Spider-Man: Close To Home

Chapter 14: Robbery Pt. 2

"Hey! We need some help up here!"

The five men guarding the hostages all looked up towards the balcony. They heard the voice, but they couldn't see who was calling them. They all looked at each other, stepping closer to the doors.

"Carlos, is that you?" One of them called up. Peter panicked a bit, trying to think of something to say.

"Uh, yeah! Uh, ahem, yeah. There's more cash here than we thought. Some assistance would be appreciated." Peter said in the deepest voice he could manage, shaking his head a bit.

"Junior, go help 'im load things up. Freddy's almost into the sewers." One of the guys said to the other. The one called Junior began to hurry up the stairs, making his way towards the main office.

As he approached it, Peter swung in from above and kicked him into the office. Junior lurched forward a bit, but quickly caught himself. Peter slammed the door of the main office shut behind him.

"Just you and me now…" Peter said. His eyes widened as Junior turned around to look at him. He was a much bigger and heftier guy than what Peter expected. "You don't look like a junior…" Peter said a bit meekly.

Junior jumped forward and grabbed him by the arms, throwing him into the office desk. Peter tumbled over it, landing behind it in an awkward position.

"Yeah, get him, Junior!" Jason yelled, still pinned to the wall.

Peter pushed himself to one foot, grabbing the office desk and flinging it upwards. It crashed into Junior, making him stumble back as the desk broke. Peter webbed the wall behind him with both hands, pulling himself into a flying double kick that slammed into Junior's arms.

Junior and Peter both fell to the ground. Peter kicked up to his feet, stepping forward to web Junior to the ground. However, Junior kicked Peter's foot out from under him and kicked him across the side of the head with the same foot.

Peter cursed as he took the hit, stumbling onto all fours. Junior got up to his feet, grabbing Peter by his left arm and leg. He pulled him up into the air and quickly slammed him back down onto the floor. Peter groaned out in pain.

"Ah jeez, with the wrestling move?!" Peter curled up a bit in pain.

"What the hell was that? You two, go check it out." The apparent leader of the group commanded two of the other men, since they had all heard the loud noise coming from the main office. The two men began to head up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Peter was blocking the downward punches that Junior was throwing down on him. He webbed the wall to his left, pulling himself into Junior's legs and making him hit the ground face first. Peter pulled himself up to his feet, taking a step away from Junior as he began to get up.

"Alright, tough guy. You wanna play football? We'll play football…" Peter said. Junior got to his feet and turned around to face Peter.

"Fumble!" Peter yelled as he ran straight into Junior, tackling him with all of his strength. He barreled straight into Junior, making them both crash through the closed office door. As glass shattered and wood splinters flew everywhere, Peter rolled over Junior's unconscious body.

"Hey, I did it!" Peter said. However, his moment was quickly cut short by the two men coming up the stairs shooting at him. Peter quickly jumped up towards the ceiling to dodge the bullets coming at him.

As Peter hit the ceiling and stuck to it by his hands, he quickly swung his feet up and let go with his hands, causing him to swing forward again. He used the momentum to jump downwards and crash into one of the men, slamming him hard into the ground.

As the second man took a shot at him, Peter jumped up again, using a web to pull the gun out of his hands. As it went into the air, Peter landed on the wall and shot several webs that caught the man by his shoulders. He attached the webs to the ceiling, stringing the man up and making him dangle.

"Ha, it's like a piñata!" Peter laughed as he jumped down onto the rail of the balcony, looking down to see who was left.

The two remaining men guarding the hostages looked up and saw him at that moment. One reached for his gun while the other started to make a run for one of the back rooms. Peter shot a web at the one with the gun, but the shots he had taken caused Peter to fall back off the rail in order to avoid being hit.

"What are you? Some kind of clown?" The man shouted up to him.

"Actually, it's Spider-Clown!" Peter shouted back, leaping off of the balcony and quickly landing on the other side.

Peter dove down towards the man, slamming into him. The man lost grip of the gun as his back hit the ground. Peter planted his hands on the man's chest, cartwheeling forward and throwing the man towards the back room. The man tumbled over the service counter.

"Hold still, bug, or I'll shoot her brains out!" One of the men suddenly threatened. To his left, Peter saw that one of the last remaining men had grabbed one of the hostages, an older woman, and had a gun pointed to her head.

"Woah woah woah woah!" Peter yelled, holding his hands out for him to stop.

"Get on your knees or I'll do it!" The man demanded.

"Okay! Okay… I'll get on my knees. In fact, we'll all get on our knees." Peter said, looking towards the older woman. The man raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"What…?"

"I'm just saying that I don't want any bodies to drop. We don't want to drop, right?" Peter tried again. The woman still wasn't doing what he wanted.

"Stop playing around, man, or I will shoot!" The man said, shaking the woman around a bit.

"Wouldja get down, lady?!" Peter yelled, suddenly shooting a web forward. The woman dropped to the ground out of the way, and the web hit the man in the chest area.

Peter pulled with all of his might, pulling the man off of his feet and towards him. Peter jumped up and kicked him to the side, causing him to slide towards the hostages. Peter shot another web quickly, pulling the gun away from him. It crashed against the wall and shot off a round, making everyone flinch.

"Sorry, guys, my bad. That one's on me." Peter said before shooting another web at the guy, finally pinning him down to the ground. The hostages all began to rush out the front door.

At the same time, Peter heard a strange loud metal sound. He pushed his way past the crowd and ran back towards the room where he had seen Freddy digging through the ground. He saw that there was a hole in the ground now where he had been.

"Geronimo…?" Peter said to himself before jumping in…

After seeing the hostages rushing out, the police began to rush into the bank. To their surprise, they found that most of the men were either knocked out or pinned to the ground by a strange material that resembled spider webs.

"What happened here…?" The police captain asked, looking around. He sent more men upstairs to clear the area, but he began to walk forward on his own when he noticed a strange sight.

In what appeared to be the break room, the police captain found a person hanging upside down by his feet, completely wrapped like a cocoon in the web-like material. He was still alive, struggling in vain to try and get free. Attached to him was a note written on a piece of paper:

WITH COURTESY, YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN