Whoosh!
Boom—
A faint whooshing sound first exploded above Times Square, but then a thunderous blast suddenly echoed, instantly shattering the massive advertising screens on the high-rise buildings near Times Square.
The next second.
A silver streak, difficult for the naked eye or even dynamic detectors to catch, quickly darted out of New York City, weaving through the stopped traffic and astonished crowds.
Quicksilver Pietro Maximoff, wearing a skin-tight suit designed to minimize wind resistance and sporting a beard, ran at high speed, cradling the red-haired little girl in his arms.
The red-haired little girl tightly hugged Quicksilver Pietro's neck.
"Uncle!"
"Jean, how did you end up here?"
"I don't know, I missed Daddy, but Daddy was so strange, he didn't seem to recognize me. Oh, right, Uncle, can I stay a little longer?"
"No!"
Quicksilver Pietro refused decisively, then said, "Billy and Tommy are crying because they haven't seen you."
Jean paused at his words, then her voice sounded a little worried, "Why are they crying? I only came out for a little while. Then let's go back quickly, Uncle."
Quicksilver Pietro breathed a sigh of relief, grunted, and then said no more, entering the speed dimension to quickly move away from New York City.
But... "Found you!"
Hawke, who was in the sky, keenly caught the speed ripple caused by Quicksilver Pietro's acceleration. With a boom, he burst through a sound barrier cloud and swiftly streaked towards Quicksilver.
When Quicksilver Pietro appeared and took the red-haired little girl, he was still thinking about the Time Stone, so he didn't follow immediately.
By the time he gave chase, Quicksilver's aura was already far from New York City, and he was continuing to accelerate away at an extreme speed.
Hawke had originally thought he had lost him.
But then... "Quicksilver?"
"Heh."
"Your speed isn't as fast as mine!"
Hawke's Little Universe burned, and his speed hadn't even reached its limit, yet his aura steadily locked onto Quicksilver.
And the gap between him and Quicksilver, who was running ahead, was getting shorter and shorter.
Indeed.
As the officially recognized fastest speedster in the Marvel Universe, even nicknamed Quicksilver, Pietro's movement speed was unimaginable.
Official data stated that Quicksilver's movement speed could reach 800,000 kilometers per hour, which is about Mach 655.
But... this was Quicksilver's maximum speed, not Hawke's maximum speed.
A mere Mach 655 speed felt slow to Hawke after experiencing near-light speed.
The next second.
When Hawke saw that Pietro below had entered his attack range, he didn't hesitate and directly unleashed his right fist.
"Phoenix! Meteor Fist!"
"Screech!"
Quicksilver's eyes narrowed sharply, and he instinctively froze instantly.
And just as he stopped in place, an area of desert ten kilometers in radius, now located in Texas, in front of him, seemed to have been subjected to a comprehensive bombardment of fire meteorites.
"Boom, boom, boom—"
Like countless fire meteorites falling, the desert trembled, and even the air vibrated.
Pietro looked at the desert, which seemed to have turned into a minefield, and involuntarily swallowed.
He had no doubt that if he hadn't braked in time, he would probably be countless pieces of flesh by now.
Even Jean in his arms would have... Just as Pietro was thinking this with horror, Hawke had already appeared behind him.
Hawke looked at Quicksilver Pietro, who had his back to him, hands in his pockets, and chuckled.
"Keep running."
"…"
Quicksilver Pietro turned around, holding his niece Jean, and looked at Hawke: "She's your daughter."
Jean's eyes lit up, and with a whoosh, she left her uncle Pietro's arms and threw herself into Hawke's embrace: "Daddy, you're so amazing."
Seeing this, Quicksilver Pietro instantly activated his speed, once again entering the speed dimension, wanting to snatch his niece back from Hawke's arms.
Boom!
Pietro instantly entered the speed dimension. At this moment, time was stretched wildly. In Pietro's vision, the movements of Hawke and his niece Jean in front of him were infinitely frozen.
He quickly arrived in front of Hawke.
But just as he reached out to try and take his niece Jean away again.
An anomaly occurred.
In Pietro's vision, Hawke, whose gaze had not been on him just moments ago, now had his eyes fixed on him.
And—
Pietro saw the corner of Hawke's mouth, a playful smile mixed with immense pressure.
He saw me.
This is impossible.
Pietro's heart trembled, and he instinctively denied it.
But it was the truth.
Hawke, with one arm around Jean in his arms, had already extended his other hand and, at that moment, directly grabbed Pietro, who was in the speed dimension, by the neck and lifted him out.
He looked at Pietro, whose neck he was holding, a smile playing on his lips.
"Haven't you heard a saying?"
"The same trick doesn't work on a saint seiya, does it?"
The same trick doesn't work on a saint seiya.
The value of this saying was still rising.
Pietro could snatch this red-haired little girl from him once.
But he would never succeed a second time!
Pietro, held by the neck, was utterly shocked.
However, Hawke had no intention of doing anything to Pietro.
Because the red-haired little girl in his arms said something.
"Uncle."
"Thump!"
Hawke loosened his grip and then flung Pietro forward.
After landing, Pietro rolled on the ground, and after dissipating the force, he quickly scrambled to his feet, looking at Hawke: "I must take Jean back, otherwise my sister, Billy, and Tommy will all die."
Hawke raised an eyebrow, ignoring the latter half of Pietro's sentence, glanced at the red-haired little girl in his arms, and then looked at Pietro.
"Jean?"
"Yes, Jean!"
Pietro took a deep breath: "My sister said this name comes from French and means 'God's grace.'"
Jean indeed means that in French.
It's just... Hawke listened to the name of what was, from a bloodline perspective, his eldest daughter, then looked at the four-year-old Jean in his arms, and a strange feeling flashed through his heart.
Red hair!
She had his Phoenix Force!
Her name was Jean!
"Hiss!"
Hawke instinctively gasped, then came back to his senses, looking at his blood-related eldest daughter Jean, who had just rushed into his arms but suddenly yawned and then fell asleep clinging to his neck. He smiled.
Pietro looked at Jean, who had been fine one moment and asleep the next, and instantly glared at Hawke.
"What did you do?"
"Relax."
"She's too young to easily control my power. She just needs another nap."
Hawke glanced at Pietro, who was tense and thought he had done something to Jean, and said calmly, but not wanting to explain too much, he directly changed the subject and asked the question on his mind: "I'm very curious, how did your sister agree to Strucker doing this? Did they threaten your life?"
Pietro looked nervously at Jean, who indeed seemed only to be sleeping, then, hearing Hawke's words, looked at Hawke, remained silent for a moment, and shook his head: "No, my sister was indeed willing at first."
Hawke raised an eyebrow.
Pietro looked at the expression on Hawke's face and gave a self-deprecating smile: "A strong person like you can never understand what it's like for a pair of orphans in a war-torn country."
Strong person?
Me?
Hawke chuckled at Pietro's words.
Pietro looked at Hawke, his expression once again turning angry, thinking Hawke was mocking him.
But!
Hawke's voice was calm.
"I also have a sister."
"…"
Pietro's anger vanished at his words, and he looked at Hawke in surprise.
Hawke's tone was calm.
"Her name is Anya."
"Wanda."
Pietro also spoke his sister's name.
Perhaps because both were older brothers and both had sisters, some of the tense atmosphere between them seemed to dissipate.
Of course, this tension was one-sided.
Because Hawke had never been tense.
Pietro's speed was fast, but not faster than his. If he wanted to kill Pietro, it would be a very easy task.
Furthermore.
Leaving aside that Pietro was, in some sense, his 'brother-in-law,' just Wanda's BUG-like ability to alter reality meant he didn't need to risk offending a Scarlet Witch who, in the future, would declare 'No More Mutants,' causing all Mutants to disappear.
The most important point.
The mother of his 'blood-related eldest daughter' was Wanda.
When Hawke saw Anna in the underworld and learned about the red-haired lady of Sokovia from Anna, he immediately thought of the Scarlet Witch Wanda.
And Pietro's arrival now further confirmed this point.
But!
Hawke and Pietro looked at each other: "Again, how did you two agree to Strucker doing this?"
Pietro suppressed his anger in his voice: "Because we wanted the power to get revenge!"
Stark!
The family incident when they were ten years old, caused by Stark, had sown deep hatred for Stark in his and his sister's hearts.
A vendetta for their parents, an irreconcilable enmity.
Especially for both parents.
Even though their parents' Deaths came from warlord conflicts, who was to blame that the missile that destroyed their family was from Stark Industries?
They wanted to become stronger, much stronger, strong enough to stand before Tony Stark and demand why Stark had done such a thing.
So... unlike those who were forcibly imprisoned and experimented on by HYDRA, he and his sister Wanda voluntarily joined HYDRA and participated in their experiments.
"They told my sister that the source of this DNA was an ultimate powerhouse, and the owner of this DNA could kill Tony Stark as easily as slaughtering a dog."
"Indeed."
Hawke met Pietro's gaze, which seemed to seek confirmation, and nodded calmly: "If I wanted to kill Tony Stark, he would have no chance of survival."
...
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