Chapter 2

Peter Parker ran through the snow as it fell – his legs on fire and his heart pounding with adrenaline. Blinking back a few tears, he panted as he made his way through the alley, his shoes pounding along the pavement as he attempted to balance the bags of Christmas presents in both hands. Money was a bit tight at the moment, and he didn't want to lose these presents with Christmas only a few days away.

Behind him, he heard the shouts of "Stop – this is the police!", causing him to turn his head back only to see a number of policemen momentarily gaining on him. Hearing these words, he quickly started to turn into the next alley to his right.

But, a palpable buzz accompanied this choice as his body tingled a bit – his Spider sense alerting him to officers waiting at the end of this alley as he quickly reversed course, darting into the alley to his left.

Peter Parker felt fingertips grab along his arm, tugging at his coat as he yanked his arm away and narrowly avoiding the grip of New York City's Finest, speeding down the alley, feet carrying him farther away from the policemen as he began to gain some ground, hearing the policemen huffing and puffing behind him.

Peter repeated to himself under his breathe, "I have to make it, I have to make it…" over and over, chanting it almost like a mantra as if by sheer will alone he could escape from his present circumstances.

Breathing hard as Peter could see his breathe crystallize before his eyes, ignoring everything else except just getting away from the police as Peter lunged into yet another alley. Soon, hopefully, he could get away and transform into Spiderman in order to finally escape from the police officers behind him. Once free, Peter could begin to try to make sense of this insane situation.

Suddenly, his Spider sense tingled again with a wild buzzing, causing Peter to gasp as suddenly the sound of a gunshot filled the air, with bits of brick exploding as the bullet slammed into the wall next to his shoulder. This only caused him to begin running even faster if that were possible as two more bullets followed – one of them sending dust and brick flying into the air and the third sending a metallic clang ringing through the air as it richocheted off of a dumpster. None of them connected with the fleeing Peter Parker as he scrambled through the alleys, slipping his way through the snow in order to evade his pursuers.

"I can't actually believe they're firing at me!" Peter thought, sweating a bit underneath the heavy winter coat as he gripped the handles of the shopping bags even tighter, "What is going on?"

Peter broke out into the open street, ignoring the looks of the nearby bystanders as Peter spun left, feeling the wild tingling sensation as he saw a police car pull up out of the corner of his eye. The police car screeched to a halt as Peter ran to the left, with his Spider-sense buzzing wildly and several police officers emerging from the squad car.

Suddenly, his legs gave out from underneath him as he hit a slick patch of ice, crashing to the ground with a sickening thud. Arching his back momentarily in pain, he shook his head as he remembered his circumstances. Hearing shouts around him, he pushed himself to his feet with one fluid motion and began to run again.

His whole body tingling with the Spider sense as the itching sensation buzzed in his brain when suddenly a police officer lunged forward, obviously intending to tackle Peter to the ground. Peter foiled this attempt, spinning to the side as he tightened his grip on the handles of the shopping bags, watching with detached amusement as the police officer crashed into the snow. It was only moments later though that another police officer darted at him as he was forced to leap backwards, watching the police officers outstretched arms miss him by scant inches as he joined his partner in an undignified heap on the sidewalk. Landing on his feet, he slid backwards on the ice slightly and had barely gained his balance, before a third police officer ran forward, forcing Peter to shift his footing again as he pivoted away. The third police officer crumpled to the sidewalk hard with a thud, as Peter leaped up and forward, his feet carrying him away from this flurry of New York's Finest.

Peter's spider sense was buzzing wildly as he spun around the corner, only to see another police car arriving to help subdue the fugitive, which would be him. His Spider Sense flared as Peter only managed to leap up, landing on the hood of the car barely as the tires squealed on the slick, icy pavement. The squad car spun to the side, with the wide-eyed police officer slamming on the brakes as it came to a screeching halt. The sudden stop almost knocked Peter off balance, but he slipped backwards off the squad car and miraculously landed on his feet.

A police officer, one of them recovered from earlier, sprung forward to tackle Peter from the side, sending them both sprawling to the ground with a crash as snow sprayed up into the air and both bags of Christmas shopping spilling onto the ground into the slush and snow. Peter rolled with him, using the momentum to push him off to the side as he scrambled to his feet, but another officer was upon him fast, slamming him into the nearby wall as Peter groaned. Peter managed to bring one hand up, pushing back as he used his flexibility to twist away from the officer, leaving the officer slumped against the wall as he twisted around to discover another police officer standing there.

This time, his hand was outstretched and his gun was pointed directly Peter's face. Peter blinked in momentary surprise, but immediately pushed the hand upwards and sent the officer stumbling to the side as he ran forward, only to be confronted by yet another gun as he heard the hammer click. In yet another second, two more hammer clicks followed and a total of three guns were pointed at Peter's head as he frowned.

Peter's eyes flickered towards the police officer standing in front of him, and gazing into his eyes, found no compassion at all. Peter used this moment to look around, seeing the crowd scattered around this scene, finding his eyes drawn to a mother of two who clutched her children tight to her. In her eyes was only bewilderment and fear for her children, as Peter felt a wave of embarassment flood over him. He was sworn to protect these people and here he was, scaring them to death. Peter knew he could easily escape from this situation without being hit, but couldn't account for the police officer's reactions and risk having one of their shots hit an innocent bystander. Peter couldn't deal with that on his conscience as he gazed into the police officer's eyes, nodding in complicit agreement and raising his hands up in the universal gesture of surrender.

Immediately, he found handcuffs around his wrists, snapping shut forcefully. The crowd milling around the situation stared in surprise, murmuring among themselves as Peter was led forcefully over to one of the squad cars. Peter gazed down at the sidewalk, unable to meet their curious stares but he did look over his shoulder to see his Christmas presents gathered up by yet another officer.

After all of this, Peter was placed into the back seat of the squad car – arrested like a common criminal – leaving him to wonder how everything in his life had changed so much in the past ten (10) minutes.