Nick Fury

Peter Parker was a little out of it.

The reason was not only that the person he had been looking for had suddenly appeared right in front of him, but also that he had once again learned what it meant for "the plot you know to be completely useless."

In the more familiar comic universe, Silk's story was mainly connected to the Spider-Verse. To make a long story short, Cindy had been hidden in a facility for ten years to keep her from being hunted down by the villain Morlun, only to be released by Spider-Man after he learned about it.

It had absolutely nothing to do with Cindy Moon joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and becoming one of its agents.

"Young people these days don't know how to handle problems properly. When they get superpowers, they should report them to the government and be trained by professionals so they can master their abilities."

Nick Fury walked over with a glass in hand, looking as though he had no intention of drinking it. Peter looked at Cindy for a while, not because she was pretty, but because as far as he knew, once Spider-Man and Silk met, they would quickly trigger each other's hormones.

But in reality, there was no reaction at all. Peter shrugged. That was fine too.

"They just put on some circus costume and rush into the streets to beat up thugs, without caring that they might get riddled with bullets."

"Actually," Peter argued, "I have received training, and I wasn't at a disadvantage just now. Sorry, Cindy, no offense."

Cindy had already sat down in a corner. Her reaction was impossible to read, but Nick Fury had no intention of letting Peter off.

"Ooh, think you're pretty impressive, huh? In half a month, you took down a lockpicker, an internationally renowned assassin, and... a whole swarm of spiders."

If Nick Fury had not mentioned it, Peter would not have realized that he had gone through so much in just half a month. And after Fury said it, he seemed to lose interest.

"Listen, maybe you think you're not bad, but you've still got a long way to go." Fury kept rambling on. "For example, that spider monster you dealt with this morning. Did you know there was a living Little Spider hidden inside one of the spider corpses?"

"?!"

"See? You haven't been at this long enough. There are plenty of things you don't know. The Avengers... they think highly of you, but they always have their own matters to deal with..."

Peter knew why Nick Fury had come.

"I'm guessing you're about to give me a S.H.I.E.L.D. gym discount card, but sorry, I don't have time to sign up for your gym membership."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. can make you better. It can do things the Avengers can't help you with. It can turn you into—Ultimate Spider-Man."

It was actually a pretty good offer, really. S.H.I.E.L.D. could provide him with enough equipment, logistical support, and a communications network more flexible than the Avengers'. If so many things in this universe had not failed to line up with the MCU universe, he really might have joined.

But now, unless Peter could rule out the possibility that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated by Hydra like a sieve just as it had in the movies, there was no way he would join S.H.I.E.L.D.

"I'd better pass. I'm used to working alone. Even the Avengers only asked me to help watch their home." After saying that, Peter came up with a lousy excuse. "Besides, I had a dream. I dreamed I joined S.H.I.E.L.D., and then I was eaten by a s—"

He did not finish the word "snake," because he saw Nick Fury shake his head. In that instant, he felt his eyelid twitch.

Well, that was just great. Not only did the comic plots not match up, neither did the movies.

No, wait. Did that mean he knew S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated by Hydra? Then why was he not reacting at all? Could he be deliberately keeping those Hydra agents around to scam Hydra out of its funding?

"Eaten by a shark."

After Peter changed his words, Fury took a sip of his drink as though steadying his nerves. "Fine. You can accept the offer anytime. I'll leave you a number. Oh, right—about your crossing through the multiverse. You'll be selected as an intern at the Baxter Building. When the time comes, meet Silk there."

That was it?

"Can I ask you something?"

Peter suddenly asked. Fury set down his glass and began packing up, nodding at the same time.

"What happened to your eye? Is that something I can ask?"

Fury opened his mouth, seeming to freeze for a moment.

"It was blinded by someone. It was a hostage rescue mission, simple as could be. We had already completed the mission and rescued the target."

Nick Fury told a story Peter had never heard before. "Then a man appeared. He killed all the agents under my command, my protection target, and blinded one of my eyes. To this day, I don't know who that guy was or what he looked like. I only know he had a metal arm, and some Soviets called him the Winter Soldier."

Was Fury telling the truth? Peter, who instinctively doubted him first, frowned. If Fury was telling the truth, then that meant the movie version of Captain Marvel had never happened at all, and the Skrulls had not infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D...

As Peter Parker pondered the plot, he heard Nick Fury's final warning before leaving.

"Watch out for people with metal arms. Be careful of the Winter Soldier, Peter Parker."

"Your parents died at his hands."

"?! Wait, what did you say?!"

Nick Fury had already pushed open the door, walked out to the helipad, boarded a helicopter, and left.

Peter, who had just received this completely unexpected news, stood stunned for a while before realizing something: Nick Fury had left without taking Cindy with him.

"He didn't take you with him."

Cindy nodded. She merely sat on the sofa, pulled out a book, and answered without looking up, "Fury said we'll have some cooperation later, so we can get acquainted first."

"He, uh... how did you join S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Cindy looked up at Peter.

"After my parents discovered I had superpowers, they called the police. Then S.H.I.E.L.D. came to the door."

So she was the positive example Nick Fury had just been talking about.

Peter sat down on a sofa not far from her and rubbed his hands together. "I heard Madame Web say before that you can sense me. Is that true?"

"Mm. You can't?" Cindy glanced at Peter, then confirmed that he could not. "So you didn't notice there were still survivors in the spider swarm. I can sense you—your distance, direction, even the strength of your life force. It was especially obvious during those dozens of seconds when you were being electrocuted by high voltage."

"Sorry."

Cindy looked up at him again.

"Why are you apologizing?"

"Uh, for causing you trouble?"

Peter did not know what was funny about that, but Cindy really did laugh. After closing her book, she explained a little, "It doesn't affect my life much. It's like... always knowing where your phone is. That spider swarm, on the other hand—when it was constantly reproducing, that was when I really felt disgusted."

"Alright, my turn to ask questions." Cindy cut off Peter before he could continue the topic. "I watched a lot of your combat footage and learned quite a few of your fighting methods. Just now, after I attacked you, based on your habits, you should have shot webbing at me. Why did you throw a chair instead?"

"My Web Shooter was broken. I couldn't shoot webbing."

Then Peter saw a confused expression on Cindy's face.

"So not only can you not sense where I am, you can't even shoot webbing by yourself?"

Silk could shoot webbing herself. Unlike the Tobey version, though, she did not shoot it from her wrists. In fact, she produced webbing through contact with her fingertips.

Also, she made her suit on the spot out of webbing herself. It only took a few seconds, and she could put it on before a fight.

Some readers said seeing Fury made them a little uncomfortable, so it was changed to Fury.