Volume 3: The Nameless Chapter 28 Even though I lost my dream and my family was separated, I was still forced to open my business
Peter Parker stood in front of the passage leading to the underground shelter. He was ready to change back into ordinary clothes before entering this "home" where he had stayed for several years.
The entire asylum knows Spider-Man is protecting them, but even in the future, Peter still strives to maintain his "secret identity".
Although in this rotten era there is absolutely no need for him to do so.
But the past haunted him and turned hiding into an ineradicable habit.
He walked into his own secret "changing room" in the dark without turning on the lights, opened the cabinet where the combat uniform was hidden, and a small light inside came on, illuminating Peter's eyes.
Spider-Man silently took off his hood and threw it into the closet, then grabbed the edge of his shirt with both hands and took it off with some difficulty. When the tights were taken off, his suppressed belly suddenly "jumped" out.
Looking at the fat on his "freed" belly bouncing, Peter was speechless and was stunned for several seconds before he let out a long sigh.
He seemed to recall the glory of his youth, when he had eight-pack abs and could wander around the city all day without getting tired.
But it doesn’t work now.
Now he can’t even deal with a group of mutated zombies.
Is the power weakened?
Peter asked himself this question, clenched his fists again, and felt the power in his body that had declined a lot from its peak but was still terrifying. Then he got the answer to this question for the Nth time.
Maybe it’s the mentality that changes?
After all, a man in his thirties and a spirited young man in his twenties have different ways of looking at the world, especially after experiencing the death of Aunt May, the breakdown of his relationship with Mary Jane and divorce, attending his ex-wife's wedding and becoming a failed man in the eyes of her daughter, and witnessing the collapse of the world and the end of the world after his best friend died in the war...
Peter shrugged, recalled his experiences over the past years and felt somewhat relieved.
Even a superhero would have enough reasons to change his mentality after going through all these bad things.
The city is gone anyway.
Anyway, Spider-Man’s current existence is just a big security guard for the shelter, and his life doesn’t seem to have much meaning anymore.
"Snap"
The light in the dressing room, which had been broken for a long time, was suddenly turned on, causing Spider-Man, who was in a state of strange emotional outburst, to look back vigilantly.
Then I saw the strange young man standing at the door with a strange-shaped multifunctional military knife. He had just repaired the aging circuit.
So in this narrow dressing room, Mason without a helmet and Peter Parker, who had just taken off his shirt and was only wearing a white vest, looked at each other under the light of the incandescent lamp.
"Uh, sorry, I didn't know anyone was here."
Mason's eyes involuntarily fell on Peter Parker's belly, which seemed too "bloated" for a superhero. The belly was about to pop out from under his vest.
Hey, even I, a 17-year-old high school dropout, have six-pack abs. Is it really okay for a superhero like you to fail in body management?
Mason looked away with a strange expression, and apologized proactively:
“Because you didn’t make any noise, and we weren’t allowed into your shelter but we needed a place to stay overnight…never mind, let me just ask you, how did you get into this shape?
Theoretically, the super spider gene can allow you to have a super strong body that can beat up a dozen people when you are eighty years old.
How you indulge yourself!
Ten bottles of happy water and thirty high-calorie hamburgers a day? "
"Shut up!"
The middle-aged Spider-Man yelled unhappily, threw his combat suit into the closet, took off his pants, and then took out a loose gray sports suit and put it on.
As he closed the combination cabinet, the sharp-eyed Mason caught sight of an old photo taped to the door.
It was a photo of a kind old lady taking pictures with young Peter.
Both of them are smiling in the photo.
The decadent man in front of him obviously hadn't laughed for a long time.
"So, Aunt Mei has already..."
Mason was silent for a few seconds and said softly:
"Did you leave at the end of the world?"
"It has nothing to do with you, outsider."
Spider-Man pulled the hood of his tracksuit up over his messy brown hair and said:
"Stop asking questions and don't bring your people into the shelter. I'll keep an eye on you. Go to the left fork and walk 30 meters. There's a utility room. It's big enough for you to rest."
After saying that, the cold middle-aged Spider-Man walked past Mason and prepared to leave.
The aura of "keep away from strangers" about him is very obvious.
It's not even some kind of disguise.
That seems to be his current state of life.
"You know, I loved reading comics when I was a kid."
As Spider-Man walked to the door, Mason suddenly said:
"I have a very bad family. I just found out not long ago that the father who always beat me was not my father. When I was beaten black and blue, I would hide in my small bed in the utility room and read comics to escape reality.
I have two favorite superheroes.
One is called Batman.
He would beat criminals like my father with his bare hands in the dark city and break their bones. The other one was called Wolverine, and he was even more extreme.
I always like to make bad guys into kebabs."
Spider-Man continued forward without a care in the world, and then Mason put his hand on his shoulder and said:
"But you were the third most favorite superhero when I was a kid. It's not that you were less charming than the old man and Logan, but I was young and naive at that time and thought you were too kind.
But as I grew up, I gradually realized that I could not become someone like the master or Logan, but as long as I kept a kind heart, I could become you. "
Mason whispered:
"Peter Parker, what on earth has happened to you to deserve this?
I am really curious about your story with this world. Judging from your current living conditions, you probably don’t have many friends, and you will just stay alone and sulk when you go back.
So why don’t you take a moment to tell me about it?”
"I have no obligation to satisfy your idle curiosity, outsider."
Peter pushed Mason's hand away and said unhappily and sarcastically:
"Why don't you go to Osborne Tower and find your companions? Perhaps the Sand Man would be interested in telling you what he and his ragtag friends have done to the world."
"The purpose of my trip is to kill the Sand Man."
Mason said faintly:
"My companions have already lurked in the Osborne Tower. If you are patient, you may be able to see with your own eyes how Sandman and his team are executed by our own hands.
Oh, right.
The reason why Sandman fled back to this world alone and in a desperate situation was because in my world I sold him and his ragtag friends to my powerful allies.
It was me who opened the door to the world and sent him back.
If you hate him, Peter.
That would be reason enough for you to speak to me in a gentler and kinder way."
As he spoke, Mason took out a secret execution order signed by Mr. Hunter himself and handed it to Spider-Man. The latter was stunned for a moment, took it in his hand and looked at it, then looked at Mason with suspicion, who had a sincere face.
After a dozen seconds of silence, he said:
"You want to get information from me?"
"Um."
Mason nodded and admitted:
"You can think so, but what I just said is not false. You have come into contact with outsiders and you should know that in many parallel worlds, your legends exist in the form of comics or movies.
I know every version of your story by heart, Peter, you and Mary Jane, you and Gwen Stacy, you and Black Cat, you and Black Widow, etc...."
"I've never had any deep interaction with Black Widow! Don't slander me, you bastard!"
The middle-aged Spider-Man curled his lips and said:
“Besides, the Avengers are long gone. In the year before Doomsday, some of them died, some escaped, and many of them became one of you.
Black Widow.
I heard she was one of the first to leave, right after Hawkeye and Boiled Egg became zombies, and those two guys are probably still wandering the desert wastes of Nevada now."
Perhaps it was what Mason took out that made Spider-Man feel his sincerity. In any case, this middle-aged decadent superhero who had lost his dreams was not in a hurry to leave.
Although he was still depressed and cynical, he did start to tell Mason some things.
"Do you have cigarettes? Come on, it's hard to find such a delicacy in this shabby place."
He asked.
Mason took out a pack of Silka cigarettes from his bag. This was one of the "tactical rations" that Zha Kang left for him. He brought several boxes for that bastard last time and they have not been used up yet.
He personally helped the middle-aged Spider-Man deliver it and ignited it with magic fire.
Peter Parker, who had completely failed in body management, leaned against a peeling wall, puffing smoke skillfully while stroking his stubbled chin.
The pair of dark circles under his eyes, formed by staying up late for a long time, looked Mason up and down.
In the rising smoke, he said:
"Compared to the quality of the various outsiders I have seen, you are indeed a little too young. What do you want to know? Ask, for the sake of this pack of cigarettes, I can give you fifteen minutes."
"Can I get thirty minutes?"
Mason blinked and took out a few more packs of Silka cigarettes and handed them over.
This action made the middle-aged Spider-Man sneer, but he did not refuse. After accepting it all, he signaled with his chin that Mason could start asking questions.
“What’s going on here?”
Mason got straight to the point:
"Is the rest of the world still there? And what about these earthquakes that happen every thirty minutes?"
“That’s three questions!”
Spider-Man snorted and said:
"But it comes down to one answer, it's been an apocalypse here, a terrible virus that has hit the world and turned everything upside down .
Those infected were transformed into another form. Guys like Kingpin were actually "reborn" after death. Safe cities became dangerous, and the wilderness became popular real estate.
The Avengers, who were divided by the civil war, reorganized with difficulty and planned a counterattack.
Unfortunately, there was internal disagreement, some people continued to fight, and some people defected to the enemy. The warriors have all died, wandering in the ruins of the world in humiliation, and some have been taken away.
Later waves of outsiders regarded this place as... um, some kind of 'talent market'?
All the people they thought were valuable were taken away, such as Gwen and Frank, and the rest were silently waiting for the dawn of hope that might never come.
As for the rest of the world, I can only tell you that I don't know.
At least in North America, the only large gathering place left is Osborn Tower, but that is Osborn's property, and the Green Goblin is the first batch of scum to defect to the new master.
He relied on a successful leap to become a powerful person in the doomsday.
I guess the increasing frequency of earthquakes must be related to the tower, but I don’t know what they are doing specifically, and I’m not even interested.”
Peter Parker was silent for a moment, threw the cigarette butt to the ground and stepped on it, then said:
"It's already difficult for us to live, and everything in the outside world is meaningless to us."
He flicked out another cigarette, glanced at Mason who seemed to be thinking, and said:
"Even if you executed the Sandman and killed the Green Goblin, it would be meaningless. They are not the ones who truly rule this doomsday. You have an army stationed on the island outside of Osborn, and it was they who defeated the Avengers.
I saw it with my own eyes. Even Thor was...
Oh, what a horrible day."
"That's not our army. Although it is indeed a 'fraternal organization', we are actually just a group of bad-hearted explorers. Fighting is not our job."
Mason shrugged, corrected Peter, and asked:
"Are there any resistance groups here? I mean those who secretly resist Osborn's rule. I may need some help to enter that city quietly and execute the traitors."
"Yes, I have."
The middle-aged Spider-Man grinned and snapped his fingers, signaling Mason to follow.
He didn't mention that Team K was not allowed to enter the shelter. After a series of tedious identity verification, Peter, smoking a cigarette, led the four people into an elevator that went directly underground.
After several minutes of descending, they reached the shelter at least a hundred meters underground.
When the elevator door opened, what came into view was a completely hollowed-out, ultra-large underground cave. Artificial lighting facilities extended from Mason's eyes to the end several kilometers away.
This place is like an underground workshop, with complete residential areas and roads planned.
If you don't count the dark rock formations around it, it would be almost the same as a small town.
Mason looked up and could still vaguely see the logos of the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. on the graffiti-covered metal wall, but that was probably a long time ago.
"Go straight along Manhattan Street, turn left at the third intersection and go to the sixth house. That's where the resistance organization is located."
Peter patted Mason on the shoulder and said:
"Go ahead, find someone willing to help you, and then leave me alone, I have a date at the bar tonight... Thanks again for the cigarette, young man."
After saying that, this decadent guy put on his sunglasses and swaggered away. On the way, he even whistled with a few flashy young ladies and seemed to be very familiar with them.
This scene was nothing special to the other three members of Team K.
But it was a bit surprising for Mason. He didn't expect that Spider-Man, the embodiment of kindness, would have such a... um, free and easy side?
On the way to the resistance organization, Barbara asked curiously. Mason thought about it and answered briefly:
"Can you imagine Batman giving up his night patrol one day, ignoring the chaos of Gotham, smoking, drinking and perming his hair every day, and abandoning Selina and Talia to hang out with a group of street dancers?
If you can’t imagine it, then you can understand how I feel right now.”
"Huh? You compared that decadent weird old man to Bruce?"
Barbara said in surprise:
“Isn’t this too exaggerated?”
"exaggerate?"
Mason curled his lips and said:
"You really don't know anything about exaggeration, Barbara. The achievements that guy made when he was young and glorious are enough to make Bruce give a thumbs-up to him.
Although they act at two completely different ends of the spectrum, they are indeed the same kind of people.”
"That guy is amazing, amazing in every way."
Ertong, who had been silent the whole time, observed the surrounding environment and whispered:
“If it’s purely physical combat, it would be difficult for Bruce to defeat him.
If it was a fight of life and death, he could kill me in fifty moves at most. It seems that he is secretly protecting this place, otherwise the thousands of people here would not be able to resist the enhanced zombies outside. "
“That person gave me a very strange feeling.”
Captain Jack looked at the brightly lit houses on both sides of the road and expressed his opinion:
"He's not really tired of this world. I can feel that he just has no reason to go on. Do you understand that feeling?
It was like a kite with its string cut, with nothing pulling it and no idea where to go.
"Aunt Mei is dead."
Mason sighed and said:
"I drove Gwen away, witnessed my friend die on the battlefield, watched my former comrades defect to the enemy, and the city I had been protecting turned into ruins.
Indeed, any reason for him to fight was gone.
But that’s not right!”
Mason frowned and said:
"Mary Jane should still be here. With that woman around, there's no way Peter would be so decadent... huh?"
Mason pushed open the door of the resistance organization in front of him, and saw a big sister with long red hair sitting behind the desk with a bored look on her face, holding a lady's cigarette in her hand and looking out the window sadly.
Judging from the dusty nameplate on the table, this lady is the "leader of the resistance" that Peter mentioned?
"etc……"
Mason stared at her and said in a strange tone:
"Mary Jane?"
