I Became Spider-Man's Cousin in Anime Crossover

Chapter 549 [3 Chapters Combined] The Pressure from Hawkeye

A silver-gray dimensional wall slowly unfolded in the center of the corridor on the third floor of Zone C. Its liquid metal-like surface shimmered with light.

Steve, wearing a nanotech suit, was the first to step out.

But instead of rushing into the laboratory, he steadily rested the shield on his arm and quickly scanned both sides of the corridor.

Only after confirming that the surrounding environment was safe did Steve reach into the dimensional wall and signal to Tony and the others who were waiting for instructions that they could come over.

Soon, Tony and the others passed through the dimensional barrier and arrived beside Steve.

Steve, without any hesitation, briefly analyzed the laboratory topography map obtained from Justice's scan. Then, he looked up at Tony, who had stepped out of the dimensional wall, opened his briefcase, and donned the Mark III armor in just a few seconds, under the envious and amazed gazes of Jade and Felicia, and gave him his orders.

"Tony, you go and block the east elevator. I'll take the two kids and flank them from the west staircase. Cut off their escape route; don't let them have a chance to take the iridium!"

"No problem, Captain!"

Tony nodded, and the flames from the thrusters under his feet surged instantly, propelling him like a meteor as he flew rapidly eastward.

Steve waved his hand and, acting as the trailblazer, led Jade and Felicia westward.

Before long, the three of them followed the stairs on the west side and arrived at the third floor of Section C without any obstruction.

But this made Steve frown inwardly.

Despite having superpowers and real-time guidance from artificial intelligence, their journey has been far too smooth.

There was no sign of the enemy, nor even any traps to stop their advance.

Either the enemy didn't realize that Riley possessed the ability to teleport, allowing him to send people over in time to stop their invasion...

Or perhaps they have some other killer move prepared, just waiting for the Avengers to walk right into the trap!

"Something's not right. We need to be careful, slow down... Wait, are we missing someone?"

Thinking of this, Steve, who had experienced the baptism of the battlefield in World War II and keenly sensed that something was wrong, explained as he turned around, intending to redeploy the next operation.

But when he turned around and found that the only person standing behind him was Felicia, who was wearing the black cat battle suit, he couldn't help but blink.

Then, their eyes widened suddenly, and together with Felicia, who also realized something was wrong, they looked around and exclaimed in unison.

"Where's Xiaoyu?!"

Their eyes searched frantically in the empty stairwell—the handrails, the steps, the ceiling—but there was no trace of that petite figure anywhere.

Just as Steve's brow furrowed even more, and he began to worry that Jade might have been secretly captured by Hawkeye, his communicator suddenly rang.

It was Xiaoyu's voice, low and filled with eager excitement.

"Captain, stop looking, I'm upstairs."

Upon hearing this, Steve suddenly looked up.

Above the stairwell, half a head peeked out from the edge of the tall ventilation duct cover, waving at Steve and Felicia.

"What are you doing up there? Come down now!"

Steve lowered his voice, his tone carrying an unquestionable command, as well as the worry and unease of an elder who vaguely guessed what Xiaoyu wanted to do.

"I saw those bastards; they've already extracted the iridium!"

But Xiaoyu had no intention of obediently listening. Instead, she pointed with her little hand and her tone became noticeably urgent.

"Oh no! That so-called 'doctor' is carrying a container containing iridium and heading towards the other end of the corridor! He's going to get away if we don't stop him! Captain, I'm going first!"

"Don't be impulsive! Jade! Listen to me, Tony's over there, they can't escape! We don't know the location of the others yet, if we show ourselves rashly...!"

"Don't worry, don't worry, they're no match for me! Just wait for my good news, Captain! It's time for the brave and fearless T-girls to be deployed—!!!!!"

Before Steve could finish speaking, Xiaoyu had already pulled her head back.

That small figure, like a nimble gecko, silently followed the ventilation duct towards the direction where Dr. Asakura and the others were.

"...That child, Riley has really spoiled him!"

Seeing that he was receiving no response from Xiaoyu on the other end of the communicator, the usually composed Steve was practically grinding his teeth to powder.

But he couldn't really leave Xiaoyu alone, so he rubbed his nose and started contacting Tony.

"Tony! Jade went in alone! We need backup!"

"What? That poor kid... I'll go cut off the power to the east elevator right now and get there immediately! Hang in there!"

After ending the call, Steve waved his hand and led Felicia out of the stairwell.

The corridor was still brightly lit, and everything seemed peaceful.

Just as Tama had mentioned, Dr. Asakura stood in the middle of the corridor, holding a container filled with meteorite fragments rich in iridium.

But he didn't rush to run away. Instead, as if he already knew Steve and the others would come, he stood quietly in place.

Only when Dr. Asakura saw Steve kick open the door and storm in with a sharp look in his eyes did he raise the corners of his mouth and say something meaningful.

"You've come after all. Unfortunately, one of the brats is too rude, barging in without even saying hello. He needs to be properly disciplined."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the ceiling suddenly exploded!

"boom--!"

The ventilation duct shattered without warning, and fragments scattered like shrapnel.

A small figure flew out of the hole, like a bullet that had been hit, and crashed hard into the wall on one side of the corridor.

The impact was so great that it shattered the bricks and stones, and the wall was dented with a large crater, with cracks spreading outwards like a spider web.

If Xiaoyu hadn't been injected with the super soldier serum beforehand and hadn't been protected by the nanosuit, this attack alone would probably have been enough to take her life!

Even so, after Xiaoyu slid off the wall and fell heavily to the ground, she was in so much pain that she grimaced and could not move an inch for a long time.

At the same time, a large section of her nanosuit shattered, revealing a horrific wound beneath her skin that looked as if it had severed Xiaoyu in two.

Her mask was nearly half shattered in the previous impact, revealing Xiaoyu's true face with her brows furrowed.

Skorch, the culprit who ambushed and severely injured Jade, leaped down through the hole in the ceiling, carrying his iconic double-headed axe.

The entire corridor trembled as his massive body landed. Fragments of Xiaoyu's nanosuit still clung to the blade of his double-headed axe, reflecting a dark red sheen under the light. His eyes were fanatical and bloodthirsty, a ferocious grin playing on his lips.

"Look what I found! A disobedient little bug..."

Skorch, speaking in a hoarse voice, showed no pity for Xiaoyu's childlike appearance after her true face was revealed. Instead, his words were filled with contempt and disdain as he sneered and mocked her.

"This sneaky style really suits you, you weak Midgardians... Besides, have you become this weak? Sending a child to the battlefield is truly cowardly and shameful. But don't worry, child, I'll free you from this predicament..."

With that, Skorch strode toward Xiaoyu, each step echoing loudly on the metal floor. Reaching Xiaoyu in front of him, he looked down at her, slowly raising his axe to gather strength, preparing to chop off her head.

At the same time, realizing that a crisis was approaching, Xiaoyu began to struggle to get up. But the sharp pain in her back made her arms weak, and she fell back down halfway up.

"Xiaoyu!"

Upon seeing this, Steve was instantly enraged and rushed over without thinking.

However, he had only taken two steps when an arrow silently flew out of the darkness, heading straight for Steve's face. Steve was forced to stop and instinctively raise his shield to defend himself.

Unexpectedly, this move played right into the enemy's hands!

The rapidly approaching arrow exploded the moment it struck the shield. A ball of highly adhesive foam instantly expanded, enveloping most of Steve's body, making it difficult for him to break free for a short time!

Seeing this, Felicia wanted to help Steve get out of trouble. But Jade's situation looked much more precarious.

With her brows furrowed, Felicia, choosing to believe that Steve could escape on his own, bypassed the bubbles from the side and continued rushing towards Jade.

Just then, another arrow pierced the air.

This time, Felicia learned from Steve's mistake and did not choose to take the arrow head-on. Instead, she used her agility to ensure that she did not lose too much speed while dodging to the side.

And so, the arrow flew past Felicia's eyes.

Before Felicia could even catch her breath, the arrow suddenly exploded, emitting a blinding flash of light!

As a blinding white light exploded in the corridor, Felicia reacted quickly, closing her eyes in time and relying on her memory to continue groping forward. However, her progress was clearly slowed, and it was too late to save Xiaoyu.

Clearly, the opponent anticipated Felicia's prediction and used a completely different arrow with drastically different effects!

Fortunately, just as Skorch finished charging up and his axe blade was about to chop off Jade's head, a red-gold figure shot out from the end of the corridor like a meteor.

That was Tony, who had rushed to provide support at full speed after shutting down the elevator power and temporarily blocking one of Dr. Asakura's and others' escape routes!

The flames from the thrusters beneath his feet, operating at full power, left dazzling trails of light. Their speed was so great that even the air itself seemed to be torn apart with a sharp whistling sound.

With Jarvis's assistance, Tony locked onto the target and then simply raised his hands, firing two palm cannons simultaneously, which accurately struck Skorch's ankle!

"boom--!"

The energy beam exploded on Skorch's instep, shattering his leather armor.

He grunted, his body suddenly tilted, and the axe swung off course, smashing into the floor next to Xiaoyu's head, sparks flying.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Tony scooped up Jade and held her in his arms. With his increasingly skilled maneuvering, he made a sudden stop and turn in mid-air, landing steadily in a safe area on the other side of the corridor.

"Uncle Tony! You've come...just in time..."

Realizing that she was temporarily out of danger, Xiaoyu's tense body visibly relaxed.

Then, gazing at the familiar figure before her, Xiaoyu forced a smile that looked more like a grimace, despite the pain, and praised him weakly.

Finally, seeing that Tony didn't respond, Jade, realizing she had gotten herself into big trouble, shrank back and muttered guiltily.

"Um... this was just an accident... could you please not tell Riley or Uncle Long...?"

But Tony was busy trying to escape Skurge's pursuit while also protecting himself from lurking dangers in the shadows, so he had no time to respond to Jade.

He glared at Xiaoyu with a hint of annoyance, and then used one hand to spray the wound on Xiaoyu's back with the emergency spray built into his suit.

Soon, the medicinal ingredients in the spray condensed into a protective film, temporarily stopping Xiaoyu's bleeding. It not only accelerated wound healing but also provided temporary pain relief.

This improved Xiaoyu's complexion slightly, but she was still frighteningly pale.

Clearly, these alone are not enough to restore Xiaoyu to health.

The most important thing right now is to get away as soon as possible so that Xiaoyu can receive professional treatment.

"Tony, take Jade and get out of here! We'll take care of this!"

Steve noticed this too.

After using the brute force of a super soldier to break free from the sticky foam binding him, Steve leaped forward, raised his shield, and intercepted Skorch, who was chasing Tony.

"Understood! I'll be back as soon as I've settled her in!"

Tony didn't hesitate and immediately scooped up Jade and flew towards the exit.

However, before Tony could fly very far, all the lights in the corridor suddenly went out.

Darkness surged in like a tide, but the emergency lights did not turn on.

There is no doubt that this was not an accidental power outage, but rather that someone precisely cut off the power.

Tony's armor automatically switched to thermal imaging mode, making the originally pitch-black scene clearly visible again in black and white.

It seems that apart from the power outage, there is no danger.

In this very environment, an arrow flew out of the darkness and struck the ceiling in front of Tony.

The arrow exploded, releasing a high-strength alloy mesh that blocked the path to the exit.

Tony was forced to hover, maneuver around the metal mesh, and try to leave through another passage.

But a second arrow followed closely, heading straight for Jade in Tony's arms.

This left Tony, who was moving at high speed and had no time to dodge, with no choice but to turn his body to the side and use his shoulder to protect Jade.

However, it seems that the other party had even taken this into account.

The moment the arrow struck Tony's shoulder armor, it couldn't cause any damage to his tough steel body, but blue arcs of electricity erupted from the arrowhead. These arcs quickly spread across the armor's surface, causing Tony's HUD to flicker a few times and even noticeably reducing the thruster power by several levels.

The electromagnetic pulse warhead was a special type of missile assigned to Barton by S.H.I.E.L.D. specifically to deal with high-precision electronic equipment.

"Why did you have to jump out and cause trouble at this crucial moment... Agent Patton, huh? Once I catch you, I'll give you a good kick in the ass!"

Fortunately, when designing his armor, Tony, like Riley, liked to prepare contingency plans in advance to deal with various unexpected crises.

With gritted teeth and a low growl, Tony manually switched to the backup system, regaining full control of the Iron Man suit.

Then, following Jarvis's calculations and the trajectory of the attack, he finally saw Hawkeye's figure flash by in the darkness.

His special all-black combat suit not only absorbs heat and evades thermal imaging scans, but also allows him to blend almost seamlessly into the surrounding darkness.

If Jarvis hadn't possessed exceptional calculation skills, using the Iron Man suit's angle of impact to reverse the trajectory and calculate Hawkeye's approximate location, Tony would likely have been led by the nose by Hawkeye!

"Gotcha! You bastard!"

Almost instantly after he finished speaking, Tony decisively raised his hand and fired several repulsion beams in the direction Hawkeye was.

But Hawkeye, an ordinary person without superpowers or technological enhancements, became one of the core members of the original Avengers, which naturally speaks to his exceptional abilities.

As he fired his second arrow, the battle-hardened Hawkeye began searching for his next foothold.

Then, by using the angle of Tony's raised hand, Hawkeye quickly calculated the direction of the attack in his mind, and simply jumped up, passing through the concentrated attack of the repulsive beam without getting a single leaf on his body!

Even more terrifying, mid-air after taking off, Hawkeye didn't forget to draw an arrow from the quiver on his back and shoot it towards Skorch without even looking.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of Steve's frontal assault drawing Skorch's attention, Felicia slipped out from the side. Her nanosuit materialized into claws on her arms, and combined with the immense power granted by the Super Soldier Serum, she slashed towards Skorch's side, which he had no time to defend.

But just as her claws were about to touch their target, Hawkeye's arrow struck the ground beneath Felicia's feet first.

The arrow exploded silently, and a smooth ice surface spread outwards from the point of impact at a visible speed.

Completely unprepared for this turn of events, Felicia slipped and lost her balance, falling heavily to the ground.

The blow that could have dealt a heavy blow to Skorch missed its mark.

Worse still, when Felicia instinctively tried to get up by bracing herself with her hands, she would always fall back to the ground because the ice was too slippery and she couldn't get any leverage.

As a result, Felicia was not only unable to continue assisting Steve in attacking Skorch in a short period of time, but also had to rely on Steve's distraction to protect her, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse!

"Completely uncooperative, a complete mess... Does Nick Fury really think sending you here will stop us?"

Hawkeye's voice came from the darkness, hollow and cold, as if it were coming from all directions at the same time.

Along with them came all sorts of special arrows.

An explosive arrow landed at Steve's feet, the shockwave knocking him back two steps. Skorch seized the opportunity and brought his axe down with tremendous force. With a groan of pain from Steve, a cluster of crimson blood bloomed!

A poison gas blast exploded above Tony's head as he was about to leave. The dense, green mist, radiating danger, spread out, forcing Tony to glance down at Jade, whose nanotech suit was severely damaged and clearly no longer protected against the gas. With a frustrated expression, he chose to retreat, temporarily avoiding the threat of the poison gas.

An ordinary arrow struck a fire sprinkler on the ceiling. As it sprayed a large amount of water, an electric arrow followed, traveling along the mixture of ice and water on the ground, hurtling towards Felicia! Forced to abandon any thought of helping Steve or Tony due to her own predicament, Felicia raised her hand and launched a grappling hook to pull herself away from the danger zone.

Sharp angles, agile movements, and specialized arrows with various functions, combined with an eagle eye's profound understanding and utilization of the terrain...

It was only at this moment that everyone realized, in disbelief…

Hawkeye, who was originally considered the least threatening person in everyone's eyes because he didn't have superpowers, is now like the most experienced hunter, weaving an invisible net of death with every arrow he fires.

Every move a person makes is within his calculations.

Every strike hit the most vulnerable spot on everyone.

For a moment, Hawkeye posed a greater threat to everyone than Skorch, the Asgardian warrior!

Although that big guy was incredibly strong, at least he was visible, tangible, and manageable.

Hawkeye is like a venomous snake lurking in the darkness. You never know where he'll strike from next!

"This won't do... Everyone, pull back into formation and defend back-to-back!"

The only saving grace is that Riley's nanosuit is of truly reassuring quality.

Having taken precautions and withstood a direct axe blow, Steve, though seriously injured, was still capable of fighting. The excruciating pain only sharpened his mind!

Therefore, seeing that not only was Tony unable to escape with Jade in the short term, but he and Felicia were also being forced into a passive and defensive position by Hawkeye, and knowing that continuing to fight individually would only lead to them being picked off one by one by Hawkeye, Steve decisively shouted and changed the battle strategy.

Upon hearing this, Tony quickly retreated to Steve's side, his palm facing outwards, constantly searching for Hawkeye's location.

Felicia retracted her grappling hook, landed lightly, and controlled her nanosuit to transform the claws into a round shield similar to Steve's, which she held in front of her as she warily looked around.

Thus, the three of them formed a triangular formation, back to back, protecting Xiaoyu in the center while guarding against Eagle Eye's attack.

"That's right, stick together for warmth... Only in this way can you bunch of sitting ducks die a little slower and provide me with more fun."

Meanwhile, in the pitch-black darkness, Hawkeye's lips were curling into a continuous smile.

He looked at the three figures huddled together as if they were three prey trapped in a cage. Muttering to himself, he nocked an arrow again, drew the bowstring taut, and aimed at the weakest link in the triangular formation.

Felicia.