Chapter 400: [504] - Hawk Battles the Sentinel

The Sentinel lunged forward.

Six more lenses opened on its face, spreading out around the first two. All eight locked onto Hawk, flashing at different speeds as the machine processed combat data.

[POSSIBLE MUTANT. THREAT LEVEL: DANGEROUS—EXTREME DANGER. SEARCHING DATABASE FOR COUNTERMEASURES. SURVIVAL-OF-THE-FITTEST PROTOCOL ACTIVATED. COMMENCING EXTERMINATION.]

The Sentinel raised its left foot and brought it down. Its metal sole was large enough to cover a sedan, and the already fractured concrete groaned beneath its weight.

“Finally,” Hawk murmured, a smile spreading across his face. He had been waiting for the machine to stop showing off and actually do something.

“All right, big guy. Come on!!”

Hawk took a deep breath and launched himself forward.

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!”

A sonic boom rang behind him, leaving a vapor cone in the air as he became a scarlet blur under Quantico’s searchlights. Afterimages trailed behind him as he raced toward the Sentinel.

The collision hit like an artillery strike.

Before the sound faded across the base, the Sentinel’s huge body was already flying through the air. It crashed into a distant aircraft hangar at Quantico, smashing the roof under its weight. Explosions ripped through the building, one after another, until flames poured from every opening.

Hawk hovered above the burning hangar. Wanda’s custom scarlet battle suit fit his lean, strong frame, showing his muscles. The firelight made him stand out in the night sky, looking more like an angry god than a man.

Humans and mutants stared in disbelief. Trask had spent his last moments bragging about the Sentinel’s power, and its sixteen-foot frame looked strong enough to make Hawk seem outmatched. By all appearances, Hawk should have been the one sent flying.

Instead, Trask’s masterpiece had been punched through a hangar.

“That’s it?” Jean asked, turning toward Wanda with open disbelief.

“That’s the Sentinel everyone was so afraid of?”

Jean had never entertained the possibility that her father might lose. As far as she was concerned, Hawk was the strongest person alive, no contest.

Even so, she had expected the Sentinel to trade at least a few blows with him before going down.

People said this machine had trapped an entire universe in a cycle of destruction and time resets. Mutants kept going back in time, always failing to change history because of it. Yet the mighty Sentinel couldn’t survive one hit from her father without becoming part of a hangar renovation.

Jean couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

“Don’t count it out yet,” Wanda said, watching the burning wreckage. Inside the hangar, the Sentinel was already getting up. Strange light moved over its blackened body as it stepped through the flames.

“Remember, your father planned to let this thing beat him once. If it was worthless, he wouldn’t have bothered with that plan.”

“Right…” Jean said, nodding before the meaning caught up with her. Her head snapped back toward Wanda.

“WAIT—WHAT?”

“Shh.” Wanda put a finger to her lips.

“Keep watching. Your father likes to fight up close, which isn’t our usual style, but you don’t often get to see a battle like this. Watch how he handles it. If you want, there are three more Sentinels waiting. You can try fighting one later.”

“Oh. The other three.” Jean’s interest sharpened immediately. “Those are the ones that’ll destroy the world if we leave them alone.”

Wanda answered with a shrug and returned her full attention to the battle.

——————————

By then, Hawk had charged again.

The air behind him formed a white vapor cone, and when he reappeared, he was next to the Sentinel’s left knee. He punched the adamantium, sending a shock wave from the spot.

The Sentinel’s huge body lurched and started to fall to the left. Before it hit the ground, Hawk vanished and reappeared by its head. He swung his right leg and landed a roundhouse kick to the machine’s face.

Both of the Sentinel’s feet left the ground. It flew thirty feet before crashing onto the base’s concrete, which broke under its weight and formed a wide crater.

“Damn.” Jean sucked in a breath as the Sentinel rose without any visible damage. “Adamantium is that tough? I remember Dad throwing a punch that split the ocean.”

“He’s only using his physical strength,” Wanda said. “If your father really let loose, one Sentinel wouldn’t be a problem. He could face a hundred thousand, throw one punch, and leave nothing but a lake of molten metal.”

“Then why doesn’t he cut loose?”

“Hasn’t he told you this?” Wanda smiled at her daughter. “When your father knows he’s winning, he likes to mess around.”

“So he stops screwing around when the fight turns against him?”

“No.” Wanda shook her head.

Jean waited for the rest.

“The fight almost never turns against him,” Wanda said. “The only real exception was when your aunt took that little trip to Hell. Other than that, your father has always fought with the advantage.”

It was true. Despite what the timing might suggest, Hawk hadn’t sent his little sister to Hell as some kind of offering to guarantee easy fights. He stayed ahead because he never entered a fight unprepared.

Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics—Hawk lived by that rule. In the two years before his Cosmo arrived in this reality, he hardly ever left 521A Palm Street unless he had to.

He stayed home, kept a low profile, and quietly worked to become overwhelmingly strong.

Jean nodded, though she only half understood the lesson. Her attention went back to the Sentinel, which had taken another hit from Hawk without even a dent in its armor.

“So Dad can’t destroy it with physical strength alone?” Jean asked.

“No,” Wanda answered. “The Celestials use adamantium to forge their own bodies. It’s one of the strongest metals in the universe.”

“Then how is Dad supposed to beat it?” Jean watched the machine get knocked back again, but something felt different. Each time, Hawk had to use more force to move it, and the Sentinel recovered more quickly. “Wait. Is it evolving?”

“It is,” Wanda confirmed. “It’s simulating a mutant ability.”

“What kind of mutant power could let it keep up with Dad?”

“Reactive adaptation and evolution.” Scarlet chaos magic flickered in Wanda’s eyes as she watched the mutant energy inside the machine. Then she turned to Jean. “By the way, did you go to school in this universe? How much biology do you know?”

Jean caught the overly gentle look Wanda was giving her and rolled her eyes.

“Mom, why do you think people call Professor X a professor? And unless I’m remembering this wrong, you and Uncle Pietro are the ones who never went to school.”

“Sorry, kid. I have a doctorate.”

Jean stared at her. “Since when?”

“You’ll find out later.” Wanda smiled and changed the subject before Jean could ask more.

“The Sentinel’s ability works like Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. An organism faces its environment, adapts to survive, and then evolves because of the pressure.”

In short, survival of the fittest!!

As long as Hawk didn’t destroy the Sentinel in one hit, its borrowed mutant power could study his strength, adapt to the damage, and evolve to counter him. But Hawk couldn’t break a Sentinel made of adamantium with a single punch.

Jean’s eyes widened as the implications sank in.

“Then Dad’s in danger. If the Sentinel keeps evolving—” Jean suddenly stopped, her attention snapping back toward the battle.

“MOM, LOOK!”

For the first time, the Sentinel didn’t go flying when Hawk attacked. Its metal palm shot up and caught his fist in the split second before impact. The machine’s other hand closed into a massive fist and drove straight into Hawk’s body.

By simulating reactive evolution, the Sentinel had finally adapted to Hawk’s physical strength. It had even evolved enough to surpass the power he was using now.

Hawk vanished from in front of the machine and struck the ground like a meteor. The earth buckled beneath him, opening another crater as an enormous cloud of dust erupted across the base.

The Sentinel looked into the swirling dust, its extra lenses flashing quickly. Its systems said the attack had landed, but it felt no relief at taking out its target. Instead, something stronger than Hawk’s earlier power was building inside the dust.

Jean’s heart leaped into her throat.

“Mom!”

“Don’t worry,” Wanda said. She looked through the dust and saw Hawk slowly getting up from the crater. The Sentinel’s punch had torn the top half of his battle suit, but he didn’t look hurt at all. Wanda took Jean’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Watch closely. Your father is about to use the attack everyone thinks is his strongest.”

“…” Jean could only stare at her.