It was midnight in New York. The only lights were coming from street lights and car lights. One of these car lights belonged to a limousine, which pulled up in front of a skyscraper. A man with a green suit, brown fedora, and red tie stepped out of the limousine, tipped his fedora hat to the driver, then walked closer to the building.
He walked up to the building's door, and entered the lobby. A young, African-American man walked up to him and greeted him. "Welcome back to Fisk Towers, Mr. Big." "Yeah, yeah," Mr. Big growled in a deep voice. "Let's dispense with the pleasantries, shall we? I'm here to see the Kingpin." The greeter hissed at him. "FISK. His name is Wilson Fisk. At least, in public."
Mr. Big sighed. "Fine. I'm here to see…Mr. Fisk." "Right this way," the greeter said. He brought him to a long hallway at the back of the lobby, past the normal elevators. At the end of the hallway stood a long steel door. He entered a passcode in the keypad by the door. The door slid open, and Mr. Big and the greeter entered. They walked down another long hallway before they finally came to an elevator at the end of the hall. The greeter put another code into the keypad by the elevator, and it opened up.
Mr. Big stepped into the elevator and turned back to the greeter. "Anything else I can get you, sir?" asked the greeter. "No, thanks…you know, I never caught your name." "Lewis, Nick Lewis." "Well, Nick, thanks for the service." With that, the elevator door slid closed and the elevator began to ascend. "Hmph. Freakin' peon," Mr. Big grunted to himself.
After a long climb, the elevator dinged and opened up. Mr. Big adjusted his tie and stepped out. In front of him stood a large table. Six chairs in total were at the table. Four out of the six chairs were occupied.
The chair closest to Mr. Big swiveled around to reveal a man in a business suit. The man was 48, but he was an experienced crime lord, and looked to be in his 60's. Why? His slicked-back silver hair. The man looked up and spoke to Mr. Big. "You, my friend, are late." Mr. Big sneered and said sarcastically, "Sorry, traffic was a killer," before sitting down in the empty chair close to him.
"Whoa, redeemed yourself there with your zingers," said a man sitting in the chair next to him. The man's head was flat and shaped extremely oddly. The man spoke with a New York accent and was known only as "Hammerhead".
"Enough arguing, ladies," said the man sitting across from Mr. Big. The man wore a business suit and green cape. His black hair had white highlights above his ear. He went by the codename "The Schemer", and he growled at the Kingpin, "Fisk, let's get on with it."
It was just then that Mr. Big noticed a large man standing in front of the window and looking out of it. The man turned around. He appeared to be very fat, but most of the weight was muscle. He wore a white suit and had a cane tipped with a right jewel in his right hand. When he spoke, it was in a deep, booming voice.
"Very well. Gentlemen. Underbosses. And of course, my dear lieutenant Silvermane," he said, gesturing to the silver-haired man. "Welcome to the Maggia's annual "performance meeting"."
"Can't believe you actually call it that," muttered a man sitting across from Hammerhead. He wore a purple mask with and sunglasses, and was well known on the streets as "The Rose".
"Gentlemen," the Kingpin continued, "We are still the undisputed most powerful crime organization in all of New York. There is no doubting that. However, we do have a pest in our side." The Kingpin walked to a large flat-screen plasma TV mounted in the wall and pushed a button on it. It flickered on and the crime lords turned to watch it. Short security camera videos began playing, that showed Spider-Man kicking around and bruising several mobsters and common crooks in the streets.
"A kid in a costume," said the Rose, "So what? What threat does he pose to us?" "None," said the Kingpin, turning off the TV, "Yet. This, this Spider-Man currently poses no threat to our rule. He appears to be inexperienced. Untrained. For now. However, gentlemen, in the future, this arachnid may become a genuine threat to the Maggia. Which is why we need to take him down."
Hammerhead rolled his eyes. "Please, Kingpin. If we take him down we're wasting our resources. He's just some kid stumbling around in the dark, and I'm not exhausting my resources on him." "Which is why you're not going to," said the Kingpin. Just then, a door behind him slid open. Three men walked out of the door. Two of them were standing in the front, wearing business suits and fedoras. They were stocky and tall. The man standing behind them was tall and skinny, but very muscular. His head was completely bald, and his eyes literally gleamed.
"Thank you, Mr. Marston and Mr. Harrison," said the Kingpin. The two stocky men nodded, then walked back through the door. The other, bald, man smiled and stepped up next to the Kingpin. "Who's this douchebag?" sneered the Rose. "This 'douchebag'," the Kingpin said, "Is called Electro." "Electro?" the Rose said sarcastically. "Could yu have given him a gayer name?" He began to do a stereotypical gay voice: "Hey guys, I'm Electro!" The Rose rolled his eyes. "Tell me, why is he even called that?"
"Let me show you," Electro grinned. With that, he held up his hand and opened his palm. Lightning began to dance across it. "Wait, what the-" the Rose began. Electro then thrust his hand forward, and a lightning bolt flew from his hand and slammed into the Rose. The Rose was hit with full power by the lightning bolt. He twitched, shook, and convulsed before falling out of his chair, dead. The lights in the room flickered, then went out.
The room went into a flurry of activity. People were shouting and scuffling in the dark. Electro held out his palm again and lightning danced across it once again. In the light, he could see that the crime underbosses that were still alive were holding guns to him. Meanwhile, Silvermane and Kingpin stood back with wide smiles on their faces.
"What the hell was that, Fisk?!" exclaimed Mr. Big. "That," said Wilson Fisk, "Was an example of what my scientists' genetic engineering can do. Gentlemen, put down your guns and return to your seats. Electro will only act on my orders." Slowly, the underbosses lowered their firearms and sat back down. Electro accelerated the flow of electricity dancing across his hand, then threw his hand in the air, spreading little flows of lightning everywhere. This caused the lights in the room to come back on.
The Kingpin put his hands on the edge of the table. "Gentlemen, this marks the beginning of a new era. The era of superhumans. The Maggia has run New York for a long time, and we're not about to be trounced by some upstart boy in a suit." Electro grinned. "I'll be sure of it," he said. "And soon, he's not going to be the only one of his kind," the Kingpin said, smiling. "You should see what some of my scientists are working up."
"So, we're just supposed to get used to working with people with dangerous superpowers that could kill us any time," the Schemer said, seeming to be unsure of what he was saying. "Yes, you will," said Silvermane, speaking up. "The times are changing, gentlemen, and the Maggia will not be lost in them." "Well said, Mr. Manfredi," said the Kingpin. "Any further questions?" The room was silent, except for the sounds of electricity flickering across Electro's fingers.
"Very good," the Kingpin smiled. "This 'performance meeting' is over." The crime bosses slowly and warily exited the room. Soon, only Electro, the Kingpin, and Silvermane were left over.
"Well boss," said Electro, "How'd it go?" "Better than I expected, Maxwell," said the Kingpin. "Now head back down to the lab for final preparations. Tomorrow you will take on this arachnid." Electro smiled. "I won't let you down, boss." With that, he headed back to the door he had entered through.
Once he was gone, Silvermane turned to the Kingpin. "So, do you honestly think he's going to take him down?" The Kingpin smiled. "Absolutely not. I do not think we will be seeing Electro again for a long while after this mission. But, he will test Spider-Man. Show him that he's not the only superhuman out there. And, most importantly…" Fisk paused dramatically and turned to look out over New York's midnight skyline, "…will reveal him to the world." He turned around to look at the Rose's body, then said to Silvermane, "Make sure our friend here is not missed." Silvermane nodded then walked off to make the proper arrangements.
Meanwhile, Electro had headed through the door and it had closed behind him. He was now standing in Fisk's office. He grinned, and his eyes flickered brightly, literally electrically. "Spider-Man won't know what hit him," he grinned. With that, he walked past the many large windows in Fisk's office to a doorway at the back of it. There was a keypad to the side of it, but he simply held out one finger to it and released a small spark. The door jolted open and behind it was a long set of stairs. Electro grinned and headed down the stairs.
It seemed like the flight was never-ending, but eventually, Electro reached the bottom of the stairs. There were two doors at the bottom. Electro headed to the door on the right, pulled the same keypad-spark trick, and the door slid open. Inside was a white, sanitized laboratory. As he walked through the first room, Electro could see men and women working on lots of technology.
Electro looked to a lab room on his right. A group of nine scientists were working on a large gray metal battle-suit with a horn on its helmet. On the window to the lab room, the name "RHINO ARMOR" was emblazoned. He looked to his left. In another room, a group of twelve were working on a yellow battlesuit. A man pushed a button on the suit's chest, and suddenly, a hologram that was the exact copy of the original suit appeared next to it. "MIRAGE SUIT" was emblazoned on the window.
Electro continued walking and entered the human experimentation room. He looked to his left, and saw the room labeled "BASILISK". Inside, a tall, bald man stood with his eyes closed. Suddenly, he opened them, and red lasers shot out and vaporized a punching bag hanging in front of him. The scientists standing around him began frantically writing on their clipboards. To Dillon's right was a room labelled "MOONSTONE". Inside, a tall, attractive blonde woman was being strapped into a metal gurney which was standing upright in a special chamber. All the scientists in the room wore hazard suits. It looked like they were getting ready to bombard her with gamma rays.
Dillon focused his attention back to his destination. There was only one room he cared about. He arrived at the room labelled "ELECTRO" and looked up at the camera above the door. The door opened, and he entered the room. There was a metal gurney not unlike the one in the "Moonstone" room awaiting him. "Are you ready, Mr. Dillon?" asked the doctor. His nametag read 'Dr. Bentley Whitman.' Electro smiled and walked up to the gurney, allowing himself to be strapped in. "Let's do this," he grinned.
A man had watched Electro walk through the lab. In fact, he'd been overseeing everything in the lab for a while now. He stood on a balcony high above the lab, and was leaning on the railing. A man walked up behind him. "Is everything alright, sir? Can I get you anything?" Norman Osborn turned to face the man. "No, everything's just perfect." With that, he turned back to the lab to continue watching the projects and experiments he had provided scientists and funding for.
