Sparrowhawk: Sparrow's Song

Alex Harper, better know as the heroine Sparrowhawk, adjusted her drab olive poncho as she kept her goggles squarely set on the encampment that was a few hundred yards in front of her. Sparrowhawk was checking in on one of the reported bases that the Apotheosis Project kept around the globe and this was one of her many stops on a world wide tour of sorts. The exact location was Bolivia's lush tropical jungles, the deep foliage and poncho helping to cloak her from her prey. The light winter rainfall aided her a little bit as well. It was definitely preferable at this moment compared to the harsh winter Millennium City was facing this year. Still, stakeouts always were hard for Alex. It gave her time to think about the past. It always compounded the problem faced with her having hyperthymesia, or perfect autobiographical memory. Thoughts were easy to get lost in when all you had was time on your hands.

It seemed like only moments had passed since she was freed from the Apotheosis Project's clutches, but it really was over two months. Two months and twelve days, actually. Her last lingering memory that was purely her own had been at Christmas. It was the one time of the year she saw her father, Alan Harper. It was actually the only family custom they had ever carried. Most of her life had been spent being shuttled around to various locales and she spent more time with people teaching her martial arts or how to dismantle a nuclear weapon than her own parent. Alex mistakenly thought her years of constant training were to make her the best UNTIL employee the agency ever knew. She learned too late that this was wrong and that those years abroad were in fact to make her a weapon for less than altruistic reasons. He had excused himself from the dinner table, and as she waited she heard something like a gun's hammer click back... and then darkness.

The next month was full of confusion on her end. Certain things at times could be heard or felt, but there was no control, no ability to reach out and cry for help. She recalled intense pain and agony. She remembered being beaten. Alex could only struggle in vain to assume control in those fleeting moments where she was more aware of the world about her. The scientists within the Apotheosis Project had surgically implanted a neural device inside her which usurped her ability to cognitively function independently. Later she discovered it was from an Apotheosis Project-owned company called Cyberchane. It was created by the government to remotely control ground troops as part of something called 'Project Puppetmaster'. The devices later were changed in function away from the eyes of the military by the Apotheosis Project. Alex and three others were subjected to these devices. Three of them were killed by these neural devices and Alex was the only one to survive, though she almost died herself breaking free of its control.

Alex's liberation from the neural implant happened while on a remote island facility several miles from Peru's mainland. Still mentally fuzzy, she quickly assessed the situation, discovered what was going on and liberated several costumed adventurers who had been imprisoned there for study and experimentation. These super powered individuals were used to help design a 'gene bomb' meant to wipe out those with DNA not specifically baseline human. She also discovered that one of her closest friends, Sunny Oskern, aka Dobergirl... was one of its current victims. Brought directly to them by Alex's hand no less. Dobergirl managed to summon the other Protectors to come to the island for a rescue while Alex herself almost beaten to death by Cassowary, a 'brother' of sorts to her who worked with the Apotheosis Project of his own free will. That compounded with the neural implant still trying to take control of her caused her to have a cerebral hemorrhage. She was lucky to even be alive as All-Star and the others found her broken body.

Alex awoke days later in the hospital. She found herself in restraints and surrounded by members of both PRIMUS and UNTIL. There were questions to be answered and Alex was a wanted woman by the government for her perceived involvement in the affairs of the Apotheosis Project. She told them what little she could, a task which developed over the course of days repeating the same information ad nauseum. Telepaths were called in to scan her mind in order to discover if her words were true. While she understood why others felt this way, it ate at her soul that she was treated like a common criminal. An assassination attempt occurred as well, her life being saved by the hero 'Black Dog'. The assassin in question? A member of PRIMUS who worked covertly for the Apotheosis Project and wanted to silence her in the case she could expose them. This, combined with information gathered by the Protectors' own Harrier, opened the floodgates to knowledge of this vast group of people wanting to destroy powered villains and heroes alike.

Recovering at a surprising rate, Alex rejoined the Protectors briefly in removing 'gene bombs' that had been planted deep underground Millennium City as most of the team fought a villain named Leviathan downtown. Upon their success, Alex was flush with victory... only to see the fear, hatred and mistrust in most of her team's eyes. Few of the Protectors could see past the physical face of Alex to know it wasn't her that was truly responsible for these heinous acts. Still, it was her hands that carried out actions that wounded the team, even if not guided by her own mind. To dismiss or protest their feelings would only be more damaging in the long run for their morale. Many carried marks of this war and if they needed to express their emotions by channeling it at Alex then so be it. She would bear the weight of their pain.

Alex was at a loss. Her father raised her only to use her for destruction and was currently God knows where on the face of the earth. He narrowly escaped the authorities when the Apotheosis Project was found to exist. Most of her allies either were suspicious or condemned her as it was her body that was used to carry out attacks that harmed the Protectors. The final blow came when Nate Carter, All-Star, a hero in his own right and her most intimate confidant, expressed that he had an affair while Alex was captive. Oddly the revelation didn't even seem to faze her. Possibly too much had transpired to her already since her awakening on that island in Peru. Perhaps she knew all along the relationship simply wasn't meant to be. The worst thing, she thought, was that the person closest to her actually believed she was capable of these terrible acts of her own free will. That he never once tried to see her as a victim in all of this. Still, he rallied the Protectors when the world needed them and they were successful. They both walked away from their relationship. It was decidedly for the best and a long time coming, she knew. Alex packed her things and left the Protectors, ensuring things were safely in All-Star's hands. They would deal with their pain while she dealt with hers. For Alex, that meant wiping out every vestige of the Apotheosis Project not currently incarcerated.

A sign of movement in the distance stirred Alex from her thoughts. She focused once more on the task at hand and re-aligned her goggles to get a better telescopic view of what was going on. Something traveling up from the narrow pathway leading up to their base. Military cargo trucks. They were carrying men, weaponry and something else... if the information she hacked days ago was correct it was supplies for another gene bomb they were intent on creating. By her numbers it looked like twenty three soldiers and scientists. Alex put her Black Valkyrie pistols, fully loaded and ready, behind her on her belt and gripped the bio electric batons she carried by her side. This take down should last five and a half minutes, tops.

There was nothing that Alex Harper, Sparrowhawk, could do to change the past. Those moments were already written in stone. Every action, every choice was committed to memory. For good or ill all that transpired shaped her into the person she was today. The future, however, was still wide open to her. New experiences. New possibilities. A life full of stories yet to be told. Carpe Diem... seize the day. As the bio electric batons began to hum and a faint smile traced her lips, Alex Harper, Sparrowhawk, knew that a new chapter was just beginning to be told.