Tony Stark sensed something was wrong, but Spider-Man Peter Parker, caught up in the heat of the moment, didn't have time to worry about it. He hung up and launched his attack on the criminals.
"He's so annoying!" Tony couldn't help but grumble. "Where did he pick that up from?"
On the screen, Peter Parker continued his relentless assault, chattering nonstop.
"Tony, he probably learned it from you. You never shut up during a fight either!" Captain America Rogers couldn't resist chiming in.
"Do I?" Tony asked, feigning innocence.
"Yes, sir. Your speech frequency increases by 50% during combat."
Jarvis's perfectly timed jab sent everyone into fits of laughter.
"Alright, I get it! You can shut up now!" Tony retorted, a hint of embarrassment in his voice.
"Understood, sir," Jarvis replied.
The room erupted in laughter again.
But their amusement was short-lived. Spider-Man's action suddenly took an unexpected turn when the FBI arrived, treating him like a criminal.
Then Vulture appeared, and everyone saw his appearance for the first time as he immediately engaged Little Spider in a fierce battle. Though just an ordinary human, he held his own against Little Spider, locked in a desperate struggle thanks to the makeshift gear he had cobbled together.
The fight continued until the entire ship was sliced in half, and countless tons of seawater rushed in.
Despite his panic, Little Spider immediately had the Artificial Intelligence scan the ship's blueprint, identifying all its support points.
Then he demonstrated his astonishing strength, using his own power to hold the fracturing hull together.
The passengers erupted in praise, but before they could finish, the ship tore open again, countless strands of webbing snapping. Despair washed over everyone.
Watching from off-screen, Tony Stark thought, *These webs clearly aren't strong enough. They can barely support a single ship.*
Perhaps it was because he had seen too many grand spectacles, but to Tony Stark, even the catastrophic event of a ship being split in half had become just another minor incident.
It was nothing out of the ordinary.
Suddenly, at that critical moment, the ship righted itself. The one who intervened was none other than Tony Stark.
"Hey, Spider-Man, aren't you supposed to be at band practice right now?" Tony Stark couldn't break his habit of being sarcastic, especially when he was angry.
This kid, who should have been in school, was now doing something so dangerous.
While welding the ship's hull, he still had the energy to mock Little Spider Peter Parker.
Only after finishing the repairs did he calmly fly away.
The contrast instantly highlighted the gap between Iron Man, a mature and battle-hardened superhero, and this inexperienced, fledgling hero.
Watching this scene from off-screen, Tony Stark couldn't help but say smugly, "This kid has a lot to learn."
"Tony, you weren't much better when you first became Iron Man. Aren't you being too hard on him?" Diana interjected.
"It's not that I have unreasonable expectations of him," Tony Stark couldn't help but say. "Given his age, I'll be dead before long, and Thanos will invade. In such a situation, how much time does he really have to grow? You all know as well as I do—time is the most precious thing!"
Though he didn't want to be too demanding of the young Spider-Man, Peter Parker, the future was truly perilous, and with his own death looming, the young hero would have to step up and carry the weight.
Even after Thanos was defeated, would their situation improve?
No. They had opened the door to the multiverse. How could such a future be anything but disastrous?
He had to demand more of this kid than the original timeline had, only then could he truly shoulder the future and become a worthy successor to Iron Man, not the pathetic figure he had been in the original timeline.
Even being harsh now was better than letting him die later.
Especially for Tony Stark, he never wanted to experience the agony of watching his child die in his arms again.
Meanwhile, on the rooftop of a skyscraper, Spider-Man Peter Parker was watching the sunset, seemingly lost in thought, wondering how he had let things get this bad.
The sound of a mech's flight cut through the air, and moments later, a Mark Armor landed.
"This is all because Peter messed up! I told you to stay out of it!" Tony Stark struggled to suppress his anger. "Instead, you stole a million-dollar suit, which you used to sneak around behind my back and do the very thing I told you to stay out of!"
"Is everyone safe?" Peter Parker asked calmly, his own fury burning just as intensely.
He had warned Tony long ago, so why the outcome?
Tony had refused to intervene, and now that things had escalated, he was blaming Peter. It was outrageous.
If Tony had come himself, none of this would have happened, yet here we are.
"It's not your fault!" Tony retorted sarcastically.
"Not my fault?" Hearing this, Little Spider's anger flared. "Those weapons are out there in the open! I tried to warn you, but you wouldn't listen! None of this would have happened if you had just listened to me! If you really cared, you would have come here yourself!"
But before he could finish speaking, the Mark Armor sprang open, and Tony Stark, dressed in a suit, strode forward to face Spider-Man Peter Parker.
Tony's face was also contorted with anger as he approached, his voice booming with fury: "I heard you, kid! Do you think the FBI was notified by someone else? Do you realize I'm the only one who trusts you? Everyone called me crazy for recruiting a fourteen-year-old to the team!"
"I'm fifteen!" Peter's voice softened as he realized his mistake. He understood that Tony had taken his report seriously; it was he who had disobeyed Tony's instructions.
Now he finally remembered everything he had done: skipping class, lying to Aunt May and Tony, and hacking into the suit Tony had given him. If he had handled it perfectly, he might have had a defense.
But he had failed. If Tony hadn't stepped in to clean up the mess, how many lives would have been lost?
He felt a little ashamed to face Tony Stark; it was truly embarrassing.
"No, you're going to shut up from now on, alright? The adults are talking!" Hearing this, Tony Stark's anger burned even hotter. "What if someone died tonight? That would change everything, wouldn't it? Because it would all be your fault!"
"If someone died, I would consider myself responsible!" Tony Stark said, forcing himself to calm down despite his fury. "I don't want that weighing on my conscience!"
"Yes, Mr. Stark. I'm sorry!" Spider-Man Peter Parker now knew he was wrong. Becoming a qualified superhero hadn't been nearly as easy as he'd once thought.
"Yeah!" Tony Stark said with a cold laugh. "What good is an apology?"
Spider-Man Peter Parker weakly retorted, "I understand. I just wanted to be like you!"
"But I want you to be better than me!"
Tony Stark voiced his expectations, but his eyes held even deeper disappointment.
He hoped this young man would grow well, perhaps even surpassing him in the future. He viewed the boy as a close nephew or younger relative, and since Tony Stark had no children of his own, he was practically raising him as his son.
Everyone could see that for Little Spider, Tony Stark was his idol, and he wanted to be as good as his idol.
For Peter, this was already exceptional. But Tony Stark didn't see it that way. He had a grander vision for Little Spider, one where the boy would become an even better person and a superior superhero, not just a carbon copy of himself.
Clearly, their expectations for the future had diverged.
For Peter Parker, Tony Stark had filled the void left by his father. And for Tony Stark, he truly treated the boy as his own child.
He had placed too many expectations on Little Spider and didn't want their relationship to end up like his own fraught relationship with his father, where they were constantly at odds.
This ultimately led to a profound regret, as being at boarding school, he never got to see his parents one last time.
This was the source of his current anger. For someone like him, if something went wrong, he would only blame himself.
He would berate himself: *Why didn't I build better equipment? Why wasn't I more attentive? Why didn't I take this seriously from the start? How could I have let this happen?*
"Fine. Since it didn't work out, I'm taking this suit back!" Tony Stark said bluntly.
Little Spider, hearing this, quickly asked, "How long?"
"Forever. That's the rule!" Tony Stark declared, his tone final.
"No, no, please, I'm begging you!" Little Spider pleaded, trying to evoke pity. "This suit is all I have! Without it, I'm nothing!"
"If you're nothing without this suit, then you don't deserve to wear it. Do you understand?" Tony Stark warned sharply.
-----------------------
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