Chapter 5035: Advance to York, Advance (Seventy-One)

Spider-Man landed in the alley and took out his phone. Peter's voice came from inside:

"Bruce. Where are you right now? For the streetscape modeling assignment, how come you're the only one who hasn't turned it in?"

"What?" Spider-Man looked puzzled. "I'm on patrol right now. I set it to send on a timer. Didn't you receive it?"

"No, I'm certain your assignment isn't in my inbox." Peter said. "I know you might be a bit busy, but assignments still need to be turned in on time. Can you get it in today?"

"Sorry, Professor." Spider-Man slapped his forehead. "I had Thomas... never mind, I'll just go back myself and send it to you."

"Don't use email, downloading is a hassle." Peter said. "Just copy it onto a USB drive and bring it over."

"Okay, Professor." Spider-Man hurriedly said. "I'll go right now."

He hung up the phone. Spider-Man pulled off his mask and wiped his face. This really was everything piling up at once. He knew the assignment was due today, and he'd finished it, and set it to send on a timer. But Carter had him watching this area, so he hadn't checked whether the send actually succeeded. If he resent it now and made Peter download it, it would definitely delay Peter getting off work. So he could only go deliver it in person.

Spider-Man swung through the sky at top speed and landed in a small alley not far from Empire State University. He changed clothes, shouldered his backpack, and ran into the school. He hadn't run far before a group of people blocked his way.

Spider-Man looked up and saw the same person he'd clashed with at the start of the semester. It was a big guy, probably on the school football or basketball team, leading a few teammates to block his path.

"Sorry, let me through." Spider-Man said.

"What's the rush?" The other guy shoved him and laughed loudly with his companions. A surge of anger rose in Spider-Man.

Thomas had him learning Wayne Enterprises' business, and the people under him wouldn't listen; patrolling the safe zone, the patrol made no sense; coming to university, his assignment still wasn't turned in; and now he ran into these people head-on. Even a clay figurine has a three-tenths temper — Spider-Man was truly having trouble holding back.

When the other guy reached out to shove him again, Spider-Man directly grabbed his wrist and yanked hard to the side, throwing him straight to the ground.

"Ow!" The other guy let out a miserable scream.

But because Spider-Man had held back his strength, he hadn't thrown the guy outright or crushed his wrist — it looked like a sneak attack that pulled him down. The remaining few not only didn't run, they angrily surrounded him.

Spider-Man knocked them all down in a few moves and ran toward the teaching building. Little did he know, all of this had already been filmed. The ones who failed to frame him on the first day of school succeeded today.

So-called "don't fear an old trick, if it works use it." The hurdle of Spider-Man being smeared by the press still couldn't be cleared. Only this time, the one making the move was the Daily Planet where Superman works.

"Wayne Heir Campus Bullying, Angel Face Devil Heart?"

Clark Kent, just back from rehearsal at the cathedral, felt the sky fall when he saw this report. He pinched the corner of the manuscript paper and took several deep breaths before suppressing his emotions.

He didn't firmly believe Young Master Wayne wouldn't do this. There were two possible reasons for this: either Bruce really did bully someone, or Bruce was stupid enough to fall for this kind of trap. Either way, it made him furious.

Clark had long since discovered that Bruce had some trouble controlling his emotions and easily stepped into traps like this — the Civil War before was the same. Clearly he was the victim, yet he became the spark of the Civil War, gaining the same status as Iron Man.

Everyone says Batman is too cold, deep, and tight-lipped, but the fact is only that kind of personality can handle these things. Swap in this universe's Bruce, that kind of truly ignorant youth just starting university, and life is traps everywhere — step in one and you can't escape.

Clark set down the manuscript, grabbed his bag, ran to the back door of the Daily Planet and flew up, flying all the way to LexCorp and hovering outside Luthor's office window.

The gauze wrapped around Luthor's eyes still hadn't been removed. Upon discovering Clark, he immediately stepped back several paces. Clark spoke through the glass:

"You did this, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Luthor sneered coldly.

"I'm not here to ask you for evidence either." Clark said. "I can move LexCorp once, I can move it a second time. If you don't want to work in Kansas, don't pull these petty tricks."

Luthor glared at him viciously with his one remaining eye. He continued backing up, several robots blocking in front of him. Suddenly, the glass curtain wall opened. The guns in the robots' hands emitted a green beam. Clark, struck, let out a miserable scream and plummeted straight toward the ground.

A cold smile curled Luthor's mouth, but the next second, divine power chains bound him directly. Thor descended, face icy, seized Luthor, flew to the base of LexCorp Tower, and handed him to the agents driving up.

Avengers Headquarters. Thor's face was iron-blue. Earlier he'd gone to catch Loki again — Loki was caught, but in that split second of distraction, on Stark Industries' side Iron Man was nearly strangled by his own armor; Pepper took a bullet and was hospitalized; on Wayne Enterprises' side Spider-Man was framed and caught in a public opinion storm, and Wayne Enterprises' stock price fluctuated; on LexCorp's side, framing Spider-Man wasn't enough, they directly shot down Superman. Thor's head was practically buzzing.

Being Lord of the Nine Realms isn't easy either. Even if you're omnipotent here, you can't afford a moment's distraction — zone out a little and humans can play themselves to death.

"Don't just stay here." Thor said to Luthor. "I'm sending you to Jotunheim right now. Wait for your trial."

He couldn't be bothered with Luthor's cursing, directly teleporting him to Jotunheim and throwing him into the shielded zone. He wasn't worried Luthor would collude with Reed — first, this Luthor's personality is extremely unlikable; second, his level isn't up to par, Reed definitely wouldn't look favorably on someone like him.

The reason Reed and White Canister get along is that White Canister actually has some skill in chemistry and biology, but Luthor is far worse by comparison, with no notable achievements to show — Reed wouldn't give him the time of day.

After catching Luthor, Thor hurried to save Pepper. Pepper's condition was truly critical. Her body had been modified by the Extremis virus, giving her extremely powerful self-healing, but the problem was Deathstroke shot Nth metal bullets, and the bullets couldn't be removed. Pepper struggled in agony for a long time, still hovering on the edge of death.

Thor used divine power to extract the bullet for her, but possibly because the delay was a bit long, the wound repeatedly healed causing deformity, so she still needed further surgery.

Then he went to save Iron Man. This Brainiac thing, Thor couldn't quite figure it out either. He could only use divine power to isolate the signal and pull Tony Stark himself out of the armor, temporarily settling him in an Avengers safe house. The place was wrapped in divine power and couldn't be invaded.

On Spider-Man's side, Wayne Enterprises was already handling PR, and Peter had clarified things on his personal podcast too, so Thor didn't need to worry about that for now. But he still had to go save Superman.

Fortunately, Clark was only struck and temporarily paralyzed, falling to the ground — his body of steel couldn't be broken by a fall either. But Thor still wanted to figure out what had hurt him. After all, from his perspective, Clark's body was considerably strong; anything that could threaten him could also threaten the Asgardians, and he couldn't allow such a thing to exist.

But he also knew asking Luthor would get him nowhere — Luthor definitely wouldn't talk. So he could only search LexCorp himself, and subsequently found a kind of green crystal inside the robots' guns. Only later did he learn this thing was called Kryptonite.

Like rushing from one scene to the next, saving this many people — the crisis had only just begun. The controllers of Stark Industries, Wayne Enterprises, and LexCorp all had problems simultaneously, and certain ill-intentioned groups started rearing their heads.

First, Osborn Group got hold of feed containing an improved Extremis virus that had been placed in Atlantic fish farms, reverse-engineered part of the composition, re-registered it as "Osborn Compound 0," counter-claimed the Extremis patent, and wanted to cooperate with the Avengers on agriculture and livestock.

Then there was Roxxon Energy Corporation, that dog-skin plaster — they even dared sue Thor before. This time their legal department was having a field day. They already had friction with Stark Industries, and now they kicked them while they were down, thoroughly enjoying themselves, dealing another heavy blow to Stark Industries' stock price.

Wayne Enterprises' situation was slightly better. Although the so-called bullying scandal triggered a wave of public opinion attacks, it was clarified quickly. But because operations weren't great to begin with, and Spider-Man couldn't produce any era-defining patented tech, their blood bar was much thinner than Stark Industries', and this hit them hard.

The Court of Owls wouldn't miss this perfect opportunity. They were Wayne Enterprises shareholders to begin with, and now they united to force a palace coup — targeting not just Spider-Man but wanting to force Thomas out too, making a complete mess of things.

LexCorp went without saying — the boss was directly arrested, and now they were busy with internal power struggles. LexCorp nearly split into eight pieces. And the League of Assassins wasn't idle either, continuously stirring the pot inside, wanting to seize control of this big company through the chaos.

A series of lightning-fast "accidents" nearly brought down these three major companies. Bruce and Selina's meddling was indispensable in this, as well as a bunch of people's amateur operations, but Nick noticed there had to be a mastermind behind the scenes.

First, criminal organizations like Hydra and the Court of Owls moved with suspicious speed and coordinated too well — didn't look unplanned. But these organizations clearly couldn't possibly unite — Hydra and the Court of Owls were at each other's throats before — unless someone was manipulating both simultaneously.

Second, the previous attempts to frame Spider-Man all failed. Same method, same people, even the same location — this time it succeeded. There had to be a pusher behind the scenes.

Finally, Kryptonite. Who knows where this stuff came from or how it fell into Luthor's hands. He'd clashed with Superman before but never used it. Nick didn't think Luthor was biding his time — it was very likely he'd only gotten it recently.

But clearly, this matter could no longer be investigated. If he went to investigate right now, he might still find some traces. But by the time these three parties recovered and investigated, probably nothing would be left.