“Peter!
Peter, come quick and take a look—does this outfit look alright on me?” The Parker household was somewhat noisy this morning, with May Parker shouting out for Peter.
Peter stifled a yawn and walked over to May’s room with a slight sense of helplessness.
In front of the full-length mirror, a voluptuous Italian milf was “striking poses.” Her skin was pale and ripe like a peach—looking so tender that a soft pinch might burst it with water.
Well, using terms like that to describe his own dear aunt might not be the best, but that truly was Peter’s immediate train of thought upon catching sight of Aunt May.
“Aunt May, I told you, it’s just Tony Stark.
Is there really any need to be so formal about it?” Peter said helplessly.
“Just Tony Stark?” Aunt May’s voice instantly shot up several octaves as she looked at Peter in utter disbelief.
“That’s not what you said when we got the news yesterday!
The look on your face—you were practically jumping up and down!
And don’t think I don’t know: you were tossing and turning in bed all last night unable to sleep, weren’t you?” “Uh…” Peter was momentarily rendered speechless.
Indeed, if it had been the old him from 3 hours ago, he would have attached supreme importance and felt overwhelming excitement over the fact that Iron Man, Tony Stark himself, was coming to visit him.
That was Tony Stark!
Genius scientist, billionaire, Iron Man, Avenger…
draped in countless halos, he radiated brightness like the protagonist of a novel.
While he, Peter Parker, was merely an ordinary kid from an average household who wasn’t particularly popular at school.
When a prince visits the slums to see a beggar boy, how could the beggar boy not be thrilled?
Yet that strange fusion with Spider-Man Noir last night had not only granted Peter a degree of physical “evolution” and enriched his knowledge base, but it had also left a subtle, instinctual resistance toward capitalists like Stark deep down in his heart.
Furthermore, possessing Spider-Man Noir’s capabilities for logical reasoning, Peter was now 95% certain that Iron Man was coming precisely because he had discovered his powers!
He had even managed to deduce the cause and effect behind certain events.
During the Sokovia Incident a month ago, the Avengers had exerted every effort to stop Ultron’s world-ending plot.
Even so, numerous “grapevine rumors” continued to circulate on the internet, claiming that Ultron was originally Iron Man’s creation to begin with, and that the fall of Sokovia, the displacement of over a million residents, as well as the countless casualties and property damage were all ultimately the tragic result of Iron Man’s own doing.
Even though Stark Industries had later opened its wallet generously to pour massive sums of money into post-disaster placement and relief for Sokovia’s residents—building shelters, organizing medical teams, and even having its pharmaceutical division develop medicines to distribute free of charge…
All of it was viewed by people as Iron Man making atonement for his mistakes.
Atonement, however, did not equal innocence, nor could it erase the wrongdoing itself.
In the past, out of his idolization of Iron Man, Peter had felt extremely angry over these criticisms directed at Iron Man, going online on multiple occasions to argue with them.
Now, however, he thought those criticisms were quite possibly true.
Of course, those who deliberately put out these statements clearly harbored ulterior motives as well.
Whether it was to catch people’s eyes and profit off the online traffic, or to…
attack Iron Man and his Stark Industries.
Because he had also seen people calling for Iron Man to open up some of Stark Industries’ technologies to the public under the guise of so-called “public safety supervision.” Their true intentions were blatantly obvious.
Peter dared to assert that even if Iron Man were stupid enough to actually comply, those technologies would ultimately just be seized by those with malicious intent, hidden away in secret, and calculated for their own sordid gains.
Naturally, Iron Man was obviously no brainless fool and could never actually do such a thing.
He possessed the ability and the means to protect his legal assets.
As for the second clue: a few weeks ago, in a place called Lagos, the Avengers’ actions had led to the destruction of a building along with numerous casualties.
Even though they had similarly done so to combat a terrorist organization, causing panic among the public was an undeniable fact.
As a result, shortly afterward—just a few days ago—a conference was held at the UN Building in Vienna concerning the Sokovia Accords.
The Accords demanded restrictions on the Avengers’ operations, mandating that the Avengers could only act after an official assessment deemed their intervention necessary, rather than acting as they pleased like in the past.
Unfortunately, on the very day the Accords were signed, the UN Building in Vienna suffered a terrorist attack, resulting in twelve deaths—including King T’Chaka of Wakanda—and at least seventy injuries.
The panic this event caused among the public was similarly immense.
Although official authorities released a photograph of the suspect, identifying him as the notorious Hydra agent “Winter Soldier” James Buchanan Barnes, conspiracy theorists believed it was “retaliation” by certain former Avengers who were unwilling to sign the Accords.
Some had even dug up old history, confirming that Captain America and the Winter Soldier used to be very close partners—Cap’s story was a household tale, and his transformation from a stage actor into the true Captain America had come precisely from saving numerous captured soldiers, including his close friend the Winter Soldier, so finding this was hardly difficult.
And as was widely known, Captain America had failed to appear on the day of the signing.
Though no one knew why, he was clearly unwilling to sign the Accords.
Even if it was emotionally hard to believe that this heroic figure, who had served as the symbol of the American spirit for so long, could actually belong to the opposition, facts were facts.
He had a motive as well.
A chain of deduction, logical and sound.
If all of that before had merely been speculation, then yesterday’s video of Cap, the Winter Soldier, and a figure clad in black armor engaged in a brawl and chase through the streets of Germany served as the solid proof for these deductions.
Captain America had become a criminal!
Now, negative comments regarding the Avengers virtually dominated the internet.
Captain America in particular had fallen from a superhero into a universally reviled super-criminal!
Taking all of this together, Peter had only two guesses regarding why Iron Man was coming to his door at this time: First, he had discovered his real identity and his superpowers, and thus wanted him to sign the Sokovia Accords as well to place restraints upon him.
Second, building on the first point, due to Captain America’s rebellion, Cap would likely ally with the remaining faction unwilling to sign the Accords to jointly oppose the pro-Accords faction led by Iron Man.
Iron Man needed extra hands, so he had come to recruit him.
Peter mused silently to himself: if that really was the case, what should he do?
“Hey, Peter?
Why are you zoning out?” Unbeknownst to him, Aunt May had walked over right in front of Peter.
Snapping back to his senses, Peter smiled: “Aunt May, you look absolutely radiant.” “Really?
I think so too!”