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The mont 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 . 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 ga.
Standing behind her, Hawk's mouth twitched.
"So in your mind, I'm just so 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 cris 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 erald eyes were smiling up at him, and shook his head.
"You're just saying that to make 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 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. rrick. Really, Hawk. You can fail a hundred tis. But he only has to fail once, and you'll get him."
"Dr. rrick's been dealt with."
"And the clones—"
"Also dealt with."
"Uh..."
Gwen had known it was Hawk the mont 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 gas like this.
So she'd figured things hadn't gone smoothly with Dr. rrick 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. rrick's there now too. And their sentences are eternal."
"Then why—"
"I gave Alexander Pierce another chance. Told him to tell where he's imprisoned Anna. After all, HYDRA's plan to clone , kill , 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 sothing to do with Strucker."
"Strucker?"
"Wolfgang von Strucker. Rember when I flew to Sokovia and the place was already empty? He's old-school HYDRA."
"Your reasoning?"
"Strucker probably has another plan targeting . 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 rrick and this Strucker were working together before. Didn't rrick say anything?"
Hawk scoffed. "Oh, rrick 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 everything. And he believed . Did he not realize God already screwed with ?"
Even if Hawk hadn't used verbal manipulation on rrick, the man wouldn't have survived.
God? Please...
rrick'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 rrick 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 , he doesn't have the brainpower."
"Fair point."
Gwen looked at Hawk's confident expression, thought about it, and nodded in agreent.
If soone ca 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 rrick 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 confird it with rrick. The core cloning technology was rrick'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 rrick 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 sothing that looked perfect from a distance but would collapse into rotting at the mont you touched it.
"Strucker's not cloning. It has to be sothing else."
"Sothing 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 . Radiation can't even give a cold. You really think they can cook up a DNA-targeted bioweapon more powerful than nuclear radiation?"
"Obviously not. No bioweapon cos 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 cri 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 Arica 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. rrick's cloning plan had zero effect on ."
"And the facts proved you right."
"Strucker's the sa."
"No matter what he's planning."
"Just like when I went to Sokovia and he projected himself to et ."
"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 ntioned the Mind Stone. That mistake had caused Strucker to grab it and go into hiding.
The sa trick doesn't work twice on a Saint.
Because, A Saint never makes the sa mistake twice.
"I believe you."
Gwen looked at Hawk's serious expression for a mont, 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, rember?"
"Rember?"
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