Ch 6
"Okay, we got EDITH. Get these connected to our system." Beck said to a woman who took the glasses.
" Toast! Toast! Toast!" the crew shouted.
"No, this is a big win, but we still got a lot of work to do." Beck said.
"Toast! Toast! Toast!"
Beck stepped on the counter
"Okay, toasts! Give me that, Doug."
He got his bottle of beer back.
"To the man who brought us all together, our former boss, Tony Stark."
"Boo!"
"The jester king. Literally wrapped in wealth and technology that he was unfit to wield. Like the holographic system I designed. A revolutionary breakthrough with limitless applications that Tony turned into a self-therapy machine and renamed...
Beck remembered Tony demonstrating his last moment with his parents via holograms.
"Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, or BARF."
The audience laughed.
"Oh, $611 million for my little therapeutic experiment."
"He renamed my life's work "BARF." Beck said.
"I told him it was a mistake, that my technology could change the world. And then he fired me. Said I was unstable. To Tony."
"To Tony!"
"Next, to William."
"William!"
"The integration of my illusion tech with your weaponized drones was brilliant. Powerful illusions, real damage, worked like a charm. And it's just the beginning."
"Thank you, brother."
"To Guterman."
"To Guterman!"
"The story you created of a soldier from another Earth named Quentin fighting space monsters in Europe is totally ridiculous and apparently the kind of thing people will believe right now. I mean, everybody bought it!"
Guterman bowed his head in gratitude.
"To Victoria."
"To Victoria!"
"Staging electromagnetic pulses at each attack site so Fury's own satellites would confirm our lies? Inspired idea."
Victoria smiled, visibly flattered
"To Janice."
"Janice!"
"After Tony died, she was the one who discovered that EDITH was being handed over not to us, not to the Defense Department, but to a child."
"Thank you."
"To Janice!"
"And to the rest of you, Tony Stark is gone. There is a window of opportunity, and someone will step up. But these days, you can be the smartest guy in the room, the most qualified, and no one cares. Unless you're flying around with a cape or shooting lasers from your hands, no one will even listen. Well, I've got a cape and lasers. "
The crew members chuckled slightly
"With our technology and with EDITH, Mysterio will be the greatest hero on Earth!"
"Yeah!"
"Then everyone will listen! Not to a boozy man-child."
"No!"
"Not to a hormonal teenager!"
"No!"
"To me! And to my very wealthy crew. To us."
"To us."
"To Mysterio!"
"To Mysterio!"
"To Peter Parker!"
"To Peter Parker!"
For a slight moment Beck felt a little remorse cause the kid didn't even know what was really going on and he got fooled but then he shoved that feeling down.
"Poor kid. Let's get to work."
