Morning at School
"Hey~ Good morning, guys~" Ned Leeds greeted the Parker brothers.
Peter smiled. "Morning. You look like you're in a great mood today."
"Of course! It's one day closer to the weekend," Ned said excitedly. The thought of his weekend date made him jumpy.
"Be careful. Remember to practice safe methods," Silas gave Ned a knowing look.
Back to Class
"Good morning, Silas. Did you write the report assignment?" Misty knew Silas well; under normal circumstances, he definitely wouldn't have done it.
So, she had stayed up late the previous night to rush and finish a report on the technology exhibition, intending to give it to Silas today.
Silas confidently pulled a report out of his backpack. "You'll have to congratulate me. I pulled an all-nighter and finally finished the report."
Of course, the one who pulled the all-nighter was the Shadowkhan ninja who wrote the report, not him.
"You actually finished it." Misty put the hand that was about to pull her own report out of her bag back down.
"Naturally! Who do you think I am?" Just as Silas was about to brag about how he completed the report, he heard the teacher call him.
"Silas, hand in your report." Kulen, the teacher, reached out his hand to Silas.
Silas walked with a confident stride and handed the report to Kulen.
"Thank goodness, you actually completed it today." Kulen glanced at it casually and then walked out.
Silas returned to his seat.
"Are you free this weekend? I'll take you somewhere," Misty invited him again.
Silas nodded and smiled. "Of course, my beautiful lady."
"Thank you," Misty said, resting her chin on her hands.
Just as the two were chatting happily, a loud voice boomed: "Silas!!!"
"???" Silas immediately turned around and saw Kulen shouting at him from the doorway.
"What's wrong, Teacher?" Silas asked, confused.
"Come to the office," Kulen said before turning and walking away. He seemed quite angry.
"What did you do?" Misty asked in surprise. What did Silas do to upset Kulen so much?
Silas shrugged. "I have no idea. I'll go see."
Silas, the person involved, was just as confused.
The Office
"Silas, this report of yours is very well-written," Kulen said with a fake smile.
Silas could naturally tell Kulen was being sarcastic and asked, "Is it... not good?"
"It's not just good. It's extraordinarily good. To be precise, it's extremely well-copied!" Kulen stated.
"Copied?!" Silas realized what had happened. Did the Shadowkhan ninja just copy a report directly from the internet?
"I'll give you one chance. Rewrite the report and turn it in tomorrow," Kulen said, rubbing his temples in exasperation.
"Yes, sir." Silas walked back to the classroom awkwardly. He hadn't expected the Shadowkhan ninja to complete the report that way.
"What happened?" Misty noticed Silas's expression and asked.
Silas told Misty the whole story.
"Oh, I see." Misty heard the story and happily pulled a report out of her bag. "I was bored yesterday and wrote a report on the science exhibition..."
Misty waved the report in front of Silas.
"I need that!" Silas's eyes lit up as he stared at the report in Misty's hand.
"Take it," Misty handed the report to Silas.
Silas was immediately in a better mood. He said to Misty, "I'll treat you this weekend."
"You'll treat me? Alright then."
Misty had initially wanted to refuse, but she was worried about hurting Silas's pride, as she was aware of his family's financial situation.
Meanwhile
All day, Peter was thinking about what he should do with his new powers to help his family earn money.
"Ned, what would you do to make money if you suddenly had super strength?" Peter asked his best friend.
Ned, eating snacks, replied, "I'd go fight in an underground boxing ring! By the way, did you hear about the big incident last night?"
"Big incident?" Peter asked, confused.
"I heard it was related to Stark Industries. That area has been cordoned off. We'll have to wait for the news today to find out exactly what happened," Ned said, having only heard rumors from others.
Freedom City Laboratory
"Alright, let's see which thief stole the Mark II Arc Reactor," Tony Stark muttered as soon as he recovered, immediately starting the search for the reactor.
Tony wasn't most afraid of the Mark II Arc Reactor being leaked; he was afraid of criminals using it for evil.
As the creator of the Mark II, he knew exactly how much power it possessed.
Others could perhaps copy his armor, but they could never copy his Arc Reactor.
"Sir, due to the energy blast at the time, the magnetic field in that area was completely chaotic, and the surveillance equipment was disabled. No evidence of the thief was recorded. The only footage is what was captured by the Iron Man armor."
J.A.R.V.I.S. displayed the figure recorded by the armor on a virtual screen and began playback.
Tony saw a black figure approach him after he passed out. A moment later, Pepper and that Coulson guy arrived.
The black figure didn't attack Pepper but went straight toward the Iron Monger and did not trouble Pepper.
"His goal is very clear," Tony said, sitting in his chair, leaning back, and placing his hand on his forehead.
The thief on the screen merely glanced at him before heading straight for the Iron Monger.
"Okay, looks like the lead is dead," Tony rubbed his nose bridge.
Based solely on this video, it was impossible to find the perpetrator.
"Sir, there is another news report about a theft today that seems related to this thief," J.A.R.V.I.S. reported.
Tony immediately perked up. "Let's see it."
"A diamond thief, after being apprehended, claimed the diamonds were stolen from him by someone else. According to his description, it was a man in black with extremely agile movements who jumped onto a building and vanished after the theft," J.A.R.V.I.S. reported, quickly reading the article.
After listening carefully, Tony thought for a moment. "J.A.R.V.I.S., monitor all news regarding those diamonds and notify me immediately if you find any information."
After hearing J.A.R.V.I.S.'s report, Tony understood a few things: the thief seemed to be short on money, or they wouldn't have risked stealing diamonds.
Furthermore, the thief would need to fence the diamonds, so all Tony needed to do was monitor where the diamonds went.
However, Tony had prepared for the worst-case scenario: that the person who stole the diamonds was not the same person who took his Mark II Arc Reactor.
Even if they weren't the same, Tony figured he was just helping the police solve a crime.
"Sir, a message has arrived from Ms. Potts." J.A.R.V.I.S. received the message.
"Let's see it," Tony said.
"A news conference needs to be attended after lunch," J.A.R.V.I.S. read the message aloud.
"Fine. It looks like this is the only way for now. But I absolutely must find this masked vigilante," Tony declared.
News Conference
"Look! It's the live broadcast of the Stark Industries press conference," Ned said to Peter in the cafeteria.
It was lunchtime for the students. Ned, Peter, Silas, and Misty—the four of them—were sitting around a table eating lunch.
Peter took a bite of food. "Looks like he's about to announce something."
"What's up, Ned? Are you interested in Tony Stark?" Silas chuckled.
"No, no, no. I'm not interested in him, but I'm very interested in his money," Ned said.
On the TV, after a series of remarks, Tony Stark looked straight into the camera and said, "I am Iron Man."
"Oh my God! He's Iron Man!" Ned said in disbelief.
"Who is Iron Man?" Peter asked. Don't blame him; Peter didn't pay much attention to the news.
"Iron Man is the guy who's been destroying the terrorists these past few days! Cool! Now I'm interested in him," Ned said excitedly.
Misty laughed. "Looks like you're his little fanboy."
"Of course," Ned said.
Only Silas, next to them, stared at Tony on the TV, deep in thought.
"What are you thinking? Are you done eating?" Misty nudged Silas, who was spacing out at the TV.
Silas immediately snapped out of it, picked up his plate, and said, "I'm full."
"You don't worship Stark, do you?" Misty asked.
"Of course," Silas replied with a mysterious smile. After all, I did steal his Mark II Arc Reactor.
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