Restart, Spider-Man!

Lizard Parker thought it over. "Actually, I think it was six arms."

Xia Luo: "..."

"So, three pairs."

Xia Luo's spirits lifted slightly—not seeing Harry's death firsthand had left a small bit of relief in him.

Actually, not at all!

"Come on, let's go meet up with Carter in Hell's Kitchen."

"Carter?" Lizard Parker's eyes lit up. "Yes, let's find her right away."

For a moment, he seemed to forget about Gwen's death.

And, to be honest, so did Xia Luo.

The two started walking away.

Behind them, Wade's head bobbed back and forth.

"Hey, hey, hey! Take me with you, you jerks! Don't leave me behind!"

An hour later, in Hell's Kitchen…

When Xia Luo entered Kingpin's mansion carrying Wade's disembodied head, everyone inside froze in shock.

"You avenged Harry? You killed that evil Spider-Man?" Carter exclaimed.

"For the last time, I'm not Spider-Man—I'm the Dark Knight, Batman!" Wade corrected her.

Seeing the severed head still talking, the group was stunned all over again.

"I knew it—Spider-Men are practically unkillable," Barton muttered, nodding to himself.

Wade: "..."

In one smooth motion, Xia Luo tossed Wade's head into a corner.

He glanced around the room, eyes finally resting on Uncle Ben and Aunt May.

His nano-mask retracted, revealing his face.

Seeing his familiar face, Ben and May's eyes filled with emotion.

"My little Xia Luo, you… you must be so exhausted, aren't you?" Aunt May stepped forward, just as she used to, and playfully pinched his cheeks.

Uncle Ben leaned over and whispered, "Remember, you're supposed to be his cousin."

Aunt May shook her head. "He'll know it's really us."

"Yes, I know."

Xia Luo smiled, opening his arms to embrace them both.

"It's so good to see you again."

"Again?" They looked at each other in confusion but chose not to ask more.

After a brief embrace, Xia Luo turned to the scorched figure of Old Man Steve.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

Old Man Steve brushed soot off his burned sleeve. "Ran into Max. He's not like me, though—I can go all day, but he can't."

"Fair enough." Xia Luo gave him a thumbs-up.

Just then, Carter rolled in with a ragged-looking man at her side.

"Oh, it's Logan—my ol' buddy!" Wade cheered. No one responded.

Logan glared at Wade's talking head, looking annoyed.

"Any chance you can sew his mouth shut?" he asked Xia Luo.

Wade: "..."

Xia Luo considered it. "Or maybe just save time and smash his face in."

Wade: "!!!"

Professor X, from his wheelchair, gave a dry chuckle. "Something tells me you're just afraid the same might happen to you, hm?"

Xia Luo's eyes narrowed.

"I don't appreciate anyone poking around in my head."

"My apologies, force of habit," Professor X said, bowing his head.

"I ran into them on my way to Hell's Kitchen," Carter explained.

"How can you be sure they're contestants, too?" Lizard Parker asked, curious.

Carter shrugged. "Well, they caused a scene and looked pretty rough—that's got to be Spider-Man's team, right?"

"Oh, I get it! They're the 'Old and Frail' team," Lizard Parker said, reminiscing.

Xia Luo sized them up. "You two look like you don't have much fight left in you."

At another time, Logan would've challenged Xia Luo to a fight for saying that.

But now, the fire in him had long since dimmed.

"True, I don't. But the Professor… he's different."

Logan's face grew serious. "He could lose control any minute."

"Just drop him in the Hydra base, and we win," Wade suggested.

Logan ignored him, turning to Xia Luo with a hint of worry. "You won't do that… right?"

"Of course not."

Xia Luo smiled, while Professor X's face grew tense.

"He's about to lose it—stand back—" Logan started.

"Calm down," the Professor interrupted, gazing at Xia Luo. "I should've listened to you."

It seemed he'd accidentally tried to probe Xia Luo's mind again but encountered a protective barrier that pushed him back.

In his prime, he might've been able to break through.

But now, he barely managed.

Xia Luo massaged his temples. "It's called mental resistance. Maybe don't try it again."

"There won't be a next time."

"I think there will be."

Xia Luo turned to the group gathered around him.

Carter, Old Man Steve, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, Lizard Parker, Wolverine and Professor X, plus Deadpool's disembodied head.

And then Barton and Natasha—heroes without powers, yet they fought like titans.

This group couldn't possibly take on Hydra.

Unless…

He looked at Old Man Steve. "Did you find the Tablet of Time?"

Old Man Steve shook his head. "I ran out of time."

"After you died, Madame Gao escaped first. She's hard to track," Carter added.

"And the Dragonbone Fossils?" Xia Luo asked.

Carter opened a briefcase, revealing the fossils, which had lost their glow.

"On our way to Blake Street, we drained them dry. They're out of power."

She seemed to understand his plan, but the fossils were useless without energy, meaning Old Man Steve and the others couldn't be rejuvenated for even a short while to help in the fight.

Xia Luo kept his expression calm, tapping his wrist device to bring up a map of New York City.

"Hydra Steve and the Sinister Six found Mary Jane and Gwen almost immediately. Their starting points must've been close by.

"Along with where Harry was killed—where was it?" he asked Lizard Parker.

"Osborn Tower," Lizard Parker replied.

Hearing that, Xia Luo frowned.

"Osborn Tower, Empire University, and Blake Street…"

He muttered, feeling a pit in his stomach.

The three locations formed a triangle around the Empire State Building, each about equidistant.

Even if he moved at his fastest, he could only save one person.

It was impossible to save all three at once.

Thinking it over, he looked at Wade.

"If I'm not mistaken, you've got a teleportation device, right?"

"Yup, you want it? I can lend it to you… for a head-wash. I think my neck's almost ready to grow back," Wade said, grinning, his flesh wriggling at the stump of his neck, unsettling everyone.

What a horrifying healing ability.

Ignoring him, Xia Luo turned back to the map.

Wade must've started near the school, meaning that if he'd found him right at the beginning, he could've saved all three—Harry, Gwen, and MJ.

And if he could prevent his identity from leaking…

Would that stop the tragedy altogether?

He doubted it.

Hydra Steve knew all his secrets. Whether his identity was exposed or not, they'd find a way to target those close to him.

And the six-armed Spider-Man was an unknown quantity—probably no pushover.

Before he could complete the revival task, all of these were threats he needed to eliminate.

With that, Xia Luo gathered the group and began gathering intel from Carter and the others.

Before long, the global artificial sun experiment appeared on the TV, drawing everyone's attention as people worldwide cheered.

"My god! Thirteen artificial sun experiments at the same time! This is world-changing!"

"If successful, humanity will have limitless energy. Earth's civilization will ascend to the cosmos."

"I can't wait!"

But the celebration quickly turned to chaos as one artificial sun after another went out of control, forming black holes that devoured humanity's hopes.

As panic spread, Xia Luo and the others simply watched in silence.

"It's hopeless."

Carter sighed. "I've done the math—between the start of the mission and the artificial sun failures, we have only three hours. Even with Earth's most advanced tech, it's impossible to get to each site in time to stop Hydra."

"And that's if none of the other contestants try to mess with us," added Old Man Steve.

"Can't we alert the authorities and suggest a remote nuclear strike?" Lizard Parker asked.

Carter shook her head. "If these experiments made it to the news, it means Hydra has already convinced the world governments to approve them. They're too blinded by the promise of limitless energy to believe us."

Logan frowned. "So we're out of options?"

"Unless someone can teleport instantly," Xia Luo replied, glancing at Wade.

Wade was barely managing to stand on his still-regenerating "baby legs," tiny fists propped on his hips.

He puffed out his small chest and said, "More than half of the artificial suns have already spiraled out of control. Even if we act now, we're too late."

Logan and Professor X exchanged a hopeless look.

For their first revival tournament, they were completely unprepared, clueless on what to do.

Old Man Steve, however, seemed unfazed. He was used to it by now.

Carter looked to Xia Luo. "There's really nothing we can do?"

She was still hoping Xia Luo might pull off a miracle.

Xia Luo shook his head. "We've lost our only way to teleport. This revival tournament is already a bust."

Lizard Parker scratched his head. "This one feels nothing like the last tournament. It's a complete flop."

Across the room, Barton and Natasha exchanged a weary glance, shaking their heads.

Though they'd learned Spider-Man's revival secret, with the artificial suns going rogue and dismantling global armed forces, the coming days would be Hydra's playground.

Hydra's decades-long strategy was finally set to pay off.

Faced with world-scale warfare, the power of superheroes was painfully small.

"I've found you."

Suddenly, the television screen flickered with lines of code before displaying a grotesque face.

Dr. Zola's eerie smile filled the room as everyone froze in horror.

Bzzt.

The lights flickered, casting the room in eerie shadows as Professor X, visibly shaken, stiffened and began to tremble.

"Uh-oh!"

Logan fumbled to get the sedative, but it was too late. A psychic storm had already erupted.

For the aging Professor X, controlling his immense psychic power was nearly impossible. When he lost control, disaster followed.

The last time this happened, six hundred people had died instantly.

The Professor had been haunted by guilt ever since.

Now, with his psychic energy spiraling out, even the superheroes felt the terrifying force of a mutant's full power.

"No!!"

The instant the invisible force pulsed out, everyone felt a crushing headache, collapsing in pain and screaming in agony.

Xia Luo fared slightly better, though his movements were sluggish, and he was almost entirely drained of energy.

"Use this,"

Logan gasped, managing to toss the sedative to Xia Luo.

Xia Luo staggered forward, sedative in hand, and reached out to inject it into the Professor's arm.

"Wait, where do I stick this?" he paused.

"Anywhere," Logan gritted out.

Just as Xia Luo prepared to inject, a blinding white light enveloped their vision.

—

[You have been eliminated. You did not earn a revival slot. Reward: +1 ton to physical strength.]

[45 resets remaining. Would you like to restart?]

Suspended in the cosmic web, Xia Luo blinked, momentarily dazed.

"What, another explosion?"

Something was off—the way his body had disintegrated instantly was beyond the power of a regular missile.

Could it have been… a nuke?

He shuddered.

Barely a beat after eliminating Earth's military forces, Hydra had wasted no time showing its true colors.

So that's why they had to prevent the artificial suns from failing within the first three hours of the tournament. Once they failed, Hydra gained the upper hand, easily wiping out any enemy contestants in New York.

His muscles tightened in anger as he processed his options.

At this point, even one ton of extra physical strength felt like something, though barely.

Restart!

Second Attempt at the Revival Tournament.

As soon as the countdown hit zero, Xia Luo dashed toward Empire University in a flash of electricity.

Whoosh!

With lightning speed, he quickly found Wade lurking around the women's dorm, trying to sneak a peek into the showers.

"Hey, I don't suppose you want your girlfriend finding out you're peeping, do you?" Xia Luo whispered, clapping a hand on the greasy Wade.

Wade turned around, nonchalant. "So what? Who cares?" he shrugged.

Xia Luo: "..."

His eyes settled on the teleportation device strapped to Wade's waist. "There's no time to explain. Take me somewhere."

Xia Luo was ready to use force if needed, but Wade's answer stopped him cold.

"Sure. Where to?"

Wade started fiddling with the teleportation device.

Xia Luo: "???"

"You're not going to ask why?"

"Don't need to."

Wade spread his arms, embracing Xia Luo. "From the moment I saw you, my heart knew you were a friend worth trusting. I'll always love you—oof!"

Without a word, Xia Luo kneed him in the stomach, doubling him over in pain.

He clamped a hand over Wade's mouth before he could scream.

"Keep quiet. We're going, and we're going quietly."

Wade nodded, tears brimming in his eyes as he fought the pain.

The second Xia Luo let go, Wade's scream ripped through the hall.

"AHHH! My—!" Wade yelled.

"AHHH! A PEEPING TOM!" A girl's scream echoed from the showers, and before anyone could react, Xia Luo and Wade vanished in a flash of light.

When Xia Luo opened his eyes again, he was on the roof of Empire University.

Standing in front of him was a dumbstruck Mysterio.

"Spider-Man?"

Mysterio's dome helmet tilted as he scratched the glass headpiece, unable to reach his scalp.

Xia Luo glanced down at himself. He was… missing his lower half.

For a moment, he could only stare, stunned.

Meanwhile, beside him, a flustered Wade fiddled with the teleportation device, giving it a few hasty taps.

"Uh, sorry… it's been acting up. Don't worry—I'll get your legs back in a sec. Just… hang tight, I'll have you patched up in no time."

Wade crouched down, pretending to "fix" the device.

Head spinning from the missing half of his body, Xia Luo knew exactly what he'd just signed up for. This… this was the cost of teaming up with Deadpool.

---

T/N: how are they gonna win this onee

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