"Easy with that stuff." A thug said. Some illegal activity was going on by a warehouse. Some thugs were moving some hidden cargo. It was hard to tell what it was really. Someone wearing a black hood over their face was meeting with these thugs.

"Is this stuff for real?"

"It is." The thug said. "Wasn't easy to fine, but we managed to get some. You got our payment?"

"Here." The mystery man handed over a check and it was an exchange of the merchandise. "With this stuff, no one will be able to stop me or the boys." What none of them knew was that Spider-Man was right over them hanging on the wall and watched all that was going on.

"What do you think those creeps just sold him?" Paul asked.

"Not sure, but we can't let that person leave with it. It has to be something illegal." Peter said and Paul was in agreement. Paul jumped right down and cut the guy off from getting in his car.

"Leaving so soon? Don't you at least want to share what you got?" Paul said.

"Spider-Man?!"

"Don't worry. We've got this." The thug said as he and his buddies pulled out some guns and tried shooting at him, but Paul jumped into the air and dodged all the bullets. He fought off each of the thugs and they were dropping like dominos. He webbed one guy to the wall and kicked another right in the head. Paul jumped in the air and drove his fist against one more and knocked him out.

"Now for the mystery guy." Paul said. He turned to face him, but he was already gone. Paul ran out to the streets, but saw no sign of the car and couldn't tell where the guy went. "Gone and he took whatever it was that was in the case."

"Let's hope it was nothing major. The cops should be able to handle this one." Peter said. "You should probably get home. It's almost ten."

"Ten?!" Paul said as he looked at the night sky. "Oh man. Mom is going to kill me." Paul leaped into the air and was swinging home as fast as he could.

Paul's Home

Paul got home late and he knew Trisha was going to be real upset with him. Paul was careful to sneak in the house, but the lights flicked on and he saw Trisha standing there just as you would expect of a parent.

"Paul, I hope you have a good reason for coming home late." Trisha said.

"I'm sorry. I should have called, but I wasn't expecting to be out so late." Paul said.

"Paul, I know summer is coming, but that still doesn't excuse you from being out so late." Trisha said. "You've been acting strangely lately. Consider this a warning. You better not come home late again. Is that understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." Paul said. No matter how much of a great hero Paul is, he can't standup to his mother.

…..

The Next Day

When Paul had a free moment, he kept his eyes open around the city. He was trying to keep a lookout for anything, but he still felt bad about what happened between him and his mother.

"I think she's getting on her last nerves with the whole Spider-Man thing going on." Paul said.

"That's part of being a secret superhero. You're going to be making your parents mad." Peter said. "I'm sorry you have to deceive her, but you have to do this. Where's Thomas? I thought he was going to be with you on patrol."

"He said he wanted to keep his schedule free." Paul said. "The coach has a surprise for the football team and wants to throw one last party before summer vacation." Before they could talk about it anymore, Paul heard some sort of smashing sound.

"What was that?" Peter questioned. Paul looked around and saw someone on the streets smashing everything in his path.

"This might take my mind off a few things." Paul said he dived right down. The guy was acting like an animal. "I think you have to pay for all of the stuff you're smashing."

"Rraaaggh!" The man turned around, but something was wrong. His skin looked like it was bleached white and it was almost like he was a zombie.

"That is some serious monster makeup." Paul said.

"I don't think this is a movie." Peter said. The man attacked Paul, but Paul knocked him out of the way and hit him right across the face, but Paul just felt like he punched a diamond.

"Ow! What's he made out of?" Paul said. The guy tackled Paul to the ground and had him pinned down. He tried to hit him, but Paul was holding him back. It wasn't doing much good because the guy was strong. "Get off!" Paul was able to shake him off and get him back on his feet. "Any clue as to what's going on?"

"A few." Peter said. The strange man was going to keep fighting him, but something stranger was going on. The man acted like he was choking, but his skin was returning to normal and he passed out.

"That was bizarre? What happened to this guy?" Paul questioned. He looked around and noticed a small tube slipping out of the man's pockets. Paul pulled it out and saw the remains of a white substance inside. "What could have been in here?" He heard sirens going off and knew he needed to get out of there before the authorities blame him for this.

Reserved Waters

Paul delivered what he found to Peter and Peter was analyzing it. Peter had a few ideas, but he needed to be certain as he looked through a microscope and input what he found on the computer.

"So do you know what it is?" Paul asked.

"Diox-3." Peter said, but that didn't really help.

"Am I suppose to know what that is?" Paul said.

"It's a chemical that aid in the creation of another one of my foes." Peter said as he pulled out a photo of this person. "Lonnie Thompson Lincoln, also known as Tombstone. He fell into this stuff at one point and he became super strong and has strong endurance."

"You don't think there's any chance that he's behind that's what was in the case from that secret dealing, do you?" Paul asked.

"We don't have enough evidence for that." Peter said. "Although, it is a big coincidence that this happened the day after that happened."

"I don't know what this stuff is exactly, but we'll have to keep an eye out." Paul said as he took the tube. "I'll hand this over to the cops and see if they find anything." Paul was going to do that, but he heard his phone go off and saw it was a message from Trisha telling him to get home.

"What's the matter now?" Peter asked.

"Mom wants me home." Paul said. "It'll have to wait. I'm already on thin ice with her. Let me know if you find anything." Peter agreed as Paul headed out to get home.

….

Paul's Home

Paul made it home where Mark and Trisha was waiting for him. Luckily, he made it home when he said.

"You're in trouble. You're in trouble." Mark said.

"No I'm not. I made it home just like Mom said." Paul said.

"Just ignore him. Your brother is just giving you a hard time." Trisha said. She seemed glad that Paul did what she asked, but she noticed something sticking out of Paul's jacket pocket. "Paul, what's that in your pocket?"

"What?" Paul questioned. Trisha reached inside his pocket and pulled out the tube.

"This? What is this?" Trisha asked and she sounded very annoyed with him.

"I…I don't know. I found it. I was going to find out myself." Paul said, but Trisha wasn't believing that.

"There was something in here." Trisha said. "Paul, you're not experimenting with drugs, are you?" That wasn't the case, but Paul didn't know what to tell her without giving away the truth. "Paul, I've had enough of these games of yours. You're not where you're supposed to be. You're always disappearing. You come home late. You're keeping secrets and that's not allowed in this house. I'm putting my foot down this time. You're grounded." Grounding, the worst thing that can happen to a teenage superhero.

Peter

"You're grounded?" Peter questioned as he was over the phone with Paul. "Well, that's what happens sometimes with superheroes at your age."

"She thinks I'm experimenting with drugs. Should have just dropped the dumb thing off with the police." Paul said. "Now with me being grounded, I won't be able to help figure out what's going on with this stuff."

"Don't worry about that." Peter said. "This old man still has a strong brain. I can figure it out. Besides, we just need to prove it's not what she thinks it is."

"How?" Paul questioned, but Peter didn't get a chance to answer. "Uh oh. I have to go before Mom finds me on the phone." The call ended and Peter got back to work on figuring out who has the dangerous chemical.

"I never thought I would want my old enemies to still be around." Peter said. "That would make this easier. What's the game here, Tombstone?"

The Next Day

Some of Midtown's football team gathered on the field because of the coach. Some of them were wondering what this was all about. Ray and Thomas were there as well.

"Any idea why we're here to celebrate? What are we celebrating?" Ray asked.

"No clue. Coach just wanted to do this." Thomas said.

"Hello team." The coach, green and white coach clothes with brown hair, came on field and had a few boxes of pizza with him as he set them down. "I just want to thank you all for all your work this year. So before vacation, I thought we could all celebrate with pizza."

"Okay!" All of them said. All of them had high respect for the coach and grabbed a slice.

"Coach is awesome." Thomas said as he was about to take a bite, but the symbiote knocked it right out of his hands. "Hey! What's with you?" Thomas heard a strange sound coming from the others and saw something was happening to all of them. All of them were becoming pale like zombies and were in the same state as the man Paul fought. "What's going on?"

"Hahah. It worked." Thomas looked to the coach and saw him snickering. "That stuff really worked. Mixing it in with the pizza and it still worked. Now we'll have the most unbeatable team in the whole school."

"Are you kidding me?" Thomas said. "Coach is actually a bad guy?" Thomas took cover somewhere so he could change.

"Talk about a random bad guy. I never expected something like this." Thomas said as he quickly changed into Venom. He hated to do this, but he's got to stop the team before they hurt themselves. "I'm going to need some backup. A team is stronger when they're together." He reached for his phone, but this will be a problem for Paul.

…..

Paul

With Paul being grounded, all he could do was hang back in his room until his mother says otherwise or until he needs to act. He just rested on his bed until he heard his phone go off.

"Hello?" Paul said as he answered the phone.

"Paul, I just got word from Thomas." Peter said. "He just found out that your school's football coach was the one who bought the diox-3. You've got to get to the football field and help him out. He's dealing with a team of Tombstone's. That's a scary thought."

"I can't." Paul said. "How am I suppose to get out when my mom is on the watch for me? If I sneak out, she's going to kill me."

"I'll take care of it. Just tell her you have work or that I need your help with something." Peter said.

"Okay. If she didn't know any better, she probably say you're a bad influence on me." Paul said and ended the call. Paul headed down the stairs where Mark and Trisha were and tried to head for the front door.

"Mom! Paul's sneaking out!" Mark said.

"Little brat." Paul groaned.

"Paul, you're grounded. Where do you think you're going?" Trisha said.

"My boss needs me to get some photos." Paul said. "Plus Mr. Parker says he needs my help with something."

"I don't care. You're grounded." Trisha said.

"You want to tell that to my boss?" Paul said. "You're actually forbidding me from doing my job and from volunteering to help a poor old man. How do you think that's going to look if a woman who does charity work prevents me from doing actual volunteer work."

"I….well…I….Ugh!" Trisha complained as she knew there was no way for that to look good. "Fine. I'm giving you until nine tonight. If you're not back home by then, you're grounding will be triple and you'll have to quit all your work."

"Thanks, Mom. I'll be back, I promise." Paul said and ran out the door.

"No way he's going to make it." Mark said.

The Football Field

The whole football team were acting like zombies as they started to trash through everything without so much as a thought. The coach grinned at this sight. He heard a sound and saw Venom come out and landed on the bleachers.

"What's going on? Why are you doing this?" Thomas asked. "You're a well-respected coach. Why would you do this?"

"It's simple, I like winning." Coach said. "I've always wanted a winning team, an unstoppable team. When I heard about this chemical, I saw that it can actually happen."

"But this is wrong." Thomas said.

"What's wrong with wanting a little winning nonstop?" Coach said. "Get him, kids!" The team climbed up the bleachers and went after Thomas. Thomas knew he can't hurt them, but that isnt' a problem. Thomas jumped around and pushed them out of the way.

"Snap out of it. You guys aren't thinking straight." Thomas said.

"No, they're not." All of them looked up and saw Spider-Man swinging over. He shot some webs to try and hold some members of the team down. "That stuff is messing with their heads while making them unable to be harmed, but they're still innocent victims. Just restrain them with your webbing."

"Got it." Thomas said. Both of them were using their webs and focused on getting the team restricted.

"I can't believe the school's football coach is behind this." Paul said as he tried to fight them off.

"Neither can I. They need to do their background checks better." Thomas said. They finished up restraining the team and turned to the coach.

"I don't know what possessed you to do this, but drugging your team is looked down upon." Paul said.

"No joke. Don't you know a win is meaningless if it's not done by your own skill and abilities?" Thomas said.

"A win is a win to me." Coach said as he took a slice.

"Oh no! He put whatever caused this in the pizza." Thomas said. They knew that was trouble and tried to stop him by shooting a couple webs, but it was too late. Coach was able to grab both webs and pulled the two so they drop to the ground. Both of them looked up and saw the coach transformed just like the rest and stared down at them like a monster. "You get the feeling we're in a horror movie?"

"Except that he actually looks like a monster, not so much." Paul said. Coach went over to the two of them and tried to stomp down on them, but they moved out of the way. "I'm already grounded. I don't need it to be literal."

"You got grounded? Harsh." Thomas said. Both of them shot their webs and got his legs. They caused him to trip, but it did nothing as he easily got back up. He grabbed both of the webs and pulled both of them over and caused the two of them to slam against each other.

"This isn't working." Paul said. "He can't feel pain and is a lot stronger. The drug is temporary, but I don't know how long we have until it's done."

"If only we could use his strength against him." Thomas said. Paul thought was not a bad idea as he looked around and spotted the scoreboard.

"I think we just might." Paul said. The coach was about to attack them again, but they both jumped out of the way. Paul ran across the field while Thomas was doing his best to fight off the coach. "Over here, Frankenstein!" The coach turned around and charged right at him. "The school is going through a lot of repairs." Paul jumped out of the way as the coach slammed against the beam that held the scoreboard up. So much force was behind it that the scoreboard got loosened. Paul shot some webs at it and was pulling down with all his might.

"I got your back." Thomas said as he did the same as him. Both of them pulled the board and it came right down on the coach. Both of them walked around and saw the coach was pinned down and couldn't get out. "As a fellow football player, I'm not sure I approved of this."

"I've got bigger problems. I still need to figure out how to get myself ungrounded." Paul said.

"You don't have to worry, Paul." Peter said with the communication. "I have an idea."

….

Paul's Home

It was just after nine and Trisha was very disappointed in Paul. Can't say she didn't warn him.

"He's late, isn't he? What are you going to do?" Mark asked.

"Nothing compared to you if you don't get back in bed." Trisha said. That was when they heard the door open.

"I know I'm late, but I have good reason." Paul said.

"I don't want to hear it, Paul." Trisha said.

"My fault entirely." Peter said as he stepped through the door with Trisha surprised. "We were at the hospital for a routine checkup of mine. Paul told me what's going on and we got him tested." Peter handed her some papers.

"H's clean. No sign of any drug use." Trisha said. "Paul, I'm sorry I doubted you. Thank you for clearing this up, Mr. Parker." Trisha made Peter some tea as they all stayed up to talk. They turned on the news and noticed the coach.

"All the students have returned to normal and the coach of Midtown High has been apprehended for drugging his students."

"Why would he do that?" Trisha asked.

"He wanted to win at all costs." Peter said. "The poor boy wasn't raised right. Unlike Paul here."

"Me?" Paul questioned.

"Of course. I was raised by my aunt and uncle." Peter said. "They helped me become the man I am. Being a father, I know good parents when I see them and it was thanks to them. Mrs. Porter, you've done a well job of raising Paul."

"Thank you." Trisha said.

"Yeah. I guess she did played a part in who I am." Paul said. Getting grounded might be the downside to being a hero, but it is thanks to their parents that heroes become who they are.