Incredible Spider

Chapter 48: Reactive No More

Peter's POV

I was an idiot! Why didn't I think of that?! The daughter would give me her family's name! So I need to look for people with Beck as their last name! I thought to myself as I swung through the upper window, momentum carrying me onto the ceiling lighting fixture. Which I used to swing and flip onto the railing in front of my room door. Mr. Parr was there, in front of my cork board trying to connect more pf the strings. I ran past him, sitting and spinning in my chair and rolling to my computer.

"Had an epiphany?" He asked me. I didn't answer as I typed in an internet search involving people with the last name Beck. This time I got an immediate hit. A newspaper article from 2 years ago.

"Check this out," I said as Mr. Parr looked over my shoulder to see what I was looking at. The headline was Disgruntled Employee Arrested For Corporate Espionage and it showed a photo of a man with the look of death in his eyes being hauled away by the police, his glare going directly to Tony Stark. His expression was one of yelling bloody murder at Tony.

"Quentin Beck, a former engineer at Stark Industries was arrested today for 3 accounts of Corporate Espionage. He was deliberately leaking critical and confidential financial information to rival tech company, Hammer Tech," I read. What I saw next sealed it for me.

"He was fired earlier in the year for arguments over his MSTRO Apparatus, which was meant to be a way to revolutionize construction. Allowing workers to ascend to the skies and be able to lift heavy loads like gods by way of Ionic Thrusters in the feet and Zero Point Energy Projectors in the arms. Tony Stark personally denied the idea claiming the Ionic Thrusters posed too high a risk for anyone other than a trained pilot. When Beck tried to market his apparatus elsewhere, Tony Stark fired him on the grounds of him violating his contract," Mr. Parr read, finishing the archive. I slid myself over to the board, looking up at the strings.

MSTRO....Mysterio. I began connecting the strings and putting the pieces together in my mind.

He was arrested and convicted. There would be no way for him to get around Tony Stark's legal team in court. So he's been in jail... But something didn't sit right with me.

"If he's been in jail for the past two years. How is he out here and committing crimes as Mysterio? How did he get enough money, time or equipment to build the gear he has?" I asked out loud.

"Maybe someone rich and smart bailed him out? Hired him as a technician?" Mr. Parr suggested.

"Who though? Who would bail out a technician that has such....radical....ideas...." It clicked for me.

"Syndrome!" I said in shock, Mr. Parr being confused for my line of thinking.

"He built all of his stuff though, why would he need other people?" He asked me.

"He built the final versions of his gear. The boots, the gauntlets. The blasters. Everything he built the final version of. The older versions though, the stuff that he weighed in and perfected though. He needed people for that. With what Quentin was suggesting, it seemed like Syndrome had found a person who had what he was looking for. Superpowers without Superpowers. Which would give Quentin the allotted time, funding and technology to build what would become his Mysterio gear. Then when Syndrome's operation went belly up after we beat him," I started, Mr. Parr picking up on what I was saying...he also however picked up on a flaw with my thinking.

"Quentin would have been arrested with the rest of the people on Nomanisan Island," He said.

"Maybe...maybe...or maybe not," I muttered.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Parr asked.

"What if while the main island entrance was being raided, everyone being arrested...Quentin used his finished Mysterio gear to fly out through one of the many exits for aircrafts?" I said, connecting the dots.

"That....actually sounds like it could have happened...what proof do you have though?" Mr. Parr asked, trying to get me to rationalize myself.

"The only evidence I need is that Mysterio is here in New Urbam, making Tony Stark's initiative to legalize superheroes," I said confidently, connecting Mysterio to Quentin Beck.

"Ok, so now what?" Mr. Parr asked.

"Mysterio seems to be the mastermind. He pops in, announces his presence and that's when Screenslaver starts hijacking the signal," I said.

"If you and Helen can figure out how to weed out Mysterio and apprehend him, you're thinking Screenslaver will be clueless and be easier to catch. You take the leader away, the underling is left scrambling," Mr. Parr said, putting my plan into real hero terms.

"Yeah. I'll go run the plan by Mrs. Parr," I said as I ran out my room.

"She already left to meet with Tony and Winston! You're gonna need to play catch up!" I heard Mr. Parr shout to me.

"I know!" I said as I took my suit gloves and put them on. Jumping out the open front window and starting my swinging momentum. In between every swing, I changed a piece of clothing to my supersuit. After a good fee high swings, I was in my full hero costume, trying to sling shot myself across the freeway to catch a breeze and use my web wings to glide the rest of the way.

I've got you this time, Mysterio! You and Screenslaver are done for!

(Oh Peter...if only you knew)