Mac Gargan never anticipated the electricity. The blast of bio-electric lightning washed out the night sky, blinding his optics.
In the three seconds it took them to plummet to the street, Gargan's thirty-four years of life flashed across his retinas like a cheap VHS tape. He had been an ordinary guy with a mundane talent for connecting data points. He tried being a private investigator. The pay was garbage. Then, he figured out the real money was in blackmail. He installed gold-plated doorknobs on his office doors. He planted listening devices in his clients' briefcases. He learned to put a price tag on secrets. That talent caught the Kingpin's eye. And working for Wilson Fisk had ultimately put him in this suit.
The cratering impact shattered the asphalt. Gargan relied entirely on his heavy armor to absorb the kinetic shock. He didn't have a miniaturized arc reactor like Tony Stark, or shock-absorbing gauntlets like Herman Schultz. His armor was hardwired directly into his heavily mutated musculature, purpose-built to survive a slugfest with Spider-Man.
Gargan shook his head. He brushed chunks of pulverized concrete off his shoulder plates. He stood up.
Across the crater, Spider-Man rose to his feet at the exact same time. Gargan let out a harsh, metallic laugh.
"You got here fast," Gargan sneered. "Avengers running late?"
Spider-Man didn't answer. He just stood there. Tiny sparks of electricity arced across his clenched fists. Gargan narrowed his eyes behind his visor. The bug was supposed to be a motor-mouth. Why wasn't he talking?
Oh. He's mad. Gargan grinned. "You brought this on yourself!"
Gargan's mechanical tail hummed. The segmented metal extended, snapping out to a length of thirty feet. He whipped the massive stinger directly at Spider-Man's head. Spider-Man didn't jump. He silently tilted his torso a fraction of an inch. The heavy metal blurred past his ear.
Gargan braced himself. His combat data predicted Spider-Man would grab the tail and use the leverage for a throw. Spider-Man didn't grab the tail. He completely vanished.
Gargan froze. He slapped the side of his helmet, overriding his optics to thermal imaging. At the same time, heavy machine-gun barrels flipped open along the length of his tail. He spun, firing blindly into the dark street.
The armor's thermal feed violently spiked. Spider-Man hadn't flanked him. He was standing directly in front of him.
He materialized out of thin air, his fist already moving. The punch slammed into Gargan's faceplate, spider-webbing the reinforced orange glass. Gargan absorbed the kinetic force, rolling with the strike. He instantly swept his massive arm outward in a brutal backhand. The metal gauntlet caught Spider-Man in the ribs. The impact launched the teenager through the air. Peter flipped, digging his boots into the asphalt to arrest his momentum.
"You think throwing a tantrum changes anything?!" Gargan roared.
The tail shifted again. The machine guns converted into a high-caliber auto-cannon. He unleashed a sustained barrage of suppressing fire. "You're out of your league! You got the proportional strength of a spider. But I'm a scorpion! And scorpions eat spiders!"
Spider-Man ducked under the gunfire. He fired twin lines of webbing, sticking them directly to Gargan's chest plate. He didn't pull. He channeled a massive surge of white lightning straight down the lines.
Red warning runes flooded Gargan's HUD. System errors screamed in his ears. He ignored them. He triggered his tail's acid reservoir. A stream of highly corrosive green liquid sprayed forward, melting the electrified web-lines into useless sludge.
Gargan charged. He closed the distance, adrenaline and mutated rage flooding his veins. Spider-Man threw a right hook. Gargan caught it in his massive metal palm. He pulled Peter forward, driving his own fist directly into the hero's masked face.
"Hitting a little soft today!" Gargan taunted. He kept a vice-grip on Peter's trapped hand, raining blows down on his head. "You have no idea what it took! I let them turn me into a freak just so I could kill you!"
Spider-Man didn't scream. He didn't quip.
Then, a low voice vibrated through the mask. "Maybe, Gargan."
Gargan threw another right cross. Peter raised his free hand and caught the metal fist mid-strike. His fingers dug into the heavy armor plating. Gargan tried to rip his arm back. The servos in his armor whined. He couldn't move his arm an inch.
What? Gargan's eyes widened. He's stronger than me.
Gargan panicked. His tail whipped around. The stinger shifted into a razor-sharp spike, thrusting toward Peter's back. Peter didn't let go of Gargan's hands. He simply vaulted upward, planting both feet squarely into Gargan's chest plate. He shoved hard. The force sent Gargan flying backward.
Gargan scrambled to his feet. His Scorpion Sense screamed. Spider-Man had ripped a wooden telephone pole clean out of the concrete. He swung it like a baseball bat.
"Because I can't find a single reason to forgive you!" Peter yelled.
"Forgive me?!" Gargan laughed hysterically. His tail blade flashed upward, cleanly slicing the telephone pole in half before it could connect. "You shattered my spine! I was a cripple! I had to let them bolt this armor to my bones just to walk again! And you think you have the right to forgive me?!"
Gargan received no answer. Spider-Man was gone again. Gargan frantically checked his thermal feed. Nothing. The street was empty.
Spider-Man stepped out of his camouflage directly inside Gargan's guard. It was like he bled out of the negative space in the air. He reached up, clamping his hands on either side of Gargan's shattered helmet.
"You're right," Peter said, his voice dead flat. "You don't deserve forgiveness at all."
Inside the ruined house, Albert Moon pulled himself out of his daughter's protective web-net. He looked at Cindy.
"Don't worry about us right now," Albert said, shaking his head. "Go help Spider-Man. Stop that monster. That's what you're supposed to do."
He gripped her shoulder. "But you have to remember..."