Maxwell Dillon. Electro. The Villain of Voltage.

If there's any villain who could truly walk among the gods, Electro was one of them. Sure, he wouldn't get mentioned in the same breath as a guy like the Mandarin, or Doctor Doom, but sooner or later, his name would get thrown into the discussion. The response usually goes like this. "Electro? No way. Huh. Well, maybe...you know, yeah, I could see him pulling it off if he applied himself."

From what I had gathered over the years, from working with him and also drinking with him on occasion, Dillon's father left him at a very young age, leaving him with a smothering, over-protective mother. As Dillon grew up, he found himself interested in electricity and power plants, and told his Mom he wanted to be an electrical engineer. She, in turn, told him he wasn't smart. Flat out, "you're not intelligent enough to be an engineer, dear." So the guy gets a job as a line repair man with Consolidated Edison, and that would probably have been the end of Max's story, working out his days in a brown ConEd suit above the streets. One day, though, while he's working on top of an electrical tower repairing a power line, a freak lightning storm formed out of nowhere. Before Dillon could climb down and get to safety, he got struck by lightning while holding on to the metal tower with one hand and carrying a reel of one-inch cable wrapped around his shoulder. Now, normally, that'd mean the poor sap would be fried to a crisp...but something happened when all that voltage poured through his body. Instead of dying, Maxwell Dillon became a living electrical capacitor. He could generate a massive amount of electricity, enough to easily kill a normal human being. And the things he can do with that power...Electro can throw lightning bolts like Zeus. He can suck electricity from a building or a power grid and make himself faster and stronger. Give him enough juice and the guy can fly on currents of electrostatic.

Kind of like Rhino, Electro got an offer to have his powers increased for a period of servitude, this time to the Rose, Kingpin's son. Aside from the fact that he could generate enough juice to power Yankee Stadium and have enough left over to make Thor himself go "damn, that's a lot of lightning," after the Rose's scientists worked their mojo, Electro could absorb as much electricity as he wanted without worrying about overloading. Almost beats a pair of shock gauntlets and a quilted suit of armor any day of the week.

All that power...inside a scared little mind. Look at all the cool stuff Electro can do. That's more than most superheroes can pull off. He's taken control of the entire New York City power system, all that power in his body...and Spider-Man beat him. He got hired to break one person out of the Raft, and ended up starting a riot then ended in a mass escape...and then, when Luke Cage threatened to beat him up, he fainted.

Being a super villain isn't easy. I'll be honest here, guys and girls, I've sought therapy. Yeah, just like how there's a bar solely for us bad guys, there's doctors and shrinks for us as well. You'd be surprised how often a respectable practitioner of medicine wants to take a peek into the psyche of a master criminal. So yeah, I've been on the couch a few times, mostly after a sound ass-kicking from Spider-Man. Electro, though...the words "inferiority complex" don't do his problems justice. Electricity, the very power of the gods themselves, and he passes out at the threat of an Avenger beating him senseless. His parents must have done a doozy of a job screwing up Maxwell's childhood. All that ever stopped Electro from becoming one of the, pun intended, power players, was the fact that every time the going got good, he had to ask himself "what's going to go wrong?" If the going's good, man, just keep going and ride that streak as long as you can. The second Electro doubts himself, it doesn't matter how much juice he's wielding, or how much wattage he's tossing around. One moment of worry with him, and it all comes crashing down.

To answer the question hanging in the air...we've tangled once. And Electro won by knockout.

X

"This is pretty ballsy, Max," I told him as we stood facing one another. I had to speak up a little bit to make sure Electro heard me over the hissing of the torch and the humming of the generator. "Robbing a bank in the middle of a zombie uprising? You ain't afraid someone's gonna wander in here and take a bite out of crime?"

Electro gave a grating laugh in return. "You're the one who's been out walking the streets. You see any zombies looking to make a deposit this evening?" He swept an arm towards the wide windows near the top of the lobby. "It's clear, man. Get below John Street, and there it isn't any worse than normal, just corpses instead of bums harassing you. God bless the United States Army, Herman. They take care of the dead, we sweep in and take care of the rest."

I had to give it to Electro, that made sense. "That's pretty damn smart, Max."

"Why, thanks, Herman. Can't take all the credit, though. It was my boss' idea. I'd rather be on my way to a tropical island with as many Empire State sorority girls and fraternity boys crammed into the hold of my boat as possible, but when he says 'jump,' I'm already in mid-air before asking 'how high.' And when he says 'go rob this bank,' I'm out the door before he finishes." Electro shrugged. "But hey, right now, I'll take the promise of security, the way this city seems to be going down the drain." He studied me for a second, eying me up, and all the while I'm trying not to blatantly stare at the five-pointed jagged star he calls his mask. After a few seconds, he puts out a gloved hand. "Glad to see you're in one piece, Herman."

"Can say the same to you, Max. Nice to see you're among the still living." The guy called Smith relaxed slightly as the two of us shook hands in front of the vault door.

Alright, so he's got a boss, Max just let slip. And it can't be Tombstone...and it can't be Hammerhead...so who the hell else? Well, the indirect direct approach sometimes works. "You working for the Rose again?"

"Nope," Electro replied. "This guy...well, let's just say you should be hearing from him soon. He's been looking for you since the first night, but someone's done a good job of keeping a low profile since getting his face plastered all over the news." He sent another smirk my direction, turning his head slightly. "You've seen him around, he just hasn't had a chance to come say 'hello' yet."

"Max, I really ain't in the mood to play games, especially since it was your goons with guns who frog-marched me in here to see you." I crossed my arms over my chest, and as best I could through my mask, sent a withering glare his way. "So cut the crap, and just tell me who you're working for."

He stared at me for a second through that ridiculous looking five-starred mask, before waving for Smith to come over. The man who had led me in to the bank trotted to Electro, waiting for his orders. "You keep an eye on that vault. When he cuts through, you come and get me. Got it?" Smith responded with a firm nod. With a nod of his head, Electro motioned for me to follow him. We went back out into the main area of the bank, behind the teller stations. The click of our boots on the marble floor became more audible as we moved away from where the work was being done. At the far wall, four green leather chairs were set around a small table, a place for the tellers to take a small break during working hours. "Let's take a load off, Herman," Maxwell said, motioning to one of the chairs. "Been on my feet non-stop supervising, and I need a break."

I eyed him as I sank into one of the chairs. Damn...this was a comfy chair. Much nicer then the IKEA futons back at my place. Electro sat down opposite me, putting one yellow boot on the table. "Ah...so, Herman. How's life and death treating you these past few days?"

"About as well as you can expect. Like you said, keeping a low profile after that first night," I answered. "No reason to stick my head out and risk getting it chomped off."

"Tell me about it," Maxwell grinned in response. "I'd rather be anywhere else but here robbing a bank. Speaking of which...if you're trying to keep a low-profile, why are you out and about tonight, Herman?"

Max thought he was being smooth and slick, but I could see through him. The guy was feeling me out, trying to poke holes in my story. Standard villain technique, usually coming into play during any sort of brag or boast one of us makes, with the others poking holes in the comments. I could have lied to him, saying I was looking for a score and just happened to run into him...but the odds of that happening were slim enough without an inquisitive Electro probing me about it.

So, once again, I find myself falling back on the concept of being honest.

Well, semi-honest.

"I need medicine. I got this woman back at my hideout, real piece of work. Diabetes, though, and she's gonna run out of insulin soon." I patted the pocket on the front of my suit. "The drug store closest to my place wasn't viable, so I took a guess that this part of town would rather have been swept or abandoned. I guessed right."

"Huh. You risked your life for a chick?"

"She cooks."

"Touché," Electro replied with a grin. "You walk?"

"Hummer," I replied. "Just found one, keys in the ignition. Full tank of gas too, and since I don't have to pay for it anymore..."

Max pointed towards the open door. "That's why we got the armored car. Big, strong, and gas prices ain't a concern anymore." He looked down at the table, and suddenly, his face brightened...literally, a warm, dim yellow glow appearing on his features. "Hey, lollipops." He took a sucker from the metal vase just beside his foot. It's hard to take a guy seriously when he's sucking on a lollipop, and Maxwell Dillon was no Kojak. "So where are you driving from, Herman? The Battery? Down by the docks?"

"Depends, Max," I responded as he dropped the wrapper into a nearby wastebasket. "Where are you and your boss coming from?"

He rolled the candy around in his mouth, head back as he laughed. "Come on, Herman. You know what's going on here. Why don't the two of us just cut right to the chase? We've known each other long enough."

"Perfectly fine by me, Max." I leaned forward in my chair, sitting on the edge, taking charge instead of lounging back. "So who the hell is your boss, and why should I expect to hear from him soon?"

His response was to wag a finger at me. A little trail of sparks glowed in the air as he shook his hand. "No, Herman. No, it's not that easy. My boss wants to meet you, because he's definitely impressed by that...7-11 job you pulled off the other night. The problem is...well...ever since then, no one's heard anything about you. Or Rhino, for that matter. And you may be able to keep a low profile, but a guy like Aleksei...unless you're keeping him on a leash."

"I'm not his handler," I said. "But yeah, Aleksei's with me. He's holding down the fort right now. He ain't exactly one for...a quiet smash-and-grab. So I'm keeping my head down. Maybe I learned my lesson the other night, trying to actually help someone, do something altruistic, and ending up almost getting skewered by Hawkeye. What, you think I'm gonna be like Mysterio, making a scene and drawing attention to myself? I bet old Fishbowl Head probably gets eaten trying to pull a Pied Piper or something if the cops don't get him first."

The sound of amusement echoed around the empty bank as Electro laughed. "That's an image! Just walk them right off the deck of the Intrepid."

It was a funny image...Mysterio floating just off the edge of the aircraft carrier, zombies plunging into the East River...

"Seriously, my head is down and after tonight, I ain't going back out on the streets for all the tea in China. So I don't know what your boss would want with me. Unless those zombies break down my door, I'm content to just sit and wait for them to rot away to nothing, Max."

Maybe that was true, and maybe it wasn't, but for now, it seemed like a good answer. It got Electro's attention, because now he leaned forward, still working that lollipop around in his mouth, reminding of Wolverine earlier and his cigar stub. "See, Herman...that's not an option. Because my boss wants to meet you, and make you an offer. And trust me, you want to hear this offer. Once this all settles and things get back to normal, he's gonna remember who was on his side and who wasn't."

"Don't give me that line of bull, Max. You sound like the President." I waved my hand now towards the high windows. "Do you think this is all going to just settle, to go back to normal? Things are changing...things have changed, Max. The rules got rewritten. Think about it. Right now, you and I are having a nice, calm, relatively civil conversation in the middle of the Federal American Bank. If this was any other night, even if the damn Skrulls were launching a planetary invasion, someone would have shown up to stop you. Spider-Man popping in for five minutes on his way to get a kid's balloon out of a tree, or Moon Knight walking his dog. Honest question, Electro, have you seen a single cape since this whole thing began?"

The living dynamo shook his head. "So a bunch of people die, Herman. You and I, we can put them back down again, the eggheads figure out how to make them not get back up, and the world goes back to normal, just with a lot less people in it. Look at it like this, Herman. Who's gonna make it? Who's gonna survive this thing? You. Me. Rhino. The ones who ain't dumb enough to put themselves in harm's way. And with the capes exhausted from trying to save everyone else, they're gonna be easy pickings, Herman." His voice...sounded confident. Maxwell Dillon, almost boasting without the underlying current of worry and doubt. Did he believe this? That somehow, everything would get turned right side up again, and we'd all just go back to how we were before?

And more importantly...what if he was right? What if I'm left holding the bag and a guy like Electro's finally running with the big dogs? And I missed my chance to finally hit the top tier, after years of...

Alright, alright, I'm getting off course here. Focus. It could be Max trading inferiority for megalomania. "Max...that's a bit...that's a bit tough. You really think Tombstone could pull something like that off?"

"Tombstone? You think I'm working for Tombstone? Herman...Tombstone's nothing. A bit player in the grand scheme of things at best."

I blinked at that comment. Ok, then it had to be the Kingpin. He was the only guy in New York who could command that type of pull, to get Tombstone to follow his orders. But the tense Max used...I guess he didn't know Tombstone was currently a corpse a couple of blocks away. "The Kingpin, then? You jumped from the Rose to Wilson Fisk? That's actually..."

"Fisk's over in Queens. As soon as everything hit the fan, he went to Riker's Island, blew the bridge, and last I heard, cracked open an emergency shelter he had prepped years ago for just an occasion. It's him and about 2000 angry prisoners, and...well, Herman, he's building an army."

Pause.

"Doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, though. 2000 soldiers ain't nothing compared to what my boss can do. It's like I said," Electro beamed as I sat there in silence, "my boss has a plan. When it's all over with, Herman, we're all gonna have a seat at the table, without guys like Spider-Man ruining it for us. Question is, Herman...you gonna have a seat there too, or are you going to be left out in the cold?"

Electro's robbing a bank at some guy's request, a guy who can blow off a player like Tombstone or a mob boss like Wilson Fisk...and where did that flying shadow tie into all of it? My brain was working overtime, trying to draw some kind of schematic to figure everything out. But the pieces just weren't fitting together, no matter how I twisted, turned, or jammed them together.

But ignoring that for a second...a place at the table. To no longer be a laughing stock, to actually have a chance to BE someone...not even that. A chance for that chance, to make something of an opportunity. That's what grabbed me. Being nice, being the good guy, what had it gotten me? Almost bitten and devoured, almost shot by Hawkeye, almost stabbed by Wolverine, not to mention all the aches and bruises...to play with the big boys. That sounded great...and I could easily get Fred to go along with it, no problem. Aleksei...depending on if he was still on his good guy kick...

"Look, Herman. Maybe I can help you get over your concern about not knowing who this guy is." Electro's words stopped my train of thought as he pulled his feet down from the little table. "My boss...like I said, the 7-11 thing earlier...altruism's not a strong virtue in his book. That explains the frog-marching earlier...I had to make sure you were still one of us and not someone with a sudden burst of heroism just because the dead are rising from the graves. Maybe he'd be more up to letting me tell you who he is if you give me a hand with what I'm working on now."

I looked over my shoulder. The end of the hallway leading to the vault flickered with a mix of shadow and light. "You want me to help you crack that vault?"

"Yes. Shouldn't be too hard for you, right?"

Two, three hours.

"I know you're one of the world's best safecrackers, Herman," Electro said smoothly. "Your lady friend can keep for a bit, right? Come on...at least, help an old friend out, maybe earn some brownie points with my boss. I'll even see if he'll cut you in on the take."

"What's in there that's so important?"

"A bunch of gold," Electro said. "Once everything comes back, money's probably gonna be worthless. Gold, though, it'll still be worth something. Artwork. Guns. Basically anything that's value it real, not paper. Hell, in a few weeks, we'll be using hundred dollar bills as toilet paper, Herman. Bank on it," he grinned. "There's a whole bunch of gold in that vault that belongs to the Federal Reserve. They were redoing the vaults and needed a place to put some of it. Specifically, that's Wakandan gold in there." Electro's body gave off that warm glow again as he said, "Imagine stealing the Black Panther's gold. Kind of exciting, ain't it?" He stood up, stretching a bit as he stared down at me. "Come on, Herman. Very least, it'll be a nice change of pace to crack a safe instead of cracking a skull."

Still sitting, I looked up at him. "One condition, Max. When we crack that thing open, you tell me who your boss is. No stalls, no deferments, just a name. Got it?"

After a few seconds, Max put his hand out to me. "Deal." His hand buzzed slightly as we pumped out a handshake, and I stood up with his assistance. "Yates has been working on that thing for an hour now. We thought we could weld right through it, but it's been taking longer than we thought."

"There's your problem," I told him as we began to head back towards the vault door. "That's a Stark Enterprises vault. Cobalt steel locks, quad-bolted. The more heat you apply to it, the more it expands. They added some kind of isotope when they forged it. So you're cutting a hole, but you're also forcing the bolts deeper into the setting." That was about as layman as I could sound, having only heard about this type of vault once. Read it in a translated Chinese magazine about Stark's new toys. They get everything first...I remember a story the Beetle had told me once. He had jacked a brand new prototype from a research firm in Los Angeles, military-grade hacking hardware, and handed it off to his buyer before hopping a plane to Shanghai for another job. He's walking through the marketplace, and at the end of the row, some kid is selling a knock-off CD of the prototype software, same specs, same capabilities. Beetle bought it and ended up using it for two months before the technology caught up with him. Guess it's the same with security doors.

"So what the hell do we have to do? Can't we just keep cutting and cutting and eventually just brute force your way through?" Electro and I were now standing at the end of the hallway. The guy at the vault, Yates, had just turned off the torch. He lifted his welding goggles, and I saw the sweat around his eyes and on his forehead.

He saw Electro at the far end of the way, and waved a hand. "Torch needs a break, boss. It's getting too hot!"

"It's going to," I replied to Max. "And yeah, if you had hours and hours, you could cut through the bolts, or go through the layered steel plating. But we don't have hours, because the sun's gonna be up, and I'll willing to bet sooner or later, there's gonna be a patrol through here. Looters, maybe."

"Great..." Electro rubbed his chin, before motioning for me to step forward. "Well, go take a look at it. Just remember, failure isn't an option. My boss doesn't like failure."

Yates moved to the side as I approached the vault door. I crouched down to examine the work he had been doing with the torch. The hole he had cut was just below one of the vault's locking wheels. "Hmm...how long have you been at it?"

"About an hour. That damn metal won't budge. Tried every heat and flame mixture I could think of. Nothing," he said. "That thing's locked tighter then the Wasp's booty."

"It's meant to be impossible," I replied. While my eyes studied the hole, looking at the composition of the door underneath, I removed my vibro-smashers, and then my gloves. By the time I set them all on the floor, the metal around the hole was still hot, but rapidly cooling. "Cutting this vault door is impossible. Near-impossible, because given time, you can cut through anything, but this is hours, maybe even a day of work." I lightly rapped the metal. "Layered steel with vacuum in between. So the heat doesn't transfer easily, so it's almost like starting from scratch with each new layer."

For a guy who walks around with the capability to demolish a building with either a few well-placed shots, or one big-ass explosion...this was where it all started, just me and a safe, man vs. something machined. In the chaos of the past two nights this was familiar. Safe. My mind was shifting gears, downshifting from "survival mode" into "puzzle mode." This was Tetris on crack, a Rubik's Cube while on LSD...it felt damn well like home to me. My comfort zone.

"Alright...huh. That's new." The metal was cool enough for me to lightly rub the tip of my finger along the melted walls of the opening the torch had cut. Mostly smooth, my finger ran over several sharp objects, just poking above the surface.

"What's new," Yates asked, looking over my shoulder as I made my exam.

"They threaded wires through the metal," I replied. "If I had to guess, they're drawing heat away from the metal where you're cutting. It's spreading out the heat throughout the layer instead of letting it concentrate in one spot. Huh," I said, impressed. I didn't know if I was right, but I was willing to bank on it.

"That's a lot of work for just a vault door. I've broken into some high-class joints, Shocker, but nothing ever this complex." Yates was shaking his head as he spoke. "It explains why the torch wasn't working."

"It's a Stark door. They know their stuff." The lock was probably a nightmare. Twin locks, actually, one on the top where Yates had been cutting, one near the bottom, each one quad-bolted. As I stared at the one of the top, I realized that something wasn't right. It looked like a standard high-security lock, but...it was incomplete somehow. Something was missing. But I couldn't figure out what.

"Herman, you got anything yet?"

I waved a hand at Electro, trying to keep him quiet. It was right in front of me, but I couldn't...

Oh. That was pretty damn clever.

I smiled to myself in quiet triumph. "It's a time lock. They don't open this vault when they want to...they open it when the clock says they can." I stood back up, brushing my hands on my knees before pulling my gloves back on. "This type of vault, Electro, it's for people who can afford to show up when the bank tells them to. You can't really open it until the appointed time of day."

"You're kidding." Electro walked up beside me, staring helplessly at the vault door. "So we just gotta wait until...when?"

"No clue. And even then, you probably need a passcode or a set of keys." Ok, the good news was, I knew how the vault was opened. The problem was actually opening it.

"You can do this, right, Herman?"

"Max, it hasn't been five minutes. Back off, man, I'm a professional." Electro moved a few steps behind me, but I could still feel his impatient gaze on my back. Screw him. If he wants this done, don't rush me. Ok, time clock, keypad...there had to be an override, right? In case someone gets trapped in the vault...you couldn't well have the Grand Prince of Saudi Arabia locked inside a vault. But you couldn't just open it...you had to let someone else know you were opening it, and I was willing to be they could, in a pinch, do it from off-site. Which meant, somehow, the door had a computer or phone line connection.

Bingo.

"You guys cut the power and phone lines before coming in, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Electro confirmed. "Force of habit, but figured it couldn't hurt. Why?"

"I'm willing to bet, Max, that this place had an off-site failsafe." I turned to face him, gesturing to the vault as well as to the nearby window. "Someone sitting in a suite at Stark could open the fault as a last-ditch effort, like if someone got trapped inside, or probably lock it back up if a robbery happened when the door was open."

Snapping his fingers, Electro nodded in agreement. "Yeah...yeah, Herman, that makes sense. So, what, did we put it into lockdown when we cut the power?"

"Not quite. You just...you cut the vault off from the outside world. I'm sure the clock it runs on has battery power, and right now there's a light blinking somewhere letting the security guy know that there's a power outage at the bank, but I'm willing to bet he's got bigger fish to fry right now."

"Heh...it's nice to walk around and know there ain't a shoot-on-sight rule for looters, ain't it, Herman?"

"Yeah, well, Osborn would rather soldiers and cops spend time roosting civilians from their homes then taking shots at us."

Electro smirked at the comment. "Alright then, Herman, so now what? We turn the power back on and go from there?"

"Don't even need to, Max. All you have to do now, I bet, is find the junction box leading to the vault." I looked at the wall leading away from the vault. "I'm willing to bet a good solid jolt of electricity would be enough to trigger the fail safe and swing that vault door open." After a few seconds, I nodded firmly. "Yeah, Max, that would do it."

"You sure," Electro asked with a bit of skepticism.

"I'd say 75% sure. I don't know what kind of power surge protection this bank has, but I'm willing to bet you could overload your way past it, Max."

"Damn right I can. Alright, step aside, Herman. It's my show now." I moved back to let Max pass me. He looked at the vault as he extended his arm. The tip of his index finger sparked slightly as, slowly, Max started to side-step to his right. "There's a power conduit...it's the only one leading to the vault..." He was talking to himself, mumbling, as his finger acted like a voltage meter. Even a small amount of electricity would be attracted to a set of copper wires and fiber optics, letting Electro see, in his own unique way, what was behind the wall. He moved carefully, a man in his element now, tracing power lines as the wattage moved through him.

After a few seconds, he closed his hand, rapping gently on the wall with his fist. "Right here, Herman. Security panel. Think that's your junction box?" I nodded as the mooks on Electro's team stood silently by, watching the pros at work. "Alright. How much juice am I pumping into this thing?"

"Enough to overload it, but not enough to melt it. You don't want to set the fire sprinklers off."

Electro smirked at me. "Cake." He laid his hand flat against the wall, and closed his eyes. As we all watched, his body slowly began to glow. Yellow light washed over him, gently as first, but within seconds, it had turned from soft rays to cracking bolts. Lightning spun and twisted around Maxwell Dillon's body, shooting through his personal paths of least resistance as he charged himself up, a capacitor and battery in human form. I had to admit...I was impressed, and maybe a bit jealous. The things I could have done with his power...

His eyes were almost golden as they snapped open. In one quick, snapping motion, the electricity shot from all over his body towards the palm of his hand, from the tips of his toes to the top of his head, all coming to a point where his body met the wall. At it flowed into the masonry, sparks shot into the air, scorching the brick around his hand to leave a black outline.

Click. From behind us.

Smiling, with a few strays bolts twirling around his shoulders, Electro turned back to me. "That did the trick," he proclaimed as he pulled his arm back.

"Boss, the vault's open!" That was Yates, who was grabbing at the edge of the large door, along with Smith. Together, they slowly pulled the circular door open, and the two of them, along with Keller and the unnamed goon, were soon looking inside with the aid of the generator lights. "You were right, Electro...there's a fortune in gold in here!"

Rarely had I seen Electro smiling as wide as he was at that moment. "Nice job, Herman. When I talk to my boss in a few minutes, I'm definitely gonna put in a good word for you." He turned, going to walk over to the vault to grab a look himself...

My hand grabbed his shoulder. "That wasn't the deal, Max," I told him. "You said you'd call your boss when the vault door was open. The door's open. Call him now."

"Relax, Herman." Electro tried to brush my hand off his shoulder. "Let me get a look at what we're dealing with and I'll call him..." He cut-off in mid-sentence, wincing slightly under the grip of my gauntlet on his shoulder.

"I said, now, Max."

"Alright, alright!" He batted my arm off of his shoulder, the smile gone from his face now. Instead, he glared at me, his teeth gritted, and I didn't really care. I know how this works. Someone, or something, would interrupt us, and I'd lose my chance to find this out. Well, forget that, I'm playing it smart. The gold ain't gonna get up and walk away. That's a job for the dead. And I didn't care, really, if I hurt Electro's precious feelings in the process.

Still stabbing me mentally, Electro pulled a cell phone out of his costume. As he flipped it open, he barked orders to his crew. "Ok, guys, we came here for the gold and the jewelry, so get those first. Move those lights in there, I want every single nook and cranny emptied. If we got the room and we got the time, we'll get the bearer bonds and anything else. No cash, strictly hard goods, and anyone who gets greedy, I'll zap you and leave you for the zombies. Hey, you guys up front! Forget the door, the vault's open, get in there and give them a hand!"

The mooks did as they were told. The guys who had been guarding the front door double-timed it to the vault as Yates and his crew began to move the lights closer to the vault, dragging the generator behind them, as Electro looked at his phone. "Alright, Herman, I'm calling him now. Are you happy?"

"Not until I talk to him, Max. Then, I'll be happy as a clam."

"Alright, alright..." Arms crossed, I watched as Electro punched a few buttons, and then held the phone up to his ear. "Reception hasn't been too bad," Max told me. "You'd think the towers would be down or at least the government would have hijacked the signals for official uses."

"Think FEMA has back-up generators for cell phone towers now. They put them in place after 9/11, so the network doesn't go down in case a big national disaster happens."

"Makes sense...oh, hey, it's Electro, boss." He kept his facing towards me as he talked. "We got the vault door open. The guys are getting all the gold and gems now. Yeah. Well, if got room, we'll go back for those, but like you said, the precious metals are the top priority. Uh huh. Nope, no zombies once we crossed John Street...but we did find something interesting. You won't believe who I got here. Herman Schultz."

Electro looked at me, nodding even though the guy on the other end couldn't see him. "Lady, I ain't lying. My guys found him wandering out on the street and brought him on in. He helped us crack the vault, actually. Uh huh. Yeah. No, it's just him. He says Rhino's back at their hideout holding things down."

I extended my arm towards him, motioning with my fingers for the phone. Electro responded by holding up a finger, telling me to wait. "Herman wants to talk to the boss. Yeah. Sure. No, what you heard was right. Alright, no problem...hey, can you say that again, I think...alright. Can do. Here, I'm gonna take care of that as soon as I hand you over. See you in a couple of hours with the goods."

Electro lobbed the phone in my direction. "My boss says he's been looking forward to this since the 7-11 job."

I caught it with one hand, and raised the phone to my ear. "Shocker here. Who is this?"

A rough voice scratched out an answer. "The last voice you'll ever hear. Goodbye, Schultz."

I was already dropping the phone by "hear," but it was too late. The bolt of lightning slammed into my chest, a lance of white hot pain. The phone clattered to the ground an instant before my body joined it, the sheer energy of the bolt throwing me to the floor.

Before I could sit up, a yellow boot stomped on my chest. Grinding his heel down, Electro, looming above me, clutched a fistful of lightning. "Sorry, Herman. Boss says you gotta get dead. For good."

X

The evil grin on Electro's face told me just how much he was enjoying this. The energy cackled around his fist as his foot ground into my sternum. "Herman, Herman, Herman," he sneered. "Why did you have to spin all those lies earlier? You could have just told the truth, and this might have gone a lot easier for you."

"What do you mean?" I shifted as best I could, trying to relieve the pressure on my chest. "I didn't lie!"

"Oh? Then you weren't out and about with Rhino earlier this evening? You didn't loot a Walgreen's? You didn't rescue two kids from a building? You didn't run into Wolverine? And, more importantly...you didn't steal the stuff from Tombstone's trailer? A whole bunch of gold and guns...that was going to my boss?"

Oh, crap.

"That's why? Come on Max, I found a Hummer and a whole bunch of stuff in a trailer. What the hell was I supposed to do? There wasn't a sign that said 'do not touch, this stuff does not belong to the now-dead Tombstone, but to someone else entirely, touch it, and die?' Seriously, I thought it was abandoned!"

"Ignorance is no excuse, Herman. How many times have you said that to ME," he spat. "Without Rhino around to watch your back, my boss figured it's the perfect time to off you and just dump your body somewhere. Don't worry, though. I promise you won't come back walking around like one of those things. It's the least I could do for a friend.

"Great," I said. "Come on, you don't have to do this, Max. Just let me walk away and I'll keep my head down, I promise. No more nightly excursions..."

Electro shook his head. "No can do, Herman. He'll find out, and then it's my ass on the hook, not yours. Besides...I kind of admit," he said as he flexed his leg, pushing down into my chest, "I'm looking forward to being the one to put you down. You always had to be just a little superior, just a little smug, because you took the time to plan stuff out. All that time, trying to be just a little more professional, to work a better rep...look who's acting on the spur of the moment, Herman, and who's about to move up in my boss' eyes." He clenched his fist tighter, and the lightning cloud moved faster around his knuckles. "Helpless, no gloves to save you...you shouldn't have turned them off, Herman. You got any last words before I fry you?"

"Yeah. Who told you I turned my gloves off?"

Electro's eyes widened suddenly, and he threw his fist down, trying to shock me. By inches, I was quicker on the draw. I only had enough time to hold down the trigger for a level one blast, but one from each glove caught Electro right under his chin, knocking him off of me and letting me breathe again.

Yeah, don't act so surprised. Of course I had a fake shutdown program. Add a couple of loud beeps and boops, and people think you're no longer a threat.

I fired off another set of level one's as I got back to my feet, hitting Electro in the chest and staggering him. Once upright, my next move was a carefully conceived action of tactical brilliance...

My ass dove behind the nearest desk. And instantly, I scrambled on the floor to the next desk over, a thick oak desk probably belonging to a vice-executive secondary loan officer that made more in a week then I made all year. I just made it before a lightning bolt slammed into the desk I had just moved from, blowing away the varnished wood to leave a scorch mark. I crouched just next to the chair, hands pressed against the set of wooden drawers on the right side.

"Boss? You ok..."

"Smith, just keep doing what you're doing. I can handle the Shocker." I heard footsteps as he approached the desk where I was hiding. "Keller, you go cover the back entrance. Make sure he doesn't escape!"

Loud footsteps masked Electro's softer ones, but I could make out his shadow on the ground, coming closer to the front of the desk. I waited a few more seconds, and then pushed against the desk while firing off a level one. Like a swivel, the desk pivoted, the right end moving outwards like a swinging door. I heard a loud noise as the edge of the desk impacted against Electro as just above thigh level. That was my cue to shoot up from where I had been crouched, just as Electro was staggering backwards, wincing from the impact. This time, the bastard caught a level two right to the chest, and it was his turn to go staggering backwards, the breath leaving his body from the impact. Now, I could have just blasted him again, but that...didn't seem appropriate. The bastard has tried to kill me, actually kill me.

The wooden chair that went with the oak desk was just big enough for me to get a firm grip on. I lifted it into the air as Electro stumbled forward again, his thighs aching, but still mobile. Maybe it was the pain, maybe anger, or maybe just confusion, but he barely reacted and just managed to get his arm up as I brought the heavy chair down over his head. I followed through, putting as much behind the attack as I could. Splinters flew everywhere as the chair cracked, $3000 dollars worth of seating ruined in a few minutes over Maxwell's head.

THAT was appropriate.

He half-turned away, covering his head, and that was my cue to finish the job. What was left of the chair came crashing down across his back. The impact was enough to drive him to his knees. The chair was beyond use now, and I tossed it away. It smacked against a pair of interior windows along the hallway leading to the vault and fell down to the ground.

Electro was trying to get back up, but a firm kick to the ribs was enough to keep him down. "You tried to kill me, Max! Kill me! What, because your boss told you to!" My voice was loud enough to echo a bit as I stomped him again, enjoying the sound of him yelling out in pain. "Come on, you're..."

The first bullet zipped past my ear. I managed to hit the ground before realizing why I was throwing myself down, but when the burst of gunfire shot over my head, I knew exactly what I was running from. The bullets cracked the glass, not breaking it, but leaving several small holes stitched across the window. Electro was still down, but quickly moving out of my line of sight as he crawled behind one of the desks. I pushed myself across the floor, managing to get behind another desk as more shots fired across the room. My back was against the desk when I heard Electro yell in a groggy tone. "Keller, don't! You're gonna hit me, idiot! Just keep an eye on the back door, don't let Herman out, and don't let any of those things in!" I heard the Villain of Voltage cough slightly, along with catching the sounds of rubber soles in tile floor as Keller retreated towards the back door, leaving me and Electro to battle it out.

Alright, a little interlude to explain some things. Yeah, this disrupts the flow of the narrative...again...but you should be used to it by now if you've read this far into my story. I'm a lot more comfortable just giving you the exposition and explanations without trying to shoe-horn it in. "Stilt-Man tried to stomp me. His legs could generate 5000 psi with the proper application of force. He had stolen the design for the armor years ago from..." Yo, Stilt-Man's trying to step on you, less time explaining, more time moving! I don't care what you've been told, in the super powered world, talking ain't a free action. The only reason I can take these brief time-outs is because I'm spinning this tale after the proverbial fact.

You know...right now, I kinda miss Stilt-Man. Wilbur Day may not have been the best criminal...the guy made the freaking Ringer look professional...but walking 10 stories above the street, stomping on zombies while well out of arms' reach, and able to rescue kids from the top floor of an apartment building without having to fight his way through the entire complex. I think he might have finally, after all these years, been in his element.

So anyway, I've obviously hit the pause button on the fight between me and Electro, so let me lay out the nitty gritty. I could have run away from this fight. Just take out Keller, run for the back door, and let it be. Problem was...Electro. And his boss. Both would be pissed. Both would come looking for me. And the last thing I needed was someone showing up at my hideout, throwing down for a tussle, with civilians on the inside and zombies on the outside. I've seen the movies, conflict on the inside leads to holes in security, and then the living dead pour through and...it never ends well.

So let this be my battlefield, then. I'll pummel Electro senseless, enough that he and his boss will know in the future not to screw over Herman Schultz.

Electro can throw lightning around. I can shoot vibro-blasts from range. However, since lightning follows the path of least resistance, and I'm walking around with metal gloves, boots, and belts on, he's gonna be more accurate than me at range because his shots are gonna home right in. Advantage, Electro.

He cut the power to the bank. Which means, the only source of electricity, other then what he makes, is the generator, and the mooks on his crew moved it to the vault for they'd have light. Meanwhile, I'm still at full charge. Advantage, Shocker.

Hand-to-hand, he gets stronger the more juice he's storing. I hit like a truck if I can land a good shot. Call that a draw.

I'm wearing my quilted armor. It acts as an insulator. Getting hit by electricity isn't going to feel pleasant, but my suit will take most of it, and it's built to handle overloads without shorting out. The uniform Electro's wearing isn't gonna to do much to stop a vibro-blast from hitting him with full force. Advantage, Shocker.

And the last, and most important thing...I'm smarter than him. Maybe it's not 'smarter,' per se, since the guy could have become an electrical engineer, but I could definitely out think him and outwit him.

Of course, my plan doesn't call for being very witty or clever...so maybe the above doesn't matter. But hey, it's what you get when you write what you're thinking without thinking about what you're writing. My plan was simple. End the fight before he could generate enough personal charge to make things difficult by getting in his face and smashing it repeatedly. The more juice he generated, the tougher he'd be to stop. In order to walk out of here, I had to end this fight, and end it early.

First things first, though. Keller, the high-pitched guy with the submachine gun. He could cause problems. I didn't fancy the idea of crossing any type of open area with him spraying bullets at me. One or two might hit, and that'd really ruin my day. I didn't need him down and out, though. Just distracted.

I held down the trigger on my vibro-smasher, and reached up over the desk. I twisted my hand to point at what I thought was the hallway leading towards the back door. A few seconds after exposing my hand, gunfire erupted from that direction. The bullets sailed over the top of the desk I was hiding behind, coming from my left. A quick turn of the wrist to refine my aim...

I fired the level-three blast blind, in what I hope is the general direction of Keller and his submachine gun. Almost immediately, I hear the sound of exploding masonry, and a loud yelp. But more importantly, I hear the distinct and utter lack of gunfire. Instantly, I sprung to my feet, and with as smooth a motion as I could manage, I stepped up on top of the desk. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a cloud of stone dust floating in the air, and hear Keller's stream of cursing. But more importantly, two up and one over, back against the wall under one of the interior windows, the top of a five-pointed yellow star poked over the edge of a desk. Without pausing, I leapt from desk to desk, almost running, moving quickly before Keller could recover and open fire on the easy target I was presenting him. Blotters, pens, lamps, I knocked them all over as I closed in on Electro. As soon as I reached the edge of the desk he cowered behind, I leapt high into the air, full extension on my legs for maximum height.

He had been trying to get back to his feet, pulling at the desk for assistance, when he saw me crash down towards him. Electro cried out in surprise, but he didn't have time to react as I slammed both feet into his sternum, sweet revenge for what he did to mine just a minute earlier. His yellow-gloved hand slipped from the desk, and he fell flat on the floor as I landed, one foot on the floor, one still on his chest. The sound of him wheezing at the impact did nothing to stay my hand. The foot on his chest became a knee as I dropped, driving the joint into where I believed his lungs to be located. Electro's hands flailed as the breath left his body, seeking purchase anywhere they could find them. I didn't give him a moment, though. Pulling back my fist, I brought it down on his face, catching the side of his jaw with a cross.

"You tried to kill me, Max," I repeated as I landed a second punch. I could feel the impact from each blow as my vibro-smashers activated at the impact. The third punch drew blood from his nose, and his gestures became more and more frantic. I didn't care. At this point, forget mercy. I wasn't going to kill him, but when he dragged his ass back before whoever the hell his boss was, both of them would know what a fight with the Shocker would entail, and hopefully, that'd be enough to dissuade them.

Two more punches seemed to stun Electro. "When you wake up, you dim bulb," I said to him as his eyes tried to focus on me, "make sure you tell your boss the last voice I heard was you screaming like a little girl." I swung both my fists above my head, clasping them together like I was holding an axe handle. Aiming squarely for his temple and the knockout blow, I brought them down...

It was an act of desperation, the way both gloves wrapped around my vibro-smashers, but his hands managed to catch mine. Smirking at me through a split lip, Electro...I thought he'd try to push my gloves away, but instead, he tightly put his hands around mine, clasping them tightly.

"Nice gloves, Herman," he coughed. "Powered by electricity, right?"

Oh, crap.

I tried to yank my gloves away, but it was already too late. The gauge on the vibro-smasher on my right hand quickly ran down, green-to-red, skipping yellow entirely. The smirk became a full-blown smile as Electro sucked the juice from both my gauntlets, draining my dry in a matter of seconds. "Thanks for the power-up, Herman," he said, still clutching my hands in a grip, a grip made tighter by the voltage now running through him. "Your gloves pack more energy then I imagined." With a small cry of effort, Electro shoved me away from him, firing a charge from his hands at the same time. Like I had expected, it flowed right through the metal on my hands to run up my arms. The suit absorbed most of it, but I could feel the tingle from my fingers to my shoulders.

This was just before I felt the impact of the tile floor, as Electro's push caused me to fly backwards from him a few feet. I landed on my tailbone, still sitting up, as Electro quickly got to his feet. His face showed the effects of my assault, but his movements didn't betray any pain on his part. Both hands pointed towards me, and I tried to move away, but to no avail, as two bolts of lightning struck my chest. It dissipated over my torso, but it still stung like a bitch.

Ok, Herman...new plan. I just needed to come up with one...

Electro kicked a chair out of the way, coming towards me as I found myself scrambling backwards away from him. Every time I tried to get to my feet, Electro was too close to risk it. But I was running out of room...and every step Electro took, I could almost see the cloud of electricity beginning to swirl and collect around and across his body.

I finally had to risk it. I pushed up with my hands, trying to get to a standing position to do something...but, indeed, Electro was too close. He grabbed me by the side of my mask, easily pushing through the contact plates and their vibrations, and drove his knee into my face. This did bring me to a full and upright position, but all that bought me was a free punch from Electro, a roundhouse across my jaw. I spun around from the impact, slamming into the edge of a desk. I ended up sprawled across it, stars forming across my vision. Groaning, I tried to get back up, pushing up from the desk with my arms...

Electro slipped an arm under mine, and locked another around my neck. He squeezed tightly, ignoring the mini-explosion from my suit's defenses, locking in a chokehold. "You know, your suit's powered too, right?" I couldn't tell, but I knew that he was draining my contact plates of their electricity as he tried to choke the life out of me. I tried to grab at him with my hands, but he was just out of reach. "And..." he said after a few seconds, "now you're dry. And helpless."

He released the chokehold...and put a hand on the back of my mask, shoving me forward as he slammed my head off the surface of the desk. Without my contact plates to counter the impact, the world went white for a second as I took the full force of the attack. The quilted layers of my mask helped cushion the blow somewhat, but my thoughts were scrambled as Electro pulled me back up, and slammed my face down a second time. As he yanked me back up, I felt the wet trickle of blood beginning to leak from my nose. It was desperation that let me focus enough to throw an elbow back as Electro went for the desk slamming trifecta. I caught the side of his face with enough force that I slipped away from his grip. I needed to follow up, to take the opportunity to land a few shots of my own...even without power, smacking someone in the exposed face with a metal gauntlet still freaking' hurts...but my body wouldn't let me, demanding I take just a second or two to recover and let my brain unscramble.

Which was all the time Electro needed to elbow me in the ribs. I felt the faintest tingle at the impact, which did not bode for me. What also didn't bode well was Electro spinning me around. One of his hands went to my crotch...

No, this isn't going to turn into one of THOSE types of stories.

...and the other grabbed me by the back of my neck. I could make out the thin strands of electricity around his wrist and lower arm as he scooped me off my feet, holding me across his body for an instant, before slamming me onto the desk. The wood creaked under the impact as Electro drove me down, my entire body protesting in pain as every single pen, paper clip, knick-knack, and in one case, a pointed paper holder, jammed into my back. I may or may not have moaned in pain at the time, and I don't say this out of disjointed pride, but because Electro immediately, like lightning, jammed both his hands on my chest, driving me into the uncomfortable assortment of office goods.

"You had a good run, Herman," he said, smiling through his white teeth. "Time to shut it down." For an instant, lightning flashed around the yellow gloves pinning me to the desk, before 50,000 volts jolted through my entire body. Electro channeled all that power into my chest, my muscles involuntarily contracting as current passed through them. My fingers and toes clutched at the edges of the desk through my outfit as my back arched, pushing me further into his killing hands.

Being electrocuted ain't fun. Those little one-to-two second shocks you get from sticking your finger on an exposed wire isn't nothing compared to accidentally grabbing a car battery's contacts, and that ain't nothing compared to being struck by a bolt of electricity being tossed by a guy like Electro or Cardiac. Get hit by one of those and your entire body seizes up for a second as all the bioelectric connections fires at the same time. Your muscles spasm and your brain gets dopey as your nervous system attempts to reset.

So if you could be so kind as to imagine the kind of pain that having that type of electricity channeled through you from a never ending source of power...

And now that you know where I'm coming from, back to the action.

Electro's face held perverse joy as he pushed down on me. All the electricity he had generated was being put into this killing shot. A brief part of my brain wondered if electricity counted as fire with regards to putting a ghoul down for good, but then the rest of my brain that was functioning yelled "YOU'RE STILL ALIVE, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" My body was frozen, save for small spasms and twitching, as Electro poured it on.

My suit was what saved me. I may have added contact plates, a basic heads-up display, and a comms suite over the years, but at the very heart of my suit was layers upon layers of quilted fabric, rolled and tucked, over and over again, each layer tight against the next one, the cloth equivalent of folded steel. It was meant to absorb the vibrations from my blasts, and as an added side bonus, it acted as an insulated, from heat, cold, energy blasts...and volts of electricity. Instead of being concentrated on my heart and disrupting my circadian rhythms...and even as I'm being shocked, I'm wondering where the hell I know that word from...to give me a heart attack, the voltage was being spread out over my entire body as my suit absorbed it. It didn't catch all of it. Personally, it didn't feel like it was catching any of it. But, in the end, it caught enough of it, for a long enough period of time that either Electro ran out of juice, or just got frustrated. He pulled his hands away, and instantly, my body dropped to the desk. I had never been so happy to feel a bobblehead push into my spine as my muscles relaxed back to their natural state. I couldn't move a single limb, but I also wasn't acting like a capacitor anymore.

"Bah! It's this damn costume of yours, Herman." Electro sneered at me as I lay moaning softly on the desk as my body's pain receptors seemed to catch up to me at once. "It serves a purpose other than making you look like a pineapple, I guess. Fine, then. I'll have to pull that suit off and do this skin-to-skin."

Don't blame me, those are the words Electro used.

His hands went under my chin. I could feel his fingers pressing against my throat, digging into the non-powered fabric. "I know you can take your mask off, Herman. Just give me an inch of throat so I can bypass your armor and get right to the heart of the matter..."

Without power, my magnetically sealed suit was held together by spandex bands. If he found where they came together, all he had to do was channel electricity through one of his fingers and I'd be done for. I tried to lift my arm, telling it to slap his hand away before he found a weak point, but its response was "I just got run through with 50,000 volts, get another limb to do it." My other body parts responded in mind. I tried to turn away, lifting my chest, but after a weak attempt at that, Electro's free hand pinned me down. "Ah, ah, ah, Herman. Why can't you be different tonight and just lay down and die?"

Thick armor and his rubber gloves were saving me. I had never, ever, felt so helpless in my life. My body wasn't listening to what I said, my suit and weapons were dry, and someone was actively trying to kill me. This had to be it...all the stuff I did the past few days wouldn't mean jack, beyond an Internet fad, and that's if the world survived. Herman Schultz, the Shocker, dead at the hands of Electro. Died while trying to help a lady with diabetes...this wasn't how I imagined going out. How I died involved a lot more naked blondes. Hell, would I even be remembered? What good was a wake when everyone else on the planet's dying without one? That's how it was ending...with me dead and forgotten...

Oh, screw me, that better not be a tear rolling down my cheek.

No, wait...it's blood, probably from a cut on my forehead.

Even as I lay on the desk bemoaning my fate, though, I kept trying to tell my body to move. Maybe I had a complex, not to the level of Max's, but still, some kind of inferiority concern. No one told my body and its survival mechanism, though.

Electro was pushing just below my chin when my arm decided it was time to play. It only moved three inches in the direction I wanted it to, but I'll take it. I had to scream through my nervous system for my fingers to clench, and they sure as hell took their sweet time. But eventually, I had enough control back to ball my hand into a fist...

"Ah. There it is. Say good night, Her..."

I felt his glove on my bare skin for the briefest of instants, just before my body's fear response as imminent death kicked in, giving me a boatload of adrenaline.

With a cry, I swung my fist up. Well, it was more along the lines of swinging my arm up, and hoping the fist on the end would catch something. The motion was the very definition of "flailing," and I didn't even know if I was going to end up hitting Electro or miss by a mile.

For that brief moment, though, the luck of the capes was on the side of Herman Schultz. Electro was leaning over me slightly, smirking in triumph, when the metal edge of my gauntlet caught him mid-sentence, directly on the chin. I couldn't have aimed it better if I had tried, because it snapped his jaw shut and rocked his head backwards as I somehow managed to follow through with my punch. His hand jerked back, and he stumbled away from me, holding his chin. "Gah! Gahd dawit, at's my tonne," Electro said from behind his hand. As he pulled his glove away, I could see the blood trickling from inside his mouth, from where my blow had made him bite his tongue.

Adrenaline, luck, maybe a shot at pulling this off...or all three...managed to convince my re-responsive body to roll off the desk. I landed on my feet, bent over, my upper body supported by the desk as my legs slowly refound their footing. I was breathing heavy, aching all over, every damn nerve bundle calling out for a hug or a shot of morphine...

"Gonna kill you, Herman," Electro managed to spit out, still holding his mouth, the red blood a contrast against his yellow glove, his eyes shut through the pain.

"Well," I said, finding the strength to quip, "you've been trying all night, nice to know you're finally starting." Max turned to face me, his free hand curled into a ball even as he winced at the discomfort from his bit tongue. One good shot would probably end up taking me down again...

My hands found the edge of the desk. Somehow, I willed up the strength, using what bit of adrenaline was flying through my veins, to move the heavy piece of furniture. It scraped across the floor, resistant at first, but I fought against my protesting muscles and shoved the large piece of oak towards Electro. He looked up at the last second, eyes widening, as I let out a loud yell of triumph. His hands went to the edge of the incoming desk, trying to stop it. I put everything into a final shove...

The desk slammed into him at waist level. Electro let out a prominent "oof' at the impact...but I didn't stop. My feet kept moving, pushing the desk as far forward as I could. It scraped forward a couple more inches before coming to stop, unable to make any more progress...because Electro's body was blocking it.

The villain was trapped between the two desks, the furniture pushing into his waist from both sides. His hands were grabbing at the edge of the desk to try to push it away, but he couldn't quite get the leverage. Panting heavily, I bowed my head, exhausted at the effort. I had him pinned down, stuck between two heavy desks. It would only be a matter of time before he had enough power in his body to break free...I had to act fast. I couldn't get close enough to punch him, not without climbing on the desk and maybe letting Keller take another shot at me...

I looked down at the desk, trying to find something I could maybe smack him with. The chair was an option, but reaching across the desk with it wasn't feasible. Nothing else was within reach. The desk had made a fine weapon, but now...

Wait. No. The desk STILL was a weapon.

"Well, Max," I said, reaching down below the top of the desk. "It's just you...me..."

My hand found what I was looking for in the middle of the desk, and luckily for me, it was unlocked. Electro was still shoving and pushing futilely.

"...your balls..."

Slowly, I slid it out, opening the center drawer of the desk.

"...and this drawer."

I slammed the drawer shut, shoving it closed with as much force as I could manage. Immediately, the effects were noticeable, as the features of Electro's face that I could see under his mask took on a look of pain. His eyes rolled back slightly, and he pursed his lips as Electro's body wilted slightly from the sudden burst of pain brought about from me slamming the back of the drawer into his important bits.

"...owie," he squeaked.

Smiling under my mask, I yanked the drawer out, and then repeated the process, shoving the drawer into his balls. He yelped again, his hands bouncing against the edge of the desk as it was his turn to deal with agony running through his entire body.

"I'm impressed, Max," I said as I slid the desk drawer out for a third time. "I didn't know you actually had a set down there for this to work."

Wham!

"Screw...you..." His eyes were squeezed shut from the pain, hunched over slightly. "Let's see...how you like it!" Before I could react, his hands flared with electricity, drawing from an internal well. With a groan of effort, Electro lifted the desk by its edge, pushing it up and away from him. The drawer tilted out of my grasp as the furniture tilted towards me, the blotter already sliding towards the floor. I had plenty of time to move away, and I slid around to the right as the desk reached its tipping point. I heard a joyous cry from Electro as he succeeded in shoving the desk up and over. It landed on its side with a loud crash, echoing through the high ceilings of the bank.

Electro was recovering, a hand on his thigh, as I moved around the edge of his desk. I risked a quick look at the energy gauge on my gauntlets. My weapons were so devoid of power, the display didn't even show the red 'empty' line. Crap. I was hoping I could get some kind of recharge. Even a level one blast would come in handy right now. I had no choice but to close in on Electro, coming around the corner quickly, charging right for...

He backhanded me as I got close, a charged blow that staggered me back a few feet. Electro was upright now, and I could see more energy building around his body. It was faint, but it was there, and every volt he generated made it less likely I could keep fighting him off.

"Hey, Herman...tell me how this feels." He pointed at me with his index finger. Even though I know it happened instantaneously, my mind saw it in slow motion, as the tines of electricity shot from his finger, on a direct path towards my body. Specifically, my lower body. Pain I had never known in my life, sharp, direct, cut into my body as the bolt of lightning hit me right where I had punished Electro a few seconds ago.

"Oh...my groin," I said as I fall to my knees, both hands going to hold myself. Earlier, the voltage going through my body was spread out, painful, but even. This shot was a direct kick right to the balls, the piercing pain mixed with the throbbing sensation in my lower stomach. Christ, that hurt...

Electro stepped up and kicked me under my chin like he was playing for the World Cup. My body, at this point, gave out, and I fell to the floor, curling up slightly into a fetal position. Any adrenaline left in my body was long gone, and the pain...oh, the pain...

Right here, Electro probably could have finished me off. He wouldn't even have to blast or shock me. Max could have simply kicked the crap out of me, stomping away, and I'm willing to bet I would have croaked within a few minutes. Why he didn't, I'll never know. Maybe he wanted it to be dramatic. Maybe he wanted it to be a little more definitive. Or maybe he just wanted to throw me around some more before ending my life.

As I laid helpless on the floor, Electro raised a hand...and pointed it away from me, back towards the vault where his crew was working. His eyes, he kept locked on me, never wavering as I looked back at him through tear filled eyes...tears of pain, not sadness, I need to point out to maintain my rep. He slightly clenched his fist, and that's when I heard the cries of panic.

"Hey! Boss, the vault door's closing, and the light's..."

That's all I heard before the booming crash of the vault door slamming shut.

Oh, that was NOT good.