r18novel Chapter 20 The Avengers
Chapter 20 The Avengers
Chapter 20 The Avengers
Peter Parker had a very strange dream.
No, it was less a dream and more an absurd fantasy—he dreamt that the spider that had bitten him didn't die after he swatted it, but instead crawled towards the necks of more people. One after another, Peter Parker was bitten, their faces flashing in the darkness: Toby's Spider-Man, the Amazing Spider-Man, the MCU's Tom Holland Spider-Man… countless Spider-Man images intertwined in his mind. It seemed as if a giant web was spreading out from himself, with a different Spider-Man in each mesh.
Spider-Man…
A distant and indistinct voice was calling to him.
"You must find—"
What did you find?
"Another spider."
It was a gentle female voice, unfamiliar yet strangely familiar, seemingly close yet shrouded in a thick fog. Peter wanted to ask what "another spider" meant—were there other spiders in this universe? Or was it a Spider-Man from a parallel universe? But he found he didn't even have the strength to lift his eyelids, and could only struggle to break free from the darkness.
He let out a meaningless groan and barely opened his eyes. A young woman with short brown hair was just coming in with a plate of fruit. When she saw that Peter was awake, she smiled kindly and warmly and looked at him with concern.
Is this the person who called out to me just now? They seem somewhat familiar?
"Are you alright?" she asked softly. "Don't worry, you need to rest now."
"I... am horrified..."
Memories flooded back—the broken viaduct, the roar of the subway, my own body on the verge of collapse…
Where is Hermann? Is the battle over? Where is this?
Peter sprang from the bed, instinctively flipping himself onto the ceiling and hanging upside down, surveying his surroundings. Only then did he notice he was still wearing his tattered Spider-Man suit, the torn hood neatly folded and placed beside his pillow. Outside the window, the Manhattan skyline gleamed in the sunlight, and in the distance, he could vaguely discern the Empire State Building, a towering structure, its approximate location barely discernible.
But from this angle, there is only one building that is not in sight.
Peter finally realized why the other person looked so familiar. His voice involuntarily rose.
"You are...you are Ms. Janet van Dyne? Where am I? Oh my god, am I in Avengers Tower? Is this really me?"
Janet, or rather "Little Hornet," was amused by Peter's exaggerated reaction: "Relax, kid, this is Avengers Tower, of course. Can you come down from the ceiling first? Talking like this isn't good for my neck."
"Oh, uh, of course, sorry."
Peter then realized his lapse in composure and quickly rolled to his feet, but his legs gave way and he nearly collapsed to his knees. Every muscle in his body protested, and every bone felt as if it had been crushed and then barely pieced back together.
Janet picked up the transparent touch panel beside the bed and glanced at the diagnostic report on it: "Jarvis said you have severe tendon rupture, massive internal bleeding caused by ruptured capillaries, extensive alveolar rupture, and dozens of bone fractures... Normally, you should be in the ICU and not worry about anything superhero-related. But your condition is better than any of us expected."
The mutated spider granted Peter superhuman healing abilities, not as exaggerated as Wolverine's, but enough for him to recover from his fractures in two or three days. Therefore, he was not worried about his body, but more concerned about something else.
"Where's Herman? That 'Thriller'? Did the Avengers catch him?"
Janet's expression froze for a fleeting moment.
"Let someone else tell you about this," she sighed. "I'm just a manager, in charge of the Avengers' social affairs, press conferences, or apologies, but not battle briefings."
Peter grabbed the hood and struggled to his feet. His intuition told him that things weren't that simple; the Avengers hadn't caught Herman.
"Excuse me, but may I... take a look around?"
Inside the Avengers Tower conference room, a holographic projection was playing a loop of Spider-Man's thrilling battle scenes.
Tony Stark propped his feet up on the conference table, leaned back in his chair, and spoke as casually as if he were commentating on a football match: "Good news one: Hermann Schultz is a self-deprecating and arrogant idiot who will never share his 'masterpiece' with anyone—so there's only that one unstable vibration suit in the world." He snapped his fingers. "In his own words: 'The horror is left outside.'"
"Good news number two," Tony continued, "He's improved his weapon system, so the equipment is going out of control slower than expected. We still have time to catch this 'Yellow Mario'."
As always, Tony Stark didn't hold back in giving people nicknames.
Tony bluntly gave the guy who was jumping around and crawling through the sewers a nickname, but Steve Rogers didn't laugh. His brow was furrowed, his gaze fixed on the horrifying battle projected on the screen. The problem wasn't Herman's arrogance, but that he was completely unaware of how dangerous his weapon was—a core overload explosion could destroy everything within a one-kilometer radius, and this was New York, one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
Just then, the conference room door slid open.
All eyes turned to the doorway—Janet was helping a staggering Peter in. Tony immediately whistled and spread his arms wide dramatically: "Great! Our Sleeping Beauty is finally awake! How was it, kid? How was your first time risking your life against a supervillain?"
"Not good, Mr. Stark. I've never felt so tired in my life."
"Considering you practically held up the entire overpass, I don't think 'tired' even begins to describe your current state," Bruce Banner smiled gently, completely unrecognizable as the "Hulk." As for Ant-Man, Hank Pym, he was nowhere to be seen for some reason.
"Um, where's Mr. Hank? Miss Janet told me he saved me, and I wanted to thank him."
"Don't bother, that guy doesn't go anywhere but the lab. Just have Hornet relay the message." Tony waved his hand, shoving Peter into the chair next to him. "Listen, kid, you just pulled off a heroic feat, saving countless lives. How does it feel now?"
Do I have one?
Tony Stark was baffled by the kid's question: "Why do you ask that?"
"Um... I completely lost consciousness at the end, and I don't know if I managed to save those people, so... did I succeed?"
The room suddenly fell silent.
"Yes, you did it." Banner nodded. "You held out for about twenty more seconds. In fact, everyone had already evacuated and shouted to you that they were safe, but you just couldn't hear them at the time."
Peter's shoulders finally relaxed.
"That's great, no one got hurt. If it were me..."
"Alright, kid, you've done enough!" Tony interrupted his self-reproach, patted him hard on the back, and said in a deliberately lighthearted tone, "Stopping the supervillain, getting beaten up, saving people—you've completed a standard superhero routine. Now, your task is to go home, rest, do your homework, and don't worry your family. Leave the rest to us."
What does it mean to leave the rest to us?
Peter sensed something was amiss.
"So Herman is still outside?"
"Alright, Tony, let me talk to the kid."
The captain sighed, seized control, and continued, "Hank's analysis shows that Herman Schultz's device has an extremely unstable energy supply and a risk of explosion. Each use increases the likelihood of a catastrophic explosion. Therefore, the Avengers have decided to take full control of the case. We hope Spider-Man can withdraw from the remaining operations."
"But..." Peter opened his mouth as if to say something, "I understand, Captain. But if I encounter what Herman is doing, can I stop him?"
"Of course you can, kid. You can do that until the Avengers take over the fight." The captain didn't completely rule out Spider-Man's involvement in the operation against Thriller, but drew a line: "But you need to realize that the upcoming battle with Thriller will be extremely dangerous. Every fight could trigger his weapons to explode, so be careful."
"Okay. I should go now. My aunt and uncle will worry if I go back too late."
"Let Banner or Janet give you a ride."
After seeing Peter Parker off, who was clearly disappointed, Tony asked the captain the question he had been wanting to ask the most.
"So, Captain, what do you think of this kid?"
Steve Rogers stared at the ceiling for a long time before letting out a long sigh.
"He's a good kid," Steve finally said softly. "He has a pure sense of justice and empathy...so pure it's heartbreaking. Did you notice what he was focused on? He wasn't even concerned about how many people he saved, but rather how much he would blame himself if he hadn't saved them."
"Isn't this good?"
"I've seen soldiers like that on the battlefield. They blame themselves for their comrades' sacrifices, thinking that if they had done better, if they had just thrown themselves forward, perhaps someone else would have died instead."
Steve Rogers scrutinizes the Spider-Man constantly battling in the projection: "Soldiers like these, striving to be among the first to fall on the battlefield, are walking a path of self-destruction."
(End of this chapter)