Dragoniax

Marvel: The Enlightened One#209+210: Tony Stark's Anti-Hawk Armor? The Underworld's Eight Prisons! What Makes You Think You Can Negotiate?

Added 2025-11-05 09:20:49 +0000 UTC

Mephisto gave in.

After Hawk swore his oath to the Goddess of Death, Mephisto chose to trust him one more time.

Though—

He didn't have much choice.

Those with nothing to lose don't fear those with everything to lose. And right now, the situation was exactly as Hawk had said—Mephisto was the one with something to lose.

Mephisto couldn't enter Hawk's universe.

But Hawk could blockade his Hell Dimension. More than that, Hawk had made it crystal clear during their last encounter in Hell what would happen if things escalated.

"I'll spend the rest of my life doing nothing but camping your Hell Dimension's gate. If you've got the guts, never come out. I'll wait you out until you rot."

Thinking about that... Mephisto shuddered. He could only swallow his rage and accept the humiliation.

After Hawk finished his oath, Mephisto turned and left without a word.

What else was he supposed to do? Stick around and get insulted some more?

But...

This wasn't over.

We'll see about this. Just you wait.

The moment the Gates of Hell slammed shut, Mephisto turned back. His demonic eyes locked with Hawk's one final time, burning with suppressed fury and volcanic rage.

Hawk felt Mephisto's hatred. He didn't care.

The moment he'd used force to take his sister's soul from Hell, he'd known he and Mephisto were enemies for life.

Demons weren't just untrustworthy. They were petty as hell. A single glance could make them think you were looking down on them.

And Mephisto, as the biggest demon lord in the Hell Dimension, was petty on a legendary scale.

Funny thing, though—

Hawk wasn't exactly generous himself.

To be precise, transmigrators never were.

So, One day, I'm swallowing your Hell Dimension whole.

Hawk watched Mephisto disappear from view, making that silent promise. Then the Black Phoenix Surplice disassembled itself and returned to the palace in his Underworld. He took one step forward and returned to the physical world, sinking his consciousness into his Cosmo.

His conversation with Mephisto had taken place in the rift between dimensions. Time-wise, it had been instantaneous.

And the moment Mephisto abandoned his claim to Alexander Pierce's soul, the latter's spirit—confused and disoriented—was drawn into the Underworld and cast into one of the Prisons.

Hawk's Underworld had Eight Prisons.

He'd created them using the Life-Death Law Fragment he'd looted from Blackheart, combined with the Four Creation Elements from the Elemental Demons and the Reality Stone. He'd based the design on the Underworld Specters' prisons from his previous life.

Each of the Eight Prisons served a unique purpose.

They were:

The First Prison: The Court of Judgment. Eventually, this would govern all life within his Cosmo. It would hold the Book of Life and Death, judge the sins committed during life, determine rewards and punishments, and assign sinners to the appropriate Hell based on the severity of their crimes.

The Second Prison: The Acid Rain Prison. An endless pocket dimension where condemned souls would endure constant downpours of corrosive rain capable of dissolving spirits. They would die, revive, die again—over and over in an eternal cycle until their sentence was complete.

The Third Prison: The Stone Mill Prison. A massive circular grinding platform connected to three colossal mountain-sized pillars that rotated at constant speed. Condemned souls would be forced to run endlessly across the surface. They could choose not to run—but the result would be getting crushed beneath the pillars, dying, and then reviving to do it all over again...

And Alexander Pierce—right now—was in the Stone Mill Prison.

The moment his soul finished being violently stretched during the tug-of-war, Pierce suddenly appeared on the massive stone platform of the Stone Mill Prison. His expression twisted in horror as he took in his surroundings.

Vast. Desolate. A world painted in hopeless shades of brown and gray. In the distance, a towering mountain-sized pillar—so massive it blotted out the sky—rolled toward him.

No time to think.

Alexander Pierce turned and ran on pure instinct.

The pillar pursued.

Pierce ran.

But...

No matter how fast he ran, he couldn't escape. The moment he started running, Pierce realized something was wrong—his legs felt like they were weighed down with lead. But before he could figure out why, the mountain pillar behind him closed the distance with a shrieking roar of wind.

The next second, Alexander Pierce was crushed to death beneath the pillar. The second after that, Alexander Pierce revived behind the pillar. Before he could process what had just happened, he heard the thunderous rumbling behind him again.

He looked up.

Another mountain pillar appeared in his field of vision.

"What the fuck—"

"Welcome to my Prison, Pierce."

Hawk appeared silently within the Stone Mill Hell.

Pierce's eyes widened as he saw Hawk, then looked at the pillar that had frozen mid-rotation.

In that instant—

He finally understood why Hawk had killed him so easily. He also understood what Hawk had meant when he said "death is worse than life."

So death really wasn't the end. It was just the beginning.

Alexander Pierce replayed the memory of being crushed beneath that mountain pillar—the sheer agony of it. He looked at Hawk standing before him, and even his breathing stopped for a moment.

Though he'd already forgotten he was dead. He didn't need to breathe anymore.

Pierce's expression shifted.

Hawk let out a dry laugh.

"You think I'm going to keep asking you what you're hiding from me?"

"Don't worry."

"I'm not."

"Because I already gave you your last chance. You didn't take it. You're out of opportunities."

"So..."

"You'll stay here."

"Forever."

"..."

By the time Alexander Pierce snapped back to reality, Hawk had already vanished completely. And the mountain pillar that had been frozen in place resumed its rotation once more.

Alexander Pierce ran again. And was crushed to death again.

He would remain in this Stone Mill Prison, cycling endlessly through eternity—forever experiencing the punishment of fleeing, being crushed to death, and reviving on the spot.

Above the Stone Mill Prison, Hawk—having finished his conversation with Pierce—looked down calmly at the scene below.

Just like he'd said.

You only get one chance. He'd given it to Alexander Pierce. Pierce hadn't taken it. So now Pierce would carry his secret with him through eternal torment.

Hawk didn't care at all what secret Pierce was hiding.

Well... that wasn't entirely true. He cared a little. He just couldn't figure out what secret Pierce had that was worth dying—and suffering eternally—to protect.

But it was fine.

Once Anna died and her soul came to the Underworld, Hawk was confident she'd tell him everything.

Of course, Anna was just the backup plan. Hawk had other options.

After all, Alexander Pierce and Arnim Zola weren't the only HYDRA leaders.

HYDRA had several others.

And Hawk happened to know two more.

The first: Daniel Whitehall.

That guy was a real piece of work. He'd survived into the modern era by harvesting organs from an Inhuman woman named Jiaying—Skye's mother.

Because of that, Hawk's memory of him was particularly vivid.

However, Hawk only knew he existed. Where he was currently hiding? No idea.

But that was fine. There was still the second one.

Wolfgang von Strucker.

Or rather—Baron Strucker.

The HYDRA leader who used the Mind Stone to activate Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's abilities.

And Hawk knew exactly where he was.

Sokovia.

Perfect. The Mind Stone was in Sokovia too. He could swing by and grab both at once.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Hawk's form appeared at high altitude in an instant. The next moment, accompanied by a sonic boom, he transformed into a streak of light and shot toward Sokovia at incredible speed.

...

At the same time.

Back at the SHIELD Triskelion headquarters, Tony Stark heard JARVIS's voice.

"Sir, I've detected Mr. Phoenix's energy signature."

"Put it on screen."

"Yes, sir."

JARVIS immediately projected a real-time satellite feed.

In the image, Hawk was moving at incredible speed, so the camera had to zoom way out to keep him in frame without constantly switching feeds.

"That's not the direction back to New York."

"Correct."

"Can you predict his destination?"

"One moment."

JARVIS paused, then traced Hawk's current flight path. A small landlocked country in Eastern Europe—bordered by Slovakia and the Czech Republic—appeared on the map, highlighted.

"Sokovia."

Tony looked at the name, then turned to Natasha. "Where's that? Do you guys have a SHIELD base there?"

Natasha shook her head. "No."

Tony frowned with curiosity. "Then what's Hawk doing there?"

Just then—

JARVIS spoke again. "Sir, signal scan complete. I've confirmed the location of the suspected HYDRA signal source hidden outside Bleecker Street."

"Send it over."

"Already sent."

Tony looked at the signal source location JARVIS projected, then turned to Natasha. "I'm done here. I'm heading back to New York to deal with that hidden HYDRA cell."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Tony's faceplate snapped shut as he walked toward the exit. "Hawk's better than Hulk. At least with Gwen around, I don't need to build an anti-Hawk armor."

That was the truth.

As long as Gwen was there, no matter how volatile Hawk got, he could be calmed down.

Unlike Hulk.

Hulk didn't listen to reason. He just smashed everything when he got angry.

Though—

Anti-Hawk armor?

Tony was actually working on that in secret.

Just in case...

<><><><><><><><>

Sokovia.

A small landlocked country in Eastern Europe. Mountainous. Infertile soil. And perpetually caught in the middle of civil war.

Warlords everywhere.

Put it this way—whoever was in charge today might not make it to tomorrow. Hell, sometimes they didn't even make it to the afternoon. By dinnertime, the current warlord's head would be hanging from the presidential palace flagpole.

But, none of that mattered to Hawk, who had just arrived.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A sonic boom cracked across Sokovia's sky. Hawk's form appeared immediately after, his gaze locking onto a sprawling castle complex built into the mountainside, nestled deep within a frozen forest.

The next second, Hawk was already inside the castle.

But—

The place was empty. Completely deserted. Papers scattered everywhere. At the main entrance, several vehicles sat abandoned—half-burned, as if someone had tried to destroy them before fleeing and ran out of time.

Hawk glanced around. His Sixth Sense expanded, blanketing the entire castle in an instant. He locked onto a location. His form vanished.

When he reappeared, he was standing in a spacious room on the third floor.

This room was also empty. Countless papers littered the floor. Pens and cables were scattered across the desk.

Hawk scanned the room briefly, then his gaze fixed on a specific spot—the place where the Mind Stone, one of the Infinity Stones, had once been kept.

He possessed the Reality Stone. While he couldn't sense distant Infinity Stones, when they were close enough, he could feel their energy signature.

And this place—this was where the Mind Stone had been.

But not anymore.

Hawk's thoughts raced, and he immediately understood why the castle was deserted.

Alexander Pierce had tipped them off.

No—

More accurately, Hawk had tipped off Alexander Pierce.

Hawk remembered the fake "Anna" who'd called him, when he'd mentioned wanting to borrow the Mind Scepter.

That single statement had been enough. Because of it, the Mind Scepter that should have been here wasn't here anymore.

"Pierce!"

"A HYDRA leader through and through."

Hawk let out a cold laugh.

The next second, Alexander Pierce—who had been serving his sentence in the Third Prison, the Stone Mill—was suddenly yanked away in a flash of black light and cast directly into the Eighth Prison.

The Frozen Prison!

As far as the eye could see, this place was infinitely vast. Ice sheets, blizzards, and freezing winds constantly ravaged the landscape. Any soul sent here had only one fate: freezing to death.

Dying from the cold. Slowly. Painfully.

But just like the Stone Mill Prison, this death wasn't permanent. It was endless.

The moment Alexander Pierce appeared in the Frozen Prison, he felt the bone-chilling cold. Almost instinctively, he wrapped his arms around himself. His teeth were already chattering.

After tossing Pierce into the Eighth Prison, Hawk stopped paying attention to him.

He didn't bother asking Pierce where Strucker had fled with the Mind Stone.

No need.

If Strucker had the guts, he could hide with the Mind Stone for the rest of his life.

Hawk turned to leave, preparing to head back to New York, when a sudden thought made him pause. His form flickered, and he appeared in a sealed room. His gaze fell on a circular device that had just activated.

Just then—

THUD.

The moment Hawk set foot in the room, something triggered. Metal panels—glowing with a faint golden light—shot out from the walls, ceiling, and floor. In the blink of an eye, the entire room was sealed.

BOOM!

Hawk's eyes turned crimson. Phoenix Rays—hot enough to vaporize ordinary humans instantly—blasted into the metal walls. They didn't even leave a dent.

"Vibranium!"

"Correct." Just as Hawk identified the metal, the circular device hummed to life and projected a hologram.

A man's voice echoed through the chamber as his projection materialized before Hawk.

Hawk looked at the holographic figure standing before him and narrowed his eyes.

The man in the projection seemed pleased to see Hawk. His weathered face wore a smile. His voice carried a metallic rasp.

"Mr. Phoenix. Hello. We finally meet."

"Wolfgang von Strucker!"

Hawk spoke the projection's name aloud, glancing at the Vibranium walls surrounding him. His expression remained calm as he looked at Strucker. "I'm the one who led you to Vibranium in the first place. You really think this can hold me?"

Strucker smiled in response. "Of course not. I never intended to trap you with this."

Hawk laughed.

"Then what's the point?"

"To talk."

"Fine!"

The smile on Hawk's face didn't waver as he looked at Strucker's projection. "Give me an address. I'll come to you in person. Then we can have a nice long chat."

Strucker laughed heartily.

"Mr. Phoenix, I will absolutely not give you my current location. After all, I just moved in."

"Pierce tipped you off??"

"Yes."

Strucker admitted it without hesitation. "Alexander Pierce and I disagree on many things. But we share one common goal: making HYDRA great again."

Whether it was him or Alexander Pierce, their goal was the same—to restore HYDRA to greatness.

They just had different methods.

And judging by how things were going—

His approach was slightly better.

Hawk, hearing Strucker's declaration, let out an undisguised snort of derision. "Make HYDRA great again? Over my dead body."

Strucker's smile remained fixed in place.

"Mr. Phoenix, no one in this world is immortal. Not even you."

"Really?"

Hawk raised an eyebrow, his expression tinged with amusement as he looked at Strucker. "So you're saying you've already found a way to kill me?"

Strucker chuckled but didn't pursue the topic further.

After all, both his plan and the one Dr. Zola had left behind still needed time.

So—

"Let's make a deal, Mr. Phoenix."

"No."

"..."

Strucker's smile faltered slightly. "You haven't even heard our terms yet, Mr. Phoenix."

The corner of Hawk's mouth curled upward. He looked at Strucker's projection with undisguised mockery. "Strucker, you'd better pray you can hide deep enough. Hide long enough. And whatever you're cooking up, you'd better pray it works. Otherwise, you're going to suffer. Forever. Endlessly."

With that—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Hawk's eyes flared crimson. His Phoenix Rays blasted into the projection device. With an explosive BANG, the equipment shattered. Strucker's projection—frozen in an expression of shock—vanished.

WHOOSH!

Hawk took one step forward and appeared in the sky above the HYDRA castle. With a single punch, the entire structure—nestled into the mountainside—began to collapse in a violent tremor. The destruction was visible to the naked eye.

Within moments, the once-grand castle had been reduced to rubble.

Hawk turned without looking back and headed toward New York.

A deal? What made them think they were on his level?

He was the Strongest on Earth.

What was HYDRA? A self-important villain organization that couldn't even stage a proper rebellion. Delusional idiots playing dress-up.

They wanted to negotiate with him? What made them think they qualified?

Mephisto had tried to use his sister's soul to blackmail Hawk, and Hawk hadn't given in. Now HYDRA thought holding the Mind Stone gave them leverage?

What were they smoking?

Hawk had only said he could use the Mind Stone to speed up his comprehension of the Seventh Sense. He'd never said it was the only way.

Without the Mind Stone to cheat with, it would just take longer.

So what? He'd take his time.

Hawk didn't care.

How long had it even been since he awakened his Cosmo?

Like he'd told Strucker—if he had the guts, he could hide with the Mind Stone for the rest of his life.

So, Negotiate? Negotiate my ass.

If they wanted to stay hidden forever, fine. But the moment they showed their faces, Hawk would kill them—and the Mind Stone would be his anyway.

...

Hawk's thoughts churned as he returned to New York. His form flickered, and he appeared in the backyard of 521A Bleecker Street.

The two SHIELD agents standing guard in the yard instinctively drew their weapons when Hawk appeared out of nowhere. But they quickly recovered.

"Mr. Phoenix."

Both agents were among those Hawk had rescued earlier, so they recognized him. They quickly greeted him.

Gwen, who'd been in the living room speaking with Commander Victoria Hand, heard the commotion in the backyard. The moment the agents spoke, she ran outside. Her eyes lit up when she saw Hawk. She immediately threw her arms around him.

"Hawk! You're back!"

"Yeah."

Hawk embraced his fiancée, his gaze shifting to Commander Victoria Hand, who had also stepped out of the living room. "Thank you."

Commander Hand shook her head. "We're the ones who should be thanking you, Hawk. Without your help, this crisis could have ended very differently."

She meant every word.

Without Hawk's intervention, God only knew how this would have played out.

Especially when she thought about those three Insight Helicarriers loaded with the targeting algorithm.

But thanks to Hawk, only one carrier was a total loss. One was damaged. And one was completely intact.

The intact one was the carrier Tony Stark had commandeered.

Thor's carrier was heavily damaged and would need major repairs.

The one Hawk had punched a hole through? Completely unsalvageable. Just the cost of pulling it out of the river would bankrupt SHIELD.

But compared to HYDRA successfully launching all three, it was a blessing in disguise.