He jumped from the peak of the spire on top of the Chrysler Building. The sensation of being in freefall excited him as adrenaline rushed through his body. As a few seconds passed, he pointed his arm at another skyscraper, triggering a button with his middle and ring finger. A white web shot through his wrist and attached itself to the building, breaking him out of freefall as he let out an excited excmation while swinging through the sky.

  Tell me there’s something better. Go on, try.

  With his other arm, he shot another web at a different building mid-swing and detached the previous web from his wrist. Going through the air, he reached the side of the building and let go of the web before running on the side of the wall more than thirty stories off the ground.

  How I spent my summer vacation. By Peter Benjamin Parker. I can sum it up in one glorious hyphenated word: Spider-Man.

  “I am the Spectacur Spider-Man!” He announced as he shot his webs at two buildings at the same time and yanked both arms forward, slingshotting through the air.

  Well, this time would be the second edition of that specific book. I’ve been doing this Spider-Man gig for a little over a year and a half now, and I have to say, it’s been the best year and a half of my life. Save for a few hiccups…

  While being a high-school student in the morning and a masked viginte hero at night sounded like a pretty perfect job on paper, there were more than a few problems with that. And the biggest problem? Money. It didn’t exactly pay to work as a viginte at night. Not only did it not pay, but it also got him the wrong kind of attention.

  It’s not all bad, of course. I get to have an awesome time beating up bad guys and saving people from them.

  He heard a sudden transmission in his ear and narrowed his eyes.

  “10-16… which one was that again?” He spoke to himself, changing his direction mid-route by slingshotting himself with the help of two buildings. “Oh yeah, a stolen vehicle.”

  He quickly made his way to the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue as directed by the police scanner. When close enough, he slowed down and focused his Spider-Sense to locate the exact position of the vehicle by the sounds of the sirens. Immediately, he located the source and shot forward, swinging through the intersection and moving further down the street. A turn at the next street allowed him to directly see the stolen vehicle and the patrol car chasing it. He unched himself toward the car and shot two webs at its roof to perfectly nd on top of it.

  “Peek-a-boo,” he said as he stuck himself to the roof and webbed up the windshield, blocking the driver’s line of sight. Next, he released a rge amount of his web fluid from his shooters on the asphalt road in front of them. The moment the car’s wheels ran over it, they got stuck, forcing the car to halt despite its speed. The moment he heard the click of the car being unlocked, he opened the door before the carjacker could and pulled the man out. Within seconds, the man was hanging upside down from a light pole, struggling to free himself.

  “Who in the world is getting you people out, huh?” he asked. “This is like the third time I’ve caught you this week, Marco. Getting out on parole once, even twice, is understandable, but you’ve been arrested seven times just this month. How corrupt is our justice system?”

  The man struggled while releasing muffled groans. He couldn’t respond due to the web covering his face.

  “Oh, my bad,” he chuckled awkwardly. “You were pretty quiet for a while after I put away Hammerhead and his little cronies, who called themselves supervilins. What gives?”

  “I’ll answer that for you, Spider-Man.” Before Spider-Man could remove the web from Marco’s face, the patrol car had caught up.

  “Officer Yuriko. I haven’t seen you in a hot minute.” Spider-Man spoke and saluted with emphasis. “How has your day been?”

  “At ease, soldier,” said the brunette with short hair and bangs. “It’s been a little over a hot minute if I remember correctly. The st time we met was just after you’d busted Hammerhead as he was making an escape. You’ve gotten better at stopping carjackers since then. The only colteral damage this time was the dent on the roof of that two-million-dolr car. And probably its brakes and suspension.”

  “What the…two million? As in US dolrs? This belongs in a museum, not on the road.”

  “Don’t worry about it, the owner has insurance. The only reason we caught it so early was because it has a tracker.”

  “Great, another damage cim suit on the name of Spider-Man,” he said, shaking his head. “What were you going to answer for me? About who keeps getting these thugs out. Hammerhead isn’t free already, is he?”

  “Nah, he’s under the custody of the Strategic Homend Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. For his stunt st year, they are going to keep him locked up for life. These guys are the bridge between the government and the Avengers.”

  “They sound like a mouthful,” he said. “So who’s taken over the power vacuum left by the man?”

  “Wilson Fisk, he calls himself Kingpin. Hellfire Club, the Assassins and Thieves guilds, you name it. If it is affiliated with the underworld, he’s got a controlling stake, minimum. He started making moves at the start of the year and has brought practically everything under his heel.”

  “Sounds a bit above my pay grade,” Spider-Man said.

  “You don’t get paid.”

  “Exactly. I’ll just help those I can, officer. I can’t bring down the mafia,” he said. “And I have no pns to be hired as a private contractor by the NYPD.”

  “Aww,” she looked disappointed, but then smiled again. “You can’t bme a woman for shooting her shot. Since Kingpin started acting up, Captain’s been up everyone’s ass at the precinct to extend an offer to you.”

  “You can tell him thanks, but no thanks,” he said. “I’m more than happy being your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Anyway, I should leave. And thanks for the information, Officer Yuriko.”

  “I’ve told you a hundred times, just call me Yuri, dude,” she said as Spider-Man shot up into the air and swung away.

  …

  “I’ve compiled the report on everyone, boss. This has everyone in New York that we need to keep notice of. They are ordered from the most troublesome to the least.”

  A hulking man who was almost seven feet tall stood in front of multiple screens as he took a folder from his assistant. He grunted in acknowledgment as his attention was stuck on the footage of Spider-Man talking to Yuriko Watanabe. It was captured by one of the city’s cameras. The other screens also showed scenes of different heroes protecting the people from criminals. On one screen was Daredevil, on another, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones working together to deal with an operation that he was pnning to start in Hell’s Kitchen. The screen with Spider-Man turned bck as he swung away and was repced by a ptinum-blonde woman cd in a leather catsuit as she escaped from one of his legal pawn shop businesses with a rare jewel.

  Kingpin opened the folder in his hands, and the person on top of the list was Spider-Man.

  “Not too strong, but meddlesome,” he flipped the pages and looked at the names of the people that he was just looking at on the screens. “If I want to control this city without the Avengers trying to meddle in my business, I need to keep these low-level heroes occupied. Killing them is too loud, not to mention expensive and risky. I don’t want to turn into the next Hammerhead. It’s better to spend that money to bail out small-time crooks to keep these guys occupied. This Bck Cat woman could be hired. These ones could be the same…”

  He arranged the papers into three separate piles before calling back his assistant.

  “These ones,” he said, handing the pile of papers with Bck Cat’s name on top. “Extend them an offer for employment. As for these, put up bounties on their heads. Their deaths won’t gain undue attention, and the heat will be localized on the guilds and mercenaries.”

  “Got it,” he nodded before pointing at the pile with Spider-Man’s dossier on top. “What about this pile?”

  “These are a bit more sensitive. We can’t kill them because they are all on Shield’s radar. We will keep them busy with small-time criminals so that they don’t hamper my actual business. I will let you know once I formute a pn for all of them.”

  …

  Midtown High.

  Peter Parker walked in through the gates as a senior. Amidst the excited bustle of friends reuniting after two months away from school, he could sense that everyone was distant. Not only from him, which was natural, but even from each other. The cliques and groups of the same people that had existed practically since primary school all seemed a little off, as if they all had things on their minds beyond just their friendships. Of course, they did. They knew that high school was coming to a close. They had to move on. Some of them had their minds on which colleges they would be going to. Some extra enthusiastic ones were already working on their applications. The jocks were all concerned about whether they wanted to go pro or if they wanted to get into a good university on a sports quota.

  High school was already different from what Peter remembered. Of course, there were some specifically consistent things, like the blonde, well-built man wearing a varsity jacket who was walking right toward him, fully intent on bumping into his shoulder or maybe outright knocking him down.

  Peter continued walking forward, pretending to be oblivious to Fsh’s pn as the jock deliberately bumped into his shoulder. He could’ve fought back, stood his ground, and pushed Fsh right back.

  But that wouldn’t be a very Puny Parker thing to do now, would it?

  Peter stumbled backward as Fsh continued walking forward, though not before leaving a snide remark. “Watch it, Puny Parker.”

  “You seem stressed, Fsh. Your push didn’t have the same strength to it as usual. Performance anxiety?” Peter shot back at his age-old bully, who turned and gave him a scathing look but didn’t turn to pick a fight.

  “You okay, bud?” Peter heard a familiar voice beside him as a wide smile overtook his face.

  “Harry, how are you?” He hugged his best friend of almost a decade at this point. “How was summer?”

  “Same old, Dad took me on another world tour,” he said. “I got to see top-css hotels in practically every country’s capital.”

  “Just the hotels?” He asked.

  “I was with my father. Of course, I saw nothing beyond the hotels. What about you? What did you do over the summer? Had another New Year, New Me episode?”

  “What?” Peter asked, confused.

  “There,” Harry pointed at a blonde woman sitting at the fountain while looking into a small mirror and fixing her hair. “Liz Allen was sitting in that exact same spot when you asked her out and got ughed at st year. Wanna try again? Maybe things actually are different this time.”

  “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you? I had people ughing at me about that for a month.”

  “Come on, do you really think you could make it with Liz? And that’s not a dig at you. She has spent the past three years using Fsh as her shield without doing anything substantial beyond looking good.”

  “I get it, she’s on the path of becoming a trophy wife…yada yada” Peter said, rolling his eyes exasperatedly. “I really shouldn’t have taken you to that psychology seminar. Now, you’re a psych nut who keeps analyzing people. Anyway, where’s Gwen? Isn’t she usually here before us?”

  “I don’t know, I didn’t see her,” Harry said distractedly. “Woah, look there.” He pointed at a red-haired woman who had just entered the foyer. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail and wore stylish gsses that matched her neckce and earrings. “MJ wasn’t kidding about turning her life around, was she? Did you see that film she starred in?”

  “I didn’t get the chance,” Peter said, gncing appreciatively at his ex-girlfriend. “Was it any good?”

  “Was it any good?” Harry looked offended. “She blew it away. I checked things with my contacts, and she is apparently in talks with a major Hollywood director who wants her to star in a movie. What do you say? Do you want me to py wingman and help rekindle things between you guys? I think you guys worked really well together.”

  “Yeah, well, we may be compatible, but our circumstances aren’t. I won’t be anywhere near Los Angeles or Hollywood any time soon.”

  “Princeton isn’t the only school that would want you, you know? Caltech’s physics program is just as good, if not better. If you try, I’m sure they will give you the same schorship as Princeton. Maybe something better.”

  “No need to sugarcoat it, Harry. Caltech has the objectively better Physics program. But I need to be near New York. Pin and simple.”

  Harry went silent at his words and sighed. “How’s your aunt doing?”

  “She’s been full of energy ever since she joined this yoga css st month,” he said with a ugh. “But that doesn’t mean I can leave her.”

  “You can’t commute from Jersey to Forest Hills every day.”

  “True, but I can do it at the weekends. Without spending hundreds of dolrs on a flight across the country.”

  “Fine. I feel like an asshole trying to convince you to make the better decision anyway,” Harry said. “Where the hell is Gwen? The assembly is about to start.”

  “I’ll call her,” Peter said as he pulled out his phone.

  “Holy fuck…” Harry’s words made Peter frown.

  “Dude, nguage,” he chided as he went to his favorites and tapped on Gwen’s contact.

  Harry responded to his remark by grabbing his face and forcing him to look in a certain direction.

  “Woah…” Peter’s jaw dropped as he looked at the woman who had just entered the school. It was a blonde woman with ocean-blue eyes who had her hair down with slight curls at the ends. She wore a blue sundress that complemented her eyes and revealed just enough skin that it was still within school regutions. She was looking around and frowned before pulling her phone out of her purse. Her eyes brightened when she saw the caller ID and picked up the phone.

  “Hi, Pete. I just reached school. Where are you?” She looked confused and looked at her phone when she didn’t receive a response. “Pete?”

  “We’re here, Gwen.” Harry seemed to recover after an initial shock and raised his arm up in the air to beckon the blonde woman over. “If that is who you are…”

  Gwen came up to them and gave Harry a smirk. “Who else would I be? A demon in Gwen Stacy’s skin?”

  “What happened?” Harry asked. “Where are your gsses? When did you start wearing dresses to school? And since when have you started styling your hair? The only time I’ve seen you this dressed up was at your father’s swearing-in afterparty when he became the Chief of Police. And even then, you had your usual hairband holding your hair up rather than this natural style.”

  “What’s up with him?” Gwen didn’t address any of Harry’s questions and looked at Peter, who still had his mouth open and was looking at her with wide eyes.

  “I think he’s in shock,” Harry said with a ugh. “I’m pretty sure that you’ve got our queen bee thoroughly beaten.”

  “You think so?” Gwen asked, feeling a little self-conscious.

  “That sour look on her face is more than enough of a statement in and of itself,” Harry said as Gwen turned to look at Liz Allen, who was gring daggers at her. “What prompted this?”

  Before Gwen could answer Harry, a whistle sounded nearby, and she looked over Peter’s shoulder, only to see Fsh approaching.

  “Holy~ Aren’t you Stacy?” He called out while approaching her. “I’m throwing a party at my house tonight. Do you want to come by? You can also bring your friends.” Peter was right in his path, and he raised his hand to push the man off. “Get away, Parker, I’m talking here.”

  Just as Fsh’s hand was about to touch Peter’s shoulder, he stepped to the side and slid his leg backward, striking Fsh’s shin in a way that the jock immediately lost bance and fell to the ground.

  “What in the…” Harry was now looking at Peter incredulously. “Did I miss some kind of self-transformation memo? What’s going on?”

  The school ground was completely silent as Fsh scrambled to his feet with the help of his friend.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay. I just slipped and fell, nothing much.” He quickly turned to Gwen to extend his invitation again, but was interrupted by Liz as she stood in front of him with an angry look in her eyes.

  “So you’re throwing a party tonight, huh?”

  ”Babe…”

  “Don’t you babe me!”

  “Train wreck,” Harry commented before turning to Peter, who was at a loss for words as he looked at Gwen. “The great Peter Parker at a loss for words? It’s a summertime miracle. You just ripped away his innate defense mechanism by dressing up, Gwen.”

  “Ugh, you still aren’t over that whole psychology thing?”

  “Of course not. In fact, I’m going to become a behavioral psychologist in the future.”

  Gwen gave him a look of dread before turning to Peter. “Earth to Peter. You alive?”

  “Yeah, Gwen, you look different… I mean, you look good. Amazing even. Did something…um…happen?”

  “How are you, Peter? How was summer?” Gwen spoke emphatically with a teasing smile.

  “Oh yeah… I’m good. Summer was… fun. I got some nice exclusives of Spider-Man and helped May with bills,” he said before adding mentally, ‘also dealt with thugs as Spider-Man.’ “You know, the usual. What about you? How are you doing?”

  “I’m doing good as well,” she said, internally amused as Peter fumbled around, looking like he was at his wits’ end.

  “What about your gsses? Did you get surgery?”

  “Nah, I’m just wearing contacts. Surgery wouldn’t work for me.”

  “How so?” Peter asked.

  “My cornea is a bit too thin for ser surgery. It’s complicated.”

  “I guess it’s time to address the elephant in the room,” Harry said. “What prompted this change, Gwen? Did someone call you ugly? Tell us we’ll go and try to beat them up…and possibly get beaten up instead. But it’s the thought that should count.”

  “Thanks for the support, Harry. But it’s nothing like that,” she said. “I just wanted to try something new out.”

  “This is great, now that Gwen’s finally visibly beautiful, we’ll be the cool kids,” Harry said. “Fsh and the jocks can suck it. Now, if only Peter and I could find some way to glow up.”

  Gwen chuckled at his words and grabbed both of their arms before pulling them toward the main building. “Let’s go. Everybody has already gone to the auditorium. We’ll be te.”

  …

  As the day passed, Gwen continued receiving a lot more attention than she was used to, which made her uncomfortable due to her unfamiliarity with being the center of attention. And she was certainly the center of attention today. The one different thing was that no one approached her to talk after the first Fsh incident. She didn’t mind and was instead grateful that the only attention she received was nonverbal. Of course, it had something to do with how most of the people were busy thinking about their upcoming college applications.

  Naturally, while the atmosphere around school was different, Fsh and Peter’s dysfunctional bully and victim retionship was solid and robust. Neither of them mentioned the incident in the morning, and Peter, as usual, dealt with the usual inconvenience with a sarcastic quip.

  All in all, the first day of school was pretty interesting.

  As Peter, Gwen, and Harry went outside, a limo was already waiting for Harry.

  “Hey, Gwen, mind letting me talk to Pete for a bit?” Harry asked, grabbing Peter’s arm. “Just for a little bit.”

  “Not a problem, guys. I’ll just walk home.”

  “I won’t let you wait long, Gwen,” Peter said. “Let me walk with you.”

  “Sure,” she nodded as Harry pulled Peter into the car and closed the door.

  “What?” Peter asked Harry.

  “She wants you to ask her out,” he said. “Don’t you dare fumble things here, you bozo?”

  “What are you talking about?” Peter asked. “She just decided to dress up for the first day of school. How do you get from that to here? Especially after we’ve been nothing more than friends since like middle school.”

  “I’m telling you, Pete. She wants to ask you out. The indecisiveness in her eyes isn’t from being unfamiliar with attention. She is the daughter of the fricking Chief of Police. She knows damn well how to deal with attention,” Harry said.

  “You’re reading too much into this, dude,” Peter said. “Stop overanalyzing everything.”

  “Trust me, she wants to go out with you,” Harry said. “And going by how you kept not-so-discreetly discouraging everyone who tried to approach her, I’m pretty sure that the feelings are mutual. If anything, for the first time in like forever, I daresay, I get the vibes of possessiveness from you. From you! To think that Puny Parker could be possessive about someone. Seriously, man, go get her.”

  “I didn’t discourage anyone…” Peter trailed off at Harry’s look. “They were all accidents. People trip.”

  “I kept count, Peter. Don’t make me air it all out. Gwen’s a literal eleven, dude. She barely wore any makeup today and instantly overshadowed every single woman near her the moment she entered the school. Trust me, she likes you.”

  “You really think so?” Peter asked with a hint of hesitation in his eyes.

  “I know so,” he said. “Now go and ask her out. And don’t fumble things. I don’t want to feel like a child of divorce. I have enough family problems at home.”

  “I haven’t even asked her out yet, dude.”

  “But you will,” he said. “Now go. Before someone else does what you don’t have the balls to do. Not that she would accept it if just anyone asked her out.”

  “All right, all right,” Peter rolled his eyes and opened the door, stepping out.

  “You had your secret boys’ talk?” Gwen teased.

  “Yeah…” The thought of asking Gwen out occupied most of Peter’s brain power at the moment.

  “You don’t need to walk me, you know. I can go by myself,” Gwen said.

  “Nonsense. It wouldn’t feel right for me to let you go home all by yourself.”

  “I get it,” Gwen said. “If I’m wearing a hoodie and jeans, then it’s fine if I walk home by myself, but I put on a sundress and suddenly, I need a man to walk with me at all times.”

  “What? No. I wouldn’t let you… But…I mean—“

  “Easy, Pete, steam’s about to come out of your ears. I’m just teasing you,” Gwen ughed. “I’m not someone else just because I put on a dress, wore contacts instead of my gsses, and styled my hair.”

  “Yeah, it’s just… Different, you know?”

  “Different how?” Gwen asked. “I’m still acting the same way. I’m still the same person. There’s nothing different.”

  “I don’t really know how to expin it,” he said.

  “Try,” she said. “It’s going to be a while until we reach my house.”

  “I don’t know… I’ve never seen you wearing a sundress before. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a dress before.”

  “You weren’t at my dad’s party,” she said. “I even wore makeup at that time.”

  “Even when it’s some school function, you don’t dress up just to make a statement. Seeing you in this dress has completely thrown me for a loop.”

  “Do you like it?” She asked.

  “It’s gorgeous,” he said. “Seriously. The moment you appeared, every single person was blown away.”

  “Yet not a single person tried to ask me out after you tripped Fsh,” she said, looking sad. “I thought I would be the center of attention.”

  “Did you want to be the center of attention today?” He said. “I thought that the constant looks were making you uncomfortable.”

  “You should answer my question first, don’t you think, Pete?” She said. “Why are things different now that I’m wearing a dress?”

  “I don’t know what you want me to say, Gwen. Seeing you in that sundress makes me feel…a certain way,” he said, running his hands through his hair. “I can’t really describe it, but I don’t want to let you out of my sight. Like ever.”

  “You don’t?” Gwen asked with a smile.

  “Doesn’t that sound stalker-ish?” He asked.

  “A little,” she said. “But I like it. Especially after I saw you use so many tricks to trip people coming my way. Seriously, if you’d spent a fraction of that defending yourself, you would be even more popur than Fsh.”

  Peter let out a nervous ugh. “You noticed, huh?”

  “Once the eighth person near you trips spontaneously, you start to notice things,” she said as she grabbed his hand.

  He was at a loss for words as his mind raced, trying to come up with a response, not noticing Gwen’s fingers intercing with his as she tightened her grip. Unable to think of anything, he could only move to another topic. “You know my answer, what about my question? Did you want to be the center of attention? Why did you wear a dress today?”

  “I can’t want to look beautiful?”

  “That’s not what I said,” Peter had gathered his bearings somewhat and didn’t fall to Gwen’s teasing this time.

  “Well, I did want to feel like the center of attention…In a way,” she said. “And going by how you suddenly turned into this possessive and protective guy around me, I think my purpose was fully accomplished.”

  “Is that so?” Peter said. “If you liked it, how would you feel if I acted that way most of the time?”

  “I wouldn’t hate it. As long as you don’t make me wear a dress to school every day. I’d rather wear my regur clothes to school.”

  “Deal,” Peter said, stopping as he tightened his grip over Gwen’s hand and pulled her into his arms. “Do you… want to go watch a movie tonight?”

  “Like…”

  “On a date,” Peter crified. “Just the two of us.”

  “My curfew is ten o’clock in the evening,” she said. “As long as I’m home before that.”

  “I’ll come pick you up at around six, six-thirty. Does that work for you?”

  “I’ll wait for you.”

  “You have no idea what those words just made me feel.”

  “Like butterflies were fluttering in your stomach? Your heart skipped a beat? You felt a jolt pass through your body?”

  “All of that and more,” Peter ughed. “Come on, the subway station’s still a few ways off.”

  They didn’t let go of each other’s hands for a single moment as Peter dropped Gwen all the way at her house, with a promise to come back in just a few hours. The moment she disappeared from his view, he shot toward the alley at the side of the building at an inhuman speed. Seconds ter, Spider-Man shot up from the top of the building while letting out a loud whoop as he swung through the skies.

  …

  It was still a few hours before the date, so Peter decided to spend his time monitoring the police radio channels to hear about any crime happening in the nearby areas as he swung through the city with gusto. Having asked Gwen out, he was filled with excitement and the best way to cool himself down and blow off the steam was with a good fight.

  “Well, it seems that it’s my lucky day, a daylight jewelry store robbery,” he spoke to himself as he changed directions and made his way to the crime scene. “With armed thieves to boot. This is going to be fun.”

  Soon enough, he heard the sound of bring sirens coming from three patrol vehicles that were stopped in front of the jewelry store. The armed perpetrators had taken the two clerks hostage and were threatening to shoot if the police didn’t let them free.

  “Okay, this one’s a bit of a sensitive issue.” Peter didn’t directly charge in and instead stuck himself to the wall in an inconspicuous spot. “I can’t just charge in, one wrong movement and a person will die.”

  The situation was heated, but the police looked to be handling things decently well with the hostage situation. Ultimately, however. This situation wasn’t because the perpetrators were desperate. They were already pnning to use the hostages to bail themselves out. This dissuaded them from any attempts the police made to get them to free the civilians.

  As the standoff continued, Spider-Man made his move at the most opportune time and shot three webs at the three perpetrators’ guns, yanking them out of their hands. He nded immediately after and pulled both hostages away from the group of three before they could make any movements.

  “Get out of here, now,” he commanded before punching the disarmed man closest to him. He tried to block and move to the side, but it was impossible for a normal, untrained man to deal with Spider-Man’s enhanced speed, strength, and reflexes. He dodged the punch, but Spider-Man simply swiped his arm and threw the man off his feet before kicking him down to the ground.

  Suddenly, Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense fred, and he jumped high up, sticking himself to the ceiling. A gunshot rang through the store moments ter as he shot his web and took away the man’s gun.

  “Unnamed Perpetrator Number 1, down…” he spoke without as much zeal as usual as he shot multiple webs at the man whom he had kicked into the ground and restrained him. He came back down to the ground and quickly dealt with the remaining two without much banter. It was unusual for him not to tease people a little, but he felt like something else was afoot that he couldn’t quite identify. It wasn’t the overt danger sense that he got from his Spider-Sense, but more along the lines of an unsettling feeling that told him that something bad was about to happen.

  “What’s going on…” He spoke to himself. “At least let me go on my date with Gwen before something crazy happens.”

  As if on cue with his words, his Spider-Sense fred, but it was a bit too te. A sudden shockwave impacted him and smmed him against the wall, cracking the concrete.

  “I think I broke something…” Spider-Man groaned out as in front of him, he saw a familiar face materialize. “Shocker? Aren’t you supposed to be in prison? Are you teleporting now?”

  “That attack must’ve knocked a few nuts loose in your head, Spider. I’m here to kill you.” The suited man released a massive shockwave from his gauntlets that shook the store and broke the windows.

  Spider-Man barely got out of the attack range in time and shot his webs at Shocker’s gauntlets. “No, Herman, I’m pretty sure that you were in prison. I put you there. Remember?”

  “Moron, you got nothing on me,” he shrugged off the webs with a weak shockwave before smacking both gauntlets together. The ensuing shockwave spread all around and threw Spider-Man out of the store.

  “Seriously?” He stood up with a groan and shot forward, sliding under the localized shockwave that Shocker tried to bst him with. He kicked the man’s legs and pulled off one of his gauntlets just before a shockwave threw him away. “Thanks for the little gift,” he said. “I don’t know how you got out, but I’ll just send you back there. No biggie.”

  Throughout the battle, the previous feeling of existential dread had only intensified, making Peter solemn as he tried to take care of Shocker as quickly as possible.

  Shocker released a shockwave at him with his one remaining gauntlet, and Spider-Man retaliated by releasing a simir shockwave using the gauntlet that he had taken from the man. He quickly dashed forward, intent on taking down the man while still using the gauntlet he took to combat the shockwaves he released.

  “I’ll kill you, you bug!” Shocker had a crazed look on his face as he released a massive bst from his gauntlet, one that threatened to destroy their surrounding buildings completely.

  “Please work…” Spider-Man released a shockwave of the same intensity, hoping that the opposing waves would cancel each other out. The following collision resulted in a massive bst that blew away everything in the vicinity.

  When the dust settled, Shocker was nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, Spider-Man was also gone, with no traces of where he might have disappeared. It seemed that he was there for one moment, and in the next, he was gone.