For several days running, Mysterio had an uncanny knack for showing up at exactly the right moment whenever a team headed out on a mission, and then sliding right in alongside them.

It wasn't just Clint and Yang Luoluo's group, either. Mysterio had worked the angle with nearly every team running daily missions. From what they could tell, only Tony, Steve, Natasha, and the Avengers deployed to other regions had managed to avoid contact.

The reasonable guess: Mysterio simply didn't dare go near any of them.

Yang Luoluo had to admit, she was starting to respect the sheer persistence. Maintaining the act of an upstanding hero while helping them deal with genuine problems, all while running underhanded schemes in secret and quietly making life difficult for the Avengers, that took serious commitment.

She honestly worried Mysterio would crack one day.

But the plan to ingratiate with the Avengers was clearly paying off. At minimum, Peter had spent the past couple of days cheerfully calling out "Mr. Mysterio" at every opportunity. Given that Tony was still alive, Mysterio hadn't dared let anyone see a real name or face, showing up each time with that hideously ugly fishbowl helmet firmly in place.

Watching Peter treat Mysterio like an absolute top-tier hero, Clint and Yang Luoluo felt equal parts frustrated and helpless. Kate's behavior, at least, had given them some comfort.

Being a few years older than Peter — and the heir to the Bishop family business, Kate had picked up on something subtly off in Mysterio's overeager attitude. In the interactions that followed, Kate had quietly put some distance between them without making it obvious.

Kate had even slipped Peter a quiet warning on the side. Whether Peter had actually taken it to heart was a separate question.

Mysterio noticed the distance. Didn't give it a second thought. Compared to New York's famously beloved neighborhood hero, why would anyone waste attention on a girl who wasn't even an official Avengers member?

Think about it: a cheerful, outgoing superhero dedicated to helping ordinary people from the very first moment of stepping into the public eye, carrying a reputation that thundered across the entire country.

If it ever came out that Spider-Man was actually a thieving murderer, the public, shocked to discover they'd been deceived, would drag Spider-Man furiously from the clouds straight into the mud.

That would be Mysterio's moment.

As for why Spider-Man was the target, naturally because Spider-Man's approachable conduct had built a reputation that stood in a league of its own, even among the Avengers.

If Mysterio tried running the same scheme against Steve Rogers, the guarantee was this: the moment the very first negative remark about Steve appeared online, Mysterio would already be getting torn apart by an outraged public.

The symbol of the American spirit was not something to joke around with.

Peter, chatting eagerly away with people nearby, had no idea about any of the darkness lurking beneath the surface.

Kate's warning had seeded some wariness toward Mysterio, sure, but Mysterio's whole presentation was so genuinely friendly and harmless that Peter still regarded Mysterio as something close to a trusted mentor and friend.

"I still can't figure it out." Clint's head was full of question marks. "What's the actual point of going to all that trouble to get on everyone's good side?"

"Haven't you noticed there are more and more posts online trashing the Avengers lately?" Yang Luoluo pointed out.

"I took a look earlier, and someone actually accused me of stealing a bicycle. God knows I can't even ride one."

"Once everyone's reputation is dragged through the mud, all Mysterio has to do is step forward and call us out. The public will naturally hold Mysterio up as the embodiment of justice."

All speculation courtesy of Natasha, of course. When it came to reading public sentiment, Natasha was the one with the real knack.

"Is that so?!"

Clint startled and immediately pulled out a phone to check. Video games were more Clint's speed; Clint didn't spend every day surfing online the way the younger crowd did, and without Yang Luoluo bringing it up, probably wouldn't have noticed at all.

Clint clicked into a personal account first. Every Avengers member had their own official social media profile, and after scrolling carefully for a while, Clint finally spotted a few unremarkable negative comments buried at the very bottom.

That wasn't so bad, really.

Puzzled, Clint clicked over to Tony's account.

"..."

Looking at the wall of negative comments that seemed to go on forever, Clint fell silent.

Yang Luoluo leaned over for a look and immediately understood. "Tony is the one Mysterio hates most — putting in a little extra effort there makes sense."

"But look at this." Yang Luoluo tapped the screen a few times and gestured for Clint to see. "Under every single negative comment, someone has hit back hard enough to shut the person up. Tony had J.A.R.V.I.S. fire back at all of them."

The notoriously sharp-tongued Tony Stark could not stand for that. Tony had always been the one doing the criticizing. Getting criticized was simply not on the table.

So every negative comment had been assigned to J.A.R.V.I.S. and F.R.I.D.A.Y. to deal with one by one. Peter's AI Karen had been loaned over as well. Even Howard and Maria had been glued to their phones all day long, counter-attacking on behalf of their child.

If it weren't for still wanting to see what scheme Mysterio pulled next, Tony would have suited up and flown over to give Mysterio a thorough beating already.

Outside of Tony, the second-highest pile of negative comments was almost certainly under Spider-Man.

Having spent nearly every day alongside Peter, Mysterio had quietly collected a substantial amount of data on Spider-Man. Combined with the Binary Augmented Retro-Framing technology Mysterio had invented, fabricating fake compromising photos and videos of Spider-Man was completely effortless.

With Mysterio's team driving the narrative from behind the scenes, even people who had never particularly liked the Avengers started piling on with unrestrained insults. By now, the comment sections under most Avengers' accounts had become a genuinely toxic wasteland.

Real or fake, the moment anyone got hold of something that even looked like potential dirt, they swarmed in together and hurled the most vicious language they could find.

Worried that Peter would see those comments and be hurt, Tony found an excuse to confiscate Peter's phone outright, then arranged one relentless training session after another, making sure that by the time Peter finished each day, the only thing on Peter's mind was sleep.

Clint and Yang Luoluo, who spent just as much time around Mysterio, didn't get that treatment. One had never had a particularly high profile to begin with; the other had only just joined. The number of people going after them was negligible. You'd have to scroll through an entire comment section to find one or two.

Wait.

Did that mean the two of them were being looked down on?

Clint and Yang Luoluo exchanged a glance. The moment they both realized it, neither could decide whether to feel relieved or offended.

"...Once Mysterio's exposed, can I beat Mysterio up?" Yang Luoluo asked through gritted teeth.

"Count me in." Clint's expression was flat.

---

"Tony — those negative comments online. Aren't you going to do something about them?"

Steve asked with a frown, deeply worried.

Thanks to the weight that came with being Steve Rogers, the comments under Steve's account had almost none directed at Steve personally. Instead they were full of people urging Steve to go set the Avengers straight, to teach them to stop doing petty, disgraceful things.

God only knew how many question marks filled Steve's head reading those.

Bringing it up put Tony in a foul mood immediately.

Tony had assumed Mysterio was collecting data in order to fabricate something serious, murder, arson, that kind of thing. What Tony had never anticipated was that nearly everything Mysterio actually released was petty, trivial nonsense.

Not accusations of killing anyone, just this Avenger stealing a bicycle. Not serious crimes, just that Avenger littering, or some Avenger running a red light. With Mysterio quietly steering things from behind, the internet was now saturated with complaints about the Avengers.

Sure, you save the world. But that doesn't mean you can have no decency!

The smear tactic had almost no real damage value, and an insult factor of the highest order.

To this day, the top comment pinned on Tony's account was condemning Tony for walking out of a donut shop without paying. That shop had long since been purchased by Tony. Since when did someone pay for a donut from their own shop?

Tony had been so furious that Tony personally got online and fought back and forth with that person for three hundred rounds, and only cooled down once the other side went quiet.

"Deal with it? Of course I'm going to deal with it!" Tony slammed a palm on the table and snapped back.

"Just not right now."

"I have a feeling that person is gearing up for something big."

...Who knew when any of this would ever end.

Steve let out a long, tired sigh.

➤ Next: Escalation — The Conversation

Chapter 136 - Escalation — The Conversation

Tony Stark's premonition might have been right.

Some time later, through the combined efforts of various nations and the Avengers, social order finally returned to normal.

Peter Parker went back to school. Harry and the others, for the very first time, cheerfully accepted their transfer student status and headed back to class, after all, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes had far too many customers, and even eight hands apiece wouldn't have been enough to keep up.

Of course, once they were back at the compound, Ron Weasley paid dearly for shaking down the Weasley twins, mercilessly pranked for days on end. But that's beside the point.

During this period, Mysterio kept dragging Spider-Man's name through the mud in the most aggravating way possible, pulling the other Avengers into the mess along the way. The whole situation kept escalating.

Mysterio was like a mosquito. The bite itself barely hurt, but the itch that followed was enough to drive you absolutely insane.

That was exactly where the Avengers were right now.

Early morning.

Everyone sat around the dining table eating in silence. Frustration was written across every face, and every bite of bread was taken with a particular viciousness, as if it weren't bread at all, but Mysterio.

After a long stretch of quiet, Peter Parker broke it. Moody, Peter Parker flipped the phone face-down on the table and chewed through two bites of bread before speaking.

"They're actually saying I lost my temper at an old lady. I was giving her directions. I only raised my voice because she couldn't hear me..."

Ever since Midtown High School started its term, Tony Stark had no way to keep Peter Parker shielded from the garbage online. Even with the phone confiscated, Tony Stark couldn't shut up every teacher and student at school. Someone was always going to bring it up.

So Peter Parker found out. Found out that Spider-Man had been getting dragged through the mud non-stop, which also explained the confiscated phone and the sudden ramp-up in training. That didn't stop Peter Parker from going quiet for several days, even while feeling grateful toward Tony Stark.

Tony Stark had felt a flicker of guilt over it, honestly. If the thought of toughening Peter Parker up hadn't still been rattling around in the back of his mind, he probably would've just punched Mysterio and told Peter Parker the whole story from the start.

Peter Parker's voice broke the dam. The whole dining area came alive at once, everyone who'd been quietly suffering finally had an outlet, and they all started unloading at the same time.

"Tell me about it. They're saying I ran a red light. I'd love to know — does flying over a traffic light count as running it?" Sam Wilson took a furious gulp of juice.

"Someone accused me of speeding." Pietro Maximoff rolled both eyes.

"They scolded me for taking off whenever and wherever I feel like it. Said I have zero respect for ordinary people." Wanda Maximoff's fists tightened.

"Said I act like a diva. Always looking down on people." Bucky Barnes bit into a steak, expression completely flat, somehow radiating pure menace.

"Said I contribute absolutely nothing to the team." Bruce Banner smiled pleasantly. "After I sent a photo of all seven of my doctoral degrees, they went quiet and never replied."

"They scolded me — well." Yang Luoluo paused. "I don't really have much of a profile, so honestly, I haven't seen that many people coming for me."

The Weasley twins, who had been eating quietly nearby, looked up. Truly educational stuff.

Peter Parker let out another sigh. At this point the food had lost all appeal. Grabbing a sandwich off the table, Peter Parker pushed back from the chair and stood.

"...I'm going to school." The retreating figure looked utterly bleak from every angle.

Harry and the others exchanged a look. Then, without a word, they followed.

On the way to class.

"Don't be upset, Peter Parker. All of us know those things are fake."

"Harry is right. The people online just parrot whatever they hear. Not worth a second of your time."

Harry and the others crowded around Peter Parker, voices overlapping as they piled on reassurances. The words were simple, but the warmth underneath them came through clearly, and Peter Parker's mood did, gradually, begin to lift.

"That said, this whole thing is genuinely strange." Hermione Granger frowned, something nagging at the back of the mind. "So many people just appeared out of nowhere to go after everyone at once..."

The Avengers had saved the entire universe. The war had barely ended. If anything, the internet should've been wall-to-wall praise. Where were all these attacks even coming from?

"You're only noticing now?" Draco Malfoy crossed both arms, expression dripping with contempt. "I'd bet anything someone is running this from behind the scenes."

That look, equal disdain for absolutely everyone, made Ron Weasley's teeth grind. The urge to just swing was very real.

"Oh?" Ron Weasley said. Lightly. Dismissively.

Sure enough, Draco Malfoy detonated.

"What are you 'oh'-ing about?! My father taught me all of this when I was small! Do you think it's a mystery how my father managed to drive Dumbledore out of—"

Draco Malfoy stopped. Mouth snapping shut.

Ron Weasley knew exactly what that was about, the year Lucius Malfoy had rallied the school's board of governors to strip Albus Dumbledore of the headmaster position.

The Basilisk had been accidentally released by Ginny Weasley that year, and several students had been petrified. Parents panicked. Albus Dumbledore took the brunt of it, with Hagrid's prior record adding fuel to the fire. Lucius Malfoy had taken that opening, bribed the board, and had Albus Dumbledore removed in one clean move.

The moment Draco Malfoy brought it up, the warmth in Harry and the others' expressions evaporated. Several sets of eyes cut toward Draco Malfoy with a sharpness that said everything.

Draco Malfoy's shoulders came up slightly.

Ron Weasley wasn't done. From the moment they'd met in first year, this person had never gone more than five minutes without invoking the Malfoy name. A textbook daddy's boy, through and through.

Ron Weasley's eyes slid sideways, tone taking on a sing-song quality.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. My~ fa~ther~."

Draco Malfoy shut both eyes. Drew a long breath. Everyone was watching.

It wasn't enough.

Draco Malfoy lunged.

"Weasley! Stand your ground if you've got any nerve — you're finished, I'm telling you!"

"Obviously I'm running, you're chasing me! What do you think I am, an idiot?!"

Harry, Hermione Granger, Peter Parker:...

But the knot in Peter Parker's chest had quietly come loose. Most of the despondency from earlier had slipped away somewhere in the chaos.

"Actually, who is this Mysterio?" Harry blinked, holding up the phone with a news article on the screen. "I keep seeing people praising him."

Strange, somehow. All those glowing comments online, and they just made Harry uneasy.

"Oh, him." Peter Parker perked up immediately. "Okay, so, Mysterio is genuinely one of the greatest heroes out there. The Earth Mysterio came from was destroyed by these monsters, and Mysterio came to our universe alone, just to hunt them down and stop them from doing the same thing here..."

A few days prior, Mysterio had staged another spectacle, a full battle against Hellfire, one of the Elementals. Peter Parker had been called in, ostensibly for backup. In reality it had been a performance, start to finish: a heroic sacrifice, played out right in front of Peter Parker's eyes.

That "sacrifice" had done its job. Mysterio's reputation skyrocketed. And Peter Parker, completely taken in, now saw Mysterio as someone who would lay down their life without hesitation for the greater good.

Listening to all of this, Harry and Hermione Granger both frowned slowly. They looked at each other. The same worry was sitting in both sets of eyes.

"Peter Parker..." Harry chose the words carefully, and spoke.

"I just, sometimes someone who looks like a good person doesn't necessarily mean you well. Like Professor Moody. During the Triwizard Tournament, Professor Moody worked tirelessly to help me. And in the end, it turned out the whole time, there'd been something else going on entirely."

Peter Parker listened without interrupting.

"But then Professor Snape, who looks like a villain if anyone does, had been protecting me from the shadows the entire time."

"So I just think... maybe you should be a little more careful? I'm not saying anything bad about Mysterio. I just feel like, "

Harry trailed off, not quite finding the right words. Hermione Granger stepped in.

"What Harry means is, doesn't it seem like Mysterio keeps turning up deliberately? Every single mission, there's Mysterio. And the things said... they're always exactly the kind of things that make you feel sorry for them."

Peter Parker's eyes dropped. Quiet.

Hermione Granger felt a stab of worry, maybe that had been too blunt. The words came quickly: "We don't have anything against Mysterio. After all, Mysterio is your friend too. We just want you to stay a little guarded. Being careful never hurts, does it?"

Under their eyes, Peter Parker nodded slowly.

"I know. Kate said the same thing actually." A pause. "I don't fully understand why everyone seems to think Mysterio... means me harm. But I hear you. I'll be more careful."

Hearing that, Harry and Hermione Granger finally relaxed. They hadn't known each other long, but they knew that when Peter Parker made a promise, he kept it.

As for Mysterio...

Hopefully they were just overthinking it.

➤ Next: Spider-Man's Die-Hard Fan