The rite of reception ending didn't mean the baptism was over.
There was still the communion the church provided for the guests who'd come to witness.
Hawk, unsurprisingly, sat at the head of the table.
And he was the one to lead the prayer before the meal.
"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name."
"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
"…forever and ever!"
"Amen!"
"Amen!"
Gwen, Peter, Felicia, Aunt May, and the other guests echoed after him.
As Peter lowered his head to say "amen," he watched Hawk from the corner of his eye.
Hawk's face was solemn, devout—more devout than any pious congregant.
If only Hawk hadn't just whispered in his ear that he'd killed God a moment ago.
Hawk had added that he was joking afterward.
But…
Peter's spider-sense told him Hawk wasn't joking.
And he had felt a flicker of something off—only for a lightning-flash instant—but the spider-sense had caught it. Before his hair could even stand on end, that breath of presence was gone.
Peter fretted, itching to ask Hawk what had really happened.
Wrong place, though.
This was a church. Asking Hawk here whether he'd really chopped up God would be about as rude as it gets.
So—
After the communion, when Aunt May and Felicia went to see the guests off, Peter couldn't wait; he tugged Hawk into the graveyard behind the church.
Hawk didn't resist.
His sister's grave was here—and since he lived right next door in the Palm Street community, the area around Anya's headstone was always kept neat and quiet.
Hawk crouched, fingertips brushing the photo of his sister on the stone. His mind dipped into the microcosmos; he saw Anya right then, touring the Infernal Pits with Kyra and several other Blood Elves clustered protectively around her.
"Wonder how that Merrick clone's replication work is going."
The real Dr. Merrick was paying for his sins in the Frozen Pit.
But clones weren't only his specialty—his clone could do it, too.
Back then, to pass for the real thing and fool S.H.I.E.L.D. into thinking the original had been captured, Merrick had handed his full memories to the clone.
So, in theory, the clone could clone.
But Hawk didn't like surprises.
Especially not where his sister was concerned. So the Merrick clone was conducting the replication trials under S.H.I.E.L.D. supervision.
And Dr. Helen Cho had joined as technical support to make sure nothing went sideways.
Once S.H.I.E.L.D. signed off that replication was field-ready, they'd open Anya's coffin, extract viable DNA, and then—she could live again.
So…
It shouldn't be long now before Anya truly returned.
With that thought, Hawk withdrew his hand, stood, and turned to Peter, who'd pulled him out to the graveyard.
"What's up?"
"…"
Peter had been waiting for Hawk to speak first. Seeing him turn with a smile and get the jump, Peter blinked, tugged a corner of his mouth. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"
Hawk made an oh sound and didn't hide it. He told Peter how a projection of God had descended moments ago to recruit him as an archangel—and how that had gone.
Peter listened, stunned.
"You turned him down?"
"Of course."
"Why?"
"Because God's skin wasn't white."
"God's skin wasn't—"
Peter's eyes flew wide; his voice rose before he caught himself and looked at Hawk. "How is that possible?"
Hawk chuckled, then gave him the short version of Dr. Merrick's "in God's name we mass-clone your body, replace quality with quantity, and overwrite your soul" evil plan.
Peter was even more shocked and unbelieving.
Not disbelieving Hawk—
Just…
He thought of how devoutly Hawk had just invoked and honored God, and looked at him, baffled. "Then why were you so devout just now?"
"What about it?"
"God and you—"
"Oh."
Hawk knew where Peter was headed and waved it off.
"Believing in God and chopping up God are two different things."
"Who says you can't believe in God if you cut Him down?"
"Besides."
"God is God; Yahweh is Yahweh."
"When I cut down Yahweh, I'm the new God."
"Then believing in God is believing in me."
"So why wouldn't I believe in God?"
Anyway, when he killed "God," Earth wouldn't feel a ripple. If he didn't say anything, the Vatican probably wouldn't even know their source of faith had switched owners.
Though out of courtesy, Hawk might drop them a line: by the way, your Lord has changed hands—Yahweh out, Hawk in.
Bottom line.
Dimensions need faith.
Hawk—the Phoenix Saint, Lord of the Phoenix Parallel Cosmos—needed no faith.
Faith was incense—poison.
Like La Magra.
He played with the faith of the blooded, and it backfired; when Deacon Frost died—the last believer who remembered his true divinity—La Magra received the end written for him.
So—
Faith? Not even a dog needs it.
After finishing, Hawk glanced at Peter, jaw hanging, arched a brow, clapped his shoulder, and smiled. "Keep it to yourself. You don't want two-point-four billion believers learning the truth and shattering, do you?"
With that—
He clapped Peter's shoulder again and walked toward Gwen, who'd come to the back door to find him.
Gwen looked from Hawk approaching to Peter turning away, dazed. Curious, she asked Hawk, "What were you two talking about?"
"God."
"Oh. He was wondering why you plan to chop God up but were so devout in there, right?"
"Mm."
Hawk nodded at Gwen. "How'd you know?"
Gwen smiled. "Because I was wondering the same thing."
Hawk shrugged.
"What is God's belongs to God; what is Yahweh's belongs to Yahweh."
"And…"
"I came up through a church choir. Of course I'm devout."
He said it casually, mind drifting again to those childhood days with his sister in the church. He glanced at Gwen. "If you didn't put on a devout face, you went hungry back then."
Gwen pressed her lips together and hugged him.
Hawk hugged her back.
Half an hour later—
At the church doors—
Gwen teased little Ben in his stroller, the baby giggling as he gripped his golden cross, while she spoke to Felicia. "I went through the candidates you sent. I picked a few and mailed them back—those four for now; add more if we need them."
In their joint regenerative research, Gwen and Dr. Helen Cho had drawn on Dr. Curt Connors' earlier lizard-regeneration theory.
That IP belonged to Oscorp.
Gwen had obtained Felicia's authorization in advance, and Dr. Cho had agreed that once there were results, Oscorp would get first consideration on commercialization.
Now—
With Gwen's doctorate in hand, commercialization of the regeneration project was stepping onto the runway.
She'd also landed her first postdoctoral job.
Still at Oscorp—
But no more assisting someone else. She'd be working in the Stacy–Phoenix Bio Lab, fully funded by Oscorp.
These days, Gwen and Felicia spoke often, coordinating lab equipment and the initial hires.
Felicia nodded. "Okay. I'll have HR send offers to the four you picked."
"No problem."
Gwen smiled, bent over the stroller, and squished Ben's cheeks. "Wow, our little Ben is so cute."
Hawk was Ben's godfather; once she and Hawk got their license next year, she'd be his godmother.
And again—
In Ben's life planning, the godmother's say outranked even Mom Felicia's.
Hawk, having shaken hands with Peter and the priest to say goodbye, came out of the church as well.
A moment later—
Peter and Felicia got into the car, waved, and their driver pulled away from the church.
Hawk and Gwen watched them go, then turned and headed toward 521A Palm Street.
Half an hour later—
Boom!
A rainbow lance of light shot skyward from the backyard of 521A Palm Street, leapt to ten thousand meters in a blink, then punched out a sonic boom and streaked through the atmosphere.
At S.H.I.E.L.D. New York HQ, alarms blared across the main screen!
Right then—
Sharon opened her office door, stepped into the hall, and glanced down at the alarm splashed across the big board.
"Cancel the alert. Execute the Shackle Plan."
"Yes, ma'am."
The alarms cut off. A squad of elite S.H.I.E.L.D. agents departed the hub, moving at speed toward 521A Palm Street to carry out the Demon King Shackles protection plan.
Sharon returned to her office.
Gwen had already called her moments ago—she knew Hawk would be leaving New York for a bit.
"By the way, Gwen—where's Hawk headed, and do you need anything from us?"
"Uh… you can't help with this one."
"Hawk says Mephisto's squatting on his turf."
"He's going to tell Mephisto to move."
"…"
(End of Chapter)
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