PFC Chapter 3900 The Nameless Bat (7)
Chapter 3900 The Nameless Bat (7)
Chapter 3900 The Nameless Bat (Seventy)
A taxi with its lights flashing weaved through the streets and alleys, finally stopping in front of a fast-food restaurant. A figure in a blue hoodie jumped out of the car and sprinted into the restaurant as the clock struck six.
"Sorry! Sorry! I'm late!" the young man in the hoodie kept apologizing. The chubby shop owner waved his hand, pressed the back of his head, and shoved him into the kitchen, then said, "Hurry up, little Parker. If we weren't so short-staffed lately, I wouldn't have called you here! Get to work!"
“Okay, boss!” he replied, “But, um, I didn’t have dinner…”
"Then make yourself a hot dog! Stop asking me everything!"
With a bang, the kitchen door slammed shut. The young man shook his head and said, "Alright, time to get to work. You're just like SpongeBob, aren't you?"
After saying that, he hummed a little tune, took a hot dog bun from the shelf next to him, fried a sausage inside, added plenty of ketchup and mustard, and stuffed in a bunch of pickles. He took a bite and let out a satisfied sigh.
"Hey! A double beef and cheeseburger combo! For our beloved Spider-Man!" The cashier laughed. The young man looked out the food counter and saw a muscular figure in a tight-fitting suit paying at the counter.
"Peter! It's me!" The figure ran to the food counter, poked his head in, and said, "I know you work here, so I came especially for you! Beef burger with extra cheese!"
"Don't worry." The young man called Peter gave him an "OK" sign, gathered the chopped beef sauce into a ball, and then flattened it with a spatula on the hot plate. A sizzling sound and a delicious aroma wafted out.
The radio next to me was turned on, and the host's slightly excited voice came through: "The referendum results for the new city name are in! 'Goyork' has won by a landslide! This name combines Gotham and New York, and also conveys the meaning of striving upwards and moving forward with all our might. It can be said to be the best city name! Now let's hear what the new mayor, Oswald Copperpott, has to say..."
“Oh, I knew it would be this name,” said the person leaning against the food delivery window. “Actually, I still prefer the name Darklight City; it perfectly blends the vibes of Gotham and New York. But most ordinary people think it’s too pretentious. Sigh.”
“I quite like the name now.” Peter took out three slices of cheese and placed them on the beef patty. He peeked at the owner and, seeing that he hadn’t turned around, he took a whole bunch of cheese and sprinkled it on the beef patty. In the end, the entire beef patty was submerged in cheese.
Press the two layers of beef together, sprinkle on a generous amount of lettuce, top with the freshly baked hamburger bun, then take the fries out of the oil and put them in a box. Then, put everything together in a takeout container, hand it out through the serving hatch, and whisper, "Hey Bruce, go eat out. I put in a HUGE amount of cheese!"
"How many times have I told you, call me Spider-Man!" The young man in the tight-fitting suit, called Bruce, said in a low voice, "You have no idea how uncomfortable it is to be surrounded by those Batmen every day! Why won't the Fighting World let me transfer to Spider-Man's side?"
“Alright, you’ll complain about the noise later.” Peter said while frying himself another serving of fries. “Besides, Spider-Man’s base is usually empty; they’re all on missions across the multiverse…”
“Speaking of which, I just remembered,” Bruce said. “The Joker told me that the Batmen seem to be messing with energy in their own universe lately, and they’ve even turned Mount Olympus upside down.”
"Get energy?" Peter frowned. "What do you need energy for?"
"It seems like they're setting up some kind of magical defense network. I'm not too sure either; the clown didn't ask too many questions in the group chat."
"Isn't the magic defense network something we have on our side?"
"Oh, yes, quite a few Batmen went to study at one of your magic schools before, but I wasn't interested in that kind of thing so I didn't go. I guess they found the magic defense network pretty good after they got there, so they thought they'd get some energy and build one themselves."
“That thing is really good,” Peter said. “Especially the central universe, which uses the magical defense network so skillfully that many Spider-Men are envious.”
"Do you think we should do one too?" Bruce asked with some interest.
"Then can you go and overturn Mount Olympus?"
Bruce deflated immediately, as if doused with cold water. He said, "That's impossible. I can't even find the gate to Mount Olympus. If you hadn't given me spider powers, I wouldn't even be a superhero now."
"Not everyone can use spider abilities effectively. Okay, I just heard someone calling for help across the street. Go check it out!"
Bruce immediately turned around and saw someone snatching a bag in an alley across the street. He yelled "Stop!" and ran out of the store with his hamburger in hand.
Watching his retreating figure, Peter sighed and continued with his work. As the peak season arrived, orders piled up. After working non-stop until 11 PM, Peter could finally take a break.
Peter took off his greasy apron, packed himself two hamburgers, slung his shoulder bag over his shoulder, and walked out of the fast food restaurant. He mentally calculated his income and rent, and sighed silently.
Since the merger of New York and Gotham, rents have skyrocketed. While New York rents were already high, they were still manageable in more remote or less safe neighborhoods. However, the arrival of Gotham perfectly compensated for the relatively low suburban rents. Now, rents are soaring throughout Forward York, forcing Peter to take on an additional job to make ends meet, in addition to his research at Osborn.
With his conversation with Bruce from earlier in the day still swirling in his mind, Peter silently walked back to his rented apartment. After taking a shower, he threw himself onto the bed, but quickly got up again.
He tried to communicate with the Black Sun in his mind, but received no response. This had been the case for some time now, but Peter wasn't surprised. The God he worshipped was almost always offline, rarely responding. But thankfully, God was offline 100% of the time.
As he pondered this, Peter drifted off to sleep. But he was awakened by the light in the middle of the night. Turning his head, he realized he had forgotten to close the curtains before going to bed, and it was as bright as day outside for some reason.
Peter woke up with a start, jumped up, and looked back to realize it was two in the morning, well before his work hours. He breathed a sigh of relief, slowly walked to the window, yawned, and prepared to draw the curtains.
Suddenly, another burst of bright light appeared. Peter squinted and looked out the window, where he saw a bright moon. The moonlight shimmered before his eyes like a white veil, then transformed into real fabric. A white cloak brushed against Peter's cheek, and following the force, Peter turned his head to see a person dressed in a white robe, wearing a hood, and holding a long staff standing on the balcony railing.
Peter was startled and quickly backed away. The other person reached out, and soon, the moonlight formed mysterious patterns. Peter didn't recognize them at first, but his extraordinary memory allowed him to quickly identify them as patterns on a black sun.
“Are you also His apostle?” Peter asked.
The other person nodded. Peter breathed a sigh of relief and said, "You scared me to death! I thought it was the Evil Six coming to our door. What brings you here? Does he have a mission for me?"
With a clatter, something was thrown at Peter's feet. Peter went over, picked it up, and saw that it was a glittering gem.
"Wait, could this be an Infinity Stone?"
Peter examined the gem from all angles, but couldn't make anything out of it. Then he noticed the other person shake their head, tap the ground lightly with their staff, and magical ripples spread across the gem.
“Oh my God,” Peter exclaimed, “this contains magical energy? Where did you get it? You didn’t go and turn Mount Olympus upside down, did you?”
The other person shook his head again and pointed his staff to the sky. Although he didn't know why, Peter immediately understood. He said, "You want me to use the energy to build a magical defense network? But I've never built one before..."
A gentle moonlight carried a stack of blueprints over. Peter caught them and saw they were blueprints for a magical defense network. He immediately began to study them, and after a while said, "It's alright, it's not actually that complicated. I'll have Spider-Man look into it tomorrow."
A bright glimmer of moonlight shone, and when Peter woke up again, the alarm clock on his bedside table was ringing incessantly. He turned it off and sat up, thinking he had just had a ridiculous dream.
He found the gemstone on the bedside table as soon as he got up, while the stack of blueprints was neatly placed in the drawer. Peter couldn't help but pick up the blueprints again and look at them. After hesitating for a moment, he put the blueprints in his bag.
“Hey!! I have something I want to show you.” Peter knocked on the door and walked into Harry Osborn’s office. He pulled the blueprints out of his bag and said, “Have you heard of the Magic Defense Network? Yeah, the one that used to exist on Earth, but we don’t seem to have it anymore. Do you think we should build a new one?”
Harry took the blueprints. He initially thought Peter was joking, but after seeing the extremely detailed blueprints, he raised an eyebrow and said, "Are you serious? But neither of us knows magic..."
“Of course, and I’ve also managed to get my hands on a lot of magical energy.” Peter pulled out the gem again and said, “You know, it was given to me by the god I believe in, and he’s been pretty generous. I’ve heard that Batmen in the multiverse are all getting their hands on it, and since we’ve merged with Gotham, we have to do something too.”
Little Osborne frowned slightly and said, "Did you sense something?"
“Stop kidding me, I don’t have spider-sense at all,” Peter said, shaking his head.
“It’s different, Peter. Even without your spider powers, your intuition is incredibly accurate. I’m afraid I have to tell you some bad news: recently, there’s been some unusual incident with the mutants; they destroyed one of my coal-fired power plants, and I’m investigating it.”
"What happened again?" Peter asked, his brows furrowed. "Magneto and Superman got into a fight a while ago, and if Professor X hadn't intervened, they almost destroyed the sun. It hasn't even been a week, has it?"
"Yes, that's why I said it was an unusual incident. The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters told me that it wasn't a mutant power outburst or a sudden loss of control, but rather a conflict between two mutants."
"A contradiction? You mean two mutants got into a fight and destroyed your power plant? But the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants usually release information before they go to war, so why did they do it without any warning this time..."
“Of course, it’s because both mutants involved in this conflict are X-Men.” He shook his head and said, “Professor X didn’t say much to me. Although it may just be an ordinary accident, I still feel uneasy. Your coming to see me today makes me feel even more that this may be the prelude to some disaster.”