Shadow Empire
"I know you and the Blur guy—"
"Flash," MJ interrupted.
"I thought it was Kid Flash," Ned put in.
"Whatever!" Harry did not sound like he was in the mood to argue about Wally's codename. "I know you guys just had a bit of a fight but you really should have given him more of a chance instead of just walking out on him. I mean, he did just find out that he's basically stuck here for good. That's bound to put him in a bit of a funk."
"I understand that Harry," Peter whispered back over the comm link set up by his mask. "And maybe I was a bit harsh, but that doesn't change the fact that his heart's not in it."
"Still," MJ cut in, "it would be better if you had more backup."
"Are you saying that I'm not good enough?" Ned asked, the mock indignation carrying over the hundreds of miles Peter had already flown in the tiny jet that was carrying him and Highcastle to London.
"Look, guys, I appreciate the concern, but if Wally's in too much of a funk to come when I ask the first time, even if he came on the tenth time, he'd be more of a liability than a help."
"Because you don't sound bitter at all," MJ snarked.
"I'm not bitter!" Peter defended in a harsh whisper.
Apparently it was loud enough that Highcastle noticed. "Who are you talking to?" he asked from the cockpit.
Crap! He's not supposed to know about them. Quick, come up with a good lie.
"Um, no one!" Peter smiled through his mask and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Just myself, you know. We've all got that internal dialogue with ourselves. Mine's just… less internal."
I said good lie.
When Highcastle didn't reply, Peter took that to mean that he'd either accepted the answer, or else he didn't really care all that much.
"Listen guys, can we keep it to essential comms only? I don't want Highcastle to catch on," Peter whispered again.
"Sure thing Pe—" Ned's voice was suddenly replaced with silence.
"Ned? Ned?" Peter whispered back into the link.
"I had wondered why you chose to wear your mask, given that the world knows your identity," Highcastle called back from cockpit as Peter felt the plane begin to descent. "I suspected that maybe you didn't trust me and had chosen to keep open communications with your friends. The fact you lied to me about who you were talking to just confirmed that. Unfortunately, you were right, I wasn't telling the truth earlier, at least, not the whole truth."
Peter gulped.
Well this isn't good.
"And you did well to have a contingency plan," Highcastle continued. "Though next time, you might consider planning more than one step ahead."
"You—"
"Cut off your communications link? Yes."
Peter readied his web shooters only to discover that they didn't work either.
"I also disabled the rest of your costume's functions," Highcastle continued as Peter felt the jolt of the plane landing on the small runway outside. "But while it's true that I haven't been completely honest with you, this isn't what it looks like."
"Then what is it?" Peter asked.
"The reason I couldn't be completely honest with you is that Fury, and most likely your friends as well, wouldn't understand and they'd try to stop us. To tell the truth, I'm not entirely sure you'll understand either, but given how important you are to the operation, I decided it would be best to give you a chance," Highcastle explained as the jet slowed to a stop.
Peter's eyes widened as he realized the truth. "You're behind the conspiracy."
Highcastle unbuckled and stood from the pilot's seat. "Yes and no," he replied. "Yes, I am one of the leaders behind the conspiracy involving EDITH. No, it's not the conspiracy I told you about." Highcastle opened the plane door to reveal a small mobile staircase and a small group of armed men. "If you'll come with me Peter, I can explain everything, truthfully this time."
"Why should I trust you?" Peter asked with no small measure of hostility as he readied himself to fight Highcastle and his men hand to hand.
Highcastle, for some reason, didn't seem to feel threatened. "Truthfully? You probably shouldn't, but your options are limited." Then the spy did something that Peter didn't expect. He closed the plane's door again, ensuring it sealed. That moment of confusion though was what cost Peter. He didn't notice the button in the side of the door in time and as soon as Highcastle had pressed it, the plane's air circulation system emitted a low hiss. Highcastle dropped to the ground unconscious first, probably due partly to his age and partly due to the fact that he was a regular human. But Peter followed him not long after.
When Peter came to, it was to the scent of ammonia burning his nostrils. His eyes flickered open just in time to see a hand take a small vial away from his nose. He looked around and found himself in a windowless room surrounded by people he assumed were working for Highcastle. A few of them had their guns trained on him but plenty of others were seated at computers, their attention absorbed by whatever it was Highcastle was planning. In the corner of the room a strange man was studying him intently, making Peter feel like one of Dr. Modell's lab rats.
What made the man strange though, wasn't the way he was looking at Peter. No, it was that he was dressed in a skintight suit, not unlike Peter's spider-suit, complete with a mask that concealed his facial features. The difference between Peter's usual crime-fighting attire and what this man wore, however, was the color scheme. The strange man's suit was all white save for a few small dark spots that seemed to be placed at regular intervals across the suit, almost like what an actor would wear for a CGI production.
"Don't mind Mr. Smerdyakov." Highcastle's voice startled Peter out of his thoughts as the spy came around to face him.
So that's the man-Alice.
"I took the liberty of removing your mask," Highcastle continued. "I didn't think you'd want to be breathing through spandex throughout our entire conversation. I hope you don't mind."
"What do you want?" Peter asked.
"Straight to the point I see," Highcastle lamented. "It's just as well, the sooner I can explain things to you the better. In the short term Peter, I want access to EDITH. Access that my comrades are currently working on acquiring by means of forcing their way through Stark security," Highcastle gestured to the people working at the computers. "But that we can get so much more quickly if you just say the magic words." Highcastle held a very familiar pair of glasses out to Peter.
"I already made the mistake of giving EDITH away once," Peter replied defiantly. "I won't do it again."
"That's awfully narrow of you," Highcastle replied disapprovingly. "I haven't even explained what it is we want in the long term."
"I don't need to know," Peter spat.
"But you do Peter," Highcastle insisted firmly. "The fate of the world depends on it."
That caught Peter's attention. "What do you mean?"
"Let's start with a question, when Thanos's armies first came to earth seeking the infinity stones, where were the Avengers?"
"The Avengers—" Peter stopped mid answer.
The Avengers were broken.
"That's right, they were broken, fragmented, essentially nonexistent. Those who remained on the 'legitimate' side of international law had effectively given up on the concept while the outlaws were, naturally, on the run from governments around the world. Except Wakanda as it turns out but that's neither here nor there. The point is, thanks in no small part to the governments of the world, earth's greatest chance of defending itself against Thanos was rendered impotent.
"Next question, when Thanos came, where were the governments of the world? Where were the armies who were supposed to protect us? It seems to me that some well targeted drone strikes could have turned the tides for the Battle of Wakanda, or at the very least bought sufficient time to remove the mind stone from Vision and destroy it.
"Yet there were no drone strikes. The most powerful military in the world, the United States armed forces, with bases across the planet and ships roaming the seas, didn't lift a finger. NATO didn't lift a finger. The Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, none of them did a thing. The military response to what was clearly a global crisis was handicapped by the same disunity and petty bureaucratic thinking that produced the Sokovia Accords and hobbled the Avengers. American politicians like Thaddeus Ross decided that arresting good men was more important, placing the petty politics of your republic over the needs of the whole world and none of the other 'leaders' of the world thought it was their problem."
"What's your point?"
"My point, Peter, is that the way we've organized global society, this constant back and forth of bickering and negotiating and scoring petty political points against one another, this division is what threw the world into crisis six years ago. And while Thanos may have been the most recent extraterrestrial threat, he was hardly the first and most certainly won't be the last. If we want to have any hope of coming out of the next one then it is imperative that we be prepared.
"The founders of that school you attend, the Doctors Wells and Octavius, they understand that. That's why they are doing what they are doing, but it will take more than just advanced technology and a better understanding of the universe to win. The right political mechanisms need to be in place to deal with such an event. The world can't go on being divided."
Peter's eyes widened as he realized what Highcastle was getting at. "You don't want EDITH so you can take over Britain, you want to take over the world!"
"We want to unite the world. When Thanos came, it was divided, and we suffered for it."
"And starting a war won't cause suffering?" Peter challenged.
"Who said anything about starting a war?"
"How else do you plan on ruling—"
"Uniting."
"the world?" Peter finished, ignoring the spy's interruption. "That's what EDITH is it's a weapon."
"Yes," Highcastle replied. "But it's a multifaceted one. And one that can allow us to drastically minimize bloodshed while still achieving our goals."
"You can't really think that the rest of the world will just roll over for you if you threaten them with EDITH," Peter replied.
Highcastle tutted and shook his head in disappointment. "You may be smart but you do have a talent for narrowmindedness. EDITH is useful for so much more than just killer drones and, thanks to Beck's upgrades, holograms. You and Mysterio barely scratched the surface of its capabilities."
"What do you mean?" Peter asked worriedly.
What could be more powerful than an army of killer drones connected by an advanced AI?
"Think Mr. Parker," Highcastle challenged. "I'm a spy, what do I deal in?"
Peter scrabbled around in his brain but was coming up blank. Later he would chalk it up to the pressure of the situation because in hindsight the answer was quite obvious.
"I deal in information and EDITH has access to the entirety of the internet and backdoors into every single networked computer on the planet." Highcastle waved the glasses in front of Peter. "This device can do what the American NSA have only ever dreamed of doing. With the information provided by EDITH, it will be a simple matter to carefully direct world affairs in the necessary direction and, only when absolutely necessary, find dissenters and silence them. And it will all be done quietly, behind the scenes."
"But that's…" Peter wanted to protest but what he was hearing left him speechless.
"It's necessary for the greater good Peter," Highcastle insisted. "The world won't unite to defend humanity from external threats because everyone has their own agenda and as you've pointed out, overtly imposing unity on the world will only be counterproductive, hindering our mission. But imposing it covertly… I know it may seem like a dirty thing to do Peter, but sometimes the right thing is dirty, like lying to a mass murderer about the location of his next victim." Highcastle paused before adding, "Or hiding behind a mask to protect those closest to you from the retribution of those you serve justice to."
The comparison stuck in Peter's craw. "We are nothing alike," he spat. "And I won't help you establish your shadow empire."
Highcastle sighed. He looked displeased but instead of threatening Peter like he expected, the spy said, "I understand it's a lot to take in, and I don't expect you to agree after one conversation. But I would prefer you come to our way of seeing things sooner rather than later. In the meantime, we shall continue our attempts to force our way into EDITH and you will remain here where we can keep an eye on you. A room has been prepared for you. Aside from being drugged earlier, I don't think you've slept since Thursday night and it's already three in the morning, by your time at least."
"You can't keep me here forever," Peter replied. "People will notice that I'm gone."
"That's what Mr. Smerdyakov's for," Highcastle replied.
Peter glanced over to the man-Alice and watched the Russian fiddle with the device on his wrist again. A moment later, his whole body shimmered and Peter found himself looking at an exact copy of himself. "I'm gonna need my suit now," Smerdyakov said, matching Peter's voice and accent perfectly as he held out a hand expectantly.
AN: Fun fact, Patrick Highcastle was a villain I originally created for an original comic series I was planning on doing but never got around to (not sure if I ever will, looking back the series plan as a whole felt kind of unoriginal). The character was originally a superpowered human who was basically omniscient and went by the moniker "Panopticon". It's nice that a version of him at least gets to see the light of day rather than languishing in the recesses of my mind.
Anyway, enough of my off topic rambling. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapters.
-Pandalien