I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 57, Seven Points: Infiltration Investigation

Saturday morning, 6:30.

If someone were to enter the Fisk Building's server room at this time and observe carefully, they would find a data cable connecting the server to the ventilation duct. Inside the filthy ventilation duct, a spider-like freak dressed in a red jumpsuit would be illegally intruding, the low-frequency buzzing of the ventilation system masking the sound of him typing on the keyboard.

There are many villains in New York, but not many can afford to hire someone like Thriller, Chameleon, or Mysterio. They're mostly just a few rich and powerful individuals, like Kingpin or Hammerhead from the mob, or companies like AIM and Alchemy that are into black technology, or even Hydra.

Peter, of course, had no idea who was behind this, so he decided to take advantage of the few days after defeating the spider swarm to investigate.

"No, no, still nothing... Kingpin's database is just as clean as when I last came, like a freshly washed plate. Where did you hide it, Philip?"

This wasn't Peter's first time infiltrating Fisk Tower. He'd been there before the war with the Horrors, and hadn't found anything then either, just like now. Kingpin had meticulously cleaned up the data in the building's server room, making it seem as if his underworld business had nothing to do with the building. Actually, if Daredevil hadn't started his activities three years earlier, like Spider-Man, Peter might not have even bothered to target Kingpin.

But Daredevil has already made his debut, and Kingpin has absolutely no criminal record? Do you think Peter would believe that? Of course not.

For example, after scanning with his new suit, he discovered a huge hollow structure in the basement of the Fisk Tower, but he didn't know what was inside. It looked like a nuclear shelter, requiring DNA testing to enter the elevator, which was filled with alarms and infrared detectors. He couldn't go down into such a place.

However, the entire building looked quite clean; at least the mainframe interface was completely bare.

"Huh? Kingpin went underground?"

On his laptop, Peter recorded Kingpin's actions through a small window of a hacked webcam. Kingpin, accompanied by several assistants, opened the elevator doors and began descending into the underground. Peter thought for a moment, quickly closed the laptop, then crawled out through a ventilation duct in another room, entered the elevator shaft, and sped towards Kingpin's office.

Hopefully Kingpin can stay underground a little longer so I can see if I can hack into his computer.

"Your combination lock is less secure than an elevator control panel."

After easily cracking the computer password, Peter began browsing Kingpin's computer, starting by searching its operational history chronologically. To Peter's surprise, the computer was almost empty; it was mostly clean, containing only legitimate business-related content and a few TV show viewing records. He genuinely had no idea Kingpin watched TV, and for several hours a day at that.

Or perhaps Kingpin doesn't actually use this computer for work.

After scanning the entire office, Peter confirmed that there were no hidden rooms or secret chambers. It seemed Kingpin had kept this place very well concealed; both the computer room and the personal computers were impeccably clean. There might be some involvement in tax evasion or trade secrets, but no information related to the villains.

Of course, there's another possibility: this version of King isn't a bad guy, but just an honest businessman. However, believing that is less likely than believing he's Homelander Spider-Man.

In other words, this office and the computer server room are for intruders to investigate. For example, organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. or the FBI would come here to investigate if they suspect Kingpin, and Kingpin would show them that there is nothing here.

However, those criminal records couldn't possibly be completely transparent; Kingpin must be somewhere else.
Anyway, I have nothing to do tonight until the homecoming dance, so I might as well just stay here and wait for Fisk all day. Surely he won't actually spend the whole day here reviewing documents and watching American TV shows, right?
So he cleaned up the traces of his presence and planned to spend the whole day hiding in the ventilation duct of Kingpin's office. At that moment, he noticed green smoke rising outside and the tall, mysterious figure emerging from it.

Spider-Man was dumbfounded, then he became furious.

"Really? I've only been in school for less than two weeks! And I've already fought three villains: Thriller, Chameleon, and Kalkin! The second week isn't even over yet, it's only Saturday, and now Mysterio has appeared?! It's only been two weeks since school started!"

Just then, night fell over New York City, and Mysterio delivered his awe-inspiring criminal declaration—he even gave ordinary people ten minutes to stop wandering the streets, and they were surprisingly kind. "While I'm performing, crime in New York City might go crazy, so I'm inviting all of New York's superheroes to stop me. Once they stop me, New York will return to normal."

You win, Mysterio, really.

Peter, no longer in the mood to keep an eye on Kingpin, climbed out of the ventilation duct. As soon as he stepped out, he saw Iron Man soaring into the sky from Avengers Tower and crashing headfirst into Mysterio—passing right through him, before being hit by a laser beam and crashing to the ground.

“I talked to Jarvis about Quentin Baker, and I even left Mysterio’s old projection device at Avengers Tower, and then Iron Man just—pounced on it.”

Peter sighed, preparing to use his webs to stop Mysterio before the illusions overwhelmed him. Then, he saw a ball of flame shoot into the sky from the Baxter Building, drawing a cool circle in the air containing the number "4" before charging towards Mysterio.

Then they failed to hit Mysterio.

No, forget about Tony Stark, but didn't you, Human Torch, see Iron Man crash? Why did you rush in too?
What's even more outrageous is that while Iron Man was at least hit and crashed, the Human Torch simply went out on the spot, literally went out, and then began freefall.

"Hurry up!"

"I'm already fast, buddy!"

Johnny Stone, who was in freefall, was caught by Spider-Man with one hand, tucked under his arm, and then landed safely on the roof of a building.

“Oh, hey.” Johnny greeted him cheerfully, then looked at Peter and said, “I’ve heard of you. Reed said you’d be coming to Baxter’s Building in a couple of days.”

"Yes, what's wrong?"

"I don't know. Before I could even hit that guy, the flames on my body disappeared, my powers failed, and I fell down," the Human Torch explained. Spider-Man understood what had happened after a moment's thought.

"Perhaps your ability didn't fail, but Mysterio just made you see that your flames were gone, and your brain thought that your ability had failed, so it shut it down on its own."

The Human Torch stared at Spider-Man for a full three seconds before finally uttering "Son of the Beach" to Mysterio. Then, without flames, the Human Torch floated up and shot into the sky. Spider-Man raised his hand to shoot a web, only to see the guy crash headfirst into the exterior wall of the building before falling back down and landing next to Peter.

……

Dude, are you kidding me?
"Spider-Man, welcome to our party."

A real man, Mysterio, appeared before Peter. Everything around Peter disappeared, leaving only Peter and Mysterio. Mysterio extended his hand in a friendly manner.

“I want to talk to you because I feel you are special.”

(End of this chapter)