The Hawkins Dynasty, part two

Peter Hawkins – The Penitent / Orion (1942-1989)

Like many children of his generation, Peter Hawkins grew up without a father. Unlike most, his father was a war hero who became the subject of increasing levels of controversy and iconoclasm as the years went by. When Peter was ten, his father was accused of murdering an innocent woman in a revenge attack. When he was thirteen, the Hunter was found, beyond all reasonable doubt, to have been responsible for the killing of 15,000 German civilians.

Understandably, this affected Peter in a most profound way. Although unable to actually hate the man who his mother had instilled into him was a good man (Peter was only two when the Hunter died at Leipzig), he did strive to take his life in a very different direction than his father’s.

Growing up as part of the superhuman community, thanks to his mother’s contacts and friends within the newly formed Embassy, Peter was soon taken under the wing of Archangel (at this time in its original incarnation as Steven D’Angelo). In 1958, Peter Hawkins became the Penitent, Archangel’s teen sidekick, eager to atone for his father’s sins. Although the sword-wielding duo never actually joined the Embassy, they worked alongside them on several occasions, until 1960, when Archangel was eaten alive in China by the Dark Destroyer. The Penitent, distraught at his mentor’s death, stabbed the Dark Destroyer through the throat with his short sword.

Although the Dark Destroyer was able to survive such an injury, the Penitent realised that he had deliberately struck to kill – something that neither he nor Archangel had ever done during their crime fighting careers. The Penitent withdrew his blade and gave the Dark Destroyer first aid until a Chinese Army medical team arrived.

With Archangel dead, Peter Hawkins hung up his sword and went into retirement at the age of eighteen. He was aided in this by the Hawkins Trust, a fund set up by his father and made up of money stolen from countless murdered East End gangsters and Golden Knife cultists.

Eventually, his conscience became too much for him and he realised that living on his father’s ill-gotten gains had undone his good work as the Penitent. Hawkins began accumulating a vast database of knowledge about superhumanity, including evaluations of the powers and weaknesses of over two hundred superheroes and villains, as well as psychological profiles of three times as many masked vigilantes (many of whom, he realised to his dismay, were inspired by the Hunter). His intent was to use the information to study the superhuman phenomenon and assist the Embassy in its fight against rogue superhumans.

During his research, Hawkins travelled widely, visiting many countries around the world, including Tibet, where he studied with Master Tsang Li, and Australia, where he sparred with Olympic gold medallist boxer Dougie Ross. When he stayed in the United States, he practiced street fighting while breaking up New York’s street gangs in the anonymous guise of Orion, a subtle reference to his father. Although he never used them to directly harm anyone, he wore a pair of Colt M1911 handguns at his hips, as a personal reminder of why he fought – to make up for his father’s crimes.

In 1963, Hawkins returned to the United Kingdom. During his time in America, he had gained a reputation as a respectable superhero and one of the greatest unarmed fighters on the planet. This, and the promise of access to his database (later known as the Orion Files), meant that he had little difficulty in joining the Embassy.

In 1966, he bore a son by Danielle Gray, a junior intelligence analyst attached to the CIA. When their relationship was uncovered, she was forced to leave the agency. Fortunately, she was immediately appointed in a similar role in the Embassy. Her knowledge of US metahuman policies became vital during the latter stages of the Vietnam conflict and the uncovering of Project Darwin.

Orion’s identity was exposed in 1966 after he lost his mask during a running battle through Harrods. Within 48 hours, despite repeated requests from the Embassy, the Hawkins family and a whole raft of lawyers, the connection between Orion and the Hunter was on the front of almost every newspaper on the planet. There was a flurry of angry demands that Orion leave the Embassy, including a lengthy speech from the mayor of Leipzig. Peter Hawkins was ready to retire until the former Chancellor of West Germany, Konrad Adenauer leapt to his defence, reminding Germans of Orion’s part in the1964 battle to save Germany from the terror of Albrecht von Gribblefaust’s ‘New Reich’. In his later biography, Peter Hawkins cited Adenauer’s support as being the factor that convinced him to stay on.

In the same year, Danielle gives birth to Christian Blake Hawkins.

In 1970, after acquitting himself excellently in dozens of high-profile operations, Orion was elected as leader of the Embassy after the Ice Queen stepped aside.

In 1975, the pressure of leading the Embassy and adverse publicity relating to Orion’s father’s actions during the war were cited as contributing factors to the breakdown of the marriage of Peter and Danielle Hawkins. They divorce in early 1976, in full gaze of the world’s media.

During the later years of the decade, Orion struggles with depression, finally finding solace with a young woman named Miranda Winters, who he trains in martial arts and eventually falls in love with. She disappears without trace in early 1980.

Depressed by the failure of two relationships, and in an attempt to return to his roots, Orion takes increasingly long leaves of absence during the 1980s. He prowls the streets of many of the world’s major cities, fighting crime the way he did in New York twenty years earlier.

In December 1989, Orion intervened when he saw a man and woman struggling in a street in Kyoto. The male pulled out a handgun and tried to shoot the woman. Orion stepped in front of the bullet. By fluke, the shot passed through his Kevlar and struck him fatally in the heart. The woman was unharmed and fled the scene.

The police report concluded that the murderer had mistaken the woman for a prostitute and had reacted badly when she slapped him.