Peter quickly arrived at the base of Stark Tower.
Until the full transition was complete, the place was still being used as the Avengers' operational center.
Well… though to be honest, there weren't many so-called "Avengers" left anymore.
Peter had only learned this recently, after officially becoming one.
In the current Avengers, Captain America, Falcon, Hawkeye, and Wanda had all been completely expelled from the team, even declared criminals and placed on wanted lists.
Black Widow, for secretly letting Cap and the Winter Soldier go, had been reported by Black Panther and was now considered a criminal as well.
Colonel James Rhodes—War Machine—had regained consciousness, but was still recovering.
Tony had said he planned to design prosthetics to help Rhodes walk again, but before he could begin, the military came to retrieve Rhodes, claiming they might have a way to cure him.
Tony didn't think too much of it.
Rhodes was military personnel to begin with. If they had some internal method to heal him, then that was ideal.
Over the years, the military had absorbed quite a bit of alien technology, and they also possessed some mysterious-type power sources. Their hidden influence was nothing to scoff at—maybe they truly did have a method to heal Rhodes.
As for the remaining Thor and Hulk—one had returned to Asgard, and the other had gone missing after fighting Ultron.
There had originally been Vision as well, but Peter accidentally learned from Tony that Vision had recently "run away from home."
Tony did want to look for that "ungrateful kid."
But Vision carried the Mind Stone, and before that, he was Tony's AI—JARVIS. His understanding of the digital world was beyond compare.
If he wanted to disappear, no technology on Earth could track him.
So in the end, the Avengers were down to just Iron Man and Spider-Man.
Of course, the Avengers organization still had plenty of support staff.
The Taskmaster was now being held in a containment room by those staff members.
And the one in charge of interrogating her was Tony's current AI assistant, FRIDAY.
Obviously Tony was worried that the Taskmaster might know Spider-Man's identity beneath the mask, so he chose FRIDAY for the interrogation instead of any of the human staff.
When Peter arrived, he found that Tony Stark was already there!
Had this guy flown back faster than Peter could swing?
Seeing Peter, Tony casually placed something in front of him.
Whoosh—
A holographic projection appeared.
"We've figured out her identity. As for yours—yes, she knows. But she hasn't leaked it."
Peter studied the projection carefully.
The Taskmaster's real name was Antonia Dreykov, daughter of General Dreykov, overseer of the Red Room. She had once been used by Black Widow Natasha Romanoff and Hawkeye Clint Barton to locate Dreykov.
During the operation, an explosion caught Antonia in the blast, severely injuring her.
General Dreykov conducted human experimentation on her and implanted a learning chip into the back of her skull.
It was this learning chip that not only restored Antonia's mobility, but granted her an extraordinary ability to copy movements—by observing and analyzing others, she could memorize and perfectly replicate their combat styles.
That was the origin of her title: "Taskmaster."
Before coming after Peter, she had studied the Berlin Airport battle footage and videos of past Avengers missions, copying Captain America's shield work, Black Widow's grappling arts, Hawkeye's archery rhythm, Black Panther's technique, and more.
She had even learned some of Peter's moves.
Unfortunately for her, at the time, Peter's combat style relied almost entirely on raw power, agility, and coordination—there wasn't much technique for her to reference.
As for actual fighting skills…What could you expect from a fifteen-year-old who had only just gotten powers?
Taskmaster was probably still baffled about how he'd gone from a complete rookie to a skilled fighter in barely half a year.
If Peter had no fighting technique, he really might have been restricted when facing Taskmaster.
But now that he had enough skill of his own—even if Taskmaster could learn, Peter had more than enough ways to counter and break her moves, then overpower her with his vastly superior physical abilities.
In short, Taskmaster's loss wasn't the least bit unfair.
As for why she had come after Peter—well, Peter had simply grown too noticeable.
He'd already stood out during the Berlin Airport battle.
But back then, it wasn't quite enough to draw General Dreykov's attention.
Later, as Peter became more active, his information increasingly appeared in public view, catching the interest of various organizations.
The Red Room was one of them.
Because they realized Spider-Man wasn't merely someone using advanced equipment—he was someone whose body had undergone a beneficial mutation, a physically enhanced individual.
A super-soldier.
This was something every secret organization was deeply interested in.
Back in World War II, the U.S. had launched the Super Soldier Program and created Captain America.
Later, Hydra initiated the Winter Soldier Program, producing multiple Winter Soldiers, including Bucky Barnes. Except for Bucky, the others were all killed in the Siberian base by that psychologist named Zemo.
After that, Hydra used the Mind Stone they secretly obtained during the Battle of New York to experiment on Wanda and Pietro, awakening the latent powers inside them.
Thus Wanda gained her mysterious Chaos Magic, and Quicksilver gained high-speed movement.
General Dreykov took interest in Spider-Man and even sent the Taskmaster, intending either to capture him or, at the very least, obtain some blood samples.
When the Taskmaster arrived in New York, she couldn't find Spider-Man.
Because during those days, Peter had been busy rehearsing at school; by the time he returned home, it was already night, leaving him no time to patrol.
At that moment, she came across Flash's online advertisement.
Flash, wanting to get his idol's attention, had spent his own money on a series of ads. He never expected that one of those ads would be discovered by the Taskmaster.
Thus, after several fruitless days, Taskmaster decided to follow the ad and head to Midtown Science High School.
And the moment she saw Peter, she knew she'd found the right person.
She had studied Spider-Man's movements, and although Peter had grown a lot, someone with her level of observational skill could still recognize him.
Uh… the bonus update didn't happen.I'll write more at midnight.Sorry…
(End of Chapter)