บท 96: Restart, Spider-Man! [96]
Steam rose from their cups as Xia Luo and Old Steve sat in front of a convenience store, slurping instant noodles with complete disregard for appearances.
Behind them, Tuxedo Loki held his own bowl of noodles. Despite the enticing aroma, he couldn't bring himself to eat.
No table, no luxurious palace setting—how was he supposed to eat this?
As passersby shot curious glances his way, Loki's face twisted in discomfort.
"I am a prince of Asgard. How can you expect me to eat this lowly mortal food?" He looked over at Xia Luo, who was already drinking the soup, feeling more indignant by the second.
Xia Luo glanced at him and set down his noodles.
"If you don't like it, I can get you a McDonna."
"A Mc… what?"
"A burger."
"Fine."
In Tuxedo Loki's mind, if Thor liked it, then a burger must be far superior to instant noodles!
Beside him, Old Steve finished his noodles, wiped his mouth, and casually tossed his bowl toward the trash can.
But it missed.
"Abby, JJJ~ Old people shouldn't litter, you know!"
A chilling voice suddenly spoke up, and Old Steve's face went pale.
Venom Parker leaped down from the roof, scurrying over in tiny steps to toss the noodle bowl into the trash can, then made a victory pose with a peace sign.
"Ugh—"
Watching this again, Old Steve turned and vomited up everything he'd just eaten.
"I specifically told Norman and Dr. Curt to take him away. Why is he back?" he groaned.
Xia Luo shook his head, unimpressed. "Old man, you're being dramatic. Take a page out of my book. I've seen it all over the years—this is nothing, just water off my back!"
Hearing this, Tuxedo Loki quietly stood and walked away.
A moment later, the sounds of retching echoed from behind them.
"Abby~ It's wrong to throw up on the ground like that. Clean up after yourselves, please!"
"Ugh—"
In the corner, Loki stared at his bowl of noodles, sighing.
No chance he'd be able to eat now.
As Venom Parker started tidying up, Xia Luo glanced at the rooftop.
"They're gone."
Tuxedo Loki waved his hand, summoning the staff in a flash of green light.
Buzz—
The glowing staff pulsed, but Norman and Dr. Curt didn't reappear.
Loki frowned. "Did they break free of the hypnosis?"
"If they had, we'd have heard some kind of ruckus. Could there be another reason?" Xia Luo asked.
"There is. Unless… they're dead."
At this, Xia Luo glanced around the area instinctively.
"The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are gone, too."
"Nick Fury wouldn't pass up the chance to monitor us—I'm sure of it," said Old Steve, who had recovered by then.
Xia Luo nodded. "So there's only one possibility. They're dead, too."
"If someone managed to kill them without us noticing, this world's Loki couldn't have done it," Tuxedo Loki said confidently.
Xia Luo rose, scanning the surroundings. "Loki has an ally, maybe one he's not even aware of."
"What?"
Old Steve and Tuxedo Loki looked confused, uncertain of what he meant.
Then, Xia Luo's spider-sense tingled, sending an urgent warning.
"Oh no!"
A wave of magical energy rippled through the air, and Tuxedo Loki's face went pale. "This presence… it's dark magic!"
Before he could finish, a black magic array appeared underfoot, spreading in all directions.
Buzz—
The moment the array was complete, Xia Luo and Old Steve shot web lines and swung to safety, leaving Tuxedo Loki behind, calling after them.
"Wait for me!"
"Abby~ So scary!!"
Venom Parker shrieked as he was yanked into the dark array by ghostly hands reaching out from the void.
With Venom Parker's "purity mode" in full swing, he had zero fighting power left.
Xia Luo landed on a nearby billboard, watching the dark hands engulf Tuxedo Loki from afar.
"Old man, something's up with you," he said, casting a curious look at Old Steve.
He himself could dodge the dark magic thanks to his spider-sense, but how had Steve managed?
Old Steve steadied himself. "Peter left me something. It's similar to spider-sense, but it's way less reliable than yours."
Xia Luo's eyes lit up as he remembered—this was one of the rewards Steve had received for winning a resurrection round.
Combined with the web-shooters Xia Luo had lent him…
Did that mean this guy had officially become Captain Spider-Man?
A second later, black tendrils shot toward them, and both men began swinging away through the cityscape.
"Hey, Spider-Kid, what are these creepy things?" Old Steve shouted, narrowly avoiding the dark hands as they clawed at him.
The hands extended endlessly, soon forming a thick black cloud that blotted out the city block.
Xia Luo didn't answer, his eyes fixed on the large geometric barrier forming around them, reflective like diamonds.
They weren't getting out of here.
Boom!
The dark energy shifted, morphing the world around them into geometric patterns, while shadowy tendrils shot out from every angle, giving the two no time to catch their breath as they were suspended midair.
Seeing Dark Stephen emerge through a crimson portal, Old Steve gasped.
"Supreme Sorcerer Stephen Strange!"
"No, that's Dark Stephen," Xia Luo corrected.
"How can you tell?"
"He doesn't have a cape."
"I could have guessed that myself."
Old Steve's face darkened. Sorcerer Supreme Strange was the legendary wizard who'd once singlehandedly held off Thanos.
If Thanos hadn't possessed the Infinity Stones, Doctor Strange could have beaten him alone.
And Dark Stephen, having mastered dark magic, would only be more powerful.
Crack, crack, crack~
With a flourish of hand signs, Dark Stephen manipulated the surrounding structures, sending the geometric buildings crashing down on them.
"Hold on. Don't you villains usually deliver a monologue before going all out?" Xia Luo called out.
At this, Dark Stephen paused for a moment.
"There's nothing to say—because this isn't my 'all out' move."
With that, the geometric landscape crushed the two of them completely.
[You have been eliminated. Resurrection not possible. Reward: Native Web Mode +1]
[13 retries remaining. Restart?]
Restart!
Seventh Resurrection Round.
Back to the amusement park battle.
After successfully hypnotizing Venom Parker, Xia Luo didn't head for Stark Tower. Instead, he went directly to the agents outside the amusement park, and they all returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
"Abby, JJJ~ Don't be mean to me, that's not nice~"
Outside the meeting room, a group of agents tried to calm down Peter Parker, all while stifling their own revulsion.
Inside, Nick Fury wordlessly closed the blinds to avoid accidentally seeing the nauseating sight.
"What exactly is your objective?" he asked Xia Luo.
Xia Luo checked the time and cut to the chase. "In ten hours, Loki will use the Tesseract to open a space portal, and an alien army will invade Earth."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Nick Fury didn't acknowledge the Tesseract, though he glanced at Tuxedo Loki and the dazed Norman and the others standing nearby.
"And Loki is right here."
Xia Luo just smirked.
"You don't need to admit it. You'll know I was right tomorrow."
Nick Fury seemed to be orchestrating things to help Loki open the portal—or possibly planning to eliminate anyone in his way as he went after Loki.
There could be other motives, but Xia Luo was merely speculating. He'd need to probe further.
Nick Fury was wary of them, too.
After a brief exchange, Fury assigned agents to monitor them and went off to deal with other issues.
Xia Luo didn't mind.
"This guy intends to keep tabs on us," Tuxedo Loki muttered, feeling the distasteful weight of being watched.
Xia Luo waved it off. "Don't worry about it."
"But why did we come here in the first place? Loki's about to open the space portal. We should be at Stark Tower," Loki suggested.
Xia Luo didn't explain, but Old Steve chuckled. "Loki, you've seen enough of Spider-Kid's abilities by now. Trust him."
Hearing this, Tuxedo Loki abandoned his doubts.
In truth, seeing Xia Luo's ability to foresee events had completely impressed him.
Following this guy might let him win the resurrection round and stop this world's Loki from making a mistake.
After all, Old Man Steve hadn't won twice by sheer strength. No—he'd ridden Spider-Man's coattails the entire way.
Resolved, he let his concerns fade.
Time flew by.
The next day, a brilliant light erupted from Stark Tower, and a blue portal began to open over the city.
Beep, beep, beep!
As the Chitauri army began pouring through the portal, S.H.I.E.L.D. sprang into action, sending wave after wave of jets toward the city.
Xia Luo and his team joined the rest, heading straight for the battlefield.
"What was the point of going to S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
In the jet, Old Steve leaned close to Xia Luo, unable to contain his curiosity.
Xia Luo looked at Agent Coulson across from him.
"Well? What did you find out at S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Coulson's mouth twitched, and his face shifted, turning green as he transformed into Loki.
"I found someone in the control room playing card games."
Xia Luo: "..."
"Anything else?"
"I found Nick Fury's… unusual taste in movies."
"Anything useful?"
Loki grinned. "Sure. Tony and Steve have gone missing, and they couldn't identify a suspect. No one even knows magic exists here."
"Is that so?"
Xia Luo went silent, thinking.
With Dark Stephen's powers, he could easily track down the contestants and eliminate them, yet he hadn't done so.
He also could have taken down the Avengers, but he'd only killed Tony and Steve.
Xia Luo suspected there might be someone within S.H.I.E.L.D. whom Dark Stephen feared—perhaps this world's Sorcerer Supreme.
Maybe that's why he resorted to sneaky attacks.
But it seemed he'd miscalculated.
As jets thundered toward the city, Xia Luo shot web lines to glide toward the chaotic battlefield below.
Thwip!
Zipping through the air, he launched webs that tore through the Chitauri soldiers, turning them to scraps.
The smell of blood hit him—a familiar scent.
"Xia Luo Parker, you finally showed up."
At the same spot as before, Hydra Steve lashed out with octopus-like tendrils, blasting the wall behind Xia Luo to pieces.
"Steve, you have to live on."
"Bucky!"
Boom!!
Bucky immediately self-destructed, sending shards flying. But Xia Luo had anticipated it, dodging just outside the explosion.
"What?"
Hydra Steve's face twisted, and then he saw Xia Luo launching himself forward from a web slingshot.
"Damn you!"
He cursed, whipping nine blood-red tendrils across his body, hurling nearby cars toward Xia Luo.
Boom, boom, boom!!
Metal fragments flew as the red-and-blue figure wove elegantly through them, closing in on his target.
Boom!!
In blackened armor with glowing red eyes, Xia Luo threw a punch, followed by the strike of four black spider-spears.
Splat!
Thud!!
Hydra Steve's chest erupted in blood, the sheer force crushing his body and shattering his spine, leaving him slumped and hopeless.
"How did you… beat me so easily…?"
Blood stained his uniform, but he cast a quick look at his spine lying on the ground, clinging to one last sliver of hope.
Everyone had their curiosity, and Spider-Man was no exception.
As long as this kid picked up his spine, he would have won!
But Xia Luo simply flicked a web, launching the spine into the rubble, obliterating his last shred of hope.
"Sorry, your little secret's out."
"What…?"
And with that, Hydra Steve slumped to the ground, defeated, his eyes closing for good.
Moments later, fire streaked across the sky.
With an endless alien army at their doorstep, the top brass in New York made the call for total annihilation.
They'd given up on the city.
S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't stop it.
With Iron Man and Captain gone, even Thor hadn't shown up—only the Hulk remained as an unpredictable last line of defense.
Meanwhile, Tuxedo Loki flew high into the air on Norman's glider, catching up with the incoming nuke.
"Crap. If it wasn't for the resurrection round, I wouldn't be doing this."
In the sky, Tuxedo Loki reluctantly grabbed the nuke, activating the glider to its maximum power to redirect the missile.
Whizz—
Seeing the missile heading for the space portal, Nick Fury felt a spark of hope ignite in his chest.
"All pilots, cover him! Keep those alien soldiers away from the nuke."
"A126, roger!"
"A45, roger!"
"A87, roger!"
In a heartbeat, the remaining jets cleared a path for Loki.
Meanwhile, Xia Luo reached the top of Stark Tower.
The device was still channeling the Tesseract's energy, while nearby, Old Steve was in the middle of a standoff with Horned Loki.
"This time, I won't let you hit me on the head."
Old Steve, transformed into a muscle-bound demon, body-slammed Horned Loki into the ground.
"You lunatic—I've never even met you!"
Horned Loki struggled to his feet, cursing furiously, "How dare you treat me like this! Do you even know who I am? I'm…"
---
T/N: Damn Dark Strange is just too OP, I feel like they'll use Thanos against him...
Hi, lovelies! I'm so excited to share my new project with you—I Just Want A Single Ending! It's a crossover of mygo!!! and Bocchi The Rock! with all the band drama, emotions, and fun you could ever want. I've been swooning over every chapter, and I hope you fall in love with it too! (I got like 200+ chapters stockpiled)
Oh, and guess what? I've got a few more stories coming your way this week, so stay tuned. As always, thank you so much for your support—you're the best!
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