Spider-Man: Close To Home

Chapter 13: Robbery

"We are live now at the Queens General Bank where we have a hostage situation going on right now. Inside, police approximate that about 7 or 8 men with heavy firearms have taken control of the inside and are holding those inside hostage.

"Police have yet to answer any questions, however, the tension in the air is certainly palpable. I'm getting reports now that a hostage negotiator has just arrived on scene and will be speaking with them over the phone shortly. We'll stay posted for more details."

Peter closed out of the live news feed on his phone and looked up from his perch point atop a building: there was the bank in front of him. It was surrounded by police cars and a few SWAT vehicles. Barriers had been placed between law enforcement and the general public that was looking on.

"I should… I should do something…right?" Peter asked himself. Of course, he wanted the answer to be a resounding yes, but it wasn't that simple.

He was still relatively inexperienced, and he knew this. The men inside had guns, big guns, and he wasn't used to dealing with that kind of firepower. In addition, he had no protective equipment, just a hoodie and some PJ's. The odds were not in his favor.

"Maybe I should just…leave this to the professionals." Peter began to say to himself, starting to turn away from the bank. However, his conscience kept nagging at him, forcing him to look towards the bank once again.

If something happened because he intervened, it would be on his hands… But if something happened because he did nothing, then wouldn't it be on his hands all the same…?

"I'm gonna die." Peter sighed before jumping and swinging forward to the bank. He dipped downwards before shooting a web onto the bank itself and pulling himself onto the roof.

Quietly, he crawled up to the very top of the roof, and immediately he found a vent that he could enter through. He ran to it and pulled it off with his hands. After setting it down by his feet, he hopped inside and slowly began to crawl into the building.

As he made his way closer to the bank floor, he could hear some of the men talking to one another:

"I need some demands to give to the police. The negotiator just got here." A gruff voice said to his partners. A calmer voice spoke in response.

"Just make something up. We just need to stall them until Freddy cuts through the outer piping."

"Outer piping?" Peter wondered to himself. He began to crawl to his right, moving over the second floor balcony where a bunch of offices were laid out.

Down below, he could see two men raiding all of the offices. They were probably looking for extra spoils to take with them. From his view, Peter couldn't see much, but it looked like there were only two of them.

"Hey, can you get me an extra duffel bag. I think the boss man here has a private stash in this safe." One man requested of the other.

"Yeah, one sec." The second man responded, beginning to make his way back downstairs.

This was the perfect chance to jump in! Peter reached down, looking for a latch to open up the vent. He fumbled with it for a bit before he was able to slowly open it up. He crawled out and across the ceiling, making his way towards the main office.

Peter looked behind him before dropping down and sneaking a peek inside. There was one of the guys with his back turned away from the door. He was inspecting a safe in the wall of the main office.

Peter shot his webs at the man, immediately pinning him to the wall. He grunted in surprise, unable to turn back and see what happened. Peter laughed a little to himself at his success, but immediately he felt a strange tinge of anxiety. He turned back to see the other guy was coming back.

Peter quickly stepped into the room to hide himself. He looked around for a minute, not sure what to do. With time running out, Peter jumped up towards the ceiling and crawled above door, letting that be his hiding place.

"Woah! Jason, what happened to you?!" The man exclaimed, dropping the bag and starting to make his way over.

"I don't know man. Get this stuff the hell off me!" The man named Jason shouted back.

As the second guy began to step forward to help Jason, Peter webbed the top of his head and yanked it hard to the side, throwing him off balance. Peter quickly jumped down and stomped on him, kicking him to the ground. The man grunted, landing hard on his back and losing grip of his gun.

The man on the ground quickly reacted, reaching up with his right hand for Peter. Peter webbed his right hand to the floor. The man tried to do the same with his left hand, and Peter webbed his left hand to the floor. The man then tried to yell for help, so Peter webbed his mouth.

"Hey, hush now. We don't want anyone interrupting our little moment, right?" Peter joked, stepping off of the man.

"What? Is someone else in here?!" Jason yelled with his chest still pinned to the wall.

"You guys seem like you could use a break. I'mma just leave you alone." Peter said, closing the door of the office behind him. He took a deep breath, and looked down from the balcony.

All of the hostages were below, huddled up and sitting down on the ground quietly. Three more men were guarding them. Peter could only assume the rest of them were in other rooms down below.

Peter shot a web onto the ceiling, pulling himself to the other side in order to see the rest of what was going on. He could now see that there were three more guys below: one was on the phone, one seemed to be digging into the floor, and the last one was gathering together a bunch of duffel bags.

"Looks like they're gonna tunnel outta here…right under the cops' noses." Peter realized what was happening. But he had to find a way to stop them without letting the hostages get hurt…

To Be Continued…