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Agent Grell was gone.
The bourbon had been poured, the intel had been delivered, and there was no point in him staying any longer.
Hawk stood at the door, watching Grell's car pull out of the driveway and disappear down the street.
Gwen ca walking down the stairs. "Sharon's phone is going straight to voicemail."
"That's to be expected." Hawk shut the door. "She's a fugitive. If her phone's on, they track her in seconds."
Gwen's brow furrowed in frustration. "We were gone for one month. How did everything go to hell so fast?"
"You didn't actually think this whole thing was just about Steve Rogers and Sharon, did you?"
"Isn't it?" Gwen had stayed upstairs while Grell gave his briefing, but she had heard every word.
The conflict was, on the surface, a debate between oversight and autonomy.
Tony Stark believed that unchecked power needed to be regulated.
Steve Rogers believed the exact opposite.
"It reminds of the debates about the Second Andnt," Gwen said.
The Second Andnt.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms.
Proponents argue that an ard populace is the ultimate safeguard against tyranny.
Opponents point to the endless string of tragedies and mass shootings as proof that unrestricted access is a recipe for disaster.
The Sokovia Accords were built on the exact sa philosophical fault line.
Freedom...
Or security...
Tony Stark had chosen security.
Captain Arica had chosen freedom, believing that only power completely free from bureaucratic control could prevent that power from being abused by those in charge.
Hawk let out a short laugh.
"So, where do you stand?"
"I..." Gwen t his gaze and smiled wryly. "Honey, you know I'm a card-carrying mber of the NRA."
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
Right... Last year, for a holiday promotion, the NRA had sent out custom-engraved handguns to their lifeti mbers.
Gwen continued, her frown deepening. "But logically speaking, shouldn't Tony Stark be the one leading the charge for freedom?"
She was genuinely confused... Stark Industries had always been a staunch defender of the Second Andnt and personal autonomy.
By all accounts, Tony Stark should have been the one fighting the Accords tooth and nail, not the one championing them.
Hawk shrugged. "I don't know, and honestly, I don't care. I only know one thing."
"What's that?"
"This whole 'Accords' circus? It's probably aid right at ."
"Huh?"
Gwen blinked. Then, she thought back to the slick, arrogant man who had just stood on their porch, smirking as he tried to assert his dominance. She drew in a sharp breath and looked at Hawk, whose expression remained perfectly, dangerously calm.
"What are you going to do?"
"You know , Gwen. I don't just sit there and take a punch."
Hawk smiled coldly. "Challenge ? I kill them."
Was it possible that the Sokovia Accords weren't aid at him?
Was it possible he was just being paranoid?
Sure, it was possible.
He might be overthinking it.
But...
It was equally possible that he was the primary target.
And frankly, the distinction didn't matter.
It always ca back to the sa rule.
George Stacy, as a police captain, needed evidence to make an arrest.
Hawk, as the Phoenix, only needed a suspicion to hand down a death sentence.
And that was enough.
He had no intention of letting anyone think he was approachable, reasonable, or open to negotiation.
Just like Hydra had done years ago, sending two low-level grunts to his front door while he was out, just to test his boundaries.
Hawk's retaliation had to be swift, absolute, and utterly disproportionate.
He had to send a ssage to the entire world, loud and clear:
Don't even think about it.
In my world, if you even harbor the thought of coming after , you're already guilty.
Barbarians.
They respect power, not morality!
Hawk's mind raced, finalizing his plan. He looked at Gwen.
"Stay here."
"Okay."
Gwen looked at Hawk. She knew exactly what he was about to do, and she didn't utter a single word to stop him. "I'll wait for you. Are you going to Westview first?"
Again, she had heard Agent Grell ntion that the new S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander had imdiately replaced the detail monitoring Westview.
Why go out of the way to replace the agents in a quiet, suburban town?
The answer was obvious.
"Soone up top thinks that because my parents are back, because my sister is back, and because I just got married, I must have gone soft."
"What a pity."
"If they want to see how I react... I'm more than happy to put on a show for them."
The corner of Hawk's mouth ticked upward into a cold, lethal smile. He leaned in, kissed Gwen softly on the forehead, and in the next instant, vanished from her sight.
Gwen watched the empty space where he had been standing. She blinked, thought for a second, then calmly turned off her phone and headed for the garage.
Whatever, It is what it is. Ti for her scheduled nutritional intake.
——————————
Westview.
On the street outside House 123.
Hawk materialized in absolute silence. The next second, he unleashed his Seventh Sense, casting it over the entire town. A rapid succession of crashes echoed through the quiet neighborhood as, one by one, the "ordinary residents" who had recently moved in were violently yanked from their hos. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents shattered windows and burst through roofs, levitating uncontrollably into the air above the street.
Inside her house, Wanda and Pietro felt the massive surge of energy and rushed out the front door.
And then, They saw him. Hawk, standing in the middle of the street, his hands in his pockets, his expression colder than absolute zero.
They also saw the dozens of unfamiliar faces that had appeared in their neighborhood over the past month.
Right now, every single one of those faces was suspended in mid-air, paralyzed by an invisible force.
After their initial panic, the suspended agents looked down and saw Hawk.
For many of them, they didn't even need him to speak. The mont they saw his face, they knew exactly why he was here.
A man's reputation precedes him!
"The Demon King!"
"No, Mr. Phoenix, please! I didn't know!"
"We were just following orders!"
"Mr. Phoenix, we..."
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!!
Unfortunately for them, Hawk hadn't co to listen to their excuses.
He had co to kill them.
Following orders? Huh...
They recognized him instantly. Which ant they knew exactly what he was capable of and what would happen if they crossed him. But they had accepted the assignnt anyway.
Clearly, When they took the job, they accepted the risks.
So, They could die with that choice!
Over fifty S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, the newly appointed detail sent by that arrogant idiot, detonated simultaneously in the sky above Westview, blooming into a macabre display of blood-red fireworks.
The fireworks were blindingly bright, possessing a grueso, terrifying beauty.
Pietro's jaw dropped. He stared in absolute shock at Hawk, who had just slaughtered fifty people without a single word of warning.
Wait. It wasn't even a disagreent. Hawk hadn't said a single word.
Hiss!
That made it even more terrifying.
"Pietro."
"Huh? What?"
Pietro snapped out of his daze and looked at his sister.
Wanda lowered her voice. "Go back inside. Watch Jean. Don't let her co out here."
Pietro blinked, confused for a second.
Wanda frowned.
Pietro realized what she ant, nodded quickly, and with a whoosh, vanished from the porch, speeding back into the house.
Hawk cast a brief glance at the house diagonally across the street.
Andrew and Amy Chloe were standing in their doorway, frozen in shock.
As for his sister, Anya...
The lazy girl was probably still fast asleep in her second-floor bedroom. The massive explosions hadn't even woken her up.
Heavy sleeper.
But then, considering she had spent seven years trapped in Hell, Hawk figured she'd earned the right to sleep as deeply as she wanted.
He didn't bother going over to wake her.
In a word:
He was here to kill. He had finished his work here, but he still had other stops to make.
So...
Hawk pulled his gaze away from the Chloe residence, ignoring the horrified, unspoken questions on his parents' faces, and turned his attention to Wanda, who had sent Pietro away and stepped off her porch to approach him.
Wanda spoke softly. "These people have been moving in gradually over the past month. I knew they were S.H.I.E.L.D., but they didn't seem to be doing anything overtly hostile, so I ignored them. Are they..."
"Just because they didn't do anything doesn't an they didn't want to do sothing."
Hawk's expression was utterly devoid of emotion.
"I had a good relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D."
"But only because I had three friends inside S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Sharon Carter!"
"Maria Hill."
"Victoria Hand."
"Because I considered them friends, I allowed S.H.I.E.L.D. to operate around ."
"Not the other way around."
"Because Sharon was my friend, I trusted her. And because I trusted her, I tacitly approved of the security detail she arranged for Westview."
"I even approved of her moving agents with families in, so their kids could play with Jean, Billy, and Tommy."
"But..."
"My tacit approval is exclusively reserved for the friends I recognize."
"Anyone else?"
"Heh!"
"Even thinking about crossing is a cri!"
"I'm not a cop. I don't need evidence."
Hawk's dark, piercing gaze locked onto Wanda. "For , suspicion is enough. I would rather kill a thousand innocent n than let a single guilty one slip through my fingers."
He hadn't even bothered to send his Blood Elves to interrogate the agents in the Underworld.
The mont their souls entered his domain, Hawk had bypassed the holding cells and tossed them all directly into the Stone Mill Prison.
As for that arrogant idiot who had knocked on his door earlier?
Hawk had tossed his soul straight into the Magma Prison.
Have a conversation?
Hawk felt that having a conversation with a low-level flunky like that was beneath him.
If he was going to talk to anyone, it was going to be the idiot's father, the Councilman.
No, wait!
If Hawk was going to talk to anyone, it was going to be the man sitting in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the man who ultimately pulled the strings.
After all—
The new, mixed-race S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander had been appointed by his father, the mixed-race Councilman, who in turn answered to the mixed-race man sitting in that famous office.
So!
Hawk let out a cold scoff and looked at Wanda.
"From this mont on, if any stranger sets foot in this town, kill them."
"Wha—"
"You don't have to kill them. But if anything happens to Jean, Billy, or Tommy, I will take them away. If you hesitate, it proves you are incapable of protecting them."
"No!" Wanda's face went pale. She stared at Hawk, her voice fierce. "They are my children."
Hawk let out a dry, humorless laugh.
"Then protect them."
"I WILL." Wanda t his gaze, her expression hardening with resolve. She took a deep breath. "I won't let a single stranger set foot in this town."
Hawk stared at her, his eyes unreadable, showing no emotion whatsoever.
Their eyes locked...
After a long mont...
"Rember what you just said."
"Don't give a reason to revoke your custody."
Hawk broke the silence, his tone perfectly even. The next second, he looked up, and his body transford into a streak of brilliant golden light.
He shot into the sky—
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