On the bench outside the court, Tandy Bowen was chewing his nails nervously.
Peter was a little helpless and reached out to hold her cold fingers and squeezed them gently. "Relax, Tandy, everything will be fine."
Tandy turned his head, his eyes full of anxiety and suspicion. "How do you know?"
Peter pursed his lips to the side. Blind lawyer Matt·Murdock calmly and calmly touched a Braille document with his fingertips.
"Because we have 'Devil of Hell's Kitchen' standing here, we will definitely be lucky." Peter joked.
Matt stopped with his hands and turned his head. "Peter, are you calling me a devil in disguise?"
"Anyway, I'm praising you for your ruthlessness." Peter smiled, then turned to look at Tandy, "Relax, you have the best lawyer now."
"I... I just didn't expect it to be so fast." Tandy whispered.
It was indeed surprisingly fast. Just one week after Matt took over the custody and abuse lawsuit, the hearing was scheduled; another week later, they were already standing outside the civil court.
"Don't worry, Miss Bowen." Matt closed the document and said in a gentle and steady voice, "The evidence is solid. Today's trial is basically just a legal formality."
Tandy looked down at Peter holding his hand, his knuckles still trembling a little.
Peter increased the strength on his hands. "Remember, you are no longer alone. We are here today."
Tandy took a deep breath and was about to nod when a loud commotion suddenly broke out at the end of the corridor.
"Mr. Osborn! What do you think of the result of the hearing just now?!"
"Mr. Osborn! There are rumors that your only son has been hospitalized and comatose since Christmas. Is this true?!"
"How does Osborn Enterprises plan to respond to outside accusations that you funded the super criminal 'Doctor Octopus' and caused huge damage?!"
A large number of reporters poured out of the court on the left side of the court, passing guns and cannons forward. A dozen bodyguards and lawyers in suits formed a human wall to escort the livid-faced middle-aged man in the middle.
Norman·Osborn.
The New York business giant's eyes were full of evil at this moment. He didn't even glance at Peter out of the corner of his eye and strode away through the corridor.
Peter looked away and asked Matt next to him in a low voice, "How is his lawsuit going?"
"A complete failure." Matt said calmly, "Almost all the victims and municipal departments are putting pressure on him. The mad scientist borrowed Osborn Enterprises's funds to make such a big fuss. Norman can't escape his involvement. Now the board of directors is even considering removing him as chairman."
Peter's heart sank slightly.
"Do you know him?" Tandy was a little curious.
"His son Harry... used to be my best friend." Peter sighed. At Christmas, he went to the hospital to visit Harry, who was still in a coma. After that, things happened one after another and he never got around to it again.
"Then how did he end up in this situation?"
Matt twitched his lips. "Greed coupled with arrogance. If you make one wrong move, you will lose everything."
Peter did not answer, but a ferocious green figure appeared in his mind involuntarily - Green Goblin.
Norman was forced into Extremis, which was by no means a good sign. The gears of fate did not seem to stop because of his intervention, but were turning secretly in another, more twisted way.
"Peter? You don't look good." Tandy called softly.
Peter came back to his senses, suppressed the haze in his heart, and showed a relaxed smile, "It's okay. After the lawsuit is over, how about I treat you to ice cream? I know there is a great store nearby."
Tandy just raised the corner of his mouth a little, and a sharp female voice suddenly sounded from the other end of the corridor:
"Tandy Bowen!"
Tandy stiffened and retracted his hand as if he was electrocuted.
Peter and Matt turn their heads at the same time.
A man and a woman walked towards each other. The woman's eyebrows were 78% similar to Tandy's. She had a gorgeous appearance and a plump figure. She was wearing a luxurious white mink coat, and her neck and earlobes were covered with round pearls. However, unlike Tandy's weak and pure look, this woman's eyebrows were full of meanness and disgust.
The man next to her had neat blond hair and two beards above his lips. He was strong and tall, and his suit was bulging with tight muscles. Judging from the hard-core military style and the bruises that appeared on Tandy's body, this was obviously a stepfather with serious violent tendencies.
"Damn girl, what on earth do you want to do?!" Stepfather Philip strode closer with an angry look on his face, "Find a lawyer to sue us? Such a farce will make us embarrassed in the entire social circle! Do you know how your mother and I have been criticized these days?!"
Matt stepped forward and stood firmly in front of Peter and Tandy with his guide cane. His tone was cold. "Mr. Carlisle, Mrs. Carlisle. Since the custody of the minor is currently in the judicial dispute stage, according to the restraining order, you two are not allowed to approach my client without supervision. I suggest that you step back immediately to avoid the trouble of contempt of court."
Philip had veins popping out on his forehead, and just as he was about to step forward to take action, Tandy's mother Melissa stretched out her hand to stop him.
"Murdock, lawyer, right?" Melissa looked at the slightly cheap suit on Matt with disdain, and took out a book from Hermès's handbag Ticket Book, "I heard that your law firm can barely pay next month's rent. My daughter has loved fantasy since she was a child and always likes to make up some sensational lies to gain sympathy. I believe that smart people like you should know what true decency is."
She picked up the gold pen, neatly wrote a dizzying string of zeros on the check, tore it off and handed it to Matt.
Tandy's face turned pale, and his eyes were full of fear, fearing that this only life-saving straw would be bribed with money.
Peter didn't even blink.
Matt sneered and didn't even look at the check. He just pushed it back gently with his fingertips. "Sorry, Mrs. Carlisle, although I am blind, I am not so blind that I can't even see my conscience. We will see you in court."
After saying that, Matt turned around neatly and led Peter and Tandy towards the entrance of the court, leaving behind the couple who were livid and trembling with anger.
Peter patted Tandy on the shoulder. "Don't worry, you won't have to see them again in the future."
An hour later.
Standing in the sunshine in front of the court building, Tandy suddenly raised his hands and cheered. "I am free!"
As Matt expected, the trial only lasted less than ten minutes. Even though Melissa spent a lot of money to hire a top lawyer from Washington who charges one thousand dollars per hour, the other party was completely refuted in the face of Matt's iron-clad accusations and impeccable defense.
"It's a pleasure to cooperate, Miss Bowen." Matt said with a smile.
"Just call me Tandy!" Tandy rushed forward and hugged Matt excitedly, "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Matt patted her back awkwardly. "That's where the responsibility lies. In fact, the person you should thank most is Peter. Without him bringing you here, I wouldn't be able to help."
Tandy turned his head and looked at Peter with crooked eyebrows. "He was originally my superhero, and now you are one too!"
Peter laughed, "Okay, what are the next arrangements?"
Matt said seriously, "According to the procedure, the Welfare Department will first arrange temporary foster care for her, and then contact close relatives who are willing to take over her care."
"My uncle Michael Bowen lives in Manhattan Upper East Side," Tandy said quickly, "He has taken good care of me before and will definitely be willing to take me in."
"Then why didn't you go find him before?" Peter asked.
Tandy lowered his head, his voice a little muffled. "Because... if I just went to him with empty words, he would definitely think that I lost my temper during my rebellious period and send me back to that home. But now that the court has ruled, he will definitely help me."
Peter stepped forward and rubbed her hair. "Look, everything is getting better."
The staff of the Welfare Department drove over quickly. Tandy has officially entered the placement process. She needs to go to a temporary foster care place first. While her uncle takes over to take care of her, she can no longer live in Peter's home. Peter also wanted to ask her to stay for a few more days, but Tandy shook her head and refused. She was already very grateful for their help and did not want to cause any more trouble to Peter and Aunt May.
Watching the car slowly drive away from the corner, Peter breathed a sigh of relief.
The trouble finally came to an end, and his room was finally freed up. But tonight, he had more important things to do - Negative Zone.
Late at night, Baxter Building.
A precision giant ring-shaped instrument stood in the center of the isolation laboratory, and a low hum of energy echoed in the sealed cabin. Peter put on a special set of silver-gray multi-functional protective clothing, while Reed, Susan and Johnny stood in front of the console outside the explosion-proof observation window, nervously monitoring various readings.
"The data is very stable," Susan looked at the waveform chart on the screen and marveled, "The stability of the channel is much higher than the last time we broke through... How did you do it?"
"Peter added a polarization filtering system to the energy collision circuit," Reed pushed up his glasses, with a hint of scientist's pride and helplessness in his tone, "I have to admit, his idea is indeed very clever."
Johnny smiled and patted Reed on the shoulder, "Don't droop your face, brother-in-law, wouldn't it be nice for everyone to show off their talents?"
"Record the departure time and environmental parameters." Peter said into the communication microphone built into the helmet.
"The current time is 10:20 pm, and the date is January 30th." Reed's voice came clearly into the earphones, "Peter, is the internal pressure normal?"
"It couldn't be better." Peter tightened the nano storage backpack on his back. This time Negative Zone explored, he took the initiative to take on the vanguard mission. After all, in terms of familiarity with this unknown dimension and ability to save lives, no one is more suitable than him.
"Speaking of which, what are you looking for when you run in in the middle of the night?" Johnny asked curiously through the communicator, "Are you really going to explore the unknown?"
"To make a fortune." Peter said calmly.
"Huh? There's gold in there?!" Johnny's eyes suddenly lit up.
"It's more than just gold." Peter finished checking the HUD interface on the goggles, "I have a super project that requires a huge amount of funds to start. I can't save enough by taking photos for newspapers in my life."
Susan raised his eyebrows. "If you are short of research funds, Foundation can allocate part of it to you, why take the risk?"
"That's an astronomical sum of money, at least US$500 million."
The communication channel fell into silence for a moment, and then Susan's crisp voice came. "Then I wish you good luck."
Reed pressed the start button. "The channel has been locked. Peter, Ancient One The strengthened space anchor can only last for thirty minutes at most, so hurry up."
"Understood."
There was no earth-shattering explosion, and the space in the center of the circular device rippled like water waves, turning into a circle of hollows glowing with dark purple light. Peter took a deep breath and stepped in.
The light and shadow in front of him suddenly distorted, and the next second, he was surrounded by bone-chilling silence and weak gravity.
Negative Zone.
The sky showed a sickly green and deep black, and beneath its feet was a rolling plain of molten magma with green fluorescence. Peter leaped vigorously in a low-gravity environment, sliding down along the terrain, and came to a huge pit five or six meters deep.
He first took out a few special sampling tubes, skillfully extracted some high-energy green magma and strange mineral crystals, and put them into the sample box on the side of his thigh. These high-dimensional materials were taken back to Reed for research, and maybe some disruptive new energy sources could be produced.
After sampling, Peter lowered his head and looked towards the bottom of the pit, and was stunned.
"How is it possible..."
At the bottom of the pit covered with crystallized rubble, a simple stone house suddenly stood, and there was even an extinguished bonfire piled with rubble in front of the door.