"Have you talked to Nick about this?" Shiller asked.
"He definitely won't agree, and he'll give an earful," Peter said with a hopeful look to Shiller. "So, could you please go ask him for , Doctor?"
Shiller thought, knew this kid was up to no good, he was waiting right here for him.
"I'll discuss it with Nick, but you better not get your hopes up. He really detests this sacrificial mindset, as if everything not of imdiate use should be donated. It can easily turn into a morbid psychology."
"I know, but that won't happen to ," Peter comnced his repetitive pleading. "I've heard about a Spider-Man who gave his power away by accident, and the guy's doing well now, so then he could go do other stuff..."
"He didn't really have other stuff to do," Shiller interrupted, knowing Peter was referring to the Spider-Man who gave his abilities to Bruce of Earth No.1, who now served as the Saint Heir in his domain; and since The Naless Fog hadn't been active for a long ti, that Spider-Man was bored out of his mind.
Moreover, that Spider-Man knew that if he saw Nick, he'd definitely get scolded, so he'd rather die than co to this cosmos, and was currently staying on the rged Earth, dabbling in scientific research.
"Rather than questioning if you should do it, the how is worth investigating." Shiller suggested. "If you can find a way to transfer your power without harming yourself, either physically or ntally, I might have so chance of persuading Nick. But if you're talking about thods like soul fleeing, I can only tell you, no way, Nick would never agree."
Peter imdiately made a sour face and said, "I was even thinking about uploading my soul to a server, to check if this ability is attached to the body or the soul..."
Eddie took a sharp breath and said, "What do you think your soul is? You can't be serious! No, I have to tell Nick..."
"Please, Eddie! Don't rat out! I didn't actually do it," Peter pleaded.
"But the thought itself is too dangerous," said Eddie seriously.
"But if I can stay as I am, and there could be another Spider-Man in the world, then the two of us could work together to make the world a better place," Peter argued with hope in his voice. "That's the perfect way to utilize resources, not like now, with such strong power completely wasted."
"Alright, Peter, first you have to promise you won't try anything rash. Then I can try to talk to Nick and see if he can find a feasible way from the perspective of the Spider Totem. But you're absolutely not allowed to ss around on your own," Shiller conceded.
"Don't worry, Doctor, I'm not that stupid."
They quickly finished everything, the coffee table was a ss with kebab skewers, beer bottles, and cups scattered all over, as the ballga drew to a close.
The drinkers were sowhat tipsy. Eddie supported Shiller upstairs to bed, while Barry volunteered to clean up the table, but it was late at night and he was yawning uncontrollably.
Peter told him to go to sleep; he hadn't drunk much and wasn't drunk at all. He was ready to pack away the skewers and stuff the plates in the dishwasher to deal with the next day.
Looking for sothing to wrap the skewers in, he casually grabbed a nearby newspaper and even checked the date, realizing it was outdated. Thus, he spread the newspaper out on the table.
As soon as he laid out the newspaper, a piece of news caught his eye. It wasn't anything major, but a report on a nearby community college's won's shower room where lockers had been tampered with, and despite all investigations and surveillance, no traces of the Little Thief were found.
Peter stared at the news, lost in thought. After all, Brooklyn is an old district in New York, and the community college's facilities are pretty complete there, including high-definition surveillance caras that shouldn't miss any strangers coming and going.
Therefore, the report speculated that it might be an inside job, with a cleaner accidentally disturbing the lockers while cleaning.
Peter flipped further down, the next item being so community soccer match news which was unremarkable. However, suddenly, he noticed in an interview with the won's soccer team, mbers ntioned that their dorm seed haunted as things kept disappearing.
Continuing on, there were reports of missing items from a shop, again with no footage caught by caras, yet a significant amount of new motorcycle parts had vanished.
The most alarming was the last report, detailing a gun store burglary. The thief had stolen three handguns and a bunch of bullets, and once more, the dense network of surveillance caras had captured nothing.
Underneath that report was a chilling image showing a handgun eerily floating over the counter as if held up by sothing.
The explanation provided was that there was an issue with the nearby electrical magnetic field, causing tal objects to levitate abnormally. But judging by the angle of the floating gun, it clearly seed held by soone; electric magnetic fields don't have hands, nor do they pose to shoot, right?
The more Peter read, the more furrowed his brow beca, feeling that sothing was amiss. These harassnt cases and disappearances couldn't be coincidences, especially the last picture which indicated that this wasn't an issue of electric magnetic fields, but rather an invisible thief was at work.
Initially, this thief only sneaked into the won's baths and dormitories to play the molester, then started stealing goods, and now had even begun stealing guns. What was he planning?
Of course, Peter imdiately thought of the guy he had encountered during the day. Doctor Shiller had said that the encounter with the invisible weirdo blocking his way here might not have been accidental; he might have had his eye on Peter for a while.
Now that he had a gun with bullets and had acquired the ability to turn invisible, the first thing he did was to run to the won's bathhouse. What did he intend to do to himself?
Peter thought it over and felt sothing was wrong. If it were the usual Spider-Man, he would have gone out to find this guy at the first opportunity, but Peter wasn't like that. He gathered all the recent newspapers, spread them out on the floor, and began to look for clues.
It didn't take him long to find a report about mob activity on Vite Street, followed by news of disappearances, kidnappings, extortions, and even a murder that had occurred just two streets away from Vite Street.
Peter picked up the newspaper and carefully examined the face of the deceased, only to realize it was an old acquaintance, Bullseye, a subordinate of Kingpin.
The last ti Peter had seen him, he had personally sent him to prison. At that ti, he hadn't been Spider-Man for long, and Bullseye was quite a big problem for him. Thankfully, with the guidance of Captain Arica, Iron Man, and Doctor Schiller, he had managed to capture him and send him to prison.
Bullseye had a long list of cris, and Kingpin was very dissatisfied with his capture by a newcor like Peter, which is why he neither paid his bail nor hired a good lawyer for him. Bullseye ended up serving a long sentence and had only recently been released.
Peter took out a map and looked at the place where Bullseye had died, which was also within Kingpin's old territory. Kingpin had indeed gone straight now, but the location was not far from his forr palace, his headquarters' center. His forr subordinate's death here was a serious provocation to Kingpin.
Kingpin had never given up his influence in the underworld, knowing it made business easier for him. Other forces turned a blind eye because they understood that there was no power vacuum in this world; if Kingpin backed out, others would fill his place. Better to let Kingpin handle things, at least he was smart.
They had planned to go out late at night, but Schiller, after a short rest, had woken up feeling refreshed. However, Peter said he was a bit tired and wouldn't be going out that night, so they all ended up having a good night's sleep.
The next morning, Eddie checked his phone's SMS inbox and email but found no ntion of Sandman Beck, so he urgently printed a special issue of the magazine to find him.
To his surprise, it took less than two hours after the paper was distributed for soone to knock on the door.
"Uh, hello, is this the Block News Agency?"
A neatly dressed lady stood at the door and asked. Eddie imdiately stood up to greet her and said, "Hello, I'm Block. What can I do for you?"
"You can call Mrs. Casada. I'm Beck's neighbor; I an, our whole family is—we live next door to the Becks."
"Oh my God, ma'am, you couldn't have co at a better ti; please co in."
Peter went to make coffee, Barry went to get cups, and Eddie led Mrs. Casada to sit down on the sofa.
"Beck has disappeared, hasn't he? Oh God, I should have warned him about those shady people..."
The lady's expression was full of anxiety, and Eddie had to quickly comfort her. From her, he learned that the Casadas were Beck's best friends.
Before Beck had found so many good jobs with his special ability, the lady's husband didn't have a new job either, and they all lived in a cheap community, struggling to make ends et.
Nevertheless, the Casada family had two wage earners. Both Mr. and Mrs. Casada worked outside the ho, earning not much, but their inco was stable. Beck, on the other hand, was at his lowest point, often starving.
At that ti, the kind Mrs. Casada often cooked an extra al to send to him, and one day, Beck witnessed Mrs. Casada's young daughter being bullied on the street next to the school. He rushed over and chased away the bullies, and the two families beca close ever since.
Later, Beck underwent a mutation. He thought of himself as a freak, an outsider who would soday be caught by law enforcent. Fearing for his neighbors, he planned to move away.
But by a twist of fate, he caught the eye of S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. Nick liked his ability, approached him, and recruited him into the Solar System Developnt Program.
At that ti, it was still early days for the program, which had not fully kicked off. The work was all high-risk with generous salaries. Beck, who had nothing to lose, thought he'd give it a try; if he died, at least there would be a sizeable compensation for the Casadas to solve their children's schooling issues, so he signed up for it.
He earned so money and wanted to buy a house but didn't want to leave his neighbors. However, Mr. Casada later found a job at the shuttle Space Station with a better salary, and their children were also reaching the age to attend middle school and needed to find a good school. They were also planning to move.
But the family had large expenses and couldn't save much money, not nearly enough to buy a house in a good school district. Beck, who could easily provide for himself alone and was very loyal, decided to loan the Casadas a large sum of money, and together they bought two adjacent houses in the current community.
Mrs. Casada broke down in tears while telling this story, making the sign of the cross on her chest as she spoke, "Every day he worked in the sky, my husband, children, and I prayed for him on Earth. I know he sotis has a bad temper, but he is a good man. If anything happened to him, we wouldn't know what to do..."
"It's okay, ma'am, please don't worry," Schiller said as he brought the coffee to Mrs. Casada. "Mr. Beck has considerable abilities, so it's very likely that he's just trapped sowhere. After all, who can kill a pile of sand, right?"
Mrs. Casada thought about it and it made sense, but she still clutched at Schiller's sleeve and said, "You've got to help him. He's already secured a spot for the third batch of technical personnel at Stella Core Space Station. Just transferring there would make him a technical supervisor with a great future ahead, he can't have sothing happen to him now..."
Schiller and Eddie exchanged glances and suddenly realized the seriousness of the problem.
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