"Actually, I have an ability that no one knows about. Seeing how well I get along with you, Sister Natasha, I'll make an exception and tell you a secret."
After chatting for a while, Hawking's expression suddenly turned mysterious.
"What ability?"
Black Widow's eyes lit up immediately, thinking that her recent conversation had lowered the guard of this child, Hawking.
Hawking, with a smug look, bluffed:
"Actually, this isn't an innate ability, but a very profound technique I've been learning since childhood.
I can roughly determine a person's fate throughout their life by looking at their palm. In our terms, it's called fortune-telling."
"Really?"
Black Widow was skeptical; she instinctively felt this ability was a bit far-fetched.
"Of course it's real. If you don't believe me, let me read yours."
Hawking grabbed Black Widow's hand, removed her glove, and placed it before his eyes, pretending to observe it for a moment. Then he sighed, frowned, and shook his head:
"Sister Natasha, you have the fate of a lone star!"
"What's a lone star?"
Black Widow looked bewildered.
Although she knew Chinese, that didn't mean she understood some of its cultural nuances.
"A lone star means you are born with a difficult destiny, a hard childhood, and a future without a good end. Moreover, you are highly likely to be alone your whole life, with no marriage and no children."
Hawking bluffed confidently.
Of course, he couldn't tell fortunes or predict the future. He had loaded Harry Potter, not Grindelwald, so he didn't have a natural clairvoyant eye to predict the future.
He was just toying with Black Widow because she kept trying to extract information from him.
Although some of what he said was indeed factual.
As expected, upon hearing Hawking's words, Black Widow's body stiffened, and she fell into a somewhat emo state.
She was born in the Soviet Union in 1984, an abandoned infant.
Later, she was adopted and trained by a government agency, and along with Soviet Captain Alexei, Iron Maiden Melina, and Yelena, who was also an orphan, they posed as a family of four to carry out a spy mission in Ohio.
After the mission failed, she was sent to the Red Room to undergo more brutal training under Madame B.
During this process, her body was injected with enhanced genes, and she was also forced to undergo a tubal ligation, permanently losing her fertility.
For several years, as the most outstanding Black Widow, she was sent on spy and assassination missions around the world, her hands stained with the blood of many innocent people, even children.
It wasn't until two years ago that S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Hawkeye Barton was ordered to eliminate her, but she unexpectedly realized the error of her life and decided to join S.H.I.E.L.D. to atone for her past mistakes.
So, looking at it this way, what Hawking said seemed, seemed to really fit.
"Will my entire life be like this?"
Black Widow felt a sense of desolation inside.
At sixteen or seventeen, Black Widow's psychological resilience was still somewhat weaker compared to the Black Widow who would experience various S.H.I.E.L.D. missions ten years later.
Hawkeye obviously noticed Black Widow's distress. He didn't believe Hawking had any so-called ability to predict fate, so he extended his hand and said:
"That's amazing, can you read mine too?"
He wanted to use facts to make Black Widow understand that what Hawking said was just a coincidence.
Hawking naturally didn't refuse:
"Oh, yours is quite good; it's a fate of many children and grandchildren."
Glancing at Hawkeye's raised palm, he bluffed again:
"From your palm, I can tell that your youth didn't seem to be good, likely related to your family, but your future is very promising. You will marry one of your colleagues and have at least three children."
Barton, who had just picked up Water to take a sip and watch Hawking's performance, was also stunned.
His youth had indeed been difficult, as his mother was imprisoned after he killed a robber during a convenience store robbery where he and his mother were present.
And now, at thirty, he was dating a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent named Mockingbird, with plans to marry within the next two years.
"Could it be that this Mutant child named Hawking really has the ability to see through fate?
Then I really will have three children!"
At this moment, he both hoped Hawking's ability was fake, because that would mean his good friend Natasha would also have a happy future, and hoped Hawking's ability was real, because then his future would be very happy.
"Alright, hey. Natasha, Barton, what's wrong with you two?"
Just then, the door to the lounge was suddenly pushed open by Hill, but when she saw Black Widow and Hawkeye's expressions, a puzzled look appeared on her face.
Why were two of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top Agents looking so dejected and conflicted, respectively?
"Oh, have they finished talking? Then we can go.
Sister Natasha, Barton, it was a pleasure chatting with you. Let's chat again sometime."
Hawking immediately stood up, waved to Black Widow and Hawkeye, and then, along with Mystique, followed Hill out of the lounge.
"That... do you really read people's fates?"
On the way to the Director's office, Mystique quietly asked Hawking.
Although she had her eyes closed, pretending to doze, she hadn't missed a single word of the conversation between the three in the lounge.
There was a black market Mutant merchant, Caliban, who could occasionally see fragments of the future, so if Hawking could see through people's destinies, it didn't seem impossible.
"Guess?"
Hawking gave a meaningful smile.
If you believe I can see through fate, then you'll naturally take my future words to heart. If the future changes and my words prove wrong, I never admitted I could truly see through fate, did I? It's just your wishful thinking.
Mystique quickly pinched Hawking's face:
"You little rascal, I think you should be nicknamed 'Mr. Fate'."
"Wrong, it's 'Mr. Destiny'!"
Hawking shrugged.
Mystique looked about twenty or thirty on the outside, but her actual age was already similar to Professor X and Magneto; she was also a grandmother, so a pinch from her was no big deal.
Chatting, the two quickly returned to the office door, and what greeted them were Nick Fury and the other two, who seemed to have had a good discussion.
"I hope we can cooperate more in the future."
Nick Fury's face, uncharacteristically, showed a bit more of a smile.
Professor X was easier to talk to than he had imagined; as long as the bottom line of Mutant safety wasn't touched, many things were very easy to discuss.
And although Magneto was more extreme and hostile towards humans, he felt he had a handle on him.
So, the current outcome of their discussion was something all three parties could temporarily accept.
"Professor, I'm hungry. It's time for lunch, isn't it?"
Hawking stepped forward, speaking to Professor X, but looking up at Nick Fury.
Nick Fury, being a shrewd person, immediately said:
"Since it's lunchtime, why don't we have a meal together? I happen to know a newly opened, top-tier French restaurant."
Since the discussion went smoothly, having a meal to deepen their relationship was also a good idea.
Hawking's lips curled into a smile upon hearing this; he had done it on purpose.
In about an hour, Stryker's pure Water would turn into poison. If they were with Nick Fury at that time, they could easily shake off all suspicion.