What happened with Jean didn't go as well as Paul thought. He hoped it was a chance to reconnect with an old friend, but it seems like they're further apart. As he just hung around in Sabella's apartment, he kept thinking about what he was going to do about that now. Luckily, he had a few friends he could turn to. One of them showed as he heard knocking on the door.

"It's open!" Paul called. The door opened up and it revealed to be Harris.

"Hey, pal." Harris said.

"Hey. Thanks for coming over." Paul said.

"No problem, but I don't have much time." Harris said. "However, I know you need someone to talk to, especially about Jean, and I have someone who can help you with all the time you need."

"What are you talking about?" Paul questioned.

"I think he means me." Paul was pleasantly surprised as he saw it was his younger brother that was there as well.

"Mark!" Paul said as he walked over and hugged his brother who he hasn't seen in a long time.

"Actually, I just go by Marcus now. Mark sounds too much like a kid's name."

"What are you doing home from school?" Paul said.

"My school is done for the semester, so I'm here until classes start again." Marcus said. "Wow, nice place." Marcus said as he had a look around. "That new girlfriend I heard about must be loaded. No way you could ever live in a place like this."

"Nice to see my smarty-pants little brother again." Paul said as he lightly punched him in the arm. "If I had known you were coming, I would have made plans."

"I doubt you would have kept them. Wherever there's trouble, Spider-Man always has to go swinging into action. You also need to get those photos of yourself." Marcus said. "Leave it to you to take photos of yourself and make a job out of it."

"Well, shall we go and get something to eat. Marcus said it's okay if all three of us go." Harris claimed.

"Let's go." Paul said as the three of them walked out of the apartment. Paul was glad to see his little brother. It's good to have some good news when things are a little down.

...

Downtown

The three of them went down to a restaurant for lunch and began to catch up. It was nice for Paul having his best friend and his brother to talk to. The three of them had a good meal and shared a few good laughs.

"Oh man. College life is something, isn't it?" Paul said.

"You can say that again. For some of them, it's like party now, study later." Marcus said. "I did join them in some, but those parties get a little crazy. Ended up being a good thing or else I felt like I would have lost my mind from all the constant studying."

"Hard to imagine Paul's little brother living it up in the college life." Harris said. "I do know the feeling. I'll be taking the BAR exams soon. Once I'm done with those, I'll officially be a lawyer."

"That's great, Harris!" Marcus said as he was happy for him. "I say that it would seem like we're all doing well, but that would be overdoing it. Harris told me you've been having a little trouble, Paul. You ran into one of your ex-girlfriends the other night, right? Didn't go so well or something?"

"Yeah. I met up with Jean and her new boyfriend." Paul explained. "I thought things were going well, but when I tried to talk to Jean about why she's been blocking me out, it didn't go so well."

"Bro, she dumped you. What were you expecting?" Paul questioned.

"I thought she and I were still friends." Paul said.

"Please... Who is really friends with their exes?" Marcus said.

"I am. Monica and I still get along well, she helps me with some of the crime that's going on." Paul said. "Lindsay and I hit a rough patch, but we were able to fix things between us and still make a great team."

"Frankly, I'm surprised Monica didn't transfer out of the Daily Bugle, or that you didn't start selling your photos somewhere else." Marcus claimed. "As for Lindsay, you two fight some crime. I'm just surprised she's still doing with you."

"Do you always have to sound like a smart mouth?" Paul said with some annoyance.

"Comes with being your brother." Markus retorted.

"You can always web his mouth shut." Harris pointed out.

"I actually did that once. Mom grounded me for a couple days after that." Paul said.

"Still, being the brother of Spider-Man, you two must have had some spider-themed fun together. I can just imagine the kinds of fights, pranks, and other brotherly fun you two must have had growing up." Harris said. Those two found some amusement in it, but Marcus wasn't as cheerful as they were about that. "Anyway, I like to talk more, but I need to get going. Give me a call or just swing by at my place if you still need to talk, Paul." Harris said as he left his share of the food and left.

"And here I thought you would be the first one to leave unexpectedly." Marcus said.

"Well, Harris keeps himself busy. He's trying to be a lawyer, is actually raising a kid, a lot has gone on with a lot of people." Paul said.

"I can tell. Speaking of which, when are you going to settle down yourself?" Marcus questioned. "You went out with three girls that were crazy about you and you lost all three of them. What is with that?"

"Me? What about you?" Paul said.

"I'm still in college." Marcus laughed. "I've had a couple girlfriend problems myself, so I understand the complications. Although, with you being who you are, it must not be easy."

"Maybe, but Sabella is fine with things. In fact, she helps me out herself." Paul said.

"Sabella! So that's the name of your new girlfriend." Marcus said. "I wonder how long this one will last." It was nice having the two brothers tease each other, but it was all put to a stop when they heard sirens and saw police driving by. "Sounds like duty calls."

"Sorry, Mark. Why don't you pay Mom a visit and I'll meet with you later." Paul said as he left his share of the money.

"It's Marcus, but fine. Go and help people." Marcus said as he let his brother go. It seemed like things were fine between the two brothers, but maybe that's only how it looked.

...

Spider-Man

Once Paul became aware of a crime in process, he quickly changed and got his friends to help. A building was set on fire, but they caught the guy that was able to start it. They finished saving the last few people inside and they were able to get the fire under control. Paul jumped out and got the last person out of there.

"There you go." Paul said as he gave the guy to the paramedics. "Honestly, what is it with people starting fires like that?"

"Some people are just that stupid." Lindsay said.

"Venom, did you get the guy?" Paul asked.

"And gave him to the police. This one was one of the easier ones." Thomas claimed.

"What about that other matter?" Paul asked. "Have you two heard anything form Librium?"

"Nothing at my club. No low life was stupid or foolish enough to walk in and talk about their plans." Lindsay said.

"And I've been chatting with Ray. He hasn't found anything either." Thomas said. "It shouldn't be that surprising. You remember how methodical those guys are. They know how to keep secrets, even if it means killing themselves or each off."

"And there isn't much we can do until we find them or they make another move." Paul said. He didn't like the idea of that gang being out there. They also don't have any leads or clues that point to Balancer, or anyone else that might be pulling the strings. "Well, since we're done here, and much sooner than I thought, I'm gonna go. My brother is in town."

"You're brother is back from school?" Lindsay said.

"Cool. How's the little squirt doing?" Thomas asked.

"He's not so little anymore, but it seems like he's doing rather well. I'll see you guys around." Paul said as he shot a line and swung off to get back to catching up with his brother.

...

The Homeless Shelter

Paul figured he would find his brother with his mother at the shelter. Once he made it there, he changed and went up to her office. When he did get there, he was surprised to see it was just his mother and she was working. He thought Marcus would have been there.

"Hey, Mom." Paul said as he entered the place.

"Hello, Paul. Are you here to help or are you looking for advice again?" Trisha said like nothing was really going on.

"Mom, why are you working? Where's Marcus?" Paul asked.

"Marcus?" Trisha questioned as she gave her full attention now. "What do you mean?"

"Marcus is home from school. I saw him earlier. Didn't he come see you?" Paul questioned.

"No. I didn't know your brother was home." Trisha said.

"You didn't? That's weird." Paul said as he didn't get it. "I saw him earlier, we had lunch earlier. I had to pull away because there was a situation I had to handle. He told me he was going to come and pay you a visit. If he's not here, where could he be?"

"I don't know what to tell you." Trisha said as she was as baffled as he was. "I haven't seen or heard from him at all today."

"Weird. Let's see where he is." Paul said as he reached for his phone and dialed his number. He put it on speaker for his mother to hear.

"Hey, Paul. What's up?" Marcus said.

"Just checking in. Sorry about taking off earlier. Are you okay?" Paul asked.

"It's fine. You gotta do what you gotta do." Marcus said. "I'm just hanging with Mom right now, but I'm doing okay. Are you going to meet up with us later?"

"Yeah..." Paul said as he obviously saw the lie. His mother wasn't liking this either. "I'll meet up with you two later."

"All right. Later." Marcus said before he hung up.

"Paul, what is going on? Why would Marcus lie about where he is like that?" Trisha questioned.

"I wish I knew." Paul said.

"Paul, I know Marcus is an adult now, but I don't want him lying about where he is like that." Trisha said as she acted like any mother would. "Go and find him. See if he's in any real trouble or something."

"No problem. I have a bad feeling about this myself. Luckily, I know how to track him." Paul said as he stepped out and used his phone to try and find where Marcus was.

...

Paul

Paul started to become worried about his brother and knew he had to find him. He swung around the city and was able to use his phone to try and track him down. Luckily, he did find him. He landed down on a roof and his phone said that his brother was somewhere in the area.

"He should be around here somewhere, but where is he?" Paul questioned as he didn't quite see his brother. That was until he looked down and was shocked at what he saw. Marcus was down there with a few others and saw they had beer in his hands. It looked like Marcus was also smoking. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but it's not very smart." As Marcus' older brother, he had to step in and do something. He jumped off and got changed.

"Oh man. This is really good stuff." Marcus said as he was pretty relaxed and seemed to enjoy being around his little group.

"Mark!" Marcus looked and was surprised to see his brother was there. He was busted now. "Going to see Mom, were you? Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Uh... Can we talk about this later? I'm with my friends here." Marcus said.

"Not anymore." Paul said as he grabbed a hold of Marcus and dragged him out of there with his friends watching.

"Sorry about this, guys." Marcus said. "He's my brother, just let me handle this." That was all he could say to prevent them from causing a scene. When they were far enough away, Paul let them talked as Marcus pulled his arm free. "What the hell?! What was that about?!"

"That's what I want to ask you." Paul said. "It's bad enough that you lied about where you were, but look at what you're doing. Mom would kill you if she saw you like this."

"Don't be such a boy scout." Marcus said with some annoyance. "Besides, I'm an adult. I can make my own choices."

"Maybe, but you're underage drinking, you're not twenty-one yet. Plus, why the hell are you smoking?" Paul said. "This isn't like you, Mark."

"I told you that it's Marcus!" He shouted as he was getting really annoyed. It looks like the drinking and smoking is allowing some truth to come out. "I'm not that same little kid that looked up to that other side of you."

"Maybe, but you're acting just as bratty." Paul said.

"Don't you have a life to go save or something?" Marcus said. "This is why I left New York. It was to getaway from you."

"From me? What does that mean? What is your problem?" Paul said.

"My problem is standing right in front of me." Marcus said. Paul wasn't liking this attitude his brother was giving him, but he didn't have much time to do anything about it. His phone went off again and it was from Lindsay. He didn't want to deal with this now, but it could be an emergency. Just like a doctor, he couldn't ignore it.

"Lindsay, this isn't a good time." Paul said.

"Paul, we got a hot tip. Librium is making another big move." Lindsay said.

"They are? I'll be there soon, just send me the address." Paul said as he knew this was something he couldn't wait.

"Look at that. You gotta go off again." Marcus said with some attitude. "I guess you're too busy to deal with me right now."

"We will talk later, but just go and see Mom. She's worried about you herself." Paul said.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a little boy." Marcus said. He's not happy with his older brother, but he doesn't want their mother to be too worried about him. "I actually like Mom, so I will go see her. Just don't expect me to wait for you." With that, Paul went to deal with Librium while Marcus just went to their mother. What a tangled brotherly web weaved. First Jean is upset with Paul, now his own brother is. Hopefully this one can be salvaged.