The battle outside had also come to a halt by this time, though the fight with the spiders had already caused considerable damage to the surrounding equipment.
But at least, that crazed two-faced Peter Parker had been completely restrained.
"Why would you do this?" Miles couldn't comprehend this guy's way of thinking at all.
Mary Jane had been living a relatively safe life, yet now this two-faced Peter Parker had dragged her into an unknown maelstrom.
"You wouldn't understand. None of you would understand." The two-faced Peter Parker laughed. "In this world, only those with power can ensure everything."
"Without power, you're nothing but meat on someone else's chopping block."
"I'm helping her."
"Haha... cough cough!"
His laughter was cut short by Jessica's fist, forcing all his chuckles to lodge in his throat.
"What I'm more curious about is how you all escaped from the stasis pods." Nick Fury's voice rang out once again.
He was certain that the measures he had taken when putting them into stasis were designed to ensure they would only awaken when the world was on the verge of destruction.
Yet now, something was clearly wrong.
By all logic, they shouldn't be here like this.
"Someone deactivated our stasis devices," the Six-Armed Spider said.
Nick Fury narrowed his eyes at him.
"Impossible. Only I can access the thirteenth underground level. No one else can. That place is built to withstand even a nuclear strike," Fury insisted, refusing to believe such a thing had happened.
Back then, they had gone to great lengths to ensure these individuals would never see the light of day again.
And now, someone was telling him they had been released?
Utter nonsense.
"There was someone else." The Six-Armed Spider remained unfazed by Fury's response, calmly stating a fact.
"That's also impossible!" Fury flatly denied it.
His one remaining eye bore into the Six-Armed Spider with such intensity, it seemed like he wanted to tear him apart.
"Who exactly was it?" Miles felt like his brain was overheating.
It was as if everyone here was speaking in riddles, refusing to get to the point.
"It was Peter Parker." A completely emotionless voice spoke from behind Fury.
"Phew, finally, someone who speaks plainly." Miles let out a sigh of relief, only to immediately snap his head toward the speaker, Bruce, in horror.
"Peter Parker is dead, isn't he?"
"No, wait. Why is this connected to Peter Parker?"
Miles clutched his head in frustration, feeling like his brain's CPU was about to fry.
If someone dumped a bucket of cold water over his head right now, the sizzling sound of it cooling down would be audible.
Nick Fury, too, turned his gaze toward Bruce.
Previously, he had some admiration for Bruce, but with that one sentence, he had completely blocked any path Bruce had within S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Miles hasn't been Spider-Man for long before being brought into S.H.I.E.L.D.," Bruce started, but before he could finish, Miles cut in.
"How do you know that?"
Bruce ignored him and simply gestured for Jessica to keep Miles quiet.
"So, how could a superhero who has been active in public for so long possibly have no ties to S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Bruce spoke as he stepped closer to Fury.
"I believe you had already made contact with Peter Parker long ago. You just didn't make it public, nor did you reveal the full story. At the same time, you were waiting for other members of the Ultimate Alliance to arrive. But..."
As Bruce spoke, the bats in his mind murmured as well.
"Generally speaking, when a bat says 'but,' it means a shift in the situation is about to happen," the Lego Bat sitting on Thomas's bed said matter-of-factly.
Thomas nodded in agreement.
However, the voices in his mental prison did not interfere with Bruce.
He continued speaking to Fury, "You and Peter Parker must have had a disagreement. It's very likely that something went wrong with your experiment."
"Ultimately, Peter Parker continued on as a lone vigilante while you sealed away all relevant data and experimental results."
"Nice story, but it's not true." Fury dismissed it casually, unwilling to engage in any further discussion with Bruce on the matter.
Bruce also had no intention of continuing, because at that moment, the serum-injected Mary Jane woke up.
The topic was no longer suitable for discussion.
"Jessica, take her out of here." Even though Mary Jane had received the serum and was now a superhuman, no one knew what her abilities would be.
Besides, Mary Jane had never experienced a superhuman war before. The consequences of involving her were something no one wanted to witness.
This was the best way to honor the memory of the fallen Spider-Man.
But just as Jessica reached out to support Mary Jane, she saw Mary Jane rise from the chair on her own.
She fixed her gaze on Bruce.
"I want to know what Peter did." As she spoke, she crushed the tabletop beside her with her bare hand.
Clearly, her newfound abilities were already manifesting.
Jessica hesitated, looking toward Bruce for guidance on what to do next.
Bruce simply stared at Mary Jane.
Mary Jane met his gaze unflinchingly.
"Take her with us," Bruce decided.
But Fury was not on board.
"No. We need to ensure her safety. I won't allow it," Fury firmly objected.
The mere fact that Mary Jane had been dragged into this was enough to make him feel immense guilt toward Peter Parker. If she continued to follow them, he didn't know how he would face it all.
At the very least, he had to ensure her safety.
"I appreciate your concern, but I need to know what Peter did!" Mary Jane's voice was firm as she addressed Fury.
Fury found himself at a loss.
"That's not happening!" He still tried to refuse.
But even the so-called king of spies was at a loss for words now.
The only thing he could do was insist that Mary Jane could not accompany them on this mission.
"Why?" Mary Jane challenged him.
Her question left Fury speechless.
He looked at Mary Jane. It was clear she was determined to see what lay in the thirteenth underground level.
That had been the home of the man she once loved the most, yet there were things in this world she had never been told.
Regaining his composure, Fury finally spoke.
"The moment Peter started his activities, S.H.I.E.L.D. had already taken notice of him. We made contact."
"But at the time, he was too young—just a high school student."
"We needed him, but we didn't need someone that young."
Miles suddenly raised his hand. "But I'm a high school student."
He was met with sharp glares from both Bruce and Fury.
The young Black Spider immediately shut his mouth.
"So, we waited until he entered college. That's when he officially became part of S.H.I.E.L.D. However, due to his unique nature, he was always considered a special case."
"At one point, the Green Goblin and several other villains targeted Peter, and it was only thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intervention that he survived."
"After that, both Peter and I realized that even superhumans alone weren't enough."
"Together, we initiated a cloning project, with Peter himself as the genetic template."
"Peter designed the entire process. If successful, we could create a superhuman army to protect everyone."
"But our first batch of clones—like the Six-Armed Spider—had major defects."
"Their dominant genes were unstable, leading to genetic mutations."
"So we had to put them on ice and continue our research."
"Then, we finally succeeded. Among the second batch, we created a near-perfect clone."
"We named him Ben Reilly."
"After that, we accelerated our research, continuously expanding our cloning efforts."
"But Peter never finalized an appropriate control mechanism. At the time, I directly chose a brain-machine interface to have all the clones controlled by the central system, but Peter rejected it."
"Although brain-machine interfaces have become relatively common technology in S.H.I.E.L.D., they still cause irreversible damage to the user's body."
"The appearance of Venom, the symbiote, provided us with the best solution."
"We planned to use symbiotes to control all the Spider clones."
"They lost control," Bruce spoke at this moment.
"Just like what happened when Carnage was born—it all started when you tried to bond Carnage with the Spider clones." Bruce was genuinely surprised by their audacity. They were experimenting with a parasitic lifeform that had already been proven to possess independent thought.
"That's right," Nick Fury said, pressing his lips together. "We combined Ben Reilly with Carnage."
Recalling the situation at the time, Nick Fury couldn't help but sigh.
"We initially thought that the next generation spawned from Venom wouldn't have such extreme violent tendencies. But what we didn't anticipate was that while the symbiotes did reproduce, their aggression also evolved directly into a bloodthirsty instinct."
"All our plans failed."
"After neutralizing Ben Reilly and containing Carnage, the Spider clone project was completely shut down."
"Of course, later on, Peter and I still discussed the Spider Clone Army. I advocated for destroying all the clones, but Peter disagreed. He believed that the clones had independent souls, and eliminating them would be no different from murder."
"In the end, the matter was shelved, and Peter left S.H.I.E.L.D."
After Nick Fury finished explaining everything, Mary Jane pursed her lips and silently stared at him.
"Thank you." In the end, that was all she said.
"So, please leave. I don't want to be unable to protect Peter's loved ones," Nick Fury said, and perhaps, this time, he truly meant it from the bottom of his heart.
At this moment, he was no longer the King of Spies or a general of the United States.
He was just someone who wanted to protect his friend's loved ones.
"No, this is my husband's doing, and as his wife, I will help him end it," Mary Jane rejected Nick Fury's plea. To her, helping Peter Parker resolve everything was the only thing she should do.
Nick Fury might have wanted to say more, but it was clear that Mary Jane was done talking.
She suddenly slapped the table beside her, sending it flying.
Watching the airborne table, Nick Fury realized there was no convincing Mary Jane.
Bruce remained silent, merely observing Carnage, who was roaming atop the building.
"Alright, we need to move faster."
On the surveillance feed, Carnage was starting to show signs of impatience.
Yet, for some reason, despite clearly wanting to charge out, Carnage remained firmly trapped within the Tri-Wing building.
It was as if something was interfering with his movements.
However, Carnage's restlessness and agitation were not good signs.
They needed to settle everything quickly.
"What about him?" Miles nudged the unconscious Two-Face Peter on the ground with his foot.
"Take him. Take them all," Bruce said without even looking back, continuing forward.
Miles didn't need to think—he already knew what he had to do.
He hoisted Two-Face Peter onto his back.
"Man, I hope you don't pull anything. Otherwise, I'll have to drag you along," Miles muttered warily. He didn't trust this guy—someone capable of orchestrating a kidnapping was hardly trustworthy.
Two-Face Peter said nothing. His gaze remained fixed on Mary Jane.
His mind was still stuck on his mission to protect her.
But he hadn't realized that Mary Jane was already married—to another version of himself.
The realization left him bewildered.
To put it bluntly, he hadn't even heard what Miles had said.
But for the others, this wasn't a concern.
They kept moving downward.
However, as they stepped into the passage between the tenth and eleventh floors, what lay before them made both Miles and Mary Jane freeze.
Everywhere in the corridor was blood.
Not far away, there was even a severed hand.
Both Bruce and Nick Fury frowned at the sight.
Clearly, the situation on the thirteenth underground level was vastly different from their initial estimations.
What awaited them below was likely a literal hell.
But they had no choice but to keep going.
Even Mary Jane forced herself to suppress her nausea and see what had happened below.
The eleventh and twelfth underground levels had been completely transformed into a bloody slaughterhouse.
They saw countless clones mercilessly slaughtered.
It was a one-sided massacre.
Perhaps they had resisted, but it had been futile.
Mary Jane looked at the dismembered bodies, and the nausea she had been holding back overwhelmed her.
She instinctively sought a nearby trash bin to vomit, only to find a severed head inside.
That was her breaking point.
She lost all composure, retching violently to the side.
Miles wasn't doing any better.
His mask was already lifted, but there was nothing left in his stomach to throw up.
He had emptied it all earlier and was now dry-heaving bile.
Bruce surveyed the scattered remains, then glanced at the two surviving Spider-Man clones behind him. Something didn't add up.
Based on the intel Nick Fury provided earlier, at least one clone had escaped the Tri-Wing building.
But judging by this massacre, not a single clone should have survived.
How had these two managed to escape?
"Were the first batch of clones stored separately from the final Spider Army?" Bruce asked, his gaze shifting.
"No, they were kept in the same place—deeper inside, even," Nick Fury replied, also sensing something was off.
Given the carnage, these two survivors clearly weren't elite Spider-Man clones.
By all logic, they should have been among the butchered bodies.
And yet, here they were—alive.
It didn't make sense.
Even if they had escaped after being released, the odds were slim.
But now wasn't the time for these questions. Bruce and Nick Fury pressed forward.
Mary Jane gradually recovered.
Miles, however, trudged behind, needing time to brace himself mentally.
He feared that what awaited them next might be beyond his limit.
And when they finally reached the thirteenth underground level, Nick Fury found himself agreeing with Bruce's earlier words.
Because in front of them was the thirteenth underground level—completely opened.
Just as they had suspected, all the clones here were dead.
"They haven't been dead for more than 24 hours," Bruce concluded after inspecting the bodies.
Which meant the massacre had occurred far too recently for the two clones behind them to have escaped unscathed.
Let alone for one of them to have made it all the way to May Parker's home.
"Looks like we need to discuss your identities," Nick Fury said, turning to face the two clones behind him.
(End of this chapter)
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