Two decades before our main story, Gustav Fiers = AKA the Gentleman - meets Alfred Malik - Red Skull II - in Morocco and informs him that Richard and Mary Parker, two of Skull's trusted agents, are actually American intelligence operatives. The price of the information? Skull leave their offspring unharmed, so that the Gentleman can exact revenge on them at his leisure. Years later, he discovers that their son Peter Parker has miraculously developed superpowers, and continues to follow his career. But a few years later, he finds that Spider-Man has caused the death of his brother Karl Fiers while exonerating his deceased parents of treason. Stunned at the loss of his only sincere relationship, Gustav determines to destroy not only Spider-Man, but everything he holds dear in the years to come.
In the present day, Max Dillon buys some flowers in a vain attempt to impress Pity. While dropping them off, the Gentleman reveals to him that the next stage of his plan is starting, and gathers the Six to reveal their roles.
Spider-Man has recovered from the Day of Terror the Six inflicted a week ago, but still finds himself wondering whether Pity is his sister. SAFE analysts are working around the clock to figure out what the Six are planning to little success.
The next day, the Gentleman and Pity take a trip to the Diamond District and purchase over ten million dollars of diamonds, including a long-lost Romanov necklace. The Gentleman dispatches Pity to take them to safety and goes on a walk. But Pity's limo is attacked by carjackers of all things, and in the scuffle she's exposed to cops who recognize her. She parkours over the buildings in an attempt to flee, but Spider-Man catches up and they fight, Spider-Man attempting the I Know Youre In There Somewhere approach. It doesn't work, but in the process, Spider-Man breaks the briefcase with the jewels in it, spilling them to the street below.
Meanwhile, the Six have been busy. The group attack a multistory Rand-Meacham facility upstate protected by Sable Security and kill everyone in the building. They leave with the Oltion Field Generator, a part of the process the facility is built to study. There are forty-six deaths.
Pity is punished brutally by the Gentleman for losing the diamonds, but uncharacteristically, Toomes intervenes, saying that although general kindness means nothing to him, Pity is a teammate who's proved her worth, and deserves some professional respect from her peers. Everyone in the Six (except Octavius) verbally agrees, although the Gentleman still ekes out a win by mocking Max's crush on her. Regardless, the team proceed with the Gentleman telling them the final stages.
That night, Spider-Man, the SAFE team, and representatives from federal and city law enforcement meet to discuss what the generator theft and diamond purchase must mean. Claudia Monelle, a survivor from the Rand-Meacham massacre, reveals that the facility was creating a process that could create solid adamantium structures that could shapeshift into anything imaginable while retaining its toughness. In the hands of Doctor Octavius, such a thing could be highly dangerous. But Colonel Morgan and Palminetti arrive to reveal that the answer is somehow worse. The generator, when powered up by someone like Electro, could generate a miles-wide electromagnetic pulse that would permanently destroy any electrical system it touches. Morgan also reveals that they've discovered the theft of a Catalyst from Governor's Island. It's a chemical superweapon that bleaches all inks and dyes. Released in an airburst, it could spread for forty miles in all directions, destroying every paper record and monetary bill marking. Combined with the generator pulse wiping out electronic records, this would destroy New York's infrastructure in about a week, and - with New York's status as the world financial capital - the world economy in about a month. Many currencies, including the dollar, would fail. Countries would destabilize. Companies would fall. Racial tensions would flare as a result and some countries would go to war, with nuclear exchange a distinct possibility. World infrastructure would be damaged on a scale hitherto unconceived of.
The assembled personnel reel from this revelation, but Doctor Williams declares that the stakes have been raised so high that they can no longer afford to lose...
