Of course, the smooth, graceful feeling of flight Peter had imagined never arrived.
What he got instead was wind slamming into his face, though thankfully the mask helped a little.
"WAAAHHHH!"
Peter let out a miserable scream in midair. His whole body lost balance, and he shot straight toward a giant GG sign ahead of him.
But at the last second, his spider-sense kicked in. He planted both feet against the sign, borrowed the momentum, and fired off another web.
"Hang on, Uncle Ben! Just hang on!"
Peter swung wildly through the skies over Queens and Brooklyn, clumsy and chaotic at first, but under the guidance of his spider-sense, his movements gradually became smoother, faster, more controlled.
Back at the Daily Bugle building—
Shocker's next attack was already charged.
He was aiming straight at Ben.
If this hit, even if Ben stayed behind cover, the shockwave alone would still be enough to knock him out cold.
Clark, clinging to the outside of the shattered window like a spider himself, drew in a deep breath, his chest expanding, and blew a concentrated blast of air at the wall beside Shocker.
Super-breath.
BOOM!
The wall gave way instantly and collapsed toward Shocker's position.
"What the hell?! Is this whole building coming down?" Shocker jumped in alarm. He did not believe for one second that he could survive a collapsing high-rise, so he had no choice but to cut off the attack and dive away from the falling debris.
And in that exact moment, a red-and-blue figure came flying in.
He did not even notice Clark's presence outside.
A web fired in, stuck fast inside the editorial floor, and then—
Peter Parker arrived.
"Let him go!"
Peter did not even land properly. The second his feet touched down, he used his explosive strength like an enraged young lion, kicked off hard, and launched himself straight at Shocker.
"What the hell are you supposed to be?" Shocker sneered. "A circus clown in pajamas? You trying to be a hero?"
He looked at the weird kid in the ski mask and did not take him seriously at all.
As long as that freak gust of wind did not show up again, none of this mattered.
Peter's fist cut through the air and slammed into Shocker's chest.
"Ugh!"
Based on Peter's earlier strength testing, that punch should have been enough to punch through a car.
The fist landed solidly against Shocker's armor, but the brutal bone-breaking impact Peter had imagined never came. Shocker's suit was packed with dense shock-absorption material, and Peter's force dispersed across the whole thing instantly.
Shocker staggered hard, nearly thrown right off the floor, and let out a grunt.
"Big hit," he said, regaining his footing. "Some super-soldier experiment gone loose? But the way you fight, you're still just a kid who doesn't know what he's doing."
Shocker had spent years brawling in the streets. His combat experience was on another level.
Taking advantage of Peter's opening, he drove one hand straight into Peter's abdomen and gave up worrying about restraint entirely.
"Point-blank. Max output."
A terrifying shockwave detonated directly into Peter's stomach.
"Ghk—!"
Peter felt like all his organs had melted into mush. A metallic sweetness filled his throat, and he spat a mouthful of blood straight into the inside of his mask.
So now he was basically fighting with a red hood on.
The blast launched him like a baseball hit by a bat. He flew back more than thirty feet, smashed through two desks, then slammed hard into the wall before dropping to his knees.
"Jesus... that hurts, wait, wait..." Peter stuck out one hand toward Shocker as if that might magically stop him from advancing.
Then came the coughing.
Peter was in terrible shape. It felt like at least three ribs were broken. He had not known being a hero hurt this much.
But for Uncle Ben's sake, he had to do this.
He had to get back up.
He had to win.
Peter forced himself upright, wobbling badly. Shocker watched the kid with a kind of amused interest, but the job still needed to get done.
From their cover, both Jameson and Ben saw what had happened, and their hearts sank. This new arrival was obviously just some kid.
Outside the building, Clark was still watching.
Seeing his little brother on the ground coughing up blood, Clark could hardly stand it. Granted, things were not actually as bad as they looked, Peter himself had made it look worse than it was, but still.
Inside Clark's head, the little angel and devil were in full combat mode.
"We have to save him! Right now!" shouted the devil.
"I agree we save him! But then didn't Peter get beaten half to death for nothing?" argued the angel.
The two of them had already started throwing punches.
Clark considered both sides. As a human being, he could not completely side with either one.
But in the end, he held back.
Get up, Peter. Use your brain. Learn what pain feels like, and learn to respect how fragile life really is.
That was Clark's private encouragement.
Because if Peter did not learn this lesson here, he might learn it later against the Green Goblin, or Doctor Octopus, or in some other disaster that cost him his life.
"Kid, I don't care who you are. You picked the wrong target." Shocker stepped forward, gauntlets charging again.
Not far away, Ben and Jameson fired at Shocker's head. The armor protected him there too, but this was still all they could do.
Neither hesitated.
Three shots rang out in rapid succession as they tried to draw his attention.
"Come after me, you coward!" Jameson shouted. "You gutless thug, sneaking around trying to assassinate people!"
And in that brief opening, Peter's mind started working at full speed.
His weapon depends on high-frequency vibration... Before every shot, the vents on both sides of the gauntlets give off heat... that's the cooling system. If the vents get blocked, the energy should rebound straight back into the gauntlets!
Peter rolled across the floor.
He did not try to keep punching.
Instead, he raised both hands and aimed at the sides of Shocker's charging gauntlets.
Thwip, thwip!
Two strands of web shot out with perfect accuracy and plugged both side vents of the gauntlets. When the adhesive hit the superheated metal, it did not melt.
It hardened even tighter.
"What is this sticky crap?" Shocker snapped, startled.
But he had already pressed the trigger.
Too late.
With the vent ports blocked, the energy had nowhere to disperse. The high-frequency vibration built up inside the gauntlets and turned into catastrophic feedback.
Beepbeepbeepbeep—fzzzt—BANG!
The instant he realized what was happening, Shocker went full cast off, yanking free of the gauntlets and throwing them away before they blew.
Then he did not even look back.
He crashed straight through the broken window and fled.
As for the mission failing?
Not his problem.
Let Fisk punish him later. Better that than dying here.
The blast wave overturned most of the floor. After that, the building fell strangely silent, except for the sound of police sirens growing louder in the distance.
The whole fight had not even lasted five minutes.
The police had not finished deploying yet.
Peter struggled back to his feet, clutching a body that hurt in too many places to count, and limped toward where Ben and Jameson had been hiding.
The two men stood from behind cover, both still gripping their guns tightly, both staring warily at the strange masked figure covered in dust and blood.
"Who... who are you?" Ben asked.
"And why did you save us?" Jameson added.
It was the question both of them wanted answered most.
Peter looked at Uncle Ben, safe and alive, and his eyes stung a little.
Uncle Ben had done the right thing, and this was how the world repaid him.
Peter knew he absolutely could not speak. The second he opened his mouth, Ben would recognize him instantly.
So he said nothing.
He only looked once at Uncle Ben, making sure he was unhurt.
Then he turned, fired a web, and dragged his battered body away into the Manhattan night.
Only then did the police helicopter searchlights finally sweep across the wrecked floor.
And outside, still hidden in the darkness beyond the broken windows, Clark silently followed after Peter the moment his brother disappeared.