Ashley Easthampton

**Ashley Easthampton**, known as **Paradox Alpha**, is a Divergence Catalyst and the leader of the Paradoxes.

## Story

### Birth of a Paradox

Born from Dorothee McDaniels and John Easthampton, her birth coincided with that of Leanor Pandaemonium, cursing her from the start. In her Timeline, Interra merged with Inferno, causing mankind to cower in fear before Leanor. In order to fight against her, they had to use someone closely bound to her ; thus, they took Ashley from her parents and tortured her, experimenting on her in order to kill Leanor.

Ashley, however, escaped by a miracle of fate, and decided to form an organization made of people like her - those who had been cursed with the worst possible existence. Calling themselves Paradoxes, they sought to take revenge against the Multiverse by calling upon the Great Old One Itaqua and using it to merge all Timelines into one, ending the possibility of cursed Timelines like hers.

### New Foes New Friends

Ashley came to be opposed by Lily Evershire's **Cheshire Corporation**, who even recruited another version of her mother. Ashley faced Dorothee after showing her the truth in a brutal showdown that ended with Ashley destroying Dorothee's world, making the Cheshire Corporation collapse into the Empty Realm. There, it became the Cheshire Isle.

Ashley became more and more pressured as Itaqua slowly broke free from his restraints and the Cheshire Isle grew stronger ; however, she received help from Machiavela Duncan who understood her pain and chose to side with her. Together, they kidnapped Xiaopai Ming and used her to limit Itaqua's desire for destruction, but unwittingly caused the existence of Noden.

Eventually, Lily and Sarah Duncan came to Ashley and negotiated a truth, knowing that Noden could not be faced alone ; Ashley reluctantly accepted alongside Machiavela, and accepted, after a long time, to acknowledge the Isle's version of Dorothee and John as her parents.

## Appearance

Ashley is a small girl with light blue eyes and silverish hair. She hides her face and identity behind a dark costume, complete with a mask hiding most of her face.

## Personality

Ashley is extremely fatalistic and believes that Paradoxes like her were denied the right to live ; she cares little about other worlds and, in her desperate attempts to end the Paradoxical phenomenon, is ready to cause even more sorrow across other Planes. This in turn only increases the burden on her shoulders, as she feels she is responsible for each Paradox she helps.

She possesses a sensitive side, which she only shows with Machiavela, as she is fearful that her role as a leader would crumble if she showed weakness or any other type of emotions. She thus sees Machiavela as her only emotional tether.

## Powers

* **Enhanced Physical Abilities:** As an elite Chosen, Ashley possesses strength, speed and endurance that easily surpass most humans'.
* **Chosen Powers:** Ashley possesses powers mostly associated with Ice and Thunder : her mother's and father's main element, respectively.
* **Paradox Powers:** Ashley is able to manipulate Time and warp from a Timeline to another quite easily.

## Storylines

* Chronicles of the Damned II features a young Ashley
* New Age Dawning depicts her as an instigator of most events.

## Trivia

* Ashley is the one who chose to use Greek letters to represent each Paradox's new identity : Alpha, while similar to Ashley, is also the first letter of the greek alphabet.