After Iron Man left, Peter did not stay long either. He soon left Stark Tower.
On the way back, Peter did not take off his Spider-suit. Instead, he rode "on" a bus while wearing it.
That was right—he rode "on" it.
He found a bus heading toward Queens, jumped straight onto its roof, and caught a free ride.
The bioelectric static granted by his spider abilities allowed him to cling easily to the surface of any object. Whether the bus accelerated, braked, or suddenly turned, it felt no different to him than sitting on level ground.
Well, aside from being a little bumpy.
Lying on his back atop the bus, Peter activated the communication device on his web-shooters.
Earlier, the Spider-suit's AI assistant had notified him that it had received a text message from an "unknown" sender.
Peter opened it for a look.
Uh, what unknown sender? It was obviously from Tony Stark.
It contained information related to the "mission" he had received at Stark Tower earlier.
In truth, the agency did not have much information either. Several underground gangs in New York had recently exchanged fire, and witnesses had recorded videos showing them using energy weapons!
The recording angles and distances made the footage fairly unclear, but comparison revealed that the weapons still resembled Earth's conventional kinetic firearms in appearance.
What did that mean?
It meant someone had combined energy weapons with kinetic weapons to create a stripped-down version of an energy weapon.
But even stripped-down, they were still energy weapons!
A powerful handheld energy cannon could turn someone into a pile of charred remains with one shot—so thoroughly that even their mother would not recognize them.
There were also cluster weapons capable of slicing through armor with ease.
That already exceeded the limits of legal firearm ownership!
Although the Constitution did not specify firearm types, the federal government and individual states all had their own interpretations and regulations regarding gun control.
Purchasing fully automatic weapons, short-barreled rifles, suppressors, weapons of mass destruction, explosives, and the like required extremely strict state and federal review.
Energy weapons were far more powerful than kinetic weapons and already fell within the category of weapons of mass destruction.
Weapons like these, with no official records, were obviously illegal.
And they were exchanging fire in residential areas.
One careless mistake could injure innocent civilians.
However, Peter found several potentially useful clues in the information Iron Man had provided.
First, since these stripped-down energy weapons had been made by combining kinetic weapons with energy weapons, their makers must have had at least one manufacturing facility.
And it was probably not small.
A tiny workshop could not process and manufacture energy weapons.
So he could perhaps start by investigating some "abandoned factories" around Queens and Brooklyn.
The factories might be abandoned, sure, but that was only on the surface—a label, nothing more.
Someone might have taken advantage of that and secretly converted one into a weapons workshop.
After all, "abandoned" meant attracting no attention, avoiding taxes, and offering plenty of other conveniences.
Second, the source of the energy weapons.
First, he could rule out the possibility that they had developed the weapons themselves.
Why?
If they had developed them themselves, there would have been no need to combine them with the shells of kinetic weapons.
If they truly possessed that technology, they could gain plenty of support by cooperating with the government or a major corporation like Stark Industries.
They would not need to sneak around like this.
Their behavior clearly pointed to only one reason—they had a guilty conscience.
So what was the largest and most easily leaked source of energy weapons?
The Chitauri invasion!
Plenty of videos from the Battle of New York eight years ago, which had shocked the world, had spread online.
Peter had been young at the time, but he had still seen many of them.
The Chitauri's energy rifles, energy cannons, and the large-caliber energy cannons mounted on their flying chariots were all various types of energy weapons.
Peter did not know where those weapons had gone afterward, nor what had become of the Chitauri army's wreckage.
He only vaguely remembered seeing people cleaning up within the sealed-off area.
"Karen, do I have permission to access some Avengers files?" Peter asked.
"Authorization is required. Would you like to request authorization?" Karen replied.
"Request it, of course," Peter said.
"Please wait. Awaiting confirmation from Mr. Stark." Karen paused. Before long, her voice sounded again. "Authorization approved. Peter, you may now access materials within your permission level."
"Okay. Thanks, Karen."
"You're welcome, Peter."
"Pull up information related to what happened after the 2012 Battle of New York," Peter said.
"Okay, Peter. Retrieving it now," Karen said.
A holographic display appeared over Peter's watch.
A great deal of relevant information appeared.
Peter skimmed through it quickly and soon filtered out several useful pieces of information.
After the Battle of New York, the restoration and cleanup work in New York City had been taken over by an organization jointly established by the U.S. federal government and Stark Industries, called Damage Control.
Over the years, Damage Control had become a genuine government agency. They had also handled the aftermath of the Sokovia incident not long ago.
And that meant Damage Control possessed a large quantity of high-tech materials.
The mysterious weapons manufacturer had most likely obtained raw materials from Damage Control!
Unfortunately, although Iron Man had advocated for and helped establish Damage Control, he had handed the organization over later. It was no longer under his control at all.
So Peter's idea of checking whether Damage Control had records of missing items came to nothing.
But Peter was not discouraged.
Because he had also found other information.
For instance, immediately after the Battle of New York ended, before Damage Control had been established, the New York City government had hired a company to help clear away the remnants of war.
That company was called Batesman Salvage.
Batesman Salvage had been a scrap recycling company, mainly handling junk collection and post-disaster cleanup work.
However, Batesman Salvage had been dissolved after that.
The only information he could find was that Batesman Salvage's former person in charge was named Adrian Toomes!
That name sounded familiar to Peter!
In Shadow Spider-Man's world, the Vulture whom Peter had decisively killed after he attacked Aunt May had also been named Adrian Toomes!
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