"Okay, I understand."
Walking down the school hallway, Peter frowned as he listened to Matt Murdock's description on the phone. The reason Nick Fury entrusted him with the affairs of New York after Kingpin's surrender was because, in Fury's view, the security situation in New York was nothing to make a fuss about.
As the saying goes, "under the emperor's feet, the best place." Under the Avengers' noses, what kind of trouble could New York stir up? At most, a few new gangs would emerge after losing Fisk's control, and these new gang leaders wouldn't have Kingpin's level of financial resources or control, leading to only temporary chaos.
Besides, S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't entirely without support. Wasn't Cindy a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? She would definitely obey your every command, Peter Parker, so just use her as you wish.
But now Daredevil was telling him that a super-soldier named Luke Cage had broken out, claiming that Ryker's Island had been conducting illegal human experiments all along, and S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't even know about it. More importantly, no one believed S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know.
So Peter had to work overtime today. Without further ado, he had to ask for leave this afternoon to go to Ryker's Island and also check on Kingpin, who had just been incarcerated today—only Fat Kingpin could surrender on Monday, be sentenced on Tuesday, and move into a luxury cell on Wednesday.
However, before that, he had to do one more thing.
He arrived at the practice room of Gwen's band and waited for the girls inside to finish rehearsing a song. After the music gradually died down, Peter knocked on the door. The sound of their conversation inside seemed to pause, then the door opened. As expected, it was Mary Jane who opened it—she was the band's lead singer and guitarist, and closest to the door. Gwen was the drummer, the least convenient one to open the door.
"Hi, Peter."
Mary Jane was completely unaware that Peter was actually there for her. She generously opened the door and asked, "Are you here to see Gwen?"
"No, actually, I'm here for you."
Peter's words seemed to chill the atmosphere, but the instigator was oblivious to the mood in the air: "It's about yesterday. I... I need to talk to you about what happened after I left. Is this a good time for you? Or should we talk alone?"
"Let's talk alone."
Mary Jane smiled, apologized to her bandmates, took off her guitar and set it aside, then followed Peter out of the practice room, closing the door behind her. Liz and Betty, also part of the band, looked at Gwen, who stared back at them expressionlessly: "What's wrong?"
"That handsome guy... is he the childhood friend you always talk about?"
Betty had just finished speaking when she received a definite affirmative from Liz: "Definitely. I saw him in class with Harry. He must be that Mr. Parker."
So Gwen glared at them: "And then what—"
"Aren't you curious about what happened between them yesterday?"
"I know what they went to do yesterday," Gwen sighed helplessly, explaining: "Didn't MJ get an internship interview offer from the Daily Bugle? Peter had a photo published by the Daily Bugle before. So she wanted Peter to help her take some interview photos. She told me about it, and Peter was there too."
But her two bandmates still looked unconvinced.
"I didn't know interviews needed photos too. And that sentence just now, 'after he left,' means Mr. Parker left midway. What did he leave to do?"
What did he leave to do? Without even thinking, Gwen knew Peter had gone to be Spider-Man. Gwen rolled her eyes at the two of them and retorted, "So what do you want me to do? Go eavesdrop on what they're saying?"
Betty and Liz fell silent, looking at Gwen. After just two seconds, Gwen stood up, leaning on her drum kit: "Come on, let's go listen to what they're saying."
Actually, Peter and Mary Jane weren't planning to talk about anything else. Their conversation began with what happened after he left yesterday.
"I followed him and took some pictures. What happened yesterday was because of Rhino..."
"I saw it on the news later," Mary Jane said with a smile, though she carefully looked at the live broadcast but couldn't find Peter anywhere: "Did you take any pictures?"
"That's what I was going to say. While I was filming, I overheard Rhino and Spider-Man talking. I... heard some things. Rhino didn't want to rob a bank; he did it because his wife has a rare disease, and someone gave him a large sum of money to undergo modifications. But that money wasn't enough to cover his wife's treatment."
A classic villain backstory, Mary Jane nodded, and then Peter hesitantly expressed his idea.
"I know this sounds difficult, but perhaps the interview draft you submit could say something different, like..."
Mary Jane sighed.
"You want me to give up my interview with J. Jonah Jameson and submit the report related to Rhino instead. Or submit it after I get the internship."
Peter said nothing more, just nodded.
This was undoubtedly a very risky move, because even if she got the Daily Bugle internship, as an insignificant intern, Mary Jane was unlikely to get the Daily Bugle to adopt this report, and it might even affect her internship career.
Mary Jane didn't object directly but asked Peter a question.
"Why do you want to help Rhino?"
"Because... I thought this might help him, so I did it."
Mary Jane looked at Peter for a moment, then took out her phone: "Let's exchange contact info. You can send the photos to my email later. Maybe J. Jonah Jameson will find this report very reasonable after seeing your photos."
Peter sighed in relief and smiled: "Thank you, Mary Jane."
"Just call me MJ, like my friends do." Mary Jane, who had finished adding his contact, pointed at Peter with her phone: "Also, don't forget, you left yesterday without finishing your meal."
"Next time, it's on me," Peter said with a smile and a wave, then frowned as he looked into the distance. He saw Gwen peeking out, then sighed as if understanding something, looking at Mary Jane's newly added contact on his phone, and shaking his head helplessly.
Never mind, first, he had to go to Ryker's Island to see what was really going on.
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