"What?"
Tony doubted his own ears.
"Wait... you just clearly..."
Gwen immediately retorted, "I was just waiting for the right moment. If you hadn't come, I would have taken him down myself."
Tony was about to snap back when he suddenly remembered the fate of Iron Monger, Obadiah Stane.
In an instant, he realized that Spider-Woman might not be exaggerating.
Tony lowered his repulsor and stepped back a few paces. "Okay, but if you can't handle it—"
"I'll step in to finish things off."
"Can you keep an eye on those people over there for me?" Gwen asked, pointing in a direction.
Tony followed her gesture and saw the police officers inside the station, helplessly watching the battle outside, unable to intervene.
"No problem. Let's call this me repaying another favor."
As Tony moved away, the Green Goblin leaped out from the thick smoke, landing on his glider.
"Damn you, Tony Stark!" he cursed bitterly.
He hadn't expected Tony Stark to show up in a place like this.
Could Stark be positioning himself as this city's protector as well?
The Green Goblin glanced at Tony, who was now guarding the police station, and then back at Spider-Woman. With a sneer, he said, "Without Tony, do you really think you can beat me?"
Gwen didn't waste time with words. "I'm guessing you're out of ammo, right?"
Before the Green Goblin could respond, Gwen shot two webs from her wrists.
The webs moved incredibly fast, and even though the Green Goblin's reflexes had been greatly enhanced by his serum, he couldn't react in time.
In an instant, both webs stuck to the wings of the Green Goblin's glider.
His face changed. "Your webs weren't this fast earlier."
Gwen smiled. "Of course not. These are specially developed high-speed webs. I don't have many of them left."
"I wouldn't waste them if it wasn't necessary!"
With that, Gwen yanked hard, pulling both the Green Goblin and his glider straight toward her.
But this time, it wasn't the Green Goblin flying of his own accord; he was being dragged.
He tried to activate his glider, but it was too late.
As he was pulled in, Gwen did a mid-air flip and kicked the Green Goblin square in the face, right beneath his mask.
The force was so strong that it separated him from his glider.
"Ooh, that's gotta hurt!" Tony commented from a distance, watching as the Green Goblin was kicked away. There was a hint of sympathy in his voice.
Anna, who was standing next to him, nodded in agreement.
At this moment, Anna was completely dumbfounded.
She couldn't comprehend what was happening in front of her. She had only been away from New York for a few years, and now everything in front of her seemed to have surpassed her wildest understanding.
With the glider still attached to Gwen's webs, the Green Goblin was sent flying back into the smoke.
With a strong swing, Gwen hurled the glider toward Tony's feet.
Tony stepped on it, and J.A.R.V.I.S. immediately began analyzing its entire structure.
Looking at the analysis on his screen, Tony frowned. "This technology… it feels like I've seen it somewhere before."
But Tony only pondered for a moment. Even though his mindset had changed significantly, he still didn't pay much attention to such primitive technology.
To put it bluntly, he didn't even think this kind of tech was worth developing.
However...
"J.A.R.V.I.S., disable its core."
Tony raised one hand, and a small gun barrel extended from his wrist. With a single shot, he fired a bullet into a crevice of the glider, disabling it completely.
The bullet hit a small gap in the glider. Immediately after, the glider sparked and emitted a cloud of white smoke.
Gwen gave Tony a thumbs-up. "Nice job, Tony."
Tony rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the compliment, but please, no need to do that next time."
The Green Goblin, having crawled out from the smoke once again, saw the scene and was now burning with rage.
"Spider-Woman, Tony. I didn't plan to deal with you two so soon," he said, his voice trembling with anger. "But you've brought this upon yourselves!"
Furious beyond measure, the Green Goblin's voice shook as he declared, "Today, I'm going to tear you apart!"
"I can make big threats too," Tony quipped, never one to let others get the upper hand in a verbal exchange. "Spider-Woman, be careful. That exoskeleton of his gives him a lot of extra strength."
Then, Tony recalled how Spider-Woman had once torn apart the Iron Monger with his bare hands. "Maybe I'm overthinking this."
"While I agree with your point, I have to say—his exoskeleton looks really ugly," Gwen added, not hiding her disdain.
With Red Queen's analysis, Gwen knew how much the exoskeleton boosted his strength, but that didn't stop her from thinking it looked terrible.
Tony shared her sentiment. "Yeah, at least we're on the same page when it comes to aesthetics."
However, Gwen mercilessly shot back, "No, Tony. Your earlier Iron Man suits were ugly too."
Tony: "..."
Looking down at the glider beneath his feet, Tony suddenly felt that disabling it might have been the wrong move.
Hearing the two of them casually talking as if he weren't even there, the Green Goblin grew even more deranged and lunged at Gwen.
When it came to contests of strength, Gwen had never been afraid. Ever since gaining her spider powers, she hadn't lost once in that regard!
The Green Goblin swung a punch with all his might at Gwen, but with her enhanced spider sense, Gwen easily tracked his attack.
She opened her palm and effortlessly caught his punch.
"Hey, so you've got a metal arm now too?" Gwen remarked casually, easily holding back the Green Goblin's fist. This left the Green Goblin utterly bewildered beneath his mask.
Even Tony was stunned. "J.A.R.V.I.S., can you analyze Spider-Woman's strength?"
"Sir, based on Spider-Woman's performance, it wouldn't be an issue for her to catch a thrown car with her bare hands."
Tony inhaled sharply at this. A typical car weighs around 3 tons, and a thrown car would generate at least 7 or 8 tons of force.
In other words, to catch a flying car barehanded, Spider-Woman's strength had to exceed 7 or 8 tons!
Is she even human?
No, of course not—normal humans don't become Spider-Woman.
Looking at the Green Goblin in his exoskeleton, Tony couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for him. In the face of Spider-Woman's monstrous strength, that exoskeleton might as well have been made of paper.
"This... this is impossible!" The Green Goblin shouted in disbelief.
Gwen, on the other hand, was nonchalant as she offered a backhanded compliment. "Not bad. You're definitely one of the stronger ones I've come across."
Her words pierced the Green Goblin's heart.
His confidence didn't just stem from his exoskeleton, which amplified his strength, but from his ultimate achievement—his gene-enhancing serum.
With his genetically enhanced body, combined with the exoskeleton, the Green Goblin had believed that even Steve Rogers wouldn't stand a chance against him.
But now, it all seemed like a joke.
Gene enhancement?
Exoskeleton?
His punch had been caught effortlessly, and more humiliatingly, by a woman!
A flood of emotions overwhelmed him, and the Norman personality, long suppressed by the Green Goblin, began to stir.
Sensing Norman's resurgence, the Green Goblin snarled, "You worthless fool! Why are you trying to come out now?"
"So what if I lost in strength?!"
"Useless! What good are you now?!"
...