Words Are More Powerful Than Fists

The first day Schiller returned to Marvel's New York, Peter came to the clinic dejectedly, his arm in a sling. Schiller sized him up and said, "Your trip out west doesn't seem to have gone very smoothly."

Peter sighed and sat down opposite Schiller, placing his backpack on his lap. He accidentally bumped his injured arm and cried out, "Ah!" then sighed again. "Putting other things aside, maybe I'm just not cut out to be a superhero."

"What's wrong? Did you run into a tough opponent?"

"The opponent wasn't tough at all, but..."

Next, in Peter's description, Schiller heard about his and Captain America's rather comical trip out west.

Steve was a veteran, experienced, but as Captain America, the team members assigned to him in the past had all been elite warriors, thoroughly tempered. Even the new recruits were proficient in various combat techniques, lacking only practical experience.

But Spider-Man, Peter, was a complete blank slate. His fighting relied on brute force, his defense was basically just his physical toughness, not to mention any tactical acumen.

To train Spider-Man, Steve specifically asked S.H.I.E.L.D. not to arrange their itinerary, and instead took Peter out himself.

The first problem they encountered on their road trip was Peter's insatiable appetite.

Peter's spider mutation was still in its growth phase, requiring him to consume a large amount of food daily. Even though Steve had money, anyone who'd seen a road trip movie knew it was hard to guarantee suitable places to eat every meal. Most of the time, they'd just buy some fast food to carry in their backpacks and grab a bite when hungry.

But Peter ate so much that the food in their backpacks was gone in less than two meals. Thus, the two had to change their plans, and after taking the first bus, they transferred to the nearest small town.

The prices in this town weren't high, but Peter still ate over a thousand dollars worth of food. Credit cards weren't accepted, and the cash Steve brought quickly ran out. So, their road-wandering journey, which hadn't even properly begun, ended just like that.

Steve had to call Coulson to bring him money. In the end, S.H.I.E.L.D. drove them both to their destination, incidentally solving Peter's food problem.

Ever since Schiller had taken Spider-Man and Pikachu to raid S.H.I.E.L.D.'s food supplies last time, they had urgently developed a new type of compressed ration with nutrient solution, capable of providing a large amount of energy beyond normal human needs. This prevented the awkward situation of Peter eating all the restaurants empty along the way.

Once they arrived at their destination, Steve began leading Spider-Man to scout for the ninjas' traces. Although Peter learned a lot during this process, he messed up most of the tasks.

He possessed superhuman strength and recovery, but the only drawback was that he talked too much and was too restless.

At first, when Peter didn't understand anything, it was fine. He just obediently followed Steve, watching how he gathered information. But later, when Peter learned a little, his inherent talkative and hyperactive genes started acting up again.

Peter learned a few tricks and then felt he could do better. When Steve wanted to climb over a wall, Peter would leap onto the top. When Steve wanted to sneak up on a security guard and knock him out, Peter would climb over the roof, jump in front of the security guard, greet him, and then punch him in the face.

In short, the two with completely different combat styles, without any synchronized coordination, messed up all their reconnaissance efforts.

Fortunately, the ninjas seemed to be convinced that no one would come to the desolate west, so their traces were relatively easy to follow. Before long, Steve and Peter managed to locate one of their small strongholds.

What happened next was even more speechless.

What they were supposed to deal with were just a few low-level ninjas. Steve's estimate was correct; their trip was just a warm-up. Although the ninjas jumped around and disappeared suddenly, they weren't actually that strong.

But the problem lay with that disappearance. Steve swung his shield, and the ninja vanished. Behind him was Peter, who was about to scare the ninja by making a face.

The sturdy shield hit Peter's arm with a "bang!", breaking it on the spot.

This was the first time Captain America had ever fired on a friendly target, and the effect was quite remarkable.

"Steve told me it would be better to deal with these enemies from behind, so I swung from the rafters to sneak up on them from behind. But who knew he changed to a frontal assault? I never knew he was so strong. I was sent flying backward and slammed into the wall..."

"He took down those ninjas in a few moves, but he also took me down in one move," Peter said somewhat pitifully.

Schiller could barely contain his laughter. Peter said resentfully, "Laugh it up, laugh it up. When I got back, Coulson, Natasha, and Matt had already been laughing at me for days."

Schiller tried hard to suppress his laughter and comforted Peter, "Don't be sad, you should feel honored. The last person to be thrown by Captain's shield like that was the head of Hydra."

"I know I talk a lot, but I can't control myself. I get like this when I'm excited..."

"Perhaps you've heard the saying, 'Sometimes, words are more powerful than fists'," Schiller said.

A while later, Steve didn't arrive, but Natasha did. The female agent said with a headache, "Stark went to talk with Director Nick and ran into Steve on his way back. The two of them started a huge fight."

"Then why are you looking for me? I can't pull them apart."

"The Director already had people pull them apart, but the problem now is that Steve keeps bringing up Stark's father, and Stark absolutely refuses to believe that Steve is Captain America, his father's old comrade-in-arms."

"Or maybe he believes it, he just doesn't want to admit it," Schiller said.

Natasha covered her forehead and said, "In short, as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s senior psychological consultant, you must step in and mediate now..."

Natasha saw Schiller's intention to refuse and said, "Listen, the situation is like this: Iron Man and Captain America are arguing fiercely. Director Nick wants to mediate, but the two of them are ganging up to yell at him."

"Coulson also wants to try and break them up, but all three of them think Coulson is biased towards the other side. Nick thinks Coulson should help him persuade the two of them, Stark has known for a long time that Coulson is a loyal fan of Captain America and thinks he'll definitely take sides. Captain America thinks Coulson is a good person and shouldn't be misunderstood by the other two parties..."

"Simply put, the three parties have their own versions of events, and they don't trust each other, but there's no more credible fourth party to be found on the scene."

"Clearly, Nick wants them both to join the S.H.I.E.L.D. organized team, which is why this situation has arisen, right?"

Natasha was a little surprised by Schiller's perceptiveness, but she still said, "I think it's a plan that benefits everyone. After all, if they act independently, many problems will arise, like with Steve and Peter this time..."

"But clearly, the reason Steve and Peter's mission didn't go smoothly was Peter's fault, not Captain America's," Schiller said.

Peter's resentment deepened. "Hey, Doctor, you were just comforting me!"

Schiller said, "Speaking of breaking up fights, I have a better candidate."

Saying that, he grabbed Pikachu, who was sitting beside him, by the neck and tossed it into Natasha's arms.

Natasha grabbed Pikachu's two short paws and held it up to her face, saying, "I know you have a talking yellow rat, but what good is that? It can't even beat the weakest of the three, Nick."

Schiller said, "Trust me, sometimes, words are more powerful than fists."

Several hours later, it was dark. A loud, banging sound echoed from outside Schiller's clinic.

When he opened the door, Steve, Stark, Coulson, and Natasha were all there. Pikachu was held in the arms of Iron Man, who was in his armor, and Stark was tightly covering the yellow rat's mouth with his hand.

Schiller opened the door and let them in, then said, "You better not get photographed doing this, Stark, or the animal protection organizations will go crazy."

"No animal protection organization would protect a rat like this!" Stark said, roughly grabbing Pikachu by the tail and tossing it to Schiller.

Coulson looked like he had aged ten years, and Natasha leaned against the doorframe, saying, "Doctor, you've certainly provided us with a very effective solution!"

She emphasized "very effective" through gritted teeth.

Schiller handed Pikachu his phone to charge, and Steve sat down, clutching his forehead, saying, "God, I don't even know what just happened..."

"I used to think Peter was the loudest person in the world, but I never expected..." As he spoke, he wore a pained expression. It was clear that the recent barrage of torment was pushing even the good-natured Steve to his breaking point.

"He is the loudest person in the world, because Pikachu is a rat," Schiller said.

"He cursed everyone present with the foulest language I've ever heard, not once repeating himself. Nick couldn't even get a word in. With a Canadian accent, he insulted S.H.I.E.L.D. from top to bottom, from Nick Fury's eye patch to the glass water cups on his desk."

"He babbled for at least six hours, without repeating a single word. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s walls are practically engraved with his voice..."

"I don't know how he fits so many words into such a small body!" Coulson said, his voice trembling slightly.

"To shut him up, we had to feed him, but he ate an entire month's worth of donuts from the office and drank every single juice box dry. To stop him, all of us had to get involved personally!"

"He also electrocuted four phones and an Iron Man mech," Natasha said. "This included one of Nick's high-security phones, forcing him to go to the repair department himself to restore the data."

"But at least it was effective in calming things down, wasn't it? When you all teamed up to catch him, didn't you feel the joy of unity?" Schiller said with schadenfreude.

Stark, who suffered the most damage, said through gritted teeth, "Yeah, I can't believe I ended up discussing how to cook a rat for half an hour with this old fossil!"

"I think you now understand what I always say..."

"Yeah..." Steve began, then Stark looked at him. Sparks flew between their gazes, but they still said in unison, "Words are mightier than fists!"

Thanks to "Yi An Fei" for the generous reward of over 20,000 Qidian coins! Thank you!

The great author is awesome!