Marvel: The Awakened One

”Felicia’s pregnant?”

”Yes.”

”I’m going to be a dad?”

”That’s right.”

”Felicia...”

”That’s enough...”

Hawk watched Peter—who, after Felicia left the room, had been sitting in his chair like a broken record—and decided to cut him off. He looked at Peter with genuine curiosity. ”So how did you and Felicia end up together?”

Felicia had gone out to ask around the Iwi tribe about where they’d gotten what appeared to be Adamantium.

Hawk was genuinely curious about Peter and Felicia’s story.

And right now, he had time to kill.

He’d considered going with Felicia, but he couldn’t stand the way the Iwi people looked at him—like he was some kind of Divine ancestor. Plus, he wasn’t familiar with the tribe. So he’d asked Felicia to handle it instead.

Peter heard the nosy tone in Hawk’s voice, snapped out of his daze, and met Hawk’s equally nosy gaze. His mouth twitched.

”I don’t want to talk about it.”

”Fine.”

Hawk’s response was immediate. Then he looked at Peter again. ”But when MJ calls you a cheating scumbag, don’t expect Gwen to defend you.”

Peter froze.

”Call me what? Why would she call me that? MJ already broke up with me over the phone.”

”Right. But let me ask you—how many months pregnant is Felicia?”

”Four months.”

”And how many months ago did MJ break up with you—not counting the time you spent on Skull Island?”

”Three months.”

”See?”

Hawk smiled and spread his hands. ”MJ broke up with you three months ago. Felicia’s four months pregnant. You do the math.”

Peter’s pupils visibly dilated as Hawk’s words sank in.

The next second—

Peter, finally catching on, immediately tried to explain. ”But time moves differently on Skull Island than it does outside!”

Hawk gave Peter a strange look.

”Right. You go ahead and explain that to MJ. Let’s see if she believes you.”

”But it’s the truth.”

”Will she believe you?”

”She’ll...”

Peter opened his mouth, trying to give a confident answer. But under Hawk’s steady gaze, he completely deflated. He looked away and quietly began recounting how he and Felicia had gotten together.

He didn’t have a choice.

MJ wasn’t just his ex-girlfriend. She was also his neighbor.

So—

Peter knew MJ well.

If he tried to explain to her why Felicia was four months pregnant when they’d only been broken up for three months, MJ would absolutely tear into him, calling him a two-timing scumbag with the most absurdly creative excuse she’d ever heard.

Time dilation? Seriously??

Even though it was the truth, hearing that explanation come out of his mouth would sound completely different than hearing it from Gwen.

So, to make sure Hawk and Gwen could back him up later, Peter had no choice but to do what Hawk asked and tell the story of how he and Felicia got together.

”When I first got to the island, my powers just... stopped working.”

”It felt like there was some kind of mysterious pressure on the island. But it also seemed connected to how I was feeling after MJ broke up with me. I was pretty depressed.”

”I couldn’t figure it out, but my powers kept cutting in and out. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t.”

”Skull Island is insanely dangerous. A normal person landing here probably wouldn’t survive the first night.”

”On our first day, the security team protecting Felicia was completely wiped out. It was just me and her left.”

”Felicia could tell something was wrong with me, but she didn’t blame me. Instead, she acted like a therapist, comforting me while we tried to make our way through the jungle.”

”But we still ran into trouble.”

”The day before we finally made it out of the jungle, I got sick. That was the first time I’d been sick since I got my powers.”

”I was shaking all over. Freezing cold.”

”It was Felicia... Felicia kept me warm with her own body heat.”

”And then, weirdly enough...”

”After that night, my powers came back. They stopped cutting out. And then we found the Iwi village. We’ve been living here ever since.”

After finishing the story, Peter looked visibly relieved. He turned to Hawk, who had been listening attentively. ”Now you know. You better back me up when the time comes.”

Hawk, having gotten the gossip he wanted, nodded and gave Peter a firm confirmation. Then he looked at Peter with a sigh. ”That’s the power of love.”

Love could hurt someone—like how Peter’s powers had started cutting out after MJ broke up with him over the phone.

But love could also help a man pick himself back up and become stronger.

Just like Peter said—after he and Felicia had become one in that cave during the storm, his powers had returned.

Hawk thought about it, meeting Peter’s gaze, and nodded again.

”It’s good.”

”What is?”

”Felicia.”

Hawk smiled faintly at Peter. ”I’m really happy you found love again. And that you’re having a baby together. Seriously, man. I’m happy for you.”

This was Spider-Man, after all.

The moment Hawk had seen Felicia and sensed she was carrying a little spider, his heart had skipped a beat.

Because Hawk genuinely considered Peter a friend.

Peter had always lived by the motto ”with great power comes great responsibility.” No matter how hard life got, he’d never abandoned that belief.

So Peter deserved a better life.

Besides—

Wasn’t that the whole point of being a transmigrator?

To fix the regrets of the original timeline.

Hawk smiled at Peter.

”Congratulations, man. You’re going to be a dad.”

”Thanks!”

Peter finally looked like his old self again—the good-natured Spider he’d always been. He grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head as he accepted Hawk’s blessing.

The next second, Hawk’s eyes lit up as he remembered something. He looked at Peter.

”Oh, by the way—MJ’s dating someone new. Someone you know. Flash Thompson.”

”...”

Peter’s goofy grin froze instantly.

Hawk’s smile was radiant.

That’s what real friends do.

Real friends can genuinely, wholeheartedly celebrate your happiness.

But at the same time—

Real friends will never pass up an opportunity to mess with you.

That’s friendship!

Just then, Felicia walked back in from outside.

She glanced first at Hawk, who was grinning like the cat who ate the canary, then at Peter, whose expression was completely frozen. She looked curious.

”What were you two talking about?”

”Nothing.”

Peter snapped out of it immediately.

He wasn’t an idiot. Even if he were, he’d still know better than to talk about his ex-girlfriend in front of his current girlfriend.

That was a forbidden topic. One wrong word and his current girlfriend could turn into some kind of Lovecraftian horror—an unspeakable thing beyond comprehension.

Hawk caught Peter’s desperate eye signals and smirked internally. He turned to Felicia. ”So? Did you find anything out?”

Felicia gave Peter one more suspicious glance but dropped it when Hawk brought up the real reason she’d gone out. She sat back down beside Peter, let him take her hand, and began recounting what she’d learned from the Iwi tribe’s High Priestess.

”The High Priestess said the metal was passed down from their ancestors.”

”The Iwi people didn’t always live here. According to the High Priestess, they used to live somewhere else—not on this island.”

”And they weren’t always this weak, either.”

”Apparently, their ancestors had all kinds of mysterious abilities.”

”Some could breathe fire. Some could fly.”

”But after a great disaster, everything changed. There was a creature even more terrifying than the Skullcrawlers.”

”They were forced to leave their ancestral homeland. And the metal they have now? They brought it with them when they left.”

”...Brought it with them.”

Hawk listened carefully to Felicia’s explanation, catching the key phrase. He instinctively looked at her. ”You’re saying they came from...”

Felicia nodded. ”Yes. Underground. According to the High Priestess, they climbed up through the tunnel in the canyon. But that place has been taken over by horrible monsters. So every High Priestess, before they die, passes down the story of their ancestral homeland to the next High Priestess—but they’re forbidden from telling anyone else. Because they can never go back.”

Peter, sitting beside her, frowned. ”Why didn’t the High Priestess tell us any of this when we asked before?”

He remembered asking the High Priestess about the Iwi people’s origins once before.

She’d just gone silent. Like she’d entered a trance or something.

Felicia glanced at Hawk, who seemed lost in thought, then smiled at Peter.

”Can you fly?”

”No.”

”Can you drag that giant swamp squid out of the lake?”

”Actually, yeah. I could do that.”

Peter’s eyes lit up as he looked at Felicia seriously. ”I haven’t tested my strength limit yet, but I’m pretty sure I could stop a speeding train.”

Felicia hummed in acknowledgment. ”But could you drag the giant swamp squid out of the lake while you’re in mid-air?”

Peter was honest. He shook his head.

”No.”

”Hawk can.”

Felicia’s explanation was complete. She looked at Hawk, then turned back to Peter. ”The High Priestess probably figured that even if she told us, we couldn’t help them reclaim their ancestral homeland. But Hawk? He could. Because to them, Hawk is a God. A god like their ancestors.”

Hawk chuckled at that but didn’t bother denying it.

If the Iwi people’s so-called ancestral homeland really did have Adamantium, he wouldn’t mind helping them take it back—in exchange for the metal, of course.

But—

Hawk frowned and looked at Felicia.

”A creature more terrifying than the Skullcrawlers. What is it? Did the High Priestess say?”

”She did. She called it a Mutant. A horrifying aberration.”

”...”

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