双语漫威故事《蜘蛛侠》 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，彼得决定把其他事情都抛在脑后，专心学习。他知道，如果他想进一所好大学并且成为一名科学家，高中阶段的学习至关重要。他打开自己的平板电脑，开始阅读有关化学方面的内容，从简单的水分子结构到带劲的超坚固金属合金。

 

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.

彼得已经忘记了自己是多么热爱科学。最近他总是被其他事情弄得心烦意乱。他完全忘记这是一样最能让他感到快乐的事情。

 

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.

在阅读和研究的过程中，他迅速关闭了屏幕上弹出的数十个应用程序更新和推送通知——从天气预报到最新的游戏升级。

 

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.

但有一个通知他关得太快了。他已经学习好几个小时，他太累了。他肯定是看错了。因为他发誓他读到了一些消息，那绝不可能是真的。

 

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

“上面写的是我想的那样吗？”彼得想知道。

 

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

他点击搜索引擎应用程序，输入“蜘蛛侠新闻”。

 

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.

彼得选择了《号角日报》网站。他知道出版商J.约拿·詹姆逊讨厌蜘蛛侠。詹姆逊正如他所说的那样，坚信蜘蛛侠是个威胁。他花了大量时间试图让公众和他一样，相信蜘蛛侠是个恶棍。但詹姆逊也拥有业内最好的记者。因此，尽管他逼着员工抹黑蜘蛛侠，但这些故事包含的信息量往往还是会比其他任何媒体提供的要多。

 

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.

彼得点击了一个视频链接。他简直不敢相信自己看到的！被称为“石头人”的岩石超级英雄巨人站在一个黑暗的房间里，在他前面的椅子上绑着一个蜘蛛侠模样的人。

 

“What the heck?” Peter said.

“这到底是怎么回事？”彼得说。

 

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.

彼得点击播放键。“如果你还没有注意到，我们大家已经厌倦了扮演超级英雄的角色。我们夜以继日地工作，保护你们这些人，却什么回报也得不到。”石头人说道，“那我们就不用征求你们的意见，直接把你们欠我们的钱拿走了。就把这个当做回报吧。超胆侠已经与我们站在同一条船上了，新星也来了。每天还有越来越多的英雄在加入。他们都想加入超级英雄抵抗联盟。”

 

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

“但是这个笨蛋什么都不干，只知道在儿这妨碍我们。”

 

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

“正因为如此，”他继续说着，同时拍了拍被绑着的蜘蛛侠的头。

 

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

哇！彼得一闪。“石头人即使轻轻拍一下也够疼的！”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.”

石头人继续说道：“我们要让他帮助我们。事实上，我们准备把他关在这里替我们干些脏活。我们真正的脏活其实就是打扫打扫厕所，熨烫熨烫制服，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.

看到自己以这样的情形出现在屏幕上，彼得感觉怪怪的，尽管他知道屏幕上的那人不是真正的蜘蛛侠。

 

“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.”

“听着，你有二十四小时。如果你把这家伙从我们这里截走的笔记本电脑交上来，我们就放了蜘蛛侠。否则，我们会把他像辗虫子一样辗扁。我、新星、超胆侠和其他一大伙英雄们会一起一个区一个区地摧毁整座城市，然后把战利品留给我们自己。”

 

“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.”

“为了防止你们这些人不在乎蜘蛛侠的生死，我给你们准备了一份特别的礼物。我要揭开这家伙的面具。蜘蛛侠没有任何朋友或家人，但戴面具的人却可能有。这意味着一定会有人站出来的。”

 

Peter leaned in. This was getting weirder and weirder.

彼得凑近了看。事情变得越来越奇怪了。

 

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?

石头人那粗糙的大手抓住屏幕上蜘蛛侠的面具。他一下子就把面具扯掉了，露出了爬墙者的真实身份。蜘蛛侠竟然是……闪电·汤普森吗？