Under the relentless barrage of heavy machine-gun fire, Valleta did not feel even the slightest pain.
After all, her pain receptors had been removed the moment her body was modified.
Her central nervous system had been replaced with a chip, and that chip had been implanted deep inside her body and sealed behind layers of steel. Breaking through her defenses was not going to be easy.
S.H.I.E.L.D. gunships had already reached the scene and opened fire on Valleta from above.
These explosive high-energy rounds were naturally dozens of times stronger than ordinary bullets. In theory, they should have pierced steel plating with ease.
But all they managed to do was leave a few extra marks on Valleta's shell. They did not cause any real damage at all.
The pilot stared at the monster in disbelief.
It was the first time he had ever seen something like this.
Valleta raised her two front limbs, and the cannons mounted on the forward armor fired several shells. The shells exploded in midair, scattering in every direction, and from the smoke burst nearly a hundred tiny steel spider creatures. The moment they landed on the helicopter, they began devouring it madly, reducing both the aircraft and the pilot to nothing in an instant.
"Tonight will be a slaughter feast! Hahahahahaha!"
"I really don't like people pulling this kind of stunt on my birthday."
The icy voice made the crazed Valleta freeze for a moment.
Then two figures leaped high through the air and entered everyone's view, one dressed in black and red, the other in black and white.
It was Peter and Gwen.
"The Spider Duo?!"
"Thank God, they're finally here!"
At the sight of Peter and Gwen, every officer and civilian present let out a breath of relief. If these two masked crimefighters were here, then the situation would probably be resolved.
A strand of webbing shot over Valleta's eyes, and Peter and Gwen did not hesitate for even a second before diving down with simultaneous kicks, sending the nearly five-meter steel body rolling across the ground.
At this point, the entire street looked like a ruin. Broken stone, scorched wreckage, piles of shattered spider-creature remains, and bodies littered the ground. It was not quite hell on earth, but it was enough to make anyone want to throw up.
Their Spider-Sense flared lightly.
Peter and Gwen exchanged a glance, then jumped at the same time, dodging the dense hail of bullets aimed at them.
Those shots had come from seventy or eighty soldiers, all wearing helmets and uniforms marked with the Hydra symbol. Peter immediately knew where they came from.
"Let's clean up the trash first."
Peter pulled out two more Pumpkin Bombs from who knew where, handed one to Gwen, and the two swung off in opposite directions. Then they pressed the triggers and hurled the bombs downward.
Boom!
The explosions released a burst of blazing energy, tearing the Hydra soldiers to pieces.
Still, the blast radius was not huge, so out of those seventy or eighty men, around a dozen survived.
That made things easy.
Peter and Gwen finished them off by snapping their necks.
Gwen did not know why her methods had become so decisive, so ruthless, but doing it this way really did feel much easier than before.
Back then, she had always been weighed down by too many emotions, too many responsibilities, too many worries. It had left her feeling restrained.
Now that she was cutting loose, everything felt unbelievably simple.
"Jeez, did Spider-Woman go off for some advanced training or something? Why is she as brutal as Wraith Spider now?!"
"Brutal? So getting killed yourself wouldn't be brutal, then? Aren't they saving us?!"
"Yeah, but their methods are terrifying..."
"Your mom got turned into Swiss cheese, and you still have the energy to sympathize with these thugs?!"
"My mom?! Damn it! Spider Duo, don't let a single one of them go!"
The man clutching the body of an elderly woman who had clearly been dead for a while, riddled with bullet holes, roared in fury.
Valleta rose to her feet again, tore the webbing off her eyes, and glared at Peter and Gwen, who were standing side by side below.
"So you two are spider monsters too! Damn it! Stop ruining my plans!"
"Did a brick hit you in the head or something? Why would I listen to you?!"
Peter raised a middle finger at her, completely unimpressed.
"You haven't even heard of the Spider Duo? Which spider hole did you crawl out of?"
Gwen genuinely did not understand. Their name had already spread all over New York, and even beyond it, so how had this woman seemingly never heard of the two of them?
In fact, that really was the case.
Valleta had been undergoing modification experiments in an underground base the whole time, and then had spent all her energy training to master this new body. She knew nothing about the outside world.
"Bastards!"
Valleta lashed out with two steel forelimbs toward them, but the two of them dodged in perfect sync.
They fired webs as they moved, and then added an Electro-Pulse blast to disrupt her movements.
"You two little insects, can't you stop running around and fight me head-on?!"
Valleta was furious after being played around by Peter and Gwen. She was highly agile herself, but her height and the sheer size of the mechanical body put clear limits on her. Compared with those two, she was far slower.
Peter almost laughed when he saw her raging helplessly.
Anyone who could say something like that clearly did not have much of a brain.
"You've got spider powers and this is what you do with them? You're embarrassing spiders everywhere."
Peter curled his lip, then raised one fist and used his other hand like a joystick, slowly extending the middle finger.
Zero damage.
Maximum disrespect.
"Then let me show you how a spider hunts!"
Valleta fired a dense mass of webbing that instantly wrapped itself around Peter's body.
Peter could clearly sense something unusual in it. The webbing's restraint carried a paralyzing effect. Logically, something that weak should not have affected him much, but it really had robbed him of movement for the moment.
This webbing was different from the kind he had developed.
It seemed to be draining his strength.
Okay, that was seriously messed up.
Still, if she thought this was enough to lock Peter down for good, then she was underestimating him way too much.
Crack!
His spider arm-blades slashed out, and the special webbing binding him exploded apart instantly. Peter rolled his wrist, fired out a strand of webbing, and charged right back in.
Bang!
The next second, Peter was sent flying backward, crashing into a nearby shop. He clutched his head and said, dazed, "All right, she's definitely stronger than I expected."
His body already carried three-fifths of peak Tobey Spider-Man's power, yet he still could not take that impact head-on. It looked like he was going to have to use another suit, or a skill.
Getting cocky really was not a great habit.
"Are you some monster that crawled out of Hydra's lab?"
A cold voice drew everyone's attention again.
A shield wrapped in flames flew through the air, smashed into Valleta, and sent her flying. Then it curved back like a boomerang and returned to its owner.
Everyone looked over and saw a tall figure dressed in blue and white with touches of red.
"Captain America?"
Peter got back to his feet, walked over to Gwen's side, and looked toward the figure.
"That's Captain Carter, spider-kid."
Peter turned around.
Standing behind him was Iron Man.
Of course. Wherever Hydra showed up, people like them were bound to appear too.
"Hey, Tony."
"You look a lot stronger than before, kid. Your partner's not bad either. Weren't you saying before that you worked alone?"
Iron Man teased.
"A lone wolf can still have a girlfriend."
Peter shrugged.
The main reason was that he had never wanted to join their Defenders Alliance in the first place. Once you were in, your hands got tied. Being free like this was much better.
"Hey, Steve, what did you think of those two kids fighting just now?"
Iron Man grinned and called out toward Captain Carter.
"Call me Captain, Tony, you idiot."
"There are times I really want to go to your place while you're busy and have a chat with Ca..."
"Tony, I swear I've never met anyone dumber than you. You're even worse than your old man."
Peter narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Captain in front of him, both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, then shook his head.
What a wonderfully hostile exchange.
That sharp-tongued Captain reputation really was deserved.
And Tony, for someone like you to say something like that straight to her face...
Seriously?
(End of Chapter)
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