Chapter 83.

"UH, THIS IS SO WEIRD. It was right here on my phone," Flynn spoke as he stared at his phone while scrolling through various photos in his gallery. He was currently seated beside Briana inside the bus.

Briana nodded her head, giving him an unsure look, "Yeah, weird..." she flashed a look to Peter, who was peeking by the seat.

*

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

They finally arrived at Prague by the evening after hours of traveling, and there seemed to be a festival going on; namely, the Signal Festival or Prague Light Festival Signal. The van parked inside a five-star hotel, and everyone walked in — quite amazed by how big the whole place was — well the class was, Briana seemed to be completely normal considering that she has been in many five-star hotels with her parents.

"What can I say? The squeaky wheel gets the upgraded grease," Mr Harrington says. "Okay, now everyone, settle in and rest up, because tonight — big surprise — is Prague's annual carnival of lights!"

Peter's phone vibrated inside his pocket and he picked up the phone, answering the call, "Hello?"

"Parker, it's Hill. There's an inner piece with your suit, put it on and wait for further instructions." Maria Hill spoke through the phone. "Tell Stark to get ready as well."

"Yes, ma'am," when the call finished, Ned approached his best friend.

"Hey, so, uh, what's the status on the monster thing?" He questioned. "Where's it gonna happen?"

Peter glanced at Briana, who was standing with Maya — most likely talking about the same thing — and the two teenagers shared an uneasy look, before they each glanced back at their best friends.

"Uh, here, in the city," Peter says.

"But we're here!"

"I know, it's a mess," Peter frowns.

"You and Briana have to do something, please," Ned begged, frowning as well.

Even though Maya didn't know that Peter was Spider-Man, very few people knew who Iron Girl was — before Thanos and her father sacrificing himself, he had made sure that only close friends and family members knew the identity of Iron Girl — Asides from the Avengers and her family, Maya was one of the close friends who knew the identity of just Iron Girl.

"We're counting on you, Bri," Maya says, before she headed to catch up with her boyfriend.

Briana couldn't help but suck in a deep breath before sharing a uneasy and worried look with Peter.

*

"Good news! We're going to the Opera!" Everyone's jaws dropped in surprise at what Mr Harrington had just said, as they stared at him with frustrated facial expressions. Peter and Briana were the only ones not saying anything or with a upset look.

"What happened to the carnival?" MJ asked quite boredly.

Their teacher just shrugged, "This is upgrade living guys." Ned glanced at Peter while Maya glanced at Briana — who gave her a sheepishly smile before mouthing the word 'please.' "Come on. A tour company just gave us these tickets for free! Do you guys have any idea how much opera tickets cost?"

"No," Starr replied. "Because none of us ever wanted to go to the opera."

"Ever," Flash added, agreeing with his twin sister.

"Uh, well, I think this is going to be culturally envisioned for us," Ned covered up.

"Thank you, Ned! Everyone, this is gonna be, maybe, the best four hours of our whole trip."

Everyone gaped. "Four hours!?"

"Guys, I think it's going to be pretty fun," Maya added. Briana tried to keep a straight face at how devastated everyone looked.

*

As they entered the Opera house, Briana and Peter watched as their class took their seats. Just when they turned around to leave, they were suddenly met with MJ.

"You guys are leaving?" MJ asked.

"Uh... no," Peter shook his head slowly.

"I, uh, I think I dropped something outside. Peter was gonna come help me find it real quick," Briana explained nervously.

"Oh, okay, I'll see you guys later, I guess,"

"See you, MJ,"

With that, she turned around and proceeded to her seat.

"Parker, Stark, get into position now. The two of you better be on your way,"

As the opera session started, MJ turned her head and realized that her two friends were already gone. Knowing that something was going on, she stood up from her seat and walked towards the exit. Molly noticed her leaving and quickly followed — Maya quickly rushed off to get her twin sister and Ned following his girlfriend.

*

The whole city of Prague was rejoicing due to the whole festival. Fireworks here and there, laughter, marching bands playing, people cheering. But Briana Stark and Peter Parker had a mission to finish as they were assigned in their places, wearing different suits that were given to them; Peter wearing his black stealth suit while Briana had a purple suit mixed with different shades of black and a purple mask — and hood — to hide her identity, both of them searching for signs of the fire elemental along the perimeter.

Then lava went up a certain stone statue before it erupted as the fire elemental roared loudly, giving the three heroes the cue. No matter what they threw at the fire elemental, the fire elemental just got more angrier by the minute and of course, things got worse.

"Beck! He's got the carousel! He's getting bigger!" Peter announced.

Suddenly, both teens heard someone calling them — 'night monkey' and 'purple hood' — making them turn around to look up and their eyes widen at the sight of their friends; Maya, Molly, and Ned up in the Ferris wheel.

"What — oh no." Peter says.

"Damn it," Briana muttered under her breath.

Peter tried to shoot his webbings until the monster, but it was no use. Briana ran towards the Ferris wheel and behind the mask — just as her eyes turned purple and purple energy ran through her veins, she released a purple energy blast to try to push back the fire elemental but it was no use. Her eyes widen when she saw the elemental coming closer and quickly climbed the Ferris wheel a bit, before she used the purple energy to put up a shield, pushing the elemental back a bit. She struggled to keep the shield up, but luckily Mysterio jumped in and activated a force field around them, helping out Briana — with his help, it was easier for the sixteen-year-old Stark to keep the shield up as her brown eyes shined an even brighter purple and the purple energy running through her veins brightened as well.

As Briana kept the shield up, Peter took his chance to shot a webbing forward. He was immediately stopped just when his webbing got stuck with some kind of invisible shield, "What was that!?" He pulled it back harshly, as it was threw back into an alleyway where it was found by none other than MJ.

The fight continued afterwards and Beck was trying to bring the elemental down. Briana was starting to struggle with keeping the shield up, so her friends wouldn't get hurt as she felt her feet start to slip from the Ferris wheel. She sucked in a deep breath and narrowed her eyes, putting all of her focus into the shield. Beck then turned his head to look at the two teens.

"No matter what happens..." he trailed off, looking at them. "I'm glad I met you kids,"

"Beck, what are you doing!?" Peter exclaimed.

He turned back facing the elemental, glaring, "What I should've done last time," he simply responded. Within moments, he was groaning loudly as he summoned all the power that he had inside him.

"Beck, wait, don't do it!" Briana pleaded.

Ignoring the leads of the two, he rushed forward and inserted himself inside the monster's chest. It suddenly became green, before finally exploding into tiny green dust particles. Briana took a deep breath and stopped making the shield — her eyes changing back to its original eye color as herself and Peter jumped down and ran towards Beck, who was laying on the ground.

"Mr. Beck?" Peter called out, just when the man turned and breathed heavily, looking at them with a small smile. "Oh, thank god,"

As Beck stood up, Fury, Dimitri, and Maria Hill looked around, examining the whole place.

"So, it's over?" Maria asked.

Beck nodded, "That was the last of them."

"But not the last threat we'll ever face," Fury interjected. "We need to stay vigilant. There's a void in this world for someone like you. Hill and I are going to the Europe headquarters in Berlin tomorrow. You should join us,"

"Thank you," Beck told him, as he stood up and shook his hand. "I just might take up on that."

Fury approached both Peter and Briana, "You've got gifts, both of you. But you didn't want to be here."

"Mister Fury, I—"

He continued, "I'd love to have you both in Berlin, too. But you've got to decide whether you'll step up or not. Stark chose you. He made you an Avenger. I need that. The world needs that. Maybe Stark was wrong,"

The world needs that.

Was Briana really ready to continue her father's mantle as Earth's mightiest hero, Iron Man? Was she really ready to be the next Iron Man?

She didn't know if she was. But she was a Avenger. She was Iron Girl, she was Power. Was she ready to take on her father's mantle and honor it, to make him proud?

"— Was he?" He whispered. "The choice is yours."

Beck glanced at the two teens as Fury walked away with Maria Hill, "Let's hey a drink,"

When he walked away, the two teens glanced at each other.

"We're not twenty-one,"

"Are you coming with us?" Peter asked.

"Pass, you go ahead. I'm not fond of drinking. I'll meet you back at the hotel," Briana says, Peter nodded.

*

"Briana!" Briana turned around to see MJ running towards her with a panicked expression. Once she reached her, she tried to catch her breath, "Sorry for bothering you, but I felt like this was urgent. Earlier tonight, I watched the fight with that... thing and I made some discoveries,"

"Discoveries?" Briana asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"I know Peter's Spider-Man, and I know you're Iron Girl."

Briana felt her eyes widen when she heard that. By then, Peter had heard them and went over to them.

"Wh—what made you think that?" Briana asked.

"I mean... it's kind of obvious," MJ says. "Washington? The fact that Peter disappears out of nowhere for no reason? But then I noticed that every time you aren't the room, Iron Girl is there," she looks at Peter. "How about tonight? You snuck off, and then Briana snuck off,"

"I'm not Spider-Man," Peter says.

"It was the... Night Monkey and the Purple Hood," Briana said, mentally groaning at the fake cover name her best friend gave her.

"Well, does the Night Monkey and Spider-Man use the same webs?" She asked, taking out a metal looking object that was wrapped up in webbing.

"Maybe it was the Spider-Monkey, who knows?"

Suddenly, the object that MJ was holding lit up — making them take a step back as it fell to the ground. The object showed a perfectly real looking hologram of a monster made from clouds and lighting. As it disappeared once again, the three looked around with shocked looks on their faces.

Briana slowly walked forward and grabbed the metal object, the three of them studied it closely. "Is that like... a projector or something?" MJ asked, making the other two nod their heads.

"Yeah," Peter frowned. "But they're really advanced."

"But it looked so real."

"Wait, so the elementals were fake? But that doesn't make any sense. All that fire and destruction was real," Briana says.

"Who would be able to do that?" Peter questioned.

The projector lit up once again, and it showed another elemental monster. As they watched closely, another person comes up — as it showed a hologram of Mysterio fighting the monster.

"Mysterio," MJ whispered, making Peter's heart stop in realization. Briana felt her eyes widen, just when everything suddenly sank in.

Peter whirled around, "I am Spider-Man. And I just made a mistake."

"What?" Briana asked.

"Wait, so I was right?" MJ asked, the two teens nodded.

"What happened?" Briana asked.

"I—I gave Beck the glasses."

*

Briana immediately closed the curtains as the three teens stood inside Peter's room. "You had access to killer drones?" MJ asked in shock, listening to Peter's rambling.

"Yeah, I didn't really want them, especially after I almost killed Flynn." Peter says.

"You almost killed Flynn?" MJ asked.

"Long story," Briana says. "Anyway, I would call Fury to tell him that Beck's a fraud and a liar, but I think he tapped our phones,"

"What are you guys gonna do then?" MJ asked.

"We're gonna have to go Berlin," Briana says, quickly grabbing the suit she had on a while ago. MJ had turned around so Peter could place the suit on, and Briana did the same with her suit. But then, when they finished, they turned around and found Ned and Maya standing in the doorway.

"Uh... the costumes look great," Maya says, her mind processing the fact that Peter was Spider-Man.

Peter pointed at MJ, "She knows. I told her,"

"He didn't tell me. I figured it out," MJ corrected.

"Look, Mysterio is a fraud." Briana said.

"But he saved our lives," Ned said.

"He's been faking the whole time with illusion tech." MJ says.

"He's using these, like, hologram projectors." Peter says.

"That's crazy. So, you guys, were like working the case together?" Ned asked.

"It's been mostly me," MJ says.

After a while and letting their friends know what to do, they quickly left for Berlin.

*

BERLIN, GERMANY

Fury lead them into the room where Maria Hill was already waiting, "So, you got anything you want to tell us?" Fury asked.

"Look, I know I made a mistake. But Beck's a fraud. He's got all this illusion tech and he's using it to fake the whole thing. He tricked you guys, and he tricked me into giving him EDITH." Peter explained.

"This is how he's doing it," Briana says, sliding the projector over to them.

"So, all that death, and destruction was caused by projection?" Fury asked.

"We know how it sounds, but we think he's using drones," Peter says.

Briana watched Fury's body language closely and frowned, something didn't feel right.

"Something's not right." Briana said, staring at Fury. "Pete, that's not Fury,"

In that moment, everything starts disappearing and then both teens are shot at and sent flying in opposite directions. Briana lands a few levels down in a parking garage and jumps back up, looking around.

"Peter! Peter!" She yelled, looking around for him but she didn't see him.

"The daughter of the genius and hero known as Iron Man. Guess I couldn't hide it from you." Briana frowned at the voice. Beck.

"Stop hiding, Beck! Come out and fight me!" Briana says angrily.

Suddenly, the scenery around her changed completely and everything turned dark, pitch black.

The same thing happened with Peter. He couldn't see anything as he frantically looked around for Briana, with a panicked look.

"You told me you wanted to run after your girl." Suddenly, he heard Briana's scream making his eyes widen in fear and his heart dropped in panic.

"Briana!" He screamed, making his way through the door. He immediately stopped in his heels just when he realized that he was at the edge of the Eiffel Tower.

"Peter, help me," he turned around and saw the panicked expression in the eyes of the girl he loved.

"I know this isn't real!" Peter said through gritted teeth, begging that this wasn't real.

"Do you?" Mysterio appeared behind Briana and grabbed her by the neck, making her gasp for air.

"Briana!" He exclaimed, gasping when Mysterio let her go as she fell down — her screams echoing in the abyss. Peter immediately jumped down after her, but frowned when he landed onto the cold hard ground.

"Where is she!?" Peter yelled.

"Peter, wake up!" Just like that, he was snapped back into reality as he crashed down onto the car, making her groan.

*

Briana sucked in a deep breath as darkness surrounded her. "Briannnna." Beck's voice echoed.

"What do you want? Where's Peter!?" Briana asked.

Suddenly, she was standing within the battle field of Sokovia with Ultron.

"You Starks say that you fight for us. But you only fight for yourselves. But you're just a scared little girl! You don't deserve that power you have inside of you! And you know you can't get EDITH from me."

"I can, and I will, you wannabe hero! You say that us Starks don't fight for Earth. And you do? You don't, Beck! You'll never ever be good enough to call yourself a hero! Cause you're not a hero! You're a fraud and a liar!" Briana yelled angrily.

The scenery around her suddenly changed to a hallway, "Sissy!" She heard her little sister's voice called out.

"Morgan!" Briana called out, she threw herself at a door, pushing it open and stopped to find her suddenly standing on the rooftop of Stark Industries. Her little sister was in the hands of Mysterio.

"Get your dirty, lying hands off of my baby sister!" Briana ordered.

"Why, of course." Mysterio threw a screaming Morgan off of the rooftop.

"NO!" Briana screamed, jumping after her sister only to hit the hard ground.

*

In a blink of an eye, Briana and Peter were in one place once again, both laying on the cement ground in pain. But then darkness separates the two of them again, leaving them all alone.

Huge shards of glass then surrounds her.

"Just look at yourself!"

Briana stared at herself and looked around to find multiple duplicates of herself in her iron suit or with purple energy at their fingertips, as they jumped on her.

"You're just a scared little girl!"

When the duplicates disappeared into green smoke, Briana found herself wearing the very first — and old — violet iron suit that she made when she first got back home with her father. But the suit had cracks and scratches all over it, nearly falling apart.

"I created Mysterio to give the world someone to believe in. I control the truth. Mysterio is the truth!"

She looks up to find a large statue honoring Mysterio himself. Briana frowns, just when she turns to find him throwing powerful blasts at her. She dodged a few of his hits, but then a large hand crashed down onto her just as she got hit by one of his blasts.

"If you were good enough..." the smoke around them faded away, and she looked up only for her breathing to get stuck in her throat. "Maybe Tony would still be alive. It was supposed to be you that sacrificed your life, remember?"

ANTHONY
EDWARD
STARK

Briana glanced at the ground and felt tears run down her cheeks. Beck was right, it wasn't supposed to be her father. It was supposed to be her. She isn't supposed to be there, alive. It's her fault that her father is gone.

More illusions started to get through her heads. She ran and hit her head against a glass border, sending her back into the snow. Buildings started to grow around her, as she wiped her eyes and sucked in a deep breath.

"You made your choice! All you needed to do was step aside."

Suddenly, the illusions were cut short when Beck stopped talking and fell to the ground. Behind him was Fury, who apparently shot the man.

"Fury," both teens immediately got up from the ground.

Fury approached them. "Who did you tell?" He questioned, making Briana frown.

"Peter, wait—"

"Just Ned, Maya, and MJ from my class." He responded immediately. "Maybe Maya told her sister, Molly, but that's it,"

The man in front of them chuckled, shaking his head. "I can't believe the two of you are so dumb,"

"What?"

"Come again?"

"Don't take this the wrong way. You kids are just... suckers," Within seconds, Beck disappeared as it showed Beck with two drones behind him, and their eyes widen in shock, the two teens immediately backed up, stepping onto a railroad track. "Now all your friends have to die."

Everything started to be falling apart once again as Beck initiated the illusion tech. Beck stepped closer to them.

"It's easy to fool people when they're already fooling themselves."

More illusions....

"But for what's worth, Peter, Briana, I really am sorry."

And it just stops.

Before the two teens could react, a fast train ran into them, sending them who knows where.

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