"No. No. No. The Shocker doesn't end here!"
Herman's scream stabbed into Peter's ears like a blade. He thrashed wildly, trying to clench both fists, his knuckles turning white with effort. Peter had no choice but to let go of the arm he was pinning and grab both sides of the Shocker's gauntlet instead. Metal groaned under his grip and began to warp and buckle.
But he was still too late.
With a thunderous blast, the shockwave exploded outward, and Peter was hurled backward like a kite with its string cut, his back smashing into a pile of twisted metal and wreckage.
"No! No! No! Herman!"
Peter kip-upped back to his feet at once. He wasn't panicking because the Shocker was about to run again, or because of anything like that. It was because the gauntlets were losing control. Sparks were spitting from the seams like the last gasps of a dying beast.
There were three possibilities.
First, the Shocker gauntlets had already reached their limit and were about to explode.
Second, Peter had only damaged them enough to push them to the end of their service life, but not enough to blow them up.
Third, Peter had damaged them, and now they were about to explode.
The Shocker, swaying on his feet, still hadn't realized it. He raised a fist at Spider-Man, stumbled, and threw the punch off to one side while even more sparks burst from the gauntlet.
"Great. Second option eliminated."
Two web lines snapped onto the ground behind Herman and yanked Spider-Man straight back in front of him. Peter immediately started trying to tear the gauntlet apart by force. One hand clamped down on Herman's arm while the other ripped at the housing, tearing away the gold-titanium outer shell and hurling it aside, exposing the wiring underneath.
"Same principle as your old launcher, right? Just miniaturized and jammed into an arm bracer. Okay. I remember the structure. Let me see."
"Get away from me!"
Herman's other arm swung across with a shockwave-loaded punch. If Peter hadn't ducked in time, it would've taken his head off. He stared at Herman in disbelief.
"Hey, man, I'm trying to save you here. Your gear is falling apart. Can you not tell?"
"I..."
Still dazed from taking that giant billboard to the head, Herman finally looked down at the gauntlet as it spat sparks and seemed to regain a little clarity.
Then he slammed his head forward.
His gold-titanium helmet cracked into Spider-Man's skull with a heavy clang, sending Peter stumbling back several yards, stars exploding behind his eyes.
"I can handle this. I just... I just need to take you down first."
"What?"
Spider-Man spread his hands in disbelief.
"Are you serious? You already lost. It is extremely obvious. What are you even doing now?!"
"So many cameras... so many screens... I can't lose... I won't lose..."
Great. He was impossible to talk to.
Peter let out a frustrated sigh. He had only thought the media spotlight would lure Herman out. He had never considered that it would send him spiraling like this. Herman had clearly developed some kind of performance obsession. There was no talking him down now.
But the problem was that the gauntlets could blow at any moment.
And Peter had no idea exactly when.
"Think. Think."
He backflipped away from another unsteady shockwave aimed at his head while forcing himself to think. That was the real issue. Herman was already beaten. Taking the gauntlets off would take time. But he didn't know when the blast would happen, only that it was close. And what if he got them off and they blew on the way down?
For once, he wished unstable tech came with a clear countdown.
"No, wait. I can force the gauntlets into overload and trigger the explosion early."
He tilted his head aside and let yet another shockwave scream past him, then dragged his memory back to the first time he'd picked up one of Herman's original Shocker launchers. He had examined the structure carefully. If he thought hard enough, he should still remember it.
The first launcher had been powerful enough to slice through an entire building, but later versions never showed that kind of output again. Which meant Herman already knew the weapon couldn't safely be allowed to hit maximum power. And the original launcher had one fatal flaw: the safety system couldn't operate correctly and would fail, letting the device run out of control no matter what power setting it was on.
If Peter could recreate those conditions, max out the power to launch himself straight upward, and then disable the safety so the gauntlet overloaded...
Did that flaw still exist in the new one?
"Let me see. Let me see!"
The news helicopters overhead could only watch in confusion as Spider-Man ripped the outer casing off the Shocker's second gauntlet too, while Herman swung and flailed at him and Peter dodged every blow with ease. At the same time, Peter studied the mechanism and compared it to what he remembered.
He found that Herman was controlling the output with how tightly he clenched his fist. More importantly, the safety was still jammed in place.
Which meant Herman had never fixed the flaw at all. He had just been carefully avoiding high-output use during combat so he wouldn't break the stuck safety and trigger the failure state.
"Okay, Herman. Since we're in the middle of New York, I'm going to have to improvise."
Peter found the part anchoring the bracer near the elbow, ripped it loose by force, and tore the gauntlet right off Herman's arm. He strapped it onto his own arm as quickly as he could.
At that point Herman barely seemed aware of anything anymore. He was just mumbling to himself.
Peter webbed him up, dumped him off to the side, and clenched his fist as hard as he could.
"I'm about to take off!"
Spider-Man took flight.
Literally.
A huge crater exploded open beneath him as the shockwave launched him skyward. He climbed higher and higher through the air, and as he rose, he disabled the gauntlet's safety. He made sure his fist was clenched tight to maximum output, then turned to face the ground below.
He didn't know how high he'd get, but soon he could see all of Manhattan.
Then most of New York.
He turned his back to the ground and clenched both fists again.
The sheer force blasted the clouds apart above the city in an instant. Spider-Man was hurled downward toward the earth, and under that overwhelming recoil, the gauntlet tore free from his arm and flew even higher into the sky.
Then it erupted in a blinding white light.
"Now there's just one question."
Spider-Man asked it while falling.
"Am I more than a kilometer away from that thing?"
The blast wave sped up his descent. Peter narrowed his eyes as Manhattan rushed up to meet him. At this height, if he tried to use webbing to latch onto a building directly, the sudden deceleration would rip his arms clean off.
Fine.
He had imagined a moment like this countless times before. High-altitude rescue techniques. Emergency fall control. All because he wanted to be ready to save Gwen one day.
Who would've guessed the first person he'd need to save with it would be himself?
His web-shooters fired at full output. Layer after layer, sheet after sheet of webbing spread between the buildings below. Spider-Man crashed into them, relying on their elasticity to bleed off the force. One layer after another snapped after doing its job. After tearing through dozens of layers, he finally came to a stop stuck to a surviving web line between two buildings.
He looked down at the swarm of media crews rushing into the battlefield now that the fight was over and let out a long breath.
He dropped to the ground, gasping, and waved for the media crowd surrounding Herman to make room. Finally he pushed through and got back to him.
"So... did you see that? That thing almost turned you into fireworks."
Herman didn't say a word.
He just turned his head and looked at Spider-Man.
Spider-Man looked back, then finally understood what he wanted.
He reached down and removed Herman's helmet.
Herman's face appeared before every camera and every microphone. In that instant, every spotlight in Times Square flashed across his features. Herman narrowed his eyes and smiled in pure satisfaction.
"I really don't want to say this," Peter said, patting him on the shoulder, "but you are completely insane."
Then he let out a breath.
"But either way, the Shocker's run is over."
(End of Chapter)
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