Marvel: The Enlightened One#175+176: The Skull Island in the Pacific, The Marvel Universe Has King Kong

Take Osborn's private jet to the Pacific?

Yeah, right.

Forget the fact that the last people who took Osborn's private jet—the Parkers—had vanished somewhere over the Pacific. Just considering Hawk's confirmed track record of disasters striking whenever he left New York City via commercial transportation was enough to make the decision for him.

He'd fly there himself.

Sure, it'd take some effort. But it beat inviting trouble.

Most importantly—

Flying there himself would be faster anyway. By the time he got to the airport and boarded a private jet, he'd already be there.

Just like right now.

...

High above the Pacific Ocean, following his phone's satellite navigation, Hawk descended through the cloud layer and immediately spotted Osborn's secret offshore experimental platform in the distance—a massive steel beast rising from the endless sea.

The entire structure was composed of countless enormous metal frames interlocking and welded together, jutting up from the churning ocean surface. Massive support columns held up a platform roughly the size of two standard football fields.

But, At the moment, the massive platform showed no signs of life. No lights. Not even emergency lighting. The silent structure, bathed in the glow of the setting sun, gave off an eerie, unsettling vibe.

THUD.

Hawk's right foot touched down on the platform's deck, and his body steadied.

He looked around.

The helipad—where an emergency helicopter should have been docked—was completely empty. There were no signs of human activity anywhere. The only sound was the waves crashing against the support columns below.

But Peter had definitely been here.

With his Sixth Sense fully active, Hawk picked up traces of Peter's presence lingering on the platform.

Except the residual traces hadn't been refreshed in a while. Judging by the degradation, Peter hadn't been back here in about four or five days.

And—

Besides Peter's faint presence, there was also a thick, almost dried scent of blood.

Hawk raised an eyebrow. Following both Peter's residual aura and the scent of dried blood, he opened a door and walked into the building on the platform.

The moment he stepped inside, a horrifying scene greeted him.

Blood.

Blood everywhere—soaking the entire corridor. Not just the corridor either. The walls. The ceiling. Blood covered everything.

The blood had dried, looking like it had been there for at least three to five days. In the stuffy, enclosed environment, it was now releasing a stench that could rival a biological weapon.

Hawk couldn't smell it, though.

The instant he'd opened the door, he'd wisely shut down his sense of smell.

Ignoring the blood filling his field of vision, Hawk walked straight to what appeared to be Peter's quarters—the room he'd used for sleeping during his time on the platform.

He pushed the door open.

A single bed. A desk. A private bathroom. That was the extent of the room.

The bedsheets were rumpled.

The items on the desk were scattered. Even Peter's clothes had been left in a messy heap on the floor. It looked like Peter had left in a hurry.

"So..."

"What the hell happened here?"

Hawk stepped into Peter's room, looked around, and found nothing useful. Curious, he turned and walked back out, his gaze falling on the blood covering the entire corridor.

His first thought was that Peter had run into Pacific pirates.

But—

"Pacific pirates?"

"No way."

"Forget pirates. Even if it was Navy SEALs, Peter should've been able to handle them."

After all, this version of Peter was the real deal Spider-Man.

This was the Spider-Man who could stop a train with his bare hands. Not the Amazing Spider-Man who got shot through the ankle. Not the chatty Spider-Man who needed his mentor's help to pull in a cargo ship.

Bully Maguire's reputation wasn't built on nothing.

And so, where did Peter go?

Hawk wondered, then followed the trail of dried blood down the corridor until he reached another door on the opposite side. He pushed it open and stepped out onto the deck.

The blood stretched across the deck toward the platform's railing, continuing all the way to the edge before stopping abruptly.

Hawk leaned over the railing and looked down.

Below, caught on one of the support columns holding up the platform was the remains of a mangled corpse.

Just then—

A faint sound reached Hawk's ears.

Hawk snapped his attention toward the source of the noise, looking up at the control room above.

Suddenly, he vanished.

A man—face covered in dried blood, body reeking—was hiding in the platform's control room. He frantically caught the cup lid that had almost fallen, then nervously looked back toward the spot where Hawk had been standing moments ago.

And then, he froze.

"Where'd he go? He was just there."

"Behind you."

Hawk's voice came from directly behind the man.

The man's entire body went rigid. His hand instinctively swung the handgun around.

BANG!

A bullet fired from the chamber, screaming through the air toward Hawk's face.

Hawk didn't dodge.

CLANG!

The bullet came to a neat stop, pinched between Hawk's two fingers.

The next second, Hawk kicked out, sending the man flying backward into the control console.

The man let out a piercing scream as he hit.

Hawk walked over, grabbed the man lying against the console, and yanked him down onto the floor. He watched as the man rolled a few times before speaking. "What happened here? Where are Peter and Felicia?"

The man, who'd just been convinced he was about to die, suddenly went rigid again. Ignoring the pain, he looked up at Hawk with disbelief. "Wait—you're not with them?"

Hawk raised an eyebrow.

"Them? Who's them?"

"Those demons."

The man said through gritted teeth.

Hawk stepped closer, casually waved his hand, and with his telekinesis, lifted the man off the floor and set him down on a nearby chair. He stood there, hands in his pockets, looking at the stunned man.

"Start from the beginning."

"Gulp."

The man swallowed hard, clearly shaken by what Hawk had just done. But he also understood that if Hawk wanted him dead, it would be the easiest thing in the world. So after swallowing nervously, he began recounting the events of that night.

More precisely, five nights ago.

That night, there had been a severe storm. All the platform workers had returned to the work area early. In the control room, only he and one other person had been on duty.

Everything had been normal at first. Just another unremarkable stormy night.

But then everything changed.

He didn't know exactly when it started, but at some point, a group of people had infiltrated the platform. They kicked open the door and immediately shot his coworker dead. They'd also shot at him.

But the bullet hadn't killed him. By sheer luck, it had only grazed his ear. Still, he'd passed out from shock.

Hawk glanced at the man's bandaged ear—now reeking from lack of medical supplies—and nodded.

"Continue."

"Right."

The man didn't dare hesitate. He kept going.

Shortly after passing out, he'd woken up and heard the sound of heavy gunfire coming from the rest area.

Terrified, he'd wanted to hit the emergency button, but found that all the power had been cut. Later, hearing the commotion and driven by pure survival instinct, he'd climbed out the window and hidden outside the command room in the darkness, enduring the pain.

Then he'd heard the continuous sounds of bodies hitting the water below. Once the noise finally stopped and he couldn't hold out any longer, he'd climbed back inside.

Hawk walked over to the window the man had described and looked outside.

Sure enough, there was a small ledge that could support someone. And the wall was stained with dried blood.

Hawk reached out, rubbed his fingers over the dried blood, then brought them to his nose and sniffed.

Yeah.

Definitely matched the man's scent.

Hawk dismissed his suspicions, turned back to the man, and asked, "What's your name?"

"Oz. Oz Gran. Level-three biologist with Osborn Industries."

"Oz."

Hawk ignored the second half of the man's introduction and looked at him. "Do you know who they were?"

Oz shook his head blankly. The motion seemed to aggravate his infected ear, making him wince.

"What about Peter and Felicia?"

"Parker and Miss Hardy weren't here that night. The plan was to deliver supplies to that demon island the next day, but then..."

"Wait. Demon island?"

Oz gave a bitter smile. "It's called Skull Island. From the air, it looks like a giant skull. That's why we call it Demon Island or Skull Island."

Skull Island?

That name...

Why did it sound so familiar?

Hawk felt something stir.

His Sixth Sense flared. It seemed the feeling he'd had when leaving—that this trip would yield something—was coming from the Skull Island Oz had just mentioned.

No.

Not "seemed."

It definitely was.

Hawk felt the pull of his Sixth Sense and thought to himself. He looked up at Oz, his expression serious.

"Peter and Felicia are on this Skull Island?"

"After we found a safe route to Skull Island about a month ago, Mr. Parker and Miss Felicia went to the island."

"..."

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

"A month ago?"

"Yes."

The one-eared man named Oz explained, "The demon... Skull Island is surrounded by a massive, violent storm system. If you don't know the route, the moment you enter, the storm will tear you apart."

He paused.

Oz sucked in a sharp breath, trying to ease the pain in his ear, then continued looking at Hawk. "Miss Hardy and Mr. Parker suspected that if the Parkers didn't die in an accident over a decade ago, they should be on that Skull Island."

Hawk raised an eyebrow.

"Richard Parker and Mary Parker?"

"Yes."

"So it was just Peter and Felicia who went up there?"

"There was also a squad of eight soldiers. Because of the time window, according to the plan, those of us on the outside were supposed to deliver a month's worth of supplies that day."

"The day after we were attacked."

"But then..."

"Our people were all killed. Even the modified supply helicopter they were going to use was stolen."

"Fortunately, they didn't touch the supplies. That's the only reason I'm still alive."

"Otherwise..."

Oz shook his head with a bitter sigh.

Then he grimaced, instinctively trying to cover his painful ear. The moment his hand touched it, his face twisted and he let out a strangled yelp.

It looked genuinely excruciating.

Didn't seem fake.

Hawk thought to himself, waiting for Oz to stop gasping in pain and calm down before asking, "Where's Skull Island? Point in the direction."

Oz pulled a cracked compass from his pocket, checked it, then pointed east.

"There. Fly about fifty kilometers in that direction, and you'll see a massive storm system."

"Compasses stop working there."

"This is the closest safe distance. That's exactly why this experimental platform was built here."

"Thanks."

Hawk thanked the one-eared man, then prepared to leave.

Oz froze.

"Wait, when's the backup arriving? My ear—"

"They're here."

"Where??"

Oz rushed to the window excitedly, looking out at the vast ocean that had already fallen dark. Then he turned around, staring at Hawk in confusion.

But, Hawk was gone.

"What the—"

"Where'd he go?"

Oz stared at the empty doorway. A chill shot up his spine straight to the top of his skull, and he couldn't help but shiver.

...

Not long after.

Hawk had already reached the massive storm system Oz had mentioned. Without hesitation, he dove straight into it.

The next moment, the sky changed color.

RUMBLE!

Inside the massive storm system, enormous bolts of lightning in every color imaginable continuously struck down, illuminating the churning black clouds around them.

Within the storm clouds were countless massive whirlpools. They rotated violently, and even lightning that got caught in them was instantly torn apart.

Hawk flew through it at breakneck speed.

Lightning of various colors and types constantly flashed around him. With a burst of red light, a barrel-thick red bolt of lightning came crashing straight toward Hawk.

Just as the lightning was about to make contact, Hawk's figure flickered, and he'd already left it behind.

He'd originally wanted to test whether his body could tank a lightning strike.

But at that moment, he suddenly remembered the time on Mars when Thor had gone all out and summoned his thunder. The sensation of countless bolts of lightning hitting his body had been... unforgettable. The thought was enough to make him instantly abandon any idea of sampling this red lightning.

After ditching his masochistic impulse, Hawk's speed increased once more. Before long, he burst through the thick storm system.

The next second, It was like entering another world.

"Whoa."

Having broken through the pitch-black storm system behind him, Hawk floated quietly in the air, staring at the scene before him. He couldn't help but let out an exclamation of wonder.

Before his eyes—

The sky was blue. Brilliantly, impossibly blue.

The clouds were white. Pure, snow-white.

And the seawater below was black. The kind of black where you couldn't see the bottom.

Clear water meant shallow depths. Green water meant deep. Black water meant the abyss.

But...

"That's not right."

"When I came in, it was already dark outside."

"Here..."

"The time's messed up?"

Hawk looked up at the azure sky, recalling the scene when he'd entered—how it had already been night outside. He immediately ruled out the incorrect answer that he'd spent an entire night flying through the storm clouds.

At most, it had taken him less than three minutes to pass through the storm layer.

And even then, two of those minutes had been spent debating whether or not to taste those colorful lightning bolts.

But now, the sky outside was dark, while the sky here was bright daylight. That could only mean one thing.

The time here had been scrambled by the thick, massive storm system surrounding it—which looked an awful lot like a giant donut.

As Hawk thought about it, his eyes easily locked onto the Skull Island Oz had mentioned.

Actually, he didn't need to search for it at all.

Because in this vast, calm sea, there was only one island. And just like Oz had described, from above, the entire island really did look like a massive skull.

It reminded Hawk of a strange place that existed in the Marvel Universe.

Knowhere.

Knowhere was supposedly formed from the severed head of an ancient Celestial. And time flowed differently inside Knowhere compared to the outside world.

Was this place also created from a Celestial's skull?

Hawk wondered, staring at the massive island in the distance that looked exactly like a giant skull.

Most of the island was covered in dense vegetation. The trees were enormous, vines tangled everywhere.

At the center of the island, there appeared to be steep mountain peaks and deep valleys.

The island was dotted with mountain ranges, with multiple waterfalls cascading down from the cliffs.

However, Looking at it this way, there didn't seem to be any signs of life on the island.

Hawk thought to himself, adjusting his position and flying toward Skull Island.

But just as he was about to reach the island's coastline, suddenly, a crushing pressure slammed into him.

In an instant—

He felt his energy being forcibly suppressed.

"Damn it!"

"What the hell??"

Feeling like he was about to crash, Hawk quickly retreated, pulling back from the coastline. Once his energy stabilized, he couldn't help but curse under his breath. He stared at the island before him with a mix of surprise and suspicion. From the outside, it looked completely ordinary—just a little scary in appearance.

But he was absolutely certain the sensation he'd just felt wasn't an illusion.

That feeling was all too familiar.

Back when he'd been on the African continent and had his first encounter with Mephisto—even though Mephisto hadn't shown up in person, just projected through Demon Hulk's body to talk to him—the terrible sense of dread he'd felt from Mephisto was almost identical to what he'd just experienced.

It was the invisible dominance of a superior being over an inferior one.

"So..."

"Is this Skull Island really a Celestial's skull?"

Hawk's thoughts churned as he stood outside Skull Island, looking at the place that had seemed so ordinary moments ago but now appeared impossibly mysterious.

Honestly, he wasn't sure he wanted to go in anymore.

A wise man doesn't stand beneath a crumbling wall.

He couldn't get a read on this bizarre Skull Island. What if there was real danger inside? Sure, he wouldn't die—he'd just be reborn—but the process of being reborn sucked.

Even the Phoenix itself, despite everyone knowing that rebirth made you stronger afterward, never deliberately killed itself before a fight.

Just then, A sudden roar echoed out.

The next second—

Hawk, who had been floating calmly outside Skull Island, saw movement below in the dense canopy. A massive tree seemed to be ripped out by its roots, then came hurtling toward him like a meteor.

"Well, well."

"Looks like there's a tough guy down there after all."

Hawk thought to himself, then swung his right fist.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

With a supersonic punch, his fist shot forward. But the moment it entered Skull Island's range, its speed dropped to a regular sonic punch. Still, even at that reduced speed, it shattered the incoming tree into endless splinters.

In an instant, countless wooden fragments rained down like a storm, painting the forest below a dusty yellow.

At the same time—

Hawk finally saw what had thrown the massive tree at him.

Except when he looked down at the creature standing upright in the jungle—now fully exposed to his view—his expression froze.

A creature roughly thirty to thirty-two meters tall. Massive enough to make humans feel suffocated. With incredibly developed, terrifying shoulder and back muscles. Its entire body covered in rough, dark fur. It looked like a gorilla, but it walked upright in a posture far closer to humans.

This terrifying creature now stood before Hawk.

"This is..."

Hawk stared at the enormous, terrifying gorilla-like creature. His expression visibly shifted from initial curiosity to shock, then to his current state of utter confusion. "King Kong?"

Jesus...

How the hell was there a King Kong here?

How did King Kong end up in the Marvel Universe?

Wait.

Come to think of it, wasn't there a special edition comic that depicted the Avengers fighting King Kong?

(There really is such a comic. There's even one with the Avengers vs. Transformers.)

Hawk thought to himself, then looked at the Kong standing before him and instinctively sucked in a sharp breath.

The next second—

Standing in the dense jungle on the island, Kong—with eyes that radiated both intelligence and a sense of responsibility—looked at Hawk, who was hovering outside his home and had just released that terrifying aura. Kong opened his massive arms and let out a furious roar at the enemy who dared invade his domain.

"ROAAAAR!"

"GET OUT! LEAVE MY HOME!"

"..."