"Perhaps you're right, but Uncle Ben once told me: With great power comes great responsibility…"
Facing Tony's ridicule, Peter stubbornly said, "Since heaven has bestowed me with these Beyonder abilities, I feel it's my duty to use them to benefit more people…"
This is why Spider-Man is known as the "friendly neighborhood," and it's also the belief he has always upheld.
"Oh, do you want me to praise you? What a remarkable ideal. But before that, I think you should first learn to take care of yourself and your family…" Tony's usual sharp tongue softened unexpectedly as he continued, "The summer vacation starts in a few days. To prevent you from making the wrong choices, I think I need to keep you by my side and watch over you."
"What?" Peter hadn't quite grasped the situation yet.
"Congratulations," Tony smiled and announced, "Given your grand ideals, you've passed my interview and are about to become a summer intern at Stark Industries."
If Tony had previously considered Peter out of respect for Aunt May, wanting to give him some care.
But after hearing his ideals, he was slightly moved.
Therefore, he decided to give him a chance.
Becoming a summer intern at Stark Industries would not only give Peter access to higher technology but also a decent salary.
This would provide Spider-Man with the funds to improve his Spider-Man suit and web-shooters.
"Stark Industries summer intern?" Peter knew what this meant and excitedly said, "Thank you, Mr. Stark. I will not let you down…"
With that, he reached out to shake Tony's hand.
Only after seeing Tony's disgusted expression did he realize, "Sorry, I almost forgot, you don't like shaking hands."
Then, under Tony's even more disgusted gaze, Peter withdrew his hand and stepped forward to gently hug him.
"Seriously, thank you very much!"
…
Later, at Aunt May's call, the three went downstairs and had a very ordinary civilian dinner.
A cheap steak, a vegetable salad, a few slices of bread, and some exquisite apple pies.
Then, watched by Peter and Aunt May, Tony and Mike, who had eaten their fill, drove away from Hell's Kitchen.
"You seem to be in a good mood." Mike suddenly spoke.
Tony, driving with the cool night breeze of New York blowing, was humming an unknown tune.
He looked very relaxed.
"How so?" Tony asked, feigning ignorance.
"Appetite." Mike explained.
Due to the ingredients, Aunt May's dinner wasn't actually that delicious, but Tony ate with great relish.
And earlier upstairs, when Peter hugged him, Tony clearly had a chance to avoid it, but he didn't.
One could only say that while Tony had a peculiar temper, he was unexpectedly thoughtful at times.
He truly lived up to being a "tsundere" fellow.
"Perhaps, I really like the ordinary yet happy feeling in Peter's home." Perhaps it was the atmosphere, but Tony was unexpectedly honest for once.
Moreover, the three experiences today truly made Tony, a favored son of heaven, realize some aspects of ordinary people's lives.
There were good and bad parts.
"Those street heroes don't seem to be doing very well. Do you think I should offer them some help…" Tony suddenly mused.
The three street heroes he met today were a lawyer, a mercenary, and a high school student.
Especially Wade, that guy seemed to be having a very tough time.
"Forget it, dealing with them should be quite troublesome…" Before Mike could speak, Tony dismissed his own idea.
Fundamentally, Tony, as a technological giant and a favored son of heaven, couldn't truly empathize much with ordinary people.
Therefore, his brief moment of pity came and went quickly.
…
And so, another half a month passed.
During this time, Tony, for the sake of a few more "treatments," almost dragged Mike through every corner of New York.
He found many street heroes, including loners like Luke with his indestructible skin talent, anti-heroes like Big Daddy and Cady, and also "losers" like Kick-Ass.
In terms of their status, apart from a very few uninhibited "outlaws" like Big Daddy and Cady, the other street heroes weren't doing well.
Especially Scott, a guy who unexpectedly became Ant-Man.
When Mike and Tony found him, he was planning to rob a bank because he couldn't afford his daughter's medical expenses.
In a way, his situation was quite similar to Deadpool's.
And frequently encountering these struggling street heroes rekindled Tony's previous idea of creating a "Street Hero Mutual Aid Society."
To dispel this dangerous idea of meddling, Tony decided to host another party tonight to change his mood.
It was also to celebrate Mike's housewarming.
Yes, Mike's villa had been completed and was ready for immediate move-in.
"Don't forget, Mike. You now owe me eighteen 'treatments' in total. How about we round it up to twenty?" Tony, preparing to have a blast at the upcoming party and regain his confidence, reminded Mike with a smile.
"No, only seventeen. That Kick-Ass definitely isn't worth one treatment." Mike shook his head.
Kick-Ass, who, out of admiration for superheroes, put on a tight suit to cosplay a street hero.
His physical fitness and abilities were not even comparable to ordinary people.
Calling him a street hero was quite a stretch.
Moreover, Mike had realized that some ordinary street heroes were no longer helping much with the improvement of his abilities.
Continuing to search would only be a waste of time.
So, he had already decided to end his collaboration with Tony in searching for street heroes.
"Kick-Ass, who upholds justice, even if his abilities are a bit lacking, why isn't he considered a hero?" On the other side, Tony, thinking about his own happy life, was still arguing reasonably.
Just then, the AI butler Jarvis sent a message: "Mr. Stark, Peter Parker has initiated a video request with you."
"Peter? I almost forgot, high school should be on summer vacation now…" Tony, thinking Peter couldn't wait to intern at Stark Industries, said to Jarvis, "Open Peter's communication access."
As the virtual screen opened, Peter's figure appeared in the frame.
Only, the situation didn't look very good.
"Peter, I reminded you to think more about yourself and your family." Looking at Spider-Man's figure rapidly moving between tall buildings on the screen, Tony said with a cold face, "Are you so eager to put on that pajama and be a hero?"
"Given your immaturity, I need to reconsider whether you're qualified to be an intern at Stark Industries…"
"No, no, no, Mr. Stark. Please listen to me, I'm already ready to intern at Stark Industries, this is just an accident…" Peter, running frantically on the rooftop with his phone, explained, "It's The Punisher, he's going to get revenge on Jigsaw. You might not know who Jigsaw is, he's a gang leader here in Hell's Kitchen…"
"This time, he teamed up with Kingpin to set up The Punisher. Oh, and Daredevil too…"
It was indeed visible from the video that Peter was being chased by gang members.
Below, there was also intense gunfire.
"Daredevil? What exactly is happening on your end?" Listening to the dense gunfire, Tony no longer bothered to scold Spider-Man.
"Daredevil is also here to help, Jigsaw and Kingpin teamed up to surround us. Only I managed to escape the encirclement with my webs…" Peter said after webbing up a few pursuing gang members, "Anyway, we need help."
Their previous meeting left Peter with a very good impression of Tony and Mike, so when he encountered significant trouble, he immediately thought of asking them for help.
Of course, this was a very wise move.
"Tell me, where are you now?" The situation was urgent, and Tony didn't waste any more words.
"Hell's Kitchen Central Building." Peter started running again, his voice drawn out long.
However, all the necessary information was clearly conveyed.
"Very good, hold on for five more minutes, support will arrive soon." Tony had already developed portable armor, and it was a good time to test its effectiveness.
After hanging up the video, he immediately went to the lab and put on the briefcase armor with a single command.
"Looks like our plans for tonight have changed. Want to race to see who's faster?" Tony, equipped in a cool, bright red armor, provocatively raised his head at Mike.
"Are you sure?" Mike reached out and opened a circular spatial teleportation portal.
On the other side was where The Punisher and the others were fighting.
"You're cheating!" Tony was visibly stunned for a moment, then activated his armor and flew towards the portal, saying, "Because of your cheating, this bet doesn't count. So I didn't lose…"
As his voice faded, Tony had already arrived above the Hell's Kitchen building.
This was considered the lair of the underground "Emperor" Kingpin, and many gang members could be seen holding submachine guns, chasing Spider-Man.
"Jarvis, activate the auto-aiming system and give our 'friends' a surprise."
"Received. Auto-aiming system activated, weapons loaded successfully."
"Tat-tat… tat…"
Learning from the previous experience with the alien warrior swarm tactics, Tony had equipped his latest armor with many thermal weapons.
They were very suitable for clearing out "fodder."
And Stark Industries, starting out with weapons, certainly didn't lack firepower.
As the armor spewed out streams of fire, within a few seconds, the gang members chasing Spider-Man were all headshotted one by one.
"Mr. Stark, and Mr. Mike, how did you get here so fast!" Peter looked on in surprise at the two figures who appeared in the sky just in time.
At this time, Peter had only been bitten recently and couldn't fully utilize his strength.
Moreover, his equipment, like the web-shooters, hadn't been upgraded yet.
Facing ten armed gang members was already his limit.
Therefore, at this moment, he looked somewhat disheveled.
"Now is not the time for small talk, tell me about the situation below." After confirming that Spider-Man was not injured, Tony got down to business.
At this moment, flashes of fire and the sound of high-explosive grenades occasionally lit up the building below, sounding like a small battle was taking place.
"I'm not entirely sure about the specific situation, I only know that The Punisher and Daredevil rushed into the building…" Peter said with difficulty.
With his spider-sense, he could clearly feel that the building was very dangerous, which was why he chose to ask Tony and Mike for help.
As for The Punisher, he seemed fearless, directly charging into the building.
Although Daredevil also entered the building, it looked more like he was going to support The Punisher.
"Forget it, they're just some gang members…" Tony, not having inquired about the enemy's firepower, didn't care much and then said, "Stay behind me and protect yourself, we're going to rescue your two hero friends now."
Tony, with absolute confidence in his new armor, drew a semicircular arc in the air and flew towards the engaged building.
Accompanying him were two small missiles from his armor's shoulders.
"Boom Boom"
Amidst the flames, two huge holes were blown into the building, and then Tony, clad in his armor, followed closely behind.
After a heroic landing, dense gunfire immediately erupted.
"Cool!" Peter exclaimed, looking at Tony's dashing silhouette.
Then, he saw Iron Man being blasted out clumsily by a rocket launcher, trailing black smoke, and falling to the ground.
It truly embodied the saying: as dashing as he was when he left, that's how disheveled he was upon his return.
"Let's go, it looks like Tony needs our help too." Mike shook his head, then flew down to Tony's side.
"How are you, are you okay?" Mike asked Tony as he got up.
"I was careless this time, I didn't expect them to have heavy weapons…" Tony took a breath and said, "But to defeat the great Iron Man with just these, they're far from it—"
Tony had equipped his latest armor with a large number of thermal weapons, while also considering flexibility.
This inevitably reduced the armor's defensive capabilities.
However, fortunately, the armor's built-in shock absorption was good, so even after being attacked, Tony, though looking disheveled, wasn't significantly harmed.
And with preparation, relying on the new armor's flexibility, large weapons like rocket launchers would be difficult to hit Tony again.
By the time Mike entered the building through the hole in the wall, Tony, who had returned earlier, had already used the armor's flexibility and his own thermal weapons.
Through hit-and-run tactics, he had eliminated the gang members on the outer layer of the building.
Further inside, his path was blocked by a burly man with bone claws on his hands and a Mohawk haircut.
"Wolverine?"
The weapons on Tony's body had little effect on the burly man; the shallow bullet craters quickly returned to their original state.
Instead, the burly man, relying on his powerful physique, endured the attacks and approached Iron Man.
With a grating sound, many scratches appeared on the Iron Man armor, and the weapon system was completely destroyed by the bone claws.
The entire process happened in an extremely short amount of time.
"You know my father? But, you still have to die!"
Daken revealed his sharp bone claws and stabbed towards Iron Man's chest.
Just at this critical moment, Mike flashed forward and grabbed the bone claws.
"Good strength." After evaluating Daken's strength, Mike asked, "So you're Wolverine's son, then do you know where Wolverine and Professor X are?"
[Super Healing (Trait)]… [Retractable Bone Claws (Trait)]…
[Emotion Manipulation (Trait)]…
From his abilities, it could basically be confirmed that the burly man in front of him was Wolverine's son.
Compared to Logan, this guy not only had extraordinary physique but also an additional mental attack ability.
It was just a pity that this ability had no effect on Mike, who was a stat monster.
"If you want to know the answer, go to hell and ask!!!" Daken, with a fierce expression, violently snapped off his bone claws and continued to hammer Mike.
He seemed to have a stronger bestial nature than his father, Logan.
However, his forceful blow was again easily caught by Mike.
"Forget it, I'll just see for myself." Mike, finding it troublesome, directly used [Mind Reading].
The reason Mike sought out mutants was entirely because he coveted Professor X's psychic abilities.
As for the second-generation wolf in front of him, he wasn't that important.
Then Mike learned that this burly man, who called himself Dark Wolverine, was indeed Logan's son.
However, from his memories, he couldn't read the whereabouts of Wolverine and Professor X.
Instead, he discovered that the burly man, Daken, was an out-and-out villain, even more unscrupulous than Deadpool for commission.
He had committed many unforgivable heinous crimes.
Looking at Daken, who was still struggling after being restrained, Mike finally used an energy blast to crush his brain, sending him to hell.