never dripped away.

In middle school, Orion was ostracized and outcast by many of the same people he once called friend. They too perceived the stench of difference on Orion, though they could never have fathomed the true depths of his difference from them, and for that they made his life hell. With high school, however, came two changes to Orion's life. Puberty and curiosity lead to the growth of Orion's power and his deepening understanding and control of it; he could force the metal ooze to seep through the pores of his skin in many places, not just his hands and arms. Further, he found that he could control it, to some extent, and in so doing force it to harden or soften, change shape and viscosity, or even thickness in portions of his body with only a modicum of effort. He kept this all his greatest secret, one that he had no desire to reveal to anyone because of its impact on the life he was slowly reconstructing.

The effort he put into training with his power, as well as his weekend job at a state park in the Harrisburg area and an under-the-table part-time job at a local veterinarian had combined to develop his strength and stamina, augmenting what his power already seemed (to him) to augment. Orion's apparent athleticism, reasonable intelligence, and personal mysteriousness somehow colluded to provide, in the inimitable fashion of high school, something of a social life and social network for the rare time that he was not working in one fashion or another. For the first time in a long time, Orion was content.

Then the Company came for him. Orion never did find out who those first two Company agents were. They tased him on the way home from work and he woke up in their upstate New York facility the next day. His parents were duped into believing that Orion had come home by another, Evolved agent of the Company. While there, he was examined, poked, and prodded by the Company's scientists. When the scientists were done, the Company made sure that he was aware of his situation and even further trained in the use of his power. Orion found himself feeling even more happy than before, perhaps even overjoyed by the revelation that he was not alone in the world and that there was a place that he would truly fit in when he was ready.

The exact reasons that the Company decided to offer him a position amidst their ranks when he came of age are a mystery to Orion. It could just be that they saw potential in his reaction to their presence. It could be that people in the upper echelons have some mysterious and as-yet-unknowable plan for his existence. It could be that someone there took pity on him after reading his background dossier. Whatever the case, Orion planted his future firmly in the belief that the Company is where he wanted to be. When he returned, Orion redoubled his academic efforts and hunkered down to improve his lot in life as he geared up for college.

After a great deal of thought, Orion chose to go to New York City and go to college at NYU. The Company paid for a large portion of his tuition through a 'scholarship' and in return he pledged his allegiance to the goals of the Company. Of course, no one ever said Orion couldn't dabble in pre-med in college and so he did in an effort to better understand his unique abilities. He majored in biology, emphasizing pre-med and genetics though he did not major in those specific areas. He continued to train with his power, refining his control of it and himself. Living in the city provided its own sets of challenges though, teaching him new and better ways of using his power for maximum stealth and efficiency.

Training in the city also gave Orion insight into more unusual forms of entertainment. On the NYU campus, he found the urban climbing club and quickly became enamored with the concept. Not only was it excellent exercise, but he also found it an exceptionally useful method of developing his skills with his power, as well as learning just how widespread its effects were in his system now that it had begun to mature.

With graduation from college, Orion joined the Company as he promised six years earlier. They trained him, educated him even further in the arts of the agent, and set him up with a cover job in New York City. Orion spent three years working toward the goals of the Company and the goal of making the world a better place for the Evolved and the ordinary alike.

And then Orion met Claudine Salonga. Or, more appropriately, he was tasked with testing Claudine Salonga. Orion shot at her, sent her into a frightened tizzy, and eventually brought her into the Company. He trained her, took care of her, and, eventually, grew a heart and feelings for her. Orion's interaction and relationship with her brought him pain when her sister, Marilou, came to the States for a visit and began manifesting her aerokinetic powers in an uncontrollable fashion. Tasked with nullifying episodes, Orion did the best he could, eventually knocking her out to save Times Square from Marilou's rampant emotions and powers.

By the end of the night though, Marilou was abducted and killed by Sylar. Her powers became his to control and Orion felt worse. Should he have killed her? Did he do the right thing? What could happen? What did happen? How? Why?

Orion couldn't find the answers he sought and, when the Company sanctioned Sylar and Kellie's sprees, Orion decided that enough was enough. He broke free of the Company with the knowledge he had of their technologies and their inner workings, taking Claudine with him as the world fell to ruin around them. Throughout the war, Orion trained long and hard to master his abilities and to refine them so that he could do what needed to be done.

Stronger and more dangerous than ever before, Orion prowls the shadows of New York City. He acts a freelance assassin and troubleshooter for Peter Petrelli and Kensei's rebellion groups, acting both on his own and under their orders for a greater good. A good that Orion used to think the Company believed in, controlling the monsters bred by Man's insatiable lust for power and by evolution's twisted whims.

AdamBaldwinDFHunter.jpg

Timeline

  • 28 July 2009: Orion rescues Claudine from the terrible clutches of Felix and Da Gubmint in Interrogation & Posturing.
  • 29 July 2009: Rafe and Elsinore appear in Claudine and Orion's subterranean home. After some confusion and talking, they take him to Kitty, but it's just another delivery. Afterwards, Orion and Claudine have A Talk.

Quotes

  • "It's the price we pay."
  • "And it's a penance I will pay if it means undoing the wrong things I've done."

Trivia

  • Due to extensive and rigorous training, Orion has enormously expanded the capacities of his abilities. He's still not gifted with the same super-human strength of many other persons with Metallic Exoskeleton, but can now encyst himself and remain mobile with a not implemented stunt named 'Man of Steel'.
  • As in the past, all of Orion's new, though not codedly implemented stunts are homages to comic book characters in name.
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License