The story opens at the F.E.A.S.T. centre where Peter Parker is volunteering his help to fix some of the damages caused by the Thunderbolts. Also present are Aunt May, whose serving drinks to the volunteer workers, and reporters Ben Urich and Sally Floyd of the Front Line, and Betty Brant of the DB. Martin Li, the centre’s director, is speaking with a group of Asian migrant workers who have recently shown up at the centre, seeking refuge and a cure for the lesions covering their bodies. These workers are the same ones that ran away from the sweatshop owned by Randall Crowne, which was destroyed in a battle between Spider-Man and Menace. One of them explains that the lesions are the result of experimental drugs that were tested on them by a company called Oscorp. Though the sweatshop worker speaks in his own dialect when he utters that name, Ben, Peter, Sally and Betty don’t need an interpreter to figure out what he just said; Oscorp means trouble in any language. Betty Brant jumps on the phone and makes a call to DB publisher Dexter Bennett to tell him what she just heard but Bennett, a Randall Crowner partisan, tells Betty to kill the story. Nearby, Ben tells Sally Floyd to head back to the office to go over the files they obtained from Harry Osborn. Upon hearing Harry's name, Peter asks what Harry's got to do with it and Ben reveals that Harry was their informant for information about Crowne and Norman Osborn’s dealings. Sally tells Peter that Harry hasn’t given them a lot of information recently and wonders if perhaps Peter might be able to convince Harry to open up. As Peter leaves, Ben reminds him to call them if he finds anything and to take plenty of pictures. Peter acknowledges Ben but does not reveal that he hasn't been able to find his camera.
At the Osborn Manor on Columbus Circle, Norman Osborn explains to the Thunderbolts how the camera he's found webbed to the ledge of a building works. Osborn reveals that the home-built tracking system inside the camera locks onto a homing chip that Spider-Man has placed in his own costume, which he – Norman – has reverse-engineered and incorporated it into his soldier's targeting scanners and smart bullets. So all they have to do is squeeze the trigger and they will hit him, no matter what. Bullseye, who prides himself with hitting his targets all the time is rather indifferent to this new technology but he rolls with it. Norman tells his men that they're off with Bullseye and wishes them good luck. Before leaving, one of the soldiers asks Norman what Songbird, Radioactive Man (and Gargan's) assignments are. Norman indicates that Songbird and Radioactive Man are to watch over Gargan until he – Norman – can figure out how to countermeasure whatever it was that Anti-Venom did to him. Norman walks away, flanked by his guards, unaware that one of them is actually Anti-Venom in disguise. Unbeknownst to anyone, Anti-Venom manages to swipe Peter's automatic camera without being seen.
Later that night, across the Hudson River, in the bowels of the Oscorp building, an experiment is taking place to cure Gargan. As instructed, Radioactive Man is unleashing radiation on Gargan, thus weakening the Venom symbiote and isolating the Anti-Venom residue in his system, which Norman hopes to extract enough of it to develop a countermeasure. A large syringe in hand, Norman obtains a fairly significant blood sample from Gargan. As he does so, he tells Songbird and Radioactive Man his theory about Anti-Venom. Norman believes Anti-Venom is made up of human and alien hybrid antibodies that possibly have amazing restorative properties. Morbidly, Norman says that he cannot wait to kill it.
Minutes later, Norman heads into another laboratory where, it is revealed, he conducts experiments on none other than the villain known as Freak, last seen being carted away in an Oscorp truck back in Amazing Spider-Man #558. Freak is vertically strapped to a steel-like table, his chest is split in the middle, various tubes and conduits are sticking out of his body, and most of his organs are separated from his body, enclosed in nearby containers. It is explained that Norman uses Freak as his personal guinea pig to test viruses, poisons, etc., in response to which Freak's body creates antidotes and vaccines. Unwillingly, Freak even cured himself of his drug addiction. After receiving confirmation that no tests are currently being conducted on Freak, Osborn grabs the syringe containing Venom’s blood sample and injects its content into Freak. Predictably, Freak's system detects the foreign substance and starts developing a biological countermeasure. Surprisingly, however, his body does something it has never done before; it produces a poison, some kind of toxin…a super toxin. Osborn grabs the liquid produced and walks away with it under his arm. One of his lab assistants, Dr. Maleck complains that he should be careful with the substance, as it has the capacity to kill thousands of people with but a single drop. Maleck also complains that he was under the impression they were doing something good there, finding new hopes and cures. Osborn tells Dr. Maleck to stop being so naïve: "This is how the world works. For every life you save, there's a million ways to die". Norman takes his leave and heads into his old office where he enters a secret room filled with Green Goblin paraphernalia. As soon as he steps inside the room, he realizes that someone's been there and taken some things. He tells himself to remember to have a talk with "the boy". He then approaches a large workbench, upon which sits a rectangular container. He opens it and, upon seeing what's inside, comments that he’s going to have to make some modifications (to whatever it is). He turns on a nearby welding torch, readying himself to work on the content of the box. Before starting, he reminds himself that he should be wearing protection for this kind of work. He hauls out one of his Goblin mask and puts it on, laughing maniacally.
Meanwhile at the Coffee Bean, off Astor Place, Peter rendezvous with Lily Hollister and Harry Osborn. Holding Lily's hand in his, Peter apologizes to her for not visiting her father at the hospital. Harry speaks up and tells Peter there is no need to apologize, since they've heard about Aunt May and what happened at the F.E.A.S.T. centre. Harry thinks it's odd that everything happened to them all at once. Peter concurs but his thoughts reveal that he's suspicious of Harry and thinks he knows more about this than he's letting on. As Peter and Lily continue to speak, Harry receives a phone call from his father. Eavesdropping, Peter tries to get closer to Harry without him or Lily knowing so he can hear what's being said. While Harry talks to his father, he realizes that he's wearing his Green Goblin costume, as his voice is slightly muffled. Norman tells Harry that he's impressed with him and that he's earned some respect; however, he wants him to remember that it's his house, not Harry's, so he wants him to stop touching his stuff (Norman evidently thinks that Harry is the one that raided his Goblin stash). Close to Harry, Peter wished he could hear what Norman is saying but to no avail. Taking Peter's hand to her face and rubbing it against her cheek, Lily asks Peter how he got past some of the events that have occurred in his lifetime. Peter answers that he didn't; he made a promise to himself that he would never let something like that happen again, to anyone he loves. Peter feels the sexual tension between he and Lily, just as his spider-sense kicks in warning him of danger all around. At the same time, Harry ends his call and turns around. Peter quickly pulls his hand away from Lily; however, it appears as though Harry may have noticed what was going on. Peter feigns having to go somewhere and starts walking away. Harry suggests that maybe they should all sit down and talk. Peter agrees but indicates they should leave right away. Going back inside, Peter says they should all take separate cabs to support the economy and tries to push them out the door, his spider-sense still buzzing like crazy. Lily and Harry are puzzled by Peter’s behaviour. If only they knew what he knows.
On the rooftop of a building across the street, Bullseye and the Thunderbolts soldiers assigned to him are awaiting orders from Norman Osborn to take out Spider-Man. Bullseye informs Norman that Spidey is near two civilians. Norman asks to know his location. Bullseye answers that Spidey's at the Coffee Bean, off Astor Place. Snorting loudly, Norman starts laughing and gives Bullseye the authorization to proceed with his mission. When asked by Bullseye what he's ought to do with the two innocent bystanders, Norman continues to laugh: "Yeah? What about 'em? HAHAHA!".
Inside, Peter realizes that danger is now upon them. On cue, Bullseye and his men drop down and immediately fire smoke grenades into the Coffee Bean, yelling that they – meaning Peter, Harry and Lily – are under arrest (note that Bullseye tracked down Spider-Man using the technology from Peter's camera but he hasn't made the connection that Peter Parker is Spider-Man). Peter instructs Harry and Lily to keep down and to follow him. The trio heads out the back door where Peter instructs Harry to take Lily to safety while he looks for help. Bullseye kicks down the Coffee Bean's front door and marches cockily into the place, calling for to Spidey to show up. Bullseye and the soldiers accompanying him start searching for Spidey through the dense smoke, being forced to use their infrared scanners. No one is aware that Anti-Venom is disguised as one of the soldiers and doing some damage of his own to Bullseye's men. Emerging slightly from the shadows, Peter – as Spider-Man – takes out one of the soldiers. Having been alerted by the noise, Bullseye tells the soldiers to open fire. Spidey leaps and bounces all over the place, trying to avoid getting hit, but his spider-sense fails him and he gets shot. To make matters worse, before Spidey can react to what just happened, he gets hit by shards of glass thrown at him by Bullseye.
Outside the Coffee Bean, Harry cannot believe his own father would give orders to launch an attack on his shop, knowing he was in there. Harry is angry that his father finally paid attention to him by destroying the one thing he built for himself. Lily tells Harry she's sorry for what's going on and then asks where Peter is. Seemingly angry with Lily for asking such a question, Harry tells her that Mr. "I'll go look for help" is where he always is: taking pictures of other people’s misery. Harry then tells Lily that if she wants him so badly, she can go look for him. Having said that, Harry takes off, telling Lily he's off to finish "this" – meaning the feud between him and his father – once and for all. Lily implores Harry to stay, but he does not listen and continues on his way.
Somewhere inside what remains of the Coffee Bean, Spidey is hiding underneath a broken couch, bleeding profusely. Spidey knows his spider-sense is working, meaning those slugs should not have hit him. Something tells him that if it wasn't working, the bullets wouldn’t have missed all his vital organs. Realizing that a possible solution lies in the strength of his spider-sense, Spidey figures out a way to "boost" the signal. Seeing as his tracers work on a similar frequency as his spider-sense, Spidey hopes to be able to snag Bullseye with one of his tracers, which will be like hanging a bell on the cat. Spidey hurls a spider-tracer at Bullseye and it appears to be on its way to make contact when Bullseye turns around at the last possible second and catches the spider-tracer in mid-flight. Before Spidey can do anything, Bullseye tosses the tracer back at him and it slices the side of his neck, sending blood squirting all over his costume. A few yards away, two of Bullseye's soldiers are closing in on Spidey when they get an unexpected surprise in the form of Anti-Venom (whose ditched his disguise). In a matter of seconds, the two soldiers are knocked out cold and dropped to the ground like sack of potatoes. Upon seeing him, Spidey tells Anti-Venom to stay away from him, as he doesn't want his powers cutting out on him again. Anti-Venom tells Spidey he's been watching his back and shows him the automatic camera (Peter's) he snatched from Osborn. Seeing his camera, Spidey immediately deduces how he was just shot. He tells Anti-Venom to do him a favour and take care of the soldiers while he goes after Bullseye.
An arrogant Bullseye calls for Spidey to come out of hiding. Spidey steps out of his hiding place, twirling a ball of webbing at the end of a web-line. He tosses it at Bullseye who simply and easily catches it with one hand, telling Spidey he'll just have to kill him with his free hand and asking him if it was worth it. Spidey replies that it was something he had to get off his chest. Just as Bullseye realizes that Spidey ripped the spider emblem off his costume, inside which the tracking chip was located, and embedded it inside the web-ball he tossed at him, Spidey purposely catches the attention of nearby Thunderbolts soldiers and tricks them into opening fire on himself. As the soldier's weapons' targeting systems are designed to home in on the tracking chip in Spider-Man's chest logo, the smart bullets go by Spidey and end up in Bullseye's chest. "Bullseye" Spidey is heard saying.
Moments later, Anti-Venom and Spidey have rounded up the last of the Thunderbolts soldiers. Anti-Venom offers Spidey to heal him but Spidey would rather not, seeing as he almost died the last time Anti-Venom tried that. The webbing Spidey's wrapped around his injuries should help the bleeding stop. Giving Spidey the automatic camera he retrieved from Osborn, Anti-Venom tells him he feels kind of stupid for having wasted anger on Peter Parker, when all this time he – Spidey – was taking his own pictures. Spidey responds that he needed to make money for his webbing, since fighting guys like Norman Osborn was a non-profit gig. Anti-Venom replies that he understands and tells Spidey that he knows where Osborn is. Spidey wants to know where he is.
At the Oscorp Building, Radioactive Man and Songbird are with a recuperating Venom when Norman Osborn, in full Green Goblin attire shows up in the room, carrying a large bag of some sort. When asked about the reason for his wearing his goblin costume, Norman explains that he's expecting company so he decided to dress for the occasion. Turning to Gargan (i.e. Venom), he tells him that he has something special for him; however, he must first take his medication. Gargan asks what is in the syringe Norman is holding. Norman replies that one drop will cure him, two would kill everybody in the tri-state area and three or four is all he’ll need to wipe out Anti-Venom. Having said that, he injects Gargan with the content of the syringe. He then opens the bag he carried in with him and tells Gargan to put the battle suit that's in it. Norman explains to Gargan that while his symbiote heals, it will need protection, thus the battle suit. Plus, the battle suit's weapon is the perfect delivery system for his super-venom. Songbird doesn’t think it's a good idea but Norman does. He knows what he's doing. Anti-Venom may have interfere with his plans before, but if he should interfere now, he'll feel the sting of his brand new Scorpion. Having donned his new battle suit, Gargan shows his new look to his fellow Thunderbolts and vows to kill Anti-Venom.
To be continued.
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