Then he suddenly remembered that Spider-Man Miles he knew almost always wore his costume and rarely took off his mask. Peter had seen Miles' real face only once or twice, and he looked very young.
This Miles didn't look young at all, appearing about the same age as him, and he lacked the energetic aura of Spider-Man, seeming a bit timid and apprehensive instead.
Peter's street fighting experience was ultimately not as rich as Matt's. Matt, having heard the footsteps and seen Miles' posture with his heart's eye, stepped forward and directly grabbed Miles by the back of his collar.
Miles immediately began shouting, but he didn't dare to struggle much, just kept on saying, "I didn't do anything, I'm just here to run an errand."
"Where is Parker Robbins?" Matt walked into the room, dragging Miles, and said, "See who's in front of you?"
Looking up with a hunched posture, Miles saw Kingpin's face, marked with a mass of rough flesh.
"Kingpin?!!!!!!!"
With a scream, Miles turned to run, but Kingpin reached out and pulled him back, saying, "Since you recognize me, you must be from the streets too. We're looking for this kid named Robbins. Tell us where he is, and you can go."
"I can't, I can't do it, he told me not to say, and I don't know."
"Calm down for a moment." Peter said, "We don't want to interrogate you like a criminal, but Robbins has made a serious mistake. He's kidnapped a very important technician from the Stella Core Space Station; that could potentially cause problems with the space station. Surely you don't want the space station to fall down, do you?"
Peter was betting that Miles was not inherently bad, just that his birth and life circumstances made him, like most kids here, commit petty thefts, but he was certainly not a born villain.
Upon hearing this, Miles' face turned pale as he trembled and stammered, "No no... it can't be that serious, the space station falling down, oh God, what has he done?"
"Tell us in detail what happened." Shiller steadied one of Miles' shoulders, which seemed to bring him a bit of comfort.
Miles sniffed and said, "I met the Parker brothers before in the streets, I helped them keep watch once, and they gave me some money. But we live a bit far, so we don't normally interact with each other."
"A while back he came to me, told me about his mother in a vegetative state, and needed someone to regularly check on her so that the nurses won't slack. He said he had already arranged it with the hospital reception, and that I could use his name for the visits. I thought he was rather pitiable, so I helped out."
"But about two nights ago he suddenly gave me a sum of money as thanks, I didn't know where that money came from, I dared not take it, but he said he would soon make a big deal, and since I was in need of cash, I continued with it."
"Then why are you so scared?" Matt realized something was amiss and said, "You're not afraid of robbing or stealing, but taking money to look after a patient frightens you?"
"You don't understand." Miles raised his voice in complaint, "He's weird, and he has a gun too. I didn't want to do it after realizing something was wrong, but he threatened me, and I had to come over."
"I'm afraid he anticipated that someone would track him down and sent you to take the fall." Kingpin smirked coldly, saying, "If it were my dim-witted subordinates handling this case, they wouldn't care what you say about not being Parker Robbins, they'd just throw you into the crocodile pit."
Miles was clearly petrified, trembling and not daring to say anything, but Peter felt he was not a cowardly person; he shouldn't be in this state even facing Kingpin.
"You said Robbins was acting weird, what exactly do you mean by that?" Peter pressed.
"He can suddenly disappear! And even after he vanishes, his voice still rings beside me." Miles seemed truly distraught as he said, "Parker might have become a ghost, he might already be dead!"
Now Peter understood, Miles wasn't afraid of the threat, he was afraid of ghosts.
"This is going to be difficult." Kingpin said mockingly, "This kid has messed with my people, and you're his accomplice. Looks like I'll have no choice but to let you meet my little pets."
Kingpin had a notorious reputation in Brooklyn, with persistent rumors on the streets that he liked to feed his enemies to the dogs. Miles finally snapped out of his previous terror, realizing that he had to prioritize his own survival.
"Don't do that, boss, I haven't done anything wrong, I really had no choice." he pleaded.
"But you cooperated to cause me a loss. Do you think you can just muddle through like that? Do you think that's possible?"
Miles mumbled without speaking, and Kingpin snorted and tapped his foot, saying, "How about this, you find a way to contact him, tell him there's a problem with his mother, and ask him to come over."
"But Mrs. Robbins has been in this state for a long time now, I told him before that her vital signs were stable, he might not believe it."
"This kid obviously isn't a traditional criminal," Shiller commented, "He's got some new ideas in this area, and he won't fall for such an obvious trick."
"I just want him to know that we've got his mother and if he doesn't want any trouble, he better come over obediently." Kingpin spoke with the air of a major villain.
Shiller shook his head and said, "Don't forget he also has a hostage. It's very likely he kidnapped Beck, and in a situation where both parties have hostages, this could turn into a lengthy standoff."
"What do you plan to do, Doctor?" Peter looked at Shiller and asked.
"More important than why he went to find Beck, is why he came to you," Shiller also looked at Peter and said, "If he knew about Beck being a valuable researcher through that list, and knew you're a genius scientist through the news, do you think your worth is less than Beck's?"
"That would mean Robbins's motive wasn't for money, because Beck isn't doing well, but you're on the rise. Beck's superpower is known to all, but not many know that you're Spider-Man. If his aim was to kidnap important scientists for ransom, then you'd be the better target."
"So what's the 'big business' he mentioned?"
"I'm afraid it still has to do with the space station," Shiller guessed. "The only difference between you and Beck is that you have no connection to the space station project, but he's about to work there."
"Then why did he find Beck and then come to me?"
"We'll have to ask Beck," Shiller said with narrowed eyes. "Perhaps he was kidnapped at first, but now we can't simply view him as a hostage. His emotions are unstable, and he might do anything when he loses control."
"Are you suggesting the two of them are working together?"
"Do you think the invisible man you fought with wanted to kill you?" Shiller asked.
Peter shook his head; though his experience with street fights was not extensive, he could sense something strange. "He didn't strike to kill, as if something was holding him back. He seemed more like he wanted to take me away."
"Do you think he could understand you?"
"Who? Robbins? Impossible, my information is confidential. Regular people couldn't possibly know what I'm actually doing."
"What about someone who's in the know? To be precise, Mr. Beck?"
Peter hesitated unusually, "It's hard to deceive someone who's been technically involved for a long time. I've had several interactions with him at the Lunar Base, and although they weren't pleasant, he knows roughly what I'm doing."
Matt understood as well, "I see now. Perhaps Robbins initially kidnapped Beck, but after seeing his magic powers, Beck wanted to use Robbins to teach Peter a lesson."
"To cooperate with Beck, Robbins decided to do him this favor, which led to Robbins approaching Peter."
"Beck's aim might have been just to teach Peter a lesson, but not necessarily Robbins's. He probably wanted to target the space station, so he met Beck's demands as much as possible, because it was essential to win him over as he was about to board the space station as the technical supervisor."
"The problem now is how we find these two people," Kingpin said. "Once we find them, everything will be resolved."
"Invisibility is indeed troublesome," Eddie said. "He could walk right past us, and we wouldn't see him."
"No, we can see the flow of invisibility magic, though it's still not very clear. We'd definitely see him if he appeared."
"Getting him to bite is easy," Shiller said with a smile. "Invisibility is his strength and his weakness. If you had an invisibility cloak and there was a place that everyone called impossible to infiltrate, wouldn't you want to try?"
"I certainly wouldn't," Matt said. "But those teenagers definitely would. They love to challenge themselves."
"I guess that's the kind of person Robbins is too: rebellious, impulsive, considering all rules and doctrines as evil, constantly trying to prove his uniqueness."
Shiller turned to look out the window and said, "Just create a problem that ordinary people can't solve, and if he happens to have an edge in that area, he will naturally see it as an opportunity to prove himself, and get involved immediately."
"To get him interested in the problem, there also needs to be some positive motivation. He failed to deal with you the first time and probably lost face in front of Beck. Now, he's even more eager to strike at you, to show Beck how powerful he is."
"Based on his level of understanding, he can't possibly know the specific power hierarchy of this world, but his smooth sailing in the Brooklyn Area made him think his invisibility would allow him to move undetected anywhere."
"So no matter where you go, as long as he can get the general details, he will try to meddle with you."
Peter seemed to understand a bit, "So it seems I should be attending a top-secret experiment organized by S.H.I.E.L.D., staying in an impregnable experimental base for a year and a half."
"Of course, absolutely impregnable, with no chance of being breached," Shiller said with a smile. "And very remote and mysterious, the kind of place you hear about only in extremely terrifying experimental plans."
"Where is that?" Eddie asked, somewhat perplexed. "The deep sea? The Moon? The Andromeda Galaxy?"
"No, of course it's... the Himalayas."