I charged up the side of the building, sprinting at a blistering pace towards the top. As I did, I glanced down from my skyscraper, looking to the bottom of Oscorp tower. People weren’t running away. Did they not see him? I peered at some of the windows, as some stared up at the sky, whilst others rushed through their offices towards the exits. So people were trying to get out. I glanced down by one of the Tower’s entrances. Then why wasn’t anyone leaving? I looked closer as the air seemed to distort slightly.

Dammit. Now that I was looking at it I could see it clearly. There was a crackle of electricity in the air around the entire building. Dammit. The people literally couldn’t leave. Electro had trapped them like he’d done in the smaller office before, only on a far larger scale. Show-off, he didn’t even need to do anything but the top and bottom floor.

Wait, if he could coat an entire Tower in an electric field, why hadn’t he attacked yet? It’s not like anyone would be able to stop him. I looked up at the electric storm again. He’d tried doing something like this last time, hadn’t he? He’d stood there, on the roof charging up whilst the entire building had . What had been his aim then? Oh right. He’d been trying to obliterate the entire building in one go. Shit. Shit.

This was bad. Really bad. I couldn’t evacuate the entire building with that field around it, so I’d have to attack him in the sky if I didn’t want him bringing the tower down. How the hell was I meant to deal with him, up there?

“Don’t think Peter, don’t think” I mumbled to myself. I clutched the collar tightly, slowing as I neared the top of the skyscraper. The storm of electricity looked more like a ring of illuminating blue from here. A halo, circling the most twisted angel I’d ever seen, wings of electricity arcing from it into Electro’s back.

I reached the top and stared up at. He was still at least another thirty metres up. He was speaking. I could barely make it out but his words seemed to be carried by the electricity.

“I can hear it. I can hear it all” he said. It sounded like he’d lost it.

“Max! Max!” I shouted. My voice was swept away, the melodic hum of the current above, almost deafening now. Shit. I couldn’t put the collar on him if I couldn’t touch him, and I was hesitant about catapulting myself up into the swirl of electricity. I didn’t want to get fried alive. What did I have? My phone, the phone that I’d borrowed, and the collar.

Well, shit. I really should’ve thought this through before I’d gotten up here. Dammit. I was wasting time. I had to do something, anything. Throwing the phone probably wouldn’t do anything, I needed something bigger. I climbed further, reaching the roof of the skyscraper and looked around. Bingo. I grabbed an antenna off the of the roof and connected it to a web. I looked up at Max. This had worked before, and I’d been much further away. I hefted it up then leapt forwards and hurled it at Max, shouting out. It flew upwards and slammed into Max’s stomach, carrying him backwards as the electrical storm distorted. Max and the antenna passed through the sea of current and the antenna exploded as it was vaporised on impact.

The electricity instantly dissipated, and the lightning seized, as Max fell out of the sky. I dived off the side of the roof, firing a web and yanked an unconscious Max towards me. He flew through the air and I caught him, slapping the collar around his neck. I made sure it was on, and then webbed him to the side of Oscorp tower and caught myself on the wall next to him. He remained motionless as the electric blue quality of his body faded, the collar kicking into gear. Oh shit, it actually worked. I let out a breath of relied. Thank god. I’d been seriously shitting myself just then.

I looked around. Apart from the antenna getting destroyed, everything seemed okay. I could come back to collect Max later. I went to leap away, when he groaned stirring. I turned to him and watched as his eyes widened in fear. He writhed about, crying out.

“Max calm down” I said.

“No, no, no!” he said, struggling against the web. “I can’t- it hurts again!” he said turning to me. “What did you do to me?! I could hear everything! And it was right! It was finally right, and you took that from me!”

“Max, you’ll get help, alright. We’ll-”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Look I’m sorry it came to this. I have to go. Just stay here and-“

“You can’t leave me up here you bastard! I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!” he screamed. Suddenly yellow sparks flew off the collar as his skin glowed again, this time an electric yellow. My spider sense blared. Oh shit.

“Wait! Max do-“

I opened my eyes. I was falling. My body was hot, and my brain slow. What just happened? Why was I- I cried out in pain as a burst of electricity shot through me, sending spasms through my muscles. It ended just as soon as it began and then a fist slammed into my face, sending me flying through the air. I slammed against glass, and then another shock hit sending my mind into agony.

I was on the ground, body twitching. I couldn’t make sense of what was going on. I thought I’d just been falling? My back burned, a different kind of pain to the shock. I felt at it. Blood. A lot of blood. I was cut? My spider-sense blared and I threw myself to the side as a bolt of yellow electricity blasted the floor. I crashed back to the floor still groaning.

Then I heard a blood curdling scream. The sound brought me back, focusing my thoughts and sharpening my senses. Electro. He’d broken free. I leapt up, looking around. I was in an Oscorp office, people screaming as they ran, Electro arms and eyes crackling with yellow electricity, stalking over towards me.

My spider sense blared and I leapt to the side as he blasted a bolt at me. I landed on the floor and continued to run as he fired at me. I could dodge his attacks. Whatever the collar had done, it had made him weaker. For now, at least. I had to use that. End this quickly, before anyone got hurt.

I changed direction, dodging the blasts as I steadily made my way towards him. Electro continued blasting, shouting obscenities as I made my way closer. His eyes widened as I continued to dodge his blasts and he backpedalled, but it was too late. I dodged as he leapt at me, then jabbed him in the face followed a swift uppercut. He fit the floor, and I webbed him down. That should have him out for a night. I looked around, the scared Oscorp employees who’d opted to hide and not run, stared back at me.

“Everybody get out of here. Get out of the building and someone call the MDA. Use the stairs to go, not the el-“

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The lights flickered and I felt my heart jump. I spun around as my spider sense blared and narrowly dodged an arc of electricity. But Max was on top of me. He grabbed me by the neck with both hands and I felt my nerves catch fire. A wave of electricity shot through me and for a moment all senses, but touch seized. Fear gripped my heart as my body spasmed uselessly in an endless void of nothingness. I could feel Electro’s hands around my neck, and I couldn’t do anything to stop him. Something hit me in the face, then everything came back.

I reeled from the sudden rush of sounds, sights, and smells, all undercut by an intense pain. My body barely listened, but I willed it to, everything really hurting. I forced a piece of rubble off of me and rolled over, heart hammering hard in my chest. My ears rung to the point that I was almost deaf, and more stars than I’d ever seen in my life stars danced across my vision. I struggled to blink them away and looked around. I was on a different floor. Some kind of open area. With all the chairs that surrounded us, along with the fast-food stores, it was probably a food hall, or what was left of it at least. It was filled with rubble, and dust rained down from above. I looked up. There were holes through at least three floors. Jesus Christ. I coughed, my ribs and back protesting at the action. I tried to stand but everything in my body told me I couldn’t. I was way too injured too fight. I shouldn’t have told Lucas I didn’t need help.

“SPIDER-MAN!!!” a voice boomed.

“Fuck off” I mumbled under my breath. Stupid Electro. Wasting my fucking time. I had more important things to deal with, but he just had to fucking show up, now. Why couldn’t he have appeared quietly? At least then I wouldn’t have known. I wouldn’t have to be here, protecting all these stupid people instead of my loved ones.

I paused. That wasn’t me. That was the pain talking. I wasn’t thinking properly. I was nearly there. Electro was weaker. I just needed to knock him out for good, and then I could go save everyone else and rest.

I sensed outwards. He wasn’t far from me, but there was too much dust for us to see each other. I could get the drop on him. I grit my teeth and forced myself to stand, turning to face him. I dived forwards and slammed my fists against the back of his head. He slammed against the floor as I stood over him, breathing heavily. My spider sense blared and I dived out the way as he spun around and fired a blast of electricity. He jumped on top of me and we rolled around, pushing at each other. He barely had any sparks flickering off him now, but he was still strong. Dammit, I was wasting time!

I swung my elbow, cracking it against his face. He went skidding across the floor, but stood up immediately, charging right back at me.

“Just go down you fuck!” I roared. We traded blows, the electricity weakened now, only sending small jolts through my body as I beat him. He hit me with a clean right hook, but I took the pain and countered with another uppercut. He stumbled backwards and I leapt into him, tackling him into the glass. I pulled him into a lock, twisting his arms behind his body as I pinned his legs to the ground. He cried out in pain.

“Let me go!” he roared.

“No! You’re not well Max, stop fighting me! Stop trying to hurt Oscorp! Stop trying to kill your cousin! Just stop with this stupid bullshit.!” I said. He craned his neck backwards and spat on me. I slammed his head against the window, pressing his face into it. He continued to struggle. If I let go, he was just going to jump on top of me again. I needed to free up an arm and web him down. I tried to, but he continued to struggle, one arm breaking free. He cupped his hand and dug his fingers into the gap between my collar bone as he growled at me.

“Stop! Just stop it!!” I cried out, desperate now. He looked at me laughing.

“Oh I’m just getting started”

Suddenly my spider sense blared. I leapt back, throwing Electro against the glass with enough force to crack it. I watched, my heart hammering as I stared at him but he just lay on the floor breathing heavily. What? That’d never happened before. Suddenly a streak of green shot past the window, clawing its way up the side of the building. A clone. Fuck. It was gunning for Harry, it must’ve been. I glanced between Electro and the window, the anxiety riddling me. Electro stood up and I charged at him, slamming into him with a knee. We smashed through the window, and without hesitation I slammed Electro downwards with a fist and webbed him to the side of the building. I was going after the clone. I caught myself on the glass then turned upwards and sprinted, pulling myself up the face of the building with webs. The clone glanced down but carried on upwards. In my injured state I was slower than it. Dammit!

I pulled a web fluid cannister off the side of my belt and hurled it upwards at the clone. It missed but hit the side of the building, slowing it down. Any relief was immediately killed when my spider sense blared, warning me of something below. I dived to the side as Electro shot past me, floating as arcs of electricity curled off him as he clutched the collar in his hand. He’d taken it off and was siphoning power from it. Shit.

“DIE!” he roared, as I dived out the way, avoiding the bolts of electricity. I glanced upwards, spotting the clone cut itself loose from the web. Dammit.

I ignored Electro leaping from window to window as I dodged violent bolts of electricity, still chasing the clone up the building. But it was leaving me in the dust. Electro was slowing me down too much. Goddammit. I spun and fired webs at Electro catching off guard. His eyes widened as I yanked him towards me and grabbed him by the neck ignoring the electricity that jolted through my hand.

“STOP!” I shouted, throwing him inside the building. He crashed to the ground, and I instantly began leaping back up the face of the building. The clone was already inside. Dammit. I reached the floor and leapt through the window the clone had shattered into a lobby. The door to Harry’s office had been blown off its hinges. Shit. I could hear the sounds of shouts, inside. I rushed into the office, and spotted Harry along with a few other businessmen standing inside a vault, the door pulled apart by the clone. As it dived into the vault I webbed it and yanked it backwards. It slammed into me and we tumbled, out into the lobby. Adrenaline fuelled me, pushing my body past the pain and I jumped up. I didn’t have time to worry about morals right now. I needed to take this and Electro out in the next minute or things were looking grim.

I dodged a blow from the clone and stumbled, falling to the floor. It used the chance to leap back into the office. I fired webs to pull it back, but it yanked me along this time and slammed me to the floor with a fist. I wheezed and it turned towards the businessmen. Some of them ran as it dived at them, and some stayed, frozen in fear. I fired another web, throwing it at the window. It caught itself on the floor, slowing it down enough that it didn’t break through the window. Shit. I yanked it again, throwing it to the other side of the room and webbed it to the floor. But before I could do anything else, something slammed into me, and I felt a violent shock pass through me. Goddammit. God fucking dammit.

Electro and I slammed into the window. He held me tightly, the pain from the shock steadily getting worse and worse. I cried out in pain, watching as the clone began cutting itself free. I could barely move, my muscles resisting me.

“STOP! STOP YOU FUCK!!” I roared at Electro as he continued to press me into the wall. With all my might I lurched forward and headbutted him. His electricity stopped but he still held me tightly. I headbutted him again, but he just wouldn’t let go.

“Let me go!” I shouted desperately.

“Never!” he shouted. Fuck this. I lurched forward again and bit at his nose through the costume. He cried out and blasted me from point blank, the force of the charge sending him flying across the room, crashing into the far wall. The window smashed, but I caught myself on the frame, and quickly pulled myself inside. I took a step forwards but fell to one knee. Not now. Not now dammit.

Electro leapt up quickly as my body failed me. My spider-sense blared and my eyes widened as Electro stared back at me. He was charging up.

“NO!” I roared, firing a web at Electro. It was too late. I watched as Electro roared, releasing a massive blast of electricity outwards. Some of the businessmen nearby were killed instantly, and everyone was knocked to the floor. But that’s not what I was focused on. He’d hit the clone. He’d hit the fucking clone.

Time seemed to slow down as the clone began to glow. From the floor I twisted my body, firing a web that latched onto Harry and pulled him backwards. But I was slow, all my injuries catching up to me. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, none of them good. Then came the memories. All the good times I’d had with Harry. Then a wave of heat and debris washed over me.