Chapter 84: The War of the Good Men (I)
With a cacophony of sounds and flashing lights, Stark stood in front of the interview desk in a suit, and as soon as he stood still, a dozen microphones immediately reached over, and he stretched out his hand and pressed down, signaling them to be calm.
"Hello, Mr. Stark, I'm Bullock, a special correspondent for the Global Daily, may I ask Mr. Stark, what do you think of the questioning and accusation of disregard for human life that you have suffered by terminating your medical cooperation with the military?"
"You've got to figure out a problem." Stark pointed his finger at the male reporter.
"Cooperation is not something I want to shut down, and with your small brain, I'm afraid you can't understand the difference between medical device technology in the industrial direction and ordinary medical technology used in hospitals......"
Stark seemed to be in good spirits, but he had some heavy dark circles under his eyes, betraying the fact that he hadn't actually slept well lately.
Pepper is very busy, and the stark group behemoth depends on her for the smooth operation, and since Stark and the military turned against each other, he has faced all kinds of pressure from the outside world.
Just like this press conference, Stark glanced down, and he knew that at least half of the people in it had received money from the military, and they would ask all kinds of tricky questions like the reporter named Bullock just now, trying to throw all the blame on him.
The reporter added: "Stark Industries is obviously not as active in the research and development of medical technology as Osborne, does this mean that you are not as concerned about the development of human medicine as the leaders of Osborne, or that you do not have the compassion to pay attention to those who are troubled by diseases?" ”
Stark glanced at his work card, well, it seems, this guy named Eddie Bullock is completely here to find fault.
"I don't want to dwell on you about this, about the closure of the medical technical cooperation project, you better ask the army general."
"And what about Stark Industries' weapons? Does the refusal to develop more medical technology to save the soldiers who were injured on the battlefield after these weapons were used in the war mean that Stark Industries is actually a thief who cares about profiting from the war and is a thief who cares about the casualties of civilians? ”
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The journalist, Bullock, spoke so quickly that a large number of words came out of his mouth like a machine gun, and every angle and question was to the point, and Stark thought that if he hadn't had the script given to him by the military, he would really be a genius journalist.
When a person wants to find fault with you, no matter what you do, you will definitely be blamed in all directions.
The next day, the major newspapers in New York were flooded with negative reports about Stark, among which the Global Times gold medal reporter Bullock was the most criticized.
Stark knew that it was the military that kept putting pressure on him to keep his head down, but he knew he had to resist that pressure, or Pepper would be isolated.
The events of this period made him think a lot, about love, about friendship, about family.
It's true that Iron Man doesn't back down, but it's not just for his lofty ideals, it's for all the people he loves.
The military's public opinion warfare is useful, not only to suppress the reputation of the Stark Group, but also to praise the Osborne Group, which is already better at biotechnology and medical technology, compared to the Stark Group, which is more proficient in the military industry.
This has also become a reason for the media to attack the reputation of the Stark Group, they portray the Stark Group as an evil organization that has no regard for human nature, and criticize it as a cancer of humanity, as if the world would be completely peaceful without the Stark Group.
It's impossible to say that these overwhelming negative reports have no effect on Stark, and if these reports were really like lace news, all chasing after the wind, then he probably wouldn't be under so much pressure.
The problem is that Stark himself knows that the weapons he sold hurt a lot of people, and not all of what the media said was wrong, and the Stark Group made its fortune from the war in the first place.
Stark, who had just come out of that extreme negativity, fell into depression again.
On the other side, during Peter's sewer exploration trip, he once again found traces of human activity in the sewers.
Ever since he last found the clues, Peter had been paying attention to every checkpoint he had walked by, and then he found that this sewer weirdo had not only lived in that one stronghold, he seemed to be running around in the sewers every day, and there were traces of his life at five or six checkpoints in the same block.
Following these traces, Peter began to get closer and closer to the truth, and he guessed that this strange man must have a real stronghold somewhere at the intersection of these traces of activity.
As the sewer map became more and more perfect, Peter finally found the possible meeting point, which was near a reservoir in the sewers, where four pathways extended corresponded to four blocks of activity, and the strange man may have created a stronghold there, and then set up temporary strongholds in other blocks.
It's no surprise that not everyone has the physical strength of Spider-Man to run half of the sewers in a day.
The sewers were large, the roads were long, and there were no manhole covers near the reservoir that could lead to the ground, so he had to establish a resting point between the manhole cover and the reservoir, otherwise he would not be able to cover such a long distance due to exhaustion.
Peter was also keenly aware of this, which showed that the strange man operating in the sewers was probably just an ordinary person, and he couldn't walk for many kilometers in such a damp and dark sewer, so he needed to build multiple rest rooms in the sewers that extended in all directions.
This gave Peter confidence, because as long as the opposite side was an ordinary person, and he was caught off guard, he would definitely be able to catch him.
One night, Peter touched the reservoir's stronghold, and knowing that the strange man would not be here at this time, he pried open the door of the maintenance station near the reservoir.
Entering the maintenance station, Peter was taken aback, there were bottles and jars, and a lot of rudimentary equipment.
Peter picked up one of the bottles and looked at it, and he saw that it seemed to be some biological tissue sample, and he thought, who is this person? How did you come here to experiment?
He walked past the jumbled boxes on the ground, and then walked inside, but it was even more terrible, there were many biological specimens inside, and in the gloomy light, it looked especially terrifying.
It's like a base for crazy weirdos.
The man was cautious, leaving no data or text other than the materials used in the experiment, and Peter turned around and found no relevant identification information.
A mad scientist conducting biological experiments in the sewers of New York? Peter gradually sketched an image of evil in his mind.
He couldn't be allowed to go on like this, Peter thought, New York's sewers were not often visited, but they were also the lifeblood of New York, and if someone dumped some dangerous experimental waste into it, it would probably be dangerous for the whole of New York.
Thinking so, Peter went to the door, took down the dry cardboard boxes that had been piled up at the door, tore them apart, and lit a fire, intending to burn the stronghold completely.
Although the sewers were damp, the pit station was still dry, and when a fire was lit, the whole room was soon filled with black smoke, and Peter closed the door of the pit station and watched as the fire engulfed all the lab equipment inside.
He breathed a sigh of relief, but fortunately he had discovered it early, and once the mad scientist had actually developed any poison or poison gas, it would be too late.
Peter, who came out of the sewers, was still a little uneasy, he felt that although he had destroyed a stronghold, this mad scientist might have other strongholds, and he had to hurry up and keep an eye on this place these days, and it was best to catch him.
Over the next few days, Peter spent the days interning at Stark Group and frequenting the sewers at night, and since the destruction of the stronghold, all traces of life in the sewers seem to have disappeared.
Looks like the crazy weird guy has given up.
Peter was at ease, and his internship had not gone well lately, when he found that Mr. Stark was very negative, that he didn't even do experiments, and that he smoked and drank all day, and sometimes he was so drunk that he collapsed on the floor of the laboratory, and Peter had to help him up.
Peter had read all the negative reports about Stark, but he didn't believe a word at all, he felt that it was a complete smear, Iron Man was a superhero, he saved a lot of people, and he wasn't the devil who didn't have humanity in the media.
Peter wanted to turn the situation around, but he didn't have a good idea, he was not very good at it, he didn't even dare to make a phone call to question the reports, so he went to the psychiatric clinic again, and he felt that Dr. Schiller must have a way to turn the tide of opinion.
Schiller has been busy finding food for the symbiotes lately.
When Peter came to the psychiatric clinic, Schiller was bandaging Pikachu, who was jumping on the kitchen table while he was stir-frying, his tail falling into the pot and a large handful of hairs were burned, and he was lying on the table pitifully for Schiller to treat him.
Peter said, "Hey! Excuse me? Then I can come back tomorrow......"
"It's okay, come in, I don't have anything serious to do right now."
Peter walked in and rubbed Pikachu's face hard, Pikachu wrinkled his nose and tried to dodge, but the tail was still in Schiller's hand, and he jumped to the side, and the tail was grabbed so hard that it fell on the table again, and crackled and knocked over a lot of cups.
"Be honest." Schiller said, "Otherwise, your tail will be bald forever." ”
Peter sat down in a chair next to him and said, "Doctor, have you read those reports lately?" Those reporters are so good at talking nonsense that some of them swear that he saw Mr. Stark selling weapons to the terrorists, and even the scenes of their negotiations are vividly described......"
"It's a reporter's skill, and if you don't have this ability, then you don't have to mix in the New York journalist circle."
"But they're all spreading rumors!" Peter angrily slammed the table and said, "Mr. Stark is not that kind of person!" ”
"Really? If that's really all about rumors, Stark should be the same as you are now, and you're extremely angry that your friend was being rumored, and the person being told will only be angrier when they are being rumored. ”
"That'......" Peter choked up, because what Schiller said made sense, and when Thompson made up some stories about him at school, he was almost angry, but why wasn't Mr. Stark angry? Don't stand up and try to refute them?
You know, even if he is a little bad at words, he still tries very hard to explain those rumors to the people around him.
"Why are you so sure that what you believe is right?" Schiller asked him.
"Because I'm ...... But I know Stark really isn't like that! ”
"Maybe you've only seen one side of him?"
"But......" said Peter, clenching his fists, "Doctor, isn't Mr. Stark also your friend?" Do you think he's really the kind of guy who writes about it? ”
Schiller shook his head and said, "The Stark in my eyes is very likely to be completely different from the Stark in your eyes, just as there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people." ”
"The perception of a thing always changes due to their different positions, a bad person may be a bad person if he looks good at a good person, and a bad person may be a good person if he sees a bad person."
Peter slapped the palm of his other hand with his fist and said, "I believe that those reporters and the Osborne group must be bad guys, and the bad guys are good guys, because they are all the same dogs, so they praise each other, and those reporters must be bad guys who don't like good guys......"
"How do you think good guys and bad guys are defined?"
Belch...... Those who do good deeds are good people, and those who do bad deeds are bad people? ”
"How do you define good things and bad things?"
"At least...... At least it must be in line with the facts, not rumors, and no violations of laws and regulations...... There is also morality, and you have to follow the moral bottom line, so it's a good thing, right? ”
"Do you think you're not breaking traffic safety laws by wandering around New York all day?"
"But I'm here to ...... Well, I think my intentions are good, and my goals are good, I saved people, right? Actually, it's nothing to break a little bit of the law......"
Schiller shook his head and said, "You will have to understand one day that there are no completely good people or completely bad people in this world, and this world is full of good things with good intentions and results, and good things with bad intentions and results." ”
Peter scratched his head and said, "I think it's like tongue twisters." ”
"If you always look at the world in a simple black and white way, sooner or later you will find that the black and white are mixed into a hazy gray."
"But good things are good things, bad things are bad things, I just want to help more people and do more good things." Peter said.
When he left Schiller, Peter's head was still a little dizzy, he was a little dizzy by Schiller's big set of metaphors about good things and bad things, Peter's idea was simple, he was a good man, so he had to do good things, and he also had to stop bad people from doing bad things.
What the hell doesn't make sense? Isn't that simple?
Peter shook his head, he felt that he was right, and if everyone thought like him, then the world would definitely be much better, the reason why there are so many crimes, is because those bad people are not willing to give up doing bad things, if everyone is a good person, then the world, wouldn't there be no more crime?
After walking all the way and thinking all the way, Peter glanced at his watch and realized that it was still early, he had already asked for leave from the team leader of the internship, and when he went home, his uncle and aunt would definitely not be at home.
Peter thought about it, but he still planned to continue his superhero career.
Finding the nearest manhole cover, Peter drilled into it, thinking that it would be better to patrol the sewers a little more to be on the safe side, and to stop the Frankenstein's possible dangerous behavior.
However, as soon as he entered the sewer today, Peter had a creepy feeling, which had not yet reached the level of spider induction, but it still sent a chill down his back.
As a last resort, he opened his backpack, put on a spider suit, then hid the backpack in a corner, and began to continue walking into the depths of the sewers as Spider-Man.
That pervasive sense of crisis made Spider-Man not run as fast as before, but walked briskly, and just as he got closer and closer to the cistern in the center of the city, the spider sense began to rattle slightly, and he was a little flustered, but he couldn't find the source of the panic.
After walking for a while, suddenly, he heard a slight "hissing" sound in front of him, accompanied by the grinding sound of metal scratching against stone.
The spider senses suddenly moved, and Spider-Man quickly rolled to the other side, dodging a shard of slate thrown at him.
In the splash of stone chips, Peter looked up, and he saw a large figure at the end of the gloomy sewer.
It was a behemoth at least four or five meters tall, and when he got closer, Peter could see through the faint light of the sewer that it was a lizard walking upright, a huge lizardman so tall that it took up almost the entire sewer space.
Spider-Man swallowed, he realized that his small body was really thin and small compared to the lizardman.
But apparently, the monster had spotted him, and Peter began to flee along the wall as fast as he could, the huge lizardmen in hot pursuit, and the floor of the sewers trembled with every step he took.
The lizardman let out a violent roar, grabbed all kinds of stone slabs and threw them at Spider-Man, Spider-Man's speed was faster than him, but not much faster, and more importantly, those stone slabs allowed him to dodge left and right, seriously reducing his speed.
In the sewers, spider silk is not very useful, Peter can only run on his legs, and creatures with two feet have a weakness, that is, once the center of gravity is offset, it is easy to fall.
Peter flipped to the right in order to avoid a stone slab, but then he was scraped down from the left side by a fragment of a stone, and as soon as his center of gravity was unstable, he immediately rolled on the ground a few times, and the huge lizardman grabbed him by the leg and threw him out.
Peter was thrown against the wall of the sewer, coughing twice and feeling a fishy sweet taste in his throat.
He struggled to his feet, intending to prepare himself for the next bitter battle, but suddenly the lizardman shook his head, seemed unconscious, and then ignored Peter, but turned around and ran away in the other direction.