Inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, Nick Fury rummaged through boxes and drawers and finally found a long-forgotten document.
"Richard Parker and Mary Parker." Maria Hill looked at the document and read it again with a frown. "Parker? Are they related to Ben Parker?"
"It has nothing to do with Ben Parker."
In the United States, there were countless people with the last name Parker. Not to mention ordinary people, even superheroes often encountered people with the same name.
"But it is related to his cousin, Peter Parker." Nick Fury waved his hand and immediately projected Peter's information in the air.
In the holographic display, the past sixteen years of Peter Parker's life were clearly shown.
"They are Peter Parker's parents," Nick said.
At this time, Coulson on the side was a little surprised. He didn't expect that the information of the parents of an ordinary teenager could be included in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s classified files.
"So, they're also agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Nick shook his head. "They worked for the CIA. They were intelligence analysts for the CIA before they worked for Osborn Industries. That's not the point. The point is,"
He paused for a moment, and scanned everyone present with his remaining eye.
Hill, Coulson, Natasha, Barton, and Captain America.
Each of them was his confidant, someone he could absolutely trust. Then, Nick slowly spoke, "The point is that later on, the plane they were on was attacked, and both of them died in the plane crash."
Captain America frowned.
Then, he heard the name that he could never forget even in his dreams.
"It doesn't make much sense to some people, but my guess is Hydra."
The moment he heard the name, Steve's body swayed and his eyes became a little dazed.
This was the first time he had heard this name from someone else since he had been thawed.
All of a sudden, he felt his palms sweating and his lips trembling. He asked, "But wasn't Hydra destroyed?"
Nick repeated his words in a surprised and exaggerated tone, and then said: "Yes, most people think that Hydra has been destroyed, or even that all of them have died, but this is impossible."
"Cut off one head and two more will take its place... Maybe they have disappeared from public view, but they have never completely disappeared. Over the years, some remnants of Hydra can still be found occasionally." Nick pinched his eyebrows and sighed.
Why did he need so much funding to build a safe house for himself?
It was because he had now noticed something wrong. Sometimes, he felt that there was a ghost called Hydra hovering over S.H.I.E.L.D.
He was already sharp, but not sharp enough.
Because the ghost of Hydra wasn't hovering over S.H.I.E.L.D.—in fact, S.H.I.E.L.D. was Hydra! Over the past few decades, that terrible organization had unknowingly penetrated into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s body through every wound of S.H.I.E.L.D., and eaten up everything of S.H.I.E.L.D., leaving only the skin.
They had resurrected from the dead and suddenly turned from losers into controllers.
Even in the Security Council, there were Hydra people.
Today's S.H.I.E.L.D. was essentially worse than a compromised intelligence agency. At least the spies in most organizations came from different groups and could scheme against each other without knowing each other.
"So, you took out this information, are you planning to use it as a bargaining chip and get Ben to join your superhero team?"
Natasha looked at him as if he were a scumbag.
"What are you saying?"
Nick shouted as if he was wronged: "I'm just trying to be nice, understand?"
"Although my purpose is indeed as you said, I will not force him. I will just give this thing to him, or to Peter Parker, and then tell him that we have a common enemy."
"Peter Parker?"
Captain America frowned.
"You shouldn't have brought a child into this!"
Although Peter's parents had died in an attack by Hydra, Captain America believed that Peter wasn't aware of this, and the other party was just a child. Even if he knew, it would be useless and might put him in danger.
They should be the ones to deal with Hydra.
Nick Fury's actions left him greatly disappointed.
"Child? He is not an ordinary child!" Nick Fury covered his face and said, "Captain, you were saying a few days ago that he has excellent abilities, amazing strength, is kind and cares for the elderly?"
"What? Wait, you mean, he's Spider-Man?"
Captain America was stunned for a moment.
Not only him, several other people were also very surprised.
Nick explained: "I didn't notice it at first, until Steve told me that Spider-Man was from Queens, and when I found the information about Richard Parker and Mary Parker, all the clues became a web."
He threw the document on the table, and the page he opened just happened to record Richard's research at Osborn Industries.
"He and Dr. Connors studied cross-species biogenetics, and the subjects of their research just happened to be spiders."
"When I traced back to the earliest time of Spider-Man and connected it with Peter Parker's experience, I found that Peter Parker attended an exhibition at the Osborn Group a month before Spider-Man was born, and at the same time, he had some accident."
Then Nick looked at the captain and said, "And just like you—he got taller and stronger."
"Everything has a trace."
He leaned back in his chair. The surprised expressions on everyone's faces made him feel very satisfied, as if he was the legendary Sherlock Holmes who placed incredible evidence before their eyes while everyone was still confused.
After walking around for a while, Coulson came back to his senses and said, "Boss, according to what you said, Peter Parker's identity should not have been hidden for so long. These clues cannot have escaped our observation."
"That's the problem."
Nick was very satisfied with what Coulson said—a good detective needs a good supporting actor.
"During this period of time, someone has been helping Peter Parker hide his identity, and I think everyone has guessed who this person is."
"So, he is really a good cousin," said Natasha.
"Not just a good cousin, but another Spider-Man," said Nick Fury.
But this made them confused again.
"Since Peter Parker is Spider-Man it makes sense that his cousin might be Spider-Man too, but they are not related by blood."
Captain America picked up the stack of information, took a look at it, and then continued, "The information says that the reason why Peter's mutation is stable is because Richard tampered with his genes. So how did Ben also get spider powers?"
"I need to remind you, Captain, you are doubting that a genius who invented a self-healing serum and discovered new elements on his own can't solve these problems."
After hearing this, Steve realized that he had asked a stupid question.
Although Ben's personal profile showed that his academic performance was only in the upper middle range after entering high school, no one thought there was anything wrong with it.
Because he had shown a very mature way of thinking at a young age, this ordinary result seemed more like a disguise he had created for himself.
"Later, as Peter Parker showed super powers, Ben began to worry about his cousin, so he finally decided not to disguise himself anymore, and with his intelligence, he founded Primus Technologies."
Nick Fury spoke with certainty, as if it were fact.
If Ben knew how highly he thought of himself, he would have to thank him.
Aside from that explanation, Nick Fury had no better way to justify how Ben had suddenly become a genius overnight—developing tech and inventions at a pace that defied belief.
"A super-powered kid with brains on par with Tony... we basically got buy-one-get-one-free by bringing him in—and on top of that, he's loaded."
Fury leaned back, folding his arms with a smirk.
"Now do you see why I need him on the Avengers?"
Meanwhile, in a different part of the city, Wilson Fisk—known to the criminal underworld as Kingpin—put out the cigar in his hand and spoke loudly to the group of people under his command.
"Now, you know why I must get rid of Spider-Man?"
The massive man was furious.
He'd already been at odds with the Hand over the serum operations, and their ongoing conflict had cost him dearly. Resources lost, territory shaken—his grip on Hell's Kitchen was already slipping.
And then Spider-Man showed up and made everything worse.
The kid had made a spectacle of it—webbing up smuggling rings one after another and dropping them neatly outside the police station like wrapped gifts. Now, half the streets were cleared, and his operations were grinding to a halt.
At this rate, Hell's Kitchen would be so clean and peaceful, it might actually qualify for a five-star rating as a model "civilized neighborhood."
And that was unacceptable.
His criminal empire was crumbling—if things continued like this, it was only a matter of time before it collapsed entirely.
"But what do we do?" one of his men asked anxiously.
"We can't even track Spider-Man, let alone ambush him. And if we try to draw him out... what if the one who shows up is Prime?"
Ben's Spider-Man Persona called Matrix had only appeared once, but that was more than enough. For the criminal underworld, that single appearance was burned into their memories—alongside the image of him effortlessly bringing down the Green Goblin like it was nothing.
The thought alone sent shivers down their spines.
But Kingpin wasn't intimidated.
He leaned forward, massive hands folded, his voice low and cold. "Everyone has a weakness, gentlemen."
"If Spider-Man isn't operating alone, then we have a way in."
There was a dangerous gleam in his eye—calculated, cruel.
"I'm willing to bet he has family. Friends. Maybe even a brother…"
His lips curled into a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Find them. If we can't break Spider-Man, we'll break what he cares about. And then—he'll come to us."
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