Spider-Man: Far from Home

The Mysterious Man with a Beard

Peter awoke to MJ knocking on his and Ned's hotel door less than two hours later. Ned got up from his bed and answered the door.
MJ burst inside saying, "ok losers, we're going to the library to study and both of you are coming with me."
"thanks MJ but I'm kinda tired and the hotel has cable."
"It wasn't a request. Peter get shower and get dressed. Ned clean up your mess and grab your notes."
Peter slowly started to get dressed and move towards the door. Everyone else on the team was already outside waiting for him. They all walked down to the library, silently, as if they were going to get in trouble for leaving.
MJ organized everyone into pairs to quiz each other, and paired herself up with Peter. She sat down across from him with a stack of flash cards about astronomy and started to quiz him. Peter slowly read off the answers, not getting a single question wrong. MJ stopped him half way through the stack, as everyone else was too absorbed in their own activities to pay attention.
"This morning I was watching the news and there was this guy with a bright green t shirt and a beard. He was in a video someone took a few seconds before the second bomb went off, but later Buzzfeed posted a picture from the third bombing, and he was in it too."
Peter slowly lifted his eyebrows to show he was listening and wanted her to go on. MJ started shuffling the flash cards as Herrington walked by.
MJ whispered to Peter, "but the locations were almost 10 miles away from each other, and no one can run that fast from the second to third locations."
Peter slumped down in his chair and rubbed his eyes with his fingers "a car Michelle. People drive cars you know"
"Listen loser this is your job. I don't have to help you-"
"Then don't. Michelle I'm tired and i can handle all of this by myself. I've been doing it for a while now so if you don't want to study then I'm going to go back to my room"
  MJ slumped back into her chair, silent as Peter stood up and walked back to his room.
Peter slouched down on his bed and went on his phone. He called Happy, but he didn't answer. Peter left a message
"Hey Happy. It's been a while. I know I've been calling a lot and I'm sorry. I know you get annoyed by that. I don't mean to annoy you. I'm...I'm in Europe right now. Italy to be exact. The same place as that thing with the bombs. I'm sure you've heard about that, it's every where. All the online news stuff, the news in Italy, Newspapers and I'm in some of them too. I um I don't really know what I'm doing right now," Peters voice started to shake, "I mean it's not like I always know what I'm doing, but I've just been really confused about everything. I don't even know what "everything" is....I'm sorry I keep bothering you Happy. I'll stop. Ill see y-or I'll just say bye. Ok...bye"
Peter hung up just before he burst into tears. He cried for a while, but not for too long. He put his suit on, left a note on Ned's bed, and jumped out the window. He swung around the city for hours, not even paying attention to the people below him. He just went in circles.
He thought about what MJ said. He went on Buzzfeeds website, and sure enough in the headlines, a middle aged man with a green t shirt and a beard was running away from the flames in the background.
"Karen, what was traffic like yesterday as the 3rd bomb was going off, uhh like from 8:15-8:30ish, in this area."
"My data base is telling me that there was traffic going both North and South after the first bomb went off. Traffic did not speed up until around midnight last night."
"How long would it take to get from the second location to the third"
"Around an hour and a half, by car."
"What about by foot"
"The average person walks about 3.1 miles per hour, but if he was running it would take about 45 minutes."
MJ was right, Peter thought.
"Karen, can you run facial recognition or this man"
"Sure Peter, but it will take a couple of minutes for it to load."
"Ok that's fine. Thanks Karen"
"Your welcome Peter"
Peter slowly made his way back to the hotel. He entered through the window, once again, and changed into a t shirt and jeans. He picked up a note Ned left on the desk saying
Went out for dinner.
Told everyone you were exhausted and taking a nap.
-Ned
Peter crumpled the note and shoved it in his back pocket. He put his mask back on.
"Karen, you almost done."
"Yes. I just finished"
"Are there any matches to people in the area"
"None"
"Really", peter said confused, "what about like out of country"
"Nothing. I don't have any matches at all."
"Can you pull up the footage from the Italian news this morning. Look for a man with a beard and a green shirt like the one in the picture."
"Sure Peter"
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Peter quickly threw his mask off his face and hid it under his pillow.
"Who is it?" He said
"It's MJ"