Sparrowhawk's wings allow her to fly and soar just like her namesake, although at a much faster speed-- sometimes upward of 175 MPH with a good tailwind-- and with incredible maneuverability.   The wings are part of her armorsuit and are therefore actually bonded neurologically to her body rather than physically, but through her cadet training on Eithos, Shannah has learned to use the armorsuit wings as though they were an extension of her body.  Sheer thought on her part, in other words, will cause the wings to flap, extend, curl and fold depending on her need in any given situation.

Enhanced Senses, Enhanced Strength and Conditioning

Although Eithos' orbit around its star is just about half the size of Earth's, the planet's mass is a little more dense and its gravity is a little stronger than Earth's.  The limited gravity of Earth has affected Shannah since her arrival, giving her the bodily strength to hold her own with multiple opponents or even most genetically-enhanced humans.  Thanks largely to those same spatial factors, Sparrowhawk also tires from exertion more slowly than most humans and tends to recuperate, for the most part, at a faster rate.

Eithosians are renowned for their acute senses of smell and, especially, vision-- those attributes are true in Sparrowhawk as well.  Although Earth has a more polluted scent than Eithos, it has yet to prove to be an obstacle in Shannah's sense of smell, and her vision is likewise untainted.  In human terms, she has better than 200/20 vision.

Martial Supremacy

Training at the Academy of Royal Guard in Eithos includes a grueling regimen of combat techniques, including the use of various bladed, energy, missile and blunt weapons, as well as various hand-to-hand styles.  In this area, Shannah turned out to be better than many.  She is an expert marksman, and can wield a variety of weapons with practiced ease.  When hand-to-hand fighting, however, despite her training, she tends to fall back to her favorite: simple all-out brawling.

Eithosian Armorsuit

The Eithosian Armorsuit (what she has begun to call the Sparrowhawk suit since her arrival and acceptance on Earth) is a masterpiece of Eithosian handcrafting and technology.  Crafted of an alloy that greatly resists damage and wear and provides protection from high flying speeds and possible high-speed impact, the suit's breastplate is interlaid with circuitry and neuro-fibers that link the suit to its wearer to operate the suit's extendable wings and operate many of the suit's offensive and defensive configurations.  Once a suit is first placed on, no one else can wear it without suffering neurological feedback as the suit recognizes someone other than its owner.  As a full suit is formally presented to each new member of the Eithosian Royal Guard at their ascent into the ranks, (and upon their death, it is buried with them) each Royal Guard's Armorsuit is a source of intense pride... many guardsmen have them symbolically painted with their family crest or have additional hardware added to it to personalize the suit.

Sparrowhawk's own suit is a stripped-down version provided to her as she left Eithos on her Cadet Voyage. Although it lacks the offensive weaponry and defensive shielding of a full suit, its neurological link allows her to effortlessly operate the wings, and alone it provides basic protection against the stresses of high-speed travel by flight, and where it covers, provides strong protection against most Terran forms of weaponry. 
 

Shannah Keirol seemed to be destined to be the pride and joy of the her family, one of the many on the lower tiers of nobility on her home planet of Eithos-- itself a major planet in a Planetary Confederation of star systems light years from Earth.  An intelligent, inquisitive and athletic young woman, she worked hard through her early schooling years with the hopes of being accepted into the Academy of Royal Guard, and at the young age of 25 was heartily accepted and received an appointment to begin formal schooling for what was one of the planet's great honors.

Ecstatic about her appointment and her chance to be a Royal Guard, Shannah applied herself over the next few years with both excitement and tireless determination.  Receiving high marks in classroom work was something that came almost as second nature to her... it was not nearly as difficult to her as learning the fighting techniques, piloting skills and battle tactics that would be required of a Royal Guardian.  But even as she struggled through the exhausting physical side of her training, she never let the goal of graduating slip from her mind, and it only caused her to spend more time studying weapons and fighting techniques, until she was receiving high marks in the physical portions of her schooling, as well.

By her last couple years in the Academy, it was widely recognized that Shannah Keirol would graduate to the Royal Guard with high honors, and so she was among the few chosen for a Cadet Voyage.  The Cadet Voyage was a sort of field-test given to high-ranking cadets, in which they would prove their worth in an off-planet mission, usually for the greater good of the Confederation.  Shannah's mission was to escort a dignitary from a neighboring star system to a council on Eithos.

The dignitary arrived safe and sound.  Shannah's escort ship was not so lucky.  While traveling back toward Eithos, the two ships were attacked by the single-man fighters of a group of raiders that sought to capture the dignitary and hold him for ransom.  Shannah fought with exemplary bravery and poise, and even managed to drive the raiders off, but she had drifted off-course and her ship was drawn into an uncharted wormhole.

The ride through nearly destroyed her ship, and by the time Shannah emerged from the wormhole, most of her systems were damaged beyond repair.  Desperate, she angled her ship the best she could for the bluish-green third planet of the system she found herself in, and braced for impact.  She was fortunate.  The gravity well of the planet was far less severe than her home, and although she sustained bumps, bruises and cuts from the landing, the majority of the damage was sustained by her single-seat escort ship, which was pretty well beyond hope of being spaceworthy again. 

Worse still, her communications gear was in bad condition, and she couldn't even read any Confederation signal posts, meaning the wormhole must have taken her a long, long way from home, with no discernable means of contacting her homeworld or returning without help.  Her only consolation was that the planet appeared to be habitable, if not inhabited, and that the lesser gravity seemed to invigorate her.  But those were little solace compared to thought of failing her mission and never seeing her homeworld or family again.  At that point, to say that she was devestated was putting it lightly.

It was in that state that Team:Teen found her, responding to reports of a strange flying object that seemed to have gone down in the hills well on the outskirts of Hub City.  After a brief tussle as they thought that she might have been part of an invasion force, common sense and sympathy for Shannah's plight ruled, and the first olive branches of friendship were extended instead-- after some work moving Shannah's scoutship to a hidden location, the team took Shannah in as their friend.  As she learned that Team:Teen's method of operation was much like that of a guardian to their home city, protecting it from those who meant it harm, Shannah took the name Sparrowhawk and asked to join her newfound friends as a teammate; they accepted wholeheartedly. 

Although it would be incorrect to say that Shannah doesn't miss her homeworld or wish to return, as months have gone by since her arrival, she has become very loyal to her friends on Team:Teen, especially Power Princess, whom she feels a sort of kinship with as fellow offworlders.  Shannah is slowly-- but pragmatically, considering her situation-- starting to consider Hub City her home.