"Are you telling me the recent drop in crime isn't because of these colorful superheroes fighting crime, nor because the NYPD is putting in the effort, but because the gangs are simply vanishing on their own? Ha! Even if I believed Spider-Man suddenly became the world's only hope for salvation, I still wouldn't believe the gangs of New York would suddenly wash their hands of crime and go straight!"
"I truly appreciate your vote of confidence, Jonah—actually believing it's possible for Spider-Man to save the world."
Clad in his suit and perched atop the Empire State Building, Peter Parker looked out at the setting sun. Below, only club activities and student-athletes remained at Midtown High. He was leisurely monitoring a discussion between J. Jonah Jameson and several investigative reporters from the Daily Bugle. Reporters had their own methods and logic for investigating such matters, and the findings of this group were strikingly consistent: many places where investigative journalists used to be able to enter were now being flagged as dangerous by their informants.
This didn't fall outside the scope of Peter's own investigation. Those locations deemed dangerous had indeed been the sites of several gang massacres believed to be orchestrated by the Hand. As of now, it appeared the Hand hadn't actually done anything "bad"; the majority of their actions involved wiping out criminal organizations.
If one factored in the data from Felicia's USB drive, these people had also dismantled the entire New York drug trafficking network—buying up all the supply and then refusing to distribute it. They were practically model citizens, behaving as even more of a friendly neighbor than Spider-Man himself.
The question then arose: Was the Hand truly such a group of "good boys"?
"I'm going to go see if the Mayor's office has any news. You lot better go have a nice long chat with the NYPD. There are always some slackers and grifters among those cops; they must be in cahoots with these ninja gangs."
Jonah issued orders based on completely outdated intelligence, but his words gave Peter some bold new ideas. He couldn't help but think back to the intel Daredevil had shared with him previously, a large portion of which had been obtained from Kingpin. Moreover, Kingpin seemed to be very well aware of exactly what the Hand was up to.
He wasn't sure if Kingpin was still interested in cooperating, though he suspected the big man had likely moved past that idea.
As Peter continued to eavesdrop, he began to analyze the intelligence gathered on the Hand over the past few weeks. It was almost comical; the Hand's bosses, Hydra, had suffered heavy losses, yet the Hand itself seemed largely unaffected, aside from losing a few immortal ninjas.
So, analyzing it from the root: what was the Hand's objective? It was to find a suitable physical vessel for the descent of the demonic deity they worshipped, "The Beast." To be honest, this Beast didn't have much of a presence in the comics. Even though the corrupted Daredevil was the ultimate antagonist of the whole Shadowland event, he hadn't seemed to be empowered to an overwhelming degree.
Peter continued to sift through his memories of that somewhat unfamiliar comic event. He didn't have many distinct memories of the story, except for two points. First, the reason the Beast was able to possess Daredevil was that Matt had committed the crime of "murder." For others, even superheroes, killing was something to be avoided as much as possible, but for Matt, it was a fundamental "no-kill" rule.
Therefore, violating his own taboo was a prerequisite for the Beast's descent.
The second point was even more peculiar: the Beast's corruption was not invincible. On the contrary, if Iron Fist used his power to strike "Chi" into the body, he could effectively suppress the corruption. If that was the case, did Iron Fist actually know more about this Beast?
Thinking of this, Peter sent a message to Matt. Soon, the blind lawyer replied: Iron Fist had absolutely no idea what the Beast was. He had already asked long ago.
"That's strange. It's clearly a specialized counter-attack, yet there are no clues. What exactly is this Beast thing?"
Peter muttered to himself, then turned his head to see Black Cat, who had just climbed up and appeared behind him. "Oh, hey. Good afternoon."
Felicia, wearing her suit, let out a sigh and walked to Peter's side. "Do you know why I didn't come looking for you?" she asked in return.
"Why?"
"You didn't reply to my message."
It took Peter a moment to realize which message she meant—the one where Felicia was choosing a dress. He looked at her. "I thought... they were all fine? About the same?"
Felicia arched an eyebrow.
"You know, I wasn't planning on causing any trouble, which is why I specifically only sent you the styles of the evening gowns. If you can't pick one, I don't mind putting them on, taking photos, and sending them to you. If that happens, whether you have to explain yourself to certain other people won't be my problem."
"Uh, the black one then. It goes better with your silver hair. If it were all white or red, it just feels like it wouldn't match as well."
Felicia watched Peter for a moment before crouching down beside him. "Busy with work?"
"Sometimes, you know bad guys are making a move, and it's natural to be tense. Especially when you feel like these things are your responsibility. I'm certain the Hand is up to something, and I can guess what their ultimate goal is, but the process? I don't have a single clue."
Felicia didn't annoy Peter with lines like "You know this isn't actually your responsibility." Instead, after a brief moment of thought, she asked, "You're curious as to why they are acting in such secrecy—not letting you find any trace of them—while simultaneously cleaning out gangs and curbing drugs, despite definitely not being 'good guys,' right?"
"Yes, I'm certain they have a conspiracy."
Peter looked at Felicia again, a vague suspicion forming. "Wait, do you know something?"
"Of course I don't. If the hero doesn't know, how would I?"
Peter thought about the Kingpin situation. "That's not necessarily true. Maybe this kind of thing really needs to be considered from a different perspective. What do you think the Hand's goal is?"
Felicia was a bit surprised that Peter actually asked her, so she countered with questions of her own: "These ninjas have taken out a massive number of gangs, yet they haven't occupied any territory, right?"
"Correct."
"And while they've monopolized the trade of enhancers from Latin America, they haven't allowed a single drop of it to enter the market, right?"
"Correct."
"Then what do you think they might be doing?"
Peter provided his previous line of analysis. "At first, we suspected they wanted to seize the enhancer market in New York. We thought they might have their own special product, but now it seems that isn't the case."
"Maybe what you're seeing is the objective. They might not have some deeper motive, or rather, what they're doing isn't directly related to their ultimate goal."
Peter looked at Felicia in confusion, unable to grasp her point for a moment. Felicia sighed and explained.
"When you clean your room, is it because you want to use the spiderwebs and dust for an experiment?"
"You mean... a New York without gangs and drugs is the Hand's goal? I know that, but why—?"
Felicia arched an eyebrow, enjoying Peter's pause.
"Why?"