Showdown with the Vulture

"Mason, open the door!" The voice came from the intercom on Mason's desk.

Peter turned to look at the fat man, Mason, who stood off to the side with his mouth taped shut and a miserable expression.

Mason understood instantly and hurriedly gestured toward the button on the desk.

"Mason?"

Rumble—

A skylight somewhere in the factory opened.

A powerful gust of air swept in from outside, followed by a figure rushing through.

He wore goggles on his head, a flight suit modified from leather clothing, and a massive pair of metal wings on his back. His appearance was striking, making him look exactly like a giant vulture.

"A little surprise from Spider-Man!" Peter fired an electric web.

With such a huge conductor, how could he not put it to good use?

But Toomes seemed to have been prepared. The instant his body dropped through the skylight, it abruptly stopped. Then his massive body began spinning at high speed, his two pairs of wings like a gigantic top that whipped up a violent whirlwind.

Peter calmly leaped from the spot and landed on the ceiling. He even had the leisure to turn toward the charging Toomes and say, "Wow, Mr. Iron Vulture, you're a lot more intimidating than that other ugly Vulture."

Toomes did not understand what he meant, but that did not stop him from continuing his attack on Peter.

Several launch ports popped open on his wings, firing several miniature missiles.

"These could collapse the building. Aren't you afraid of destroying everything you've worked for, Mr. Iron Vulture?" Peter pressed his hands together and fired a huge web, enveloping the missiles. With a twist, he redirected them back at Toomes.

Toomes was startled by the incoming missiles. He had not expected Peter to accurately intercept even high-speed missiles and throw them back.

What kind of reaction speed and strength did that require?

Amid the chaos, he controlled his wings to block them.

Clang, clang, clang, clang—

A rapid series of impacts rang out.

The miniature missiles had struck the metal wings.

Then a string of explosions erupted.

Toomes was blasted out of the air by his own miniature missiles.

"Perfect!" Peter's eyes lit up, and he prepared to fire another electric web to stun the Vulture.

Just then, his Spider-Sense suddenly trembled.

His body instinctively dove to the side.

Boom!

A huge crater appeared where he had just been.

It was Bryce. He held a strange-looking rifle, its muzzle still faintly glowing red. The compressed energy round from earlier had clearly come from him.

Peter performed another series of evasive moves, instantly jumping more than ten meters away.

Behind him, a barrage of bullets swept after him.

This attack had come from Schultz.

After a moment's thought, Peter understood what had happened.

Mason and the others had probably taken too long to open the door and had not answered. Since Toomes already knew Peter was coming here, he guessed that Peter might have entered and captured Mason and the others.

So Toomes had dropped off Schultz and Bryce ahead of time, while he himself swaggered in on his high-tech wings, intending to attack Peter from both sides.

If it had been the old Peter, he might really have been thrown into a panic.

But Peter had now been through several real battles, large and small, and had gradually become familiar with his suit's functions.

If Toomes thought this would be enough to take him down, then he was underestimating him far too much.

Peter darted around a pillar, then suddenly stopped and pressed himself behind it.

Bullets, miniature missiles, energy rounds, and even some strange force-field weapon—every kind of attack instantly blanketed the pillar where Peter was hiding.

Even Peter had to admit that these guys were real geniuses.

The earlier stuff was one thing, but how had they even managed to make a force-field weapon?

Still, that did not affect his capture operation.

Peter slid down the pillar to the ground, then suddenly reached one hand behind his back and extended it around the side of the pillar.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Several web pellets shot out.

These web pellets were especially elastic. They first struck the ceiling, then bounced down to the floor.

After bouncing three or four times, the web pellets suddenly appeared beside Schultz and Bryce, transforming into huge webs.

Thud!

Thud!

The two unlucky men were once again bound by webs and toppled to the ground.

The gunfire and cannon fire stopped abruptly.

"Idiots!" Seeing his two subordinates lose their fighting ability again, Toomes cursed under his breath.

But he did not dare go down to rescue them.

Through his thermal imaging device, he could see that Peter was still behind that pillar.

Yet Peter had methods to precisely capture his two subordinates.

That made him no longer dare underestimate this supposedly very young Spider-Man.

"Spider-Boy, you and I have never crossed paths. Why did you suddenly come looking for trouble with me?" Toomes suddenly called out.

Since he could not win in a fight, he tried to settle this inexplicable conflict with words.

It really was inexplicable.

Even now, he had no idea how he had offended Spider-Man.

He only felt that this Spider-Man had something wrong with his head, coming to cause trouble for him in the middle of the night instead of sleeping.

"I'm saving you, Mr. Toomes," Peter said. "If you keep this up, it won't be me coming after you next time. It'll be the special forces, and then they'll just gun you down!"

Toomes's expression darkened. He had not expected Peter to know even his name. "So I should be thanking you?"

"Theoretically, yes," Peter said. "Stop now, Mr. Toomes, or there'll be agents all over the place outside!"

"Hmph, you're just a brat who doesn't understand anything!" Toomes said coldly. "This world has far too many wealthy people who exploit others! Do poor people deserve to be bullied and oppressed by them? No, absolutely not! I built this only to give us a way to survive! If you want to stop me, then I'll kill you!"

Peter sighed. "Don't be stupid. Those are just words you tell yourself to feel better. If all you wanted was money, then with the technology you possess, you could have made plenty of other things. But you chose to sell weapons! Do you know how many people the weapons you sell will eventually kill? How many innocent citizens will lose their homes and families?"

"Do you have a family? Can you imagine them sleeping at home, only for gangsters wielding your weapons to start a firefight, and then their home is suddenly obliterated by a powerful energy weapon, even killing their family members? Can you imagine that?"

Peter grew more emotional as he spoke.

He thought of a scene he had seen while merging with Shadow Spider-Man.

In that dark world, something like this had happened: one night, a decrepit, overcrowded apartment building suddenly caught fire, and a little girl was burned to death.

The incident seemed simple, but the story behind it was so dark it was suffocating.