Shocker

A shootout ensues outside the Daily Bugle. A previously thrown grenade blew a hole in the exterior wall and a rather ugly costumed thug, Beetle, stands with his gang. "I don't appreciate the slander, Jameson, you slime!" Jameson peeks his head over his cover and snaps back, "Well, maybe you shouldn't have gotten your ass so easily beaten by Spider-Man!" Beetle growls and orders his men to "Fire." on the building. Jameson ducks behind cover, "Was that really the smartest thing to say, boss?" Jameson looks at his employee with tired frustration. "Eh… Mid-Level thug at best."

Outside, slowly, thugs are snatched off the street, one-by-one, by webs and metal claws. Soon enough, Beetle realizes he's hearing less gunfire, "Something's wrong, Hold!". When he doesn't hear a response he turns, he sees his whole gang neatly packaged on the brick wall in front of him. He sighs before getting zipped upwards and kicked towards the Daily Bugle. Spider-Man soon webs him to the wall, where he can say 'hi' to all his buddies. Jameson stands up and looks at Spider-Man as Doc Ock approaches. "Spider-Man! I knew you and Doctor Octopus were in cahoots!"

Spider-Man webs Jameson's mouth. With a smirk hidden behind his mask, "Yeah, yeah, is it okay if we use this as a base of operations? Thanks JJ." Jameson's quick look of surprise followed by muffled frustration and exaggerated hand gestures never fail to make Parker laugh. Funny he's been webbed so much he doesn't try to remove it anymore after failing all these times. "Hey, think about it this way, people will think you're a hero for letting rescued civilians stay here!" Jameson pauses, thinks, then continues to aggressively mumble continuous 'f' sounds. Doc Ock follows Spider-Man inside and the two establish a place for Otto to work his magic. Picking a random desk full of scattered papers and files.

"Norman will be a tough guy to reach," Otto uses his tendrils to pull files from the Daily Bugle's cabinets, Jameson, finally ripping the damn Webbing off his face, yelling and spitting almost everywhere, "Those are company files! I put those in a very specific ord- Are you even listening!?" Dock Ock and Spider-Man pay him no mind and begin setting their plan in motion. "He chose them very specifically, and they won't let you near him." Spider-Man furrows his brows behind the mask, "So I gotta deal with them before I can get to him.", "Exactly." Doc slides a file towards the other end of the table. "Shocker's first, he's the weaker of the five. If I remember correctly, he's in Lincoln Square." Peter picks up Shocker's file, skims through it and swings towards the exit, "Then I'd better not waste any more time." Before he leaves, Jameson calls out to him, "If you're gonna use my business as a shelter, you can at least snap a few pics of the situation. Good for business, you know?" Peter sighs, "Never change, Jameson. Never change." Falling backwards out of the window and finally leaving the building and swinging away.

Peter swings through the shattered city, stopping by to fight some thugs and regrettably snap some pictures for the Daily Bugle. No matter how hard he tries to leave journalism and photography behind, he always finds a way to swing back into it. After a few minutes of searching, it doesn't take long to find Shocker, resorting to petty crime yet again, despite the current situation.

Spider-Man clings to a wall, confronting the thief. "Really? You help destroy the city, but banks are just that irresistible, huh, Herman?" Shocker grunts and fires a vibration shockwave at Peter, but it's nothing he can't avoid. "You can't beat me without your buddies, can you?" Shocker lashes out again, but it results in the same outcome. Spider-Man zips towards Shocker and starts fighting him, close combat. Shocker distances himself by blasting the surroundings, causing Peter to dodge away and allowing Shocker to start leaping away. "But I just got here! …Hate it when he does that." Peter wastes no time pursuing the bunny-hopping villain. Shocker begins to take notice of the hero hot on his tail. He spins around and fires another concussive blast towards his pursuer. "Just not even close!"

"How long are you gonna run..?" Spider-Man jokes, swinging along the side of a brick building, wall running off and leaping into a large parabolic swing into Shocker's current path. "Hey there!" Planting his feet into Shocker's back and springing to a nearby wall to hang on to, sending Shocker falling to his demise. "That's gotta hurt." Jumping off into the small crater of rock and rubble, Peter waves his hand through the smoke. "You good, Herman?" A pulsing shockwave speeds out of the wafting dust and sends Spider-Man crashing into a wall. Shocker leaps towards Spider-Man and blasts him through the wall, into an office.

Spider-Man recovers and pulls Shocker with a web, before spinning and striking him with his foot. The kick causes Shocker to spin a little, and when he turns back around Spider-Man is gone.

Herman clenches his fist and slowly marches through the office cubicles. Spider-Man's subtle movements echo in the room, like a predator stalking its prey; a snake slithering through the grass. Shocker blasts a random desk, sending it flying across the room. As he turns back around, Spider-Man's mask greets him, followed by a swift hook. Herman tries to retaliate but the spider is gone. "Why do you have to be such a freak sometimes, why can't you just fight?!" From across the room, Spider-Man responds. "I do fight Herman." Shocker fires a vibration blast towards the source of the comment and starts looking around, frantically. "But this is more fun…" Spider-Man whispers in his ear. Shocker turns around to fight, but, yet again, Spider-Man isn't there. Shocker's eyes search the entire room, hoping to find something that won't jump out at him, before running to the hole in the wall. As he leaps out, a web sticks to his back and yanks him back inside. He lands on his back and is rapidly dragged along the floor. Planting his hands on the ground, he sends out a shockwave that causes the story to crumble, falling to the floor below.

He grunts and groans as he tries to get back up. "You're slippery, I'll give you that." When he finally stands back up, the web-swinger swing-kicks Herman across the room. Shocker rages, "Fight me, dammit!", "If you say so." From the shadows, Spider-Man punches Shocker left and right, mainly aiming for his chest and stomach to put him out of commision. He tries to block the web-head's attacks, but every time he tries, Spider-Man attacks from another side. One more punch knocks Shocker to the ground, gasping for air. Spider-Man descends from the ceiling, "How was that for a fight?" Shocker catches his breath, "You cheated…", "If you say so." Spider-Man looks at Shocker's belt where he spots a keycard. He thwips the card into his grasp. "I'll be taking that, thanks Herman." The keycard looks high-tech, better yet, 'Oscorp' is ingrained on its smooth, dark gray metallic surface. "Snazzy invitation, why didn't I get one?" One word escapes Shocker's mouth before he passes out cold, "Asshole…" Peter drops to the floor and picks Shocker up before zipping away, accidently smacking Shocker's head on a loose brick on the way out. "Oops…"

Peter returns to the Daily Bugle, throwing Shocker to the exterior wall and webbing him next to Beetle. "Hey…" Beetle jokes, Shocker groans in response. Spider-Man enters through the busted wall, only to be greeted by the, nearly seven foot tall, Prowler who leaps out the window, pushing past Spider-Man. Peter prioritizes the people first and rushes over to the people inside. A few cops have gaping wounds, Captain Stacy stands over them. "Bastard Prowler, he was looking for something. I'm not sure what, though." Peter looks at the dead cops littered around, "Don't worry, I'll find out what he wants."