April and Mayday just received their IDs and made their way through the halls when a new girl came up to April as she made her way to class. She was just strolling past, which got her confused about the girl.
"Hey, new girl." She greeted the twin.
"Hi." April guessed.
"I'm Allison," she introduced herself and gestured to her friend, this is-"
"Heather Noble." She introduced herself.
"April Parker-Lane," April introduced herself.
"We know," Allison tells her, confusing April as to how she already knew her name.
"So, you're from Metropolis?" Heather asks her.
"Yeah, just moved here," April confirmed, still wondering how they (if they did) know her name.
"We should all hang out," Allison says, surprising April with how strange this is.
She didn't exactly expect to start school and have a few girls come up and just wannabe friends. But like she said to her father, New York is different from Metropolis. Maybe it was better that way around. Especially with everything that has been going on with her at home: learning her dad is Spider-Man and she or her sister could have powers.
"Yeah, sure, I would like that," April tells them.
"Great. I'll text you." Allison tells April.
"My number is-"
"I already have it," Allison informed April, confusing her with how she already had her number.
"How do you-"
"Don't worry about it." Allison interrupted her. "You know, you should try out for cheerleading. I am the team captain, and I am looking for a new second."
"I thought I was your second?" Heather asks Allison.
Allison then looked over to Heather and leaned closer. "I need someone who can do the splits."
"I'm practicing," Heather stated as they continued to walk down the halls. "My family suffers from short tendons."
"Thanks, but cheerleading isn't something I'm into." April was sorry to tell the two.
"Wait, so you don't want to hang out?" Allison asks the new girl.
"Wait, what?" April was shocked at how quickly the tables turned on her. "No, that's not what I meant. If you want a cheerleader, you should talk to my sister. She's looking to get into it."
"Okay." Allison seemed to take the thought into mind. "Great. Then I'll text you. Or not. Bye."
And as quickly as they appeared, Allison and Heather walked off to vanish into the crowd of students.
"I'm still your second, right?" Heather asks Allison.
April took whatever happened in and just decided to forget about it as she walked off. The bell rang and she saw she needed to hurry and get to class.
Peter made his way home where he found Lois at work on her computer. He smiled as he walked his way over and quickly wrapped her arms around her waist. Lois giggled at his affection and rolled her eyes.
"What's gotten into you?" Lois wonders.
"I need a reason to be affectionate towards my wife?" Peter asked her as he kissed her head.
"You're never this affectionate," Lois replied.
"I'm never around enough to be this affectionate." Peter joked as he let her go. "What are you working on?"
"A piece regarding Carlton Drake and everything he's been up to," Lois explains to him.
"Oh, anything interesting?" Peter asked as he took a seat.
"Not much. It seems like he's just going around the whole country, looking for homeless people to indulge in his experiments." Lois told him all she discovered. But as she took a quick break, she noticed the look on his face as he was spacing out. "Hey, you okay?"
Peter looked back over to his wife. "Hm?"
"That stranger in the suit got to you, didn't he?" Lois noticed.
"He knew a lot about Spider-Man." Peter shrugged, remembering his conversation with New Goblin. "I'm just worried if he knows about us, the girls, where we live."
"Well, aren't the Avengers working on it?" Lois wonders.
"They didn't even know where he was going to be," Peter remembered how he left a trail for them to follow. "This Goblin is coming after me. He isn't going to stop."
"Well, in the meantime, until we have a location or a way we can find him, let's just focus on what we came here for," Lois said as she placed a hand on Peter's. "Family."
Peter smiled and nodded, seeing she was right. "Okay."
Far off in the middle of a highway, a truck with supplies heading for the hospitals in New York was suddenly ambushed. A newly developed version of the Goblin Glider came flying in and shot out a missile. Once the missile made an impact on the truck, the entire vehicle got flung to its side and screeched into a ditch.
Flying down and leaping off of the glider, Harry marched his way over to the truck. Once he reached the back doors, he ripped them off with the strength that came with his suit. He needed to get the chemical compounds to help siphon the formula to give him the strength to fight Spider-Man.
Walking around the destroyed and crashed truck, he came across the half dozen chemicals he needs to create the serum. There are a few others he needed to get, but these were the biggest ones he needed to find. As he started to make his way out, he found another chemical that could be as much use: ethyl chloride.
"Hello, my dear," Harry said as he reached out and grabbed the canister. This would be good enough for a few attempts to weaken Spider-Man, or if used correctly, would be enough to weaken him long enough to finish him.
Mayday and April then made their way out of the high school, the two of them having either an off day or just an odd one. But the first day of school is usually like that anyways, isn't it? They made their way out of the school grounds and came across Adrian.
"Hey." Adrian greeted the girls. "How were you guys fitting in?"
"Not exactly bad." Mayday looked on the bright side.
"But not exactly good." April condescended to her sister's statement.
"Well, it's not like you were bound to fit in on the first day." Adrian shrugged. "So, what do you guys plan to do now?"
"Gotta get home," April answered him.
"Yeah, we're staying out of the city for a while," Mayday confirmed.
"Well, how about when you guys get some time, give me a call and we can hang out?" Adrian offered to them.
"That sounds nice," April admitted.
"Yeah, we'll call you." Mayday agreed.
The two then made their way off and didn't know what to think of Adrian. He was a nice kid, they just always kinda wondered why he was always nice to them. There were a few obvious reasons, but Adrian didn't seem to be that kind of kid.
Back at the house, despite his better judgment, Fury and Tony made their way to Peter's house. Once they reached there, they had to fill Peter in on what he did.
"He attacked a hospital convoy," Tony said as he showed Peter the footage and photos of the attack.
"What is he up to?" Peter wonders what this New Goblin was doing.
"He stole a vastness of chemicals, we're not entirely sure how much of what yet." Fury tells the young man. "But we did notice that he stood a few canisters of ethyl chloride."
That got Peter's attention as he knew what that could be used for. "Oh my god."
"What's ethyl chloride?" Lois wonders. "I mean, what's it to you?"
"It's my weakness," Peter explains to them.
"Your weakness...is ethyl chloride?" Tony asks him. "Why am I learning this now?"
"I only learned about it during my time in Metropolis." Peter defended. "Thanks for letting me know."
"This is just telling us you should definitely stay away from him." Fury stated as they started to leave.
Peter sighed as he took in what he was just told and knew that this New Goblin has become more of a threat. He must have known that ethyl chloride is a weakness of his, but he was there for other chemicals.
"Any idea what he was doing with that truck?" Lois asks Peter.
"My first guess?" Peter wasn't entirely sure. "He's working on something. Maybe something to do with the Goblin serum."
"We'll, whatever he's working on, you'll stop him, Pete. You've handled the real Goblin; you can take on some pretender." Lois tried to encourage him.
"This pretender knows more about me earlier on than Norman did." Peter was sorry to tell Lois. "Not to mention..."
"Back then, the girls were just a thought." Lois knew where he was going with that.
Peter nodded with a sigh. "I can't let anything happen to them, Lois. Norman already threatened to do that to me, I can't let this new guy try the same thing."
"Then what can we do?" Lois asks.
"Train them to defend themselves," Peter said, thinking of a few friends he can call. "I'm gonna make some calls, go meet up with some old friends, see what they can help."
"That sounds like the right thing to do." Lois nodded and took a seat with her computer in hand.
"What are you doing?" Peter was curious to know what she was working on.
"Working on an article I'm working on about Carlton Drake," Lois explains.
"Drake?" Peter questions. "Why?"
"Because he's a world-renowned scientist who is now buying media?" Lois asks him. "He has been trying to synthesize Symbiotes. Those creatures that turned you into a..."
"Jerk? Dick? Insufferable was an adjective I believe I heard you say once." Peter recapped the adjectives Lois used when he was attached to Venom. "
"Fair." Lois decided and moved on. "He is not here to help people in FEAST get jobs. He is there because people are desperate and are getting cheap labor out of it. Everywhere that Drake goes, death and missing people are not too far behind."
"You think he's experimenting on people?" Peter was starting to put together what she was saying.
"I have no proof of it, but...I'm working on finding it." Lois said as Peter leaned over to see the title.
"Carleton Drake is Jack the Ripper of today." Peter reads the title, looking at Lois.
"It's a work in progress." Lois defended the bad title.
"You do recall that Drake owns the Planet?" Peter reminded his wife.
"Yeah," Lois remembers. "So?"
"So, he's not going to just let you run this," Peter stated. "Especially if he does have something to hide."
"You know what, hon? You get back into the swing of things with Spider-Man, and I'll get to work on this." Lois said, getting back to work and noticing Peter look at her. "Pun wasn't intended."
"Right." Peter chuckled.
"I'm serious about this, Peter," Lois tells him. "I'm getting this gut feeling that this is why I was called to New York. His setup is here. The people he is going to harm are here. I'm not going to let him harm these people."
Peter nodded and knew that he just needed to let Lois do her thing. "I trust your instincts. I'd Drake is up to no good, then I want to find out." Then he noticed the time and decided he needed to go. "I've gotta get going to meet up with my friends."
"Alright," Lois said as Peter stood up. "See you soon."
Back with Nick Fury, he has just taken off and made his way up to the Helicarrier. He knew that Peter wasn't going to just stand down, but he might as well have at least tried to stop him. He made it back to the main hall of the ship and looked to see his second in command.
"Hill." Nick greeted her.
"Director." Hill greeted him back. "Is he gonna stand down?"
"If I was able to get Parker to stand down every time I said so, I wouldn't have spent half of his teenage years trying to control him," Nick stated, remembering how hard it was to control Parker. "He's gonna do what he thinks is right. For him and his girls."
That's when suddenly the lights went down, and their ship went on residual power. The ship was going to stay in the air, but they had half of their security down.
"What the hell just happened?" Nick asked as he looked down at his men.
"Sir? It's Goblin." One of his men said, showing the New Goblin flying and landing on the surface of the ship.
"What is he doing here?" Hill wonders, not seeing why he came here.
"Don't know. Don't care." Nick stated, knowing that he made a big mistake. "Whatever he's here for, he's not going to get it. Light him up."
"Squad, take him down," Hill reported.
Outside, everyone immediately opened fire on New Goblin as he just stood there. His glider has already flown off, leaving the New Goblin to fend for himself. As the soldiers tried to shoot him down, New Goblin held a hand out to his hip as a pumpkin bomb came out of the suit.
Tossing it, instead of blowing them up, released a gas that rendered everyone unconscious. Then he sent an electrical surge using a tripwire to take down the rest of their security.
Nick started to worry and knew something was about to happen. "Everyone out!"
All of his agents started to run for it, trying to escape the soon-to-be fight. Nick cocked his gun, ready to go down in a fight. But he didn't expect the new goblin to come flying in with rocket boots, which he invented with the tech he stole from Stark.
He came flying through the wall, causing a bunch of rubble to come in, blinding Fury as he looked around for the New Goblin. He then noticed the villain standing there in the middle of the room. He didn't have any weapons, apart from the blades on his shoulders, but Nick knew better than to let his guard down.
"You have to stop protecting him." New Goblin tells Nick, walking over towards him.
"Who? Spider-Man?" Nick questions, starting to get more confused.
"Don't call him that!" New Goblin demanded. "He's not one of us, Fury." He then held out a necklace with what looked to be some alternative dog tags on it. "Where I come from, you're like me, and you don't trust him either because you learned what he was capable of. But we found out too late. You have to help me save your world. Before Spider-"
Before he even had a chance to finish his statement, he was blasted by a rocket. The rocket came from a weapon being carried by Maria Hill, who knew what she needed to do when Nick told them to leave.
But when the rocket hit the armor, all it did was reveal that it was just a suit. The New Goblin was nowhere to be seen. Nick then looked down at the dog tag and noticed one side had a Spider-Man insignia and the other had a number: 7734.
The real Goblin was watching them however through the lenses of the suit. He zoomed in to see the confusion on Fury's face. He saw that he convinced Nick to at least not trust Spider-Man.
"To hell and back, Colonel," Harry said as he shut down the footage.
Then he looked back over to the container and sees that his new formula was ready for testing. It would still wear off, but he needed to test how long it was going to last this time.
But just as Fury, the Avengers, and just about every superhero guessed, with the return of Spider-Man, came the return of his enemies. Most of them have been locked up in the RAFT, but there were a few dozen that went dark after he disappeared.
But there was one who never gave up on the hunt. One who has been hunting him since before he was a well-known hero.
Someone who saw Spider-Man as the greatest hunt.
"Spider-Man. Our hunt can finally continue." Kraven The Hunter proclaimed as he returned to New York, ready to hunt down a Spider-Man.
