The morning sun rolled over Queens with that usual half-hearted warmth, doing its best to pretend the city didn't smell like pizza grease and car exhaust. Nathan walked beside Peter, backpack slung over one shoulder, hoodie zipped halfway up to cover the bruises blooming on his ribs.
Peter glanced at him. "So… how was your first 'official' mission, Mr. Friendly Neighborhood Web-Head?"
Nathan smirked. "Freaking amazing. Terrifying. My legs still feel like Jell-O, and I might have a concussion, but yeah totally awesome."
Peter nodded like a proud parent. "That's the spirit."
As they neared the school, Peter's phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, read the screen, then silently turned it toward Nathan. It was a police alert: Car chase 5th Avenue. Armed suspects. High-speed pursuit.
Nathan didn't say a word. He just handed Peter his bag.
Peter grinned. "I got your locker. Go do your thing, Spider-Boy."
Nathan darted into a side alley, yanked his hoodie and jeans off, revealing the Spider-Man suit underneath, and launched into the air with a pair of sharp thwips.
The tires screamed before the SUV even came into view. A sleek, black beast tore down 5th Avenue, weaving through traffic like it was playing a violent game of Frogger.
Inside: three men, ski-masked and sweating. One held a Glock. Another clutched a duffel bag stuffed with cash. The third kept glancing nervously out the rear window.
"The cops are right behind us!" shouted the driver.
"No," muttered the man in the passenger seat. "They were. I don't see—"
THWIP.
A webline snagged the roof.
THUMP.
Something landed on top.
A voice called from above, cheery and maddeningly calm.
"Hey, guys! Quick question do I need to leave a tip for high-speed crimes or is this a flat-rate thing?"
"What the ?" Sunroof Guy popped up, gun first.
Bad move.
Spider-Man flipped back, launched off the roof with his legs tucked tight, and spiked the man into the backseat with a full-force kick.
"Spidey spikes it! And the crowd goes wild!"
The SUV swerved, barely avoiding a fruit stand. Apples flew. Pedestrians screamed.
Spider-Man wasn't done.
He twisted in midair, webbed the side of a lamppost, and slingshotted himself forward like a missile. He flew right into the windshield's view, upside down, eyes narrowed.
He held up a cardboard sign:
"PLEASE PULL OVER."
Then flipped it:
"OR DON'T. I'M HAVING FUN."
The driver screamed, "JUST DRIVE THROUGH HIM!"
The SUV lunged forward.
Spider-Man rolled off the hood at the last second, landed on the pavement, and fired two webs with one to each rear tire.
He yanked.
The SUV fishtailed, spun 180 degrees, and slammed backwards into a concrete divider.
The passenger door burst open. The last conscious criminal stumbled out and got webbed instantly to a hot dog cart.
"Stay right there. These dogs are watching."
He turned to the driver, still slumped over the wheel, airbag in his face. "Hey, tip for next time: don't rob a bank across the street from a TikTok-famous yoga class. You're already on six livestreams."
Police sirens wailed. Phones flashed. Someone screamed "IT'S SPIDER-MAN!"
Nathan grinned, offered a quick salute, and vanished up the nearest building.
A half-hour later, Spider-Man crouched on a rusted fire escape.
"Seriously?" he muttered. His backpack and regular clothes were gone.
Sighing, he webbed his way to the school, snuck into the lost and found, and threw on the best options available: a Fantastic Four t-shirt and some jeans two sizes too short.
"Fanboy chic," he grumbled. "Very stealthy."
He ducked into his locker, grabbed his actual bag, and hustled to class.
Lunch came with pizza and banter.
Harry Osborn waved a pair of glossy tickets in front of Nathan and Peter.
"Gentlemen… allow me to present the greatest date night plan in human history: Gwen Stacy, me, and the Stark Expo."
Nathan's eyes widened. Peter nearly dropped his tray.
"THE STARK EXPO?!" they both gasped.
Harry nodded smugly. "Rumor has it Tony Stark himself is gonna debut something called a micro-fusion arc drive."
Peter looked like he might cry. "We're best friends. Right? Like, you'd take us. Right?"
"Please," Nathan begged. "We'll owe you one …no, two. Each."
Harry rolled his eyes. "You two are like puppies."
He tossed each of them a ticket.
Nathan and Peter did an impromptu victory handshake while Harry snickered.
"You dorks."
Peter's phone vibrated again.
He glanced at the screen and froze.
Nathan looked over. "Let me guess. Not a cat stuck in a tree."
Peter held up the screen. "Water monster. Pier 19."
Nathan sighed, already standing.
"Harry I'm, uh… sick. Like stomach sick. Bad tacos."
Harry raised a brow. "Again?"
"Yeah," Nathan said. "Curse of Taco Bell."
He vanished.
Pier 19 was burning.
A chemical tanker had erupted in flames, and oily smoke slithered into the dusk sky. The container ship next to it was split in half. Workers fled. Firefighters struggled to get hoses to connect. Police blocked off the dock.
Spider-Man crouched on a crane, staring at the thing stomping through fire.
It looked like a man but wasn't. It was water given form. Towering. Translucent. Moving with purpose. Wherever it stepped, the flames died. Its glowing blue eyes locked on Spider-Man.
"This is new," Nathan muttered.
He launched off the crane with a thwip and smashed into Hydro-Man with both boots.
Splash.
Water flew. Hydro-Man stumbled, but quickly reformed, rising like a tsunami in jeans.
"You picked the wrong tide to ride, punk."
Spider-Man backflipped, landing in a skid across slick metal.
"Okay. You're not a puddle. You're a pool party with anger issues."
He fired two quick webs, wrapped Hydro-Man's legs, and yanked them together like tangled earbuds.
Hydro-Man hissed as the organic webbing steamed on contact.
"Ha! Bet that stung!"
Spider-Man zipped overhead and swung into a dropkick only to pass clean through Hydro-Man's chest.
"Oh. Right. Water."
Hydro-Man's arm turned into a tidal wave and slammed Spider-Man through a crate.
Nathan groaned, pulling himself up.
"You hit like a hurricane…"
The fight escalated.
Spider-Man ducked behind wrecked forklifts, webbed moving cranes, and used a fire extinguisher to freeze Hydro-Man's limbs. He even managed to drop a cargo container on him.
For a moment, the dock went still.
"Boom!" Nathan panted. "Spider-Man wins!"
Hydro-Man reformed. Boiling with fury.
He exploded outward. Water surged like a bomb.
Nathan was blasted into the air and slammed against a steel wall and was dropped hard.
He tried to stand. Failed.
Hydro-Man loomed. "You're not a hero. You're nothing. Just another corpse to wash away."
The water rose. Towering. Hungry.
Then—
FWOOOOOOM!
A sonic boom ripped the sky.
A streak of fire cut through the clouds.
Hydro-Man froze as heat exploded across the dock.
Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch descended in a swirl of flame.
"STEP AWAY FROM THE KID, SPLASH-ZILLA!"
He slammed into the dock with both fists, unleashing a fire nova that seared the surface and flash-boiled a quarter of Hydro-Man's mass.
The monster screeched in pain.
Johnny circled him in midair, throwing arcs of fire, burning off limbs before they could reform.
"Ever hear of steam, genius?" Johnny yelled. "You're the before picture!"
Hydro-Man tried to reform but Johnny blasted him with a white-hot fireball, turning his center into bubbling sludge.
With one final scream, Hydro-Man burst into boiling puddles and didn't rise again.
Steam clouded the docks.
Nathan lay gasping on the ground. Soaked. Bleeding. Shivering.
Johnny landed next to him and dimmed his flames.
"You okay, rookie?"
Nathan coughed. "Did I… look cool?"
Johnny grinned. "You looked like someone who doesn't know when to quit. Which, in this job, is a good thing."
Nathan's eyes fluttered shut.
Sirens approached.
The battle was over.
And Spider-Man had survived the deep end.