Peter made his way back into town where he met up in a coffee shop where he arranged to meet his old buddies. He opened the doors of the shop and was hit with a wave of nostalgia, remembering the old days when he was in high school and used to meet up with them here. He sighed as he started to enter the shop, closing the door behind him.
Walking up to the counter and saw the person behind the counter. "What can I get you?"
"Just a coffee. Three creams." Peter asked of her.
"I'll get right on it." They said and walked off to make it.
Peter then stood and waited for either his coffee or his friends to show up. That's when the doors open and a tall black man wearing a wrestler-type civilian outfit enters. He has no hair but has a small goatee and brown eyes.
Peter didn't even need to turn as he smiled and even knew exactly who was approaching him. "Luke."
"Peter Parker." Luke Cage said with a smile as he walked over and hugged his friend. "Ooh, it's so good to see you again!" He even gave Peter a pat on the back. "How have you been?"
"Oh, you know, the wife is good, and the twins are going through a second puberty right now..." Peter recapped his life.
"Sounds like the girls have powers?" Luke asks as Peter gets his coffee. "Both of them?"
"We're not entirely sure which," Peter confessed as he took his drink and the two walked to take a seat in their usual booth. "But it's not entirely the reason I called."
"Then why did you?" Luke wonders as he sat, crossing his leg and trying to sit with his muscular body in the small booth.
"The twins are in danger," Peter explains. "The New Goblin knows a lot about Spider-Man, and I'm worried he'll go after my family."
"Oh, I see." Luke was starting to see what Peter was asking. "You want me and Danny to give them some self-defense?"
"Yeah, I want them safe," Peter said as he rubbed his palms.
"This guy really got you spooked, huh?" Luke could tell that Peter was afraid of this guy.
Peter looked out the window and eyed the city. Everyone with their everyday problems, not needing to deal with the stress of everything that he has to deal with. "I want to keep my family safe, Luke."
Luke nodded as he understood how much Peter has lost over the years and why he is so worried for his family. "Yeah, I get it, man."
The two sat in silence for a moment until the news started to play on the tv in the corner. "We interrupt to bring you a warning. Keep away from the downtown area, as the criminal known as the Shocker has been spotted robbing banks..."
Peter immediately turned to face the TV after hearing that his old buddy is back. "Looks like Spider-Man isn't the only one making a comeback."
"Go. I got the tab." Luke promised him.
"Thanks," Peter said as he got up and walked out the door, racing down the alley to then reveal his suit underneath.
At the bank, a few police cars were currently outside the building and were aiming their weapons at the entrance when Spider-Man came swinging inside. The cops didn't even know what to do as most of them were either rookies and not used to Spider-Man or older cops and are happy to see their helping hand come back. Herman Schultz strolled outside of the vault with two bags underneath his gauntlets filled to the brink with money.
Shocker wears a full-body battle suit that is equipped with Vibro-shock units of his own design to create high-pressure air blasts.
Peter then came down on his web and was more than happy to see his oldest enemy was still around. "Herman!" He then used his feet to hold onto the webbing and held his hands up(side down) to shoot two more webs to the vault. "I am so happy to see you!"
"You again?!" Herman was shocked to see he actually was back before Peter came in and kicked Shocker back into the vault. "I thought you were gone for good!"
"Someone hasn't been watching the news," Peter said as he webbed the vault door and closed it. "Well, we're gonna be stuck here for a moment, how about we catch up? What have you been up to?"
Shocker then went to punch Peter, but he quickly dodged it and leaped onto his back. Herman then shot the ground, sending him and Peter flying into the ceiling, and ended up leaving an indent in the roof of the safe. As he fell back down, Herman managed to punch the hero into the safe door and sent it flying off its hinges.
Peter shot two webs to use himself as a pendulum and pulled himself to the walls safely. "Whoa, are your gauntlets all digital now? Someone's changed with the times!"
"Oh, how I did not miss these annoying moments," Herman stated as he aimed his gauntlets at the hero. "It'll be a short-lived reunion!"
"Oh, come on, Herman," Peter commented as he leaped off the wall to dodge the attack. "You didn't miss me even a little bit? It's been twenty years!"
"No!" Herman stated as he tried to predict where he was going to be. "It was quiet without you around!"
"Really? Between the screaming civilians, and police sirens, I'm surprised it's that quiet!" Peter said as he just leaped and swung around the room. But Shocker then sent a blast at the wall and used his gauntlets to escape the bank. "Herman! I was talking to you! Come on, twenty years to catch up on and you rush off?"
Herman then started to use his gauntlets to shoot off the ground and to try and get away from the hero. First landed and crushed the police cars outside before shooting himself off again just as Spider-Man swung out of the same hole he just made.
"Herman! It's rude to leave when people are talking to you!" Peter proclaimed as he tried to keep up with his oldest enemy. "Come on, who are you stealing the money for, Herman!?"
"Will you stop calling my name!" Herman demanded him.
"Oh, come on, Herman, I haven't seen you in so long! Let me relish in this!" Peter said as he then shot two webs at his feet and yanked him into the ground.
Once Shocker hit the ground, he then got webbed in a net by Peter. He landed down next to him and poked his helmet.
"Great. Now can we talk?" Peter asks him.
"I'm. Not. Talking!" Herman proclaims as he used his gauntlets to shatter the webbing and punched Peter.
Peter was sent flying backward and slammed into a bus stop.
"Noted." Peter groaned out as he watched Shocker shoot off into the air. "Come on, Herman! Tell me who you're robbing for."
"If I talk, I'm a dead man," Herman stated as he crashed into a car. "He made that perfectly clear!"
"Wait, he?" Peter suddenly started to take guess who he was referring to. "Is this about the New Goblin?"
Herman groaned as he saw he said too much. "I've said too much already!"
Peter then recognized Herman's patterns to then leap into the air, kick him mid-flight, tackling him to the ground. Then he shot his webs at his gauntlets so that they were facing his face. Even if he were to use his gauntlets, all he would do is blast his own face.
"Herman, it's been so long, and I figured you'd have eventually grown a personality. But I guess it was too much to ask." Peter quipped as he crawled over to him. "Now...where wet you going with the money?"
Herman still wasn't talking when Peter remembered how his suit functioned. Quickly using his new suit to connect to his suit, he started to get into Shocker's account and the black market. It's either sad Herman hasn't upgraded his gear, or his current suit was now capable of hacking into his new gear.
"Okay. Let's see..." Peter started to go through the messages and came across a particular one. "Wait..."
'Bank security will be vulnerable. Follow the attachments, and we will split the take. Don't even dare cross me. - HG'
"HG?" Peter asked as he looked down at Herman. "Where were you meant to take this?"
Herman grunted as he tried to escape but was met with Peter's foot as he stood on his chest. "Ah!"
"Where?!" Peter demanded, feeling this was meant for the Goblin.
"The old Osborn mansion!" Herman finally confessed, shocked at Peter's aggression. "He told me to meet him there!"
Peter then let go of Herman and looked to where the Osborn mansion used to be. It was just a way out of town, being burned down and abandoned for years.
"Stick around, Herman," Peter tells him and quickly started to swing his way through the city and over to the mansion.
If this was where the New Goblin was taking up shop, there's no telling how many of Norman's dark secrets he already uncovered. And one of those dark secrets could easily lead him to discover the identity of Spider-Man.
Kraven the Hunter just arrived at the bank where Herman and Peter busted through the side and quickly started to feel the wall for traces of Spider-Man. He quickly found the scent of the hero and discovered something.
"Hm...you do not hunt like before, Spider-Man." Herman monologues to himself as he started to pick up multiple scents. "You hunt like a venery." He then smelled the air and picked up on the differences between the scents. "You have kin."
Lois was just returning home when she saw Teresa was working on the Quinjet she arrived in. Strolling up to her inside, she saw that Teresa was looking into the news for any sight of the New Green Goblin.
"How's it going?" Lois wonders.
"Slow." Teresa sighed and shut off the screens. "Just getting ready to take a break."
"There are no leads as to who this guy could be?" Lois asks as the two made their way out of the vehicle, cloaking it not to draw attention.
"He doesn't leave any trace of his identity, Norman never told anyone the formula, and we don't know how else to track him," Teresa confirmed when they saw someone walking up to the household. "Can we help you?"
"Hi, I'm looking for Peter Parker." She explains, causing Lois and Teresa to wonder why she was looking for him. "I'm Norah Winters, a reporter for the Daily Bugle. An old friend of Peter's."
"Oh, yeah, he used to talk about you," Teresa remembered her from early in her career. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, word on the street was Pete was back for good, and I was out on assignment so couldn't be here for his Aunt's funeral," Norah explains to them why she was there. "I was gonna pass here on the way to town and thought I'd give my condolences."
"Well, I am sure he'd appreciate it, but Peter's actually not home right now." Lois was sorry to tell him. "But I'd be happy to let him know you stopped by." She then held out her hand for her, this being the first time the two have met. "bright Lois Lane."
"Oh, trust me, I know," Norah said as she shook the reporter's hand. "You were pretty much my idol growing up. Part of the reason I became a reporter."
"Really?" Lois was surprised to hear.
"Yeah, really," Norah confirmed. "I have no idea how someone like Peter could land someone like you."
Lois was curious as to what she meant by that. "W-what does that mean?"
"Oh, don't get me wrong, Pete's an amazing guy, it's just...he doesn't strike me as your type," Norah explains as she slumps her hand back to her side.
Lois didn't know how to respond and looked to Teresa. "Don't look at me, I said the same thing to you."
"Fair enough." Lois sighed. "Peter's just a great guy. He's sweet, caring, and level-headed."
"Which balances out with her lack of level-headedness." Teresa joked.
"Well...if you guys are gonna be living here permanently, looking for some new jobs..." Norah handed Lois a Daily Bugle card. "Our doors are always open. Tell Peter he's welcome back anytime just to say hello. A lot of the folks there miss having him around."
"I'll keep it in mind," Lois promised as she looked over the card and Norah walked off to her car. "Nice girl." Then her phone went off and she looked to see the Planet just posted her story. What she thought was her story. "Oh my god."
"What?" Teresa asks.
"He changed my story," Lois said and showed it to Teresa.
"Drake?" Teresa asks as she looked it over. "This doesn't read like you at all."
"Because it's not. They morphed my story and turned it into a Drake fluff piece." Lois proclaimed in anger, marching off into the house.
"What are you gonna do now?" Teresa wonders.
"Somewhere to think," Lois said as she made her way inside.
Teresa was then left there and wondered what to do when she saw April and Mayday approach her. "Hey, girls."
"Hey, Aunt T, what's up?" April questions her.
"Well, your mom is going to be going through some stuff right now." Teresa sighed as she got an idea. "Hey, how would you girls like to help me savage through your dad's old stuff?"
"Yes!" Mayday loved the idea, loving to see more of dad's old stuff.
"Come on." Teresa led them away from the house to the garage, giving Lois some time to think.
Peter quickly reached the mansion and kicked in the front doors. He sent splinters and debris flying around the room and started to look around the building.
Everything still looked burned down and destroyed, which meant nothing was touched. On the surface. Leaping over the debris of the house, he went over to where he once discovered the secret compartment and ripped it off the floor. Shooting a web to drop down the elevator-like shaft, he reached the secret lab right underneath the mansion and saw someone had cleaned it up.
As Peter was looking around, that final battle between him and Norman flooded his head.
"Misery, misery, misery." Green Goblin mocked as Peter tried to get back up. "That's what you chose. I offered you friendship. And you spat in my face."
As Peter got back up, he was punched by Goblin and sent flying to the ground yet again. But getting an idea, he rolled back to get some distance before shooting out a giant bet to stop Goblin. Getting a moment to get his head together, he goes to punch Goblin, only ending with him kneeing Peter. They have been fighting for so long, Peter was getting too tired to keep fighting on as he was smacked into the wall.
Peter fell to his knees, wheezing and trying to breathe after taking the beating and ripping off his mask. It didn't matter as Goblin already knew who he was, but he never learned who was under the Goblin mask. Yet.
While he was trying to breathe, Goblin grabbed him and slammed Peter's head into the wall. "You've spun your last web, Spider-Man. Have you not been so selfish, your little lady friend would have had a quick and painless death. But now that you've really pissed me off, I'm gonna finish her off nice and slow. Maybe even take those girls of yours, raise them to be better than their father."
But what Goblin missed was the moment that he brought up Lois and his unberthed girls, he felt a spark ignite inside of him. A will that he had never felt before as he raised back up and felt his strength return.
and I, we're gonna have a hell of a time." Goblin proclaimed as he goes in to stab Peter.
But he was shocked when Peter quickly grabs the blade and, with all of his strength, pushes forward with all of his might before kicking Goblin near a wall. Once he gets back on his feet, Peter shoots a web at the wall and topples it over the Goblin.
But he isn't down for the count yet, as Goblin starts getting up, Peter grabs him and sends him flying before beating him to a pulp. Going in hit after hit, doing his best to take down the monster that threatened everyone that he knows and love.
"Hard to forget, isn't it?" A voice broke Peter out of his flashback and made him look up to see cameras with speakers attached. "Can't say I blame you."
"What, too much of a coward to face me yourself?" Peter asks him.
"Heh, no. I'm just not foolish enough." Harry corrected him as Peter started to look around, trying to find anything to learn who he is. "I knew you couldn't resist. All those people Shocker would put into harm's way. You are so predictable."
"You hired Shocker?" Peter was connecting the dots and his senses alerted him something was up. "Why?"
"I just needed to get you into position," Harry explains.
"To do what?" Peter was starting to worry about what his senses were saying.
"This," Harry said, followed by a dozen devices starting to bleep faster and faster. "So long, Spider-Man."
Peter realizes he and just walked into a trap and needed to get out of the literal hole he put himself in. But it seems Harry planned for this as the entrance was the first to blow. Needing to get as far from the explosions as he can, he tried to make his escape through the other end of the labs. But that's when the other end of the lab explodes, causing Peter to look around and wonder how to get out. Shooting two webs at the ceiling, he was trying to get a grip, but most of the ceiling was coming down, stopping him from getting a grip.
Before he could finally get a grasp on anything, the ceiling came caving in and crushed Peter.
Back at the household, Teresa and the girls were going through all of Peter's old boxes to find stuff they can throw out or move around. If they were going to be living here permanently (or for the foreseeable future), then they needed to clear up the garbage.
Mayday was going through a few of the boxes when she came across something that was almost an old treasure trove of Spider-Man stuff. "What's this?"
"What is it?" April wondered what her sister found.
Mayday pulled out an old menu date and looked it over. "Looks like a menu for some restaurant from Metropolis."
"Oh, that's your fathers," Teresa explains to her nieces as she looked at it. "It's the menu from the restaurant your dad took your mom to."
"Dad kept it?" Mayday asks as he looked it over. "This is the place that our friends take their dates to."
"Your dad didn't exactly make the most money back then." Teresa defended her brother. "Or now the more I think of it."
"And this is...?" April reached into the box and pulled out what looked to be some webbing pattern.
"Ah, those old wings the scientists at S.H.I.E.L.D. made for him to be able to glide," Teresa remembered the day the scientists made those. "He ruined them a day later when Doc Ock ripped them."
Mayday then took out a small device that had Spider-Man's face on it. "What's this? Looks like a-"
When she tapped the device, it turned into a spider signal that cast Spider-Man's head on the ceiling. Teresa rolled her eyes when she realized what that was.
"The Spider Signal." Teresa rubbed her head and groaned at the reminder. "Peter wanted a device to help him scout out tunnels or dark areas that he could attach to his belt. Didn't work out well as it always gave off his location. Got his back broken once because of that."
"Is this a card?" April asks as she kept going, taking out a small bruised-up business card. "Nelson & Murdock. Attorneys at law."
"Oh, that's a friend of your father's. They met a while before he left the city for Metropolis." Teresa explains as she remembered the card. "Now they go by Nelson, Murdock, and Page." She then sighed as she sat back on a chair. "I dated him for a minute."
"Who?" April wonders.
"Murdock," Teresa admitted to the two of them. "It was mostly for S.H.I.E.L.D., but after a while... but it didn't last."
"How come?" Mayday was curious to know.
"That Murdock's got too much of the devil in him." Teresa decided to go with as an excuse.
"What's this drawing?" Mayday asks as she looked at the "thank you" drawing with Spider-Man and a balloon kid.
Teresa chuckled when she sees it. "Some kid drew it for Spider-Man when Peter got his balloon back."
Mayday couldn't help but see all of these relics her father kept over the years. She looked down at her hands and was wondering what it would be like to have powers.
"What would it be like?" Mayday wonders.
"What would what be like?" Teresa asks her.
"Being a hero, having powers, doing things like dad did?" Mayday was curious about what it would be like if she had powers.
Teresa didn't know how to really explain it as she's more of a field agent, not a superhero. "I'm not the best to ask, you'd wanna talk to your father about it. But...it's tough." She wasn't going to lie to either of them. "Challenging. It's not as easy as your dad or others make it out to be. You need to be quick. Understand that every time you go out there, it might be the last time you go anywhere." Then she decides to go with the upside. "But it's also rewarding. Every time someone goes home after someone tried to hurt them, you remember that you helped them get home. You stopped a criminal or helped show them the way around. You got them there safely."
Mayday then started to look down at all the collective items and found her dad even kept a few altered suits her dad kept around. "Hmm..."
April then found something else and sees it was an old locket. "This some old locket dad gave mom?"
Then she opened it and saw two pictures of people she never met before. But she recognized them from a few photos she has seen around her home.
"Is this...?" April turned the locket over to Teresa.
Teresa immediately recognized who it was and grew a sad smile. "That's your grandmother and grandfather. Mine and Pete's parents."
April looked at it and decided to keep it safe by putting it on, feeling her dad might want it back. Mayday also decided to take a bit of a relic herself and packed one of the suits in her bag when they weren't looking.
As the wreckage of the mansion began to collapse, Harry watched from the RV that he had set up beforehand. He watched as the entire mansion crushed and fell onto Spider-Man. That was enough weight to crush a Hulk that he dropped on top of him. There was no way he was getting out of there anytime soon. He got into the RV and drove off so that he could start his search for the next phase.
"Was it successful, sir?" His AI asked him.
"Phase 1 is," Harry confirmed with a sigh. "Spider-Man is either dead or dying. We still need to find the Symbiote's location. As soon as it is destroyed, this world will be safe."
"In the bright news, I have located her." His AI brought in some good news.
Harry found that interesting and stopped to face the small device. "Where?"
Back in the mansion, a while later, Peter woke up to see he was indeed crushed underneath the rubble and started trying to get back out. Panting heavily, he started to try and lift the building, but his arms weren't able to get a grip on anything. He groaned and tried his best to get the weight off of his chest to escape the wreckage. Peter tried and tried again, but all he could do was shuffle the rubble on top of him.
Wait...shuffle?
The rubble above him started to move, giving Peter some more chances to move around. In doing so, he was able to shuffle and knew someone was coming around.
"I've got something!" The voice of Reed Richards filled the rubble. "Over here!"
Peter waited a bit longer until the rubble became easier to move and started to lift the rubble off of himself. As he was doing so, he was getting help from the people above, giving him the space to rise and push the remaining rubble out of the way.
When he saw the light, he saw four figures standing and he knew he'd been saved by the Fantastic Four. But then he started to look around and noticed that it was dark out, meaning he had been down there for some time.
"What...the hell...kept you?" Peter asked the four of them.
"We gotta get him back to the tower," Susan said when she saw the bruises.
Back at the house, Teresa and the girls were just starting to finish up and make their way toward the house. The girls had a lot to think of when they realized their father had more to deal with than just a mask. The two never gave the life of a hero much thought in the past, but when they saw all the relics of Peter's past, they had a lot to consider. Lois already left the house when she got the call from the Fantastic Four
"I don't think your mom is in the mood to cook, and I am definitely not doing it. What do you guys say we order something in?" Teresa asks the two of them.
"Sure." April shrugged.
"I..." Mayday was going to agree when she suddenly felt light-headed. "Whoa..." Then it was like her head was altering her of something coming.
April suddenly got a similar yet different experience. When she got the lightheadedness, her entire body froze, and it was like looking at ghost forms of her family. What she saw was Teresa standing a few feet ahead, and being stabbed by some spear.
"Look out!" The twins called to their aunt and pulled her backward.
Teresa was confused as to what was happening when the twins grabbed and yanked her back when a spear came down. The spear embedded into the ground and just about missed the three of them. Teresa looked over at the twins and back to the spear.
"Who...what?" Teresa wasn't sure which she wanted to question first. The girls or the spear.
But it seemed the answer came in the form of Kraven the Hunter when he came over. "Ah, the Spider's kin."
Teresa growled as she reached for her gun. "Kraven."
"Who?" Mayday asks.
"Just run," Teresa warned the girls and drew her gun, and aimed at Kraven. "What are you here for?"
"My greatest hunt to finally come to an end," Kraven stated as he took his spear back. "The Spider. I followed his scent here. And I know his kin is here."
"Does he talk like this all the time?" April asks her aunt.
"Sadly," Teresa confessed and opened fire.
Kraven then used the spear and blocked off the bullets with complete speed and agility. He blocked all her bullets and was making his way over whilst she tried to get a good shot. But she couldn't get it as Kraven then smacked her against her head.
Teresa was knocked out, and Kraven thought that he had full range to go after the girls. He started to make his way over to the house and expected to find two defenseless girls without their father.
But he was wrong.
When he reached the doors, it was kicked off and Mayday stood on the other end, using the Spider-Man suit's web shooters to shoot out the older version of Peter's web fluid. It was much stronger than his current version, as it was too hard to use for travel but perfect for capture. With him webbed up, April somehow caught him on the way over and tossed him into the wall.
When he was starting to rip his way free, that's when Teresa shot him in the head with an ICER, knocking him out cold. Teresa then looked at her nieces, realizing that there was something more than just one of them with powers.
Both of them have powers. Different powers, but they were definitely Spider Powers. Needing to contact S.H.I.E.L.D., she knew Kraven needed to be captured.
"This is Agent Durand..." Teresa reported in, that being the name she goes by in S.H.I.E.L.D. "We need a pickup."
At the Baxter Building, Peter was getting looked over by Reed and Sue considering the building. But by the time they got back, his healing was already healing from the bruises, and his bones were already coming together. Lois was by his side, holding his hand to help him when she saw how injured he was from the fall.
"I wouldn't worry about your bruises, those will heal up on their own," Reed said as he looked at his scans. "I say an hour and you can go home."
"Great." Peter sighed.
"What happened out there?" Lois asks her husband.
"I thought it was a simple task. Take down Shocker. But then it turned into a hunt for the Goblin." Peter explains why and how he ended up down there. "He thinks that I'm dead."
"So, what's this New Goblin gonna do now?" Ben asks. "If he thinks you're dead..."
"No, there was something else." Peter was sorry to say. "When I was in those labs, he left a few things open. I saw a few things related to Carlton Drake. And the Symbiote."
"Venom?" Lois asks.
"Yeah," Peter confirmed. "He's...looking into him. Sightings. He even seemed to know it was Eddie. Wondering where he was."
"But...you destroyed the Symbiote. Right?" Johnny asked his friend.
"I made sure to burn every part of it," Peter confirmed with a sigh. "But...it's possible a fragment might be out there."
"What about Eddie?" Lois questions.
"Nobody's seen Brock in a while, some people thought that he just left town." Reed shrugged. "Since he hadn't been Venom in over a year, we just lost interest."
"Search for him," Peter asked of his friends. "I don't have the resources or the time really anymore. Still gotta find a job if we're staying here."
Susan then grew a smile as she looked over to Reed. "Well... actually..."
"We were thinking about those problems since you left yesterday," Reed admitted to his friend. "If you are interested... you're welcome to work here. At the Baxter Building."
"I...kinda got that," Peter assured his friend. "But...really?"
"You're one of the smartest guys in the world." Reed shrugged and placed the pad down.
"And that's coming from him." Ben had to admit that was some high praise.
"And...you created Charles' hover chair. The antidote to the first Goblin. And you need a source of income for your family, not to mention somewhere to keep your stuff." Reed listed off the reasons why he decided to help Peter. "And you're our friend. We want to help you."
"It's the least we can do after everything you've done for us," Susan said with a smile. "What do you say?"
Peter looked at Lois and saw the smile. "Sure. I would love to work with you guys again."
"Sweet!" Johnny said as he jumped to his feet. "This is gonna be so much fun."
Peter was gonna respond when his head suddenly buzzed. It was like his spider senses, but he has never felt anything like this before.
Maybe once.
"Something's happened," Peter said in worry.
"What?" Lois asks. "Where?
"The house," Peter said just as their phones rang.
They looked and saw it was a message from Teresa:
'Might wanna get here.'
'Now.'
