[Third Person's PoV]
"The buildings are starting to collapse!" Spider-Man warned. "Focus on stabilizing them!"
Bruce's voice crackled through their comms. "From what I'm seeing, there's a church nearby. It should have an emergency bunker for natural disasters—it's a mandatory part of their construction. Get the civilians there."
"Leave that to me!" Scarlet-Spider reported in. "With my new ability, I can create something to carry multiple people at once!"
"Then I'll focus on securing the buildings and minimizing damage!" Nightwing added.
Scarlet-Spider took a deep breath, concentrating. 'I just got these abilities, and I already have to create something large and stable enough… I can do this.'
MJ extended her hand, channeling her psionic energy. A large construct began to materialize, forming piece by piece. The distant screams of civilians and cries for help filled the air, but instead of breaking her concentration, they strengthened her resolve.
"I am the Scarlet-Spider…" she muttered, biting her lip as she focused. "And I can do whatever I set my mind to—no, I can create whatever I set my mind to!" Her eyes flashed a pink-red hue.
Before her, a train track materialized, stretching out in front of her. At its head, the front of a train took shape. As she followed its length with her gaze, train cars began forming one after another.
Webbing herself onto the train's roof, she used her illusion magic to modify her costume, merging her usual look with that of a train conductor—complete with a hat. The train let out a loud whistle, drawing everyone's attention.
"ALL ABOARD!!" Scarlet-Spider shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Next stop: The Safety of the Church! This is a ride you don't want to miss—no ticket required!"
With Susan and Ben assisting nearby, they quickly started ushering civilians onto the train.
Scarlet-Spider's brows remained furrowed in concentration as she continuously adjusted the construct, adding seat belts for safety while maintaining the structure's stability.
"Choo! Choo!!" she called, mimicking a train whistle as she extended a hand forward. A track appeared ahead of the train, forming in real-time while the old tracks behind vanished. She elevated the train above the streets to make room, while Susan helped lift civilians aboard. Meanwhile, Spider-Man and the others carried people up from below, depositing them onto the moving train.
Meanwhile…
Nightwing faced his own challenge.
Flipping through the air, he dashed across rooftops, tossing web grenades between the crumbling buildings to hold them together.
He spotted a building tipping forward into the street—with people still trapped inside.
Reacting instantly, he shot multiple webs at the falling structure and yanked it with all his strength, pulling it back toward an adjacent building. As it swung upward, he leaped through a window, deploying web-mines that latched onto the neighboring structure. The moment the two buildings collided, the mines burst, sealing them together with reinforced webbing.
Inside, furniture and debris tumbled through the air as gravity shifted. Nightwing barely had a second to react—his eyes locked onto two children, a boy and a girl, huddled in fear.
Without hesitation, he shot a web toward them, yanking them into his arms. With a swift turn, he launched himself through another window, shielding the children as they crashed through the glass and into the open air.
He twisted mid-fall, landing in a crouch on the street below. Glass shards rained down, but he stayed protectively over the kids, letting the debris hit him instead.
As the dust settled, he looked up—minor cuts marred his face, but they healed almost instantly.
"You two alright?" Nightwing asked softly, noticing their trembling frames. He knelt in front of the kids, gently brushing off the tiny bits of rubble from their hair.
They gave a weak, disheartened little "Yeah," their eyes shimmering with tears.
Nightwing reached into his utility belt, pulling out two small lollipops. "Here, these will help you calm down. I'll find your mom and dad—just wait here for me, alright?"
The kids accepted the candy with hesitant nods before Nightwing retreated back inside the building.
---
Spider-Man, observing how everyone was handling their tasks, decided to make his way toward Johnny and Firestar.
A blue streak of motion, he swung through the city with practiced ease, webbing sharp corners with precision until he arrived at what appeared to be a sinkhole large enough to swallow a truck in the middle of the street.
Leaping through the air, he tucked his arms and executed a clean flip, diving into the hole. He landed gracefully stop a crushed truck, which had clearly borne the brunt of the fall.
The stench of blood filled the air, and Spider-Man's sharp eyes immediately locked on the mangled remains of the two truck drivers in the cab.
He let out a low growl of disapproval, his fists clenching. Looking ahead, he saw the sinkhole opened into a sprawling cavern system beneath the city.
"Aria?" Spider-Man called out, his voice heavy. "You there?" The sight of the bodies had put him in a foul mood.
"Kinda… it's a bit laggy," Aria replied, her voice glitching slightly. "Something's interfering with the connection, but I'm still functional."
"Can you map the area and locate Johnny and Firestar?" he asked, stepping cautiously forward.
"I'm on it…" Aria responded. A top-down view of the city appeared in his HUD, quickly zooming in. The overground structures disappeared, leaving a map of the underground cavern. A glowing path highlighted the fire duo's location.
Spider-Man paused, glancing back at the mangled truck drivers. "Aria, set a reminder to retrieve the bodies and return them to their families."
"Reminder set…" Aria said before hesitating briefly. "Father, may I ask a question?" she continued, her tone curious—childlike in its wonder.
"Hm?" Spider-Man responded, vaulting over a boulder. As he landed, his gaze caught something: a pool of blood next to a hand, limp and reaching out from under a fallen rock.
He stopped for a moment, picturing the scene. Someone must have fallen down here, legs shattered, crawling and crying for help before the tremors brought the cave ceiling down on them.
He clenched his fists, his heart sinking. But he forced himself to move forward, resuming his run along the marked path.
"Maybe it's because I'm an AI and I don't fully understand," Aria began, "but why does their death affect you so much? Your number one rule has always been that you can't save everyone, hasn't it? You've said it countless times. If you know this, why does it still hurt you? Isn't that… contradictory?"
A light smile formed beneath Spider-Man's mask. He chuckled softly. "There's a difference, Aria, between accepting that you can't save everyone and giving up on trying. I've accepted the reality, but I'll never stop trying."
He leaped over another obstacle, his tone steady yet contemplative. "I know I can't save everyone—no matter how much I wish I could, no matter how hard I try to convince myself otherwise. It's an unchangeable fact. But is it wrong for me to keep trying, even knowing the outcome? No. It's not.
"So I mourn for them—the ones I couldn't save. It's the least I can do for them. I mourn because, in their moment of need, when they needed someone to save them, I wasn't there.
"I've said this before, Aria: the job of a hero is one of self-torture."
---
On the other end of the comms, Bruce listened in silence, his expression somber. For a child to think like this… how heartbreaking…
---
"I see," Aria said after a pause. "Updating system…" Her voice took on a more robotic tone toward the end.
"What are you doing?" Spider-Man asked, weaving through another series of rocks.
"Adding to my human-like programming," she replied. "So I can understand you better. I've tried observing others to learn, but you, Father… you're the one I understand the least. And, oddly enough, I quite like that," she said fondly.
Spider-Man chuckled again, shaking his head as he pushed forward, his heart a little lighter despite the weight of the moment.
Spider-Man punched through a section of the cave blocked by fallen rocks and continued forward.
A few seconds later, Johnny's voice echoed through the cavern.
"I am a torch! I am THE Human Torch! Absolutely brilliant! My own genius astonishes me sometimes!"
"Uh-huh…" Firestar's voice sounded mentally exhausted.
Spider-Man webbed up to the ceiling above them, where he spotted Johnny and Firestar levitating through the air at a moderate speed.
"Sup, guys," Spider-Man greeted, running backward and upside down.
"P—"
"Spider-Man," Spider-Man instantly corrected as he saw Johnny about to blurt out his real name.
"Ah, right! Spider-Man! Listen to this!" Johnny said excitedly. "I just came up with my superhero name! See, as we were flying through this cave, I said to L—"
"Firestar," both Firestar and Spider-Man said simultaneously.
"Right! I said to Firestar, 'You know, with our powers, we don't need flashlights or torches. I'm basically a human torch myself!' And boom! Human Torch! That's me! Johnny Storm! The Human Torch! It sounds both menacing and cool, and it just rolls right off the tongue—The Human Torch of the Fantastic Four… Man, do I love my life!" Johnny declared proudly.
"Well then, I officially greet The Human Torch, a member of the Fantastic Four," Spider-Man said with a dramatic bow.
"Thank you! Thank you! I, The Human Torch, graciously accept your waaaarmmm welcome," Johnny said with a grin.
Spider-Man suddenly flipped himself upright and whispered, "Shhh! I detected something…"
Both Johnny and Firestar immediately froze, turning their attention to him.
"Turn off your powers for a few seconds—you'll give us away. I detected multiple figures up ahead."
Johnny and Firestar lowered themselves to the ground and dimmed their flames.
"How many?" Firestar asked.
"Too many to count… I'd say hundreds, maybe even thousands," Spider-Man said, his expression serious.
"So what? We charge in and take them down in one go," Johnny said confidently. "With our firepower, your strength, and speed, we can wipe out a whole army."
"We need to assess the situation first, Johnny," Firestar said sternly. "We don't even know who—"
"Human Torch, or just Torch for short," Johnny corrected proudly.
"—or what we're dealing with," Firestar continued, ignoring him. "What if they have a bomb? If we rush in blasting, we might set it off and end up killing millions."
"Hmm. Point made," Johnny admitted with a shrug. "Still, that's the boring way to go about it, if you ask me."
"Well, luckily for us, we weren't asking you," Firestar scoffed. Suddenly, she tensed. "Do you hear that?" she whispered.
Johnny listened for a moment and nodded. They exchanged a glance before quickly sprinting forward. At the end of the tunnel, a faint light flickered.
Johnny and Firestar crouched low, while Spider-Man hung upside down from a web.
"Those idiots from above have shunned me no more!" a voice declared. "They made me an outcast, treated me like filth!"
The sight before them left them speechless.
They were positioned at the entrance of one of the many tunnels leading into a massive underground chamber. Below, an army of small, orange-skinned creatures with tiny eyes and ragged loincloths stood in neat formations.
At the center of this gathering stood a towering statue. Perched on the statue's outstretched palm was a man—the very person the statue was modeled after.
He was short, overweight, and middle-aged, dressed in a green latex suit. He clutched a wooden staff in one hand, and a pair of thick blue glasses covered his eyes which let in as minimal light as possible.
"They cast me out of society for my appearance alone!" the man bellowed. "But unfortunately for them, they sent me exactly where I needed to be! Down here, I thrive! I have discovered my true potential—perfect vision in the dark! And now, I am your leader!
"All those foolish humans have done is gifted me an army! And with it, I shall make them pay for their actions! I will plunge their world into darkness! They will be blind, forced to live underground with me as their ruler! They will regret the day they mocked—
THE MOLE MAN!!!"
Spider-Man, Johnny, and Firestar exchanged looks before clamping their hands over their mouths, desperately trying to suppress their laughter.
"Mole Man…" they repeated in a hushed, amused tone.
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