章 3567: Chapter 2697: Hollywood Rhapsody (20)
This time, everything went smoothly. At the beginning of the banquet, Shiller kept silent, burying his head in his meal, and more importantly, he managed his expression very well. Nobody could capture any negative expressions of his to cut into some weird parts.
Considering the conflict between Stark and Strange, Shiller still privately contacted Steve and Peter and asked them to appease the two men respectively. The process was also very smooth until they finished playing on the beach, and Shiller did not take Beck to the hotel.
Because he knew that once he left, Stark and Wanda were sure to start arguing. Once those two started quarreling, Shiller would have to call to calm Stark down; otherwise, he would bite whoever he saw.
But if Shiller managed to coax Stark with a single phone call, those idle netizens who had nothing better to do would definitely dig into what was going on, and then he would be in the spotlight again.
So, Shiller made up his mind to resolve the issue before Stark could even start on Wanda.
When Wanda asked if there was any wine, Shiller immediately handed her the red wine he had prepared. Seeing that it was Shiller doing so, Stark wanted to say something but didn't speak, and that was the end of that.
One might think that would have been enough, but the bottle of red wine Shiller took was from the wine cellar of Stark's luxurious manor, and it was quite a nice bottle of wine.
Wanda, who was already fond of drinking, had not had much time for herself for such a long time because she had always been taking care of her children. Finally, she could relax for a little while and had Dionysium and good company to boot, and she accidentally drank too much.
It wouldn't have been a big deal if she just got drunk, but today, the child started crying loudly due to car sickness. After crying himself tired, he started to sleep, and then woke up in the night refusing to sleep, crying out loud for his mother.
Wanda was still hungover, groggy from sleep, and when the child called out a few times, she didn't hear. By the time Jarvis got up and heard it, the child had already started crying.
This crying was disastrous. Although it was still not clear what his mutant ability specifically was, he had already shown the ability to evoke emotional resonance before. This crying could be said to shake the heavens and earth, making the group of formidable superheroes cry like babies.
Perhaps the child's pent-up emotions were particularly strong, coupled with his penetrating voice. Even in a sparsely populated wealthy area, it caused great chaos, and all the nearby villa lights turned on, with everyone looking bewildered at the tears on their faces.
Well, this is going to make the social news now. Given that the chaos Beck caused in the mall, with people crying en masse, had already been reported, having the same thing happen in Beverly Hills would naturally lead people to suspect it had something to do with the group of superheroes.
After a bit of deductive reasoning, it was quite easy to pinpoint Wanda and her children. Social news isn't like entertainment news where you can just edit things out; people eventually realized that this was another eruption of mutant abilities.
Since this involved Wanda's children, there was no way she would back down, but not only were the netizens aggressive, the wealthy residents of Beverly Hills wouldn't tolerate a mutant who was like a ticking time bomb living near them.
This time, Stark was actually united with Wanda in their grievances, but Shiller was clearly unable to let them make such a fuss. It wouldn't be good for the children, and more importantly, he was afraid of repeating the same mistakes in the original story, letting Wanda — this ticking bomb — fully explode and ruin the currently balanced situation between mutants and ordinary humans.
There was no time to mourn the failure of Shiller No. 3, as Shiller No. 4 arrived on the scene.
Shiller No. 3 had learned from his previous mistakes; he thought that simply traveling a few days before the departure was useless.
The documentary filming had included such footage: Strange and Shiller working together in the Elders Council Hospital, both busy with a major surgery. Strange was somewhat unhappy about Shiller being late for a consultation.
This was only one of the highlights of the medical documentary, but the main problem was that the conflict between Stark and Strange erupted because Stark, with his loose tongue, had to tease Strange about his "Hand of God" title at the banquet, giving off a very disrespectful tone towards medical staff.
But it was indeed Strange who strutted in like a turkey in mating season, trying to display his aloof pride, something Stark could not stand, especially with his anxiety disorder, which made their conflict increasingly intense.
So Shiller No. 3 decided to travel back to their hospital days and reminded his past self to trouble Strange a bit and draw his attention, leaving him no time to bother Stark.
Greed did have some skill in manipulation, and things progressed smoothly — the typical set of behaviors: drinking, taking drugs, being late for consultations, running into each other in the hallway, mutual taunting, as well as the classic recreation of grabbing Strange to drive him.
After a series of medical comedy antics that could fill a whole season, Strange finally focused all his attention on Shiller, treating the host of the banquet Stark as if he were air.
Shiller thought this should prevent any conflict between the two, but then Stark went crazy, starting to mock Shiller and Strange, both acting like turkeys in the mating season, neither giving in.
Now, Eddie didn't even need to maliciously edit the documentary. Just the micro-expressions of Strange, Stark, and Shiller alone could make up forty or fifty highlights of the episode.
As expected, the documentary became a hit again, but for all the wrong reasons. People became even more enthusiastic about uncovering Shiller's past, declaring the plan of Shiller No. 4 a complete failure.
Shiller Number 4, having suffered enough, decided that the key issue lay with that Dog Stark. As long as they could control him, others would not make much trouble. Thus, Shiller Number 5 grandly came into being.
This time Shiller fully embraced Stark's approach, alleviating most of Stark's anxiety symptoms before even going on vacation, finally making him seem like a normal person instead of a dog.
During the party, although Strange was still acting pretentious, Stark did not squabble with him, focusing all his attention on Pepper instead. And guess what? Wanda and Polaris started arguing again.
Or rather, that was to be expected. They had argued in the main film, but it was overshadowed by the conflicts involving Stark, Strange, and Wanda, so their dispute wasn't as noticeable.
Suddenly, Shiller realized that this movie had more than one "dog"!
Wanda and Polaris's sisterly quarrel was none of Shiller's business at first, but when their argument escalated, Magneto made his entrance.
Magneto, the top dog among dogs, was called by Professor X to mediate the sisters' dispute. He gladly accepted and immediately pinned Polaris to the ground upon arriving.
He indeed refrained from laying hands on Wanda, but the sheer force of his actions was intimidating enough to make both of Wanda's children cry.
When Billy cried, the mutants repeated history with the social news turning out even bigger than the last time, as many had witnessed Magneto. It was pegged as another terrorist attack.
Shiller Number 5 realized that, apart from Stark, Wanda was also key to the situation. He had managed to treat Stark's anxiety in advance but realized that he needed to do the same for Wanda's anxiety.
But Wanda had just given birth, a pivotal time for her emotional changes. Shiller couldn't possibly travel back to before she had the child to treat her.
However, with the child only being a little over a month old, there was no way Shiller Number 6 could treat both Stark and Wanda in that short amount of time.
So Shiller Number 5 and Shiller Number 6 had to collaborate, treating both parties while trying their best to prevent them from discovering that there were two Shillers in the world at the same time.
The results were actually quite good this time, both troublemakers' mindsets were mostly adjusted. Stark wasn't anxious about Pepper anymore, and thus didn't stir up trouble at various occasions. Wanda's stress was also relieved, and she followed the doctor's advice carefully, avoiding alcohol and not taking Polaris too seriously.
Everyone was having a merry time at the beach until the last evening, when Iceman and Polaris started fighting.
The reason was not that complex, just a matter of the heart. Polaris had been in a relationship with Cyclops's brother Quicksilver, but Quicksilver was quite hotheaded, and they often argued.
As the patient said, Quicksilver had a strong urge for control, feeling that being together meant planning for the future together. In plain terms, he wanted Polaris to follow his lead, either staying on Earth or moving to the Andromeda Galaxy with him.
Polaris, however, resented this control. She felt that whether to stay on Earth or move to the Andromeda Galaxy should be her own decision, not something for Quicksilver to dictate.
After the two broke up, Iceman was consoling Polaris. Iceman, with his gentle nature, provided Polaris with a lot of comfort, and it was natural for them to get together.
But to be blunt, Iceman tended to be insecure, needing emotional validation from others to prove they loved him. Polaris, due to her upbringing and just like Magneto, was the type not adept at demonstrating her love.
Iceman kept hinting, and Polaris sometimes understood but didn't know what to do, responding infrequently, which made Iceman feel like he was just a backup, and Polaris still had feelings for Quicksilver.
At the bonfire party that night, Polaris went to provoke Wanda, who ignored her, leaving Polaris feeling bored and complaining to Iceman, mentioning that one time she had argued with Quicksilver and Quicksilver had fought with Quicksilver for her.
She only meant to complain about Quicksilver's temper because after she had provoked Quicksilver, Wanda had sought to even the score. As siblings, they easily overpowered Polaris, who took a loss and when confronting Quicksilver about it, he claimed it was to protect her.
Polaris told Iceman about how chauvinistic Quicksilver was, not considering her feelings at all. Iceman misinterpreted this as Polaris complaining that he wasn't standing up for her, and his mood instantly soured.
They managed to hold it together during the bonfire, but back at the villa, Polaris sensed something off about Iceman and questioned him, prompting Iceman to burst out. They ended up arguing bitterly over who loved whom more.
As everyone knows, such disputes never end well. Both were too heated to care about keeping their voices down, and Polaris resorted to her specialty, levitating an assortment of furniture in the air.
Meanwhile, Wanda had just put the children to sleep, and the ruckus downstairs set them off crying again.
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