Chapter 54: A World on the Edge Part III

A World on the Edge Part Three:

“NO!” shouted Peter, as he managed to pull himself up and leap forward, just managing to catch the sign, blocking most of the impact, as Gwen slumped to the floor. Sparks flew everywhere, as Peter directed the sign away from Gwen, with sparks shooting out. He saw several other patrons and staff move around, as he looked at Gwen, who was unconscious but thankfully still breathing. “Someone, call for an ambulance!”

No one seemed to move, as Peter cradled Gwen gently in his arms.

“ARE YOU PEOPLE DEAF?” shouted Peter. “MY GIRLFRIEND’S HURT BADLY, SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE!”

Gwen continued to breathe in and out, as Peter held her.

“Gwen, I’m so, so sorry, this is all my fault,” muttered Peter. “If I hadn’t been so stupid….if I hadn’t been…”

Peter trailed off, unable to form any more words. He was thankful that he managed to save Gwen from the majority of the brunt of the sign and she could have been in lot worse shape. He held her, trying to find the words to reassure her, even though she was not really in the condition to comprehend what he was saying.

“Electro could have fried her to a crisp easily,” thought Peter darkly. “The people I care about would be in danger if my enemies knew I was Spider-Man….the people that mean the most to me are likely to still be in danger if my enemies don’t know I’m Spider-Man. What am I supposed to do?”

Peter was brought out of his thoughts, as he heard an ambulance outside. Electro had long since moved on to terrorize others elsewhere.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“I want you to scout the area to see the disturbance, but do not directly interfere unless he engages you in combat,” said Professor Xavier to the group of the X-Men in the X-Jet as it moved far above the panicked populace.

“Of course, Professor, we need to see what we’re up against,” said Cyclops, as he looked at Wolverine, who just grunted in reluctant compliance, as he sat with the assembled group of Iceman, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Rogue, and Marvel Girl.

“The guy takes a lot of pride in his work,” commented Iceman. “Whoever it is.”

“What if he notices us?” asked Rogue.

“Yeah we’re going to talk him down, hopefully get him to back off,” said Cyclops.

“And if that brilliant plan doesn’t work,” persisted Rogue dryly.

“Then we’ll let Logan have a talk with him,” said Marvel Girl.

“Now, you’re talking,” said Wolverine, as he looked outside. “Any luck on finding him.”

“Well, just follow the sound of the shrieks, that should work,” suggested Shadowcat.

“I’m trying to track him, but…the readings are very strange, changing by the minute, we’re dealing with something powerful,” said Cylcops.

“And hopefully not prone to blast us out of the sky,” said Nightcrawler.

“Please, the jet can outrun anything, there’s nothing that can touch it,” said Cyclops in a confident tone of voice.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Electro looked around, as people screamed, running away from him. It was music to his ears, as he directed a parked car to chase a group of businessmen down the street, in an attempt to run them down. With a smirk, Electro caused several street lamps to shatter, sending glass flying everywhere.

A loud whoosh echoed from above Electro and the crazed man looked up, to see a jet.

“What’s this?” demanded Electro angrily. “A plane in my airspace…in my town….without my permission…we’ll see about that!”

Electro raised his hands, summoning a full burst of energy and it crackled around him, before he blasted upwards, to lock right onto the plane.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Error, error, security breach, external threat….” stated the computer on the X-Jet, but suddenly it went dead.

“Security breach?” inquired Nightcrawler. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“But it shouldn’t be breached, the computers on the jet are protected with the best encryption out there,” said Cyclops with a frown.

“So was the Danger Room and the Mansion as well, and we all know what happened there,” said Marvel Girl as the others cringed at that particular epiosde.

Wolverine sniffed around in the air.

“There’s something here, something that I don’t like,” growled Wolverine, but the jet started rock and the seat belts tightened, to trap the X-Men in their seats.

“You’re going to stay in your seats until you reach your final stop!” shouted Electro, as his face appeared on the computer, energy crackling. “None of you move, or you will suffer a lot more.”

“Wait a minute,” said Shadowcat slowly as she looked at the unfamiliar figure, recognition dawning. “That sounds like Electro.”

“Electro, didn’t you say he was some loser who shot lightning and had a stupid costume?” asked Iceman, which caused Electro’s face to contort in fury, as he caused the plane to rock. “He could barely control a flashlight for…”

“SHUT UP, SHUT UP!” shouted Shadowcat frantically in horror as Electro gave screams of rage.

“You dare mock me behind my back, well I’ll show you, I’ll show you all!” shouted Electro, as he brought the jet into the air high, before he spiraled it around the city towards a populated area.

“Please, don’t, they’re people in those buildings!” yelled Marvel Girl frantically as others gasped in terror, but Electro grinned sadistically.

“I know,” said Electro wickedly, as he flew straight down towards the roof of a building but he felt a pull against him.

“Got to stop him somehow,” said Marvel Girl, concentrating with all of her might, to keep the plane in the air, and she managed to direct it away from crashing into the building, before Electro put more power into the plane. “No…can’t hold on!”

Marvel Girl was whipped back, nearly knocking her seat backwards, as she gasped out.

“Jean!” shouted Cyclops frantically.

“You’re pay for that, mutant!” shrieked Electro, causing the plane to rock and screws to loosen.

“If he rips the plane apart when we’re this high in the air….” started Cyclops but he could not finish the sentence and he did not need to.

“I’ll give you guys credit, you have a state of the art weapons system,” said Electro and there was a very familiar sound of weapons arming.

“No,” whispered Cyclops.

“You can’t,” managed Rogue.

“You scumbag,” growled Wolverine as several missiles were launched and there were horrified screams heard from far below, as all of the missiles impacted and there was smoke seen from below.

“That’s it, someone’s got to stop him,” said Rogue angrily. “If only he had an actual form, I could get some of his power.”

“Maybe if I phase through…” started Shadowcat but Cyclops shook his head.

“Way too dangerous,” said Cyclops firmly and Wolverine just hacked his way from the seat beats, ripping the seat apart.

“Guess, we have to take care of this the old fashion way,” said Wolverine and before anyone could respond, Wolverine plunged forward, and plunged his claws right into the control panel, causing him to get electrocuted almost immediately. Wolverine held on with intense frustration, as sparks flew from his body, but Electro had just faded from the plane, just when it began to spiral out of control, as Wolverine was blasted backwards, electrocuted for at least a minute straight, hair standing up on end.

Cyclops quickly blasted the front of the plane.

“Bobby, now, we need a ramp to get us down,” ordered Cyclops.

“On it!” shouted Iceman, as he blasted an ice ramp downwards from the front of the plane, causing it to slide to the earth, but this did not work as well as expected, as the jet began to spin. It was a tense moment, before the jet stopped crashing and levitated off the ground, before it flipped over and landed gently.

“Well, at least we didn’t crash,” said Shadowcat, as she let out the breath she was holding. “Nice work, Jean.”

“But, I didn’t do anything,” said Marvel Girl who was confused, and so was the rest of the team.

“But if you didn’t, who did?” asked Rogue but everyone was confused, as they moved out.

“What the…” started Cyclops as he saw a very familiar figure standing above the building, but as he blinked, he was gone.

“What is it Scott?” asked Marvel Girl.

“Nothing, must have been seeing things,” said Cyclops, shaking his head. After all, they had all seen him perish. Wolverine stumbled forward and collapsed down to the ground. “Logan, what exactly were you hoping to accomplish?”

“Hey, that electrical nutcase out of the plane,” grunted Wolverine as he spat blood on the ground and smoke came out of his mouth as he talked. “I’m going to be walking off that one for a while.”

The staggered X-Men were face to face with a crowd of people and they were not too happy.

“Look, it’s those muties!”

“They shot their missiles at us!”

“They think they can bully us into following them!”

“Well, we’re going to show them!”

“Hey wait a minute, we totally saved you from Electro!” argued Shadowcat.

“How do we know you weren’t all in it together?”

Suddenly, there were several pieces of debris, rocks and bricks thrown at the X-Men.

“No, its all a misunderstanding!” argued Cyclops, but one of the rocks knocked his visor off, causing an optic blast to shoot forward right into the crowd, blowing up a car, before he could shield his eyes.

“See, they attacked us again, let’s get them!”

There were several more rocks thrown, backing off the X-Men.

“They’re attacking us, and we ain’t fighting back,” said Rogue in confusion. “Ah say we give them what for.”

“No, things are going to be made worse if we fight back,” said Cyclops, as Marvel Girl handed him his visor so he could put it back on.

“Much worse than that?” grumbled Wolverine, just as a glass bottle spiraled through the air, nearly smashing into Nightcrawler, before he teleported out of harm’s way.

“We need to get out of here, before things get too bad,” said Cyclops, as Marvel Girl put a shield around them.

“I don’t know how long I could hold this,” said Marvel Girl, biting her lip in frustration, as she held the shield, but several police cars arrived, and tear gas was shot into the ground, to back off the rioters, as Captain Stacy lead the police.

“Everyone clear off, we have enough problems without you acting like a crazed mob,” said Captain Stacy, before he lead the police towards the group.

“Hey, we’re not the bad guys, the mutants are the bad guys, you should arrest them and put them away!”

“They’re helping that nutcase, they fired missiles at us!”

“Give them the chair!”

“We should lock them all up!”

“You all better come downtown,” said Captain Stacy to the X-Men. “Until this gets sorted out and tensions are eased. You’re not being accused of anything but with Electro on the loose, we have more than enough problems.”

“Where’s Spider-Man when you need him?” muttered Iceman.

“We’re all asking that question,” said Captain Stacy, more to himself than others, as the X-Men walked forward.

“I can’t believe we’re just turning ourselves in,” said Wolverine. “It’d be easy to take care of us and make it look like an accident.”

“Captain Stacy is okay, he won’t let anything happen,” argued Shadowcat.

“Yeah, he might be the good one, but they’re other cops and…a lot of them are in bed with mobsters and other criminals, have you seen the crime rate in this city?” said Wolverine. “I’m not putting up with it!”

“We have to Logan, we don’t want to make things worse,” said Cyclops but Wolverine just broke free, leaping over the assembled crowd, as he began to scale a fence, as the cops turned to go after him but Captain Stacy stopped him.

“We have enough problems,” said Captain Stacy, as he moved the X-Men into two separate squad cars.

As the X-Men sat in the cars, they saw a young officer walk up and whisper something to Captain Stacy, who looked shocked and then quite somber.

“Officer DeWolff, take care of this, a family emergency has come up,” said Captain Stacy, trying to maintain his composure. “Make sure they get downtown and arrest anyone who tries to attack them. No exceptions.”

“Okay, Captain,” said DeWolff as she sensed the grim note in Captain Stacy's voice and knew that it would be best just to comply, as she moved forward to take charge.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Time seemed to slow down to an absolutely unbearable crawl for Peter Parker. It had only been maybe a half of an hour, maybe forty five minutes since Gwen had been taken to the hospital to have her injuries tended to, but it seemed like much longer. He had been escorted in himself, to get the gash on the side of his head, stitched and cleaned up. It appeared that the staff was worked big time and others were far less fortunate that Gwen was.

The doctor exited the room that Gwen was in, an unreadable expression on her face.

“So, Doctor?” prompted Peter.

“She’s extremely lucky not to get off quite worse, just a mild concussion, some cuts and bruises, a broken ankle, and burned fingers, but she should make a full recovery,” said the doctor, as Peter let out the breath that he was holding in. “If nothing else, she was one of the more mild cases. Its thankful you managed to act as you did.”

“Yeah, thankful,” said Peter, who thought that the fact that Gwen was hurt at all was nothing to be thankful about. “I want to see her.”

“She’s currently sedated, but if you want to,” said the doctor in a sympathetic voice. “The entire town’s in an uproar because of this Electro character, we just managed to get our machines back online just before your call for help, he knocked out the power. People are trying to fight him, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four, and the police, but they’re just overwhelmed. No one seems to be able to stand up to him.”

Peter just remained silent.

“I do wonder where Spider-Man is during all of this,” added the doctor as an afterthought. “He’s beaten Electro before.”

“It’s a different Electro, he’s no longer what he was,” said Peter. “Far more dangerous.”

“But, Spider-Man wouldn’t just sit back and let everyone get hurt,” said the doctor. “He saved my daughter once, from a burning building. He puts his life on the line. It makes me think that something bad happened to him before this all started but no one’s telling us anything…of course, its hard with the news to get out, because of the communications going out.”

Peter just looked, as Gwen, right side of her face bandaged and bruised, along with her left hand, visible wrapped in bandages.

“I’ll give you two a moment alone,” said the doctor and she left, as Peter turned to Gwen.

“Gwen, I didn’t mean for this to happen, this wasn’t supposed to happen this way, it was supposed to be all over, but its just begun again, you got hurt and now….I don’t want to have to do this, I might have to do something that Uncle Ben would be appalled at,” said Peter voice breaking slightly. “I’m going to have to take care of Electro…so that he doesn’t do it again, someone that powerful can’t just be locked up in Ravencroft…I don’t want to do this.”

Peter trailed off, as he closed his eyes. The images that he saw in other rooms, people severely injured, thanks in part to Electro and a number of them who would never see another day.

“This might be it, Gwen,” whispered Peter, eyes widened in fear, unsure that he was going to have to take the ultimate step to deal with Electro, despite what he done. It was contrary to everything Spider-Man was. “I’ll always love you, no matter what but I wouldn’t hold anything against you if you didn’t do the same, after what I did…after what I have to do….good bye Gwen. Stay safe.”

Peter kissed Gwen on the forehead, before he slowly walked off, with the feeling that he might as well have been walking straight to death row in the back of his mind.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“All is ready,” said the scientist to the Red Skull, as he stood in the corner, a cold, indifferent look on his face. “The cameras are ready for your broadcast and the coordinates are locked on.”

“Very well, you’re dismissed for the moment, I must make some final preparations,” stated the Red Skull and the scientists moved around. With a movement, the Red Skull rechecked the coordinates. Anyone who attempted to misdirect his device for whatever reason would pay most severely.

When the time was right, the world would know to fear the Red Skull.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Another dead end,” said Fury, frustration mounting.

“We’re trying our best, but the signal is being misdirected all over the place and with Electro out there, its screwing up our equipment even more,” said an officer, but Fury slammed his fist down on the side of his seat.

“Our best is not good enough, keep flying, even if we have to go deep inside the city,” said Fury, but they found some turbulence and the copter had edged to the side to side, as it nearly crashed.

“Something’s wrong, its messing up our directional controls, we can’t pull out, we’re going to crash,” said the pilot from the back seat.

“Electro,” said Fury gruffly, as he moved. “Get ready men, we could be in for a ride.”

Sparks flew, as the helicopter moved, but Fury and his men moved around, grabbing the parachutes.

“Evacuation protocols, we’re going to have to abandon the copter!” yelled Fury, as he moved outwards, leaping down, with two other officers managing to follow him, but another plane spiraled out of control in the sky, crashing right into the SHEILD helicopter.

A loud explosion went off high above the streets and flames blasted every which direction. A second SHEILD helicopter landed on the roof of the building, several shell shocked officers exiting, as a third copter landed in the street.

“We’re on foot now, everyone remain alert for…anything,” said Fury, trailing off as he saw a blur swing right past him on a web line. “That kid has some nerve. I warned him!”

“Should we take care of him?” asked an officer.

“Later, we need to deal with the Red Skull,” stated Fury, as the SHEILD officers moved stealthily through the streets, climbing over the debris and other carnage, with a mangled, bloodied hand moving out from underneath a collapsed wall, before it completely deflated, never to move again.

XXXXX-XXXXX

A group of children scattered in fear, as Electro stood, causing sparks to fly everywhere. A minor application but it did terrify the children witless.

Electro cornered a small girl, no older than five years old, who clutched a Spider-Man doll in her arms.

“Hello, little girl,” said Electro wickedly, as she sniffled in absolute terror, backing off. “So, you like Spidey, don’t you?”

The little girl was fearful.

“Uh huh,” sobbed the little girl terrified and Electro just sent a small bolt of lighting at the ground, causing the little girl to burst into tears and drop her doll, where Electro blasted it right into bits with a mere gesture.

“Spider-Man’s no more, I took care of him, he’s not coming back!” shouted Electro, as he backed the child right into a construction site. “And if he ever crawls out from underneath the rock he’s hiding underneath, I’ll make him pay. I’ll slowly and painfully kill him, causing him to scream, to beg for mercy, but there will be no mercy. NONE!”

Electro sent a small jolt of electricity towards the ground, causing the girl to shriek in terror and fall to the ground, whimpering, absolutely scared out of her wits.

“I’ll give you something to cry about you little brat,” said Electro sadistically as he snapped his fingers and in an instant, a vehicle rolled forward, with a huge wrecking on the end. Electro drew his hand back, the wrecking ball moving backwards, before he thrust his hand forwards, right towards the little girl.

In a flash, a figure swung in, pulling the girl right out of harm’s way.

The wrecking ball flew, destroying a portable toilet outside.

Electro registered a look of confusion.

A fist was swung right into his face, the impact causing Electro to fly backwards, smacking into the debris that he caused.

Sparks flew into the air, as Electro pulled himself to his feet, to see Spider-Man’s foot flying right into his face. He managed to register that Spider-Man wore his usual outfit, with rubber gloves and boots over it, before the foot connected with Electro’s head, and knocked him down.

Electro shook off the attacks. He thought to be untouchable but one more punch that cracked him right in the side of the face had caused him to rethink that notice. Another punch and a third punch had caused him to fly backwards right underneath a platform.

Two web lines shout out and tipped the platform, with cinderblocks and various tools being dumped right on the prone form of Electro! A loud crashed echoed, as dust flew in every direction.

Spider-Man took a step back, teeth gritted, fists clenched, as he watched the villain apparently buried alive underneath dozens of heavy cinderblocks. At that moment, a jackhammer activated, to chip away the cinderblocks around Electro and Electro pulled himself to his feet, sparks flying every which direction where blood might have been oozing out.

“Is that the best….” began Electro but he never finished as a fist went right in his face. Two kicks cracked into his chest and Spider-Man raised both of his hands together, before he brought them down as hard as he could manage right on Electro’s head! Electro’s knees buckled and Spider-Man aimed another kick and Electro smashed the back of his head on a concrete slab.

Spider-Man picked up a chain and wrapped it around Electro’s neck, before he pulled the dead weight of the super villain to his feet and began to aim punch after punch right to his head, causing sparks to fly out of the side of Electro’s face at every moment. He grabbed the chain and flung Electro, and caused his spine to crack right onto the side of a piece of equipment. Electro was down on the ground and with a burst of strength, the web slinger muscled up a sledgehammer.

“No, stop, what are you doing,” begged Electro. “Please don’t hurt me!”

Spider-Man’s eyes flared underneath his mask in anger, as he lifted up the sledgehammer.

“No, please, have mercy!” cried Electro and Spider-Man hesitated for a brief second. “Please don’t kill me!”

“Am I really going to go through with this?” thought Spider-Man suddenly, hands held on the sledgehammer but Electro had blasted the weapon out of his hand, before an electrical charged ricocheted upwards, which caused Spider-Man to blast into the air.

“You really should have killed me, Spider-Man,” said Electro, a crooked grin on his face but he winced slightly as he took a step forward but managed to draw in some energy. The pleasure coursing through his body as he felt the sweet sense of power canceled any pain, as he blasted Spider-Man once again. Spider-Man struggled to his hands and knees, but Electro stood on his back, causing Spider-Man to wince as moderate bursts of electricity caused him slight discomfort. “That’s it, that’s it Spider-Man, I want to draw this out as much as I can, make you experience my power for as long as I can, before I finish!”

Spider-Man wrapped his webbing around the ankles of Electro and gave a tug, tripping him up, but Electro blasted a lighting bolt, barely missing hitting Spider-Man right in the face. Still the backlash had caused a large light from a light post to fall right on Spider-Man and knocked him loopy. Quickly, he managed to roll over, as Electro snapped his fingers and a steam roller began to move, in an attempt to flatten Spider-Man like a pancake.

Rolling over instantly, Spider-Man managed to avoid the steam roller but Electro directed it right around him, in a second attempt, but Spider-Man propelled himself on top of the vehicle. Electro caused the vehicle to go at reverse at full speed, and attempted to send it right into the fence, but Spider-Man leapt off and propelled himself over Electro’s attacks, before he shot a line of webbing around Electro and wrapped around him.

“Old habits die hard,” said Electro, as he prepared to power up to free himself, but bouncing off the side of the half completed building, the web slinger shot a second line of webbing, attaching it to the first one and gave a tug, before he propelled Electro right into the air.

Electro gave a surprised cry but landed right on his feet, as Spider-Man landed right in front of him. Spider-Man and Electro circled each other but Electro slumped to a knee and Spider-Man kicked him right in the face.

“I can’t feel the power!” yelled Electro in frustration but Spider-Man aimed a kick right to the face, before he bounced Electro right down to another building lower to the ground and Electro landed right on the roof with a sickening thud. He rolled over, the blackened outline of where he landed pulling himself up. Spider-Man swung down and kicked Electro right into a nearby water tower, busting it open.

A pause, as Electro stood in the water on the building, with no affect.

“Oh that old weakness,” said Electro with a pained smile. “Doesn’t really work anymore, I can control my powers through water.”

Spider-Man recovered and aimed a punch right to Electro’s face with sparks flying everywhere. Electro flickered in and out, as he reached out, seeing a nearby power line and reached out towards it but Spider-Man shot two lines of webbing, to wrap around each wrist. Spider-Man pulled, but Electro sent sparks flying everywhere, summoning what energy he could.

An elevator began to go haywire, blasting down to the floor, before it pulled up quick towards the ceiling.

“Save them or stop me Spider-Man,” said Electro as Spider-Man let go of Electro, before he swung forward. “That’s right, hero. Predictable.”

Electro coughed sending sparks everywhere, as he nearly collapsed but managed to lower himself down off the building. As he reached the ground, he felt his power returning.

XXXXX-XXXXX

The people in the elevator screamed as it nearly hit the bottom before it jolted right to the top and nearly stopped, as the cable was wobbly, but Spider-Man swung in, prying open the glass pane, before he waited for the elevator to blast down, and moved in quickly, shooting several lines of webbing, to secure it in place, just a second before the cable snapped. With another movement, Spider-Man swung in, as the elevator smoked, as he took the passengers out, and swung out, seconds before the elevator burst into hot flames.

Spider-Man dropped the bystanders to the ground, as he turned around, barely hearing the applause of the crowd at the rescue that he made and he swung right back into battle, a single minded focus towards getting to Electro.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Electro looked at the destruction that he left and the terror that the city would not soon to forget. Max Dillon was an afterthought, someone who everyone thought was a loser who would never amounted to anything. However, everyone who had survived would remember the name of Electro.

Carefully, he looked over his shoulder for Spider-Man. The web slinger not making his normal wise cracks and quips had freaked Electro out just a little bit but he reasoned that there was no way Spider-Man could defeat him.

That thought went through his head, just before both of Spider-Man’s feet went into it, and Electro staggered backwards.

“Again, Spider-Man?” questioned Electro but Spider-Man dove at Electro. Electro tried to blast Spider-Man out of the air with a bolt of lightning but Spider-Man used his acrobatics to dodge the attack, before he shot a line of webbing onto a flagpole and he swung around, before he grabbed Electro in his rubber gloved hand and he threw Electro up into the air. Electro willed a padded motorized platform over to him, cushioning his fall, but Spider-Man dove down.

Electro fell down, as he backed off, but looked over his shoulder, seeing what was nearby. He blasted a cart right towards Spider-Man but Spider-Man dodge the attack and Spider-Man grabbed Electro’s hands.

“You’ve got me Spider-Man, you’ve got me…not,” said Electro sadistically, as he sent electrical jolts right towards Spider-Man’s body, grabbing onto his gloves, keeping Spider-Man in place, and he pushed Spider-Man way. “The thing is, while I’m not going to get zapped in the water, you’re not going to be so lucky if you go in with me. There’s nothing that can shield you from my powers.”

Spider-Man tried to free himself, knees buckling, as he edged towards the water. Electro had summoned all the energy he had.

“Time to go for a swim, Spidey,” said Electro smirking, as he fought the web slinger, pushing him closer. “Ever drop a toaster in the bathtub? Well it’d be much safer than what I’m going to do to you!”

Electro bended Spider-Man’s arms back, and Spider-Man was nearly pushed out of the side but he managed to free his hand and shot a line of webbing upwards and latched onto a light post, before he pulled himself up and kicked Electro right in the face. Spider-Man staggered away from the water, as Electro blasted several bursts of electricity in the air and there were sparks flying everywhere.

“I don’t even know why you’re still fighting me, I mean, you’re not going to send me to the nuthouse again, I can get out easily now,” said Electro. “And you don’t have the balls to kill me!”

A hand was raised and Spider-Man narrowly dodged a lighting bolt and it blew up a large billboard from behind him. The billboard began to rock, sending sparks everywhere, as Electro blasted Spider-Man right in the back, to knock him down and the electrical billboard collapsed down onto Spider-Man, the metal making a large crash to the ground.

“I’ve done it,” said Electro with glee. “I’ve killed Spider-Man. I’ve killed him!”

Electro turned to walk off, his glorious victory giving him a new swagger in his step.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Buried underneath the billboard, Spider-Man just barely managed to hold it up, just enough to keep him from getting crushed.

“Stay focused Peter, stay focused, pass out and you’re screwed big time,” thought Spider-Man, as he struggled but he knew he could very well black out from the pain. “I didn’t stop him, not even close, I let my guard down and he got me. Shows what kind of hero I am. Fury was right, I’m just some punk kid who was lucky enough to get bitten by the right spider.”

Spider-Man struggled, as he tried to not pass out, even though he could feel his right eye swelling shut underneath his mask and it was becoming even more difficult to see. He began to struggle.

“Don’t pass out from the pain, don’t you dare pass out, don’t pass out, remember with great power there must also come great responsibility, you can still win, great power, great responsibility, don’t pass out, don’t pass out, don’t pass out,” thought Spider-Man as the metal groaned and his limbs began to crack underneath the pressure. “Who am I kidding? I can’t do this. Not this time…that bastard got the last laugh…after what he did to Gwen.”

Sparks flew everywhere from above.

“No, I’m not giving up, come on Parker, time to man up, are you a hero or a zero?” asked Spider-Man mentally as he gave one push. “I won’t give up without a fight.”

Spider-Man gave one slight push and somehow, through shill force of inner fury managed to push the billboard off of him. Sparks exploded into the air, but Spider-Man pulled himself to his feet, vision blurred and costume slightly burned, in pain, nearly collapsing right on the ground as he stumbled away from the scene of the near murder.

Checking to see his web shooters were still in tact, Spider-Man nodded, before he slipped a fresh cartridge in both of them.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Electro watched in the city. The police had made a feeble attempt to stop his latest assault but they were punished. The city was going haywire and Electro knew that he was completely responsible.

“Now where to next,” mused Electro out loud. “Guess I’ll take a trip to the hospital and cause someone’s life support machine to blow!”

“ELECTRO!” shouted Spider-Man loudly, which caused the villain to turn around in shock, before Spider-Man swung into view but this time, Electro dodged his attack.

“Not going to fool me again, web slinger,” said Electro, as he electrified the web line, causing it to melt and Spider-Man barely managed to adjust his fall so it was not nasty. “I don’t know how you’re not dead but I’m going to fix that problem right now!”

Electro pointed towards an ATM machine and Spider-Man was bombarded as money shot at him from a rapid rate, like a machine gun, with Electro directing a street cleaner towards Spider-Man in an attempt to run him down, but Spider-Man dodged the attacks.

“Electro” hissed a voice in the villain’s ear, which caused his aim to miss. “This is one who gave you your powers.”

“Yeah, what do you want, can’t you see I’m busy?” challenged Electro as he watched Spider-Man disable his latest attack and Electro dodged an attack, before he sent one back in return.

“There is a small error with your power and I need you to return immediately,” said the voice.

“My powers are fine,” argued Electro.

“For now, but I can make them even better and give you even more power,” said the voice and Electro seemed to straighten up at that suggestion.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” said Electro, as he aimed two large blasts of light. “Sorry, web head, something’s come up, but hey, you’ve got your hands full right about…now!”

At a nearby intersection, a school bus started up and start barreling through everything, nearly running into several buildings and the screaming children aboard, along with the fearful bus driver, who was struggling to gain control of the wheel.

Spider-Man shot right off after the runaway bus, to leave Electro to do whatever.

“Not my day, so not my day,” thought Spider-Man, as he shot a line of webbing, which latched onto the bumper but the bus continued to pick up speed. “Yeah, this really is not my day. I don’t think how this can get any worse…yeah I don’t think I really should be thinking that.”

The bus continued to move as Spider-Man grabbed onto a road sign in an attempt to slow it down but the sign just ripped out of the road and the bus continued to spiral past the main city and the next sight horrified Spider-Man.

“And the bridge is still out,” thought Spider-Man. “Wonderful. Just great, after all these months they still can’t bother to finish that damn bridge.”

Spider-Man shot more lines of webbing but he could not even slow the bus down. The children screamed, as the bus driver apparently tried to radio for help but the radio blew up in his face.

The bus careened over the side of the bridge and Spider-Man closed his eyes, shooting another line of webbing to help stabilize himself, to hook himself to the unfinished bridge but the line of webbing snapped as the bus fell.

The bus mysterious began to lift up, before it dropped right on the bridge, before it was held into place. Several pieces of metal shot out, forming a makeshift bridge, as the bus was pulled, with Spider-Man on it, safely to the other end, where it careened to a stop.

Dropping to his feet, Spider-Man looked up, to come face to face with a certain master of magnetism, who looked at him with an unreadable expression from underneath his helmet before speaking.

“We meet again, Spider-Man,” said Magneto breaking the silence.

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