Seeing Ethan collapse, the camouflage-clad man's tightly pursed lips curled into a cruel smile.
"Throw him in the most conspicuous spot in the aisle, give Tony Stark a surprise!"
Several Terrorists immediately stepped forward, roughly grabbing Ethan's arms and legs.
Ethan tried to struggle and resist, letting out a muffled groan from his throat, which the Terrorists mistook for a cry of pain.
But his body was as if bound by invisible shackles; his muscles wouldn't obey, and he could only watch helplessly as he was dragged.
The rough ground chafed his back, making it ache, at least more than being shot.
And he knew these bastards intended to use him as the cheese on a trap, to attract Tony's attention.
Then, when Tony came to see him, they would deliver a heavy blow to Tony.
And in the scene, there was another person who had clearly understood this point.
In a dead corner of the cave roof, Spider-Man was curled up in the shadows, his red and blue suit hidden in the shadows of the rock wall.
His fingers dug deep into the rough rock, which slowly began to crumble into powder with his unintentional force, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably.
This trembling did not stem from fear, but from an uncontrollable rage surging within him.
He watched helplessly as Ethan was struck down by the Terrorists, and then watched as those men dragged away the defenseless Ethan to use as bait.
Beneath his mask, his eyes blazed with fury, and self-reproach and guilt gnawed at his heart like venomous snakes.
A strange sense of helplessness washed over him, as if threads were pulling him from all directions.
Unwillingness and vexation swept through his mind.
Hearing the triumphant sneers of the Terrorists below, he took a deep breath, sharply flicked his wrist, and shot out a web line, precisely sticking it to a protruding rock on the cave ceiling.
Even if he couldn't save that man, he would avenge him!
Although he didn't kill people, he had to beat everyone present, one by one.
As the web line in his hand began to tighten, he swooped down like an arrow released from a bowstring.
Just as he swung on his web, about to rush into the enemy group, a chill suddenly ran down the back of his neck.
This feeling was very familiar; it had saved his life several times.
Spider-Man instinctively looked back, and when he saw the presence behind him, his pupils constricted—a figure enveloped in blue light was rushing towards him at an almost instantaneous speed.
Before he could react, the other party directly grabbed him around the waist, and the gust of wind it created even distorted the surrounding air.
In an instant, Spider-Man felt the world spin, and the scene before his eyes turned into flowing streaks of light.
The cave walls, the gun-wielding Terrorists, the flickering torches—everything was receding rapidly, so fast that he could barely grasp the afterimages.
His web line was still suspended in mid-air, but he had already been left far behind.
Relying on his superhuman dynamic vision and reaction speed, he barely managed to perceive that he was passing through the crowd at the entrance at a speed that defied the laws of physics.
Those gun-wielding Terrorists didn't even have time to look up before they were knocked to the ground by the air currents they created, and he was like a speed bump in front of a heavy truck; the truck wouldn't stop, and he couldn't stop either, completely unable to control his trajectory.
When Spider-Man finally realized he had to resist, the wind pressure suddenly disappeared.
He stumbled two steps before regaining his balance.
After being dazed for a moment, Spider-Man began to look around—the damp rock walls had disappeared, replaced by a grassy hillside, boundless in all directions, with nothing but two interconnected large tents and a modified off-road vehicle in the distance.
Spider-Man had seen this scene before; he had seen this camp when he had snuck into the cave by clinging to the bottom of a passing car.
At the time, he had wondered, who would be camping in this desolate wilderness?
Just as he was cautiously observing his surroundings, the tent flap suddenly opened.
A man in a white lab coat with gold trim and a mechanical right hand emerged from the tent.
Dr. Contradiction, looking at the two people who had suddenly appeared outside the camp, his eyes were full of surprise: "Gwen, where did you bring this one from?"
"Gwen?" Spider-Man froze as if struck by lightning when he heard the name. He stiffly turned his neck to look at the "person" who had brought him.
But the one in front of him was clearly a velociraptor with a ball attached to one foot, completely encased in black armored exoskeleton!
Spider-Man swallowed, tentatively opening his mouth: "Gwen Stacy?"
XLR8 was about to take a step, but paused when it heard the name.
After all, Gwen wasn't an uncommon name; Gwen Stacy, Spider-Gwen, and it itself was called Gwen, and it might even encounter the same name if it went to Runeterra.
So, it opened the mask on its head, revealing its non-human face.
"You've got the wrong person, kid."
It then turned to Dr. Contradiction, its body leaning slightly forward, its voice carrying an undeniable seriousness: "Dr., the situation is urgent, and it's a long story. Take care of him."
With that, it turned back towards the direction of the cave, seemingly contemplating something.
A moment later, as if having made up its mind, XLR8 placed its Talon on either side of the symbol on its chest.
About half a second later, with a "click," the chest symbol automatically sprang up.
Taking a deep breath, XLR8's body involuntarily tensed. After a period of internal struggle, it seemed to have made a certain decision, no longer hesitating, and forcefully slammed the symbol down.
In that instant, XLR8 felt pain all over its body.
In Spider-Man's eyes, XLR8's body grew wildly and monstrously at a visible speed.
The originally smooth exoskeleton armor began to deform and reassemble, sharp bone spurs erupted from its joints, and the streamlined armor instantly became covered with ferocious barbs, each protrusion gleaming with a cold light.
The end of its long tail suddenly split open, revealing something similar to a turbine exhaust port.
The pale purple hourglass symbol on its chest, with four dark gold diagonal slashes like sharp blades embedded on the outside of the symbol, made it look as if it had been forcibly inlaid.
XLR8 straightened up in pain, its back arched, its exoskeleton armor gently deforming, and a spherical object similar to the one on its foot was embedded in its claws.
All the changes were completed in the blink of an eye, and XLR8's body stopped trembling.
"Ultimate XLR8!"
After roaring, she looked back at Dr. Contradiction.
"I'm going out again."
Without waiting for Spider-Man and Dr. Contradiction to respond, scorching flames erupted from the opening at the end of its tail.
Like a turbocharger, accompanied by the spray of its tail flame, XLR8 shot out at a speed that even Spider-Man couldn't see clearly.
This speed was more than twice as fast as before.
Dr. Contradiction looked at the already vanished XLR8, smiling and waving: "Have a safe trip!"