"Scream! Scream for mercy!"

The sound blast whipped police cruisers and cars parked along the road flying as if caught up in a maelstrom. The villain, laughing as he rubbed the two repulsor gauntlets on his fists together to build their charge, waited until the friction between the two had grown to a point where they were being forced apart before unleashing another blast of sonic energy into the wall of a nearby building, blasting bits of rubble and debris in the path of approaching SWAT vehicles and squad cars, throwing the police into disarray.

The man, garbed in a padded black jumpsuit fitted with a number of silver mechanical pieces running down his front, back, arms and hips, all connected by wires and cables to the boxy gauntlets on his hands, powering his attack. His face was covered by the hood of his black jumpsuit, the hole in the fabric cut out for his face covered by the silver headpiece that wrapped around the circumference of his head, fitted with a visor serving some tactical purpose, most likely monitoring the suit's status and allowing him to monitor its sonic input/output. The interior of the suit was most likely laced with foam points and seams to protect him from his own sonic energy, and thus his voice came out stuffy and hollow, as if speaking through a tube, distorted by an exterior speaker system.

Warming up his generators again, the criminal prepared for another attack as a phalanx of SWAT officers carrying riot shields closed in on him.

"Is that all you losers got!?"

Shocker unleashed another blast, laughing as he did. The formation broke almost instantly, the officers mobile or far away enough to avoid the shockwave scattering in every direction to avoid another concussive blast, taking cover. The masked man laughed out loud, watching the law enforcement cower before his might. That was until he was his hard from behind, and for a moment his vision peaked and blacked out. Reality blurred, and Shocker found himself waking up after a skip in time to look up into the dented side of a parked car. He groaned and climbed to his feet, shakily.

"Let me guess. The amazing pillow man!"

He turned around, his eyes widening before curling downwards into a frown before the arrival of a masked freak he'd never seen before, one wearing red and blue in some kind of spider or bug getup. The kid cocked his head to the side in his crouched position as if curious. "Dude, the whole padded ninja thing is totally not a good look for you."

The new arrival's jokes wasted on him, Shocker laughed to himself and warmed up his gauntlets, building sonic energy. "Oh… now you asked for it!" He unleashed another wave without warning, pulverizing the overturned SWAT vehicle that seconds before his attacker had occupied. When the dust settled and there was no sign of the masked assailant, Shocker made a definitive grunting laugh and turned to face the advancing police officers once again, looking now to clear a route of escape. He took exactly three steps before gasping and hopping backwards in a defensive reflex, the masked freak reclining downwards on a thread of what looked like webbing, hanging upside down from a bent lamp post.

"How about… The Avenging Comforter!"

Roaring with frustration, Shocker lunged at his attacker with a heavy, clumsy punch, one that was easily avoided by a quick upwards sweep that transformed into a perfectly executed aerial summersault to land gracefully on the street just behind him.

Shocker slammed his gauntlets together, depressing the triggers with his thumbs to build up sonic energy to a point now that it began to vibrate violently up his arms. "Come on, you web-headed geek!"

The spider-kid spread his legs, dropped his stance low, and balled two fists, standing defiantly without fear."Bring it!"

The masked hero was first to move, leaping into the air and shooting out a web line, using the momentum of his jump to swing towards his opponent with both legs extended, moving to plant another kick.

"Right this way, loser!" The villain laughed with sadistic amusement, stamping one foot on the ground to centre his base of gravity while simultaneously punching his fists towards the ground and unleashing both armloads of sonic energy. The pavement buckled and shattered, building up in a mound before him like layers of carpet pushed up off the floor.

"Whoa!" Thinking fast, the young masked hero shot out a second web line and jerked on it, the elasticity of the line throwing himself clear of the obstacle and out onto the other side. Coming out of his arc of momentum, the kid kicked off the wall of concrete and executed a perfect roundhouse kick. The heel of his right foot struck Shocker in the jaw and the man stumbled falling to the ground. As he fell, his descent was stopped by a web line, which stuck firm to his chest plate, followed by a sudden jerk that pulled him helplessly towards an oncoming fist, shattering the glass of his visor. Grunting, the criminal was thrown to the ground.

"Now let that be a lesson to you." The costumed kid slapped his hands together as if in success. "Crime doesn't pay. And especially for guys with absolutely no sense of style. Dude. Seriously."

Shocker, coughing, lifted one suddenly charged gauntlet, his dark eyes narrowing underneath the layer of broken glass that was once his suit's visor. "Keep talking…"

The kid sighed. "This will not be fun."

The blast struck him square in the chest and the young man was thrown backwards heavily into the wall of concrete, hitting with a gasp of escaping wind and falling to the side. Sitting up, he groaned and rubbed his head, tapping it once with the palm of his hand to try to get his ears to stop ringing. "Ugh… sonic energy." He looked up at his opponent for a brief moment before pushing up off the ground and hopping to his feet. "Must be generated from those gauntlets he's wearing. Have to take them out before he can hit me with another one of those blasts. I don't think my ear drums can take another facial like that…."

"Heads up, freak!" Shocker came in low and fast; his gauntlets humming loudly with sonic energy build up. The masked hero spread his legs apart and flexed both fists, face determined under his mask. His opponent punched outwards, the gauntlet unleashing its cargo in the form of a long-distance punch which the young man ducked under just barely, letting the wave of energy pulverize the wall of concrete just behind him. A second punch whined towards him and he kicked off the ground in a horizontal barrel roll, landing to bend over backwards and allow a third to pass over his chest. Following through on his backwards summersault, he avoided a fourth by pushing off the ground with both arms. He kicked off the wall and jolted forward, flipping in mid-air over his opponent's head. While inverted parallel to the taller criminal, he unleashed two web lines that adhered themselves around the circumference of the gauntlets like a layer of sticky coating.

The masked defender landed gracefully an arm's breadth from his opponent, who sneered and shoved his fists an inch from the webbing on the kid's mask. "Fry, you dork." He depressed the triggers.

The kid closed his eyes behind his mask. "Not before you…"

Sonic energy built up, and, unable to be discharged outwards by the layer of webbing blocking the output emitters, backfired and shot up into Shocker's suit, rattling his insides and blowing out every system and safeguard programmed into his soundproof armour. In a smoking, sparking heap, the criminal groaned and collapsed.

The victorious, yet silent masked defender came forward steadily and stood over the twitching, deafened form of his former opponent, watching him for a moment, as if looking for something. He bent at the waist. Sirens blared off in the distance, approaching the trashed wreckage of the police barricade. Sparing Shocker one last glance, the kid stood quickly turned sharply and hurried off, sending out a web line to take him up into the rooftops, and, beyond that, the darkness of the night.

When the police fanned out and collected the senseless perpetrator, placed against the webs securing him to the street was a simple note, written on it in messy handwriting.

'I followed your noise complaint.

Cheers,

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man'

Above the din, a figure silhouetted against the moonlight reclined against the ledge of the skyscraper he'd perched upon and leaned his head against the darkened glass, gazing now up into the expressionless, mottled black sky of the city, still and silent.

'I didn't ask to be anyone's hero. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. Heck, if I had the choice…'

He looked down into the street where rescuers were pulling a young woman and her crying baby from the wreckage of an overturned car, both of them miraculously unscathed.

'No. I didn't mean for this to happen. But I chose to become the man I am. Someone once told me that with great power, comes great responsibility. I think maybe now…'

The firefighters and police officers wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and the woman looked up into the rooftops, her eyes glossy with tears but her face straight and brave before the paramedics took her away to safety.

Spider-Man stood to his full height and watched the rescuers for a moment longer before turning slowly and leaping off into the night, not once looking back.

'I'm starting understand what he meant.'