Chapter 9: Search and Destroy

The alarms were blazing. Two men left the jewelry store through the door on the roof, each one carrying a bag full of jewels.

"One jump and we walk free with half a million each," the first one said, he was wearing a green striped shirt and khakis.

"After the big man takes his cut that is," the other one said, he was wearing a gray hoodie and blue jeans.

"Big man huh," a third voice said, both the men looked up to see Spider-Man standing on top of a water tower, "you wouldn't happen to be talking about Tombstone, would you?" Both the men pulled out guns and pointed them at Spidey, who jumped out of the way as he continued to talk, "you see, Tombstone is a secret admirer of mine." Spidey shot web lines onto both of their guns and threw them into the air, "He always sends me cute gifts like roses, chocolates, and mercenaries that are meant to kill me, and I've always wanted to meet him." Spidey jumped and punched the one in gray, "You wouldn't happen to know where to find him?"

"Go to hell," the one in green said

"Hell is the last place I would look for him," Spidey said as he webbed up the one in gray, "but something tells me he's not there."

"Well never know until you check," the one in green said as he picked up his gun.

Spidey webbed the barrel of his gun and his mouth, "hey I make the witty quips here, you just yell nonsense."

The one in green shouted, but his words couldn't be understood because of the webbing on his mouth. "See," Spidey said, "that's more like it." The green one charged Spidey, but Spidey flipped back and kicked him. After webbing the green one to the ground, Spidey heard the sirens of police cars. "Convenient response time," Spidey said as he looked at the back of his web-shooter like a watch was there, "well I hate to fight and run, but I got places to be and butts to kick." He jumped back up to the water tower and grabbed his camera, "see ya." Spidey jumped off the roof and began swinging away.

o0o

He stared at the screen with dissatisfaction. The spider had stopped a major heist, one that would have made him millions. Not to mention putting both Marko and O'Hirn behind bars. They were both good thieves who got the job done. The spider was beginning to get on his last nerve.

"Hammerhead," He said, not taking his eyes off his screen.

"Yes sir," The man in the blue pinstripe suit standing next to him said.

"Get Montana," he said, "I have a job for him."

"Yes sir," Hammerhead repeated before walking out the door. Hammerhead returned a couple of minutes later with Montana, in his standard brown leather jacket and fedora.

"Montana," He said.

"Tombstone sir," Montana said.

"I need you to hold off your duties on stealing the pieces for now," Tombstone said, "instead, find and kill the Spider-Man."

"But sir," Montana said, "you told me to only worry about him if he got in my way."

Tombstone stood up, "I know what I said, I'm the one who said it, now I'm telling you something different. So are we going to have a problem?"

Montana swallowed the lump in his throat, "no sir."

"Good," Tombstone said as he sat back down, "the Daily Bugle."

"What about it sir," Montana said.

Tombstone pulled a newspaper from out of his desk, "they're the only ones to consistently get good pictures of the spider. This can't be coincidence. You find who takes the pictures, you find the spider."

"yes sir," Montana said, "understood."

"Good," Tombstone said, "now get out of my office."

Montana nodded and walked out the door. Tombstone turned and looked out his window. "Soon spider," Tombstone said to himself, "you'll be out of my way for good."

o0o

"They all suck," Jameson said as he looked through Peter's pictures.

"You always say that," Peter replied as he threw a bouncy ball in the air, "and then you buy them anyways."

"Not this time," Jameson said

"What," Peter said with surprise, letting the ball fall to the floor, "why not, those are good photos."

"Because I don't care about some petty theft," Jameson said, "it's all about freaks fighting freaks. Where's the man in the bird suit, or the man with lightning skin, what about the guy with the scorpion tail?"

"Vulture, Electro, and Scorpion," Peter said, "they're all in jail."

"Well those are what people want," Jameson said, puffing on his cigar, "not some common thief."

"Well they aren't exactly common," Peter said, "some of these guys suffer from serious mutations, you know how rare those are."

"No," Jameson said, "and I don't care. All I care about is that I get good pictures of Spider-Man."

"Yeah well these are the only pictures I have of Spider-Man," Peter said, "there haven't been any super villain attacks in weeks."

Jameson groaned, "fine, 500."

"700," Peter said.

"600," Jameson said.

"650," Peter said.

"Deal," Jameson said as he signed a paper, "give that to the girl."

Peter took the paper and walked out of the office. "How'd it go," Betty said.

"Same as always," Peter said as he handed her the paper, "only with less yelling."

"I think that means he likes you," Betty said.

"I think it means I'm the only person who can get a good picture of Spider-Man," Peter said, "he can't afford to lose me."

Betty laughed, "good point." She handed Peter his check, which he took with a smile before walking away. He pocketed the check as he walked towards the elevator. As he pressed the button, the door opened, only to reveal a familiar red and yellow villain.

"Out of my way kid," Shocker said as he pushed Peter aside and began walking over to Jameson's office.

Peter ran off to find somewhere to change, meanwhile Shocker pushed through the crowd of people.

"Excuse me sir," Robbie said, stepping in Shocker's path, "you can't be up here."

Shocker pointed his gauntlet at the wall and fired, blasting a hole through it, "I think I can be. Now get out of my way." Robbie shook his head. Shocker prepared to fire, but got interrupted.

"What the hell is going on out here," Jameson shouted as he stepped out of his office.

Shocker trained his eyes on Jameson. He backhanded Robbie to get him out of his way. "You," Shocker said, pointing at Jameson, "you're the editor, right?"

"Yeah," Jameson said, "the hell is it to you."

Shocker blasted another hole in the wall, actually scaring Jameson. "Who takes those Spider-Man pictures," Shocker said, "tell me, and you walk away from this."

Jameson thought for a second before answering, "I don't know. I've never met him. He just emails the pictures and I wire the money to a bank account."

"Noble," Shocker said as he pointed a gauntlet at Jameson, "protecting your photographer, I have to respect that. But I'm afraid that I need to find the spider, and if you're not gonna help me, then you're in my way."

"You know Shocky," a familiar, annoying voice rang, "if you wanted to talk, you could've just called." Shocker turned to see Spider-Man hanging upside down from one of his web lines.

"There you are," Shocker said. He put up his gauntlet and fired it at Spidey, who managed to dodge just in time.

"SPIDER-MAN," Jameson shouted, "YOU MENACE, I KNEW YOU HAD TO BE WORKING WITH THIS RED AND GO..."

He got interrupted by Spidey webbing his mouth shut, "quiet Jamie, mommy and daddy are talking." His spider sense then lit up, just in time for him to get hit by Shocker's blast, sending him flying back. "Let me rephrase that," Spidey said as he pushed himself up, "mommy and daddy are fighting, and daddy's losing."

"Making jokes until the end," Shocker said as he prepared his gauntlets, "shame that your last words are gonna be something stupid."

"Guess we'll find out when I say them," Spidey said. He fired a web line onto each of Shocker's legs, pulling hard and making him fall on his back. Shocker let out a blast as he fell, firing a hole into the ceiling.

"Damn you," Shocker said, "I'LL KILL YOU." Shocker fired a blast into Spidey's chest, sending him flying through the wall.

Spidey fired two web lines and used his momentum to pull himself back, and then slingshot himself back up. He flew past the floor and up to the roof, shooting two web lines into the hole in the roof Shocker made and pulled hard, dropping through the hole and kicking his opponent hard in the chest and sending him flying back.

"Gotta admit," Shocker said as he got up, "last time we fought you just swung around, this time it seems like you're actually putting up a fight."

"Well after fighting a man with electric skin, you're pretty much nothing," Spidey said. He fired a web line onto a desk behind Shocker, and pulled it forward to slam him in the back, knocking him forward so he could punch him and send him flying onto his back.

"And he's down," Spidey said, "and the crowd goes wild. Wooo, Spidey, Spidey, Spidey." Shocker took advantage of Spidey's gloating to blast him in the back and sending him into a wall.

Spidey slowly pushed himself up, Shocker did the same. Sirens could be heard through the holes Shocker made.

"Damn," Shocker said, "didn't expect cops to get here so soon."

"You're trapped Shocker," Spidey said, "only one way out, and the police have it blocked."

Shocker tapped a button on the back of his gauntlets, "that's where you're wrong spider." The whir of helicopter blades could be heard nearby. A black chopper flew in and hovered above the hole Shocker made, dropping a ladder down. "I'll leave you to deal with the cops," Shocker said as he grabbed onto the ladder, pulling him up as soon as he grabbed it, "I have better places to be."

Spidey fired a web line on to the chopper and held on, keeping the helicopter in place.

"Sorry," Spidey said as he pulled down on his web line, using his feet to stick to the floor, "but I'm not done with you yet."

"Well I'm done with you," Shocker said, "I don't want to deal with cops, we'll finish this another time." He fired a blast into the ground, causing the floor to begin to collapse. Spidey jumped off the floor and let go of his web line. He quickly created a web net to catch civilians. He managed to catch all of the civilians before landing in his web himself. When he looked back up, Shocker's chopper was gone.

Shocker may think he got away, but Spidey had one advantage. He had a lead. While the chopper was pitch black, it had a a number on the side like all choppers do. A serial number, something he could trace.

"YOU STUPID WALL CRAWLER," Someone shouted from behind Spidey. He turned to see Jameson shouting.

Did he break through my web just to yell at me, Spidey thought to himself, I don't know whether to be impressed or terrified.

"YOU MENACE," Jameson shouted, "YOU DESTROYED MY BUILDING, WHO'S GONNA PAY FOR THIS?"

"Insurance," Spidey said, " look you can send me the bill, I gotta run." And with that, Spidey fired a web line up and pulled himself out of the Bugle.

"COME BACK HERE," Jameson shouted, "YOU SPIDER-PUNK!"

o0o

Gwen was sitting in the basement, waiting for Peter. She comes to this house so often that she didn't even have to knock anymore, May just lets her walk in now. She was pretty sure May thinks that she's dating Peter, she just didn't want to tell her they weren't. While Gwen did care about how this was basically a second home, she cared more about Peter's supposed lead on Tombstone.

"How's it going," Peter said as he walked down in through the outside door, still wearing his spider suit.

"You supposedly got a lead on Tombstone and all you have to say is how's it going," Gwen said, "I feel like we should be cracking open the champagne."

"A. We haven't caught him yet," Peter said, "B. We still don't know if this lead will go anywhere and C. Neither of us can buy champagne."

"We still need to do something," Gwen said, "for the first time, we actually have a lead. So what is it? How'd you get it?"

"A serial number," Peter said, "it was on the side of a helicopter."

"That's an N-number," Gwen said, "they're on the side of all aircraft's."

"So that means there's some way to trace it right," Peter said.

"Yes actually," Gwen said, going over to the basement laptop, "the FAA keeps a record of them, you can look it up on their website."

"So we can find it," Peter said, looking over her shoulder.

"Just give me the number," Gwen said.

"N-74691," Peter said.

Gwen typed the number into the computer, "the helicopter belongs to a Herman Schultz, the address is in New York." Gwen typed the name into her computer, "no form of police record for our Mr. Schultz, but he has been in news report involving the Enforcers."

"What's it say," Peter said, looking over her shoulder.

"Nothing except a report saying his helicopter was quote on quote stolen by a man in a brown leather jacket and fedora, a man in a gray suit with two hand guns, and a big man in a tanktop," Gwen read, "I feel like that's a lie though. Mostly because according to the dark web, he works at Hammer Industries and even designed the Shocker suit."

"So there's a possibility he gave Shocker his suit," Peter hummed in thought, "you think that he could lead us to Tombstone?"

"At the very least he'll lead us to Shocker," Gwen said as she began typing in the address, "and Shocker could lead us to Tombstone. Guess you need to pay him a visit."

"Remind me to thank Shocker for attacking me," Peter said, "otherwise we might not have this information."

"Wait a minute," Gwen said, "he attacked you? Why? He hasn't gone out of his way to attack you since the Enforcers."

"I don't know," Peter said, "maybe I pissed off Tombstone more than usual. I did stop some jewelry store heist, maybe that had something to do with it."

Gwen thought for a second, "what was the name of the jewelry store?"

Peter paused and hummed in thought, "I think it was Illuminate Jewelers. Why?"

Gwen typed on her computer, "I was afraid of this."

"Afraid of what," Peter said looking over her shoulder.

"Afraid that you took down a jewelry store that's known for money laundering," Gwen said, "police had their eye on it, but could never get a warrant to search it or find evidence to shut it down. Police estimated that 4.7 million was there, Tombstone must've wanted it."

"Or at least shut down the competition," Peter said, "so now that I ruined his plan, he's sent Shocker on a search and destroy mission."

"Well now we're searching for him," Gwen said, "and we know where to start. Suit up."

"Uh... I'm already suited up," Peter said as he gestured to his body, more specifically his spider suit.

"I know," Gwen said with a smile, "I just really wanted to say that."

Peter laughed, "you know what, I'm so happy that we have our first lead in weeks, that I'm going to ignore your craziness for once."

"Aw," Gwen said, "how sweet, now get going."

Peter slipped his mask on, flipped up his hood, and slipped out the outside door.

o0o

Spidey swung through the Manhattan skyscrapers, Gwen giving him directions over the comms. Finally they reached a tall building with a familiar black helicopter on the helipad.

"I've never seen a skyscraper that actually has a helicopter on it's helipad," Spidey said as he landed on the helipad, "more specifically one used in a recent crime."

"I've never seen that either," Gwen said over the comms, "but I guess that's how life is when your penthouse comes with a helipad."

"Wait," Spidey said, "penthouse? You didn't tell me it was a penthouse."

"It thought it didn't matter," Gwen said.

"I feel like it matters a lot," Spidey said, "especially considering penthouses often have more security."

Gwen went silent for a little bit, "yeah I didn't think of that."

"I can tell," Spidey said as he walked from the helipad. He looked around, and sure enough he was on the balcony of a penthouse, a large balcony with a pool. "A helipad leading up to the balcony," Spidey said as he walked up, "I feel like that's a hazard of some kind."

"Well if they can land a helicopter on it without it breaking, then it must be fine," Gwen said, "now get in there."

"You want me just to break in," Spidey said.

"Yes," Gwen said, "I thought that was the plan."

"The plan was to talk to Schultz," Spidey said, getting a little frustrated, "more specifically to find out what he knows about Shocker and Tombstone."

"Yeah it is," Gwen said, "but do you plan on waiting for him on the balcony, maybe set out some nice tea and biscuits? No, you're gonna go in there and you're gonna interrogate him."

"I don't know," Spidey said, "tea and biscuits sounds nice."

"Just break in," Gwen said, "you're already a vigilante with an arrest warrant. What are they gonna do, arrest you?"

Spidey went silent for a moment, "fine. How do I get in?"

"I don't know," Gwen said, "try a vent."

"And if I trigger security," Spidey said, annoyance in his voice.

"Wing it," Gwen said.

Spidey decided to just push the thought of security aside and focused on getting in. He jumped up to the roof of the penthouse and searched for a entrance of some sort. After searching for a minute, he found a large vent. He ripped it open and slipped inside. He crawled around the vent until he found an opening that looked like it led to a penthouse, it looked nice enough to be a penthouse at least. He ripped the grate open and hid it inside the vent. "No alarms," Spidey said.

"Probably because not many people come in from the roof," Gwen said, "much less through the vent."

"You're probably right," Spidey said. He fired a web line onto the top of the vent and slowly lowered himself into the penthouse. "No one's home," Spidey whispered into his comms.

"Then snoop around," Gwen said, "see what you can find."

"Well we already got breaking and entering and vigilantism," Spidey said, "why not invade someone's privacy." He began looking around the penthouse, looking for any clues. He looked through drawers, looking in rooms, searching for anything that could lead to Tombstone. Finally, Spidey came across a small office. He looked around the office, until he came across the desk.

"Well this is interesting," Spidey said as he ruffled through the papers on the desk.

"What is," Gwen asked.

"A series of bank statements," Spidey said as he picked up a couple of papers, "most of them for hundreds of thousands of dollars to what looks like Schultz's bank account, all of them anonymous donations."

"Something tells me they aren't anonymous," Gwen said, "I assume compensation for helping Tombstone and the Enforcers."

"Possibly," Spidey said, "but we still need to establish more of a connection." He began going through more of the papers, until he stopped on a set of blueprints. "More interesting papers," Spidey said as he read the blueprints.

"What is it," Gwen said.

"The original blueprints for Shocker's suit," Spidey said as he read them, "most of it's the same as the blueprints you found, except for some minor differences."

"Like what," Gwen said.

"Like explaining the suit in more detail," Spidey said, "it's a lot more complicated then we thought. Those yellow spots on his arms and near his waist absorb vibrations so that they don't rip his body apart. if those are damaged or removed in anyway, a fail safe activates that shuts off his gauntlets so he doesn't hurt himself."

"Remove some of his fishnets and he can't use his primary weapon," Gwen said.

"What it seems like," Spidey said, "and luckily some of it is in his mask."

"The mask comes off and he's powerless," Gwen said, "if we knew it was that easy, I wouldn't have wasted so much time on that EMP."

"At least we got to use it," Spidey said.

"Yeah," Gwen said, "it made Electro ten times more powerful and then he blasted you."

"I didn't say we used it efficiently," Spidey said. As he continued to ruffle through the papers, his spider sense went off. It wasn't warning him about an immediate threat this time, it was telling him someone was coming. He quickly dropped the papers and jumped onto the ceiling to hide. A man walked in, he was wearing a lab coat and holding a gun. Spidey watched him for a minute, watched as he searched the office. The man picked up some of the papers that Spidey had dropped and placed them back on his desk.

"Come out Spider-Man," the man said, "I know you're here, I saw your web."

I forgot about my web, Spidey thought to himself. Spidey decided to mull his mistake later, act now. He flipped of the ceiling, pulling the gun out of the mans hand with a web line as he dropped, and landed in front of the doorway.

"Hi there," Spidey said, "how's it going?"

The man was shaking now that he didn't have his gun, "w-what do you want?"

"I just want to talk," Spidey said as he threw the gun against the wall behind him and webbed it in place.

"W-what about," the man said as he scanned Spidey.

"For starters," Spidey said as he scanned the man for himself, "you're Herman Schultz, right?" The man nodded. "Good," Spidey said, "now I want to talk to you about two things, Shocker and Tombstone."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Schultz said.

"The chopper on your balcony says otherwise," Spidey said, "not only was it seen leaving a crime scene with Shocker in tow, it also was supposed to be stolen."

"So," Schultz said, "that Shocker guy stole it a while back, now he's using it."

Spidey lifted his finger and waved it from side to side, "only Shocker didn't steal it, the Enforcers did. Now I know that the public should have no information on who Shocker is, so there's no way you could know that Shocker has any relation to the Enforcers."

Schultz flinched at his own mistake, "o-okay, you caught me."

"That was easier than I thought," Spidey said, "I expected you to give a bunch of excuses and I'd just keep breaking through your lies. Well whatever, let's start with what you know about Tombstone."

"Almost nothing," Schultz said, "he occasionally asks for something, I give it to him, he sends me money."

"Explains the nice place," Spidey said as he looked around, "so I guess that means that you don't know who he is or where to find him." Schultz shook his head. "Well what about Shocker?"

"He bought my chopper a while back," Schultz said, "but asked me to report it stolen. He paid a lot and in cash, so I decided to go along. He started to come back every now and again, asking for things. He introduced me to Tombstone and I tried to back out, but I was in to deep. He blackmailed me, either I stayed or he would turn me in to the police. So I was trapped."

"Why are you telling me this," Spidey said, "shouldn't you be keeping these secrets... well secret?"

"Because I saw you fighting him," Schultz said, "you can help. Even with my suit, you can beat him." Schultz then let out a devilish smile, "and it doesn't matter anymore."

Before Spidey could ask what he meant, his spider sense went off. He threw Schultz out of the way and got blasted in the back by an vibro-electric shock.

"Damn spider," Shocker said. He turned his head toward Schultz, "how much did you tell him?"

"Like it matters," Schultz said, "just kill him so we can be done with this."

Spidey pushed himself up, only to be blasted by Shocker again. "He's a wily bastard," Shocker said, "he may be hard to kill. If he somehow get's away with that information..."

"Then you can explain to the big man how we lost the spider when he was on the ground in front of us," Schultz said as he began walking away, "now hurry up and finish him off."

Shocker nodded, he then blasted Spidey again. Spidey was in a tight spot. If he didn't find a way out of this he was sure to die. In between Shocker's blasts, he fired a web line onto something behind Shocker, anything. He managed to land his web line on a series of books on a bookshelf behind Shocker and pulled hard, hitting Shocker in the back of the head and knocking him off guard. Spidey quickly took advantage of this, he flipped onto his feet and punched Shocker in the chest, sending him flying back.

"Guess you were right," Spidey said through immense pain, "I am pretty wily."

"Soon you'll be pretty dead," Shocker said, firing another blast from the ground. Spidey jumped out of the way.

Need to damage the suit, Spidey thought to himself, then his fail safe will kick in. Spidey looked for anything that could help him. His eyes trained on the gun Schultz had. He fired a web line onto it and pulled it off the wall as he dodged another one of Shocker's blasts. He used his spider sense to aim, shooting so it just grazed his arm.

"AAAH," Shocker screamed, "BASTARD, YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?"

"No," Spidey said, "just graze you."

"Well I'm not gonna graze you," Shocker said. He thrust his arms forward in an attempt to fire his gauntlets, only they didn't work. "What the hell," Shocker said as he looked at his gauntlets.

"What's the matter," Spidey said as he casually walked over to Shocker, "did you not know about your suit's fail safe?"

"What fail safe," Shocker said.

"The one that shuts down your gauntlets if your suit is damaged," Spidey said, "you really should make sure you know how your equipment works."

Shocker charged at Spidey in rage, Spidey responded by flipping back and kicking him in the jaw. Once Shocker was on the ground, Spidey webbed him there. "Now you wait there," Spidey said, "I'm sure the police will be here soon."

"Already called them," Gwen said over the comms.

Spidey was going to make fun of Shocker some more, but stopped at the sound of a helicopter starting up. "I gotta go Shocker," Spidey said, "who else is gonna stop your friend."

"I'LL KILL YOU," Shocker shouted.

Spidey took off Shocker's mask and fired a web ball onto his mouth. "I asked you a question," Spidey said, "but you didn't want to answer and now you're in timeout." Spidey then ran off while Shocker screamed through his webbing. Spidey ran onto the balcony to see the Helicopter prepped to leave. "Hey Schultz," Spidey shouted over the sound of the helicopter blades, "hope you weren't waiting on your partner, cause he's a bit tied up at the moment."

Schultz popped out of the helicopter, much to Spidey's surprise. He had changed, he was no longer wearing his lab coat, now he was wearing a second Shocker suit. "Well then," Schultz said, "I guess I'll have to leave without him." Schultz fired a blast from his gauntlets, Spidey jumped to dodge it. Spidey saw him press a button on his gauntlet, making the chopper start to take off.

"Auto pilot," Spidey said to himself, "okay that's pretty cool."

"Admire later," Gwen said, "chase him now."

"Right," Spidey said. He got a running start and jumped off the balcony, firing a web line onto the bottom of the chopper. He held on to the web line as the chopper flew through the Manhattan skyline.

"GET OFF," Schultz shouted, firing another blast.

Spidey let go of his web line to dodge the blast and fired another to latch back on to the chopper. "These New York cab drivers keep getting more and more hostile," Spidey said, "if you want the cab fare, I'll pay it later."

"YOU'LL PAY WITH YOUR LIFE," Schultz said firing another blast.

Spidey dropped his second web line and began swinging through the city behind the helicopter. "See this is why I don't like taking the cab," Spidey said as he swung, "always prefer taking my own ride."

Spidey continued to swing after the chopper, dodging Schultz's blasts. He pulled himself up so that he was level with the chopper as it flew. Schultz turned the chopper, allowing Spidey to take his chance. He fired two web lines on the buildings on either side of him and pulled hard. As he flew fast toward's Schultz's helicopter, Schultz fired a blast into Spidey's chest. Spidey flew back and through the window of a building.

"Ow," Spidey said as he pushed himself up. He looked around to see that he was in a small apartment, he had specifically landed on the dining room table with the family eating dinner, they all stared at him with mouths agape. "Oh," he said as he realized where he was, "my bad." He hopped back up to the window he crashed through, "sorry I can't stay for dinner. You know how it is, bad guys to catch."

He jumped out the window and began swinging. He swung across the street and looked around, he couldn't even hear the chopper anymore. He had lost Schultz.

o0o

"Ow," Peter said as Gwen pulled a bit off glass out of his back.

"Don't be a baby," Gwen said, "it's not my fault that you can't go a fight without getting hit."

"That's kind of how fights work," Peter said, "I hit them, they hit me, I make a quip here and there, it's a system and it works."

"The glass in your back says different," Gwen said as she pulled another shard out, "so what are we going to do now?"

"Don't-ow-know," Peter said, "Schultz was our only lead on Tombstone and Shocker, now he's-ow-gone."

"Even worse," Gwen said, beginning to patch up the wounds now that the glass was out "when police got to the Penthouse, Montana was gone."

"So we lost both Shockers," Peter said.

"Yeah but if I know anything about the people that want you dead, they're gonna come after you," Gwen said patching up his last wound.

Peter put his shirt back on and started walking around, "we can't wait for that. We need to find them now, before they can cause more damage. Not to mention they're our best chance of finding Tombstone."

Gwen started to pace around, "we need something, anything. I'll head home and try to find what I can on the Shockers."

"Alright," Peter said as Gwen left. He stared at his wall for a couple of minutes. What was he gonna do? He needed to find both of them, before they had a chance to do anything bad. It was his fault they were out there. Not only had he let Schultz get away, Montana managed to escape. He couldn't help but feel like it was his fault, like he let them get away. But he also knew that he could fix it, that he could stop them. The next time Schultz or Montana reared their ugly heads, he would take them down.

o0o

"He's not gonna be happy you know," Montana said to Schultz as they were walked to the office.

"I know he's not happy," Schultz said, "you failed to kill the spider."

"And you gave him information he shouldn't know," Montana said.

"Most of it was lies," Schultz said, "and what was true is of no use to him."

"You still shouldn't have told him anything," Montana said, "you should've just stalled and kept him busy until I showed up."

"Yeah," Schultz said, "and then he'd kick your ass all the same."

"Both of you shut up," Hammerhead said as they walked up to the door, "I doubt that the big man wants to hear you bickering."

Both of them nodded silently as Hammerhead opened the door. They walked in to see a tall figure staring out the window. "I went along with your plan," Tombstone said, not turning to face them, "lead the spider in and kill him, yet you failed."

"Sir," Montana said, "I know we failed, but..."

"Shut up," Tombstone said, "I don't want excuses, I want results."

"And you'll get them sir," Schultz said, stepping forward with a smile, "Montana's mistake was trying to kill him alone, that is why I'm going to help him."

"I do not want to lose my technical expert," Tombstone said, "how else will I build your device."

"Don't worry sir," Schultz said, "I am certain we can kill the spider. He can barely handle one Shocker, two will certainly kill him."

Tombstone hummed in thought, "very well, but do not fail me. Kill the spider, and then return, I will need you for the upcoming meeting."

"Yes sir," Schultz and Montana said simultaneously.

"Good," Tombstone said, "now leave." Montana and Schultz nodded before turning around and walking out the door.

o0o

EDITOR'S NOTE:

I've been working on concept art for the characters and their suits (right now only having Spidey's first two suits drawn up), but I kinda wanna help give everyone an idea of what these characters look like for a better visual of the story. Well that and I want fan art, I'm a big fan of seeing other people's art and I would love seeing some of these situations come to life. Feel free to check it out at TheRealGameHero deviantart page (I'd put a link but this website STILL DOESN'T LET YOU DO THAT... I will never stop being salty about that). Anyway thanks for reading, next chapter will be up... I don't know... whenever I finish it, I guess.