"Did I tell you I'm heading my own unit in vice?" said a person in police headquarters.

"No," said another, "but that is great, Bert. Because no one knows vice better than you."

"That's very cute, Lamont. It's not my fault they keep passing you up for promotion. I guess they see I've got, you know, unique skills."

"Unique skills?"

"yeah, like I think fast on my feet. I don't buck the system, unlike some people I could name. I stick with the party line. And I'm observant, you know? I see things, I'm a natural. Nothing gets past me." as Bert said "Nothing gets past me." Spider-Man hangs outside the window signing "Meet me on the roof in ten minutes."

"Yeah, I know." said Lamont, "But I should probably let you know I have somewhere to be in ten minutes."

On the roof Spider-Man waited for Lamont. Eventually he showed up.

"Hello, Lamont." said Spidey.

"You've got your serious voice on." said Lamont, "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, I need help with a personal matter. A friend of mine's in a situation." Spider-Man pulled out a sheet of steel with a sheet of paper webbed to it.

"The information on the other side of this is private." Spidey continued, "So I webbed it to a piece of steel. You'd have to tear the paper to read the flipside. If I come back and see it torn-"

"I won't tear it." said Lamont as Spider-Man handed him the sheet of metal, "So are we talking latent handwriting impressions?"

"I can get it to a lab, but this requires specialized equipment and I don't have time. Can you get it to forensics and see what they come up with?"

"Yeah, I can do that." And with that, Spider-Man swung away.

Down in forensics Lamont handed a scientist the sheet.

"So you're sure you can do this?" said Lamont.

"Yeah," said the scientist, "if there's anything written here, I can find it. It'd be a lot easier if I could look at the other side and get a sense of the handwriting style."

"No can do. I made a promise. Do what you can without tearing the page or the webbing, okay?"

"Okay."

Later, Peter tried calling Aunt May. However, the voice on the other end wasn't hers, but a man's.

"Hello, Parker." he said.

"Who is this?" said Peter.

"We have your aunt. If you want to see her again, come and get her. 1445 East Frampton. You have ten minutes. In eleven, she's dead." the man hung up. Peter pulled on his mask and swung off.

Meanwhile, back at Aunt May's house, a man finished working on her telephone system, which hadn't been working right all day.

"Would you like some lemonade?" said Aunt May, "It must be awful hot up there."

"No," said the man, "I have somewhere to be in ten minutes or less."

Spider-Man swung toward the building at which they said to find Aunt May. He crashed through the window and found her.

"Ma'am," said Spider-Man, "We have to get you out of-" When he went around in front of her he found that it was a dummy with a time bomb attached to it, the display reading the amount of time until the ten minutes was up, t-minus 5 seconds. Spider-Man quickly jumped out of the way, but was still hit with the explosion. He felt the blood running from his ears, ringing from the deafening blast. His teeth vibrated and he tasted the blood in his mouth. As if this wasn't bad enough, the man from the other night showed back up and kicked him in the face.

"How does it feel to be helpless?" he said, "How does it feel to be abandoned? Deserted? Alone?" his voice got angrier, "How does it feel?"

"I don't... I don't understand." said Peter, "Why are you doing this? I don't even know you."

"You don't even know who I am?" the man charged at Spider-Man and pinned him to the ground, "I'll kill you! I swear to god I'm going to kill you-"

"Gabe-" said a female voice in the background.

Bastard-"

"GABRIEL! We had a deal, remember? This isn't the time, not yet."

"I know-"

"Let it go. Please."

"Alright, Sarah. But just for you." He turned back to Spider-Man, "I should thank you, you know. We came a long way to kill two people. But now we realize we only need to kill one person. You. But don't worry, before we kill you, we'll make damned sure you know who we are, why we're doing this, and why you deserve it." They walked away. Spider-Man tried to go after them, but he was too weak. Eventually he went unconscious, thinking about Gwen and whatever happened to her years ago that had such severe repercussions today.

When he came to he realized he should probably check back with Lamont. He swung across to the police station, where he met Lamont.

"You should see a doctor or something." said Lamont.

"I'll be fine." said Spider-Man, "Did you get anything?"

"Yeah, but we only got a few words. Also if this guy is a friend of yours he's in a world of trouble. The old fashioned kind." He handed Spidey the sheet of steel, the page still attached to the side. He went down to a ledge down below to read it.

It said "I'm sorry Peter.

[blank section]

months ago

Should've told you as soon as I found out

[blank section]

couldn't

[blank section]

I was pregnant

[blank section]

had to get away, decide what to

[blank section]

The babies came two months early. I have two children, Peter. A boy and a girl, twins, Gabriel and Sarah.

Please forgive me." Peter's mind fixated on two clauses, "I was pregnant," and "Gabriel and Sarah." He recalled his assailants referring to each other as Gabriel and Sarah.

"No," said Peter, "this can't be. This is impossible. Dear God, this can't be happening."