Venom's claws grew. "Far too late…" he said.
Peter leapt above the muscled beast, but he just grabbed him by the leg. "NO RUNNING FROM US, PARKER!" Venom slammed Parker into the floor, and into the wall. He tried to get back up only to get curb stomped.
"Look, I'm sorry…" the broken Spider-Man mumbled. Venom yanked him back up. "It's too LATE to be sorry! You ruined our career! And our life!" he protested.
"But before you die…" he began again as the black ooze peeled from his face "I want you to see the face of the man you ruined before you die."
Peter's eyes moved towards the man's face and they went wide. "E-Eddie?" he asked in a hollow voice.
"That's right." Eddie added with a smirk "The man whose career you took away. By taking me away from those great reporting opportunities…you ruined my career and got me fired."
Peter shook his head. "I…didn't mean to, Eddie. I was making sure you didn't get hurt." Eddie threw him back to the ground and the ooze surrounded his face again "TOO LATE FOR THAT, PARKER!"
Spidey shot a web at the wall and zipped over to it. He began crawling. Venom promptly shot a web to the wall and followed the crawling web slinger. "YOU CAN'T RUN! YOU CAN'T HIDE! WE KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU!"
"I know something too, Eddie!" Spidey claimed. He leapt down from the ceiling and down to the DJ station of the club.
"You hate loud noises, that I do know." He said as he turned on the music and raised the volume.
Venom screamed and hissed. He fell onto the floor and held his head. Peter flipped back onto the dance floor and lifted Eddie, who was still shaking and hissing. "Where is she?! Where's Gwen?!" he asked as he punched Eddie in the face.
"Check the closets…she's in there somewhere…JUST TURN OFF THIS HORRIBLE NOISE!" Venom screeched.
Peter dropped Eddie. "Thanks for obliging."
He walked over to the DJ station and turned off the music. Venom passed out as soon as it turned off. Peter promptly called the police to take Eddie away as he searched the closets.
Almost all of them had nothing except for one. He saw a note in it that read "Hello! I see you're looking for your galpal. We have taken her away. Please come and find us. We beg of you. –Your Friend, Hobgoblin."
"I'm really starting to hate Goblins" Peter mumbled to himself as he swung out on of the club's windows
As Spidey left, the police went over to Eddie. "Why this is nothing but a man…" one of them said.
"Yeah, how did Spidey have trouble handling this guy exactly?" another added. Eddie got back up and the ooze covered him again. "LIKE THIS!" he hissed.
The two officers tried to shoot the monster, but he just shrugged the bullets off. Venom slapped one with a tentacle, and slammed the other into the floor. He then swung off into the night, ready to attack Parker again…
Back with Spidey, he tried to find Hobgoblin's lair, but it proved useless…at first. He later found the Hobgoblin waiting outside of…Midtown High?
Spidey swung over to him and asked "What did you do with Spider-Woman?" Hobgoblin chortled.
"Wouldn't you like to find out?" he said as he ran into the building. Spidey chased after him and he found himself in a familiar room. It was Doctor Miles Warrens' class! But something was different about it…
Hobgoblin sat at the desk and said "So glad you could make it. Both of you."
Peter cocked his head. "Both of us?" he asked in a daze.
Another Spider-Man walked out of the shadows of the classroom. "Both of us." The man in the spider-suit said. The man had a metal collar wrapped around his neck.
Another person stepped out of the shadows, it was Doctor Miles Warren. "Let's see what this clone can do…"
"Wait did you say clone?" Peter asked. The clone said "Yeah, which you are!" The clone ran at Peter but Peter grappled the clone. "I'm not the clone, you're the clone!"
As the two clones fought, Warren stood next to Hobgoblin. "What are we trying to achieve here, exactly?" Warren asked.
"Simple" Hobgoblin explained "we need to see if a clone can take on Spider-Man. When that's complete, we move on to phase two. We make more of them."
Warren stared at the Hobgoblin with horror. "M-more of them? For what you're doing? I can't possibly condone it!" Hobgoblin smirked.
"Does it look like I'm giving you a choice?" he asked. Hobgoblin then yanked out what appeared to be Goblin serum. "I'll throw this down your throat if you deny me, Miles! Got it?! And maybe Doctor Connors will fulfill your place as the newest scientist!"
Miles once again shook his head. "I won't allow it!"
"Wrong choice!" Hobby said as he poured the vial of Goblin serum down Miles' throat…but something happened. Warren mutated. His skin started growing green fur, fangs grew where teeth once were, and his face along with his ears became bat-like. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MEEEEE?!" Warren screamed.
"What I had to do to insubordinates…" Hobgoblin claimed.
Back with Spidey, he continued to fight his clone. "So if you're me, and I'm you, what does that make us?" Spidey asked.
"It makes us brothers, I suppose. I just know that I'm the real Spider-Man!" the clone proclaimed. Spidey tackled the clone and said "I'm not the clone, you're the clone." He then snapped the metal collar around the clone's neck.
This caused the clone to go into a daze as he grasped his head. "My memories…are breaking!" he yelled.
Peter just looked at the clone, and the Hobgoblin got back up from his desk. "We need to figure out how to implant those memories without using that damn collar. Miles. I need your help with this…Miles?"
Miles was laughing as he looked into a mirror in the class. "Hah…HAHAHAHA…if this be what I be…" he mumbled.
"What did you do to him?!" Spidey asked Hobby.
"Oh please," Hobgoblin said "He's nothing much. Honestly. Just a school teacher who got lucky to land a job with me."
Spidey attempted to calm Miles down "Miles. Doctor Warren, please!" Miles just pushed him off.
"Don't call me that!" the mad doctor detested "Call me…" he looked at a poster of a jackal in his room "The Jackal! I am….the Jackal!" Jackal then jumped up and out the window. Spidey wanted to chase after him, but Hobgoblin was more important.
Spidey turned to Hobby and grabbed him. "Where's Spider-Woman?!" he demanded. The clone got back up as Spidey interrogated the Hobgoblin. He looked around and said "What…what is this…? What am I?"
Hobgoblin shoved Spider-Man off. "She's in the supply closet!" he said as he hopped on his glider. Hobby then grabbed the clone as he took off through the school's window. Peter opened the supply closet, and Gwen was inside. He picked her up, but she wasn't moving. He checked for a pulse, and luckily…she still had one.
"Wake up, Gwen." He whispered to her…
Back with the Hobgoblin, he flew back into Oscorp, the clone still in tow. "Tell me who I am!" the clone demanded.
"You don't get to know who you are!" Hobgoblin replied. As he walked around, he stumbled into a secret corridor with an elevator in it. "What have we here?" Hobby said to himself. He stepped into the elevator, still dragging the clone.
He went do into a secret lair, filled with Goblin Serum, spare gliders, and a rack that looks like a spare Green Goblin costume should've been…but it wasn't there. Most mysterious of all was what appeared to be a holding cell. "A perfect place for you! At least until I find out what to do with you…" Hobby said as he opened the door and threw the clone inside.
The door then slammed shut, but the clone ran to the door. He clawed at it and said "Let me out!"
Another voice was heard in the cell "We are never getting out…"
"Wh-who are you?" the clone asked. A young woman stepped out of the shadows and turned on the lights.
"My name is Cindy." She said. Her clothes were torn, and her hair was somewhat scraggly. "Do you have a name?"
The clone shook his head. "But you look like Spider-Man" she said "Is that who you might be?"
"I don't know…" the clone said. "I'm just a genetic experiment made—" Cindy then said "to kill Spider-Man?"
The clone nodded sadly. "That's what I am too…" she mumbled. "The man who made me like this said he'd let me out…but he hasn't been here since. He might've died…or he just lied. At least I have company now…"
The clone smiled, if only a little "Yeah…on second thought I have a name…it's coming to me…but my name is…Ben. Ben Reilly…"