Chapter 3437: Midnight Sons (47)

Danny lay flat on the ground, gasping for air. No matter how many times he called in his heart, the Ghost Rider was as quiet as dead, not having the slightest intention to respond to him. Even Ms. Frances was gone.

"Where did you put them?" Danny was still muttering in a low voice.

"I know you've been walking very close to that psychologist recently. You should take this opportunity to let him take a look at you." Johnny leaned against the wall on one side and said, "If you keep going crazy like this, you'll really lose your life."

"I'm not crazy, everything I said is true!" Danny tried hard to turn over, wanting to climb up from the ground, but failed. The wound on his hand was too painful; the moment it touched the ground, his muscles instinctively contracted, making him fall to the ground again.

"I didn't say you were lying." Johnny said, "The Ghost Rider can distinguish lies and judge the sins deep in a person's heart. Since that's the case, why doesn't the Ghost Rider in your heart support you either?"

Danny was speechless, lying on the ground dejectedly.

"You investigated useful information, possibly faster than everyone else. Iron Man might still be debugging his equipment, Spider-Man hasn't finished today's work, Moon Knight is looking at the moon thinking about life, and I haven't finished gathering people yet. Your progress is leading."

"But this is useless. Danny, this isn't a game of who reaches the finish line first. Just like you can't knock over all the hurdles in a hurdle race and be the first to reach the finish line; that's not victory, that's you being crazy."

"But if I can investigate clues faster, I can catch the mastermind!"

"Why do you want to catch the mastermind?"

"Because he is doing bad things! Or he might be about to do bad things, we must stop him."

"Why do you want to stop him?"

"Because... because he might kill many people."

"That is to say, you want to stop him to protect those people who might be killed. But your stupid and reckless actions might kill more people. Then what is the meaning of your effort?"

Johnny squatted down, licked his back teeth with his tongue, sighed, and said: "Those superheroes you know aren't less vigilant, less smart, or less knowledgeable about how to find the truth than you. If they really couldn't compare to you, then you should be the one in charge right now, but you aren't."

"In your view, they are hesitant, overly cautious. Clearly having powerful strength but not knowing how to make a final decision, clearly able to solve problems once and for all, but always dragging things out. What do you think is the reason for this? Because they are evil? Stupid? Shifting responsibility?"

Danny shook his head blankly. It could be seen from his eyes that he had never seriously thought about this question.

Johnny stood up, flicked the ash aside, said nothing, shook his head, and turned to leave.

Danny lay in place for a long time, hearing no one's voice during the period. No Ghost Rider, no Ms. Frances, and not even his own voice.

After letting go for I don't know how long, feeling the drizzle drifting down from the sky, Danny finally turned over slowly. He fished out his phone from his pocket and dialed a number.

"The signal frequency looks like there's no problem. We might need to get a sample for disassembly to find the key to it." Jarvis looked at the readings on the computer screen and said, "Wanda, you come back first. Don't contact Miles, I suspect his spirit might have already been affected."

Wanda looked at the message Jarvis sent, feeling a bit unwilling, but could only put away her phone and follow the flow of students leaving class, leaving the community college together.

Just as she walked out, Wanda felt some moist water droplets falling on her face. She looked up and discovered that the night sky was already covered with dark clouds, and it was actually raining.

Jarvis, who stood up from the computer, also discovered the change in weather. The autumn rain in New York is very cold, and Wanda's body hasn't recovered well, so she absolutely cannot get rained on.

Jarvis ran out anxiously with an umbrella, turned his head to Schiller and said: "Doctor, the USB drive is in the second drawer on your left hand, just plug it into the computer to copy the data, I'm going to pick up Wanda."

Schiller also stood up, waved his hand to signal him to go quickly, and then went to the drawer nearby to get the USB drive. Although Jarvis didn't analyze any problems from the signals of this batch of teaching equipment, and the probability of others analyzing problems wasn't high, he still had to keep the evidence, which might be useful during the trial.

Just as he was copying the data, Schiller's phone suddenly rang. He answered the phone and frowned.

"What? Where are you? Alright, I'll be there right away."

After hanging up the phone, the data was also copied. Schiller pulled out the USB drive, also took an umbrella, and drove toward the Bronx.

Schiller wasn't familiar with the terrain here, turning left and right for a long time before finding Danny, who was drenched like a drowned rat, at the street corner of a small alley.

Schiller looked at the penetrating wound on his hand covered in muddy water and took a light breath. He stuffed Danny into the car and drove toward the nearest hospital.

Danny, however, seemed not to feel the pain, gripping the door handle tightly with that injured hand. Seeing that his state was wrong, Schiller could only speed up. After all, no matter how powerful the Ghost Rider is, it probably can't cure tetanus.

Arriving at the hospital, they registered for the emergency room. The doctor and nurse took a cold breath when they saw the wound. The nail was inserted diagonally, the penetrating wound surface was very large, the blood had completely dried, and even the wound was a bit unable to be pried open.

Danny was pushed in to get a tetanus shot. Schiller searched for Johnny's number in the phone book, but hesitated for a moment and didn't dial it. Presumably, Danny probably wouldn't want to see his brother right now.

After tossing and turning until midnight, Danny was pushed into the observation ward. Schiller walked over and sat beside him, wanting to call Ms. Frances out to ask what was going on, but called for a long time without any movement.

Now he was more certain that Ms. Frances hadn't been resurrected. The ghost they saw might be an imaginary partner Danny conjured up himself, which became able to be seen by everyone after being influenced by the power of the Ghost Rider in his body.

When Danny's state was good, Ms. Frances's state was naturally good. But now his own mental state was so poor, the imaginary partner naturally couldn't come out.

Although it's rare for an imaginary partner to be an elder, Schiller had seen it a few times and didn't feel strange. He just felt a bit strange that Danny's growing environment was clearly happier than Johnny's, but he was more willing to drill into a dead end than Johnny. It can only be said that environmental influence theory isn't that accurate either.

When the nurse called Schiller in, she said Danny's body temperature was a bit high, presumably because he caught a fever from the rain. After finishing the vaccine, he fell asleep in a daze. Schiller sat in front of the bed and waited for a while before he woke up.

"You finally woke up." Schiller poured him a glass of water and adjusted his hospital bed higher to prevent him from falling asleep again. Under these circumstances, lethargy isn't a good thing.

"Sorry to trouble you, Doctor." Danny looked like he had recovered his sobriety and seemed to have a lot to say.

"It's nothing. Did you run into a black gang? Did they hit you?"

Danny shook his head slowly. He reached out and touched the wound on his cheekbone, took a cold breath, but still shook his head firmly again.

"Doctor." Danny suddenly turned his head to look at Schiller and said, "You know many superheroes, right?"

Schiller nodded, looking at him with a calm gaze. He didn't know what Danny wanted to say, but he could guess a bit.

"Why do I feel that superheroes aren't that heroic?" Danny asked.

"What do you mean by 'heroic'?"

"That is... fighting evil, cracking down on crime, seeing through and stopping the conspiracies of those bad guys, and so on."

Schiller lowered his eyelids and asked: "Do you feel they haven't done that?"

"No. I've seen the news, I know they stopped a lot of crimes. But... but when I participated, I discovered that they don't seem to be cracking down on crime like that either."

"How do you think they should crack down on crime?"

"They should first confirm the identity of the criminal, hunt down the criminal, and after finding the criminal, beat him down, and then lock him in prison. Isn't it like that?"

"Do you feel they aren't doing that right now?"

"Yes. I feel they want to do that, but they seem to... seem to appear somewhat powerless."

"Powerless?"

"Yes. That's why I said they don't seem as powerful as I imagined. They clearly know there's a problem in the Bronx, but they seem to only investigate in private."

"Then how do you think they should do it?"

"Of course, adopt a more efficient way."

"For example?"

"For example, Iron Man has many mecha, he can completely send robots to investigate. Captain America has great influence, he can hold a press conference and call on others to help him investigate together. Moon Knight knows magic, he can also use magic to investigate..."

"You are wondering why they don't do that, right?"

Danny nodded and said: "This way they could find the mastermind faster, stop his conspiracy, and avoid others being harmed."

Schiller paused slightly, crossed his fingers and placed them on his lap, and then said: "You are wondering, actually, from your perspective, you feel doing it this way is right. But you aren't a superhero. Superheroes didn't do that, but they are still superheroes. Why is this?"

"You are wondering why they don't do as you say, even though they are so powerful. Danny, your thinking and doubts aren't strange things at all. Many people have the same questions as you. But you are the luckier one among them, because you met me, a psychologist who happens to have many superhero friends."

"If you hadn't met me, these questions might never have been answered. But since we are chatting here now, even if I might not be able to give you a satisfactory answer, we can use superheroes as a common topic to chat about the questions you are wondering about."

"So you aren't always hitting a wall, and it's not that the whole world has rejected you. You haven't always been unlucky; at least meeting me counts as a good thing. Relax, alright?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3438 =====

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