Steve's punch landed, and Grant was sent flying backward, but fortunately, the power of the Lantern ring didn't obey the laws of physics. Grant came to an abrupt halt in midair, then lunged at Captain America again. Just then, he heard a shout, "Hey! Look over here!"
"Do you all like playing these little tricks?" Grant said coldly. But from the direction of the voice, a stream of spider silk whizzed over.
Just as Grant was about to use Flash to dodge, he suddenly found Iron Man at his desired destination. Stark scoffed: "Your little trick, through artificial intelligence, we've figured out your movement route. Magic? As long as it's used by humans, it's nothing hard to deal with."
Just as Grant's route was cut off, the spider silk had already stuck to his leg. However, he reacted swiftly, his body emitting an even brighter yellow glow.
And then he was flung to the ground by Spider Man.
No sooner had he hit the ground than he was pinned down by his own shadow. A girl at the corner of the street stretched out her hand, her dark shadow entwining Grant's body. Just as he struggled to break free, spike clusters spread out from the ground.
Grant had just avoided them by flying into the air when a bolt of lightning struck him back down. Then came the ninja's darts, and the whistling cane...
After all, Grant was not a true Lamp Hero. This was power traversing worlds. Without the Emotional Spectrum as a backup energy source here, not only his stamina was affected, but also his burst power. Grant had to be frugal, making sure his energy didn't run out in the fight. He dared not bear the consequences of failing the mission, hence he was somewhat hesitant.
Fortunately, Shiller didn't intend to let Grant fight The Avengers alone. He had found Grant a partner.
Mr. Strange was hurrying down a Manhattan Street, cursing in annoyance while holding his phone, "Schiller Rodriguez! Damn it! I said I was on vacation, why the hell did you call me back in such a rush?! What big event has got you so panic-stricken???"
Just as he was speaking, he heard a loud "boom". The road he was on suddenly burst into fragments. Strange turned around to see a large hole in the ground made by an unknown energy ray. Looking up, he saw a bizarre man glowing yellow flying above his head, looking down at him.
Grant pressed the earpiece in his ear, then said, "Black suit, long face, an angry look. That should be him..."
Seeing the crowd around him panicking and fleeing, Strange didn't hesitate. He summoned a deep red ribbon into his hand and instantly attacked Grant.
Grant had never encountered a mage before. He was nearly hit, but luckily he had remote tactical guidance. He lured Strange into a few attacks, suddenly changing his previously predictable movements, causing Strange's ribbon to miss him completely.
Not only did the ribbon miss, but it struck Captain America, who was jumping across it at that moment. The captain, in mid-leap and unable to fly, lost his balance and nearly fell off the rooftop after being hit.
Before Strange could apologize, Spider Man had already swooped over and caught Steve. This was followed by Stark's barrage, his angry voice echoing in the Manhattan sky: "Strange! It's really you!"
"What? No...I didn't! What are you talking about? I don't know…" Strange stepped back a couple of steps.
Seeing his reaction, Stark squinted his eyes. Strange was definitely hiding something.
He had been working with Strange for some time now, so he knew him well. Strange had a temper equal to Stark's. If someone abruptly attacked him like this, Stark would definitely explode in anger, but Strange seemed as though he anticipated it, and appeared very guilty.
Sure enough, the moment Strange saw Stark, he withdrew his ribbon. He had no intention of fighting and tried to escape through a portal.
Just then, a strand of Spider Man's silk stuck to the bracelet on his arm. Strange turned around to see Spider Man gesturing at him and saying, "You owe us an explanation, Mr. Strange."
Facing the encroaching Avengers, Strange took a couple of steps back. He held up his hands and said, "Hey! Wait! Let me explain, it's all a misunderstanding, I can explain…"
"Explain? What are you trying to explain?"
After asking this question, Stark seemed to suddenly understand something, "Wait, I know his plan now, his target is the spaceship!"
The Avengers all turned to look at him. Stark said with conviction, "He sent an assassin to kill T'Challa to distract us to Wakanda, and at this moment, he used the mage's portals to go into the cosmos to steal the spaceship…"
"When his actions were exposed, he used other members of Hydra to divert our attention, and hid himself..."
"To interfere with our operations against Hydra, he sent this yellow-glowing weirdo to fight us."
"This chain of tactics is all consistent in style and clearly the work of one person…"
"Strange, I never knew, you had this sort of ability."
At his words, Strange was a bit dazed. What was Hydra? Who was this yellow-glowing weirdo?
He didn't know how Hydra got involved, but there was indeed a strange character emanating a yellow glow in their midst. He looked up at Grant, who was hovering in mid-air.
The voice of Shiller came through Grant's earpiece, "Master detective Stark, you certainly live up to your reputation!"
Right then, Grant inexplicably made his move, launching a fierce attack at the Avengers. As Stark dodged an energy beam, he shouted, "So you're all in on this together!"
"Spider Man!!" Stark yelled out to Peter, who instantly understood the signal. He shot a strand of webbing towards a building, swinging himself into the air. Instantly, a few small drones flew out from Stark's Mecha.
These drones, small but numerous, resembled a flock of birds. But as they approached Spider-Man, they transformed into a pair of steel jet wings which attached themselves to Spider-Man's battlesuit. Red Bee voiced in Spider-Man's earpiece, "Are you ready?"
With a hiss, Spider Man took off from the ground, executed a spectacular flip in mid-air, and then charged towards Grant.
Originally, one of Spider-Man's weaknesses was his inability to fly. He had to swing between buildings with his web, but this depended on physics and created plenty of dead zones of movement.
Furthermore, as the web didn't have thrust power, his speed would gradually decay, leaving him vulnerable. Now equipped with a pair of mechanical wings and Red Bee's high-speed assault ability, his battle with Grant had escalated into an elite aerial dogfight.
As a red and yellow silhouette danced in the air, Steve and Stark were banding together to fight Strange.
Strange was peeved. His experiments on the spaceship had not caused any damage, why was Stark so bothered?!
Strange had just become a Supreme Magician. After taking over Kamar-Taj, he had not yet fought a real battle. But Strange didn't bother to explain; today, he wanted to show Stark what a Supreme Magician was all about!
As real heat began to stir in the clashes, Grant's earpiece picked up Shiller's instruction. In his office, holding a stack of documents, Shiller casually instructed, "Lead them east, about 900 kilometers. It should be a deserted beach, shoot an energy beam into the ground, and you should discover a Hydra underground base…"
Without asking why, Grant simply flew off in the indicated direction. Shiller put down his communicator and sighed, "I don't understand why Hydra is so fond of these unemotional agents. He didn't ask any superfluous questions. What would I have explained?"
After saying this, he looked at Pikachu. Pikachu, too, was staring at Shiller with its small black eyes. After a staring contest, Pikachu finally conceded, "Okay, I'm asking. Why do you want Grant to lead them there?"
"Because some researchers have brought me some important documents. The documents indicate that a long-abandoned Hydra base may contain something Captain America needs..."
"What Captain America needs? What is it?"
"The Winter Soldier."
On Manhattan Street, the battle was heating up, but the overall situation was easy to describe because there was a precedent.
Whenever Grant moved, Spider-Man was sure to give chase. With Spider-Man drawn away, Stark's attention would be dispersed, and he'd start moving in the same direction whilst dragging Strange along. Once Strange moved, Captain America was sure to follow...
Just like the Christmas dinner incident, the group began a chase. Upon arriving at the designated location, Grant began using his energy beam across the ground.
When the yellow energy light was fully utilized, the devastation was considerable. Spider-Man was clueless about what was going on and didn't approach recklessly. Stark, who was trailing behind, saw only smoke and heard explosions. He muttered a curse and punched his thrusters to fly towards the chaos.
Once Stark tried to get away, Strange was immediately invigorated and quickly followed. Captain America, who was lagging, had no choice but to drop behind.
Luckily, before Grant could completely dug up the ground, those ahead already started to fight amongst themselves. Steve just arrived when he heard a loud bang, and the ground suddenly collapsed.
Before everyone lay a large pit in the middle of the deserted beach, and at the bottom of it was a long-abandoned base. At this moment, the ceiling and the rock soil above were already collapsed.
Steve immediately recognized the sign on the ground inside, exclaiming: "A Hydra base?!"
At this moment, Grant shot another energy light beam at the central metallic door in the base lounge. As the metal door slowly crumbled, a machine inside was activated.
A piercing alarm blared, and the whole underground base began to flash blinding warning lights.
At this moment, a subtle mechanical friction noise sounded. Spider Man, who was hovering in mid-air, stiffened. Without thinking, he dove towards Captain America.
"Ouch! Ugh!"
Hit by a full-speed charging Spider-Man, Steve groaned in pain. By the time he managed to get up again, he saw a familiar figure standing where he had just fallen—
"Bucky?!!!"