Chapter 686
Powerful Hands Everywhere
Chapter 686 Powerful Hands Everywhere
Why do you want to clean the room?
If we think about the Hand's actions in this way, we can understand why they are so suspicious. Their control of drugs and crackdown on gangs are not because they are planning any earth-shattering conspiracy, or rather, they are not directly related to any earth-shattering conspiracy.
Using the analogy of cleaning a room, previously Peter and the Defenders reasoned that the Hand cleaned their rooms to make room for their belongings. Now, the Hand might clean their rooms simply because they are dirty.
"It seems like you've thought of something?"
"The Hand's goal is to summon something like, well, a demon or a god, that has the power to corrupt people, so the Hand needs to create a suitable environment for it—in other words, the better the environment in New York, the more comfortable it will be to corrupt..."
Peter himself found it a bit hard to believe, and this possibility existed, but it wasn't much different from his previous guesses. Thinking this, Peter suddenly felt a sense of relief. Although Felicia's humorous explanation was a bit hard to believe, it was precisely this hardship that made Peter breathe a sigh of relief.
Since the reasons given for this are so ridiculous, why bother paying attention to these anomalies? In fact, these anomalies might even be a smokescreen. Therefore, the correct approach is to set aside these doubts for now. Instead of dwelling on the Hand's motives, it would be better to arrest the Hand's top brass directly.
"So, what are your thoughts on where the Hand Society is located?"
"No, where do they usually hang out?"
"It used to be Hell's Kitchen, but now their cleanup area is getting bigger and bigger. Apart from some of Kingpin's old subordinates who are hiding in Fisk Corporation and have cleaned up their act, basically none of the rest survived, or they all escaped. We were wondering before why they started with Hell's Kitchen, but now it seems..."
Maybe they're just cleaning the most troublesome places first.
"If that's the case, now that Hell's Kitchen is mostly taken care of, they should head to Harlem, right?"
Indeed, apart from Hell's Kitchen, Harlem, as the most concentrated black neighborhood in Manhattan, should be the place most severely cleaned up. Peter agreed with this view and immediately prepared to leave. Felicia stood up and asked him a question with some curiosity.
Do you know which gangs are in Harlem?
"Well, I really don't know, but I guess someone does."
Meanwhile, at Avengers Tower, in the mansion prison.
Although Pym destroyed Ultron's program, the Ultron robot's materials were preserved and put into operation by the safer Jarvis, who was in charge of the prison's security system. One day, Herman Schultz, who was reading in the prison, saw an Ultron robot approach him, and Spider-Man's voice came from its body.
"Hey, Herman, how have you been lately?"
“Not bad, Spider-Man. To be honest, prison might be a good place for me. I have food and clothes, I don’t have to worry about rent, and I can study in peace without getting killed by the local gang just because I want to be a studious person…” Herman said, probably guessing that Spider-Man had something to talk to him about: “What’s wrong? You have time to come here and chat.”
"Of course not. Do you have any gang members in Harlem? Preferably those who have a source of enhancement agents?"
Herman instantly became alert: "You're not planning to make me tell you about those people, are you? I have to warn you, if they find out, my mom and brother..."
The Ultron robot projected a series of headshots in front of him, some of whom Herman recognized. "Of course I know you have your reasons, otherwise I wouldn't have waited until now to come to you. Listen, a group of guys calling themselves the Hand have entered New York and are wreaking havoc on the existing gangs, especially drug dealers. They've basically wiped out Hell's Kitchen without a sound, and next they'll probably be the people from Harlem."
“Listen, of course I don’t like these gangsters, okay? But the Hand is even worse. They don’t kill people to maintain order. I need your help to tell me who their next target might be.”
Looking at those headshots, Herman remained silent for a long time. He had no liking for the gangsters in Harlem. He often thought that if he had a better background, he probably wouldn't have encountered such trouble. But after a while, he sighed.
"Okay, but I'm not very familiar with them either. I can tell you some of the more hidden, uh, locations where they trade enhancement agents and one or two of the top leaders who are still alive. But who their boss is, I don't know."
"Thank you, Herman."
After receiving the answer, Peter hung up the phone and looked at Felicia: "I have some things to take care of, so..."
"Which female warrior are you planning to call upon to help you fight those immortal ninjas?"
"...No, I didn't plan to invite anyone."
"Since I'm bored anyway, shall I keep you company?"
Peter looked at Felicia with some hesitation, but she shrugged and then jumped off the building. Peter breathed a sigh of relief and watched Felicia leave.
Oh, she ran towards Harlem.
"I actually expected that Black Cat's personality would be much better in the timeline where she wasn't a villain. It seems I was overthinking it."
Peter sighed helplessly and then leaped into the air, immediately heading towards Harlem. He quickly caught up with Black Cat and asked, puzzled, "Why did you get involved in this?"
"It depends on whether you want to hear the truth or a lie."
"True?"
“I don’t want my dance partner to suddenly run away halfway through the dance, that would be so embarrassing,” Felicia said, a reply that Peter probably wasn’t telling the truth. Peter continued to follow, swinging on his spider web. The two soon arrived near a location Herman had mentioned, but Felicia couldn’t help but sigh after looking around.
"It seems your intelligence is a bit outdated."
"Yes, absolutely."
The reason for this is not because Peter and Felicia saw the body, but because they saw Wolverine Logan and Kitty Phantom Cat walk into a building next door.
(End of this chapter)