"A marvelous city it is. It's all going to waste when it's in the hands of the people." White Streak was in his office and looking down at the city as he had a glass of wine. White Streak always held a desire to control over the city. "Those fools lack drive, ambition. They're just going on with their lives without a care in the world."

"Stirring up some bitter feelings? Alcohol can do that." White Streak turned and was faced with his trusted acquaintance: Hydra.

"Spencer. Good to see you. Care for a glass?" White Streak offered.

"No thank you. I don't drink alcohol. It interferes with my control over my dragon heads." Hydra said. Hydra was a mad scientist and assistant to White Streak. He helped create some of the villains that Paul and the others fought. Hydra is capable of controlling five mechanical arms shaped like dragons.

"I'm glad you're here. I have a task for you." White Streak said. "Do you remember Glacier? It would seem he's betrayed me and worked for this Balancer and his Librium."

"I've heard. He tried robbing a bank for them to pay them off, but he ended up getting caught by Spider-Man." Hydra said. "What do you need me to do exactly?"

"Break him out of jail, of course." White Streak said.

"Why would you want me to do that?" Hydra questioned. "He betrayed us. He has shown that he has no loyalty towards you."

"Loyalties can be changed, an example of that is Fang when he agreed to work for me." White Streak said. "We can just get Glacier to change back to our side. It shouldn't be that difficult since he originally use to work for me."

"I see. I've always trusted your judgment. So I will do as you say." Hydra said. "What would you have me do if a certain arachnid got involved?"

"What else? Destroy him. Make sure you add in those other two when you get the chance." White Steak said.

"Of course. I would love to get a hold of Venom's suit and see how it works, but that will wait for another time." Hydra said as he showed himself out. Hydra is a dangerous villain. Getting past him won't be easy.

…

The Next Day

Paul was up already and he stared out his window. He didn't seem all that happy about something. Jean woke up and got her arms around him from behind.

"Morning." Jean said as she appeared to be in a good mood."

"Hey." Paul said, but Jean could see that he had no feeling in that.

"Something wrong? You sound like there's something bothering you." Jean said. Paul didn't really answer. Before Jean could talk anymore, there was a knock on the door. Jean walked over and opened the door and was surprised to see who it was. "Mark?!" Paul looked and saw his younger brother.

"Hey, Jean. Hey, bro. It's been a long time." Mark said.

"Yeah. Hey, Mark. I wasn't expecting you to be back in New York so soon." Paul said.

"Yeah. Well, I'm not going to miss out on tomorrow." Mark said.

"Tomorrow? What's tomorrow?" Jean said.

"You mean Paul hasn't told you? Tomorrow is the anniversary of when our father died." Mark said. Jean was a little surprised about that.

"Really. It is?" Jean said.

"Yeah. Mom thought it would be a good idea for us to come together for this day every year." Mark said. "So I'm missing out on a couple classes to be here."

"You're only in college because you managed to skip a grade." Paul said. "Don't act like you're super special." Paul got dressed and was heading out. "You got here at a bad time. I'm heading out."

"Now? I just got home." Mark said, but Paul just ignored him as he walked right past the both of them. "What was that about?" Jean didn't know and was a little concerned.

….

Paul

Paul seemed like something was bothering him. All he did was just sit on the roof of a building in his costume. However, it seemed like he doesn't even want to talk about it. His father's memorial is tomorrow and that could have something to do with it. However, sitting there like a bird is a bad thing as he was being stalked by Hydra.

"There he is. Tonight will be my best chance to retrieve Glacier." Hydra said. He opened one of his dragon heads and fired a laser. Paul's spider sense alerted him, but he didn't see the danger until it was too late. He got hit in the back by the laser and was knocked off the building. "That was easier than I thought." He said as he made his way over to where Paul fell. "Too easy." He thought that was strange, but when he looked down, he saw Paul used his webs like a catapult.

"Not even!" Paul said as he launched himself up and smashed against Hydra and knocked him back. "You'll have to do better than that if you want to beat me, Hydra."

"I figured." Hydra said. He had all five of his dragon heads attack Paul, but Paul jumped around each one of them.

"Now is not really the time for this." Paul said.

"My apologies. When is a better time for you to breathe your last breath?" Hydra said. Paul got mad as he went at Hydra, but Hydra grabbed him with one of his dragon head and smashed him against the roof.

"What are you even attacking me for?" Paul questioned.

"I have plans and I need to get you out of the way so you don't try anything to stop me." Hydra said. Hydra unleashed more of his lasers at him, but Paul rolled out of the way. Hydra did stretch out one of his dragon heads and smacked Paul with it. He got hit by two of them and was blown across the street and smashed into another building.

"Damn him." Paul said as he pulled himself together and climbed up the building.

"What's wrong, arachnid? You don't seem like yourself." Hydra said. "No annoying quip? No backtalk? Are you finally getting serious?"

"I would quip about that, but I'm not really in the mood." Paul said.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter once you die." Hydra said as he shot more lasers. Paul climbed his way up and avoided the lasers.

"I can't fight, Hydra. Not like this. I can't get my head in the game." Paul said. "He only is attacking me because he wants to get me out of the way. In that case…" Paul shot a web and it was able to hit Hydra right in the eyes.

"How juvenile at this point." Hydra said. He was able to tear the web right off, but he saw Paul was gone. "Running away, is he? He better not try anything to stop me."

…..

The Suburbs

Paul had to retreat from Hydra. He just couldn't get his head in the fight and he knew it would put him at a disadvantage. His mother called him and asked him to come over to her house. Paul walked right up to the front door of his old house and went right inside.

"There you are, Paul." Trisha said and saw his brother was already there.

"Where've you been?" Mark said.

"Around." Paul said. He closed the door, but winced in pain.

"Paul, what's wrong?" Trisha said.

"Nothing." Paul said, but Trisha wasn't buying it. "Okay. I might have taken a laser to the back."

"A laser?!" Trisha said. "Go upstairs and get the first aid kit."

"Okay." Paul said as he headed upstairs.

"At least you didn't get killed." Mark said. "I'm pretty sure Dad wouldn't want you to join him so soon."

"Shut it." Paul said as he marched right up the stairs.

"What's the matter with him?" Trisha asked.

"Don't know. If he didn't have a girlfriend, I say he should go to a strip club to cheer himself up." Mark said. Trisha glared right at her son for saying that. "Not that I went into one."

…

Hydra

Hydra tried finding Paul again, but he had no luck. He really didn't have time to search around all of New York for him. He had more important matters to attend to as he placed himself by the river.

"As much as I would enjoy crushing that bug for good, I have other matters to attend to." Hydra said. He stared across the river and saw Ryker's was right there. He brought a laptop with him and began to work on it. "They should really update their systems. By tonight, Glacier will be a free man again."

…

Paul

Paul and his family were going over their plans for their father's memorial tomorrow. However, Paul didn't really seem that interested.

"Paul, if your friends like, they can come to." Trisha said. "I bet all of them would have liked to have known your father. I surely invited few of my friends over."

"Yeah… Maybe…." Paul said. Anyone could see that something was bother Paul, but he wouldn't talk about it.

"I was thinking, maybe we should say a few things at Dad's grave." Mark said. "Maybe like speeches."

"I think that's a great idea. Your father would love that." Trisha said. "Paul, what do you think?"

"What's the point?" Paul said. Both of them were pretty shocked for him to say that. "It's not like he'll hear it. If you two want to go through with it fine, but count me out."

"Hey, you bastard!" Mark said as he grabbed Paul by the shirt and was mad. "What is wrong with you? We're talking about Dad, but you're acting like you don't even care. I know you and Dad didn't get along when he was alive, but that's no excuse for this."

"Just zip it. I'm not doing some stupid speech." Paul said.

"This isn't about you, Paul. It's about Dad." Mark said and Paul couldn't take it.

"You think I don't get that! You don't know anything! I'm not doing some stupid speech and you can't make me!" Paul shouted as he shoved Mark off him and marched right out the door. Paul stood right outside and stared at the night sky. Trisha came out and as concerned about Paul.

"Hey, Mom. I'm sorry I snapped like that." Paul said. "I just don't want to do a speech."

"I would never force you to do something you wouldn't. Actually, I should apologize." Trisha said. "I had no idea you were still hurting this much over the death of your father." Paul took a deep breath as he felt it was time to get something off his chest.

"Mom, there's something I need to tell you. Something I should have a long time ago." Paul said.

"What? That the man who killed your father robbed a store you were at and that you could have stopped him, but you didn't." Trisha said. Paul was surprised by all of that.

"How did you know?" Paul said.

"Monica told me not long after you told Harris years ago." Trisha said. "I was a little hurt you didn't tell me first."

"How come you never said anything?" Paul said.

"Because I didn't want to burden you with this. I felt that if you were ready to talk, we would." Trisha said. "Paul, I never once blamed you for what happened to your father and I know your father wouldn't blame you either."

"But if I had done something, Dad would still be alive." Paul said.

"Maybe, but you can't blame yourself. You had no way of knowing what was going to happen." Trisha said. "With all those dangerous criminals out there, it could have been anyone else. Especially if you kept refusing to use these powers of yours. I'm sure your father would be proud of what you're doing regardless of what happened that day." Paul never thought of it like that, but now that he's told his mother the truth, maybe he can. "You don't have to say a speech, but it probably would mean a lot to your father." She said as she went back inside, but Paul had some thinking to do. His thoughts stopped as he heard his phone go off and saw it was an alert from Ray saying something is happening at Ryker's.

"Ryker's. Oh no." Paul said.

…..

Ryker's

All the equipment in the place was starting to get out of control. The lights kept flashing around. This was the perfect opportunity for Glacier to make his escape as he slipped past the guards and got his thermal harness back to keep him warm. As the technology around the place was going crazy, Glacier made a run for it.

"I don't know what's going on, but I like it." Glacier said as he ran as fast as he could and was able to make it outside. The alarms sounded as they spotted him and the officers were going as fast as they could. However, when Glacier reached the water, he was trapped. "Now what do I do?" He got his answer when he saw a boat drive to him, but there was no driver.

"Get in." Glacier didn't question it as he jumped right in and the boat started driving just as the cops showed up.

"Where did this thing even come from?" Glacier questioned.

"Hello, Glaicer." Glacier looked at a computer screen and saw Hydra.

"Hydra?! I should have known you would get me out." Glacier said.

"Yes. White Streak would very much like to talk to you." Hydra said, but Glacier felt like he was in trouble. "You've been a naughty boy, crossing us like that. So who would you rather take your chances with?"

"Uh…. I think White Streak is my best bet." Glacier said.

"A wise choice." Hydra said.

…

Hydra

"That takes care of that." Hydra said as he closed his laptop. "That arachnid didn't even get in my way." He just jinxed himself as he just got kicked in the back.

"Say my name and I appear." Paul said.

"You're too late." Hydra said as he got back up. "I already got what I came for. All that is left is to make sure you don't try and stop us."

"What are you talking about?" Paul said.

"I only broke out one criminal and that was Glacier." Hydra said. "We heard how he worked with Librium and we're bringing him back to our side."

"No worries. I'll bring you all back together." Paul said. "You two can get reacquainted back in jail."

"Sounds like you're back to your usual and annoying self." Hydra said.

"Yeah. I just remembered something." Paul said. "I remembered someone important. Someone that would want me to keep the fight going. He might be gone, but he was what inspired me to do this. He knew I would be something incredible and I'm not going to let him down."

"Touching, but I don't really care." Hydra said as he stretched out his dragon heads at him, but Paul jumped out of the way. Paul was going to fight back, but Hydra jumped as the boat Glacier was on came over and he landed on it. "Until we meet again, Spider-Man." The boat drove off with the two of them and Paul couldn't do anything about it.

"Go ahead and run. I'll just get you both next time." Paul said.

…..

Paul

"I didn't use to be such a nice guy. I didn't care what wasn't my problem, but that was a mistake. A mistake that took someone precious to me away. Ever since that day, I've been trying my best to make amends for it. It's what helps me keep going. Peter Parker may have been the one that taught me how to be Spider-Man, but my father was the one that knew I could do this." Paul stood in front of his father's grave as his family and his friends were there to support him. "I didn't think I would give a speech, but it's the least I can do for the man that inspires me. Now it feels like the guilt from that mistake has weakened. Thanks, Dad." He placed a flower in front of his father's grave and walked backed over. His brother and his mother were proud of him as the both hugged him and were real proud of him. The memories of that tragedy was hard on Paul, but it's what helps keep him fighting. Villains, beware. Spider-Man is not going away.