Chapter 1: A Shock(er)
Just as he was fighting a pack of symbiot infected people, a sudden pain began to spread in his head. It was a familiar voice that made him realize what the pain was.
"Did you really think this child of mine will not obey me?" the voice said.
'Venom', Peter taught.
Venom was trying to make the symbiot within Peter take over the human. He tried fighting for control over his body, but it was useless. From the effort, Spider-Man fell unconscious. At least in this state the symbiot couldn't control his body.
A while after that, he woke up. It was raining, he felt it on his back. Then he realized: he was on someone's shoulder. A thunder cracked and he went out again.
When he woke up again, it was not because he was regaining his strength after that mental battle with the symbiot, but rather because he was being tossed around like a ball. He stood awake too little time to know what was happening.
The next time he woke up was because he was thrown, or so it felt, on a table. Like a knife, the pain stung the left side of his back. Peter felt it all the way to his chest. He screamed at the top of his lungs.
He jumped out of his bed, screaming. He immediately stopped. He looked around.
"It's OK Peter. It was just a bad dream. A nightmare. You're in your room in the Stark Tower, in New York City. The symbiots have not broken in. Yet," the man calmed himself down.
"Another bad dream, sir?" he heard a robotic voice say.
"Yes, Jarvis. They keep coming back," he answered.
Just as Peter was expecting Jarvis to advise him to take some medicine, like he always did, an alarm rang. Jarvis immediately activated one of his screens in the room to show Spider-Man the threat that loomed outside. When he saw who was standing at the front door of the Stark tower, he couldn't believe his eyes. It was Shocker.
He let Shocker in because he couldn't possibly want to fight him, since outside the building lay a city full of symbiot possessed people.
He didn't went to meet the villain until he had his suit on. From his back a grey, water-like substance began to flow on his body, forming above his skin a suit. It was chromic grey and had a black spider on his chest whose legs stretched to the back of the suit, where they met the legs of an exact copy of the spider on the chest. The eyes of the mask were also black. Peter remembered the first time he tried to put this suit on. That time he had to concentrate a lot and when he managed to form it, his head hurt. But now it was a child's play.
He went to greet Shocker. His room was at the top floor of the Stark Tower. Beside the amazing view over the city it had, it gave him plenty of time to think when he was on the elevator to the bottom floor. Peter thought about his history with Shocker. That guy was one of his earliest enemies, yet he went to meet him. Another thing that popped in Spider-Man's mind was that he never did hand Shocker over to the cops and that he never found out his true identity. The villain always managed to get away in some way or another. 'He never killed a man or me when he had the chance,' Peter realized. 'He always seemed to be after the money.' That made him wonder what was the reason behind Shocker's actions. Greed? Love of money? Or another, far more noble reason, one that no one was thinking of? The chain of Peter's thoughts was interrupted by the sound of the elevator. He was on the bottom floor. The doors opened and revealed a muscular man in a brown and yellow suit. It was almost the same suit as the last time Spider-Man fought Shocker. Almost. The chest, abdomen, front part of the legs and his boots were brown. The shoulders, the outer sides of the arms and the gloves were also brown. The back of the costume was the same as the front part of it. The sides of the body and legs, the armpit region, the inner sides of the arms, and the inner sides of his? legs were covered in yellow rhombuses. The mask was also covered in yellow rhombuses, except for the top of it's head, where it had a big brown rhombus. Of course he had two white lenses were his eyes were so he could see. His belt had small pockets all over it, except a big round piece of metal which had on it the glowing form of a lightning. Then there were his signature weapons, the so called "Shock gauntlets". They were like fingerless metal gloves. There were two glowing dots over which Shocker was holding his thumbs, so he would be ready to press them if he needed to. But something seemed to be different about the gauntlets. Peter didn't have time to realize what that was, because Shocker suddenly spoke:
"Hello, mister, if you haven't noticed, we've been standing like this for 5 minutes or so. We can talk about why I am here and then you can admire my amazing costume."
'Narcissist', Peter thought.
They went to the kitchen, for Peter to eat. While he ate, Shocker began to think about what he had in mind for the talk they were going to have. It was true that he was only here because he needed Spider-Man to get back to the only person that truly needed him right now. Maybe that person died during the city evacuation. 'It did not happen. It did not happen. It did not happen!' Shocker tried to convince himself. He always tried not even to think about it, but sometimes it was hard not to.
"I'm done now, we can talk," the hero said. For once Shocker was glad he spoke, because he could forget that awful thought.
"Before we say anything we must trust each other 100%." the villain said.
"What do you suggest?" Spider-Man asked, suspicious.
"Reveal our secret identities to each other. I know this will be hard, but it's the only way we will trust each other completely," Shocker pointed out. He knew Spider-Man will probably turn it over and over in his mind, but that couldn't take so long. He started thinking if this was the right thing to do and one strong argument kept coming back. Without the revealing of their identities, the Spider would never trust him, and if that happened, then he couldn't request help from the hero.
'That would be a disaster,' Shocker admitted to himself. If Spider-Man didn't offer help, the one person Shocker loved on this world would probably die, and with that the sense of the villain's life would be gone. He was a hero in some ways. He was trying to save the person he still cared about. And wouldn't everybody do anything to save a loved one? Even if it came down to killing? That's why he never attempted to kill the Spider. Spider-Man was never a threat to his loved one. Plus, he didn't want to be a killer. But if the hero ever became a threat to that person, Shocker would do whatever it takes to protect that loved one.
It seemed to be an eternity until Spider-Man said something.
"I need you to promise me you will not reveal my identity to anyone once we're out of here," he said.
"That goes both ways, Spider. But I'll do it," Shocker promised. After all, his own identity was at risk. Of course he would sacrifice his identity for that person if he needed to. "I'll go first," the villain said.
"You want to get that weight of your shoulders, don't you?" the hero asked.
"Something like that," he answered smirking, while pulling his mask off. "Herman Schultz, electrical engineer, and to myself inventor. Yes, I invented the Shock gauntlets and yes, nobody knows it, except you and me, they all think Shocker did."
"You're the brother of that millionaire... What was his name? Mark? No... It was Martin Schultz! But everyone called him Marty," Spider-Man remembered.
"Yes I am," Shocker answered, trying as hard as he could not to throw any curses in that sentence. He hadn't a perfect relationship with him. "There's little time so reveal your identity already!"
"Peter Parker, photographer for...", he was interrupted by Herman.
"... the Daily Bugle. You're that guy that took photos of Spider-Man. Clever. A hero disguised as his own photographer. You photographed yourself, I can't believe it," Shocker said while laughing. They looked at each other for a while. Peter was a man in his early years, maybe about 25 to 30 years old, meaning they were about the same age. His hair was light brown, matching his eyes. He was shaved clean. His nose was not too big and was a bit curved. He had no scars on his face. It all fitted his round face.
Herman continued laughing. His laugh was funny. He sounded like he couldn't breathe anymore. But in some ways it seemed perfect for a person like him. He must have been about Peter's age, maybe one or two years older. He had deep black hair and his eyes also. It was hard to make a difference between his irises and his eye color. On the sides of his head were covered in tiny hair straws, but on the top of his head, his hair stood up like he stuck his fingers in a plug. And he had a small beard on his chin, a goatee better said. He had a tiny scar over his left eyebrow. He had an oval face, and seemed very intelligent.
"Enough analyzing each other faces, let's talk about why I am here," Shocker said with a smile and his face bright red from laughing, then he continued,"But before that I have to confess something. When I was waiting for you on the bottom floor, I was half expecting you to jump at my neck and beat me violently."
The Webslinger couldn't hold it anymore. Just the thought of him doing that seemed ridiculous. And he did something he hadn't done in a very long time: he smiled. And it felt weird.
A.N.: Feel free to write your opinion, be it good or bad. I would very much like to read it, 'cause it helps me improve my writing and story-telling.