maskormenacelogs | 002 - We've Definitely Got An Issue

Beck would take objection at saying he was pretending to be Peter's friend. Even if it was a precarious relationship which could collapse at any time, Beck believed in the truth of it right now. Half the time he was manipulating without even realising it. It's just the way he was. A natural go-to for him, trying to always control the situation.

The knock on the door was aggressive. Surely not Peter without his key? Kid could likely just break down the door anyway, with his strength...

Beck didn't open the door yet.

"Who is it? I'm busy." He wasn't but he also wasn't in the mood for visitors after arguing with Marco on the network.

"Quentin, open the door," David snaps. "Or I break it. Which would be annoying."

He's pretty sure he can. Enough training for it. And if he can't, he'll bring someone else over to break the door down. Which would be time consuming. Which would waste both of their times.

"Or maybe I could go to the press to inform them of your staged attack in De Chima, where you caused a waste of resources that were needed against a real threat, endangered civilians, and did it all to make yourself look good."

Beck frowns at the closed door. First Marco and now David. Again. Those two were causing him far more trouble than they were worth. He may have to do something about that.

But he does now open the door, still frowning.

There can only be speculation and suspicion, he thinks, not any real evidence that the street attack was faked. He wasn't afraid of that being outed. But he doesn't want his door broken down in a senseless rage attack.

"You need to stop thinking everything I'm doing is suspicious. It's getting very tiresome," his voice is cold.

That mentality is entirely the problem.

But with the door opening, David stands there and crosses his arms over his chest.

"I have the video you posted on the network. And data from the damage done. What you put up doesn't match the actual physics required for the damage. There was an actual situation, and you, sick fuck that you are, decided to monopolize on it. And you think Tony Stark was bad. At least the intention of his company, to some degree, was to assist the US military. Who are you assisting?"

Bitterness? Check. Anger? Check. A young man shoving his foot in the doorway to make sure Beck doesn't slam it? Check.

"Peter may be living with you, but you will stop attempting to exert authority over him. You aren't his father. You are only his guardian through a clerical error that will be soon resolved. And when he leaves to go home, you will leave him alone."

"Are you trying to tell me that you know the exact physics of random monsters that probably never even existed in your world?" There's a scoffing mockery to his tone at that. "Why don't you do something more productive with your time than looking at what I'm doing? Why aren't you helping people stop the threats in De Chima yourself?"

"As for Peter, I gave him a choice. If he wanted to leave me alone, he already could have but he chose not to and I don't know why I have to have this same argument with two different people with something that is none of their business. This is between myself and Peter. You're the ones treating him like he's a kid who can't make his own decisions."

"I'm a physics genius," David counters. "And the shape is all I needed, Beck. They weren't the right shape. Given your tech goals, it seems pretty interesting, isn't it?"

Stop threats? He's only human, Beck. What's he supposed to do, TOUCH the monsters and see if they were intelligent? Hardly.

"You're a manipulative asshole, and he's a good, trusting guy. He tried to give you a second chance, and instead he gets trapped in a whole with his attempted murderer. It's called gaslighting, Beck. You're abusing the damn kid."

"I'm taking care of him. Watching out for him. Keeping him safe. Legally, he's my responsibility," Beck says plainly, eyes fixed on David.

His caution is way up though, and he's already deciding to pull himself back and keep out of harm's way. He's only human too, especially when not wearing his superhero suit. But the apartment is all rigged up and he nearly always has his wrist band under his clothing so he can easily access his tech. Unless David's perception is as good as Peter's he wouldn't even sense anything amiss.

Without missing a beat, the Beck talking to David is now an illusion, carrying on as normal, while the real Beck has taken a few steps back, observing and keeping on alert. He doesn't like David's tone, or the words that follow.

Perhaps he won't sense it, but Beck doesn't know something that David has to his advantage. Peter has EDITH. David? Built his own glasses. Would he sense things being amiss himself? No. Not at all. But his glasses? They're damn good. And the AR processes, the computer, they're not stupid. At first his gaze remains on the illusion. But soon his eyes are focusing a lot closer, and he's scowling.

"You know, I've heard that sometimes. Back in my world. Where managers or other authority figures will adopt a young man or a woman. Someone underage. They get the person dependent. Make them feel loved and wanted. Use them. For their success, to make money, or just to bed. Tell me, Beck. Are you so threatened by Peter's intelligence that you've decided to go straight to grooming him? Think that just because he's kind and gentle and really into Tony Stark, he'd sleep with the knock off, crazy version?"

His head turns after that, ignoring the illusion and quirking an eyebrow at Quentin.

Both Beck and his illusion's expressions darken at David's words.

"How dare you insinuate anything like that. This adoption was an error in the system and I'm just making the most out of the situation and upholding my obligations. I'm not threatened by him and I don't want to use him. I want to work with him. I respect his opinions and talents and I am very sick of people here thinking they know better than either of us."

The head turn is unsettling and the real Beck takes another step back. It may have just been a coincidental glance into the apartment - which looks quite normal as an imPort residence. He's not yet so alarmed by it.

"You're right. You are making the most of it," David agrees, stepping past the illusion and toward the real Beck. "The thing is, you do want to use him. You told me your plans include hiring him. That sounds like using him. And I know him."

But he definitely knows he's better than Beck.

"You get how sick it is, right, to refuse to even face me yourself, right? To use your illusions to hold your place in an adult conversation? That isn't manipulative? Can you even keep yourself from doing it? Or is trying to manipulate people just your inherent state? That's unhealthy."

"Offering him a job - which he showed interest in taking - is using him? It was going to be a mutual exchange of knowledge," he's frustrated by this conversation, obviously, and the illusion vanishes as David steps past it, revealing the real Back again. His right hand is resting on his left wrist.

"You're acting irrationally. I have to protect myself," he claims defensively.

"You're gas-lighting one of my closest friends," David counters harshly. "You're an abusive, manipulative, and sick man. And take your hand away from your wrist. I'm not in the mood to deal with really bad attempts at illusions right now."

Because Peter deserves so much more than what he's getting from Beck. Maybe they can get Thor to be his guardian. Or Jane? Some real, reasonable adult. Who hasn't tried to kill him.

"What evidence do you have of any of this?" Beck replies angrily, his hand closing tighter around his arm instead, even more defensive. "Have you also been spying on us and thinking that you have a clue what is really going on here? You only have your assumptions and what people have told you. You don't have the truth."

"I'm a psychologist, Beck. And there's a whole host of things wrong with how you treat Peter. The way you manipulate him is frankly sick. Of course, you're also a textbook narcissistic personality disorder, and I'm more than half worried that your obsession with illusions and literally making people see things your way is a means of lashing out at a world that you feel doesn't give you what you deserve, even though you don't deserve it."

He crosses his arms over his chest and gives Beck a dark look. But no more aggressive motions forward. He lets the man have his space.

"You're hurting him, Beck. If you really care about Peter Parker, if you really want to make up for attempting to kill him and his friends which was done with a sociopathic sense of entitlement, you'll stop this. You'll give Peter a place to live but stop insisting on acting as his family. You'll back off once the paperwork is completed and make no complaints when he goes back to his life. You will not attempt to talk him into staying. And if you don't, all you're doing is proving you're as mentally unbalanced as Tony Stark said you were. In fact, possibly even worse."

He's pushing too hard. This isn't how any reasonable doctor would treat the situation. Granted a reasonable doctor isn't normally talking to the abuser for the sake of the abused. Peter can't even see it. He's too busy trying to be a better man than anyone in his life has ever been to him. And David has seen this happen. Has seen people die from this sort of thing.

"If you care about Peter, you will leave him be."

Edited 2019-09-07 03:22 (UTC)

David has a very good overall picture of Beck's way of thinking - not that he'll actually admit to that though.

While the things David was saying would make sense to any rational person, it wasn't sinking in the way David would want it to. Beck's seeing it as a personal attack, his nerves even further on edge when Stark's name is mentioned. He grits his teeth. He feels an unhealthy sense of possessiveness over Peter, brought on partly by the fact they are both from the same world and timeline so he thinks that means they know each other best. He won't hear otherwise.

"I'm helping him. You're the one who needs to stop. You and that interfering kid Marco. Both of you need to leave us alone."

"Are you helping him?" David counters. "You took him away from the place he'd already been adjusting to as his home. Sure he was a grade level lower, but you took him away from any friends he was making there. You have literally taken him away from everything he had since coming here, and now you're suggesting I need to leave him alone?"

David shakes his head, and the look on his face? Oh yeah, that's pure pity. Like he can't even believe Beck is so completely divorced from reality.

"So, that's how you're going to be his father figure, is it? Ban him from his friends? We watch Twilight Zone, and talk about Star Wars and play video games. We hang out because that's what friends do. But no, you have to be the only thing that matters in his life. You have to leave him isolated, so that the only option he has is to turn to you. It's like you need to be the most important person, if only to prove your own value."

He sighs and uncrosses his arms. There's less fire now. More resignation. Like it's truly impossible to get through to this man.

"As for Marco, if you don't see how they are together, you're blind. That sort of trust, that's a deep friendship. I am barely even a friend to Peter, compared to Marco. He's the one that told me what you're doing. Because that's what a friend does. They seek to protect people from those that would use them, would hurt them."

And Marco? That kid is really protective. Even David can see that much. Beck, though, he's blind.

"You're helping you. In a way that leaves me wondering, who hurt you when you were his age, Quentin? Who told you that the only way you could ever matter in their eyes was to be the best? Who taught you to see every step backwards as an unacceptable failure, and everyone who didn't immediately like you as someone out to get you? Who made you believe that there are only three kinds of people in the world, those that kiss your boots, those who serve you, and those who need to be crushed underfoot? Because they're wrong. Who broke you, Quentin?"

Got it in one again, David. Beck does want to be the main influence in Peter's life. He likes to think of himself as a guide as well as a guardian - even if the latter had been by accident. It had come at his suggestion for a ruse with the school and somehow played into his hands by a clerical error. Once it had happened be'd considered the advantages of getting Peter even closer and had acted accordingly. Did he see how creepy this was? No. He only thought of his position in it; of getting what he wanted out of it. Of course he didn't have Peter's best interests at heart - even if he told himself that he was trying to; he could fool himself as easily as he tried to fool others. He currently didn't have any ill will toward Peter, but he did hold his own interests higher.

"Peter is free to come and go as he pleases. I was even willing to move to Nonah so he would be less displaced. He was the one who said he'd come here instead." Beck is full of lines and excuses to twist and blame his behaviour on others. "Do you think I have him locked up here? No, he's out right now, hopefully not getting himself into any trouble... I did warn him." Spoken like a parental figure.

"Did Marco also tell you how he broke into my apartment and the kid has been nothing but a bad attitude, thinking he knows better. And he doesn't," more frowning at that.

But then there's more obvious tension at the last part of David's speech. "Did Peter say something to you about my family? He's the only one I talked to and that brat Marco listened in to some of it, but he heard nothing of any real importance. So... what? Are you going to try to psychoanalyse me and tell me everything will be OK?"

Interesting. David was going to have to ask Marco some things about what he overheard Beck say. Because none of what he wanted to get from Beck to do a proper analysis was something he'd actually be able to get with his powers.

"Did you ask Peter what he wanted, Quentin? If he wanted to have you as a guardian? If he wants you choosing who his friends are? Because that's what you're doing. You're trying to cut him off from people who actually care about him. All you know is trying to grab for control, because you feel so out of control of your own life."

He takes a step forward, hands still not raised, because frankly, getting hit isn't the main goal. Though he is recording all of this, just in case it happens.

"Peter and Marco have told me nothing about your past. Remember, Beck, I'm smart, and I have two psychology degrees. When I ask what happened, it's because that's what I'm seeing in your behavior. If I had to make a guess, I'd say it was your father."

Thus the fixation on Tony Stark, on being a father figure in Peter's life, in being threatened by other males involved in Peter's life.

"And Marco's not a brat. He's been through more in his life than Peter and you and me combined. I've survived a genocide, Beck. I've had my heart ripped out by a demon. I've watched everything I believe in turn out to be a lie. Marco is young, but he's more mature than you give him credit for, and his concern for Peter comes from a place of caring. But you? If you cared, you'd want Peter to see Marco more. See Bart more. See all his friends more. You'd want him to adjust to life here comfortably. You'd want to help him with his tech, and not be so hung up on him realizing yours. And the worst part is, you can't even see it. You're blinded by your own need, Beck, and it's going to destroy Peter's life."

That being said, there is one thing he absolutely has to say.

"Honestly? I don't think anything is going to be okay. Not while you're like this."

Edited 2019-09-07 04:09 (UTC)

Beck takes an automatic step backward when David moves forward. Not everything in his tech is fully operational right now and he does feel vulnerable. Without his hero suit, he doesn't have any of his Porter-given powers either, so he can't access his energy bolts or flight. It's just him and David, who he still is very uncertain about - and very annoyed that he is interfering. Yes, it's that loss of control that is the worst part to him. He hates it and it just makes him even angrier and more frustrated, which can lead to deadly incidents...

Beck hasn't been through nearly as much as others, but this doesn't stop him from believing he's had it the hardest and taking advantage of other people's sympathies. Peter being a prime example. He's played with Peter's empathy from the beginning, when he'd claimed to have lost family in the Elemental attacks. It was continuing here, and while the truth was being told to Peter more often, it still moved along a manipulative path.

"None of you listen, do you? Exchange of tech means I help Peter and Peter helps me. Peter understands that and we've had many conversations here, in private, and the rest of you know nothing about how we've come to our agreements." He believes that they've bonded on this somehow.

Really?

"Nothing? The first thing you did upon coming to this world was lie and manipulate, create a story to get the result you desired. And you're saying that's a one time thing? Once is chance. Then there you are, testing new illusions in De Chima in the middle of a real crisis. You actually have powers that could help people, energy blasts and the like, and instead of saving civilians and legitimately proving you want to be a hero, you create a new story. A new lie. Twice is coincidence."

Another step forward, and no more gentleness on his face. Just fatigue. He's so tired, and it's all Beck causing it.

"Do you know what the third time is, Beck? Conspiracy. Design. Enemy action. Right now you could stop and we let this all go with words, with concerns, with a little bit of distrust you could recover from. But you're toeing the line of strike three so easily. And what then? What happens to you, Beck, when you're the enemy of men starter than you. Of men stronger than you. Of men more ruthless than you? What happens when those of us who really love Peter, who really want to protect him and keep him happy, have no choice but to see you as an enemy rather than a potential ally?"

This world brings people back to life, Beck. How many times do you have to die to come around to realizing that it's useless to fight?

And two steps backward for Beck, who finds he's now backed up against a wall. He looks cornered for a second before he slips a more neutral expression back on, then lifts up his head, straightens up and appears more confident once more. The act is naturalistic enough - once it's appeared - to seem like a genuine self and emotion.

Which is the real Quentin Beck? Even he has no idea anymore. He is who he wants to be at that moment.

"You're accusing me of a lot of things that you can't prove. I saved those people. I destroyed those monsters. I helped clean up the damage and I will help them rebuild. Don't pretend that you ever would accept me as your ally, even if I'd come here with the complete truth on day one. You would never give me a chance. I only have Peter."

Peter, who's faith in Beck's turnaround may be shaky, but it was something Beck was clinging to. Losing it could send him further over the edge with no other positive link to hold on to. Unfortunately, Peter was the only beneficial influence on him and having him pushed away - even if best for Peter - would hit Beck hard and cause a collapse from even this tenuous grasp on becoming a decent person.

Unstable was definitely the word for him.

"You put lives in danger," David snaps, and he can't help the fury in his voice. "There were not monsters, and all the damage was what you caused! Can't you see how fucking sick it is to claim anything else? You should be paying out of pocket for every bit of damage you did to their lives. And for what? For false credit? To pretend to be a hero when just blocks away you could have been a real one!?"

No, it's more than that, it's a lot worse than that.

"There were people that went to help you! There were civilians that DIED because the help they needed went to your little farce rather than where they needed to be! Negligent homicide is still homicide, Beck!"

"And you haven't shown me any proof!" Beck snaps back. "What about innocent until proven guilty? You keep accusing me on your own bias and speculations!"

His hands drop to his sides, balling into fists, his anger rising. He has no intention on striking David physically. It's not his style. But he certainly looks poised to or that he at least wants to.

Really?

"I have the data backed up at home, ready for presentation to the authorities. But if I give it to you, it gives you more time to find a way to fake things to get them to seem the way you want."

He shakes his head, too disgusted to raise his voice again.

"You don't even care, do you? About the lives you could have saved if you stopped playing hero and actually were one. You're right. You're not like Tony Stark. He would have saved people's lives."

"Don't talk to me about Tony Stark. Don't you dare tell me that that asshole was better than me. Don't you dare!" Now his fury arrives when Tony's name is dropped, and he leans forward toward David, eyes ablaze. "He never saved anyone for any selfless means and he ruins hundreds of lives and had more people killed with his weapons and his mistakes than any other so-called hero ever did!"

"And he tried to right those wrongs. He made the Iron Man suit and started to protect people. Hell, in my world he REFUSED to admit he was Iron Man for a very long time, because it wasn't about the glory," David counters. He isn't even remotely bothered by the fury Beck is spewing at him. "I dare to tell you he's better because he was better. Is that why you're so caught up on Peter? Because if Peter looks up to you like he did to Tony, you get to be better than Tony? That's not how it works. You'll still be less of a man than even Howard Stark."

Oh yeah, he's trotting out the true Stark family asshole.

"And Tony never KNOWINGLY attempted to murder children. You did."

"You're speaking of some Tony Stark you knew! Most of the things I'm talking about he did after he became Iron Man. He continued to be an arrogant dick to everybody and thought his word was always right and acted so superior to everybody."

He can't see the reflection of his own actions and attitude there. One of his many failings, smart as he is. His perceptions are seriously skewed and this subject especially fuels his narrow-mindedness.

"I worked for his company. I knew him personally. I had to deal with his bullshit and saw how he treated people and yet the general public ate that up and thought he was so great. After he died, they put up shrines everywhere. It was ridiculous! Then he goes and gives all his powerful weaponised tech to some teenager who immediately tries to blow up his own school bus. Peter was too immature to handle that much responsibility and he had the opportunity then to walk away when he willingly gave me control of EDITH. I didn't want to hurt him or his friends but he refused to step aside and go live his life like a normal kid."

Blaming others again. Never himself.

"Tony Stark tried to make up for the actions of his past by becoming Iron Man. You? You keep pushing your mistakes onto the same boy you repeatedly imply to be stupid. Sure, he doesn't have the best street smarts. But I've been in both of your brains. He's smarter than you. A lot. If Peter nearly blew up his school bus, it was not intentional. And he didn't try to destroy London, which is a LOT worse."

Another step closer, and David pokes Beck right in the chest.

"You are actually so fucking insane that you can't even hear yourself. Everything you use to describe Stark describes you. Except where are your redeeming qualities? You're a murderer, through action and inaction alike. You keep clawing at straws to try and be relevant and refuse actual greatness in the process. And you're a very, very sick man who dreams to be Tony Stark while being scared of that reflection. But nothing anyone says will ever get through to you, because you're just crazy."

"Don't touch me," Beck seethes, putting his hands up - at first defensively but then he reflexively makes a move to push at David's arms.

"Of course not. Because then what I'm saying to you might be a little too real. Because otherwise you can just pretend this is all something that didn't happen. How pathetic."

David lets his hand be knocked away, but he doesn't step back.

"There literally is no talking to you. Every word I say just feeds a persecution complex. Which means my only choice is to try and take this to Peter. To show him how you're literally incapable of facing the truth when someone presents it to you. To try and hope he sees that he would literally have a better life living on the streets than he would with you."

"You think you can come into my house and invade my personal space and now you want to try to turn the boy who it is my responsibility to protect against me? I can't let you do that," Beck's hand swiftly taps on his wrist and an illusion drops around them at once.

It's a desperate attempt since it failed last time but at least for a moment Beck is nowhere to be seen - a blank slate of a room - and the tech attempts to tap into some of David's inner fears, bringing them to life in front of him. It's a scare tactic, at best. Or a diversion.

Really, this again? David sighs at the darkness and speaks into it. Give his glasses a minute or two, and he'll absolutely find Beck, no issues. He might not have Spidey-senses, but he has technology on his side too.

"The young man you're talking about immediately came to me to ask me how to get free of you. I'm not turning him against you. He doesn't want to be here," David tells the darkness.

Except it isn't darkness, is it? It's brightening to yellowed light and buildings of stone. It's demons all around, hideous creatures beyond human imagination. School children in uniforms all around, restrained by demons, chained, terror in their eyes. And one demon, red cloaked and sneering, standing over David, a clawed hand raised and ready to plunge into his heart.

David doesn't even flinch.

He laughs.

"This is what you've got, Beck?" he asks, looking around. "You told me you hadn't finished the physical feedback yet. Is that still true? Tell me, when he reaches out, will I feel him rip my heart out? Because in my dreams I do. Every single night he stands over me, and I get to feel his fingers sink into my chest and break my ribs and tear my heart free. I wake up with phantom pain like you can't even believe. So stop playing around."

His tech isn't good enough here to override Beck's. He just doesn't have the interface capabilities. But he does have a map of Beck's apartment. He does know exactly where everything should be. So it makes it easy to step past the terror that haunts his dreams and head across the room toward the door.

"You're pathetic. Can't even find the balls to punch someone you're pissed off at. Even this much has to be a play."

Meanwhile, Beck has pulled up his left sleeve to better access his tech panel. He's furiously tapping away, adjusting settings and attempting to force out David's worst memories. Fear can be a powerful thing, even if you know what's in front of you doesn't actually exist. Look at horror movies or virtual reality games - people get scared just by those images. And this is worse. Your real fears, in front of you in the most realistic looking simulation. Drawing from David's own memories or outright fears that hadn't happened yet. This could also provoke phantom pains if he was distracted enough and feared getting hurt by whatever appeared. His mind could tell him he'd been hit.

A shame that it wasn't working, but Beck isn't wholly surprised by this. Only irritated.

He doesn't answer yet and moves further away, across the room. He can see all that David is seeing as the projectors and systems turn David's fears into data and then visualise them outward. He presses more button, trying to delve further into David's subconscious, probing for worse fears kept buried.

The hell dimension fades by the time he's halfway across the room. Briefly there's a bus and screaming and the smell of burning flesh, and that actually makes David stumble half a step. Another few steps beyond that white, only white, with the occasional black boxes. Like the world is a blank space between comic book panels that haven't been filled in yet.

It's not until he gets to the door that David's freezes. Because all the horrorscapes are gone. Instead it's the oval office. Instead there's a desk, and David himself, in a suit, older, wiser looking, smirking disdainfully out at the room.

That's what stops David. What draws an actual growl out from him as he whirls on the room at large.

"Drop this, or I'll break your fucking arm," he threatens, fingers coming up to his glasses and tapping the band on one side as he goes from passive scanning to active.

Good, Beck thinks, something got to him. He wants it to teach David some lesson about not underestimating what he could do... This may not be the best tactic.

The threat doesn't bother him and it isn't why he drops the illusions now. He just knows he can only run so far with it, the way it's setup right now.

The room returns to normal and Beck does look slightly smug.

"Just a taste, David. You don't want to make me hurt you. Back off with your idea of talking to Peter. He has to stay here, for legal reasons."

He's seriously clutching to that accidental legality.

Really? Back off or remind David of something that never happened? The man scoffs.

"You couldn't hurt me if you tried, Beck. And he only has to stay here for legal reasons until one final piece of paper pushes through. Then he's free of you. But that little attempt to fuck with my mind? I'll be sure to show it to him when I talk to him."

He turns back to the door and opens it. And once he's standing in it he turns back to Beck and smirks.

"The only way you could keep me from protecting Peter from you would be to kill me. From what I understand, that doesn't work well here. And you really wouldn't like the enemies you made if you tried."

After all, Beck came to this place without his team. David?

David didn't.

Oh, he wants to reply to that. To say something along the lines that he doesn't have to kill David, just trap him in a room and keep replaying his nightmares to him forever.

But instead, he frowns. Show Peter....? Some sort of audio or footage of this? He can't have that and he makes an attempt to lock into whatever tech David has and try to delete it.

All he says aloud is:

"EDITH. Remove all data that David has created today."

He can't be certain that would work. He had connections to EDITH, held physically by Peter but still linked to his own tech. She doesn't verbally respond but he hopes that she begins working and doing what he said.

It could also work as leverage, if David now protested, just in case.

Now David shakes his head. Even makes a show of taking out his phone and frowning at it.

"Damn. I had a REALLY cute cat video on here too."

But what he does is take off his glasses, carefully fold the bands, and pulls out a small case to zip them into. One of those really nice, anti-RFID ones. Because it pays to be cautious. Even though his glasses have been in offline mode for a while.

"There's a serious difference between Tony Stark and myself. For one thing, he's a far better programmer than I am at the moment. EDITH, when I saw it, was a beautiful and elegant system, and I saw that at just the tiniest bit of interactions. Hell, I don't even have nanotech or experience in creating AIs on his level. But there's one thing Tony Stark will never have on me."

The case goes into his pocket and David shakes his head, pityingly, at Beck.

"Decades of combined tactical experience, hacking experience, experience with advanced AIs trying to kill me and undermine me, and combat situations in environments dominated by holograms.... And twenty-ten vision."

Eyesight so good that he could see the stitches on a fast ball. Eyesight so good that there was literally no reason for David to wear glasses.

"You're a very sad man, Beck. At worst, you've erased me pounding on your door. At best, nothing. But for now, Peter will at least get to see you attempting to use EDITH against me as a weapon. I'm not sure you can be trusted with her. If you keep up manipulating him and trying to take over his life, he gets to see it all. Marco, on the other hand, is going to see all of this. A few others I trust as well. Because that's what we call collateral. Seems fair, to save it, don't you think? I mean, you DID something a bit like this to try and destroy Peter's life on your own planet. Only right that something like that should be used against you."

And with that he steps out into the hall. Come after him if you dare.

"Stop! Wait--"

And now he'll try his other tactic - the smooth talking that so often works well with Peter.

"We can come to an arrangement...," he convincingly sounds regretful now, and honestly anxious. "Peter has to legally stay with me for a few more days," at least, that's what he's expecting. Red tape and slow paperwork may say otherwise. "Just give me that. I have no plans or intention on hurting him. You already know that. I don't want him to be my enemy. I don't even want you to be my enemy. You're forcing my hand and that's not fair to Peter. I don't tell him he can't see his friends. I don't tell him not to go out and do what he wants. He has free rein. We eat pizza and talk about our technology. What's the harm in that?"

"Forcing your hand," David says, stopping in the hall and looking back at him. "You use that phrase a lot. To you it seems to mean 'hurt you because you won't come into line.' No. No we can't come to an arrangement. I know you have no plans to harm him, not deep enough for me to see. But you hurt him with every stupid choice you make. And I'm not standing for that. Not now, not ever."

He keeps walking and doesn't stop until he's at the far end of the hall looking back.

"I've heard far too many lies far pretties and more convincing than yours to ever buy what you're selling. And the sooner Peter realizes how irredeemable you are, the better."

"What are you going to do now?"

Beck calls after him, fists and teeth clenched in aggravation.

"You shouldn't show that kid Marco. At least, do that for me. For Peter. He can't keep his trap shut for long and Peter will pay the price for it."

"Stages of grief, Beck. Look them up. You've already managed denial, anger and you're very heavily into bargaining. Call me when you hit stage five."

Acceptance. Call him when you realize how screwed you are. And with that he disappears around the corner and heads to leave the building. He's very done with Quentin Beck.

002 - We've Definitely Got An Issue

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