At the Avengers base, a cup of coffee was set down on the table. The sound of its bottom touching the surface startled Stark awake. Steve waved a hand in front of his eyes and said, "You've been spacing out for half an hour. Want to take a shot?"
Beside him, Peter rubbed the tip of his cue stick and pushed up his glasses. "Didn't Doctor say there wouldn't be any problems? What are you so nervous about?"
"Aren't you worried?" Stark pretended to snap out of it, crossing one leg over the other and looking to the side. "Like, what if he suddenly shows up here but doesn't recognize any of us? Or he charges in completely insane and tries to kill everyone?"
Peter pulled his head back so far he nearly gave himself a double chin, his features scrunching together as though he simply could not understand why Stark would imagine such a thing. He continued rubbing his cue stick. "Why would that happen? What do you think would cause it?"
"Just some accident."
"Then why don't you worry that when you update your computer system, it'll never boot up again? Or that a dinosaur will suddenly crawl out of the screen and eat you?"
"Because programs are stable." Stark spread his hands. "Every line of code in a computer system follows logic. If the logic is sound, accidents won't happen."
"Isn't Doctor Schiller the same?"
"You think he's like that?"
Peter nodded. "You should assume so. Ordinary people like us always have illogical sides within our minds, full of all kinds of coincidences, like an unknown black box whose internal structure remains a mystery until you open it."
"But Doctor Schiller isn't like that. The fact that he can keep his mental system running in such an