The Offer

High security surrounded the Sandman, but it was useless. During the night, the guard looked at Flint Marko sitting in his cell, which had no windows, and then turned his head for a few seconds. When he looked back, the Sandman was gone.

IIIIIIIIIIIII

Sandman walked along the alleyways, slipping in and out of the shadows. He was almost to his favorite pizza place. He had enough money for a small pepperoni pizza, but then he would only have a few cents left after the purchase. Of course, he could just steal the money. He saw the pizza place and was going to get closer when a winged man flew down and landed on his feet right in front of him.

"Huh? Who the heck are you?"

"Don't you realize me? I'm the Vulture, the first worthy foe of Spider-Man."

"Yeah, I remember you. Why don't you get out of the shadows and stop the dramatic stuff?"

The Vulture was a wizened old man who was completely bald, which mached his hooked nose. He wore a black, feathered suit and had a strange ruffle around his neck. On his back were two humps, probably the power-packs for his artificial wings and great endurance. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Dr. Octopus wants you to join our group: the Sinister Six."

"Six? I think I'll come along. But if I don't like what I see, I'm leavin', y'hear?"

Of course. Here's the address for our hideout. See you later.

IIIIIIIIIIIII

Sandman sneaked into an abandoned building and into a room with along table. Sitting there was the Vulture, who faced the man in an armored costume. Detached wings lay on the floor by him and he had two antennae on his helmet. The gray and purple criminal was the Beetle.

The empty seat by the Beetle was inhabited by the powerful Rhino, who faced an empty chair reserved for the Sandman. At the Vulture and Beetle's end of the table sat Electro, who wore a green and yellow costume. Their leader, Dr. Octopus, sat in the fanciest chair at the far end, his four-fingered tentacles moving around.

"Have a seat, Sandman." He gestured towards the empty chair. Flint Marko sat down. This looked like a pretty powerful group.

Doc Ock started off the meeting. "Our main goal is to destroy our arch-enemies. We'll start with the main one, Spider-Man, and then we'll take care of the Human Torch and Daredevil. With my great genius and your powers, nothing can stand in the way of the Sinister Six! All of you, except the Beetle, have fought Spider-Man at least once. In fact, I and the Vulture have fought him in several battles, meaning we have the most reason to hate Spider-Man. Therefore each of us will lead two others. I will have the Rhino and the Beetle, while the Vulture has Sandman and Electro. Doe anyone have anything to say?"

"Yeah," replied Electro. "Shouldn't we all gang up on him instead of splitting up?"

"That would be too confusing for fighting one wall-crawler."

The Sandman asked his own question. "What if he team up with Thor again?"

Don't you think I planned this out? Thor and the Fantastic Four are gone right now on their faraway adventures. This meeting is dismissed."

IIIIIIIIIIIII

The Vulture flew along the New York skyline, followed by Electro and Sandman. It was a bright, rainless day, perfect for Sandman and Electro. Electro blasted everything in their path, trying to attract Spider-Man. All three villains were impatient. They all wanted revenge.

"Spider-Man defeated me with a hose. Can ya believe that?" asked Electro.

"Huh? Say, that's ho he beat me! That sure is a coincidence. Hey, Vulture. Did you get defeated by a hose?"

"No! No one can stop the Vulture with a simple, water-blasting contraption."

"Yeah, well Spider-Man could probably wet your feathers good. So, Electro, I guess we shouldn't let him get a hose, huh?"

"Of course not."

They continued on their path of destruction. Electro was about to blast apart a large apartment building when webbing suddenly covered his eyes.

"Gaaahhh! Get this webbing off me!"

"Oh pipe down, bolt-head," said Spidey as he swung downwards on a web-line. The Vulture slashed his webbing with his wings, causing the masked hero to fall to the ground. A fire truck happened to be nearby, so Spidey used his webbing to pull out the hose. Grabbing the device, he sprayed the Vulture, who was knocked into a building by the pressure.

"What do ya know," commented Electro as he got rid of the webbing on his eyes. "He did get beaten by a hose!"

He blasted the fire truck apart while the Sandman sneaked up behind Spider-Man. The wall-crawler couldn't duck in time, but he lessened the impact of the blow with his shoulder as a large block of sand whammed into him. The web-slinger slumped to the ground as the Sandman extremely hardened his right hand.

As the large criminal swung his fist downwards, Spidey leaped out of the way. Electro had tried to beat the Sandman by hitting their hated foe with his crackling energy, but his large bolt hit a sandy super-criminal instead.

The Sandman had a glassy feeling. He looked down to see that his body had sparkling spots on him. There was glass! He gave a maddened look at Electro who only uttered, "Oops" Spider-Man swung back at them.

"What are you all standing around for? Don't you want to squish me? Heck, the way you're glaring at each other I'd say you're the Three Stooges!"

"Shut up, web-crawler!" roared Sandman as he shot out as a large sandblast, whacking Spidey out of the sky. "Grain-face, it's wall-crawler!" Spidey prepared to kick Marko in the chest when the Vulture hit him from behind. Soon the web-spinner had to start running as his three enemies attacked him without a pause.

Soon he was gone. The Vulture searched for him, but had no results. The three villains all looked at each other. Sandman blamed Electro, Vulture blamed both of them, and Electro blamed the Vulture. Finally they just left before any policemen or superheroes could arrive.

IIIIIIIIIIIII

Next: Sandman and his partners learn Doc Ock's big plans!