A New Hero - Peter Parker (BOOK 1) | Spider-Man: Far From Home

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Defeat

"E.D.I.T.H.?" Quentin Beck repeated, anger growing. "E.D.I.T.H.!" 

"Peter, if you're gonna do this, you've gotta do it now."  Clara told him, adjusting her stance to stand at the ready beside him. "He hasn't got E.D.I.T.H., but he'll still have manual control."

"Right." Peter said, pressing his lips into a thin line and setting his jaw. Beck was already tapping at the device on his wrist, each of the drones whirring to life as he did. "We got this." 

The drones started forwards, the weapons clicking into position as the projectors cast the walkway into darkness. Clara kept her eyes on Peter, waiting and watching for him to make his move, ready to help him where she was needed. 

Clara was a last resort in this stage of the plan; they had theorised Beck would do exactly this, and with the drones disappearing from view, Peter had to find them himself. "Come on Peter-tingle." He muttered. 

Then he was off, leaping from spot to spot, an eruption of gun fire taking over the room. Glass shattered and bullets pinged off of metal framing. Still with her attention fixed on the drones surrounding Peter, she caught sight of one laying on the floor, it's turbines broken, but the weapons still in a good enough condition to fire at the other student

Clara headed into the fight, stepping over rumble made from the destroyed drones to reach the partially working one before Peter could get into it's line of fire. Her heart thundered in her chest as she entered the battle ground, everything sounding much louder amidst the action. She heard rounds whizzing and zipping past her as she lowered herself next to the one on the ground.

The purple glow returned around her hand as she set it against the drone, which immediately ceased fire. Something hit into Clara's abdomen, but she barely felt it, the adrenaline in her veins numbing it almost entirely. A drone hit the ground just in front of her, and she guessed a piece of the tech must have flown off when Peter knocked it out of midair. 

Clara looked back up to see Peter running along the ceiling, impaling a drone with the limbs of one of it's fallen comrades. Just watching him made her feel dizzy. Jumping back to the floor, Peter then hefted the drone up to use it as a make-shift shield, running closer to Beck. "E.D.I.T.H.?" Beck asked, sounding more panicked now. "Finally!" He exclaimed. "Why aren't these drones firing?"

"Peter! E.D.I.T.H.'s back up!" Clara called out, ensuring he didn't miss that development. 

"No- Fire all the drones now!" Beck bellowed, the drones immediately rushing forward. Peter danced within the new formation, jumping off of one and onto another, kicking one out to spin in all directions. Clara had just enough foresight to create a force-field between the drone, and Peter and her. Beck, however, wasn't so lucky to avoid the spray of bullets. 

He dropped to the floor, clutching his stomach, Peter finishing off the remaining drones. "Beck!" Peter yelled, tugging his mask off. "You lied to me. I trusted you."

"I know..." He replied, his voice sounding full of pain, the man injured by his own army. "That's the most disappointing part... You're a good person Peter – Such a weakness. Stark was right," He held up the glasses, a frown twitching at Clara's brow, something was wrong, she sensed. 

"Peter!" She called her warning just as Beck finished talking.

"You do deserve them." He had said as the shot rang out.

Clara let out a sigh of relief. Peter didn't need the warning, his hand wrapped tightly around the real Beck's wrist, the man holding a gun close to Peter's head. 

"You can't trick me anymore." Peter told him, Clara's hammering heart beginning to calm at the sight of Beck in a weak and helpless state. As Peter snatched the glasses from Beck, Clara felt a throbbing slowly return to her stomach, the adrenaline now wearing off as the morphed sense of safety returned. 

"E.D.I.T.H. turn off the drones!" Peter rushed out, a quick pause before he continued. "Just do it. Execute them all."

Clara looked out over the River Thames, watching as the swarms of drones returned to whichever satellite they had come from. Peter let out a soft chuckle, the relief evident in him, too. "Thank you." He told the program in the glasses.  "How could you do all of this?" Peter asked bluntly, turning back to Beck with both fury and disappointment written across his face.

"You'll see, Peter. People... they tend to believe, and nowadays... they'll believe anything." Quentin Beck's voice was hardly a whisper as the life drained from him, the man eventually becoming entirely still, his chest no longer rising and falling, his heart no longer beating. 

"Is he...? Is this real?" Peter asked, E.D.I.T.H. giving him the answer he needed to hear - all illusions were down. Peter lowered the glasses from his eyes, his sights lingering on Beck for a moment longer, as though he couldn't quite believe it - he had defeated him. 

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