Chapter 20: The Unseen Spider-Man
Following the new, proactive mission statement, the team began to investigate a series of scientific anomalies that Adam had found through his relentless research and meta-knowledge. The anomalies were all centered in a single, unassuming borough of New York City: Queens.
"Queens," Luis said, looking at the glowing map on the screen. "That's a lot of pizza places and people who yell at you to get off their lawn. Are we sure we're not just looking for a really bad landlord?"
"Trust me," Adam said, a strange mix of excitement and dread coiling in his stomach. "This isn't about landlords. This is about… a new player. A game-changer."
They spent the next few days in Queens, a covert team of detectives operating under the guise of an extermination service. Adam's new Crossbones Gu gave him an enhanced awareness of his surroundings, a sixth sense for danger and tactical weaknesses. He could feel the energy in the city, the subtle hum of something new, something powerful.
They finally tracked the source of the anomalies to a small, cluttered apartment building. The energy readings were off the charts, and Adam's system was going haywire with a new notification.
"This is it," he whispered, his heart pounding in his chest. "This is the source."
The team set up a surveillance post across the street, a beat-up van that was a masterclass in covert operations. They used binoculars, small drones, and a few of Skye's more subtle hacking tools to observe the apartment. And that's when they saw him.
A young, skinny teenager with messy brown hair and a pair of thick glasses. He was wearing a shirt with a periodic table on it, and he was hunched over a workbench, meticulously working on some kind of high-tech gadget.
"This is our guy?" Frank asked, a look of profound disappointment on his face. "He looks like he'd get beat up for his lunch money."
"He looks like a walking encyclopedia of comic book tropes," Luis added, his Clarity Gu offering up a detailed analysis of the kid's fashion choices and posture. "He's the human version of a comic book store. I mean, look at him. He's got the nerdy shirt, the awkward posture… all he's missing is a bucket of popcorn and a self-deprecating monologue."
Adam, however, wasn't laughing. He was staring at the kid, his mind racing. He knew this kid. He knew him from the comics, from the movies, from the endless pop culture references he'd grown up with. This was Peter Parker. The future Spider-Man.
"My whole life, I've been living in a world of characters. Now, here's one of them, right in front of me. The kid who gets bit by a radioactive spider. The kid who loses his uncle because of a mistake. The kid who becomes a hero. And I have to decide if I want to be a part of that story, or if I want to let him write his own."
Adam's internal conflict was a raging war. His system was screaming at him to intervene, to recruit the kid, to get his hands on some of that sweet Spider-Gu. But a deeper, more human part of him, the part that remembered the pain of Uncle Ben's death and the burden of Peter's secret, told him to back off.
"Alright, team," Adam said, his voice quiet. "We're pulling back. We've got what we came for."
The others looked at him, confused. "But we just found the guy," Frank said. "We're not gonna... grab him?"
"No," Adam said, his voice firm. "We're not. He's not a threat. Not yet. He's just a kid. We're going to give him some space. We're going to let him grow up a little."
He wasn't lying to them entirely. He was, in a way, giving Peter the chance to become the hero he was meant to be. But he also knew he couldn't leave him completely alone.
[Side Mission complete! Investigate the scientific anomalies in Queens. Reward: 15 Coins.][New Character Discovered: Peter Parker. Gu available for cultivation: Spider-Sense Gu (Rank 4), Wall-Crawler Gu (Rank 3), Web-Shooter Gu (Rank 2).Main Mission: Protect Peter Parker from the shadows. Reward: ???]
"Skye," Adam said, turning to her. "I need you to put a passive monitoring system on his phone. Nothing invasive. Just enough to let us know if he gets into trouble. If a bad guy shows up, we'll be there."
"You want me to become a creepy stalker?" she asked, a smirk on her face.
"I want you to be a guardian angel," he corrected. "A silent, nerdy guardian angel."
Scott, using his Growing Gu, created a small, temporary forcefield that, to an outsider, would just look like a shimmering light for a split second, protecting Peter from a falling flowerpot that had been dislodged by a gust of wind. The kid didn't even notice.
Adam looked at the kid, a silent promise forming in his mind. He wasn't going to interfere with the timeline. But he was going to make sure that the timeline didn't break a good kid.
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