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When Natasha spoke those words, both her tone and her expression radiated absolute certainty.
And in fact—
Alexander Pierce, watching the crimson light streak across the sky toward them at incredible speed, didn't even try to argue.
Because she was right.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Hawk's form transformed into a rainbow streak. In one fluid motion, he dove straight down and punched clean through the uppermost Insight helicarrier. The Vibranium shielding didn't even ripple. It just... shattered. Instantly.
Suddenly—
A violent explosion erupted. Brilliant flames burst from both the top and bottom of the helicarrier.
The shockwave from the massive detonation swept outward in all directions, launching both Captain America and the Winter Soldier—former best friends locked in combat—straight off their feet.
WHAM!
Cap hit the deck, rolled several times, and sprang back up.
The Winter Soldier wasn't so lucky.
Because Hawk had grabbed him.
The Winter Soldier stared at Hawk and tried to fight back—but in that same instant, Hawk's hand was already wrapped around his throat.
Just as Hawk's eyes began to glow with crimson light—
Cap called out urgently. "Hawk, please—"
The red glow faded from Hawk's eyes. He glanced at Steve, who was scrambling to his feet. "Captain?"
Steve spoke quickly. "Don't kill him. Please."
He was genuinely nervous.
On the flight from New York to D.C., Natasha, Sharon, and Commander Hand had filled him in on a lot of Hawk's history.
Starting with General Ross's entire family being wiped out. And the complete annihilation of Wakanda.
Clearly—
Hawk was ruthless. So Steve was terrified that Hawk might casually snap his best friend's neck without a second thought.
But Hawk was angry right now, sure. But not so angry that he'd lost control.
He'd just wanted to see if Captain America Steve Rogers really did have those "special feelings" for his old friend that the legends always hinted at.
And sure enough.
Having gotten the answer he wanted, Hawk let out a quiet laugh. He looked at Steve's tense expression, then casually tossed the Winter Soldier at Cap's feet.
"He's all yours, Captain."
"...Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
Hawk said the words, then vanished in a flash, reappearing on the second Insight helicarrier.
Thor was still hammering away at the Vibranium shielding.
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
"Need a hand?"
"No!"
Thor didn't even look back. Then—probably because his sparring partner had just shown up and he didn't want to look weak—he roared, his biceps bulging, lightning coursing through his body. Mjölnir crackled with electricity as he brought it down on the Vibranium shield one more time.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
"CRACK!!"
With the deafening crash of thunder, spiderweb cracks appeared across the surface of the Vibranium shield. They spread outward at lightning speed, covering the entire barrier.
Hawk didn't stick around. He moved on to the third helicarrier, where Tony Stark was working.
Tony had been contacted by Phil Coulson, who'd reached out to Pepper Potts. Under Pepper's stunned gaze, Tony had suited up in the armor that had flown straight to him from their private jet and then headed here.
The deck of the helicarrier was already littered with HYDRA corpses.
Hawk glanced at Tony, who had already breached the command deck like it was a walk in the park and was currently working with JARVIS to seize control of the carrier. Hawk's gaze lingered for a moment, then shifted away. He looked toward the SHIELD headquarters building—specifically, toward Natasha, who was standing at the top floor's floor-to-ceiling windows, watching him.
The next second—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Space rippled. Hawk vanished from the helicarrier and reappeared inside the top-floor conference room of the Triskelion.
His gaze immediately locked onto Alexander Pierce.
"Where's Anna?"
"..."
Pierce looked at Hawk. His eyes flickered for a moment, then steadied.
"Dead."
"Is that so?"
Hawk's expression didn't change. Instead, he let out a rare laugh. "Sounds like you've been hiding a lot from me. But that's fine. We'll find a quiet place and have a nice, long chat."
Pierce's pupils contracted. Without hesitation, his teeth bit down—
Hawk's Sixth Sense flared. He tracked Pierce's heartbeat, pulse, and eye movements in an instant. With a thought, his psychokinesis surged forward and froze Pierce in place just as he tried to bite down on the poison capsule hidden in his tooth.
Just then—
Natasha spoke up. "He just tried to activate HYDRA operatives hidden outside Bleecker Street. He was planning to take Gwen hostage and use her as leverage against you."
Hawk's expression darkened.
"But I stopped him. The call didn't go through. Commander Victoria Hand has already dispatched a SHIELD team to protect Gwen."
"Thank you."
Hawk's heart, which had clenched tight for a moment, relaxed slightly. He looked at Natasha and smiled faintly, then turned his gaze to the Eastern Council representative, who was still holding his gun. "Pierce and I have some private business to discuss. You don't mind if I take him with me, do you?"
The Eastern representative—dressed elegantly and wearing an equally elegant expression—smiled politely.
"We do not interfere in the internal affairs of others."
"Appreciated."
Hawk smiled faintly. When he turned back to Pierce, his gaze had become razor-sharp. "I always thought you were the smartest person in HYDRA. Turns out, you're the biggest idiot of them all."
Pierce, frozen in place by Hawk's psychokinesis, showed no expression.
But his heartbeat was accelerating. Even his pupils were contracting rapidly.
Hawk let out a dry chuckle. He was about to take Pierce and leave—head back to New York first to confirm Gwen was safe, then find some secluded spot where he and Pierce could have a proper conversation about everything that had happened between them.
Just then, Natasha seemed to hear something through her earpiece. She called out to Hawk, pulled the device from her ear, and handed it to him. "Hawk, Gwen's been safely extracted from the panic room."
Hawk took the earpiece and put it in his own ear.
"Gwen?"
"Hawk!"
Gwen—who had only emerged from the basement panic room after Commander Hand personally led the team and the female agent from the hospital confirmed their SHIELD identities—smiled as she heard Hawk's voice through the earpiece. "I'm fine. Go do what you need to do. Be a hero. I'm proud of you."
Hawk's lips curved upward.
"Hero... You know—"
"You don't have to be a hero all the time. You just have to step up when it matters. That's what makes someone a hero."
"Alright. If you want me to be a hero."
"I'll be waiting for you to come home."
"Yeah."
Gwen's voice was soft. Calm. It reminded Hawk of the time after his Quantico raid, when she'd called him home. Her voice had sounded just like this—instantly soothing the chaos raging inside him.
"Gwen wants me to be a hero. So I'll help you guys this one time." Hawk removed the earpiece and handed it back to Natasha. "Watch Pierce. Don't let him kill himself. I can go to Hell and drag him back if he dies, but that's a pain in the ass."
After all, he and Mephisto were already on bad terms.
Sure, their last encounter had ended with Mephisto backing down.
But—
That was only because neither of them could kill the other. If either of them got the chance, though? They'd take it in a heartbeat.
So if Pierce died and his soul ended up with Mephisto, retrieving it would inevitably cause another confrontation.
Better to avoid the hassle.
Hawk thought to himself. After Natasha nodded in agreement, he focused his mind. When he reappeared, he was hovering in the air outside the Triskelion.
The next moment, his Sixth Sense spread out like an invisible net, blanketing the entire SHIELD building below.
He saw the SHIELD agents on every floor—outnumbered and outgunned, but still fighting back fiercely against the HYDRA operatives.
He also saw Sharon Carter, leading a squad of SHIELD agents, trying to break through to the underground command center.
The SHIELD agents' expressions were resolute. Willing to die for the cause.
The HYDRA operatives looked twisted. Self-destructive. Like they'd gladly take someone down with them if they were going out.
Hawk floated in the air, his Sixth Sense fully deployed, taking in every detail of the chaos unfolding both above and below ground.
And then—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Hawk's Cosmo detonated. The immense energy released by the explosion fed into his Sixth Sense, which split into countless threads. Each one locked onto a HYDRA operative with pinpoint precision.
One by one.
Agent after agent.
Until the very last HYDRA operative had been marked.
HUM!
The HYDRA agents engaged in firefights with SHIELD operatives began vanishing. One after another. Like a magic trick. Gone in an instant, right before the SHIELD agents' eyes.
Sharon, who had just led her team to the underground command center and was staring down the barrel of a HYDRA operative's gun, felt her heart sink. She'd already accepted that she was about to die.
But then, the HYDRA operative vanished right in front of her.
Sharon froze. Then, as realization dawned—
"Hawk!"
"That's right. It's him."
Natasha—who had just pulled the poison tooth from Pierce's mouth—heard Sharon's whispered words through the earpiece. She looked outside and confirmed it.
...
Outside the building.
A massive, lifelike phoenix made of fire spread its wings in the sky.
And beneath it, HYDRA operatives appeared one by one, teleported directly into the flames. They didn't even have time to scream before they were burned to ash.
Countless HYDRA agents, pulled from the building by Hawk's Sixth Sense: Psychic Teleportation, flew toward their own destruction like moths to a flame.
In a way—
They got exactly what they wanted.
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~# 70 Advanced Chapters Available on my Patreon!
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