Chapter 128: Bruce's Plan

"Let's go—those guys are probably going to send more troops."

Two of the Spider-Men, who had stopped the security forces, hurried back to rejoin the group.

Once those people realize what's happened here, everything they want to do will become much harder.

The five Spider-Men vanished through the main entrance, climbing into the elevator shaft and heading upward.

Their main priority now was to shake off the security forces pursuing them.

"What did you guys do? Why has the entire search that was aimed at me shifted to you now?"

Jessica stared at the data displayed on a terminal she'd snatched from an unlucky guard, visibly confused.

By the original plan, these two shouldn't have been targeted by the guards at all.

"Sometimes, plans just can't keep up with reality," Ben Reilly said helplessly. "Ultimate Spider-Man showed up here with two other Spideys and knocked over a whole group of guards."

"So, can you hijack the security system and help us escape?"

"I only have this terminal I stole from one of Janix's guards. I can tell you roughly where they're gathering, but I don't know your location," Jessica answered honestly, though it wasn't all bad. "But if I don't know where you are, that means they don't either."

"But they've realized I'm in the surveillance system now and are trying to kick me out—I can't help you much."

Jessica could see the data on her terminal gradually disappearing. The enemy had caught on to her presence and was limiting the information she could access.

"No worries, we can handle it ourselves," Ultimate Spider-Man said with complete confidence.

"So, what's our plan then?"

"We'll call their cloning facility the Central Shaft for now. This shaft has entrances on nearly every floor. That means it's likely we'll run into a poor sap on this level who can help us open the door to the cloning factory," Ultimate Spider-Man said, eyeing the scientists who were constantly staring down at the data in their hands.

These guys never looked up.

It didn't take long before one unlucky scientist walked right up to the Central Shaft's door.

But he lingered there, fumbling around with who-knows-what, which started to get on Kaine Parker's nerves.

Scarlet Spider appeared upside down in front of the poor guy.

"Enter the code and open the door, or I'll use your head to smash it open."

With his menacing spider suit, the threat clearly rattled the scientist, but he didn't call for help.

He obediently opened the door to the cloning facility for them.

"P-please… you don't know what you're walking into."

The scientist tried to dissuade them, but obviously, it didn't work.

"Why don't you explain it to me," Scarlet Spider said, completely ignoring the warning.

But once they were inside, they realized that some things truly need to be seen with one's own eyes to be fully felt.

They'd already known the Central Shaft was a massive cloning facility, but they never imagined it stored this much.

"Clones. It's all clones," Scarlet Spider couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Every floor. How many are there?"

"Each floor holds around 3,000 clones," the scientist answered.

"Are these all Janix? Or do they include his siblings too?" Ultimate Spider-Man asked, staring at the staggering number of clones stacked floor after floor.

"They're all here. Each floor holds different individuals," the scientist answered, obediently explaining whatever was asked.

"Then it looks like we'll have to destroy this entire building," Ultimate Spider-Man said, fully aware that if they wanted to put an end to the inheritor family's resurrection efforts, this facility could not be left standing.

"You can't do that—what about this guy and his friends?"

Ben Reilly quickly stopped Ultimate Spider-Man. He knew the guy had little regard for these people and might just plant explosives and blow the entire cloning factory sky-high.

The scientist, sensing which two Spider-Men were the real threats, looked pleadingly at them—mostly at Scarlet Spider and Ultimate Spider-Man.

"Please, don't kill me or my colleagues."

"Then we'll have to take apart the most genius fortress ever built without spilling a drop of blood," Ben Reilly said, looking at the scientist.

Meanwhile, in Janix's central control hub, a man stood before Janix.

"Forgive me, my king. There's a matter that only you can resolve."

Janix sat in his hovering chair like a king on a throne.

He opened his arms and smiled at the scientist he held in high regard.

"Speak, Dr. Warren. What's the issue?"

"There's been a breach. Looks like Spider-Men."

"As sharp as always, Dr. Warren. Do you know why I kept you around?" Janix asked, smiling down at him.

"Because I'm naturally sharp."

"Close, but not quite. I kept you because you used to be the smartest person on this planet," Janix said, watching Warren's childish expression, then waved him off. "If they head straight for the special project, I'll deal with them personally. You may go."

"Bat's little helper, you still there?"

Ultimate Spider-Man patched his comms into the cloned squad's old channel.

Just hearing that made Jessica twitch.

"My boss is doing okay, right?" But deep down, she really wanted to know how Bruce was.

A normal person surrounded by so many superpowered beings—it was hard not to worry.

"That Bat nearly killed Solus, the head of the Inheritor family. Even Captain Universe Spider-Man got wrecked by Solus."

Ultimate Spider-Man still remembered Bruce's blood-red armor, that unnerving speed, and the cloud of bats fluttering behind him.

"Sounds like my boss really is something," Jessica said. She didn't know exactly what happened to Bruce, but hearing he was okay eased her mind a bit.

"So, what did you want from me?"

By now, Ultimate Spider-Man and the others had leapt onto the giant clone tanks.

Every clone inside was in embryonic form—and alive.

Cutting the power would kill them instantly in that state.

"Can you locate the power source for this place?"

Ben Reilly asked Jessica before Ultimate Spider-Man could speak.

"Found it. Main power room is on the east side of the building, but it's hard to access."

Jessica had indeed located the power source on the terminal.

Perhaps to prevent people from getting lost inside Baxter Building, every guard's terminal contained an offline map.

"But they've kicked me out of the system now. I need to go find another communications device. Until then, you'd better stay put."

And with that, Jessica cut off communications. But the Spider-Men had no intention of sitting still.

Ultimate Spider-Man glanced at Scarlet Spider.

"You know what I'm thinking," Scarlet Spider said to him.

Spider-Man didn't reply, but simply nodded—they clearly had an unspoken agreement.

They weren't about to waste any more time.

"You guys plant the explosives—we'll take care of the rest."

With that, Scarlet Spider and Ultimate Spider-Man were already gone.

"Looks like we still need Peter Parker around," Ben Reilly muttered at their disappearing backs, unable to hide a smirk. After all, only Earth-616's "Harry Potter" could keep these two in check.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker and Bruce were discussing their next move.

"We've got Captain Universe Spider-Man here, but I don't think this is the right place for the final battle," Peter said, staring at what used to be Central Park.

From what the other Spider-Men had told him, Captain Universe Spider-Man was nearly drained dry by Solus.

Which proved that even in this universe, Captain Universe might not be enough to suppress Solus.

"You want to take the fight to their universe," Bruce said, already grasping Peter's idea—move the final battle to enemy territory.

"Exactly."

Peter nodded. That was his plan. Right now, they had powerful Spider-allies and more combat strength than ever against the Inheritor family.

"But have you considered that they might be waiting for you to do just that?"

Bruce turned his gaze to the girl named Silk.

Perhaps it was due to everything that had happened before, but Silk now felt a bit disheartened. She sat on a small mound off to the side, watching Spider-Man laugh and joke below, while she could only sit here in quiet loneliness.

She thought about going over to talk to Peter Parker, but then recalled the surge of hormones that always sparked when they got close.

Although she didn't exactly dislike it, expressing those feelings in this situation felt somewhat awkward and inappropriate.

Silk sensed a gaze falling on her. When she turned her head, she saw the Bat standing next to Peter Parker.

Perhaps remembering his earlier attitude towards her, she turned her head away in mild displeasure, unwilling to make eye contact with him again.

"We only know they want the Heir, the Artifact, and the Bride," Bruce said, unfazed by Silk's small gesture. He simply shifted his gaze away from her and turned to look at the doll referred to as the Heir. "But we don't know what they actually plan to do with those three things."

"And judging from how desperate the Inheritors were to get them, it's clear they intend to use them to resolve an urgent crisis."

"Yet we know almost nothing about this crisis they're facing."

Bruce suddenly redirected his attention to Peter Parker.

"You must have recorded the frequency of their universe, right?" Bruce believed Peter would have such a record.

Otherwise, Peter wouldn't have thought of setting the final battlefield on the Inheritors' Earth.

"Of course," Peter Parker replied. He had indeed recorded the frequency of the Inheritors' Earth, but he quickly realized what Bruce was getting at.

"Heh… don't tell me you're thinking what I think you're thinking," Peter said, staring seriously at the Bat in front of him.

But Bruce just glanced at him, then lowered his head and started operating the stabilizing and teleportation wristband he wore.

After analyzing Silk's dimensional-travel wristband, Bruce hadn't figured out everything, but he had grasped enough to redirect his destination to another universe.

"You're just an ordinary man. You could die over there," Peter tried to stop Bruce from carrying out his reckless plan.

"Give it to me," Bruce said calmly. And Peter knew exactly what Bruce was asking for.

Peter sighed—he knew this guy far too well.

After all, this was the real Bat.

Once he made a decision, no one could change it.

"What are you going to do?" Gwen instinctively felt that Bruce was about to do something extremely dangerous.

Bruce didn't answer her question. He focused solely on adjusting his wristband to open a portal to the Inheritors' Earth.

"All I can say is good luck, man," Peter said, watching Bruce as he transmitted the portal frequency to him.

"I'm going too," Gwen suddenly said to Bruce.

Bruce looked at Gwen, then opened his arms and gently hugged her.

The sudden embrace stunned Gwen. Before she could react, a wave of dizziness washed over her, and she felt as if she were about to fall asleep.

Bruce gently laid Gwen on the ground and nodded at Peter.

"Don't worry, I'll watch over her."

With a quick rub of his wristband, a flickering portal opened before him.

Unlike the others' portals, Bruce's looked much more unstable.

But it was good enough for Bruce. Without hesitation, he stepped into it.

On the other side, Bruce found himself in an extremely bizarre world.

Here, he saw cowboys riding horses, astronauts in spacesuits, and fashion-forward girls in flashy outfits.

Hovering cars flew overhead, while the ground was dotted with ancient-style buildings.

This world was like a chaotic blend of everything, making it impossible to tell what era it belonged to.

In this place, it seemed you could wear anything and still fit in—

except for a Spider-Man suit.

Still, Bruce used his symbiote metal to simulate a sleek black suit and walked the streets.

This world resembled some strange anime universe where all kinds of people could roam freely.

At first glance, one might even believe the Inheritors were competent rulers.

But then, someone appeared who shattered that illusion—

a woman wearing the exact same costume as Spider-Woman from Earth-616.

They even shared the same name: Jessica.

However, this version of Jessica was clearly beloved here.

Crowds lined up to present her with gifts.

Yet she only accepted the rarest and most valuable items, keeping them close.

At that moment, a young boy appeared behind Miss Jessica and gently tapped her on the arm.

"Miss Jessica, wait!" the boy called out excitedly, and Bruce overheard his voice.

Bruce also noticed the shocked expressions of the crowd—they were appalled by the boy's audacity.

But the boy remained blissfully unaware.

He held up his gift and said to Jessica, "I know I shouldn't do this, but she spent an entire week making this for you. I was afraid you wouldn't get it."

Jessica responded coldly with a vague, meaningless reply.

A moment later, a guard stepped forward and knocked the boy's gift from his hands.

The once-delicate item shattered on the ground, completely destroyed.

"If I let every street rat grab me whenever they pleased, I wouldn't need bodyguards, would I?" Jessica sneered as she walked away.

The guard apologized behind her.

"Sorry, Miss Jessica. It won't happen again."

The boy sat there alone, staring at the broken gift.

Some people looked at him with pity, but no one spoke up—they all turned and walked away.

Bruce approached the boy, knelt down, and helped him gather the shattered pieces.

Engraved on the gift was the emblem of the Inheritor family.

"Thank you," the boy said politely.

"Maybe I can walk you home," Bruce offered, having noticed a few nearby children eyeing the boy with clear malice.

Sometimes, the cruelty of children toward each other is the darkest kind of cruelty.

(End of Chapter)

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