Peter and Felicia left Midtown High one after the other, quickly changing into their suits before moving at high speeds through the air. As they swung through the skyline, Felicia noticed that Peter, who was usually quite talkative, had remained completely silent for some time.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm just looking at the messages from the Defenders. They've clashed with the Hand again. I just sent a message asking if they needed help, but they're saying they don't."
Peter answered Felicia quickly. He wasn't lying at all; the Defenders had indeed gotten into another fight with the Hand today, and by the looks of it, the scale of the battle wasn't small. However, since they insisted they didn't need his help, Peter decided to take them at their word for now.
"So, where exactly is your friend Donald Pierce right now?"
"Hmm... it's strange. He's in a location very close to Hell's Kitchen... I feel like all these coincidences happening today aren't that simple." Felicia recalled what Peter had told her earlier about the final whereabouts of the missing persons, and a realization began to dawn on her.
Perhaps the case she had been investigating for so long and the Hand, which the Defenders and Peter had been tracking, were actually part of the same puzzle. With this thought in mind, she landed on the rooftop of an apartment building in Hell's Kitchen. Peter landed beside her, finally realizing how Felicia knew Donald's location: "You put a tracker on him?"
"Yeah. Just like a certain someone once did to my boots."
As Felicia spoke, she confirmed the target's movements. "He's right below us, on the fifth floor. As long as we..."
"There are six people in the room. Four of them are armed to the teeth, one is tied to a chair, and another is talking." After Peter spoke, he saw the look of total confusion in Felicia's eyes and explained: "I call it Shadow Vision... it's basically like Eagle Vision from those games. It's been like this ever since I was bitten by a Shadow Spider."
"...How many spiders have you been bitten by?"
"It's a long story. Anyway, quite a few." Peter furrowed his brows in thought. "Two possibilities. First, the person inside is Nick Fury, but that's unlikely; if it were Fury, he would have sent someone to invite us in. The second possibility is that the person down there is Donald Pierce's secret boss, and he's discovered that Pierce defected to Hydra."
Felicia softly whispered a name: "Thaddeus Ross."
Thaddeus Ross, also known as General Ross, currently served as a senior staff member at the Department of Defense in charge of the American Super Soldier program. The former US Avengers were, nominally, a team directly under General Ross's command. He was even more famous as the former leader of the Hulkbusters and the head of the Gamma research facilities.
In a way, he was the culprit responsible for the creation of the Hulk.
Felicia and Peter exchanged a glance and immediately had a plan. Soon, General Ross, who was smoking inside the room, heard a knock at the apartment door. He turned his gaze toward the bruised and battered Donald Pierce.
"I don't have any guests, General. It's definitely not my people, nor is it Hydra."
"Then who the hell is it? Nick Fury?"
General Ross motioned for a soldier to take a look. The soldier's voice immediately cracked with excitement: "It's Spider-Man! Sir! Spider-Man is at the door!"
"Calm down, soldier! Mind your duty! So what if it's Spider-Man? That shouldn't affect your mission!" General Ross ordered with a frown. "Go, open the door for Spider-Man."
"Oh, and sir, Spider-Man brought a woman in a suit, but I don't know which superhero she is."
"There are almost more superheroes in New York than there are idiots being shoved into LGBTQ+ categories. It would be weirder if you did recognize her," Ross sneered. He waited for his guests to enter. Soon, he saw Spider-Man walk in accompanied by a woman. It was obvious that he and Spider-Man had never had much of a connection, so this woman was likely the reason they had come knocking.
"I won't ask how you found us, Spider-Man. May I ask who this is...?"
"I'm Black Cat. Walter Hardy's daughter."
Hearing this self-introduction, Ross looked back with confusion, while Donald, tied to the chair, looked up with great interest. Seeing this, Felicia explained further: "My father was threatened by the man you have tied up. He was forced to go to Europe to steal the Russian Super Soldier serum."
"Oh right, I remember now. It was mentioned in the reports on the Budapest Incident—a CIA field agent stole a Hydra Super Soldier serum while attempting to steal the Russian one, which triggered the Budapest Incident. Which means you injected yourself with that vial of Super Soldier serum, didn't you?"
Ross frowned as he spoke. He felt a bit of regret. If that vial of serum had been brought back to the United States, it would have been national property. They could have trained a Super Soldier belonging to America without needing to dig up some dark history from the Vietnam War to save face.
Truly a pity. Back then, Howard Stark had finally managed to develop a US Super Soldier serum, but he died in a car accident before it could be manufactured. The effects of subsequent versions of the Stark serum were far too inferior. Otherwise, why would the great United States have to take orders from the damn Avengers!
"So, you two are actually like me—you want to dig information about Hydra out of this guy's mouth, right?"
Ross began to calculate his options as he spoke, but Donald let out a weak sigh: "I've told you everything. I really don't know what Hydra wants to do in Hell's Kitchen..."
A violent tremor caused the entire building to sway. Instantly, someone shouted, "Earthquake?" But Peter was faster, throwing the window open and swinging out on a web line. Immediately, he saw a massive Japanese Tenshu—a feudal-era castle—erupt from beneath the ground of Hell's Kitchen. Subsequently, a vast amount of energy radiated from the center of the castle, forming a massive black barrier that enclosed all of Hell's Kitchen, including them.
The moonlight from outside could not penetrate the veil, and all the electric lights lost power. Now, the entirety of Hell's Kitchen was illuminated only by the ominous blue lanterns flickering on the Tenshu.
Peter sighed helplessly.
"What did Manhattan ever do to anyone to get quarantined every other week?"