Issue #10

Far From Home

ARC FOUR · HOMECOMING, PART 2. A class trip to Europe. A 'hero' from another world. And every illusion is wearing Zachary's face.

Zachary at the airport with a duffel bag — JFK, 6 A.M. CLASS TRIP. ZACHARY'S FIRST PASSPORT STAMP.

// NARRATION

All he wanted was a ferry, a sunset, and the courage to tell MJ what he'd been working up to since the bite.

// ZACHARY

"MJ. I gotta tell you something. About me. About what I do at night."

// MJ

"Silva. I already KNOW. Half of Midtown knows. You web up like nobody's watching."

A cloaked figure in a green-lit fishbowl helmet conjures dragons in the sky — VENICE. A WATER DRAGON. AND A HERO FALLING OUT OF THE GREEN MIST.

// QUENTIN BECK

"Call me Mysterio. I am from a world your Tony Stark's mistakes destroyed. Let me help you carry his torch, Zachary."

// NARRATION

Zachary wanted to believe him. Zachary gave him the glasses. The glasses ran the drones. The drones ran the lies. And Beck wasn't from anywhere but a Stark Industries firing list.

Hallucinated giants and dragons swirl through a European plaza at night — PRAGUE. BERLIN. LONDON. EVERY SKY A LIE.

// BECK

"I can give them a hero, Silva. Me. You give them you, and you give them a target."

BZZZZT!

// NARRATION

Tower Bridge. Drones falling out of the smoke. Zachary's Silva-tingle finally cutting through the illusions because grief, it turned out, was real and the projections weren't.

// ZACHARY

"Mysterio. You wanted a face. Aight. Look at mine."

// NARRATION

He won. He flew home with MJ on his arm. The headlines were happy.

A jumbo screen in Times Square shows Zachary's masked face — TIMES SQUARE. EVERY SCREEN. A DEAD MAN'S LAST PRANK.

// BECK (broadcast)

"The Amazing Spider is — ZACHARY SILVA. OF BROOKLYN."

// NARRATION

TO BE CONTINUED IN ISSUE #11 — NO WAY HOME.

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