Black sky.
Endless ocean.
Pale face, blue lips—Merrick thrashed in the surging water, trying not to sink. He paddled with numb arms, eyes going hollow as his mouth worked through a trembling prayer.
"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…"
"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven…"
"May Thy glory rise like the morning light and shine upon—"
Hawk stood on the deck, one hand in his pocket, glancing down at the stopwatch ticking on his wrist.
Then—
He lifted his head toward the man in the water and smiled.
"Time's up."
"No, no, no—"
Merrick heard the calm verdict, saw that same calm on Hawk's face, and panicked. He sped through the litany, voice rising, breath breaking.
Even when Hawk lifted him out of the sea with a flicker of telekinesis—fingers closing around his throat—Merrick's prayer only got faster, more frantic, as if raw urgency could force a miracle.
Nothing happened.
Hawk looked up at the starless sky, then down at the man still babbling. "Enough. Your God isn't coming."
He wasn't disappointed. If "God" didn't show, that was God's loss, not his. When Hawk marched into the Heaven Dimension, "God" could explain it then.
But Merrick crumpled into despair.
"He won't… He won't abandon me. I'm His most faithful servant!"
"I bled for Him! I went to prison for Him!"
Merrick's eyes sparked with manic heat. "He won't give up on me—wait, it's the wind, the cold! The prayer didn't carry. Yes, that's it. Spare me, let me live, and once I'm back on land I'll pray for God to forgive you!"
Hawk stared at the man he held, watching him swing from despair to self-hypnosis to fever—and promising to ask God to pardon Hawk. His mouth twitched.
"I'm the new Noah," Merrick panted, gripping Hawk's arm. "Trust me. Only I can lead mankind through this coming war between angels and demons."
"Noah?"
"Yes! I—"
"You look more like a clown."
Hawk cut him off. "At this point I doubt you're even a believer. More like a grifter waving God's name around."
Merrick clung to his arm, shouting hoarsely. "No! I am! I'm the new Noah—He said so!"
"Oh, really."
"How else would I have God's own red apple?"
"This one?" Hawk's eyes flicked; the bitten apple popped from his Netherworld into his palm.
Merrick lit up and lunged for it. "Mine—give it back!"
Hawk whisked the fruit away again and smiled lightly. "Tell me how 'God' found you, and I'll make sure you and the apple are together."
Suspicion wavered in Merrick's eyes. "Really?"
"I don't lie." Hawk relaxed his grip and stepped back to lean on the rail, letting the night wind brush his face. "You talk; when you're done, I'll reunite you with your apple."
Sodden, shivering, Merrick sagged to the deck and searched Hawk's face. "Swear it. Swear to God."
"Fine." Hawk raised a hand without changing expression. "I swear to God: if you tell me the truth, I will reunite you with your apple. If I lie, may I be barred from Heaven and seized by God."
He dropped his hand and nodded. "Your turn, Doctor."
"Then it starts when S.H.I.E.L.D. invited me to consult on a case…"
The tale was long and bad—but the gist was simple. As a world-class biologist, Merrick had worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. before. On one job he spent a month in their "Sandbox"—the vault where they store anomalous artifacts from around the world—studying a blob of… living goop.
Because he was a familiar face, the Sandbox let him browse during breaks—novelties like a mirror that bleeds, a comb that whispers, and a still-talking reindeer head.
That's when he saw the red apple.
He said he fell into a trance. The moment he set eyes on it, he heard God's voice. God told him why his secret human-cloning kept failing: no souls.
Moved by Merrick's piety, God had turned His gaze back to this world, corrupted by demons since His departure. God told Merrick he would be the new Noah—and the new Jesus. Using the red apple's tens of thousands of pristine souls, he would birth a new human race.
Soon, God would descend and unleash another Great Flood to scour the world clean. Only Merrick and his "new humanity" would board a new Ark and inherit the earth.
Merrick believed. He stole the apple. Under the pretense of growing transplant-perfect organs for billionaires, he took their money, expanded his clone farms, and set out to build his new people.
Then S.H.I.E.L.D. arrested him.
He decided that was God's test—as with Jesus nailed up by ignorant men.
Prison didn't shake his faith; it hardened it. He was the new Jesus.
HYDRA broke him out next. He resisted them at first—surely God's chosen had nothing to do with devils.
Then he "realized" the truth: HYDRA had saved him; S.H.I.E.L.D. had persecuted him—like those who persecuted Jesus.
So HYDRA weren't villains at all.
They funded him and gave him bases. In return he'd use Hawk's blood to create HYDRA's own "Captain."
Hawk waited him out, then asked, "Those pits outside your base—full of my clones and then shoveled over. I thought you were building a new race. Why create them and then destroy them?"
"God's will."
"Oh?"
"Since leaving humanity, evil took Hell. To shine His light on Earth again, God needs devout souls to flood Hell first."
"So…" Hawk's eyes narrowed. "You cloned me and slaughtered the clones to run those blank souls through 'me'—then send them into Hell?"
"Exactly."
"You were using my clones as soul-washers."
"No choice. True believers are too rare; God has lost faith in the rest. So He chose me."
Pride crept into Merrick's voice at "He chose me."
Hawk's face didn't change. "Why me?"
"What?"
"If all you needed was a pass-through, why target only me? Clone other people."
"Impossible."
"What?"
"God said—you are Samael."
"Who?"
Hawk blinked, then cocked a brow. "Lucifer Morningstar?"
Merrick was taken aback—then nodded eagerly. "Yes. You were raised by a church, Hawk—that wasn't chance. You're Samael. The Archangel."
Hawk chuckled, not arguing. "Go on. God told you I'm Samael."
"Yes. You're Samael—at least in part. God said your soul has been stained by the demon-choked world. Cloning you and killing you helps you."
Merrick's eyes blazed. "Every soul baptized through your clones becomes part of your soul. As they mature and grow, they'll cleanse you—elevate you—and you will return. Samael, the Archangel!"
"Got it." Hawk nodded once. "So 'God' wants to usurp me with a soul stack shaped like me."
"No, no." Merrick shook his head hard. "Not usurpation—evolution. Your soul was defiled. Only when pure souls fuse back will you remember who you truly are. You are Samael, you are—"
"That's enough."
Hawk lifted a hand; Merrick fell silent on reflex.
"Last question."
"Samael—ask."
"Sama—" Hawk's mouth twitched at the attempted rebrand. He swallowed the urge to atomize the man right here. "Stryker. Do you know where he is?"
Merrick shook his head. "No."
"Truly?"
"I've told you everything. You're the new Samael. I'm the new Jesus. We're on the same side."
Yep—brain thoroughly scrambled.
Hawk smiled at him. Merrick stood, shrugging. "So… can I have my apple back?"
"Of course."
Hawk's eyes went crimson.
Bang.
Fssh.
A lance of Phoenix light. Merrick—still smiling, still daydreaming about more holy work—sublimated into vapor.
Hawk lowered his hand and watched the man's soul slide down into his Netherworld. He curled his lip.
When had he ever said he'd give the apple back? Or let Merrick go?
What he'd promised was simple: if Merrick cooperated, he'd reunite him with the apple.
Where was the apple now?
In his Netherworld—currently being toyed with by his sister, Anna.
Where was Merrick now?
Also in the Netherworld.
Promise kept. He'd even considered breaking it—just to see if "God" would show—but why waste reputation on Yahweh?
In a word:
God?
Not qualified.
So this had been a two-birds plan. Hoodwink a hapless zealot to mass-clone Hawk's body and "launder" souls through it into Hell, while secretly cultivating a Death Angel; gather a critical mass of "Hawk-shaped" souls to overwrite him later.
Tsk.
The audacity—HYDRA would be proud.
HYDRA tried fighting two fronts; Yahweh was doing the same. War with Mephisto—and if possible, clip Hawk in the same sweep.
Fitting, for a "God."
When HYDRA pulled that stunt, Hawk called it foolish. For Yahweh?
Four words: reckless but brave.
If you've got the guts—show up and say it to his face.
Your "new Jesus," your "Noah," even the apple you used to invade Earth—he had them all. No projection? No threat? Nothing?
At least leave a parting shot. Don't lose the war and the pose.
You're supposed to be God. Sit up straight.
Hawk stared up at the black canopy, mind turning, almost hoping for a meeting.
Nothing.
He'd given Merrick five whole minutes to pray. No God.
He'd vaporized Merrick. Pocketed his soul. Seized the apple of souls.
Still no God.
Clearly—out of office.
Fine.
A sigh of regret—for the lack of a face-to-face—eased from his chest.
But—
If God didn't come, something else did.
Thoom!
Thoom!
Thoom!
Thoom!
Four plumes rose around the speedboat.
Four figures broke the surface in the same heartbeat.
Beautiful—no.
Blue-gray merfolk, not human, not black. Four sleek shapes fused with the dark, each gripping a spear, eyes burning with hate as they hung in the air for an instant over the froth.
"Genocide butcher—die!" one shrieked—in Wakandan.
That voice…
Wakandan?
Hawk arched a brow at the nearest attacker—a woman—and, with a thought, pinned her in the air. He caught her by the throat and drew her close, studying her.
Up close:
Not Wakandan.
Wakandans are dark-skinned; this one's skin was the blue-gray sheen of deep-sea fish. Her features were wrong for Wakanda, too—webbing between her fingers and toes; pointed ears; big, deep eyes; faint bioluminescent patterns pulsing under the skin.
Not Wakanda survivors, then.
But they had used Wakandan speech.
Hawk was sure of that much.
And when he leveled Wakanda… he hadn't seen any blue-gray, web-fingered, pointy-eared "new people."
Coastal kin? Sea-Wakanda?
He frowned, loosened his grip so she could breathe—
But the merwoman's pupils only dilated further; her face flushed. The other three—frozen mid-spring with their spears—were turning flushed and frantic, too.
Hawk unsealed the woman's mouth.
She gasped it open, terror cracking her voice. "I—"
"I can't breathe."
"I can't breathe!!"
…
(End of Chapter)
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