The black Audi A8 was parked by the roadside.
Gwen unbuckled her seatbelt, pushed open the passenger door, and got out, looking toward Hawk who was also stepping out from the driver's side.
"I'll go to the airport by myself tomorrow."
"Hmm?"
"You can just pick me up at the airport after you're done."
Gwen said quickly, then kissed Hawk, patted his chest, and looked at him: "Deal with this quickly; I don't want to see many of you."
Hawk raised an eyebrow, met Gwen's gaze, and nodded.
The next second.
Hawk vanished in front of Gwen, and soon after, a sonic boom echoed from afar, creating a beautiful sonic boom cloud in the night sky.
Gwen also retracted her gaze, got into the car, and drove toward Palm Street.
At this moment.
Australia, Alice Springs!
This is a small town located in the central Australian desert, surrounded by red desert, and the town itself is encircled by low hills. The Todd River, long dried up and exposing its riverbed, traverses the town, creating a unique landscape.
Amidst the seemingly endless and unremarkable red desert, a battle was erupting.
Whoosh!
A rocket, trailing flames, roared and directly turned a desert vehicle into a fireball, the explosion shockwave catching four unsuspecting S.H.I.E.L.D. agents nearby and tossing them away.
Tat-tat-tat!
Gun barrels emerged from the desert, continuously spitting sparks, forming a dense web of firepower that made it difficult for the S.H.I.E.L.D. fighter jets overhead to get close.
The jet pilots were tempted to press the button and launch a bunker-buster missile.
But...
No!
This is suspected to be a Hydra cloning base, and the operations command center has ordered that it shouldn't be destroyed but rather captured if possible.
But in this desert area, Hydra had cover, whereas they did not.
"Natasha."
"Speak."
"Hawk is on his way."
"About..."
"He's already here."
Hawk appeared silently behind Natasha, saying a word, and then instantly released his Sixth Sense, encompassing everything around and below him into his perception.
He saw a Hydra base concealed beneath the desert, shaped like a beehive.
He saw the Hydra agents within the base, their expressions tense and anxious, constantly pacing back and forth.
He also saw, within the base, a familiar yet strangely sinister-looking man in a white coat and glasses.
Dr. Merick!
Hawk even saw containers in the Hydra base beneath the desert, eerily resembling the cloning chambers seen in movies.
Don't ask him why he is so sure that these things are cloning chambers.
Because—
In several of these cloning chambers, he saw a sleeping version of himself.
"Ha!"
"Found you."
Hawk's lips curled into a grin, retracting his gaze, he looked at Natasha in front of him: "There aren't any of your undercover agents in this base, right?"
Natasha glanced at Hawk who had arrived, realizing the situation.
She shook her head.
"No."
"That's good."
Hawk stated, and then with a telekinetic force, a burning Fire Phoenix projection appeared behind him.
The next second.
The scene that had previously unfolded at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Three Feathers Headquarters played out once again here.
One by one, the Hydra operatives, hiding in the base beneath the desert, mistakenly thinking themselves safe, were instantly teleported outside by Hawk's 'Sixth Sense - Teleportation'.
They sat in rows, like children waiting for a treat.
As the many Hydra operatives stood there, unable to even change their expressions, a scorching and brilliant Phoenix Beam swept over them.
In the blink of an eye, over two hundred Hydra operatives were instantly vaporized, disappearing without a trace.
"Done."
"I'll go down first."
Hawk's eyes returned to normal as he spoke to Natasha, then took a step forward, executing a 'Sixth Sense - Instant Movement' directly into the cloning chamber of the Hydra base beneath the desert.
His gaze fell on a cloning chamber filled with blue liquid before him.
In the cloning chamber, an 'Hawk' similar in age to him was curled up like a baby, seemingly in a peaceful sleep.
The next second.
Hawk withdrew his gaze and looked at Dr. Merick, who was wearing a large white coat and had been directly telekinetically grabbed from the command room to this place.
Dr. Merick, in the large white coat, had already reacted after being grabbed over by Hawk. Seeing Hawk's side profile, he hung his head, much like an ostrich, not daring to breathe heavily.
Hawk raised an eyebrow sharply.
"Dr. Merick?"
"Y-yes."
Dr. Merick's voice trembled instinctively, then seemingly realizing something, he looked at Hawk: "Mr. Phoenix, this has nothing to do with me. I was forced, it's all Hydra forcing me to do this. If I don't do as they say, they'll torture me."
Hawk smiled slightly.
If it weren't for his Sixth Sense perceiving the scenes of Dr. Merick giving orders in the command room like a head honcho, he might have believed this nonsense from Dr. Merick.
But...
He wasn't here to listen to Dr. Merick's ghost stories, so whether Dr. Merick volunteered or was forced didn't matter to him.
Thinking this to himself, Hawk withdrew his gaze from Dr. Merick, who was shoving all responsibility onto Hydra, and curiously looked again at himself in the incubation chamber: "So is this cloning considered successful or a failure?"
Speaking of cloning success, indeed, Hydra did clone him.
Yet Hawk couldn't detect any life energy from his clone in front.
Frankly...
The clone in the cloning chamber looked more like a corpse soaked in liquid that happened to resemble Hawk rather than Hawk's clone.
He also didn't discover other incubation chambers in this Hydra Base, so he was curious whether this was considered a success or a failure.
After saying this, Hawk once again turned his gaze to Dr. Merick.
Facing Hawk's gaze, Dr. Merick's heart trembled.
The intuition of a scientist told him that the answer to this question concerned whether he lived or died.
Thus...
Dr. Merick gulped, his throat moving, swallowing a mouthful of saliva and said with a dry voice: "Some successful, some failed."
Hawk raised an eyebrow sharply.
"Where are the successful ones?"
"Destroyed."
"Destroyed?"
"Yes."
Dr. Merick swallowed again: "There were five successful ones, but after opening their eyes, their consciousnesses were disturbed and quickly collapsed. We had no choice but to destroy them."
Hearing this, Hawk nodded thoughtfully, then he looked again at himself sleeping in the incubation chamber in front: "What about these ones?"
Having spoken out to secure his chance of survival, naturally, there was nothing left unsaid.
Dr. Merick did not conceal: "These five were originally planned to have their consciousnesses imported today. However, before we could proceed, this place was discovered by you."
Speaking of this discovery, it was indeed quite coincidental.
As is well known...
This base was constructed in the desert.
Deserts are dry and lack everything, and the base housed over two hundred Hydra Agents. When Hydra was more covert in the past, supplies were easy to manage.
But with Hydra's exposure and Maria Hill's swift consolidation of S.H.I.E.L.D., the blows against Hydra's remnants grew stronger.
Hydra's remnants became increasingly uneasy and anxious, fearing S.H.I.E.L.D. would parachute directly and capture them one day.
Therefore, some Hydra agents were discontented, including those operating a factory in Alice Springs City supplying the base with living materials.
Among them, a Hydra member who had joined less than three years ago felt his youth was too precious to bury with Hydra, so he planned to defect and contacted S.H.I.E.L.D. on a covert forum in hopes of turning over as a witness.
If Dr. Zola were still around, given his control over the network, this defection attempt would have been exposed and led to the member's demise.
However, Dr. Zola had disappeared, naturally diminishing Hydra's network grip.
Natasha led a team to swiftly take down the Hydra Base in Alice Springs.
However, few in Alice Springs knew of the cloning base's existence, and even those who did were loyal old Hydra members who were killed in resistance.
Therefore, barring unusual circumstances, the cloning base was unlikely to be exposed.
But Natasha took down the Alice Springs Hydra Base precisely during the monthly secret transfer of materials to the cloning base.
Seeing the warehouse full of excess supplies, it became clear there might be a secret cloning base nearby, prompting an immediate clean-up of battle evidence and recruiting the defector from Hydra, offering a chance for redemption by staging a performance.
Meanwhile, uneasy over missing material transfers, the cloning base sent a Hydra Agent to the town to assess the situation.
The agent happened to know the Hydra defector, ending up being unexpectedly captured by Natasha.
And then...
There was no further action.
The cloning base ended up exposed prominently.
Hawk naturally sensed Dr. Merick's regret for not having enough time to import consciousness.
However...
Hawk looked at himself within the five cloning incubation chambers, turning to the seemingly regretful Dr. Merick about his unsuccessful results and slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
"I'll give you a chance to live."
"Activate them!"
"…"