"Oh no~ Silas!" Peter had actually arrived at the scene much earlier.
Ten Minutes Ago
Peter was in the middle of catching a bicycle thief when he heard the blaring police sirens. He immediately got excited—finally, something big to do.
Following the police cars high above, he arrived at the location and saw the police surrounding the robbers barricaded in the storefront.
He was about to climb through a window of that building to surprise the robbers, but then the bus drove in.
Using his sharp eyes, Peter immediately saw that something was wrong inside the bus, and to his surprise, Silas was inside too!
"What should I do?!" Peter's position was high, allowing him a clear view of the gunman surrounded by four elderly passengers. If he wanted to save Silas, he would have to smash the window and quickly strike down the robber—with zero hesitation. But he couldn't do it.
What if the robber's gun accidentally went off when the window shattered, injuring the passengers?
"Think fast, Peter! What should you do!" Peter anxiously clutched his head, pacing back and forth on the wall.
The bus was in an empty street, surrounded by streetlights. Peter could use the streetlights to swing over, but that would definitely make noise.
While Peter was thinking, the police did not stop. They orderly cleared a path.
The commanding officer reluctantly shouted, "To the robbers inside! You may come out now! But be mindful of your actions!"
If there had only been one or two hostages, they could have just opened fire! Afterward, they could report that the hostages were shot by the crazed robbers. But with a dozen passengers inside the bus, they couldn't risk randomly shooting, or his job would be on the line.
Inside the Storefront
"Finally! I thought that kid had run off!" the robber leader sneered.
"Don't worry, with all this cash, he won't run!" the other robbers began to laugh arrogantly.
Rather than calling them robbers, they were more like a group of thugs. Each one held a submachine gun, and one of them had a backpack filled with bombs.
"I was planning to let those cops charge in and give them a surprise," the robber leader said, touching the muzzle of his gun. "Let's go!"
There were only eleven robbers inside the storefront, originally including the shop owner. However, the leader clearly understood the police's tactics—one hostage wouldn't do anything—so he simply killed the owner.
The robbers grabbed their loot, fearlessly pushed open the store door, walked out, and aimed their guns at the police.
"Please put your weapons down! I guarantee we won't harm you! Otherwise, we will be forced to take mandatory action!" the commanding officer announced.
They're lucky we're letting them leave, and they still dare to point their guns at us? The priority, second only to protecting the hostages, was protecting themselves.
"This!" One of the robbers was about to make a move in anger.
The robber leader stopped him and shook his head. "Don't act rashly. Put your guns down."
"We are, of course, following the terms! We are good citizens!" the robber leader shouted, flashing a wide, mocking smile.
When his partners heard the leader speak, they all lowered their weapons, pointing the muzzles toward the ground.
"Good, at least they're listening," the commanding officer thought to himself. Otherwise, he would have been humiliated, letting criminals walk out while pointing guns at their heads. What kind of police force would that be?
"Aaaah!" A piercing scream suddenly erupted from inside the bus, shattering the calm of the scene.
The robbers outside panicked, raising their guns at the police again. The police simultaneously aimed their weapons at the criminals.
Inside the Bus – One Minute Ago
After Silas summoned the Shadow Ninja, he used the robber's shadow to conjure a shuriken and slice off the man's fingers.
He then controlled the robber's limbs, pinning him to the floor, unable to move. Since the fingers are connected to the heart, the pain of the severed fingers was unbearable, and the robber screamed instantly.
Silas had initially worried that a bullet might accidentally hit Misty, but the man had called four people to surround him, making it impossible to shoot Misty even if he fired.
The Shadow Ninja crawled out of the shadow. One of the ninjas was similar in stature to Silas and wore a mask.
"The man in black?!" Peter felt greatly relieved when he saw the man in black subdue the criminal inside the bus.
"Alright! Time for me to jump into action!" Peter rubbed his hands together. It was time.
"F***! What's going on!" The commanding officer immediately contacted the sniper.
It was at this moment that the criminals opened fire!
Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!
All the police officers took cover behind their patrol cars. Since the criminals were using submachine guns, they couldn't immediately return fire.
BANG!
The sniper fired!
The head of one criminal blossomed like a flower! He fell to the ground.
"F***! They have a sniper! Get back inside the store! Use the back door!" The robber leader ran back toward the storefront without looking back.
BANG! Another criminal fell!
Peter, seeing his chance from above, used his webs to descend, entering the storefront through a window first.
The other robbers followed him in, but because the police lacked suppression fire, they began to retaliate!
"Fire back! Hit them hard! F***!" The commanding officer had never been so insulted.
Inside the bus, the masked ninja glanced at the passengers, picked up the black bag, and vanished.
Silas immediately rushed into the bus, going to Misty's side and asking worriedly, "Are you okay, Misty?"
"I'm fine..." Misty patted her chest. "It was just a little too exciting." She now slightly regretted not bringing her bodyguards.
The appearance of the Shadow Ninja had happened in an instant.
The bus's surveillance camera was recording everything, but Silas had already spotted the camera's presence.
Inside the Storefront
The robber leader had just turned a corner and was about to open a door when a foot slammed into his face.
The immense force of the kick sent him sprawling into the wall. Before he could react, white webbing tightly plastered him to the wall.
"What is this?!" The robber leader struggled with all his might to break free, but it was useless.
"Hello, my name is Spider-Man. It's quite obvious you've committed a crime," Peter said, landing in front of the robber leader.
At this point, five more robbers entered the room one after another. One of them had a bullet wound on his arm; the sniper outside was not to be underestimated.
"What the—!" The remaining five robbers were about to raise their guns.
Peter shot five webs, snatching the guns right out of their hands and pulling them toward him.
"Guns are dangerous. You shouldn't play with them." Peter leaped into the air, kicked the person nearest to him, and then swiftly punched the next robber, knocking him unconscious.
"Fight him!" The robber with the backpack pulled out a hand grenade and ripped out the pin!
"Oh! No, no, no!" Peter, shooting through the air like an arrow, snatched the grenade and threw it outside.
Boom!
A police car was flipped over by the blast and burst into flames.
"They dare to throw grenades?!" The commanding officer grabbed his communicator. "Send some men to quickly get that bus out of here! Then, charge in!"
Unknown to the police, all the robbers in the storefront had already been neutralized by Peter, wrapped up in webbing like cocoons, their mouths sealed.
"Alright, it's quiet now. I hope you guys can turn your lives around and... well, you probably won't be getting out for a long time."
Peter slipped out the window, but immediately returned, shooting a few lines of web onto the wall that read: You're Welcome, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
"Perfect!" Peter happily swung away.
Sometime later, the police slowly entered the storefront and discovered the criminals tightly bound.
"Sir, the people inside... have been subdued? And on the wall, it says—'You're Welcome, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man'?" The officer's mouth twitched as he read the message.
"What?" The commanding officer felt like he must have misheard. What Spider-Man?
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