New York
August 21, 17:00 EDT
'Thanks to yesterday's study session, I know I can fall back on a career as a teacher if need be.' thought Peter, swinging down 5th Avenue.
The previous night's study session had gone over very well. Peter's latent teaching ability had reared its head and made all the material a breeze for Ronnie to learn, allowing him to score a B+. Peter apologized to Ronnie, telling him that he was sure that if they had spent a little more time, Ronnie would've been able to clinch at least an A-. Ronnie, on the other hand, was expecting to get at best a D before his help, so he was more than happy with his grade and grateful for Peter's study session.
'And now that school is out, it's officially the start of the weekend, and that can only mean one thing. All night vigilante party!' thought Peter, flipping through the air and landing on the corner of the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building before jumping and web zipping to the very tip of the Empire State Building. 'God, this view.'
Peter looked out at the city and just stared in awe. Hanging out at the top of any skyscraper was something he had loved doing since he got his powers. He loved to sit and gaze out at the city, take in all of its glory. But there was something about being on top of the Empire State Building — the building that defined the New York City skyline — that felt just right.
Seeing the city helped remind him what he was protecting, and hopefully, what he was helping make better.
'While helping out around the city, I should keep an eye out for Dr. Frost. She's been quiet since the incident at the morgue, and there have been no reported sightings of her. Considering we're in one of the most populated cities in the country, that's odd. Best guess is she went into hiding somewhere frequented by few people. If I do find a trace of her, I can track her with my new lenses.' thought Peter, activating his thermal imagining by pressing on the edge of his lens.
Adding the thermal imaging function to his lenses wasn't too hard to do, but upgrading it and making it better took practically all night.
'It'd be funny if I spotted Dr. Frost from up here.' he thought, amused as he scanned the city with the thermal imaging, not spotting anything out of the ordinary and turning it off. 'Can't say I wasn't hoping it would be that easy, but oh well. Time to use my other new addition to the mask and be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.'
While working on installing the thermal imaging upgrade, he also decided to add a built-in police scanner that would help him respond to crimes more quickly. It would also be helpful in letting him know if someone reported a sighting of Killer Frost.
"Let's see what's on the radio." he said, turning on the police scanner.
"Report of a 10-50P, Madison Square Park, nearest unit, please respond."
"10-50P is a ... disorderly person." said Peter, taking a moment to remember what the code's represented. "Off we go."
Before he could take off, another call came in.
"All units, officers transporting key witness north on Park Avenue are under fire. Requesting immediate backup, please respond."
"No need to figure out what that one means." he said, turning east towards Park Avenue, jumping off and swinging. "But where exactly on Park Ave are-"
The sound of sirens and gunshots rang out right as he swung onto Park Avenue, interrupting his wonderment.
"Found them." he said, swinging south to intercept.
They were still a ways away, but he could see that a prisoner transport van with lights and sirens blaring was speeding and swerving through traffic while two black sedans followed behind. Sticking out of the windows of the black sedans were six men dressed in suits, using pistols and fully-automatic rifles to shoot at the van.
"That's a lot of firepower for one witness. Those guys must be part of a heavy-hitting organization; only they're brazen enough to do something like this." said Peter. "Better stop them before someone gets seriously hurt."
He swung towards them, and as he got near them, he saw one of the goons in the second sedan look up at him before shouting something to the others, causing them all to look up at him. He didn't know exactly what he shouted to the others, but his spider-sense tingling and the three men in the second car pointing their guns at him gave him a pretty good idea.
"I was just dropping by to say hello, and this is how you guys greet me?" he said, dodging the bullets.
"You don't know who you're messing with, Spider-Man!" shouted one of the goons in a very thick New York accent.
"Why don't you enlighten me?" he said, pulling the guns from their hands and webbing them to the ground.
Before he could take away the guns from the three goons in the first car, they ducked back inside, shooting out the windshield to allow them to continue shooting at the van.
"You guys might be the smartest criminals I've met yet. Though that's not saying much."
Peter was about to web-zip to the first car, seeing as they were the ones still shooting and posed the biggest threat.
"Hey, Spider-Man! Look what we got!" shouted one of the goons in the second car.
Looking over, Peter saw that in his right hand, sticking out of the window, was a grenade.
"You better chase us and make sure we don't blow up anything!" shouted the goon as the car turned left on 31st, breaking away from the chase.
He looked at the remaining sedan and the police van, and at the street where the other car broke off before deciding that chasing after potentially grenade-throwing thugs was more pertinent.
'I have to move fast.' he thought, turning down 32nd, a street that ran parallel to the one the car had turned on.
He swung down the street, releasing at the right moment to gain as much speed as possible, while looking to his left, trying to spot the car. After swinging two blocks, he spotted them, having caught up, but instead of turning onto the street the car was on, he kept swinging.
In a few seconds, he had pulled far enough ahead that he changed directions and swung onto 6th Avenue. He got to the intersection where the two streets met just as the car did, and he realized the occupants hadn't noticed him since they were looking behind them.
He also noticed that the goon who had shown the grenade still had it in his hand, and the pin was still inserted, meaning it wasn't primed.
'Good.'
He landed on the roof of the car, but before they could react, he jumped back up, shot a line on the roof with his left hand, and swung feet first into the open passenger window. As he passed through, he grabbed the grenade with his right hand, tapping the passenger and the driver on the head and knocking them out.
With the momentum he had, he broke through the driver's-side window and landed back on the roof of the car. As soon as he landed, he repeatedly shot out lines of web at the buildings around him and attached them to the car, forcing it to stop.
"Run for it!" said the two goons as they opened the rear doors and tried to run away.
Peter shot a line of web, hitting their backs before pulling them back, causing them to go through the open car doors and collide with each other. He jumped down from the roof and webbed the two in the back who had ended up face to face.
"I'm happy for the two of you, but sheesh, there's a time and place." said Peter, webbing the two unconscious goons in the front seats and leaving the grenade encased in webbing inside the car before taking off north on 6th Avenue.
'Gotta move.'
"All units, officers transporting key witness have passed Grand Central and are still heading north on Park Avenue. Repeat, north on Park Avenue." said the dispatcher.
Hearing the information from the police scanner, Peter continued swinging on 6th until he reached 47th, taking it until he was back on Park Avenue. Looking north, he could see the blue and red lights of the police van in the distance.
'I might not make it in time.' he thought, noticing that the van looked like it was swerving a little, from what he assumed was a popped tire.
He was about to continue chasing, but he noticed a tower crane doing construction on a building. That itself wasn't anything notable, but the fact that it had the jib arm pointed directly north was. Seeing that, the final scene of the first Amazing Spider-Man movie flashed through his mind.
With no hesitation, he swung up to the crane, landing on the operator's cab, startling the man inside.
"Christ!" shouted the construction worker. "What the hell are you doing up here?! You can't be up here!"
"Don't worry, I have my forklift certification. I'm just going to borrow your jib arm for a second." he said before jumping up and into the arm.
He shot two lines at the ends of the arm, pulling back while moving backward to stretch the lines as much as he could. Once they were taut, he hopped and slingshotted forward.
"Whoo-hoo!" he shouted, unable to help it.
Thanks to the slingshot, he was able to cross three-quarters of the distance in one go and quickly caught up by swinging the rest of the way.
"Sorry about earlier, we got disconnected. I'm here to talk to you about your extended warranty." said Peter as he landed on the roof of the sedan.
"Light him up, boys!"
As he dodged the bullets with the help of his spider-sense, he stuck his arm in through the left rear open window and pulled out one of the goons.
"Hi." he said, shooting a line of web at a building and wrapping it around the man before letting him go. "Bye."
"Driver, Coney Island, please." he said as he jumped in the back seat through the left rear window, kicking the gun away from the man in the back before webbing him up.
"Argh! Enough!" shouted the passenger, stabbing his thigh with a vial of red liquid.
"Drugs? Really? Haven't you heard of D.A.R.E.?" said Peter.
Peter was about to web the passenger, but the passenger started screaming; his body got bigger, gaining muscle out of nowhere.
"Whoa." said Peter, surprised.
"Rah!" shouted the juiced-up goon, lunging at Peter.
"You're too big for this ride." said Peter, ducking under the goon. "Let's take this outside, shall we?"
He kicked the goon using the level of strength he usually used on regular people, but was surprised when the goon simply tanked it. In his state of surprise, the goon managed to grab hold of his leg.
"Uh-oh."
The goon threw him at the rear door hard enough to take it off its hinges, and send both Peter and the door flying.
'That wasn't an EPI pen.' thought Peter, using his wall-crawling ability on his feet to stick to the car door while shooting a line at the car and beginning to surf. 'Whatever he injected is no ordinary drug.'
"Argh! Puny spider! Annoying! Going to crush you!" shouted the juiced-up goon from the backseat.
"Use your words, honey." said Peter.
"No words! Just fists!" he shouted, leaping out of the moving car, going for the tackle on Peter.
Peter, with the car door still stuck to his feet, jumped over the goon and slammed the car door down on his face, using more than his usual strength. The goon went limp from the hit, and Peter stopped surfing to check his pulse.
"Oh, thank god." said Peter, breathing a sigh of relief after feeling the goon's pulse.
He used an extra-large helping of webbing on the guy before running after the sedan. Quickly catching up to it, he entered through the back seat and moved into the passenger seat.
"Save us both the trouble and stop the car." said Peter. "You don't want to be knocked out, and I don't want to knock you out if I can help it."
"You got me." said the man, pulling the car over to a stop. "You really don't know who you're messing with, do you, webhead?"
"Like I said earlier, enlighten me."
"No need. You'll find out soon enough." he said, smiling cryptically.
"Okay. That's not creepy at all." said Peter, webbing the man to his seat.
~
Peter took a breather as he waited a few minutes before the cops showed up, guns drawn and at the ready.
"Show us your hands, Spider-Man!" said one of the cops.
"Aren't you guys tired of this song and dance?" asked Peter. "I stop a criminal. You show up. You point your guns at me. I take away your guns. You guys get humiliated. Do we really have to do this again?"
The cops silently looked at each other, unsure of what to do, before one of them put their gun away, and the rest followed.
"That's better. I mean, we are all on the same side, so there's no need to fight." he said, dropping down from the light pole.
Most of the cops mumbled, looking at him with scorn and disdain as they walked over to the two webbed up goons, except one cop, the same one who first put his gun away, who looked around before making his way over to Peter.
"Thanks for the help, Spider-Man." he whispered.
"No problem." whispered Peter. "Why are we whispering?"
"Sorry. I'm sure you know, but a lot of cops don't really ... like you."
"I've noticed."
"I do, though." said the guy, hastily. "You're helping out, so you're okay in my book."
"Appreciate it." said Peter. "Anyway, who are these guys?"
"You don't know?"
"No. Should I?"
"You're a vigilante, and you don't know what criminal organization they're part of? Isn't that like a basic requirement for the job?" he asked.
"I'm still new to this. I'm learning on the job." said Peter, embarrassed but taking a mental note to do his research.
"Right. Anyway, they're part of the Monteleone Crime Family." he said.
"The mob? I thought they went out with swing dancing." said Peter, surprised.
"They're still around. The Monteleones changed their business early on, allowing them to survive until now." explained the officer.
"To what?"
"Drugs. They control most of the city's hard drug trade. Including Venom."
'Venom. The neo-steroid Dragon talked about.' thought Peter.
"Venom?"
"Yeah. That's what that guy over there used. I'm assuming, anyway. He shows all the tell-tale signs." said the officer, pointing at the juiced-up goon. "One dose of Venom makes you a walking tank. It's enough to take on a small army."
"If it's so dangerous, why have I never heard of it before?" he asked, though he knew that it was still new to the market.
"Besides it being relatively new, the higher-ups are trying to keep it a secret. Don't want kids getting any ideas, you know?"
"Right. Kids can be dumb."
"Hey, Brooks, stop talking to that guy and come over here and help us." shouted one of the cops near the webbed-up mobster.
"Sorry, Spider-Man, duty calls."
"No worries. Appreciate the information, Officer ..." said Peter, reading his name tag. "Brooks."
"Calvin Brooks. Be seeing you, Spider-Man." he said, smiling as he turned around to help out his fellow officers.
'Glad the afternoon's off to a productive start.' he thought, jumping and swinging away while humming. 'Spider-Man, Spider-Man.'