"Feili is pregnant?"
"Yes."
"I'm going to be a dad?"
"That's right."
"Feili..."
"Enough of that."
Hawk looked at Peter, who had been sitting dazedly in the chair like a broken record after Felicia left. Decisively, he decided to interject, looking at Peter with some curiosity and asked, "How did you end up with Felicia?"
Felicia went out to inquire from the Uighur side about where the suspected adamantium came from for him.
He was also quite curious about Peter and Felicia's story.
Now he had some free time.
He had thought about going over with Felicia, but he couldn't stand the way the Uighur looked at him like he was some kind of ancestor, plus he wasn't familiar with them, so he asked Felicia to help.
Hearing Hawk's gossipy tone, Peter snapped back and faced Hawk's equally gossipy eyes, his mouth twitching.
"I don't want to say."
"Alright."
Hawk replied decisively, and then looked at Peter, "When Mary calls you a jerk, don't expect Gwen to explain it for you."
Peter was stunned.
"Scold me, why? Mary already called to break up with me."
"Exactly, but let me ask you, how many months pregnant is Felicia?"
"Four months."
"Counting out your time on Skull Island, Mary broke up with you how many months ago?"
"Three months ago."
"See?"
Hawk smiled and spread his hands, "Mary broke up with you only three months ago, and Felicia is already four months pregnant, think about that thoroughly!"
Peter's pupils visibly dilated at Hawk's words.
The next second.
Realizing the situation, Peter explained to Hawk, "But the time flow on Skull Island is different from the outside."
Hawk gave Peter a strange look.
"Right, try explaining that to Mary and see if she believes you."
"But it's true."
"Will she believe it?"
"She..."
Peter opened his mouth, trying to give a firm answer, but under Hawk's gaze, he completely backed down, diverted his eyes, and quietly began to tell Hawk the story of how he got together with Felicia.
No way around it.
Mary wasn't just his ex-girlfriend; she was also his neighbor.
So...
Peter knew Mary well.
If he just explained to Mary why Felicia would be pregnant after only three months of their breakup, Mary would definitely scold him as a two-timing jerk, and she would ridicule his excuse as the most ridiculous piece of crap ever.
Time difference, seriously.
Even though it was true, the explanation sounded different coming from him compared to coming from Gwen.
So, for the sake of getting Hawk and Gwen to back him up later, Peter had no choice but to tell the story of him and Felicia as Hawk requested.
"Actually, when I first arrived on the island, my powers suddenly stopped working."
"It seems to be some mysterious force on this island, but it might also have something to do with my mood being a bit depressed after Mary dumped me."
"I can't figure it out either, but my powers were sporadic, working sometimes and not at others."
"Skull Island is fraught with danger. A regular person might not even survive one night there."
"On our first day, the squad meant to protect Feili was completely wiped out, leaving just me and Feili."
"Feili noticed my condition was off, but she didn't blame me. Instead, she acted as a sort of mental coach and comforted me while we navigated the perilous jungle."
"But we still encountered danger."
"The day before we were about to leave the jungle, I got sick for the first time since my mutation."
"I was shivering and freezing."
"It was Feili—she warmed me with her own body."
"Strangely enough..."
"After that night, my powers returned, no more interruptions, and then I found the Uighur with Feili and we settled here."
After telling his story, Peter felt relieved, then looked at Hawk, who was attentively listening, and said, "Now you know, you better back me up."
Having gotten the gossip he wanted, Hawk nodded and gave Peter a definite promise, then looked at Peter, sighing, "That's the power of love."
Love can wound people; as Peter said, his powers faltered after Mary's breakup call.
But love can also revive a man, making him strong again.
Just as Peter described, after uniting with Feili in the stormy cave, his superpowers returned.
Contemplating this, Hawk nodded at Peter once more.
"That's nice."
"What?"
"Felicia."
Hawk smiled lightly as he told Peter, "I'm glad to see you have love again, and even a child from that love. Honestly, man, I'm happy for you."
This is Spider-Man, after all.
When he saw Felicia and sensed that she was nurturing a little spider inside her, he couldn't help but feel moved.
After all...
Hawk really considered Peter as his friend.
Peter had always been living by the motto that with great power comes great responsibility, never giving up on this belief no matter how tough life got.
So Peter deserved a better life.
Besides...
Isn't the meaning of being a time traveler exactly this?
To make up for the regrets of the original timeline.
Hawk smiled at Peter.
"Congratulations, buddy, you're going to be a dad."
"Thank you!"
Peter finally returned to the look of that slightly goofy smiling Spider Spirit, grinning, scratching his head as he accepted Hawk's blessing.
The next second.
Hawk's eyes lit up as he thought of something, looking at Peter.
"Oh, by the way, Mary has also started seeing someone new, someone you know—Flash Thompson."
"..."
Peter's silly smile instantly froze.
Hawk's smile was radiant.
This is what old friends mean.
Old friends can genuinely be happy for your happiness from the bottom of their hearts.
At the same time...
Old friends will never miss an opportunity to poke fun at you.
This is what old friends are!
Just then.
Felicia walked back in from outside.
She first looked at Hawk, who was smiling happily, then at Peter, whose expression was frozen, somewhat curious.
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Nothing much."
Peter snapped back to reality immediately.
He wasn't an idiot after all, and besides, even an idiot knows not to talk about their ex in front of their current girlfriend.
It's a forbidden topic, one small slip and your current girlfriend might turn into an unspeakable Cthulhu-like horror.
Hawk received the eye signal Peter was sending and smiled inwardly, then said to Felicia, "So, did you find out anything?"
Felicia glanced at Peter somewhat suspiciously, but after Hawk asked about the main issue, she sat back down next to Peter, letting Peter hold her hand while recounting what she had just learned from the Uighur High Priest.
"The High Priest said that these metals were left to them by their ancestors."
"Originally, the Uighur didn't live here; according to the High Priest, they didn't live on this island."
"And they weren't so frail initially."
"It's said that their people once possessed various mysterious abilities."
"Some could breathe fire, some could fly."
"But after a great disaster, everything changed. It was a terrifying creature more dreadful than skull reptiles."
"They were forced to leave their ancestral land, and these metals were brought with them when they left."
"...brought up."
As Hawk listened to Felicia's account, he caught a key word, instinctively looking at Felicia: "You mean, they are from..."
Felicia nodded: "Yes, underground. According to the High Priest, they climbed up through the cave in the canyon, but it's now occupied by a fearsome creature. So, each High Priest passes on the story of the ancestral land to the next High Priest before they die, but they never reveal it to other tribespeople since they can't return."
Peter, frowning, said, "Why didn't the High Priest say when we asked last time?"
He remembered asking the High Priest with Felicia about the origins of the Uighur.
But the High Priest said nothing, like he was in deep meditation.
Felicia first looked at the pensive Hawk, then smiled at Peter.
"Can you fly?"
"No."
"Can you pull that giant swamp squid out of the lake?"
"That I can do."
Peter's eyes lit up, he said seriously to Felicia, "I haven't tested my strength limit yet, but I feel like I could stop a full-speed train."
Felicia hummed: "But can you pull it out while in mid-air?"
Peter shook his head honestly.
"No."
"Hawk can."
Finishing her explanation, Felicia looked at Hawk and said to Peter, "Perhaps the High Priest thinks even if he tells us, we can't help them reclaim their ancestral land, but Hawk can help them because, in their eyes, Hawk is a god, like the gods of their ancestors."
Hawk smiled at this, but didn't refute it.
If the so-called ancestral land of the Uighur truly contained Adamantium, he wouldn't mind helping them reclaim it as his reward.
However...
Hawk frowned, looking at Felicia.
"A creature more terrifying than a skull reptile, what is it, did the High Priest mention?"
"Yes, it's a fearsome entity called a mutant species by the High Priest."
"..."