Stepping out of Midtown Bank, Shocker surveyed the surrounding police officers and Spider-Man, who was perched on the main entrance. Without a moment's hesitation, Chief Stacy gave the order: "Open fire!"
The officers, armed only with pistols, unleashed their 9mm rounds on the supervillain, but the bullets simply pinged off the gold titanium alloy armor, not even scratching the paint. Shocker silently watched the police fire shot after shot, then slammed his fists onto the ground, flipping over all the nearby police officers and patrol cars.
Then, Shocker took a deep breath.
"Come on, Spider-Man, round two!"
"Leave him to me, Chief! Get everyone out of here now!"
The only one not sent flying was Spider-Man. He had already swung in front of Shocker, engaging him in a renewed fistfight, while also shouting instructions to the fallen Chief Stacy to evacuate quickly: "I've got him! I almost had him just now!"
"You were pretty far from 'almost,' bug!"
After punching Spider-Man back again, Shocker finally noticed the webs attached to his arm. Spider-Man yanked hard on the webs, making Shocker stumble forward a couple of steps, then delivered a flying kick to his head. Next, he pulled the webs again, binding one of Shocker's hands to his own chest, and then landed another punch on his face.
"Don't worry, Herman, I can do this all day—you know Cap says that a lot, right?"
With one hand webbed, Shocker swung his other fist at Spider-Man, but his feet had also been snared by webs at some point, causing him to fall directly to the ground. Spider-Man immediately sat on him, bending his hand back and pressing it against his waist, then webbed it down.
Shocker, of course, wasn't worried about harming himself. He fired directly at his own chest, sending both himself and Spider-Man, who was sitting on him, flying into the air. However, Spider-Man still had energy. He hooked Shocker with a web, quickly closed in, and landed two hard punches in mid-air before being sent flying again.
Herman, who landed first, barely had time to catch his breath before receiving Spider-Man's airborne gift. Webs shot from Spider-Man's hands grabbed two of the overturned police cars on either side of Shocker, slamming them directly onto him. The two cars crashed violently together, and Shocker, activating his vibration waves in this situation, directly detonated both vehicles.
Flames raged around him. Shocker stumbled out, the flaws in his armor beginning to show. Due to insufficient funds, the suit had significant heat dissipation issues. The continuous fighting and the recent explosion made Shocker feel dizzy, and he could clearly feel himself becoming dehydrated.
"Stop, Herman, you know you're almost done," Spider-Man stood before him, still trying to persuade him: "You're a genius; you don't need to hurt people to become a big shot."
"If only, if only you'd said that when we first met, little bug," Shocker gave a grim laugh: "If only you'd said that to Herman Schultz instead of Shocker."
"I am saying this to Herman..."
"You're lying!"
A shockwave slammed into the ground, tearing a crack in the pavement, unleashing Shocker's incomprehensible rage: "You say these things because I can do these things! You know how capable I am, how much damage I can cause!"
"Before I became Shocker, no one respected me!"
"You really don't listen, Herman."
Seeing Shocker, who seemed to have re-entered his battle state due to anger, Spider-Man couldn't help but sigh. Thankfully, the police had already retreated to a safer distance and wouldn't interfere with their fight for now. Spider-Man decisively chose the simplest way to deal with Shocker: he pulled the vault door, which was embedded in the wall, down, and then pushed it directly towards Shocker.
"Watch out for the door!"
"What?!"
Shocker looked left and right, confirmed he couldn't dodge, and fired at the vault door with full power. Spider-Man, enduring the vibration waves, pushed the vault door in front of Herman. The two grappled across a thick metal door, one with mutated superhuman strength, the other with technologically amplified power. For a moment, it was hard to tell who had the upper hand.
But Herman was gradually feeling himself giving out. He could feel sweat pouring from him, and he'd soon lose combat ability due to dehydration. On the other side of the metal door, Spider-Man also seemed to be losing stamina, and his strength, for some reason, wasn't as great as before.
Good, he's giving out too. Thinking this, Shocker roared, pushed with all his might, and overturned the entire vault door. The vault door crashed heavily onto a police car, sending its wheels flying, leaving Herman staring blankly at the car crushed under the vault door.
Then, he felt a sudden sense of weightlessness. He had been webbed on the back by Spider-Man, who had snuck up behind him, then thrown high into the air, only to crash heavily back to the ground.
If Shocker was too strong to be restrained by webs, then just pick him up and slam him!
"Sorry, Herman, I hope your armor is as durable as you say it is!"
Shocker, slammed to the ground, didn't even have time to get angry or raise his fists to unleash a vibration wave before he was swung again and slammed onto the other side of the pavement. Only after three or four repetitions did he adapt to the rhythm. He fired a vibration wave at his own body, sending himself flying while simultaneously breaking free of the webs, then weakly struggled to his feet.
He no longer wanted to continue. He had underestimated how tough and talkative that bug was, constantly nagging him to be a "good person" while simultaneously beating him relentlessly.
Thankfully, Herman Schultz is a genius; he knows his enemy's weaknesses.
But this wasn't a good spot.
"Still want to continue, Herman?"
"Stop lecturing me, bug. I'm tired. I'm leaving."
"What? Wait, you can't—"
Before Spider-Man could finish, Shocker fired a vibration wave at the ground, shattering it, and then leaped away into the distance. Chief George Stacy, who had been alert to the surroundings, finally emerged, taking a deep breath at the chaotic scene.
Injured officers lying on the ground, a nearly destroyed bank, burning and shattered streets—was this what superhero combat looked like?
Was the cost too great?
"Herman has fled the scene, repeat, Herman has fled the scene. SWAT team arriving soon? SWAT team is no longer capable of stopping all this! Can we reach the National Guard? Hello? Hello?"
The comms signal suddenly cut out. As George was confused, an unbelievable voice came through.
"Chief Stacy, this is Steve Rogers. We are pursuing the dangerous individual Herman Schultz."
"The Avengers are taking over the scene now."
Spider-Man, completely unaware that the Avengers had intervened, was still swinging, chasing Herman. Wherever Herman's large hands reached, destruction spreadrampant. Manhattan's streets were pitted and cratered, and Spider-Man was doing his best to stop it all.
"Come on! Herman?! You're just running away like this? That annoying J. Jonah Jameson is definitely going to chew me out again! Can't you just cut me some slack and let's settle this?"
"You want to settle this?"
Shocker stopped beneath an intercity rail station, apparently no longer planning to flee. He gasped for breath. There were still many people around, especially at the station above, with quite a few passengers.
"Then let's settle this, bug. You're a hero, right?"
"Let's see what a hero usually does."
Without needing to fight at full power as before, Herman's target this time was no longer Spider-Man. He simply raised his hand and blasted through a load-bearing pillar directly beneath the station.
"What are you doing?"
"Go save people, hero?"
"Good idea, Herman. That way I won't have time to stop you from escaping."
Spider-Man reluctantly rose and swung beneath the elevated tracks, beginning to web the damaged load-bearing pillars together. He swung back and forth between the buildings on either side, webbing parts of the elevated structure to the buildings, and didn't forget to shout for the passengers at the station to evacuate.
But the load-bearing pillars continued to collapse, one of them especially severely. Unable to bind it, Peter chose to kick down the already damaged pillar, supporting the entire elevated bridge himself to buy time for the station's passengers to escape.
Shocker didn't flee. He was just waiting for this moment, waiting for Spider-Man to stand there, supporting the load-bearing pillar, supporting the entire elevated structure with his body. He raised his hand, aiming at Spider-Man.
He listened to the screams of ordinary people, felt their helplessness. If he just clenched his fist, Spider-Man would be blasted away, buried by the collapsing elevated structure. He could eliminate Spider-Man right now, and the only cost would be a few dozen lives.
"To hell with it."
Herman Schultz lowered his fist, punched the ground, and chose to leave.