Tarantula (Spider-Man)

Sparkles

    Peter walks with Gwen around Times Square.

"Oh my gosh, that show was absolutely terrible! Total waste of money!" Gwen pouts.

Peter chuckles, "I thought it was kind of funny. The characters were really corny, but the costumes and special effects were cool."

Gwen giggles, taking his hand, "Well, if you didn't like the musical, then you'll love this new sushi place I'm taking us to..."

Just then, Peter hears a commotion up ahead. People screaming and shouting, while a crowd starts to gather around what appears to be a blue spark of light, barely visible among the glow of the Times Square billboards.

A moment later, Gwen turns around to find Peter's vanished, leaving his shoes behind in the process. She groans, rolling her eyes before continuing to walk away from the commotion, "Better have been worth it."

To get a better view, Spider-Man leaps onto one of the Times Square billboards. He spots someone in a hoodie, surrounded by blue light, tearing into the power grid located just under the sidewalk. This person has both hands inside the grid, as sparks start to fly all around him. A police officer gets nearby tourists out of the way, as he starts to approach the figure.

"Sir! Put your hands away from the cables right now!" the officer demands.

The hooded figure looks up to reveal blue luminescent, almost amphibious skin and eyes. In shock, the officer draws out his handgun and aims it right at the man.

"You stay right where you are!" he warns, training his weapon onto him.

Spider-Man flips out his cell phone, "Yeah, Val? I need you in Times Square stat."

"Right now?" Valerie's voice asks from the other side of the line, "Peter, aren't you on a date with Gwen right now?"

"This is more important, okay? There's...some guy, I don't know, it looks like he's a member of the Blue Man Group, but more...glowy-"

"Freeze! Get down! On the ground!" as the cop keeps yelling at the hooded man, he starts to back up away from the officer, until he's eventually on the street.

A large truck honks its horn at him, but is coming at him too fast to stop itself. The hooded figure puts his hands out and suddenly blue lightning rips from his hands, lifting the truck all the way in the air. With ease, the hooded man levitates the truck to the other side of him only to slam it down on its other end.

"Oh my god, Val! The guy just lifted a truck! I-...I gotta do something!" Spider-Man stutters, before hanging up on her.

"Peter, wait for me!" Valerie shouts into her phone, before realizing he's already hung up.

People are now panicking, scattering away from the man as police cars start surrounding him. Using megaphones from their cars, multiple officers shout orders at the man to get on the ground.

"It's...it's not my fault! Please...please..." he stutters, overwhelmed by the army of police around him.

The man stops as suddenly, all of the flashing Times Square billboards around him change to his image, as the screens are overtaken by the breaking news of his appearance. Nothing but the image of his face covers the screens, with the headline "Live from Times Square".

"You think...they see...?" he mutters to himself.

A officer gets out of his car to throw a smoke bomb, and more follow his suit.

"No, wait, please!" he cries, as his vision becomes blurred by the smoke.

"It's over, freak," an officer shouts from his megaphone.

The smoke bombs thrown at him touch his feet, and they suddenly become electrified, spinning off the ground with an unusual speed while still dispelling gas. As the hooded man becomes more panicked, he crosses his arms around his chest, as an electric current runs through his arms.

"I...said...stop!" the electricity around him explodes, throwing the police barricade into chaos as their cars are flung skyward.

One of the cars goes hurdling towards a lone police officer. He starts running, but the car's too fast for him, spinning at him in mid-air. Just as it's about to crush the cop, Spider-Man jumps in, leaping on top of the car before catching it as he lands.

"Glad you're not one of those cops who rides a horse," he quips.

From behind one of the unflipped cars, SWAT members start shooting bullets at the hooded figure. The hooded man shields himself from the bullets with an invisible field of electricity, burning out the bullets seconds before they would have hit.

Spider-Man flips the police car he caught back onto its front side, as the cop he'd saved starts radioing for the others to hold their fire. Slowly, the officers stop shooting, as Spider-Man leaps onto the top of one of the cop cars.

"Yoh sparkles!" he calls out, "Hey, how you doing?"