In New York City, there's always something going on in the shadows. That's what's going on right now. Someone was hiding out somewhere, using computers and other means of technology.

"It's almost time. I just need to get my hands on one thing now, and pandemonium will truly begin." Someone was up to something awful and disastrous. "Once I get my hands on it, no one will be able to stop me. I shall have my revenge, and I shall at last destroy him." Whoever this is took a photo of Spider-Man and tore it to shreds. Whoever this is wants revenge and has something else in mind. Who is this? Just how far is this villain going to go?

...

Paul

Months have passed since the symbiote invasion and Earth survived against it. Thanks to some help from Spider-Man and his friends, the city was saved and everything was returning to normal. Well, as normal as things get around in that city. As for Paul, he was still trying to enjoy the good life with Sabella. A new day was coming as the sun shined down on them. Paul woke up and saw Sabella resting her body against his in bed. Those two have been going strong and living together for about six months and they've been enjoying every moment of it.

"Morning." Sabella said as she was waking up herself.

"Morning." Paul said as the two sat up and he stretched out his body. "Another day, another dollar I suppose. You want some coffee?"

"Please." Sabella said as Paul got out of bed, grabbed some shorts, and walked over to get some coffee. As the two of them were getting themselves ready for this day, there was something Sabella wanted to talk to him about. She kept the sheets pressed against her body as she got up walked into the kitchen. "Paul, there's something we need to talk about."

"Oh boy. That's never a good thing to hear" Paul said as he expected he isn't going to like this.

"Paul, I'm not exactly comfortable hiding the truth of our relationship anymore." Sabella said.

"But we're not hiding anything. My friends know about us, they've always known." Paul said as he poured out some coffee for both of them.

"All except your mother." Sabella said as she took her coffee. "She still doesn't know about me. We've been together for six months and she still doesn't know. I would at least like to know why that is."

"Oh boy..." Paul said as this was a little difficult for him to explain. "Look, I would like to tell her, but I am a little worried. My previous girlfriends were ones she likes. Two ordinary girls, the third being like me. I'm just a little worried she might not approve once she knows about you."

"About me?" Sabella said as she was a little offended by that.

"I mean once she knows you're a trained assassin." Paul said. "That's not exactly something mothers approve of when their kids are dating."

"But you are in your twenties. Do you really need your mother's approval?" Sabella said.

"No, but I do want her to like you. It's important to me that my mother and my younger brother think great of you like I do." Paul said.

"I understand that, but how can that happen when she and I won't officially meet?" Sabella said. She had Paul stumped there when she asked that.

"I keep forgetting when dating someone who is trained to be an assassin, she would be incredibly smart and looking to justify reason." Paul said as he caved with him pulling her in and kissing her. She was right, Paul can't hide them from his family forever.

...

The Homeless Shelter

A while Later, Paul went down to pay a visit to Trisha down at her work. She was in the middle of sorting some boxes when Paul came walking in. Paul walked over and helped her out as he grabbed a box and helped her moved it.

"Paul! This is a surprise!" Trisha said.

"Is it? I'm here a lot to help out." Paul said.

"And everyone loves having you here." Trisha said as they continued on with their work. "So, what brings you here this time? Is there something you need to talk about? Problems your having this time?"

"No, but there is something I want to tell you." Paul said as he was a little anxious to tell her about this. It's been a long time since he last told his mother that he was dating someone. "The truth is that I've been hiding something from you."

"Oh no. You don't have another secret identity, do you?" Trisha teased.

"No. The truth is that I've been dating someone for a while." Paul said.

"Really? It's about time. You are a great man, Paul. I don't understand why no girl has swept you off your feet instead of the other way around." Trisha said. "Oh! Is it Monica?! Are you two back together?!"

"What? No. Mom, she and I broke up years ago. We're just friends now." Paul said with his mother a little disappointed.

"You're right. I'm sorry about that." Trisha said. "It's just that I always believed you two were great together. You were together for so long. I swear that you would have been married if you didn't start dating when you were too young." If only she knew the truth. "So, if it's not Monica, are you back together with one of the other two?"

"You mean Jean or Lindsay? No. Lindsay is just a friend too, and my partner out there. We thought about it, but it just wouldn't work." Paul claimed. "As for Jean, I haven't even heard from her in the past few years. I have no idea where she is or what's going on with her. Anyway, I'm not back with any of my exes. It's someone new, and she and I have been together for a long time."

"Really? Who is she?" Trisha asked.

"Her name is Sabella. She's from a small country called Symkaria." Paul said. "In fact, you actually met her before. You and Monica were hiding out in her penthouse when the symbiote invasion was going on."

"I remember that girl! She's certainly beautiful, and she's clearly loaded if she had all those rooms rented out! Seems like you made a great choice." Trisha said as she seemed happy about that. "Although, where did she get her hands on such weapons."

"Well... That's the thing." Paul said as he was finally coming clean. "The truth is that we've been dating for about six months. The reason I didn't tell you is because...of what she does. She was actually trained to be...an assassin." That got Trisha to stop moving around and now has her full attention. "Mom, let me explain about that. She's not what you might be thinking." He was worried about this, but then his phone was going off and saw it was Thomas. He decided to answer. "Thomas, this isn't a good time."

"Sorry, but when would you like to know that there's trouble going on?" Thomas said. "We got word that an old gang is making some sort of comeback."

"What? What are you talking about?" Paul said.

"I just got a call from Ray." Thomas said. "It's Librium. Reports are coming in they were spotted and are driving an armored truck they stole through the streets."

"Librium?!" Paul said as he couldn't believe it. Librium was a gang they faced a few years ago that were under the command of a crime boss named Balancer, but they were suppose to be shutdown after Balancer was thrown in jail. "I'm on my way. Keep me posted on where they've been spotted." He ended the call and had to get to work. "Mom, I'm sorry. I have to go, but I promise we'll talk more later."

"Of course. If Librium is involved, go." Trisha said as she allowed Paul to go and he hurried off.

...

Librium

The gang that caused terror in the streets known as Librium is back, and they just hijacked an armored car. It was between a couple cars and just drove right through the streets, no regard for who is on the streets. The police were alerted about this and tried chasing after them. A couple gunman in the back car aimed right at them and tried to shoot them down. What no one knew was that the drivers were being given orders by someone.

"Keep going." Someone communicated to them. "Stick to the plan and wait for Spider-Man to show. Just keep following the route I gave you." Someone was calling all the shots from somewhere else, and it was working. Spider-Man and Venom came swinging in and tracked them.

"Too bad Blite couldn't make it, too busy with the club. She's going to miss a real reunion." Thomas said as they went swinging through.

"More like we're the party crashers. I thought Librium was done for, but it looks like they're making a comeback." Paul said as they hurried after them.

"They're here. Time to phase two of the plan." The men in Librium just went along with it. There were two in the back of the armored car and they swung open the door with them aiming rockets outside.

"Oh no. Don't do it." Paul said as he didn't like the looks of this. They fired a couple shots at them and they went straight to the police. The rockets smashed into the ground and caused a couple explosions to go off with the police cars steered off course. "I got the cars! Help the police!"

"I'm on it!" Thomas said as he swung down to help them and Paul followed after them. Paul kept swinging around and the gunmen aimed at him instead as they tried to shoot him down. When one took the chance to reload, he webbed the car and shot himself straight down and landed on it with him smashing his fist against the guy's head and knocked him out.

"Now for the next part. Pull over and put up a good show." Without any warning, the three cars just stopped. Paul nearly got thrown off the car from the sudden stop. When that happened, a couple of them jumped out of the cars and tried to take him out.

"Here we go." Paul said as he knew this was happening. One tried shooting at him, but he jumped straight up and went right over to him. When he landed down in front of one and gave him a powerful uppercut. The two with rocket launchers refilled and tried to shoot at him again. "Put those away before someone gets hurt." He shot a couple lines at both launchers and clogged them to keep them from firing.

"Just get him!" One shouted as they discarded their weapons and just charged right at him. One tried to hit him, but he jumped right over him.

"Watch your step." Paul said as he shot another line at his leg and pulled it to have the guy fall. One other tried to hit him, but he grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground. "You guys are really out of it, aren't you?" He taunted, but they were getting serious. Paul jumped over right to the armored car and jumped right up front. "You in the driver's seat, get out!" He was demanding the driver to step out, but he didn't really move. He just waited for his orders.

"Now!" They were ordered. Suddenly, the drivers of each car slammed on the gas. Luckily, Paul's spider sense alerted him and he jumped out of the way in time. He jumped to the wall, but he noticed the armored car was driving too close to the side where people were.

"Damn!" Paul complained as he jumped off and swung as fast as he could. He shot some lines as he swung over and tried pulling all the people he could out of the way. Once he got the innocent people out of the way, he saw the cars were trying to make another getaway. "Where did those morons learn to drive?"

"Hey, Spider!" He looked down the street and saw the ones that remained took out grenades and threw them to some buildings.

"Oh no." Paul said as he didn't like that. The grenades detonated and took out chunks of a building. Paul had to act fast and formed a net to catch all of it before innocent people got hurt from any of it. When he turned back to the ones who threw them, they tried to make a run for it, but Paul had to get at least one of them. Paul jumped as hard as he could and tackled one of them down.

"Get off!" He tried to fight back, but Paul blocked each of his hits until Paul hit him a couple times in the face before knocking him out. When Paul looked up, he saw the rest of them gone.

"I guess I was off my game, too." Paul complained. That mission ended up being a failure. The police were taking care of the damage, but at least Paul handed over the one he captured.

"Usually after the explosions, you two get the bad guys." Ray taunted.

"In our defense, who expected Librium to even come back?" Thomas said.

"This was actually planned rather well." Paul said. "It was like they knew what to do, when to do it, and it was all time perfectly." Paul said as he found this rather strange.

"Well, the one you did captured seems to be in control of his own mind." Ray said. "We might get some answers out of him."

"Balancer is still locked-up, isn't he?" Paul questioned.

"He is, and he's had no outside contact." Ray said.

"So, how did he do this?" Thomas questioned.

"I don't know, but I'll get answers." Ray said as he got back in a police car and drove off. This was rather strange. How did Balancer's old gang pull this off? That's just what Paul was thinking.

"You okay?" Thomas asked.

"Something just doesn't seem right." Paul said as he knew there was more than meets the eye.

...

The Police Station

The Librium member that was brought in to the station for interrogation. His hands were cuffed, people were in the other room, and Ray was the one taking the lead in it. He came right in and dropped some papers on the table and got ready.

"You know, no matter how many times I find people like you in here, I always ask the same question. Why are they stupid enough to commit these crimes in the first place?" Ray said. "Let's cut right to the chase. What's Balancer's game? Tell us and you just might get some leniency."

"I have the right to remain silent." The guy said.

"Perhaps, but don't play coy." Ray said. "Balancer has the ability to control people, but you are clearly in control. What's all that money for?"

"It's just so we can use our resources." The guy claimed.

"So Balancer IS making a comeback." Ray claimed.

"What makes you think it's Balancer?" The guy taunted.

"Seriously? You're a part of Librium. Who else does Librium answer to?" Ray said, but the guy wasn't talking. "Hey, come on." He said as he got in the guy's face. "What is Balancer planning? If not him, who? Who were you taking orders from?"

"D-EL8." That was all he said, but that was all he said with Ray not understanding. Taking the chance, the guy smashed his arms against Ray's face. He swiped Ray's gun and kicked him back. The other cops watching hurried in, but the guy willingly smashed himself right through the glass window and tried making a run for it.

"Get him!" Ray called as they hurried after him. They had to stop the guy before something happens, but it was too late. The sound of a gun going off happened and none of the cops liked the sound of that. They hurried to where it came from, but they saw their only lead shot himself. Librium never did know any limits. This also means something else. After all the bad times the city itself went through, it just keeps coming. Something big is coming to New York again.