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Just like any other school day, Hawk—who never ate at the NYU cafeteria—headed over to Empire State University at noon to find his fiancée. And that's when he heard the latest bombshell news.
"MJ's new boyfriend is Flash?"
"Yeah."
"Holy hell."
Hawk sucked in a sharp breath, staring at Gwen, who looked equally shell-shocked by the revelation. "What is MJ thinking? Is she trying to get back at Peter?"
Flash.
Or rather, Flash Thompson. Same year, same school, same class.
Sure, Thompson's grades were nothing to write home about, but he had his own strengths.
As the guy who'd helped Midtown High secure second place in the National High School Championship, Thompson had easily scored an invite to Empire State University. He was now the vice-captain of ESU's football team, fighting for the school's honor.
But—
Besides that identity, Thompson had another one.
School bully.
Sure, after Peter's Uncle Ben died, Thompson had stopped picking on Peter. But that was mainly because he couldn't bully Spider-Man Peter anymore. At the end of the day, Thompson had bullied Peter in the past.
And now MJ and Thompson were together.
"Does Peter know?"
"How would I know?"
Gwen shot back. "I only found out this morning. I'm just as shocked as you are."
Hawk made a low whistling sound.
Gwen looked worried. "When Peter comes back, he's not going to do something crazy, is he?"
Hawk snapped out of his thoughts. "Definitely not."
Gwen looked at him curiously.
"You're sure?"
"Yeah."
Hawk nodded with a slight smile. "At worst, he'll just go a little dark. For most people, that'd be a big deal. For Peter? That's nothing."
After all, the worst thing Dark Peter ever did was demand a raise from J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle and buy himself a discounted suit.
That was about it.
Actually—
He wondered if Venom had made it to Earth yet.
Hawk mulled over that thought.
The news that MJ had a new boyfriend—and that the new boyfriend was Flash Thompson, the same bully who used to torment her ex—shocked both Hawk and Gwen.
But it was just shock. Nothing more than that.
The two of them didn't dwell on it.
After having lunch with Gwen, Hawk left early.
He'd promised someone he'd take her out for afternoon tea.
...
Sharon was back. Not from her vacation in Texas. She'd come back from Wakanda in Africa.
At a café not far from NYU.
Hawk accepted the tablet Sharon handed him—marked "view only"—and listened to her explanation while asking curiously, "Weren't you on vacation in Texas? How'd you end up in Wakanda?"
That was why he hadn't bothered calling her.
Sharon had already promised to call him when she got back to New York. The woman was on vacation. Interrupting someone's time off was just rude.
Sharon took a sip of the coffee she wasn't paying for and couldn't help venting. "The day after you called me, my vacation got cut short. I was pulled into an emergency deployment to Wakanda. And it wasn't just me—basically every SHIELD agent Level 5 and above got sent over."
Hawk glanced at Sharon.
"Level 5 and above?"
"Yeah."
"Something happened?"
"T'Chaka died. The new king, T'Challa, launched a rebellion. The UN peacekeeping personnel stationed at the palace were killed, and he also attacked the workers extracting Vibranium. The coalition forces took heavy losses."
"...Wait."
Wasn't the Wakanda situation already wrapped up?
How was there a sequel?
Hawk listened to Sharon's explanation, feeling genuinely confused. "Didn't T'Chaka die a long time ago?"
Sharon shook her head. "No. He only died recently. Before that, he'd been in a coma. While T'Chaka was still unconscious, the Golden Tribe had already accepted the agreement. But then this new king, T'Challa, took over and immediately tore up the treaty."
Hawk's expression cleared.
"And then?"
"The rebellion happened on the night of the thirty-first. The Security Council didn't realize the Golden Tribe had hidden a stockpile of Vibranium tech and weapons. By the time the Council got word, the coalition forces had already been driven out of the capital. And some of the soldiers were captured by Wakanda."
"The Security Council was furious."
"So yeah."
"One phone call to my hotel while I was on vacation, and next thing I know, I'm hauling ass to Wakanda."
"..."
Hawk fell silent.
He understood every word Sharon said. But somehow, when he put them all together, the whole thing felt completely surreal.
What did she mean the coalition forces had been driven out of the capital?
What did she mean some soldiers had been captured by Wakanda?
Good lord.
If he remembered correctly, when he'd spoken with Maria Hill, the coalition forces had been steamrolling Wakanda. Completely dominant.
How long had it been since then?
Wait.
Actually, it had been more than half a year.
Hawk recalled that his last conversation with Hill had been in the first half of last year. He gathered his thoughts and continued listening to Sharon's account.
Initially, the coalition forces had been able to maintain their overwhelming advantage and completely dominate Wakanda for two main reasons.
First, Wakanda had just been hit by both Hawk and the Demon Hulk.
The Demon Hulk had gone on a rampage, turning Wakanda's rivers red with blood.
Hawk had also kicked the old king T'Chaka so hard he'd been critically injured—and he'd even helped SHIELD break through Wakanda's Vibranium shield.
Second, the old king T'Chaka had been willing to trust the Security Council, so he'd ordered the Golden Tribe to listen to him and negotiate with the Council.
But that had been over half a year ago.
Because the old king had still been alive at the time, and his attitude had been cooperative, and because half a year had already passed, the Security Council figured Wakanda didn't need that much oversight anymore.
So around Christmas last year, even the field agents like Natasha—who'd been hunting in the mountains—had been given leave and allowed to take vacations outside Africa.
Even the coalition forces stationed there had been reduced to fewer than five hundred personnel. Their main job was just protecting the workers during mining operations.
Who could have predicted that the moment the old king died, everything would change?
The new king, T'Challa, had consumed the Heart-Shaped Herb and gained the power of the Panther God. The moment he became Wakanda's new king and protector, he tore up the signed treaty and, with thousands of Wakandan women forming an army—where the hell did they even come from?—launched a surprise attack on the coalition forces' base in the capital.
And the warship docked in the waters near Wakanda had been sunk too.
After that—
There was no "after that."
The capital's Vibranium defense shield had been reactivated. And when the other tribes saw that, they came crawling out of the deep forests and mountains, using the cover of night to reclaim the lands they'd lost.
"So what happened after that?"
"They sent reinforcements. Luckily, there was an air force base nearby. By the time we got there, the Golden Tribe had already sent out envoys to negotiate."
"And then?"
"They negotiated."
"The result...?"
"No idea. Still negotiating."
Sharon sounded exasperated. "I heard Alexander Pierce pushed for a hard strike, but the Paris and London representatives disagreed. If this situation escalates and word gets out, it'd look bad for them."
Hawk was curious.
"What about the other two...?"
"Abstained."
"...Figures."
Hawk heard the answer and thought about it. That was perfectly in line with those two representatives' usual behavior. At the start of all this, those two had abstained too.
Sharon seemed to remember something. She pulled out her phone, opened a video, and handed it to Hawk.
"Check this out."
"What is it?"
The video showed soldiers in shorts—some completely naked—lining up on a ship's deck and jumping overboard one after another in perfect unison.
"Deck surveillance from the warship. On the night of the rebellion, the soldiers on the ship were under some kind of spell and jumped into the water one by one. That's why they couldn't provide backup in time."
"Really?"
Hawk looked surprised and watched the surveillance footage again, then turned to Sharon. "Do they know what caused it?"
Sharon shrugged. "Still investigating. Plus, we don't even know if this is going to turn into a full war or a peace settlement. That's why I was able to come back from Africa. God, you have no idea—that place is way too hot. I feel like I got a tan."
Hawk chuckled, gave Sharon a once-over, then nodded.
A moment later, Sharon lifted her head and moved past the Wakanda topic. "By the way, why do you need cloning tech?"
Hawk was still scrolling through the SHIELD files on cloning experiments displayed on the tablet. Without looking up, he said, "To resurrect my sister."
Sharon hummed in acknowledgment, nodded, and quietly sipped her coffee without saying anything more.
By now, Hawk had finished skimming the files on the tablet. He handed it back to Sharon.
"How come these are all about cloning organs? Isn't there anything on cloning humans?"
"Hawk, we're SHIELD—managed by the Security Council. Our funding comes from them. The organ cloning experiments are already pushing it. The Council's turning a blind eye. Human cloning? That'd require way higher authorization."
"Fair enough."
"But..."
Sharon paused for a moment, then looked at Hawk. "A few years ago, we did arrest someone running cloning experiments. I think his name was Merrick or something. He's locked up in a black site. I can reach out and see if I can arrange for you to meet him."
Hawk's eyes lit up. He glanced at Sharon. "Thanks."
"No problem. Just buy me another afternoon tea next time."
"Deal."
Hawk smiled, watching as Sharon raised her coffee cup. He lifted his own and clinked it against hers, sealing the agreement.
Just then, his expression suddenly changed.
The next second, under Sharon's stunned gaze, Hawk—sitting across from her—vanished into thin air!
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