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Marvel: The Enlightened One#211+212: Hawk's Broken Left Arm, SHIELD's New Director and Her Sweeping Reforms
🕑 Added 2025-11-06 10:41:07 +0000 UTCThat evening—
The Stacy apartment.
"Helen."
"Oh my God!"
The moment Helen opened the door and saw Hawk following behind Gwen, she let out a gasp of shock. "Hawk, what happened to you?"
Hawk, whose left arm was encased in a cast and suspended in a sling, kept his tone light. "It's nothing. I fell off a ladder while changing the curtains."
Helen gasped again, her hand flying to her mouth.
Hawk met Helen's genuinely concerned gaze and suddenly felt a stab of guilt.
This was all Gwen's fault.
Hawk shot a sidelong glance at his fiancée, who had already walked inside ahead of him.
Gwen ignored his look, keeping her eyes straight ahead. "It's fine, Mom. The doctor said it's just a minor fracture. A month of rest and he'll be good as new."
George, hearing the commotion, came down the stairs from the second floor.
Helen quickly waved him over. "George, come quick! Hawk's hurt!"
George walked over, his gaze landing on the cast and sling wrapped around Hawk's left arm.
"What happened?"
"It's nothing."
Hawk kept it brief. After all, Gwen hadn't briefed him on all the details, and he had no idea what she'd actually told George over the phone.
So, The less he said, the better.
Besides, his whole persona was supposed to be quiet and reserved anyway.
"It's like I told you on the phone. He was changing the bedroom curtains, lost his balance, and fell. We went straight to New Amsterdam Hospital after that."
Gwen picked up the thread, looking at George. "What did you think we were doing at the hospital that night? Sightseeing?"
That's right.
The night they'd taken Sharon Carter to New Amsterdam Hospital, someone had spotted them. Or more accurately, someone had seen them on their way back from the hospital. And the patrol officer who'd seen them just happened to be from the 21st Precinct. Which meant George found out.
His daughter at the hospital late at night?
That was unacceptable.
George had immediately called Gwen to ask what was going on.
Tell him the truth?
Absolutely not. If George found out she'd come face-to-face with the infamous HYDRA—and dodged their threats twice—he'd lose his mind.
And at the time, Commander Victoria Hand and the others had still been at the house. If George had shown up, there would have been no way to explain any of it.
So in a split second, Gwen had come up with a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Hawk had fractured his left arm. They'd gone to the hospital to get it set in a cast and sling.
That was why Hawk looked the way he did now.
When Hawk had first heard Gwen say that, he'd been completely blindsided. And a little annoyed. "Why do I have to be the one who's injured? Why not you?"
Gwen's reasoning had been airtight.
"I've lived in that house for years and never gotten hurt. Then less than a year after getting engaged to you, I suddenly break my arm? What do you think Dad's reaction would be?"
"...He'd drag you back home."
Hawk had gone silent for a moment before giving that answer.
Put yourself in his shoes.
If he ever had a daughter, and she ran off with some guy, moved in with him, and then less than a year later broke her arm and ended up at the hospital in the middle of the night?
Hawk would explode.
No question about it.
If Gwen had said she was the one who got hurt and went to the hospital, George would have absolutely lost it.
But Hawk had been conflicted at the time, looking at Gwen. "Do I really have to wear this cast for a whole month? Can't I just fake wearing the sling? Or I could just avoid seeing George for a month?"
He was Hawk Phoenix, for crying out loud.
The Demon King certified by both SHIELD and HYDRA. The guy who single-handedly crushed HYDRA's second bid for world domination and scared Strucker so badly he ran for the hills without looking back.
One second he'd just foiled HYDRA's conspiracy, and the next he was wearing a cast?
Did that make any sense?
Hawk had been torn, but Gwen's explanation—once again—had convinced him to go along with it. She'd willingly accompanied him to New York SHIELD headquarters to fake a broken left arm.
Gwen had said just two things.
First—
"Dad's an experienced cop. If he doesn't see it with his own eyes, he'll probably go to the hospital himself to check."
Second—
"Look on the bright side. Yeah, you have to fake being injured for a month. But for that entire month, you don't have to do any chores. And I mean any. Even in bed."
"Deal!"
Hawk had agreed without a second's hesitation. The moment Gwen finished those two sentences, his conflicted expression turned dead serious as he looked at his fiancée. "Let's plan this out."
And planning was definitely necessary.
Because just like Gwen said, George was a veteran cop. There was no guarantee he wouldn't suddenly decide to swing by the hospital and check Hawk's medical records.
But that wasn't a problem.
New York SHIELD would handle it. They'd not only taken care of the hospital's internal records, but SHIELD agents had also personally helped set Hawk up with the cast.
Lightweight, breathable, and completely lacking the suffocating, heavy feeling of the standard-issue casts that made up ninety-nine percent of what was on the market.
Sure enough, After Hawk showed up with his cast and sling, George softly told him to be careful, wished him a speedy recovery, and left it at that.
But Hawk was certain that if Gwen had been the one walking through that door with a cast and sling—
The second she stepped inside, George would have had a Glock 19 pressed to Hawk's forehead.
Still, at least they'd managed to pull it off.
And because Hawk was "injured," after dinner Helen didn't try to keep them around. Instead, she urged them to head home. Right before they left, she made a point of telling Gwen not to take advantage of Hawk just because he was hurt.
Hawk smiled.
Gwen was speechless.
By the time they got home, Hawk had already climbed into bed early. Losing his left arm so suddenly was a little awkward, but when he thought about the compensation he'd be getting for losing said arm, it didn't seem like a big deal at all.
Gwen walked out of the bathroom, saw Hawk lying in bed with that eager, welcoming smile aimed straight at her, and couldn't help rolling her eyes. But remembering her promise, she untied her robe and walked over.
The next day, Hawk was in high spirits, lying on the living room couch in nothing but a pair of shorts, a satisfied smile on his face.
Of course, His left arm was still in a cast.
Gwen came down the stairs rubbing her lower back, looked at Hawk sprawled on the couch like a beached whale, and her mouth twitched. "I'm starting to regret letting you get 'injured.'"
Hawk grinned. "Then tell George the truth."
Like he'd always said—
Playing weak to catch someone off guard?
What kind of nonsense was that? Dominating in public, crushing everyone with overwhelming power—that was how modern transmigration novels were supposed to go.
That was what he believed. And that was how he'd always acted.
But other people didn't see it that way.
Like SHIELD.
Or Gwen.
SHIELD didn't want him exposed to the public eye. Not even now, when Thor had already made his debut.
But Thor was an alien at the end of the day. No matter how powerful he was, the people who knew about him would only feel envy and jealousy at most.
Hawk was different.
He was a born-and-raised human from Earth. When people found out about him, sure, some would be envious. Some would be jealous. But most of them would hate.
Hate that he had it. Hate that they didn't.
Human nature leaned toward evil. That was the mainstream.
SHIELD had no doubt that the moment Hawk was exposed to the public, the first reaction wouldn't be worship like it was with Thor. Instead, people would immediately start scheming—wondering if they could replace him, capture him, and figure out the secret to his power.
Hawk didn't care about any of that.
One sentence summed up his feelings.
War... He loved war.
But SHIELD couldn't afford that risk. After all, who could guarantee that some genius wouldn't provoke Hawk into destroying the planet?
The odds were low. But what if?
That was why SHIELD actively helped Hawk keep his identity hidden.
As for Gwen—
Gwen looked at Hawk, who clearly didn't give a damn, and rolled her eyes again. Then she said seriously, "Your secret can only be known by me."
Hawk knew that wasn't what his fiancée really thought.
"Fine. Whatever you say. I'll listen to you."
"Good boy."
Gwen's smile brightened. She sat down beside Hawk on the couch, glanced at his leg now casually draped across her lap, then looked at him and changed the subject. "Hawk, HYDRA's second uprising—something that huge just gets swept under the rug like that?"
Hawk let out a dry laugh. "Was it really that huge? If Sharon hadn't shown up at our place asking for help, you probably wouldn't have even known anything happened."
HYDRA's second uprising had taken place inside SHIELD.
And SHIELD was a secret organization to begin with.
On top of that, because Hawk had intervened this time, Natasha hadn't dumped all of SHIELD's intel onto the internet.
So, Yesterday's biggest news story had been the Insight Helicarrier that crashed over Washington, D.C., and the return of Thor and Iron Man Tony Stark.
But the official explanation had already been released.
It was a joint training exercise organized by the Pentagon, Iron Man Tony Stark, and Thor. The goal? To improve humanity's defensive capabilities for future ventures into space and any dangers they might encounter.
Sure, the explanation sounded like bullshit.
But most of the public believed it.
After all, seventy percent of Americans followed the "blissfully ignorant" approach to life. These were people who believed injecting disinfectant could cure diseases. So when faced with a slightly more reasonable explanation from the Pentagon, why wouldn't they buy it?
Gwen blinked.
"So does that mean Sharon and Commander Hand are fine too?"
"No idea..." Hawk shook his head, thought about it, then looked at Gwen. "But they probably won't be shut down by the Big Five."
After the whole HYDRA mess, it was impossible for SHIELD to come out completely unscathed.
But no matter how the Security Council dealt with SHIELD, they definitely wouldn't do what happened in the original timeline—downsizing SHIELD and letting it fade into obscurity.
The most important reason?
Hawk.
<><><><><><><><>
Hawk wasn't Thor.
He wasn't some alien from another world. He was a born-and-raised human from Earth.
After Thor made his appearance and the Chitauri invaded Earth, the Big Five had come to understand one critical fact.
Beyond Earth's atmosphere was lawless territory. Once humanity ventured into the cosmos, they wouldn't be greeted with flowers and champagne. More likely, they'd face the gun-barrel diplomacy of countless alien species.
Sure, Earth was located in some backwater corner of the universe.
But the Big Five didn't know that. And considering Earth's own nations approached diplomacy with maximum suspicion and hostility, what would interstellar relations look like?
Which made Hawk incredibly important at this particular moment in time.
Most importantly, Hawk and the U.S. military were enemies.
Quantico was still being rebuilt. They'd barely finished ten percent of the reconstruction. The other ninety percent of the ruins were still sitting there like a monument to what happened when you crossed Hawk Phoenix.
General Ross and his family had been dead so long, the grass on their graves had probably been replaced several times over.
And that was excellent.
For the United States, that was terrible news. But for the other four Security Council representatives, it was actually fantastic.
Like the saying goes—
People don't hate success. They hate when someone else has it and they don't.
If Hawk had been on good terms with the U.S. government, the other four representatives would have absolutely supported Nick Fury's plan to bring Hawk under control.
Just like how the Security Council had quietly approved Fury's containment measures for the Hulk years ago.
And why was that? Because the Hulk's girlfriend was Betty Ross. And Betty Ross's father, Thaddeus Ross, was one of the U.S. military's top brass.
The Security Council wasn't America's council. It was the Big Five's council.
Rather than saying SHIELD felt the need to control the Hulk, it was more accurate to say the Security Council felt the need to control him.
But Hawk was different.
Hawk had no connection to the other member nations. He was actively hostile to the U.S. military. And according to Maria Hill and her team, his interactions with SHIELD had been relatively friendly.
That was the real reason why, when Nick Fury resurfaced and once again proposed that Hawk needed to be contained, the Security Council immediately shut him down by freezing his command authority.
So—
"Congratulations, Commander Hill. Actually, I should say Director Hill now."
Once the Security Council's latest resolution came through, the first order of business wasn't dealing with the HYDRA crisis fallout. It was promoting Maria Hill to Director of SHIELD, granting her full authority over all SHIELD operations.
Because in order to clean up the mess HYDRA had left behind, they needed someone competent and widely respected to step up and take charge.
And during the HYDRA crisis, Maria Hill had remained remarkably calm and followed protocol to the letter. Naturally, the Security Council was impressed.
After all, Nick Fury was dead.
Faking your death still counted as death.
From a certain perspective, Fury had actually gotten off easy.
Because just based on three facts alone—that he'd been SHIELD Director, that he'd been promoted by HYDRA leader Alexander Pierce, and that HYDRA had launched their second bid for world domination during his tenure—he should have faced serious consequences.
And this time, because of Hawk's intervention, Fury hadn't been able to pull off some triumphant return storyline.
Put it this way: if Fury were actually dead, that would be one thing. But if he'd been declared dead and then suddenly showed up alive?
Best-case scenario, he'd spend the rest of his life in prison.
After all, HYDRA made their move when you were "dead," and then suddenly you're alive again after they failed? That looked suspicious as hell.
In short—
The SHIELD Director was dead. The new SHIELD Director was the freshly minted Maria Hill.
"Do you have a suitable candidate for Commander, Director Hill?"
"Victoria Hand, Commander of the New York SHIELD Operations Center."
"...Acceptable."
In the video conference, the four Security Council representatives and the newly appointed U.S. representative muted their microphones, exchanged nods and a few quiet words, then the Eastern representative—whose turn it was to chair this month—unmuted his mic. "Mr. Phoenix is based in New York City. If Commander Hand comes to headquarters, who will handle the New York situation?"
Maria Hill stood with her hands clasped behind her back, facing the large screen displaying the five representatives of the Big Five nations.
"The person with the closest relationship to Hawk in SHIELD isn't me or Commander Hand. It's Sharon Carter. Hawk only got involved because of Sharon Carter."
"Then perhaps Sharon Carter could take over for Commander Hand—"
"No."
"Uh..."
"I'm planning to shut down the New York SHIELD Operations Center. Actually, all SHIELD branch offices outside of headquarters."
Maria Hill's expression remained neutral as she announced her first major initiative as Director.
Not calming people down. Not even expanding operations.
Instead, she was going straight for sweeping cuts and restructuring.
One sentence summed it up.
HYDRA had parasitically infested SHIELD, grown in strength, and nearly succeeded in their second attempt at world domination. That was an undeniable fact.
And as the host of that parasite, SHIELD hadn't been shut down by the Security Council for various reasons. But there was definitely lingering resentment.
So, Rather than passively wait for the Security Council to swing the axe, it was better to take the initiative.
"I've always believed SHIELD's structure is too massive. If it were just large, that would be one thing. But SHIELD has become bloated."
"SHIELD was originally established to serve as a firewall between the supernatural world and the ordinary one."
"What we need isn't size. We need speed, flexibility, and responsiveness to Security Council directives."
"SHIELD needs elite operatives. Quality over quantity."
"And even though Hawk helped us eliminate HYDRA, they'd been embedded in our organization for years. No one can guarantee there aren't still HYDRA agents hiding in our ranks."
"This is the perfect opportunity."
"SHIELD can use this crisis as a chance to completely clean house internally."
"As for the remaining two Insight Helicarriers, I plan to—"
The five representatives on the large screen—including the newly appointed U.S. representative—listened as Maria Hill laid out her post-appointment strategy. Their expressions gradually shifted from serious to increasingly approving.
The Eastern and Moscow representatives were particularly receptive.
After all, those two nations had always been the "pay dues but don't participate" members. They'd been considering whether to just quit the whole arrangement entirely.
But for various reasons, that proposal hadn't passed through their respective think tanks back home.
And now—
Maria Hill's seemingly self-inflicted cuts aligned perfectly with their preferences.
The London and Paris representatives were also happy to see it happen.
After all, even among the Big Five, there was a hierarchy. SHIELD couldn't operate in the Eastern nation or Moscow. The U.S. was headquarters. But SHIELD branches in their territories had been operating with considerable autonomy.
That left the new U.S. representative.
He wanted to object. After all, everyone knew that when the U.S. proposed a "global organization" to "maintain world peace," what they really meant was using that organization to play a game of "obey us or else."
But he couldn't object right now.
It was common knowledge—
When you've just made a massive mistake, you're not exactly in a position to speak up confidently.
The United States was no exception.
So—
Maria Hill's first reform proposal as SHIELD Director received unanimous approval from the Security Council.
"What about Hawk?"
"Having Sharon in New York will be sufficient. My stance remains the same as before. The evidence proves that Hawk operates within lawful neutral parameters. He may not help us with anything, but he's even less likely to assist any future villains who might threaten Earth."
"Very well."
The Eastern representative, currently chairing the council, recalled his meeting with Hawk in the SHIELD conference room and let out a soft chuckle. "You're the SHIELD Director now. Your call, Director Hill. Just resolve this crisis as quickly as possible."
Maria Hill nodded, her expression serious.
"Understood."
"Then that's settled. Meeting adjourned."
The Eastern representative glanced at the other four representatives, then brought his hand down decisively on the table, ending the remote video conference with finality.
The large screen went dark.
Maria Hill withdrew her gaze, turned around, and looked at Victoria Hand, who had been standing off to the side—outside the camera's view—the entire time.
Commander Hand walked over.
"Director."
"Commander."
After exchanging their new titles, Hill smiled slightly. "How long will you need to wrap things up in New York?"
Hand thought about it.
"One month."
"That works."
"I'm planning to complete SHIELD's restructuring by the end of this year."
"By the end of this year..."
Victoria Hand frowned, looking at Maria Hill. "Isn't that too fast?"
Hill shook her head.
"Cut through the chaos with a sharp blade. Right now, SHIELD is at its most unstable. But that also makes it the easiest time to push through reforms. We have to change. I'm even planning to relocate headquarters entirely."
"Wait—you're seriously planning to move headquarters to—"
"Yes."
Hill nodded but didn't elaborate further. Instead, she changed the subject. "I heard Hawk got injured?"
Hand met Hill's gaze and let out a soft laugh. "Yeah. Broke his left arm. He's been recovering at home on Bleecker Street these past few days."
Hill was genuinely curious.
"What happened?"
"The Demon King's Shackles are more effective than we thought. She managed to accomplish something most people probably couldn't."
Hand explained how Hawk's left arm had ended up fractured, cast, and suspended in a sling—and more importantly, why.
After hearing the full story, Hill shook her head with mild amusement, then looked at Hand.
"That actually works out well for us. At least while he's injured and recovering, we can focus all our energy on handling our own business."
"True."
Hand nodded in agreement, then glanced at Hill. "Should we tell Sharon to talk to Gwen? See if she can convince Hawk to extend his recovery period a little longer?"
Hill smiled faintly but didn't answer.
Instead, she shifted the conversation to their next target.
"Someone should be arriving shortly. They're here looking for Nick Fury."
"..."
Comments
Luci Rei
Gwen has the best code name fs
firerock laser
Fury better pray Hawke never finds out what he did
