"Daddy?"
Hawk subconsciously caught the red-haired little girl who flew into his arms.
"Daddy?!"
Gwen, standing nearby, widened her eyes.
"Daddy!?!?"
Phoenix and Peter, standing nearby with Xiao Ben in their arms, exclaimed in shock. After looking at each other, they then looked at Hawk and the red-haired little girl in his arms with an expression of disbelief.
After the red-haired little girl jumped into Hawk's arms, she held him tightly.
Then… she just fell asleep, even letting out a slight snore.
"Uh…"
Hawk frowned, glanced at the sleeping little girl in his arms, then came back to his senses and said to Gwen, who was staring at him with wide eyes, "If I said I don't know what happened, would you believe me?"
Gwen didn't speak; she just looked at Hawk quietly.
One hour later.
New York S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters.
Outside Sharon's office.
Felicia and Peter, holding Xiao Ben, were now standing by the office window, their expressions flickering with gossip as they looked inside the office.
Sharon walked over from not far away, and seeing the family of three peeking at her door, she couldn't help but chuckle.
"What are you doing…"
"Shh!"
Felicia heard her and quickly shushed Sharon.
Sharon blinked, then imitated the family of three, tiptoeing to the window and peeking into her office.
Inside.
Hawk was currently placing the deeply sleeping red-haired little girl on the sofa, pulling her blanket over her, and then whispering something to Gwen, who was standing beside him.
"Why don't you go in?"
"Eavesdropping."
"Can't."
Felicia, holding Xiao Ben, glanced at Peter.
Peter's expression was a mix of curiosity and fear: "I can't beat Hawk."
Felicia rolled her eyes, looked at Sharon, and whispered, "Are the DNA results out? Is she Hawk's daughter?"
Sharon shook her head: "Still working on it, it's not that fast."
Their S.H.I.E.L.D. did indeed have black technology.
And a lot of it.
But even the blackest technology had to abide by basic laws; DNA matching, for example, couldn't be done in the blink of an eye.
However… "There's no information on this little girl in the global facial recognition database."
"And after reviewing the surveillance footage, we found something very strange."
Sharon looked at Felicia and Peter: "According to New York City surveillance, this little girl appeared half an hour ago at 521A Palm Street, but she didn't knock on the door, seemingly knowing Hawk wasn't home, and then walked all the way to Fifth Avenue."
Felicia frowned.
"What's strange about that?"
"We didn't find out how she appeared on Palm Street. The surveillance wasn't damaged in any way. One second, this red-haired little girl wasn't there, and the next second, she appeared on camera."
"Hiss!"
Felicia gasped, then turned her head and looked through the window at the red-haired little girl sleeping on the sofa.
"Then how did she get here?"
"How should I know?"
Hawk looked sideways at the sleeping little girl on the sofa, then at Gwen, who was standing beside him with her arms crossed, and shrugged.
Gwen blinked.
"Did you cheat?"
"How is that possible!"
Hawk looked at Gwen, speechless: "This little girl looks to be only three or four years old. If others don't know what I was like three or four years ago, don't you?"
Three or four years ago, he was only sixteen or seventeen.
Leaving seventeen aside.
At sixteen, he was still diligently striving for ten thousand punches a day.
Cheating?
No way. He didn't even think about dating back then.
As for seventeen, there was no need to mention it.
"Ever since you ran to the waterfall and caught me, I became your captive."
"…That's true."
Gwen listened to Hawk's words, recalling her great feat of hiking through the rainforest to capture Hawk, and her lips curved slightly upward, her gaze softening.
From the moment she traversed the rainforest alone and found Hawk, she had successfully captured Hawk's heart, making him her prisoner.
Gwen thought to herself.
Just then.
The office door opened.
Sharon pushed the door open and walked in with a calm expression, handing a test report to Hawk: "Her age, to be precise, is three and a half, and the DNA report just came out. She is indeed your daughter."
Hawk took the report, listened to Sharon's words, and exchanged glances with Gwen.
Gwen took the report from Hawk's hand, glanced through it, then looked up at Sharon.
"This is impossible. Three years ago, Hawk was only seventeen. At that time, Hawk was either with me at school or not with me when he wasn't at school."
"The test report doesn't lie."
Sharon's tone was calm, trying to be as neutral as possible, as she looked at Hawk: "And this little girl appeared out of thin air at 521A Palm Street two hours ago, and according to surveillance tracking, she found her way to Fifth Avenue. Her purpose is very clear: she came to find you, and she seems to know your location."
Hawk's expression was equally calm, and he nodded: "Yes, she has my scent on her."
Gwen, hearing this, closed the report and looked at Hawk, full of confusion.
"I don't understand."
"She has my scent on her, but it's not my current scent; it's my future scent."
"…"
This time it was Sharon's turn to be confused.
Gwen, however, seemed to have thought of something and looked at Hawk: "You mean, time…"
Hawk hummed in agreement, then turned to look at the red-haired little girl sleeping on the sofa.
At the restaurant entrance, he had already confirmed that this red-haired little girl indeed had his bloodline flowing within her.
But that wasn't the reason he gasped at the time.
The reason he gasped was because he sensed his own lingering scent on the red-haired little girl who had jumped into his arms.
And this lingering scent wasn't the kind that could be left just by looking from afar; at the very least, it required close contact to be left behind.
But Hawk could swear he had never seen this little girl before.
So, the question arose.
How could his scent be left behind if he had never met this little girl?
The answer was simple.
His future self.
It was clear to his future self, but his current self was completely clueless, which was why he wasn't worried about the little girl being lost, but instead brought her directly to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Gwen glanced at the red-haired little girl sleeping peacefully on the sofa, frowned, then looked at Hawk, as if she had thought of something.
"Did you also sell life essence?"
"What?"
"You know."
Gwen saw Hawk's gaze and shrugged: "You sold blood back then, did you sell that stuff?"
Hawk was stunned for a moment, then reacted, his lips twitching.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm very sure!"
Hawk met Gwen's somewhat suspicious gaze, his lips curving upward: "You know me, I don't like to do things myself."
Gwen was slightly startled, feeling Sharon, who was standing nearby with a calm expression but bright eyes, watching the two of them. After realizing, she immediately rolled her eyes at Hawk and quickly changed the subject.
"Then what exactly is going on with this little girl?"
"Perhaps I can answer that question."
A soft voice sounded from outside, and then the person pushed the door open and entered.
Gwen looked towards the door, her eyes lit up, and she walked over, taking the person's arm: "Teacher!"
The person was a woman, with an Asian face.
An authority in the field of biology, with an intelligence comparable to Tony Stark, she was hailed as the seventh smartest person in the world.
She was also Gwen's teacher.
Dr. Helen Cho.
Hawk looked at Dr. Helen Cho as she entered, smiling and nodding: "Dr. Helen Cho."
Dr. Helen Cho also smiled slightly.
"Mr. Phoenix."
"Dr. Helen Cho, you just said…"
Sharon, standing nearby, looked at Dr. Helen Cho entering the room and quickly changed the subject.
Dr. Helen Cho walked to the sofa, glanced at the red-haired little girl sleeping on it, and without playing any riddles, she directly told the six people, including Peter's family of three who had followed her in from outside, her recent test results.
"I found traces of editing in the underlying genetic code of this little girl."
"Hiss!"
"Shit."
"Jesus Christ!"
As soon as Dr. Helen Cho said this, Gwen, Peter, Felicia, and Sharon all gasped.
Hawk didn't.
After all, he studied law.
However… he glanced at Sharon, who had graduated with a degree in Agent studies but was also gasping, and was somewhat curious.
"Do you know what Dr. Helen Cho means?"
"No idea."
"…Then why are you gasping along?"
"They all gasped."
Sharon answered very honestly. During her time as the first Agent of New York S.H.I.E.L.D., Sharon had also learned some arts of leadership.
For example, a leader doesn't necessarily need to truly understand, as long as the subordinates believe he understands.
Gwen, after taking a sharp breath, looked at Dr. Helen Cho.
"Teacher, you're not talking about artificial gamete synthesis technology, are you?"
"Yes."
Dr. Helen Cho nodded.
Hawk frowned, looking at Gwen: "Artificial synthesis… what is that?"
Gwen looked at Hawk: "It's the technology of extracting DNA information from blood and then artificially synthesizing gametes. That is, as long as you have your blood, your little tadpoles can be synthesized."
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
The next second.
He looked again at the sleeping red-haired little girl on the sofa, seemingly knowing the origin of this red-haired little girl.
Three and a half years old, seventeen years old, at that time only one organization had his blood.
HYDRA!
Just as Hawk's heart stirred.
Suddenly.
A soul, at this moment, passed through time and space, entering Hawk's Underworld…
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