As night fell, the ticking of the second hand echoed in the clinic in Hell's Kitchen, where the hour hand on the clock had already reached nine.
By then, Shiller had long been asleep, and Peter and Pikachu were still playing a game in the living room.
Suddenly, Peter shouted, startling Pikachu who at his side. Startled, Pikachu dropped his game avatar into the magma on the screen. Pikachu turned to Peter and asked, "What's wrong?"
Peter turned to the clock face and said, "It's nine o'clock. I have to go to bed!"
Pikachu looked at Peter with wide eyes, as if he didn't recognize him, exaggeratedly opening his mouth to say, "You're going to bed at nine? Are you really Peter Parker? Are you under Shiller's control?"
"No," Peter regretfully put down the game controller and said, "Mr. Stark has repeatedly stressed to me today that I should go to bed at nine. Look, just now, he sent me a text asking if I'm already in bed ready to sleep..."
Peter handed Pikachu his phone, and Pikachu saw the message from Stark on his screen. Shaking his head, Pikachu said, "It seems he thinks you lack fatherly love."
Peter sighed, reluctantly glancing back at the game console, but eventually he headed upstairs to sleep.
In bed, Peter rolled over and slowly felt sleepy. Initially, he worried that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep so early, but he quickly drifted off into dreamland.
When he opened his eyes, he was met with the glaring stares of Stark and Charles, both with disappointed expressions.
"You didn't go to bed on time," Stark was the first to speak.. Peter was still confused about the situation, but he instinctively defended himself, "That's not true, I put down the controller at nine, but my room is upstairs, so..."
"So you did well today?"
"Absolutely, I've never gone to bed this early. Usually, I go to bed at midnight at the earliest..." Peter's voice dwindling under Stark's deadly stare.
Then he began to check his surroundings. The room was a large conference room, and the view outside was a sci-fi city view that didn't seem to be on Earth.
Peter was smart and quickly realized, "Am I dreaming? Professor Charles, did you bring me here?"
"Correct, you're very clever, kid. If you would play fewer games, your mind would be even sharper," Charles began walking towards the conference table in the middle of the room, but Peter anxiously followed him, saying,
"Wait! Professor! You have to let me go back, I need to control my body, otherwise...."
Charles continued moving forward, so Peter turned his attention to Stark, saying, "Mr. Stark, I've told you, my body has strange instincts. Without my control, it could..."
But before he finished, Stark extended his hand, clasping Peter in a hug before saying with an air of sternness, "You're already late, everyone's waiting for you."
"Peter, you're not young anymore, you need to be aware of things in the workplace. Making your colleagues waste their time waiting for you because of your personal issues is impolite."
"Moreover, those instincts might just be your imagination. Relax, nothing will happen..."
Peter didn't see Stark's triumphant grin, his mouth fell open, feeling some resistance but after a moment, all he said was, "Alright, hopefully my bed can withstand it."
Several people walked over, many were already seated at the conference table, including a befuddled Mark and a savvy, smoking Natasha.
Stark walked up to the table, sizing everyone up before saying,
"No doubt, each of you here has recently been pulled into a situation, and the mastermind is Shiller."
"'A situation' isn't really accurate," Steve said.
"And 'mastermind' isn't exactly accurate," Natasha interjected.
Stark held back a sigh, banged the table and said, "Alright, let's get to the point."
"Just yesterday, due to an operation by Shiller, the congressional members were so devastated that they appointed me as the head of the Solar System construction project."
When it came to this, Stark felt helpless. After asking several times, he finally understood what Shiller had done.
In brief, Shiller had a ghost named Medal Respect hover around The Avengers Base, distributing countless subsidies and badges.
Giving Natasha a badge made sense, she was after all a Soviet Union agent and deserved recognition. Giving one to Captain America also made sense; Steve was a World War II hero who had fought against Little Mustache's forces. As for Shiller and Mark, they were just add-ons.
The congressmen, especially the older ones, had a serious case of red allergy and Shiller aimed to make them feel surrounded.
The congressmen then realized that all these badge recipients shared a common enemy - Stark.