Ch.103 Ultimate Spider-Man

"It's impossible, absolutely impossible! How are you still alive?"

At the sight of Charlie appearing, Aleksei looked as if he had seen a ghost, his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

In the next moment, he warily glanced toward Tony, hurriedly covering his mouth.

"You can't be that guy; you're a different Spider-Man. That guy didn't have webs like yours."

Hearing this, Charlie stood up, his inverted triangle-shaped eyes glowing faintly blue.

"So you've forgotten our battle camaraderie so quickly, haven't you?"

"What?"

That familiar voice drove Aleksei crazy.

"No! It's really you! How could it be? No, I must be hallucinating! It's a side effect of the experiment. I need to overcome it. I have to crush you!"

Boom!!

Immediately, Rhino slammed his fists together, causing the air to crack with sound. The shockwave rippled, and the ground shook. Aleksei's figure charged toward Charlie.

"Die!!"

The massive fist rushed forward, breaking the air, while Charlie dropped low, causing the ground beneath him to shatter instantly, throwing his own punch in return.

Boom!!

The instant their fists collided, a tremendous explosion resounded, with debris flying up from the ground around them. Invisible shockwaves carried rubble across the battlefield, extinguishing the flames in the area with the gust of wind that followed.

Whoosh~

The fierce wind howled. Carter raised her shield to block the debris.

Clang clang. Hearing the sharp clinking of debris against her shield, Carter was astonished.

"Did he get stronger after winning the resurrection match?"

Nearby, Natasha lay flat on the ground, avoiding the debris, her face filled with concern.

"Nick, I can confirm—this is the real Spider-Man. No one else could have such overwhelming power."

"I saw it."

In the command center, Nick Fury stared at the video feed intently, his one eye unblinking, lost in thought.

Behind him, Dr. Banner couldn't help but sigh.

"Monsters, two monsters. Only monsters could possess such terrifying strength."

"Dr. Banner, be careful during your experiments, or you'll end up a monster too," Agent Hill said, glaring at him, disliking anyone referring to Spider-Man as a "monster."

Straightforward as always, Banner didn't pick up on her implication and gave a silly smile.

"Thank you for the reminder, Agent Hill. But I'm confident; I won't fail."

Hill crossed her arms, staring coldly.

"Congratulations in advance then."

"Thank you."

...

Meanwhile, on the battlefield.

Centered around Charlie and Aleksei, the ground around them had sunk slightly.

The raw, brute power between them had caused this, and then Aleksei's fist crackled—the dark gray polymer covering his fist split apart, large chunks breaking off.

"No! My hand, ahh!!"

The polymer on his fist shattered, and Aleksei screamed in pain, staring at his hand in disbelief.

"How could this be? I'm so much stronger now! How can you still—"

"You foolish Minotaur—who taught you to speak nonsense in the middle of a fight?"

Charlie cut him off, advancing even further, his fist driving forward as he dodged Aleksei's punch and struck him hard in the abdomen.

Crack crack~

Boom!!

The polymer around Aleksei's abdomen exploded, fragments flying in every direction. His massive figure stumbled backward, collapsing heavily onto the ground, his abdomen spasming in pain, making him vomit.

"Ugh... how could this happen... damn it..."

"Spider-Man," Charlie added the last words for him, twisting his body and delivering a flying kick. His foot, glowing with a metallic sheen, aimed straight for Aleksei's face.

Bang~

"Argh!"

Bang, bang, bang!!

In an instant, a barrage of punches landed on Aleksei's body, pieces of the polymer flying off. He was entirely unable to counter Charlie's terrifying strength and ferocious attacks.

Before Charlie, Aleksei's supposed super-strength and nearly invulnerable body had no advantage whatsoever.

Instead, his large size dragged down his speed and reaction time, making him only able to take the hits, leading to a miserable sight.

"No! Stop! I surrender! I give up!"

"But I haven't had enough fun."

"Damn it, I surrender!"

"I can't hear you; I think I'll just put some dust in your eyes!"

"No!!"

Amid Aleksei's pitiful screams, the massive Rhino cowered, running away from the tiny insect-like Charlie, leaving behind a trail of polymer fragments, his large body shrinking by the second.

Seeing this, Harry remained silent.

"Is this really Spider-Man?"

Something felt off.

Tony pushed aside the car on top of him, inspecting the damage to his suit, wondering the same thing.

They didn't know that Charlie, after spending several days learning fighting techniques from Thanos during the resurrection match, had learned how to harness the immense power within his body.

Though not at the level of a master martial artist, his impressive physical attributes amplified the effects.

Thanos, with years of experience and skill, was among the best fighters in the cosmos.

Having a master like him was naturally invaluable.

Aleksei, on the other hand, had comparable strength to Charlie, but had no idea how to wield it properly, using his power in a way even cruder than Charlie had previously.

Facing off against Charlie now, he was doomed to be overwhelmed by sheer force.

"Alright, warm-up's over. Time to finish this."

At that, Charlie stopped chasing. A shining web tightened instantly in his hand.

Creak, creak, creak~

In a flash, Aleksei's body was covered by a web trap, the polymer being cut away by the webbing.

Seeing his opponent restrained, Charlie shot a web into the night sky.

Whoosh!

The web sailed into the air, and Charlie launched himself like a cannonball into the sky.

Whoosh~~

In the fierce wind, Charlie hung momentarily high above before diving down again.

His glider wings unfolded, and the red-and-blue figure, spinning rapidly, transformed into a black tornado, diving straight down with four spider-arms converging into a drill.

"Friendly Neighborhood Venom Drill!!"

Boom!!

The ground shattered upon impact, with fragments flying tens of meters high. Aleksei's body was swallowed by the black tornado.

"Ah, no..."

The pitiful screams soon came to an abrupt halt, Aleksei's huge form lying lifeless, eyes losing their light under the shattered remains of the polymer.

Having dealt with Rhino, Charlie flipped back down, a notification appearing in front of his eyes.

[You played the friendly neighborhood and saved the Avengers. +5 restart tokens.]

"Seriously, as the Spider-Man version updates, the villains just get less and less valuable," Charlie muttered, shaking his head.

He then turned to look at Carter and the others.

"Say 'thank you.'"

Everyone: "?????"

"Uh, thank you."

Carter came back to her senses, with Nick Fury's voice coming through the earpiece.

"With someone this powerful guarding it, there must be something important in that factory."

"I understand," Carter said, leading her team toward the factory.

As she passed by Charlie, she paused.

"Come with me. Your friends were also taken."

"Friends?" Charlie looked at Harry. "No, I don't have any!"

Carter's expression twisted slightly. "Your two girlfriends."

"Don't say nonsense; I'm still a kid. Besides, I prefer older women."

Despite his words, Charlie obediently followed Carter toward the factory.

"Coulson, stay here and watch them."

"Understood."

Coulson directed the scene, while Harry, standing on his glider, followed them inside.

On the other side, Tony thought for a moment and decided to follow along.

Since he was already here, he might as well.

If he returned early, Pepper would drag him into doing yoga.

That was tough.

"You okay?" Natasha asked, approaching Tony.

"Of course. I could last all day."

Tony then fell silent, sensing something odd about what he had said.

Seeing he was fine, Natasha tapped her earpiece.

"No need for an ambulance."

With that, she quickly caught up with Carter and the others.

"Find anything?" she asked.

Carter scanned the empty factory, frowning.

"Not yet."

"But I have."

Natasha noticed something strange, moving into a corner and quickly uncovering a hidden underground passage.

Seeing this, Charlie sidled up to Carter.

"See? That's professionalism."

Carter remained expressionless. "I'm in charge. I don't need to know these things," she said, leading the team down the passage.

Charlie shrugged. "She's getting more and more irritating."

Before long, they descended into the passage, finding a hidden underground base.

The dim, spacious underground bunker was hot and stifling. Hundreds of iron cages hung from the ceiling, holding all the missing, fake Spider-Men.

In the center, a massive, reactor-like red-and-blue machine turned, glowing softly. Its numerous tubes connected to the cages, seemingly extracting something from the Spider-Men's bodies.

Charlie and the others were met with shouts of surprise from the captured Spider-Men.

"Look, someone's here."

"They're not those people."

"Great, we're saved."

"Please, save us!"

"We're saved."

"Look, it's Spider-Man! He's wearing the metal suit!"

Everyone was overjoyed, but Charlie frowned deeply.

He spotted two familiar figures among the cages.

"Gwen, it's Spider-Man—he's here," Mary Jane called weakly, but Gwen, who had already passed out, couldn't hear her.

She was closest to the red-and-blue machine, her strength drained the most, and had fallen unconscious a day earlier.

Seeing this, Charlie didn't act recklessly.

His spider-sense kept ringing, making him think it wasn't that simple.

Carter watched the dim corners warily, signaling agents to light the area.

Buzz~

Before they could act, the underground bunker suddenly lit up, a figure emerging atop a metal platform protruding from the stone wall.

"Hahaha, congratulations on finding this place. Now, you may say your last words."

On the platform above, a familiar figure spoke slowly.

Seeing the figure, Charlie's eyes narrowed, and Carter frowned.

"It's Bucky," she said.

Charlie nodded. "I see that."

He seemed thoughtful, then spoke. "Mind telling us what's going on?" he asked, looking at Bucky.

Bucky's lips curled into a cruel smile.

"Since you're all going to die, I might as well answer your final question in this life."

Bucky raised his hand, with an armed man behind him handing over Steve's portrait.

"Where there's a clone Captain, there must be a clone Bucky."

Clone Bucky clutched Steve's portrait, glaring at Charlie with hatred.

"Since the moment I was created, I knew I only had one friend.

Either we'd die together or live together.

Through countless lonely, cold nights, two pitiful clones kept each other warm—that's how we endured all these years.

No one knows what we went through—facing the world's most brutal training, the scariest experiments.

Among countless failed experiments, we were the only ones who survived.

We were close to succeeding. We were finally going to be free.

But because of you, Spider-Man, you crushed all our hopes.

You killed Clone Steve. You killed my only friend. I have nothing left to lose.

So, Spider-Man, you must die!"

Bucky screamed, his voice cracking, and Charlie shrugged.

"Sorry, you should know—I can't die."

"I know, of course."

Bucky sneered.

"That's why this terrifying machine was built for you.

No, actually—for all Spider-Men, it's a terrifying machine.

It can extract the mutated cells from your bodies, and in the end, create a new, Ultimate Spider-Man!"

"Ultimate Spider-Man?" Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Sounds interesting."

Beside him, Natasha's face was stern. "I think there's more to it."

Carter nodded. "We need to figure out how to save these Spider-Men."

Charlie scratched his chin. "It's tricky. I'm guessing he's planning on blowing us all up."

"Blow up?"

Everyone was confused.

Charlie explained, "He just said he had nothing left to lose. Anyone who says that wants to go all-in."

Carter's eyes widened.

"I watched a lot of movies these past few days, and that's exactly how it is."

"Really? What kind of movies do you like?" Charlie asked curiously.

Carter thought for a moment.

"Romance, action, and—"

"What, you watch them separately? That's a shame."

Natasha's face darkened. "Agent Carter, now's not the time to discuss movies."

Carter snapped out of it.

"Sorry."

Meanwhile, the red-and-blue machine spun faster, a strong wind swirling through the bunker.

Buzz~~

The machine made a loud, grating noise as it ran, while Bucky waved his hand, numerous cyborgs emerging from the corners to block the exit.

"Now you only have two choices—kill us and escape, while watching those fakes be drained dry.

Or risk everything to save them. The moment any tube is pulled out, the whole machine will explode, and we'll all die here."

Hearing this, everyone looked grim.

But Charlie smiled.

"I think there's a third option."