Goldberg has been quiet lately. Ever since what happened back at the sanctum, he's been keeping quiet. That gives Paul and the police a chance to make a move before he does. The first step is to figure out what Goldberg wants with those people, the people Paul and Thomas saw photos of. Paul was at his apartment and looked over the photo of that collage he took and was trying to figure it out.

"What could these four have that Goldberg wants?" Paul said. Paul heard a knock on his door and had an idea as to who it was. "It's open!" The door opened and saw it was Lindsay and Thomas. "I'm surprised you didn't come in through the window."

"Lindsay was just about here when I came by so we walked together." Thomas said.

"Anything new about why Goldberg is after those people?" Paul asked.

"None of the guys the police caught are talking." Lindsay said. "The only ones that might know anything are the Rainbow Gang, Red specifically since he's Goldberg's right-hand man. Goldberg knows how to keep things hidden when he wants it hidden."

"Ray told me the police are keeping their eyes on three of those people." Thomas said. "The mayor's secretary, the lawyer, and the museum director. The only loose cannon is that gabling gangster."

"Rob Valentino." Paul said. "I figured that would be a problem. He's done some things that the police wouldn't have agreed to. Figures he wouldn't want their help."

"So what are we going to do about this guy? If Goldberg wants him, he's going to try and get him." Lindsay said.

"You're right. Regardless of what Rob has done, we've got to help him if Goldberg is after him." Paul said.

"Any idea as to where he is?" Thomas questioned.

"It pays to have a skilled reporter." Paul said. "I hope you two like Italian."

…

An Italian Restaurant

Rob Valentino was a gangster with a gambling addiction. Some say he doesn't even earn his winnings the fair way. At the moment, he's just enjoying some Italian food at a restaurant all by himself with his boys standing guard. He continued to enjoy his meal when his boys tossed someone to him.

"Where's my money?" Rob asked.

"Mr. Valention, please. I'll get you your money. I just need to figure out how."

"I get it. I'm a reasonable guy, see?" Rob said. "You needed financial help, I lend it. However, the thing with money, you need to be able to payback. See? You shouldn't really borrow money you can't payback. See? Otherwise, bad things could happen. See?" A couple of his boys aimed some guns at the poor man. They didn't get the chance as webs came and pulled the guns out of their hands. Paul and his friends came down and knocked the guys out of the way.

"You might want to get out of here." Lindsay said as she helped the man up and helped him out the door.

"Spider-Man and his two little groupies" Rob said.

"Groupies?!" Thomas said as he didn't like that.

"What do you want with me? You're not taking me to jail because you got nothing on me." Rob said.

"We're not here for that, Valentino. We're here to help you." Paul said. "For whatever reason, Goldberg is after you and a few others. The police have the others under some surveillance. That only leaves you."

"Oh yeah. I heard about that, but here's the thing. I don't like cops and they don't like me." Rob said.

"You would be placed under protection." Paul said. "Goldberg is after you and he'll get you no matter what it takes."

"Yeah. I've heard on what's going on." Rob said. "You see, to go to the cops, I would also have to admit to somethings they don't like. See? I'm more than capable of taking care of myself."

"How do you plan on taking on Goldberg? He's got more with him than you think." Paul said.

"That's easy." Rob said as he reached under the table and Paul's spider sense was alerting him of danger.

"Venom! Blite! Duck and cover!" Paul said. All three of them jumped as Rob pulled out two gatling guns. They ducked behind some tables as Rob pushed himself out and ran through the back door.

"Should have seen that one coming." Thomas said as the three of them hurried after him. Rob made it outside with a car parked out there just for him.

"Drive!" Rob said as the driver got going. The three of them got out as the car started driving away.

"Why do they always insist on doing things the hard way?" Paul said. "Grab on, Blite."

"My pleasure." Lindsay said as she latched on to his back with Thomas getting annoyed. Thomas and Paul started swinging and went after the car. It wasn't exactly hard to follow that car seeing as how it wasn't obeying any of the traffic rules. Rob noticed that they were following and he wasn't having any of that.

"Lose them." Rob said.

"I'm trying boss, but they're swinging around all over them buildings."

"Do I have to do everything myself?" Rob said as he pulled out one of his guns and opened the window. He tried his best to shoot them down, but Thomas and Paul kept moving around and tried making it harder for him to aim.

"This guy has some serious issues!" Thomas said. "At least now we know what happened to some people! They say those who messed with Valentino or wronged him are never heard from again!"

"Maybe that's why Goldberg wants him." Lindsay said. "Maybe Goldberg wants to be partners with this guy. He's a bit of a wild one."

"Let's just get him to the police so he'll be protected from Goldberg and be less of a threat to a lot of people!" Paul said. They continued to chase after him as Rob kept shooting at them.

"There's a subway tunnel coming up! Dive down there and lose them!" Rob said. The driver drove the car and it went down a ditch and into a subway tunnel with the three of them going after him. The driver was going as fast as the car could down there. That was when they heard a train coming. "Train."

"I see it." The driver said. "I also see our escape." The driver made a sharp turn down another tunnel with the train heading towards Paul and the others.

"Whoa!" Paul shouted as they dived to the side as the train passed by. Paul pressed Lindsay against the wall and all three of them tried keep from getting crushed by the train. Once they train passed, they felt safe. "You okay, Blite?"

"Better than okay." Lindsay said as they were pressed against each other. "I told you this feel nice."

"Excuse me, but Rob is getting away." Thomas said. The three of them hurried over to the tunnel and saw they were long gone. "Great. Now how are we going to find him?"

"I don't know." Paul said. The one guy not protected by Goldberg could be anywhere and that's not good.

…

Rob

Rob made out of the subway and went back to a small apartment that he was using as his hideout. The car pulled up and some of his guys were waiting there for him. Rob let himself in and his boys were just playing games and other things like they owned the place.

"Boss, you have a couple guests in your room. They are some fine guests."

"What the hell you talking about?" Rob said as he made his way up to his room. He opened the door and was pleasantly surprised to see three women dressed erotically.

"Hello, Mr. Valentino."

"Hello, ladies." Rob said as he tried to act charming. "What can I do you for?"

"My friends and I hear you're quite the gambling man." One said as the other two walked over and moved their hands around him. "We were hoping we could play a friendly gambling game with you."

"What kind of game?" Rob said. The woman reached inside her breasts and pulled out a deck of cards.

"Just a friendly game of cards. Only, instead of money, let's bet something more enjoyable." The woman said. "Maybe a little game of….strip poker. If you actually win, you get to do what you want with us. If we win, we get to have OUR way with you."

"God bless… I don't know why this is happening and I don't give a damn." Rob said. He and the women gathered on the floor with one turning on some music to set the scene, setting it loud. The music was so loud that his men could hear what was going on.

"Man. The boss is so lucky."

"He could at least share since there are three of them." As they questioned that, bullets were being shot through the wall. They were being attacked by people outside. Rob didn't even notice because the music was so loud and was a little distracted, but he could hear them faintly.

"Do you ladies hear something?" Rob asked.

"Nothing, but your masculine voice."

"Oh no. I have a bad hand. I guess this has to go." One of them moved the straps from her dress and removed it so that Rob would focus on that.

…

Paul

Paul and the others searched around for Rob, but they couldn't find him anywhere. He's given them the slip and didn't leave a trail.

"Nothing." Paul said.

"Now what do we do?" Lindsay said.

"He's got to be hiding out. Laying low somewhere." Thomas said. That was when his phone went off and saw it was Ray. "Hey, Ray. Now isn't really a good time."

"Thomas, we're getting reports of a gunfight going on." Ray said. "One side consists of Rob Valentino's men. Goldberg might be making his move."

"What?!" Thomas said. "Oh man. Goldberg is getting his first target. Where is this gun fight happening?"

….

The Gunfight

Both sides continued shooting at each other. Goldberg's men stayed hidden behind some cars while Rob's men stayed in the building. Paul and the others arrived on the scene and saw what was going on.

"It looks bad down there." Paul said.

"We better do something about this before someone gets killed." Thomas said. "Only whose butt do we get to kick?"

"I say both sides since they won't be happy to see all of us." Paul said. "Venom and I will take care of the guys out here. Blite, you find a way around this and go get Rob."

"Rob." Lindsay said as she ducked away and the other two went on in. The two of them each took a side and took on the men. Thomas swung into a window and took one guy down. Paul shot a web and pulled one guy away from the fight and tossed him against a wall.

"Damn! It's both of the spiders! Kill them as well!" Both sides were trying to kill each other as well as Paul and Thomas. It was starting to get a little crazy around there.

…

Rob

Rob was still unaware of what was going on. He was too distracted with what was happening with him. It seemed like he was about to win his little game.

"Any last words ladies that I won't make you say?" Rob questioned.

"Let me ask you something, Mr. Valentino." The woman said as she placed her cards down and Rob believed he won. The woman crawled right over to him and slid her hand against him. "How do you play a gambling gangster?" He thought this was an answer he was going to like. "You make him think he's about to get very lucky, when it's really the bad kind of luck." She surprised him by hitting him across the face.

"That was enjoyable. I do so enjoy playing men like this."

"Nice hit, Yellow. Our plan worked. Play the music loud enough and he couldn't hear the gunshots going off. Good thing the music was the signal for the underlings to start shooting. Our charms even kept this creep's eyes on us. He really didn't know what hit him."

"What?" Rob said as he tried to get back up and feels like he's just been played the wrong way.

"Enough talk. We don't have much time. Blue and Orange, take a couple hits yourselves so he's out." Those women were really the same women from the Rainbow Gang and had Rob right where they wanted him.

…

Lindsay

Lindsay found a way inside the building and was hurrying to where Rob was suppose to be. Once she heard the music, she knew where to go.

"You have got to be kidding." Lindsay said as she hurried.

"Hey!" One guy spotted her and was about to shoot her, but Lindsay kicked him right in the head and took him out. Lindsay found the door the music was coming from and kicked the door open, but she saw it was empty.

"Damn!" Lindsay shouted.

…

The Gunfight

Paul and Thomas continued to do what they could to stop the fight. They fought off all the guys and had them beaten. They just needed to finish it. Paul slid between the legs of one and kicked him right in the face. The last two tried shooting him, but Paul webbed them both in the face to blind them. Paul went at the two of them and knocked both of them out.

"There's the spider! Shoot him!" The last two in the building were about to shoot, but the ceiling broke and Thomas and a beaten guy came through. Thomas shot webs on the guns and the symbiote used tendrils and grabbed them around the neck.

"You know the rules. If you're gonna fight, do it outside!" Thomas said as he tossed them through the wall and took care of them. "That's the last of them, but what about Blite. Where is she?"

"Come on." Paul said as they both hurried. They didn't hear any music anymore and hurried to see what happened. They made it to the right room and just saw Lindsay standing there.

"We're too late." Lindsay said. "They already got him."

"They did?" Thomas said.

"Yeah. No blood. Nothing, but a scattered deck of cards show the signs of a struggle… They must have tricked him somehow and when he least expected it, they let him have it." Lindsay said. "They must have taken him alive. No telling where they went from here. The gunfight outside must have been a cover for whoever did this to get out of here."

"How about that? Gangsters play tricks and now the gangster got tricked." Thomas said as he found a bit of humor in this.

"Thomas, this is serious." Paul said. "Goldberg already got one of his targets. That idiot was so stubborn about the police that he underestimated Goldberg and played right into his hands. No telling what they'll do to get the other three."

"What could Goldberg want with this guy?" Thomas asked.

"No clue. That's the part that worries me." Paul said. Goldberg really isn't playing around this time. One down and three to go on Goldberg's list. No telling what he'll do to get them.