𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 | 𝐏. 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐑

chapter nine: off to berlin

"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?"