"You took everything from me!" The projection of Mysterio yelled as he shot the storm creature. "This is for my family."
Following numerous replays of the scene, Quentin Beck and his crew appeared bored as a result of watching the illusion so many times. Keenly observing the scene, Beck made the decision to speed up the illusion. "Pause."
William quickly sat up from his sleeping position. "Sorry."
"Yeah, uh, can you just fast-forward to the end?" Beck requested.
William nodded. "Yeah. Standby." He pressed a button, and the scene started fast-forwarding.
"Right. Fly, fly, fly..." Beck muttered. "Zap, zap, zap... Pause." William quickly paused the scene. "I'm not in love with this choreography, but it'll do. Kill image."
The illusion disappeared. "Decloak drones." The drones appeared and faced Beck. "Right, weapons?"
William looked up from his laptop and looked at Beck confusingly. "You wanna weaponize them?"
Beck nodded. "Yup."
William sighed. "Weapons only. Standby."
The drones repeated what the scene showed a while ago. Beck let out a dissatisfied grumble. "Stop." William stopped the drones. "Something... I don't know what it is. It's something..."
Beck snapped his fingers when he thought of an idea. "Just... you know what? Double the damage. And then run it again."
"You want me to double it up?" William asked, his voice lacing with slight concern.
"Yeah."
"Alright. Cover your ears."
As the scene was replayed, the drones resumed the task they were given and destroyed the props. With satisfaction, Beck let out a satisfied cheer. "Good. That's good." He came down the stage, and the illusion of Mysterio went on him as if Beck were wearing the suit. "We're on schedule?"
William replied. "Oh, yeah. Uploading software hack to E.D.I.T.H. network, where drones will be able to create an event big enough to cover an entire city."
"Right, well done. Make sure every drone is weapons hot. We need maximum damage."
"That's gonna cause a lot of casualties." One of the members of Team Mysterio complained.
"Oh, yeah. More casualties, more coverage. I gotta cut through the static." Beck replied. "London is a beautiful city, and it will suffer, but they can rebuild. If I'm gonna be the next Iron Man, I need to save the world from an Avengers-level threat. But, when its new savior descends, all those casualties will be forgotten."
Beck turned to Janice, who was fixing his suit. "Janice, you'll be in position with a quick change of armor. For the victory lap."
Janice nodded. "Of course. Do you want to try..."
"No, no. That's..." Beck cut himself off when he noticed the projection is glitching. "What's going on with my hand? Why is that happening?"
William looked down at Beck and noticed the glitching. "Oh, one of the drones that came back from the plaza was missing a projector. It's fine."
Beck widened his eyes. "Wait, and you're... you're telling me this, now?" He tapped something on his wrist, and a hologram screen came out with pictures of every drone in there.
"It's one drone. The image will be perfect, I promise," William said calmly.
Beck became somehow irritated with William's attitude. He was careless. "That projector is evidence. It's going to tell people what we're doing and how we're doing it. I am trying, to fool seven billion people here, including Nick Fury, who happens to be the most paranoid and most dangerous person on the planet. And if he catches on before I've killed him, then he will put a bullet in my head. And nobody wants a bullet in their head. Right?"
The drones pointed their weapons at Beck's team. "Right?" Beck asked everyone. "William, can you look at me?" William did as he was told, afraid to die. "Pull up E.D.I.T.H."
"Hello, Quentin." E.D.I.T.H. greeted.
"Yeah, hi, honey." Beck greeted back. "I need a level 5 search full resource protocol for this device."
"Magnifying..." E.D.I.T.H. showed a screen to Beck, and it showed the place where you were hiding.
"There," Beck said. "Search everything going in and out of that building."
"Located."
Beck witnessed you taking the device, and on the bridge, Peter and you both realized what it was. Beck took a sharp inhale. "Shit."
Beck turned to William with an intense glare. "You know, William," William turned to Beck with fear in his eyes. "One day, after I've had to kill Peter Parker because of this... I hope you remember, that his blood, is on your hands!"
Beck gave a furious huff, then spun around to look at the screen once more. His body froze, his eyes narrowing to get a good look at you. He knew exactly who you were.
"Mr. Beck, what are you up to?"
"Building something. I hope your dad will be impressed."
"He will! You're brilliant!"
'Oh, my God. It's (Y/n) Stark.' Beck widened his eyes when he finally recognized you. "Shit! He's with that Stark?!"
William didn't say anything and just watched Beck walk around the set, panicking and getting frustrated. "That little Stark knows too much!"
°•○●○•°
"I can't believe I gave Beck those glasses." Peter ranted as he closed the curtains to cover the windows. "I mean, how can I be so stupid? He's probably spying on me right now or sending a drone to come and kill me."
You were moving around the room and waiting for Harley to call you while Peter was running around in a frenzy. Your phone finally rang. You picked it up fast. "Harley?"
"Harley?" Peter asked softly as he looked at you.
"Did you find anything?" You asked Harley.
"There's this guy named Quentin Beck who worked for Tony before. He designed a holographic system—a revolutionary breakthrough with limitless applications—that Tony turned into a self-therapy machine and renamed... Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, or...
"B.A.R.F." You interrupted when you recalled what F.RI.D.A.Y. has told you. You remembered it all.
"611 million dollars for his little therapeutic experiment," Harley added. "Tony renamed Beck's life's work, B.A.R.F. Beck told him that it was a mistake and that his technology can change the world. And then... Tony fired him because he said Beck was unstable."
"Alright." You sighed. "Thanks for the information, Harley."
"No problem. Say hello to Peter from me." Then he ended the call.
You turned to Peter, who had a horrified look on his face. "Harley said—"
"I heard what he said." Peter interrupted you with a smile before looking at you again seriously. "Beck was Mr. Stark's former employee? Look... I have to call Mr. Fury and tell him that Beck's a fraud, but..." Peter looked down at his phone and realized something. "I think he tapped my phone number."
"Okay, so what are you gonna do?" You asked as you put down your phone on the bed.
"I need my suit, and I have to go to Berlin, and talk to Mr. Fury in person." He started taking off his jacket and shirt, revealing his toned body.
Your eyes widened, and a bright red blush appeared on your cheeks. Peter stopped when he noticed you staring. "Shit, uh... I-I... I'm just not gonna look." You stuttered before looking away.
Although you are facing him, you could hear him fumbling with his suit. Just as you turned to look at him to see if there was anything you could do to help, you saw Ned near the door, his eyes growing wider.
"Oh, Ned. Perfect," Peter said when he's finally done suiting up and opened his goggles.
"Why are you wearing the suit?" Ned asked. "I thought the Elementals were gone. Are you in a suit for a costume party at the princess castle...?"
"No, Ned!" Peter walked up to him and grabbed his shoulders. "Look, Mysterio was a fraud."
"But he saved me and Betty's lives..." Ned said, clearly confused and surprised at the same time.
Peter shook his head. "No, he's been faking the whole thing with illusion tech."
"Yeah, he's using these, like, hologram projectors," You informed Ned as you grabbed the projector.
Ned's jaw dropped. "Whoa. That's... crazy." He looked at Peter, then at you, then at Peter, then at you again. "So, you guys were like, working the case together, or what?"
"It's been mostly me." You teased, causing Peter to give you a playful glare. "Kidding."
Peter turned back to Ned. "Look, Ned, I need you to call May, get her to call Mr. Harrington, and say that she wants me to stay with family in Berlin until this all blows over. Okay?"
Ned nodded. "Got it. Easy."
You chuckled in surprise. "Wow. You guys lie with such ease."
"Gotta go," Peter informed you and Ned. He was about to jump out of the window but you stopped him. "Wait, wait, wait... the projector."
Peter turned to you and saw you with the projector. "You're gonna need this." The projector that you tossed towards him was easily caught by him.
"Don't tell anyone about this, okay? Anyone who knows is in danger." And with that, he left. You turned to Ned, who was clearly panicking but was trying to calm himself down. You turned around and saw Michelle by the door, her eyes slightly widening.
You nudged Ned's arm, causing him to look at you, but he noticed Michelle's presence. You awkwardly waved at her. "Hey, Mish."
"Peter's Spider-Man?"