After the Dust Settled

"Hey, what does it matter, Peter? From your voice, you sound pretty young, don't you?" Ant-Man continued trying to pry information out of Peter.

Peter ignored him.

His sharper-than-average perception made him notice what seemed to be an explosion in the distant sky.

A black speck was falling diagonally toward the ground from the air.

There were only four participants in the aerial battle.

The first was the Quinjet piloted by Captain America and Winter Soldier.

The second was Iron Man, the third was War Machine, and the fourth was Falcon.

Who had been hit?

Falling from that kind of altitude, he...

Peter stared blankly in that direction.

After Ant-Man finished rambling, he realized Peter had not responded.

He followed Peter's gaze toward the distance, but without equipment, he was just an ordinary person and could not see that far.

"What's wrong, Peter?"

"Someone got hit," Peter said.

Ant-Man froze, his expression turning serious. "Something big happened."

Not long afterward, Peter received a call from Iron Man.

Over the phone, Iron Man told him that Rhodey's Iron Man Armor had been struck in its power source and had fallen from a height of a thousand meters. They were now rushing Rhodey to the hospital for emergency treatment.

As for Peter, he told him to return to the hotel and find Happy first. Once everything was over, he and Happy would take him back to Queens.

In the meantime, he could take a look around Berlin.

Naturally, Ant-Man was not so lucky.

As a "war criminal," he would be extradited back to the United States with Falcon to stand trial.

Peter had grown rather fond of this guy who was as chatty as he was, and he worried about what lay ahead for him.

Ant-Man himself, on the other hand, did not give a damn.

He said he had been a criminal before anyway, and now that he had gotten to take part in a battle between superheroes, he accepted being put on trial.

At least the reason for this trial was far more impressive than the last one.

Well, this guy was a born optimist.

Peter returned to the hotel first, took a shower, changed clothes, and then let Happy know.

Happy took him to the hospital where Iron Man and the others were.

By the time they arrived, Rhodey had already been taken into the emergency room. Peter only saw Iron Man and Black Widow.

They seemed to have just had an argument.

As Black Widow passed them, Happy greeted her, but she merely glanced at him before leaving without looking back.

"Mr. Stark, your hand..." Peter asked as he walked over to Iron Man.

Iron Man sent Happy off to buy some things, apparently because there were matters he wanted to discuss with Peter alone.

Iron Man gestured dismissively. "It's fine. Just a minor sprain. It'll heal soon enough."

"What about Colonel Rhodey?"

Iron Man glanced at him, forcing a smile onto his bitter face. "The doctor said he has comminuted fractures in his lumbar and sacral vertebrae, along with severe spinal cord tears. He'll very likely be paralyzed in the future."

Peter's face darkened.

"Becoming the kind of superhero people talk about may mean paying this kind of price. Are you afraid?" Iron Man asked, looking at Peter.

Peter shook his head. "This world has both light and darkness. People live in the light, so someone has to walk through the darkness."

Iron Man was slightly stunned, and even the look in his eyes changed.

Then he burst out laughing and reached out to ruffle Peter's hair into a complete mess. "You little brat, where did you get such a heavy sense of responsibility at your age?"

Peter shook his head vigorously and escaped Iron Man's grasp. "I'm serious!"

"Ha..." Iron Man withdrew his hand and leaned against the railing, looking into the distance. "It's good that you think that way, but remember this: don't let the darkness swallow you."

Peter nodded without saying anything.

Beep beep.

A message popped up on Iron Man's smartwatch. It was a video sent by the Berlin police.

He only glanced at it before covering the message on his watch, stopping Peter from satisfying his curiosity.

"Mr. Stark, is there anything you need me to do?"

Iron Man shook his head. "No. You've already done enough. You can walk around Berlin for a while. Once I've dealt with this, I'll take you back with me."

"Okay." Peter lowered his head, somewhat disappointed.

Iron Man patted his shoulder. "All right, go back and get some rest."

After Peter turned and left, Iron Man watched his retreating figure and muttered, "As long as old-timers like us are around, it'll never be your turn to become a walker in the darkness..."

After saying that, he looked at the message on his watch again and said to Friday, "Get me a helicopter. I'm making a trip to Raft Prison."

"Yes, sir."

After Happy finished buying the things, he and Peter returned to the hotel.

But Peter did not go sightseeing around Berlin as Iron Man had suggested. Instead, he reviewed the battle and drew lessons from it.

Strictly speaking, this had not been a real battle. Aside from the accident that caused War Machine to fall at the end, neither side had inflicted much actual damage.

Still, he had gained plenty of combat experience.

The experience of fighting superheroes had affected him greatly.

He had gained a great deal.

And his record had been pretty good too. It barely counted as living up to the expensive super-suit Iron Man had given him.

Still, he felt there were parts of the suit that could be improved. No, more accurately, there were still functions he had yet to discover.

Things had been too rushed earlier for him to study it. Now that he had time, he intended to examine it properly.

Very soon, he found a switch on the suit.

"Hi, Peter. Would you like to begin today's training?" A voice suddenly sounded.

"Ah..." Peter looked around. "Who are you?"

"I am the artificial intelligence assistant of your Spider-suit. I do not have a name yet. Perhaps you could give me one," the voice said.

"An artificial intelligence assistant! You mean like Mr. Stark's J.A.R.V.I.S.?" Peter asked excitedly.

"You can think of it that way," the AI assistant said.

"Okay, okay. Hmm, a name... How about Karen?" Peter said.

"That works. You can call me Karen, if it makes you happy," Karen said.

"Hey, Karen, does this suit have any other functions?" Peter asked.

"The suit contains a training protocol. You can set up a suitable training plan for yourself. It can help you become proficient with all the suit's functions sooner," Karen said.

"A training protocol? Uh, I'm actually more curious about what all the functions are specifically," Peter said.

"You can gradually learn about them during training," Karen said.

"Okay, okay. Then I want to start by learning how to fire webs."

"Okay. I have switched you to the web-shooter combination function. There are 576 scientific web-shooting combination patterns in total. Which would you like to learn first?"

"Huh???"