Marvel: The Awakened One

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Quantico Marine Base sat just outside Washington, D.C.

It was a major military hub, packed with soldiers, weapons, and branches of the armed forces.

Deep in the country’s heartland, no one expected an invasion!!

Then the sirens tore through the base.

Soldiers on patrol stopped in their tracks. They noticed a red light high above. It wasn’t a plane or a missile. It was a burning meteor heading straight for the main command tower.

”BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!”

For a fraction of a second, time seemed to stop.

Reinforced steel and concrete burst apart. A shockwave swept through the base, and the command tower collapsed into a pile of rubble. Soldiers stared as a huge cloud of dust and broken stone rose into the air.

A silhouette shifted inside the smoke.

A man rose from the wreckage. He lifted off the ground and floated upward as the dust cleared.

He wore a dark red suit that fit him like a second skin, deep in color and almost unnatural.

Wanda’s handiwork.

Hawk’s old clothes hadn’t survived the mutant underground. He wanted to show up bare-chested and covered in Sentinel blood, but Wanda refused. Using Chaos Magic, she quickly made him a dark red suit.

It was tight.

If half the base weren’t watching, Hawk would have adjusted his suit. He guessed Wanda used his old measurements from Universe-616, but his current body was a bit bigger.

Forget it. Hawk let the thought go and hovered above the ruins. He looked over the frightened families and scrambling soldiers, then focused on the joint command building.

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”You have ten minutes to hit me with everything you’ve got.” His voice was cold, carrying across the entire base. ”When the ten minutes are up, bring William Stryker to me if you want to live—Or you all die.”

His energy was blocked for now, but his physical strength was untouched. With his current Celestial-level body, Hawk could overpower Superman—unless it was the Silver Age version.

Three Apache helicopters lifted from the tarmac and formed an attack wedge.

No hesitation.

”Ratatatatatatata”

”Ratatatatatatata”

Their 30mm chain guns fired, sending a storm of armor-piercing rounds at Hawk. He vanished in the gunfire but didn’t move at all. Bullets hit his body with a loud metallic noise, but they couldn’t get through Wanda’s magic suit or his skin.

Treads chewed across the asphalt as two tanks rolled out of the smoke. Their turrets swiveled, locked onto the floating target, and fired.

Two shells tore through the sky and detonated against Hawk’s chest in a blinding flash.

When the smoke cleared, he remained in the same place.

Unharmed...

More jets took off. More tanks moved into place. Infantry took cover and fired heavy machine guns. Armor-piercing rounds, tank shells, and gunfire all blended together in a storm of destruction.

It was strange because none of it made Hawk even flinch.

He floated there, letting the military throw everything they had at him.

Inside the command center, the generals watched the monitors and lost their composure with each failed attack. In New York, William Stryker was falling apart too.

He had contacted Quantico just in time to hear Hawk’s broadcast.

Had this mutant specifically demanded him? While hovering over Quantico?

Jesus Christ. Who did this man think he was?

Magneto??

Then Stryker watched Hawk tank the Apache fire, artillery shells, and heavy ordnance without blinking.

”...” Stryker snapped out of it. So did the generals at Quantico.

The base had been compromised. They needed to evacuate to a secure location before issuing new orders.

Too late. The generals headed for the exits just as the ten minutes ran out. Hawk kept his promise. Ten minutes of free fire.

Then he scanned the Apaches circling him and moved.

With his cosmic energy jammed, his body was his weapon.

The best weapon!

He disappeared from the air and punched through the first Apache. The helicopter exploded in a huge fireball. He destroyed the second and third as well, sending burning metal across the base.

A moment later, Hawk dropped to the asphalt directly in front of the tank that had fired first. Through the viewport, the driver’s face twisted with terror.

Hawk grinned, drew back his right fist, and punched the armor plating.

Crunch.

The heavy tank flew backward as if it had been kicked, crashing into an open-air fuel depot.

A catastrophic explosion rocked the base.

”Go! Go! Move!”

The generals bolted out of the front doors of the command building and sprinted toward their armored evacuation vehicles.

”GO! GO! MOVE!”

The roof of a desert-tan SUV caved in.

Hawk stood on the crushed metal, smiling.

”Protect the Gen...”

A Lieutenant colonel did not get to finish his order. Hawk appeared in front of him just as a nearby soldier fired his sidearm. Hawk ignored the bullets bouncing off his face, grabbed the colonel by the neck with one hand and the head with the other, then pulled.

Rip.

Thud.

He let the body fall onto the pavement. His voice became cold. ”Three seconds. If I hear another gunshot, I’ll send all of you to hell.”

”Hold fire! Cease fire! Stand down!”

The general the colonel had tried to protect shouted as loud as he could. The other generals snapped out of their shock and told their guards to lower their weapons.

Three seconds passed.

The gunfire died.

Hawk smiled and looked at the general who had shouted first.

The man’s face was familiar. Hawk frowned slightly.

”Your name.”

The general swallowed. ”Thaddeus Ross.”

Hawk arched an eyebrow.

General Ross.

”Good. Time to talk.”

Ross looked at his guard’s body on the asphalt. Burning helicopters, wrecked tanks, and the burning fuel depot were all around him, but he took a deep breath and tried to stay calm and dignified.

”Yes, we can talk,” Ross said.

Hawk kept smiling, but his voice became flat. ”I gave you ten minutes of free fire. I let you try to kill me. I did that not because I feared you, but because I am kind.”

Ross said nothing.

”My wife told me to try being a good person. I remembered that, so I gave you a chance.”

Hawk’s gaze sharpened.

”You failed...”

”Now it’s my turn.” He raised one finger. ”You have two choices, General Ross.”

The base fell silent around them.

”First choice: war. Right here, right now. You can authorize a nuclear strike and try to put me down. Honestly, I’d like to see you try. In my universe, after I wiped Quantico off the map, the Pentagon did not even have the guts to launch a nuke.”

’My universe.’

’Wiped Quantico off the map.’

’Did not have the guts.’

”...” Ross processed the information, and his pupils shrank.

His voice lowered. ”And the second choice?”

Hawk smiled.

”Give me William Stryker.”

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