Shutdown

"Iron Man, you can’t crack my Super Collider. No one but me can stop it."

Dr. Octopus laughed confidently. At that moment, more than twenty Spider-Men appeared from the void. After merging with symbiotes, they immediately launched an attack on the Super Heroes.

Hydra breathed Cold Ice again, but this time it was far less effective, because most of these Spider-Men had unusual abilities, such as shooting electricity, breathing fire, turning invisible, and so on.

"Wow, Spider-Men from other worlds have so many abilities?"

While fighting a purple Spider-Man, Peter shouted in amazement—he had already defeated the symbiote, and Spider-Gwen and the two Ant-Men were close to victory as well.

Just then, Peter sensed danger and hurriedly dodged. The next moment, a black boy dressed like a student appeared out of thin air and expressionlessly fired lightning at Peter’s former position.

Seeing Peter evade, the black boy immediately vanished.

"Miles!"

The black boy had appeared only briefly, but Prowler still saw his face clearly and was instantly shocked.

Prowler’s real name was Aaron Davis, and he was the black boy Miles’s uncle. He had never imagined that Miles would become Spider-Man.

In fact, Miles was the protagonist of the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. After Blonde Spider-Man died, he became the new Spider-Man, known to all as Little Black Spider! No, I can’t let anything happen to Miles. He’s family.

Prowler kept shouting in his heart. He was indeed a villain, that was true, but to him, family had always been the most important thing.

I have to destroy the Super Collider and send Miles back to his original world. Also, Kingpin and Dr. Octopus can’t be allowed to live. They’ll threaten Miles’s safety.

Just as Prowler’s killing intent rose, the entire space suddenly shook violently. Then, countless figures appeared around them. Some were only phantoms, while others were physical bodies.

"Why am I here? Wasn’t I buried alive after escaping prison?"

"Where is this? I think I was poisoned to death by a drink. Is this Hell?"

"Mephisto, are you behind this? I’m Johnny Blaze. I’m not afraid of you!"

"Who’s calling me? Huh, wait, why is some force erasing me? Where is this?"

"Why am I here? Loki, are you playing some kind of prank again?"

Figures continuously appeared and disappeared, and the situation was chaotic to the extreme.

"Perfect opportunity."

Wang Bert, who had been watching this place, narrowed his eyes. Strands of invisible spatial light merged into those people’s bodies.

This was a marker. Once the Super Collider was activated, they would be able to reach the parallel worlds where these people were located.

"Where is this? Huh!"

Thanos from a certain timeline suddenly appeared. Looking at the chaos before him, he was somewhat startled. Then he sensed something and grabbed forward. In the next instant, light and shadow flashed, and he vanished.

No one knew that not only Thanos had disappeared, but also Future Ant-Man in his hand! "Damn it, the Super Collider is out of control."

Dr. Octopus shouted, but she was not too surprised, because she had expected this to happen—the technology for pulling in Spider-Men was still immature.

"Tony, hurry and find a way to shut down the Super Collider! I can’t hold on much longer!"

Strange shouted. Tony said irritably, "I want to shut it down too. The problem is, I have no idea how. Everything around us is too chaotic."

At this moment, Kingpin, trapped by the gravity device, shouted, "Avengers, agree to our conditions, or we all die together."

"That’s right, agree to our conditions."

Dr. Octopus also shouted, "If this continues, not only will San Francisco be destroyed, even the American Continent will be erased."

Steve’s expression turned incomparably grim. He tried to contact Wang Bert, only to find that all communications around them had been cut off.

"If it comes down to it, let’s compromise."

Future Tony sighed and said helplessly, "We can’t let so many of you die too."

Future Thor clenched his fists tightly, then released them helplessly a moment later. He could not bear the burden of an entire American Continent’s lives.

Just as Steve was about to nod, Prowler suddenly said, "The Super Collider is powered by a quantum energy source. That source is divided into four parts and buried in four underground locations. As long as those are destroyed, the Super Collider will stop."

As he spoke, Prowler fired four signal flares into the ground, marking the locations of the quantum energy sources.

"What?"

Steve and the others froze, then were overjoyed and rushed toward the four energy sources.

"Aaron, why did you betray me? Without me, you’re nothing but a pile of mud."

Kingpin roared furiously. If the gravity device had not been pinning him down, he would have rushed over and torn Prowler to pieces.

"Kingpin, I’m sorry, but I have to do this."

Prowler showed no regret. Light Flame blasted from his feet as he flew before Dr. Octopus, then fiercely slashed at her chest with his claw.

Dr. Octopus’s expression changed. She immediately turned into a phantom. Prowler followed suit, becoming a phantom as well, and sent Dr. Octopus flying with a claw strike.

Seeing this, Blonde Spider-Man immediately fired webs at Dr. Octopus. Dr. Octopus knocked the webs aside with her tentacles, then roared at Prowler, "Aaron, I won’t let you get away with this."

"I won’t let you get away with it either."

Prowler’s eyes were icy. For Miles’s safety, Kingpin and Dr. Octopus both had to die.

While Prowler dealt with Dr. Octopus, everyone else rushed toward the four energy sources. Hulk was the first to reach one. He blasted a group of Spider-Men back with the wind from his fist, then smashed the ground with all his strength. The earth rapidly caved in, and soon a flickering quantum energy source appeared before his eyes.

Hulk punched the quantum energy source, but his fist passed straight through it. Frowning, he asked, "Banner, how do I destroy this energy source?"

Banner said, "Use brute force to shatter space. Space Power can erase anything."

"No problem. Spider Demon God, lend me your power. Symbiote, inject Pym Particles into my fist."

Hulk took a deep breath, and his fist suddenly expanded several times over. Then he threw a plain, unadorned punch. The space ahead shattered like a spiderweb, and the quantum energy source was instantly sliced into dozens of pieces before being sucked into the spatial cracks and disappearing.

The energy source was destroyed.

"What kind of move was that?"

Future Banner stared in stunned disbelief. Was the Hulk of this world ridiculously powerful or what?

"Blood God said it’s called Third Gear. Well, actually, it’s just an application of Pym Particles’ giantification. Pym Particles are strange. After enlargement, they can greatly increase strength. When Ant-Man turns into a giant, he can even destroy airplanes."

Hulk said, "It’s not very scientific. It violates the law of conservation of matter."

Future Banner complained, "Why does it feel so weird hearing you say that?"

"I, Hulk, am a learned man too, okay?"

Hulk rolled his eyes and charged toward another energy source.

At the same time, Steve, with Hydra’s help, successfully dug out an energy source. Then Hydra’s head representing destruction condensed a Destruction Sphere, destroying the quantum energy source together with a small portion of space.

Compared with Hulk and Steve, the others were not so fortunate—the Spider-Men were desperately stopping them.

"Liv, since they won’t let us go home, then we’ll make sure they have no home either."

Seeing that the situation was deteriorating, Kingpin roared, "Also, destroy all information about the Super Collider. Even if we die, we can’t let them get what they want."

Dr. Octopus understood what Kingpin meant. She openly brought up an operation screen and began deleting the data.

"Don’t!"

Future Thor shouted in terror, "As long as you leave the Super Collider behind, we can let you go back. Stop! Stop right now!"

The Avengers did not object. After all, the Super Collider was extremely important, tied to half the life in the universe.

Everyone else stopped, but Prowler did not. He did not know why the Avengers wanted the Super Collider so badly. He only knew that as long as Kingpin and Dr. Octopus lived, his nephew would be in danger.

Seeing this, Future Thor took the initiative to block Prowler for Dr. Octopus. Dr. Octopus laughed smugly, pressed a pause button, and said, "Release Kingpin first. Don’t waste time. You can’t afford to stall."

Tony gritted his teeth and was about to comply when Strange strangely appeared behind Dr. Octopus and struck her back with his palm.

With that strike, a phantom flew out of Dr. Octopus’s body—it was her soul. Strange then cast a spell and sealed Dr. Octopus’s soul.

Without her soul, Dr. Octopus’s body fell straight down.

"Catch her."

Strange gave Cloak an order, then shouted, "Hurry and shut down the Super Collider. I really can’t hold on anymore."

"Wow, you finally stopped holding back. By the way, that move was pretty cool. Why didn’t you use it on Thanos?"

Tony snorted, leading everyone in blocking the Spider-Men while Hulk and Hydra went to destroy the energy sources.

A moment later, the remaining two energy sources were destroyed as well. The jets’ multicolored light rapidly faded, and the surroundings quickly returned to normal. No more phantoms or solid figures appeared.

However, the Spider-Men did not disappear. They collapsed to the ground in pain and lost consciousness.

"It’s finally shut down."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. This battle had been exceptionally perilous. Fortunately, they had arrived early, or the situation would have been even worse.

"Looks like I don’t need to step in."

Wang Bert withdrew his finger. S.W.O.R.D. had not disappointed him. In the future, he could safely leave matters to them and continue picking up girls—no, that was wrong, continue restoring his humanity.

Something about Knull’s side still feels off. It seems like there’s some kind of conspiracy.

Wang Bert thought to himself, No matter what, my main body can’t leave Earth. Earth is my foundation, and nothing can happen to it. Also, I must be more cautious with this parallel-world matter. I can’t take risks so casually.

As Earth Guardian, he naturally could not run around freely. He could before because Ancient One had been there. Now that Ancient One was gone, he was the biggest pillar.

Let us return to the underground base. Just as everyone relaxed, a scream suddenly came from the left. Everyone hurriedly turned and saw Prowler shoot Kingpin dead with an Energy Gun. Kingpin’s massive body crashed to the ground with utter disbelief still on his face.

"Why did you suddenly betray him? And why were you so determined to kill Kingpin?"

Hawkeye aimed an arrow at Prowler and asked in confusion.

"For safety. Avengers, considering my contribution, please don’t investigate my identity. Also, turn my ashes into paint and put them on a wall in Brooklyn."

After saying that, Prowler aimed the gun at his own head. The next instant, his head burst like a watermelon.

Prowler did not want Miles to know he was a bad man, so he had to die.

"This is so baffling."

Looking at Prowler’s falling body, Hawkeye could not help shaking his head. At that moment, Venom shouted, "Riot is escaping! Stop him!"

Everyone turned and saw Riot fleeing toward the exit in panic. Hulk snorted. A bone spear appeared in his hand out of thin air, and he hurled it with force. With a massive roar, it pierced Riot’s body, directly pulverizing half of it.

"I surrender! I surrender!"

Dr. Drake died on the spot, but Riot did not. He shouted in terror. Tony was about to speak when Venom pounced forward and tore Riot apart with its claws.

There could only be one symbiote on Earth, and that was it—San Francisco Venom! Everyone watched Venom warily. Venom said, "My name is Venom. I was the one who called the police earlier. I want to join the Avengers and protect Earth with you."

"Join the Avengers?"

Everyone was rather surprised. Steve stepped forward and said, "Venom, thank you for your report. Otherwise, no one knows what might have happened. As for joining the Avengers, I will personally assess you. As long as you meet the requirements, the Avengers will accept you."

"Thank you, Director."

Venom was overjoyed. Then it withdrew into Eddie’s body and handed control back to Eddie.

Finally, I don’t have to be a loser anymore.

You, a man-eating monster, want to join the Avengers? Once I get the chance, I’ll tell S.W.O.R.D. everything and have them deal with you properly.

Eddie sneered inwardly. No matter what, he could not accept eating people, and he believed S.W.O.R.D. would not accept it either.

Steve called out, "All right, the rest of you follow me and clean up. Tony, Future Tony, Future Banner, you study the Super Collider."

"Okay."

Everyone nodded and began cleaning up. For example, Human Torch burned the remaining symbiotes, while Peter and Blonde Spider-Man teamed up to beat up Middle-aged Spider-Man.

Future Tony flew before Strange and asked, "Magician, I want to confirm something. We can obtain all the Super Collider’s data, right?"

"Yes. Whether through hypnosis magic or by cutting out her brain to read her memories, we can get what you want."

Strange said with absolute certainty, "Personally, I suggest handing Dr. Octopus over to Blood God and having him control her. That would be completely foolproof."

"That’s good."

Future Tony let out a huge sigh of relief, and so did Future Thor. The Super Collider was finally theirs.

At that moment, Ant-Man suddenly shouted, "Wait, where’s Future Ant-Man? Why is he gone?"

Everyone froze and hurriedly searched the area. They found that Future Ant-Man was truly gone. There was no trace of him anywhere, and even his communicator signal had vanished.

Future Banner frowned. "Could he have been dragged into a parallel world?"

"That’ll be troublesome. With so many parallel worlds, how can we know which one he went to?"

Everyone deeply frowned. Those who dealt with quantum stuff seemed incredibly unlucky—they were always disappearing.

Steve sighed. Although they had won, there was still quite a lot to deal with, such as Future Ant-Man and the group of Spider-Men.