The marvellous spider-man

Chapter 30

Peter had a lot of things on his '100 awesome things to do as a superhero' list, but getting electrocuted was not one of them.

Going to outer space, saving the life of the queen of England, cosplaying at Comic-Con as himself, all of these were great. He was actually down to 98 since he had done two things last year. The ninja disappearing act he pulled on Captain Stacy, and the Mexican standoff he had with Kraven were both awesome, so he figured he'd make this list, and it was a great list. On top of that list? Join the Avengers!

Getting electrocuted? Not on the list.

And yet standing below him in front of a bank was a chance to do just that. Some guy had held up the bank with lightning bolts instead of bullets. Peter would have been surprised, but after Kraven a lot people had been popping up with these kinds of powers, and Peter knew it had something to do with the blood that was stolen from him a year ago.

Still, as he stood atop a high building in full costume watching the scene below him, he knew he couldn't worry about that right now. The culprit, some guy in a green jacket, had robbed the bank shooting bolts of lightning everywhere. Right now he had a bag of money over his shoulder, which he dropped now that he was facing with the police. This guy had a green jacket and a smug face. He also had blonde hair that stuck straight up, probably due to static electricity. Peter thought the guy looked like he had walked straight out of an anime, what with that spiky hairdo.

And now this guy was going to confront the police. Spiderman wasn't about to let anyone get hurt.

Of course when the super-powered crook shot lightning it really got to Spiderman's nerves. The crook blew up a police car, forcing the police to retaliate, but this guy (whom Spiderman just started calling electro in his head) shot lightning from his fingertips which seemed to just strike at nothing. Spiderman, with his slightly above average senses, could tell that the bolts of electricity were actually vaporizing the cops' bullets right out of the air, meaning this electro guy was unharmed. The guy then shot a few small bolts at the cops, some of whom were sent flying.

Peter landed on the ground, hid behind some debris and looked over at the cops. His Spider sense allowed him to feel their heartbeats, but just barely. They were alive, so this Electro guy was showing restraint...for now. Even so, Spiderman figured he had to stop this guy, and fortunately he had a good idea how Electro's powers worked by now.

Spiderman jumped up, squatted on a nearby lamp post, and turned on his snarky mode.

"Hey Electro," said Spiderman. "What's with the shock therapy? Are you a psychiatrist or an escaped mental patient?"

Electro just looked at him with a blank look and said, "Me? Electro? Huh." He rubbed his chin. "That's not half bad...and what do you mean mental patient!" he was suddenly angry. He immediately shot a lightning bolt, but Spiderman leapt away as the bolt struck the lamp post, knocking it over.

"A little slow on the uptake?" asked Spiderman as he next to a police car. "I'll clarify. That hair looks right at home on a psycho. Seriously, what's with the Anime fan-boy look? Are you robbing the bank or trick or treating?"

"I'm not the one in costume web-head," said Electro, who threw another lightning bolt. Spiderman dodged and this time it hit the car. As Spiderman was flying through the air, Peter knew that his earlier deduction had been correct. Electro hadn't been actively targeting the bullets from before. That would have been impossible. Peter figured that Electro's body emitted a low level magnetic field, and any metal in that field was magnetized just enough so that his lightning bolts would have energy to lock on to. This meant that Electro couldn't miss his intended target, unless the intended target was close enough to something with a higher concentration of metal, and therefore a stronger magnetic field.