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One punch.
Then another.
And another.
Standing at the base of the waterfall, Hawk braced himself against the crushing torrent of water, his fists lashing out against the immense resistance.
With every punch, the wall of water would momentarily buckle, freezing in place for a fraction of a second.
But it wasn't enough.
He didn't just want the waterfall to pause for him. He wanted it to tremble. He wanted it to reverse its flow.
Hawk didn't think he was asking for much.
This wasn't Niagara Falls. Compared to the great waterfalls of the world, this one was a trickle.
So, was it too much to ask?
No. Not at all.
But clearly, the waterfall disagreed—
Do you think you're Poseidon?
And even if you were, what good would that do? He's the god of the sea. What jurisdiction does he have over a freshwater waterfall?
And so—
The waterfall, enraged by Hawk's relentless assault, began to flow with even greater fury, its speed visibly increasing.
Hawk felt the shift, the raw anger of the water, but his expression remained unchanged.
Deep within his Cosmo, the fully ignited Phoenix star chart pulsed with light. A fiery phoenix was slowly, majestically, taking form.
He had made his decision.
He would leave this place when this waterfall reversed its course—and not a moment sooner.
He only had a few days left before school started.
A burning, defiant light ignited in Hawk's eyes.
"Come on!!!"
...
"...Was that thunder?"
Miles away, on the northern edge of Cunningham Falls State Park, Gwen, who had just entered the forest, heard the distant roar and looked up at the sky.
But the dense canopy of the ancient trees blocked her view, allowing only dappled sunlight to filter through. The shifting patterns of light and shadow gave the already quiet forest an eerie, almost mystical quality.
Unable to see the sky, Gwen looked back down.
Dressed in a bright white windbreaker and a pair of hiking boots, Gwen pulled out her phone and looked at the screen.
A tracking map was open.
Two pulsing dots, far apart, but now close enough to be seen on the same screen.
One was her current location.
The other...
Gwen took a deep breath, tightened her grip on the hiking pole she had bought in Thurmont the day before, and steeled herself. She started walking again, heading directly for the second dot.
At first, Gwen had just assumed Hawk's phone had been stolen. She tried not to worry.
She had been busy with her own summer internship after all.
The next day, Dr. Connors had asked if she had given Hawk the "Gift," and she'd realized something was wrong. After work, she'd gone back to Hawk's apartment.
And the envelope she had left on his table was still there, untouched—
But for reasons she couldn't explain, a sudden, cold panic seized her heart.
She had immediately called her father and asked him to use his resources at the NYPD to find Hawk.
At first, her father hadn't been too concerned, but seeing the genuine fear in Gwen's eyes, he had agreed to make a call to his colleagues in the Queens precinct.
He was the captain of the 19th Precinct in Manhattan. Technically, a missing persons case in Queens was out of his jurisdiction, but a friendly call to a fellow captain was all it took.
The result: nothing...
It was as if Hawk had vanished from the face of the earth.
He had no credit cards, no driver's license, and his phone was either stolen or dead. There was no way to track him.
To put it bluntly, Hawk was a ghost living in the modern world.
No family.
No social life.
He didn't even seem to have any friends. Even after opening a case file, the Queens precinct had no idea where to even begin their investigation.
No one could provide a last known location. When they questioned a few of his classmates, no one seemed particularly concerned that he was gone.
Well...
Except Gwen.
Two nights ago, her father had come home to find her just getting back, looking exhausted from another day of searching. He had finally asked the question he'd been holding back. "Gwen, are you in love with this boy?"
Gwen, who had just come from a cemetery in Queens, froze, then gave him her answer.
"Dad, Hawk and I are just friends."
"..."
By the time her father had processed her words, she was already halfway up the stairs.
George had blinked, then looked at his wife, Helen, who had been standing quietly by.
"Friends? Do you believe that?"
"It doesn't matter if I believe it or not."
Helen, ever the wise and gentle mother, had smiled at her daughter's retreating back. "But one thing I know, she's no longer just a little girl."
George was speechless.
...
Up in her room, Gwen had thrown herself onto her bed, her mind filled with a gnawing, nameless feeling as she thought about Hawk, who had now been missing for over a week.
Just then, her phone had buzzed.
She had glanced at it, expecting another spam text.
But then, her eyes had gone wide.
It wasn't spam. It was another security alert from her phone provider.
She had frantically clicked the link.
This time, it wasn't a general location. It was a precise GPS coordinate.
Cunningham Falls State Park, Maryland. At the base of a waterfall.
...
And that was why Gwen was here now.
Soon.
As the roar of the water grew louder, a surge of adrenaline cut through her exhaustion. Drenched in sweat, Gwen pushed herself, quickening her pace.
Back at the base of the falls.
Hawk had just thrown his nine-thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-ninth punch. He drew his fist back one last time. The fiery silhouette of the Phoenix behind him solidified, becoming almost real.
The next second, he unleashed his ten-thousandth punch. The fiery phoenix behind him spread its wings and soared.
"SKREEEEE!"
"Flow... BACKWARDS!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
The waterfall no longer plunged downward. It roared to a halt, then surged upward—reversing its course into the sky.
In that moment, it was as if time itself had frozen.
But a single sound cut through the impossible silence.
A voice.
Clear.
And trembling.
"HAWK!!!"
"..."
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