Scorpion never expected Spider-Man to be able to discharge electricity, and such intense currents at that. The light from the white lightning almost eclipsed the scorching sun. In the three seconds it took him to hit the ground, he saw his life flash before his eyes: Mac Gargan's thirty-four years of life rewound like a low-quality videotape.
Mac Gargan was a very ordinary person with a very boring ability. He could often find connections within large amounts of diverse information. This was the beginning of his career as a private detective, but after a few cases, Gargan realized a very important and practical truth—that this mode of work simply didn't make any money. So, Gargan suddenly understood. From a certain day onwards, the doorknob of his private detective agency was gilded, his clients' briefcases concealed his specially made wiretaps, and there was always a bank account ready for transfers—he learned to openly price his clients' secrets and sell them to those who needed them more.
Mac Gargan finally made a fortune, and this talent was noticed by Wilson Fisk, leading him to become Fisk's personal detective.
And it became the key to his revenge.
"Ugh... ah."
Scorpion propped himself up within his heavy armor. Unlike Iron Man, his armor wasn't powered by a reactor, nor was it like Shocker, who generated electricity from the recoil of his vibration waves. This suit, aside from some built-in mechanisms, was actually powered by Gargan himself, relying on his mutated physical body. Its purpose was to provide sufficient protection when fighting Spider-Man.
He shook his head, brushed off the concrete fragments clinging to him, and stood up almost simultaneously with Spider-Man. He looked at the furious Spider-Man and couldn't help but laugh.
"You're faster and more eager than I thought. Have the Avengers arrived?"
Spider-Man didn't speak, just stared at him, subtle electric sparks still flickering in his hands. Scorpion narrowed his eyes. Wasn't Spider-Man supposed to be quite the talker? Why wasn't he saying a word now?
Right, he was angry.
He's angry? I'm not even angry yet!
"This is all your own doing!"
Then Scorpion's tail rose high, segment after segment extending his massive tail to ten meters in length, stabbing towards Spider-Man with extreme swiftness. Spider-Man's upper body, without a word, twisted slightly, letting Scorpion's tail brush past him.
Good. Next, according to Spider-Man's previous combat data, he would grab his tail and throw him.
But Spider-Man didn't do that; instead, he vanished. Scorpion paused for a moment, then activated his eye-lens's thermal imaging. At the same time, gun barrels opened on his mechanical tail, sweeping in all directions.
The bullets missed their target, and thermal imaging showed that Spider-Man was already in front of him. Invisible, he punched Scorpion in the face. A clear crack appeared in Scorpion's eye-lens, but Scorpion laughed. Rocked by the punch, Scorpion immediately backhanded Spider-Man across the face.
The immense force sent the high schooler, who was just over five feet seven, flying back, landing steadily not far away.
"You think your anger will accomplish anything?"
Scorpion's tail mechanism began to deform, turning into an automatic Gatling gun, firing continuously at Spider-Man. He laughed manically, roaring, "You can't do anything! You got the power of a spider, and I got the power of a scorpion! A scorpion that preys on spiders."
Spider-Man remained silent, uttering no words. His web shot towards Scorpion. Scorpion directly caught the web, then pulled hard towards himself. He even ignored the continuous lightning Spider-Man discharged, thanks to his armor.
Although the armor's data showed various errors, Spider-Man no longer had the strength to fight back. A small price to pay was nothing.
Spider-Man seemed to want to arm wrestle with Scorpion but didn't gain the upper hand. At the same time, Scorpion's tail cannon aimed at Spider-Man and began continuous firing. Spider-Man still held onto the web but jumped high to dodge, then continuously released electricity onto Scorpion.
Scorpion had grown tired of playing.
His tail began to deform again, the high-concentration acid spitting mode reappearing. The strong acid corroded the web.
Then, he leaped, charging directly towards Spider-Man. He crashed down beside Spider-Man. At this moment, he was incredibly furious, yet also incredibly exhilarated. He effortlessly caught Spider-Man's punch, then immediately punched him in the face.
"Is your fist that powerless?"
Scorpion, gripping Spider-Man's fist with one hand, punched Spider-Man in the face again and again: "You have no idea! To get revenge on you freaks, I turned myself into a freak like you! Do you even realize?! A scorpion! Preys! On a spider!"
Spider-Man remained silent, unmoving.
Finally, he spoke.
"Perhaps, Gargan."
He gripped Scorpion's hand as he swung another punch, then clenched it tightly. Scorpion froze, trying to break free, but couldn't.
This shouldn't be happening. Spider-Man's strength shouldn't be greater than his.
The scorpion tail behind him turned into a sharp spike, quickly striking towards Spider-Man, but even with both his hands controlled, Spider-Man merely kicked him in the waist, sending him sprawling.
"The reason I didn't answer you is because... I don't know how to answer you."
Scorpion had barely gotten up when he was struck hard. His wild sense buzzed, but he couldn't stop Spider-Man from pulling out an entire lamppost and swinging it at him.
"Because I can't find any reason to forgive you!"
"Forgive?!" Scorpion laughed, his tail turning into a blade that severed the incoming lamppost again: "My spine was broken by you! I became a cripple, forced to carry this thing and become a monster just to walk! And you talk about forgiveness?!"
Scorpion received no answer, because Spider-Man vanished. Even in thermal imaging, Spider-Man was nowhere to be found, but quickly, Spider-Man reappeared.
He appeared directly in front of Scorpion, abruptly, without warning, as if slicing out of the space before him, then simply grabbed Scorpion's helmet with his hand.
"Yeah, you don't deserve forgiveness at all."
"Cindy, don't worry about us for now."
Looking at his daughter, who had pulled him out of the webs, Mr. Albert shook his head: "Go help Spider-Man, stop the bad guy. That's what you should do."
"And, you must remember..."