Making matters worse, his camera battery just died, so taking pictures of the event is out of the question. Spidey thus decides to hang back and wait to see what happens before making a move. Disoriented, Freak chooses to make a run for it. Officer Alan O'Neil of the NYPD, who is on the scene with fellow colleague Vin Gonzales, instructs Freak to give himself up but to no avail. Worried that Freak may hurt someone, O'Neil takes aim and shoots Freak in the head, blowing his brains out. Freak stumbles backward and falls down some kind of large construction shaft that connects to the city's sewer tunnels. Spidey cannot believe what just happened. Gonzales is as surprised as Spidey of his partner's actions. O'Neil explains that Freak was a threat to public safety and that his decision to shoot him was therefore warranted. Gonzales points out that there was no way of knowing whether or not Freak was a threat. O'Neil answers that he just saved the taxpayers a ton of money by not having to find out. Unbeknownst to either man, a short distance downstream in the sewer tunnel, Freak's infected blood has started to form another chrysalis around him. Back on the surface, O'Neil explains to Gonzales that, after years on the force, one tends to learn how to tell the difference between good guys and bad guys. As far as O'Neil is concerned, Spider-Man is a good guy in general, but also a good guy for them, because if they make a mistake and accidentally destroy a property, they can always blame it on Spidey. Having eavesdropped on the conversation, Spidey cannot believe what came out of O'Neil's mouth. Having heard enough, Spidey web-slings away.
At the Bar With No Name, the man known as Bookie has problems of his own. Since Freak is supposedly dead and it was never revealed exactly what it was, the villains that placed bet with Bookie want their money back. Bookie suggests they wait 48 hours first in case Freak comes back to life or something like that. The humongous Ox approaches Bookie and expresses dissatisfaction about his proposal. Bookie proposes they invest their money into a resurrection pool on the real Captain America coming back from the dead in any week in the next six months. Ox is opposed to the idea and threatens Bookie to give him a refund. Fearing for his life, Bookie agrees (for Ox only). He then turns to the others and ask who is taking the Captain America bet.
Back at the site of Freak's rebirth, NYPD forensic specialist Carlie Cooper is collecting samples of what’s left of Freak's cocoon. Office O'Neil doesn't understand why she is bothering collecting evidence, now that Freak is dead. Carlie responds that perhaps there are others like him out there. Officer Gonzales joins the conversation and asks his partner what they are going to do if there is another one. O'Neil responds that he'll blow his brains out like he did with the first one.
Nearby, Spidey lands on a rooftop and changes back into Peter Parker. He then heads to the DB for a meeting with Dexter Bennett, publisher of the DB. As Peter was only able to take a single picture, that of the mysterious cocoon, before his camera battery died, Bennett has no useable pictures to put on page one of the paper. He is therefore quite unhappy with Peter and threatens to fire him if he screws up his next job, which consists of taking pictures of Bill Hollister at a press conference where he’s announcing his candidacy for mayor of New York City. Bennett wants Peter to make Hollister look bad because the DB supports Randall Crowne, another mayoral race candidate.
A short time later, at the Hollister press conference. Snapping away, Peter is feeling guilty that he's purposely taking unflattering pictures of Bill Hollister, especially since Hollister's daughter Lily is Harry Osborn's girlfriend and a friend of his. Just as he hopes that she won't see him in the crowd, she waves at him. All he can hope for then is that Dexter Bennett will bury his photos on the back pages of the paper. Unfortunately, when he returns to the DB a while later, Bennett is thrilled that Peter got so many unfavourable pictures of Bill Hollister. Worse, Bennett wants them on the front page, and wants to put Peter's name, which he suddenly remembers for a change, underneath the pictures. Realizing that he's going to be in trouble with Lily Hollister is his name appears next to those pictures of her dad, Peter tells Bennett that his last name is Parkinson, like the disease. Surprisingly, Bennett believes him.
Inside the NYPD Headquarter main laboratory, Carlie Cooper is busy examining the samples she collected from the Freak cocoon, when Dr. Curt Connors shows up to talk with her. Connors explains that he has reasons to believe someone broke into his lab and stole serums used in a stem cell research project, which may very well be behind Freak's creation. Carlie realizes that what Connors just told her gives sense to the samples she was studying. She tells Connors to follow her, as she wants to show him something. After hours of examining the cocoon samples, Connors asks Carlie if he can take a small fragment of the sample back to his lab to run it through his molecular imager to verify a theory. Carlie responds that it is against departmental rules, however, she feels that it is in the interest of public safety; she therefore allows Dr. Connors to take a sample, providing that he shares his findings with her. Dr. Connors answers that public interest is the only thing he has in mind. If he doesn't get the samples, something bad will happen.
In a sewer tunnel below Manhattan, Freak awakens and bursts out of his cocoon, though unaware that he was inside one to begin with. Looking down where his hands used to be, he discovers that he now has webbed fingers. His legs too are different; they feel stronger and somehow Freak cannot feel the water temperature. Something is also wrong with his face, though he cannot see himself so he has no way of telling what is wrong with it. Freak surmises that someone must have found him unconscious and stuck him in a suit; probably Spider-Man. That still doesn't explain why the "suit" feels like it's part of him so much. Suddenly, he begins smelling something and realizes that he can actually smell everything. Making his way through the sewer tunnel, he comes to a maintenance access door through which he can smell peanut butter. Opening it, he finds himself inside a locker room for sewer maintenance staff. There is a large mirror in the room and when he stares at himself in the mirror, he nearly loses his mind. He is no longer human. Or if he is, he sure doesn't look human. His face is completely distorted and almost animal-like. His hands, as previously mentioned, are webbed, and his entire body is covered with shells resembling that of cockroaches. Bones are still protruding from his body in places. Freak is not the least happy with his new appearance and vows revenge on Spider-Man for what happened to him.
At Mount Sinai Hospital, Nurse Esperanza is telling a female doctor that a maintenance worker named Carlos was bribed into providing J. Jonah Jameson with a copy of the DB. The doctor asks Esperanza why she didn't try to stop him. Esperanza responds that Carlos is in the maintenance union and she, in the nurse union; she is therefore not allowed to give Carlos any orders. The doctor couldn’t care less and indicates that Jonah was specifically not to have a newspaper, especially not the DB because Jonah's wife doesn't want him to find out that she sold the Daily Bugle to Dexter Bennett, for fear that it would give him another stroke. The nurse tells the doctor that if she interferes with Carlos, she'll have to deal with his union.
Inside his suite, Jonah is fuming over the copy of the DB that he's holding in his hands. He cannot believe the lead story that is shown on the first page of the paper (about Freak). Turning to Carlos, Jonah tells him that he asked for the Daily Bugle, which is not what Carlos gave him. Jonah obviously does not realize that his newspaper has been sold and renamed. Carlos responds that his English is not very good and that he doesn't understand what Jonah wants. Beginning to lose his patience with Carlos, Jonah slowly enunciates "Daily Bugle" and mentions that a bugle is a trumpet. Understanding the word trumpet, Carlos points to a trumpet on the cover of the DB paper. Thinking that the DB stole the Daily Bugle's logo, and again not realizing that he is holding what used to be the Daily Bugle, Jameson starts to go into a tirade about how he is going to sue the DB for plagiarism. Before his rage escalates into a heart attack, Nurse Esperanza shows up in the room and takes the paper away from Jonah, telling him that he's not allowed to have any newspaper in his room.
In Forest Hills, at the Parker residence, Peter is on the phone with Dexter Bennett, who, delighted with Peter's work on the Hollister press conference, wants him to cover Randall Crowne later today, at the dedication of his new plaza complex near Chinatown. Peter has seen the plaza on his way into town the previous day so he knows where to go. Bennett tells Peter to make Crown look good, since the DB supports him. Peter takes the offer. A short time later, after mixing a new batch of webbing, Peter clings to one of the walls in his room and webs his camera to the ceiling. He is doing this so he can try out a system he's devised that allows his camera to track down his every move as Spider-Man. Activating a tracking sensor hidden in the chest area of his costume, Peter starts bouncing all over his room to test his new gizmo. He dreams to one day win the Pulitzer with his shots.
Disguised as a sewer maintenance worker, Freak emerges from a manhole in the middle of the city. He then takes off running, vowing revenge on Spider-Man. As he races through the city, he comes across a hotdog vendor. Starving, Freak kills the vendor and continues on his not-so-much merry way.
While Peter rides the #7 train, Manhattan bound, Officers O’Neil, Gonzales, and fellow policemen, are receiving instructions from their Captain about the Crowne dedication. They are to be alert and prepared for any possible incident.
A few blocks away, Freak is looking for Raymond's crank lab (Raymond is the guy from whom Freak buys drugs). As he searches for the lab, he comes across a shredded piece of Spider-Man's costume, which Spidey ripped when he was chasing after him in the previous issue. As he grabs the shred of material, he somehow picks up Spider-Man's scent and realizes that he is able to track him down (à la Wolverine).
Not far from there, Raymond visits Crater, the man in charge of concocting the drugs he sells. It turns out that Crater shut down the drug production because of bad ventilation and the possibility that the fumes would alert the police. Raymond couldn’t care less, as he needs a suitcase filled up right away. Crater complains that he needs to breathe but Raymond doesn't care and suggests to Crater that he smoke a little, as it'll make him stronger. Having said that, Raymond tells Crater that he'll stick around until he's done.
At Crowne Plaza, Peter is busy taking pictures of Randall Crowne when his spider-sense suddenly warns him of impending danger. Not far from him, standing on top of a news van, Freak drops his disguise and makes his presence known by calling out for Spider-Man, having picked up his smell from the crowd. The terrified crowd, including Peter, scatters, while Officers O'Neil and Gonzales, who are present at the scene, draw their weapons out and start shooting at Freak. This time however, the bullets bounce right off him, his skin seemingly impenetrable. Having found a spot to change clothes and set up his automatic camera, Peter reappears seconds later as Spider-Man. Crowne, who should be getting to safety, stays put and yells into the microphone that he authorizes his security people to join the NYPD in protecting the public. Ripping a large satellite dish off the news van upon which he's standing, Freak yells at Spidey to come out of hiding. On cue, Spidey swings down from above. Before Spidey can do anything, Freak throws the satellite dish at him with all his strength. Spidey dodges the flying dish and verbally taunts Freak. Blaming Spidey for his appearance, Freak launches himself at the wall-crawler. Spidey swings sideways on a web-line and kicks Freak in the face. Freak is sent flying toward the ground, where he amazingly lands on both feet. Swinging down, Spidey shoots two large strand of thick webbing, both of which miss their intended target. Freak yells at Spidey that he's going to rip his face open. Spidey retaliates by taunting Freak and saying that he's ugly. Nearby, Randall Crowne yells at them to stop, as they are destroying private property and endangering the public. He orders them to cease and desist. Freak responds that he orders him to shut up. He then grabs a nearby large monument and prepares to throw it at Crowne. Spidey is about to swing down to help Crowne when he realizes his web-shooters are jammed. Without them, he doesn't know if he can save Crowne before the monument crushes him.
To be continued.
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