On the castle grounds, Tony eagerly assembled drones while Russell watched from the side.
These drones had come from the bar. Strange had taken Beck away, while Beck's accomplices had slipped away, changed their identities, and left Europe.
Struggling was pointless. Every one of them had made it onto Tony's little blacklist. Once the show was over and Nick Fury got the roster, they would not be safe even if they fled into space.
That was right. Parker had only been able to find Beck through Edith because Tony had secretly helped him.
This was part of the script. Originally, Russell and Tony had thought Beck would be exposed at the meeting, but the superheroes had jumped to conclusions and filled in the blanks themselves, helping Beck weather the crisis.
Even Beck telling the truth had been useless. He had burst into tears on the spot.
Fortunately, it was not a major problem. Russell had gone to the bar and recovered the scattered drones and programming computers. After Tony tinkered with them, they could keep the act going.
They refused to believe it. No matter how low the superheroes' intelligence was, there had to be a limit.
"Honestly, I can understand everyone else being fooled, but Nick Fury actually failed to see that Beck was a fraud."
Tony grumbled as he programmed. The truth was so obvious, yet no one ever connected the dots.
Russell shrugged. "First impressions matter. When I first saw you, I immediately labeled you a scumbag. No matter how talented you became afterward, you would still be a genius scumbag."
"What a coincidence, my first impression of you was also—"
Tony was about to fire back, but seeing the unfriendly look in Russell's eyes, he could only fall silent resentfully and mutter something about how unfair