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Anya was inside.
Hawk was outside... He watched her face closely. Her expression shifted from confusion to shock, then to disbelief, and finally to awe.
The next second, Anya gasped. "Brother!"
Thud!
Hawk reached out on instinct. Anya threw herself into his arms. He froze for a moment. He knew this wasn't his Anya, but he only hesitated briefly before hugging her back.
But... As soon as she hugged him, Hawk felt a sudden rush of air near his waist.
He looked down.
Anya's joyful look turned to fury. In a split second, she drove her knee up in a vicious, groin-shattering strike.
Hawk raised an eyebrow. With a thought, he stopped her leg just before it hit, then watched as Anya pulled herself out of his arms. "That's a hell of a way to greet your brother."
"Spit it out. You aren't my brother!" Anya glared at him. "I don't know why you look just like him, but you aren't him. Who the hell are you?!"
Hawk kept his voice calm. "Hawk Phoenix."
"Bullshit!" Anya's anger grew. She stared at the imposter, stomped her foot, twisted her hips, and threw a brutal roundhouse kick at him.
"..." Hawk raised an eyebrow. He sensed real killing intent in her attack. Curious, he decided not to use Telekinesis on her right away. Instead, he raised his arms and joined the fight.
Anya's strikes were fast and heavy.
Hawk easily blocked her attacks. Realizing her skills were real, he grew more interested. He blocked a quick series of punches and spoke without effort.
"Nice technique. Who taught you?"
"Heh." Anya sneered, maintaining her relentless barrage. "You really are a fake. If you were actually my brother, you wouldn't ask a stupid question like that."
Hawk kept smiling. "I remember my sister having a congenital heart defect."
"Looks like you did your homework. You even found out about a secret like my heart condition." Anya sneered again. "Too bad your intel is outdated. My brother cured my heart condition when I was ten."
Hawk raised an eyebrow. After judging her combat skill, he shifted his weight and stepped out of her reach, looking at her thoughtfully.
"Ten?"
"Yeah. Didn't expect that, did you, asshole?"
Anya knew by now that this imposter wouldn't lose in a fistfight. As soon as she got some distance, she reached behind her back, drew a Glock 17, aimed at Hawk, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Click.
"Huh?" Anya stared at the empty chamber of the Glock 17, shocked.
Suddenly—
She saw Hawk open his right hand.
A pile of unused brass 9mm rounds sat neatly in his palm.
"Not bad." Hawk tipped his hand, letting the bullets fall to the concrete. He looked at Anya with a real smile. "But your situational awareness needs work. A loaded magazine is much heavier than an empty one. You should pay more attention."
Anya's eye twitched. She hissed, threw the heavy, empty Glock at Hawk's face, and ran after it. "Go to hell, you bastard!"
Hawk tilted his head and let the gun fly past him. He snapped his fingers.
Telekinesis!
Whoosh!
Anya instantly froze in mid-air, locked perfectly in the middle of a flying side-kick.
Her boot hovered less than four inches from Hawk's chest.
Hawk looked at his sister. The anger in her eyes quickly turned to real fear. He gave a small smirk, then released his telekinetic hold.
Thud.
Anya hit the grass hard and let out a sharp grunt of pain.
Hawk instinctively stepped forward to help her.
The next moment, a cold smirk appeared on Anya's face. A flash of silver caught the light as she pulled a combat knife from her boot and drove it straight toward Hawk's heart as he came closer.
Clang!
The moment the blade touched Hawk's chest, it shattered into pieces. Bits of steel fell onto the grass.
Anya's jaw dropped.
Hawk looked down and brushed a bit of metal dust off his suit. He chuckled and shook his head as he looked at Anya, still crouched and holding a broken hilt.
"Are you ready to talk now?"
"..." Anya dropped the broken hilt and scrambled backward, putting space between them. Her brow was tightly furrowed.
"Who are you?"
"Hawk Phoenix."
"Shut up! You aren't my brother!" Anya yelled in anger. "You might have his face. You might even have his exact aura. You might be able to fool Wanda, but you can't fool me. Do you know how I knew you were a fake?!"
Hawk really did want to know what made this universe's version different from his. He nodded.
"Enlighten me."
"You hesitated when you hugged me..." Anya's voice was deadly serious. "If you were really my brother, you would never, ever hesitate to hug me."
When he heard her reasoning, Hawk couldn't help but laugh. He looked at her. "Maybe I was just surprised because it's been a while?"
"You're telling me that a brother who survived on the streets with me, who raised me, who treated me like the most precious thing in the world... would treat me like a stranger after finally seeing me again?"
"...I'm sorry." Hawk looked into her angry eyes. He went quiet for a moment, then gave a sincere apology. "You're right. I shouldn't have questioned the bond between you and your brother."
Anya didn't soften. The anger in her eyes burned even brighter. "I'm going to ask you one last time. Who the hell are you?"
"I am..."
Hawk met her fierce glare. As soon as he opened his mouth to answer, something shifted deep inside him. He squeezed his eyes shut.
The next second, he was standing above his own River of Time.
He looked down... His personal timeline suddenly grew. It felt like a separate, parallel timeline had crashed into his own the moment he entered this universe, merging with his River of Time.
Then...
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A flood of memories that weren't his—memories from the Hawk Phoenix of Universe-616—exploded in his mind.
"Brother."
"Yeah?"
"Why did we choose 'Phoenix' as our last name?"
"Because a Phoenix never dies. It only burns to rise again. No matter what happens, we will always rise from the ashes."
"Brother?"
"I'm here."
"Am I going to die?"
"Never. I won't let you die. Don't forget, our name is Phoenix. I will make sure you rise from the ashes."
"..."
"Dr. Arnim Zola. I know you're in there."
"...Hawk Phoenix. Ten years old. I am incredibly curious to know how you are aware of my existence."
"My sister is sick. Cure her, and I'll tell you everything."
"..."
"We cured your sister. As agreed, you now work for us. Now, I want to know how you found out about us."
"I don't know. I just know the names. I don't know where I heard them. I just took a gamble."
"It doesn't matter. We will find out eventually. Until then, you and your sister are under our constant surveillance. If you try anything, you know we will execute both of you immediately."
"Don't worry. I won't."
"..."
"Brother!"
"Hmm?"
"Did I die?"
"Of course not. I told you I wouldn't let you die. You're completely cured now."
"But the doctors said..."
"I made a deal with the devil."
"..."
"Phoenix, perhaps the answers to your 'visions' can be found at Strucker's facility."
"Fine. This is the last thing I owe you. If Strucker doesn't have the answers you want, my debt is paid. We're done."
"Agreed!"
"..."
"AHHH!"
"Sir, his vitals are crashing!"
"Suspend the experiment. Send him back to his cell."
"..."
"What's your name?"
"Wanda. You?"
"Hawk. I feel like I know you."
"That's a terrible pickup line. You volunteered for these experiments just like the rest of us, didn't you?"
"I guess. I owed them a favor. After this, we're even."
"And why did you volunteer?"
"To gain the power to get my revenge."
"Stark?"
"...You know about that?"
"No. Like I said, I just feel like I know you. But honestly, my brain is pretty messed up from the experiments."
"Well, get some rest. Oh, that's Pietro. Just ignore him."
"Got it!"
"..."
"AHHH!"
BOOOOOOMM!!
"Sir! The Avengers have breached the perimeter!"
"Shit! Shut down the machine! We are evacuating immediately!"
"Sir, we can't! The machine is mid-cycle! If we cut the power now, Hawk Phoenix will die!"
"I said shut it down! Now!"
"...Yes, sir!"
BOOOOOOMM!!
"..."
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Standing above his River of Time in silence, Hawk swiftly sorted through the flood of foreign memories pouring into his mind. Then he slowly opened his eyes, calm and still like the surface of a dead lake.
Alright... He realized he had been wrong about one important thing.
Hawk had always thought he was the only variant who remembered his past life as a transmigrator. He believed the other multiversal Hawks were just regular people living their own lives.
But that was not true.
The other multiversal Hawks were not his parallel selves.
They were his variants!
In other words, the Hawks scattered across the multiverse were not this Hawk.
But this Hawk...
Was every one of them.
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