Marvel: The Awakened One

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The first time was a novelty.

The second was routine.

Hawk had already crossed the Quantum Realm once, so this time he barely reacted. He closed his eyes, opened them, and saw the same strange, colorful world of quantum space.

He was used to the wild, swirling sights by now.

Wanda had not.

She held onto Hawk’s arm, eyes shut tight, and took a few deep breaths while she waited for the dizzy feeling to fade. When her stomach finally calmed down, she opened her eyes.

The view captured her at once.

Above them, the sky spun with colors that shouldn’t exist, and tiny, odd plants covered the ground. Everything was so bright and strange, it felt like they had stepped into a living painting.

”This is the Quantum Realm?”

”Yeah.” Hawk scanned the horizon. ”The coordinates are still some distance away. Let’s go.”

Wanda nodded and checked her Quantum Band to see how far they had to go. Suddenly, she had an idea and looked up at Hawk. ”Wait. Can’t you just teleport us there?”

Hawk glanced down at her. He nodded at first, then shook his head.

”Better not.”

”Why?”

”One wrong move, and we fall straight into an uncharted parallel universe.” Instead of teleporting, Hawk put his arm around Wanda’s waist, lifted off the ground, and flew toward their destination.

This was why he hadn’t teleported the first time, either. The Quantum Realm wasn’t just a crossroads for endless universes. It also connected countless parallel realities.

If a universe gateway was like a bank vault, a parallel universe gateway was more like a thin sheet of plastic. One wrong move could tear right through it. No matter if you used teleportation or mind powers, there was always a small risk of breaking through that invisible layer and ending up in a different timeline by mistake.

The probability was low.

Still, Hawk didn’t want to take that risk. ”Better safe than sorry.”

”Makes sense.” Wanda accepted the explanation and looked around again. ”No wonder the physics here feel strange. My magic feels almost the same, but slightly off.”

She couldn’t quite put it into words.

Her magic was still the same, but using it here felt different than it did back in their own universe.

Hawk smiled. ”We’re standing at the absolute nexus of the multiverse. A little contradictory feedback is normal.”

Wanda held onto his waist, watching the bizarre alien terrain blur beneath them. ”Are there actually living things down here?”

”Yes.”

”I haven’t seen a single one.”

”The Quantum Realm is enormous. Functionally, it’s close to infinite.”

The Quantum Realm connected all multiverses and parallel realities, so its surface area was basically infinite.

But that wasn’t the real reason Wanda hadn’t seen any local creatures.

”You can’t see them because they don’t want us to see them.”

Wanda blinked. ”Are they afraid we’ll kill them?”

Then she suddenly understood.

”Wait. Has your reputation as a Demon God spread all the way to the Quantum Realm?”

Hawk chuckled. ”It has nothing to do with my reputation. It has everything to do with my life essence.”

Everyone knew by now that Hawk’s power came from the Cosmo. But after awakening the Sixth Sense, unlocking the Seventh, and getting close to the Eighth, both his body and spirit had changed in a big way.

The creatures native to the Quantum Realm lived in endless chaos and warfare. Their survival instincts had been sharpened to perfection.

Even if Hawk ignored them, their instincts told them to hide. None of them were willing to risk their lives hoping he’d let them go.

Survival was the first law of nature...

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Soon, Hawk came down from the quantum clouds and landed in a meadow full of bright red flowers that seemed to go on forever.

He lifted his right hand, and one red flower floated into his palm.

Wanda looked across the sea of red, then up at him.

”This is the residual aura of your power.”

”Yeah.” Hawk nodded. He focused, and the flower in his hand burst into Phoenix Fire. A tiny Fire Phoenix appeared from the flames, bright and delicate, then disappeared a moment later.

Wanda checked the coordinates on her wristband, then scanned the meadow again.

”I don’t see a universe gateway.”

Hawk laughed. ”It’s right here.”

”Where?”

Wanda looked at him. Hawk simply reached out and tapped the empty air in front of them.

Space rippled, like water when something drops into it.

Gateways to multiverses and parallel realities existed in every corner of the Quantum Realm. The former were completely invisible. The latter were invisible traps.

That’s why quantum creatures usually stayed in known settlements, even though the realm was endless. No one wanted to wander off, make a mistake, and end up in a dangerous parallel universe.

Hawk could see those invisible boundaries because of his elevated life essence.

Wanda only knew about these boundaries because Hawk had told her, so she hadn’t moved at all since they landed.

Staring at the rippling gateway before them, Wanda felt a rush of adrenaline. She instinctively looked at Hawk.

His eyes were closed.

A moment later, he opened them. ”The consciousness slivers I seeded through Kamar-Taj aren’t in this one.”

”So this universe doesn’t have Kamar-Taj?”

”No.” Hawk nodded, then looked at her. ”More importantly, this universe doesn’t have a version of me either.”

Wanda frowned. ”Meaning?”

”Do you remember how long it took for my power to anchor itself in Universe-828?”

”How long?”

”Eight months. And how long did it take to anchor myself in Universe-616?”

”One month.”

At first, Wanda just shrugged. Hawk had already told her that before.

Then she realized what he meant.

”That was because Universe-616 already had a native version of you.”

Hawk nodded.

Wanda understood. She stared thoughtfully at the rippling gateway.

”So once we cross over, it will take roughly eight months for you to regain your full power?”

”Give or take.”

”What about my power?”

”You...” Hawk snapped back to reality and looked at her. ”Your power will be fine.”

Wanda’s power came from an impossible flame, lit by the most unlikely being in the main universe.

Chaos Magic...

As long as the basic rules of reality stayed the same, her power wouldn’t change.

Hearing that, Wanda gave him a sideways glance. ”Then what’s the problem? Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”

Hawk stared at her for a second, then burst out laughing.

”Alright.”

”Then let’s go. Jean’s been waiting for us.”

”Yeah.” Hawk nodded.

Together, they activated the theoretical Quantum Key Peter had programmed into their wristbands. Hand in hand, they stepped into the invisible gateway.

Nothing happened.

Hawk and Wanda looked back at the universe barrier behind them. They exchanged a glance, turned around, and tried again.

The next second, they hit something solid.

Smack.

”It’s not working.”

Wanda pressed her hand against the invisible wall and sent a wave of scarlet chaos magic through it, feeling it push back. She frowned in frustration.

”Is it useless?”

Hawk’s mouth twitched in annoyance.

”Peter said it was theoretically feasible.”

”But in practice, it’s a brick wall.”

Wanda frowned. ”So what now? We just go back?”

Hawk took a deep breath.

He knew he could force the door open if he wanted.

If he violently breached the barrier, however, the host universe would immediately treat him as an invader. If it began actively suppressing him from the start, he might never be able to anchor his power there.

If they couldn’t get in, they would have to go back and come up with a new plan.

Hawk made his decision and nodded at Wanda.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the universe barrier in front of them shuddered.

Buzz.

The invisible wall began to dissolve. The exact instant it dropped, a streak of light shot out from inside the universe with a sharp whistle and rocketed into the distance.

Wanda froze.

”What was that?”

”A universe reset...” Hawk did not freeze. The second he saw the streak of light shoot past, he grabbed Wanda, launched into the air, and transformed into a beam of blinding light as he gave chase at full speed.

Suddenly, he realized why Peter and Dr. Pym’s Quantum Key hadn’t worked.

”That universe is undergoing a hard reset,” Hawk explained quickly as they blazed across the quantum landscape. ”That’s why the key didn’t work.”

”It’s like a bank upgrading its vault.”

”Exactly. Peter built a key based on the old vault’s telemetry. Of course it can’t open the new one.”

”A universe reset?” Wanda raised her voice over the rushing wind. ”You mean someone traveled back in time and rewrote the future?”

”Exactly.”

”Wait. Rewriting the past should create a parallel timeline, not overwrite the original universe.”

”Creating a parallel timeline costs cosmic energy.”

”Uh...”

”That universe is broke. It doesn’t have enough cosmic energy to make a parallel timeline. So whenever someone changes the past, the whole universe just rewrites itself.”

Everything made sense now.

This was the reason Peter and Hank Pym had been able to build a working key in the first place.

Universes had a hierarchy.

Hawk’s main universe had already been officially called low-end by Death.

This universe was so poor it couldn’t even make a parallel timeline when the past was changed. It didn’t even count as low-end.

It was at the very bottom.

Soon, Hawk caught up with the fleeing streak of light.

The light plunged into a deep canyon within the Quantum Realm, came to an abrupt stop, and began ripping open a brand-new universe gateway.

The next second, it dove straight through the newly opened portal.

Hawk and Wanda did not hesitate.

Before the gateway could snap shut, they plunged in after it.

Then Hawk finally got a clear look at the thing leading the streak of light.

It looked exactly like...

A wolf?

”...”

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