(One) The Ben Spider-Man dashed towards Zuccotti. "Peter! You can't trust this guy! He's a real super-villain!"

Redemption Ain't Gonna Save Your Soul

(Two) The Peter Spider-Man quickly interposed himself between the two. "Ben may be right," he thought. "But Zuccotti's clearly the smartest geneticist in the room, and I can't have him unconscious or imprisoned."

The two-Spidermans were soon fighting each other, rolling around on the floor. "Stop! Stop! You'll wreck all my research!" Zuccotti shouted.

"He's right," Peter thought. "I've got to get Ben away from all this." And with that he managed to kick Ben away from the main table.

"Perfect, Peter," Ben thought, "You're doing exactly what I need you to do." The Ben Spiderman quickly got to his feet, then leaped to the ceiling.

Peter joined him there, just in time for Kaas, Zuccotti's associate, to enter the room. "Sir, I heard two intruder alarms… Wait, which one is our Spiderman?"

The two Spidermans hopped around on the ceiling. Then, suddenly, the Ben Spiderman grabbed the Peter Spiderman and leapt off the ceiling, through the window he had just crashed through and outside the building.

(Three) "Are you all right?" the Ben Spiderman asked the Peter Spiderman, who was still trying to get his bearings.

"Not too bad…" but then the Ben Spiderman grabbed the Peter Spiderman and flung him fifteen feet away from the warehouse Zuccotti had been using. He then leaped after him. As the two stood up again, there was a large garbage truck nearby making a lot of noise.

"I'm sorry," said the Ben Spiderman. "But we need to get some distance."

"Distance from who? Wait, are you working for Warren?"

"No. Well, not exactly. It's a bit complicated…"

"Hold it, something's alerting my spider-sense."

Something very much indeed was alerting the two men's spider-sense. For just as the noisy garbage truck moved by, a large, strange chute appeared from the adjoining building. In an instant it sucked both men up, retracted itself into the building, which then transformed itself into another large garbage truck, which then went on its merry way.

(Four) There was still some light so that the Spidermans could see inside their prison. "Ahh…" said Ben. "That's not what I had been planning. On the plus side, we don't have to worry about Warren and Zuccotti hearing us."

"Hold on," said Peter, as he examined their surroundings. "Yeah, I think I've been in one of these prisons before. Let's see, special wiring, quantum parameters, unique selenium interfaces, coded pulse messages… You wouldn't have a pen and paper on you?"

"This might help," and Ben produced his phone.

"Now we're not simply inside a big garbage truck we can punch our way out of. We're actually in our own dimensional subspace and the big garbage truck is actually our only link to earth. But if we figure out the coded interface, and use the materials to send out a signal that links our prison to the truck, we can burst out of here."

They quickly computed some figures. "Based on the sequencing, it could take ten or twelve hours to correctly predict the coded interface," Ben said.

"That is not good, since I really need to spend the day producing a super vaccine to save the city. Also, it means someone else is involved with this, since this doesn't seem like something either Zuccotti or Warren would be doing. Of course, it would be nice if I knew just exactly what Warren and Zuccotti were up to."

"As it happens, Peter, I can help you with that…"

Meanwhile back at the warehouse Zuccotti and Kaas were looking at the shattered window. "Now what do we do?" asked Kaas.

"Either find a way of teleporting a pane a glass here or get a glazier. Then you can help me with my work."

(Five) "Wasn't that other Spider-Man Ben Reilly? I thought our plan was to kill him."

"We can double-cross that bridge when we get to it."

Later that morning Wilson Fisk was very, very annoyed. He had spent the last few hours trying to find a way to save his son Richard, the Rose, from imminent cellular degeneration. "Damn it!" he shouted at several subordinates on Zoom. "What's the point of hiring you people if you don't know how to save my son!"

"Well, I'm sure it's not remotely consoling, but if the government doesn't find a cure to the clone virus in the next seventy-two hours thousands of people will die. Followed by the deaths of millions more," said one subordinate.

"What about the Red Skull?" the Kingpin snapped.

"He's in the Brazilian jungle. Or an Indian jungle. Or the Congolese jungle. And no, we don't know exactly which Congo he might be in," answered another subordinate.

"What about HYDRA? Or AIM?"

"As it happens, AIM decided to take advantage of the situation and sent a special squad into the city on New Years' Eve," answered the first subordinate.

"And?"

"Most of them appear to be in intensive care."

"Idiots!" But just then there was a disturbance outside the room the Kingpin was working in. The door opened and two large burly thugs poorly disguised as butlers tossed Paul Rabin, looking very much the worse for wear, towards Fisk.

"This man insists on speaking to you," one of the thugs sneered.

Fisk took a closer look at him. "I've heard of you Rabin. You mean nothing to me. Get rid of him."

(Six) The other thug pulled out a large firearm with a surprisingly intimidating silencer. "Wait! I have to save your son!"

"And why should I believe that is remotely within your abilities?" The two thugs approached Rabin to drag him out of the room and execute him.

"The Lemurian tablet of life!"

Fisk paused and quickly signaled his thugs to stop. "You know of it?"

"Quipu!"

"The man's just bluffing," the first thug said.

"Hold on," said the Kingpin, and he quickly googled the word Rabin had just said. He then found a webpage about the ancient Incan practice of record keeping.

Fisk turned to Rabin, still prostrate on the floor. "You've said two useful things. Can you say a third useful thing and save your life?"

Rabin gasped. He stuttered. And then, with an effort, he said, barely audibly, two words: "Douglas Ramsey."

The first subordinate googled the name and showed the Kingpin a picture of the X-Man known as Cypher. Fisk quickly took command. "You all have one priority. You are to find this X-Man, contact him, and pay him to assist us." He then turned to his thugs. "Clean this man up and get him a decent lunch."

(Seven) Meanwhile Mary Jane Watson was still at the warehouse the Sinister Six's five members were keeping her, along with Morbius and the Lizard. She was still waiting for her Aunt Anna to wake up from the treatment Morbius had injected her the day before.

"You said my aunt would wake up at noon!"

"It's only a bit after one," Morbius replied. "And all her vital signs are stable."

The others were doing various tasks, and Mysterio had taken off his helmet. "Hey, Quentin," Sandman said. "Your nose is bleeding."

Mysterio felt his face. "My God," he gasped as his face visibly paled.

"It's just a nosebleed," Electro said. "Here's some Kleenex."

"You don't understand," Mysterio clarified as he wiped his nose. "Occasionally I wondered how I survived killing myself after confronting Daredevil. At times I thought I was in hell. Sometimes I wondered who was manipulating me.

"Now I realize the truth. I'm in a clone body, just like Electro, Kraven and the good doctor."

"Actually, the Kraven here is a clone of the original, who is now dead, while the three of us are the original people in cloned bodies," Dr. Octopus pointed out.

"Yeah, regardless, I realized I was dying and when I heard that Miles Warren was in the clone business, I went to him with an enormous sum of money. But then it appeared that the Jackal had been killed and I was doomed. But somehow my clone had been created and at some point after I killed myself I revived, but my memory mas a complete mess, being manipulated by all kinds of…"

Just then Anna Watson loudly gasped.

(Eight) "Aunt Anna! Are you all right!?" asked Mary Jane.

"Actually, I'm kind of thirsty."

"Allow me," interrupted Dr. Octopus, as one of his arms reached to a tea kettle. He sat down by Mrs. Watson's bed and handed her a cup of tea. "One lump of sugar, with milk, if I remember correctly."

"Thank you," and she took a sip.

"Now do you know who I am?"

"Of course I do. You're Dr. Octopus, Otto Octavius. You're May Parker's acquaintance."

"Promising sign. What's the first presidential election you remember, and who were the candidates?"

"1972, Nixon and McGovern."

"Who's the chief Justice of the Supreme Court?"

"Roberts. What are all these wires connected to me?"

"They're to monitor your brain patterns," explained Morbius. "But this seems to be a remarkable recovery."

"I have a splitting headache."

"Oh yes, that's a side effect of the adrenalin treatments. From these readings there's nothing else wrong with you. If somebody could get her some aspirin."

Sandman promptly did so. "Now just rest for a few minutes while we get you some lunch," explained Morbius.

(Nine) As Anna Watson rested, the Lizard tapped Dr. Octopus on the shoulder. "Octaviusss. You have brought me my son. But where isss my wife?"

"Let's talk over here," Dr. Octopus replied, while Kraven followed close by.

"All right what I'm about to tell you may seem alarming. But the important thing is not to panic. Yesterday Kraven went to find your wife at the address you gave us. But what he found was a bloody corpse."

"What?!"

"Connors, calm down. We don't think it's your wife, because if your wife had been murdered, her body would have dissolved because she's in a cloned body."

"Why didn't you tell me thisss earlier?!"

"Again, calm down. We think that Miles Warren realized the importance of your wife and replaced her with a substitute, who was then murdered to throw people off the track."

"You're lying!"

"Look, at some point we must find Warren and your wife. But since he is indirectly responsible for both the virus and the cellular degeneration of all his clones, that means your wife is vulnerable as well. We can't go off half-cocked. What we can do is for you to concentrate on remaking the lizard formula as a possible substitute and a possible defense."

The Lizard looked very, very angry. Then he spoke. "Very well." And then he returned to work.

"Do you think that's what happened?" Kraven asked sotto voce.

"I have no idea. But to quote Nick Charles, it's the only way that makes sense."

(Ten) Later that afternoon Permanent Acting President of Oscrop Liz Allan Osborn was having a retreat with several important associates. First, she listed their names: "Mr. Hargrove, Ms. Sinha, Ms. Koziak, Mr. Schultz." Ms. Koziak, of course, had been very close to the late Norman Osborn, and had attended his funeral with Schultz*

(*POTM#962)

Ms. Sinha was a not unattractive woman of Indian descent close to Ms. Koziak's edge, while Mr. Hargrove appeared to be both five years older than Liz, and radiated old WASP power, confidence and good looks. "We are all here," Liz continued "to see if we can learn anything more about the death of our former CEO Norman Osborn. To be specific, what relationship did Peter Parker have to his death?"

"I don't think there's any reason to think Parker had any connection with Osborn's murder," Ms. Koziak interjected.

"You seem very definite on that, Ms. Koziak," Liz sneered. "There wouldn't be any erotic link corrupting your judgement?"

"Absolutely not, Ms…" But just then six masked individuals, covered in special knock-off Navy Seal uniforms that conveniently disguised their sex, burst through the windows and aimed weapons at the five.

"Now where is Stanley Osborn?" their apparent leader shouted.

"Well, he's obviously not here," said Mr. Hargrove. "He's a two-year-old child, there's no reason he would be."

One of the armed individuals placed the barrel of a rifle directly at Mr. Hargrove's forehead. "That's very uncomfortable for all of you," the leader declared. "Since none of you will be allowed to move a muscle until we have him."

(Eleven) Betty Brant was lying on her hospital bed, understandably feeling very morose over the death of her only child two days earlier. Suddenly an unseen voice spoke. "You have a visitor Ms. Brant."

And on the view screen on the wall opposite her appeared the image of a conservatively dressed woman with long black hair and glasses who was perhaps a decade older than Betty.

"Angela Scorsese? What are you doing here?"

"I imagine you wanted someone to talk to. You have a whole host of people at the Bugle, but given your severe illness, the hospital is trying to limit information to the media. But as the District Attorney's wife, I can be expected to be discreet.

"I'm trying to do what I can to help you. I would have visited yesterday, but I was told you were extremely ill. I've been told your husband had a much older brother, Hamilton Leeds, who currently lives upstate. He's been informed of your family tragedies, but the authorities have told him it would be wise not to visit New York City for the next few days."

"What happens after the next few days?"

"Ah. Either they will find a cure in the next two or three days. Or no one will."

"Ah again. But I don't see what you are so interested in my situation."

"Elizabeth, may I call you Elizabeth?"

"Literally everyone calls me Betty."

"I'm sorry. My late father had a horror of nicknames and diminutives. He never called me 'Angie' and made sure that no one else did so when he was alive."

(Twelve) "Oh. But while I could use the company, and it's nice someone is taking an interest in me, I don't see what a prominent Italian American matron who never met me before last month has to say about my situation."

"But that's where you're wrong Betty."

"Excuse me?"

"This is a picture of my son, Matthew." And Mrs. Scorsese showed a picture of an eight-year-old boy, perhaps a little plump, dressed in a suit and so nervous about obeying the photographer that he had forgotten to smile. "I didn't plan on having him."

"Nobody does," Betty smiled.

"That's not what I meant. I didn't plan on having him because I already had a child." And Mrs. Scorsese showed a picture of a five-year-old girl dressed up for church who had no trouble at all remembering how to smile. "This is—was—my daughter Diana. She was vibrant and full of life. Or so I thought so. As her mother I'm obviously partial, and I can't prove anything now she's dead.

"What happened was very tragic. I mean, that goes without saying. One day we were walking in a neighborhood. And then there was this big fight. Spiderman was fighting someone, someone called Firelord. Extremely powerful and completely unwilling to listen to reason. He was destroying buildings right and left. In the chaos he caused I got separated from Diana. Only to see her enter a building. And then several cars and debris blocked my way, before I saw the building collapse on her."

"My God."

(Thirteen) "But then Spiderman managed to pummel Firelord unconscious. And when the smoke cleared, I found Diana safe under some kind of doorway or alcove with little more than a scratch. But she'd been exposed to toxic building materials. Carcinogenic ones, in fact.

"It took a month for her to become seriously ill. And then it took three months for her to die. I would have done anything to save her. I've never prayed harder for anything in my life. And in the end, nothing worked. All I could do was watch her die.

"It's important to say that I don't blame Spiderman for this. Firelord is the herald of Galactus, someone who almost literally eats planets. Basically, heralds are supposed to be able to sideswipe nuclear defense systems, so I suppose I should be grateful that Firelord didn't destroy the entire city in his temper tantrum. Sometimes I'm miffed the Avengers weren't there to stop him but, hey, they can't do everything.

"I wish there was some inspiring homily I could tell you. 'Whatever kills you makes you stronger,' I told Diana, obviously with little result. And I can't tell you that your strength and determination will necessarily save you because it's all too possible that the virus will kill you. Since your husband is dead, I can't really console you that I decided to have Matthew after Diana died. I could tell you that eventually I got solace from my faith and that the only thing God promises us is salvation, and not any worldly good. But of course, your son and my daughter aren't just simple worldly goods. And telling you how to deal with your grief assumes you will be alive a week from now to learn lessons from it.

"I can't even hug you and offer some the physical comfort of human contact, because if you weren't contagious more than a fortnight ago, you certainly are now. What I have to say isn't much help, frankly. But if your friends were here, if your husband had not been murdered, if your brother was still alive, they'd all say the same thing. Please don't give up."

The unheard voice announced that it was time for Mrs. Scorsese to leave. As she got up, she wiped a tear from her face. "I hope I'm not the last face you will ever see."

(Fourteen) Meanwhile Liz Allan Osborn and several Oscorp executives were still being held hostage by the unknown assailants. "You are running out of time!" the leader loudly berated them. "Do you think you can hinder us? Do you think you can threaten us? You may be a bunch of rich toffs, but you're all just powerless vermin in front of us, ready to be squished into a mashed-up corpse like rotten potato salad!

"And do you know what? I don't I've really gone into all the horrible ways of sexual assault…" But just then there was a peculiar beep. A minion offered the leader a phone. "Yes. Oh. You're all done with Osborn? Ah."

The leader hung up. "We'll be leaving now. There's no reason to hold you anymore."

"What's the point of having an enormous security budget, if these people can just waltz in and intimidate us?" Ms. Sinha groused sotto voce to Ms. Osborn.

Just then a private SWAT team wiped out all the marauders with a barrage of fatal head shots.

"That reason," Liz replied as she stood up.

"It would have been nice if one of them was left alive so we could find out who hired them," Ms. Koziak pointed out.

(Fifteen) Morbius will still running tests on Anna Watson while the Lizard was working on his regenerative formula. "It just occurred to me," Kraven whispered sotto voce to Dr. Octopus. "What if the Lizard's regenerative formula counters the tendency of Warren's clones to dissolve? That would mean it was the real Martha Connors who was murdered."

"It would be best if you kept your theories to yourself."

"I'm also not wild about being turned into a humanoid lizard of dubious sanity."

"I'm not wild about it either, but I have plans for the end of this month and they require my being alive. At the very least, the Lizard's formula gives us time and anyway Connors has occasionally been…"

Just then Morbius spoke up. "I've done it!"

"What?" asked Electro and Sandman in unison.

"While it would obviously take at least a couple of weeks to confirm it, everything suggests that I have cured Mrs. Watson. It's like her Alzheimer's has completely vanished!"

"It's nice to know we haven't just spent the past couple of days producing the equivalent of laetrile," Mysterio said. "But how do we get from curing an old woman to preventing our clone bodies from disintegrating?"

Mary Jane interrupted. "Can we leave now?"

"No, I need to keep watch over you to see if there are any side effects," Morbius replied. "But to answer your question Mr. Beck I have a number of innovative ideas for running some tests, obviously expedited of course and…"

"Are these samples of these formulas right here?" Kraven asked, pointing at several test-tubes.

"Yes, those are the ones. Now the first thing I need to do is get everyone's blood type. That's preliminary to running some blood tests. Then we…" But as Morbius was speaking Kraven opened a tube, filled a syringe with it, and then injected it into his arm.

(Sixteen) "Sergei?" Sandman asked.

"He agreed to be a test subject for us all?" Electro asked.

"No!" Morbius objected. "We don't yet know the results of my regenerative formula on Warren's clone bodies."

"I don't have any more time for this rubbish," Kraven jeered. "I'm taking your wonder drug, and I'm leaving."

"You can't leave yet," Dr. Octopus asserted. "If it does work, we can't know that if you run away."

"How are you feeling?" Electro wondered.

"I'm fine."

"Only fine?" the Lizard asked.

"No. I actually feel invigorated. I haven't felt this well in ages."

"That could just be a side effect of the adrenalin compounds," Morbius pointed out. But then Kraven started to laugh. The laughter increased in volume, a whole gale of extremely hearty, extremely masculine laughter.

"You certainly seem all right," Mysterio noted. "But maybe you should stay for just a little longer."

Kraven paused, as if he was just about to sneeze. Then he vomited a gallon of blood on Electro.

(Seventeen) "Oh God," Electro gasped.

"So much blood," Morbius muttered, almost in a daze. It was the Lizard who took the initiative to jerk him several feet away from the hemoglobin drenched scene.

"ARGHHH!" Kraven screamed. "It's like my body's on fire!"

Dr. Octopus walked over to Morbius and slapped him across the face. "Michael! Concentrate! What can we do to save him?!"

"I… I… I don't know..."

"YAAARRGGH!"

"We have...liquid nitrogen.. To flash freeze things… It's drastic…but it's…"

The others quickly looked around the lab, and it was Mary Jane who saw the cannister first. It was on a bench with Kraven blocking her way. She quickly strode towards it. But as she approached Kraven to try to get him out of her way she found him becoming almost fainter as his scream turned into an echo. And then there was nothing but his clothes and a pile of dust.

(Eighteen) "I think I'm going to be sick," said Mysterio.

"Are you all right Morbiusss?" asked the Lizard. At the same instant Dr. Octopus heard a beep on his cell phone. He carefully moved away from the others to answer it.

"What? Oh, yes. Quickly everyone, Kraven's blood must be salvaged to see what exactly went wrong. Also the dust as well, though it seems to be fading into vapor."

"Who is this?" Dr. Octopus whispered to his caller.

"So, the Morbius gambit just didn't work out," said the voice on the other end.

"How did you know? Well, obviously you're monitoring us."

"Quite. Morbius failed. Now you have no choice but to follow my plan."

"There's still Connors' formula."

"It won't work. Even if it did you wouldn't really want to be a lizard."

"I can't say your plan strikes me as much of an improvement." A thought occurred to Dr. Octopus. "Did you kill Martha Connors?"

"Why? Is she dead? No, I've been checking out Stanley Osborn."

"Stanley Osborn? Who is that again?"

"Don't waste your time worrying about it. It turns out Harry Lyman's cloned body isn't relevant to our situation. Also, I've been keeping the Spidermen away from you."

"What?"

"Oh, did you not think they wouldn't be upset about you kidnapping the Watsons? I've detained them while they were running around Warren. But they're clever little boys, and they'll be free of my latest trap soon."

"All right. I'll have Morbius and Connors work on their formulas, and you can bring our special guest over to the lab."

"No. I'm busy. And it would be too complicated to retrieve him myself. By contrast, Baker and Beck have the sufficient force and guile to obtain him. So they will. Tomorrow."

The voice on the other end hung up. Dr. Octopus was clearly not happy.

(Nineteen) It was late in the evening, at Zuccotti's laboratory when a familiar costumed super-hero made a typically dramatic appearance.

"Spider-Man!"

"Yeah, I'm back. Do you know someone is both interested in the two of us and has special extra-dimensional prisons?"

"I know now. Come with me, we have much to do." The two started walking near the sensory deprivation tank Peter had been released from two days earlier. "Could you remove your mask, Peter? I would like to know just whom I'm talking to."

"Sure thing," and Spiderman removed his mask, showing a familiar face with brown hair.

"Good. Now come with me, we have work to do." Zuccotti picked up a cylinder that looked like a deodorant can. Just then Spiderman's spider sense kicked in, when at the same instant an all too familiar woman appeared to materialize in front of them.

"Gwen?!"

"Don't worry, she's just a hologram," said Zuccotti as he used the can to spray a gas into Spiderman's face. As he fell down unconscious, Zuccotti continued, "just long enough to distract you Mr. Reilly."

Zuccotti then looked around. "Peter, where are you? I know you're here somewhere. I'm one of the world's leading experts on cloning, so I know perfectly well the original from a copy!"

(Twenty) A slight flashback, with the two Spidermans trapped in their prison.

Ben was talking to Peter. "Look, you can't trust Zuccotti. He's really bad stuff."

"But what about Warren? Zuccotti say's he responsible for the super-virus."

"Yeah, I know. Warren is responsible. He's a lot more mellow than the last time we met, but looking at the genetic sequences, the disease is clearly his responsibility. I'm pretending to work with him while we get on the same page." Ben then showed his phones and some photos. "OK, this is Zuccotti, arriving in New York and being met by this guy here."

"Yeah, that's Kaas, his right-hand man."

"Good, you already know who he is. Now see these photos of Kaas." And Peter saw Kaas near the Red Skull or in the background with him.

Ben continued, "Look, I was thinking that when we get out of this box, we change places and put Zuccotti and Warren in their places."

Back to this evening: Peter appeared from out of the shadows, dressed in full costume. "All right Zuccotti, what game are you playing? What does the Red Skull have to do with all this?"

"So Warren found out about Kaas' former employer. Peter, I can assure you he is not involved with us in any way."

(Twenty-One) "May I have something to say?" Just then a large hologram appeared right between the two. It was the head of Warren, floating in the air and the size of a small bookcase.

"Is everyone using holograms nowadays?" Peter thought.

"I didn't tell Ben this because I didn't have the proof. But you must know who this 'Zuccotti' really is!" And from his own base of operations, Warren seized control of the videoscreen's Zuccotti's labs. And several images appeared. A villain was shown fighting Captain America, the X-Men, and various Avengers. What was striking about this villain was not his short, stocky body, but that this body did not actually have a head, only some sort of image producer, while an image of his former head was projected on his chest.

"In fact, Peter, all this time you have been helping the infamous Nazi war criminal Arnim Zola!"

Zuccotti managed to block Warren's signals and turned to Peter. "Is that really you?" Peter asked.

(Twenty-two) "Would you believe me that, notwithstanding a long tenure with the Red Skull and important experience at Auschwitz, I am actually working in humanity's best interests?"

"Not remotely."

"I didn't think you would." And with that Zuccotti activated his teleportation device, and Peter found himself right in the middle of Dr. Octopus's lab with the Lizard, Morbius and the four remaining members of the Sinister Six.