Misadventures in Paradise ↠ Peter Parker [2]

11 | Three Words

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MISADVENTURES IN PARADISE
xi. THREE WORDS

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   SUNLIGHT PARTED THE STORM, obliterating drones inconspicuously. Valor pretended she was oblivious to Mysterio's lies as they fought together, but she knew he was onto her. Luckily, she was ready for anything.

   "The Elementals, they've somehow merged into something else! Something more powerful! It's drawing energy from the Earth's core!" Beck shouted. "You should get out of here while you can, Valor! You already survived once. I'm not letting it hurt you again!"

   She soared past him, her response catching onto the wind. "You mean like how you hurt me?"

   Mysterio whipped toward her. "Wait, what?"

   "Huh?"

   "What did you just say?"

   Feigning frustration, Riley snapped, "I didn't say anything! What is the matter with you? Either help me kill this thing, or get the hell out of my way!"

   "Operation Gaslight is going swimmingly, I see," Roman mused. "Any updates, Sticky-Boy?"

   Peter grunted, "The taser webs are destroying the drones, but it'll be a while before I can make a dent in these things!"

   "All we need is for the illusion to fall apart enough for people to notice," Riley said. "Beck's already off his game."

   From her view, the Elemental clearly wasn't real. Patches of it flickered away with a blinking blue light. The drones couldn't uphold the image forever. If Beck was already distracted by the drones and trying to determine whether Riley was real, Peter would be able to easily attack him and take EDITH back.

   Beneath her, Riley watched Spider-Man leap through one of the holes in the Elemental toward the bridge. He must've found an opening to get to Beck. But Beck must've seen him first because JOCASTA reported, "Valor, I'm detecting orders for the EDITH drones to kill you and Spider-Man. Would you like me to disable them?"

   "No, we're playing the long game, JO. The public has to know with absolute certainty that Beck's a fraud. I don't wanna see a single news outlet twisting the truth."

   It would be easier to just attack Beck together, but she trusted Peter. While he was busy, Riley was on damage control — both, in terms of protecting the people from the drones and in terms of publicity. Because everyone knew the Starks had fed society with enough scandals to end world hunger.