After a satisfying meal, it was finally time to get to work!
"Target location confirmed. Beginning surveillance. Calculating optimal approach route. Preparing for action," Lila Barton reported, her slender fingers flying across the keyboard.
Besides being a skilled archer like her famous father, this young heroine clearly served as the information specialist and tactical commander for the "Friendly Neighborhood Squad."
'Wow, Mr. Barton… your daughter is seriously amazing!' Kagura couldn't help but admire her.
She's like a perfect blend of Hawkeye and Black Widow... Pretty, fair-skinned, blonde hair, blue eyes, and an incredible figure.
Absolute perfection.
'Hmm… hmm… I really need to figure out how to recruit her into Griffin someday!'
"Guys, I've locked onto the area where the 'Phantoms' have been spotted," Lila said.
"They're in the automated cargo yard of the New York harbor district. Looks like they're targeting some high-tech imports and exports. What do you think? Shall we seize this chance and catch all those ghost thieves in one go?"
"Sounds good! Let's move!" Peter Parker practically leapt out of his seat, barely able to contain his excitement. "Let's teach those sneaky crooks a real lesson for stealing and looting all over town!"
'Sigh…' Kagura pressed a hand to her forehead.
Compared to Lila, Spider-Man really felt... immature. Like an overeager kid.
But she couldn't blame him.
After all, this Peter Parker was still just a high school student—barely past his debut as a superhero.
Based on Griffin's intel and Stark Industries' records, Peter had only recently caught Tony Stark's attention and received his first high-tech Spider suit.
Also, in this world, the Civil War between Avengers never broke out.
Many key heroes had already joined Griffin Security, and crucial figures like the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, had long since broken free from brainwashing.
So, at this point in time, Peter hadn't officially met the other Avengers yet.
Aside from Iron Man, none of them even knew who he was.
His attitude toward superheroes was still full of admiration and starry-eyed dreams.
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New York Harbor District – Automated Cargo Terminal
This was a vast, sprawling loading yard—easily the size of several football fields.
Rows upon rows of shipping containers stood stacked like steel skyscrapers, forming a city of metal.
Massive industrial drones buzzed between the aisles, tirelessly loading and unloading containers around the clock.
Their long robotic arms—like the ladders of fire trucks—moved with precision, lifting containers onto unmanned transport vehicles bound for cargo ships, highways, or rail lines.
This was the central hub of New York's port operations—the Eastern Seaboard's key logistics node—powered by Rhodes Industries' cutting-edge automated freight management system.
But now, faint figures moved suspiciously among the container stacks.
Since the entire yard was fully unmanned and automated, those figures could only be the "Ghost Hijackers" that the Friendly Neighborhood Squad had been tracking.
Three men were busy stealing high-tech parts.
The first, codenamed Tinkerer, was a short, pudgy middle-aged man holding a scanning device.
He scanned the containers for valuable tech like dark energy generators and nano-storage units, marking them for extraction.
Though he looked unthreatening, Tinkerer was a genius inventor, capable of repurposing stolen tech into deadly weapons for criminals.
He was the mastermind who modified and sold illegal weaponry across the underworld.
Once he flagged a target, Phantom—a large, muscular man would activate the quantum device built into his special suit, turning intangible like a ghost.
Slipping through the solid walls of the containers, he could snatch the marked items without leaving a trace or triggering alarms.
Their loot was stashed in a special case carried by the third man—Vulture—a grizzled veteran outfitted with a full-body flight suit. Like Phantom, Vulture's gear used quantum tech to render him invisible to electronic and visual detection, allowing him to carry stolen goods without fear of interception.
"Damn! This place is a goldmine!" Phantom exclaimed as he phased into another container marked with Stark Industries' logo, pulling out two brand-new Arc Reactor units.
"If I'd known there was so much good stuff here—and not a single guard in sight—we'd have skipped hijacking trucks and planes and come straight here!"
"Easy for you to say," Tinkerer snapped. "We can waltz in like this because I disabled the port's entire security grid! Now quit yapping and move faster!"
"Once the control center notices the blackout, patrols are bound to show up. Grab what you can before that happens!"
"That's far enough! Drop everything! Stealing other people's property is really bad, you know!"
Before Phantom could raid the next container, Spider-Man suddenly dropped from the sky, firing a web that glued Phantom's hand to the side of a container.
"Ahh, perfect! Caught you red-handed. Right out of the superhero handbook!" Peter quipped.
"You again, Spider-Kid?!" Tinkerer growled as he yanked back his scanner. "You've ruined our plans one time too many. This time, you'll learn why you shouldn't stick your nose where it doesn't belong!"
With that, Tinkerer flipped a switch on his belt.
Two mechanical arms unfolded from his metal backpack, aiming straight at Spider-Man perched atop the container.
"Don't underestimate us, boy!"
'FWOOOM! FWOOOM!'
In an instant, the arms morphed into twin cannons and opened fire in a blazing barrage.
"Whoa! Now that's just plain rude!" Spider-Man joked as he flipped and spun through the storm of blasts, moving with the grace of an Olympic gymnast—or a stealthy ninja from Japan.
"Seriously, do none of you bad guys ever stop to talk things out?!"
'WHIRRRRRR!'
Suddenly, the sky echoed with the roar of turbines as Vulture dove from above, his massive metal wings slicing through the air.
"Talk? Sorry, kid—we don't waste words on brats like you!" Vulture sneered, abandoning his cargo box midair to join the assault.
As he dived, sharpened alloy talons snapped out from his armored boots with a KA-CHAK, aimed straight for Spider-Man's neck...