Chapter 47
The Lizardmen's Rebellion
Not long after he finished the phone call, Sheriff George quickly returned to the restaurant.
But he didn't sit down to continue his dinner. Instead, he took his coat from a nearby rack, put it on, and said to everyone with a grave expression, "I'm sorry, I have to go. There's been a sudden emergency; a green monster has appeared in the streets and is rampaging everywhere. I must get to the scene immediately."
As he spoke, Sheriff George lowered his head and quickly kissed Helen's cheek, then ruffled Simon and Howard's hair.
Then, as he reached the door and was about to leave, he seemed to remember something and turned back to look at Peter and Riley.
"Parker, Riley, our discussion about whether Spider-Man's actions were right or wrong isn't over yet. We'll continue when I get back."
After saying that, Sheriff George closed the door and left in a hurry.
Even after Sheriff George had left, the atmosphere in the restaurant remained frozen, as if someone had pressed the pause button, shrouded in an inexplicable awkwardness.
Clearly, after the argument, everyone except Simon, the naive little fellow, was losing interest and had little appetite.
Of course, Riley's expression was noticeably more complex.
Because he was very concerned about the description of the "green monster" that Sheriff George mentioned before he left.
After all, Riley had just brought Banner back to New York City.
Even after Riley's encouragement, Banner set aside his prejudices and reached a preliminary reconciliation with Hulk...
However, it cannot be ruled out that Banner, after being stimulated by some external force, lost control of his emotions again, causing the Hulk to appear and begin indiscriminately attacking everything in his path.
At this point, Riley was already thinking about what excuse he could come up with to leave so he could follow Sheriff George to the scene and find out what was going on.
"Hey, look at George, why does he have to talk about such heavy topics when he's just having a meal... I'm going to turn on the TV and see if there's anything fun on."
However, before Riley could speak, Mrs. Helen, in an attempt to ease the tension, suddenly stood up. The force of her movement caused the chair legs to scrape against the floor, producing a screeching sound.
The next second, Mrs. Helen practically ran towards the living room remote control.
It's as if simply turning on the TV can dispel the tension in the home caused by her overly meticulous husband, through the sound from the other side of the screen.
However, what Mrs. Helen did not expect was...
The moment the television screen lit up, a series of noisy sounds came from the speakers.
In the footage taken from the helicopter looking down from above, a humanoid monster, over two meters tall and entirely green, can be clearly seen rampaging through the congested traffic.
Upon closer inspection, one can see that the scales, illuminated by the light, gleam with an unusual sheen, revealing the mucus covering them. It's as if this monster, whose features closely resemble those of a reptile, has only recently been born.
Even so, its sharp claws are enough to easily tear through metal.
Its powerful, thick tail can easily overturn vehicles blocking the road with a casual sweep, just like knocking over a toy!
This caused Mrs. Helen, who had only intended to ease the tension, to immediately cover her mouth, her face turning deathly pale, and she couldn't help but exclaim in shock, "My God... George is going to deal with such a terrifying monster!?"
At the same time, seeing this sudden emergency, Peter instinctively stood up, wanting to leave as quickly as possible as Spider-Man.
But soon, he felt Gwen's gaze shift from the television broadcast to him because of the commotion he had caused.
Peter quickly tried to appear calm, maintaining the proper reaction of Peter Parker—eyes wide, mouth slightly open, looking every bit like a terrified ordinary high school student.
Instead of Spider-Man rapidly calculating the best attack route and assessing the threat level in his mind.
"Don't worry, Mom! We still have Spider-Man!"
Just then, Simon, who had also witnessed the lizardmen's rampage, showed no signs of fear whatsoever. Instead, he tapped his plate with his knife and fork, shouting with a hint of excitement and anticipation.
"With Spider-Man around, Dad will definitely be safe and sound! What do you think, Brother Peter?"
"...Ah, you're right..."
The crisp sound of the fork hitting the porcelain plate startled Peter.
Faced with Simon's innocent face, Peter, with extremely mixed feelings, could only stammer and give a perfunctory response.
After all, even though Riley has once again made amends for the trouble his previous reckless actions caused the New York City Police Department...
But this also led Peter to begin to have doubts for the first time after his heated argument with George…
Does New York City really need a vigilante like Spider-Man?
...Is there even a question?
With great power comes great responsibility!
With just a moment's hesitation, Peter's eyes quickly cleared, and he became convinced that he absolutely could not ignore the crisis at hand just because others did not understand!
Even if my intervention might trigger new public opinion disputes, or even make the situation worse...
That's better than standing idly by and leaving behind irreparable regrets!
"I'm sorry, Aunt Helen, I suddenly remembered that I still need to buy some things for my parents, so we have to go now."
"Huh? Are we leaving now?"
"That's right, because the store is about to close, and Dad just sent us a text message to urge us to close."
"I see... Then be careful on your journey, and remember to stay away from the area where that monster is!"
"Okay, we'll be careful. See you next time, Aunt Helen!"
As Peter's good brother, Riley could tell what kind of determination Peter had made, even from the slightest change in his eyes.
With a hint of relief and satisfaction in his eyes, Riley stood up, made up an excuse, grabbed Peter's hand, and headed for the door.
As soon as they closed the door and reached a blind spot in the building's surveillance system, the two brothers tacitly activated their nanosuits. One after the other, they drifted along on spiderwebs, heading straight towards the monster's location.
Of course, the brothers, focused solely on getting to the scene as quickly as possible and defeating the monster before things escalated, didn't notice...
The two had barely left when Gwen's figure caught up with them at the corner.
After looking around and confirming that the Parker brothers were no longer visible, he then...
Gwen's expression immediately became subtle and complex.
After a moment of silence, he began to mutter to himself in the empty hallway.
"Please come back safely..."