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Chapter 59 - Chapter 59: Count Of Nefaria Henchman Eel

He would not apologize for that.

He slid between a man's legs, saw him hit the ground, let Daredevil use his face as a trampoline, and when Daredevil turned and drew two more men's attention he hit them both as he came down.

"I think this is the perfect moment to test the new suit upgrades," Cortana said.

He nodded, kicked a subject hard enough to deposit him against a car door, and jumped into a somersault to avoid a man swinging a hammer at his head.

Landing behind him, he hit the ribs hard, causing the hammer to drop, then punched him in the stomach as he turned, dropping him to his knees, and used him as a trampoline to launch himself over the kneeling man and kick another criminal approaching from behind.

He used his webs to gather the criminals he was engaging, performing acrobatic sequences while wrapping them, something loosely reminiscent of what Spider-Tom had done with the Machina machines.

"Let us get this party started!"

He smiled behind the mask as blue electricity discharged from his blasters. "I will roast criminals, as my good friend Maxi would say!"

Daredevil could feel what was happening nearby and stood for a moment genuinely fascinated.

"Suit power at 47%," Cortana reported when he finished.

The criminals were all down.

The suit had less charge than he would have preferred. The battery system, modeled on the one from Knight and Day, had solved the overheating problem but was still in its testing stage. The question of how to charge it in the field was one he was still working through.

"Good work," Daredevil said, and dropped abruptly onto a nearby surface due to exhaustion.

"Wolverine is here."

Wolverine arrived moments later.

"Very kind of you to join us," Spider-Man said, gesturing at the unconscious men around them, "but as you can see, Daredevil and I kept all the fun for ourselves. Apologies for not saving you any."

Wolverine ignored this completely and walked directly to Daredevil.

"You got your ass handed to you pretty badly, did you not?" he said, reaching out and touching his bruised cheek.

"Ouch!" Daredevil pulled back.

"Advantages of a healing factor."

"Go to hell," Daredevil said, which he delivered in the tone of someone who means it but has too many broken ribs to be emphatic about it.

"You two get along very well," Spider-Man said.

"No, we do not," they said, simultaneously.

"Ah." He opened a radio channel.

"Watanabe, situation under control. Send your men to collect all of this garbage. We are done here...."

His spider-sense fired like a fire alarm.

He stopped mid-sentence and turned around.

"We are not finished," Wolverine growled, extending his claws.

"Just when I thought I would get a break," Daredevil said, grabbing a crowbar and a bat from the ground and getting into his stance.

"Watanabe, hold that. New situation." Spider-Man started walking toward the newcomer, who was wearing a suit of what appeared to be blue and purple fabric.

"An ugly and hideous American blue and Galactosian purple."

"What pathetic excuses for heroes," the newcomer said, in a voice that carried precisely the kind of arrogance that makes a person want to find a Vibranium boot reinforced with Adamantium and apply it to a specific anatomical location. Every note of it was Stark 616-level. "By order of the Count of Nefaria, I have come to eradicate you."

He raised his head and arms dramatically, causing rays of light to emit from his body.

"Tremble before the almighty Eel!"

Spider-Man said nothing...

Daredevil said nothing....

Wolverine said nothing....

"Who?" all three said, at the same time.

A beat of silence.

Then Wolverine's face lit up as if someone had plugged a cable into him.

"Wait! I know who you are!" He pointed at the man, and Eel's chest puffed out with pride at being recognized. "You are the bad guy!"

"Prfff." Spider-Man covered his mouth with his hand. Eel's pride evaporated completely.

"I think he made that fairly obvious," Daredevil whispered to Wolverine, who growled in acknowledgment.

Spider-Man sighed.

He remembered who this was. If it were not for the memory enhancement from the serum and the spider bite working together he probably would not have pulled the name at all.

"Whatever," Wolverine said. "Listen, Lightbulb!" Eel went visibly irritated, small lightning bolts crackling around him. "Tell whatever idiot you work for to go to hell!"

"What insolence!" Eel raised one hand, which began crackling with electrical charge. "You dare disrespect the Count of Nefaria?! I will rip your head off for that!"

A beam launched toward them. Spider-Man grabbed Wolverine by the hand and threw him sideways, then grabbed Daredevil and pulled him clear.

"Stay here," he said to Daredevil, shooting a web toward a building and launching himself at Eel. In the air, he twisted his body to avoid the electric shock Eel sent at him.

Eel launched a lightning bolt to the right. It was a feint. The real bolt came from the left.

His eyes went wide. He could not react in time. It hit him full force and he was thrown backward, and then Eel was on him, channeling a sustained electrical discharge directly into him.

The suit's insulation prevented him from being electrocuted, but Wolverine and Daredevil did not have that protection.

Wolverine recovered quickly from the push Spider-Man had given him, extended his claws, and charged, but Eel dodged the attacks with surprising agility and hit him with an electric blast.

Daredevil joined, but Eel was a competent opponent and landed enough electric hits that Daredevil was struggling to recover between exchanges.

Spider-Man shot a web at a lamppost and a wall, used the shockwave to launch himself toward Daredevil.

"Magic Kick!" He connected with Eel's face, sent him into a wall, grabbed Daredevil, and jumped back as an electrical discharge hit the space they had just vacated.

"Damned insect," Eel growled, pulling himself out of the rubble.

"Get to a safe distance," Spider-Man told Daredevil, helping him up. "You are not in condition to keep fighting."

"But I...."

"Go!" He pushed him and performed a somersault to avoid a blade made of pure electricity. Eel tried to send a beam at him while he was mid-air, but a web caught it and redirected it into a building.

"Now!" Daredevil nodded and moved, staggering but moving.

"You think that is going to det-...." Spider-Man webbed himself toward Eel and punched him in the face, sending him back. He webbed him again immediately and pulled him forward into a kick, the same motion as Rogers in Civil War.

"You think talking makes you intimidating?" Spider-Man said, dodging an electric shock by leaning sideways, then running in and hitting him in the face and following immediately with a knee to the stomach.

"It just makes you look stupid."

"You bastard!" Eel unleashed a shockwave and at close range Spider-Man had no time to fully clear the blast radius. He hit the wall.

"AHHH!" He tried to get out of the rubble and a construction rod pierced the suit and the skin beneath it, lodging near his right kidney. He gritted his teeth and pulled himself free of the debris. He took the rod out. Blood came fast, like a river. "ARGH!"

He pressed against the wound. It was not stopping. He started covering it with webbing. His spider-sense fired and he moved sideways, but not far enough. The electric shock hit and sent him through another wall. The electricity also hit a gas pipe.

BOOM.

Eel stepped out of the burning building and looked at him on the ground.

"Disappointing," he said, walking over. "But not surprising. You are just an insignificant insect."

"Shit," Spider-Man said, tried to get up, and Eel kicked him back down, then put his foot on his chest directly on the injury.

"Stay on the ground. I will make this quick. Last words, insect."

"Give me a minute to think of something good. And a pen."

"Die, insect!" He raised his hand and materialized a blade of concentrated electricity. He prepared to drive it into Spider-Man's heart, and in his enthusiasm he had removed his foot from the chest wound.

Fatal mistake.

Spider-Man rolled sideways. The blade stuck into the ground. He put both hands down, bent his body, and used Eel's head as a landing surface.

The force blurred Eel's vision considerably. Spider-Man grabbed him, lifted him, and delivered a headbutt that broke his nose.

He pulled the mask off and kicked him, sending him into the fountain. Eel recovered fast.

"AHHH!" The angle at which his back hit the fountain edge was not a comfortable one.

"As I said," Spider-Man replied, pressing another web application against his wound, "you talk too much."

They both ran at each other.

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