"Campbell, what the hell did you do?" a stern voice barked.
Roderick Campbell was just surfacing from the afterglow of a very fine finish. His phone had been ringing off the hook mid-action, but he'd been in no mood to deal with it — and only after firing off his shot three minutes in did he grope, bleary-eyed, for his Nokia.
A long beat later, he finally placed the voice on the other end — his own boss. He forgot everything else and hurried to report, "Mr. Trask, so sorry! I didn't realize it was you calling — I was, ah, busy handling my own business. What's up?"
"Fuck! Screw you too. I'm asking you — what the hell happened at the Roderick Institute?"
Campbell frowned. The man had a foul mouth, but he was the big boss, so Campbell could only ask, puzzled, "Boss, I'm home now — what about the institute? It was perfectly fine when I left!"
The man on the other end drew a deep breath. "Our mutant research is exposed. Aldrich Psychiatric Hospital can't be saved now — we have to cut our losses! Notify the other researchers. Cars will come for you shortly. We write off the institute, but we keep you research staff intact."
"Mr. Trask, how did it come to this?" Campbell cried.
"Spider-Man did it. Tony Stark's Spider-Man team. Go turn on your TV yourself," Trask said, low.
Campbell bolted straight to the living room, still stark naked, flicked on the set — and saw a whole cluster of Spider-Men ringed by a crowd, the one out front holding forth.
"A reporter just now was doubting it — is Mr. Stark putting on a show? Is he really Spider-Man? Was there some shady deal? Well, now you all know: every one of those guesses is slander! Would Mr. Stark risk offending every faction just to fish for fame and favor?"
"The mutant question is like the emperor's new clothes — everyone secretly knows the truth. The discrimination, the oppression, the harm we visit on mutants is nothing but us venting our own fear, our own unease, our own envy! Up in Heaven, watching over us — every last thing in this world, down to a single sheep, a single chicken, is His creation. Are our own kind, the mutants, any different?"
"Before they awaken, what separates a mutant from an ordinary person like you or me? Must we really betray our own conscience, defy the spirit of this great American nation, of democrazy, of equality, and turn a blind eye to such evil?"
"No — Mr. Stark says no, firmly, and his Spider-Man team says no! Is Aldrich Psychiatric Hospital an isolated case? It is not. As the last conscience of this great American nation, Mr. Stark did not stop there. Through wide-ranging investigation, he has confirmed beyond doubt that many institutions charged with monitoring, treating, and guarding mutants are running monstrous human experiments — and the subjects of those experiments are mutants!"
"We at Stark Industries know full well that tearing away this fig leaf will anger the authorities. But are our actions not just? Are we Spider-Men not righteous?"
"Yes — this is a righteous cause!" Tony's shill, paid to do a job, took it for Stark's true intent and answered Madam President's call with gusto.
"Righteous Spider-Man! Righteous champion, Tony Stark!"
"Righteous champion, Tony Stark!" Thousands were swept up in it now, roaring together.
"Even if we stir up one hell of an uproar, so long as we Spider-Men stand on the side of justice, you'll stand with us — won't you?" Madam President shamelessly recycled Tony's own words back at the crowd.
"We're with you, Spider-Man!" someone shouted.
"Righteous Spider-Man, we're with you!" More and more joined in.
"With you! With you!" The chant grew steadier, louder — as if time had rewound ten-odd minutes and the whole scene were playing over again.
"Boss, boss? What's happening? This doesn't match the plan!" Happy asked in a small voice, head tucked low.
"Ah — we've walked right into it!" Jarvis had labored a good while and finally purged the Trojan from the supercomputer, at last reconnecting to the front line.
(Author's note: Remember Chapter 105 — where Maya robbed, er, no, traded a ball of yarn for Happy's ODM gear, and made off with his Forgive Hat too? She used that Forgive Hat to hack into the supercomputer at Tony's place back then. That's the material foundation of tonight's whole affair.)
"Hey, hey — Jarvis? Why'd you drop off just now? And what in god's name is going on out here?" Hearing Jarvis's voice again, Happy asked quickly.
"Our supercomputer was hacked by Spider-Man long ago. A moment ago the Trojan went active and wrested control right out of my hands. It was only brief — but ah, the young master's sunk, we're all sunk, dropped straight into the giant pit Spider-Man dug for us!"
Jarvis said it as much for Happy as for the Tony standing beside Spider-Man. It's not that this old man dropped the ball — what can you do when the enemy's got a hacker?
"So what do we do? Or — we just grab Spider-Man? We've got the numbers, and he's right in the middle of our ring," Happy said, itching to move.
Jarvis studied the feed coming in from the scene and sighed, hand to his brow. "No — don't be rash! Can't you see the young master's right next to Spider-Man? And his hand hasn't left the young master's back this whole time. The young master's movements have gone rigid — he can't even speak. Clearly Spider-Man has some hidden neural-pulse device, maybe right there at his wrist, and the young master's been hit — 100%. If you rush him, Spider-Man severs the young master's spinal nerve — cuts his brain nerve, even — and then what? Forget it. The young master's in his hands. Our first priority is the young master's safety!"
Sensing the voice in Tony's earpiece, Maya nodded to herself, satisfied. Jarvis had served two generations of the Stark family — a seasoned old hand who could read the whole board, no question.
Tonight's stunt had gone about far enough — and the police looked ready to close the ring. Maya delivered her final summation. "To every reporter, citizen, and official here who still has a conscience — tonight's exposure of Aldrich Psychiatric Hospital is only the beginning. Tomorrow, I ask you all to march of your own accord. We will surround Aldrich Hospital and rescue the imprisoned children. The opening shot of America's human-rights revolution has just been fired!"
That done, she murmured low to Tony, "Mr. Stark, the task you laid out is complete. Since you'd like to keep a low profile — shouldn't we be leaving?"
10 seconds later, Jarvis patched through to every Spider-Man and took over control of Tony's ODM gear. "Everyone, scatter — carry on with your own assignments!"
As his words landed, dozens of Spider-Men across Times Square loosed their "webbing" and shot skyward, one after another, clearing the scene.
Never mind the aftermath rippling through Times Square. Madam President stopped hauling Tony around, slipped around a corner, and vanished with a flick of Shadow Escape.
Not two seconds after she left, the silver-white briefcase in Happy's grip went off with a BOOM. Lucky for Happy, he was quick on his feet and his Spider-suit had those side-wings — in the end he only went tumbling, stumbling, down onto the rooftop of a nearby building.