Chapter 286: Chapter 285: Stark Road

Chapter 285: Stark Road

3^rd March 2013, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

Choosing to change the subject, he spoke up, “So, what are you doing in Queens?”

I shrugged, “Just walking around. I’ve been dealing with a few things in the last few months, and I wanted to clear my head.”

An idea popped in my head. There’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a few weeks. I was going to do it in a few days, but with the kid there, there’s no reason not to do it now.

I decide to speak up, “You know what, Peter, why don’t we do something fun?”

The spider themed hero sounded confused, “Like what?”

“Well, I was planning on speaking with Tony Stark about something. I was going to do it in a few days, but since you’re here I might as well ask you to come with me.”

The kid was jumping up and down, “Are you asking what I think you’re asking?”

“Yeah, kid. Do you want to come with me and see Tony Stark right now?”

The kid actually ran towards me and hugged me in gratitude.

It took a few minutes for Peter to hide in a deserted alley and change his clothing. Finally, he returned wearing Jeans, a geeky t-shirt underneath a hooded jacket. I raised an eyebrow at his attire, and he looked at me indignantly, “Look, I wasn’t prepared to go see Tony Stark of all people today.”

I shrugged, “It’s your call.”

“I still don’t understand why I can’t go see him in my spider suit.” Peter grumbled.

I snorted, “Kid, we are not going to walk into Avengers tower wearing masks.”

“Fine,” he relented.

It was impressive seeing the kid act this way even with the darkness that he witnesses every night. There are many reasons that experienced police officers, especially in a city with a high crime rate, are often serious and stoic. Seeing so much crime, violence, and death would change anyone. People often choose to ignore the existence of humanity’s dark side. It is uncomfortable for people to think how monstrous people can be and the kid voluntarily goes every night to fight that darkness. I would applaud him, if I wasn’t afraid that he would lose his innocence, his belief in justice, and his faith in humanity. Outside of him getting physically hurt, this has to be one of my biggest fears for him.

I had to hand it to the kid, he was a strong person for not having been affected badly by his nightly activities. Even if I knew that he wasn’t completely unaffected. He didn’t show it, but anyone with a drop of empathy would be horrified at what happens in New York at night, and Peter Parker had empathy in spades.

Truthfully, I didn’t know why I cared so much about the kid. Sure, he helped me out of a sticky situation, but I paid him back with a protective suit worth billions of dollars, stopped his aunt from overworking herself by faking Ben Parker’s life insurance, and I made him the media’s darling instead of being labelled a menace by J. Jonah Jameson. So, why do I still care about him? I owed him nothing. He only saved me some trouble, which I could have dealt with myself without too many issues.

The two of us walked side by side towards the infamous Avengers tower. Deciding to break the silence, I spoke up, “So, Peter, how have things been during your patrols.”

The teenager looked around wildly, trying to find any observers, “We’re in public.”

“Don’t worry, kiddo, I’m using my powers to make our conversation seem uninteresting for any potential listener. Your secret’s safe So, tell me, how have you been?”

The Kid relaxed slightly, “Things have been a bit hectic to be honest. With the SHIELD implosion, all their forceful recruits were released and a lot of them are staying in the city for some reason.”

I snorted, “It’s not difficult to figure this out. They’re staying because of money. From what I know, the Kingpin has been hiring all enhanced people he could get his hands on.”

“Kingpin…” the kid pondered, “I’ve heard that name before.”

I snorted, “You really need a better information network, Peter. The Kingpin is the biggest crime lord in the city. He controls most of the crimes that happen in the city. He’s a greedy and horrible man, but I will say that he’s also very cunning and extremely ruthless. He’s been in charge for a while. You’ll need to be very careful if you’re planning to tussle with him.”

The teenaged hero looked at me incredulously, “What do you mean ‘If I’m planning to tussle with him’? I’m not going to let someone poison my city.”

I shrugged, “He probably bit more that he could chew by hiring too many technologically enhanced criminals, which is why things are so bad right now. He probably still needs to rein them in. He usually has better control over the criminal underworld. But even then, he’s your best bet at stabilizing the criminal elements in the city. Taking him out would create a vacuum and inevitably lead to a war between all the gangs that would want to take over, which would cause a lot of innocent deaths with it. The Kingpin is intelligent in the way that he made himself indispensable to the stability of the underworld. You need to be more careful before you decide to commit in going against someone this connected.”

Peter shook his head, “He caused the deaths of so many people.”

 I nodded, “He probably killed a great deal of innocent and guilty people. He’s not a good man, not even close. The best way I could describe him is a corrupt businessman that rules the underworld as if it was a company. It’s the way he thinks. Instead of firing people, he kills them. Instead of dealing with potential rivals, he either takes over their network or kills them as well. He is very efficient and without a doubt a psychopath. If you want to remove him from power, you’ll need someone to take over, to be just as ruthless over his underlings so that they would obey him, and slowly lower the city’s crime rate this way. It will take years for that to happen so don’t rush blindly to deal with him.”

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The spider themed hero reluctantly nodded and asked, “Does he have the facilities to build suits like the Rhino or Shocker?”

“Of course not. He’s a crime lord not an engineer. No, he gets his armor from Oscorp.”

“WHAT?” the kid exclaimed.

I shrugged, “Well, the armor is based on Chitauri tech, which is very dangerous since the cores can be activated through certain radiation frequencies and explode. But well, the only people studying Chitauri tech are Stark Industries and Oscorp. The tech is very dangerous and only reputed corporations were granted access to it. Stark got it because of his influence as an Avenger, and Oscorp got it because of their new contract with the military after Stark Industries pulled out and the Hammer Fiasco. For some reason, I can’t see Tony Stark giving weapons to mob bosses, so by elimination it has be Oscorp.”

Peter was shaken by my arguments, “Can’t other people have scavenged the tech?”

I shrugged, “The facilities needed to study the tech are very expensive. Very few corporations have the capital and research power to study them without blowing things up. I’d say if it was a few years down the line, a private citizen could weaponize them, but it hasn’t even been a full year since the invasion, so I’m only left with Oscorp.”

“But why would a multibillion-dollar company sell weapons to criminals?”

“My guess would be that they only sold the prototypes. This way, they don’t need to be tested and any failure wouldn’t make the company look bad. At least, I think it started this way with Rhino and Scorpion. With the rising number of criminals with second rate tech like the Kangaroo, whose main power is to jump very high, I think that Osborn decided to sell weapons that are too ‘weak’ to be sold to the military to the Kingpin. This way he makes a profit as long as it’s functional. It’s logically the smart thing to do from a financial perspective. The criminals think that it's the Kingpin that gives them the suits, and the crime lord is discreet enough to not trace anything back to Osborn.”

Peter protested, “I know Dr. Osborn, he wouldn’t do something like this.”

I let out an amused chuckle, “He’s a businessman competing with Tony Stark in the tech industry. He would do a lot worse than that. But it’s not like you can arrest him either. He’s used to people trying to sue him to the ground and knows how to cover all paper trails from his operations. Outside of a public confession, even if you find something, it’ll be thrown out by his army of ivy league lawyers.”

“But you can do it, can’t you?”

I shrugged, “I probably could, if I put my mind to it, that is. But I’m dealing with a lot of more sensitive problems, than a mob boss and a corrupt businessman. I handle very different and far more dangerous problems. Look, kid, you’re not ready to take on something like this. This isn’t going to be your regular catching a robber and leaving a funny note for the cops. You need to understand the consequences of going after people this high up the ladder. Kingpin is probably going to go after you in a while, but Osborn probably loves you. You always reveal the vulnerabilities in his machines when you fight them, and with you destroying them, you keep the demand for his tech going.”

“So, why is Kingpin buying so many suits? They have to be expensive as hell.”

I shrugged, “It’s to manage the loss of his mutant lieutenants. For the last few years, the number of biologically enhanced people – be it through mutations or accidents – have dropped. The criminals disappeared, the innocent ones did as well. This phenomenon has been occurring all around the globe and every single spy agency has been trying to find out what’s happening. SHIELD was the last organization that had any pull with the enhanced and with its fall, the enhanced have disappeared as well. Unfortunately, the technologically enhanced remained, which is why Kingpin wants to fill the void of his lieutenants with them. He relied on his old crew to maintain a balance of fear and respect throughout the city and with their disappearance, he was vulnerable.”

“So, what happened to the mutants?”

I gave him a cheeky grin, “I have no idea.”

Outraged, Peter asked, “You’re lying.”

“Maybe I am, and maybe I’m not. Who knows?”

The spider themed hero huffed and grumbled, “Fine. But there’s something still bugging me. It’s not about the Kingpin or anything. It’s about the first time we met. When Fury tried to arrest you, why didn’t the Avengers tell him that you were the Morrigan. Didn’t they know that you were still alive?”

“Don’t worry, I told them. I asked them not to tell anyone, but I called them afterwards and they had called Fury warning him that going after me was a mistake. He didn’t listen. I dislike the foolishness of stubborn fools in desperate positions.”

Peter gave me a curious look, “Have you spoken to any of them after the invasion?”

“Yes, but not really. It was mostly business not social calls. Stark tracked me down a bit after we left, and we let each other know what we’re doing so that we don’t step on anyone’s toes. Truthfully, we’re not all that close, outside of Thor that is.”

“What about Thor?”

I gave him a cheeky grin, “He’s staying at my place.”

The teenager choked on his own spit and I could tell that he wanted to ask a thousand questions at once. However, I didn’t let him do it, “Would you look at that, we’ve arrived.”

And I was correct, we had just arrived at the tallest building in the city. The kid must have been distracted by our conversation. Well, I wonder how Tony will react when I arrive at his tower unannounced. This was going to be fun…

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