Hawk put away his phone, tucked it back into his pocket, and looked at the corpse being consumed by the Phoenix Fire, his gaze flickering.
In the next moment.
He shook his head and chuckled.
Hawk understood what Gwen meant on the phone just now.
It was simply that Jean, Billy, and Tommy, those three kids, are under my protection, and they can't be touched.
But...
Hawk had no intention of moving them anyway.
To be more precise, he didn't really care.
If he really had the intentions that Gwen was worried about, he wouldn't have just captured Pietro and brought him back to New York S.H.I.E.L.D.
In a single word.
Strucker sent him three kids, but Hawk didn't care.
However, if Strucker wanted to use these three kids to threaten him, Hawk could only say that he was thinking too much.
Even Mephisto once tried to use the soul of his most cherished sister to threaten him, and he didn't comply.
What made Strucker think that these kids, who aren't products of love but of technology, could make him comply?
What was he thinking?
Hawk was quite curious about what kind of state of mind Strucker was in when he did this, why he thought he could control him this way.
Was it because he thought he could be threatened with a son, so he thought he could be threatened with kids?
Oh, right.
Strucker's son...
Thoughts were turning in Hawk's mind, and suddenly, his eyebrows arched, his mouth curled into a cold smile, he turned around, and instantly disappeared in the world's largest shifting desert.
Natasha, who was about to speak, watched as Hawk disappeared before she could open her mouth, and her mouth fell open.
At the same time.
With Gwen's help, they broke free, taking Jean back to Paris, then got a satellite call from Strucker, and headed towards the modified location from Strucker.
After going back and forth five times, they finally met a Hydra Agent, and each received a bottle of sweet water handed over by Hydra.
After drinking the sweet water, Pietro and Jean immediately fell into a sweet dreamland.
Half an hour later, in an underwater port, a submarine surfaced from below the water.
At a long distance from this place, deep in the ocean, there was a massive underwater base.
Six thick supporting arms radiated outwards, piercing the seabed and firmly supporting this large underwater base.
The whole structure was a muted silvery gray, its surface covered with pressure-resistant composite armor plates embedded with closely packed blast-proof portholes, like the compound eyes of an insect, emitting a dim blue glow in the deep sea.
Through one of the windows, the space inside looked no different from the S.H.I.E.L.D. Combat Command Center.
On the huge screen was a global satellite map, and on this global map, there used to be countless red dots, but over the past year, these red dots disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At this moment.
A Hydra Agent who received a message turned and looked into the shadows behind him.
"Sir, Quicksilver and Jean have been picked up, and they are on their way back."
"Mm."
A low voice came from the shadows, and then Strucker, with meticulously combed gray-white hair, wearing a single eyeglass, and exuding a gloomy and cold aura, stepped out from the shadows, his voice equally cold.
"Have you found out how Jean left yet?"
"Uh..."
The assistant hesitated for a moment, then looked at Strucker, standing beside him, and emerging from the shadows with him.
"The damaged surveillance has been restored."
"Jean vanished suddenly, but before she disappeared, she said that daddy hadn't seen her in a long time, saying they agreed to see each other once a month, and then she seemed to be going to find daddy, and then Jean disappeared."
"..."
Strucker listened to the assistant's report, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly: "So, she has already mastered the 'Instant Movement' exhibited by the Demon King?"
The assistant nodded.
"Seems like it."
"What about Billy and Tommy?"
"They haven't shown any abnormalities, they seem to be just very ordinary life forms."
"...That's fine too."
Strucker was silent for a moment and then smiled: "Ordinary is good, using Billy and Tommy, we can control Wanda, Jean, and Pietro, and with these three, we can control the Demon King. By the way, do you think the Demon King will be so angry when he finds out about our plan that he'd tear us apart with his bare hands?"
The assistant looked at Strucker, whose face showed a slightly sick smile as he said this, opened his mouth but didn't speak.
At this moment.
In the silent depths of the ocean, a submarine silently appeared, slowly approaching the cold seabed Hydra Base.
Half an hour later.
Pietro woke up, seeming to have had a restful sleep, yawned, opened his eyes, instinctively sat up from the sofa, and saw Strucker sitting on the side, sipping whiskey.
Strucker pushed the poured whiskey towards Pietro as he looked at him getting up.
Pietro chuckled, picked up the glass, took a sip, and looked at Strucker.
"Thank you."
"Did you see the Demon King."
"I did."
Pietro nodded, and then seemed to think of something, looked at Strucker: "He's very strong, my speed is nothing compared to him, but he doesn't seem as terrifying as you say."
Strucker's lips curled up slightly, glancing at Pietro.
"That's because you haven't become his enemy."
"So are you Hawks' enemy?"
"I wanted to cooperate with him, but he didn't accept."
Strucker's tone was calm.
He said this, and he thought this way, the last time he said the same thing when meeting Hawk in Sokovia.
But Hawk rejected his offer, even saying it's best to stay as far away as possible, otherwise, it would end very badly for him.
Strucker knew very well that Hawk's threat was not just talk, but a tangible reality.
At best, it meant annihilating a family.
At worst, it meant exterminating a race.
Since Hawk's emergence, anyone who opposed him, or tried to provoke him, or even attempted to test him, either found grass growing over their graves or saw their entire clan lands turned into barren wasteland.
So...
Strucker would be lying if he said he wasn't afraid.
But!
Strucker feared more that Hawk would not be used by them.
In a word.
Before we Hydra take over the globe, I need to befriend you.
By the time we Hydra take over the world, we still need to befriend you, even have to humor you, pamper you, and look at your face, then we Hydra haven't struggled for nothing.
In short.
They must control Hawk.
What?
Alexander Pierce didn't think so.
Heh.
What does a rookie know about Hydra?
This was the unanimous thought of the old school Hydra leaders, that power not used by them was absolutely not allowed.
So ever since the old school Hydra, he, Dr. Zola, Whitehall, and Malik unanimously decided to find the weakness to control Hawk, everyone has a weakness.
And they did find it.
Hawk's weakness is his family.
But...
The last one who tried to disturb his sister's rest, Thaddeus Ross, has already been wiped out.
The last one who tried to use Gwen to blackmail Hawk, Wakanda, has also been annihilated.
Hawk's sister is already dead.
As for Gwen.
They didn't dare to touch Gwen, the risk was too great.
But it doesn't matter, Hawk's sister is dead, the fiancée is too risky, so they create a family member under their control to blackmail Hawk themselves.
Based on their profiling, if they have Hawk's bloodline in their hands, then the success rate of using this to blackmail Hawk is infinitely close to ninety-nine percent.
So...
Strucker did this, and indeed succeeded.
Using the blood provided by Hawk, they successfully extracted DNA from it, then artificially synthesized it into gametes, and after experimenting with more than twenty subjects, they successfully birthed a baby with Hawk's bloodline.
Codename — Jean!
A gift from God.
Meaning this child is a gift from God for them to control Hawk.
And indeed it seems like a gift from God.
Because after so many experiments, only this one was born, the laboratory concluded through analysis.
Hawk's life force is too strong, ordinary life forms not only can't nurture it, but can't even conceive it.
Only Wanda, who has expanded and enhanced her psychic ability with the Scepter of the Mind, has the abundant energy to bear Hawk's offspring.
It is well known.
The higher the life level of a creature, the exponentially harder it is to reproduce offspring.
According to such conclusions drawn by the laboratory, Gwen's potential to bear Hawk's offspring is almost zero.
So...
This made Strucker even more certain that using the bloodline descendants they conceived for Hawk to blackmail him has nearly a hundred percent success rate.
That time in Sokovia, Strucker wanted to tell Hawk about this.
But!
Hawk didn't even give him a chance to speak and told him to wash his neck and wait.
But it's fine.
"Jean."
"Billy."
"Tommy."
"If you want children, then we can control you."
"Demon King."
"Hydra's Demon King."
Strucker remained calm, sipping his glass of wine, already envisioning Hawk being used by them after being blackmailed by the three children, helping them conquer the world.
At this moment.
The sound of ringing filled the air.
It wasn't coming from Pietro, nor from Strucker, but from the drawer of the office desk.
Strucker listened to the phone ringing, paused slightly, then looked at Pietro.
"You can leave now."
"…"
Pietro watched as Strucker's expression shifted briefly, furrowing his brow, but said nothing, rising to walk toward the door.
Strucker also got up and headed to the desk.
As Pietro pushed the door open and then shut it behind him, Strucker glanced at the caller, a slight smile appearing on his cold face.
Then, as Pietro closed the door, Strucker's lowered voice seemed to reach his ears.
"Son!"
"…"