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Universe-616.
An abandoned parking garage.
A thirsty rat scurried over the roof of a rusted van. By chance, its paws pressed the right buttons on a control panel, bringing a quantum tunnel back to life after four years of silence.
Suddenly—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The van's rear doors burst open. Someone was thrown out and crashed into the side of a wrecked car with a loud thud.
"Ow!"
Clang!
Hawk followed right after. As soon as his boots touched the concrete in this new universe, a sharp, metallic cry like a Phoenix rang out from nowhere.
Hawk looked up. Somehow, his gaze seemed to pass through the ceiling, the sky, and the emptiness of space. 5.8 billion light-years away, he saw a ghostly image of the World Tree, with a Fire Phoenix sitting on its branches.
One month.
That was how long it would take for his combat power to fully arrive in this universe.
A month and a half.
That was how long it would take to reach his full strength. After that, he could break through to the Eighth Sense of Life in this universe.
Hawk felt the heavy pressure from his home universe disappear. He was no longer being targeted. His thoughts raced, and his blood pumped faster.
In six weeks, his power here would reach its limit. He would break through to the Eighth Sense and finish his transformation.
While Hawk did the calculations in his head, the man who had been thrown out first took off his helmet. He rubbed his sore lower back and groaned as he got to his feet.
Scott Lang. Ant-Man.
He froze when he saw Hawk standing right in front of him. "The Hawk dating Wanda?"
"No..." Hawk snapped out of his thoughts. He stared calmly at Scott.
Scott took a quick breath. He glanced at Hawk, then at the smoking quantum tunnel in the van. His eyes moved nervously between the two. For a moment, he actually thought about trying to push Hawk back into the Quantum Realm.
Hawk caught the look. He let out a short laugh.
"Thinking about throwing me back in?"
Scott flinched. "What? No. I wasn't. Don't be crazy."
After denying it three times, Scott quickly changed the subject. He noticed the bulky, modified quantum watch on Hawk's wrist. It wasn't the same as his, but he knew the technology.
"Wait. You planned to come here from the start?"
Hawk arched an eyebrow. "Yes."
"Why?"
"Because your universe has something I want." Hawk said calmly.
He hadn't planned on meeting this version of Ant-Man, the one from Bruce Banner's universe. He just wanted to land in a random reality where he could reach the Eighth Sense without trouble.
But now? He was here. He would make it work.
Besides, this way he could solve two problems at once.
If he remembered right, Gargaratus—the parasitic Celestial who had fled his native reality—had hidden in this exact universe.
Perfect. Once he smashed open the Eighth Sense, he would bury Gargaratus for good.
For a split second, Hawk considered hunting Gargaratus down right now.
He dropped the idea instantly.
The Eighth Sense was the priority. If he went after Gargaratus first, this universe's immune system would notice him. It would lock onto him and begin suppressing his power, just as his native reality did.
Ascend first... Kill Gargaratus second!!
Fools rush in for revenge. Hawk preferred his revenge served cold.
Patience was the smarter choice!
"This universe has something you want," Scott repeated the words slowly. He eyed Hawk, shifting his stance. "Should I be worried?"
Hawk saw the defensive posture. He smirked.
"Relax. I don't care about your universe. What I'm after is way above your pay-grade. You don't mess with me, I don't mess with you."
"...Alright." Scott looked into Hawk's eyes and saw only cold calmness. He relaxed a little and glanced around the dark, dusty parking garage.
"Where the hell are we? Where are Hope and Hank?"
Hawk didn't answer.
Scott had spent four hours in the Quantum Realm. But up here, five years had passed since the Snap.
'So this really is the main MCU timeline...' Hawk wondered briefly.
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A few minutes later, Scott grabbed the handle of his impounded camping gear and pulled it out of the garage. They stepped onto a cracked, desolate street lined with trash and abandoned cars.
Scott looked at the ruined city, completely shocked.
"What the hell happened here?"
"I'm leaving," Hawk said, ignoring the question. "Don't worry about me. I have zero interest in your reality. Two months max, and I'm out of here."
Hawk didn't wait for an answer. In an instant, he disappeared.
Just then, a kid rode by on a bicycle.
Scott shook himself out of his shock and stopped the kid. As he listened to the boy explain, his face went pale with fear.
He hadn't been gone for five hours.
He had been gone for five whole years!
Scott ran through the streets, pulling his suitcase behind him, desperate for answers. He hurried to the nearest Wall of the Vanished, huge stone monuments built to honor everyone lost in Thanos's snap.
He arrived, gasping for breath. And there, standing in front of one of the towering stone slabs, was Hawk, hands stuffed casually in his pockets.
Scott walked over in a daze. He followed Hawk's gaze up the granite wall.
Hawk Phoenix.
"He had the last name Phoenix, too?" Hawk asked, glancing sideways at Scott.
Scott shook his head. "I only ever knew you as Mind Warrior. I never knew your last name."
Hawk nodded. He pointed a finger at an adjacent stone slab. "Your name is up there."
Scott froze. He rushed over to the other monument.
He found it instantly.
Scott Lang.
Scott gasped. Seeing his own name carved into a memorial for the dead sent a chill down his spine.
Panic set in.
"Cassie." He muttered his daughter's name like a prayer, frantically scanning the endless rows of names.
Hawk was looking for a name, too.
Anya.
His sister.
He knew this wasn't his universe. But he needed to know how she was doing in this one.
While Scott read each name one by one, Hawk acted quickly. He used his Seventh Sense, and in a split second, his mind scanned every letter on every stone slab in the city.
Anya's name wasn't there.
She had survived the Snap.
Sixth Sense — Observation!
Using the power of his golden Micro-Universe, Hawk's vision mapped the whole planet in an instant. He could find anyone, anywhere, in a heartbeat.
His senses moved through Queens, passed over Brooklyn, and landed on a familiar address in Manhattan's Upper East Side.
521A Palm Street.
He saw her sitting on the living room sofa, looking at a huge pile of overdue bills and rubbing her temples in exhaustion. She looked five years older.
Hawk pulled his senses back. He turned to Scott, who was still frantically searching the stone for his daughter's name.
"Stop looking. Cassie's alive."
"..." Scott snapped his head around.
Hawk gave him an address in Brooklyn. "She's there."
Scott's eyes lit up. "That's my ex-wife's house. I have to go."
He spun around, grabbing his suitcase handle. He took two steps, stopped, and looked back at Hawk. "Are you—"
"Don't worry about me. Like I said, two months and I'm gone. Treat me like a tourist."
"Okay. Goodbye."
"Goodbye." Hawk watched Scott run down the street as fast as he could. Hawk stood alone in front of the memorial for a while, looking at his own name carved in stone. He closed his eyes.
A moment later, his body faded away into the air.
When he reappeared, he was standing on the familiar front porch of 521A Palm Street.
Hawk looked right through the front door. He watched Anya stressing over the bills.
He knew perfectly well that this Anya wasn't his Anya.
But... she was still Anya.
His sister.
Inside the house, Anya suddenly paused. Her head snapped toward the front door. Pure instinct. She stood up, walked across the living room, and grabbed the knob.
She pulled the door open.
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