"Listen to , Stark, I don't think it's necessary to establish a sky train station next to the sanatorium. On one hand, the demand for transportation here isn't that high, on the other hand, do you want to endure the noise of the sky train coming and going? I suffer from neuroasthenia..."
Shiller switched the phone to the other hand, sighed, and then said, "I understand you're eager to set up a whole sky transportation route in New York, naturally including here. But you don't need to rush to land all stations within a few weeks, do you?"
"Yes, I'm aware that with our current production power, it's not difficult to build all train stations in the New York area within a month. After all, the production lines are all ready, albeit a downgraded version, but with the mages helping to open portals, material transportation isn't a problem. But you should also consider the problems that might arise during the actual landing process..."
"If the tiline gets too compressed, many issues could go unnoticed. If problems arise after the railway is put to use, the consequences could be much more severe."
"What? Is this pressure from Congress? Why are they pressuring you?... Does it have to do with ? What does it have to do with ? Oh, could it be that they are afraid they won't shine enough, so they want to produce so results first??"
Shiller frowned and grimaced, saying, "I knew it, it certainly has sothing to do with the elections. Anyway, go ahead and build it, but you have to ensure that it's far from my bedroom. I really have neuroasthenia..."
After hanging up the phone, Shiller sighed. But just as he was about to dial another number, his head nurse walked in and said, "Doctor Shiller, the patient in bed three has broken out of his restraints again. Would you like to check on him?"
Shiller imdiately put down the phone and, frowning, headed out the door, asking, "What happened? Did he harm himself again? Didn't we replace the restraints? How could he break free?"
The head nurse hesitated for a mont, about to speak, but before she could, Shiller interrupted, "Never mind, it's not your fault. He has special abilities, he can control kinetic energy, ordinary restraints obviously wouldn't work."
The two walked down the floor and arrived at the inpatient departnt. As soon as they reached the seventh floor, they saw so nurses and male nursing assistants unravelling a bundle of restraints covered with blood. Shiller quickly walked up and asked, "How is it? Is the patient's condition stable?"
"The dication has started working, doctor, but the restraints are broken again. We can only prepare new ones..."
"You all go outside, keep these bloody things away, don't trigger him, I'll talk to him." Shiller waved his hand, dismissing the nurses and nursing assistants.
As he walked in, he saw a blond young man lying on the floor in a patient gown, curled up and shaking slightly. Shiller approached, crouched down and softly called, "Robert? Robert? Are you okay?"
"Don't co near... don't co near..." The young man lying on the floor was slightly convulsing. He floated slowly into the air and then "bang" collided with the ceiling. The wall plaster fell, and Shiller extended his hand. A gray mist spread out, seeped into the field of kinetic energy and pulled the young man down.
"Listen, Robert, you need to control yourself as much as possible. Don't be deceived by the illusions in your brain. Everything is already in the past. No one is going to bla you..."
However, Robert lying on the floor was still shaking uncontrollably. There was a long cut on his arm which appeared self-inflicted. Despite being pinned to the ground by the gray mist, he lifted his other arm, stretched his fingers into the wound, and kept widening it. Fresh blood flowed out and the sll of blood filled the room.
Seeing his movent, Shiller frowned. The current situation of Speedball Robert had a certain connection with him.
Previously, to force so politicians who were intent on intervening in the Solar System project to show their true colors, Shiller personally fabricated a farce involving the sacrifice of all superheroes and the imminent arrival of the Iron Curtain.
In order to kill Captain Arica, Shiller conspired with Baron Strucker, and asked him to send his pair of children, the Twins, to ambush Captain Arica on his journey to investigate the true cause of Spider-Man's death, using their special abilities to kill him.
The plan was designed that way, but Shiller underestimated the unpredictability of mutants. During the fight, they often follow their own instincts. When they use their powers, they don't consider the current situation, and they don't even rember the initial arrangents.
At that ti, when they ambushed Captain Arica, the plan was for the brother and sister to unite and use Quicksilver to attack and kill Captain Arica from behind.
However, the younger of the Twins, who naturally has the ability to control human cognition for a short period of ti, instinctively activated this ability during the disruption. He was trying to control Speedball to attract Captain Arica's attention, allowing them to make their surprise attack from behind.
But they underestimated Speedball's abilities. The unsuspecting Captain Arica was directly killed by a punch from Speedball on the spot.
Out of Spider-Man, Captain Arica, and Iron Man, only Spider Man's death was public. Currently, Peter is active as the Third Generation Spider-Man. Since the deaths of Captain Arica and Iron Man have not been made public, there are no rumors about their resurrection.
However, Speedball, who had personally killed Captain Arica, knew what happened. Even though Captain Arica appeared before the public again later, his death was not faked. He knew he had personally killed his own idol.
Speedball is an outwardly defiant young man, but also a military enthusiast and war fanatic. As such, he greatly idolized Captain Arica, viewing him as the spiritual flag of this country.
When Captain Arica sought him out and asked for their help to investigate the truth behind Spider-Man's death, although he outwardly appeared annoyed, he was internally very excited. He had hardly dread of fighting alongside his idol, just like so war enthusiasts finding themselves suddenly able to battle alongside the divine generals of history.
Reality delivered a harsh blow to him, being manipulated by the Trifin twins, he killed Captain Arica. In the instant he regained consciousness, Speedball's heart had practically completely broken down.
As to who was to bla for it all, it was only a series of coincidences. Shiller, when planning the attack with the Trifin twins, had taken into account almost every possible angle of attack. After all, he had a thorough understanding of Captain Arica, knew all his battle habits, and naturally, knew how to strike him where it hurt the most.
The Trifin twins intended rely to use the liabilities carried by Captain Arica to divert his attention. The punch they manipulated Speedball to throw was far from full force, rely a feint.
Yet who would have thought, Captain Arica, sowhat dazed by the death of Spider Man, and Speedball, exceedingly powerful, ended up creating this tragedy.
Truth be told, to anyone else except Speedball, this couldn't even be considered a tragedy. After all, Captain Arica had been resurrected, the deal between Shiller and Baron Strucker had concluded, and both parties had attained what they desired. However, every unexpected event in the plan piled up and weighed heavily on Speedball, leading to a complete ntal breakdown.
Shiller walked over to the collapsed Robert on the ground, helped him up and took him to the bed. Looking at Robert's lifeless eyes, Shiller sighed once more.
Shiller pulled out a pair of gloves from the bedside table. After putting on the gloves on his right hand, he reached out to touch Robert's arm. Instead of using a bandage to dress his wounds, he pressed his fingers against Robert's injury.
An intense pain made Robert scream, but his eyes gradually regained so life. But instead of looking at Shiller, he slowly turned his head to look out the window.
The standards of the hospital's inpatient departnt were high, offering a great view. At this mont, shuttle after shuttle flew across the blue New York skyline. Robert opened his mouth to speak, but his overly hoarse voice prevented him from uttering a single word. Shiller understood what he was trying to ask and said:
"Those are shuttles, new transportation tools. If you can be discharged soon, you can take one to go ho."
But soon, the dazed look returned to Robert's face. Shiller used pain to stimulate him again, but this ti, his state of lucidity didn't last long.
In the original comic book, during the course of Speedball chasing Nitro, Speedball caused a big explosion that resulted in the death and injury of 612 innocent people. Speedball was sent to prison. Once released, he held himself accountable for the deaths and injuries of those 612 people and built himself an armor with 612 nails.
The nails of the armor pointed inwards, causing imnse pain by lacerating his flesh every ti he wore it. Therefore, he began calling himself the Penitent, believing he would forever repent for the deaths of these innocent people.
Shiller's plan left no room for Nitro to maneuver. Spider Man sacrificed himself to protect the citizens around New York, and the explosion was minor, causing more structural damage than casualties. Although several dozen people were injured, the injuries were minor, caused by the collapsing buildings, and they've all been discharged by now.
However, the tragedy of the Penitent happened on another level. Robert can't easily move on from the shadow of killing Captain Arica with his own hands. And he's ended up on a path similar to the Penitent, only able to alleviate his guilt through pain, just like Constantine.
Shiller sat in front of Robert's hospital bed, looking at his still slightly youthful face, and slowly began to speak in a low tone:
"Robert, I know you can hear now. I told you before, this was all caused by my mistakes. My plan wasn't thorough enough, I didn't take into account the uncontrollability of mutants, leading to you hurting Captain Arica."
"I must apologize to you. I didn't want this tragic event to take place. Your feeling of guilt stems from the common belief that the dead cannot be resurrected. But in fact, Captain Arica is not dead; things can still be rectified."
"You shouldn't feel so guilty about this, because it wasn't your intention, and it didn't have any severe consequences. You should break away from the conventional notion that's been tornting you and face reality."
Shiller dropped his head, propping his elbow on his knee, and said, "Maybe you think I'm just saying these things to make you feel better. But I want to tell you, I've had similar experiences, and I've been on the edge of an even more dangerous cliff."
"I also stayed in a ntal hospital, or a place similar to a ntal hospital, for a long ti. At that ti, I was young and my ntal state was very unstable due to inherent ntal problems."
"Not long after I had been admitted, a professional doctor hadn't been assigned to my case yet. The doctor who treated had never seen a case like mine, and just prescribed the usual dications."
"But my ntal problem was far more severe than he thought. The dicine didn't provide enough sedative effects, which led to... having a breakout one day."
"I bit a nurse who had always been looking after ..." Shiller's fingertips twitched, and then he said:
"From the ti I was admitted, that nurse always took care of in the most ticulous way. She made , in my confused ntal state, realize that normal humans do have emotions. At the sa ti, she also made realize that kind-hearted humans have even more abundant emotions than others..."
"So, like you... I started having tendencies of self-harm."
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