Attention, all units. Any available units, please report to Central Park. I repeat, any available units, please report to Central Park. We have a situation. Attention, all units...

Will shot up in bed, still dazed. He tried to unsuccessfully rub sleep from his eyes as he listened to the crackling police radio that he kept under his pillow at all times.

A situation? How vague, Will thought. Anything from a cat stuck in a tree to an armed robbery to a creepy crazy mutant villain. But, no matter what, all of those emergencies constituted a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Will stumbled out of bed, almost face planting due to his legs still being asleep. Why couldn't these situations happen during the day, when he was already alert and ready to get out and fight? He shook his legs as he staggered over to his drawer and started digging through for his Spider-Suit.

"What the- where the fuck...where is it?" He hissed as he grabbed stuff out of his drawers. As he searched, the radio on his bed crackled again. Attention, all units...

"In a MINUTE!" He whisper-yelled at the radio. His hands closed around the familiar fabric of his suit in his drawer, and he pulled it out. He yanked off his pajama shirt and shorts and oh, god, he needed his binder and...

After a few more struggling minutes, Will tightened the laces on his beat up Converse, glanced in the mirror and nodded in approval (always good to get a confidence boost) and jumped out the window.

Despite having been Spider-Man for over a year, Will still hadn't gotten used to the feeling of his body plummeting towards the pavement. He managed to snap himself out of his stupor enough to shoot a web towards the nearest building and swinging up just before he hit the ground.

His apartment was only a minute or so from Central Park, so it didn't take him too long to get to the site of the alleged "situation". He perched himself on top of a nearby building and gazed into the park. Even over the dull roar of the ever-present NYC traffic, he could hear a commotion coming from inside the park. He decided to move in closer to get a better look.

He swung between the trees until he was in a good position to see the sight. And it was a very interesting, very odd sight.

There were police crowded around on the ground, moving uneasily but not doing or threatening anything. They were all staring up at this...floating person. The person was dressed in all black, with a black leather jacket and pants. They were wearing black sunglasses - or were those their solid black eyes? Creepy either way. But the most odd part about them were the dark tentacles sprouting from their sides and back. There were maybe eight of them, waving in the air, and clutched in one of them was a teen boy who was struggling against their grip.

Down on the ground, the police chief stepped forward, holding a megaphone. "WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?" He boomed up at the person.

The floating person LAUGHED. At least, Will thought it was a laugh. It was a high pitched, creepy sound that sent a shiver up his back. "Who am I?" They asked. "You truly don't know who I am?"

This irritated Will. He hated it when bad guys did the whole "you don't know who I am?" thing. He and the police fought at least four villains a week. They didn't exactly have time to memorize all of their names, and Will didn't particularly care to. He had more important things going on in his life.

The person spoke again. "I am Epiales," they said. "Your living nightmare. And all I demand is your attention, for I-"

"BORING!" Will shouted from his tree. Epiales, the hostage boy, and the police all turned to look at him, shocked.

"What was that?" Epiales hissed menacingly.

Will grinned under his mask. He loved being in the spotlight. "I said, boring." He repeated. "I mean, we all know what's gonna happen. You're about to go on your big villain rant about all your plans, and how you're the greatest, blah, blah, blah. I sit through like, a dozen of those every week. Sorry if I don't want to suffer through another."

Will swore he saw the boy in Epiales' clutches stifle a giggle. It gave him a warm feeling inside, though he wasn't sure why. He turned his attention back to Epiales, who was seething with anger.

"You underestimate me, boy," they said. "I am your-"

"My living nightmare, yeah. You said that." Will said, dramatically yawning. "Right. So what's going to happen here is I'm going to beat you up a bit, save that guy you're holding, and get back to bed. Even Spider-Man needs to sleep."

Before Epiales could really react to what he said, Will shot a web to a tree across from him and spun around Epiales, kicking the villain as he swung. They made a sort of grunting noise as Will's foot made contact with their stomach, but it didn't seem to affect them all too much.

They shouted and swiveled around to face where Will was hanging from a new tree. They shot a tentacle towards Will, but he expected it and dived out of the way.

"Missed me!" He teased as he dove from the tree, shooting webs to tangle Epiales' tentacles. As he fell, he kept his eyes trained on the guy in Epiales' clutches. He needed to save him...but how?

He hit the ground in a roll and ducked behind a large boulder, facing the crowds of police. "Hey, guys!" He grinned at them, although they couldn't see it due to his mask. "Uh, if you could keep Epia-whatever distracted while I save that dude, that'd be greatly appreciaaAAH!"

Will's words trailed off into a scream as one of Epiales' now-untangled tentacles snaked around the boulder and dragged him into the air. Epiales raised him until they were close, eye to eye. Will struggled.

"Well, well, well, Spider-Man," they chided. "Still think defeating me will be so easy?"

Despite his current situation, Will still mustered up confidence. "Oh, yeah," he scoffed. "This is no big deal."

Epiales raised an eyebrow. "Really? Allow me to raise the stakes."

With that, they dropped the other boy from their clutches.

"No!" Will shouted. For some reason, he had grown very attached to the idea of saving the boy. Sure, he was a firm believer that everyone should be saved, but something about the boy just felt...special. So Will did the only logical thing he could think of doing, and started glowing.

As his skin and suit lit up, his body temperature steadily rose, until Epiales howled and dropped Will from his smoking, burning tentacle. As Will plunged towards the ground, he dove for the other boy, and scooped him up just in the nick of time, swinging away.

They landed a couple hundred feet from where Epiales was. Now that no lives were in imminent danger, the police closed in at gunpoint on the floating villain. Will decided the police could handle that situation, and formed his full attention to the boy that his arms were wrapped around.

Will placed his hands on the boy's shoulders and stared into his dark brown eyes. His very pretty dark brown eyes. God, focus! "Are you okay?" Will asked.

The boy was shaking, but he managed a nod. "Uh-huh."

Will studied the dude. He looked to be about Will's age, maybe fifteen. He had shoulder length choppy black hair, dark almond shaped eyes, light olive skin, and a dusting of freckles and beauty marks across his cheeks. He was dressed in a pair of baggy jeans, an MCR tee, a leather bomber jacket, and a pair of Doc Martens. Overall, he entirely encapsulated the "grunge-emo while still being VERY attractive" look.

Will tried to focus back on the boy's safety. "How did this even happen? Why were you out at 2 AM?"

The boy smirked slightly. "I could ask the same of you."

Will's cheeks burned under his mask. "That's...different," he stammered out. "I'm Spider-Man! And you're avoiding the question."

The guy shrugged, fiddling with the hems of his jacket. "Couldn't sleep. Took a walk. It's not like I expected to be kidnapped by a weird tentacle person."

"Well, maybe next time, don't go for a walk in the middle of the night." Will suggested. "It's New York. You should ALWAYS expect to be kidnapped by some weird tentacle person."

The boy laughed, audibly this time. He had a nice laugh, airy and sweet. "I'll keep that in mind." He glanced behind Will. "Speaking of weird tentacle people...shouldn't you be helping out over there?"

Will looked over his shoulder. Surely enough, the police were back there, struggling to handcuff all of Epiales' tentacles. Will swore. "Uh, yeah. I'll just- I'll be right back." With that, he dashed off, leaving the guy standing alone.

After a long while, Will and the police managed to restrain Epiales using many pairs of handcuffs and a lot of webbing. He watched the police go on their way, and turned back to where he had been standing before, where the boy would be. "Hey, I never got your na-"

Will's words died in his throat. The boy was gone.

It's not like Will could necessarily blame him for leaving. The dude was probably freaked out from being kidnapped and wanted to get as far away from there as possible. Still, Will couldn't help but be sad at the boy's disappearance. Despite having only know him for a minute or so, Will liked the guy. He enjoyed the thought of being friends with him, or maybe even...

No. Will shook the thought from his head. It was ridiculous enough on its own, and coupled with the fact that he would probably never see the guy again, he didn't want to dwell on it. He should just move on.

With a small sigh, Will stared at the area he had talked to the boy on the grass, shook his head, and swung towards home.