"So he's not running on electricity after all?"
Max Dillon had read articles about the Black Spider before and assumed his gear, like Iron Man's, was powered by electricity. But now it seemed that wasn't the case at all.
Still, Max wasn't out of ideas.
He spread both hands, launching several jagged bolts of lightning that surged into nearby vehicles. The cars lit up instantly, engines roaring to life. One after another, they spun their wheels and hurtled toward the black-clad figure.
Even a fully loaded delivery truck jolted forward with a mechanical growl.
"I'll crush you! Hahaha!" Max shouted with a maniacal grin.
Under that distorted smile—
The Black Spider—Jack Kadere—moved calmly.
He raised his foot, delivering a single kick that sent a sedan flipping into the air like a toy. Then, with a simple push of his right hand, he halted the speeding truck. Its massive wheels screeched in place, spitting out thick white smoke, but the vehicle itself couldn't budge Jack by an inch.
Then came the shockwave.
Invisible vibrations pulsed from Jack's body. Like ripples in still water, they expanded outward.
The truck and surrounding cars disintegrated into clouds of dust—atomized in an instant.
Their very structures had been torn apart.
"…You…"
Max's laughter died on his lips.
As reality hit him, he grimaced and muttered stubbornly, "So you've got some tricks too. Fine. Then let's do this... my way!"
Zzzap… Crackle…
Max called the electric current back to himself. His semi-transparent body began to stabilize—flesh and bones forming, glowing with increasing intensity.
Max's powers weren't just about launching lightning bolts. The more electricity he absorbed, the stronger and more corporeal he became. As his form solidified, his confidence surged.
And Jack had already stepped forward.
Max sneered, clenched his fist, and threw a heavy punch.
Let's see what the infamous Black Spider can really take!
Boom!
Jack raised one hand, calmly catching Max's punch mid-air. His fingers locked around the glowing fist with ease.
"Not bad," Jack said flatly. "Like getting a deep-tissue massage."
"Damn it!" Max grunted and yanked his arm—but it wouldn't budge.
In that instant of hesitation—
Jack's shockwave activated.
A pulse of kinetic energy traveled from his palm into Max's body, vibrating the very particles holding him together.
Max's body flickered violently, his electric form scattering into unstable surges of blue light.
Panic flashed in Max's eyes.
What the hell? That ability… it's tearing me apart from the inside!
He tried to disengage, to dematerialize into raw energy and flee.
But it was too late.
One final jolt from Jack, and Max exploded into a cascade of glowing fragments—dispersed into the air like shattered neon glass.
Tony Stark, still rebooting his suit's systems, looked up in disbelief. "He won?"
Iron Man had been the only spectator left. Civilians had evacuated the area long before.
Only those with high-powered lenses dared to film from a safe distance. Electro's area of destruction was far too wide—anyone who got too close risked instant death by voltage.
Standing amidst the chaos, Jack—now known to the world as the Black Spider—remained motionless. His masked face betrayed no emotion. It was as if he were waiting for something inevitable.
Then, in the silence, crackling threads of electricity began to converge once more.
Max Dillon—Electro—reformed.
"Haha! HAHAHA! So that's it... I'm immortal!" he shouted, lightning bursting around him with manic glee. "Black Spider, you've played all your cards! What can you do now, huh?"
He swaggered forward like he owned the battlefield, completely unfazed. "Come on! Hit me again! Let's see what that fancy suit can really do!"
Jack responded without a word. He simply placed one hand on Max's shoulder.
Boom—a wave of kinetic force pulsed out from Jack's palm. Electro's body exploded into sparks and scattered into the air.
Seconds later, Max reformed.
Again, Jack disintegrated him.
And again, Max came back.
Each time, Max returned with a wider grin. He began to engage Jack in close-quarters combat—not to win, but to wear him down. He couldn't damage the Black Spider, but he was betting on exhaustion. A war of attrition.
But then, mid-battle, Max noticed something strange.
Jack wasn't tiring at all.
Instead, Max noticed something even stranger.
Jack was humming—low, resonant tones that seemed to vibrate through the air.
Hidden in his palm, a circular device lit up with a shifting pattern. Nanotech? Alien? No—something older, and deeper. A blend of Stark-grade engineering and Wakandan harmonic tech.
From beneath his suit, Jack's neural implant glowed faintly at the temples. Resonance frequencies began to shift the very air between them.
"What the hell is that...?" Max muttered.
Then it happened.
A lattice of invisible energy—barely perceptible unless you knew how to see it—began weaving itself in midair. It wasn't light, not exactly. More like a controlled interference pattern, a standing wave built from directed electromagnetic harmonics.
Electro's form flickered.
"What the hell—!?"
The resonance field locked onto him like a targeting array. Suddenly, Max couldn't move—couldn't disperse.
"You're interfering with my charge! How?!"
Jack finally spoke, his voice layered with a subtle synthetic overtone.
"Graviton mesh. Tuned to your bio-electric frequency."
The field began to compress. Each pulse disrupted Max's ability to stay cohesive—his electrons tearing themselves out of alignment.
With every forced reconstitution, Electro returned weaker. Dimmer. More distorted, like a corrupted signal trying to reassemble itself from static.
Max screamed in denial. "So what?! You can beat me—but you still can't kill me! You can't kill what's made of pure energy!"
He thrashed within the mesh. "Let me go! If I escape, I'll find you—and your family, your friends! You think they're invincible like you?! Think this through!"
But Jack stood still. Calm. His voice was low—almost pitying.
"Didn't you want to die a long time ago?"
Max froze.
"…How do you know that?"
"You read the news, didn't you? My story's public. It's all over the internet."
Jack shook his head.
"No, I didn't read anything."
He stepped forward, the field pulsing in rhythm with his breath.
"Think back. Who was there the day they pulled you off that power grid? The day you tried to end it all?"
Max's eyes widened. Static crackled around him in disarray.
"…Wait… it was you?"