As Clark was narrowing gap between himself and Spiderman he began to feel a pain in his chest. With every step he took the pain became more intense. He didn't want to appear weak or in pain in front of his opponent, but as the pain increased he couldn't help but double over. Clark looked up and could see the surprise in Spiderman's face, he didn't know what was going on. To be completely honest, Clark didn't know what was happening either. He decided he wasn't going to stick around to see what would happen. He made as quick of an exit as he could in his condition

He made it to a nearby alleyway, he breath now coming in ragged successions. The pain had reached an almost unbearable point and he pulled his open to tell if he could see what was causing him such anguish. It was then that he noticed the scar had turned a blood red color and was glowing very brightly. Something seemed to be telling him the ring was the source of his pain. He struggled to remove it from his finger; it grudgingly gave way, and he was able to pull it off his finger.

As soon as he removed the ring the scar quit glowing, and the pain seemed to subside. It took him several minutes before he got his breathing returned to normal. He saw a pay phone at the end of the street and he thought about calling his parents. He didn't know what to say if he did call them. Guilt gnawed away at him. He slipped the narcotic ring back on his finger, stopping the tide of emotions before they became an immense tidal wave. He immediately began to feel its effects as he headed back to his apartment with his false sense of confidence.

Spiderman was just as confused about what had just happened. He had been almost completely at his opponent's mercy when he doubled over in what seemed to be intense pain. The weirdest part was that he couldn't figure out what could have caused it. He also didn't know why his webbing didn't work; he thought that he was over with whatever had been recently wrong with him recently. He didn't have much time to think about that at the moment, because he had to changes clothes and quickly get to the theater. He managed to get to the theater only 5 minutes late, but, as soon as he walked in he knew he was going to have a problem. Not him again. The same usher was working at this play that was working at the last one that he was late too.

"Hi, I am here to see the play, Mary Jane Watson invited me to see it."

"I'm sorry sir; after the doors are closed I cannot open them."

"Please, you have got to let me in to see the play; I'm only five minutes late."

"Sorry, sir, I cannot open the doors."

"But -"

The usher did not say anything else, he just placed his finger up to his lips, letting Peter know that he had lost the argument as was going to say anything else.

Peter had to wait outside during the play. He still wanted MJ to know that he had come to the play even if he wasn't going to be able to be in the audience. After what seemed like an eternity, he saw Mary Jane exit the theater, but she did not see him. Her focus was on her finance as he walked up the sidewalk and kissed her. Peter watched dejectedly as they walked off together. He then headed back to his bike and drove back to his apartment.

The next morning Peter decided that he would visit Aunt Mae and see if she was getting settled in to her new apartment. He drove up to the neatly painted apartment complex. He knocked on the door as he opened it to let her know he was coming in. "Aunt Mae, it's me."

"Oh, hi, Peter. How are you?" she replied lovingly.

"I'm fine, Aunt Mae."

"Well, come and sit down; tell me how you date went with Mary Jane. I'll get us something to drink." She came back with two cups of tea. "Now, go on. I want to hear all about your date."

"It wasn't a date; in fact it wasn't anything at all," he replied sullenly as he drooped his head.

"Oh, Pete, what happened?" she said with concern in her voice.

"Well, I left my apartment with plenty of time to spare, because I didn't want to be late like the last time." He paused as he looked up and saw that she was willing him to continue with her eyes. "There was a bad wreck, and I got stuck in traffic. I was five minutes late by the time I got there. There's this usher at the theater; somebody really should report him. He wouldn't let me in, because he said once the doors were closed they couldn't be opened. That guy really takes his job a little too seriously." He chuckled mirthlessly.

"Well, did you tell him that Mary Jane personally invited you?"

"Yes." Peter replied, "I told him that, but he said he didn't care. It didn't make any difference."

"I can't believe that somebody would be so rude," Aunt Mae replied incredulously.

"What is the name of that theater? I am going to call and report a complaint against him," she said determinedly.

"No, Aunt Mae, that's not necessary. You do not need to do that," Peter said calmly.

"Okay, if you're sure." She still had a mischievous glint in her eye like she might still call. "Well," she said as she raised her hand and made a brushing motion as if to brush away the beginning of the conversation, "I am sure that you will have another opportunity to take Miss Mary Jane out."

"Aunt Mae, Mary Jane is engaged," Peter said slightly exasperated.

"Pish, posh. There's still a chance until she is officially married," she said with that same mischievous glint in her eye. After that the just sat and talked a while about the new neighbors that Aunt Mae had a different little things. A little while later Peter felt feeling better about himself. Aunt Mae was usually pretty good about making him feel better about himself despite whatever problems she was having.

Later that night

Peter decided to do some webslinging to see what was going in the city. As he swung between the buildings he saw someone breaking into a row of ATM machines. He swung over and perched on top of the small brick wall that surrounded the area. As soon as he landed his Spidersense started tingling ever so slightly, trying to let him know there was more to the person in front of him than met the eye. He ignored the feeling, seeing it was the same person from the other night. He's just a kid; what could he possibly do.

"So, what is your deal with ATM machines? Did it eat your card and you want to get revenge for it?" Spiderman quipped as he shot out webbing and started pulling the bag of money towards him.

"You know, we never did finish what we started the other night," Clark said sinisterly as he turned to face Spiderman.

"No, we didn't," Spiderman said as he shot web to try and tie Clark up with.

Clark saw the web coming and used his speed to gracefully sidestep it. The web went past him and attached itself to the ATM.

"What, that's all you got. Pathetic." Clark mocked him as he simultaneously pulled the web, causing Spiderman to fall off his perch.

"Why don't we take this somewhere more private so we can really finish this? See that construction site over there? Well, catch me if you can," Clark said as he blurred out of the area.

Spiderman sat there for a moment stunned. Okay, how did he just do that? Spiderman swung across the street to the construction site with a bad feeling about what was about to happen.