All three female Spider-Men shrieked in unison, momentarily startling the shadowy figure across from them.
At this moment, Gwen Spider-Man looked around and realized that they had landed on the same rooftop as before. At this dusky time, the man before her, Shiller, was probably admiring the scenery.
Gwen took a step back and said to Spider-Girl, "...Didn't you say we had some powerful backup?"
"I'm calling him," Spider Silk replied very calmly, "We should all stay still and not provoke him. Let's wait for the backup to arrive, then we can transfer the injured to a safe place..."
"You'd better hurry. I have a feeling he's about to attack."
Just then, a loud rumble echoed from the sky. A strange music filled everyone's ears as an English voice with a peculiar accent announced, "Hell's guest! Spider-Man is here!"
Suddenly, a huge mecha landed in Center of New York city. On the top of the robot, there perched a red and blue Spider-Man.
With one hand supporting himself and the other raised, he shouted, "Leopold! Let's go! We are the friends of the youths, Spider-Man!"
The Spider-Man and Shiller standing on the top of the high rise were stunned. The robot was imposing, but the music playing from its built-in speakers was less than pleasant, complete with blasts and high-pitched shrieking.
This Spider-Man had a weird accent. Gwen squinted and asked Spider-Girl next to her, "What is he shouting? What friend? What does 'four hundred Aunties' mean?"
Spider-Girl shook her head, but then saw Shiller leap into the air and land on the edge of a building's rooftop quite near to the mecha. This self-proclaimed "Four Hundred Aunties Spiderman" squinted and said,
"I smell... the aura of the strong in the air! You're a worthy opponent! Declare your name and let's have a grand duel!"
"My name... is Penn!"
As his voice faded, the rain in the New York sky became heavier. Penn Shiller's figure disappeared, but soon several afterimages appeared beside the mecha.
The 400 Aunties Spider-Man whipped his head around. He snorted and said, "Is this the legendary Shadow Division Technique? As expected, I didn't misjudge you. Among opponents I've fought, there has been a powerful one like this before..."
Gwen, who had been standing on the rooftop of the adjacent building, nudged Spider-Girl with her shoulder and asked, "What's going on over there? Why aren't they fighting?"
"How am I supposed to know!" Spider-Girl picked up the telescope to look at the scene and said, "From their lip movements, it seems like he is recalling his previous opponents..."
"Is now the time for reminiscing?!!! Isn't that guy with the purple eyes going to let him go on reminiscing?" Gwen raised her voice.
"Seems like that is indeed the case." After taking a closer look through the telescope, Spider-Girl said, "Oh, no! The purple-eyed guy has fallen into a reverie as well!"
"They're both at a stalemate... what do we do now?" Spider Silk seemed a bit distressed. "During the transfer, some of the injured had their wounds torn open; we need to stop the bleeding...."
Just then, the sound of metal tentacles touching the ground could be heard. Otto crawled up from underneath the building, bringing with him several medical robots. Watching as the Spider-Man was taken away by the medical robots, Otto said,
"Thank the experience from my other universe. Stark from that universe came up with these robots. I only took a glance at the data but managed to replicate them successfully..."
Spider Gwen was still a bit wary of Doctor Octopus, but with the enemy at her door, it was good to have some help.
She turned her head and whispered to Spider-Girl, "You go with him so he doesn't cause trouble. Spider Silk and I will stay here. If they start fighting, we'll have to lure them out of New York..."
Spider-Girl nodded, then followed Otto away.
Spider Gwen stared at the battlefield with a solemn expression. She knew that if a fight broke out between the two of them, New York City could be severely damaged, potentially injuring many people, so they had to lure these two destroyers to a deserted place.
Half an hour later, Gwen had gone from standing to sitting. Spider Silk beside her asked, "...Haven't they finished reminiscing yet?"
Spider Gwen picked up the telescope and had a look. "They already finished reminiscing just now. They said a few words and got lost in their memories again."
"What if they kept reminiscing like this, could we have a chance to capture that Shiller?" Spider Silk said, stroking his chin.
"Hard to say, it depends on how long they are going to reminisce. Get ready, I guess they're about to start." Spider Gwen said.
An hour later, Spider Silk reached into the chip bag in Spider Gwen's hand, took out a chip, chewed it, and said, "....Haven't they finished reminiscing yet? Where did they get so many stories?"
"Who knows? It's already dark." Spider Gwen responded, munching on a chip.
Two hours later, Spider Gwen was lying on the ground. Holding her forehead, she said helplessly, "How long do they plan on standing there? They've been reminiscing for three and a half hours!"
Spider Silk shook the empty chip bag upside down, looked at the situation in the center of the battlefield, and said: "This new Spider-Man and his mecha added to the already bad traffic in New York city. If he keeps standing there, at least 20,000 people will be late tomorrow..."
"Wait! They're moving!! They're finally moving!!" Spider Gwen was on her feet in an instant. She picked up the telescope to look at the battlefield and found that the mecha and Shiller had both started moving.
The mecha extended its arm towards Shiller, and one of Shiller's clones also flung towards the mecha's arm. When they clashed, they created a dazzling light.
And then... they stopped moving, yet again.
"Oh my god! How can they freeze up here?!" Gwen Spider spread her hands in complaint: "What are they doing? Why have they stopped moving again?!"
Spider Silk grabbed the telescope and looked over, saying: "According to the lip-reading, they seem to have got caught up in their memories again, let me see..."
"I'm not really good at Japanese, but they seem to be remembering the times they've used this move. The Spiderman in the mecha has recalled up to the 3rd person, while Shiller is a bit faster and has got to the 5th one…"
Looking at the seemingly frozen mecha arm and Shiller's clone in the air, Gwen Spider waved her hand and said, "I'm off to find a hotel, maybe they'll start fighting by the time I wake up."
"Bring me along." Spider Silk followed her.
Early next morning, Gwen Spider woke up from the soft bed in the hotel. She walked to the window, yawned, opened the curtains, and picked up the telescope.
At that time, on the skyline of New York, a huge robot and five Shillers, identical in appearance, were maintaining their colliding posture.
"Let me see... Spider Silk! Come here and translate what they're saying!" Gwen Spider shouted at the still sleeping Spider Silk.
When Spider Silk woke up and drowsy-eyed walked to the window, she took the telescope and said, "Oh, they are reminiscing about their childhood, something about a ramen shop. I don't really get Eastern food..."
"How about we suggest they go to a bar to chat? Their standing there is really blocking the traffic." Gwen Spider looked down to see that the streets of New York were full of drivers, cursing and getting out of their cars because of the traffic jam.
Understandable, after all, just one leg of the mecha operated by the Spider-Mom could block an intersection, with such a big robot standing there. Even the most reckless driver wouldn't dare to drive towards it. The five main roads of East New York were completely blocked, and the vehicles were jamming from one end of the road to the other.
Gwen Spider walked the talk, she shot out a spider silk and swung out to the side of the battlefield, jumped along the building, approached the two of them, and shouted at them: "Can you guys go chat in a bar? There's one right next to here! Can't you see it? Why stand here and jam the traffic?!!"
Suddenly, the Spider-Mom in the mecha, who was reminiscing, woke up suddenly. She laughed and shouted:
"This is truly a man's battle! It's been so long since I've had such an exhilarating war!!"
"A bar? You mean a ramen shop?!! Great! True men should celebrate with a bowl of steaming ramen after a duel! Penn, we should change our battleground, hahahaha!!!!"
Looking at the two disappearing in the sky, Gwen Spider said, crossing her arms and speaking to the Spider Silk next to her: "... Where is the real man in this?? More importantly, how is this a duel?? They only made two moves and didn't even finish the fight!"
Spider Silk shook her head too, obviously not understanding what was going on. At this moment, Otto appeared on the rooftop, and Spider Girl also came over. Spider Girl walked up and said to Gwen Spider:
"The injured have all been taken care of, most of the Spidermen have recovered and can rejoin the fight, we need to go back and aid the other Spidermen..."
The remaining two female Spidermen nodded. But as they were about to leave, a starry sky appeared over New York. The sky grew dark, and in the starry sky, the gigantic figure of Solus appeared. He was trailing behind.
Compared to individually hunting the nimble and active Spidermen, hunting the Spidermen who were injured and not moving was much easier. Once found, it would be a feast, and his primal instincts as a hunter, awakened by his hunger, motivated Solus to do so.
"Damn it! Solus is coming, quick! Quick! Spider Silk! Call back those two who went for ramen!!!!" Gwen Spider yelled anxiously.
But by this time, Solus' large hand was already reaching out for them. Gwen Spider, Spider Silk, and Spider Girl, fled in three different directions.
Such a big monster appearing over New York made all the civilians panic, and more importantly, traffic was just resurging since Spider-Mom's mecha had left. But the appearance of another monster disrupted all the drivers again, their steering wheels spinning out of control. Soon, multiple car accidents had been caused.
With this, the roads of New York became even more jammed, until a reluctant roar came:
"For how long do you guys plan to jam the road?!!!!"
Gwen Spider was hanging on the side of a building with her spider silk, she looked down and found an ambulance slightly larger than normal barreling down the sidewalk at breakneck speed, crashing directly into Solus' giant hand.
Solus winced and coiled back from the pain, but at that moment, the ambulance transformed into a robot. With an unknown structure to Gwen Spider, it instantly turned into a robot.
Gwen Spider gaped, watching the suddenly appeared robot, which started to pound on Solus' hand with a flurry of punches, clearly venting the anger caused by the traffic jam.
However, Gwen Spider could understand. After all, people could walk in case of a big traffic jam, but cars couldn't. If people were stuck on the road, it just wasted their time, but when cars were stuck, that's real despair.
Just then, Gwen Spider felt the cold raindrops fall on her face. She looked up and saw a rain cloud forming over New York, but it was immediately dissipated by the starry sky brought by Solus.
There was a sudden whirlwind in the skyline.
A piece of falling leaves were being blown away, flying over the fluttering hem of a garment. Penn Shuler's cloak was rustling in the wind. His low voice echoed over New York:
"Able to disperse my Rain Tiger Freestyle Technique... finally, a worthy opponent."