Back in the present, in New York City, Ben Reilly, in his nifty new Spider-Man costume, is enjoying an afternoon of web-slinging. His aerial maneuvers are suddenly interrupted by his spider-sense blaring through his head and a large chair being thrown out the window of a nearby building. As he dives into the building to investigate what is going on, he comes face-to-face with what can only be described as some kind of large purple monstrous sludge-like creature, who appears to be looking for a guy named Sanders. Wasting no time, Spidey tries to web it up but his web dissolves on contact. Responding to Spidey's attack, the creature grabs hold of the doorjamb and somehow sets up a chain reaction that causes the walls and ceiling to dissolve. Quickly, Spidey shoots webbing all over the place to hold everything together so that people can get away; however, this gives the creature just enough time to make a quick exit in the ensuing confusion.

Meanwhile, at the Daily Grind, where Ben Reilly works, Shirley, one of the waitresses, is trying to get her son Devon to quit watching TV and help her around the restaurant but he appears to be mesmerized by whatever is playing (Mysterio bought a TV station in Spider-Man Volume 1 #64 so maybe he is behind young Devon’s TV brainwash-like behavior.

After gathering some information about the Sanders Chemical Corporation, Spider-Man makes his way to Long Island, to investigate them on his own and to try and ambush the sludge-like creature that is out to get Sanders. He arrives there and notices that Sanders has gotten himself an army of heavily armed rent-a-cop to protect him. Suddenly, his spider-sense kicks in, warning him of danger. As he tries to pinpoint the source, he notices that it appears to be coming from a normal man just walking into the compound. As Spidey moves into a position to keep tabs on the man, the creature appears and crashes into Sander’s office, hoping to kill him. Spidey moves quickly, enters Sander's office, and attacks the creature, which can now speak. The creature doesn't want to fight him, citing that it has no beef with him, and to tell you the truth, Spidey's punches go through it just like a hot knife through butter. Yet, as the battle rages on, Spidey notices that the creature can turn its "powers" on and off at will, which Spidey deems to be a good thing. The creature gets the upper hand on Spidey and sends him flying into a wall that collapses on top of him. As the creature moves in on Sanders, it starts to transform into a man. A man that Sanders recognizes as Dave Kalen, one of the two environmental consultants believed to have been killed in the explosion a couple months before.

Kalen is obviously enraged and explains to Sanders how he tracked down the man that was responsible for his and his brother's murder and how he subsequently got him to confess and hand over a tape of a phone conversation between the two of them (i.e. Sanders and the man behind the bomb). Kalen is about to deliver the deathblow – or so it seems – when Spidey emerges from the rubble and tackles him through the office window and outside of the building, where he webs him up to a flagpole high above the ground. Spidey tries to reason with him by explaining that he (Kalen) has all the evidence he needs to send Sanders to prison for a very long time. Kalen, however, wants Sanders to pay (more) for his brother's death. Upon seeing Sanders run towards his car and climb into it, Kalen transforms into his creature self, calls himself D.K. (or simply put Decay), smacks Spidey out of the way, and goes after Sanders. D.K. starts to melt the car around Sanders but Spidey comes to Sanders rescue and drops him off out of harm's way. D.K. is furious and cannot understand why Spidey would help Sanders, especially after what he did. D.K. launches himself at Spidey but as gets close to him, he realizes that he cannot kill him, and slowly transforms back into his human self, and apologizes to Spidey.

Sometime later, Sanders is arrested and put into a waiting patty wagon. Spidey then introduces Kalen to John Jameson and Edward Whelan, of the Ravencroft Institute, and explains to him that they will help him with his problems. Kalen thanks him for being there for him and he drives away with them.

The end...for now.