The Weight of Us ｡ Peter Parker [3]

24 - Movie Magic

Quentin Beck marched the hotel room like he owned it and that only stirred my insides like an unpredictable storm. His shoulders were still cladded in his mighty shoulder pads and his cape floated towards the carpet in great waves, almost like there was a maniacal fan pointed at his figure round the clock, which considering his flare for the dramatics and kink for Hollywood movie magic, maybe that was true. 

"If you're going to kidnap me, please do it already, this is boring." I crossed my arms over my chest, playing coy. 

My butterfly knife was laid flat out on top of my suitcase and my silver and purple suit waited in its chest by the windows. If I could keep Beck busy, keep him talking, maybe stroke his ego a little bit, maybe I could reach one of them and have a chance. 

Beck glanced towards me. "Let me guess, it's not your first time?"

"Green Gobin," I offered with a shrug, even if the memory of being snatched away by Harry's father was barely fixated in my head. "Freshman year. You're not nearly as crazy as Norman was, not even close." I paused, allowing for a dramatic effect. That was something Beck would appreciate. "Why don't you give me a little crazy cackle? Maybe then I'll be trembling."

A dry laugh sounded from his lips. "You're amusing, it's kind of endearing," Beck noted, twisting around sharply, blocking my direction.

"Thank you, I think." With my quick reply, I sidestepped towards my suitcase.

 He allowed his gaze to snap to my chest with my movement and he shook his head like a disappointed mother. "Clever too, but you know that. Let me ask you a little question, Flo. Can I call you that? We're friends. Well, friendly enough...unless you want to make me your villain?"

"Isn't that what you already are?" I questioned bitterly, trying to calculate the best route towards the exit. If I could reach the doorway, maybe make a desperate attempt to scream, then Harry and Cindy would realise something was wrong. "Oh, my mistake, you want to play hero. I guess a pretty face and Thor's outfit doesn't really do the trick."

Beck huffed, annoyance simmering in his eyes. "It's not like Thor's suit. It's better."

The backs of my knees hit the foot of the large bed, inches away from my suitcase. Beck was too consumed with auguring, he hadn't noticed I had traveled half way across the room. "Yeah, sure. If that helps your precious ego." I said, words filling the room. "What's your question?" 

"What did you see in your head?" Beck asked. 

With his question, flashes jolted through my head like his voice was a trigger. His life in staggered blinking pulses; his days in Tony Stark's shadow, watching the great man twist his technology against his own wishes and nicknaming it B.A.R.F. Seeing how his lows seeded a hungry justice against Iron Man, to be heard and valued within the world but overshadowed by men and women in masks and capes, to be more than a poor boy who's dreams were shattered. How he had found others, a mismatched group to serve as his own court of under shadowed minions and how he had crafted his holographic system with weaponised drones. Next came the chaos of the fabricated monsters he had unleashed on Europe and how he just needed one more bit of technology to wrap his plan to rule the world in a tiny bow. Peter Parker's E.D.I.T.H.

"That's one soul sucking petty hole you've dug yourself into," My chin tilted to meet his glare and I could see the ways in which he would burn the world to finally be the hero he desperately wanted to be. He'd do anything to be great and worthy and admired. "All because Daddy Stark didn't like your experiment."

Beck moved in a single second, like a snake.

He crossed the space between us like a storm, but I did not stumble backwards. His hand reached for my throat, but pulled away with a scowl, almost like he was trying to snuff out his rage. "Tony Stark made a mockery of my design, he ruined my greatest work and then fired me." He ran a hand across his mouth, maybe trying to push away the crippling pain he'd been holding onto for years. "Do you know what it's like to be always second best?"