"Mr. Stark." Peter quickly ran to Tony's side and helped him up.
Rhodey, on the other side, was the first to stand up. Peter immediately turned and aimed his hand at Rhodey, ready to shoot a web at any moment.
"Hold on, kid. We're not enemies. You should focus on Tony first," Rhodey said, operating the armor, and flew out of Freedom City.
Peter tried to shoot a web to stop Rhodey, but the awakening Tony reached out and stopped him.
"Mr. Stark, are you alright?" Peter asked, concerned.
Tony opened his Iron Man mask, took a deep breath, and replied, "I'm not dead yet."
"That person took your armor," Peter said, looking back to where Rhodey had been.
Tony nodded. He had tacitly allowed Rhodey to take the armor, or else Rhodey wouldn't have been able to get into the lab and take it.
"You should go back now." Tony stood up unsteadily, a hint of sadness in his posture.
"???" Peter couldn't understand why Mr. Stark had such a gloomy demeanor.
But since he was okay, Peter decided to leave and wait for Stark's remuneration—a full twenty thousand dollars! He couldn't imagine how he would spend it all.
"Hi~ Are you Spider-Man?" a clear voice called out.
Peter turned around and saw a beautiful woman with a stunning figure and auburn hair calling him.
"Yes," Peter responded.
"Hello, my name is Natalie Rushman," Natasha said with a smile, extending her hand.
Peter also shook hands with Natalie. "Hello, I'm Spider-Man." Perhaps it was his first time meeting such a gorgeous woman; Peter felt a little excited inside. Was she a fan of his?
"I really like your... sense of justice," Natasha said slowly.
When Peter heard "I really like your," his heart nearly stopped beating, only to hear the added "sense of justice" afterward.
"Black Widow?" Silas had quietly appeared on the rooftop, looking down at the two people talking below. After learning that Peter was attending the party tonight, he secretly placed a Shadowkhan on Peter. As soon as Peter arrived at Freedom City, the Shadowkhan hid to get the new coordinates for Silas. Silas then arrived at Freedom City, and to his surprise, he saw Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow.
Seeing Natasha trying to fool his brother, Silas dropped a small pebble toward them.
"Who?!" Natasha quickly reacted and looked up, but there was no one there.
"Where did that pebble come from?" Peter wondered, looking up.
"I should go check on the boss, Spider-Man. We can talk later," Natasha ended the conversation with Peter and walked away.
"What a shame... I didn't bring my camera." Peter felt like he was falling in love, but why hadn't he brought his camera!
After Natalie left, Peter declined Happy's offer to take him home. He put his small backpack on his back and swung away with his webs. It wasn't too late yet, and he wanted to swing around a bit more.
Stopping on top of a tall building, Peter turned and took a pizza box out of his backpack. This was a box that hadn't been opened at the party. Tony, seeing Peter hadn't eaten anything, had given the pizza to him.
Peter lifted his mask, his upper face still covered, exposing his mouth to take a bite. "Mmm~ It's delicious."
"Is Stark's food really that good?"
"Definitely, after all, expensive things... Cough, cough, cough!" Peter quickly turned toward the voice. Silas!
Silas had secretly followed Peter the entire way.
"Is it tasty?" Silas asked, sitting next to Peter.
Peter picked up a slice of pizza. "Silas, you should try it. It really tastes great. Rich people definitely eat differently."
"It's alright," Silas said, taking the pizza and biting into it.
"I think it's really good," Peter insisted.
Silas asked, "How much money did Stark say he'd give you?"
"Silas, you need to brace yourself. I'm afraid it might shock you," Peter said, adopting a serious posture when the money was mentioned.
Silas listened. How much would shock him? Unless Stark was giving him a share of Stark Industries stock!
"Twenty thousand US dollars..." Peter said, deliberately drawing out the words.
"Th-that's... a lot," Silas said flatly.
"No way, Silas, why don't you sound excited at all?" Peter nudged Silas.
Silas couldn't exactly say he had robbed a huge sum of money from the black market, so he just said, "No, I think it's truly a lot."
"Really?" Peter didn't quite believe him.
Just then, a Shadowkhan emerged from Silas's shadow and passed him a message.
"It's been developed?!" Silas was surprised that that Lizard guy was quite efficient. Yes, the Lizard had finally finished developing the Lizard Serum and was waiting for Silas to come and see it.
"What's wrong? Did something major happen?" Peter thought it was serious news.
Silas shook his head. "Nothing, they just want a slice of pizza too."
"???" The Shadowkhan tilted its head.
Peter pulled out a slice of pizza from the box. "Want some?"
Under Silas's gaze, the Shadowkhan took the pizza and slowly sank back into the Shadow Realm.
"He's shy. He wants to eat it in secret," Silas explained the Shadowkhan's disappearance.
Peter nodded thoughtfully. He never thought these Shadowkhan would be shy.
"Oh, right, Silas, you said last time that these Shadowkhan are summoned by your superpower, right?" Peter asked. After Silas revealed his identity, Peter had asked him about the Shadowkhan.
At the time, Silas said he woke up one day and gained a superpower that allowed him to summon the Shadowkhan.
"That's right, Peter. Why are you asking?" Silas asked, puzzled.
Peter said, "I was wondering, are the Shadowkhan you summon considered biological beings? They seem to have intelligence."
"I'm not sure. If I had to say, they could be considered magical creatures," Silas replied. After all, the Shadowkhan were transformed by magic, so "magical creatures" fit perfectly.
"Magical creatures? Cool!" Peter continued, "Can they fly? Or use magic?"
"No," Silas said.
"Do they have a gender?"
"I don't know."
"Aren't you their master?"
"I don't know everything about them."
"How many of them are there in total?"
"..." Silas refused to answer Peter. He was asking too many questions!
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