"I am not Peter Parker." The young man repeated again.
The doctor in a white coat was taken aback for a moment, he looked up and down the youth and said, "Are you Ben Parker? The young version of Ben Parker from some universe?... You can't possibly be Gwen, right? Or is there some other Spider-Man in another universe?"
Upon hearing the name Ben, the youth suddenly became blank for a moment, and Schiller across from him immediately caught this brief expression, suddenly remembering a character that had been somewhat forgotten, that was Scarlet Spider-Man Ben Reilly.
The story of the Scarlet Spider is straightforward. He is a clone of Spider-Man, spawned by the wicked idea of an evil scientist.
Using samples from a class experiment, the Jackal, Miles Warren, acquired the genes of Peter Parker and Gwen, conducted numerous experiments, and created the most stable clone.
He looked exactly like Peter Parker, identical in every sense, not just in appearance, the abilities were the same too. The evil scientist required the real Peter Parker and the clone to compete against each other, and in the midst of the fight, both fell unconscious.
The wicked scientist injected a coma-inducing agent into the man he believed to be the real Spider-Man. When the other Spider-Man woke up, he assumed that the Spider-Man who was injected with the drug was dead, so he threw him into the chimney.
But the Spider-Man in a coma woke in the middle of the fall and got home first. At that moment, he and his girlfriend Mary Jane embraced each other. After seeing this scene, the other Spider-Man realized he was a clone and quietly left.
The departing Spider-Man had Peter Parker's memories implanted in him by the evil scientist. Among them, the most painful for him was the longing for Uncle Ben and Aunt May, so he named himself Ben Reilly. "Ben" is the name of Peter Parker's uncle, and "Reilly" is Aunt May's surname.
Latter, the assistant of the evil scientist showed up and claimed that Ben Reilly was actually the real Peter Parker and Peter Parker was the clone.
Later on, after a series of events, Ben Reilly died in the real Peter Parker's arms. Following his death, his body began to decompose, confirming his status as a clone.
Schiller remembered that the Scarlet Spider he saw in the Spider Legion was Cain, another clone of Spider-Man, and he had not seen Ben Reilly.
He surmised that the young man in front of him might be an earlier version of the Scarlet Spider, not only still alive but possibly still in the stage of confusion about his and Peter Parker's identities.
"What's your name?" Schiller asked.
The young man in the cage seemed startled. He didn't expect the doctor to stop fixating on whether he was Peter Parker so quickly. He thought that he would be tormented by this question for a long time.
After all, if a person looks like Peter, has abilities like Peter, and has identical memories to Peter, isn't he Peter?
"Ben Reilly." Nonetheless, the youth said his name, gripping the bars of the magic prison more tightly, seemingly with anger and sorrow.
"The Spider-Man of this world is dead, right?" Ben Reilly looked into Schiller's eyes with a somewhat sad tone. "I read about his life in People magazine. He died in a huge explosion."
"Well..." Schiller was choked for a moment, he said, "That question is a bit difficult to explain, but could you first tell me how you got here?"
"I... I'm not sure." Ben Reilly shook his head and said, "I was walking the streets of Italy, and suddenly a weird woman with a hood shouted, 'Peter Parker, what are you doing here?', saying let me fill in for a while, then she used an odd ring to open a strange portal and tossed me here."
"This place is nothing like the New York in my memory." Reilly seemed a bit lost, looking down he said, "I don't know what those things flying in the sky are, but people seem to hate them. They have to fight the police because of them. I think I can help them."
But Reilly saw Dr. Schiller across from him, dressed in a white coat, take a deep breath, and shouted, "Grant! Go find Gwen Spider! She's skipping work! Deduct all her pay!"
About 20 minutes later, a female Spider-Man appeared in the interrogation room, wearing a silver-and-white uniform, a spider mask, and a hood. She seemed downcast and said, "I just had another Spider-Man cover my shift for a while, didn't I? I've been working for two consecutive months, I need a break!"
"Take a look, did you bring me a Spider-Man?!" Schiller pointed at Reilly in the cage.
"Of course!" Gwen Spiderman answered confidently. She pointed at Riley's face and said, "Isn't this Peter Parker? How could I mistake him? All Peter Parkers look alike. Furthermore, he has the response of the Spider-sense. He's definitely Spider-Man."
Just as Shiller was about to rebut, the door was flung open with a "slam", and a swarm of people rushed in, shouting, "Where's the new Spider-Man?" "Which Spider-Man is he?" "What domain is he good at?" "What are his remuneration demands?"...
Riley stared in shock at this group of scientists in lab coats, who rushed to his side, staring at him with their green, glowing eyes like a pack of wolves.
But at this moment, Riley saw among the crowd a face that filled him with a burning rage and a surge of hatred.
"Miles Warren... Jackal! You damned guy!!" Riley shouted out the name.
Riley suddenly became agitated, started attacking the Magic Prison with great force, creating a shrill noise.
But this action did not instill any fear in the room full of scientists. They all rushed towards the cage.
Jackal Miles Warren, the culprit behind the tragedy of Scarlet Spiderman in another world, was the first to step forward. He pushed everyone else aside and extended one arm saying loudly "God! I have heard the will of God! He said this Spider-Man belongs to--genetics!"
"Come on, child! Laboratory No.19 will be your home! Hurry up, Doctor Shiller, open this cage. It is about to hurt the precious hand of my future Gold Medal Researcher."!
"Shut up, you old jackal! I heard Satan calling too; he distinctly said that this Spider-Man has a knack for biology!"
"You're talking nonsense; he is the genius of astronomy!"
"Oh, Maria above, I feel a holy call, yes, yes, this lost lamb should be given to... mathematics!"
All kinds of elderly scientists in lab coats started pushing and shoving each other. Some spat as they cursed, some fell to their knees in prayer calling upon God, some writhed in divine revelation.
Somewhere along the line, the furious Riley had calmed down. He retracted the hand that was hammering on the cage bars, curled up, with his eyes darting around. He swallowed stiffly.
"I... I'm not a spider..."
"Smack!" A uniformed hand covered his mouth. Gwen Spiderman had already maneuvered behind Riley, reaching her hand through the cage bars and covering his mouth, whispering:
"In this universe, you're Spider-Man.... whether you want to be or not!"
"Why?!" Riley seemed somewhat wronged.
Gwen Spiderman widened her eyes, looked around, lowered her voice and said, "There are at least 50 Nobel Prizes in this room. If you say you're not, how would you feel if a few died of guilt?!"
"But I am certainly..."
"You are!"
"I'm not..."
"You are! You are! You must be! Right now!"