User:Awkturtle/sandbox/Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders)

Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders). Art by [[Matt Haley]]. Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders), is one of several superhero characters known as Hawkgirl appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer David S. Goyer and artist Stephen Sadowski, and first appeared in JSA Secret Files and Origins #1 (August 1999).

Fictional character biography

Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders), was a young woman who committed suicide. When Kendra's soul left her body, that of her grandfather's first cousin Shiera Hall, the Golden Age Hawkgirl entered it, making Kendra a walk-in. Her grandfather, former OSS agent and globe-trotting adventurer Speed Saunders, recognized this, in part due to a change in eye color, and encouraged his granddaughter to embrace her destiny as the "new" Hawkgirl.

Kendra had a daughter named Mia, who is not shown but mentioned.

Still believing herself to be Kendra, she debuted as a hero using the original Hawkgirl's equipment and set out in search of a being called the Fate-Child (actually her own reincarnated son, Hector Hall). This led to a meeting with the Justice Society and Kendra's induction to that team.

She currently has all of Kendra's memories, but almost none of Shiera's save for fighting experiences. This creates tension with Hawkman since he remembers all of their past lives together and believes they are destined for each other. Kendra has been presented as a very troubled young woman, haunted by the murder of her parents by a corrupt cop and confused by her jumble of memories and feelings. She has operated as Hawkman's partner but only recently begun to actually admit her attraction to him. The truth about Kendra's identity was eventually revealed to her by the angel Zauriel.

She is one of the heroes who fought in space during the Rann-Thanagar War. Following the events of Infinite Crisis, a Zeta Beam transporter malfunction injured many of the superheroes in space, including Hawkgirl, causing her to grow over twenty feet tall. Some time later, her proper stature restored, Kendra was shown living in St. Roch, Louisiana, working in Stonechat Museum and protecting the city as Hawkgirl.

She is also a returning member of the new Justice League, having effectively served with the team when the original members were previously missing. A brewing relationship between Hawkgirl and Red Arrow become one of the major subplots in the series though it appears to have ended. Hawkgirl is now 100% Kendra Saunders. Shiera Sanders' soul left Kendra's body and moved on to the afterlife. Shiera hopes her passing on will finally remove the curse of Hath-Set.

Hawkman Vol. 4 (2002–2006)

Lasting four years and forty-nine issues, Hawkman was an ongoing monthly comic book series. In the first issue, Kendra is featured having a discussion with her grandfather, Speed Saunders, wanting to know more about her parents murder, he tells her to search after Danny Evans, an archaeologist working in Stonechat Museum that was in a mission in India trying to save the Museum from shutting down. Hawkgirl decides to go after him with Hawkman's assist, when they encounter Danny they fight against Shadow Thief, Tigress and Copperhead, the three were trying to stole the diamond Danny was looking for, during the fight Tigress escapes with the diamond and Hawkman, Shadow Thief and Copperhead are taken to the Battlelands, a hidden fold in reality created by Shiva to protect Ganesha's descendants. Still in India, Kendra and Danny have a conversation about Kendra's parents and why they were murdered, much for Hawkgirl's dismay he didn't knew much about it, after this they retrieved the diamond and put it back in his place, opening a portal to Battlelands, rescuing Hawkman and the others.

During the events of Slings and Arrows, Kendra and Carter started working in Stonechat Museum, as field agents. Hawkgirl also meets Green Arrow for the first time while he is in city looking for The Spider, a killer that was trying to incriminate him. Working together to find him, they fight against the criminal and Green Arrow shoots the Spider in his aiming eye with an arrow, hoping to end the criminal's career by maiming him. Later on is shown that Spider manages to re-learn archery from a new perspective.

One of Kendra past lives is revealed, as the bounty hunter Cinnamon, a reincarnation of the Egyptian princess Chay-Ara. As such, she becomes the lover of Prince Khufu's reincarnation, the hero Nighthawk. When Cinnamon is assaulted by the burglar "Gentleman Jim" Craddock, Nighthawk hangs him up, thereby tying his destiny to theirs. Cinnamon, along with Nighthawk, is killed by the latest incarnation of Hath-Set, their biggest enemy.

Kendra and Carter travel to Mount Kailas, Tibet, to save her grandfather that was kidnapped by a mysterious figure that was later revealed as being Hath-Set latest reincarnation, Helena Astar. Helena discovered that Speed was in Tibet searching for the absorbascon, an ancient device from Thanagar that had the abilities to absorb knowledge and souls, alongside the power to restore lost memories, being the reason why Speed was looking for it, in the hopes to bring Kendra lost memories, when he found the device he was captured by Helena. Later the Hawks were taken by her in an attempt to kill them, unsuccessfully, since the Atom shows up and saves them from being murdered, Hawkgirl defeats Helena all by herself proving to Carter that she had more determination than he had given her credit of. After Kendra destroys the absorbascon Helena is transformed in a statue of salt, during a fight against Helena's henchmen the statue is broken, supposedly killing her. Hawkgirl develops a friendship with the Atom, after saving him twice from being killed during the fight against Hath-Set latest reincarnation. After this events Kendra started seeing Hawkman as a friend rather than just a partner, as shown in the earlier chapters, marking a big step in there relationship.

Haunted by nightmares of her past, when she and her mother were assaulted by two police officers. Though only a child, she fought back and during the chaos, one of the attackers accidentally shot and killed the other and fled, years later, her parents tracked the surviving attacker to St.Roch, where he ambushed and murdered them. Kendra finally encounters the attacker, chief of police Albert Nedal, that would later be killed at the hands of Gentleman Ghost.

Sometime after the events of Zero Hour, where Katar Hol was merged with Carter and Shiera Hall in a new Hawkman version, who was then possessed by a creature from the red known as the Hawk Avatar. Hawkwoman retired from superhero work to become a cop in Detroit, she met with Hawkgirl while searching for her missing partner, later on Shayera Thal would be captured by Byth Rok, leading for Shayera's final battle against him when she, aided by Hawkgirl, defeated the Thanagarian criminal for good. Hawkwoman gave Hawkgirl her harness as a symbol of their recently formed partnership before departing to Thanagar with Byth as her prisoner.

Hawkgirl always felt that she wasn't the first person Hawkman would turn to in a moment of crisis, treating her as damsel in distress incapable of holding her own against dangers she might come to face, degrading her position in both the eyes of the Justice Society of America and in their partnership, where he would frequently treat her as a sidekick, something Kendra declares she's not, wanting to be seeing as his equal. Towards the end of the series Hawkgirl reveals all of her feelings to Carter, causing the hero to apologize, saying he was treating her wrongly all along, the story finishes in a romantic tone with the Hawks fighting together during the Rann-Thanagar War as both confess their love for each other.

Hawkgirl, the series

After Hawkman ongoing monthly series is retitled, changing to Hawkgirl, Kendra replaces Carter as the lead character. Hawkgirl is seen protecting St. Roch, Louisiana, in the absence of Hawkman and working in Stonechat Museum. She fought Khimaera several times, and finally killed her. She was later abducted and put on trial for high treason against her people by a group of rogue Thanagarians. After being found guilty, one of the rogues tied her hands behind her back and covered her mouth with a piece of duct tape, and then attempted to lynch her. Kendra found that she could hover without her wings and was able to fake her death and escape by using this new power. Kendra was also a target of Blackfire which decided to go to Earth in order to kill Hawkgirl and Hawkman, but the Hawks defeated her and took away her powers.

Kendra also fought alongside the furies of Darkseid while St.Roch was being attacked by an evil weapon of Apokolips, the gizmoid. The Furies were assigned a squadron of Parademons in order to find a stolen Beta-3 Gizmoid. They discover that the gizmoid has landed in St. Roch. According to their readings, the gizmoid has been activated and Bernadeth wants the gizmoid because Darkseid can't allow Earth to be destroyed by anything from Apokolips or it will mean war with High Father. It turns out Desaad designed these gizmoids to be a planet killer but production of the device was put on hold when a rogue Parademon escaped with a gizmoid through a Boom Tube. The Parademon landed in Ancient Egypt and hid the gizmoid before he was killed by Desaad's trackers.

The gizmoid finds itself near Stonechat Museum and it spots Hawkgirl soaring through the air. Its acquisition is computed as prognosticative Boolean algebra. The gizmoid decides that Hawkgirl would be a suitable template to begin Earth's eradication but before it could replicate itself, the Furies converge on its location by via Boom Tube. The gizmoid narrowly escapes by releasing radion gas to slow them down. Hawkgirl spots the disturbance and notices the Female Furies are barely conscious. The gizmoid comes up from behind Hawkgirl and pacifies her then it optimizes for template replication.

When the gizmoid was finished replicating, it disposed of Hawkgirl like a ragdoll and it became a mechanized version of Hawkgirl. The gizmoid begins attacking St. Roch with an arsenal of weaponry. Bernadeth tries to destroy the gizmoid with a series of centiblades but her attempt was unsuccessful. Fortunately, the Nth metal on Hawkgirl's wings became advanced by the gizmoid's brief attachment to her. Hawkgirl soars toward St. James Parish because the gizmoid was getting near that direction. Hawkgirl tells the Furies to focus their fire power on certain sections that she cuts off thereby cauterizing the wounds because the gizmoid can heal itself with nano machines.

Hawkgirl's plan worked and the gizmoid fell to pieces after sustaining the Furies' relentless punishment. As for Hawkgirl, the gizmoid's advancements wore off on her Nth metal because of its destruction and she became overly fatigued. Hawkgirl crashed near Mr. Dooley's Tavern and Bloody Mary followed soon after. Fortunately, Danny Evans was watching Hawkgirl's every move and he stopped Bloody Mary before she could sink her teeth into Hawkgirl's neck. The Female Furies collect Bloody Mary and reluctantly thanked Hawkgirl for her efforts.

Kendra finally decides to fight against her mortal enemy, Hath-Set, who had been watching her for some time, Hawkgirl started getting closer to finding him with the assistance of friends, such as Batman, Superman and Oracle. During her search Kendra is kidnapped by Hath-Set, aware of this Hawkman goes in a rescue mission, meanwhile Hawkgirl is able to free herself and encounter Hath-Set, who had imprisoned Carter, after a final battle against the villain Kendra kills him and saves Hawkman, the two now finally in peace see themselves falling in love again, but with Hawkgirl saying that he must earn her love.

Justice League of America

Main article: Justice League

Hawkgirl's main story arc in the early issues of Justice League of America Vol. 2, centered around her relationship with Red Arrow. Initially both were looking for a fling, but then found themselves quickly in love, with Hawkgirl even meeting his daughter Lian, a result of his former romance with Cheshire.

Their relationship became one of the major subplots of the series, Black Canary disapproval of the relationship brought some tension to it, alongside Power Girl advising Red Arrow to not get involved with Hawkgirl, since she was destined to eventually return to Hawkman (Carter Hall). Despite of this they started dating, with the Justice League later finding out after Red Tornado caught Hawkgirl and Red Arrow sleeping together.

This was the beginning of a turbulent relationship, but past relationships, parenting, and being unable to express their feelings to each other caused problems. Red Arrow constantly suffering from Cheshire's absence, Hawkgirl conflicted feelings regarding Hawkman brought stress in their romance, making the couple fight regularly. Eventually the relationship dissolved and Red Arrow left the Justice League.

While in a mission with the Justice League inside the Prison Planet, Hawkgirl discovered another ability provided by the Nth Metal, the power to weaken forces drawn from the fabric of space-time, due to this Kendra was the only member not affected by Kanjar Ro, making her capable of fighting against the villain and rescuing her friends. Hawkgirl left the Justice League due to injuries sustained in Final Crisis.

Blackest Night

Main article: Blackest Night

In Blackest Night #1, Kendra is shown having an argument with Hawkman over whether or not to visit Jean Loring's grave with the Atom. As the two heroes quarrel, the reanimated corpses of Ralph and Sue Dibny, now members of the Black Lantern Corps, enter Hawkman's sanctuary. The Black Lanterns attack, Sue impaling Hawkgirl on a spear. Ralph taunts Hawkman, telling him that Hawkgirl never loved him; a claim she refutes with her dying breath. Hawkman is killed shortly afterward, and both heroes are reanimated as Black Lanterns by Black Hand himself.

During the battling at Coast City, the Atom is chosen by the Indigo Tribe to be more effective against Nekron's forces. The Atom tells Indigo-1 to keep his involvement in the deployment of the troops a secret, and asks that she help him find a way to legitimately resurrect Hawkman and Hawkgirl. In the final battle, the duo are transformed by Hal Jordan into the White Lantern Corps and upon Nekron's destruction, they are both resurrected. Hawkgirl says she remembers all her past lives, then unmasks to reveal herself to be Shiera, she and Carter joyfully reuniting.

Brightest Day

Main article: Brightest Day

In the Brightest Day crossover, Carter and Shiera follow Hath-Set, who has collected the bones from all of their past bodies, and created from them a portal to Hawkworld. While there, Shiera is told by the Entity to stop Hath-Set from killing Carter, because if he dies one more time, he will not undergo the cycle of resurrection again. Shiera is attacked in Hawkworld's dungeon and captured by Hath-Set. She is then taken to the Queen of Hawkworld who reveals to Shiera that she is her mother. Hawkgirl is tied by Hath-Set and Queen Khea to the gateway and they strike her in order to lure Hawkman to the location. Hawkman and his group of the panthera attack the Manhawks homeworld. When Hawkman arrives and draws his attention, Shiera turns the tables on Hath-Set and uses her legs to snap his neck, killing him. In the meantime, Hawkman is held by Queen Khea's control of Nth metal mace and armor, and she puts Carter with Shiera. Queen Khea opens the gateway and enters the portal to the Zamaron homeworld. When she arrives on the Zamaron homeworld, Star Sapphire (Carol Ferris) frees them both to stop Queen Khea's invasion. Hawkgirl soon faces her mother, but the Predator feels the lack of love inside Khea's heart bond with her and does not know if she truly is able to contain the power of true love.

The Predator makes Khea his host, but Shiera and Carter manage to separate both of them by stabbing Khea at the same time with weapons made of Zamaronian crystals. The bones of the past lives of Hawkman and Hawkgirl separate from the gateway, and, animated by the power of the violet light of love, grab Khea and imprison her in the Zamaronian Central Power Battery. Shiera and Carter, with both of their missions accomplished, have their lives returned and Carol teleports both of them back to the museum of St. Roch. There, the couple, happy for finally defeating the curse, start to take off their clothes in order to make love, but they are suddenly interrupted by the apparition of Deadman, brought there by his white ring. The ring gives Shiera and Carter an order that they must live separately to live life stronger (because they appreciate love more than life itself), but when Carter replies by saying they are not going to live apart again, the ring responds "So be it" and unleashes a blast of white light that turns Hawkman and Hawkgirl into white dust, while Deadman looks in horror. Deadman orders the ring to resurrect both Hawkman and Hawkgirl, but the ring refuses, and tells him that Hawkgirl is unique and that she was brought back life to overcome what held her back in her past life because she is essential in saving Earth.

When the "Dark Avatar" made his presence known, Hawkgirl and Hawkman are revealed to be part of the Elementals. They were transformed by the Entity to become the element of air and protect the Star City forest from the Dark Avatar, which appears to be the Black Lantern version of the Swamp Thing. The Elementals are then fused with the body of Alec Holland in order for him to be transformed by the Entity into the new Swamp Thing and battle against the Dark Avatar. After the Dark Avatar is defeated, Swamp Thing appears to have brought the Elementals back to normal; however, as Hawkman looks around for Shiera, he discovers that she was not brought back like he was. He is later told by Swamp Thing that Shiera is everywhere, revealing that she's still the elemental of air. Afterward, Hawkman returns home yelling "Shiera".

The New 52

Hawkgirl on the cover of [[Earth-Two|Earth 2]] #4 (October, 2012). Art by [[Ivan Reis]]. In 2011, DC Comics rebooted its continuity as part of the publishing event "The New 52". Following this, a reimagined Kendra Saunders version of Hawkgirl features in the comic book Earth 2, set in the parallel reality of that designation. Her full origin has not been revealed other than some insinuation of her background as part of a secret program that included Al Pratt. It is later revealed that Kendra Munoz-Saunders is a professional treasure hunter, and was hired by the World Army before an unrevealed event occurred in Egypt that resulted in the grafting of wings to Kendra's back, the same time Khalid Ben-Hassin found the Helmet of Fate.

Some time later, Kendra met with the Flash in Europe. She was guided by a certain Fate as to where she might find him. Together, they went to Washington, D.C. and fought Solomon Grundy, without much success. They were later joined by Green Lantern, and subsequently by the Atom. To defeat Grundy, Green Lantern carried him out of the Earth's atmosphere, and stranded him on the moon.

Despite his help against Grundy, the Atom, under orders from the World Army, tried to capture Hawkgirl, but she escaped with the help of the Flash. Green Lantern then returned to Earth after removing the danger of the nuclear missiles that the World Army launched under the advice of Terry Sloan. Unfortunately, he had run out of power, after using so much of it to defeat Grundy. He was saved by Hawkgirl, who caught him in mid-free fall.

Hawkgirl then visited the apartment of Alan Scott who was still mourning over the death of his partner Sam. Hawkgirl's detective skills allowed her to discover that Alan and Green Lantern were one and the same. She tried to convince him to join she and the Flash to form a team against the coming danger. Since then, Hawkgirl alongside the Flash, Green Lantern and Doctor Fate formed the Wonders of the World.

During the events of The Tower of Fate Hawkgirl is seen New Orleans trying to make Khalid join her in an attempt to fight against the war with Apokolips, later she is shown in Louisiana locating a parademon cell, Green Lantern appears and asks for her help with finding why his husband was murdered. Together with Kendra, Alan manages to learn much more about Sam, and within the span of a few hours the treasure huntress has completely outclassed all of the detectives earlier hired by Mr. Zhao. They're flying above the Chinese harbor when Kendra notes that they've reached the point where there was supposed to be a clue, as one of the containers contain something which is connected to Sam's death. Once they open the container however, Alan and Kendra discover to their shock numerous dead Parademons heaped atop one another. Surprised by their findings and wondering how this got Sam killed, they decide to backtrack to their previous source, the mob leader Eddie Kai Lung.

Unfortunately, before they can continue their search the Green reaches out to Alan and implores him to return to America. While Alan resists as much as he can, the force of the command proves too irresistible and he's forced to leave Kendra behind despite her protests, when he leaves however he begs Kendra to keep looking in his place. Still helping Alan with his problem, Hawkgirl is seen in a graveyard searching for answers, there she is attacked by genetically enhanced Apokorats ridden by Apokolips warriors, Batman assists her and tells her to go search for Kanto, the assassin of Apokolips. She finds out that Alan's dead husband, was mixed up with Apokolips battle tech.

When the second invasion of Apokolips in Earth-2 happened, the Wonders of the World, tried to save Earth-2 from destruction, unsuccessfully, they had to evacuate to an Earth twin, only two million survived the war. In 2015, the follow-on series called Earth 2: Society showed the survivors of Earth-2's war with Apokolips, such as Hawkgirl, Green Lantern and The Flash, finding themselves on a new world having to create a fresh life there.

DC Rebirth

In March 2016, DC Comics developed DC Rebirth, as a relaunch of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books. Using the end of The New 52 initiative in May 2016 as its launching point, DC Rebirth restored the DC Universe to a form much like that prior to the "Flashpoint" storyline while still incorporating numerous elements of The New 52, including its continuity.

Following this, Hawkgirl, as Shiera Hall, made her first appearance in Dark Days: The Forge and Dark Days: The Casting, which served as a prelude to Dark Nights: Metal.

In Dark Days: The Forge , Shiera is introduced as Carter's princess through his journal. Shiera and Carter are in Egypt where they discover a falling Thanagarian spaceship filled with Nth Metal, which Carter describes as one of the greatest mysteries of mankind. The Nth Metal they discovered in the ship gave Carter, Shiera, and their mortal enemy Hath-Set eternal life, sending them into an eternal cycle of reincarnation. Thanks to this, Carter and Shiera decided to be heroes fighting together as Hawkman and Hawkgirl, with the powers that were granted to them thanks to the exposure of Nth Metal. She is shown having spend many lives with Carter and in each one of them they've got glimpses of the mystery behind their lives, powers and stories.

Dark Days: The Casting shows Hawkgirl in the first decades of the 20th century, where she is an archaeologist alongside her husband in St. Roch. They have an encounter with the 13 Immortals, during this the Hawks tells them what they knew about from their previous reincarnations, that I didn't started in Egypt, that they began generations earlier and Hath-Set only obscured their past lives and the true meaning of the metal they wore. The 13 Immortals assisted them by sending them to various locations around the world that would tell the same story involving the metal, that the metal was cursed. Hawkgirl and Hawkman recruited adventurers to help them solve this mystery, the Blackhawks. During some investigations they found the Wizard's knife, using the power of the knife, they decided to follow deep in the darkness that surrounded the mystery. The power of the Wizard's knife was so tremendous that caused an earthquake around Challengers Mountain. As a result, the search space they built to uncover the mystery was destroyed and right in front of them they saw a great evil, eyes that were waiting in the dark, as described by Hawkman in his journal. After this Hawkman continued to pursue the mystery and decided to go alone in his journey, entering in an extradimensional portal, despite Hawkgirl saying that the mystery was only a trap dragging them to nightmares.

Kendra Saunders made her DC Rebirth debut in Dark Nights: Metal #1, she is now called Lady Blackhawk and is the leader of the current Blackhawks, an anti apocalyptic team. She first appears when the Justice League finds a bunker in a recently destroyed location in Gotham City, she introduces herself to them and warns them of an upcoming full-scale invasion, she asks the Justice League to follow her to the Blackhawk Island, a place where cosmic energy conducted through the earth's metal core cancel's itself out, creating a kind of static that disrupts space-time, the Island served as well for many years as a base of operations for the Hawks.

There she explains hers and Hawkman's origin, showing them the last piece of pure Nth Metal, Kendra tells them the powers that the metal can give, she also exposes a map of the Multiverse saying that what they thought was the back of the map is actually a dark multiverse filled with dark energy that cannot be seen or feel. During the age of stone there were three great tribes of man: Wolf, Bear and Bird. They shared a dream of discovery and were nomadic. But then a fourth tribe rose, a dark tribe and with its terrible rise so began the age of metal, Kendra talks about this tribe from a Dark Multiverse and how a great beast called Barbatos, was an enemy of the Bird tribe that Hawkman and Hawkgirl were part of. She then reveals that Batman is the human doorway through which Barbatos can come to this Earth. Due to this Kendra apologizes to Batman and says that she must prevent this from happening, since she destroyed her wings and devoted her life to ending Nth Metal, and attempts to trap him. However, Red Tornado, one of Hawkman's assistance in the search of the Dark Multiverse is reactivated, causing a major distraction enabling Batman to escape with the last piece of Nth Metal, leaving the Justice League and Kendra to deal with an uncontrolled Red Tornado.

Some time after, Kendra is seen in the Antarctic lava pits located in Finisterre. She goes there to join in a secret meeting formed by the Immortals, a group of the oldest beings of Earth, with many of them descending from the original tribes, such as Vandal Savage, Morgaine Le Fey, Ra's Al Ghul. As the latest reincarnation of Hawkgirl, Kendra reluctantly associates with Savage, she warns him that the Dark Multiverse arrival is imminent, since Batman is gone missing with the last piece of Nth Metal and Doctor Fate started having visions, she also claims that she is interested in contacting with Plastic Man, considering he may be the key to understand what is happening. Savage says that they must use their ultimate option to save Earth, the Anti-Monitor astral brain, capable of destroying the Dark Multiverse, with Kendra being the one chosen to fire the weapon. Even though Kendra tries to dissuade them on finding other options, Savage declares that the Immortals choice is final, during the meeting she discovers that Batman is in what he believes to be the tomb of prince Khufu, Kendra attempts to tell him that she destroyed his tomb years ago, revealing that Batman is actually in Hath-Set's tomb, set up to fall in a trap, he is captured by members of the Court of Owls, using him they open the door to the Dark Multiverse, bringing all of his nightmares to Earth.

Seven days after the Dark Nights invasion on Earth, Kendra is seen at the Oblivion Bar, one of the only safe places left in the universe, gathered with a few surviving heroes. In order to stop Barbatos, the heroes decide to go after the last artifacts that can fight back against the invasion of the Dark Multiverse, Nth Metal, following coordinates giving by Plastic Man the survivors divide themselves in groups, with Kendra teaming-up with Wonder Woman and Doctor Fate as they go to the center of the multiverse that lies at the Rock of Eternity.

Hawkgirl is also going to be featured in the one-shot Hawkman Found, a Tie-In comic to Dark Nights: Metal.

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