Sokovia.
A small, landlocked country in Eastern Europe—mountainous, with poor soil, and mired in endless conflict.
Warlords everywhere.
Put it this way: the man in charge this morning might be one warlord, but by afternoon—no need to wait for tomorrow—his head could be hanging from the presidential flagpole.
But…
None of that had anything to do with Hawk, who had just arrived.
Boom!
With a sonic-vapor cone blooming over Sokovia, Hawk appeared in its wake, eyes locking onto a chain of castles sprawled across a cold, forested mountainside.
The next second,
Hawk was inside the castle.
But…
It was empty. Not a soul. The whole place was a mess, and several vehicles near the main gate looked like they'd been torched in a rush.
Hawk gave it a glance. His six senses flared wide, blanketing the entire complex. He fixed on a location and vanished.
When he reappeared, he stood in a spacious third-floor room.
Also empty. Scraps of paper littered the floor, with pens and cables scattered across the tables.
Hawk swept the room once and then focused on one particular spot—the place where the Mind Stone had once rested.
He possessed the Reality Stone. At close range, he could feel the pulse of other Infinity Stones.
And this was where the Mind Stone had been.
But it was gone now.
A thought moved, and the reason this place was empty clicked into place.
Alexander Pierce had tipped them off.
No—Hawk corrected himself—the caller had tipped Pierce off.
He remembered the call—the fake "Anna" voice, and his own line about "borrowing the scepter."
That one sentence was why the scepter that should have been here… wasn't.
"Pierce."
"A HYDRA leader is still a HYDRA leader."
Hawk let out a cold laugh.
The next second,
Alexander Pierce—who had been serving time in the Third Prison, the Grindstone—was yanked in a flash of black light and thrown into the Eighth.
The Frozen Wastes.
An endless expanse of ice—layer upon layer, blizzard upon blizzard. Every soul that arrived there had one end: to freeze to death.
To freeze alive.
And like the Grindstone, death here wasn't a one-and-done. It was an unending cycle.
The moment Pierce arrived, the cold bit into his very spirit. He hugged himself by reflex; his teeth were already chattering.
Hawk, having tossed Pierce into the Eighth, stopped paying attention.
He couldn't be bothered asking where Strucker had run with the Mind Stone.
No need.
If Strucker had the guts, he could clutch the Mind Stone and never show his face again.
So thought Hawk. He turned to leave for New York, when a flicker crossed his mind. He shifted, dropping into a sealed room, gaze settling on a circular device that had just activated.
At that moment—
Thunk!
Thunk!
Thunk!
Thunk!
As Hawk set foot inside, some hidden mechanism triggered. Gold-lit metal segments slid out from the walls and ceiling, snapping together in a blink until the entire chamber was sealed.
Boom!
Hawk's eyes burned crimson. Phoenix rays—hot enough to gasify a normal person in an instant—slammed into the walls without leaving a hole.
"Vibranium."
"Correct."
As he identified the metal, the circular device hummed and fired up a projection.
A man appeared as a hologram.
Hawk narrowed his eyes at the middle-aged face, the weary smile, the rasp like metal on stone.
"Mr. Phoenix, hello. We finally meet."
"Wolfgang von Strucker."
Hawk named him, then glanced around at the vibranium-lined cell. He looked back at Strucker, face calm. "I'm the one who led you to vibranium. You think this stuff can hold me?"
Strucker smiled. "Of course not. I never intended to trap you like this."
Hawk chuckled.
"So what do you want?"
"To talk."
"Fine."
Hawk kept smiling. "Give me an address. I'll come in person, and we can have a proper chat."
Strucker laughed.
"Mr. Phoenix, there's no chance I'm giving you my current address. I only just moved."
"Pierce warned you?"
"Yes."
Strucker was blunt. "Though Alexander Pierce and I differ in many things, we share a single goal: to make HYDRA great again."
Yes.
Whether him or Alexander Pierce, the goal was the same.
Only the methods differed.
As things stood,
His method seemed a touch better.
Hawk listened and snorted openly. "Make HYDRA great again? Try it after I'm dead."
Strucker kept smiling. "No one in this world is immortal. Not even you."
"Oh?"
Hawk arched a brow, amusement playing at his lips. "So you've already found a way to kill me?"
Strucker chuckled and let the topic die.
His plan—and Arnim Zola's remnants—both needed time.
So—
"Let's make a deal, Mr. Phoenix."
"No."
"…"
The smile on Strucker's face faltered. "You haven't even heard our terms, Mr. Phoenix."
Hawk's mouth curled into a taunt. "Strucker, you'd better pray you hide deeper, hide longer—and pray whatever you're tinkering with actually works. Otherwise, you'll suffer. Forever. Without end."
Then—
Boom!
Hawk's crimson gaze lanced into the projector. With a pop, it exploded, and Strucker's face froze in surprise before winking out.
The next second,
Whoosh!
Hawk stepped once and appeared above the HYDRA castle. He drew back a fist and let it fall; the mountainside fortress shuddered and then collapsed in a visible wave.
In moments, the grand castle was a broken ruin.
Hawk turned without a glance and flew for New York.
A deal?
Deal my ass.
What rank are they, exactly?
He stands unmatched among the living.
And HYDRA? What rank are they?
A self-important pack of fools who can't even stage a proper coup.
Negotiate with him? Are they worthy?
Mephisto had tried to leverage Hawk's sister's soul—and Hawk still refused to bend. HYDRA thought that just holding the Mind Stone made them qualified to bargain?
What were they thinking?
Hawk had said he could "cheat" with the Mind Stone to hasten his comprehension of the Seventh Sense. He'd never said he required it.
Without the Mind Stone to cheat, he'd just take a bit longer.
So what.
How long had it even been since his microcosmos awakened?
As he'd just told Strucker—if they had any nerve, they could clutch the Mind Stone and never crawl out again.
So…
Negotiate?
Negotiate with your grandpa.
If you've got the guts, stay underground forever. Otherwise, once you pop your heads up, he'll kill you—and the Mind Stone will still end up his.
With that thought, Hawk returned to New York, then flickered into the backyard of 521A Palm Street.
Two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on watch spun at his sudden appearance, hands going to their guns—then relaxed as they recognized him.
"Mr. Phoenix."
They were among the agents Hawk had rescued, so they knew him and greeted him quickly.
In the living room, Gwen had been conferring with Commander Victoria Hand. Hearing the commotion in the yard, she had already rushed out while the agents spoke. Seeing Hawk, her eyes lit up and she threw her arms around him.
"Hawk, you're back."
"Yeah."
Holding his fiancée, Hawk glanced toward Victoria Hand, who was just stepping out of the living room. "Thanks."
Commander Hand said, "We should be thanking you, Hawk. Without your intervention, I don't know how this upheaval would have ended."
She meant it.
Without Hawk this time, who knew how things would have turned out—
Especially with those three Helicarriers set up with the Insight algorithm.
Thanks to Hawk, only one Insight Helicarrier was a total loss, another was badly damaged, and one remained intact.
Tony Stark had control of the intact one.
Thor's Helicarrier was heavily damaged and needed a major overhaul.
The one Hawk had pierced clean through wasn't worth repairing; just pulling it from the river would cost more than S.H.I.E.L.D. could swallow.
Still, compared to HYDRA actually bringing the program online, this was the best of bad outcomes.
So—
Commander Hand smiled faintly. "Since you're back, we won't intrude. We'll head out."
Hawk nodded. "Take care."
"Goodbye, Commander Hand," Gwen said with a smile.
Soon,
After escorting them to the door, Gwen turned back to Hawk, face suddenly serious. "Losing your left arm for the next month won't mess anything up, right?"
Hawk: "…"
(End of Chapter)
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