The black audi a8 pulled over to the side of the road.
Gwen unbuckled her seatbelt, pushed open the passenger door, and stepped out, looking at Hawk who had also exited from the driver's side door.
"I'll go to the airport by myself tomorrow."
"Hmm?"
"You can just pick me up at the airport after you're done with your business."
Gwen spoke quickly, then kissed Hawk, patted his chest, and looked at him: "Solve this quickly. I don't want to see multiple versions of you."
Hawk raised an eyebrow, met Gwen's gaze, and nodded.
The next second.
Hawk instantly vanished from Gwen's sight, and immediately after, a sonic boom echoed from high above, a beautiful sonic boom cloud appearing in the night sky.
Gwen also withdrew her gaze, got back into the car, and drove towards Palm Street.
At this moment.
Alice Springs, Australia!
This is a small town located in the central desert region of Australia, surrounded by red desert and low hills. The Todd River, long since dried up and exposing its riverbed, runs through the town, forming a unique landscape.
And right there, in the seemingly endless and unremarkable red desert, a battle was unfolding.
Whoosh!
Rocket, trailing flames, roared, directly blasting a desert vehicle into a fireball. The Impact from the explosion instantly sent four S.H.I.E.L.D. agents nearby flying, caught off guard.
Tat-tat-tat!
Several gun barrels emerging from the desert continuously spewed sparks, forming a dense network of Fire, making it difficult for S.H.I.E.L.D. fighter jets in the desert sky to approach.
The fighter jet pilot really wanted to press the button and launch a bunker-buster missile.
But...
No!
This was suspected to be a HYDRA cloning Base, and the command center required that it not be destroyed, but rather captured as much as possible.
However, in the desert, HYDRA had cover, but they did not.
"Natasha."
"Speak."
"Hawk is on his way."
"About..."
"He's already here."
Hawk appeared silently behind Natasha, spoke, and then instantly released his Sixth Sense, bringing everything around and underground into his perception range.
He saw a HYDRA Base, shaped like a Hive, hidden beneath this desert.
He saw HYDRA Agents in the Base, looking tense and anxious, pacing back and forth.
At the same time, he also saw a familiar stranger in the Base, wearing a White lab coat, glasses, appearing refined, but with a hint of evil.
Dr. Mallick!
Hawk even saw containers in this HYDRA Base, hidden beneath the desert, that resembled cloning cultivation pods from movies.
Don't ask him why he was so sure these were cloning cultivation pods.
Because—
He saw himself, sleeping, in these cloning cultivation pods.
"Heh!"
"Found you."
Hawk's lips curved upwards. He withdrew his gaze and looked at Natasha in front of him: "There aren't any of your undercover Agents in this Base, are there?"
Natasha, looking at the arriving Hawk, also reacted.
She shook her head.
"No."
"That's good."
Hawk said, then under his telekinesis, a burning Phoenix projection appeared behind him.
The next second.
A scene that had previously unfolded at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion headquarters was once again playing out here.
One by one, HYDRA Agents, cowering in the underground Base beneath the desert, thinking they were safe, were instantly teleported out by Hawk's 'Sixth Sense - Teleportation'.
They sat in rows, waiting for their share.
Just as many HYDRA Agents hadn't even changed their expressions, a scorching and brilliant Phoenix Ray had already arrived before them.
With the Phoenix Ray sweeping over, in just the blink of an eye, the more than two hundred HYDRA Agents in front of them were instantly vaporized, disappearing without a trace.
"Done."
"I'm going down first."
Hawk's eyes returned to normal. He said to Natasha, then took a step, directly using 'Sixth Sense - Instant Movement' to arrive in the cultivation room of the HYDRA Base located beneath this desert.
His gaze fell upon a cultivation pod filled with blue liquid.
Inside the cultivation pod, 'Hawk', appearing to be the same age as Hawk, was curled up like an infant, as if in peaceful slumber.
The next second.
Hawk withdrew his gaze and looked to the side, at Dr. Mallick, in a White lab coat, whom he had directly pulled from the command room to this location through the air.
Dr. Mallick, in a White lab coat, after being pulled here by Hawk, saw Hawk, who was facing away from him, and had already reacted, lowering his head like an ostrich, not daring to breathe loudly.
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
"Dr. Mallick?"
"Yes... yes."
Dr. Mallick's voice trembled instinctively, then he seemed to think of something and looked at Hawk: "Mr. Phoenix, this has nothing to do with me. I was forced. HYDRA made me do this. If I didn't follow their orders, they would torture me."
Hawk smiled slightly.
If it weren't for his Sixth Sense perception, which had already shown him the scene of Dr. Mallick giving orders like a leader in the command room, he might have believed Dr. Mallick's nonsense.
However...
He wasn't here to listen to Dr. Mallick's nonsense. So, whether Dr. Mallick was willing or forced, it had nothing to do with him.
Hawk thought to himself, withdrawing his gaze from Dr. Mallick, who was blaming all responsibility on HYDRA, and once again looked at himself in the cultivation pod. He was somewhat curious: "So, is this considered a successful clone, or a failed clone?"
To say it was a successful clone, yes, HYDRA had indeed cloned him.
But Hawk didn't detect any life energy in the clone of himself before him.
To put it plainly.
The clone in the cloning pod before him, rather than being Hawk's clone, was more like a corpse that resembled Hawk, immersed in liquid.
He hadn't found any other cultivation pods in this HYDRA Base, so he was curious whether this was a success or a failure.
After Hawk finished speaking, he once again looked at Dr. Mallick.
Dr. Mallick's heart trembled as he met Hawk's gaze.
His intuition as a scientist told him that the answer to this question determined whether he would live or die.
So...
Dr. Mallick gulped, his throat moving, swallowing, and he said in a somewhat dry voice: "There were successes, and there were failures."
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
"Where are the successful ones?"
"They were destroyed."
"Destroyed?"
"Yes."
Dr. Mallick swallowed again: "There were five successful ones, but after opening their eyes, their consciousness was chaotic, and they quickly collapsed. We had no choice but to destroy them."
Hawk, hearing this, nodded thoughtfully, then looked back at himself, sleeping in the cultivation pod: "What about these?"
Since he had already started speaking to try and save his own life, there was naturally nothing left to hide.
Dr. Mallick made no secret: "These five were originally planned to have consciousness imported today, but before we could, this place was discovered by you."
Speaking of which, the discovery of this place was quite a coincidence.
As is well known.
This Base was built in the desert.
The desert is dry and lacks everything, and there were over two hundred HYDRA Agents in the Base. In the past, during HYDRA's dormant period, living supplies were easy to acquire.
But with HYDRA's exposure, and with Maria Hill's rapid completion of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s integration, the crackdown on HYDRA remnants also grew stronger.
The HYDRA remnants became increasingly fearful and uneasy, dreading the day S.H.I.E.L.D. might air-drop a surprise attack and capture them.
So, some HYDRA members' minds wavered, including those HYDRA members who ran factories in the small town of Alice Springs to provide living supplies for this Base.
Among them was a HYDRA member who had only joined less than three years ago. He felt that his prime youth shouldn't be buried with HYDRA, so he decided to abandon the Shadow and turn to the Light, contacting S.H.I.E.L.D. through a very hidden online forum, hoping to become a witness for the prosecution.
If Dr. Zola were still around, with his control over the internet, he would have been exposed and faced destruction the moment he did that.
But now Dr. Zola had disappeared, and naturally, HYDRA's advantage in controlling the internet had also vanished.
Natasha led a team and quickly dismantled this HYDRA Base in Alice Springs.
However, not many people in Alice Springs HYDRA knew about the existence of the cloning Base, and those who did were loyal old snakes of HYDRA, who were killed during the resistance.
So, if there were no accidents, the cloning Base would not have been exposed.
However, Natasha's timing in dismantling the Alice Springs HYDRA Base just happened to coincide with the monthly secret shipment of living supplies to the cloning Base.
Natasha saw the warehouse full of living supplies, which clearly exceeded the factory's needs, so she immediately thought that there might be a secret cloning Base nearby. She immediately ordered the quick cleanup of battle traces and found the HYDRA member who had turned to the Light, indicating that he could atone for his sins by playing a part with them.
And the cloning Base, seeing that the supply delivery time had passed and no supplies had arrived, couldn't sit still. So, they sent a HYDRA Agent to enter the small town to see what was going on.
As it happened, that person knew the HYDRA member who had turned to the Light. And so, he was caught alive by Natasha, completely off guard.
And then...
There was no 'then'.
The cloning Base was thus spectacularly exposed.
Hawk naturally heard the regret in Dr. Mallick's voice when he said he hadn't had time to import consciousness.
However...
Hawk looked at himself in the five cloning cultivation pods before him, his gaze turning to Dr. Mallick, who seemed somewhat regretful that his efforts hadn't succeeded, and a faint smile played on Hawk's lips.
"I'll give you a chance to live."
"Activate them!"
"..."
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