Mysterio's perspective:

Fresh off the early "parole" he had arranged for himself, Mysterio began to think on what his next caper would be.

The more obvious and, some would say, rational way for a criminal who specializes in illusions to make a living was burglaries. But Mysterio had been there, done that. As a former film technician, he preferred to impress people. Additionally, he had no desire to leave his defeats at the hands of The Amazing Spider-Man unavenged.

But there was an easy solution to all of these problems. Cast himself as a hero and Spider-Man as a villain. The anti-Spidey local media empire that Jonah Jameson ran would no doubt help.

Mysterio smiled underneath his helmet. This would be the perfect revenge.

Peter Parker's perspective:

Peter was working in the lab with his boss, Dr. Curt Connors, when he got a call. It was MJ.

"Hello?" asked Peter.

"Baby's getting strong," said MJ.

"I'll be right there," said Peter. He hung up and told Dr. Connors, "My wife's almost ready to deliver the baby."

"Understood," said Dr. Connors. "Good luck, Peter."

Peter knew he might need it.

Peter returned home to drive MJ to St. Francis Hospital. Dr. Jim Branty checked on MJ. "I project that your baby will come in three days."

But Peter had checked the news on his phone as Dr. Branty used a stethoscope to listen to the fetus in MJ's stomach. Peter saw that there was a crime wave in Brooklyn. "Sorry, Doctor. Some pressing business elsewhere just came up."

Spider-Man's perspective:

Web swinging to Brooklyn made Spider-Man realize that for once, the reports were not exaggerated. It really seemed to be at least forty criminals with pistols and rifles shooting a city block up for no apparent reason other than to cause carnage. It made no sense. Why take the chance of getting caught just to kill random people?

Spider-Man could save his befuddlement for later. He tried to web swing at the terrorists but was forced to evade by incoming bullets. It was then that Mysterio seemed to appear out of thin air on the ground from the opposite end of the street. In reality Spider-Man knew that Mysterio had dropped merely the illusion of invisibility. Was he behind this attack?

Apparently not because Mysterio began attacking the mob with blinding flares and electrical jolts used by his equipment. This threw the street punks off-balance. Spider-Man took advantage of the opening but ultimately played only a minor role in dispatching the mob.

"Friend or foe?" asked Spider-Man.

"I know what you are," said Mysterio. "A sidekick."

Those words hit home. This was embarrassing. Worse yet, there was no way to know if this whole thing was not a setup.

Jonah Jameson's perspective:

"I guess we know the top story for tomorrow, huh, Jonah?" said Jonah Jameson, owner of Daily Bugle, a leading newspaper and news blog in New York City.

"Yeah, Spider-Man and Mysterio teaming up to thwart a mob that would've otherwise torn up Brooklyn is a big story," nodded Joe "Robbie" Robertson, Jameson's top editor.

"Close," grinned Jameson. "It's gonna be that Mysterio showed up that useless Spider-Man."

"You do know Mysterio's a bad guy, right?" asked Robbie.

"So's Spider-Man as far as I'm concerned," said Jameson. "I know this is gonna get to him."

Peter's perspective:

At home watching television with MJ that night, Peter punched through their living room coffee table.

"Jameson again?" asked MJ.

Peter nodded. "He's described me as a useless scrub next to the 'heroic' Mysterio."

"Ooh," cringed MJ. "Yeah, that's apt to set you off. What really happened in Brooklyn?"

"It was tough to deal with so many punks at once," said Peter. "But somehow, Mysterio trashed them."

"It sounds like he staged the entire thing," said MJ.

"But Spider-Man can't prove it," acknowledge Peter grimly. "And I can't be sure that Mysterio isn't just lucky or good, and really has reformed. We'll see."

"Bad time for us to have the baby?" asked MJ.

"Mm-hmm," Peter nodded. "But not unexpected. The ol' Parker luck never fails."

Mysterio's perspective:

The following morning, Mysterio had business to take care of. Before he went about freeing the street gangs he was employing, Mysterio chose to check how the incident he had orchestrated was being reported. With the exceptions of remarkably pro-Spider-Man publications, Mysterio was being hailed as a hero. Spider-Man was yesterday's news. The only focus on him was in Daily Bugle, which cast Spider-Man as an oaf easily showed up by a new hero who lacked any superhuman abilities.

Mysterio laughed. Jonah Jameson hated Spider-Man with a passion. But why? Mysterio did as well, but he had been put in prison twice by The Wall-Crawler. What was Jameson's problem?

Perhaps Mysterio would confront Jameson about his apparent vendetta against Spider-Man. For now, more pressing business was afoot.

Spider-Man's perspective:

The Web-Slinger was not happy to say the least. It was bad enough that Mysterio had shown him up under suspicious circumstances, but now the gangs who had attacked Brooklyn the prior night had been sprung from jail by explosives from an unknown source. Not to mention that Mysterio had the equipment to pull off the jail break undetected. It looked more and more as though he might be behind everything.

So Spider-Man looked up the people who had escaped prison. He memorized a number of names. He managed to track down one of them: Corey Feldemon, a scrawny but street-smart hoodlum with a flat top. Spider-Man paid him a visit at his apartment, Pete's Pad.

Spider-Man entered Feldemon's apartment by breaking through a window.

"You," shouted Corey as he got up from the sofa he was watching television on and drew his pistol. A web line yanked the gun away, and Spider-Man took him on a web swinging ride.

"I ain't tellin' ya nothing," said Feldemon. "The boss'd kill me."

"You so sure I won't?" bluffed Spidey. They landed on a skyscraper that Spider-Man pushed Feldemon off. Feldemon screamed for a moment before a web line caught him. Feldemon was clearly frightened as Spider-Man lifted him up.

"Look," said The Web-Slinger. "It's been a long day. You want a short life?"

"You wouldn't," said Feldemon. He was right. But Spider-Man sensed that the gangster was incapable of testing this assumption.

"Maybe not," Spider-Man admitted. "But I would web you to this roof and let you escape or starve, whichever comes first." Actually, Spidey's webbing would dissolve long before Feldemon escaped, but he did not have to know that.

"T-the cops wouldn't do that," insisted Feldemon.

"There are those who think I've more in common with you than the police," joked Spider-Man. "You sure they're wrong?"

"Alright," said Feldemon. "We work for Mysterio. You happy, Web-Head?"

"No," Spider-Man took Feldemon to Robbie's office at the Daily Bugle building.

"A friend of yours?" asked Robbie as he saw Spider-Man and Corey Feldemon together.

"Don't insult me like that," said Spider-Man. "This guy's just got something important to tell you." Jameson was not going to like this.

Jameson's perspective:

Sure enough, Jameson was not happy. "Are you sure it was Mysterio?"

"Yeah," said Feldemon.

"We have to roll with this story, Jonah," said Robbie.

"I know," said Jameson. "Being the first to break this will make us money. But I hate how this is going to boost that rotten Wall-Crawler."

"Can't put personal feelings ahead of the bottom line, Jonah."

Jameson frowned. "You don't have to tell me that."

Peter's perspective:

Peter was awakened early the next morning by the grunting of MJ. She was aching. This meant only one thing: the baby was ready to come. Peter quickly got dressed and called in for parental leave at work before carrying MJ to the car.

Mysterio's perspective:

The Daily Bugle's top headline meant that Mysterio had to make himself scarce. But why had Jameson allowed this? Did he not hate Spider-Man?

Mysterio was a fugitive again. He had to deal with the man with the best chance of stopping him.

Peter's perspective:

Peter watched in an operating room at St. Francis Hospital as Dr. Branty led the procedure to deliver the baby. At one point Peter checked his phone.

No! Not now.

It was. There was another huge attack, this time in the Bronx. Peter sighed. He had no choice. Spider-Man had to take action.

"Doctor?" Peter said uneasily. "If you'll excuse me, something's come up."

"What could be more important than this?" asked Dr. Branty.

Peter could think of no answer he could give without giving his secret identity away. He just ran out of the hospital.

I am so not a good husband.

Spider-Man's perspective:

Spider-Man arrived in the Bronx to see another huge army of thugs. This time he played it more cleverly. From a rooftop above, he sprayed webbing at the ground below himself. He kept firing his web shooters to spread webbing throughout the streets. This required him to refill his depleted Web-Shooters, but it also immobilized a third of the thugs, as their feet were stuck to the webbed ground.

With his opponents shocked, off-balance and in some cases, unable to walk, Spider-Man web swung at his opponents. This time the advantage lay with Spidey, and he used it to dispatch all of his opponents.

It was then that Spider-Man heard gunfire behind him that somehow went undetected by his Spider-Sense. He spun around to see Mysterio with an assault rifle shooting at but not hurting him. It had to be a hologram. Still, this hologram said, "In the sewer."

Spider-Man removed a manhole from the ground and descended to the sewer. Many alligators attacked him, but The Web-Slinger allowed these holograms to pass harmlessly through him. "Nice try, Mysterio, but I know that sewer gators don't exist." Also, real alligators would have triggered his Spider-Sense.

Spider-Man kept walking in the direction the alligators had attacked from. "So are you going to show your face?" he challenged. "Or at least your fishbowl?"

Then he stopped and pointed as his Spider-Sense tingled. "I know you're there, Mysterio."

A puff of smoke and Mysterio made his presence known.

"Are your parlor tricks meant to hide how fake you are?" asked Spider-Man.

"Your death won't be," threatened Mysterio as he utilized a smoke grenade. This concealed the immediate area in smoke. And knowing Mysterio, he was wearing a little something underneath his round helmet that enabled him to see Spider-Man. Sure enough, Spidey hopped to the side as his Spider-Sense flared up. He heard an explosion behind himself. Not good.

Closing his eyes, Spider-Man focused on his Spider-Sense and dived in the direction it told him to.. He managed to tackle Mysterio and punched. This horribly dented Mysterio's helmet and knocked him out.

"There was a rabbit in your helmet all along, magician," Spidey smiled under his mask.

Peter's perspective:

With Mysterio being taken back to jail, an un-costumed Spider-Man returned to the hospital.

"Did I miss anything?" asked Peter as he saw MJ happily holding the baby.

"You could say that," said Dr. Branty contemptuously.

"It's a girl," said an overjoyed MJ.

"I wouldn't let him hold her," said Dr. Branty. Peter understood why he said that. But MJ was understanding enough to hand the baby over to Peter. Like many babies, she seemed to combine the appearances of her mother and father. She was darker than Peter but lighter than MJ. Peter smiled. This made his life feel complete.

"Before you go," said Dr. Branty, "I believe there are irregularities with this baby. Almost as if she had radiation in her."

"Don't worry," said Peter. "It's... a little characteristic of mine." He knew going into the pregnancy that the baby might inherit both his powers and the radiation transferred from the spider that had bitten him year prior. But he could not tell Dr. Branty that.

"Are you sure?" asked Dr. Branty.

"Can we go?" asked MJ.

"If you want," said Dr. Branty uneasily.

Peter drove them home with MJ again holding the baby. "So what do we call her?" asked Peter.

"I've got it," smiled MJ. "Pauline Mary."

"Combining my first initial with yours?" asked Peter.

MJ nodded.

"I love it!" said Peter.

A new chapter of their lives had begun.