Inside a SHIELD base.
Nick Fury rummaged through drawers and cabinets before finally pulling out a long-sealed file.
"Richard Parker and Mary Parker." Hill looked at the document and read the names out with a frown. "Parker? Are they related to Bant Parker?"
"They have nothing to do with Bant Parker," Nick Fury said.
In America, there were no telling how many people had the last name Parker, and Peter was practically the American version of John Smith. Forget ordinary people, even among superheroes, it was common to run into people with the same name.
"But they are related to his cousin, Peter Parker."
With a wave of his hand, the black braised egg projected Peter's file into the air.
On the screen, Peter Parker's entire life over the past sixteen years was clearly laid out.
"They're Peter Parker's parents," Nick said.
At that moment, Coulson, standing nearby, looked a little surprised. He had not expected the parents of such an ordinary-looking kid to have files stored by SHIELD.
"So they were SHIELD agents too?"
Nick shook his head. "They worked for the CIA. Even before they worked for Osborn, they were already intelligence analysts for the CIA. But that's not the key point. The key point is..."
He paused, and his one remaining eye swept over everyone present.
Hill, Coulson, Natasha, Barton, and Captain America.
Every one of them was his confidant, someone he could trust completely. Only then did Nick slowly continue, "Later, the plane they were on was attacked, and both of them died in the crash."
"Who did it?" Steve asked, frowning.
Then he heard the name he could never forget, not even in his dreams.
"In some people's eyes, there isn't enough evidence for this, but my guess is Hydra."
The instant he heard that name, Steve's body swayed slightly, and his gaze turned unfocused.
Ever since being thawed out, this was the first time he had heard that name spoken by someone else.
In that moment, he felt his palms grow sweaty and his lips tremble. He asked, "But wasn't Hydra already wiped out?"
"Wiped out?"
Nick repeated his words in an exaggerated tone of surprise before saying, "Yeah, most people think Hydra is already gone, maybe even completely dead. But that's impossible."
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place... Maybe they've vanished from sight, but they definitely haven't disappeared completely. Over the years, we've still found remnants of Hydra from time to time." Nick pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh.
Why else would he be allocating so much funding to build safe houses for himself?
Wasn't it because he had already begun to sense that something was wrong? Sometimes, he felt as if a ghost called Hydra was hovering above SHIELD.
He was sharp enough to notice something.
But not sharp enough.
Because Hydra's ghost was not hovering above SHIELD.
In truth, SHIELD itself was Hydra.
Over the past several decades, that terrifying organization had quietly slipped through every wound SHIELD ever suffered, burrowed into its body, and devoured everything inside, leaving behind nothing but an empty shell.
They had possessed the corpse and, in one stroke, gone from the defeated to the ones in control.
Even within the Security Council, there were Hydra members.
The current SHIELD was, in essence, even worse than the Black Organization. At least the spies inside the Black Organization came from different factions, and since they did not know each other's identities, they could still scheme against one another.
But SHIELD had long since become the snakes' territory.
"So you dug this file out because you want to use it as leverage and make Bant join your superhero team, right?"
Natasha looked at him like she was staring at pure scum.
"What are you talking about?"
Nick yelled as if he had been deeply wronged. "This is called showing goodwill, goodwill, get it?"
"Although my goal is basically what you said, I won't force him. I'll just give him this file, or give it to Peter Parker, and tell him that we have a common enemy."
"Give it to Peter Parker?" Steve frowned.
"You shouldn't drag a child into this!"
In Steve's eyes, even though Peter's parents had died in a Hydra attack, Peter clearly knew nothing about it. And he was just a kid. Even if he found out, it would not help. It would only put him in danger.
Dealing with Hydra was something they should be doing.
Nick Fury's move deeply disappointed him.
"A child? He's no ordinary child!" Nick Fury covered his face and said, "Captain, weren't you just praising him a few days ago? Saying he was highly capable, incredibly strong, compassionate, and respectful toward the elderly?"
"What? Wait. You mean he's Spider-Man?"
Steve froze instantly.
He was not the only one. The others were equally shocked.
But Steve's reaction was different from theirs. He was not just surprised. He also felt that Peter was very much like himself.
They had both once been weak, but later obtained astonishing power, and both chose to use that power for the right cause.
Nick explained, "At first, I didn't notice it either. It was only after Steve told me Spider-Man came from Queens that I started digging into Richard Parker and Mary Parker's files. Once I did, all the clues wove themselves into a web."
He tossed the file onto the table, and the page that had fallen open just happened to contain Richard's research at Osborn.
"He worked with Dr. Connors on cross-species genetic biology, and the subject of their research just so happened to be... spiders."
"And when I traced back to the earliest time Spider-Man appeared, then connected it with Peter Parker's personal timeline, I found that within the month before Spider-Man was born, Peter Parker attended an exhibition at Oscorp. At the same time, his body also began showing changes."
As he spoke, Nick turned to look at Steve. "Just like what you went through. He got taller and stronger."
"Everything follows a clear trail."
He leaned back in his chair, and the astonished expressions on everyone's faces filled him with satisfaction. It made him feel like the legendary Sherlock Holmes himself, placing unbelievable evidence right in front of everyone while they were still confused.
After a while, Coulson came back to his senses and said, "Boss, if that's the case, Peter Parker's identity shouldn't have stayed hidden for this long. These traces couldn't possibly have escaped our notice."
"And that's exactly where the problem is."
Nick was very pleased that Coulson had said that. A good comic always needed a good straight man.
"During this whole time, someone has been helping Peter Parker conceal his identity. And as for who that person is, I think all of you already have your guesses."
Bant Parker!
"So he really is a good cousin," Natasha said.
"Not just a good cousin, but another Spider-Man as well," Nick Fury said.
That only made them even more confused.
"It's reasonable to assume that if Peter Parker is Spider-Man, then his cousin might be one too. But the two of them aren't blood-related."
Steve picked up the stack of files, glanced through them, then continued, "According to the file, Peter's mutation stayed stable because Richard tampered with his genes beforehand. So why did Bant gain superpowers too?"
"Let me remind you, Captain, you're questioning whether a genius who invented a healing serum and independently discovered a new element could solve a problem like that."
Only after hearing that did Steve realize he had asked a stupid question.
Even though Bant's personal file showed that after entering high school, his grades had only been above average, nobody felt there was anything strange about that.
After all, he had already displayed unusually mature thinking from a very young age. Because of that, those ordinary grades felt more like a disguise he had deliberately crafted for himself.
"Later, after Peter Parker awakened superpowers, Bant became worried about his cousin. So he finally decided to stop hiding himself, revealed his world-shaking intellect, and founded Primus."
Nick Fury spoke with complete certainty, as if that were the truth.
If Bant ever found out just how highly Nick thought of him, he would definitely have to thank him properly.
There was no helping it.
Other than that explanation, Nick Fury simply could not come up with a better reason for why Bant had suddenly become smarter overnight and invented so many things.
Even replacing him with a Skrull would not have explained that.
"A superpowered individual, intelligence on Tony's level, buy one get one free and I get another Spider-Man on top of that, and more importantly, he's rich!"
"Now do you understand why I absolutely have to get him into the Avengers?"
At the same time.
"Now do you understand why I absolutely have to get rid of Spider-Man?"
Kingpin stubbed out the cigar in his hand and shouted at the people under him.
"Over this period of time, how many of my operations in Hell's Kitchen have Spider-Man and Daredevil ruined?"
The massive fat man was furious. Originally, he had already come into conflict with the Hand over the serum issue. The two sides had been fighting each other for a while now, and that alone had already caused him huge losses.
Then Spider-Man came in and made an even bigger mess. One smuggler after another had been tied up and dumped in front of police stations by him, to the point that large parts of Hell's Kitchen had practically been cleaned out.
If this kept up, Hell's Kitchen would get so peaceful it might actually win some kind of five-star model civilized neighborhood award.
His criminal empire would collapse sooner or later!
"But what should we do?"
Someone asked.
"It's already hard enough just to find Spider-Man, let alone target him. And even if we try to lure him out, what if the one who shows up is Hacker? That would be a disaster."
Bant's Hacker Spider-Man had only appeared once, but to the villains, his overwhelming strength had left a deep impression and filled them with fear.
Especially that scene where he subdued the Green Goblin with ease. Just thinking about it made them panic.
But Kingpin did not think so.
"Everyone has a weakness, my friends," he said softly.
"As long as Spider-Man isn't truly alone, then we have a chance."
This mountain-like giant of a man was sinister to the core, willing to use any means necessary.
"I'm sure Spider-Man has family, friends, brothers... Find them, and Spider-Man won't dare refuse to submit!"
/-\
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