Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Earth – 1; Star city
In his bunker, Oliver was practicing archery. He had just arrested dangerous criminals in the city center. Things seemed to return to calm.
When a new interdimensional breach came out of nowhere inside his lair, and the shape of Peter Parker emerged from it. Oliver noticed that the young man was injured in the face.
"Peter?" he said in shock.
The young Avenger was completely agitated and seemed tormented.
"Oliver… I need your help. I need a hero that I can trust… I really messed up… Beck wasn't my friend… I was wrong about him… My friends are in danger… He'll kill them…"
Gently, Oliver put his hands on the young man's shoulders urging him to calm down.
"Peter! Peter! Relax, relax! Calm down!"
Peter immediately stopped shouting and calmed down immediately.
"Sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't shout."
"It's okay," assured him the archer of Earth – 1 with a reassuring smile. "Now, you're going to talk to me very calmly and tell me what's wrong."
And Peter then told him his whole story. Quentin Beck wasn't a hero from another dimension, that the threat of the Elementals was only a fictional scenario, that Beck used drones with advanced projectors to simulate the attacks of the Elementals. And Peter had given him his glasses with an artificial intelligence called EDITH that could command a large quantity of orbital weapons. Beck, having understood that the young man had discovered him, had trapped Peter so that he would reveal the names of his friends who might be aware of his plans. And now he was going to kill them.
"I gave him the only thing Stark left for me, and now Beck is going to kill my friends!" if he cried. "How could I trust such an impostor? I thought he was my friend."
Very calm and serene, Oliver put a comforting hand on the young man's shoulder.
"You're not the first one to do that. I know what it's like to be betrayed by someone you think know. I know very well the betrayal. It is very painful."
"You told me I could be a guardian angel, and there I gave my enemy a weapon he can use to kill innocent people," Peter said. "I messed up!"
"Peter, the most important thing isn't what you did or what you didn't do," Oliver replied, still in a calm voice. "It's what do you want to do now? You're alone. Beck will continue to manipulate everyone on your Earth and will kill your friends. So the question is: what do you want to do?"
Finally, Peter took a long breath and suddenly stood up.
"I'm gonna kick his ass!"
"Good answer," replied the archer with an encouraging smile.
"And I would need Green Arrow. I want to have a real hero by my side, not an impostor like Beck."
Oliver stood up and took his bow.
"I can promise you that Quentin Beck will find out that Green Arrow is really real."
Earth of the Avengers
Oliver, after wearing his Green Arrow suit, joined Peter on board the Quinjet, led by Happy, Tony Stark's friend and chief security officer of Stark Industries. All discussed the process to be followed.
"What is your plan?" asked the archer of Earth – 1.
"Right, um... I can't call my friends because he's tracking their phones..." explained Peter, before asking Happy. "Give me your phone."
Immediately, the latter passed him. Peter then asked him for the password.
"Password," replied Happy.
"No, what is your password?" said the young man.
"Password," repeated Happy. "The word. Spell it out, password."
"You're the head of security and your password is 'password'?"said Peter intrigued.
"Yeah, I don't feel good about it either." retorted the embarrassed man.
Oliver looked at him with a confused look.
"Weird Earth!" Replied he.
Peter pulled out an app from the phone, and discovered Flash Thompson's video vlog showing him London. His friends were therefore in England.
"London," murmured Oliver. "I never thought I would visit the Queen of England in another universe."
When Happy went to the Quinjet controls, Peter stopped him.
"Wait, I need a suit!"
Happy turned and walked forward, pressing a few buttons on the ceiling. Behind Peter and Oliver, a compartment opened.
"I'm impressed," Oliver said, looking at the other side of the device.
Peter turned to the compartment and headed for him. Another small compartment opened as Peter looked at him. A small metal cushion descended from part of the ceiling and he put his hand on it. Bluish lights appeared before him.
Amazed, Oliver looked at the compartment.
"It would be very useful to me this technology in my bunker," he commented.
"Okay, um... bring up everything you have on Spider-Man," Peter replied.
Immediately, Spider-Man holograms appeared in different costumes. And Peter chooses which one suited him best.
"Peter takes care of the suit, I take care of the music," said Happy, taking control of the Quinjet.
Immediately, the song Back in Black from AC / DC resounds inside the device.
"Oh, I love Led Zeppelin!" replied the young man.
Further on, Nick Fury was in the middle of a discussion with Maria Hill, when the latter revealed an alert on her phone.
"Nick... satellites are picking up an E.M. pulse."
"I thought it was over," said Fury.
"It's the biggest one yet."
"Where?"
"London."
And precisely, in London, at the station, Peter's team of American students arrived in England.
"Okay guys, the company set up a city tour, and then we'll grab a bite, then head to the airport." announced Mr. Harrington, one of their teachers.
The whole group was greeted by the driver of an imperial bus who turned out to be Quentin Beck's accomplice.
From a tower, Nick Fury had a view of the city of London, when Mysterio, dressed in his long cape and his one-way helmet in the shape of an aquarium for fish, came towards him while flying in front of the window.
"I got here as fast as I could. I did a full perimeter sweep. Nothing."
"Damn it," grunted the black man.
On a screen, Maria Hill announced:
"Pulse is spiking."
"I'll take another look, "said Mysterio, flying away, flying in the sky.
"Soon as you see something, report," replied Fury. "You're all we got, Beck."
In reality, Quentin Beck was over the bridge of Tower Bridge, and who controlled a hologram of Mysterio.
"This is what I fear. May God help us, Fury," he replied, communicating with his interlocutor. "God help us all. (Then he ended the call and spoke to his cronies.) Okay, people, no Avengers coming. We're good to go. William, launch the drones."
Immediately, the Stark Industries satellite released hundreds of drones. Beck, with the help of EDITH glasses, targeted Nick Fury, Maria Hill and Peter's friends.
Far from suspecting the deception, Fury still had a view of London when he received a call on his phone. It was Happy.
"Happy here. Happy Hogan here."
"I know who you are," replied Fury somberly. "What do you want?"
"Oh, great. Mr. Stark was going through his belongings, apparently he owes a surfboard that you left behind."said Happy. "People over there said they didn't think that Nick Fury's a surfer. The guy says, appearances can be deceiving."
"It's not mine. And don't ever call this number again." growled the black man, hanging up.
Further on, the Quinjet de Happy flew over the Dorset coast. Peter was preparing his new suit, while Oliver was preparing his arsenal to face the threat over London. Happy came to see them.
"Okay, Fury's got the coded message. Your friends are at the Tower Bridge." he announced.
"That's certainly where Beck must be too," said Oliver. "It's the best place in London to bring up your fictional show."
"I'm gonna go scoop the kids," added Happy.
"Perfect, Spider-Man and I are taking care of Beck," Oliver said.
"I'm almost done," announced Peter. (Then, he gave Happy a pendant.) "Before you go… If something happens to me, could you please give this to MJ?"
"It will be useless, Peter, you will give her to yourself," said Oliver, putting on his hood. "You're an Avenger. Together we will beat Mysterio and we got this. Failure is not an option."
Peter sighed admiringly.
"It's very motivating," replied Peter.
"Without bragging, I'm pretty good at it," replied the archer.
"And what is your plan?" asked Happy.
"Peter, we're on your Earth and you're the genius, what's your plan?" asked Green Arrow.
"The Elemental is just a holographic projection," said the young man. "All we have to do is enter this illusion and be able to destroy it. Afterwards, find him, and he's just a guy, so I can take EDITH right back."
"Very simple as a plan, I approve," replied the superhero of Earth – 1, shaking his head with a smile.
On the Tower Bridge, the driver of the imperial bus had abandoned the students before a gigantic monster rose from the water and made the whole bridge tremble. People left their vehicles while the group of students left the bus to get out of the bridge. As panic reigned on deck, the frightening face of a monster arose through a multitude of tornadoes and fire.
"Now that is an Avengers-level threat." exclaimed Beck, proud of his plan.
Then Beck launched the Mystério hologram attacking the fictional monster. The students cheered the hero, without suspecting the deception.
Among the students were MJ and Ned, Peter's two friends. If Mysterio knew these two were aware of Beck's sham, they were in danger.
"You should get somewhere safe, Fury!" Beck said over the phone, pretending to be worried. "I don't see this ending well."
"I appreciate your concern," replied Fury calmly. "But I never leave my men behind."
Finally, the Quinjet arrived in London and headed for the "monster" that threatened Tower Bridge. Spider-Man was glued to the device from the side.
"Comms check," launched Happy who piloted the machine. "Do you hear me?"
"I hear you," said Spider-Man in a brand new suit.
"I like the new suit," replied the security chief.
"Me too," added Green Arrow.
"Thank you," added Spider-Man.
Then they looked at the huge monster tornado in the distance.
"Wow!" exclaimed Happy. "You sure that's not real?"
"Yeah, except it's just a hundred times bigger than I expected," replied the young Avenger.
Even Green Arrow was stunned by what he had before his eyes through the Quinjet windshield.
"I must admit that for an illusion, it is really very successful," he commented. "Quentin Beck has really done a big job to make this real. And you say that people call him Mysterio and they believe him he's a hero? A name like that makes it more super-villain than superhero, from my point of view."
"I'm agreed," replied Spider-Man, still hanging on the machine.
"Still the play?" Happy asked as they approached Tower Bridge.
"Yes, we need to get high enough so that it doesn't see us coming." explained the Avenger.
"Copy," replied the pilot as he mounted the flying device.
Green Arrow prepared his parachute while staring at the fictional monster in front of him.
"How's the parachute going, Oliver? No need for a web?" asked the young man.
"That's okay, I could be discreet. Beck won't see me go down", assured the archer. "Discreet entrances, I'm very good at that!"
"Hey, Happy!" added Peter.
"Yeah, what is it?"
"We need to have a serious conversation about you and my aunt…"
Spider-Man immediately dropped into the void. Green Arrow opened the Quinjet door and hastened to jump into the void, just above the unreal monster.
The archer, falling into the void, joined Spider-Man, and the two of them deployed their parachutes.
In the tower of SHIELD Fury asked for news of Mystério.
"Beck, report!"
The impostor, using the script of one of his accomplices, repeated the dialogue word for word, trying to deceive everyone.
Fury looked intrigued, and turned to Hill. Beck's speech was not very convincing.
"See, now that's some bullshit!"
"Is that… ?"exclaimed the young woman, looking out the window.
Fury turned to the outside and saw in the distance Spider-Man and Green Arrow falling from the sky towards the so-called monster.
"Be ready for anything!"
"Yeah!"
Spider-Man began to float straight towards the "monster" while being carried away by the gusts of wind. Green Arrow dropped his parachute and landed on top of the monster, passing through… to land on a drone. All that made up the interior of the fictional "monster" were hundreds of drones projecting images, creating the illusion of the Elemental.
"Seen like that, it's not real!" Green Arrow commented, gazing at the drones around him.
He saw Spider-Man swinging from drone to drone, sticking spider web to them. The Archer of Earth – 1 hastened to place a small metallic sphere on the drone where it was, and jumped on another nearby and did the same thing.
"What are these spheres?" said Spider-Man.
"A gift from Curtis," said Green Arrow, placing another sphere on a drone. "He's not Tony Stark, but he is also a genius."
On Tower Bridge, Beck noticed that his drones were defective.
"William, I've got drones breaking formation." he said by communication.
"Maybe they hit a flock of birds or something. You're fine,"explained his accomplice.
"Well, I wanna see what's happening there. I'm taking manual control."
He used a camera on one of the drones and could see Spider-Man creating a spider web with his drones.
"I'm gonna kill him!" he growled.
Then he saw Green Arrow jumped from drones to drones, each time placing a small metallic sphere. Beck looked at the archer with a confused look.
"Who hell is this guy in green?" marveled there.
Spider-Man and Green Arrow were standing on a drone below the others. The young Avenger used a weapon in his costume bypassing the drones glued to the canvas, destroying the drones, while the archer pressed a button on his outfit, thus activating the spheres which deactivated the drones, making it disappear somewhat illusion.
"It works!"exclaimed Spider-Man.
"Well done, and well done to Curtis!" added Green Arrow, satisfied.
In front of the tower window, Nick Fury could see a drone appear from nowhere.
"You got me?" he asked in a calm voice.
Immediately, Maria Hill, placed on the roof of the tower, fired with a rocket launcher, reducing the device to ashes in front of Fury.
"I gotcha," replied the young woman.
Beck could see that his "monster" was starting to disappear.
"Boss, the illusion is coming apart," William announced by communication. "Some of the drones are no longer responding. They seem to be neutralized by some weird technology."
For their part, Spider-Man and Green Arrow saw Quentin Beck above the Tower Bridge, controlling all the drones.
"I've got Beck," Spider-Man announced.
"Me too," replied the archer of Earth - 1.
The two immediately joined their enemy, one with his web, the other with his grapple arrows. It was to end the show.