Anti-Venom, vowing to rip the world of Venom once and for all, pounces at his opponent, sending the two crashing through a wall. A small child is almost caught in the mêlée but Aunt May comes to his rescue. Aunt May chides Anti-Venom (a.k.a. Eddie Brock) for acting so carelessly and he actually feels bad about it. Of course, having turned his guard down, Anti-Venom gets punched in the face and knocked to the ground. Before Venom can carry on his attack, Spider-Man shows up and tackles him to the ground. Pummelling Venom, Spidey turns to Martin Li and Aunt May and instructs them to get everyone to safety while he takes care of Venom…and Anti-Venom, whose back on his feet. Martin Li leads everyone into his office and proceeds to activate his security system, which includes a heavily reinforced tri-tanium door. When asked by Aunt May why he requires such a system, Martin shrugs off the question and proceeds to call out for help on his phone.

Venom and Anti-Venom tackle Spidey to the ground, where Venom reveals that Anti-Venom is none other than Eddie Brock. Before Spidey can even process this new tidbit of information, both Venom and Anti-Venom send Spidey flying out of the building and across the street, where he lands on the rooftop of a nearby building. Venom and his opponent rejoice for a few seconds but soon continue on with their battle.

Aboard the Zeus, the Thunderbolt's mobile command ship, Norman Osborn is reporting back to partner Randall Crowne. Osborn is rather optimistic that he and his Thunderbolts will succeed in capturing Spider-Man, even if it means using the assassin known as Bullseye who still has his mouth webbed shut from his earlier encounter with Spider-Man.

Mayoral candidate Bill Hollister is at home, working on his campaign with his advisers. Despite all the bad press that his opponent Randall Crowne has received recently, Hollister is opposed to using it against Crowne. He wants to stick with the important issue and wants a clean campaign. Unbeknownst to Hollister, the villain Menace is watching him from outside the window somewhere. Though Hollister gets extra NYPD protection, in the form of police officers Vin Gonzales and Alan O’Neil, who patrol the street below Hollister's tenement, Menace still proceeds with an attack on the candidate for mayor. A bomb rips through Hollister's office, taking out Hollister and his aides. Menace enters the office via the huge hole in the wall and locates the unconscious Hollister amidst the debris. Hoisting him off the ground, Menace threatens him to get out of the race for mayor, or else, only to realize that Hollister is unable to hear him, as he's out cold. Menace tries to awaken him, but to no avail. Just then, Gonzales and O’Neil appear in the office doorway, instructing Menace to let go of Hollister and surrender. Before either policeman can fire a shot, Menace tosses Hollister their way and makes a speedy exit.

Getting back on his feet, Spidey scopes out the battle between Venom and Anti-Venom. Seeing this as an opportunity to take pictures for his new employer, the Front Line Newspaper, Spidey webs his automatic camera to the ledge of the building. Down below, the battle rages on between the two symbiotes. When Venom tosses a car at him, Anti-Venom dodges the car and sends it flying behind him, unintentionally towards an innocent bystander. Thankfully, Spider-Man appears and saves the old man just in the nick of time. Anti-Venom is grateful to Spidey saving the old man, as he had no intention of hurting him when he dodged the car. But it doesn’t seem to be enough for him to consider not fighting Spidey.

Nearby, Norman Osborn gets off the Thunderbolt's mobile command ship to get a better view of the battlefield. He instructs the Thunderbolt's not to engage, as Spider-Man always finds a way to turn groups' weaknesses against each other. Osborn believes it's best to attack Spider-Man one at a time and wear him down, something he's learned from experience.

On the street below, Venom and Anti-Venom are telling each other to leave, each wanting Spider-Man for himself. Spidey turns to Anti-Venom and proposes to him that they team-up to fight Venom. Anti-Venom quickly accepts the offer and the two of them launch their attack on Venom. Soon, Spidey has Venom in a bear hug. His fingers extending beyond logic, Anti-Venom jabs them into Venom's chest and he starts to literally burn the symbiote out of him, cleansing it from his body.

At the offices of the Front Line, Ben Urich and his staff, including notably Robbie Robertson and Sally Floyd, are discussing the Randall Crowne sweatshop scandal. One of Sally's informants have provided her with information linking the sweatshop property to Crowne Industries and Urich hopes that she can pump said informant for additional information. Sally will try and arrange a meeting with him. Urich shows everybody the pictures Peter Parker took of the sweatshop workers, as they were running away from the building (in Amazing Spider-Man #568). The workers appear to have some strange lesions on their skin and Urich wants his staff to have doctors look at the pictures to get their opinion on the matter. Urich would also like to have Peter Parker shed some lights on the picture and asks his staff if any of them have seen him. Robbie Robertson sighs and tells Ben that, as there is a Spider-Man fight going on downtown, it's a sure bet Peter is there taking pictures.

Anti-Venom finishes to cleanse the symbiote from Venom's body, leaving but the naked body of his host, Mac Gargan. He then turns towards Spidey, claiming that he can feel some small traces of the symbiote in Spidey's system. Before Spidey can do anything, Anti-Venom plugs his fingers into his body and starts wiping out the tiny vestigial traces of the symbiote that were left in his system. As he does so, Anti-Venom finds out that Spidey's blood is tainted with radiation, which obviously gives him his powers, so he starts eradicating the radiation from his blood. Spidey screams for him to stop what he's doing.

Atop a nearby building, Norman Osborn watches as the events unfold. He tells the Thunderbolts to stand down until he authorizes them to engage. There is a random element at work in the battle between Spider-Man and the symbiotes, and Norman wants to see how it will play out. As he puts his binoculars away, Menace – calling out his name – shows up on the rooftop. Norman turns towards him and asks whose little boy he is.

To be continued.