I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 117 Midtown Girls Band
"Ok, I see."

Walking down the school corridor, Peter frowned after listening to Matt Murdoch's account over the phone. The reason Nick Fury entrusted him with the New York situation after Kingpin's surrender was because, in Fury's view, the security situation in the New York area was hardly a big deal.

As the saying goes, "Under the emperor's nose, in the capital, is the most virtuous place." Under the Avengers' noses, what kind of trouble can New York possibly cause? It's nothing more than a few new gangs emerging after Fisker lost control. These new gang leaders don't have the financial resources and control of Kingpin, so they only bring temporary chaos.

Besides, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't completely fail to provide support. Isn't Cindy an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? She would definitely obey Peter Parker's every command. You can order her around as you please.

But now Daredevil tells you that a super soldier named Luke Cage has come out and said that Rikers Island has been conducting illegal human experiments all along, and that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know about it. More importantly, nobody believes that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know.

So Peter has to work overtime today. Without further ado, he has to take the afternoon off to go to Rikers Island and see Kingpin, who just went to jail today—only Kingpin could turn himself in on Monday, be sentenced on Tuesday, and move into a luxury house on Wednesday.

But before that, he had to do one more thing.

Peter arrived at the room where Gwen and her band were rehearsing. After the girls finished rehearsing a song and the noise gradually subsided, Peter knocked on the door. The conversation inside seemed to pause for a moment, then the door opened. Unsurprisingly, it was Mary Jane—the band's guitarist and lead vocalist, and the one closest to the door—who opened it. Gwen, the drummer, was the least likely to open the door.

"Hi, Peter."

Mary Jane, completely unaware that Peter had come to see her, opened the door and asked, "Did you come to see Gwen about something?"

No, actually, I came to see you.

Peter's words seemed to chill the atmosphere, but the instigator, oblivious to the change in mood, said, "It's about yesterday. I... I need to talk to you about what happened after I left. Is this a convenient time for you? Or can we talk privately?"

"Let's talk privately."

Mary Jane smiled and apologized to her bandmates, took her guitar down and put it aside, then followed Peter out of the rehearsal room, closing the door behind her. Liz and Betty, also in the band, looked at Gwen, who stared at them expressionlessly: "What's wrong?"

"That handsome guy... is he the childhood sweetheart you always talk about?"

Before Betty could finish speaking, Liz confirmed, "Absolutely! I saw him in class with Harry. He must be Mr. Parker."

Gwen stared at them and asked, "And then—"

Aren't you curious about what happened to them yesterday?

“I know what they were doing yesterday,” Gwen explained with a sigh. “MJ got an internship interview invitation from the Daily Bugle, right? Peter had a photo of him used by the Daily Bugle before. So she wanted Peter to take some interview photos for her. She told me about it, and Peter was there too.”

Then his two teammates still looked unconvinced.

"I didn't know that photos were taken during the interview. And what you just said, that he left, means Mr. Parker left midway through. What did he go to do after leaving?"

What did he go to do? It was obvious Peter went to become Spider-Man. Gwen rolled her eyes at the two of them and retorted, "So what do you want me to do? Eavesdrop on what they're saying?" Betty and Liz remained silent, looking at Gwen. Just two seconds later, Gwen stood up, propped on her drum kit: "Come on, let's go listen to what they're saying."

Actually, Peter and Mary Jane didn't really intend to talk about anything else; the conversation started after he left yesterday.

"I followed them and took some photos. Yesterday's incident was because of the rhino man..."

“I saw it on the news later,” Mary Jane said with a laugh, but after carefully watching the live stream, she couldn’t find Peter anywhere. “Did you take any photos?”

“This is what I’m going to say. During filming, I overheard Rhino and Spider-Man talking. I… heard some things. Rhino didn’t want to rob a bank. He did it because his wife had a rare disease, and someone gave him a large sum of money to undergo rehabilitation. But the money wasn’t enough to cover his wife’s treatment costs.”

It was a clichéd villain story. After Mary Jane nodded, Peter reluctantly revealed his thoughts.

“I know this sounds difficult, but perhaps you could write something different in your interview transcript, for example…”

Mary Jane sighed.

"You want me to abandon my interview with Jonah Jameson and submit the Rhino-related article instead? Or wait until I get my internship and then submit it."

Peter didn't say anything more, he just nodded.

This was undoubtedly a risky move, because even if Mary Jane got the internship at The Daily Bugle, as a lowly intern, it was unlikely that The Daily Bugle would publish the story, and it might even affect her internship career.

Mary Jane did not object directly, but instead asked Peter a question.

Why do you want to help the Rhino Man?

"Because... I thought of this method that might help him, so I did it."

Mary Jane stared at Peter for a moment, then took out her phone: "Let's exchange contact information. Send the photos to my email later. Maybe Jonah Jameson will see your photos and think this report makes a lot of sense."

Peter breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "Thank you, Mary Jane."

“Just call me MJ, like my friends.” After adding each other’s contact information, Mary Jane pointed at Peter with her phone: “And don’t forget, you left before you finished your meal yesterday.”

“I’ll treat you next time.” Peter smiled and waved, then frowned and looked into the distance. He saw Gwen peeking out furtively, and then sighed as if he understood something. Looking at the friend list he had added for Mary Jane on his phone, he shook his head helplessly.

Forget it, let's go to Rikers Island and see what happened first.

(End of this chapter)