It's been a hard week for the city. The virus is still going and there are still dangerous criminals roaming through free. Hurricane and Eagle might have been captured, but Paul reached the point of exhaustion from that battle. After what happened, he and Lindsay were brought back to the shelter so they could try and get some rest. In the meantime, Jean was doing what she could to find a cure for the virus. She was hoping she could at least have a way to counter it's affects and make it easier to handle.
"Quite the atrocity." Jean said as she examined some of it under a microscope. "To think that this was originally meant to be a cure, but it's now the opposite."
"You can say that again." She turned around and saw Jessica behind her and handed her some coffee. "All those poor people who are affected are suffering, and any of us could be next."
"We're just gonna have to keep doing what we can." Jean said. "Thomas told me there's a possible cure out there. We just have to hope we can get it."
"What about you? You're a science genius. You still don't have anything?" Jessica questioned.
"I've been examining it. I found a couple things that could help make it easier, fight some of it off, but they're all short-term solutions. None of it is enough." Jean sadly said. "Our only hope is to get that antidote and reproduce it." Jean's racking her brain around this, but she's not sure what she can do.
"Don't be so hard on yourself." Jessica reassured her. "No one is expecting you to find the answer alone. We're all in this and we'll find a way to pull through." Jean did feel a little better about that. Still, this is where Jean can be the most useful. She's going to do everything she can to help. "By the way, have you seen Paul? I went to check on him for Harris, but he was already gone. Shouldn't he be resting?"
"You haven't dated him, Jessica. This sort of thing doesn't surprise you." Jean said as she expected something like this might happen.
...
Paul
There was really no time for Paul to rest. There was still a lot of work to do. He and Thomas hit the city again and were swinging as fast as they could.
"Are you sure you're ready to go?" Thomas asked as they were swinging. "You haven't fully recovered yet and you should be firing at all cylinders if we're going to win this."
"I'm fine, Venom." Paul said as he was putting his own wellbeing behind. "What I'm feeling is nothing compared to what others are feeling. There's not really much time to rest, especially with what Iguana is doing. If he takes out clean drinking water, we're all in real trouble."
"I know, but I can handle it." Thomas said as he doesn't want to see his friend push himself like this.
"You're not talking me out of this." Paul said as he made up his mind. There wasn't much time to talk about it anyway as the reservoir was coming up. They both swung over and landed down on it. "We're here, but where's Iguana?"
"It doesn't look like he's been here yet." Thomas said as he looked around. "The water still looks fresh, clean, and nothing appears to be out of the ordinary."
"There's always more than meets the eye." Paul said as he wasn't buying it. "Why would Hydra tell him to come here to poison the water, but he hasn't?"
"Because it's not the water I'm here to poison!" Paul looked behind him and saw Iguana came out of hiding. He pounced right on Paul and injected some green stuff right inside Paul's shoulder. That certainly didn't help with how Paul was feeling. Thomas acted quickly and smashed his fist right off Iguana and knocked him off.
"Are you okay?!" Thomas questioned.
"I'm not sure..." Paul said as he was feeling a little weak.
"What did you do to him?!" Thomas questioned Iguana.
"I got a little for you as well." Iguana said as he took out another injector with that same green substance. "My assignment was never to poison the reservoir. We villains need water too. Attacking the reservoir was just a decoy to get you to come here. The poison is really meant for you!" Iguana tried attacking Thomas, but Thomas ducked down and gave Iguana a fierce uppercut. Once Iguana was knocked into the air, Thomas shot a web line and yanked the poison out of Iguana's claws. He threw it away and had it shatter on the ground.
"My name is Venom, you know. You really thought poison would work on me?" Thomas taunted.
"It certainly worked on one of you." Iguana claimed before he made his escape. Thomas looked back at Paul and he wasn't doing so well.
"Spider-Man!" Thomas called as he rushed to him. "What did he do to you? Are you feeling okay?"
"I... I don't know..." Paul said before he passed out. This wasn't looking good at all.
"Hang in there." Thomas said as he hoisted Paul over his shoulder and hurried to get him some help.
...
Paul
While Paul was unconscious, something was happening in his own mind. Whatever Iguana injected in him was taking its toll on him. Paul was awake in his mind, but he wasn't sure where he was anymore. He wasn't in his suit anymore, but he was still on the reservoir.
"What the hell just happened? How did I get out of my costume?" Paul questioned. He got up and tried to look around, but there wasn't anything around. In fact, the city was completely silent. With everything that was going on, the city wouldn't be quiet.
"Enjoy your nap?" Paul turned around and saw he was faced with Iguana.
"Iguana!" Paul shouted as he was ready to fight. "What's going on? Why is the city quiet? Where's Venom?"
"Not here, as you can see, Spider-Man." Iguana said. Paul panicked when he heard Iguana knew who he was. That was until he realized what happened to him. Iguana injected him with something, and he also noticed that his body wasn't hurt or tired.
"This... This isn't real... This is only in my mind. You're only in my mind." Paul said. "Whatever you injected in me is messing with my head!"
"True, but does this feel real enough to you?!" Iguana said as he came at Paul and smashed his tail right against Paul and sent him flying through the air. Paul was sent flying through the city until he ended up somewhere else. He crashed through a roof and landed right on a couch. He looked around and saw he was back at his old house, the house that he was raised in.
"My old home...?" Paul questioned.
"That's right." Paul looked and saw his mother was there. "This was the house we all lived in. It was all four of us, but that soon turned into just the three of us thanks to you."
"What?" Paul questioned as he stood up.
"Your father would still be here with us if you had acted." Trisha said. "You had the power, but you wouldn't do anything because you were selfish and stupid. If you had done something, your father would still be here." Paul tormented himself with that thought for years. He looked behind her and saw his father's corpse. "Someone came and killed your father. It took us a while time for us to even feel safe in this house, especially since there was so much going on that we couldn't find a new place to live."
"No... You never blamed me for that!" Paul said.
"But it was your fault." Paul turned around and saw Marcus was there. "You think you've done good, but you don't see the negative feelings you inflict. You think it's easy for me to be your brother? It isn't. That's why I had to leave home."
"Mark, it wasn't like that." Paul said. "No, Paul. Don't listen to any of this. This is all in your mind." He told himself to try and ignore what was happening.
"But because it is, there is no escape." Trisha said. "You try to help people, but you can't ignore the harm you've done. You saved lives, but you don't care about those you affected."
"That's not true!" Paul said as he tried to ignore all of it.
"Our family isn't the same because of you. Dad would still be alive if it weren't for you." Marcus said. All of this was hitting Paul where it hurt. Soon, the floor underneath him broke apart and fell into the darkness. Paul fell until he found himself undressed and in bed in some room. He didn't quite get what was going on with this.
"You okay, honey?" Paul looked to his left and saw Monica in bed and under the sheets with him.
"Monica? What is this?" Paul questioned.
"What do you mean? It's just you and me." Monica said as she cuddled up to him. "Isn't this what you always wanted? Isn't that why you ditched all those other women?"
"What? No." Paul denied.
"Good. Then, you can be with me." Paul felt some arms come around him. He turned around and saw Sabella in bed with him as well. "It wasn't fair or right that you broke it off with me like that, but maybe we can be together again. That's assuming you ever did love me."
"I... I did. I didn't want to lie to you." Paul said.
"You mean it just didn't feel real anymore. Is that why you broke all those hearts as well?" Sabella said. "Is that why you constantly go back to Monica?"
"But what if I hadn't remembered? What would you have done?" Monica said as she pulled against his arm, hard. "That was a risky move you did. You would have turned our lives completely around, maybe for the worst."
"That's not what I was doing." Paul defended.
"Could have fooled us." Sabella said as she pulled on his arm just as hard. "I waited for you. I changed my life for you, but you didn't seem to care in the end."
"Don't forget us." A pair of hands came on Paul's shoulders and pushed him down on the bed. He looked up and saw Jean and Lindsay over him with them barely wearing anything. Having four women like this looking erotic might be what most men dream of, but this was a nightmare.
"What about us, Paul?" Jean said. "We all fell in love with you, but we weren't enough for you. We waited for years to be with you, but you just pushed us aside."
"And when we finally had our chance, you ended up breaking our hearts." Lindsay said. "All we wanted was to love you, and have you love us. You broke all of that."
"I didn't mean for any of that to happen." Paul claimed.
"But it did." Jean said as each of them rubbed their hands against his bare body, but their hands felt like ice. Paul tried to move, but he couldn't. "We loved you, Paul, but you broke our hearts. Monica here was the only woman for you, wasn't she?"
"But what if I didn't remember? What if I didn't really want you back? Even I waited and I got my heart broken because you weren't there at the time." Monica said. "Not to mention I constantly waited with worry if you would ever return. You put all of us through that."
"Maybe this is who you really are. Maybe you just like to break hearts. I thought you were a better man than that." Lindsay said.
"We all loved you. You certainly have a way with women, but it wasn't enough." Sabella said. "You never meant to hurt any of us, but you did. You either didn't love us enough or you couldn't give us the love we really deserved. What a tangled web you weaved." That was when the room and the bed just disappeared and he found themselves in a web. The women just kept laughing at his misery while Paul was freaked with a giant spider lowering itself down to him.
"No..." Paul tried to ignore it, but it wasn't much good. The look in its eyes said that it wanted to feast on him like prey. It raised its two arms and slashed down on Paul, but it really just cut him free and he fell deeper into the dark. This poison was making him face the guilt he's felt in the past such as failing his family and failing love. What else could there be? Soon, Paul was falling straight to the city and crashed into the ground, but was unharmed. He got back up and saw he was in his clothes again. "At least I'm dressed." He looked around and saw the city was in ruin now. That was right when the whole city and land began to break apart. Everything scattered apart and he was trapped on a small island in a strange orange space.
"You failed your family. You failed people you love." Iguana said as he returned. "Do you know who else you failed?" That was when two people emerged from a light: Matthew Porter and Peter Parker.
"No... Stop..." Paul said as their opinions would matter the most to him.
"Paul... I'm deeply disappointed. The city is in chaos and ruin because you couldn't protect it." Peter claimed. "I gave up my life for yours. I entrusted you to protect the city, but you let criminals roam free, and let a lethal virus out."
"How could you let this happen, Paul? You're not at all what I thought you would be." Matthew claimed.
"No! You believed I could be the person you saw me as! You knew who I was before I did!" Paul claimed. "Peter, you helped me become that man!"
"But if you were that man sooner, I would still be alive." Matthew claimed. "You were a selfish boy who really only looked out for himself. I never understood why that was."
"It was because I believed I lived in New York and had to be tough. I didn't understand why I should." Paul claimed. "I was just stupid and didn't worry about something that wasn't my problem! In truth, I just took everything for granted and didn't care!"
"And now look at what has happened." Peter said. "The worst part is that we are to blame for what you've done. We believed we could shape you into what we saw, but perhaps we were wrong. This is our fault." All these were words Paul never wanted to hear, but he always feared that.
"You heard them." Iguana said as he slithered over and got behind Paul to taunt him. "You failed everyone." Paul tried attacking him as he tried hitting him, but Iguana disappeared in a puff of smoke. More and more of the land was breaking apart, all from the weights and burdens that Paul carries on his conscious. The ground broke apart to nothing and he fell with him disappearing.
"Paul! Wake up!"
...
"Paul! Can you hear me?! Wake up!" Paul was finally pulling himself together. He opened his eyes and saw Jean hanging over him, but she looked concerned and dressed normally.
"Jean? Is that really you?" Paul asked as he felt a little groggy.
"Yeah. Take it easy because your body is still recovering." Jean said. Paul sat up and had a look around to see he was in some sort of lab. He also got a good feel of his own body and felt tired and a little in pain. He was certainly back in reality.
"Where am I?" Paul asked.
"The lab I use to work at. Thomas called me and told me what happened, asking me for help." Jean said. "He thought I could counter the poison."
"Yeah... I remember the reservoir was a trap." Paul said.
"Iguana injected you with quite a neurotoxin. It would have torn your brain apart until it just stopped functioning. Luckily, I was able to counter it's effects." Jean said. "Paul, this time you really do need rest. Your body needs time to recover."
"But the city needs me." Paul said.
"The others can handle it, at least until we find those other four dangerous criminals." Jean said. "Just trust that we can handle things without you for a while." Paul wants to, but it's not easy. Jean could see that something was troubling him. "What happened? Were you dreaming something bad?"
"That neurotoxin made me dream of the guilt I had." Paul said. "I keep blaming myself for my father's death, feeling like I failed him, failed my family, and not to mention I hurt you and other women that I never wanted to." Paul kept beating himself up over things he keeps blaming himself for.
"Paul, this has to stop!" Jean said as she placed her hand on him. "You can't keep blaming yourself for things you just couldn't control."
"It's just... Ever since my father died, I don't want others to suffer from my choices." Paul said.
"And we haven't." Jean said. "Yes, there's been some heartbreak, hard times, and much more. That's really just a part of life. You told me that having people you care about in your life gives you a reason to fight harder. Channel what you feeling to fight even harder. We all love you, Paul. We're all proud of what you've done. You're a good man, that's why you feel guilty over things you haven't done. Just keep doing what you've always been doing because no matter how bad you feel, nothing changes between you or the people you love. I'm also sure your father and the original Spider-Man would be so proud of you." Those images he saw were more of Paul's insecurities and such, but talks like that can make a person feel better. Paul doesn't want to let anyone down, but at least he does own up to his mistakes and try to fix them.
"Thanks, Jean." Paul said. "I guess I should... Whoa!" He moved the sheet he was under and tried to leave, but he saw he had nothing on and kept himself covered around Jean. "Uh... Where are my clothes?"
"I had to sanitize them incase there was any trace of the poison left on them." Jean said as she showed his costume was hanging to the side.
"You mean you...stripped me?!" Paul said as he couldn't believe she did that.
"We dated, it's not like I haven't seen anything before." Jean said as she acted like it was no big deal. What's happening in the city can make people feel strong negative feelings. What Paul just faced was an exampled of that. However, helping people up when their down can get them going. At times like this, Paul has to keep going. He's suffered many challenges, made many hard choices, and more are to come. All he can really do is keep holding strong until he has the luxury to let it all out.