Speculation

"Peter, Peter, come take a look! Does this outfit suit me?"

The Parker house was a little noisy that morning, with May Parker shouting for Peter.

Peter yawned and walked helplessly toward Aunt May's room.

In front of the full-length mirror, a curvaceous Italian beauty was striking poses. Her fair skin was like a peach, as though a light pinch would squeeze water from it.

All right, it probably wasn't appropriate to use such words to describe his beloved aunt, but that really was Peter's first thought when he saw Aunt May.

"Aunt May, I told you, it's just Tony Stark. There's no need to make such a big deal out of it, right?" Peter said helplessly.

"Just Tony Stark?" Aunt May's voice rose several pitches as she stared at Peter in disbelief. "That wasn't what you said when we got the news yesterday. That look on your face—you practically jumped for joy! And don't think I don't know you were tossing and turning half the night, unable to sleep. Am I right?"

"Uh..." Peter was at a loss for words.

Indeed, if he had still been his former self, he would have been immensely excited and taken it incredibly seriously that Iron Man Tony Stark was coming to visit him in person.

That was Tony Stark!

Genius scientist, billionaire, Iron Man, Avenger. Countless halos surrounded him; he was like the protagonist of a novel, dazzling beyond measure.

And he, Peter Parker, was merely an ordinary kid from an average family who was not particularly popular at school.

A prince had entered the slums to visit a poor child. How could that poor child not be excited?

But last night's strange fusion with Shadow Spider-Man had not only given Peter a certain physical "evolution" and enriched his knowledge, but also left him with a faint instinctive resistance toward capitalists like Stark.

Moreover, with Shadow Spider-Man's powers of logical deduction, Peter was now 95 percent certain that Iron Man had come because he had discovered Peter's abilities!

He had even pieced together some of the events leading up to this.

A month ago, during the Sokovia incident, the Avengers had done everything they could to stop Ultron's world-ending scheme.

Yet plenty of "inside rumors" were still circulating online, claiming that Ultron had been Iron Man's creation, and that Sokovia's fall, the displacement of millions of residents, the countless casualties, and the property losses were ultimately all sins caused by Iron Man.

Although Stark Industries had later opened its coffers, pouring huge sums into resettling and compensating Sokovia's residents after the disaster, building shelters, organizing medical teams, and even having its pharmaceutical division develop medicines to provide them for free.

People still saw all of that as Iron Man atoning for his mistakes.

But atonement did not mean innocence. It could not erase the mistakes themselves.

In the past, out of his admiration for Iron Man, Peter had been furious at such attacks and had repeatedly gone online to argue with those people.

But now, he thought those accusations might very well be true.

Of course, those deliberately spreading such claims clearly had ulterior motives as well.

Perhaps they wanted attention and traffic revenue, or perhaps they wanted to... attack Iron Man and Stark Industries.

Peter had also seen people calling for Iron Man to open up some of Stark Industries' technology to the public in the name of so-called "public safety oversight."

Their intentions were obvious.

Peter dared say that even if Iron Man foolishly went along with it, those technologies would only end up being seized by opportunists, hidden away in secret, and used for their own petty schemes.

Of course, Iron Man was clearly not that kind of fool. He would never actually do such a thing.

He had both the ability and the means to protect his legitimate assets.

The second clue was that several weeks ago, in a place called Lagos, an Avengers operation had destroyed a building and caused many casualties.

Although they had been fighting a terrorist organization, it had undoubtedly caused public panic.

Then, a few days ago, a meeting was held at the LHG Building in Vienna. Its subject was the "Sokovia Accords."

The Accords demanded restrictions on the Avengers' actions, requiring them to act only after it had been determined that their intervention was needed, rather than doing whatever they wanted as before.

But unfortunately, on the day the Accords were to be signed, the LHG Building in Vienna was attacked by terrorists, killing twelve people—including Wakandan King T'Chaka—and injuring at least seventy more.

This incident also caused immense public panic.

Although the authorities released a photo of the suspect and identified him as the notorious Hydra agent, "Winter Soldier" James Buchanan Barnes, conspiracy theorists believed it was the "revenge" of certain former Avengers who had been unwilling to sign the Accords.

Some had even dug up old information confirming that Captain America and the Winter Soldier had once been close companions—Captain America's story was known to every household. He had gone from a stage actor to the real Captain America because he rescued numerous captured soldiers, including his friend the Winter Soldier. It was not difficult to find out.

And everyone knew that Captain America had not appeared on the day the Accords were signed. Though no one knew why, it was obvious that he had been unwilling to sign them.

Though it was difficult to believe that a heroic figure who had long served as a symbol of American spirit could actually be part of the opposition, that was the truth.

He had a motive too.

After such speculation, it all seemed perfectly reasonable.

If everything before this had merely been conjecture, then the video from yesterday of Captain America, the Winter Soldier, and a man in black armor chasing each other and fighting in the streets of Germany had confirmed it beyond doubt.

Captain America had become a criminal!

Now, negative comments about the Avengers had nearly flooded the entire internet. Captain America in particular had gone from a superhero to a super-criminal despised by everyone!

Taking everything into account, Peter had only two guesses as to why Iron Man had come knocking at this time:

First, he had discovered Peter's true identity and superpowers, so he wanted Peter to sign the "Sokovia Accords" as well and place himself under restrictions.

Second, based on the first possibility, because of Captain America's rebellion, he would likely join forces with the remaining people unwilling to sign the Accords to fight against Iron Man and the pro-Accords faction.

Iron Man needed help, so he had come to Peter.

Peter pondered secretly. If that was the case, what should he do?

"Hey, Peter? Why are you spacing out?" At some point, Aunt May had walked up in front of him.

Peter came back to his senses and smiled. "Aunt May, you look absolutely radiant."

"Really? I think so too!"

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