Peter Parker's vigilance was something Bruce had anticipated.
After all, he had previously held a Batarang to his lover's throat.
It was only natural for Peter to be wary of him.
Just as the others were about to say something to Peter Parker, Bruce mercilessly interrupted their attempt at reminiscing.
"If you want to catch up, I suggest you do it after we leave this place."
Earlier, Bruce had already attempted to control the passage gates on the eleventh and twelfth underground levels, trying to use them to slow down the advancing clone spiders.
But every gate they managed to close was nothing more than a flimsy barrier—easily torn apart by the clone spiders.
"Is there an emergency exit?"
Bruce turned to Nick Fury and Peter Parker, the two men who had originally overseen the construction of this facility. Logically, they should have had contingencies in place for such scenarios.
Especially Nick Fury.
That man was the type to ensure he had secret bases and safe houses everywhere he went.
There was no way he wouldn't have designed an emergency escape route here.
Nick Fury and Peter Parker exchanged a glance. When they first designed this place, they had never considered such a situation.
This was S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
No one could have predicted that things would escalate to this level, or that the President of the United States would sign off on something as absurd as the Winter Plan.
"In that case, we may only have one option."
Bruce tapped a few commands on the control screen on his gauntlet before sealing it beneath his armor.
Then, he retrieved a vial of serum from his belt and tossed it to Nick Fury.
Nick Fury was all too familiar with this particular serum—it was something he had originally intended to use against Bruce.
But given the current circumstances, there was no way he wouldn't use it.
Shrugging off his black leather jacket, he tossed it to the currently half-naked Peter Parker.
"Make sure to buy me an identical one later," Fury said.
Then, without hesitation, he injected the serum into himself.
In an instant, his body transformed into a hulking superhuman, one whose strength could rival the Hulk's.
Unlike the Hulk, however, he remained in full control of his mind—he still knew exactly what needed to be done.
"So, what's our next move?" Peter Parker asked, turning to Bruce.
"If you don't want to die, keep moving."
Bruce shot them a glance before heading out.
Jessica followed without a second thought.
Miles hesitated for a moment, but ultimately, he followed Bruce as well—he trusted the Bat's judgment.
After all, the Bat had never been wrong before.
"Let's go," Mary Jane said to Peter Parker.
Without another word, the two clasped hands and walked forward, leaving behind the now-transformed Nick Fury.
"Honestly, shouldn't I be the one leading the charge right now?" Fury chuckled.
By this time, the clone spiders had reached the twelfth underground level.
"Be honest with me—do you actually have another plan to get us out of this damn place?" Jessica asked, keeping pace with Bruce.
Bruce remained silent, his gaze unwavering as he moved forward.
Jessica had long since grown accustomed to this side of him.
She believed that Bruce definitely had a plan.
As for what that plan was, only Bruce himself knew.
At that moment, Nick Fury surged ahead of them.
Despite his now-massive frame, his agility remained largely unaffected.
The hallway, which could normally accommodate five people walking side by side, now had room for just one person on either side of him.
"I get what you're thinking. If we let those clone spiders fight us back there, we'd be at a serious disadvantage. But here, we can use the space to even the odds a little," Fury said confidently as he advanced.
Bruce didn't respond—this was, after all, part of his own plan.
If they had waited for the clone spiders at the cryo-chambers on the thirteenth level, they wouldn't have stood a chance.
But by moving the battlefield to the passageways, things became less predictable.
At the very least, they could control how many enemies they had to face at a time.
And with Fury transformed into a black Hulk at the front lines, the direct assault they had to endure would be significantly reduced.
The clone spiders, having broken through the eleventh level, now spotted Bruce and the others on the twelfth.
In an instant, they charged straight at them.
"Come on!" Nick Fury didn't retreat but instead charged straight into the swarm of spider clones.
There was no denying that the serum Nick Fury had injected gave him the strength to take on these spider clones.
With arms spread wide, he lunged directly into the swarm, completely intercepting the leading spider clones.
But these spider clones were not just a handful.
Although the ones at the front wavered slightly from Nick Fury's impact, they quickly steadied themselves, using their combined strength to hold him back.
While the front-line clones were blocking Nick Fury, others had already leaped onto the ceiling, maneuvering behind him.
However, before they could land, Bruce and the others' attacks were already upon them.
The three Spider-Men advanced together, firmly keeping those creatures away from Bruce and Mary Jane, leaving no chance for the spider clones to get close to the two ordinary humans.
"You guys should just head back where you came from. Honestly, such a poor imitation is kind of painful to watch." Peter Parker, true to his talkative nature, kept running his mouth at the silent spider clones even in this intense battle.
But at that moment, another spider clone had already landed beside him, and Peter was currently entangled with another foe.
"Well, this is bad. You never mentioned it was a two-on-one fight!"
Peter initially intended to dodge, but in the next instant, a figure suddenly rushed in and delivered a punch straight to the clone's head.
Peter could clearly see the clone's head spin completely around.
He had no idea Batman had that kind of strength.
But when the figure stopped and flashed him a charming smile, he realized—this wasn't Batman. It was his wife, Mary Jane.
"I think we should have a discussion about what exactly is going on once we get out of here," Peter said, throwing the enemy in front of him aside and turning to Mary Jane.
"Don't worry. Once we're out, I'll tell you whatever you want to know. But first, we need to get out." As she spoke, Mary Jane swung another punch at an approaching clone.
However, this particular clone had clearly learned from the last one's mistake—it swiftly dodged her attack.
Mary Jane, untrained in combat, ended up punching the wall beside her instead.
"Boom!"
The wall shattered completely from the impact, no longer resembling its original form.
Mary Jane stared at her fist in shock—there wasn't a single scratch on it.
This sensation was utterly surreal to her.
The clone, seeing this display of strength, wisely decided to abandon attacking Mary Jane and instead lunged at Peter Parker.
"Everyone, just hold on a little longer!"
Bruce had already reached the clone that Mary Jane had previously knocked down.
He pulled a data cable from his armored gauntlet and plugged it into the cybernetic interface at the back of the clone's spine.
HYDRA's control methods had always been crude yet effective—they installed neural interfaces in all their clones, allowing remote operation.
But their crude methods came with vulnerabilities. At least against Batman, these systems were open to remote hacking.
However, HYDRA's security measures were formidable. Even Batman couldn't hack all the neural interfaces at once.
It was as if they were playing a game, controlling each soldier through an individual neural interface, preventing any single entity from taking control of them all.
Not even Bruce Wayne himself could hack them all in one go.
But Bruce didn't need to take over all the interfaces—he just needed to find out where the operators were located.
"If you've got a Plan B, now would be a great time to use it!" Peter Parker shouted as he kicked away a clone attempting to reach Mary Jane.
"If you've got any weird little gadgets, now's the time to pull them out—like an EMP or something. See if you can fry their neural interfaces!" Miles chimed in, also yelling at Bruce.
But after inspecting the clone's cybernetic implant, Bruce already knew his EMP wouldn't work. The components were all shielded.
His current tools simply weren't powerful enough to bypass the protective layers and disrupt the internal circuitry.
(End of Chapter)
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