"Long Island blackout..."
On the rooftop of a high-rise in Manhattan. Shiller looked down at the message on his phone screen, murmuring to himself. He took out his binoculars to look towards Long Island. But the distance was too far, he could only vaguely see the coastline.
Apart from the peaceful resorts, there was also a famous bar street in that area, which flickered with neon lights in the night. The boiling hormones, the deafening music, and the exhilaration brought by alcohol could be felt even in Manhattan.
Shiller withdrew his gaze and continued to scan Brooklyn and Queens District with his binoculars. Soon, he saw a figure swinging over the traffic.
Without hesitation, Shiller put away the binoculars, picked up a sniper rifle, aimed at the spider silk that glimmered with slight golden light under the streetlamp, and pulled the trigger. "Bang!"
Tonight, Spider Man fell from grace once more—literally.
Having just grabbed onto the spider silk, Spider Man seemed completely unprepared for his spider silk breaking. Unable to launch the next strand in time, he tumbled to the ground, rolled several times, and then stood up with a face full of grime.
He stood by the roadside, looked around in confusion, then remembered to return to where he had just fallen, and carefully searched the area. Finally, he found a shiny shell casing under the streetlight.
The sniper bullet was thin and long, making it easy to distinguish. Spider Man recalled briefly and looked in a certain direction. Unfortunately, the high-rise buildings stacked layer upon layer, piercing the sky, making visibility impossible.
Spider Man instinctively extended his arm, intending to sling himself up but paused momentarily, then withdrew his hand, ran to the roadside, and waved: "TAXI!"
Fifteen minutes later, Spider Man got out of the car. The taxi fare in Manhattan was painfully expensive for him, and despite it being midnight, the traffic was terribly congested. By the time the car arrived, the person who shot at him was probably long gone.
Spider Man stood by the roadside and sighed, surveying his surroundings. Several shooting lines appeared in his vision. Ultimately, he chose the most likely point of emission and crawled up the building facade.
Upon arriving, he saw a person sitting at the edge of the rooftop with a sniper rifle waiting for him.
Spider Man couldn't help but say, "Brother, since you could wait for me so long, it means you're not in a hurry at all, so why did you have to shoot me with a sniper rifle?"
"I didn't shoot at you," he said, "If I really aimed at you, your Spider-sense would have reacted."
"When you aimed at the spider silk, my Spider-sense did react, just too weak for me to notice. What do you want with me? Let me be clear, I won't cooperate with a professional killer like you, whatever you want to do, find someone else."
"How do you know I'm a professional killer?"
"Oh, come on," Spider Man said with an unbearable expression, "What do you mean, you're holding a fire stick? Or did you rip off a steel pipe from the subway handrail while commuting yesterday?"
Shiller stood up, slung the sniper rifle over his back, and removed his hat. Tonight wasn't clear, the moonlight was obscured by clouds, so Spider Man never got a good look at his face. Although there was a familiar feeling, Spider Man couldn't recall who he was.
"I want to ask you something," Shiller said, "What's going on with the Long Island blackout?"
Spider Man's movements visibly stiffened. He instinctively touched his wrist, then lightly stroked his neck before saying, "That was me and Electro..."
"Sir," Shiller interrupted him, saying, "Do you really think this thing in my hand is a fire stick?"
Shiller again took up the sniper rifle, placing the scope close to his eye. In that instant, Spider Man's Spider-sense issued an acute alarm, almost making him leap up on the spot.
"No, no, no! Put the gun away! You can't shoot me! I'm saying, I really... I'm just..."
Spider Man stammered there for a while, gesturing and bouncing around as if performing a breakdance on the spot. Finally, he dropped his arms in frustration and said, "I said from the beginning that I wasn't good at this, I'm really terrible at lying. I didn't even do it, why should I admit? I'm really fed up!"
After speaking, he walked to the edge of the rooftop, sat down, curled up his knees and put his chin on them, gazing at the brightly lit Manhattan night and said, "The news says that it was done by me and Electro, right? They say he went haywire in the fight with me, causing the blackout, but it's not the truth at all."
"Then what really happened?"
"More than that, I want to know who you are."
Shiller stood behind him and said, "Don't mind, maybe I'm just an ordinary person looking for the truth?"
"Then I'll think of you as such," Spider Man took a deep breath and said, "I should never have helped them conceal it from the start, it was a foolish decision. If something goes wrong, I can't evade responsibility either, I'm really stifled."
"Tell me," Shiller said, "If you feel this place doesn't allow you to sincerely repent, we can also go to the church."
"Forget it, the priest in the church my aunt often goes to is annoying, I don't like it there at all," Spider Man sighed deeply, "It truly was an accidental event, but it wasn't a result of someone losing control, or rather, everything was out of control from the beginning."
"What exactly happened?"
"I don't know the complete picture, I can only tell you what I know. There's a laboratory there, superficially researching particle energy weapons, but in reality, they are conducting human experimentation."
"Human experimentation?"
"Yes," Spider Man took a deep breath and said, "They use various high-energy particles to impact human bodies, attempting to transform human life forms."
Shiller narrowed his eyes slightly.
"They claim it's a search for a path to higher-dimensional beings, if successful, the entire human race can be upgraded directly, no longer confined to the material world, but transformed into ionic beings."
"Absurd." Shiller said.
"When I first learned of this concept, I found it ridiculous too, but more ridiculous is that this world indeed exists in such a condition of a blind cat bumping into a dead rat."
"Don't tell me they succeeded."
"Actually, no, it's just that probability played its due role and created a miracle that shouldn't have happened," Spider Man took a deep breath and said, "someone succeeded in transforming."
"Who?"
"That's not important, what's important is that they did succeed."
"He transformed into an ion lifeform?"
"Yes."
"Is he the one who caused this accident?"
"That's where the problem lies," Spider Man emphasized, "Logically, when transforming life forms, only the body changes, the mindset shouldn't change. But at the moment the transformation succeeded, he lost control."
"Lost control?"
"Yes, but I believe, he was invaded," Spider Man paused before continuing, "this is an outright conspiracy, something used this experiment to create a more perfect body for itself. Since then, no one has been able to restrain him."
"What is that thing?"
Spider Man was silent.
"Tell me, Peter, what invaded the ion lifeform?"
Upon hearing his real name, Spider Man shuddered. He stood up, incredulously turning his head to look at the person behind him. The distance was close enough, the light was strong enough, he finally saw the other's face clearly.
"Doctor Schiller?!"
"It's me," Schiller nodded and said.
"No," Spider Man said cautiously, "You're not him; he isn't this young. You're his counterpart."
"If you insist on understanding it that way, it's understandable, but we are all Schiller."
"That's different, some universes' Iron Man and Captain America are bad, I won't randomly trust anyone because of their identity. What are you doing here?"
"Investigating this matter," Schiller stepped forward and said, "The truth can't be hidden, Peter, electronic life from your universe invaded the neighboring world's multiverse, causing many deaths."
At this moment, Spider Man seemed to suddenly shatter. Though his body was still standing at the rooftop edge, his soul seemed to have fallen, breaking into pieces.
He slowly squatted down, covered his face with his hands, and said, "I really made a mistake. I shouldn't have hidden it; I should have told them sooner."
"Now isn't the time for sadness," Schiller said, "Tell me everything you know, completely and accurately. I need to know everything about the origin of this electronic life."
Spider Man squatted there for a few minutes before speaking, "Things have to start from the formation of The Avengers..."
"Stop," Schiller had to interrupt him, breaking the deep atmosphere, he said, "Why don't you start from how humans learned to make fire?"
"But it really has to start from there," Spider Man said aggrievedly, "because it was at that time that Dr. Pym proposed to form a superhero team, and that's how The Avengers was established..."
"Okay, the focus is Dr. Pym, not The Avengers. What did he do?"
"No, the focus is The Avengers because Dr. Pym works for them," rebutted Spider Man.
"Alright then, tell me, what's happened with The Avengers."
"Nothing happened with The Avengers, it's Doctor Strange," said Spider Man.
"How did it turn into Doctor Strange? Can you stay focused?"
"They are all key," Spider Man couldn't take it anymore. He stood up, came in front of Schiller, spread his hands and raised his voice, saying, "Since you want to know everything, don't interrupt me, otherwise how will I know what you want to know?!"
"Alright," Schiller sighed and said, "Go ahead, I promise not to interrupt you anymore."
Spider Man glared at him and then said, "About half a year ago, Doctor Strange approached The Avengers, hoping they could help him gain leadership in the potentially established Multiverse Alliance."
"Actually, it's extremely challenging, because he has many strong competitors, like the Supreme Magician of the Central Universe, like Iron Man from certain universes, and some other Doctor Strange; these people are really hard to deal with."
"However, Doctor Strange also mentioned that our universe is special and holds a significant position in the cosmos, but perhaps it was born too late, most superheroes aren't strong enough to handle the possible multiversal competition."
"Members of The Avengers also felt anxious about this, so they proposed a 'Multiverse Enhancement' plan, which is actually to strengthen the overall power of this universe while becoming more united."
"This plan was initially executed very well; we renegotiated with Mutants, eased tensions with them, and even started some cooperation, established contact with Inhumans, and then Asgard..."
"But merely doing this only puts us on par with other universes. We want some advantages unique to our universe. However, superheroes' superpowers have their limits, making it hard to continue enhancing them."
"So we decided to enhance The Avengers' hardware capabilities. Dr. Pym proposed we could create an artificial intelligence to help The Avengers work better."