The Detective Club members huddled together and recorded a "thank-you video" for Spider-Man on a phone. After uploading it, they chatted a little longer before heading out one by one.
Of course, Peter Parker didn't go home.
Like a nimble cat, he slipped silently into the empty chemistry lab.
"If Jonah Jameson ever found out about this," Peter thought to himself while rummaging through bottles of reagents, "he'd lose his mind. Spider-Man committing an actual crime for the first time. Then again, Peter Parker's the one doing this, so what does it have to do with Spider-Man? Good thing there aren't any cameras in here. Let's see... I can probably make three batches of web fluid. Hopefully that's enough. And hopefully tonight ends all of this. Who knows when Herman's shock gauntlets are finally going to blow."
Less than twenty minutes later, three bottles of pearly web fluid were tucked into the pockets of his jacket. He opened the door, checked both directions to make sure no one was around, and slipped out of the school.
Peter didn't notice that Carl King, who had stayed late for football practice, happened to be nearby. From down the hall, Carl had seen Peter leaving and gotten curious. What was skinny Parker doing in school this late?
Was he messing with something?
Could Carl use that to get back at him somehow? Win back a little pride?
He sneaked into the lab and searched around for what Parker had been doing, but after poking around for a while, he couldn't find anything obvious. So he sniffed around like an idiot and eventually found the workbench that still smelled faintly of chemicals.
"What was he doing here?"
Carl pulled open the sink filter cover and found white residue stuck to it. This was what Peter Parker had been messing with?
Curious, he tried to pull some of it off, but couldn't get anything loose. After muttering a curse, he filed the detail away and left the chemistry room.
He had no idea the webbing would dissolve on its own in two hours. By the time he came back tomorrow, it'd all be gone.
Peter, meanwhile, had already changed and was on the phone with Uncle Ben.
"Hey? Uncle Ben, I'm gonna be home late tonight, okay? Just tell May her overprotective nephew went out to see some excitement. What kind of excitement? Just make sure you watch the Daily Bugle."
A thrill unlike anything he'd felt before crackled through his body as Spider-Man swung through the Manhattan dusk.
Then came the next part.
He needed a battlefield.
And if he wanted it safe and free of interference, he needed the area shut down. He could find Captain Stacy, sure, but Stacy didn't have the authority to lock down an entire combat zone.
The Avengers did.
So Peter swung all the way to Avengers Tower, landed smoothly on the rooftop pad, and started walking in.
"Hold it, soldier. One more step and you'll be inside the restricted zone."
Steve stepped out wearing a short-sleeved shirt and holding a cup of coffee. Peter had no choice but to explain.
"I've got this sort of... danger sense, Captain. If I step into a danger zone, I'll know."
"That doesn't make it a good idea for you to test it, kid. So what are you here for?"
"I found a way to draw the Shocker out. There are just two problems. First, I need a stretch of road shut down. I don't know anyone with enough pull to do that, so I figured maybe the Avengers could help."
"That part's easy. What's the second problem? You tell us, and the Avengers handle the rest."
"That's the second problem, Captain. The Avengers can't be involved."
Peter laid out the plan.
"Last time Herman couldn't beat me, so he ran. That's exactly what I'm using to bait him out. Give him a fair battlefield, one where he can come and fight me willingly. If the Avengers show up, there's a good chance he'll just run again."
Steve answered with a single line that made his objection perfectly clear.
"So you want us to put all our hopes on you beating the Shocker, and on his weapon not exploding while you do it."
"I'm not proposing this because I think I failed and need to make up for it, Captain. I'm proposing it because..." Peter took a breath. "I just think I can do it."
He pulled off his mask and looked straight at Steve.
Steve looked back at him for a long moment, then sighed and pulled out his phone.
"You win, kid. I know someone who can help."
With his enhanced vision, Peter caught the contact note on the screen for just a second.
Nick Fury.
He grinned, said thanks, pulled the mask back on, and turned to leave.
Of course, Steve had one more question.
"Uh, kid, where exactly do you want shut down?"
"Times Square, Captain!"
Watching Spider-Man swing away, Steve nodded and made the call.
"All right, Nick. I need Times Square locked down. No, I haven't lost my mind..."
Only a place with enough weight behind it would make Herman willing to accept a real showdown.
And Times Square was perfect.
Peter arrived and pulled out the old camera. He moved from rooftop to rooftop, searching for the best angle. Once the fight started, he planned to web the camera into place and set it to automatic shooting to see if he could get a few photos good enough to sell to Jameson.
"If only someone before I got here had told me how a broke high school kid is supposed to make money fast without doing something illegal. Right now I'm stuck doing what the real Peter Parker did and taking pictures of myself... Once I have money, I'm absolutely making a high-tech base like the one in Spider-Verse, with a whole lineup of suits. Or at least adding a display system to my mask lenses."
He genuinely had no idea how to make money fast.
If he'd been dropped into Harry Osborn's life instead, that would've been nice. As it stood, his financial planning was basically nonexistent. That memory had stuck in his head so hard he apparently carried it across universes.
"All right, the Daily Bugle's six o'clock live broadcast is about to start. Next stop, the Bugle building. Time to meet my beloved number-one fan for the first time."
Inside the Daily Bugle's media building, J. Jonah Jameson was reviewing yet another piece he'd written. Another day, another righteous attack on those cursed masked freaks. He took a drink of water, cleared his throat, and then his old friend Robbie pushed open the studio door.
"Jonah, we've got a situation."
"What kind of situation could possibly be so bad, Robbie..."
"Spider-Man's here!"
Jonah's expression froze for half a second. Then he reacted at once.
"Good! That miserable wall-crawling menace finally came to us! As long as I've got breath in my body, I will never let that freak threaten the freedom of the press!"
"He's not here to threaten press freedom, Jonah." Robbie cut off the rant. "He says he brought us an exclusive."
Jameson's face locked up instantly.
A few minutes later, in the studio, Jameson looked like he had just swallowed something rotten.
If Spider-Man hadn't told him the Shocker's weapon could explode at any moment, he wouldn't have cared what that crawling pest had to say.
"Welcome to today's Daily Bugle News. Before we begin our regular coverage, we've received a special video."
The footage was obviously shot on a phone.
Spider-Man's masked face filled the frame.
"Hey, Shocker. It's me, Spider-Man. Remember me? Because I definitely remember how I beat the hell out of you and forced you to run away by threatening innocent people. So what is it now? You've been dodging and hiding for days."
"I got beaten?" Herman snarled from his hideout. "I almost killed you, you crawling little freak!"
He decided he wasn't going to take the bait. No matter what that bug said, he wasn't going out there.
"I know, maybe you're scared. Maybe you're worried you can't beat me. Or maybe you're worried your weapon isn't as unstoppable as you've been telling yourself it is. Or maybe you're just scared of the Avengers. If that's all it is, don't worry. I handled that. Tonight, after eight. Just you and me. Times Square. No Avengers, no police. But every media outlet in New York will be watching. I'll let the whole world see that your weapons aren't all that special, Shocker."
My weapons aren't all that special?!
Herman was already yanking open his locker and pulling out the suit before he forced himself to stop and think for half a second.
That was every media outlet in New York.
And if the bug wasn't lying, he really would be alone.
Herman started stripping and gearing up.
There wasn't going to be a better chance than this.
All of New York's media would remember the night the Shocker beat Spider-Man.
(End of Chapter)
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