Spider-Man’s Big Adventure (Part 2)

Peter’s operation against Bullseye did not go smoothly. The first problem he encountered was that he could not find Bullseye.

The reality was that Hell’s Kitchen had a large transient population. Even as Spider-Man, there was no way he could check the records of everyone in all of Hell’s Kitchen in such a short time.

Just as Elektra had said, Bullseye was extremely cunning. He knew he had many enemies, so his movements followed no pattern. Peter had just spotted him outside a nightclub, only for him to disappear the next day. With so many buildings and gangs in Hell’s Kitchen, finding Bullseye’s hideout was indeed difficult for Peter.

Only then did Peter understand just how much effort Matt must have put in to always hit the mark when taking down Kingpin’s operations.

Peter felt a little frustrated. Before this, when he often came through Hell’s Kitchen, he had occasionally dealt with robbers or thieves around the edges of the district, and had even beaten up a couple of armed drug dealers.

But organized crime and scattered thugs were completely different things. Some gangs were hard to deal with, and some criminal organizations were hard to eradicate, precisely because their local influence ran deep and tangled. Everyone was their eyes, which made Peter’s investigation much more difficult. Clearly, Bullseye had already grown wary.

But Peter would not give up.

He was smart, and he realized where his strengths lay. After getting nowhere by running around Hell’s Kitchen like a headless fly, Peter began seeking help from modern technology.

One afternoon, Schiller watched Peter slam a huge box onto the table with a bang.

When he opened it, there was a strangely shaped computer inside. The computer was integrated into the box, its keyboard looked odd, and it had no mouse. It was also connected to a pile of complicated wires and antennas.

Peter kept tinkering with it as blue light from the screen reflected off his face. Pikachu stood nearby watching and said, "You want to search mobile phone signals? Wiretap communications throughout Hell’s Kitchen?"

"That’s right. People here definitely don’t have much awareness of network or signal encryption. I picked up a bunch of junk from one of my classmates’ dads and put it together. It isn’t very responsive, but it’ll do."

"But there are so many phone and network signals. Even if you intercept and crack all of them, wouldn’t you still have to sort through them one by one to find out which one belongs to Bullseye?"

"That’s what I’m doing right now. I’ve already tested the signal monitoring, and it’s not difficult. I’m writing a program to intelligently filter the communications."

Schiller folded his arms beside them and looked at the two of them. "So when exactly did you two plan this together?"

Pikachu held a jar of peanut butter, eating from it as Pikachu said, "Don’t forget, I’m a detective. This kid hired me."

"That’s right. I need help. I need someone holding down the fort and watching the backend for me."

"I really appreciate that you’d rather choose a rat than me," Schiller said.

"Oh, don’t misunderstand, Doctor." Peter said a little sheepishly. "I just don’t think this kind of thing is serious enough to trouble you. I planned to do it myself. Otherwise, why would I assemble this computer on my own? Stark Tower has every kind of advanced computer. Forget monitoring Hell’s Kitchen—even monitoring all of Manhattan wouldn’t be a problem."

Peter rapidly typed on the keyboard as he spoke seriously. "I’ve realized that I really can’t rely too much on other people. When I listened to Matt talk about his experiences fighting criminals, I thought it was no big deal. Wasn’t it just beating people up? How hard could it be?"

"But when I actually tried it myself, I found that it really was difficult. The hard part wasn’t cutting a single wire, but sorting through a tangled mess, then accurately finding the one wire that could kill you."

Schiller applauded him. "Has anyone told you? You’re genuinely talented."

Peter seemed born to be a superhero. He was strong, kind, and more importantly, he had a quickness of mind that most people lacked.

Soon, the blue screen flashed. Peter’s fingers stopped, and he said, "Done. Now I need to wait a few hours. As long as he sends any signal related to his identity during that time, I’ll be able to catch his trail."

"And what are you going to do after that? Charge straight in?" Pikachu asked.

"No, no, no." Peter shook his head.

"Captain told me a lot about tactics before. I didn’t really take them in at the time, but now that I actually need them, I thought back on them and realized a lot of it might help."

As he spoke, Peter pulled a map from his backpack. After unfolding it, he pointed to one part of it. "Look here. This is Hell’s Kitchen. See the lines I drew?"

"Earlier, I found a map from when New York’s sewers were first built at an old newsstand. I copied the Hell’s Kitchen section onto this map."

"You can see that the sewers lead to most of Hell’s Kitchen’s major buildings, and the exits are distributed very evenly. From Point A at the southernmost end to Point B at the northernmost end, the distances between every manhole cover along the way are almost identical, forming an even ring."

"This is a natural attack route. I just need to enter here—see? This red dot I marked. If I go in from here, at my running speed, I can reach the buildings near the very center of Hell’s Kitchen in under five minutes. The second ring takes about ten minutes, and even the outermost buildings take less than fifteen minutes…"

"As long as I catch the signal, I can be in the building where Bullseye is in fifteen minutes at most."

Pikachu said, "I guess he won’t pick the nearest or farthest ring. Like us, he’ll probably be in the middle section of Hell’s Kitchen."

"That’s what I think too. The very center is all Kingpin’s territory, but Bullseye knows he’ll definitely be watched there. He must have another base of his own on the outskirts."

"Catching him there will be much easier than sneaking into a place full of Kingpin’s thugs."

Peter really was gifted with computers. It did not take several hours at all. Less than twenty minutes later, the screen suddenly lit up again. Peter hurriedly began typing, then stopped to take a look. He sprang up, grabbed his backpack, and ran outside, shouting as he pushed open the door, "Keep watching it for me! If anything happens, call me on the radio!"

Pikachu gave him a reassuring gesture.

Peter jumped into the nearest sewer entrance. Just as he had expected, New York’s sewers extended in every direction. Following the map as he ran, he was actually several minutes faster than he had predicted.

When Peter pushed open a manhole cover and climbed out, he found himself on a street in southern Hell’s Kitchen. Schiller’s psychiatric clinic was far to the north, and Matt’s apartment was several blocks away as well.

Bullseye had chosen the location well. The signal had come from a scrapyard, a godforsaken place that few people usually visited.

But the place was practically perfect for Peter. The scrapyard’s uneven terrain, all kinds of garbage he could stick to webs and swing as weapons, and several garbage trucks he could use as cover against thrown weapons…

Peter did not understand much about terrain tactics, but instinctively, he felt that this would be a very convenient place for a fight.

He silently slipped in along the edge of the scrapyard. As he focused, his Spider-Sense became sharper as well. Peter could even vaguely picture a three-dimensional map of the area within several meters of him.

At a two-story building behind the scrapyard, Peter clung to the wall and climbed to the roof in a few quick moves. Then he hung from a web, lowered himself upside down, and peered through the window.

Bullseye was indeed inside, smoking and talking to one of his men. Peter’s nose twitched as he caught the stench of marijuana. Looking at the smoke-filled room, he reeled in his web and took out a red-and-blue suit from his backpack, muttering, "I forgot to ask Mr. Stark to add a gas mask. Damn Hell’s Kitchen."

After putting on the Spider-Man suit, Peter did not hesitate. He grabbed his web, swung forward, and crashed straight through the window.

Bullseye’s man closest to the window did not even have time to turn around before Peter kicked him unconscious. Bullseye threw away his cigarette, cursed, and blocked Peter’s punch with his arm.

If Peter had been an ordinary person, Bullseye’s move would have made for an effective defense. But the strength brought by Spider Mutation, even if it had not been fully developed yet, was not something an ordinary person could withstand.

After taking Peter’s punch, Bullseye was sent flying.

But he truly deserved his reputation as a master acrobat. He twisted his waist in midair, rolled, and somehow landed steadily.

He sprinted toward the back door, with Peter following close behind. But the stink in the room and the lingering smoke dulled his senses. By the time the back door opened with a click, Peter chased outside and was met head-on by three darts.

Peter did not dare take them head-on, so he rolled aside as well. Then he fired a web and swung directly off the wall beside the back door, landing in the scrapyard. Bullseye was standing atop a small mountain of trash.

"Ha! Where did this clueless kid come from? You think wearing a weird costume means you can come to Hell’s Kitchen and make trouble?"

Peter ignored him completely and kicked at him the instant he landed.

When Steve had taught Peter tactics before, Schiller had been there too. He had told Peter a very effective tactic: villains always died from talking too much. The moment the other side opened their mouth, decisively throw a punch. Once they were down, there would be plenty of time to talk. Why bother with chivalry when dealing with villains?

The tactic was obviously incredibly effective. Before Bullseye had even finished speaking, he had to hurriedly roll aside to dodge.

Peter resisted the urge to talk back and launched straight into a flurry of punches. Bullseye was struggling too. He discovered that this kid across from him was absurdly strong. Even getting grazed hurt badly. When he punched Spider-Man, Spider-Man merely swayed a little. When Spider-Man punched him, he went flying.

If Bullseye had not possessed such excellent balance and flexibility, letting him land steadily every time, he would have been caught and beaten flat long ago.

Seeing that things were going badly, Bullseye scattered a handful of darts. While Spider-Man twisted aside to evade them, Bullseye pulled a small round ball from his pocket and smashed it onto the ground. After a faint hiss, smoke spread everywhere.

This was not a Smoke Bomb meant to block vision, but a miniature tear gas grenade. An extremely irritating odor nearly suffocated Peter instantly. He covered his nose and mouth, coughing violently twice. When he came to his senses again, Bullseye was gone.