I knew what was happening. The only source of power Electro could suck juice from was the generator running the lights to his crew in the vault. He wasn't content with what his body could create...he was going to end this once and for all, and that generator could provide him with a lot of kicking-Herman's-ass potential. In the process of draining the generator dry, though, I'm willing to bet that Electro also pulled the residual energy out of the alarm panel he had shocked earlier. Hence, the vault thought it was experiencing another blackout, and the door's internal motor swung it closed again.

The good news? That meant the mooks, save Keller, were trapped in the vault, unable to come give their boss a hand.

The bad news? Well, Electro's about to give you a firsthand example. He stalked over to where I was laid out on the tile floor. His body crackled with electricity, swirling and shooting over his body. Under my suit, I could feel the hair on my arms stand on end as he bent down, grabbing be by the throat with one hand. "I love generators," Electro said as his fingers squeezed my neck. "They store so much power then they use. It's like chugging a 3 liter bottle of Mountain Dew and then downing a bunch of Pixie Dust. And the best part is..."

With no effort, Electro lifted me into the air. My legs immediately began to kick, trying to find purchase, as both hands clutched at his arm. The tip of his fingers dug into the side of my neck. Gasping for air, I pounded at his forearm, ignoring the tingles as my hands passed through the veil of electricity around him. He laughed, mocking my efforts, as he pulled me close, my face just inches from his, close enough for me to see the lightning bolts in his eyes.

"The best part, Herman, is that this is just a jump start. Blast all I want. I'll just make more."

Almost effortlessly, Electro turned around, bringing his arm up and over. His fingers released their grip at the top of his motion. With one arm, not breaking a sweat, the Villain of Voltage hurled me through the air like a javelin. I wasn't the most aerodynamic projectile, but Electro had enough on his throw to overcome any resistance I might have put up. The office area we had trashed passed quickly under me as I flew over the trail of destruction before I slammed into the window that Keller had shot up earlier.

And sailed right on through. And then through the one of the opposite side.

The first window shattered easily as, back first, I crashed through it, smacking into it near the top sending thick shards of safety glass to the floor of the hallway leading to the vault. But the impact didn't stop my flight. Even as the sound of glass breaking reached my ears, I slammed into the opposite pane of glass, which shattered under the force of Electro's throw. As I landed on the tile floor behind the row of teller windows, I bounced and skidded across the floor, landing in a heap near the back wall.

Ow.

Nothing seemed broken, I thought as I managed to sit up. One hand clutched at a fixture on the wall as I pulled myself up to my feet against the protest of my entire body. Shaking my head to clear the cobwebs, I caught a glimpse of bright lightning coming my direction. Electro was walking around the walls, heading to the vault hallway...and from there, back here to finish me off.

My gloves? Still empty. Electro had succeeded in sucking them completely dry. The front door was unguarded, but when I took a step in that direction, it was obvious I'd never make it in time before Electro blasted me down. I looked around, panic beginning to set in like it had that first night, when I was dealing with those zombies outside the Bar With No Name, the fear I had felt when I had thought I had killed the guy I shoved into the fire hydrant...

...

...

...oh, of course!

My scan of the area became more focused. The ceilings were too high, but the Federal American Bank was in an older, 19th century building, which meant that the odds were good that what I needed was nearby. And, it was. Specifically, the fixture I had used to get to my feet. I yanked the door open. It banged off the wall behind it, but I was already pulling the flat fabric out from where it had been packed inside. As Electro, not even bothering to look in my direction, stalked down the hallway, I turned the wheel at the end of the fabric. Relief flooded my thoughts as the fabric quickly ballooned, going from a flat coiled pile to a long tube.

Maxwell turned the corner. From where I stood, I could see the grin on his face as he probably entertained thoughts of frying me to a crisp. But under my mask, the smile on my face was grim and determined. I was about to finally level the playing feel. If this didn't put Electro down for good, at the very least, it'd sap away all the electricity he was stacking. And as beat up as I was...I was angry enough, in a fist fight, I'd kick Max's ass.

I put my back against the wall, planting my feet, and trying my best to brace my wrists. His grin turned a bit sour as Electro moved through the swinging half-door towards me. Yellow light poured from him, and the bolts of electricity shooting over him reminded me of moths going for a streetlamp. The guy was packing enough voltage to knock me out of my boots.

Good. It would make this that much more effective.

I can't believe I was about to say what I was about to say. I know I always bitched when Spider-Man laid a cheesy line on me, but over the past few nights, I've found one-liners slowly slipping into my vocabulary. Maybe that's the price of being a good guy...bad dialogue.

"Hey, Electro," I said as I aimed the brass nozzle at him, "guess what? You get to drink from THE FIRE HOSE!"

I pulled the lever back. The recoil almost shot the nozzle from my hands, but I managed to keep it steady despite my barking wrists. A high-pressure stream of water flew from the end of the fire hose towards Electro, and before he could dive or duck, it slammed into the center of his chest.

You know what happens when water hits electricity, kids. Short circuit.

All that voltage was about to go bye-bye.

Steam hissed from around Electro as I kept the stream focused on him. I felt like one of the Ghostbusters as I poured it on, every drop blowing the power from his body. I lost sight of him in the vapor that formed around his body, but I didn't divert from him, keeping the water aimed. My wrists were sore, and my legs ached from holding myself in place, but I wasn't taking a single chance I didn't have to. The more soaked Electro got, the better...

It shot up the stream of water at me. The speed that the liquid flew away from the nose didn't matter to the bolt of lightning doing its best impersonation of salmon swimming upstream. It flew up the water towards the brass nozzle in my hand. Before I could drop it, the nozzle conducted the electricity, and it flowed directly into my hands. On reflex, I let go of the fire hose, my hands shaking from the jolt. Without me to hold it steady, the nozzle whipped through the air...

...and conked me on the side of the head, smacking into my temple with the force of the shooting water. With bells ringing in my head, I fell backwards, sliding down the wall supporting me to end up sitting on the floor. The world went blurry, and I could barely make out anything. It was all a big blur. In front of me, the fire hose snaked and skittered across the floor, propelled by the water spraying from it as it clattered on the marble.

A bright yellow cloud made its way toward me. As it closed, I heard the crackling of energy mixed with the footsteps. I tried to raise a hand in defense, but my body seemed to finally be on the verge of quitting completely to go find another poor sucker to listen to. After all, I had gotten us into this mess...

The cloud took on green-and-yellow features as I heard the squeaking of the water wheel being turned. The fire nozzle stopped its dancing on the floor, and the fire house went from filled tube to layers of flat fabric. Hands soon grabbed me by the front of my uniform. I protested, weakly, as Electro, his form slowly coming into focus, lifted me and slammed me against the wall. His body still shone with power...and he didn't appear wet.

Damp, like he had just walked through a heavy fog. But he didn't show the telltale signs of being blasted with a high-pressure fire hose. His hands, holding my quilted armor in its fists, buzzed against my skin through the insulation. I looked into his eyes, which were almost completely yellow, flashing like a thunderstorm as he peered at me.

"How..." I found myself croaking. "...how did you...why didn't you..."

"Why didn't I short circuit?" Electro's smile held malice and delight as he explained had happened. "I've fallen for the water-and-power trick too many times, Shocker, to fall for it anymore. I'm packing enough electricity right now, all I had to do was redirect it to protect me. All that water, Herman, it vaporized before it even got close. You can thank the Rose for that one." The smile slowly faded, replaced now by anger, bereft of joy now as he hoisted me into the air. "Play time's over, Herman. You've been a tough little scrape, and to be honest, it's been fun. But I'm on a schedule here, and my guys are waiting in the vault. So..."

He pulled back, and slammed me into the wall just beside the fire house fixture. My back flared up at the impact as chips of sandstone colored plaster flew from around me.

"...why don't you be a good boy..."

Electro stepped back, and this time, he rammed me into the wall. I heard the telltale crack of brick at the impact.

"...and just..."

Now, with one hand, he pulled me back before hurling me into the wall, a fistful of my uniform the only thing holding us together. The masonry under the sandstone plaster was crumbling from his efforts. Electro pulled me back a final time, and with both hands, leaned backwards for maximum distance.

"...die!"

He shoved me forward, almost hurling me into the wall with both hands. My spine felt like it cracked in half at the impact...and then, I found myself falling backwards. Electro, still gripping me tightly, stumbled with me, losing his footing as gravity took over. The masonry broke down completely, 19th century concrete giving up the ghost as the impact from a charged Electro's assault, using me as an involuntary battering ram.

Luckily, the black marble floor broke my fall. And then I broke Electro's.

The sudden stumble had stunned Max, and he rolled off of me, letting go of my uniform even as his body still crackled. I rolled to the opposite side, grabbing onto a nearby object to steady myself. As I focused, I found myself staring at a brown-and-yellow mask, covered with plaster and scorched in several places. Behind that, I could make out the edges of a finely painted mural, showing an army on the march, stretching across the wall.

We had stumbled into the bathroom of the bank...probably the executive one, if the mural, the floor, and the black marble sinks were any indication. The only light came from the glow of Electro. Reflected by the mirror I was staring in, I could see him getting to his feet, and I tried to do the same. He was hopefully stunned by the...

No. He was quick, and as I stood up, his forearm wrapped around my neck. It squeezed tightly, cutting off my circulation, as Electro's other hand went back to my throat. "Damn it, Herman, you're making this tough on yourself!" I clutched at the forearm, trying to get some room to breathe, as Electro tried to find the seam in my costume. Visions of him using his hand as the cap on an electric chair to fry me danced in my head, and I put up as best a fight as I could. Gasping and wheezing for breath, I put a foot on the edge of the sink, and pushed backwards. We stumbled across the bathroom, twisting and turning as I tried to break free. He couldn't find the seam, but his death grip on my neck was starting to take its toll. Blackness was threatening to creep into the edges of my vision, and that would have been game over for me.

When we passed in front of the mural, it was my turn to use the wall to my advantage. I grabbed at his forearm with both of my hands, and after spinning him around, shoved backwards, slamming him into the painting. The first time, he kept his grip, but after two more attempts, I managed to break free. He cursed, rubbing at his back, as I stumbled forward, my hands coming to rest on the edge of the sink.

Breath flowed back into my lungs, but not quickly enough. In the mirror, I could see Electro ready to charge and finish me off, his yellow light and the red light of my energy gauge what I would die by...

...red light.

I had one charge. One level one blast in me.

Without thinking, I raised my fist, and brought it down on the edge of the sink, firing my blast as I did so. The sink cracked, thick pieces of black marble tumbling to the floor as the faucet fell away from the wall as I quickly stepped to the side. It wasn't a fire hose, but the pipe behind the faucet sprayed across the bathroom, hitting Electro.

I heard Max laughing as the water hit him. "Herman, come on, we just did this. You know this won't stop me."

"No, but this will."

And with every single bit of strength I could coax, drag, pull, and bribe from my body, I brought the piece of black marble up from the floor and into Electro's jaw.

I didn't have to hit him true, I just had to smack him. And I got him good. He wasn't expecting it, and, like an uppercut, I exploded from the floor and drove the piece of the sink into his face. His head snapped backwards, and he stumbled into the wall, arms askew as he tried to keep his balance. I could make out his yellow eyes, glazing over slightly. "Damn..." he muttered, and pushed off from the wall, coming for me again...

This time, my attack pinned his head against the marble and the mural. I put everything behind it, pivoting on my foot to smack his head against the wall. The surest way to put someone unconscious is to knock their head into something unmovable, and let physics to the rest. Using a heavy piece of masonry for the weapon doesn't hurt either.

The satisfying crunch of a broken nose greeted me, just before the "thwack" of Electro's head slamming into the wall. He bounced forward slightly, and his head turned to face me, yellow eyes still full of lightning...until his eyelids slid over them, and he fell forward, landing on the floor.

Unmoving.

I spent 30 seconds making sure he didn't move, before I dropped the tile onto the ground next to him with a loud clatter. Ok. Great. I felt like I had been through a meat grinder, and the trip home was going to an experience, and I had no idea how I was going to explain to Aleksei how I turned into Limpy McLimperson while he slept...

Forget all that. I won. Electro tried to kill me, and he should have, but I won. I beat him. Without my weapons. Just with every single piece of furniture and fixture the bank had.

I stumbled out into the teller area. My legs were fine, save for some slight limping, but my upper body probably had enough bruises to look like a map of the New York underground. I bent over the nearest teller window, groaning, as I tried to determine what my next move was going to be. First, I was going to go through every desk that was still intact and try to find some damn Tylenol...

Click.

"Don't move, Shocker," the high pitched voice of Keller said. "I don't know how you did it, but..."

Fwoosh.

Did I mention my other glove had a level one stored up as well?

Keller slid to the ground. I kicked the pistol he had been pointing at my head away from him before poking his fallen body with my boot. He lay, unmoving, as I looked around the bank we had turned into a battlefield. The windows were just starting to show the very beginnings of morning on Manhattan, the light from the sun escaping over the horizon and snaking through the concrete canyons. I could hear the cries of the soldiers in the vault as I observed the path of destruction Maxwell and I had made...

Ooooh. The teller window next to this one has a can of lollipops. Cherry, too. My favorite.

X

"You just going to leave us to die, Shocker?"

I took the cherry lollipop out of my mouth and glared at the tied-up Keller. "You know, I have a half a mind to just leave you here to get eaten. Especially you, Keller. You shot at me. Twice. You know how damn rude that is? I'm almost offended."

Oh, damn it. There they are again, the bad quips.

I'll blame those on the Vicodin, though. I had lucked out when the second desk I searched contained an orange bottle with several pills inside. They were the only reason I still had an upper body capable of moving. The bottle was tucked inside my suit...along with the several bottles of insulin.

Unbroken.

In all the running, in the slamming, and the throwing, and the shocking, and the blasting, the very thing that I had originally gone out for were still intact. I couldn't explain it, but maybe, just maybe, luck was starting to show me a permanent sense of favoritism, or karma was letting me cash in some chips from the past two nights of work.

"But I'm not offended enough. I don't kill people, Keller. That just ain't my style." I wrapped the last of the duct tape around Electro's wrists, nearly ten layers binding his hands together behind his body. "I'm gonna give you guys a chance. And I ain't even gonna take any of the stuff you guys came here for. As far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to it all. All I want is to walk out of here and be left alone."

"Huh. You think Electro's gonna let that happen, Shocker?"

I looked down at Max. Blood ran from the mouth hole on his mask, and behind one of his eye slits, the socket was puffed up and turning a shade of black. "He ain't in any condition to put up a fight. And if he tries," I said, making sure my vibro-smashers were still showing a yellow charge, "he'll regret it."

"What about the big guy?" Keller sneered as he said this, trying to intimidate me...a guy who just beat the living crap out of Electro after getting the crap kicked out of him, who's walking around with armed weapons on his hands. He scared me about as much as a seven-year old girl with a cone of cotton candy. "You think he's gonna forget what you did?"

"He's got his gold, he's got his crew, and he's still got Electro. He doesn't have a reason to be mad at me." I hoped. If the guy got so worked up over me taking Tombstone's stash of goods, hopefully letting Electro and his bunch walk out of her with everything they had come for would be a sign of good faith. I wasn't in the mood, or the condition, for another fight. All I wanted to do was make sure, when Electro woke up, he'd have a chance to free Keller, who'd free himself, and then they'd free the guys still pounding away in the vault. And by then, my ass would be long gone.

I didn't have to do this. Electro had been ordered to kill me, and I was sorely tempted to return the favor. But...that wasn't me. I didn't care that the world was ending, I wasn't going to let it change who I fundamentally was. And that was someone who didn't murder.

Keller glared at me from where he was tied up. Using the fire hose, I had bound his unconscious body to one of the teller's chairs, wrapping his wrists and ankles up by threading the fabric through the legs and silts on the back. By the time he had woken up, I was already looking for the duct tape to tie up Max.

"If we're all tied up, Shocker, how the hell are we gonna get out of here?"

"Good question." With Electro bound tightly, I turned to face Keller. "Here's how this is gonna work, Keller. And I'm going to say this just once, so it's very important that you pay attention." I pointed to the counter. "That teller station has a letter opener. When Electro wakes up, he grabs the letter open brings it to you, and you slice the tape off his wrists. He frees you, and then he jolts the same place he jolted to open the vault earlier. Your buddies get let out, you finish the job you guys started, and you're all on our merry way."

"Why don't you just give me the letter opener now and let me saw my way out, huh?"

"Because I'm not an idiot, even if my brain probably looks like an egg in a frying pan right now," I shot back. "You got all that, Keller?"

"If he doesn't," a gravelly voice spoke slowly, "I do."

I couldn't believe it. On the ground behind me, Electro had opened his eyes. They were white, clear of any electricity. All the energy he had gathered had dissipated while he was unconscious, which is why I could tie him up without worrying about getting shocked.

"Damn, Max," I told him. "I guess I didn't hit you hard enough."

"Oh, no, you smacked me plenty," he groused. He scooted to a sitting position, groaning in pain. "I'm surprised you didn't crack a tooth with that sink." He stared at me now, without a trace of anger in his glare. "That was pretty impressive, Herman. I thought I almost had you where I wanted you."

With my opponent helpless...I don't know. I just felt like being honest since he wasn't a threat to me. "You almost did, Max. Whatever the Rose did for you, it's working. You just tried to use it against me."

"Yeah, well...business." A poor excuse, but one I understood completely. "So, that's it then? You walk out of here, leave us be, and that's that?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Max. That's that." I hobbled over to where he was laying, looking down on him with just a bit of pity. His boss was going to kick his ass, and I felt a little bad about that. All Max wanted was a bit of respect...but he tried to carve it out of my dead body, and I wasn't going to stand for that. "Tell your boss I don't want any trouble. Letting you guys walk out of here, as far as I'm concerned, is a sign of good faith on my part." I wanted to back my words up with some kind of tough talk, but when two guys just beat the crap out of each other, honesty and a complete lack of bull and bluff come naturally. "You got all that?"

"Yeah...yeah, Herman. I got it." Electro shifted slightly. "Just one favor, alright? Can you help me up before you go? You did a number on my legs and balls with the 'desk drawer' trick. Without my hands, I'm toast."

After a few seconds, I nodded. "Alright. Don't try anything, though. I'll blast you back into unconsciousness."

Electro coughed as he laughed. Carefully, keeping an eye on his hands behind his back, I helped the Villain of Voltage to his feet. I even went so far as to spin him around so his fingers could grip the edge of the letter opener before quickly backing away. "Thanks, Herman," he told me.

"Yeah," I said. There really wasn't anything else to say. Carefully, Electro stumbled towards where Keller was sitting. I beat feet the other way, backing through the swinging door towards the main entrance to the bank. I...I knew Electro probably wouldn't stab me in the back. But just in case, that's why I had tied his hands behind his back, so he couldn't throw lightning at me. Never hurts to be absolutely sure.

I kept my eye on the pair as Electro slowly made his way across the teller area. I was in the lobby, about to hit the door, when Max spoke up for the final time. "Don't consider this just an idle threat though, Herman. If my boss says to come after you again, I will. I know he'll be dead set..."

In the middle of his sentence, Electro's chest exploded.

I saw it before I heard it. One moment, he was talking, and an instant later, blood, lungs, and a shower of sparks filled the air. Some of it splattered on an instantly screaming Keller, but the rest fell behind Electro. He stepped backwards, staggering under the hammer blow that had shredded the front of his costume into a rag of spandex. He half-turned towards me, eyes wide with surprise, just moments before his body collapsed behind the teller's window.

The north window had shattered, high up on the wall, just under where the ceiling began. The sun was high enough now to provide backlight, and I saw Electro's murderer clear as day. He hung from the window by a harness, black hair cut close to his body. The red sighting laser swung through the air, cutting across the lobby to focus on me. I knew what that meant, and I knew what had happened to Electro was going to happen to me. But I had to stare. I couldn't believe it. After everything that had happened to me tonight...not this.

Not him.

I registered the white skull on black Kevlar just as the laser sight aligned on my forehead...