An explosion in the distance. The people around him jumped in surprise.
He turned, squinted in the direction of the smoke rising from a tall building, and identified it.
'Is that not the Fisk Tower?'
He grabbed his backpack and moved into the nearest secluded alley.
He touched the glasses he had been wearing since taking over the previous Peter's wardrobe, the same frames but with the magnification removed and replaced with an integrated system that functioned like EDITH, with Cortana running through them.
"Cortana, kill the cameras in this sector."
He began changing.
....
"A group of forty to fifty masked men stormed Fisk Tower,"
Cortana said, as he finished suiting up.
The suit had a certain Spider-Tom quality to it, the new design he had been building toward.
His previous suit was stowed in a small cavity he had carved behind a nearby trash can.
"They arrived in black vans without license plates. Fifteen of them opened fire publicly to hold off the police. The rest stormed the tower.
Three civilians are confirmed dead in the crossfire. At least thirteen wounded. I am accessing Fisk Tower's network for internal footage now."
"Do it," he said.
The white lenses of the suit lit as the HUD activated, displaying a real-time overlay of the immediate environment.
"Once you are in the network, generate a map of the building layout. I want all hostiles marked in real time with their weapon types. Filter out anything unrelated to the current incident."
"Understood," Cortana said, as he turned on the improved web shooters, the new design with fewer combination modes but better reliability than the previous version.
"Who is stupid enough to try to break into the Kingpin's fortress in broad daylight?" he said as he began moving toward Fisk Tower.
"And why would anyone do that?" He paused as Cortana displayed the relevant information. He sighed. "Of course he would be stupid enough to risk starting a gang war."
"Joseph Martello," Cortana said. "A Russian crime lord. Recently elevated to a leadership position within Maggia. Also known as Hammerhead.
He is currently equipped with an advanced plasma rifle. The rest of the group has standard weaponry. No genuine threat to us individually."
A call notification appeared on the HUD from Yuri, which he accepted.
"Hey, hi beautiful, I am out and about, although it feels strange doing this at this hour. Do you need anything?"
"Thank God! Yes." Yuri's voice was clipped and direct. "I need you to go to Times Square and deal with the men our officers have barricaded. Do not worry, Trish already handled the cameras in that area. Good luck."
Click.
"Okay. Times Square first." He nodded and rerouted, covering the distance quickly. When he arrived, his eyes immediately found the man with the RPG, who was pointing it at the police line.
"Spidey is here!"
The man looked up toward the voice. His eyes went wide. That was as far as the reaction got before Spider-Man's feet connected with his face.
He spun as he landed, grabbed two men by their weapons, and slammed them together, then shot a web at each and pulled hard enough that their heads met each other.
Both down. He grabbed a car door, tore it free, and used it as a shield to absorb the next volley of fire, crouching behind it and counting the sound.
When the magazines ran empty he was already moving, he came around the car, turned, and threw the door like a disc.
It hit one man squarely in the throat. Blood came from his ears and mouth as he went down slowly.
'I think I am starting to like shields.'
He ran at the next one and punched him hard in the stomach, finished with an elbow strike to drop him.
He swept another off his feet and put his boot on the man's face going down.
He vaulted over another and kicked a third in the face from the air, the force of it sending him approximately five meters, the landing being what killed him.
He blocked a kick aimed at his face, caught the leg, and began spinning the man to use him as an instrument against the one approaching from behind.
He looked at the last man still standing, who was beginning to register the severity of his situation.
Spider-Man smiled behind the mask.
"You have been a very bad boy, have you not?" he said, withdrawing his hidden blade and pulling his arm back. "And for that, we are going to break some of your ribs."
"Noooo...."
Crack.
He dusted his hands as he looked at the result.
His spider-sense fired and he went into a backflip without thinking, the bullets passing through where he had been.
He moved through the fire in a sequence of acrobatic dodges, then took cover behind a car and began formulating the counter while his eyes moved to the weapon on the ground near his feet.
The HUD scanned it and returned the details. He picked it up and waited, and caught a police officer across the way making a series of hand gestures at him.
He understood.
"Just neutralize, huh?" he said quietly, with a tone that had something unpleasant in it.
He understood the reasoning. Becoming public enemy number one would limit everything he could do. 'I do not particularly care what people think of me. But I want more capacity to protect my family once my activities become public. For now.'
He exhaled. "Alright. Let us finish this."
He bent down and fired two bullets under the car: the first hit one man in the knee, and when he fell the second went into his shoulder.
"AHHHH!"
The scream pulled every head in the immediate area.
Six-second window.
He used five of them, firing in quick succession.
Two into the thighs of separate targets. One into the shoulder of the man on the left.
One into the appendage of the man in the middle. One into the knee of the man on the right and the last into the same man's groin area.
The three attempting to run were unable to complete the attempt.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! This is getting ugly! I have to call the boss...." The man who tried to flee dropped his phone when a bullet found his knee and another his shoulder.
Spider-Man jumped onto the car and threw the weapon as a projectile, connecting with the farthest fleeing target's head and dropping him. He jumped, spun, landed in front of the last man standing, and drew his hidden blades.
The man began to tremble.
He activated intimidation mode.
The visor responded.
"You have been a very bad boy, have you not?" he said, extending one blade and pulling his arm back. "And for that, we are going to break some of your ribs."
"Noooo...." Crack.
....