Detective Segment Part Two

Time rewound to the afternoon Scarecrow and Spider-Man fought. Sheriff George Stacy stood at the entrance of an old apartment building in Harlem, taking a deep breath. The mottled walls were covered in cracks, like scars etched onto the city's underbelly. As he raised his hand to knock, his knuckles made a faint thud against the peeling paint of the door.

The door was opened by a black woman with greying hair; it was Herman Schultz's mother. Her eyes were like a stagnant pool, as if she had long surrendered to fate.

"Mrs. Schultz, I believe you already know what your son has done."

George's voice was soft, yet it cut through the silence like a knife. The air inside was thick with the smell of cheap coffee and old furniture. He hadn't brought the mother to the police station; he had chosen to visit her in person. His colleagues from the force waited downstairs, ready to respond to any potential appearance of Scarecrow—but Herman clearly had no intention of going home.

"If you're asking about my son's whereabouts, Officer, I know nothing." The old woman numbly rubbed the edge of her apron, her voice as hoarse as sandpaper. "I never cared where they went or what they did, nor do I care if they end up dead in the street."

"My father died in a gang shootout, my brother was shot dead, my eldest son was killed by the police, and my second son was stabbed in the alley and bled to death."

"...I'm sorry, ma'am."

"I'm not blaming you, Officer. This is the ordinary life of people who live here." Mrs. Herman looked up, her eyes clouded with nothing but turbidity. "However, Herman is different. He always thought he didn't belong here, that he wasn't one of us, that we had nothing in common, Officer. So, what do you think Herman would tell me?"

George's pen hovered over his notepad. The wail of a siren drifted in from outside, growing closer, then fading away.

"I have nothing to give you, Officer." She turned towards the stove, her hunched back like a withered tree bent by wind and snow. "Because Herman... has already gotten everything he wanted."

George hesitated, wanting to say more, but he saw a stack of money pressed under a cabinet. He silently closed the cabinet door, nodded, and left Herman's home.

The after-school sun slanted into the empty clubroom. The "Super Detective Agency," which boasted over twenty members, still only had Jessica and three newcomers gathered around old desks. Peter suddenly pushed aside the old disc of "The ABC Murders," which he had planned to show, and took out a USB drive.

"I have a new proposal. How about we try to catch Scarecrow?"

Jessica nearly choked on her cola. "You mean, the four of us high school students are going to arrest a supervillain who can blow up an overpass?"

"We're just doing a club activity! It's not like we're actually going to arrest him offline. What could be more meaningful than deducing a fugitive supervillain? Friends? The Avengers and the police haven't caught him!"

"We don't have many clues. What are we going to deduce from? The exaggerated reports in the Daily Bugle?"

Facing Jessica's question, Peter naturally smiled slightly.

"I have a friend, uh, her father is a police captain in the Midtown precinct, and he's in charge of this case." Peter fabricated a source for his information, which wasn't entirely untrue. Peter Parker might not be able to get any information about the Scarecrow case from Captain Stacy, but Spider-Man could.

Jessica, unaware of the details, suddenly her eyes lit up. "You mean... you can get the latest internal police information?"

"Not every time, but this time, yes."

Peter plugged the USB drive into the computer as he spoke. The blue light from the projector then illuminated the screen, displaying a photo and related information about Herman Schultz.

It was truly absurd, before Peter encountered Herman, he didn't know much about this villain. Among Spider-Man's many villains, who would care about Scarecrow? The 94 Spider-Man didn't even have his own series or origin story. The live-action movie version was a nobody with Crossbones' gauntlets. The Marvel Spider-Man game, which had the most screen time, not only lacked his origin but didn't even include the Sinister Six.

Even the Chameleon had a solo episode! Scarecrow didn't!

If I had read more comics, I might have actually learned about this obscure character. But in my previous life, I was a casual viewer. You want me to transmigrate to Marvel? Might as well send me to the Three Kingdoms...

Peter muttered to himself as he played the presentation he had prepared: "Scarecrow, real name Herman Schultz, a New Yorker, born in Harlem, Manhattan..."

"Wait, this says he only has a junior high education."

Looking at the resume projected on the screen, Harry naturally asked, "Does this mean his equipment was made by someone else?"

"No, his equipment was self-made. His criminal accomplices are very sure of that."

Seeing the distrustful looks from his companions, Peter continued to explain.

"Although Herman only has a junior high education, it was due to family reasons that he couldn't go to school. He himself has very strong engineering knowledge. Before becoming Scarecrow, he had used similar sonic wave weapons and robbed the bank where he fought Spider-Man. He was defeated and arrested by Spider-Man there."

Jessica immediately asked the next question: "When?"

"At the police station, he used a hairpin to pick the lock, knocked out a police officer, stole his equipment, and left the station directly."

The group listened, dumbfounded, unsure whether to comment on the NYPD's incompetence or to acknowledge that this was indeed a talented individual who had escaped after being arrested.

"Then, between his fight with Spider-Man..."

"A week."

This time, even Amadeus was shocked.

"You're saying a person with a junior high education, right after being arrested, took only a week to modify a suit capable of matching Spider-Man?"

Amadeus couldn't help but mutter, "Are geniuses in New York a bit too cheap..."

"Okay, we've got something." Jessica keenly grasped something. "Guys, after this guy escaped, he built a suit of armor and then ran to the bank where he was beaten up by Spider-Man. He didn't commit any crimes in the meantime, nor did he rob anything at this bank, Peter?"

"Uh, yes."

As Peter said this, he remembered something. "Actually, I heard from Captain George that he was very stable at first after being arrested. But during the interrogation, two police officers didn't believe him when they heard he made the equipment himself and mocked him. That's when he broke out."

"So, we're dealing with an arrogant person, perhaps with an inferiority complex. Because he didn't receive a good education and wanted one, he has some inferiority complex, and he easily gets angry when others don't acknowledge his hard-earned inventions."

"It's because of this that he targeted Spider-Man?" Harry understood. "He's seeking revenge?"

"Or perhaps just trying to prove himself." Jessica said, then spread her hands. "What's the point? The police can access all this information."

"But the police haven't found him, and neither have the Avengers. Knowing this is useless." Harry elaborated. "We need to find him, or... lure him out."

"What if Spider-Man provokes him?"

While everyone was silent, Peter suddenly suggested it. Jessica was the first to react. "What?"

"When Scarecrow fought Spider-Man, he was almost defeated. He destroyed the overpass, and then escaped while Spider-Man was saving people. So, he didn't actually defeat Spider-Man; he ran away." Peter rubbed his fingers. "If Spider-Man provoked him again, would that work?"

"Maybe..."

Harry touched his head. "But how do we notify Spider-Man?"

"There's a website where people express their gratitude to Spider-Man, since nobody knows who Spider-Man is," Peter said with a smile. "Maybe we can post our suspicions on that website. If Spider-Man sees it, he'll know what to do."

The Thunderbolts finished reading. It was good, with only two questions.

First, something big had happened in New York again, and Spider-Man had disappeared once more, with no one knowing where he went.

Second, even though the Winter Soldier believed Wakandans had discovered Adamantium, and Captain America 4 had also found it, in the end, the American agent still used his shield, which had been bent by a Sentinel, and he didn't even try to straighten it. He hadn't even considered making a new one. Wasn't that shield made of ordinary metal?