All characters belong to Marvel Comics, except OC's which are of my own creations.
[ONE]
New York City, USA
9:00PM EST. May 1, 2015
The sky was dark, and covered with clouds. The stars trying to shine through them, continued to watch over earth like celestial beings.
The concrete jungle was alive with cars horns and alarms blaring, loud music blasting away, and the ever present angry shouting from the citizens of the 'Big Apple'.
Perched on a gargoyle of the Woolworth building, the city's guardian watches the streets below, while listening to his police scanner, and waits for a crime to stop. No one below would see his infamous and distinctive red and blue costume up here.
The white mirror eye lenses of his red mask. The black webs covering his mask and the other red areas of his costume. The red spider emblem on his back, on a blue background, and black spider emblem on the center of his chest within the webs on his chest. Every citizen knew they had a guardian angel, although a little sarcastic and mouthy at times, his heart was great and he loved his city and the people he protected.
Man, it's just too quiet tonight. Other than the few domestic violence cases the boys in blue have already dealt with, and the three muggers I stopped earlier, ain't nothing going down tonight. Hmmm, maybe the creeps...
Suddenly the tingling in the back of his head took him out of his inner monologue. Standing up on the gargoyle, he dives off, free falling fast to the pavement below. At the last possible second, he extends his left arm out, and pressing down on his palm, fires a webline from his wrist mounted webshooter at a nearby skyscraper. Reaching the apex of his swing, he lets go of the web and fires another one from his right webshooter at another skyscraper.
"WOOOOHOOOO!", he yells, the pedestrians below watching him as he continues to swing to his destination.
The buzzing in his head intensifies the closer he gets to the building fifty yards before him.
He lands silently on the building, and follows his Spider Sense, crawling up the building to the source of the disturbance.
Finding a hole cut out in the glass of the highrise penthouse suite, he enters, then immediately jumps to the ceiling, hiding there in the shadows.
Crawling along the ceiling, he stays in the shadows. Hearing voices down the hall, he continues to crawl towards them along the ceiling until he comes to the corner, and pops his head out.
In the master bedroom standing by the now opened wall safe is three men, each dressed in black military fatigues, and highly armed.
On the floor, bound and gagged were the family of the house. The husband was slumped over, blood trailing down the side of his head, a large gash from the top of his head, his short cropped black hair mixing with the blood. His chest rising and lowering with his shallow breaths. Probably a concussion. The wife was looking around frantically. She was clearly a young mother, with long flowing auburn locks, crystal blue eyes, a very attractive face, and voluptuous body. She was sobbing uncontrollably, trying to reach for her scared children which were tied to the legs of the cherry armoire. The boy no more than nine. His hair was black and short like his father's. He had a defiant look on his face, daggers shooting out of his hazel eyes, brave kid. The little girl around five or six had tears running down her round face. Her hair, auburn like her mothers, was tied in two pigtails, and her blue eyes held nothing but fear.
Weighing his options, and not wanting to endanger the family by rushing in headfirst, he crawls into the room along the ceiling silently, moving towards the armed intruders.
"Man I can't believe they keep this much bread at home. Didn't they ever hear of a bank?", one of the men says as he continues to empty the contents of the safe into a bag.
"Yeah, but then we wouldn't be able to do this so easily now would we? Haha.", replied another as he held the bag open for his cohort.
"Damn would you look at these?", the first one said as he held a handful of flawless diamonds in his gloved hands.
"Hurry up. We don't got all day. We still hafta take care of our loose ends before we get the hell out here.", the third one says, looking at the family with a murderous glare in his eyes behind his black balaclava.
"Oh riiiight,", the first one says as he dumps the last of the contents from the safe into the bag. "I'm going first."
He walks over to the wife, who was still sobbing and trying to reach her children. He pulls out a knife, and cuts the slack from the rope tying her to the footboard.
"Nonononono..." she cries as he rips her blouse, and throws her onto the bed.
Inching his way to the bed with a predatory look in his eyes, he holds the knife out before him. "I'm gonna take my time and do things to you that your husban..." he started to say but was stopped with a web bullet to his mouth.
Another attached to his knife hand, and soon he was pulled up into the air, only for his face to meet a red fist with a black web design.
As soon as it happened , it was already over. In the milliseconds after he was punched unconscious, he was soon webbed to the ceiling.
"SPIDERMAN!"
He had dropped down from the ceiling and landed between the remaining two intruders. In a smooth and quick movement that was almost too fast to see, he had unarmed both men, and was standing between them and their intended victims.
"Ya know, usually I might joke around, and talk nonstop, with my rapier wit," he said as he cracks his neck, followed by his knuckles. "But when I see some punks about to harm a mother in front of her own children in the manner in which you were... it makes me almost want to be like the Punisher."
He moves quicker than they can react to. Palming ones face, he jumps up, swinging his body around. Extending his right leg out, "But I think I would much rather take a page out of ol' Hornhead's book.". His foot connects with a snap, the momentum carrying him back around, as he releases his hold on the man's face, the other one spins from the kick and falls to the floor unconscious.
The last man standing, fixes his balaclava from where it was pulled down on his face and looks up. Only to see a blurry red fist coming at him. He falls to the floor, joining his buddy in dreamland.
After webbing them both up to the floor, he turns his attention to the frightened family. Quickly removing the bonds from the mother, who was clearly in shock on the bed, and not taking it personally when she backed away from him in fright. Not waiting for her to come to her senses, he moves to the children, releasing them. The little girl lunges for him, crying into his chest, while the little boy's eyes begin to water up. He lifts them both up in his arms, and places them on the bed with their mother. She's crying again uncontrollably and reaches out for them. Pulling them both into her embrace, her daughter starts crying again, and the little boy begins to sob.
He walks over, crouches down, and begins to check on the condition of the husband. Pulling his right glove off, he tries to find a pulse on the man's neck, but doesn't.
Tears start to well up in his eyes, and he takes a deep shaky breath. Maybe if I was faster I could have stopped this... he says to himself as he bows his head. Looking back at the surviving family members, he stands up, and walks over to the phone on the nightstand beside the bed.
Picking up the handset, he dials 911. "Hello operator, I need the police and EMS to 100 Barclay 19B. Home invasion. No... yes. Please hurry." He says then places the handset back onto the receiver. Sighing deeply, he turns back to the family, and finds them all looking at him expectantly with red and swollen eyes from crying. Not knowing what to do or say, but not wanting to leave them there alone, especially in a room with their dead father and husband, he looks down at his feet.
"I'm sorry." he says still looking at his feet with his shoulders slumped in defeat.
The little girl jumps off the bed and wraps her arms around his legs, crying again. He looks up at the mother, who was quietly sobbing, and raises her hand to her mouth as the tears fall freely.
They knew that their daddy and her husband was gone. The little boy gets up from the bed, crosses over to him, and now crying, wraps his arms around Spiderman's waist. He bends over, wrapping his arms protectively around the two children. The mother shakingly crosses over to him and sways on her feet.
Spiderman catches her with one arm before she falls, and steadies her swaying form. Reaching down with one hand, he pulls the little girl up, and deposits her on his shoulders. Holding his red gloved right hand out, the little boy takes it. Lifting the mother up off her feet as she sways back and forth against him as she continues to sob, he pulls her close, and carries the family out of the bedroom and the tragedy that happened there.
Once in the Great Room, he deposits the family members down onto their plush couch. He ponders on what to do next, and decides to web a swing from the ceiling for the little girl. She giggles and hiccups through her sobs, and he places her in the swing. He looks to the boy, and points at the swing. Nodding through his tears, the boy answers. Spiderman webs another swing for the boy from the ceiling. Now with both children are in their swings, Spiderman goes into the kitchen, and retrieves two bottles of water, and two Caprisuns. Handing the juices to the children, he kneels down before them.
Pulling his mask up to the bridge of his nose, he says, "Now these swings will only last an hour. After sixty minutes they will disappear, okay?"
"Is...it... be... because of magic?", the little girl asks fighting through her sobs.
"No sweetie, I made my webs to only last an hour because I don't want other people to have to clean up my mess. If they didn't disappear, my webs would be all over the city forever and ever.", he smiles.
The little girl smiles shyly back. He stands up, walks over to the mother and hands her a bottled water. She looks up at him, her blue eyes swollen and a look of confusion and hopelessness on her face. He turns to leave through the hole in the window he entered through, when the mother grabs his hand.
"Ann...annn.., hourrr. Th...thheyy will hu..hurtt... hurt us aagain...", she studders out hysterically, squeezing his hand with surprising strength.
"No ma'am. They're unconscious and the police are on their way. They'll be here long before the webbing dissolves.", he attempts to reassure her.
"Puh... puh... pleeassseee... ddonnttt... gggooo...", she pleads, still squeezing his hands.
He smiles softly and nods his head. Taking a seat next to her, she breaks down, clinging to his chest and crying uncontrollably again. He pulls her into an embrace and holds her, while she cries, and the children continue to swing on the web swings he made for them. In the distance sirens could be heard carrying on the winds.
Your reviews are welcome, as are your feedback and suggestions on what to improve on.