The people in the movie seemed to have built-in pathfinding.

In truth, even if the system had assigned no mission at all, picking a fight with the Life Foundation had already been part of Jos's plan.

In Spider-Man's career as a superhero, there were two turning points of the utmost importance.

The first was his uncle's death. That tragedy was the first thing that made Peter Parker seriously reflect on justice, power, responsibility, and all the questions bound up with them. It was also the reason that, in the years to come, he never forgot his original heart as Spider-Man.

The second great turning point was, without question, the coming of the symbiote, Venom.

After being possessed by Venom, Spider-Man's power rose once more, while the darkness and violence within him broke free of their restraints. His desire for strength was unleashed more completely than ever before.

And yet Peter Parker did not lose himself in that intoxication. On the contrary, it was precisely because of that experience that he came to understand how vital reason was in mastering himself.

Afterward, by sheer force of will, he began to reject any further union with Venom. He crashed into the great bell of the bell tower, using its subsonic vibrations to wound the symbiote and tear it away from himself, thereby reclaiming his identity as Spider-Man.

Two different figures, two different experiences, yet both were indispensable parts of Peter Parker's becoming the true Spider-Man.

But the present situation was rather delicate.

The man who had killed Ben Parker was already crippled, reduced to a useless wreck fit only for begging, somewhere abandoned to rot and wait for death.

As for Venom... Jos turned his head slightly and glanced out of the corner of his eye at Little Black, who was currently poking out from behind him to steal snacks...

Yes. Even if that thing attached itself to Peter Parker, the greatest danger it would probably pose was making him gain ten pounds in a month.

"So the symbiotes inside the Life Foundation are the only chance. They may not be Venom itself, but the overall effect should be about the same, right?"

Jos's thinking was simple enough: he would personally recreate those two storylines.

He was not as exacting as Nick Fury when it came to the standards of justice. As long as the little spider ultimately stood on their side, that was enough.

Of course, that said, he had no intention of running off and chopping down Ben Parker with a knife. That would probably just turn the little spider straight into the Wolf Spider, the most evil Spider-Man variant in the parallel universes.

The whole plan really had only three steps.

The first step had been inspired by Tornado: give Peter Parker a chance to play the hero and save his uncle, let him experience what it felt like to be a good man.

Naturally, this required a precise sense of measure. He needed enough strength that Peter would be unable to hurt him, but not so much that Ben Parker would end up injured.

After turning it over in his mind, Jos concluded that he could only do this job himself.

He had no objection to that. He rummaged through the system space, picked and chose, then spent a few thousand points on several ten-pulls, and at last assembled everything he wanted.

A dark robe, loose white sleeves beneath it, a full tattoo sleeve on the right arm covered in crimson eyes, plus several rolls of bandages...

And thus a perfect scapegoat, King of Taking the Blame, Danzo, was born.

"Mm. This way, I won't have to worry that Peter Parker will discover I was the one who beat him up after he joins the Alliance." Looking over the items, Jos nodded in satisfaction.

The second step was to put a symbiote on Peter Parker and see whether, when faced with such immense power, he could truly restrain his own desires.

Jos himself did not believe that longing for power was inherently wrong. But if a person could not control that desire, then he was indeed an unstable factor. Better to discover that sooner rather than later.

As for the final step, Jos regarded it as a contingency plan.

This one was the simplest of all. If every previous action failed, he would put on the Fists of Friendship That Rearrange Faces, pin Peter Parker to the ground, beat him up for an entire afternoon, and then, through the mighty force of friendship, invite him to join the Avengers.

The problem was that this method was not only outrageously inhuman, it also required the prior condition of first becoming friends with the other party. With so many complications piled together, Jos had no intention of using it unless absolutely forced to.

"All right, that should about do it. Everything is ready now except... the address of the Life Foundation's base." Jos rubbed his brow and at once felt a headache coming on.

Why was it that in the movies everyone acted as if it were nothing, just wandering around casually and somehow finding those shady factories that were obviously hidden-map locations?

Why was it that all of you, as if by prior agreement, would finish talking and then meet at the place less than two minutes later?

The only thing the Life Foundation showed openly was the company itself, all right? Nobody knew where the factory was, much less a secret factory used for human experimentation!

"Tch. No helping it. I'll have to use a little real skill to dig out their location."

Complaints aside, Jos did have his own methods. After giving Tornado a few instructions, he simply left the little house they were using as a base.

...

"I know you can do it! So I'm counting on you, Big Sister Widow." Jos wore a thoroughly ingratiating smile as he looked at Natasha before him.

So what if I can't find it? Big Sister Widow can. And even if she can't, S.H.I.E.L.D. definitely has files on them, right?

A factory on that scale might conceal its address from ordinary people, but in the eyes of those who truly mattered, it was no less obvious or ordinary than a house by the roadside.

Provided, of course, that they had no idea what was actually going on inside.

Under normal circumstances, however, even S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would not slip into a major corporation's secret factory to investigate without the slightest intelligence to justify it.

On the one hand, if anything went wrong, the consequences would be troublesome. On the other, manpower was limited. Naturally, no one was going to investigate whether the factory was producing inflatable wives or conducting human experiments.

Natasha, for her part, did not doubt Jos's claims about the Life Foundation. Of ten companies founded on some mysterious grand ideal, six were bound to have problems. The reasons differed from case to case, but such organizations were priorities for scrutiny to begin with.

"All right. Here is all their information. I'll report the matter of the Life Foundation to Nick. As for you... do you need reinforcements?"

"Mm, reinforcements probably won't be necessary. But help me keep an eye on this district. If any particularly troublesome people show up, just give me a warning."

Jos scratched his head, then nodded in cautious agreement.

After all, everything he planned next would revolve around Peter Parker. If some passing monstrosity like Juggernaut or Magneto happened to show up at that point, it really would be a headache.