Sharon Stamos, a young, frumpy and unsuccessful (i.e., unemployed) clothes designer from Providence, Rhode Island, won a pair of free tickets from the local radio station, HJY 94.1, to attend a high-end fashion show at the city's convention center one summer afternoon. She and her handicapped childhood best friend, Nancy Jenkins, attended the show hoping to gain some inspiration on practical, yet sexy designs that Sharon might be able to create and sell. Anything to help pay the rent. And bills. And Health insurance. And...well, you get the picture.

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At the Convention Center, In the next show room over from the fashion show, an auction was being held for the estate of a locally famous yet reclusive heiress, Jacqueline Reece, who'd died during the alien Soltan invasion several years before at 108 years of age (it took those several years just to get her estate in order and sold).  The auction was said to have tens of millions of dollars worth of the most exquisite gold and jewelry in all of Rhode Island.

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As Sharon and Nancy were enjoying the fashion show, gunfire erupted from the auction showroom. Dozens of armed troops and super-powered crooks from the infamous organization known as the "Gold Syndicate" stormed out from the auction showroom, loaded with bagfuls of stolen and looted gold items.  As the convention center attendees panicked and started running for exits, a band of superheroes quickly arrived on the scene to fight the Gold Syndicate. 

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Several loot-ladened Gold Syndicate troops ran for the exits with their bags of stolen gold objects from the auction, while the super-powered heroes and villains fought throughout the convention center, trashing the building as they fought. Sharon rapidly wheeled her friend Nancy down the handicapped ramp when one of the Gold Syndicate troops with a bag of loot pushed past the two of them, shoving Nancy's wheelchair over the edge of the ramp.  Nancy fell to the floor 40 feet below.

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Screaming in disbelief of what had happened, Sharon attacked the escaping trooper with an unrivaled rage, knocking him over the ramp's railing as well.  Since the trooper was wearing armor, his fall didn't kill him, but he would definitely be in a prison hospital for a few years. The trooper's bag of stolen loot, when it hit the floor, exploded across the floor all around Nancy's unmoving body.

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Grief stricken, Sharon raced down the ramp to see if her friend Nancy was still alive. 

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Nancy was dead.

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Trying her best to cope with the loss, she began talking to Nancy's lifeless body, cradling her head, telling her to please be all right. Grief-stricken, Sharon spied a beautiful white gold tiara on the floor next to her, not much different that the costume tiaras she and Nancy used to parade around in with their pretend fashion shows they used to perform before they both became teens.  Sharon picked up the tiara and placed it on her own forehead, asking Nancy's lifeless body if she 'looked beautiful'; a line they used to ask each other during their pretend fashion shows. Sharon, already overwhelmed with grief and adrenaline felt suddenly strange, yet, she focused on her now dead childhood best friend. Sharon repeated the question to the lifeless Nancy, leaving the gapped silence only filled with Sharon sobbing. All Sharon wanted was for Nancy to be alive...more than anything in the world.

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That's when the first of several spectacular occurrences happened to Sharon.

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At that point, the tiara upon Sharon's head glowed a faint golden light, as did her hands.  The glow passed into Nancy's body projecting gold sparkles all around their female frames. Nancy then miraculously opened her eyes and whispered up to Sharon, "you look beautiful, Shar".

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Nancy was alive.

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Moments later, EMTs arrived to attend to Nancy.  In a quick moment of realization, Sharon, who'd never stolen anything in her life, placed the tiara in her large purse just before the EMTs arrived.

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That's when the second spectacular occurrence happened.

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Nancy was not only alive, but for the first time since the high school car accident that permanently crushed Nancy's legs, Nancy was now able to stand and walk. 

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A jubilant and excited Nancy was reluctantly taken to the hospital by ambulance where, after several hours of X-Rays and  examinations, the doctors could find nothing wrong with her (other than the need for physical therapy to strengthen her leg muscles and learn to practice how to walk and run again) and discharged her.  While waiting between examinations, Sharon watched the TV in Nancy's hospital room.  She watched the news reports stating that 5 of the 24 Gold Syndicate Troops got away with their stolen loot. Surprisingly, thanks to the two superheroes who intervened, 75% of the Jacqueline Reece auction gold and jewelry was able to be recovered. Over five people died in the violence that day, with at least a dozen hospitalized, leaving the half of the convention center a smoldering wreck.  The Rhode Island Governor, during the TV interview, ensured everyone that the state's newly acquired federal "Superhero Damage and Repair Fund" would pay for the convention center's repairs. Nothing was reported about Nancy's miraculous recovery nor of any 'unrecovered' tiara.

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After Sharon took Nancy home to her happily shocked parents, Sharon herself walked back to her one bedroom apartment, finally settling down and taking in all that had happened that day.  She took out the absconded white-gold tiara from her purse.  She saw the tag on it naming it the "Venus Tiara", estimated at $500,000.  She immediately went online to discover the tiara had never made it to the auction block to be sold.  No one was missing it. it was believed 'stolen' by the Gold Syndicate.

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Sharon also researched the reclusive heiress, Jacqueline Reece, on the internet.  Many strange articles popped up about a 'young, fit and beautiful' woman seen "floating" in and about Jacqueline's Newport mansion parading around in gold, jewels and a tiara, sometimes naked.  Some reports believed it was a ghost; others believed it was one of the house staff parading around in the heiress' jewelry when the heiress was sleeping.  Even the conspiracy theorists and celebrity rags came to their own conclusions that the young woman with the tiara was most obviously an incestuous lesbian lover of the 108 year-old, bed-ridden heiress.

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Sharon contrived her own theory. 

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She believed the tiara was something more than what it seemed. Maybe magical. Whatever it was, it brought her friend back to life and allowed her to walk again.  The tiara was the key. Sharon cautiously placed the tiara across her forehead once again.

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In a wave of a faint golden glow emanating out from around her body, Sharon began to slowly transform.  As she looked in the full-length mirror next to her bed, she saw herself transform into a young, fit and beautiful woman.

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This was the third spectacular occurrence of Sharon's day. To say the least, she was awestruck.  

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Sharon's clothes she was wearing, which were size XXXL, hung off her body like a tent. 

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Sharon was so giddy with excitement by what she was seeing that she didn't notice she was levitating off the floor. When she finally realized it, she panicked, trying to right herself in mid air.  Instead, she clumsily flew about her apartment to and fro, cascading into her apartment's old furniture, cutting her new youthful shoulders and legs in the process.  Completely out of control, she shot through her apartment's window, shattering it.  She felt the ripples of blood across her face and head from the broken glass. See also saw her tent-like clothes jettison off her now thin frame as she continued to accelerate haphazardly through the evening skies of Providence. As she was about to crash into the side of the historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Providence, Rhode Island, she was able to stop herself in mid air just short of one of the hotel rooms' windows.  Naked and hovering in place in front of  a gawking businessman's hotel room window, she realized that the cuts and bruises all over her body were rapidly healing. 

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The wounds left no scars or indications they'd happened at all, only the dried blood where the wounds had once been. To Sharon, this was yet another spectacular occurrence.

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Sharon, collecting herself, clumsily tried to position herself and fly once more.  This time, she caught on how to do it. With some practice, she was soon able to bank and turn.  She estimated that she could fly up to 100 mph, but didn't dare try to find out her maximum altitude. All the time she was flying around naked that cold night, she realized she wasn't cold at all.  Somehow, she was warm; shielded from the extremes of temperatures and the rigors of flight. After another 1/2 hour of self-taught 'naked flying lessons', she returned to her damaged apartment.

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After cleaning up her mess, Sharon reluctantly took the tiara off. Sharon's body changed back to its former frumpy self, XXXL size and all.  With the tiara, Sharon was transformed into the 'Venus-like' goddess of a body; a body that was not only drive-the-boys-crazy 'hot', but also rapidly healed any wounds, allowed her to fly in the sky, revive her dead friend Nancy and even healed her best friend enough so that she could walk once again. It was a gift from the gods...or more likely, a magical artifact that 'dear Ms. Reclusive Heiress' had previously been parading around in, pretending to be 18 when she was 108. Sharon surmised that Reece must have been killed during the Soltan invasion when she wasn't wearing the tiara; that had to be the reason Reece died, otherwise, she would have healed herself with the tiara.

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There were a million options rolling through Sharon's head of what to do next.  Do I take this and go to churches and hospitals and heal people?  Do I start a new life as a young, fit and beautiful supermodel?  Do I use these abilities to stop crime like the police and superheroes did at the convention center?  Do I give this 'stolen' tiara back to the auctioneers? The questions multiplied, yet her answers remained stubbornly silent.  She didn't know what to do.  

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The next day, she went to visit her friend Nancy.  Nancy was having the time of her life with her legs back. They went for a walk. They went out for lunch. They went shopping, walking all five levels of the mall.  During that time, Sharon and Nancy talked about what happened at the Convention Center. Sharon asked if Nancy remembered anything important.  Nancy recounted her fall and unconsciousness upon hitting the floor.  She said she awoke to see what she believed was an angel at first, however, the next time she looked back up, it was Sharon, not the angel she'd just seen before. She did not remember the tiara or her recovery from death.  In a serious tone over dinner, Sharon asked Nancy a deep question; 'after not having your legs for all these years, if you had the power to give someone else back their vision, hearing, legs, or whatever...would you do it?". 

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Nancy's response shocked Sharon.

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"No, I wouldn't.  I learned to fend for myself.  I learned to overcome, adapt and improvise.  I learned who my 'real' friends were and who were my 'fake' friends; I pushed myself harder than I ever would have if I hadn't been in that accident.  I'm a better person now as a result of the accident, otherwise I'd have probably married the first rich, good looking guy that screwed me and I'd probably turn into that drunk heiress, what's her name, Reece?  for the rest of my life. I know it sounds callous, but I think there's a reason for everything, If I was to go around 'healing the world', I'd be doing that for the rest of my life, enslaved to everyone else's pain.  Couple that with those who'd want to capitalize on my  ability and forcefully control me to heal only those who'd 'pay the most' or garbage like that, and...well, it's just not worth it.  I'd instead do what I could to help those that really would need help; firefighters, policemen, troops...the innocent.  Hell, even some of these superheroes could use a band-aid like that once in awhile fighting those super-villains. Heh. Listen to me talk.  Hell with those powers, I'd be just like those other superheroes. Yep.  That's what I'd do; be something like 'Doctor Healing Woman' or some goofy hero name like that".

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Sharon and Nancy finished their long, walking-filled day together.  Sharon was ecstatic for Nancy's recovery.  Sharon wanted to help out more like Nancy, but knew with every action she took, there would always be an opposite reaction. She may go off and heal thousands worldwide, but the one day she'd take off to rest, she'd be blamed for every death that naturally occurred that same day.  She'd be a slave to her gift. These were but some of her deep thoughts. Now, with Nancy's input that day, Sharon needed to come up with a viable answer.

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Sharon walked around the streets of Providence for hours that night, mulling over what to do, fumbling with the tiara in her hands.  At one point after mindlessly walking into a dark alley near Federal Hill by the state capitol building, she heard gunshots go off a few streets over.  Without hesitation, she put the tiara on, transforming into her other self. Flying in the direction of the shots, her clothes once again fell off of her petite frame.  This time, she swooped down, grabbing a bed sheet off of a backyard clothesline, along with a pair of panty hose and made an impromptu costume from them. She ripped a hole in the middle of the bed sheet (with an added strength she didn't know she had at that point) and wrapped herself in it, using the pantyhose as a belt.

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As she landed near where the shooting was, she saw two police officers who'd been shot pinned down behind their squad cars. Another officer was dead.  She went to each wounded policeman and healed them. She then resurrected the dead officer.  During all of this, with bullets flying everywhere, she was shot in the shoulder.  It healed within minutes, with little pain, pushing the bullet fragments out of the wound. Infuriated, she tried to use her powers to do 'something' to the villainous shooters; interestingly enough, over the distance, Sharon started draining their life force from them, causing them to weaken and pass out.  The effect was temporary on them, however, it was very effective at stopping them.  The healed policemen were in awe over her.  One simply said, "I truly know what 'Providence' means now."

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Providence. 

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That was it. 

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She'd become a hero with the codename of "Providence".

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She told the policemen her new codename.  She kissed each one on the forehead and thanked them for all they do for the people of the city.  Sharon then flew away.

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This time, instead of experiencing a spectacular occurrence, Sharon WAS the spectacular occurrence for someone else.  She'd never felt so alive or as good about herself that ever before in her life. For once, she did something 100% right.

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Nonetheless, the media went into overdrive about her spectacular overnight debut the next day. A 'dash cam' on one of the cops cars at the shootout caught everything she did on video.  She was a true overnight heroic sensation.  Nothing but positive comments spewed across TV, cable and radio; that is...all except the talk about her 'bed sheet and pantyhose' costume; most had some pretty negative comments about that.

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Flushed with energetic inspiration, Sharon fashioned herself a new costume.  A costume that was MADE for a 'Venus-like' body. A costume that would represent her new codename of Providence; a costume that she could easily pack into her large purse and throw it on when needed.

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Days later, she began patrolling the city in her new white and gold costume as "Providence", Rhode Island's latest superhero. When asked where she got the costume, she dropped her alias' name, the 'fashion designer' Sharon Stamos.  Sharon was immediately hired by her 'dream' fashion company in Providence called "Fashion Icons Inc.".  Providence's costume itself became a world fashion hit (for at least a month).

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Months later, after a madman called Emperor North and his "United Canadian Empire" (UCE) army invaded and terrorized New England, a hero known as the "Minuteman" formed an elite hero team, including Providence, to defuse the several hidden nuclear bombs the Emperor was holding New England hostage with.  Providence was tasked with disarming the nuke in Rhode Island at the T.F. Green Airport outside of state capitol city of Providence.  She beat down and drove out the invading UCE Troopers for good and disarmed the bomb helping to save Rhode Island and New England from a nuclear holocaust.  Days later, Providence was asked to join Minuteman's new super-group called the "Yankee Minutemen".  She agreed and has since become a valuable asset for her fellow teammates. Together, they fight to protect the people of New England from all forms of evil.

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To this day, no one has recognized (or at least mentioned) Providence's tiara or its link to Jacqueline Reece's collection. No one yet, that is...

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