Spider-Man Season One: Freestyle

3-1: Agent Part 1

"Hey!"

I opened my eyes. I barely realized how much I'd drifted off. Through my tinted goggles, I could see a brick wall a short distance away. As my eyelids flickered, I glanced over to the side and noticed a guy standing there looking at me.

"...Uh...what's up?" I asked. As I quickly scanned over him, I noticed he had a large cooking apron on, and a stern, albeit curious face.

He nudged his thumb toward the dumpster that was just below me. "Need ta get to my trash." I finally realized I had dozed off while attached to a wall in a random alley. If I recalled correctly, I was outside a small pizzeria. This guy must have been the owner or something.

"Oh. No problem, man." I crawled a short way up the wall, and tried to wake myself up. It was seeming that as I got better at this whole super hero gig, it started to pose some problems. The last four days had brought me less than 15 hours of sleep. I was going to bed later, and had a hard time falling asleep. My body was aching for action.

The guy's voice drew my attention. "You're that...spider kid, aren't ya?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Spider-Man."

He waved off my correction. "Right. I saw you and that Boomerang guy on the news a while back. You're doing good work, kid."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"But, if you want my opinion, update the outfit. It's kinda...goofy."

I cast a brief glance down at the hoodie and pants (plus a few other accessories) that made up my costume. "I hear you..."

He nodded and began tossing a few loads of garbage into the dumpster. I crawled up the wall to the rooftop, and glanced at my watch. It was 6:30, and considering my tendency to get distracted, I would probably want to start heading home soon.

As I began to walk across the roof, I heard a brief shout from the alley I had just left. I dropped low and scurried over to the edge, looking down. I could see the man I had just spoken with standing, hands in the air, as another person in a gray hoodie stood, holding something up towards him. I realized what it was in a glint of evening sun.

Without hesitation, I jumped down, shooting a line to the the gun as I went, so that I pulled it right out of his hands as I reached the ground. He stared at me in surprise.

"Dude, please tell me you weren't just trying to mug the owner of a fine pizzeria as he's taking out the trash. First of all, that's just low. Second, come on, what do you expect to get out of it? Free coupons?"

He made a move towards me. I stepped back, using the motion to propel off one foot, and swing it high and around, connecting with his face. He went down like a rock.

I re-balanced myself and stretched a bit. "Whew! Close call there. You'll probably want to call the cops to pick him up pretty soon. That stuff'll dissolve in about an hour..." I said, pointing to the webbed gun as I turned around.

I noticed that the man I had just saved was lying on the ground un-moving.

"S***." I muttered. I dropped to my knees and began feeling around him."Pizza guy? You okay? Are you hurt, or..." As I spoke my fingers flicked across something on the base of his neck. I turned him over slightly, and gently pulled out a small black dart.

"What the..." I wondered aloud while standing up. Unfortunately, my senses picked that time to kick in. I whirled around to the source which seemed behind me, and took a dart to the chest.

I quickly pulled the projectile out of my skin and looked around for a shooter, but my limbs began to feel heavy. My vision dimmed, but I forced myself to stay standing, stumbling over to a wall to use it to prop myself up.