"What did you just say?"
"Uh… I don't know?"
"No, not that. You said the professor's experiment worked on what?"
"A tailless lab mouse. Didn't I tell you before?"
Hawk frowned at Gwen's strangely shocked expression. "What's wrong?"
Gwen didn't answer.
Her brows knit tightly as her thoughts spun.
Successful experiment.
A tailless mouse.
And suddenly—an image flashed in her mind.
Two months ago, during that lab accident, when one of the mice escaped.
The very one that licked up the drops of blood Hawk had spilled.
And… that mouse's tail had been severed.
She sucked in a sharp breath.
Her gaze darted back to Hawk. Without explaining, she pulled out her phone and quickly dialed a number.
Hawk raised an eyebrow, watching her.
Soon the call connected.
"Hello? Elsa."
"Gwen? If this is about what happened last night—I'm sorry. The company made us all sign NDAs."
"No, Elsa. I just need to know—was the one successful trial with a tailless mouse?"
"…Yeah."
At Oscorp Tower, Elsa nodded, still shaken after signing her non-disclosure papers. "But we can't call it a success. It only worked that one time. We tried replicating it over and over—always failed."
Gwen pressed. "It was the same mouse that escaped during the accident, wasn't it?"
"…Yes. That one."
Bingo.
Gwen hung up, her pulse racing.
Hawk leaned forward. "So what was different about that mouse?"
She hesitated, then asked quietly, "Do you remember that day in the lab? When you hurt your hand?"
"No." Hawk shook his head instantly.
Gwen just stared at him.
"…Fine," Hawk muttered. "Let's say I did. Go on."
"Those drops of blood you left on the floor—that's what the mouse licked up."
"…."
Hawk stared at her, frowning.
Their eyes locked.
At last he exhaled, almost laughing at the absurdity. "You're saying the one successful mouse was the same one that drank my blood?"
Gwen lifted her shoulders. "It's the only variable. Otherwise, why did every single other trial end in death—except that one?"
Her voice was steady, but in her mind, she couldn't stop replaying that memory:
The waterfall in the Maryland forest.
The river that surged upward against gravity like a dragon's roar.
And Hawk, standing shirtless beneath it, as if he had been the cause.
Hawk sat back, setting down his soda cup.
He remembered what Peter had told him on the rooftop last night.
That the Lizard carried traces of his scent.
At the time, he'd assumed it was just residual from Gwen meeting Connors.
But now… maybe not.
If his blood had altered that mouse—if Connors had extracted his serum from it—then the chain of cause was clear.
Hawk's blood → the mouse → the new serum → Connors → the Lizard.
He almost wanted to laugh.
"My blood can't be that ridiculous… right?"
"There's a way to find out," Gwen said firmly.
"What way?"
"The Stark Lab at school. They've got a blood analyzer—state-of-the-art. Half an hour for results."
"…."
The Stark Building, a donation from Howard Stark himself. Inside were machines that cost over a million dollars, one of which could do a full blood analysis in record time.
With a resigned sigh, Hawk pricked his finger and fed a sample into the machine. The wound closed instantly before Gwen's eyes.
She started the machine running. While they waited, she asked, "So… are you mutated? Like Dr. Bruce Banner?"
She'd wanted to ask that for weeks.
Hawk chuckled, shaking his head. "I can promise you—I'm one hundred percent human. Pure human."
He wasn't a mutant.
He had awakened the Cosmo.
That was all.
Mutations were for the desperate.
He might have been poor, yes—but his strength came from sweat, fists, and endless discipline.
Every drop of blood and every one of those ten thousand daily punches had built him.
Not an accident. Not gamma rays. Not a spider bite.
He glanced back at Gwen, adding lightly, "And don't compare me to Bruce Banner. He's not in my league."
"…."
Her eyes lit suddenly. "Wait. That 'Spider Freak'… he's mutated too, isn't he?"
Hawk mimed zipping his lips. "Not my secret to tell, Gwen."
"Fine. I'll figure it out myself." She rolled her eyes.
At that moment—
Beep-beep-beep!
The analyzer finished. Gwen hurried over, pulling out the printed results. Hawk leaned in beside her.
Red blood cell count. White cells. Platelets.
All—off the charts.
Even Hawk blinked at the numbers.
Not surprising, really. The Cosmo strengthened the body itself.
But Gwen stood frozen, gripping the paper tightly.
"Hawk… if the outside world ever saw these results, do you realize what they'd do to you?"
Hawk only smiled faintly, eyes calm.
"Gwen," he said softly, "no one else is ever getting a drop of my blood that easily."
...
(End of Chapter)
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