Schiller stands by the hospital bed. The patient lying on the bed has no arms and is still unconscious. Dr. Connors adjusts some instruments and says, "The medication administered to them by the military is not perfect. It's highly likely that it causes damage to their nervous system."
He sighs, "Whether they can wake up is still uncertain."
"Was he your comrade?"
"No, I have never seen him on the battlefield. But he is still my comrade. We once held the same belief as we went to war."
Stark stands silently on the other side of the hospital bed. He is sensitive to others' emotions, and he feels that Connors seems calm, as calm as the sea before a storm.
Stark wonders, if it were him, would he resort by any means to seek revenge on those who caused him this pain and anger?
Stark has never thought that one day he would stand in the position of his opponents and consider things from their perspective.
This perspective shakes him greatly. He realizes those he once considered villains couldn't possibly do any better if he were in their shoes.
This is something Stark never anticipated. He always believed he is invincible. But now he realizes his arrogance might have been built upon the vacuum created by others.
During this period, without Pepper's care and without Obadiah's protection, he truly experiences the difficulties of dealing with everything on his own.
On one hand, he struggles to take care of himself, and on the other hand, he has to maneuver between various forces. Those deceptive means that he used to detest, he has to learn and use them whether he likes or not,whether he wants or not.
Until this moment, Stark realizes ,perhaps he has been living in a cradle all along. After so many years, he might have just recently emerged from cradle and began to stumble and face the real world.
Schiller asks, "What are you going to do? Although Robert is dead, the ones of the Tartu faction haven't completely disappeared. They still firmly believe in their theory of super soldiers. Once they discover that the information about the Extremis Plan has been leaked, they will kill you where they can."
"If the information you possess is exposed, it will be enough to shake the prestige of the entire military system. Even if it's not the officers of the Tartu faction, they will not allow such a thing to happen."
"I have been prepared for a long time." Connors claims, "I have already prepared to be dumb."
"What do you think I will do? Avoid the military and try to publish this information in any way possible?" Connors shakes his head and sneers, "I've known for a long time that it's useless."
"They always find a way to make people believe what they should believe and erase anything that people shouldn't believe. Even if I manage to make a part of people believe it's true, but human are forgetful."
"Just like what we experienced. When we went to the battlefield, everyone applauded and called us heroes. But when we returned, the cold eyes and discrimination we faced didn't become any better because of our past glory."
"We disappeared from this society for only a short time, and they forgot us. Forgetting is a terrible thing. It can turn white into black and erase all the heavy sins from the past."
"I will continue to wait. I have waited for a long time, and I am not afraid to wait even longer."
"I will wait until the day when they have no way to erase my name from history, and then I will expose everything."
Connors speaks calmly, but everyone can sense the power in his tone, perhaps the accumulation of anger or the convergence of flames of revenge.
Late at night, just as Schiller is about to go to bed, he receives a phone call from Stark. Stark says, "I want to a therapy for two hours."
"You want me to scold you again?" Schiller asks.
"I'm serious. I will pay it."
"Last time, you still had to pay it."
Stark is speechless, he stomps his foot and says, "I'm on the rooftop of your house right now. If you don't come up, I'll have Jarvis activate the emergency wake-up procedure."
A while later, Schiller stands at the edge of the rooftop. Stark is standing beside him in his armor. Schiller asks, "Has anyone ever told you, whenever you don't sleep at night and come out in your suit, it's like writing on your face, 'I am a homeless dog'?"
"I'll say it again, I'm here for psychological therapy, not to be scolded."
"And I'll say it again, people don't get scolded because they don't ask their psychiatrist for a two-hour therapy session at 2 AM."
"I'll pay you!!How much do you want?"
"It seems like you can only use this suit and the fact that you're rich to cover up the fact that you are currently very insecure."
Stark falls silent.
"Every time you come to see me in your suit, it's like telling me that your situation is difficult and I should take more money."
"That's why you always raise your fees."
Stark hesitates for a moment, then opens his face mask. He murmurs, "What do you think I should do? I mean... about what Connors has been doing. I don't like the military's plan either. As a righteous hero, should I teach those inhumane demons a lesson?"
"If you want to help Connors, just say it."
"I don't want to help him. How could I want to help that lizard that turned my building into a mess?"
"I just want to uphold justice. I think anyone would want to do the same after seeing that plan, right?"
"You can admit Connors' actions have shocked you to some extent. You haven't considered that someone who continues to wait in this darkness without knowing if the day of light will ever come."
"You realize, his way of upholding justice seems different from yours. It's not about putting on an iron suit and dramatically beating up criminals to uphold justice in this world."
"In fact, you can't bear to see that."
"Okay, I admit..." Stark sighs slightly and closes his eyes. "I can't imagine what kind of beliefs he holds when he continues to research those serums. Does he not feel desperate or helpless when he's alone in the lab?"
"When I face those pressures, even though I have a genius brain and Stark Industries, even though I have the most money in the world, I still find it... really difficult. Being alone, fighting alone, not knowing when it will end."
Stark's Adam's apple moves, and he continues, "It must have taken years for Connors to learn about this plan and develop the Lizard Serum, right? Has he been alive like this all along? Living in such an environment without going mad?"
Stark has experienced this kind of despair. When Obadiah was in a coma and Pepper was busy supporting the company, Stark spent those days and nights alone in the lab. Loneliness poured out like a black tide from the abyss. Stark could only numb himself with alcohol to keep from thinking about when he, this lonely boat, would eventually reach the shore.
But he knows that Dr. Connors has been drifting like this for several years. Compared to Stark, who still has some hope, Dr. Connors doesn't even have a boat. He clutches a rotting wooden plank, drifting through countless days and nights in the storms. He knows that this vast sea might not have a shore, yet he refuses to give up.
It is because Stark has experienced it that he knows how unbearable that loneliness is. He also realizes that no matter how high his intelligence is, he can't brew an antidote for this kind of suffering. He doesn't have any sense of superiority to despise those who are struggling in this suffering.
"I think you always consider yourself as Peter's elder, which is true in terms of age, but perhaps not in certain aspects."
"What do you mean? I am indeed his elder. I was the one who went to his school for the parents calling of days ago."
"I mean, perhaps there are some aspects you should learn from him."
"Learn from him? That silly boy?" Stark sneers, "What can I learn from him? Learn how he beat up a foul-mouthed jerk and still was nervous about it? If it were me, Stark Dad would definitely let that piece of trash know his place..."
"The reason I mentioned Peter was that you definitely don't want to hear the name of another person."
Stark opens his mouth and says, "I better go ask Peter. Don't give me other suggestion, or I'll deduct money."
After speaking, he snaps shut the mask of his armor and flies away directly. Schiller shakes his head.
He thinks, the growth process of these superheroes is like a rich painting slowly unfolding before his eyes.
When he personally participates in this process, he realizes these people are indeed superheroes, but they are also ordinary people. Whether it is Peter or Stark, Spider-Man or Iron Man, it is the same.
Their transformation cannot be portrayed in a few frames or lines of dialogue in a comic. Their struggles in growing up are like a tangle of confusion, impossible to unravel and endless to talk about.
Their fluctuations in emotions and changes in feelings, every moment of wavering and every moment of determination, are filled with complex and bizarre thoughts, just like the subtle changes that every ordinary person's brain brings them, too numerous to count.
This also makes Schiller understand that the touching stories, heroic sacrifices, and steadfast beliefs he has seen in movies and comics are not inherent.
These superheroes are like pieces of steel that have been tempered thousands of times. Schiller can see the process in which they are being tempered. The sound and vibrations from every strike, the flames and sparks ignited by intense collisions, are like filling their souls with fuel to maintain vitality, providing more stimulation than an ordinary life could offer.
Until one day, the heroes' hearts turn into shining gold, and these tempering processes are written into legendary stories.
If readers of these stories see only the glorious and magnificent side of the heroes, Schiller, as a reader deeply immersed in the story, is more willing to record heroes' growth pains of these tiny and trivial chores.
He documents their joys and sorrows as ordinary people, until one day, after those sung stories are forgotten, traces of these non-heroic heroes will still remain in the world.
Leaving behind the answer, that greatness is born from ordinary, and finally ends up ordinary.