The last few days had been tough for Peter Parker, but he finally began to recover. He even put back on his regular bright red and blue tights and began his normal patrols.

He swung around the city, business as usual, but then a bullet flew past his head. He narrowly dodged it, but he looked over from where it was shot. On the rooftop, a mask sniper could be seen aiming his sights.

Spidey swung towards the sniper as he dodged every bullet he shot in a desperate gambit to avoid the wall-crawler's wrath.

It didn't work. Spidey leapt from his web over to the roof and grabbed the sniper. He dropped his gun as he looked into the pure white lenses of Spidey's mask.

Spidey pulled the Sniper closer to the lenses and asked "So…who are you?"

"I-I'm a nobody!" the sniper said rather frightened. "Don't kill me!"

Spidey's cocked his head. "Kill you? I never kill…what would give you that idea?"

The sniper winced as he shivered in Spidey's grasp. "Well… and the Daily Bugle. They both show you in a villainous light. I'm just doing my job and trying to stop you."

"Osborn? You can't seriously trust him, guy! He's the Green Goblin!" Spidey proclaimed as he lifted the goon further into the air.

"B-but he isn't!" the sniper protested "He debunked those rumors! The real Goblin was his son! Norman is an honest industrialist and has secured my vote for mayor!"

Spidey dropped the thug on his ass. "Mayor?! He's running…FOR MAYOR?! You can't be serious!"

The goon nodded. "But he is! And if you ask me, he's a shoe-in. A self-made man going up against you superhuman assholes with only his hubris to assist him, he's gonna be out best mayor yet."

Spidey shook his head as he sighed with disappointment. "He's got you all convinced that he's not what he really is…I need to do something about this…and quickly."

Before he could take off, he was tackled by something very large and very angry.

When he looked back up, he saw Venom, but not the one he was familiar with. "Eddie? You're Venom again? You look different…"

Venom grabbed Spidey by the neck and lifted him over the side of the building. "No. But you might recognize me…" Venom's face morphed back and showed the face of Mac Gargan.

"Scorpion?!" Peter asked

Spidey was then promptly slammed into the ground. "DON'T CALL ME THAT! SCORPION WAS A FREAK! Now…I'm not! I'm VENOM!"

"Look…Mac" Spidey began to jokingly explain "You're still a sociopath in a suit as a supervillain. You're still a freak."

Mac growled and slammed Spidey back into the ground. "I AM NOT A FREEEEEAAAK! I AM NORMAL! I WANT TO BE…NORMAL! LET ME HAVE THIS!"

Peter looked back at Mac and said "If you wanna be normal, then how about you ditch the black suit?"

"I CAN'T!" Mac protested "I AM BONDED WITH IT UNTIL I KILL YOU! Then I shall be able to remove it…"

"Now how does that work?" Peter asked.

"You won't have to worry about that after I kill you and mutilate your corpse" Mac said in a sadistic tone as he barred his fangs and hissed.

"Ew, get a breathmint!" Peter snarked as he delivered a kick to Gargan's rather large jaw.

Gargan dropped Spidey and when he looked back up, Spidey was gone. He looked around and suddenly he received a kick to the back of the head.

When he turned around he saw Eddie Brock's Venom standing behind him, holding Spidey. "Better hit the road, jack. This here Spider belongs to US!"

Mac growled at Eddie and slashed at him. Eddie was pushed back, but decided to throw Spidey at Mac like a ragdoll. Mac grabbed Spidey and bragged "You're a weak Venom, Brock! He's MINE!"

Eddie growled right back a Gargan and grabbed Spidey. They both tugged him like a game of tug-of-war.

"HE'S MINE!" Eddie proclaimed. Peter butted in and asked "Don't I get a word in this?"

"NO!" both yelled as they continued tugging at Parker.

Mac then let go of Peter and screamed in agony. Behind him was Black Cat, pulling her grappling hook out of his back.

Peter looked at her and asked "Cat?"

She smiled and replied "Sure is, Spider."

Brock growled at her. "Stay back, lady. We only want to hurt the Spider. Nobody else but him."

"Oh come on" she replied as she looked at her nails "You don't want to hurt my little Spider. Surely not him. What did he ever do?"

Spidey added "Yeah, Eddie! I thought we got over our differences."

"He ruined our one chance at love! Hahaha…our once chance again." He mumbled to himself, still clearly in denial.

Peter looked at Eddie and said "I heard you, Eddie. And no I didn't. What are you talking about?"

Eddie began to wring his hands. "Oh yes you did. Yes you did! Doctor Kafka doesn't like us…because we're not good enough for her! Not good enough. Never good enough! This is because of you, Spider-Man! You're something we can never live up to! It's clear that she doesn't like us because she compares us to yoooooou. How can we compete? We can't, so we must kill you."

Peter looked at Eddie rather sympathetically. "Eddie…I'm sorry, but it isn't my fault!"

Eddie growled and asked "THEN WHOSE IS IT?!"

Black Cat sat there, ignoring the two fighting with words. "Ugh, this is lame." She thought to herself as she looked around.

"It's nobody's fault, Eddie. She's married." Peter explained slowly, hoping to coax the evil Venom back to Anti-Venom.

Eddie sighed, but then he got an idea. "SO YOU'RE SAYING WE KILL THE HUSBAND?"

Peter quickly shook his head. "No, no, no, no. Don't kill anybody. You can find someone, Eddie."

Black Cat butted in and added "Yeah, take a hike. Me n' the spider got some catching up to do."

Peter looked at Cat and laughed nervously. "Uhhh…I hope you realize I'm actually dating someone, Cat."

She gasped and asked "Really? Oh Spider, I'm sure she isn't as good as me."

Eddie then got an idea. "So you like Spider-Man, eh? You know we—wait. This symbiote ain't alive…" Eddie got a sudden realization. Maybe what he was doing was wrong and that he wasn't right in doing it. The symbiote hadn't been telling him what to do…he was using that as an excuse to do what he wanted to do without facing moral repercussions.

He then slipped back into his Anti-Venom form and continued. "So you like Spider-Man? I'm kinda like Spider-Man myself. I crawl on walls. I'm…kind of a good guy."

Cat sighed. "You're real desperate, big fella."

Eddie sadly replied "I know. I mean ever since my wife left me…"

"Depressing too!" Cat added "But I think I'd rather not. I'll see you around, though."

Anti-Venom frowned. "Fine" he grumbled to himself and left.

Peter looked around and then suddenly he was tackled by Cat.

She forced him on the ground and smirked. Peter became nervous and asked "Wh-what are you doing?"

"Just giving you a preview of what you can have if you can break it with your current floozy and hook up with me" she said with confidence.

Peter shook his head and removed her. "Don't think so, Cat. I love my girlfriend. You're nice, but it's a bit too late. Where were you anyway?"

Cat pouted as she was removed. "I was busy getting a job somewhere where I could steal some good info and other things."

Peter looked at her curiously and asked "Where?"

"Try Oscorp" she replied "Got a job as the secretary."

"Think you could give me some info?" Peter asked.

Felicia grinned. "Nope" she replied as she took off.

Peter was about ready to take off too when suddenly he was grabbed at the ankle. He looked down and he saw Mac Gargan taking hold of it.

Peter broke free of Mac's grasp and swung away to the Daily Bugle. Gargan looked at him as he left and growled before slinking back into the shadows…

Meanwhile, deep within an abandoned underground lab was Doctor Octopus, who sat in his lab.

"I must be sure to give Kasady a fruit basket for breaking me out. And the chaos he set the city into gave me just the right amount of time to hide away so nobody could find me…" he thought to himself as he got onto his computer.

He then grabbed a rolled up blueprint and mumbled "The next and greatest plan of Doctor Octopus begins..."

He then unfolded the blueprint and it showed a brain swapping device. Then out from the darkness, stepped Doctor Miles Warren, or "The Jackal" as he calls himself now.

"I am glad you could make it, Doctor Warren!" Ock said excitedly.

"Don't call me that…" Miles protested "I am the Jackal."

"Oh yes! Well then excuse me, Jackal." Octavius said as he looked closer at his blueprints. "Say…you've cloned Spider-Man, haven't you?"

Jackal nodded. "Twice…both of the clones have escape, sadly. But only one has been seen. The first one could be anywhere. A flawed prototype running around…crazy isn't it?"

"Quite" Otto added as he sipped coffee "Well then I need you to clone me a body of Spider-Man. I wish to become him, and ruin his name…not only that but in the process I shall prove myself as the superior Spider-Man, if only to show someone can be better than him in his own game."

Jackal gave his thumbs up. "A brilliant idea, Doctor…I'll get right to it…"