Leopardon's weight itself was nowhere near greater than when Joey had lifted the entirety of Themyscira, pried apart continental shelves, or moved tectonic plates.
And yet, as he held Leopardon aloft now, the pressure on his shoulders felt far heavier than it had back then.
The coordinates of Universe-2099 had become nothingness.
Combined with the testimony of the Spider-People who had escaped here, only one conclusion remained.
The Universe-2099 they had visited had been completely destroyed.
And he had left that universe less than thirty minutes ago.
Takuya Yamashiro jumped out of Leopardon's cockpit and explained how the Earth—and ultimately the entire universe—had been destroyed with terrifying ease.
"He used the robot swarm to construct a ring formation that disrupted the quantum tides. It destroyed the planet's core and triggered a chain reaction. Eventually, quantum foam spread throughout the entire universe."
After being exiled into the void, Toei Spider-Man had immediately used a teleportation circuit to return.
Unfortunately, by then Joey and Tony had already been thrown into the Mirror Dimension.
Leopardon was undeniably powerful.
But against Doctor Doom, it still wasn't enough.
After several clashes, it hadn't even managed to meaningfully interfere with Doom's objective.
The result was simple.
Within half an hour, Doctor Doom had casually destroyed Universe-2099.
And while he was at it, he had beaten the strongest Spider-Man present—Leopardon—into a pile of scrap metal.
Aside from those Spider-People who had already been equipped with dimensional-travel devices...
"I did everything I could. That man was simply too powerful."
Takuya Yamashiro clenched his fists.
He had suffered defeat before.
Back in his own universe, there had been countless battles against the Iron Cross Army where he failed to save everyone.
But none of those losses compared to this one.
"Stark-san!"
Takuya spotted Tony floating out through the hole Joey had smashed through the building earlier and immediately voiced the question that had been bothering him.
"Why is that man's armor color scheme almost identical to yours?"
Ignoring the question entirely, Tony had JARVIS analyze the building's structural integrity.
After confirming that Stark Tower could support Leopardon's weight, he finally spoke.
"Just put it down, Joey. You can't hold it up forever."
Tony silently thanked his past self for renovating Stark Tower with advanced construction materials as part of a vanity project.
Otherwise, the rooftop probably wouldn't have survived.
"Answer me, Stark-san. My Spider-Sense can tell that man—"
"Would you shut up, kid? My life is already enough of a disaster right now!"
Ever since meeting his future self, Tony's thoughts had been a complete mess.
Now he had to deal with Takuya's questions on top of hundreds of Spider-People whispering around him.
"That Doctor Doom really does have the same colors as Iron Man."
"Do you have a Doctor Doom in your universe too?"
"Of course. Most universes are pretty similar. But a Doctor Doom with Iron Man's red-and-gold paint job? That's a first."
"What's so strange about that? In my universe Iron Man is a mouse, and Doctor Doom is a duck."
Spider-People from hundreds of parallel universes were almost universally chatterboxes.
And quite a few of them were battle-hardened veterans.
It didn't take long for them to begin piecing together possibilities from the available clues.
"Has anyone considered that Doctor Doom might actually be connected to Iron Man somehow?"
"Then what were those robots? Some kind of Ultron drones built by Iron Man?"
"Huh? Isn't Ultron supposed to be built by Ant-Man?"
"No, no. In my universe Ultron's a rat!"
"Forget all the multiversal versions of Ultron! The real question is why that Doctor Doom destroyed an entire universe without hesitation!"
"Shut up! All of you!"
Amid the deafening chaos, Tony—now fully aware of the unimaginable crimes his future self would someday commit—felt an almost uncontrollable irritation rising inside him.
"Could all of you idiots stop talking for five seconds and let me think?!"
All of the Spider-Men present fell silent and, almost in unison, turned to look at Tony Stark.
Having finally gotten the quiet he wanted, Tony found himself even less able to cope with the situation. In the oppressive silence, he could only retreat in embarrassment.
"I would like to offer my sincere apologies on behalf of Mr. Stark."
JARVIS's holographic orb floated up from below.
"Under normal circumstances, he—"
"It's fine."
"Yeah."
"We're used to it."
There was hardly a Spider-Man present who didn't know Tony Stark and understand what he was like.
"In our universe, he's like that all the time too."
"From a personal standpoint, I strongly advise against bringing your prejudices from parallel universes here."
JARVIS naturally felt obligated to defend his master.
"At the very least, the Mr. Stark of this universe isn't quite so unfriendly."
"He has authorized me to grant all of you access to the lounges and laboratories inside this building. Please make yourselves comfortable and carry out any repairs you require. Just try not to cause too much commotion."
With a thunderous crash, Joey finally found a suitable angle and enough leverage to set the wreckage of Leopardon down atop Stark Tower.
Honestly, it made a far better landmark than Tony's old glowing STARK sign ever had.
The only downside was that it was far too conspicuous.
It was bound to attract unwanted attention.
For example, right now Joey could already hear the engines of distant Quinjets roaring through the sky. Through his super-hearing, he could even make out Agent Coulson frantically apologizing to his superiors over the comms while being chewed out.
If those aircraft got any closer, he'd probably be able to hear the synchronized sound of every operative inside chambering a round.
After causing a disturbance this massive, there was no way S.H.I.E.L.D. would ignore it.
In fact, by their usual standards, they were already arriving a little late.
After spotting the distant formation of Quinjets on the horizon, Joey raised his voice above the chatter of every Spider-Man present.
"Alright, all you Peter Parkers, other Parkers, and miscellaneous Peters! In ten minutes, S.H.I.E.L.D.—an organization that has absolutely no idea what a Spider-Man even is—is going to arrive here!"
"Whoa!"
"Run!"
"Does the lounge have clothes that fit high school students?!"
"I'm heading to the lab to build a signal jammer!"
The vast majority of Spider-Men immediately erupted into chaos.
Within barely a dozen seconds, almost all of them had vanished.
They were far too familiar with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s style.
To S.H.I.E.L.D., the labels 'from another universe' and 'superpowered individual' were practically equivalent to high-risk criminal.
The moment they met you, they'd be itching to point machine guns in your direction.
The handful who didn't know what S.H.I.E.L.D. was were quickly dragged away by their fellow Spider-People.
"Don't just stand there! We're not bad guys, but most of the time S.H.I.E.L.D. tends to assume people like us are!"
Before long, only Joey remained on the rooftop.
Well, Joey and the completely immobile wreck of Leopardon.
"Tony, Tony... you really know how to pick your timing."
Tony had already retreated to his seaside mansion on Long Island to brood in isolation.
The complaint wasn't meant as genuine criticism.
Anyone would need time to process something like this.
As far as Joey was concerned, the fact that Tony had held it together this long was already a sign of remarkable emotional stability.
In the past, if the perpetually annoying S.H.I.E.L.D. had shown up at his doorstep, Joey would've simply patted the dust off his pants and flown away.
If he had a choice, who would willingly deal with an organization whose internal management was a disaster, one that solved problems while simultaneously creating brand-new ones?
But now there was a giant Leopardon wreck sitting on top of Stark Tower.
The monk might run away, but the temple couldn't.
There was no escaping this one.
He'd have to talk to S.H.I.E.L.D.
As he stood atop Stark Tower waiting for the cloaked Quinjets—which, to his eyes, moved at little more than a crawl—Joey's mind raced.
He was trying to figure out one very important question:
At this point in time, what valuable stuff did S.H.I.E.L.D. still have left worth taking?