"I trust you know which ventilation duct leads to the first basement level?" Nick Fury looked at Bruce. He was certain that, for the man standing before him in the bat suit, the entire layout of the Tri-Emblem Tower was already committed to memory.
Bruce didn't respond to Nick Fury's question. Instead, he simply walked over to a ventilation duct and dismantled it.
The action confirmed everything Nick Fury had suspected—this Batman had already uncovered most of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets.
The basement floors of the Tri-Emblem Tower had been planned and designed from the start. However, the eleventh to thirteenth underground levels were personally designed by Nick Fury himself.
The construction of these three floors had never been approved by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s upper management. It was a secret project carried out entirely by Nick Fury alone.
As a result, the ventilation system of those three levels had no connection whatsoever to the Tri-Emblem Tower.
Even the ten floors above them only had a direct link to the first underground level.
"Then let's move." Nick Fury turned to Miles and Jessica behind him and issued the order. However, when he turned his head, the two of them were nowhere to be seen.
Even when he turned back toward the ventilation duct, all he saw was an empty opening.
Those two had already gone down through the duct.
"No one ever listens."
Nick Fury felt a bit awkward but had no choice but to follow them down the ventilation shaft.
Meanwhile, on the fifth basement level, someone was already there.
Inside a containment chamber stood a figure—one that was all too familiar.
It was the missing Mary Jane.
"Why did you bring me here? What do you want?" Even in this situation, Mary Jane remained remarkably calm. Perhaps it was because she was married to Spider-Man—she had always been prepared for something like this.
To add an air of mystery, the captor had shut off most of the lights on the fifth basement level, leaving only a single beam illuminating Mary Jane.
But for her, the silhouette before her was far too familiar—so much so that she could hardly believe her own eyes.
Just from the figure's outline alone, she could tell without a doubt that the person hiding in the darkness before her was Peter Parker.
"Don't struggle. This will all be over soon."
The shadowy figure spoke, his tone filled with an overwhelming sense of affection.
He loved the woman standing before him.
Loved her deeply.
"Is it you, Peter?" Mary Jane held onto a sliver of hope—that everything she had known was a lie, that her husband had never died in that inexplicable incident.
She pressed her hands against the glass of the containment chamber, trying to get a clearer look at the figure's face.
"I should have thought of this sooner. This is the only way to keep you safe from harm." He slowly walked toward Mary Jane but stopped just before stepping into the light, keeping his face hidden from view.
"What are you trying to do, Peter?"
Something felt off. The Peter standing before her seemed… different.
"Rather than constantly worrying about your safety day and night, I started wondering—if you were like me, wouldn't you be able to protect yourself?"
As he said this, the figure finally stepped into the light.
The moment Mary Jane saw his face, she instinctively covered her mouth, trying to stifle a scream.
What kind of face was this?
The right half still retained Peter Parker's handsome features.
But the left half… was utterly unrecognizable.
The torn and tattered skin revealed deep red muscle fibers underneath.
His left eye had turned into a lifeless white orb, like a ping-pong ball devoid of any vitality.
The Peter Parker standing before her looked like a terrifying monster that had crawled out of the grave.
"I'm going to make you like me."
Suddenly, mechanical arms extended from the containment chamber, restraining Mary Jane tightly.
Descending from above were syringe-like instruments.
"I'm sorry, I had to improvise a bit. This place already looks like some kind of sinister lab, so I figured we might as well run an experiment and see what results we get."
The two-faced Peter Parker operated the nearby machinery as one of the syringes plunged into Mary Jane's body.
But he didn't notice the tears that had already started streaming down her face.
At this moment, Mary Jane finally understood—this was not her Peter Parker.
This was a monster.
"Everything will be fine, MJ. You're about to become something more. You'll no longer need my protection—you'll be able to protect yourself. And then…"
The two-faced Peter Parker lifted his head, no longer focused on the machine.
His gaze burned intensely as he stared at Mary Jane.
"We will start over."
Before Peter Parker, the Two-Face, could even finish speaking, a shadowy figure emerged from the darkness and landed a flying kick straight to his face.
At the same time, a Batarang embedded itself into the device that the Two-Face Peter Parker had been operating.
However, neither the Batarang nor the figure arrived in time—because as the Two-Face Peter Parker was speaking, he had already pressed the button.
The liquid inside the syringe was continuously injected into Mary Jane's body.
They were still one step too late.
The one who had launched the attack against the Two-Face Peter Parker was another man in a Spider suit. Unlike the others, though, he had six arms.
Perhaps encouraged by the arrival of an ally, the Six-Armed Spider-Man launched a direct assault on the Two-Face Peter Parker.
"I knew what you were planning, but I won't let you hurt her!"
"I know you're confused right now, but this isn't the reason we were created. Maybe we were meant to bring about a better peace," the Six-Armed Spider-Man said, delivering a flurry of punches and kicks at the Two-Face Peter Parker while simultaneously expressing his beliefs.
As the Two-Face Peter Parker was struck and sent crashing onto a nearby table, he quickly retaliated by grabbing the table and hurling it at the Six-Armed Spider-Man.
"Shut up! I don't want to hear your nonsense!"
He was clearly no longer the same as before.
Miles swiftly moved to intercept the table thrown by the Two-Face Peter Parker.
"Looks like we need to have a proper talk. After all, you did acknowledge me before. No matter what, it's best if everyone—"
Before Miles could even finish his sentence, he was interrupted by another attack from the Two-Face Peter Parker.
Once again, a table was thrown.
This time, however, Jessica was the one who blocked it.
Despite facing three superhumans with spider-like abilities, the Two-Face Peter Parker showed no fear.
He even smiled at Mary Jane, who was still inside the containment pod, and said, "Don't worry, my dear. Our plan will succeed."
Jessica had no patience for hearing any more of that.
She instantly dashed toward the Two-Face Peter Parker.
"I don't know who woke you all up, but I think you'd better go back to sleep!" Jessica roared as she landed a punch squarely on the Two-Face Peter Parker's face.
This time, however, he took the punch head-on.
Without hesitation, he countered with a swift kick to Jessica's abdomen.
Jessica, refusing to back down, chose to go toe-to-toe with him.
She shot out webs to anchor herself in place right in front of Peter Parker, making a straightforward decision—punching him in the head over and over again.
Even though the Two-Face Peter Parker was undoubtedly a formidable fighter, he struggled to endure Jessica's relentless assault.
Meanwhile, Miles and the Six-Armed Spider-Man were both working to free Mary Jane from the containment pod.
At that moment, they couldn't help but wonder—was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s equipment just that well-made, or was there something else at play?
Even after enduring the force of two powerful attacks, the containment pod remained surprisingly intact.
Still, no matter how strong the pod was, it couldn't withstand two Spider-Men working together.
However, all of the serum had already been injected into Mary Jane's body.
What no one noticed was that, despite arriving together, Nick Fury and Bruce had already disappeared.
Looking at the venom storage container, which remained securely sealed, both Nick Fury and Bruce felt somewhat relieved.
At least another Spider clone hadn't released the Venom symbiote.
But the situation was still far from optimistic.
They had only reached the fifth underground level—who knew what awaited them on the thirteenth?
"Interested in joining S.H.I.E.L.D. after this? I think you'd make a top-tier agent," Nick Fury remarked, refraining from touching the Venom symbiote's container.
Bruce, however, had no such reservations and simply took the container.
At the very least, this gave them a contingency plan.
A way to ensure things wouldn't spiral into complete disaster.
"The cloning project—you were just a participant, not the mastermind," Bruce stated.
Nick Fury's one remaining eye fixed on Bruce, and the sharp glint in it was unmistakable.
(End of Chapter)
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