雙語漫威故事《蜘蛛俠》 第七章

Chapter　7

第七章

 

That night Peter decided he had to put everything else out of his mind and study. He knew high school was important if he wanted to have any shot at a good college and a career as a scientist. He powered on his tablet and started to read about chemistry, from things as simple as water's molecular structure to things as exciting as unbreakable metal alloys.

那天晚上，彼得決定把其他事情都拋在腦后，專心學(xué)習(xí)。他知道，如果他想進(jìn)一所好大學(xué)并且成為一名科學(xué)家，高中階段的學(xué)習(xí)至關(guān)重要。他打開自己的平板電腦，開始閱讀有關(guān)化學(xué)方面的內(nèi)容，從簡單的水分子結(jié)構(gòu)到帶勁的超堅固金屬合金。

 

Peter had forgotten how much he loved science. He had been so distracted by other things recently. He had totally lost sight of one of the things that made him happiest.

彼得已經(jīng)忘記了自己是多么熱愛科學(xué)。最近他總是被其他事情弄得心煩意亂。他完全忘記這是一樣最能讓他感到快樂的事情。

 

As he read and researched, he quickly dismissed the dozens of app updates and push notifications that popped up on his screen—everything from weather alerts to newly available game levels.

在閱讀和研究的過程中，他迅速關(guān)閉了屏幕上彈出的數(shù)十個應(yīng)用程序更新和推送通知——從天氣預(yù)報到最新的游戲升級。

 

But one notice he dismissed too quickly. He was getting tired. He'd been studying for hours. He was sure he must have read it wrong. Because he could have sworn he had read something that couldn't be true.

但有一個通知他關(guān)得太快了。他已經(jīng)學(xué)習(xí)好幾個小時，他太累了。他肯定是看錯了。因為他發(fā)誓他讀到了一些消息，那絕不可能是真的。

 

Did that say what I thought it said? Peter wondered.

“上面寫的是我想的那樣嗎？”彼得想知道。

 

He tapped his search engine app and typed in News for Spider-Man.

他點擊搜索引擎應(yīng)用程序，輸入“蜘蛛俠新聞”。

 

Peter chose the Daily Bugle's Website. He knew that the publisher, a man named J. Jonah Jameson, hated Spider-Man. Jameson was convinced the hero was a menace, as he called him. And he spent most of his time trying to get the public to believe Spider-Man was a villain, too. But Jameson also had the best reporters in the business. So even though he forced his staff to paint Spider-Man in a bad light, the stories usually had more information than any other news source.

彼得選擇了《號角日報》網(wǎng)站。他知道出版商J.約拿·詹姆遜討厭蜘蛛俠。詹姆遜正如他所說的那樣，堅信蜘蛛俠是個威脅。他花了大量時間試圖讓公眾和他一樣，相信蜘蛛俠是個惡棍。但詹姆遜也擁有業(yè)內(nèi)最好的記者。因此，盡管他逼著員工抹黑蜘蛛俠，但這些故事包含的信息量往往還是會比其他任何媒體提供的要多。

 

Peter tapped on a link to a video. He couldn't believe what he was seeing! The big, rocky Super Hero known as the Thing was standing in a dark room with what looked like Spider-Man tied to a chair in front of him.

彼得點擊了一個視頻鏈接。他簡直不敢相信自己看到的！被稱為“石頭人”的巖石超級英雄巨人站在一個黑暗的房間里，在他前面的椅子上綁著一個蜘蛛俠模樣的人。

 

“What the heck?” Peter said.

“這到底是怎么回事？”彼得說。

 

Peter pressed play. The clip began to run. “If ya haven't noticed, a bunch of us are tired of playing the part of the Super Hero. We work night an' day protecting you people, and we get nothing out of it,” the Thing said. “So we're gonna take what you owe us, without asking. Consider it payback. Daredevil is on board with us, and so is Nova. And every day more an' more step forward. They want to join the Super Hero Resistance.

彼得點擊播放鍵。“如果你還沒有注意到，我們大家已經(jīng)厭倦了扮演超級英雄的角色。我們夜以繼日地工作，保護(hù)你們這些人，卻什么回報也得不到。”石頭人說道，“那我們就不用征求你們的意見，直接把你們欠我們的錢拿走了。就把這個當(dāng)做回報吧。超膽俠已經(jīng)與我們站在同一條船上了，新星也來了。每天還有越來越多的英雄在加入。他們都想加入超級英雄抵抗聯(lián)盟。”

 

“But this bozo over here hasn't done anything but get in our way.”

“但是這個笨蛋什么都不干，只知道在兒這妨礙我們。”

 

“And because of that,” the Thing continued, as he slapped his captive Spider-Man upside the head.

“正因為如此，”他繼續(xù)說著，同時拍了拍被綁著的蜘蛛俠的頭。

 

Whoa! Peter flinched. Even a love tap from the Thing would hurt ! he thought.

哇！彼得一閃。“石頭人即使輕輕拍一下也夠疼的！”他心想。

 

The Thing went on, “we're going to make him help us. In fact, we're gonna keep him locked up in here to do our dirty work. Our real dirty work, that is—cleaning the toilets, ironing our costumes, whatever.”

石頭人繼續(xù)說道：“我們要讓他幫助我們。事實上，我們準(zhǔn)備把他關(guān)在這里替我們干些臟活。我們真正的臟活其實就是打掃打掃廁所，熨燙熨燙制服，等等。”

 

It was weird for Peter to see himself onscreen in that position, even though he knew the guy on the screen wasn't really Spider-Man.

看到自己以這樣的情形出現(xiàn)在屏幕上，彼得感覺怪怪的，盡管他知道屏幕上的那人不是真正的蜘蛛俠。

 

“See, you got twenty-four hours. If you hand over the laptop this guy over here snagged from us, we'll set Spider-Man free. Otherwise, we squash him like the bug he is, and me and Nova and Daredevil and a whole bunch of other heroes destroy the city, one borough at a time. And we take the spoils for ourselves.”

“聽著，你有二十四小時。如果你把這家伙從我們這里截走的筆記本電腦交上來，我們就放了蜘蛛俠。否則，我們會把他像輾蟲子一樣輾扁。我、新星、超膽俠和其他一大伙英雄們會一起一個區(qū)一個區(qū)地摧毀整座城市，然后把戰(zhàn)利品留給我們自己。”

 

“And just in case you people don't care if Spider-Man lives or dies, I have a special treat for you. I'm gonna unmask this guy. Even if Spider-Man doesn't have any friends or family, the guy under the mask probably does. That means someone's bound to step up.”

“為了防止你們這些人不在乎蜘蛛俠的生死，我給你們準(zhǔn)備了一份特別的禮物。我要揭開這家伙的面具。蜘蛛俠沒有任何朋友或家人，但戴面具的人卻可能有。這意味著一定會有人站出來的。”

 

Peter leaned in. This was getting weirder and weirder.

彼得湊近了看。事情變得越來越奇怪了。

 

The Thing's big rocky hand clenched the mask of the Spider-Man on the screen. The Thing whipped it off and revealed the wall-crawler's true identity. Spider-Man was really... Flash Thompson?

石頭人那粗糙的大手抓住屏幕上蜘蛛俠的面具。他一下子就把面具扯掉了，露出了爬墻者的真實身份。蜘蛛俠竟然是……閃電·湯普森嗎？