บท 3558: Chapter 2688: Hollywood Rhapsody (11)
Shiller and Peter approached around the same time, with Peter slightly ahead, but in front of Peter was Stark, whereas nothing obstructed Shiller's view, allowing him to see Sandman's current condition very clearly.
The reason Shiller was interested in Sandman was that he thought Sandman's structure resembled that of the gray mist, even though the Gray Mist Factor was much more advanced than sand. Still, he couldn't deny their similarities in form.
And precisely because sand is much more intuitive than the Gray Mist Factor, Shiller could see the life structure of this type of creature more clearly. He found the mass of sand moving in a very aesthetically pleasing rhythm, part of it orbiting, part of it spinning, and he could even make out the shapes of primitive organs.
Shiller noticed that the movement of the sand seemed to indicate the function of that part, and some of the sand moved more vigorously than the rest, which looked to be the organs of a human, like the lungs or heart.
Shiller found this very interesting, so he took two involuntary steps forward to get a clearer look, just as the sandstorm, which had been well under the control of Iron Man and Captain America, suddenly erupted.
Whoosh!!
A mass of sand hurtled in their direction, or more precisely towards Peter, but Peter was safely shielded by the iron bulk of Stark in front of him. However, nothing was in front of Shiller, and as the wind laden with sand blew over, his glasses were blown off instantly.
Fortunately, Iron Man immediately subdued Sandman, and Shiller rubbed his nearly sand-blinded eyes. In that instant, he could have turned to mist, but with the cameras filming, he had no choice but to let his glasses fly away like any ordinary person would.
Actually, Shiller didn't have myopia; he wore glasses just to conceal his gaze. As someone with autism, Shiller didn't like to make eye contact when he was younger and wearing glasses meant no one could tell he was avoiding their gaze.
Of course, now he was able to make eye contact freely, but wearing glasses had become a habit, and he was a bit uncomfortable without them.
However, Peter's shouting drew Shiller's attention. He said, "Sandman's weakness is water. As long as he encounters water, his movements become very slow, and he can even become completely immobile, only able to revert to human form."
"Really?" Stark was somewhat skeptical. Was the answer that simple?
Then his head swiveled left and right, as if looking for something to try, and the eyes of the three men settled on Shiller's hand.
Shiller was still holding his juice, and, because it was a straw cup with a lid, the cup wasn't dirtied, and the juice was still drinkable.
Shiller looked down at the juice in his hand and then said to them, "What do you want to do? If you want a drink, go buy one yourself..."
Finally, Shiller sighed resignedly and handed his juice to Peter, who opened the cup and splashed it onto Sandman, causing a large clump of sand to solidify.
Shiller watched as Peter targeted the part of the sand that was moving violently. Once that part solidified, the movement of all the other sand slowed down, eventually coalescing into a humanoid form.
"Beck? Beck!!!"
Someone was calling Sandman's name, but it wasn't Peter. They looked towards the source of the voice and saw a black figure peeking around the corner.
"Miles?" Peter called out the name of the boy in surprise, while Iron Man had already flown over to drag him out.
Miles, hanging by the back of his collar, looked quite dejected but continued to struggle. Steve slapped Stark's hand away and asked Miles, "What's wrong? Boy? You know this guy?"
Miles didn't speak but looked up at Peter. Peter stepped forward and asked, "What happened? How come you and Beck are here?"
"I was following him here." Miles still looked down on his luck as he said, "You told me to keep an eye on Robbins. I couldn't keep watch; he's invisible, how am I supposed to catch him?"
"And Beck?"
"I stumbled upon him by chance..."
Miles pursed his lips, and Shiller noticed they were a bit chapped, looking like he had not drunk water for quite some time. So he went back to the car to get him a bottle of water, and Miles said cautiously, "Thanks."
He then downed the entire bottle of water in a bold gulp, exhaling deeply and saying, "Heavens, I thought I was a goner. I'm glad it wasn't serious."
"What exactly happened?" Stark was running out of patience. If Steve hadn't been holding him back, he would definitely have given the boy a lesson.
"Robbins trapped him." Miles said, "I don't know the principle behind it, but all I know is that he made a huge swimming pool, and then the mass of sand was soaked at the bottom, completely immobile."
"You told me to keep an eye on Robbins. I couldn't get into the house, so I just wandered around outside. But Robbins had been gone for a long time, and I worried I had lost sight of him, so I wanted to go in and check."
"It was an abandoned villa, and when I got inside, I saw that big swimming pool. I felt something strange because I've cleaned pools before, and these uninhabited villas generally don't have water in the pools, and if they do, the water would be very dirty..."
"Get to the point!" said Stark.
"This is the point." Miles raised his voice but quickly shrank his neck again, saying, "I felt the pool was off, so I looked down and, to my shock, a face appeared on the sand at the bottom of the pool."
"It almost scared me to death. I slipped and fell into the pool. I can swim and the pool isn't deep. I should have been able to swim up, but I felt something grab my ankle, and I swallowed several mouthfuls of water."
"Just when I was about to drown, I felt something buoy me up, and I crawled to the edge of the pool. As I got close to the surface, I heard someone shouting for help."
"Something felt off. The sand seemed alive, so I found the pool's drain valve, emptied all the water, and then I saw that mound of sand move. It even talked to me."
"It said it had been kidnapped and trapped at the bottom of the pool, asking if I could take it somewhere to dry out."
"I figured it might have been the one who saved me in the pool, so I vacuumed it up and spread it out on the lawn to dry. But after it dried, it started screaming madly about wanting to kill Spider-Man..."
"Wait," Peter interrupted, "What does this have to do with Spider-Man?"
"It said Spider-Man was the one who kidnapped it here."
Peter opened his mouth and said, "Then what?"
"It said it knew Spider-Man's secret and wanted to find and kill him. I really didn't know how to stop it, so I could only follow."
"How did you guys end up here?"
"I'm not sure," Miles said. "At first it was just looking around New York, but one day it went crazy and brought me here. I think I haven't had water for almost three days, I nearly died of thirst."
Everyone present felt that something was off.
Firstly, Spider-Man would never kidnap Sandman. Even if Peter had some work-related conflicts with Beck, Spider-Man wouldn't do such a thing, and kidnapping him wouldn't bring any benefits.
Considering what they had uncovered earlier, it should've been Robbins who kidnapped Beck, which meant it was possible Robbins had masqueraded as Spider-Man, leading Beck to believe Spider-Man had captured him.
But there's another problem. Spider-Man's identity is not public knowledge, meaning almost no one knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man. But now that Beck had tracked him here, it proved he knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man.
His extreme ranting about wanting to kill Spider-Man could be due to his inherently unstable emotions, or possible knowledge that Peter had recently made his work difficult and then kidnapped him, completely enraging Beck to the point of taking extreme measures.
The only question was, how did Robbins find out that Spider-Man was actually Peter Parker?
The few people present all immediately thought of this question. There are actually quite a few who know Spider-Man's true identity, not to mention the group of Spider-Men from other universes.
But those who know Spider-Man's identity would not reveal it. Whether it's the members of The Avengers, the Spider-Men of the Multiverse, or S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, they would never disclose Spider-Man's real identity to outsiders, let alone to a minor character like Robbins. So where did this information leak from?
Shiller was quickly ruling out the wrong answers in his mind when a thought struck him. However, he knew there was no need to share it in front of the camera, as today's segment about Spider-Man would be cut. They could discuss it privately.
But unexpectedly, Beck awoke at that moment, locking his eyes on Peter Parker.
"Spider-Man!! You damned hypocrite!! I'm going to kill you!!!"
Beck's emotions erupted violently again, and Steve looked at Shiller's face as if to ask whether they should knock him out first.
Although Shiller, on holiday, was completely disinclined to work, considering Peter, he decided to calm Beck down first to figure out what was going on.
Just as he was about to speak, he heard Peter say, "I don't know what you're going on about, but I'm not Spider-Man. I think you've got the wrong person."
Upon hearing this, Stark and Steve looked at Peter with some surprise. In their memory, Peter didn't lie, and although Shiller taught him to not let the full truth slip sometimes, he always aimed to avoid lying whenever possible, especially about his identity.
Even now, with cameras rolling, they knew such critical information would be edited out, so there was no need for Peter to deny it.
Shiller, however, began to understand something. Peter had previously discussed with him the balance between superhero duties and family life. Perhaps Peter had already made his choice; thus, his words were utterly sincere—he didn't want to be Spider-Man anymore.
Beck, who was not completely ignorant of Peter's character after being colleagues for a time, knew this favored son of fortune had his pride. He disdained and was not good at lying, let alone lying with such earnest and determined posture.
That put Beck at a loss.
This is the advantage of being an honest person, Shiller thought. If you've told the truth all your life, then even if this one lie is outrageous, most people will choose to believe it.
"You've got the wrong person," Peter continued with the same firm tone. "I think you've been misled. After all, I said before you're not very smart. Do you realize that causing such a scene could likely cost you your job?"
After his anger was curbed, Beck slowly came to his senses, breaking out in a cold sweat. He had a feeling that he had been somewhat abnormal recently.
"Doctor, I think he might have been hypnotized," Peter said, looking at Shiller. "Could you treat him, please?"
Looking at the camera in the distance, Shiller couldn't bring himself to say things like "I'm on vacation." He simply responded, "Alright, I'll do my best."
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