As the summer sun strikes over the city of Big Apple, people cover the streets, amazed at the feats they are witnessing. All of them stare upwards at something, or somebody, not really flying but swinging from building attached ropes, keeping his momentum as he swings graciously. That man is no stranger to the people of New York, he is none other than their hero, the golden boy from Queens, he is The Amazing, The Spectacular and most importantly, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man! He has divided the opinion of people all over the city, some considering him a menace that needs to be stopped before he sees himself as superior ahead of everyone else, others seeing him as the hero New York needed.
As people of all ages clap, cheer and shout Spidey's name, the Web Slinger quickly notices them, and as the crowd pleaser that he is, he performs a few acrobatic feats before swinging away as the people cheer him even louder.
Swinging was never easy for him, the single thought of having to coordinate and time every swing you take, as well as tensing every single muscle from your arms while being over tens of feet above the ground is intimidating for any person, as well as exhausting, but practice makes perfect, as Spider-Man was pro at swinging at this point, even if he made the occasional miscalculation that led him crash face first into a wall. And as he feels his muscles crying of exhaustion, the Wall Crawler climbs on the rooftop of a 10 floor building and simply sits down. He soaks in the moment - the crowd applauding for him, the adrenaline that was rushing thru his veins seconds earlier now decreasing as he overlooks and watches the city he was born and grew up in, HIS city that he swore to protect. He takes off the mask, and stares at the man behind it in the reflective lenses: Peter Benjamin Parker.
*freeze frame*
Name: Peter Benjamin Parker
Alias: Spider-Man
Age: 20
Bio: The story is known by everyone and their grandmother; 5 years ago, a nerdy Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider which gave him enhanced strength, speed and reflexes, which combined with his high class intellect led him to create a costume and compete in local pro wrestling organizations. And after one night where his Uncle Ben was killed by a criminal Peter could've catched earlier but didn't, he learned the lesson of "With great power comes great responsibility" as he became Spider-Man and swore to protect his city, but having to hide his identity in order to not put another loved one such as Aunt May or Mary Jane Watson in danger. But you already knew that, so let's carry on.
*resume frame*
And as Parker soaks in the moment, he gets distracted a rumbling noise a few blocks away, a block he heard all the way from here. He stands up in order to get a clearer view, seeing a large number of masses being escorted by the police as a firing squad tries to cope with an unclear number of robbers that try to escape from a theft job. Withour hesitation, he aims his web shooter to a near building, and starts swinging again. Another day, another job.
He pulls up at a top of a lamp post nearby so he won't be noticed before he thinks his attack. There were about 3 or 4 criminals pulling the job, but the one that catches Spidey's eye the most is none other than Hermann Schultz, a.k.a The Shocker. He's had many encounters with him, it's safe to say most wins belonged to Spider-Man, but somehow, after a few weeks or months, Shocker managed to escape out of prison and go his ways again. He looks at a firing squad of policemen trying to stop the muggers, but for what use is it when one shot of vibrational air blasts from Shocker's gauntlets leaves them unconscious.
"Hey Hermann! Remember me?" shouts Spidey as he prepars to leap from the lamp post
"YOU !!! THIS IS THE LAST TIME I'M LETTING YOU INTERFERE IN MY BUSINESS !" respons Shocker, aiming his gauntlets at the Wall Crawler
And as Spidey leaps from the lamp post, he shoots his webs in mid air directly at the gauntlets, blocking them from working.
"Yeah, yeah!" continus Spider-Man while dodging Hermann's punches "That's what all of you bad guys say" as he dodges a left hook from Schultz, *in a imitating deep voice* "IMMA KILL YOU SPIDER-MAN, HURR DURR!" As he leaps from Shocker, leaving a short "Woah!" before saying "I swear if I had a dollar every time one of you told me that I'd be the next Tony Stark."
"SHUT... *prepares his gauntlets* UP !!!!!" mumbles Schultz before emitting a vibrational air blast towards Spidey, who uses his cat-like reflexes to dodge the blast, that hits the wall of a building.
Spider-Man proceeds to leap behind Shocker, hitting him with a roundhouse kick that would leave any human unconscious.
"I wish we could have gone longer... but you're not really as resilient as Rhino or Doc Ock, are you?" said Spidey with his hands on his hips at Schultz's fallen body. "Officers, you can take him."
But Spidey's trash talking wasn't as long as he wished it would because he heard a car kickstart about 15 metres away from him. "Shit, I forgot!" He says to himself as he quickly swings over to the car containing the rest of Shocker's crew, trying to run away with the bag of money they finnessed. As he swung he noticed 3 police cars after the same culprit, but Spidey's way, he considered, was quicker and more efficient. So he leaped over to the car roof, where one of the passengers inside shot a gun to the roof blindly, hoping it would nail Spidey. However, it didn't take long for the Web Slinger to stop the car and catch the rest of the crew before leaving them to be handled by the police. He never had a good working relationship with the NYPD, it's safe to say law enforcement and vigilance don't match together like peanut butter and jelly.
And as he aims the web to a building and starts swinging again, he pulls out his mobile phone from one of his protected pockets implented in the suit to notice he missed 3 calls from MJ.
"Shit!" he says to himself "She won't be pleased. Oh well, I'll hope for the best" as he continues swinging
MJ and Peter have been together for some time now, it feels like years really. It's one of those "high school crush" stories that have a happy ending. 6 months into their relationship and Peter revealed to MJ his identity as Spider-Man after he continously missed dates and didn't want to separate her from him. Safe to say it went pretty well, as MJ was the companion, the comrade Spidey and Peter needed.
Less than 2 minutes later, Peter's phone starts buzzing as he recieved a message from MJ, which read "come to my place whenever you can xx".
"Oh well" he smiles beneath the mask as he reads the message "I guess I didn't have any plans for today"
I won't bore you with details on how long it took him to get there, but once he sees her house he goes to the window of her bedroom, where he sees her laying on her bed studying, before knocking on her window, surprising MJ as she opens Peter's way in.
"You scared me, where were you?" said a rushed MJ
"Spider-business I guess" replies Peter as he takes off his mask "Are you OK?"
"I was worried" getting closer to Peter "but if it helps you sleep at night, yeah, I'm alright"
"You know I only sleep well when I know you're safe" Peter said making eye contact with MJ, before leaning towards her.
They start making out briefly, before MJ snaps.
"Happy anniversary babe" Mary Jane tells Peter, still in his arms
"It's not my birthday" replies Peter, confused
MJ stares at him suspiciously, followed by awkward silence
"Don't tell me you forgot" said MJ
"Me? Forget? Noooo!" replies Peter, laughing nervously "Should I go bring the champagne?" as he goes launching towards the door
"What are we celebrating today" MJ responds with her hands on her hips
"Is this a trick question?" He replies nervously
"No." she says blankly
"Umm... we are celebrating..." Peter continues as he wishes his sentence would be finished by her
"Our Three Year Anniversary." says MJ a bit upset
"Our Three Year Anniversary!" repeats Peter as he laughs nervously.
"You forgot." MJ says with an upset and angry tone"
"'No I didn--" he then makes slight eye contact with her and puts his head down "Yeah I did." He then sits on the edge of the bed with his head down, dissapointed of himself "I'm the worst"
MJ then sits next to him, putting her hand on his back.
"Sorry." says Peter, looking her in the eyes
"Don't be" she replies "I'm not upset, maybe a bit a dissapointed but in the end I just wanted you here, completely unharmed" as she leans towards him for a kiss
"I love you." says Peter briefly, as he makes eye contact with MJ, approaching to kiss her, feeling each other's skin, beginning to lose themselves.
And then there was fireworks.
New York City, New YorkMary Jane Watson's HouseAround 7:30 PM
"Oh man, I haven't a dinner like this IN WEEKS, even months!" said Peter, relaxing his belly after finishing MJ's cooked dinner for their anniversary
"Glad you enjoyed it" replied MJ
"I loved it." said Peter, smiling at her. "Anyhow, I need to go and try and repair the webshooters that dickhead Shocker broken today"
he continues as MJ is smiling at him.
However, while he gets up from his table, Mary Jane notices Peter limping, which immediately worries her.
"Peter... sit down." MJ says
"Why?" Peter said confused
"You're limping, you need to sit down." MJ says
"I'm alright, it's just..." he replies, trying to convince her
"Sit down!" she raises from the table, almost losing it, as Peter submits to her wish, going back to his seat "We need to talk." she continues
"About what?" responds Peter, rushed and confused
"About you, about Spider-Man... about you testing your limits" MJ says, trying to contain herself
"What is there to talk, I'm alright, limping will pass" he replies
"It's not just about limping, you have a bruise on your ribcage area too" MJ says,with looks of worry and tears nearly coming out of her eyes.
Peter rolls up his shirt to see a purple bruise around his ribcage area, he touches it and slightly groans "It's nothing, trust me"
"You need to take a break, from this, all of this, at least a break, you need to heal, I don't want to find you de--" MJ tries to explain before getting intrerupted
"I CAN'T!" retaliated Peter, banging his fist on the table
"WHY?" responded MJ with tears coming out of her eyes
"Because innocent people...DIE... because I'm not there to protect them. The crime wave now is higher than it has ever been because..." MJ stares at Peter desperately as Peter sighs "remember the whole Harlem Helicarier incident, nine months ago? Where the whole S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarier crashed on Harlem?" MJ just nods. "Doom, Victor Von Doom was behind it. It was his most succesful attack in I suppose, you could say, ever. He crashed the whole Helicarier, but not before getting all possible information on every single SHIELD registered hero there is. He managed to exterminate New York, and even USA, of most, if not all Superheroes, including the Avengers and Fantastic Four." MJ listens to Peter carefully "I was not yet registered to SHIELD, even though Doom knows of me, he has no weapon to attack me with, yet, but he has already won this war." Peter stops for a second, sighing, trying to contain himself. "I didn't find any hero since then...not a single one...not even the rookie ones.None. I dont know, it just seems that I'm the only hero in NY right now."
"You can't be, it's impossible..." responded MJ confused
"That's what I thought, at first, but I've tried to contact all the heroes that know me, all of them; Barton, Murdock, Rand, Romanoff, Jones, Cage, Lang, van Dyne, hell, even Wade Wilson looks like somehow, someway, Doom found a way to eradicate him. With all these people out of the watch, it only looks I'm responsible to keep this city clean." He looks at MJ who tries to process all of it "5 years I've been doing this, I can't give up on who I'm meant to be, not even for a week, even if I die trying".
MJ just nods her head, trying to contain herself.
Suddenly, on TV there's a news report that catches both of their attention.
"Shock and panic is spreading here at Highcross Plaza, where we've been reported that there has been a terrorist hijack and attack during the Retirement Party of now former Daily Bugle publisher, J. Jonah Jameson." says the female reporter, who is around 200 hundred feet away from the building, also noticing countless police cars and police officers strategizing and deciding how to react "The hijackers are currently holding hostage everyone inside, as there is said to be more than a couple dozen of attackers inside the building, so law forces will have to act precautiously so that as many people won't get hurt. We will update on the situation as soon as we can."
"Peter?" MJ sees Peter has gone without her even noticing. She climbs up the stairs to her bedroom to see Peter getting suited up, and ready to go when he notices her.
"I have to." says Peter with a bit of sadness in his voice.
MJ sighs heavily "Please be careful. Call me as soon as you can."
Peter just nods and starts swinging away. He is never been more focused in his life. This is huge, but also the hardest mission he's ever had. Possibly even harder than those times he had to square off against the Sinister Six or Green Goblin. Countless people can die, including his former boss. It's his job, his responsibility to make it straight.
He arrives there in no time, hiding so he won't be caught by the firing squad, who at this point, would see him as a threat nevertheless. He notices Captain George Stacy leading the line, informing as many of his officers of the strategy they will take, but Spidey has no time for that.
Highcross Plaza is by far the biggest, most impressive Plaza in New York, so J. Jonah's Retirement Party was a huge deal for him that only ended up being ruined by this terrorist group that is yet to be identified.
The Wall Crawler is now calculating every move, he shouldn't be too risky but also shouldn't stall, he should balance his every move. He manages to climb up the walls of the 650 feet building without being spotted, but now what? One alarm being rung for them and countless innocent people die.
But before he has time to contemplate his next move, he notices something weird happening from the back door of the building. He sees a Van being parked, hiding in the darkness alongside the trees and bushes. It didn't look like a Police or SWAT reinforcement line, it was just one regular van, which took Spidey by surprise. His first instinct was to go there and warn them of danger, but before he could do that, he notices someone strange coming out of it. He has a long black coat, looks about middle aged, he wasn't the one driving, because there's someone else waiting in the car, at the wheel. Spider forgets about everything and simply stares at the man to see him bring up two Machine Guns from the back off the van, giving instructions to the man driving.
What send shivers up Peter's spine, was when he saw him fully from the front, he noticed a black bulletproof vest that had sprayed or painted on it a big white skull, taking most of the empty space. "No..." said Spider-Man to himself... "It can't be".
It was exactly who he thought it was.
THE PUNISHER(to be continued...)