Chapter 879: Brilliant Stars (21)

In the Avengers' base, Peter put down the controller, sighed, then picked up the Pikachu beside him and rubbed its cheeks: "If you hadn't been pressing buttons randomly, how would the language system have broken?"

Pikachu wrinkled its face: "It's your own fault for being so bad—we could've fought him for two rounds! When you landed, you broke one of his tentacles!"

"Don't you have your own controller? Why do you have to steal mine? You—" Peter had just begun when his phone rang; he picked it up and said:

"Hello? Gwen? Are you done with class? Oh, you're Spider-Gwen? Sorry, I misheard—what? You're in trouble? Doctor Octopus? Oh, I see… uh, I'm kind of busy right now…"

"No problem—our world's Doctor Octopus is just a researcher, easy to handle. His weakness is his tentacles, especially the third one on his left side. If you destroy that one, his center of gravity will destabilize. Yeah, just follow my instructions, you'll be fine…"

After hanging up, Peter picked up the controller again: "Spider-Gwen ran into Doctor Octopus too? But we only released three robots… which one did she encounter?"

"Let me see… Shadow Spider-Man is Unit One, Superior Spider-Man is Unit Two, Spider-Man 2099 is Unit Three…"

"So which one did Spider-Gwen meet??" Peter scratched his head in confusion, then froze, his expression stiffening as he dropped the controller. A roar echoed through the entire Avengers base:

"No!

Gwen!

Don't go near him!

That's the real one!"

Spider-Gwen crashed hard to the ground with a cry of pain, then gritted her teeth and climbed up as the tentacles drew closer; she swung away on a web-line to the roof of a tall building.

Spider-Gwen looked up at Doctor Octopus Otto and gasped in shock: "What's going on?? His mechanical arms…"

"Third tentacle… third tentacle…" Spider-Gwen dropped again, feinting toward Otto's right leg; he instinctively turned to dodge, and she shot a web-line around his third right tentacle and yanked hard.

A sharp *zzzzt*—the web-line snapped.

"Little girl, what exactly are you trying to do?" Doctor Octopus asked.

He didn't recognize Spider-Gwen as a Spider-Man at all—her outfit was too different, and her gender was wrong.

Besides, Doctor Octopus knew Spider-Man was Peter, and he knew Peter wouldn't be fighting on the streets right now, so he had no idea his opponent was a Spider-Man—he thought she was just another street hero.

"I don't know where you're from, but my tentacles are registered with S. . . . . . I have legal permission to use them commuting around New York. You're young—why don't you go home and do your homework instead of wandering the streets? No one here needs your help."

"Do you think I'll believe you?" Spider-Gwen stuck to the side of a building, staring coldly at Doctor Octopus: "You only want to carry out your evil plan—I'll stop you!"

Doctor Octopus rolled his eyes, casually slicing through the web-line she fired at him; Spider-Gwen gasped in surprise. "What's your tentacle made of?? How could it cut my webbing??"

"You don't even recognize molsteel?" Otto said. "The metal that shows flame-like patterns under sunlight—that's molsteel. What university did you graduate from? Don't you know that?"

"And are you some kind of Spider-Man imitator? Even if you're copying, you should upgrade your tech. What's your webbing made of?"

"Uh… a compound of fiber and slime…" Spider-Gwen answered instinctively.

Doctor Octopus immediately scoffed: "Don't tell me that's a biological-chemical product. Even if you don't know Spider-Man personally, you should know his webbing is metallic."

"Impossible!" Spider-Gwen retorted instinctively: "I've tried flexible metals, but they just can't match the elasticity—"

"Can't match? You're too hasty! Just because your tech is weak, you dare make such an absolute claim? You're nowhere near the real Spider-Man!"

"He developed a new alloy webbing himself, and during his symbiote research, he even invented living webbing…"

"Forget it—I'm not wasting time explaining this to you. You're just a clumsy imitator. Move aside. I don't want to fight a girl."

As Otto turned to leave, Spider-Gwen shouted angrily: "I'm not an imitator—I am Spider-Man! My suit and webbing are my own inventions! I'm a top researcher in New York—how dare you say that about me…"

"Then I can only say: the one trying to destroy New York isn't me—it's you," Otto said as he walked away, mocking. "If today's top researchers are all like you, I'll never leave the solar system…"

"Don't you walk away! Come back! I don't believe your nonsense! Alloy webbing? Living webbing? Unless I see it with my own eyes—don't you dare run!"

On top of Stark Tower, Peter shielded his eyes and scanned left and right: "Where's Spider-Gwen? Oh my god, please don't let her fight Otto—he'll kill her!"

"Otto's tentacles are made of molsteel, upgraded to the 17th generation—if she gets hit by one…" He looked around. "Where are they?"

"Oh my god, what is that?!"

Peter shouted in shock: "That giant lizard… that's not one of our robots, is it?? Pikachu! Pikachu, can you hear me? Did we make a lizard-man robot? …No??"

"Dr. Connors! Dr. Connors! Stop!

Don't fight!

Peter swung his web-line toward the giant lizard monster, but before he could get close, he heard Dr. Connors roaring:

"Spider-Man!

Why are you wandering the streets at noon? You're not even in your lab!

My lab walls have taken over fifty web shots in two hours!

All the windows are ruined!

What the hell are you even doing?!

!"

！」

Peter's eyes widened, and the Amazing Spider-Man, fleeing for his life from the giant lizard, screamed even louder:

"What's going on?!

The lizard man in this universe?!

Why is he so huge?!

He ran while glancing back at Lizard Doctor—his version was nothing like this one.

The Lizard Doctor in his universe stood only two meters tall, weighed about two hundred kilos—stronger than Spider-Man, but still roughly humanoid.

But this one chasing him was nearly ten meters tall, resembling Godzilla, its massive shadow covering half a street.

"Doctor, calm down!" Amazing Spider-Man pleaded as he always had.

In his universe, Dr. Connors had later returned to human form—though he still transformed when emotionally agitated—so Spider-Man usually just talked him down; once he turned back, the fight ended.

"Turning all of New York into lizards is impossible! You can't do this! We can find a solution together—I promise I'll…"

*Swish! A tail whipped toward him; Amazing Spider-Man leapt aside, but when he turned back, he saw a pair of massive vertical pupils fixed on him, blazing with fury. He stepped back two paces, raising both hands: "Doctor!

Turning all the people of New York City into lizards is unrealistic! You can't do this! We can find a solution together—I promise I will…

Realizing his words had no effect, Amazing Spider-Man thought of how to deal with this giant monster—when suddenly another voice came:

"Doctor! Doctor, look at me! I can explain! I wasn't wandering the streets—we're clones! I've been in the lab doing experiments the whole time. The test from two days ago? The results will be ready tonight…"

The Lizard Doctor turned his head toward the figure hovering in the air, stopped, squinted, and said: "Spider-Man? You're Spider-Man? Then who's he? Your imitator?"

"Spider-Man, you shouldn't be roaming the streets every day—you've created so many imitators! New York's been turned into a mess by you!" Lizard Doctor pushed up his giant glasses. "You shouldn't ruin the city's appearance with webs everywhere—even if they're biodegradable, they make cleaning the glass walls a nightmare. That's wrong…"

Peter hung from a web-line on the wall, level with the Lizard Doctor's eyes, hanging his head as he took the scolding. But then Amazing Spider-Man rushed over, trying to drag Peter away: "Go! He's going to eat you!"

I'm saying, Spider-Man, you shouldn't be wandering the streets every day, spawning so many imitators—New York's been turned into a mess by you! The Lizard Doctor pushed his massive glasses and said: You shouldn't ruin New York's urban landscape, spreading spiderwebs everywhere—even if they're biodegradable, they still create massive headaches for workers cleaning glass facades. That's wrong…

At that moment, the Lizard Doctor leaned his head forward, trying to tell them apart.

Amazing Spider-Man scrambled backward—but his back was against the glass wall; he flattened himself against it like a pancake, trembling as he turned to Peter: "Are you sure?! I can see his teeth!"

Peter waved his hand carelessly, leaping onto the Lizard Doctor's shoulder and waving to Amazing Spider-Man: "Come on up—we'll talk back at the lab."

Amazing Spider-Man stood frozen, swallowed hard, and shook his head violently: "No, no—I'll just walk…"

Half an hour later, Peter trudged back into the Avengers base, head down. Pikachu jumped onto the table: "What? Got scolded again?"

Peter sighed deeply: "Otto and Connors both yelled at me—they said there are so many Spider-Men and no one told them, and it's delayed their experiments…"

"Now most of the Spider-Men have been dragged off to their labs. Our plan to use Spider-Men and fake villains to draw media attention is ruined again."

Peter rubbed his temples: "But the anti-mutant propaganda campaign is still going. They're always looking for a chance to smear mutants…"

His expression darkened as he continued: "I suspect they're waiting for a major incident. Once they get one, launching a full-scale propaganda war will seem justified."

"Didn't you ask the mutants how they plan to respond?" Pikachu jumped to face Peter.

"Most of the Avengers in New York have only average relations with mutants—including me. If we go asking directly, we'll trigger their suspicion and make things worse." Peter shook his head. "S. . . . . . is now a mess—no communication between factions, no trusted third party to mediate. That's supposed to be S. . . . . .'s job…"

"Who do you think will take over S. . . . . .?" Pikachu asked.

Peter shook his head again: "Coulson is dead. Natasha was pushed out of power. Hill is drowning in intelligence chaos. Nick Fury's loyalists won't be chosen. As for who exactly…"

Peter almost sighed to express his pessimism—he figured that since the original S. . . . . . director had been assassinated, the next director's election would surely be rigged; the shooters wouldn't let Fury's chosen successor take over.

But just then, his phone rang. Peter picked it up—and his voice rose in shock:

"What?! You want me to be the director of S. . . . . .?!

Peter had wanted to sigh to express his pessimism; he felt that since the original Director of S. . . . . . had fallen to a black bullet, the next election for S. . . . . . Director would surely be rigged, and those who fired the black bullet would not allow Nick Fury's preferred candidate to succeed him.

But just then, the phone suddenly rang; Peter picked it up, and his astonished voice rang out:

"What did you say? Let me be the Director of S. . . . . .?!"