Hulk froze for a moment and turned to glance at him, then bared his teeth and roared. With nothing left to worry about, Hulk's attacks instantly turned savage. He hammered Abomination with punch after punch, driving him steadily back.
Peter seized the chance to rush over to the helicopter and drag the wounded, unconscious soldiers out one by one. Just then, Hulk sent Abomination flying with a punch, slamming him hard into a nearby building. Once he regained his footing, his scarlet eyes swept over the retreating crowd, a brutal look crossing his face.
He grabbed a wrecking ball and chain from the ground, swung his arm in a full arc, and hurled it viciously toward the crowd!
"Watch out!"
Peter's Spider-Sense screamed a warning, and cold sweat instantly broke out across his back. He pushed off hard, shooting forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. The chain whipped past his back with a rush of wind and smashed into the ground, sending rubble flying.
Seeing that he had missed, Abomination roared and swung a fist at him.
Peter relied on his agility to keep dodging, weaving through the gaps between Abomination's attacks. He knew he was weaker than his opponent. Meeting him head-on would be suicide.
His web-shooters had taken a jolt earlier, and one had already cracked. He dodged a heavy punch from Abomination, leaped onto his arm in the same motion, and used his momentum to drive a fist into Abomination's stomach.
With a dull thud, Abomination faltered, but Peter was not faring well either. The recoil left his fist numb, and the damaged web-shooter on his wrist shattered outright.
A mass of webbing instantly sprayed out, gluing his arm firmly to Abomination's torso.
"Damn it!"
Peter's heart sank. Abomination looked down at the "little bug" stuck to him, his gaze growing fiercer, and brought his other hand down hard.
In that critical moment, Peter's mind raced. Using the webbing's elasticity, he sprang upward, dodging the enormous palm as he quickly circled around Abomination's arms. With the webbing spraying out, he forcibly bound both of his opponent's arms against his chest.
But it would not hold for long. Abomination's strength was terrifying, and the webbing was already beginning to snap with sharp cracks.
I have to end this fast!
Peter's gaze sharpened, and he used the pull of the webbing to leap onto Abomination's shoulder. He raised his only intact web-shooter, aimed at the monster's nostrils and mouth, and pulled the trigger repeatedly.
Several thick streams of webbing shot out instantly, sealing Abomination's airways shut.
Once he had finished, he immediately tore through the webbing on his body and pushed off, flipping backward more than ten meters before landing steadily.
Abomination struggled wildly, his thick fingers desperately clawing at the webbing over his mouth and nose, but they were too thick to get inside. The more agitated he became, the faster he used up his oxygen. His massive body swayed, his movements growing slower and slower.
A few seconds later, his eyes rolled back, and he crashed heavily to the ground, completely unconscious.
The battlefield instantly fell silent.
The surrounding soldiers and the police officers who had just arrived all stared slack-jawed at the red figure standing amid the battlefield. None of them had expected this masked stranger who had appeared out of nowhere to actually bring down that terrifying monster.
General Ross strode over, studying him with a piercing gaze, and asked in a low voice, "Who are you?"
Peter panted, suppressing the surge of blood within him.
As he looked at the shaken crowd around him and the ruins still smoking in the distance, his mind was clearer than it had ever been.
From the moment he had chosen to step forward, Peter's life had already ended.
From now on, he was Spider-Man.
"I'm Spider-Man."
Leaving those words behind, he raised his hand and shot a strand of webbing at a nearby rooftop, then leaped up and swung away into the night.
All that remained was a battlefield strewn with wreckage and a crowd of utterly stunned people.
More than ten minutes later, in an alley.
Peter changed back into his own clothes, stuffed the makeshift suit into his backpack, and tossed it into the burning wreckage of a nearby car. The flames swallowed every trace, leaving nothing behind.
When he found Mary Jane, she was pacing anxiously. The moment she saw him return safely, she threw herself at him.
"Where did you go? I was scared to death!"
"I went to help rescue a few people." Peter smiled, brushing it off. "Oh, right, a masked guy in red showed up and took the monster down. People were calling him... Spider-Man."
Mary Jane blinked and stared at him for a few seconds. She did not press him for details, only giving a soft huff. "Fine, you're impressive. But no more running off like that."
On the train ride home, Mary Jane leaned against his shoulder and said softly, "Peter, you were very brave today."
Peter watched the lights racing past outside the window, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
He had always thought that becoming a hero was a matter of choice.
Only today did he understand that some paths were already set from the moment you gained power.
With great power came great responsibility.
His journey as Spider-Man had only just begun.
What he did not know was that, after the battle in Harlem, the name "Spider-Man" had quietly appeared on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s watch list.