New York's underdistrict pulsed with life, a chaotic heartbeat of fight pits and black markets where Earth-731's outcasts thrived. It was 2030, and Peter Parker, as Mad Spider, navigated the neon-lit chaos, Gwen at his side. His blood-red costume, now patched with scavenged kevlar, marked him as a fugitive, but his spider-powers made him untouchable—almost. The pain from Oscorp's electroshock torture lingered, a burning reminder that flared with every move, but Gwen's ritual, their intimate anchor, kept his madness at bay. "This place is a circus," he quipped, his Deadpool-like humor cutting through the din of a fight pit crowd. "And I'm the main act!" Gwen, clutching her tablet, smirked. "Just don't get us booed off the stage."
Flashback: At 13, Peter and Gwen snuck into a street fair, laughing as they dodged vendors. "You're trouble," Gwen teased, tossing him a stolen apple. Peter grinned, his heart light. "Only with you." That innocence was gone, replaced by the madness Oscorp had forged.
The fight pits were a brutal arena, where outcasts bet on blood and scavenged tech. Peter and Gwen needed resources—weapons, comms, allies—to hit Oscorp's servers again. Cipher's last message pointed them here, where Neon Shadows survivors might hide. Peter entered a pit, his costume drawing cheers and jeers. "Time to make some friends," he said, his grin sharp. The opponent, a hulking cyber-thug with metal arms, charged. Mad Spider danced around him, webbing his limbs and tossing quips. "Nice upgrades! Did Oscorp give you the discount?" The crowd roared, but Peter's violence—snapping the thug's arm—silenced some, his Joker-like cruelty surfacing.
Gwen watched from the sidelines, her heart torn. Peter's humor won allies, but his brutality pushed them away. She hacked a pit terminal, tracing Cipher's signal, her mind drifting to a flashback: at 19, she'd sabotaged an Oscorp experiment to spare Peter pain, risking exposure. Now, she found a Neon Shadows contact, a fighter named Razor. "He's with us," Razor said, eyeing Peter. "But he's a loose cannon." Gwen nodded, her loyalty unwavering. "He's our cannon."
Peter won the fight, earning a cache of EMPs and encrypted comms. Razor joined them, impressed but wary. "You're trouble," he said. Peter laughed, his eyes wild. "Trouble's my middle name!" But the pain flared, dropping him. Gwen pulled him into an alley, their ritual calming his nerves. "You're slipping," she whispered, her touch gentle. "Stay with me." Peter's laughter softened. "For you, Gwenny, I'll try." Her love, a constant since childhood, was his anchor, but the madness whispered louder, urging destruction.
They planned their next move: use the pit's resources to raid an Oscorp data vault. Razor's crew, a mix of fighters and hackers, agreed to help, drawn by Peter's charisma but wary of his edge. As they prepared, a bounty hunter—a sleek cyborg with a plasma rifle—spotted them. Peter's spider-senses flared, and he webbed Gwen behind a crate. "Party crasher!" he shouted, diving into the fight. His regeneration soaked up plasma burns, his agility dodging blasts. He webbed the hunter's rifle, quipping, "Bad aim, worse haircut!" But the hunter signaled Blackweb, and drones swarmed the pits.
The fight erupted, pit fighters clashing with drones. Peter's violence surged, his laughter manic as he tore through machines. Gwen hacked a drone, redirecting its fire, but Razor took a hit, his arm burned. "You're gonna get us killed!" he spat. Peter's grin didn't falter, but Gwen's voice cut through. "Peter, we need you!" He pulled back, swinging her out of the chaos. The pits burned, their allies scattering.
Cliffhanger: Mad Spider and Gwen escape with Razor, the bounty hunter's signal drawing Blackweb closer. "Time to raise the stakes," Peter laughs, his madness teetering, as a new Oscorp threat looms on a city screen.