New Mexico. A hut. In his underwear, sweating profusely, a spider symbol painted on his face, Peter Parker sits on one side of a roaring fire. Across from him, on the other side of the flames, Thomas Fireheart, a.k.a. Puma, also sits in his underwear, a puma symbol painted on his face. Sitting on the ledge around them, Fireheart's fellow tribesmen are chanting, their faces lit up by the dancing flames of the campfire, while his uncle, the only one standing up, sprinkles medicinal herbs into the fire. Peter's memory is hazy and he has a difficult time remembering how he got there in the first place. His thoughts are interrupted when the uncle hands him a bowl containing some kind of liquid and orders him to drink it. Reluctant to drink it at first, Peter finally agrees and swallows the bowl's content.
The bowl's content somehow causes Peter to remember how he got to New Mexico by means of a flashback sequence: Tired of Fireheart using the Daily Bugle as his mouthpiece and plastering his mug over half the billboards in New York City, Spidey shows up outside Fireheart's office window and asks him to stop doing what he is doing. Getting no reaction from him, Spidey climbs through the open window and touches Fireheart on the shoulder, awaking the beast within him. Fireheart grabs Spidey's arms and throws him across his office. Spidey lands feet first on the wall and warns Fireheart that if he wants to fight, that he is ready for him. Beginning to transform into Puma, Fireheart agrees that they have to finish this but decides that they cannot finish it there and then. Shifting back into his human self, he tells Spidey to meet him at midnight at his private hangar at the Kennedy Airport. The flashback sequence ends there and Peter finds himself back in New Mexico, Fireheart staring at him from the other side of the campfire. It is not Fireheart's turn to drink from the bowl.
Fireheart drinks from the bowl and he too, through the means of a flashback, remembers how he got to New Mexico: At a local restaurant, Fireheart meets with J. Jonah Jameson, the former Daily Bugle publisher, and offers to sell him his 51% share of the Daily Bugle stock for one dollar in exchange for Jonah printing an obituary for either him or Spider-Man. Jonah literally drops his cigar.
Back in New Mexico, Peter wonders what Fireheart saw in his flashback, while Fireheart's uncle continues throwing medicinal herbs in the campfire, smoke filling up the hut. As Peter wonders what Fireheart sees in the smoke, he himself begins to see something taking shape in the smoke: his wife Mary Jane. Peter reaches to touch her and finds himself back in his New York City apartment, through the means of a flashback. It is the night before departing for New Mexico and Peter is packing up his stuff, while Mary Jane stands nearby watching him. MJ doesn't want Peter to go but he tells her that he needs to resolve things with Fireheart once and for all. Observing that MJ seems preoccupied with something, Peter hugs her and asks her if everything is all right. MJ tells Peter to promise her that he will remember – no matter what happens – that he is the only man that she has ever loved, a tear streaming down her face. As Peter replies that he loves her too, he, once again, finds himself back in the smoky hut across from Fireheart.
Staring at Fireheart, Peter wonders why he decided to go along with Fireheart's plane to come to New Mexico to settle the whole debt of honor situation, well aware that New Mexico is Puma's territory. As he ponders those thoughts, Fireheart transforms into the Puma right in front of his eye. As Peter stares at the wild beast, he tries to remember what Fireheart told his uncle, the Shaman, when they arrived at the Hartsdale Airport earlier that day. We are treated to another flashback in which, after his jet-plane lands and Peter and him leave the airplane, Fireheart thanks his waiting uncle for meeting with him and helping him restore balance in his life, with honor. His uncle jumps down his throat, figuratively, and tells him that he should be ashamed of speaking about honor especially since he has abandoned all of his. Fireheart is perplexed and asks his uncle how he has abandoned his honor. His uncle replies that the power that was granted to him at birth should have been dedicated to the benefit of his people. Fireheart replies that he did not squander his heritage and tells his uncle that Fireheart Industries has brought fortune to the tribe. His uncle replies that money is nothing and that honor is everything. He continues explaining that by hiring himself as an assassin to the highest bidder, he has become a tool of the white man. Fireheart replies that he does not agree with his uncle but that isn't the point. His uncle cuts him off and asks him why he came to see him. Fireheart explains that he misjudged Peter by attacking his honor in public, then he realized he had been wrong. To make amends – Fireheart continues explaining – he bought a newspaper and sought to restore Peter’s reputation, yet time and time again, he found himself in his debt. "This must end", Fireheart adds. His uncle asks him why it must end. Yelling, Fireheart replies that only blood will redress the balance between them and that his reputation is at stake. The uncle concurs and tells them that before anything else takes place, both have to be purified, which, back in the present, is what Peter and Fireheart are partaking into.
As Peter wonders whether or not Fireheart did transform into Puma or if he was simply dreaming about it, the Shaman approaches him and starts waving crow legs above his head. Unable to tell what is real and what isn't real, Peter begins to freak out when extra sets of legs start growing out of the sides of his body. As he transforms into a large hairy spider, Peter begins hallucinating and wonders if he too, like Fireheart, has a demon inside him, a demon that's trapped the people he loves in his web of destruction, with him at the center, feeding on their pain. Refusing to believe that he is a monster, Peter screams at the top of his lungs, then he reverts back to his human self and finds himself sitting next to the campfire once again. The Shaman then speaks and tells Fireheart and Peter that every man has a monster inside him and if a man is to live with honor, he must confront the monster within and answer the eternal question: "the monster or the man". Having said that, the Shaman throws some kind of powder in the campfire flames and shadowy demons leap from the flames. Peter sees his monster, the spider, and wonders if Fireheart sees his, the puma. Fireheart sees his too. Moving his arms around frantically, the Shaman gestures to the shadowy monsters to attack Peter and Fireheart. The puma shadow attacks Peter while the spider shadow attacks Fireheart. Showing off their amazing abilities, both Peter and Fireheart defeat each other's monster's shadow. So they think. Both monsters reemerge from the flames and attack each other. As they lock into a deadly embrace, Peter begins to understand that there's only one way to end their struggle: one of them has to die and the other has to live. Just then, the shadowy monsters explode into a cloud of smoke.
Then the smoke begins to clear and Peter finds himself dressed in his Spider-Man costume and Fireheart transformed into Puma. The Shaman is there with them and tells them that by looking into their respective souls, they have understood that the conflict between them can only end in death. He asks if they are willing to continue this conflict to its fatal conclusion, or end it now in peace. Spidey replies that it is entirely up to Puma because it's his honor. Puma replies that honor demands blood so the Shaman tells them that war is upon them and they must battle to the death.
To be continued.
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