In the dark night, a bright moon hung high in the sky, and the wooden window lattice under the moonlight reflected cold light. A middle-aged man wearing glasses sat in front of the window and read a press release, holding a phone in one hand. said over there.
"Don't worry, the New York Times is not one of those little-known small newspapers. Our online media has a strong enough influence. Since its launch, the number of subscribers has exceeded 2 million, which is the highest number of subscribers to the official account of traditional media. The radiation area reaches as many as twenty states.”
"In the next issue of the electronic newspaper, we have arranged for two current political commentators to debate. The topic is 'How ordinary people can protect themselves in an environment full of superheroes'."
"One of the critics will lash out at the gun banists and suggest that guns are for ordinary people and that people need more firepower to survive from superheroes, while criticizing that candidate as not being able to survive." The one-sided force-restriction faction that is responsible for the safety of people's lives..."
"But I think we can further intensify the conflict between ordinary people and superheroes. After all, if everyone shoots a superhero when they see one, the bullets will sell better."
"By the way, there are also those food preservative sellers who advocate doomsday theory. If we can contact them, we can also publish an issue on topics such as how ordinary people can establish strongholds if superheroes take over the world with hegemony... …”
At this moment, the middle-aged man suddenly noticed that the draft paper on his desk flashed a red light.
He was startled, his hand shook, and his phone fell to the ground. When he turned around, he saw a portal glowing with red light.
A dark figure walked out of the portal, raised his gun, fired, shot a headshot, turned around and walked back to the portal. The whole process was completed in one go, leaving no trace.
On the other side of the portal is the spacious and bright Spider Legion hall, and a dumbfounded Spider-Man standing beside it.
"You just killed him like that?! Shadow Spider-Man, this is too...too..." Spider-Man waved his hand in the air for a long time, as if he didn't know how to describe it.
"Go find your Stark, don't follow me." Shadow Spider-Man waved his hand impatiently and said, "Or you can go to the airport to watch the plane take off. You should really like that."
"How do you know... I mean, Mr. Stark left with Eddie, saying he was going to make some documentary. I saw that you have been summoning the portal here, so I came to take a look. You... you... …”
"Don't hinder me from carrying out my mission." Shadow Spider-Man walked past him, glanced at the list in his hand, opened a portal again and walked inside, and not long after, he was wearing a new suit. The bloody smell is back.
And George, who hurried to the police station that night, found that eight murder cases with almost identical committing methods were before him, and each of the dead people was more important than the last.
The victims in the first three cases were all media workers. Although they had certain social prestige, they were not important figures. The victims in the next three cases were members of the military, and the last two were even more heavyweights. One of them is a congressman, and the other is the New York state regional president of energy giant Roxon Corporation.
This was a complete blowup. The New York Police Department received at least a thousand calls in six hours. Everyone was asking who did it, but George couldn't answer that they were Spider-Man's ghosts.
To be fair, George does not hate Spider-Man, but this attitude is also because except for the immature little Spider-Man who caused some troubles in the early days of his debut, the Spider-Man in this universe has only been a street hero for a short time and has not yet fully matured. The crime-fighters on the streets were taken to work in the laboratory.
Therefore, the conflict between him and George did not become irreconcilable. The reason why George's attitude towards him was worse than that of other superheroes was that Spider-Man looked younger at first glance. George believed that he had set a bad example for other young people. Including his daughter.
To be honest, George felt a little sorry for the passing of the first generation of Spider-Man. He thought that it might be a young man about the same age as his daughter, and that he might have relatives at home waiting for him to come home, but he But he could never go back, and George lamented this tragedy like everyone else.
But after his death, Spider-Man was not treated like a hero. His reputation was mixed, and his successor's reputation was even worse. For a long time, Spider-Man became hypocritical, exaggerated and artificial. synonymous with, almost catching up with street rats.
George sometimes wondered whether Spider-Man never stood up to clarify or argue because of a guilty conscience, but it was also possible that he was gathering strength to carry out the final verdict.
According to George's experience in handling cases, it is possible for one or two murders with the same techniques to leave no traces. But now there are ten murders in total. The crime scenes are exactly the same and there are no traces. How can this be possible? Why not remind him of occult reasons?
As the chief of the New York Police Department, George has a certain understanding of the occult world, because some wizards have caused some trouble before because they did not understand the rules of ordinary society. He also saw the magic of magic when he went to deal with it.
So after this incident, George also considered Jameson's statement, so he contacted the New York Temple immediately. But strangely, the New York Temple, which had been responsive in the past, did not respond this time. , which made George even more strange.
He didn't know that temples all over the world were now busy looking for their long-lost Supreme Mage who had left without saying goodbye. He just felt that the attitude of the temple was ambiguous and there might really be some hidden secrets in it.
With this idea in mind, George still conducted the investigation step by step. Having been the police chief for so many years, he also knew that in the face of huge pressure, the police must mobilize in full force and act as if everyone has something to do, so as not to As for being accused.
But George himself did not follow most of the police officers to investigate various crime scenes, or face the questioning of the energy giant, but came to the Bugle Daily alone.
The Daily Bugle ceased publication a few months ago, so now the newspaper office is empty and no employees work here. George easily entered the Daily Bugle building and successfully found Jameson's office.
He knew how cautious Jameson was about Spider-Man's issues, so he didn't look at the exposed filing cabinets at all. Instead, he went directly to the file room next to the editor's office to look for the locked filing cabinets, and skillfully Use your gun to pick the lock.
It didn't take long for George to find the evidence about Spider-Man that Jameson mentioned that Hu Ji had provided to him in a locked file cabinet.
The evidence includes backup recordings of underground boxing attendants, clues in the sewers, and information about Spider-Man's whereabouts that Jameson did not mention.
After looking through the information, George found that most of the information recorded in it was located in Hell's Kitchen, where a generation of Spider-Man made his early debut. Based on this, George guessed that Hu Ji and the organization behind him should have something in Hell's Kitchen. A stronghold.
George put the obtained information on the table and quickly compared it. Based on the range revealed by the whereabouts information, George determined the approximate scope of the stronghold, and then he drove to the target street.
When the cold wind of late autumn passed through the street, George lowered his head and looked at the information in his hand. The fragile paper made a "clatter" sound under the strong wind. The notebook in Schiller's hand turned over a page, and he pointed to the page on it. one message said.
"After Hu Ji's death, investigators will definitely find that there is an organization behind him that specializes in smearing Spider-Man. This organization is quite professional, and every clue about Spider-Man is quite detailed and reliable."
"The people I sent to do it would not leave any clues, so the investigators could only focus on the organization behind Hu Ji. I deliberately disclosed some whereabouts information, and professionals can completely collect the whereabouts information. Determine the approximate location of the base - A32C Harlind Street, Hell's Kitchen, which is a small house two streets away from my clinic."
"I laid out some clues there in advance. Investigators will soon discover that this is the work of Hydra again, and it also involves the energy giant Roxon Corporation. Roxon Corporation has been funding SHIELD and is also working with SHIELD. There is a connection with Hydra in the Bureau."
"Roxon Corporation was unable to compete with the Stark Group in the field of heavy munitions, so a few years ago their business focus shifted to the field of civilian munitions."
"About a year ago, they contacted Hydra in S.H.I.E.L.D. and asked them to investigate the traces of superheroes in New York. The main purpose was to dig out their black materials, and then buy the media and write articles. People, twist or fabricate this evidence and publish it."
"This is to create an atmosphere in which superheroes may go crazy and harm ordinary people at any time, so that ordinary people have to buy weapons to protect themselves, in order to combat gun prohibitionists and increase the sales of civilian arms."
"But I understand that the Hydra agents are already very busy, and I happen to know Spider-Man very well, especially Spider-Man in the early stages of his debut, so I simply provided them with some evidence. For example, Spider-Man often haunts various illegal places. In the venue, I also did black boxing and the like.”
"Investigators will find evidence in that room that Roxon Company contacted Hydra to dig up dirt on superheroes. Regardless of the investigators' attitude, the evidence will eventually be released after changing hands several times, and the public will find out who was involved. Fool them and the superhero threat theory will be undermined."
"More importantly, the focus of Roxon's business is civilian. Once caught in a public controversy, they must find ways to restore their brand image. If Hydra is unreliable, they can only rely on SHIELD, and SHIELD happens to lack a person. Funds to establish a new superhero team system..."
Schiller smiled and said: "Once the truth spreads that Spider-Man has been seriously and maliciously smeared, people will inevitably re-examine this young superhero."
"And if George has been prejudiced against Spider-Man due to public opinion, then based on his personality, when Spider-Man reveals his identity to him, his first reaction will not be anger, but guilt. In this way, Peter's problem It’s solved easily.”
In the cabin in Hell's Kitchen, George put aside the shocking secrets about Hydra and Roxon Company, and was stunned with a report on Spider-Man's appearance and disappearance time that he found in the corner.
The whereabouts information is very detailed, complete and smooth, and can completely refute the outrageous claims in some news that Spider-Man went gambling or slaughtered stray dogs at certain times.
But what stunned George was that the time period when Spider-Man disappeared in Hell's Kitchen, excluding possible rest or school time, was exactly the same as the time when his daughter Gwen said she wanted to go out to see the exhibition?
As a single father and an experienced detective who has climbed to a high position by virtue of his own ability, George knows very well the principle of sailing with caution. He knows how many people will target the only daughter of a police chief, so he asked No matter who she goes out with, Gwen must report to him or her clearly the time when he will go out and when he will return home.
Gwen was a very obedient child and did as she was told every time. Moreover, she did not like to go out for parties very much. In the past two years, she had only gone out a few times. George clearly remembered every time she went out and came home.
George didn't believe that there was such a coincidence in the world. No matter how conservative he was, he would not think that the timelines of a man and a woman disappearing from the public's eyes coincided with each other, and that they were simply interested in a certain exhibition.
He re-read the information in his hand and confirmed that it was the whereabouts of the first-generation Spider-Man when he first debuted. So, did Gwen and the first-generation Spider-Man fall in love? !
When coming to this conclusion, George's first thought was, fortunately, the first generation of Spider-Man is dead, otherwise how much danger would he bring to Gwen?
Wait, is he dead? Or is he dead now?
In an instant, George broke out in a cold sweat. Jameson's words kept echoing in his ears. He had no time to think, and instinctively rushed out of the house, got in the car and returned home as quickly as possible.
With a "bang", George opened the door, rushed in, looked at Gwen who was making cakes in front of the island, and asked.
"You and Spider-Man were in a relationship?!"
Gwen was stunned. She knew her father very well. If George asked this, then he must have evidence. After the initial shock, Gwen turned her head and said nothing.
She was already waiting for George to get angry, but she didn't expect George to rush up in a panic, took her arm, and said, "Quick, Gwen, you have to leave New York!"
George is not sure whether the mysterious killer is Spider-Man's wronged soul, but even if there is a one in ten thousand chance, he cannot let Gwen take the risk. Gwen is his entire spiritual support. Nothing in this world can compare. Gwen's safety is important.
Gwen was confused by his actions. She was very confused. Finally, she pushed George away, looked at him and said, "Dad, what's wrong with you? Why should I leave New York? Tomorrow is your birthday. I I still have to celebrate your birthday with you.”
Seeing the sincere expression on his daughter's face, George sighed helplessly and said.
"You understand, Gwen, a generation of Spider-Man is dead, but now he might be back!"
George was actually referring to the fact that a generation of Spider-Man might resurrect from the dead and become an unjust ghost, but Gwen understood it wrong. She thought that George could find out that she and Spider-Man were in a relationship. She already knew that Spider-Man was Peter, but she still Not sure if the first and third generations of Spider-Man are the same thing.
Anyway, the love affair has been exposed, and there is no point in hiding it anymore, so Gwen nodded and said: "Yes, of course he is back. Didn't you meet Peter a few days ago?"
George was stunned. His thoughts were racing. He looked at Gwen and said, "Peter? You mean, Peter Parker is Spider-Man?!"
Gwen nodded, lowered his head a little guiltily and said, "We didn't mean to hide it from you, but Peter has some social difficulties, and you know that he's not very good at talking. I really don't know how to explain it to you..."
"So your current boyfriend is also Spider-Man? Have you dated Spider-Man twice?! God, what's so good about him?!" George held his forehead as if he was about to faint.
Gwen stood there with her head lowered like a child who had made a mistake, but what was waiting for her was not the scolding she imagined. George just said slightly anxiously: "Why are you still standing here? Go call Peter and ask him He's back!"
"Uh... do you want to scold him in person?"
"I thank him! If he wasn't Spider-Man, how could he protect you from another Spider-Man?! Go get him back, and then you'd better stay together 24 hours a day in the next two months, don't Give that innocent soul killer an opportunity to take advantage of!"
George looked around and said, "No, no, living together before marriage is too outrageous... How about you get married first?"
"ah?"
Schiller: Huh?
(End of chapter)
