It was another beautiful new day.
Peter finished a full day of classes and then went to the Detective Club to celebrate their victory. After all, the club had successfully helped Spider-Man catch the Shocker, and that alone made Peter feel a lot better after spending most of last night getting lectured by Aunt May.
Then Spider-Man headed back to Avengers Tower.
The last streaks of sunlight refracted across the building's glass walls in a blaze of gold and red, almost as bright as his mood. Even if both of his suits had basically been wrecked by the two fights with the Shocker, he had still patched together the most intact pieces and worn them over.
"Hold it, soldier. One more step and you'll be entering a restricted area."
Iron Man deliberately copied Captain America's stern tone. Then his faceplate flipped open, revealing Tony's trademark grin.
He laughed and clapped Peter on the shoulder.
"You know, Cap kept thinking you weren't ready. Said you were just a kid, that you'd panic, that kind of thing. Turns out you handled yourself pretty well, didn't you? That overload trick to blow up the Shocker's weapon was brilliant."
Peter grinned too. Then he noticed Tony was already in armor.
"Mr. Stark. Are the Avengers heading out on a mission?"
"Oh, right. We've got to head to Africa and bring in a smuggler named Ulysses Klaue. He's got a big stockpile of Vibranium weapons." Tony paused, then realized Peter probably had no idea who Klaue was and added, "Cap's shield uses Vibranium. He's been helping fuel the conflict in Wakanda so he can profit off looting the country's resources. We need to bring him in. The Quinjet already took off."
Peter did know who Ulysses Klaue was, a dangerous black-market figure tied to Vibranium trafficking. As far as Peter was concerned, that was Avengers-level trouble, not his.
The Avengers probably weren't just going after some weapons smuggler anyway. This was obviously tied to Wakanda and Vibranium, which made it way outside Peter's lane.
"Anyway, we're going to be out for a while, which means the tower will be empty. And that made me think there might be somebody who could keep an eye on things while we're gone."
As Tony spoke, he led Peter into Avengers Tower, then reached over to the bar and picked up a card he'd clearly prepared ahead of time.
"The Avengers protect the world. Friendly neighborhood types can protect New York. Your Avengers ID card, kid."
Peter blinked.
"Does this mean..."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, kid. At best, you're a reserve." Tony laughed. "You've still got a few years before you're anything official. But while we're gone, keep an eye on New York. With that card, you can use any equipment in the tower. Oh, and just so you don't get any funny ideas, every time you come in you'll have to swipe it, and we'll know exactly what you used."
"I understand, Mr. Stark."
Peter took the card and turned it over in his hands, then immediately asked his first question.
"Can I use the tech here to make a new suit? My current one, uh, basically has no protection at all. And it's falling apart."
"I told you, kid, you can use whatever's here."
Tony lowered his faceplate again.
"If you don't know how something works, ask J.A.R.V.I.S. I've got to go catch up with Cap..."
"Uh, one more thing, Mr. Stark."
Tony had already powered up his thrusters and was about to take off, but he stopped and looked back.
"What?"
"I met someone. She said she was some kind of prophet, that she could see my future. She knew who I was, and she had spider-related powers too." Peter compressed the whole situation into the shortest version he could manage so he wouldn't hold up the Avengers' mission. "She said someone else gained spider powers the same day I did. That person is important because in the future I'm apparently going to be traveling across the multiverse, and I need that person as a way back."
"Wow."
Even Tony needed three full seconds to process that.
"That is... not standard. Whether it's true or not, if there's even a chance there's another spider-powered person out there, the Avengers will look into it."
Peter more or less knew who that person probably was. If there was someone else who got powers from the same spider as Peter Parker, then the best guess was Silk, Cindy Moon.
But there was one big problem. No matter what Cindy was doing right now, she definitely wasn't a student at Midtown. If she had been, Peter would've noticed long ago. And there was always the chance it wasn't her at all. So after thinking it through, handing the problem off to the Avengers seemed like the smartest move.
Tony's own reasoning was even simpler.
If another spider-powered person had really been out there for six months without anyone hearing a thing, then this was exactly the kind of problem Nick Fury was for.
After Iron Man took off, Peter tucked the Avengers card away and asked the building itself:
"If I want to make a new suit, where do I go?"
"The 3D printers are in the fifth-floor lab, Mr. Parker," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.
Peter nodded and muttered to himself,
"For a building where only the top floors are actually used by the Avengers, fifth floor feels weirdly low."
"The top five floors are only designated as residential space for the Avengers, Mr. Parker."
Peter laughed. Now he could finally test some new gear and properly upgrade his suit.
"This is your new equipment, Mr. Smerdyakov."
Dimitri Smerdyakov, code name Chameleon, former Russian intelligence operative, had stolen experimental disguise tech from an old Soviet program, defected to the United States, and then, after burning through whatever money the CIA had paid him, ended up working freelance for the criminal underworld. Now he had accepted Kingpin's invitation and arrived at an abandoned warehouse to test the new toys waiting for him there.
Dimitri narrowed his eyes and pinched the tiny sphere between his fingers. It was barely bigger than a marble.
"This thing really does what you say it does, Mr. Fisk?"
"Let one of my people explain it," Kingpin said. "This is Quentin Beck, once one of Hollywood's finest effects artists."
Quentin Beck was a thin, nervous man who kept nodding to himself as if he were trying to convince his own body to stay upright. He walked over to Dimitri, clearly spent a few seconds trying to figure out how to explain what the device actually did, then gave up and decided to explain how to use it instead.
"Press the button in the center, then throw it on the floor. That's it."
Dimitri did exactly that and watched a miracle unfold.
A vivid, lifelike scene appeared in front of them. The warehouse, which had only held a handful of people a moment ago, now seemed full of workers moving around in every direction. No matter what angle he looked from, there was no obvious trace of projection.
"This uses photonic distortion technology. It's still incomplete. Right now it can only run a pre-programmed illusion and synchronize it with a prepared environment. It can't yet be fully deployed anywhere..."
Dimitri had no interest in hearing meaningless scientific rambling.
"What's the range?"
"A spherical radius of one hundred meters, but it can only project pre-loaded visual sequences, and it still has to be deployed in the right conditions."
That was enough. More than enough for dealing with Spider-Man.
Within a hundred-meter radius, Dimitri could easily impersonate Spider-Man and stage all sorts of crimes, ruining his reputation. Sometimes beating a superhero didn't require killing him or even defeating him physically. Making the world believe he was a criminal was just as effective.
And for the Chameleon, that kind of work was second nature.
"Once the right scene is arranged, I can begin. First I'll destroy Spider-Man's name, then draw him into a trap. After that, the rest is your problem."
After saying that, Dimitri tilted his head with mild curiosity.
"But I do want to ask. Have you chosen the location yet?"
"I'm already looking for the right grave for Spider-Man."
Kingpin lit a cigar.
"I've hired the finest hunter in New York. Mac Gargan. He'll choose the perfect place to end Spider-Man."
(End of Chapter)
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