……
“After all, I have a power that nobody knows about. Since I get along so well with you, Natasha, I’ll break the rule and tell you in secret.”
After chatting for a while, Hawking suddenly became mysterious.
“What kind of power?”
Black Widow’s eyes lit up, thinking she had let down Hawking’s guard with their chat.
Pretending to be proud, Hawking bluffed:
“It’s not a natural ability but a very advanced skill I’ve learned since I was young.
I can predict a person’s fate through their palm, commonly known as fortune-telling in our terms.
“Really?”
Black Widow was skeptical, instinctively feeling this ability was far-fetched.
“Of course, it’s true. If you don’t believe me, let me show you.”
Hawking grabbed Black Widow’s hand, removed her glove, and pretended to observe it for a while. Then he sighed, frowned, and shook his head:
“Sister Natasha, you have the destiny of a lone star of Tiansha!”
“What is a lone star of Tiansha?”
Black Widow was confused.
Although she knew Chinese, it didn’t mean she was familiar with some of its cultural aspects.
“This lone star of Tiansha means you were born with a difficult fate, hardship in your youth, and an unfavorable end in the future. It also means you will likely be lonely for life, with no marriage or children.”
Hawking confidently made things up.
Of course, he couldn’t tell fortunes or predict the future. He was loaded with Harry Potter, not Grindelwald, and didn’t have the natural ability to foresee the future.
He was teasing Black Widow because she always tried to extract information from him.
However, some of what he said was part of the truth.
Upon hearing Hawking’s words, Black Widow was momentarily stunned, falling into a somewhat emo state.
She was born in the Soviet Union in 1984 and abandoned as an infant.
Later, she was adopted by a government agency for training, posing as a family of four with Soviet Captain Alexei, Iron Maiden Melina, and fellow orphan Yelena to perform a spy mission in Ohio.
After the mission failed, she was sent to the Red Room for even more brutal training under Madame B.
During this process, her body was injected with a serum to enhance her physique, and she was forced to undergo a sterilization procedure, permanently losing her reproductive ability.
Over those years, as the most outstanding Black Widow, she was sent to various places for espionage and assassination missions, her hands stained with the blood of many innocents, including children.
Two years ago, when S.H.I.E.L.D. ordered Hawkeye Barton to eliminate her, he unexpectedly led her to recognize the errors of her ways, deciding to join S.H.I.E.L.D. to atone for her past.
So, looking at what Hawking said, it matches up quite well.
“Could my life be like this?”
Black Widow’s heart was lonely.
At this moment, the sixteen or seventeen-year-old Black Widow, compared to the Black Widow who had gone through various S.H.I.E.L.D. missions ten years later, was somewhat less mentally strong.
Hawkeye noticed something was off with Black Widow. He didn’t believe Hawking had any actual ability to predict fate, so he extended his hand, saying:
“That’s amazing. Can you read mine, too?”
He wanted to use facts to make Black Widow understand that what Hawking said was just a coincidence.
Naturally, Hawking didn’t refuse:
“Ah, yours is not bad. You have the destiny of having many children and grandchildren.”
Glancing at Hawkeye’s raised palm, he bluffed again:
“From your palm, I can tell that your youth wasn’t good either, probably related to your family. But your future is quite good. You will marry a colleague and have at least three children.”
Barton, who had just picked up a drink to watch Hawking’s performance, was also stunned.
His youth was indeed not good, as he and his mother were involved in a convenience store robbery where he killed the robber, leading to his mother’s imprisonment.
And now, at thirty, he’s dating a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Mockingbird and planning to marry within the next two years.
Could this mutant kid Hawking have the ability to see through fate?
Then I really will have three children!”
At this moment, he hoped that Hawking’s ability was fake, which would mean his good friend Natasha’s future would also be happy. Yet, he also hoped Hawking’s ability was actual because his future would be satisfied.
“Alright, huh… Natasha, Barton, what’s wrong with you?”
At that moment, Hill suddenly pushed the door to the lounge open, but when she saw the expressions on Black Widow and Hawkeye’s faces, a puzzled look appeared on her face.
The two top agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., why was one looking so bleak and the other so conflicted?
“Oh, have they finished talking? Then we can leave.
Sister Natasha Barton, it was delightful chatting with you. Hopefully, we can talk again sometime.”
Hawking immediately stood up, waved at Black Widow and Hawkeye, and then left the lounge with Mystique following Hill.
“That… can you see people’s fates?”
On the way to the director’s office, Mystique quietly asked Hawking.
Although her eyes closed, pretending to sleep, she hadn’t missed a single word of the conversation between the three in the lounge.
There was a black market mutant merchant named Caliban who could occasionally see fragments of the future, so if Hawking could see through people’s fates, it seemed not impossible.
“What do you think?”
Hawking revealed a meaningful smile.
If you believe I can see through fate, you should naturally consider what I say about the future. If the future changes and what I said turns out to be wrong, I never admit I could see through fate; it’s just your wishful thinking.
Mystique quickly pinched Hawking’s face:
“You little slicker, I think you should be nicknamed ‘Mr. Destiny.'”
“No, it’s ‘Mr. Fate!'”
Hawking shrugged his shoulders.
Mystique looked to be in her twenties or thirties, but her actual age was about the same as Professor X and Magneto. She was of the grandmother’s generation, so letting her pinch was no big deal.
The two quickly returned to the office door, and what caught their eyes were Nick Fury and two others who seemed to be having a good talk.
“Hope we can cooperate more in the future.”
Nick Fury’s face had a rare smile.
Professor X was more reasonable than he had expected. Many things were negotiable as long as the bottom line of mutant safety wasn’t touched.
And though Magneto was more extreme and full of hostility towards humans, he also managed to get a grip on the other party.
So, the current outcome of the exchange was temporarily acceptable to all parties.
“Professor, I’m hungry. It must be time for lunch now.”
Hawking stepped forward, speaking to Professor X but looking up at Nick Fury.
Nick Fury, being a sharp man, immediately said:
“Since it’s noon, let’s have lunch together. I happen to know a top French restaurant that just opened.”
Since the exchange went smoothly, having a meal to deepen their relationship was a good idea.
Upon hearing this, Hawking’s mouth corners were immediately lifted; it was intentional.
In about an hour or so, the pure water inside Stryker will turn into poison, and if they were with Nick Fury by then, they could clear themselves of all suspicions.
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