Ultron Awakens Upgrade!
19: Chapter 19: Ripjaws Is Insanely Strong!
Ultron Awakens Upgrade!
The shockwaves generated by the flick of a giant tail fin surged through the water, slamming violently against the concrete channels on both sides of the sewer.
Unable to withstand the pressure, the ground groaned under the trembling strain while thick dust rained down from the shuddering ceiling.
To call it earth-shattering was no exaggeration.
Gwen managed to maintain a baseline of composure, but the woman beside her was frightened out of her wits, closing her eyes and letting out a soprano scream.
Her screech was instantly swallowed by the roar of structural collapse.
Yes, Gwen could clearly hear the sound of the entire underground structure caving in.
Ripjaws was merely *swimming*, yet the sheer displacement of his movement was tearing the place apart!
…
Underwater, the Lizard had completely lost control of his body.
He was swept up by a wave of water pressure that slammed him back and forth like a ragdoll.
Watching Ripjaws charge toward him at blinding speed, the Lizard felt his scalp go entirely numb with terror!
Earlier, he had assumed Owen’s new form was just a mutated member of his own kind.
Now he realized how disastrously wrong he had been.
The gap between them was wider than the gap between a human and a dog!
Subconsciously, a single thought echoed in the Lizard’s mind: *He can kill me as easily as breathing.* In the depths of despair, the Lizard spotted a discarded motorcycle floating nearby in the turbulence.
Driven by a desperate urge to survive, he mustered every ounce of strength he had left and hurled the motorcycle straight at Ripjaws, hoping to slow down or break his momentum just enough to buy a sliver of hope.
Under his desperate gaze, the motorcycle flew toward Ripjaws’ face.
A spark of joy lit up in the Lizard’s heart, thinking he had succeeded—until he saw Ripjaws part his massive jaws slightly and cleanly snap the motorcycle in half with a single effortless bite.
The Lizard’s terror-stricken pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.
His heart seized, and a silent scream screamed in his mind: *How is that possible?!* On top of insane underwater agility, he possessed bite force like *that*?
If snapping a motorcycle in half took only a slight twitch of his jaw, the Lizard didn’t even dare imagine what would happen if he exerted his full strength.
Overwhelmed by the suffocating sensation of being hunted by an apex predator, the Lizard wished with all his soul that he was safe inside a quiet, armored submarine.
Before Ripjaws even reached him, the immense pressure wave dragging in his wake slammed into the Lizard and launched him into the air!
*BANG!* The Lizard’s body erupted from the water and smashed headfirst into the concrete wall where his equipment used to stand.
At the exact same moment, a sharp, sickening *CRACK* echoed through the air.
Blood spilled from his snout, his eyes growing dull and unfocused.
Unable to hold on any longer, the Lizard’s eyes closed, his head slumping to the side—unconscious, if not dead.
Above.
Gwen held herself aloft with one hand gripping a strand of webbing while her other arm held the mother and child tight.
Her lips trembled in pure shock.
If a fierce battle had destroyed this place, Gwen wouldn’t have been surprised.
But this destruction came entirely from the displacement of someone *swimming*!
It was horrifyingly unheard of!
And this was the first time Gwen had ever seen a mutant instantly defeated in such a manner.
For no apparent reason, an absurd thought crossed Gwen’s mind: *Is Owen really an alien from the Land of Light in the M78 Nebula?* …
Ripjaws surfaced from the water, stepping onto the dry bank on two legs as he walked toward the Lizard.
Seeing that Ripjaws was still fuming, Gwen panicked, worried he might commit murder.
She quickly lowered herself to the ground, set the mother and child down safely, and hurried over to stop him.
Gwen placed a hand on Ripjaws’ shoulder and said earnestly, “I really don’t recommend killing him.” As Spider-Woman, one of her core tenets was never to kill.
She was just a vigilante and didn’t believe she had the right to act as executioner.
For criminals, she still preferred capturing them and leaving them to the justice system.
“I wasn’t planning on killing him.” Glinting with cold amusement, Ripjaws sneered, “I’m going to pack this lizard into a box and ship him express to India.
They’ll have a wonderful surprise waiting for him.” “…” “…” Gwen froze mid-motion.
The Lizard silently clenched his butt cheeks.
*You might as well just kill me!* Indeed, the Lizard was only pretending to be unconscious.
He was still plotting to find an opportunity to break free and continue his grand vision of global evolution.
As for the Lizard, Owen held no special opinion.
If possible, he wouldn’t even waste a single second on a small fry like this.
Hunt him down?
The Lizard didn’t even know his real identity, and with his pathetic strength, he couldn’t catch Owen if he tried for a thousand years.
Owen was doing all of this purely to vent his frustration.
Standing over the Lizard, Ripjaws unleashed a barrage of profanity, hurling every colorful insult he could think of.
Gwen listened in utter confusion, unable to fathom why a simple verbal threat of “hunting him down” had made Owen this furious.
*RUMBLE!* The ceiling finally gave up the ghost and caved in entirely.
A massive heap of rubble crashed down, raising a cloud of thick dust that caused a few muffled coughs.
When the dust cleared, the tunnel they had come from was completely blocked off by tons of debris.
“We should think about how to get out of here,” Gwen said, walking over to the Lizard.
She began wrapping him in thick web-lines, winding layer after layer around his body.
Even with the Lizard’s monstrous strength, he wouldn’t have a single leverage point to break free from this.
As she worked, Gwen turned her head and asked, “Could you ask your red friend to come out and punch a way through for us?” Gwen was strong, but her destructive force couldn’t match Four Arms.
The air in the enclosed space was growing increasingly thin and stale.
If they wanted to get out quickly, blasting a path straight up was their best option.
Ripjaws scoffed.
“Tch.” He turned around to face the collapsed wall.
The Lizard opened one eye a crack, thinking: *Now’s my chance!* What was his greatest weapon?
Self-healing?
Amphibious traits?
Neither!
It was his tail—the very thing Spider-Woman had warned about before!
His tail hadn’t been bound yet, meaning he could unleash its full power.
And that fish-man currently had his back turned.
Knock him out and run!
The Lizard prepared to strike.
Before he could move, a heavy, deafening sound erupted.
*BOOM!!!* Ripjaws simply flicked his tail against the wall, striking it light as a dragonfly skimming water before snapping it back.
In an instant, the entire wall and ceiling in front of them disintegrated.
The sheer shockwave blew the dust nearly a hundred meters away, clearing the surrounding air in a single breath.
Sunlight poured in, illuminating everything bright and clear.
Looking up at the clear sky, Gwen’s hands froze mid-webbing.
In a split second, they had gone from being ten meters deep in an underground sewer to standing at the bottom of a massive open-air crater.
A single flick of his tail…
and he *literally* demolished the entire place?
Turning her head with the rigid stiffness of a broken robot, Gwen stared blankly at Ripjaws for two long seconds, completely speechless.
Ripjaws crossed his arms, speaking in a casual tone, “Who needs Four Arms when Ripjaws can rip through steel like paper?” With that, Ripjaws picked up a piece of twisted rebar, bit off the bent portion, and used the remaining straight wire to pick his teeth.
Having struck an absolute 10-out-of-10 posture of coolness, Ripjaws glanced out of the corner of his eye, expecting awe.
Instead, Gwen went back to silently binding the Lizard, while the mother shrank back in terror as usual.
Only the little boy in her arms turned his head, rubbing his sleepy eyes as he looked at him in confusion.
*Alright then,* Owen thought, smacking his lips in mild disappointment.
Though he hadn’t gained any fans, at least it fit his low-profile, cautious style.
Gwen finished her work and walked toward the child.
Owen looked down at the Lizard, who was now tied up so tightly he resembled a giant green tamale.
The Lizard kept his eyes squeezed shut, utterly accepting his fate of being captured.
At this moment, aside from feeling lucky to be alive, all he felt was lingering horror.
*Thank God I didn’t strike!
Otherwise that tail would have smacked straight into my face!* Just thinking about it sent chills down his spine.
This monster’s strength could only be described as completely absurd!
An attack of that magnitude—he couldn’t produce something like that if he tried a hundred times!
Without making a sound, Ripjaws casually brought his tail down one more time, right against the back of the Lizard’s head.
*THUMP.* The Lizard lost consciousness instantly, passing out cold.
Ripjaws nodded in satisfaction.
“Even if his self-healing fixes the physical damage, he’ll be drooling for the rest of his life.” He had deliberately targeted the Lizard’s central nervous system to deliver severe internal trauma.
The Lizard’s regeneration couldn’t magically rebuild damaged neural pathways like Wolverine or Deadpool.
When he woke up, he’d be a vegetable if he wasn’t a total idiot.
Solving the threat forever without technically committing murder—Owen felt all superheroes ought to learn a thing or two from him.
Just then, Owen caught sight of a streak of red flying across the distant sky.
Jumping out of the crater to take a closer look, he could vaguely make out the red figure pursuing a green, leaping dot in the distance.
“Did Wanda mind-control the Hulk?” Recalling the plot, Owen immediately thought of Ultron.
As the memory of Ultron surfaced, the silhouette of Upgrade materialized in his mind.
“Hmm.
Looks like I need to make a trip to Sokovia.”