Marvel: The Awakened One

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You must be joking...

The right to raise his kids?

That was like oxygen. He could theoretically live without it for a few minutes, but he wasn’t going to give it up voluntarily.

No matter what Hawk said, there was no way in hell he was handing full educational authority over to Gwen.

And more importantly—

Why should he, in the present, have to take the blame for something his kids were going to do in the future?

That made absolutely no sense.

So, Hawk decisively terminated the conversation about ’child-rearing,’ slipped his arm around Gwen’s waist, and with a thought, teleported them both to the outskirts of New York City, right to the gates of the Osborn Estate.

Except!

There was no Osborn Estate.

There wasn’t even a gate. Before them lay a patch of moderately dense woodland. Judging by the growth of the trees and underbrush, there hadn’t been any human construction here for at least a decade.

”Hawk, this...” Gwen stared at the trees, remembering the frantic searches she had run on her laptop while Hawk’s consciousness had been in the Phoenix Universe. ”I checked online earlier. There is absolutely no record of Oscorp Industries anywhere on the internet.”

”New future. New past.” Hawk repeated the Ancient One’s words. He pulled his gaze from the woods and looked at Gwen. ”When you were searching, did you find out where your lab is now?”

Gwen’s ’Stacy-Phoenix Biological Laboratory’ had been housed within the Oscorp building.

If Oscorp had never existed in this new past...

What happened to her lab?

Time couldn’t have just erased it.

That was impossible.

Erasing Gwen’s lab would mean altering Gwen’s timeline, which was now inextricably linked to his.

”Stark.”

”What?”

Gwen pulled out her phone, unlocked it, and turned the screen toward Hawk. ”Apparently, I never partnered with Oscorp. I partnered with Stark Industries.”

Hawk looked at the screen.

There it was.

Dr. Gwen and Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts sign Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Stacy-Phoenix Biological Laboratory...

Accompanying the article was a photograph.

It showed Gwen and Pepper smiling and shaking hands in the lobby of Stark Tower.

”While you were... away, I actually called Pepper to check,” Gwen said.

”And what did she say?”

”She said the board had already approved my leave of absence, wished me a happy honeymoon, and told me not to worry about a thing at the lab. I didn’t want to push it, so I just thanked her and hung up.”

”Alright.”

Hawk nodded, processing the information. He looked at Gwen, a thought forming in his mind. He put his arm around her again, and in the time it took to turn around, they had teleported to a quiet street in Queens.

And then—

He saw her. A middle-aged woman, who still possessed a undeniable, mature beauty, walking out of Peter Parker’s house.

Aunt May?

Bullshit!

That’s Marisa Tomei. The Aunt May who looks like she used to date Tony Stark.

Gwen knew Peter’s house, of course. She also saw the woman walking out the front door.

She seemed to realize something.

”Hawk, don’t tell me that’s...”

”Yep. Aunt May.”

”Jesus.”

”New future, new past.”

Standing across the street with Gwen, Hawk watched the new Aunt May with a strange expression.

When the Ancient One had said, ’There is a Peter Parker in this new past, just not the one you know,’ Hawk had already guessed which Spider-Man it might be.

It was a question that had lingered in the back of his mind ever since he first started at Midtown Tech and met the Tobey Maguire version.

This was Universe-616. And in Marvel-616, there is definitely a Spider-Man.

But it usually wasn’t the original, organic-web-shooting version.

So, the Ancient One’s cryptic remark had confirmed his suspicions.

But!

A guess was just a guess. Seeing was believing.

Just then.

A bicycle came cruising down the street. A boy, looking to be about fifteen, with curly brown hair and a face still retaining some baby fat, pedaled into view.

”Aunt May, let me help you with that.”

”It’s okay, Peter, I’ve got it. How was school?”

”It was great.”

”...”

Gwen stared across the street. She watched the cheerful, innocent-looking fifteen-year-old hop off his bike and run to help the young Aunt May with the groceries. Her jaw dropped. She turned to Hawk.

”That’s Peter Parker?”

”Yes.”

”He doesn’t look twenty.”

”He’s fifteen. Second semester of his freshman year at Midtown Tech.”

Hiss.

”Peter is a kid again?” Gwen drew in a sharp breath. She looked back at the fifteen-year-old Peter Parker, who was now helping his Aunt May trim the hedges, with a look of profound disbelief.

On the lawn, Peter seemed to sense something. He paused and looked up, his gaze sweeping across the street toward where Hawk and Gwen were standing.

Gwen felt a jolt as the fifteen-year-old’s previously innocent eyes suddenly sharpened, locking onto their general direction.

”Hawk...”

”He can’t see us.”

If this were the Spider-Man he knew, the original, battle-hardened version, he might have been able to sense Hawk’s presence through sheer instinct and years of familiarity, even with Hawk using the Reality Stone to erase his presence.

But this Tom Holland Spider-Man? The kid who had just gotten bitten?

He wasn’t there yet.

Sure enough.

After staring in their direction for a few moments, trying to pinpoint the vague tingling of his brand-new Spider-Sense, the young Peter gave up. Looking slightly confused, he grabbed a bag of groceries and followed his Aunt May inside.

”Hawk, where are our Peter and Felicia? Can you sense them?”

”I can. They’re on an Earth in a parallel universe.”

Even though the entity had used a temporal trap...

The light of the Cygnus constellation was definitely shining on an Earth in another dimension.

”Can you bring them back?”

”Not right now.” Hawk shook his head. ”I can sense the energy signature of the Cygnus pendant I gave little Ben, but I can’t reach them. Let alone bring them back. Not yet.”

There was an unfathomable distance between the primary universe he inhabited and the parallel universe where his Peter Parker was now trapped. Countless dimensional bubbles and alternate realities lay between them.

It wasn’t just a physical barrier of space; it was a barrier of time.

Hawk could sense them because a piece of his power—the Bronze Cloth—was with them.

But that didn’t mean he could just teleport there.

At least, not right now.

The temporal trap was still waiting for him out there, hovering in the ’future’ like a spider in a web. If he tried to project his consciousness or his physical form across the multiversal divide right now, he’d walk right into it.

But in the future?

Once he pushed his Seventh Sense to its absolute limit, awakened the Eighth Sense, and fully manifested the Phoenix Universe into reality... he would officially become the Chief God of a multiverse, completely transcending the timeline of the primary Marvel Universe. Then, he could go.

Or...

He could wait for his godson, Ben Hawk Parker, to grow up and awaken his own Cosmo. Once Ben ignited the Cygnus constellation, Hawk could use that connection to descend directly into their universe.

What was that old saying?

A gentleman can wait ten years for revenge.

He could wait. He would wait. He would wait until he was fully powered up, until he had completely transcended the timeline of the primary Marvel Multiverse.

And then.

Heh!

Eternity... He was going to show that abstract concept the true meaning of cruelty.

He was going to tear its primary multiverse apart!

FUCK!

Hawk thought, his inner fire burning cold.

”Let’s go.”

”Where?”

”Home.” Hawk shrugged. ”New future, new past. In this new timeline, the Peter Parker we knew never existed. There is only the kid we just saw—a Spider-Man we have no connection to. No one will remember our Peter Parker, or Oscorp. Except us.”

If he hadn’t collapsed his timeline, he probably would have forgotten his best friend, too.

But because he had, the temporal shift in the primary Marvel Universe couldn’t rewrite his fixed, absolute past.

As for why Gwen remembered.

The reason was simple.

Gwen Stacy was now Gwen Phoenix. If the temporal shift had occurred before they took their vows, she would have forgotten. But the shift happened after they were married, after her timeline became inextricably linked to his.

So…

Because Hawk Phoenix remembered, naturally, Gwen Phoenix remembered too.

Back at 521A Palm Street.

Gwen listened to Hawk’s explanation, blinking as she processed the cosmic implications. She was just about to speak when her phone rang.

”It’s the lab.”

Gwen glanced at the caller ID, surprised. With an encouraging nod from Hawk, she answered.

A few moments later.

She hung up, a deep frown on her face. ”That was Fiona, my assistant. She said I haven’t sent her the work schedule for while I’m on my honeymoon. She was asking for my directives.”

Hawk shrugged.

”And?”

”I casually asked Fiona if she remembered Oscorp. She said she had no idea what I was talking about.”

”New future, new past.” Hawk walked over to the bar, picked up his glass of bourbon, took a sip, and repeated the phrase. He looked at Gwen, who was clearly anxious about the shifting reality around her. ”Don’t worry, Gwen. The new timeline only altered the Peter Parker we knew and the existence of Oscorp. It didn’t change everything else. Your assistant is still your assistant, the lab is still your lab. Think of it like a cosmic cut-and-paste.”

Gwen met his eyes, her expression serious.

”I don’t like being cut-and-pasted.”

”I don’t like it either.” Hawk laughed softly. He downed the rest of his bourbon, walked around the bar, and pulled Gwen into his arms. He looked down at her with a warm smile.

”But it is what it is...”

”So?”

Gwen looked up at him, her emerald eyes searching his face.

Hawk shrugged.

”So, since it is what it is, we might as well go on our honeymoon.”

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