The actual drug camp was much harder to attack. Vehicles were now patrolling extremely regularly, everyone was armed, and all the drug farms were locked down.

“Well that’s just great,” said Kayne “You know birdman, I actually believed we had a chance after what you pulled back there. You took an extremely hostile situation and turned it around with minimal loss of life. But for this? You’re gonna need more than a fancy plan, maybe a plan and the bloody Royal Battalion to back it up! For something like this, I’d send in an airstrike or maybe a special forces sneak attack in the dead of night, not a bunch of former soldiers in the middle of the afternoon.”

“Well, I guess that’s it then, Jacob, we should all go home now, right?” said Eagle, his legendary patience starting to wear thin “We have the advantage here, not them. I have better soldiers here under my command then that Dragon could ever hope for. Plus, the statistics for a clash between them and us lies in our favour. Just let me do some recon, and I’ll be in three hours.”

American Eagle was true to his word, returning to their hideout just as the sun was starting to set, and looking extremely pleased with himself, as far as the men could tell.

“This will be our easiest mission yet gentlemen” he stated “All you have to do is take out the guard towers, call in our chopper and have him do the rest. The poppy fields are so close together, and the size of them means that with only one missile, we can start fire large enough to wipe out the whole plantation. They also have an escape route, a booby-trapped bridge across the river”

“All we have to do? You didn’t mention yourself in that plan at all? What will you be doing?” Eagle nodded approval to the speaker, Cheese. He was a lot sharper than people gave him credit for, and picked up things others didn’t.

“I will be making sure they can’t put out the fire.”

“What-” began Kayne, but Eagle silenced him with a gesture.

“Ok, operation time. Three towers, north-western, south-western and eastern. Four men at each, so shoot sharp. I’ll blow the manufacturing sheds, try to get them to sound a retreat to the river. Hold them there until the air strike.”

Roles were assigned, attack strategies were formed, and the Falcons moved out. Once again, he couldn’t stop himself remembering. The doctor telling him that Sparrow was dead, the funeral that had been paid for by the Department of Justice, the cold feeling of having to deliver a eulogy, the even colder feeling telling Roger what had happened. Worst of all though, was the day Hank was released from jail, three days after the funeral.

*****

Seven months previous...

Eagle had told BJ not to tell Hank about his training, instead to write letters pretending to be in hiding. BJ wasn’t happy about this, but realised that even if he was in hiding, he wouldn’t be able to put where he was, in case one of the other prisoners got a hold of the letter and told the boss where Hank the Traitor’s brother was. So, he had to keep the biggest even in his life a secret, at least until they managed to take down the big boss.

Which they had done, about three months before the last flight of the Sparrow. The Boss had overstepped his boundaries in the early days of the Tiger-Skorpion turf war, mistakenly believing that he could spread his influence wider while they bickered. Unfortunately for him, it was the only time the Sons of the Tiger and the Skorpions worked together, taking down his organisation in one strike. They resumed their fighting, while the Boss attempted to hold together a criminal network with a skeleton crew. This made American Eagle and Sparrow’s job a lot easier, and they finally arrested him. With Boss in jail, a look into all arrests of his organization was looked into, and a request from Eagle himself helped to speed up parole hearings for Hank. Arresting Boss also marked the first time that Sparrow was noticed by the people of St. Theodore, as no-one was around during the fight between the two birdmen and the criminal mastermind Silver Shroud and his house of holograms. But, his fame was to be short lived, and the town mourned his fall at a funeral attended by the St. Theodore Police Department, with new Police Captain Gina Lin, after Internal Affairs shut down the private anti-Eagle vendetta of corrupt cop Adam Cooper.

The funeral was also attended by a who’s-who of crime fighters, with precognitive private detective Raymond Boyd, metahuman enforcer Agent VII of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, even Andrew Corman, public relations figure for The New Patriots, America’s premier superhero team.

After the funeral, a few people offered their condolences, but no-one really knew what to say, most of them were leaving quickly and quietly.

Hank however, wouldn’t be leaving in the same manner.

*****

American Eagle had given Hank a number to call when he was released, one that connected to an untraceable phone in his Roost. Hank was to call this number, and Eagle would take him to his brother, and they would live free of the Boss’ tyranny. Now that he was in jail, Hank would call it, and Eagle would bring BJ back to St. Theodore. If only it was that easy, he thought, as he saw the phone ringing. He answered it, gave Hank an hour to get to an address, and hung up.

Wagner was in a bad state. He had stopped taking meticulous care of his equipment, and had even started sleeping in costume, though he abandoned that habit after being unable to move the next day.

Roger held himself better, having lived through tragedy himself. However, he still felt the pain. He had come to regard BJ as a sort of adopted nephew, and BJ regarded Roger as an uncle. They had spent a lot of time together, Roger teaching BJ what Eagle couldn’t, things like fishing and driving. BJ’s presence had managed to bring another level of humanity to the house, and now it was gone, and the hole it left had made things worse than before.

But, Nathan Wagner knew he had to honour BJ’s brother. Hank was the reason BJ started learning to become Sparrow.

Roger drove Eagle him to within a block of the meeting point, security be damned he thought, although he was in a special car with fake licence plates for special occasions. He then street-surfed to the building, a retired shelter for the homeless, and landed in front of Hank, though without the usual flair he employed with that manoeuvre.

He looked up at Hank, seeing the change that two years of prison had on him. He was thin, had ragged hair, unshaved and tattooed. But the biggest change came from his eyes. He had a desperation that American Eagle had very rarely seen... Hank was now a single-minded person, someone who would strive for one thing, and one thing only, until they achieved it. Nothing else mattered to him, beyond whatever crusade he had set himself upon. This worried Eagle, because what little he knew of Hank convinced him that this crusade was about BJ.

The media had no idea that BJ and Sparrow were one and the same. Every funeral for a superhero was closed casket, unless they requested otherwise in a will. As far as anyone, especially Hank, was concerned, BJ was safe and sound in a safe house somewhere, awaiting his brother’s release from prison.

Hank waited until Eagle stood up before greeting him “Hello. Long time no see.” Something in his voice made the hair on the back of Eagle’s neck stand up, and he felt afraid.

Suddenly Hank lashed out with his hand, striking American Eagle across the jaw. The jab was more painful than Eagle expected, obviously Hank had brass knuckles or something in his hand.

“Where’s my brother, birdie?” asked Hank, the look in his eyes now a burning rage “Where. Is. My. Brother?” Each word was accented with a punch, but that pattern of behaviour was so cliché that Eagle caught each punch on his padded arms.

“Hank, listen...”

Hank screamed and lashed at his face again, but this time Eagle overbalanced him and brought him to the ground.

He sat on Hank, making him immobile “Listen to me! Your brother is dead. I’m sorry. But his death was honourable, he died protecting innocent lives.”

Hank struggled and kicked, trying to attack Eagle with any part of his body, but failed.

“I should have stopped him from going there, but I didn’t. I’m sorry. But he accomplished so much in such a short time... He was doing amazing things, learning at an incredible rate.”

“You. Killed. My. Brother.” Hank shouted, his face white with rage.

“No, I didn’t. The man who did is now in prison.”

“Shut up! Shut the hell up! Let me go, right now. NOW!!” he was roaring now, and it was only a matter of time before someone heard.

“I was the one who put your brother out there though. I am to blame. I’m sorry.”

“Shut up!”

“How did you know? How did you know BJ was...”

“I saw you on TV, him in that stupid outfit. I thought that there was no way that could be BJ, but I was wrong, wasn’t I? A police man gave me a photo, a surveillance photo where I saw his face. You turned my brother into a freak, and that killed him”

“Police? Who? Tell me, please Hank.”

“GO. TO. HELL. EAGLE.”

Eagle rolled off Hank, confused. Someone had figured out BJ was Sparrow. Someone had been watching them. Who? Who could have been watching them... Wait.

“What did he look like”

“I ain’t giving you jack, I don’t owe you nothing”

Eagle than spun and struck Hank in the solar plexus, dropping him to the ground.

“By assaulting me, I could send you back to jail. I don’t want to do that, Hank. Tell me what you know.”

“He was average looking, not tall or short, but with a really freaky moustache. And he had burns or scarring or something on the side of his head.”

“COOPER?” He lunged for Hank, hoping to pin him to ask more questions, but Hank suddenly rammed a knife into Eagle’s ribs, penetrating the Kevlar fibres.

“I realise this won’t kill you, that suit’s too good for that. But it will hurt, and when you get better, I’ll be gone. But I’m coming back. I’m coming back, and I’ll make you pay for what you did to my brother, mark my words.” With that he turned and left, leaving Eagle wounded in the abandoned shelter.

*****

Isle of Tears

Eagle took the eastern tower himself.

He managed to sneak up to within twenty feet of it before being noticed, and the guards charged after him, firing wildly and aiming poorly. They had noticed which direction he was running, and they didn’t bother shooting to kill.

Seemingly on cue, they saw a flash of dark green movement in the bushes were Eagle had just ran. A snare had been tripped, and a net had sprung around the prey, lifting it clear into the air.

The two guards walked up to the net, jeering in Cantonese, pointing their AKs at the helpless superhero...

...or not.

In the net was a bound and gagged guard of the Dragon’s, who was trying to convey a message to the two armed men.

“I think he’s telling you to look behind you” a voice boomed from behind.

The two men spun, but were too late. Eagle grabbed the barrel of one, and used it as a lever to cause the butt of the gun to strike the shooter’s chin. He turned and hit the second man with an open palm across the face, the used the first man’s gun as a club, knocking the two men to the ground.

“Unfortunately I am all out of cuffs gentlemen,” he said conversationally “We will have to make do somehow.” He used one of his bird-shaped knives to cut the net, and the bait fell down with a thud, landing on the two guards. He then ran back toward the tower.

The snipers in the tower were getting nervous. The guards had disappeared, and not called in. Also, there was gunfire over the south-western side of the camp, and alarms were being sounded. Suddenly a man came running out of the bushes, a grenade in each hand. Even these mercenaries recognised the American Eagle, but what they couldn’t figure out was why he was behaving like a suicide bomber. They decided the best course of action would be take him down, so they raised their guns. Eagle then pulled the pins, causing thick white smoke to billow around him. He waved the grenades like an air traffic controller, and then dropped to his knees. He heard bullets whizz over him as he threw one grenade forward.

Suddenly he had a straight line of cover to the tower. It was risky, but he was willing to take that risk. He straightened his infra-red goggles, and moved forward. As he hit the base of the tower, he pulled out his grappling hook.

Firing into the cloud haphazardly, neither man noticed the clunk of a magnetic bulb connecting to the floor under their tower. They didn’t notice at all, until a boot struck one in the face, followed by two throwing knives into the other man’s right arm. Eagle then disassembled the guns as he had been taught years ago by one of his mentors. He tossed most of the pieces off the tower, keeping small but critical parts. He then planted a small explosive charge in the tower, chose a landing zone, and glided out of the tower, seconds before an explosion.

With a thump, he landed on the bonnet of a utility truck, shattering its windscreen. He jumped off, and looked around.

Chaos, utter chaos. All three guard towers taken out, the armoury on fire and Americans attacking from all sides. Eagle started running towards the water pumps, wielding two handguns he had borrowed off Jacob. This had surprised him, until he saw Eagle take out the ammo clips, and load in some with foam bullets, non-lethal rounds.

“Why bother then?” Jacob had asked “Why not just throw flowers at them?”

“Little red flowers started all this, Jacob” replied Eagle “And besides, for this fight I need to work fast, and these are faster than my talons”

“Those goofy throwing knives? Well, I guess, but you ain’t gonna scare people with foam rounds, birdman.”

“Unless they have x-ray vision all they will see is a gun, so there will be no problem” and with that, he walked off to attack a guard tower.

Now, he moved like his namesake, rushing through the camp firing at anyone who showed their face. They fell back expecting a painful end, but by the time they realised they’d been had, Eagle was gone.

He reached the pump and examined more closely. He had observed it from binoculars in his reconnaissance, but hadn’t seen it up close. He then pulled out a talon throwing knife, and prised loose two screws. A man turned the corner and shouted, raising his gun, but was silenced by a knife in the shoulder. Eagle then took that mans gun, shot out the controls of the pump and spoke to him in Cantonese

“Where is the manufacturing plant?”

The man spat at Eagle, so he used the butt of his rifle to hit the knife which was in the man’s shoulder. The man then pointed at a building.

“Go home, rest that shoulder. Don’t get killed over the drugs, it’s not worth it.”

With that, Eagle took his knife back and gave the man a bandage. He pulled out the firing pin from the rifle, and left the gun there.

Suddenly the radio earpiece squawked “Falcon-One to Eagle, Huey is eight minutes away and closing.”

Eagle approached the shed he was directed to, kicked down the door and looked inside. There was a table with a mound of yellow powder on it. The mound was easily a foot high, and had a diameter of about a metre. He kicked the table over, and searched the whole building. He came back with some large bottles covered in red stickers and urgent writing. He placed one on the upturned powder, and smashed the other one in the doorway. As he left, he pulled out Junior’s cigarette lighter. He struck it and threw it on the floor, running away.

“Three minutes,” came a call, as the building exploded.

*****

St. Theodore

Three hours after being left by Hank, Nathan Wagner was lying bandaged up in the Roost, having managed to call Roger and get picked up.

“This is really serious now” said Nathan, drinking a cup of coffee.

“How bad can it really be?” enquired Roger “Everyone from the lowliest pickpocket through to the FBI have been trying to discover who you are. The only reason the FBI know is because you dated Agent VII”

“I didn’t realise she could be in two places at once, I’ve told you that. But that’s not the point. Adam Cooper got close when he was police chief, to close for comfort. Having Sparrow around was a boon to business, but it also added security risks. No-one that age enjoys being locked in a tower, but with Cooper out and about, there was no chance of Sparrow going anywhere.”

“Adam’s not in prison?”

“Nope. Someone else pretending to be Cooper. He must have threatened this man’s family, or something. So I have no idea where he is, or what he’s doing. For all I know, he’s got a new identity. He would only show Hank his face to let me know he’s after me.”

“Figures. What are you going to do.”

“Adapt to the times, old friend. Apart from Hank and Cooper, things in St. Ted have never been better, and if I can’t get them, I’ll have to hope the police can. No, I intend to go do something about Sparrow’s death.”

Roger sat up straight and stared straight at Nathan “What? They caught the guy, the gangs gone what more are you going to do.”

A troubled look came over Wagner “I’m not fully sure yet. But this war was never about me or Sparrow. It was about drugs, guns and money.”

“BJ” said Roger simply.

“What?”

“His name is BJ, not Sparrow. You keep telling me you aren’t the American Eagle, that you are Nathan Wagner, so Benjamin was not Sparrow, he was BJ. Say his real name.”

Nathan just looked at Roger, a large silence filling the room. “I’m sorry Roger, I am. I just find it less painful to think of a guy in a suit than the young man who I taught.”

“Show that man some respect by remembering who he was, not what he did.”

“He would’ve retired. When Hank was released, I am absolutely certain that... BJ would have hung up the cape and gotten on with his life, something I don’t think I could do, especially now.

“This is why I am going away.”

“What? Where?”

“South America, Asia, Middle East , I don’t care where. I am going to try to rid this world of the poison that takes so many lives, even if it kills me. I have no excuse to stay here, no reason to be the American Eagle of St. Theodore. I need to go out to the world, and make a difference.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

Wagner started thinking, then stood up and walked over to the trophy wall.

He tore down all the mementoes, pictures and trophies, leaving a bare white wall. Grabbing a pen, Nathan drew a circle in the centre of the wall. In the circle he wrote two words: American Eagle, then he started drawing subcategories.

“First: Nathan Wagner. I need an excuse to disappear for a while, leaving the Foundation and everything else without suspicion. I need to be completely undisturbed, but not suspicious, let’s not make Coopers job easy.

“Secondly: Assistance. I couldn’t pull this sort of job alone, I’ll need help. I could ask the government” he drew a circle with ‘government?’ “no, they wouldn’t want an international incident, or any diplomatic problems. That applies to all the super-heroes as well, I guess. The Cuthbert Act pretty much makes them government employees, with certain anonymities. I don’t know any vigilantes I could trust enough-”

“If I still had my power, I would be by your side the whole way, Nathan.”

“I know you would, Roger, but I need you to stay here. We’re going to completely clean out any trace of the Roost before I leave, and destroy the non-essentials.” “What? Really?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so” Nathan looked around the room, memories flooding him. But he shook his head and regained his focus “I can’t leave it here for someone to find, and I probably won’t be using it again.” He turned back to the diagram, and looked at the branch ‘Assistance’.

“So, no government, no vigilantes, I’m going to have to think outside the box for this one, doubly so because the government won’t want me doing this at all. I could cause a major incident.”

“Not to mention the fact that the CIA is behind a lot of the people you plan on going up against.”

“Could you lay off the conspiracy theories? Either way, I’ll ask them out of courtesy, but go ahead no matter the answer.” He left a question mark around assistance, “I’ll come back to that one.”

He drew a third branch. “Upgrades. If I’m going to take American Eagle in a new direction, I’m going to need a new suit. I’ll talk to Circuit tomorrow about bullet proofing, some more firepower, and whatever new toys he’s got that might help.”

Standing back from the diagram he turned to Roger “What do you think?”

Roger had never lied to Nathan, and he wasn’t about to start now.

“It wouldn’t happen in a million years”

*****

Isle of Tears

Alarms everywhere sounded, the Dragons retreated toward their escape, a bridge over the river in the north-eastern corner of the camp. The Falcons followed, taking two steps forward, one step back as the Dragon’s harried them with machine guns.

The road leading up to the bridge had an age old trick built into it: a tiger trap. Simply a hole with a covering, if someone stood on it they fell in. The Dragons had taken it one step further: they were able to arm or disarm it at their leisure, meaning they could cross it and any followers would fall in.

However, Eagle had noticed the trap during his reconnaissance, and noticed the lever that could arm it or disarm it. As the dragons retreated, they noticed that the bridge sentry was moving toward the lever, right as they stood on the trap. Suddenly the sentry pulled the lever, and they all fell in.

He stepped up to the lip of the hole, and threw off the dark green jacket he took, and stood there cape-less. He pulled a tab poking from his left glove and the cape unfurled like a parachute. It was a mechanism he had designed for close quarters fighting, causing the cape to fold up to a square foot of packaged material on his back, and be unfolded again all at the pull of a tab. This was due to several threads that were thicker than the rest in his cape, which also conducted the charge for the memory polymer it was made from. Using this mechanism meant he could wear a jacket with having a large cape poke out from it.

“You are defeated,” he told the captured mercenaries in Cantonese “And we will burn down your poppy fields, and you will never again poison American lives with your drugs.”

As if on cue, a helicopter sound came louder and louder until a series of missile launches could be heard, and the fields went up in smoke.

Eagle turned to the men gathered and said “We’ll let governments sort it out from here, our job is done.”

Legacy and all characters contained within ™ and © 2009 David Kachel.
Metahuman Press and all related content ™ and © 2003-2009 Nicholas Ahlhelm unless otherwise noted.
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