46. A Recommendation Letter Turned into Scrap Paper (Part Two)

Hawk answered quickly.

Without any hesitation.

Obviously.

Gwen was also very happy with his answer, and her voice became a bit more light and cheerful.

After a while.

The two lovers, who had just officially established their relationship a few days ago, finally finished their phone marathon and reluctantly hung up.

Mostly it was Gwen who was reluctant to hang up.

As for Hawk...

Well.

He was also a bit reluctant.

However, Hawk knew why he had been attracted to Gwen since the ninth grade, yet had waited until now to confront these feelings.

In a word.

Previously he wasn't qualified, but now that he had grown stronger, he possessed that qualification.

Therefore...

Whether to continue growing stronger or to maintain this qualification, Hawk felt that he should work even harder than before rather than slack off now.

His current strength might be formidable, but if he were to slack off at this moment, how long could this strength last?

A year?

Or two or three years?

The curtain of the Marvel Universe had already risen. Therefore, far from daring to relax, Hawk felt a sense of urgency.

Thus, after ending his call with Gwen, Hawk began his daily task of throwing ten thousand punches.

Actually, hitting the punching bag served no purpose for him anymore.

Yet Hawk was not hitting the punching bag for exercise; rather, he used this method to quiet his mind, allowing himself to search within this tranquility for that sixth sense which he knew existed but somehow felt entirely unable to touch.

On the apartment rooftop.

The punching bag hanging from a clothes rack swayed gently with Hawk's blows.

Hawk's eyes were unfocused, his thoughts drifting, feeling as though he were searching for something the size of a grain of rice amidst a boundless darkness.

Until...

Faint screams and shouts reached his ears.

Hawk's gaze snapped out of the darkness, and once his focus returned, he instinctively turned around, looking in the direction of the Williamsburg Bridge from whence the screams and shouts originated.

Swish!

Swish!

Swish!

Space rapidly contracted before Hawk's eyes. In the blink of an eye, Hawk, standing several kilometers away from the Williamsburg Bridge, clearly witnessed the scene unfolding upon it.

The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the East River, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Many people used this bridge to commute to Manhattan for work during the day and return to Brooklyn on the opposite side to rest at night, which was why the Williamsburg Bridge was always busy.

Tonight was no exception.

Yet an accident had occurred.

Countless Manhattan white-collar workers, trapped on the bridge, ran for their lives while screaming at the continuous sounds of vehicles being flipped over behind them.

Coming into view.

A colossal monster covered in grayish-green scales, with a head resembling that of a lizard, was rapidly leaping across the roofs of cars.

In the wake of its passage, its equally powerful, muscular long tail hooked one vehicle after another, flinging them aside effortlessly.

It seemed to be searching for something.

"This is..."

"The Lizard?"

Taking in the scene before him, Hawk raised a dark eyebrow in realization.

Simultaneously, a thought crossed his mind.

It wasn't a matter of how Dr. Connors had transformed into the Lizard without the intervention of the Amazing Spider-Man.

Rather...

We're screwed. Dr. Connors's recommendation letter was now useless.

New York University might honor a favor owed to Dr. Connors, but it certainly wouldn't honor one owed to the Lizard.

Therefore, barring any accidents, the value of Hawk's handwritten recommendation letter from Dr. Connors plummeted at the exact moment Dr. Connors turned into the Lizard, dropping instantly from priceless to less than a worthless piece of paper.

Even the stock market didn't dare to plunge like that.

Soon.

The Lizard, making its grand debut on the Williamsburg Bridge, seemed to have found what it was looking for.

An elite man in a tailored suit was hooked out of a car by the Lizard's tail.

Holding the serum intended for transport to a military hospital, a middle-aged man stared in terror at the Lizard, which fixed its glowing green eyes upon him, trembling uncontrollably.

Yet he mustered his courage.

"You..."

"Ah!"

"Puff!"

Just as the middle-aged man opened his mouth, the Lizard snatched the briefcase from his arms with a single claw, followed by a violent lash of its tail. The middle-aged man was sent flying, crashing squarely into the bridge's guardrail.

The next second.

A steel cable sliced across the middle-aged man's waist, cutting him in half. Spurts of blood filled the air as the two-severed halves of the middle-aged man plummeted toward the river below.

But right at that moment.

Spider-Man...

Bah.

The spider-freak made a brilliant entrance.

Swinging on a web he had shot out, Peter maneuvered rapidly through the air before bringing his feet together and slamming like a cannonball into the Lizard, who seemed about to turn and leave.

The Lizard staggered from the impact, and upon regaining its footing, turned its head to glare at Peter, who was now crouching on a car roof with hands and feet gripping the surface. It opened its wide jaws, its glowing green tongue thrashing wildly as it let out a roar at Peter.

The next instant.

Peter shot a web strand from his right wrist, which slapped onto the briefcase clutched in the Lizard's arms, and pulled hard.

Enraged by the loss of the briefcase, the Lizard used its tail to scoop up nearby vehicles, hurling them one after another at Peter.

The war between the spider-freak and the lizard-freak commenced immediately.

Standing on his apartment roof, Hawk watched with great interest.

Just then, however, he remembered something. He turned around, faced the punching bag, and instantly transformed into a blur as countless overlapping punches rained lightly against the bag.

Thirty seconds later.

Having swiftly completed his daily quota of ten thousand punches, Hawk let out a breath, turned back toward the Williamsburg Bridge, and prepared to enjoy the show without any psychological burden.

However...

"Where's the Lizard?"

"Where's the spider-freak?"

"Where did everyone go?"

Hawk, having redirected his gaze to the Williamsburg Bridge in anticipation of the spectacle, was dumbfounded.

Soon, though, his attention was drawn to the water beneath the Williamsburg Bridge.

Beneath the surface, a shadowy figure was moving at high speed.

Extremely fast.

In any case, Peter, who had been swinging along in pursuit, ultimately lost track of the Lizard's whereabouts as he approached Roosevelt Island.

It was too dark, and the Lizard's underwater speed was genuinely formidable.

Stopping on the rooftop of a high-rise building, Peter shook his head as he looked toward the direction where he had finally lost the creature.

Just as he was about to leave and head home, he suddenly sensed something and walked over to the edge of the roof.

Coming into view.

He spotted Hawk standing on the rooftop of a nearby ten-story building.

Hawk smiled and waved at the spider-freak, who was crouching on the edge of the roof and looking over in his direction.