After speaking, Ryan instantly transformed into a streak of purple lightning and vanished from the spot, heading toward Parker Tower.
Peter and Harry had long since grown accustomed to Ryan's personality of leaving on his own without saying a word.
Thus, after letting Ben, May, and Gwen head home first, they immediately swung after him on Silk.
They didn't want to arrive late only to have their older brother disappear for two months again like last time, leaving everyone worried!
Gwen, the last one remaining, gazed in the direction Ryan had vanished, then looked at the spider suit he had just handed her. Her gaze gradually turned determined as she turned to Ben and May. "Uncle, Auntie, I think..."
Before Gwen could finish, May gently caressed her cheek with a tender expression. "Go on, child. Do what you believe is right."
Ben patted his chest and grinned at Gwen. "That's right, you don't need to worry about us. I'll protect myself and your Aunt May. If things get bad, we'll hide in Mr. Fisk's safe room. We'll be fine!"
With the support of her boyfriend's parents, Gwen's confidence surged. She sprinted back into the house, and in less than a minute, a white shadow leaped from the Parker Family mansion, swinging toward the city center on Silk.
Ghost-Spider, move out!
While Gwen was changing and setting off, Ryan, who had left first, had already arrived at Parker Tower.
The situation at the tower was quite lively, with a group of people engaged in a passionate free-for-all.
First, Valkyrie, the new security chief of Parker Tower, was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Loki, who held the Mind Stone scepter.
One really couldn't fathom why Loki, a mage—especially one wielding a mind-controlling divine artifact like the Mind Stone scepter—would choose to play at melee combat with a warrior.
One could only say that Loki might have been truly corrupted by Asgard's warlike culture.
As for Loki appearing here again after having been killed by him, Ryan wasn't surprised at all. The moment he saw that sky-piercing space portal, he knew this little trickster god had to be behind it.
Last time he took down Loki, the latter had used an illusion to escape. This time, with his Spider-Sense majorly upgraded, Loki wouldn't be so lucky!
Next, besides Loki, the other person fighting Max was even more surprising to Ryan.
Because that person was controlling four metal octopus arms!
Clearly, it was one of Spider-Man's arch-nemeses, Doctor Octopus, a tech-side talent just like The Lizard!
He hadn't expected Loki to find Doctor Octopus as an ally. After all, when he first founded Parker Industries, he had tried to look for him but couldn't find him.
Moreover, the mechanical octopus arms manufactured by Osborn Enterprises had been given to him by Harry along with the building. He had thought that Doctor Octopus wouldn't appear in this Universe because of that.
He didn't expect Doctor Octopus to appear at the wrong time in the wrong place.
However, Doctor Octopus's appearance was truly a bit late. If he had shown up at the beginning, he might have caused some trouble.
But now that Ryan had gone through several rounds of power-ups, Doctor Octopus's strength was clearly far from enough to challenge him...
Ryan then shifted his gaze to the final pair fighting.
It was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s former ace duo, Black Widow Natasha and Hawkeye Barton.
These two were also fighting, and they were playing quite dirty—Hawkeye was pulling hair, and Black Widow was kicking groins. There wasn't a hint of former colleague friendship between them!
Ryan glanced at the six people in the fray, then unhesitatingly charged toward the battlefield of Valkyrie and Loki. His right hand transformed into a Symbiote blade, aiming straight for Loki's head!
To catch the bandits, first capture their leader!
But just as the blade was a mere centimeter from Loki's neck, Ryan suddenly retracted it and swung it behind him to block.
Clang!
With a crisp sound of impact, Ryan looked back to see that the attacker was actually Valkyrie!
Looking at Valkyrie's eyes, which were shrouded in a faint blue light, Ryan knew she must have fallen for Loki's dirty trick in a moment of carelessness!
The mental control of the Mind Stone really was a bug; from ordinary people to god-kin, anyone could be controlled if they weren't careful!
But it didn't matter. Ryan knew a simple and effective way to break mental control.
Ryan parried Valkyrie's dragon tooth sword with his blade and flicked it upward. The immense force caused Valkyrie to momentarily lose her balance and lean backward.
Before she could steady herself, Ryan's other hand had already turned into a large hammer. With a 'thud,' he slammed it into her temple from the side!
With one strike, Valkyrie was sent flying sideways, crashing through Parker Tower into another building and falling unconscious.
Uh, she should be unconscious...
Ryan admitted he might have hit a bit too hard, considering his strength had just doubled.
But regardless of the process, the result was that if Valkyrie was still alive, the Mind Stone's control over her would definitely be broken once she woke up.
Having "physically shut down" Valkyrie, Ryan glanced at the unmoved Loki, raised an eyebrow, and turned to look at Max and the others.
Because his upgraded Spider-Sense didn't detect any emotions radiating from this Loki.
So clearly, this Loki was just a fake phantom.
Since Valkyrie was under mental control and was acting with Loki's phantom to ambush him, she definitely wasn't the only one controlled.
Sure enough, the several people who were just fighting on the roof all turned to look at Ryan, their eyes glowing with a faint blue light.
Clearly, they were all controlled now.
With the ambush failed, the others stopped pretending and all rushed toward Ryan.
This scene inexplicably reminded Ryan of playing the Marvel Spider-Man game in his previous life, where Spider-Man was ganged up on by supervillains and knocked down floor after floor.
If it were Peter facing these people alone, that game scene might actually be recreated.
However... Ryan wasn't the kind-hearted Peter Parker; he was the invincible Monarch Ryan Parker!
First was Max, who charged as blue lightning. The moment Max approached, Ryan's hands also erupted with purple lightning even more torrential than that on Max's body. Using the same element, he instantly grabbed Max's neck while he was in lightning form!
As Max struggled, Ryan grinned at him.
"Max, it seems you've forgotten who the teacher was that first taught you how to develop your lightning abilities. Playing with lightning in front of me? You're showing off to a master!"
After speaking, Ryan raised his other hand, grabbed the arc reactor on Max's chest, and ripped it off.
Deprived of his energy source, the resisting current on Max's body instantly dimmed, further suppressed by the purple lightning in Ryan's hands.
Max had electricity control, and so did Ryan—and Ryan's was stronger. Max couldn't absorb the lightning Ryan unleashed; instead, his own current was being constantly ground away by Ryan's!
In just a few breaths, the current on Max's body was completely exhausted by Ryan's lightning. He reverted from his elemental state back to his dark-skinned physical form, his eyes rolled back as his energy was spent, and he passed out, tossed aside by Ryan.
In just one round, Electro was defeated!