Lynn's cold sweat, the first romantic showdown crisis

The air on the terrace was as thick as glue about to set.

The pitch-black rift torn open by blood hung in midair, its ragged edges resembling a greedy maw silently devouring the surrounding light and heat. A low-frequency hum emerged from its depths, making the marble floor tremble faintly.

Lynn lay in a pile of rubble, his back pressed against the cold floor. Cold sweat instantly soaked his thin shirt and trickled down his spine.

He cursed that damned system ten thousand times in his head.

The original plan had been flawless: trigger a trace of magical backlash and use his gravely injured state to activate the obsessive women's instinct to protect him, forcibly interrupting their death match. But he had overlooked one thing-the chaos affinity physique he had just integrated, combined with the cross-dimensional spider genes from Gwen Stacy's universe, had produced an extremely unstable chemical reaction the instant they escaped his body's suppression, turning his blood into some sort of cross-dimensional coordinate!

I've taken this too far. That was the first thought that flashed through Lynn's mind.

"Lynn!"

Two piercing screams rang out at once.

Wanda plummeted from midair like a bird with broken wings. The raging scarlet storm instantly subsided, becoming the gentlest halo of light. Gwen scrambled to Lynn's side, her white gloves clamped over the blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, her entire body shaking like a leaf.

"Look at me! Lynn, don't close your eyes!" Gwen's voice cracked with hoarseness. Tears pattered onto Lynn's cheeks, warm and salty.

"Get your filthy hands off him!" Wanda's eyes were bloodred. She grabbed Gwen's shoulder, trying to fling her away. Scarlet Chaos Magic slipped from her fingertips into Lynn's meridians, attempting to repair his damaged cells.

"You did this to him!" Gwen whipped her head around and turned her wrist, pressing her web-shooter directly against Wanda's forehead, obsession practically spilling from her eyes. "If you hadn't attacked with that disgusting magic, why would he have forcibly interrupted his magic flow and coughed up blood?!"

"You insect who crossed dimensions just to die, you have no idea what he's enduring!" Wanda refused to yield. The red light at her fingertips pressed against Gwen's throat like a sharp blade.

The romantic showdown crisis had not been resolved at all.

Through half-lidded eyes, Lynn watched the two stunning faces inches away. Cold sweat ran from his temple into his eyes, the stinging sensation keeping him completely alert.

On the surface, he was a weak man on the verge of death. But deep inside, his desire to control everything was pounding wildly. Both women possessed enough power to destroy a city. As long as he could turn their possessiveness into his shield, no one in this world could kill him.

He had to use words to set up a "substitution technique," redirecting their murderous intent toward each other onto that damned rift.

"Cough..."

Lynn coughed up another mouthful of bloody fluid, his chest heaving. He laboriously raised both hands, gripping the wrist Wanda held against Gwen's throat with his left hand and tugging Gwen's suit collar with his right.

"Stop... fighting."

His voice was so faint that a breeze seemed capable of dispersing it, but every word struck precisely at both women's vulnerabilities.

Wanda stiffened, immediately withdrawing her magic and taking Lynn's cold hand in hers, pressing it against her cheek. "I'm here, Jade. I'm right here. I won't let you die."

Gwen hurriedly withdrew her web-shooter as well, taking Lynn's right hand, her nails digging deep into her own palm.

Lynn gasped for breath, looking past the two women and staring fixedly at the black rift still expanding in midair. He made his breathing extremely shallow, creating an impression of profound weakness and suffocation.

"That rift... it's coming for me." Lynn struggled to enunciate, deliberately adding a tremor of despair to the end of his sentence.

Both women froze.

"In Hydra's underground base... I saw a top-secret file." Lynn's brain raced into overdrive, lies rolling off his tongue with flawless logic. "They used some kind of dimensional device... to place an anchor on my soul. If I try to break free of their control, or... or powerful energy fluctuations occur around me, that anchor will tear space open and drag me into the abyss."

He looked at Gwen, his eyes filled with pain and reluctance to part. "I'm sorry, Gwen... I didn't cut the web just to keep you alive. It was also because... I already knew I was cursed. I couldn't drag you into this mire."

Gwen's pupils contracted sharply. Her heart felt as though an invisible hand had seized it. So he had been carrying so much when he pushed me away! Her obsessive hatred was instantly overwhelmed by immense guilt and an even deeper love.

"I'm not afraid of the mire!" Gwen gritted her teeth, a crazed fighting spirit igniting in her eyes. "Anyone who tries to drag you away, I'll shatter their bones inch by inch!"

Lynn turned to Wanda, his thumb gently brushing the tear tracks on her cheek. "Wanda... don't blame her. She's just a poor soul caught up in my tragic fate. Hydra's schemes run too deep... our conflict just now happened to trigger that anchor."

Wanda's breathing fell completely out of rhythm. Following Lynn's gaze toward the black rift, scarlet surged in her eyes again. This time, however, her murderous intent was no longer directed at Gwen, but at that elusive "enemy."

"Hydra..." Wanda gritted her teeth, each word seeming to squeeze through them. "They treated you like an expendable toy... I'll rip out their souls and burn them in chaos fire for ten thousand years!"

It worked.

Lynn let out a long breath of relief inwardly. The night breeze chilled the cold sweat on his back right through him.

With one half-true lie, he had successfully pulled off an extreme balancing act. Not only had he perfectly explained Gwen's arrival and whitewashed his "abandonment" at the Clock Tower, he had also firmly locked Wanda's hatred onto Hydra and that unknown rift.

Most importantly, he had given these two irreconcilable, obsessively possessive women a common enemy.

"It's expanding." Gwen's keen Spider-Sense detected abnormal changes in the airflow. Space at the rift's edges was collapsing, and a highly corrosive cold wind poured out, instantly withering the terrace's potted plants.

"If I get sucked inside..." Lynn closed his eyes at just the right moment and let out a pained groan. "You both... have to live on."

"Shut up!"

"I won't allow it!"

Both women shouted in unison.

Wanda abruptly stood, rapidly forming seals before her chest. Instead of pouring out unchecked, her raging scarlet magic was compressed to an extreme in her palms, becoming a dazzling scarlet orb. "No one can take you away from me! Not even a dimension!"

She thrust both arms forward, sending the scarlet orb crashing into the black rift.

Gwen did not hesitate either. Half-crouching in front of Lynn, she turned both wrists at once. "Thwip! Thwip!" Two thickened, high-strength webs shot precisely into the void at the rift's edges, adhering firmly to the collapsing spatial nodes.

"Hold it! I'll seal it!" Wanda growled without looking back.

"Watch your magic! Don't burn through my webs!" Gwen snapped back through gritted teeth. Her arm muscles bulged as she forcibly held back the tearing force of the expanding space.

The two women who had been ready to tear each other apart a second earlier had now reached an extraordinarily strange and fragile understanding to protect the man behind them.

Magic and physical force collided violently in midair. Scarlet chaos particles spread along the white webs, forcibly pulling the black rift shut bit by bit, as though stitching a wound.

Leaning in the corner, Lynn watched the incredible scene, and a genuine smile finally curved his lips.

This was the situation he wanted. Point the dangerous blades outward and keep the soft handles in his own hands.

Under the forcible suppression of the two forces, one Skyfather-level and the other superhuman, the rift let out an extremely shrill wail. Finally, with a muffled bang, space closed completely, leaving only a faint wisp of black smoke in midair.

The crisis was over.

Wanda swayed as though drained of strength, while Gwen dropped onto the ground, gasping heavily.

Lynn was about to offer a few comforting words to cement his "weak but deeply devoted" persona.

Yet the instant the rift closed, his Spider-Sense stabbed at him again without warning. It was an extremely subtle, faint prickling, but it carried the unmistakable sense of surveillance.

Lynn did not turn his head. Instead, he covertly glanced from the corner of his eye toward a massive oak tree a hundred meters away.

Deep in the shadows of its dense canopy, an extremely faint infrared reflection from a high-powered sniper scope flashed and vanished.

That was tactical equipment exclusive to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Natasha Romanoff.

A trace of cold amusement flashed through Lynn's eyes. This Black Widow actually dared to lurk and spy right under the noses of two rampaging, obsessively possessive women.

How much had she seen? How much had she heard?

Lynn said nothing. He simply let himself fall into Gwen's arms, burying his face in the crook of her neck while reaching out to take Wanda's hand as she approached.

Since the audience was already in position, this performance would have to get even bigger.

System, Lynn commanded coldly in his mind.

[Ding! Host command detected.]

Lock onto target: Natasha Romanoff. Begin the third simulation.

[Ding! Host command detected.]

[Target locked: Natasha Romanoff.]

[Searching timeline nodes... anchor established: Battle of Budapest.]

[Third simulation officially commencing.]

The system's mechanical notifications echoed in the depths of his mind. At that moment, the flow of time in the real world stretched infinitely, the dust swirling over the terrace and the shattered marble fragments all hanging in midair in an extremely slow state.

Yet Lynn's taut nerves did not relax in the slightest.

He had indeed forcibly paused that deadly exchange, which had nearly destroyed half of New York, with his lie about "Hydra's dimensional anchor." But the real crisis had only just begun.

"Hand him over to me." Wanda's voice broke the brief silence. She stepped forward, the scarlet particles swirling around her fingertips buzzing faintly like a swarm of venomous bees guarding their food. Her scarlet eyes, with no whites visible, stared fixedly at Gwen's arm around Lynn's waist, her murderous intent almost solidifying into shards of ice.

Instead of letting go, Gwen pressed Lynn's head even more tightly into the crook of her neck. The blood Lynn had coughed up stained the white fabric of her Ghost-Spider suit, and the stark contrast of red and white intensified the obsession in her eyes.

"Hand him over to you? So you can tear him apart with that out-of-control magic again?" Gwen met Wanda's gaze without yielding, her voice beneath the mask carrying a teeth-grinding coldness. "I'm taking him back to my universe. Only the top-tier medical pods there can repair his damaged organs."

"Take half a step off this terrace, and I'll erase you along with your universe." Wanda lifted her chin slightly. The gravitational field around them, which had only just settled, began showing signs of distortion again.

A drop of cold sweat silently slid down Lynn's spine, its clammy dampness soaking into his shirt.

This was the truly lethal romantic showdown crisis.

Earlier, he had forcibly interrupted their battle by injuring himself and coughing up blood, but that trick was worn out now. If these two women started fighting again over something as mundane as "who gets to support the gravely injured patient," he couldn't cough up another two liters of blood, could he? Even his chaos affinity physique couldn't withstand that sort of abuse.

He had to perform another extreme balancing act and keep the initiative firmly in his own hands.

"Cough..." Lynn coughed with tremendous difficulty, precisely controlling the rise and fall of his chest at the threshold between dying and frailty. He slowly opened his eyes, looking first at Gwen's mask before shifting his gaze toward Wanda with extreme slowness.

"Stop arguing..." Lynn's voice was faint as a breeze, yet his words were unusually clear. "My magic circuits... were torn apart by that dimensional rift. Wanda, I need your chaos particles... to help stabilize my core."

Most of the scarlet instantly faded from Wanda's eyes, replaced by profound anguish. She hurried forward and knelt beside Lynn, pressing her burning palm against his chest as gentle red light flowed continuously into his meridians. "I'm here. I'll never let that damned anchor take you away."

Gwen's arms suddenly stiffened. Beneath her mask, her eyes instantly dimmed, even carrying a trace of hurt at being excluded.

Lynn keenly caught the shift in Gwen's emotions. He reached back and seized her wrist, applying a little pressure with his fingertips, his gaze revealing complete trust.

"Gwen... my bones are badly misaligned." Gasping, Lynn rested most of his weight against her. "Your spider strength... is the only support I have right now. Don't let go, okay?"

The light in Gwen's eyes instantly reignited. She nodded firmly, her arm muscles tightening as she steadily supported Lynn's back. "I'll never let go. Even if Hydra brings all of hell here, I'll shield you from it."

One on the left, one on the right.

On the left was burning Chaos Magic; on the right, resilient superhuman strength.

Wanda and Gwen exchanged a look across Lynn's body. The air remained thick with hostility, but under Lynn's flawless rhetoric of "needing both of them," the two elite female combatants teetering on the brink of obsessive madness finally managed to reach an extraordinarily strange temporary agreement.

"Stop dawdling. Help him inside." Wanda cast Gwen a cold glance.

"Watch your magic. Don't burn him." Gwen snapped back without courtesy.

Both exerted themselves at once, carefully lifting Lynn from the rubble.

Lynn lowered his eyes, letting them support him as they walked inside. The night breeze chilled the cold sweat on his back right through him. But the scheming curve of his lips, hidden in the shadows, only deepened.

The instant he stepped through the shattered floor-to-ceiling window, Lynn tilted his head half an inch to the right with perfect naturalness.

His gaze pierced the deep darkness beyond the terrace, locking unerringly onto the enormous oak a hundred meters away.

On the oak's thick branches, leaves rustled in the night breeze.

Natasha Romanoff clung tightly to the bark like a lurking black panther. Her black, form-fitting combat suit blended her perfectly into the shadows. Holding her breath, she kept her right eye pressed firmly against the eyepiece of her high-powered night-vision sniper scope.

Everything that had just happened on the terrace had completely overturned this top S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's understanding.

Skyfather-level energy clashes, the terrifying sight of a spatial rift being torn shut by hand, and that white spider-woman who had suddenly arrived from another universe... any one of those pieces of intelligence sent back to the ruins of the Triskelion would have been enough to frighten that old fox Nick Fury into a heart attack.

But what chilled Natasha to the marrow most was Lynn.

From her perspective, Lynn was no lowly cannon fodder held hostage by a witch. Lying in the ruins, that man had used just a few nebulous words to wrap two terrifying women capable of destroying New York around his finger.

He was like a madman smoking atop a powder keg, enjoying the thrill of potentially being blown to pieces at any moment while precisely controlling how fast every fuse burned.

Monster... Natasha delivered her final assessment of Lynn inwardly. Her finger rested lightly on the trigger as she debated whether to put an armor-piercing round through Lynn's head while the two women weren't paying attention, ending this uncontrollable variable once and for all.

Just then.

Within the scope's crosshairs, Lynn's pale, handsome face suddenly turned toward her without warning.

Across a hundred meters of darkness and through the thick canopy, Lynn's gaze met the sniper scope's lens with perfect accuracy!

Natasha's heart skipped a beat.

Then she saw Lynn's left hand, hanging at his side, move with extreme subtlety.

His index finger curled, his middle finger tapped the outside of his thigh, and his ring finger swept quickly along his trouser seam.

Tap, tap, tap.

Natasha's pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints, every hair on her body standing on end.

That was the oldest, most secret assassin code from her Red Room days! It meant: [The prey is in position. Maintain silence.]

How does he know the Red Room's hand signals?! Who exactly is he?!

Before Natasha could recover from this enormous shock, an extraordinarily violent, tearing sensation bored through her brain without warning!

"Ngh-!"

Natasha bit down hard on her lip, swallowing her scream. Her vision instantly blurred. The surrounding oak, the night breeze, and New York's lights all twisted and collapsed at that moment.

The side effect of the Till Death Do Us Part Simulator crossed the barrier of reality the instant Lynn activated the scenario, forcibly shoving a nonexistent memory deep into Natasha's soul.

[Simulation setting: Budapest, 1999.]

The cold autumn rain hammered the dark back alleys of Budapest like countless steel needles.

The heavy smell of gunpowder mixed with the stench of sewage, forcing its way into her nostrils. Distant sirens and bursts of heavy machine-gun fire wove a net of death that was rapidly tightening.

Natasha leaned behind a brick wall riddled with bullet holes, gasping for breath.

Her black combat suit was soaked in blood, and a bone-deep gash in her left abdomen was seeping dark blood. Her ammunition was exhausted, and her communicator produced nothing but piercing electromagnetic static.

Ten minutes earlier, Clint Barton (Hawkeye) had been pinned down in the next block by the Red Room's heavy fire while covering her. Whether he was alive or dead remained unknown.

Now she truly was a lone wolf.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

The sound of military boots stepping through standing water came from the alley entrance, perfectly synchronized and suffocatingly oppressive. Six fully armed Red Room "Black Widow" assassins advanced on her in a fan formation, tactical rifles raised.

Cold rain slid down Natasha's cheeks. She gripped her sole remaining multipurpose dagger in reverse, her muscles trembling faintly from overexertion.

There was no way out.

She drew a deep breath of cold, rain-laden air, preparing for one final, suicidal lunge.

Just as she pushed off with her legs, about to rush from cover-

A powerful hand suddenly reached down from the fire escape above and clamped over her mouth. At the same time, a tremendous force hauled her backward into an extremely well-hidden blind spot beside a ventilation duct.

"Don't move."

A low, hoarse male voice, carrying absolute calm, sounded beside her ear. The man's chest pressed tightly against her back, his body heat passing through her soaked combat suit with an inexplicably reassuring warmth.

Natasha instinctively tried to fight back, but when she saw the man's profile, she froze completely.

Lynn.

He wore a gray tactical uniform without any insignia, his face covered in mud and blood. His deep-set eyes shone startlingly bright in the darkness as he stared through a gap in the ventilation duct at the approaching killers near the alley entrance.

"Are you insane?!" Natasha kept her voice low, her tone carrying barely concealed shock and anger. "Headquarters issued the retreat order five minutes ago! What are you, a Level Three Logistics Agent, doing coming back into the kill zone?!"

"Following my own orders."

Without even turning his head, Lynn swiftly positioned several homemade booby traps at the duct's entrance. His movements were exceptionally practiced, nothing like a logistics worker who only knew how to type.

"And what are your orders?" Natasha asked through gritted teeth.

Lynn finally turned and looked at Natasha's pale yet still stunning face. Suddenly, he smiled, unrestrained and resolute.

"Get you out of Budapest alive."

Before his words had faded, an assassin at the alley entrance seemed to notice something and abruptly raised her rifle, its dark muzzle pointing directly at the ventilation duct where they were hiding!

"Boom-!"

The real world.

On the outskirts of New York, in the crown of a hundred-meter-tall oak.

"Thud!"

A dull impact shattered the silence of the night.

Natasha's eyes rolled back as the sea of flames in Budapest and Lynn's resolute smile frantically intertwined in her mind, the sheer volume of information instantly overwhelming her mental defenses.

Gun and all, she plunged headfirst from the thick trunk and crashed heavily into the dense bushes below.

Blood trickled down her forehead, but in the second before she lost consciousness completely, Natasha's lips trembled slightly, uttering a nearly obsessive syllable.

"Lynn..."