On his first day back in Marvel New York, Schiller finds Peter in a dejected state at the clinic. He still has a bandage on his arm. Schiller looks him up and down and says, "Your trip out West didn't seem to go smoothly."
Peter sighs and sits opposite Schiller, placing his backpack on his lap, accidentally bumping his injured arm in the process. He lets out a cry of pain and then sighs again, groans, "Putting everything else aside, maybe I really am not suitable to be a superhero."
"What happened? Did you encounter difficult opponents?"
"The opponents themselves aren't all that difficult, but..."
In Peter's description that followed, Schiller hears about their comical adventures on the Western journey with Captain America.
Steve is a veteran with vast experience. But as the Captain America, his past team members were all elite warriors who had undergone countless battles. Even new recruits had adequate combat skills, albeit lacking practical experience.
But young Spider-Man Peter is a blank slate, relying on street boxing for fights and mainly physical endurance for defense, let alone any tactical acumen.
To train Spider-Man, Steve purposely did not let S.H.I.E.L.D. arrange the itinerary and instead took Peter with him.
The first trouble they encountered on their road trip was Peter's insatiable appetite.
Peter was still in his spider mutation growth phase. He needed to eat a large amount of food every day. Even though Steve had money, anyone who had watched some road movies knew that finding suitable dining places for every meal was difficult to guarantee. Most of the time, they resorted to buying some fast food to carry in their backpacks and took a bite when hungry.
But Peter could eat a lot. The food they brought in their backpacks was finished after just two meals. So, they had to change their plans and, after taking the first bus, switched to a nearby town.
The prices in this town were not high, but Peter still devoured thousands of dollars' worth of food. This town didn't support credit cards, and Steve's cash quickly ran out. Thus, their road trip, which hadn't even started, came to an end.
Steve had to call Coulson to bring them money. In the end, it was S.H.I.E.L.D. driving them and resolving Peter's eating problem.
Ever since Schiller took Spider-Man and Pikachu to raid S.H.I.E.L.D.'s food supply, they urgently developed a new compressed dry food with nutritional liquids that provided excessive amounts of energy. This avoided the embarrassing situation of Peter emptying all the restaurants along the way.
After reaching their destination, Steve started leading the little Spider-Man in scouting the ninjas' traces. Although Peter learned quite a bit during this process, he still managed to mess up most things.
He had super strength and recovery abilities, but one thing was different— he talked too much and was overly active.
Initially, when Peter didn't know anything, everything went smoothly. He obediently followed behind Steve, observing how he gathered information. But later, when Peter picked up some skills, his inherent restlessness and talkativeness started acting up again.
Having learned a few tricks, Peter thought he could do better. If Steve wanted to climb over a wall, Peter would jump straight to the top; if Steve wanted to get closer to a security guard to knock him out, Peter would crawl over from the roof, greet the guard, and then punch him in the face.
In short, two guys with completely different styles messed up all their reconnaissance operations without any coordination.
Fortunately, the group of ninjas convinced that the desolate West would not attract any snooping. Their traces were relatively easy to find. Soon enough, Steve and Peter stumbled upon one of their small hideouts.
What happened next was even more absurd.
Originally, they only had to deal with a few low-level ninjas. Steve's estimation was correct; this trip was just a warm-up. While those ninjas jumped high and could disappear suddenly, their combat skills were not that impressive.
But the problem arose with their ability to vanish. When Steve swung his S.H.I.E.L.D., the ninja vanished, and behind him appeared Peter, who had wanted to scare the ninja by making a funny face.
"Bang!"
The hard S.H.I.E.L.D. strikes Peter's arm, instantly fracturing it.
This is the first time Captain America ever fight upon an ally, and the results are quite significant.
"Steve tells me that it is better to attack these enemies from behind. So, I swing down from the rafters, intending to ambush them. But he suddenly switches to a frontal assault, and I never know he is so powerful. I am sent flying and slammed against the wall..."
"Those ninjas are easily taken down by him, but he knocks me down with just one strike," Peter says, sounding a bit pitiful.
Schiller cannot help but suppress a laugh as Peter complains, "Go on, laugh all you want. When I come back, Coulson, Natasha, and Matt laugh at me for days."
Schiller tries hard to hold back his laughter and comforts Peter, "Don't be sad, you should actually feel honored. The last person to be sent flying by the Captain's S.H.I.E.L.D. like this was the leader of HYDRA."
"I know I talk too much. But I can't control myself, it's just how I get when I'm excited..."
"Perhaps you've heard the phrase, 'words are mightier than fists'," Schiller says.
After a while, Steve doesn't show up but Natasha does. The female agent grumbles with a headache, "Stark goes to talk to Director Fury and encounters Steve on his way back. They end up having a big fight."
"Why are you coming to me then? I can't separate them,"
"The director has already sent someone to separate them. But now the problem is , Steve keeps bringing up Stark's father, and Stark refuses to believe that Steve is his father's old comrade, Captain America."
"Or maybe he believes it but doesn't want to admit it," Schiller speaks.
Natasha clasps her forehead,continues, "Regardless, as a senior psychological counselor at S.H.I.E.L.D., you need to step in and mediate..."
Seeing that Schiller wants to refuse, she adds, "Listen, here's the situation: Iron Man and Captain America are at each other's throats, and Director Fury wants to intervene, but they both gang up on him and insult him."
"Coulson also wants to step in and mediate, but all three of them believe that Coulson is biased towards the other side. Fury thinks Coulson should help him mediate the conflict between the two. Stark has long known that Coulson is a loyal fan of Captain America and thinks he will definitely take his side. Captain America believes that Coulson is a good person and shouldn't be misunderstood by the other two..."
"In simple terms, each side sticks to their own story and lacks trust in each other. But there doesn't seem to be a more credible fourth party present."
"Clearly, Fury wants both of them to join the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization's team, hence the current situation, right?"
Natasha is slightly surprised by Schiller's keen observation, but she continues, "I think this is a solution that benefits everyone. If they act independently, there will be many problems, like what happened with Steve and Peter this time..."
"But obviously, the problem with Steve and Peter's mission not going well is Peter's fault, not Captain America's," Schiller responds.
Peter feels even more resentful and moans, "Hey, Doctor, you just comforted me earlier!"
Schiller smiles, "When it comes to mediation, I actually have a better candidate in mind."
With that, he picks up the Pikachu sitting beside him and holds it by the neck, tossing it into Natasha's arms.
Natasha holds Pikachu's two small hands and brings it to her face, "I know you have a talking yellow rat, but what good is this? It can't even defeat the weakest of the three, Nick."
Schiller smiles, "Trust me, sometimes, words are mightier than fists."
Several hours later, it is already dark outside Schiller's clinic when a loud banging on the door echoes.
He opens the door to find Steve, Stark, Coulson, and Natasha all present. Iron Man, wearing his armor, holds Pikachu in his arms, and Stark tightly covers the yellow rodent's mouth with his hand.
Schiller opens the door and lets them in, then says, "You better not let the journalists catch you doing this right now, Stark, or the animal protection will go crazy."
"No animal protection would protect a rat like this!" Stark growls, lifting Pikachu by its tail and throwing it at Schiller.
Coulson seems to have aged ten years, and Natasha leans against the doorframe, saying, "Doctor, you have provided us with a very effective solution indeed!"
She emphasizes the words "effective," her tone filled with spite.
Schiller hands his phone to Pikachu to charge and Steve sits down, holding his forehead, "Oh God, I don't even know what just happened..."
"I used to think Peter was the most noisy person in the world, but I never expected..." He wears a painful expression on his face. Clearly, the recent round of verbal bombardment is pushing the good-natured Steve to the brink of collapse.
"He really is the noisiest person in the world, because Pikachu is a rodent," Schiller corrects.
"It uses the dirtiest words I've never heard in my life and curses everyone present. Nick doesn't even have a chance to interrupt. It speaks with a Canadian accent and cusses everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D., from Nick Fury's eyepatch to the glass water cup on the desk."
"It goes on incessantly for at least six hours, and not a single word is repeated. The walls of S.H.I.E.L.D. must have memorized its voice..."
"I don't even know how such a small body can fit so many words!!" Coulson's voice trembling.
"To shut it up, we have to feed it. But it eats the equivalent of a month's worth of donuts and finishes all the drinks in the machines. To stop it, every one of us has to personally engage!"
"It even electrocutes four cell phones and one Iron Man suit," Natasha adds. "That includes one of Nick's high-security phones, which he now has to go to the repair department to recover the data."
"But at least the result is good, right? When you all unite to catch it, don't you feel the joy of solidarity?" Schiller gloats gleefully.
Stark, who suffered the most losses, grits his teeth, "Yeah, I can't believe I ended up discussing how to cook a rat with this old man for half an hour!"
"I guess you now understand the saying I often use..."
"Yes..." Steve speaks first, then Stark looks at him. Sparks fly between them, but they both say in unison, "Words are mightier than fists!"