NOMAD

Pure panic had consumed the neighborhood as a police cruiser was on the tail of a white Dodge Charger, which had three masked men inside who had just robbed a jewelry store. Though the driver was just as desperate to escape the police as his fellow robbers, he seemed to be driving more erratically than necessary. So much so that he nearly collided with a Buick that was coming from the left and just barely came to a complete stop.

Something that didn't sit well with the gang's ringleader, who sat on the passenger's side and looked at the driver in utter disbelief at how reckless he was. "Vic, what the hell?! I thought you were supposed to be pro when it came to getaway driving?!"

"I FRIGGING AM!" Vic shouted somewhat maniacally and with wide-open bloodshot eyes. "THAT MORON SHOULD'VE SEEN ME COMING! IF HE'S NOT SMART ENOUGH TO STOP, THEN HE DESERVES TO HAVE ME 'PROFESSIONALLY' TURN HIM INTO SOMETHING YOU SEE AT THE END OF A DRIVER'S ED MOVIE!"

Vic's hyper and reckless behavior caused the ringleader to grow more worried, as well as the third and final robber who sat behind the backseat right next to the three bags of jewelry they just stole. "Uh Vic," asked the robber in the back, sounding hesitant as he was afraid to know the answer. "Are you okay?"

"NEVER BETTER! JUST DID SOME ANGEL DUST WHILE YOU TWO WERE IN THE STORE!"

Naturally, this answer left both the ringleader and the robber in the backseat flabbergasted and exclaiming the obvious question in unison. "YOU DID WHAT?!"

"I WAS UNDER A LOT OF STRESS WAITING, NEEDED SOMETHING TO CALM MY NERVES!" As the intoxicated Vic continued to speed through the road, he nearly hit a woman who just barely moved out of the way. "THERE! YOU SEE THAT?! SHE WASN'T LOOKING! IF I RAN HER OVER, I WOULD'VE SPARED THIS PLANET OF ONE LESS IDIOT! NATURAL SELECTION, GUYS! TAKING OUT STUPID PEOPLE SO SMART PEOPLE CAN EVOLVE AND LIVE ON! SOME PEOPLE MAY SEE US AS CRIMINALS, BUT I SAY WE'RE CHAMPIONS OF FRIGGING DARWINISM!"

Vic soon makes a gruesome left turn, which causes the angry and nervous ringleader to keep himself upright barely. "First of all, I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that evolution doesn't involve vehicular manslaughter! Second-!" Suddenly, the ringleader's anxiety shot right up when he and his crew suddenly felt the car shake, as if something landed on top of it. "Oh, for God's sake!" the ringleader shouted in disbelief, then looked back at the third and the third robber, who was just as bewildered as he was. "Joey, go see what that was!"

Upon hearing this, the third robber named Joey gave the ringleader an unsure expression. "What?! Bobby, I don't that-!"

This answer was not one that Bobby, the ringleader, wanted to hear. For this was the biggest score of his life and wasn't going some web-swinging freak, the cops and even his fellow crew members, one of which being jacked up on drugs, ruin it. And so, seething with anger, Bobby pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Joey, who looked on with fright. "NOW!"

Joey, now fearing for his life because of his boss, quickly pulled out his gun, rolled down the window on the left-back passenger side door, and climbed out the window to see what was on top of the car. Sure enough, what Joey saw caused his eyes to grow as large as softballs.

It was Peter who sat in a crouching position on the roof of the car and managed to stay on the top by using one of his most well-known spider abilities, which was his ability to stick to surfaces via his fingertips. And upon securing himself on the roof of the speeding vehicle, Peter found himself face to face with the stunned Joey. "Hey buddy," Peter said in a light-hearted tone. "Could you tell your friend whose driving that this isn't a videogame, and he can't get points by running over people?"

In fear and desperation, Joey pulled out his gun and aimed at Peter's masked face.

For Peter, however, having a gun pulled on him was something he had long gotten used to, and he easily countered this by turning his body to the right and throwing his left leg in a sweeping motion, instantly kicking the gun out of Joey's hand. Once he stopped spinning and faced Joey, who at this point shook his hand after losing his gun, Peter stood up, pointed both hands at Joey, took aim, and shot numerous balls of webbing with speed comparable to bullets fired out of a machine gun. These 'web-balls' all hit and completely covered Joey's arms and upper body, which restrained him and left him with nothing to do but to struggle in vain.

But Peter did not stop there, for he saw they were about to approach a streetlamp post through the corner of his left eye. A sight that gave the young hero an idea of how he wanted to leave Joey as a gift for the police, and he enacted it by shooting two more web-lines at the lamp post straight ahead, making a direct hit on the light. Afterward, he bent down and placed his end of the lines onto Joey's shoulders.

Thanks to the car driving at such high speeds, Joey got yanked out of the car and was left hanging on the lamp like a newly caught fish on a line.

"Just 'hang out' till the cops come for you!" Peter shouted to the dangling Joey with a smile behind his mask, but then cringed when he heard himself say the 'dad joke' out loud. "Oh man, that was lame. Even for me."

Back inside the car, Bobby saw what just happened through the right side mirror and was left mortified when he saw who had turned this once gang of three robbers into two. "ITS SPIDER-MAN!"

Vic soon turned to Bobby with a look of astonishment. "WHAT?! SPIDERS?! YOU SEE THEM TOO?" Suddenly, Vic's expression soon turned almost fearful as he looked harder at Bobby. "OH MAN, YOU'VE GOT TO IF YOU HAVE THEM CRAWLING ALL OVER YOU, MAN!"

"Just shut up and drive!" Bobby barked, and with the gun still in his left hand, he rolled down and crawled out of the window. Once outside, he aimed at the seemingly unaware Peter.

However, at this moment, Peter was saved by another one of his abilities. Namely one in the form of an intense tingling sensation in the base of the skull. This 'Spider-Sense' occurred whenever Peter was in danger, and it alerted him fast enough to perform a cart wheel-style flip over to the right side of the car just as Bobby got a shot off. Peter managed to stay on the vehicle by using his left hand to cling to the hood while using his feet to stick to the bottom of the door. All while giving Bobby a perplexed expression behind his mask as he literally hanged on for dear life. "Whoa! Okay, I admit the joke sucked, but that was rude!" Peter quipped, then spotted Bobby desperately pulling his gun back and again aiming for Peter's head. With blinding speed, Peter counted this by grabbing onto Bobby's wrist with his right hand and pointing it upward to make him fire a shot in the air. This allowed Peter to take his left hand off the hood and use it to throw a quick left jab that connected to Bobby's mouth, but only with fifteen percent of his physical strength because, despite his skinny frame, Peter was actually strong enough to bench press a car, and if he put his all into that punch, he would've taken the crook's head clean off his shoulders.

Nevertheless, the punch did succeed in knocking Bobby loopy enough to make him drop the gun.

With Bobby disoriented, Peter took a moment to peek through the opened left window and confirmed that Vic was the only one he would have to deal with left. Afterward, Peter jumped back up on the hood, and just like with Joey, he webbed up Bobby's upper body to incapacitate him, then aimed two web-lines at an upcoming lamp post. "And here's your stop," said Spider-Man as he attached the lines to Bobby's shoulders and watched as the gang's leader was pulled out of the car and left hanging for the police to pick up.

"Two down, one to go," Peter said confidently, as well as eager to get this ordeal over before someone gets hurt. However, he was briefly startled when the driver made a sharp left turn, and it was with the use of his feet and fingertips on his right hand that he stayed stuck on the car roof and didn't fall off. "And apparently, one that sucked at Driver's Ed!" Now more determined to stop VIC before he ran someone down, Peter cartwheeled to the left side and crouched on the spot that was just above the driver's side. "Sir, afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to step out of the car!" Peter said in a playful tone as he reached in and grabbed Vic by the collar. Here, Peter again utilized his incredible strength to pull the drug-induced driver out of his seat and out of the car itself. While Vic was in the air, Peter quickly turned to the left side, pointed both hands at the airborne driver, and fired four web balls, two of which hit Vic's hands, and the other two hit his feet. It didn't take long for the balls to hit the wall behind Vic, leaving him stuck there as a struggling final gift for the police.

With the robbers now dealt with, Peter soon turned his attention to the now driverless but still speeding car that he was on top of. To make matters worse, Peter looked straight ahead and was horrified by a middle-aged married couple crossing the street, unaware they were about to become human roadkill. As such, Peter wasted no time as he jumped up, performed a corkscrew flip in the air, and landed on the front of the car. Seconds later, Peter shot two web lines that hit two buildings across from one another; then, as he yanked them back, he pressed his feet down, which caused the front end of the car to take a nosedive into the road and slowed to a screeching halt. Through gritted teeth behind his mask, Peter strained as he continued to hold the car in place until he heard the engine finally stop and flipped backward to allow the car's rear end to fall and crash into the pavement.

After he let out an exhausted sigh, Peter turned around to face the couple, who were frozen stiff with fear and pale as ghosts. "Oh man, are you two okay?" Peter asked in concern, hoping the shock of nearly getting run over didn't give them each a heart attack.

The couple stood in hushed silence for a few seconds until, finally, it was the wife who decided to speak up. "It-it's Spider-Man!"

Peter felt immense relief when he saw that the couple seemed to be okay and that he didn't have to add 'causing the strokes of two New Yorkers' to his list of reasons why half the city despised him. "Yep, and of the Friendly Neighborhood category," Peter told them, trying to sound friendly to ease their nerves. "Not to mention glad that you're not-!"

Before Peter could finish his line that would help earn their trust, the husband frantically spoke up. "Oh my god, Honey, run before he kills us!" Quickly taking each other's hands, the couple ran away from Peter, fearing for their lives.

All of which left Peter both bewildered, but most of all, disappointed for how they showed their gratitude. "…hurt," said the frustrated Peter, who then was alerted by the sound of the approaching police siren caught Peter's ears. As he turned, he saw the police car stop behind the smoking and practically destroyed getaway car. Since becoming Spider-Man, Peter always did his best to help the police, he wasn't exactly on their good side thanks to the bad press about him, and they might have caught a glimpse of the frightened couple that just ran off.

Two officers stepped out of the car, and one of them, a light-skinned man in his early thirties, decided to give the command while having his taser drawn. "FREEZE! ON THE GROUND NOW!"

"Damn it!" Peter said angrily under his breath, for while he knew that the officers were only doing their jobs and running away from them would only worsen his situation. But at the same time, he knew he couldn't do the people in the city or his loved ones any good if he was behind bars. And so, Peter regretfully pointed his hands up to the left, shot two lines that stuck to a nearby rooftop, and zipped up out of the scene before the officers could shoot his taser and take him down.

"Crap!" The first officer exclaimed in aggravation. "That freaking menace got away!"

The second officer, a twenty-year-old woman of Puerto-Rican descent, walked up to her partner with a baffled expression. "Menace? Sarge, really don't believe that stuff from the Bugle, do you? Besides, he did just help us nap these guys."

Without even turning to face her, the first officer scowled as he put his taser away and was about to give his partner a stern talking to for critiquing his favorite news source and sounding like he was siding with a masked vigilante. But before he could lay into her, he caught a Vic still stuck on the wall and struggling to get free. Something that made him roll his eyes in annoyance. "I believe this much, DeWolf," he told his young partner. "When we call the Fire Department to get these perps down, they're gonna be pissed! But make the call anyway." After giving that order, the officer turned to DeWolf and gave her a stern expression. "And after that, get ready for me to verbally rip you a new one about questioning your TO's judgment, especially when it comes to some vigilante in red tights who makes or job harder than it already is! Got it?!"

"Yes, sir," replied DeWolf, sounding and feeling defeated as she went on to use her radio to inform dispatch to send in some fire trucks and a few paramedics just in case.

Meanwhile, Vic continued to fidget as he remained stuck to the wall of a restaurant and watched as scared patients ran out. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STARING AT WITH THOSE THREE EYES?! AND WHY IS THAT GUY'S HAIR ON FIRE?!" Vic shouted out, causing more and more people to run out.

A sight that caused DeWolf no further annoyance, as she not only had been admonished by her teaching officer but now had to try and deal with a drugged-out Vic after she made her call for emergency vehicles. "I could've gone to medical school. But noooo."