Ch 5

Peter and Beck were sitting in a nice little Prague bar. Peter sips lemonade through a straw, while Quentin enjoys some Czech beer.

"Hey. You gotta celebrate. We did something good tonight." Beck said.

"Yeah. Fury was right. Tony did a lot for me so I owe it to him, to everybody." Peter replied.

"Do you?"

"Yeah. I mean Mr. Stark gave me the chance to be more. He wanted me to be better than him. And Fury wants me to live up to that."

"What do you want?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do you want?"

"I don't know."

"What do you want? You, Peter Parker. Now. I know you're thinking about it."

"I wanna go on my trip. I want to go back on my trip with my friends. And go to the top of the Eiffel Tower with the girl who I really like and tell her how I feel and... give her a kiss."

Beck laughed.

"Shut up, man."

"You're not gonna do that, are you?"

"No, I can't now."

"Why not?"

"Because I have too much of a responsibility."

Then they looked at the EDITH glasses and Peter put them on.

"I actually really like them."

"Can I be completely honest with you?"

"Please."

"They look really stupid. But maybe they have a contact-lens version."

"You try them on."

"No, come on."

"Try them on."

"I don't wanna try them on."

"Just put them on."

"What do you think, kid?"

Peter literally saw Tony Stark in Beck. The guy was smart, brave, and selfless.

"For the next Tony Stark, I trust you."

"What?"

"Mr. Stark left me a message with those glasses: "For the next Tony Stark, I trust you."

"I'm still not following. How many lemonades have you had?"

"He knew all the mistakes I ever made, okay? So he must've known that I was not ready for something like this."

"Why would he give it to you?"

"Because maybe he didn't trust me to have EDITH, he just trusted me to pick who should."

Beck looked confused.

"It makes so much more sense. He always knew I would do what's right. And he's not gonna give them to Fury because Fury would give himself EDITH."

"Aye, you're probably right about that."

"The world needs the next Iron Man. And it's not gonna be me. I mean, I'm a 16-year-old kid from Queens. It has to be a guy like Tony Stark, like you."

"No. Peter, come on. No."

Beck took off the glasses but Peter grabbed them and turned on EDITH

"EDITH?"

"Hello, Peter."

"Hi. Yeah... Um, I'd like to transfer control over to Quentin Beck."

"Any transfer will require confirmation."

"Stark gave you the glasses! Those were for you.

"Stark gave me a choice. It's my choice to make, okay? And I'm gonna make it. You're a hero, a leader. You stopped the Elementals. You saved my life. You saved the world, okay? He'd want you to have them."

"Waiting for confirmation."

"Confirm."

"Welcome to the Avengers."

Beck put on the glasses, finally accepting them.

"They're good on you."

"Thank you. It's an honor."

"Mr. Stark would've really liked you."

"Where you headed?"

"I'm gonna go find MJ."

Good luck, kid. I'll give you a fifty-fifty chance. You're pretty awkward."

"Yeah. See you later, man."

"See you."

Peter closed the door and left. Seconds after, various decorations, objects and even people started to disappear, vanishing with glimmers of blue light. All that remained was the counter, Beck, a few people, some props and drones, which had been projecting the holograms the whole time.

"See? That wasn't so hard."

Everyone cheered. Beck smirked.

"Somebody get this stupid costume off of me!"