[Perspective: Wanda Maximoff]
Peter gasped, taking a step back. "What the...?"
Fury's single eye widened in absolute shock. Maria Hill drew her sidearm instinctively.
"So," Wanda said, letting her hands fall to her sides, staring at the man in the spandex suit. "You are just a normal person?"
Beck was hyperventilating. His eyes darted wildly around the plaza, realizing that his grand illusion had been shattered in less than thirty seconds.
"Let me go!" Beck shouted, his voice cracking with pure panic. He pointed a trembling finger at Wanda. "What are you doing? You don't understand the stakes!"
Wanda ignored him entirely. She turned her head slowly to look at Nick Fury.
Fury was staring at Beck, his face contorting into a mask of furious realization.
"You," Wanda said to Fury. "You are the great director of the former S.H.I.E.L.D.? The man who supposedly knows everything?"
Fury swallowed hard.
"You did not even identify his identity," Wanda continued, stepping toward Fury, her eyes flashing with anger. "Are you sure you are the Nick Fury that I know?"
"Wanda, listen to me… " Fury started, raising a hand.
"I think you should get retired," Wanda said ruthlessly, cutting him off. "If even a normal man with a theatrical costume can fool you, Nick, you are a liability."
Fury's face flushed dark with embarrassment and rage.
"Fuck," he muttered under his breath. "You motherfucker."
He glared at Beck with homicidal intent.
"I am not a fraud!" Beck screamed desperately. "I gave the world something to believe in!"
Wanda raised her right hand again. A thin beam of scarlet energy shot out, striking Beck directly in the temples.
Beck looked directly at Fury, his voice stripped of all its theatrical flair.
"I am an ex-employee of Stark Industries," Beck confessed, his words spilling out mechanically under the weight of her magic. "I developed the B.A.R.F. holographic technology. Tony Stark stole it, renamed it, and fired me. I gathered a team of disgruntled ex-employees. We used advanced projection technology and weaponized drones to create the Elementals."
Peter pulled his mask off, staring at Beck in horror. "You... you faked all of it?"
"Yes," Beck said monotonously. "It was all holograms layered over weaponized drones causing real physical damage. The goal was to manufacture a global crisis so that I could step in as the hero. I wanted to take Stark's place."
Fury rubbed his temples, letting out a long sigh. He looked at Beck as if he were a cockroach.
"Where are your teams?" Wanda demanded.
"They are in a staging warehouse," Beck answered tonelessly. He rattled off a specific address on the outskirts of the city. "They are trapped inside because Fury's agents are blocking the loading bay."
Wanda released the magic. The red glow faded from Beck's temples.
He gasped, falling to his knees on the cobblestones, clutching his head in agony as control of his own mind rushed back to him.
"Go ahead and fucking arrest them," Fury barked into his comms, his voice shaking with rage. "I want that warehouse raided immediately. If anyone resists, just kill them on the spot."
"Yes, Director," Hill said, already moving toward the SUV to coordinate the strike team.
Wanda looked at the pathetic man on the ground, then back at Fury.
"I am going," Wanda said coldly. "Do not call me again for this useless kind of thing. Learn to do your own background checks, Fury."
Before Fury could formulate a response, Wanda bent her knees and launched herself into the night sky, a brilliant streak of crimson energy carrying her back to the man who was waiting for her.
[Perspective: Quentin Beck]
Quentin Beck remained on his knees, his hands securely zip tied behind his back.
He stared at the cobblestones, his mind a chaotic whirlwind of despair. How did it go wrong? That witch... she shouldn't have been able to see through the narrative!
A few feet away, Nick Fury and Peter Parker stood watching him.
"So," Peter's voice sounded incredibly embarrassed. "I also got fooled by this man. I really thought he was a hero."
"You still have a lot to learn, Parker," Fury's gruff voice replied, dripping with condescension. "You're too trusting. You see a cape and a sob story, and you hand over your common sense."
"Yeah, well," Peter retorted. "You also got fooled. So we are on the same boat, Mr. Fury."
"Shut up."
"Okay, shutting up," Peter said quickly. He looked at Beck. "So... what should we do with him?"
"I will teach this piece of shit a lesson," Fury stated, his voice devoid of any mercy. "He endangered thousands of lives for a PR stunt. For now we'll put him in the underground cells."
"An underground prison?" Peter asked, sounding genuinely curious. "Do you have a prison in here?"
"As I said, Parker," Fury sighed, sounding exhausted. "You still have a lot to learn. There is an entire world beneath the surface that you don't understand."
"I'm still better than you," Peter mumbled quietly.
Fury's single eye narrowed, clearly about to unleash a verbal tirade, but Peter cut him off.
"I will be going!" Peter announced rapidly. "I need to get back. Bye, Mr. Fury!"
Fury turned his attention back to his agents.
"What are you waiting for?" Fury barked. "Bring him to the transport. And gather up every scrap of that tech."
A technician in a standard jumpsuit and thick utility gloves stepped forward.
He began picking up the metallic parts of the suit that Wanda had ripped away with her magic. He knelt down right next to Beck to retrieve the metallic bracers.
The agent picked up the right bracer, turning it over to inspect the internal wiring.
The agent's multi tool slipped. The sharp metal edge jammed directly into the glowing blue core of the manual firing mechanism.
Click.
The bracer, still in the agent's hand and pointed directly at Beck's face, hummed violently. A bright blue light flared within the repulsor barrel.
VZZZ.
BOOM.
The energy blast deployed at point blank range. The concussive force struck Quentin Beck squarely in the center of his forehead.
The sheer kinetic impact of the miniaturized Stark tech ripped through bone and tissue instantly.
His head blasted into many pieces, painting the nearby stone statues and the agent's uniform in a gruesome spray of crimson.
His headless body slumped sideways, the zip tied hands jerking once before falling still on the cobblestones.
The agent stumbled backward, dropping the smoking bracer as if it were a live coal. He fell onto his backside, scrambling away from the horrific remains, his face completely drained of color.
"Oh my god," the agent shrieked, his hands shaking violently as he looked at the blood. "Oh my god! I didn't… it just went off!"
Fury stared at the catastrophic mess. He looked at the smoking weapon, then at the headless corpse of the man who had almost fooled the world.
He didn't believe that a highly trained technician just 'slipped' and perfectly executed their primary suspect.
"Lock him in a holding cell and do not let him talk to anyone until I get a full debrief." Fury ordered the other agents, pointing a finger at the trembling technician.