Joules

Joules is a French mutant superhero and member of the Paragons.

## Biography

Christophe Segard discovered his mutation quite innocently as an adolescent living in Marseille. He was lucky enough to have a supportive family who accepted his condition, and since his mutation seemed very minor he simply went about his life as normal. Other than performing the occasional trick for the amusement of his school friends, he grew up without ever giving his mutant potential much thought.

That changed in 2016, when Marseille was attacked by a team of mercenary villains who were attempting to break into a secret UNTIL facility located there. The villains were led by Avalanche, a powerful mutant whose frigid powers locked the entire city in a driving blizzard to cover their operation. Unaffected by the cold, Christophe used his own powers to fight back, surprising even himself with his ability to disperse the storm. As heat once again returned to the city, Avalanche confronted Christophe, but was unable to overcome the teenager who melted his ice as fast as Avalanche could conjure it. Eventually this contest went on long enough that the villains were forced to retreat as defenders rallied to the UNTIL base.

Realizing that his powers were greater in scope than he'd ever imagined, Christophe decided to put them to use for mankind. He took the name "Joules" (after the unit of energy) and began his career as an amateur hero. Due to the sheer number of supervillains in Europe, he had plenty of work to do and became a celebrity in his home country. After several years cutting his teeth as a solo act, in 2020 the French government sponsored him as their contribution to the newly-formed Paragons. Joules fits in well on the team and does his best to measure up to the more experienced heroes he now calls his friends.

## Personality

Joules is a young man who feels confident in his powers but insecure in his position. Although he has been an established hero for some time, his recent admission to the Paragons is his first taste of the 'big leagues.' As a result he tends towards sarcasm and is known to be a smart aleck, but behind his glower he takes his duties extremely seriously.

Joules also has a reputation as a bit of a playboy, but his impostor syndrome hinders his romantic exploits as much as his heroic ones. This causes him great frustration in establishing trust with a partner, even though the desire for that validation is what drives him most of all.

## Powers

Joules has the ability to control the transfer of heat between atoms. This relatively simple power allows him to subtract heat from a target area and simultaneously add that energy to someplace else. He has developed dozens of uses for his powers and is both clever and meticulous in applying them. Joules can lower the temperature of a target's body to incapacitate them with hypothermia, or he can disintegrate them by concentrating their body heat into a fine point (not that he'd do such a thing to a *person*, of course). He has worked hard to develop precise control over his powers, and because both the adding and subtracting of heat can result in useful effects, he has mastered the ability to strike with both a 'cold' and a 'hot' attack at the same time, aimed at different targets.

Of all the Paragons, Joules' potential power is greater than any other member except perhaps the Blue Marvel. He takes great pains to use the absolute minimum power necessary to defeat a foe, but when he truly cuts loose he is a terror. Joules' powers can also cover a vast area, raising or lowering all the heat over several square kilometers.

Joules has an awareness of heat sources in his vicinity that allows him to detect living bodies as pockets of heat moving through the environment. Unlike standard infrared vision, this awareness extends through solid walls and in a full 360-degrees. His body autonomically adjusts its own temperature which allows him to survive in any cold or hot environment. Because he doesn't have any inherent toughness and eschews wearing armor, Joules has spent significant time in combat training with his teammates and is quite agile and fit. Though not a martial master by any means, he can avoid most deadly danger and can throw a pretty good punch, too, if the situation warrants it.

## Weaknesses

Joules' primary weakness is that each use of his powers must equal out to a neutral transfer of energy. If he wants to chill a man's blood to render him unconscious, he must find another place to put the thermal energy he siphons away, and if misplaced that energy can easily start fires, cause explosions, or simply cancel out the other half of the equation and render his powers useless. Managing this dynamic is a constant concern, and although Joules is an expert at it, there are times when his desired effect simply is not feasible for lack of an appropriate transfer medium.

His body temperature is always slightly higher than normal as a side effect of his unconscious use of powers to maintain a comfortable temp. As a result, he finds wearing armor (or heavy clothing) extremely uncomfortable and has to do without. Since Joules is no more bulletproof than any other human, this proves a significant disadvantage when he's caught by surprise and can't evade an attack.

Joules maintains a public ID, and both his fans and his enemies have no trouble finding him whenever they want.