Peter Parker had a very strange dream.
No, rather than a dream, it was an absurd fantasy—he dreamt that the spider that bit him didn't die after he swatted it away. Instead, it crawled onto the necks of more people. One Peter Parker after another was bitten, their faces flickering in the darkness: Toby-Spider, Amazing-Spider, MCU Holland-Spider... countless shadows of Spider-Man intertwined in his mind. It was as if a giant web had spread out from him, with a different Spider-Man in each mesh.
"Spider-Man..."
A distant, blurry voice called to him.
"You must find—"
Find what?
"The other spider."
It was a gentle female voice, unfamiliar yet somehow familiar, as if close by, yet separated by a thick mist. Peter wanted to ask what "the other 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, only struggling to break free from the darkness.
He let out a meaningless groan, then barely opened his eyes. A young woman with short brown hair had just pushed the door open, carrying a plate of fruit. Seeing Peter awake, her smile was kind and warm, and she looked at him with concern.
Was this the person who called him earlier? She looks somewhat familiar?
"Are you alright?" she asked softly. "Don't worry, you need to rest now."
"I... Shocker..."
Memories rushed back—the broken elevated bridge, the roar of the subway, his own body on the verge of collapse...
Where was Herman? Was the battle over? Where was he?
Peter suddenly sprang from the bed, instinctively scrambling onto the ceiling, hanging upside down and surveying his surroundings cautiously. Only then did he notice he was still wearing his damaged Spider-Man suit, and his torn mask was neatly folded by the pillow. Outside the window, the Manhattan skyline gleamed in the sunlight. In the distance, he could vaguely make out the slightly shorter Empire State Building, giving him a rough sense of direction.
But from this angle, only one building was out of sight.
Peter finally realized why the woman looked so familiar. His voice involuntarily rose.
"You're, you're Ms. Janet Van Dyne? Where am I? Oh my god, am I in Avengers Tower? Is this real?"
Janet, or "Wasp," was amused by Peter's exaggerated reaction: "Relax, kid. Of course, this is Avengers Tower. Can you come down from the ceiling first? Talking like this isn't great for my neck."
"Oh, uh, of course, sorry."
Peter then realized his impropriety and quickly flipped to the ground, only for his legs to give out, almost sending him to his knees. Every muscle in his body protested, each bone feeling as if it had been crushed and then barely pieced back together.
Janet picked up a transparent pad from the bedside table, scanning the diagnostic report on it: "J.A.R.V.I.S. says you have severe tendon tears, widespread internal bleeding from ruptured capillaries, extensive alveolar damage, and dozens of bone fractures... Normally, you should be in the ICU, completely away from anything superhero-related. But you're recovering better than any of us expected."
The mutated spider had given Peter superhuman healing abilities, not as exaggerated as Wolverine's, but enough to allow him to make a preliminary recovery from bone fractures after two or three days of sleep. Therefore, he wasn't worried about his body; he was more concerned about something else.
"Where's Herman? That 'Shocker'? Did the Avengers catch him?"
Janet's expression subtly froze for a moment.
"About that... I'll let the others tell you," she sighed softly. "I'm just a manager, responsible for the Avengers' social affairs, press conferences, or apologies, but not battle briefings."
Peter grabbed his mask, forcing himself to stand. His intuition told him that things weren't that simple, and the Avengers hadn't caught Herman.
"Sorry, but can I... look around?"
At this moment, inside the Avengers Tower conference room, a holographic projection continuously replayed the battle between Spider-Man and Shocker.
Tony Stark had his feet propped on the conference table, leaning back in his chair, his tone as casual as if he were commenting on a sports game: "Good news one: Herman Schultz is an insecure and arrogant idiot who would never share his 'masterpiece' with anyone—so there's only one set of unstable vibration armor in the world." He snapped his fingers. "In his own words: 'Shocker is out there.'"
"Good news two," Tony continued, "he improved his weapon system, so the equipment is taking longer than expected to lose control. We still have time to catch this 'Yellow Mario.'"
As always, Tony Stark unceremoniously gave people nicknames.
Tony unceremoniously nicknamed the guy who bounced around and went into the sewers, but Steve Rogers didn't smile. His brow was furrowed, his gaze fixed on Shocker fighting in the projection. The problem wasn't Herman's arrogance, but that he didn't realize how dangerous his weapon was—once the core overloaded and exploded, it 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.
Everyone's gaze turned to the doorway—Janet was accompanying a still-stumbling Peter. Tony immediately whistled, spreading his arms exaggeratedly: "Fantastic! Our Sleeping Beauty is finally awake! How was it, kid? First time playing for keeps with a supervillain?"
"Not great, Mr. Stark. I don't think I've ever been this tired in my life."
"Considering you almost held up an entire section of an elevated bridge, I don't think 'tired' quite describes your current state," Bruce Banner said with a gentle smile, completely unrecognizably the "Hulk." As for Ant-Man Hank Pym, he was, for some reason, not present.
"Uh, where's Mr. Hank? Ms. Janet told me he saved me, and I wanted to thank him."
"Don't bother, that guy never leaves the lab. Just let Wasp relay the message." Tony waved his hand, pulling Peter into a chair beside him. "Listen, kid, you just pulled off a heroic feat, saving countless lives. Now, how do you feel?"
"Did I?"
Tony Stark was puzzled by the kid's rhetorical question: "Why do you ask?"
"Uh... I completely lost consciousness at the end. I don't know if I saved those people, so... did I do it?"
The room suddenly fell silent.
"Yes, you did," Banner nodded. "You held on for about twenty more seconds. Everyone had actually evacuated by then and were shouting that they were safe, you just couldn't hear them."
Peter's shoulders finally relaxed.
"That's great. No one got hurt. If I had..."
"Alright, kid, you did good enough!" Tony interrupted his self-reproach, patting his back firmly, and deliberately using a cheerful tone, "Stopping a supervillain, taking a beating, saving people—you completed a standard superhero procedure. Now, your mission is to go home, rest, do your homework, don't let your family worry, and leave the rest to us."
What did he mean, "leave the rest to us"?
Peter sensed an ominous undertone.
"So Herman is still out there?"
"Alright, Tony, let me talk to the kid."
The Captain sighed, taking over the conversation: "Hank analyzed Herman Schultz's equipment, and its energy supply is extremely unstable, with a risk of explosion. Every time it's used, the chance of a catastrophic explosion increases. Therefore, the Avengers have decided to take over this case completely. We hope Spider-Man can withdraw from the upcoming actions."
"But..." Peter opened his mouth to say something, then simply said, "I understand, Captain. But if I encounter Herman doing something, can I stop him?"
"Of course, kid. You can do so until the Avengers take over the fight." The Captain didn't completely rule out Spider-Man's involvement in actions against Shocker; he merely drew a line: "But you need to realize that the upcoming battle with Shocker will be incredibly dangerous. Every fight has the potential to trigger his weapon's explosion. Pay attention to your own safety."
"Okay. I, I should go. My aunt and uncle will worry if I'm back too late."
"Let Banner or Janet escort you."
After seeing off the clearly dejected Peter Parker, Tony asked the Captain the question he most wanted to ask.
"So, Captain, what do you think of that kid now?"
Steve Rogers stared at the ceiling for a long time, then let 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 focused on? He wasn't even concerned with how many people he saved, but how guilty he would feel if he hadn't saved them."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"I've seen soldiers like that on the battlefield. They attribute their comrades' sacrifices to themselves, thinking that if they had just done a little better, if they had just pushed themselves harder, someone else wouldn't have died."
Steve Rogers scrutinized the constantly fighting Spider-Man in the projection: "Soldiers like that, they strive to be among the first to sacrifice themselves on the battlefield. They're on a path of self-destruction."<
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