Chapter 7: Conjecture
"Peter, Peter, come take a look. Does this outfit suit me?"
The Parker household was a bit noisy this morning, with May Parker calling out to Peter.
Peter yawned, feeling a bit helpless as he made his way to Aunt May's room.
"Aunt May, I've told you, it's just Tony Stark. There's no need to be so formal, right?" Peter said resignedly.
"Just Tony Stark?" Aunt May's voice rose several pitches as she looked at Peter in disbelief. "When you received the news yesterday, you didn't sound like that. Your expression said you were about to jump up and down! And don't think I don't know that you tossed and turned unable to sleep last night, right?"
"Uh..." Peter was tongue-tied for a moment.
Indeed, if it had been the old him, he would have been incredibly excited and honored that Iron Man Tony Stark himself was coming to visit him.
This was Tony Stark!
A brilliant scientist, billionaire, Iron Man, Avenger... countless accolades surrounded him, making him seem like the protagonist of a novel, shining with radiance.
And he, Peter Parker, was just an ordinary boy from an average family who wasn't particularly popular at school.
The prince visiting the commoner's slum to see a poor child – how could the poor child not be excited?
But last night's wondrous merger with the Shadow Spider-Man not only gave Peter some "evolutionary" physical enhancements and more extensive knowledge but also instilled in him a subtle sense of aversion towards capitalists like Stark.
Moreover, with the logical reasoning abilities of the Shadow Spider-Man, Peter now had a 95% certainty that Iron Man was coming because he had discovered Peter's abilities!
He had even guessed some of the causes and effects.
In the Sokovia incident a month ago, the Avengers had strived to stop Ultron's apocalyptic plot.
But there were still many "rumors" circulating online, claiming that Ultron was actually Tony Stark's creation, and the fall of Sokovia, the displacement of millions of residents, and the countless casualties and property damage were ultimately caused by Tony Stark's misdeeds.
Although Stark Industries later generously donated funds for the resettlement and compensation of Sokovian residents after the disaster, building shelters, organizing medical teams, and even developing and providing free medicines through its pharmaceutical department, and so on.
However, all of this was seen as Tony Stark's atonement for his wrongdoings.
But atonement did not mean innocence, nor could it erase the mistakes themselves.
In the past, out of admiration for Iron Man, Peter was outraged by these attacks on Iron Man and often engaged in online debates with the critics.
But now, he thought those attacks were quite possibly true.
Of course, those intentionally spreading such comments clearly had ulterior motives.
Either to attract attention and gain internet traffic revenue, or to attack Iron Man and his Stark Industries.
Because Peter had also seen people calling for Iron Man to open up some of Stark Industries' technologies to public "security supervision".
Their intentions were quite obvious.
Peter dared to conclude that even if Iron Man foolishly complied, those technologies would ultimately be seized by those with ulterior motives, secretly hidden away for their own selfish purposes.
Of course, Iron Man was clearly not a fool and would never actually do such a thing.
He had the ability and means to protect his legitimate assets.
The second clue was from a few weeks ago, in a place called Lagos, where the Avengers' actions resulted in a building being damaged and many casualties.
Although they had done these things to counter a terrorist organization, it undoubtedly caused panic among the public.
So, a few days ago, the LHG Building in Vienna hosted a conference about the "Sokovia Accords".
The accords demanded restrictions on the Avengers' actions, allowing them to act only after being assessed as needed, rather than acting at their own discretion as before.
Unfortunately, on the day the accords were to be signed, the LHG Building in Vienna was attacked by terrorists, resulting in twelve deaths, including King T'Chaka of Wakanda, and at least seventy injuries.
This incident also caused great public panic.
Although official photos of the suspect were released, identifying him as the notorious HYDRA operative "Winter Soldier" James Buchanan Barnes, conspiracy theorists believed it was "retaliation" by certain former Avengers unwilling to sign the accords.
Some even dug up old history, confirming that Captain America and the Winter Soldier had once been close partners - Captain America's story was well-known, and he became the real Captain America after rescuing his friend the Winter Soldier and many other captured soldiers, having been a stage performer initially. Finding this information was not difficult.
And as was well-known, Captain America did not appear on the day the accords were to be signed. Although the reason was unknown, it was evident that he was unwilling to sign the accords.
Although it was logically difficult to believe that this hero, who had been a symbol of American spirit for a long time, would be part of the opposition, the facts were as such.
He had a motive.
After some conjecture, it made sense.
If the previous was just speculation, then the video from yesterday of Captain America, the Winter Soldier, and a man in a black armored suit chasing and fighting on a German street solidified these conjectures.
Captain America had become a criminal!
On the internet now, there were almost overwhelming negative comments about the Avengers, especially Captain America, who had gone from a superhero to a universally reviled super-criminal!
In summary, with Iron Man showing up at this point, Peter had two conjectures:
First, he had discovered Peter's true identity and superhuman abilities, so he wanted Peter to also sign the Sokovia Accords to be constrained.
Second, based on the first point, due to Captain America's rebellion, Iron Man would likely team up with the remaining faction unwilling to sign the accords to oppose Captain America's faction.
Iron Man needed help, so he had come to Peter.
Peter pondered to himself, if this were the case, what should he do?
"Hey, Peter? Why are you spacing out?" At some point, Aunt May had walked up to Peter.
Peter snapped out of it and smiled. "Aunt May, you look radiant."
"Really? I think so too!"
NEW BOOK, PLEASE COLLECT AND RECOMMEND
(end of chapter)