Marvel: The Awakened One

Hawk and Peter returned to the hotel one after the other.

Just as Peter had predicted, they had barely reached the entrance when Mary Jane and Gwen emerged, laughing and talking.

The next second, Mary Jane’s jaw dropped. She glanced back at the hotel, then at her boyfriend, who was now standing next to Hawk. ”I thought you guys were staying in today.”

Peter didn’t say a word. He just looked at Hawk.

His expression said it all.

See? We just got back from saving the world, and they’re only now getting around to breakfast.

Well, technically, Hawk did most of the actual world-saving.

But he had been there. And Hawk had told him not to interfere. So, by rounding up, Peter felt he deserved at least partial credit.

Hawk paid Peter no mind. His eyes were locked on Gwen.

Ignoring Mary Jane completely, he strode forward, took Gwen’s hand, and pulled her back into the hotel.

By the time Mary Jane had processed what was happening, Hawk had already swept Gwen into his arms and disappeared up the staircase.

He seemed to be in a hurry...

Mary Jane just stared, then looked back at Peter. ”Where did you two just go?”

Peter opened his mouth, then closed it.

He was trying to figure out how to answer that question.

...

An hour later, the bedroom which Gwen had tidied up just after they’d woken up, was once again a complete mess.

The room looked as though it had just weathered a hurricane.

On the wide bed, Hawk held her close, his grip both possessive and tender as if he wanted to pull her into himself completely.

Gwen, face flushed and body languid had lost all desire to talk.

The moment her head rested against his chest, exhaustion from their intense reunion caught up with her, and she drifted into a deep peaceful sleep.

As for Hawk, he was perfectly fine. He was a Silver Saint—the physical stamina that came with that rank was on an entirely different level.

For a warrior who’d mastered the Sixth Sense, even without activating his Cosmo, his raw physical power was terrifying.

Put simply, a Silver Saint could tear apart a nuclear reactor with his bare hands—no armor, no Cosmo required.

That’s the kind of absurd durability mastering the Sixth Sense provided.

Radiation, disease, viruses, poisons... even curses barely fazed him anymore.

The faint aura of power naturally radiating from his body was enough to repel virtually any threat, even without conscious effort.

And his speed...

If a Bronze Saint could move at the speed of sound, a Silver Saint could hit two to five times that—and that was just the baseline.

At their peak, Silver Saints could approach Light speed.

...

Hawk held Gwen as she slept, his mind sinking into his new, revitalized Cosmo.

With the Eye of the Phoenix now housing the Reality Stone, his inner universe felt truly alive. Every beat of the Phoenix Heart sent ripples through his Cosmo, shifting light and shadow like a living thing.

Countless new stars, forged in the heat of recent battles, now glittered across the vast expanse of his inner universe.

So many of them. Yet scattered across the infinite canvas of his Cosmo, they seemed sparse, almost insignificant.

It couldn’t be helped. Even though he’d awakened the Sixth Sense in that life-or-death moment, one truth remained—he was a fast-tracked Silver Saint.

The legendary Five Bronze Saints had fought for years and still never surpassed Bronze rank.

How long had he been training?

He gazed at the vast, empty expanses within his newly awakened Sixth Sense Silver Phoenix Cosmo and recalled the words his power had left him.

”The path of the Cosmo is the path of battle, the path of holy war. Grow in battle, and in battle—you will ascend…”

So he needed to fight. He needed to keep fighting. Only through combat would he forge the new stars necessary to fill this universe.

Hawk thought back to the battles he had fought, to the new stars that had been born from each one, and a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes.

The next second, a strange thought occurred to him.

Honestly, with the Reality Stone’s power letting him fully tap into his Silver Saint strength, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he was unmatched on Earth.

And that was a fact.

Otherwise, he never would have challenged Thor to a fight.

Wait a minute...

Thor?

A fight?

Realization dawned on his face. The irony wasn’t lost on him—the moment he’d declared himself invincible, a new challenger had literally dropped from the sky.

Sure, their brief encounter hadn’t been hostile, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t fight.

An idea started forming.

Maybe he should bump up that sparring match with the God of Thunder on his schedule. It didn’t need to be a fight to the death—his Cosmo just craved combat.

A friendly spar should do the trick. Hawk was genuinely considering it now.

But… Not now.

He had to spend time with his girlfriend.

A soft smile touched his lips. He pushed aside thoughts of his Cosmo and fighting Thor, focusing instead on the girl sleeping peacefully in his arms.

He didn’t know how long he watched her.

Eventually, her eyelashes fluttered. Her emerald eyes, the ones that always seemed to say so much without words—slowly opened.

Hawk smiled. ”Good morning.”

”Morning…”

Gwen blinked, then her eyes went wide as she realized where she was. With a gasp, she scrambled out of his arms, twisted, and grabbed her phone from the nightstand.

The time was displayed in bright, unforgiving numbers: 12:30 PM.

”...”

”I slept that long? Why didn’t you wake me up?” She gasped, then turned back to him.

”I couldn’t bear to.” Hawk just shrugged.

”Okay.” Gwen put her phone down and sat cross-legged on the bed. ”So, is it over?”

Hawk nodded. ”It’s over. Perfect ending.”

The Reality Stone was his.

From this moment forward, until the day he could fully actualize his Cosmo, nothing would stand in his way. And if something did? It would be his own limitations holding him back.

Like the Seventh Sense.

And a new Armor.

Hawk looked into her bright, curious eyes and added, ”Absolutely perfect.”

”That’s great.”

A brilliant, genuine smile spread across Gwen’s face. She was truly happy for him. She rolled over and draped herself across his lap.

”Tell me everything.”

...

Hawk shrugged and launched into his story.

He told her about the Reality Stone and how it had amplified his power. He explained who Malekith was—a Dark Elf who’d been defeated by Bor, Odin’s father, and had planned to use the Convergence of the Nine Realms to drown the universe in eternal darkness.

And naturally, he told her about their fight.

He glossed over getting his ass kicked initially, focusing instead on how, while Stonehenge was gone, he’d at least given London a new landmark.

He described the final, devastating strike he’d delivered—one that had carved a massive dragon-shaped chasm into the Salisbury Plain.

Gwen listened, captivated.

The next second, she scrambled off his lap and sat up. ”Let’s go.”

”Where?”

”To see it!”

”We can’t.”

”What?”

Hawk just smiled. ”S.H.I.E.L.D. has already cordoned off the area. The agent in charge is someone you know. Natasha Romanoff.”

The battle was over, but someone had to deal with the aftermath.

And besides, when he and Peter had left, the rest of the Dark Elves, sensing their leader’s death, had teleported to the battlefield.

But Hawk hadn’t stuck around.

He had already taken down the boss. He wasn’t about to stick around and grind the minions.

He’d just been through a hell of a fight. So he had left the cleanup to Thor and had gotten himself and Peter out of there.

They were in London on vacation, after all, not to fight a war.

Gwen blinked as a memory from Culver Lake flashed through her mind. She looked at him. ”Natasha? She’s a good person.”

Hawk met her gaze and nodded in agreement. ”She is.”

Judge a person by their deeds, not their thoughts.

Natasha final selfless act on Vormir, sacrificing herself to save the universe, was all the proof he needed.

A shame, really. The world would remember Tony Stark’s sacrifice, but Natasha’s—and all the others—would barely make it into the history books.

Wait a minute...

The Soul Stone??

Could he go to Vormir and get the Soul Stone? If he had it, couldn’t he bring his sister back? The thought hit him like lightning.

The next second, he dismissed the idea completely.

The price of the Soul Stone was too damn high.

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If you’re interested, you can read advanced chapters:

https://p-atreon.com/dragonnx

~# Bonus Chapter every 300PS