The underdistrict's rain never stopped, a cold mirror to the turmoil in Peter Parker's mind. Holed up in a crumbling safehouse, Mad Spider and Gwen Stacy faced a city turned against them. It was 2030, and Earth-731's neon sprawl was a battlefield, Oscorp's bounty screens branding them enemies of order. Peter's blood-red costume hung on a rusted pipe, his body scarred but healing, his regenerative powers a gift and curse. The pain from Oscorp's electroshock torture was constant now, a burning pulse that fueled his Joker-like madness. He laughed, a sharp, unhinged sound, as he sharpened stolen knives. "They want a monster?" he said, his eyes wild. "I'll give 'em a show." Gwen, bandaging her grazed arm, watched him with a mix of love and fear. "You're not their monster, Peter," she said, her voice steady. "You're mine."
Flashback: At 14, Peter shared a milkshake with Gwen at a Queens diner, their laughter drowning out the world. "You're gonna be a hero someday," she said, her smile bright. Peter blushed, his heart full. "Only if you're there." That innocence was a ghost now, buried under Oscorp's cruelty.
The safehouse was a temporary haven, its walls lined with Neon Shadows tech scavenged from the fight pits. Razor, their reluctant ally, tinkered with an EMP launcher, his burned arm slowing him. "That prototype's coming," he warned. "Oscorp's not playing anymore." Gwen's tablet held the vault's data—fragments of a neural implant plan that could enslave millions. "We need to finish the hack," she said, her fingers trembling. "Expose them before it's too late." Peter's grin was sharp, his madness whispering destruction. "Expose? I say we burn it all down." Gwen's eyes locked on his, her love a tether. "We do this right, Peter. For us."
The ritual had become their lifeline, an intimate act where Gwen's touch eased Peter's pain, grounding his fractured psyche. It was more than necessity now—an obsession, a ritual they performed even when the pain was faint. In the safehouse's dim light, Gwen knelt beside him, her hands gentle on his scarred skin. "You're still you," she whispered, her breath warm. Peter's laughter softened, his eyes vulnerable. "Am I? Or am I their punchline?" Flashback: At 19, Peter's mind cracked under the shocks, his screams turning to laughter as madness took root. Gwen, watching through a lab window, swore to bring him back.
Their plan was bold: regroup with the Neon Shadows, use the vault's data to hack Oscorp's main servers, and broadcast their crimes. But Peter's madness worried Gwen. He'd nearly killed an operative in the vault, his violence unchecked. "You're slipping," she said, her voice soft but firm. "I need you, Peter, not the monster." He grinned, but her words hit deep, a spark of the boy he'd been. Razor interrupted, his voice gruff. "We've got a lead on Cipher. She's at the old docks. But Oscorp's watching."
They moved at dusk, Peter swinging Gwen and Razor across the city, his spider-senses dodging drones. The docks were a graveyard of rusted ships, the air thick with salt and oil. Cipher waited, her neon-green hair a beacon. "You're late," she snapped, but her eyes softened at Gwen. "We've got a hack ready, but it's a suicide run." Peter laughed, wild. "My kind of party!" But his pain flared, dropping him. Gwen's ritual calmed him, their intimacy a quiet defiance. Razor and Cipher exchanged glances, uneasy with their bond.
Norman's trap sprang mid-hack. Blackweb operatives stormed the docks, their shock-batons glowing. Peter's madness erupted, his webbing and strength tearing through enemies. "Bad day for you!" he taunted, his humor masking pain. Gwen hacked alongside Cipher, but the operatives targeted her, knowing she was Peter's weakness. "Gwen!" he roared, his violence surging as he protected her. An operative's baton hit him, the shocks a cruel echo, and his mind teetered. Gwen's voice cut through: "Peter, stay with me!" He fought back, saving her, but Cipher was wounded, slowing their escape.
They fled, the hack incomplete, Gwen clutching the tablet. In an alley, Peter's pain overwhelmed him, his laughter broken. Gwen's ritual was desperate, their bond obsessive. "I'll never leave you," she vowed. But a Blackweb transmission revealed Norman's next move: Gwen was the bait to trap Mad Spider.
Cliffhanger: Mad Spider holds Gwen, the city's screens flashing her capture warning. "They want you," he laughs, his madness raging. "They'll get me instead."