Project 04

"”I... I... I can’t do this anymore, not anymore...”"Alaia Sinclair was a perfectly normal human. Then she was kidnapped by Babel as the next in line of an immortality project. Her affinity with the Primordial darkness stopped her from dying, but couldn’t stop her from becoming a machine of destruction and violence. It wasn’t until years later that the Vindicators, one of her greatest enemies, managed to revive her humanity somewhat.

Early life
Born to parents Danel and Esmėe Sinclair, known only through brief flashbacks when Alaia’s memories come through, or what Musket has stated. Her father worked in the bio-engineering field to some degree. It is known that Alaia had a comfortable and happy childhood, the middle child of three. Her older brother, Emmanuel, was eight years older, while her younger brother, Ander, was six years younger.

Before being kidnapped by Babel, Alaia was stated by Musket to be “the junior girl’s softball champion three years running”, though whether this is hyperbole remains to be seen.

Her and Musket were good friends throughout middle school.

Immortality Project
In 2017, Alaia was kidnapped by agents working for Babel. Unbeknownst to anyone, Danel Sinclair had actually been working under duress for Babel Ltd., and though he had no way of knowing his actions would cause his daughter’s untimely demise, it was a combination of his research and an outstanding debt that led to Alaia’s captivity.

The details of the event are hazy, but at some point Danel had been coerced into using one of his own children as test subject material, and he chose Alaia, whom he estimated had the highest chance of survival.

Babel’s most recent project was the ‘immortality gene’, one which they believed the Sinclairs had a high chance of having. By manipulating genomes, and implementing some experimental extra-normal material, they believed they could crack the code on aging and create humans that live forever. Part of the experiment involved taking children from various ‘volunteer’ scientists working in the above board facilities, which would then be used as leverage to keep these researchers quiet and obedient while they carried out their dire work.

Unfortunately, out of the seven initial test subjects, only three survived phase one - Project 07, who was quickly put onto cryo after their body began to disintegrate, Project 02, aka BioHazard, and Project 04, Alaia Sinclair, and the most successful Immortal to date.

Project 04 under Babel Ltd.
As Project 04, Alaia‘s memories and personality began to slowly erode. Months passed without seeing the sun, years passed until she could leave the lab, and constant injections, mind alteration, and isolation eventually drove what remained of Alaia’s free spirited nature out of the picture. Project 04’s body, unlike her ’cousin’, had quite the opposite reaction to the darkness infused within her. While her face remains mostly human, if not a little unsettling, with blank white eyes and pulsing black veins, as it goes further down her body it becomes less and less recognisable. It struggles to keep consistency, but unlike Project 02, it isn’t prone to complete disintegration. To keep this body contained, Babel built an exo-suit that was intended to permanently fuse to her body, making her, essentially, a cyborg.

At an unspecified point in time between 2017 and 2019, Project 04 was ordered to kill Danel and his family after he fell out with Babel and tried to leave the city under the radar. She didn’t succeed in killing all of them, because at the very least, her older brother and mother were later seen in the story.

While undergoing experimentation, Alaia did not see much of the outside world at all, but she did do Babel’s dirty work behind the scenes, almost managing to recreate the Breaking Point incident and bridge the Negative Space. However, Babel was eventually broken down and she disappeared off the radar some time in early 2019.

Gibbet
Just before 2019 ended, Project 04 resurfaced - this time sporting a stark white exo-suit and a rage previously unseen. She’d been ‘rescued’ from Babel’s clutches by the nefarious Dr Omen, who completely wiped her memories and implanted false ones in their stead. He nicknamed her the ‘Gibbet’, intending for her to be more an executioner, rather than an obedient enforcer. It’s this point in time the Vindicators start to fight her head on, and she became one of their greatest nemeses to date. During the siege of Calamity Mall, Gibbet faced down against her own brother in the streets. However, she could not recognise him, owing to her recent mindwipe and the new suit which physically blinded her. She struck him down before chasing down her initial target: Impact. Emmanuel was admitted to hospital, but died during recovery.

Dr Omen’s mindwipe was incomplete, however. Eventually, Gibbet began regaining more and more memories of her time at Babel, which caused her to lash out and strike her own. In a moment of indecision, she let Nero go, claiming a kindred spirit between them. After many months of psychological warfare, Project 04 finally attempted to take Dr Omen’s life before being stopped by the Vindicators, who had been tipped off by a former Babel employee. Confused, Project 04 ran away from the scene.

Post-restoration
During the final stand-off between the Vindicators and Gibbet, a worn-down and near beaten Musket, despite her team’s warnings, managed to talk her down. However, it took The Emissary’s help to fully clear her mind from Dr Omen’s mind control. Almost immediately, she passed out and the Vindicators had to take her away before she was locked away or killed on sight. This was a controversial move for obvious reasons.

Gibbet, now going by Project 04 once more, took up residence in the team’s base, where she was monitored 24/7. Such a serious threat was she, that The Emissary even gave up her free time to make sure she wouldn’t go violent again. Magehand and Lockheart were the loudest detractors from this plan, and only Musket and Nero ever voiced their approval. This made everything very tense around the base while Project 04 recovered.

Though still prone to fits of rage, Project 04 has mellowed considerably by now. She still struggled to remember anything beyond her horrifyingly traumatic experiences at Babel. To Musket’s dismay, she was nowhere near the same girl she once had been. On top of this, Project 04 had very little memory of being Alaia beyond a few flashbacks. Nevertheless, Musket was determined moreso than ever to bring Alaia back.

Personality
Alaia Sinclair was a relatively normal, kind of quirky, girl. She enjoyed gore, horror, and was prone to fits of comedic rage when frustrated by a video game, or bad traffic, or the like. Not too much is known about her personality before losing her mind, but it seems she was a genuinely kind person who had trouble fitting in with the normal crowd, but didn’t mind sticking out. Lillian once described her as being “the coolest nerd I ever met”.

As Project 04 under Babel, Alaia was slowly broken down until almost nothing of her original personality remained. The anger, pain, and resentment of her old self stayed the strongest, although she’d all but given up by this point.

Gibbet is almost completely different to the original Alaia, speaking few words and showing even fewer emotions. Most of the time she spends violently destroying everything in her path, following Dr Omen’s orders to an untenable T. Her rage, unlike Alaia’s red hot frustration, is more a cold, simmering heat.

The recently restored Project 04 is a combination of these two personalities. Coloured by her mistreatment at the hands of Babel, and her implanted memories courtesy of Dr Omen, she remains sullen, quiet, and withdrawn, with a fierce temper. However, she is afraid of a great many things, waits for permission on almost anything, and has trouble differentiating between a joke and the real thing. Occasionally, pieces of Alaia show through, usually when she cracks a joke or starts quoting Galaxy Quest.

Powers
As Project 04, Alaia has gained a plethora of superpowers at her disposal:
 * Immortality - Project 04, and all the other Immortals, are unaffected at least in part by age, and require very little sustenance to live, but they are not invulnerable.


 * Negative physiology - the Primordial darkness grants them some powers native to those of the negative dimension: namely, darkness-based regeneration, and the ability to survive in Negative Space.
 * Cybernetic enhancements - almost her entire body is enhanced, giving her greater strength, durability, reflexes, and speed, at the cost of requiring maintenance. They also allow her some degree of hacking.
 * Mental resilience - because of the particular way Babel physically messed with her brain and Dr Omen messed with her mind, she’s become more resistant to most forms of mind control, including telepathy.

Relationships
Musket: Lillian and Alaia were friends through middle school up until Alaia’s disappearance. Although Project 04 doesn’t remember a lot of these times, she still feels some sort of connection to Musket, evidenced in the fact that she never went for a killing blow, and only tends to respond when Musket addresses her first. Lillian strongly believes Alaia is still there, and will do anything to bring her back, even if it’s dangerous.

Magehand: Project 04 and Magehand don’t get along nearly as well. Technology and magic don’t often mix, and Project 04’s body is entirely a technological marvel. They have very little to do with each other, though Stace tries his best to treat her fairly.

Omnikid: Gibbet considered Omnikid the greatest threat. Project 04 is more scared of him than anything else. He can’t really copy her abilities since they are mostly physical attributes, but he’s still the one most likely to be able to kill her.

Lockheart: Lockheart is outright scared of Project 04, and has outright stated she thinks Project 04 will turn and murder them, even if she doesn’t mean to. As such, Lockheart is generally her emotional support, absorbing emotions when they get too powerful and sending calming vibes. 04 is a little dependent on her.

Nero: Gibbet once said there was a ‘kindred spirit’ between them. Of course, she means their Primordial body. She doesn’t think as highly of Lucia, going as far as to call them “Nero’s host” until eventually corrected. 04 isn’t as snobbish about it, but still prefers the symbiote to the host.

Billie Moore: Billie and Project 04 fought before she ever became Gibbet, when Billie was a Young Universal. While it was just a single battle, that has shaped all other interactions - constantly trying to out-do the other and low key hoping the other would drop the team.

Terrorcotta: 04 has very little to say to Terrorcotta. It’s unknown if she realises that he was a human, like her, but nonetheless has a bit of sympathy for his plight, never fitting in and having traumatic past experiences. She likes how quiet he speaks.

The Emissary: While The Emissary harbours no ill will towards 04, she was also there throughout much of Gibbet’s reign of terror, and can’t be too complacent. However, nobody knows more about Project 04 and the Immortals than The Emissary, so 04 has no choice but to be friendly.