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The moment Hawk returned to New York City, the SHIELD agents discreetly stationed around 521A Bleecker Street received the signal and quietly withdrew.
Gwen, who had been digging away in the backyard garden with a small shovel, suddenly found her vision going dark as a pair of warm hands covered her eyes.
The next second, A low voice with a playful rumble spoke behind her.
"Guess who."
"Mojo Jojo?"
"Mojo... who?"
"A lunatic trying to take over the world."
"Oh. That's not me. Guess again."
"Dr. Drakken?"
"Drak... who's that?"
"Blue-skinned scientist in a blue robe. Also obsessed with world domination." Gwen shrugged, playing along with her fiancé's little game.
Standing behind her, Hawk's mouth twitched.
"So in your mind, I'm just some villain trying to rule or conquer the world?"
"Mojo Jojo is from 'The Powerpuff Girls.' Dr. Drakken is from 'Kim Possible.'" Gwen smiled as she turned around to face Hawk. "Mojo Jojo wants to rule the world, sure, but he's not actually evil at heart. He just commits crimes to get Professor Utonium's attention. Dr. Drakken's just too radical in his thinking. But my Hawk isn't bad at heart, and he's not a radical either. Right?"
Hawk looked at Gwen, whose sparkling emerald eyes were smiling up at him, and shook his head.
"You're just saying that to make me feel better."
"Yes." Gwen smiled, pulled off her gloves, wrapped her arms around Hawk's neck, and kissed him. Then she asked, "Do you feel better now?"
Hawk's gaze drifted upward. He thought about it, then looked back at Gwen.
"I do."
"Then I do too." Gwen's smile widened. She kissed him again, then felt Hawk's hands start to wander upward. Smoothly, she placed the small shovel in his hand instead. "Help me with the gardening."
Hawk looked down at the shovel now in his grip, blinked, then glanced at Gwen's expectant expression. He couldn't help but laugh, shake his head, and crouch down to finish digging the holes she hadn't completed yet.
Gwen put her gloves back on, sat down on a small stool nearby, and started cleaning the flowers and plants that had been shipped back from her grandfather William's place.
"It's okay if you didn't catch Dr. Merrick. Really, Hawk. You can fail a hundred times. But he only has to fail once, and you'll get him."
"Dr. Merrick's been dealt with."
"And the clones—"
"Also dealt with."
"Uh..."
Gwen had known it was Hawk the moment he'd covered her eyes. She'd also known his mood wasn't great. Because when Hawk was in a good mood—or even just a normal mood—he didn't play games like this.
So she'd figured things hadn't gone smoothly with Dr. Merrick and had gone along with it to cheer him up.
But now... Gwen looked curiously at Hawk, who was digging flower holes beside her. "Then what's wrong?"
Hawk shrugged, glancing at Gwen.
"Alexander Pierce. I really want to grind his soul into dust."
"Alexander Pier—"
Gwen blinked, then caught on.
"Isn't he already dead?"
"Yes. His soul's still being punished in the Ice Prison. Merrick's there now too. And their sentences are eternal."
"Then why—"
"I gave Alexander Pierce another chance. Told him to tell me where he's imprisoned Anna. After all, HYDRA's plan to clone me, kill me, and then conquer the world has officially failed. You know what he said?"
"He refused."
Gwen let out a dry laugh, looking at Hawk. "If he'd agreed, you wouldn't be making that face. But why?"
Hawk frowned.
"I'm guessing it has something to do with Strucker."
"Strucker?"
"Wolfgang von Strucker. Remember when I flew to Sokovia and the place was already empty? He's old-school HYDRA."
"Your reasoning?"
"Strucker probably has another plan targeting me. And if I'm not mistaken, Anna's with Strucker too. That's why Alexander Pierce won't talk. Obviously, he's still holding out hope."
"He's willing to die for HYDRA. That's understandable."
Gwen analyzed calmly. "But another plan? You suspected Merrick and this Strucker were working together before. Didn't Merrick say anything?"
Hawk scoffed. "Oh, Merrick talked. He's an idiot who got played. His brain's complete mush. I swore on God I'd let him go if he told me everything. And he believed me. Did he not realize God already screwed with me?"
Even if Hawk hadn't used verbal manipulation on Merrick, the man wouldn't have survived.
God? Please...
Merrick's God had already picked a fight with him. Hawk had been hoping for an excuse to break that oath just so the old bastard would show up.
"But at the end of his confession, I asked Merrick if he knew where Strucker was. He said he didn't know. Clearly, they weren't working together."
"Maybe he was lying."
"He's too stupid. I made an offhand promise, and he bought it completely. Trust me, he doesn't have the brainpower."
"Fair point."
Gwen looked at Hawk's confident expression, thought about it, and nodded in agreement.
If someone came to her and said she wouldn't die if she confessed everything, she wouldn't believe a single word of it.
"So you think Strucker has another plan targeting you?"
"It's the only explanation." Hawk gripped the shovel with his right hand, gesturing toward Gwen with the other. "Anna's even in Strucker's custody. That's the only reason Pierce saw Merrick and still chose not to talk."
Gwen's brow furrowed into a knot.
"Is Strucker also trying to clone you?"
"No."
"You're sure?"
"I suspected that at first, so I confirmed it with Merrick. The core cloning technology was Merrick's alone. Even the clone decoy he created to fool SHIELD didn't have access to it."
That was also why Hawk's Sixth Sense had warned him when he'd considered asking that Merrick clone to create a body for his sister Anya.
Put it this way, If that clone had tried to create a body for his sister, the result wouldn't have been a perfect vessel. It wouldn't even have been a body at all. It would've been something that looked perfect from a distance but would collapse into rotting meat the moment you touched it.
"Strucker's not cloning. It has to be something else."
"Something else? What else can he do with your blood?"
Gwen, sitting on her small stool, frowned. "Use your blood to extract your DNA and then create a DNA-targeted bioweapon?"
Hawk shook his head.
"I'm immune to everything, sweetheart."
"Sweetheart, I said DNA bioweapon. Finding flaws in your DNA and weaponizing them. Not a virus."
"Still impossible."
Hawk shook his head, looking at Gwen.
"I could stand at ground zero of a nuclear explosion, and the nuke wouldn't do anything to me. Radiation can't even give me a cold. You really think they can cook up a DNA-targeted bioweapon more powerful than nuclear radiation?"
"Obviously not. No bioweapon comes close to what nuclear radiation does to human DNA."
Gwen said as much, then sat on her stool, thinking about what HYDRA could possibly do with Hawk's blood.
But aside from cloning and bioweapons, she couldn't think of anything else.
Well, actually—
She did think of one other thing. The simplest option: framing him.
Fake a crime scene, leave Hawk's blood behind, get him globally wanted, isolate him completely.
But that tactic might work on other people, but it was completely useless against Hawk.
The reason was simple.
Hawk actually killed people.
So yeah, that approach might work on Iron Man or Captain America or Natasha. But against Hawk? Completely pointless.
Gwen thought it through from every angle and finally shook her head.
"I honestly can't figure out what else they could do with your blood besides those two things."
"Then stop thinking about it." Hawk looked at Gwen's frustrated expression and smiled. "You know why I really want to grind Alexander Pierce's soul into dust but haven't done it?"
Gwen caught the smile on Hawk's face and laughed. "You want to catch Strucker. You want to see the look on Pierce's face when he sees Strucker."
Otherwise, why would Hawk want so badly to destroy Pierce's soul but hold back?
It certainly wasn't out of love.
Hawk's smile widened.
"I said Dr. Merrick's cloning plan had zero effect on me."
"And the facts proved you right."
"Strucker's the same."
"No matter what he's planning."
"Just like when I went to Sokovia and he projected himself to meet me."
"I told Strucker he'd better hide for the rest of his life. Pray I never find him."
"Because if I do—"
"He'll die horribly." Hawk was irritated because his good friend Anna still hadn't been found. Not because of Strucker.
Even though Strucker had the Mind Stone he wanted.
He wasn't in a hurry.
No matter how much he wanted the Mind Stone, he wouldn't show it.
Loose lips sink ships.
He'd mistaken Alexander Pierce for Anna and mentioned the Mind Stone. That mistake had caused Strucker to grab it and go into hiding.
The same trick doesn't work twice on a Saint.
Because, A Saint never makes the same mistake twice.
"I believe you."
Gwen looked at Hawk's serious expression for a moment, then smiled faintly. "Alright. Then let's wait for this pest hiding in the dirt to crawl out on his own. You know what you should do now?"
Hawk's eyes lit up.
"Sleep?"
"No. You need to take off that SHIELD shirt. We're supposed to be at my parents' house."
"We brought gifts back, remember?"
"Remember?"
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