Hawk Shadow
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Hawk Shadow observing the streets of Talos. | |
| Hawk Shadow | |
| Player: @Basarin | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | 44 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Robert Smith |
| Known Aliases: | Hawk Shadow, der Unruhestifter (Abwehr designation, meaning "the Troublemaker") |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 25 |
| Height: | 6 feet |
| Weight: | 165 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | United States of America |
| Occupation: | Hero |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City [Kings Row], Rhode Island |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City [Kings Row], Rhode Island |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Father and Mother, both deceased |
| Known Powers | |
| None | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Martial Arts, trained heightened reflexes | |
| Equipment | |
| Lockpicks, bomb defusing tools, PPD Radio; essentially what every hero seems to carry. | |
| No additional information available. | |
Hawk Shadow is from an alternate timeline where the outcome of the Second World War is very different. A hero who patrolled the streets of Kings Row, he served as a liaison hero for the Office of Strategic Services and carried out covert operations in Europe. An accident involving time travel has catapulted him across time lines and sixty years forward, but he continues to serve as a (rather anachronistically out of place) hero.
((This is a work in progress, but more to come later.))
Contents |
Origin
Born in Kings Row, April 12, 1922, as Robert Smith, this hero's memories are most marked by the Great Depression. His parents were still fortunate enough to maintain jobs at a local garment factory in King Garments Works (his father a manager of one section), but it was only enough to barely get by. Despite the risk of losing their jobs, both of his parents were vocal supporters of the as of yet small interventionist lobby within Paragon City, arguing against the United States keeping to itself when fascism and communism were threatening to tear first Europe and surely the world apart. Despite continued threats of losing their jobs due to their political leanings, for awhile at any rate the family continued to maintain a manageable life. Working as a newspaper delivery boy for apartment complexes in nearby neighborhoods as well as washing cars to help pitch in to the meager family income, Robert still did reasonably well in school, and his parents were considering grooming their son to gain a scholarship for college down the road.
That changed when in 1934, the meeting where his father and mother were attending was wracked in a series of explosions, killing both of them instantly. The then twelve year old Robert, near the scene due to usually meeting his parents after school at their meeting hall, barely got just a glimpse of his parents' murderers, but it was enough: the perpetrators were Fifth Columnists. That image never left Robert's mind as he was admitted to an orphanage, and it forever decided the direction of his life. One of the workers at the orphanage, a Chinese descendant named Zhan Ru, took the traumatized boy under his wing and trained him in some of the martial arts that he knew in order to take his mind off of his parents' deaths. Robert was eventually released from the orphanage a few years later, but he now had both a personal mission and the means to carry it out: to find some answers.
Initial Career
After graduating from high school, Robert took on a job as a shipyard worker at Independence Port in order to support himself, but at night, when he wasn't grooming himself to try and earn a scholarship, his life was quite different. Donning his trademark duster hat, trenchcoat and black and yellow spandex, Robert Smith was now Hawk Shadow, patrolling the streets of Kings Row to help those defend themselves from malignant forces. Though his first few forays were somewhat awkward, marking his transition from routine training exercises to real combat, he soon struck terror in the heart of the lower thugs on the streets and was now a cause of concern for certain organized crime and corrupt officials. While always helping out people against muggers, his main targets were always Fifth Column agents, and any corrupt official who collaborated with them. This only intensified when upon interrogating a Fifth Column officer he discovered that corrupt officers were routinely bribed to look the other way while they got away with murder practically in broad daylight. Coincidentally that night, a bundle of corrupt cops were dumped in front of the police station headquarters, bound and gagged. More discreetly, the German agents were dropped off in the local FBI office right before the work shift ended.
Until the outbreak of hostilities in 1941, Robert would continue to hunt down agents and corrupt officials (mob bosses were dealt with on off nights). While officially claiming no comment, secretly both the police and the FBI approved of his actions, the former for weeding out the bad elements of the police, and the latter for rooting out agents with no effort or cost to political capital on their part.
World War II
1941, Hawk Shadow answered the call for aid when Independence Port came under attack by the very agents he'd been hunting for the past few years. When the dust settled, Hawk Shadow formally introduced himself to the Army, and asked if he could contribute to the cause. Initially part of the training of the First Hero Brigade, he was later referred to the newly formed Office of Strategic Services under the command of the eccentric General William Donovan. Not long after, he was shipped to Great Britain to aid efforts in dealing with Abwehr agents. His experiences in Kings Row, while somewhat different, paid dividends here, and working alongside MI5, many agents were rooted out and either arrested or turned. Once the situation was more under control, he left MI5 to join OSS and French Resistance elements in France.
If Kings Row and the streets of London were where Robert cut his teeth, working in France was true field work. Though still covert in nature, Hawk Shadow was really a great boon to the resistance for his ability to draw attention away from the resistance. Performing acts of sabotage or kidnapping, Abwehr and garrison soldiers' efforts were focused on cornering der Unruhestifter, or literally "the Troublemaker," while the resistance bided its time or performed lower profile (but no less effective) forms of sabotage on their own. To OSS, the best part was that aside from his costume, Hawk Shadow carried no form of identification. In the case he was captured, he could not be tied to any given organization. His greatest coup was to drop timed mines in the submarine pens of St. Nazaire; they detonated just as the flotilla was about to leave and spared the Allied convoys that week the harrowing experience of being torpedoed. He never did get that far again, much to his superiors' chagrin.
After the War
The war ended on a much more different note than our time line: though France was liberated, Hitler's war in the Ostfront (eastern front) had been successful, and the western front had been stabilized. Furthermore, an unexpected development occurred when the majority of South America, after years and years of planning by its masters finally overthrew their governments and declared for a completely new power: Arachnos. Reinforcements meant to travel to Europe and the Pacific were immediately rerouted to Brazil, where the government still held tenaciously against a growing tide of Arachnos soldiers. Hitler used this opportunity to launch Watch am Rheim, and hurled the Wehrmacht into "one last glorious charge." Though it was not enough to push the Allies out of France, it was enough to convince the leadership of the Allies, combined with the third front of Arachnos, that it was time to sue for peace. Thus began a three-way Cold War between the Western Allies, the Third Reich, and Arachnos.
Hawk Shadow's last assignment here had been to protect General Eisenhower against an attack by Otto Skorzeny that never occurred (though the man claimed that had he been ordered to do so, he would have succeeded). He returned home in time to be approached by his old superiors. Though the OSS had now been disbanded, it had reformed into a joint intelligence agency with Britain and France: Longbow. Agreeing to join, Hawk Shadow would pretty much continue business as usual in a new administration, though one particular assignment would again change his life for the stranger.
Inserted into the Rogue Isles (in 1947), Hawk Shadow infiltrated an Arachnos research facility suspected of time travel research. The reports were true: while it didn't quite work, it had a reasonable chance of success, and the research staff was just about to test it. Wasting no time, Hawk Shadow sneaked into the heart of the base, and destroyed the machine; however, the resulting reaction sent Hawk Shadow into this timeline. Very disoriented, he has returned to basic hero patrols, but is now in a home he no longer recognizes at all.
Modern Day
Though Robert Smith has done his best to adjust to his new life in the 2000's, he has had a rough time of it. Devices modern day people take for granted are at times complete mysteries to him, and the sheer speed of everyday life confuses him as well. At the same time, however, despite the changing face of Paragon City's criminal organizations, he has adjusted remarkably well to modern day crimefighting and has carved out his own little niche around his old haunts in Kings Row and parts of Independence Port.
Much to his amusement, Hawk Shadow is a bureaucratic nightmare to city and government officials. As he is a veteran of World War II, and a government agent to boot, he is entitled to monthly pensions for his services, yet at the same time they are for services not rendered in this timeline. Additionally, as he is technically an agent of Longbow (though again not this timeline's Longbow) he is often called in to liaison with the paramilitary force. However, while outwardly remaining cordial with the organization Hawk Shadow is often finding that Longbow falls short of both its own stated missions and his own perceived standards, and while lending aid at times he attempts to keep his dealings with them at a minimum.
Though reports and details are sketchy, he clearly has some sort of rivalry with the well known and overly flamboyant catburglar known as the Cardsharper. His rooftop duels with her are now well documented, and several tabloids who make it their business to pay attention to this level of metahuman engagements speculate the relationship between the two runs deeper than a simple rivalry. Hawk Shadow so far hasn't commented, but the Cardsharper has done nothing to dissuade these rumors (and at times outright promotes them much to Shadow's perceived annoyance). Additionally, it is rumored that he has taken two teenaged hopefuls under his wing to train, but these remain rumors.
