Peter had indeed chosen not to stop Felicia's revenge; he was merely preventing Felicia from hurting herself.
Thus, when Felicia's sanity returned, he told her how to deal with the Human Torch—whether it was the original Jim Hammond or the second-generation Johnny Storm, they both required oxygen to sustain their flames.
Johnny had been humiliated by Mysterio using this very trick, and it was the same for Felicia; she only needed to use Venom to suck all the air away from Jim Hammond's vicinity.
Once everything was over, the severely injured Venom acted as a living cage, possessing Jim Hammond's lifeless body.
Looking at the body that remained motionless even after being possessed by the symbiote, Peter turned to the silent Captain.
"Captain, he has been dead for a very long time. If it were a living being, the symbiote could host normally."
"I know… I know."
The Captain was not surprised by this outcome. From the moment the Allies, driven by the elusive goal of "capturing Berlin first," sent Jim to Berlin to kill Hitler, it meant that the true killers of Jim Hammond were the Western Allies—most likely the U.S. military itself.
The Captain didn't find this conclusion surprising; in fact, he was… somewhat numb to it.
"How are things elsewhere, Spider-Man?"
"Uh, we caught Taskmaster. Or rather, he surrendered voluntarily," Peter explained the situation. "Cindy is guarding him; I came ahead."
Accompanied by a rumble of thunder and Hulk's roar, the massive Hydra robot crashed to the ground. Then, a peculiar sound echoed through the sky, as if some background noise had paused for a moment.
This sound was the result of Tony and the others' work. A few minutes ago, with Thor carving a path of divine destruction, they had reached Hydra's central hub in one go and began cracking the self-destruct sequence.
"Regrettably, it is fundamentally impossible for you to crack my program, for it is a creation derived from the patterns of the human brain. The Zola Algorithm has surpassed your limits, Tony Stark."
Arnim Zola's giant head appeared on the screen, mocking Tony and Pym as they tried to halt the self-destruct. "I was the first to upload my consciousness to a computer. I have transcended ordinary programming; you cannot defeat a soul within the network."
"Actually, we're just pressing for time to crack and download Hydra's existing data," Tony smiled. "And your information is a bit outdated. We've already taken down a digital ghost before—called the Green Goblin, I believe."
"You dare compare that thing to me!"
"The point is, we weren't even the ones who took him down, were we?"
Tony looked at the data treasure trove with a satisfied smile. "Haven't you noticed that you are losing control over the system? Meet Ultron."
"What?"
Arnim Zola didn't react at first, but as Ultron entered the network, a war between a digital ghost and a super AI began.
As a digital ghost, Zola did have his advantages; normal AI could not comprehend human thought patterns. However, Ultron himself possessed human thinking models combined with the learning and evolution speed of an AI, and he quickly began to overwhelm Zola.
The self-destruct sequence for the entire base was rapidly deactivated, and the crisis in Budapest was essentially resolved.
Tony casually browsed through the files in the Hydra database when his expression suddenly turned solemn. He saw the record of Howard Stark's death and immediately clicked on it.
Winter Soldier: James Buchanan Barnes. Executed the mission to eliminate Howard Stark on December 16, 1991.
"Tony, what's wrong?"
Pym, who was surveying the battlefield and preparing to disarm Hydra, asked Tony, who seemed to be dazed. Tony forced a smile. "Nothing. Let's keep going."
[Control of the Budapest base has been seized.]
"Good job, Ultron." Pym looked gratified. "I'll have to give you a check-up when we get back to make sure you weren't contaminated by Hydra's crooked ways. By the way, what happened to Arnim Zola?"
"Escaped into a local area network; signal lost."
"Good news from the Captain's side: they've captured Taskmaster, a Reaper, and the modified original Little Torch. Oh, and Hydra's leader, Baron Strucker. It's quite a haul."
As Tony spoke, he checked the Hydra roster and found that almost every high-profile figure had been apprehended. It seemed nothing had been missed.
It was almost suspiciously smooth.
Of course, not every front went perfectly. For instance, with Wolverine, Logan failed to capture X-23; instead, after being pummeled by his own daughter, he watched her retreat. Whether Logan held back was hard to say.
But all in all, with Strucker captured, the giant Hydra robot downed, and the self-destruct sequence neutralized, the Avengers had successfully triumphed over the enemy.
Peter looked at Felicia. She was merely staring silently at Jim Hammond, who lay on the ground covered by Venom, without saying a word. Peter wasn't sure how Felicia was feeling right now.
The murderer of her father, whom she had searched for so long, was actually a corpse that had been dead for decades, puppeted by Hydra. Perhaps from another perspective, the entirety of Hydra was responsible for Walter Hardy's death, but the one who physically did the deed was the original Human Torch before her.
But he was already dead.
"How does it feel? Not great, right? It's like you've had your revenge, but you don't feel anything at all."
Silver Sable chose this inopportune moment to twist the knife. "You're lucky. At least you aren't a pathetic soul with nothing left but vengeance. I've seen many people whose lives were nothing but revenge; once they completed it, they simply became new demons."
"You say that as if you've actually been through it."
Felicia's words didn't sound like a simple retort; they were laced with anger.
Silver Sable arched an eyebrow, extinguishing Felicia's fury with a single sentence.
"Of course I've been through it. I killed the murderer of my mother years ago. So I know exactly how it feels after revenge is over—and that is, it feels like nothing."
The satisfaction, the rage, the release of suppression you expected—none of it happened.
"Revenge will ruin a person, child. When you have completed your revenge, you must ponder an even more critical question."
The Captain walked over and said to Felicia, "Besides revenge, what do you have left? Because the things you have left are the only things you truly possess."
"You have finished your revenge. Do not keep anger and hatred in your heart anymore."