Peter sat at his workbench with his damaged suit spread across one side and the dinner Aunt May had left him on the other. He pulled up the evening news and watched reporters discuss the eventful day New York had endured. Footage showed the bridge attack, SWAT officers protecting Spider-Man, Deathstroke being taken into custody, and the gangsters Peter had stopped before returning home. Several commentators were already debating whether Spider-Man protected the city or attracted more danger to it.
Peter ate slowly as the broadcast replayed the moment the bullet struck his shoulder. Seeing it from the news helicopter's perspective made the injury look much worse than it had felt during the fight. His phone began vibrating beside the computer, and Gwen's name appeared across the screen. Peter watched it ring until the call was sent to voicemail, then placed the phone facedown.
Across the city, Gwen lowered her phone as Peter's recorded greeting began playing again. She sat in the passenger seat of her mother's car while Helen drove toward Peter's neighborhood. "Voicemail again?" Helen asked after noticing her daughter's expression. Gwen nodded and replied, "He knows it's me. He's choosing not to answer."
Helen reminded Gwen that Peter might need time after everything that had happened, but Gwen shook her head. "He could have told me that instead of lying and disappearing," she said. "I watched him get shot on live television, and then Dad accidentally told me that assassins were coming after him." Helen understood enough to know this conversation could not wait and continued toward Peter's house.
When they arrived, Helen parked near the curb and placed a hand on Gwen's arm. "You have every right to be upset, but let him explain why he did it," she advised. Gwen looked toward the house and answered, "I know why he did it. That doesn't make it okay." Helen told her to call when she was ready to come home and watched until Aunt May opened the door.
May greeted Gwen warmly, but her smile faded when she noticed the anger and fear in the girl's face. She invited Gwen inside and told her that Peter was in his room working on something. "Is everything all right between you two?" May asked carefully. Gwen hesitated before replying, "It will be, but we need to talk first."
Peter heard footsteps approaching and quickly pulled a sweatshirt over the damaged suit. The door opened before he could hide the bloody bandages or close the news report on his computer. Gwen stepped into the room, shut the door behind her, and looked at Peter without speaking. He swallowed nervously and managed, "Hey."
"Don't 'hey' me," Gwen said as she folded her arms. "I called you all day, Peter. You lied about being busy, ignored every question I asked, and rejected my calls while I watched someone try to kill you." Peter started explaining that the situation was complicated, but Gwen interrupted him. "No, it isn't complicated. You decided to push me away without giving me a choice."
Peter stood too quickly and winced when the movement pulled at his healing shoulder. Gwen's eyes immediately shifted toward the injury, but she kept herself from moving closer. "That is exactly why I stayed away," Peter argued. "A group of men shot me while I was holding a bus, and then Deathstroke tried putting a bullet through my head. What happens when the next person stops attacking me and starts following me to you?"
"You tell me what's happening so I can be careful," Gwen answered. "You don't make me believe I did something wrong while half the criminal world is hunting you." Peter insisted that anyone watching his movements might use their relationship to find her family. Gwen stepped closer and said, "Ignoring me for one day doesn't erase every time we've been seen together."
"I was trying to protect you," Peter said, his voice rising despite his efforts to remain calm. Gwen answered that he was protecting himself from having to speak honestly with her. "You were afraid I'd refuse to stay away, so you made the decision for me," she continued. "You don't get to hurt me and call it protection."
Peter opened his mouth to argue, but the words died before they could leave him. He looked at the damaged suit, the bloody bandages, and the frozen image of the bridge on his computer. His anger disappeared beneath the fear he had been hiding since Batman warned him about the contract. "Sit down," Peter finally said. "Please, Gwen. Just let me explain this properly."
Gwen hesitated before sitting beside him on the edge of his bed. Peter pulled his chair away from the workbench and positioned it in front of her, close enough that their knees nearly touched. He took both of her hands and searched for the words he had spent the entire day avoiding. "You're like a drug to me, Gwen," he said quietly, causing her expression to soften with surprise.
"When I'm with you, the whole world seems brighter," Peter continued. "All the noise in my head becomes quieter, and time just slips away from me. I can spend hours sitting beside you and feel like only a few minutes have passed." His fingers tightened gently around hers as he admitted, "Whenever I'm away from you, I count the seconds until I can be with you again."
Gwen's anger weakened, but Peter was not finished. "That's why I distanced myself," he said. "It wasn't because I wanted to be away from you. It was because I don't know what I would do if something happened to you because of me." His voice cracked as he added, "I can survive being shot, stabbed, or beaten, but I don't think I could survive losing you."
For several seconds, Gwen said nothing. She looked down at their joined hands before asking, "Do you think I feel any differently when I watch you get hurt?" Peter tried to answer, but she continued. "You count the seconds until you see me again, while I count the seconds between news reports hoping nobody announces that Spider-Man is dead."
Peter lowered his head as Gwen's words settled over him. "I understand why you were scared," she said, her voice gentler but still firm. "I understand why you thought staying away would protect me. But loving me means trusting me, Peter, and you didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth." She squeezed his hands and added, "You made me face the fear alone."
"I'm sorry," Peter whispered. "I thought if I told you about the contract, you would try to help, and someone would use that against you." Gwen answered that she was not asking to follow him into battle. She wanted warnings, honesty, and the chance to decide how she handled the danger surrounding their relationship.
"If you need to avoid my apartment because someone might be following you, tell me," Gwen said. "If you're injured, tell me. If an assassin is hunting you and you can't answer the phone, send something more useful than 'I'm busy.'" Peter gave her a tired smile and asked whether "currently being shot at" would be acceptable. Gwen tried to remain angry, but a quiet laugh escaped her.
She moved from the bed and carefully pulled the sweatshirt away from Peter's wounded shoulder. The bullet hole had nearly closed, although bruising and dried blood remained around it. "You really are impossible," she muttered as she reached for the clean bandages on his workbench. Peter looked at her and replied, "In my defense, you already knew that when you started dating me."
Gwen remained with Peter until late that evening before calling Helen to pick her up. Peter walked her to the front door and promised that he would tell her before taking action against Hammerhead. Gwen kissed him goodbye and warned that she would know if he tried shutting her out again. Peter watched her mother's car disappear before returning to his workbench and finishing the spider-trackers.
By the following morning, the wound in Peter's shoulder had healed enough that only a dark bruise remained. He ate breakfast with Aunt May, claimed that he planned to spend the day taking photographs, and left with his suit hidden inside his backpack. After changing several neighborhoods away, Peter swung toward the police station. Finding Hammerhead meant learning what the police already knew about his organization.
Peter landed on the station's roof and found a uniformed officer inspecting one of the radio antennas. The officer immediately reached toward his holster before recognizing Spider-Man. "Easy," Peter said as he raised both hands. "I'm here to speak with Captain Stacy, not commit the world's most obvious police-station robbery."
The officer relaxed slightly and asked what he wanted with the captain. Peter explained that it concerned Hammerhead and the open contract on his life. After studying him for a moment, the officer used his radio to contact George. "Wait here," he instructed before disappearing through the roof-access door.
Captain Stacy arrived several minutes later carrying a thick folder beneath one arm. "I was wondering how long it would take you to begin searching for Hammerhead," he said. Peter stepped away from the roof's edge and asked, "Do you know where he is?" George shook his head before opening the folder.
"If I knew where Hammerhead was, every available unit would already be surrounding him," George replied. "He changes locations constantly, uses vehicles registered through shell companies, and never sleeps in one place for long." He removed several surveillance photographs and placed them across a ventilation unit. "We don't know where he is, but we know the locations of every warehouse connected to him."
The photographs showed industrial buildings scattered across New York, including two near the Brooklyn waterfront, another in Queens, and several older properties in Manhattan. Each photograph included an address, the company listed as its legal owner, and notes describing suspected criminal activity. Unmarked trucks appeared outside several buildings while armed guards watched the entrances. Peter's mask automatically highlighted the addresses through his HUD.
Peter activated the camera built into his right lens and photographed the first group of locations. His HUD quietly confirmed each image before storing it inside the encrypted memory of his mask. He moved around the ventilation unit and captured the remaining photographs, making certain every address and warehouse entrance was visible. George noticed the movement of Peter's lenses but made no attempt to stop him.
"Your mask has a camera?" George asked. Peter nodded and replied, "Recording, zoom, caller identification, and a few other features I'm still testing." He photographed the final warehouse before adding, "It also protects me from having to carry a notebook while swinging through traffic." George warned him that the information was for finding Hammerhead, not exposing an ongoing police investigation.
Peter examined the captured images through his HUD and asked, "If you know these warehouses belong to him, why haven't you raided them?" George explained that everyone in organized crime knew what passed through the buildings. The warehouses were believed to contain weapons, stolen property, drugs, and money waiting to be cleaned through legitimate businesses. Knowing what was inside, however, was not enough to obtain a legal search warrant.
"The properties are owned through shell companies, and Hammerhead keeps his trusted crew extremely small," George continued. "None of the men guarding these places have anything officially connecting them to him. We watch shipments enter, but by the time we establish where they came from, the warehouses are empty." He tapped one photograph and added, "Rumors and reputation are not probable cause."
Peter asked whether any members of Hammerhead's organization had agreed to cooperate after being arrested. George shook his head and explained that most of them knew only the person directly above them. The moment one of Hammerhead's men was arrested, he requested an attorney and refused to answer further questions. Those closest to Hammerhead were either fiercely loyal or too frightened to speak.
"Hammerhead must provide excellent legal insurance," Peter observed. George ignored the joke and explained that several informants had disappeared before they could testify. Without witnesses, recorded transactions, or physical evidence connecting Hammerhead to the properties, every request for a search warrant had failed. An illegal raid would only warn Hammerhead and make any evidence they discovered useless in court.
Peter enlarged the images stored inside his lenses and compared the warehouses. One waterfront property in Red Hook appeared in significantly more surveillance photographs than the others. Different trucks visited it each day, but the same three guards repeatedly appeared outside. "This one is more important," Peter said. "You've been watching it longer than the rest."
"We believe it's his primary transfer point," George admitted. "Shipments arrive there before being divided and sent to his other properties. Every time we prepare enough surveillance to request a warrant, the activity stops and the building is cleared." He warned Peter that someone inside the department or court system might be alerting Hammerhead whenever the police moved against him.
Peter saved the Red Hook warehouse as his primary destination and marked the remaining locations as secondary targets. "I can watch from outside and place trackers on any vehicles that leave," he said. "If one of them leads me to Hammerhead, I'll contact you before doing anything." George gave him a doubtful look, and Peter added, "Anything excessively reckless."
George revealed that the captured bridge gunmen had received their instructions through disposable phones and encrypted messages. The money promised for killing Spider-Man had been moved through several false accounts, preventing investigators from tracing it to Hammerhead. Peter explained that Batman also believed someone more powerful was financing the operation. Hammerhead was dangerous, but he might only be carrying out another person's orders.
"If you find him, do not assume he'll be alone," George warned. "The people protecting a man like Hammerhead are paid to make certain nobody reaches him." Peter promised to remain careful and thanked George for the warehouse locations. Before leaving, he checked that every photograph had been saved and backed up inside his mask.
Peter reached Red Hook and landed on the arm of an abandoned construction crane overlooking Hammerhead's warehouse. He compared the building with the photograph stored inside his mask and confirmed the faded shipping-company sign, rusted roof, and reinforced loading doors. What Captain Stacy's surveillance photographs had not shown was the number of guards now surrounding the property. Hammerhead had transformed the warehouse into a fortress.
More than 200 armed men occupied the yard, loading bays, rooftops, and nearby streets. Lookouts watched from neighboring buildings while guards with radios stood at every entrance. Their patrol routes overlapped so completely that Peter could not reach one man without appearing in another's line of sight. Even the ventilation openings and skylights were being watched.
Peter remained hidden on the crane and magnified the building through his lenses. Several men carried red fuel containers toward the warehouse, while another group loaded portable shredders into the rear office. A truck waited beside an emergency exit with its engine running. Hammerhead's people were prepared to destroy everything and escape the moment Spider-Man appeared.
One of the guards spoke into his radio, ordering everyone to report at five-minute intervals. He reminded the others that if Spider-Man was spotted, they were to burn every document before attempting to fight him. Peter realized that even a successful attack would cost the police whatever evidence Hammerhead had stored inside. The warehouse had been intentionally prepared to become useless the moment its security failed.
Peter considered calling the police, but a convoy of patrol cars would give the criminals even more warning. Instead, he photographed the guards, vehicles, exits, and fuel containers before retreating across the crane. Nobody below noticed him leave. He needed to weaken Hammerhead's operation before attempting to enter the most heavily protected location.
The other warehouses Captain Stacy had shown him provided the answer. If Peter and the police began raiding Hammerhead's smaller properties across New York, Hammerhead would be forced to respond. He would either move supplies away from Red Hook or send some of its guards to reinforce the other warehouses. Every successful raid would stretch Hammerhead's crew thinner.
"Okay, new plan," Peter whispered as he selected a smaller warehouse in Queens. "Start pulling bricks out of the wall until the whole thing falls down." The Queens property had shown fewer guards and regular vehicle traffic in the police photographs. If Peter captured its crew quietly, he might place a tracker on whoever Hammerhead sent to investigate.
Peter left Red Hook without contacting anyone and swung northeast through Brooklyn. Gwen knew he intended to investigate Hammerhead, but Peter had no intention of sending her live updates about locations, targets, or changes in strategy. If someone ever gained access to her phone, those messages could expose both his movements and hers. He would explain what happened after he returned safely.
Peter kept low between the buildings to avoid anyone watching the skyline. As he passed above a busy avenue, his spider-sense suddenly exploded through his head. He released his web line and twisted aside just as a sharpened boomerang sliced through it. The severed web snapped away while Peter dropped toward the traffic below.
Peter fired another web and swung between two buses before regaining his height. The boomerang curved through the air behind him and returned toward a rooftop across the street. A man wearing a blue coat, armored clothing, and a cap caught the weapon without moving from his position. Several more boomerangs covered the straps across his chest.
"Cutting someone's web over traffic is extremely rude," Peter called as he landed against the side of a building. The stranger drew two more weapons and replied, "Five million dollars buys a lot of bad manners." Peter looked at the boomerangs and asked, "Please tell me your criminal name isn't going to be painfully obvious."
"The name's Captain Boomerang," the man announced before throwing both weapons. Peter sighed and jumped from the wall as the first boomerang exploded against the bricks. "I was afraid of that," he replied. "Did Captain Pointy Stick already belong to someone?"
The second boomerang passed harmlessly beneath Peter, but his spider-sense continued warning him. He turned in midair and narrowly avoided the weapon as it curved back toward his spine. Captain Boomerang threw a third projectile before catching the returning one. Peter landed on a rooftop and realized he needed to watch every weapon in both directions.
Captain Boomerang released four smaller blades that separated as they crossed the roof. Peter flipped over the first pair, ducked beneath the third, and webbed the fourth to an air-conditioning unit. The other three curved around the rooftop structures and returned from different angles. Peter jumped onto a chimney while the blades collided beneath him.
"You've got good reflexes," Boomerang admitted as he removed an electrified weapon from his belt. "Let's see how they handle this." He threw it against a metal ventilation pipe rather than directly at Peter. Electricity spread across the connected rooftop equipment and forced Peter to leap away before the current reached his position.
Peter fired webbing toward Boomerang's throwing arm, but a concealed blade cut through the strand in midair. Another explosive boomerang curved around Peter and struck the base of a rooftop billboard. The metal supports began collapsing toward the street. Peter abandoned the attack and fired several webs to catch the falling structure.
Captain Boomerang used the distraction to throw two sharpened weapons toward Peter's back. His spider-sense warned him, but he could not release the billboard without sending it into traffic. Peter pulled the structure upright with one hand while firing webbing behind him with the other. The webs caught both boomerangs and stuck them against the billboard.
"Attacking me while I'm saving people is becoming extremely popular," Peter said as he secured the final support. "Do all bounty hunters attend the same strategy meeting?" Boomerang threw another explosive weapon, but Peter caught it inside a thick web ball and hurled it into the empty sky. The explosion produced a muffled flash above the buildings.
Peter moved before Boomerang could draw another weapon. He crossed the rooftop with a web-assisted jump and kicked the man away from the ledge. Boomerang rolled with the impact, pulled two razor-edged weapons from his coat, and threw them from the ground. Peter avoided the first and webbed the second, but the missed weapon curved back toward him.
Instead of dodging, Peter caught the returning boomerang between two thick layers of webbing. He pulled sharply and used its momentum to drag Captain Boomerang across the rooftop. The criminal released his remaining weapons as he fell, sending them spinning in every direction. Peter jumped over him and fired a wide web net across the air.
The net caught most of the boomerangs before they could complete their return paths. Peter pulled the weapons together and webbed the entire bundle against a brick wall. Captain Boomerang reached for the final weapon hidden beneath his coat, but Peter glued both wrists to the rooftop. Several additional webs pinned his arms, legs, and torso before he could escape.
Captain Boomerang struggled against the restraints and muttered that Spider-Man had made a powerful enemy. Peter removed the remaining explosives from his belt and replied, "You attacked me with weaponized Australian souvenirs. I think our friendship was already in trouble." He webbed the weapons into a separate bundle far beyond the criminal's reach.
Peter used his phone to contact the police and gave them the rooftop location. While waiting, he searched Captain Boomerang and found a disposable phone containing the same encrypted contract details used by the bridge attackers. Peter photographed the screen before placing the device beside the confiscated weapons.