At Avengers Tower

Spider-Man led The Punisher into the base of Avengers Tower, then reached the main elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.

Since he was a guest, The Punisher had not brought many weapons. He had only brought seven or eight guns and over a dozen explosives to Avengers Tower, but J.A.R.V.I.S. was clearly well-traveled and merely welcomed them calmly inside the elevator.

Hello, Mr. Spider-Man, Mr. Castle. Welcome to Avengers Tower.

"Avengers Tower. Stark's toy. I never thought I'd come here."

The Punisher muttered, though Peter could not tell whether he was mocking himself or Iron Man. Peter nodded beneath his mask. "Yeah, I heard this elevator hasn't been used in a long time. The last time was when construction workers brought building materials up..."

In fact, most of the Avengers used this elevator to go upstairs.

Peter spread his hands. "I usually just swing straight to the roof, so I've only heard about it too."

The Punisher glanced at Spider-Man. The latter crossed his hands in front of himself and shut up. After the elevator rose several floors, he could not help speaking again. "Do you ever feel unsafe in an elevator? Like it could fall at any moment—"

"Shut up."

"I'm just a little nervous. Whew." Little Spider let out a long breath. "Just two people sitting in an elevator for a minute or two, without saying anything."

"Could you please shut up?"

"Sorry."

Peter fell silent. But then he remembered something that had happened in the battle. Just as he was about to speak, he saw The Punisher slightly turn his head and stare at him in silence, so he shut up.

I'll ask later.

The elevator finally opened on one of the top five floors of Avengers Tower. As Peter walked out, he skillfully instructed J.A.R.V.I.S., "J.A.R.V.I.S., help me search for recent missing-person cases. Even if Carl King can mimic humans, he still has to obey the law of conservation of mass—though a lot of people don't seem to follow that rule, he still has to devour other people to replenish the number of spiders in his swarm."

"Not very useful. This city is full of homeless people and addicts no one cares about. Your spider friend can easily fill his stomach."

As he spoke, The Punisher took a bottle of whiskey from beneath the bar and opened it, pouring himself a glass. "As long as he wants to hide, he can hide anytime."

"From what I know about Carl, he won't give up that easily. Maybe he can't deal with me right away, but he'll go after the people around me. Luckily, my family is out traveling, and he doesn't know where I live. His only option is to go to the school gates tomorrow morning and find my friends."

Frank had not yet brought the drink to his mouth. Hearing that, he paused for a moment, then set the glass down and walked toward Spider-Man. "What's your deal?"

"?"

"A student? Maybe not even a college student. High school? You... you wear that outfit and swing around the city, dealing with those gun-toting bastards—that's one thing. But then there was that guy you fought before, Scarecrow, Chameleon, and now this guy. What are you doing?"

"...Trying to be a friendly neighbor, helping people out and stuff."

"Is that so?" Frank did not intend to ask any more questions. Holding his drink, he sat down on the Avengers' sofa. "Then how are you going to deal with this friend of yours? With that mouth of yours?"

Of course not. Peter took out the only spider corpse that had not been burned after the battle.

"An animal's physical structure determines how it acts. Carl King's mind needs something else to control so many spiders at once, such as pheromones. I can borrow Hank Pym's research results. With proper pheromone induction, I can force Carl King to follow me."

It was not particularly difficult. Peter believed that with J.A.R.V.I.S.'s help, they could formulate the pheromones overnight. Then all that remained was to set an ambush at the school tomorrow morning and keep Carl King from suddenly appearing and hurting any of his friends.

There was also thermal imaging. Spiders and humans had different average body temperatures, and a creature mimicked by countless spiders would certainly look different on thermal imaging as well. That would give Peter enough information to deal with him.

Frank watched Spider-Man get busy and said nothing. He merely lay down on the sofa to rest. He had killed many villains and bastards, but he had never killed a huge swarm of spiders.

He did hope to have a peaceful dream tonight.

Meanwhile, Peter sent the spider into the laboratory for testing, then took out his phone and looked at it. Because of the battles over the past few days, the screen had begun to crack. He sighed when he saw Gwen's message:

—When are you coming home? I have something to tell you.

"I have something to do tonight. I might not be back until very late..."

Peter most likely would not be able to go home tonight. Even if the possibility was small, he had to keep watch over every lead and be ready to move at any moment. There was nowhere better than Avengers Tower for monitoring all of New York City.

Looking at the moon that had already risen, Peter received another message from Gwen. She said she could wait a little longer, so Peter tried to persuade her a couple more times.

"Doesn't look urgent, and she didn't call me either. Whew."

When he came out of the laboratory, he heard The Punisher's rapid, muffled snoring.

Peter removed his mask and silently looked over the complete map of New York.

Frank Castle rarely dreamed, ever since that day.

He did not seem to need dreams anymore. After all, whenever he closed his eyes, he could see his wife and children dying before him and hear their voices. He could not forget that afternoon. It had only been an ordinary afternoon picnic in Central Park.

If he had not run into a gang shootout, if they had not gone on that picnic, none of it would have happened.

But that was not what Frank dreamed of.

He dreamed of a mother and a daughter. He saw the mother raise a gun, point it at her own head, and pull the trigger.

Frank Castle woke up. It was not yet dawn. He stared silently at the sky, then got up and smelled coffee.

He saw Spider-Man, half his face exposed, drinking coffee.

"Morning. Want a cup? The Avengers' coffee is pretty good."

The Punisher ignored him. Instead, he took out his medicine and swallowed it in one gulp with water. Spider-Man walked over and asked the question he had not asked in the elevator.

"When you dealt with Chameleon, why did you choose that method? It was like you had some personal grudge against him."