Scarecrow walked out of Midtown Bank and looked at the crowd of police officers surrounding him and Spider-Man crouched atop the entrance. He showed little reaction. But Captain Stacy knew almost instantly what to do. "All units, fire!"
Armed only with handguns, the police unloaded their nine-millimeter rounds at the supervillain before them. Yet the shots did not even scratch the paint on his titanium-gold alloy armor. He silently watched the police fire volley after volley, then slammed both fists into the ground, flipping over every nearby officer along with the police cars parked nearby.
Then Scarecrow took a deep breath.
"Come on, Spider-Man. Round two!"
"Leave him to me, Captain. Get everyone out of here!"
Spider-Man was naturally the only one who had not been knocked over. He had already swung in front of Scarecrow and traded punches with him again, while still reminding Captain Stacy, who had fallen to the ground, to evacuate quickly. "I've got him! I almost had him just now!"
"You were nowhere near having me, bug!"
After another punch sent Spider-Man back, Scarecrow finally noticed the webbing attached to his arm. Spider-Man yanked hard, making Scarecrow stagger two steps forward, then flew up and kicked him in the head. He pulled the web again, binding one of Scarecrow's hands to his chest, then smashed another fist into his face.
"Don't rush, Herman. I can keep this up all day—did you know Captain says that a lot?"
With one hand stuck down, Scarecrow swung his other fist at Spider-Man. But at some point, his foot had also been caught in webbing, causing him to fall flat on the ground. Spider-Man immediately sat on top of him, twisted his arm behind his back and pinned it to his waist, then webbed it down.
Scarecrow was not worried about hurting himself. He fired heavily at his own chest, blasting both himself and Spider-Man perched on him into the air. Yet Spider-Man still had strength left. He hooked Scarecrow with a webline and closed in quickly, landing two vicious punches in midair before being sent flying again.
Herman landed first, but before he could catch his breath, he received Spider-Man's airborne gift. Webbing shot from both hands and stuck to the overturned police cars on either side of him, hurling them down onto him with tremendous force. The two police cars collided violently, and Scarecrow, activating his vibration waves in that situation, directly detonated both vehicles.
Flames burned around him as Scarecrow stumbled out in a daze. The armor's weakness was beginning to show. Due to insufficient funding, its heat dissipation had serious problems. The continuous battle and the explosion just now had left Scarecrow dizzy, and he could clearly feel himself becoming dehydrated.
"Stop, Herman. You know yourself that you're almost done." Spider-Man stood right in front of him, still refusing to give up on persuading him. "You're a genius. You don't need to hurt people to become somebody."
"If only... if only you'd said that when we first met, little bug." Scarecrow gave a bitter laugh. "If only you'd said that to Herman Schultz instead of Scarecrow."
"I am saying it to Herman..."
"You're lying!"
The shockwave that smashed into the ground tore a crack through the pavement, venting Scarecrow's rage beyond ordinary understanding. "You say these things because I can do this! You know how capable I am, how much destruction I can cause!"
"Before I became Scarecrow, nobody respected me!"
"You really don't listen, Herman."
Watching Scarecrow seemingly regain his rhythm through anger, Spider-Man could not help sighing. Fortunately, the police had already retreated farther away and would not interfere with their fight for the moment. Spider-Man chose the simplest possible way to deal with Scarecrow. He pulled down the vault door embedded in the wall, then shoved the thing straight at Scarecrow.
"Watch the door!"
"What?!"
Scarecrow looked left and right. Once he confirmed there was no way to dodge, he fired at the vault door at full power. Spider-Man pushed the door toward Herman through the vibration waves, and the two struggled against each other through the thick metal barrier. On one side was mutated superhuman strength; on the other was technological enhancement. For a moment, neither had the upper hand.
But Herman was gradually beginning to feel that he could not hold on. He could feel sweat pouring down him as he endured the agony. Before long, dehydration would leave him unable to fight. On the other side of the metal door, Spider-Man also seemed to be running out of strength, and for some reason, his power was no longer as great as before.
Good. He can't hold out either. Thinking this, Scarecrow let out a furious roar and shoved with all his might, knocking over the entire vault door. It crashed heavily onto a police car, even sending its wheels flying, while Herman stared blankly at the car supporting the vault door.
Then he felt weightless. Spider-Man had secretly slipped behind him and webbed his back, then hurled his entire body through the air before smashing him into the ground.
If Scarecrow was too strong for webbing to restrain his weapons, then Spider-Man would swing his whole body around and smash him instead!
"Sorry, Herman. I hope your armor is as tough as you said it was!"
Scarecrow, slammed into the ground, had no time to get angry or even raise his fist to fire a vibration wave before he was swung up again and smashed into the ground on the other side. Only after three or four repetitions did he adapt to the rhythm. He fired a vibration wave at his own body, blasting himself away and breaking free of the webbing, then climbed to his feet weakly.
He did not want to continue anymore. He had underestimated just how tough that bug was—and how much he talked. Spider-Man kept yammering about persuading him to be a "good person" while also hitting him with everything he had.
Fortunately, Herman Schultz was a genius. He knew exactly what weaknesses his enemy had.
But this was not a good place.
"Still planning to keep fighting, Herman?"
"Stop preaching, bug. I'm tired. I'm leaving."
"What? Wait, you can't—"
Before Spider-Man could finish, Scarecrow fired a vibration wave at the ground, shattering the pavement and leaping away into the distance. Captain George Stacy, who had been keeping watch over the surroundings, finally emerged. Looking at the battlefield's devastation, he sucked in a sharp breath.
Injured officers lying on the ground, a nearly destroyed bank, burning and shattered streets—this was what a superhero battle looked like?
Was the cost too great?
"Herman has fled the scene, repeat, Herman has fled the scene. The SWAT team will be here soon? The SWAT team no longer has the ability to stop this! Can we contact the National Guard? Hello? Hello?"
The electronic signal in the communicator suddenly cut out. Just as George was confused, an unbelievable voice came through it.
"Captain Stacy, this is Steve Rogers. We are pursuing the dangerous individual Herman Schultz."
"The Avengers are taking over the scene."
Completely unaware that the Avengers had intervened, Spider-Man was still swinging on his webs in pursuit of Herman. Wherever Herman reached with his huge hands, destruction followed. Manhattan's streets were blasted full of craters, while Spider-Man did everything he could to stop it.
"Come on, Herman?! You're really just running away like this? That annoying J. Jonah Jameson is definitely going to chew me out again. Can't you be considerate and let's settle this right here?"
"You want to settle this?"
Scarecrow stopped beneath an intercity rail station, seemingly no longer intending to run. He panted heavily. There were still plenty of people around, especially at the station above, where many passengers remained.
"Then let's settle this, bug. You're a hero, right?"
"Let's see what heroes usually do."
There was no need for an all-out fight like before. This time, Herman's target was no longer Spider-Man. He merely raised his hand and blasted through the support pillars beneath the station.
"What are you doing?"
"Go save them, hero."
"Great idea, Herman. That way I won't have time to stop you from escaping."
Spider-Man helplessly got up and swung beneath the elevated tracks, beginning to bind the damaged support pillars together with webbing. He swung back and forth between the buildings on both sides, using webbing to secure the elevated structure to them, all while shouting for the passengers in the station to evacuate.
But the support pillars continued collapsing, and one of them was especially severe. Unable to bind it back together, Peter chose to kick apart the already badly damaged pillar and support the entire elevated bridge himself, buying time for the station's passengers to escape.
Scarecrow did not run. He was simply waiting for this moment—for Spider-Man to stand there, using his own body to hold up the support pillar and the entire elevated structure. He raised his hand and aimed it at Spider-Man.
He listened to the screams of those ordinary people and felt their helpless panic. All he had to do was clench his fist, and Spider-Man would be blown away and buried beneath the collapsing elevated tracks. He could eliminate Spider-Man right now, and the price would be nothing more than a few dozen lives.
"Fuck it."
Herman Schultz lowered his fist, punched the ground, and chose to leave.
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