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Chapter 45: Words Are Mightier than Fists

On Schiller's first day back in Marvel New York, Peter showed up at the clinic looking dejected. His arm was still in a sling, and Schiller gave him a quick once-over, remarking, "Your journey out west doesn't seem to have gone smoothly."

Peter sighed, took a seat across from Schiller, and placed his backpack on his lap. Inadvertently, he bumped his injured arm and let out a loud "ouch" before sighing again. "Putting everything else aside, I might not be cut out to be a superhero, after all."

"What happened? Did you encounter a formidable opponent?"

"Well, the opponents weren't that tough to handle, but..."

In the following conversation, Schiller listened to Peter's account of his comically disastrous western adventure with Captain America.

Steve was a seasoned veteran, but as Captain America, his previous team members had all been elite warriors who had undergone rigorous training, even if they were new recruits. However, Peter, the young Spider-Man, was essentially a blank slate when it came to combat. His fighting style relied on street brawling, and his defense mainly relied on his physical abilities, lacking any tactical finesse.

To toughen up Spider-Man, Steve deliberately avoided having S.H.I.E.L.D. arrange their itinerary and instead decided to take Peter with him.

Their first roadblock on this journey was Peter's insatiable appetite. Peter was still in the growth stage of his spider mutation and required large quantities of food daily. Even though Steve had money, as any fan of road trip movies would know, it's challenging to find suitable dining options for every meal. Most of the time, they settled for fast food in their backpacks and took a few bites when hungry.

However, Peter's voracious appetite quickly depleted their supplies, forcing them to change their plans. After taking their first bus, they detoured to the nearest small town.

Although prices in this town were reasonable, Peter still managed to eat up over a thousand dollars' worth of food. Since this place didn't accept credit cards, Steve's cash ran out quickly. Consequently, their road trip, which hadn't even started yet, came to an abrupt end.

Steve had to call Coulson to deliver money to them, and S.H.I.E.L.D. ended up driving them to their destination while also solving Peter's food dilemma.

Ever since Schiller had accompanied Spider-Man and Pikachu in raiding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s food supplies, they had urgently developed a new type of compressed dry rations with nutritional supplements. These rations provided an excess of energy, preventing the embarrassing situation of Peter emptying every restaurant they visited during their travels.

Upon arriving at their destination, Steve began tracking the Ninja's trail with Peter's assistance. While Peter did learn a few things during this process, he managed to mess up most of the tasks.

Despite possessing the strength and resilience of Superman, Peter couldn't stop talking and fidgeting. Initially, when he didn't know much, he stayed close to Steve, observing how he gathered information. However, as Peter acquired some skills, he began to think he could do better. If Steve wanted to climb a wall, Peter would leap onto the wall. If Steve wanted to sneak up on a security guard, Peter would climb onto the roof and jump in front of the guard, greet him, and then punch him in the face.

In short, the two of them, with vastly different combat styles and no coordination, botched every reconnaissance mission they attempted.

Fortunately, the Ninja were confident that the desolate West wouldn't have any visitors, making their tracks relatively easy to follow. Soon enough, Steve and Peter stumbled upon one of their small strongholds.

What happened next was even more bewildering.

Initially, they were dealing with a few low-level Ninja, as Steve had anticipated. This trip was supposed to be a warm-up, and while these Ninja were agile and adept at disappearing, they couldn't hold their ground in a fight.

The problem arose when they vanished. Steve swung his shield, and the Ninja disappeared. But right behind them was Peter, attempting to playfully scare the Ninja by making a face. The hard shield made a resounding "thud" as it struck Peter's arm, immediately fracturing it.

It was Captain America's first time firing at an ally, and the results were rather spectacular.

"Steve told me that attacking these enemies from behind might be better, so I swung down from the rafters, intending to surprise them from behind. But, unexpectedly, he switched to a frontal attack, and I had no idea his strength was that immense. I got knocked back and slammed into a wall," Peter explained somewhat pitifully.

Schiller couldn't hold back a laugh, and Peter grumbled, "Go ahead, laugh. When I got back, Coulson, Natasha, and Matt laughed at me for days."

Schiller tried to stifle his laughter and consoled Peter, saying, "Don't be disheartened. You should consider yourself honored. The last person Captain sent flying with a shield like that was the head of Hydra."

"I know I talk a lot, but I can't help it. I just get so excited..."

"Perhaps you've heard the saying, 'Sometimes, words are mightier than fists,'" Schiller remarked.

After a while, Steve still hadn't arrived, but Natasha did. The female agent had a headache as she said, "Stark went to talk with Director Nick and ran into Steve, and the two of them had a major brawl."

"Why are you looking for me, then? I can't break up their fight."

"The director has already arranged for them to be separated, but the current issue is that Steve keeps mentioning Stark's father, and Stark adamantly refuses to believe it. Steve is his father's old comrade, Captain America."

"Or you could say he believes it but doesn't want to acknowledge it," Schiller added.

Natasha, holding her forehead, said, "In any case, as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s senior psychological counselor, you must step in to mediate now."

Natasha could sense Schiller's reluctance to accept, so she continued, "Listen, the situation is like this: Iron Man and Captain America are in a fierce argument. Director Nick wants to mediate, but when they team up, they both insult him."

"Coulson also wants to step in and mediate, but each of the three believes Coulson is biased towards the other side. Nick thinks Coulson should help him mediate the conflict, and Stark has known for a long time that Coulson is a loyal fan of Captain America, so he's sure Coulson will take his side. Captain America thinks Coulson is a good person and shouldn't be misunderstood by the other two."

"In simple terms, it's a three-way standoff, with mutual distrust, and there's no more reliable fourth party on the scene."

"Obviously, Nick wants them both to join S.H.I.E.L.D.'s team, which is why we have this situation, right?"

Natasha was somewhat surprised by Schiller's keen insight but continued, "I think this is a win-win solution for everyone. After all, if they each go their own way, there will be many problems, like what happened between Steve and Peter."

"But clearly, Steve and Peter's issues are Peter's fault, not Captain America's," Schiller said.

Peter's resentment grew deeper, and he said, "Hey, Doctor, you were just comforting me a while ago!"

Schiller said, "Speaking of mediation, I have a better candidate."

With that, he reached over and picked up Pikachu, who was sitting nearby, by the neck and handed it to Natasha.

Natasha held Pikachu's two tiny hands and lifted it to her face, saying, "I know you have a talking yellow rodent, but what good is it? It can't even beat the weakest of the three, Nick."

Schiller said, "Trust me, sometimes words are more powerful than fists."

Several hours later, the sky had darkened, and loud banging sounded outside Schiller's clinic door.

He opened the door, and Steve, Stark, Coulson, and Natasha were all there. Pikachu was in Iron Man's armored arms, and Stark firmly covered the yellow rodent's mouth with his hand.

Schiller let them in and said, "You better not let any journalists catch you doing this, Stark, or animal protection organizations will go crazy."

"No animal protection organization would protect a rodent like this!" Stark said, roughly grabbing Pikachu's tail and throwing it to Schiller.

Coulson looked ten years older, and Natasha leaned against the door frame, saying, "Doctor, you've certainly provided us with a very effective 'deal with' solution!"

She emphasized the words "very effective" through gritted teeth.

Schiller handed a mobile phone to Pikachu to charge it, and Steve, holding his head, sat down and said, "Oh God, I don't even know what just happened..."

"I thought Peter was the noisiest person in the world, but I didn't expect..." He showed a pained expression, clearly, the recent torment was pushing the normally good-tempered Steve to the brink.

"He is indeed the noisiest person in the world because Pikachu is a rodent," Schiller said.

"It used words I've never heard in my entire life, cursing everyone present, and Nick couldn't get a word in edgewise. Speaking with a Canadian accent, it cursed everything in S.H.I.E.L.D., from Nick Fury's eyepatch to the glass water cups on the desks, all in one go."

"It went on for at least six hours without repeating a single word, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s walls could almost record its voice..."

"I don't know how it fit so many words into its small body!" Coulson said, his voice trembling.

"To shut it up, we had to feed it, and it devoured a month's supply of donuts for the whole office, drank all the beverages in the juice machines, and to stop it, all of us had to personally intervene!"

"It even fried four mobile phones and an Iron Man Mech armor," Natasha said. "This includes Nick's high-security mobile phone, forcing him to go to the repair department personally to recover the data."

"But at least the mediation worked well, right? When you all teamed up to catch it, did you feel the joy of unity?" Schiller said with malicious glee.

Stark, who suffered the most, gritted his teeth and said, "Yeah, I can't believe I talked about how to cook rodents with this old man for half an hour!"

"I guess you now understand that saying I often use..."

"Yeah," Steve spoke first, and then Stark looked at him. The two of them locked gazes, sparks flying, but they both said in unison, "Words are more powerful than fists!"

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