Spider-Man had dropped Drew Michaels off at home, and was ready to go hunt down the Shocker, who earlier that evening had held the Daily Bugle hostage. That wasn’t bad in itself, Spider-Man had been used to his rogues doing these kinds of things.

But tonight, the Shocker pushed a young man out of the window to buy enough time to make his escape. Not just any young man, but Spider-Man’s son, the result of a closing experiment with Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy’s DNA. Drew was fine, thanks to a last second save by Spider-Man, but now Spider-Man had been angered.

And the one thing you never want to do is get Spider-Man angered by hurting his loved ones, even if this particular loved one didn’t know that Peter Parker was his father. As Spider-Man swung through the streets of New York, he had his portable police scanner on just in case anyone had seen the Shocker.

“The Lizard’s been spotted at Brooklyn Heights Auditorium. Units are on their way, so far no one has been reported hurt. One person still inside with the Lizard.”

 “Dammit, Shocker’s going to have to wait, I’ve been waiting for the Lizard to resurface for a few weeks now, better get him before he hurts someone,” Spider-Man said as he started swinging in the other direction.

A.J. Michaels had never felt such intense pain before, not even when he was going through chemotherapy to treat his cancer. The Lizard’s teeth had gone right through his neck, causing massive bleeding, which had soaked his blue and grey t-shirt with the red, sticky substance. Summoning all of his strength, A.J. curled his fist into a ball and punched the Lizard as hard as he could. The young man stumbled from the loss of blood as the Lizard quickly got back up and charged at him.

A.J. fell backward as the Lizard was almost on him, but just as he was about to finish the job, A.J. held out his wrists and fired every ounce of webbing he could into the Lizard’s mouth, gumming it up. The Lizard started thrashing around as A.J. leaned against the wall, trying to keep his eyes open.

The Shocker, Vulture, Rhino, and Mysterio arrived at the safe house on the outskirts of town, where they were given the promise that no one would be able to track them down.

“This isn’t bad,” Shocker said as he plopped down on a couch. “Cool, a big screen t.v. I could get used to this place.”

“This place is below my usual standards, but it’ll do for now,” Vulture said as he looked around. “While we wait for the rest of our team to arrive.”

“I don’t know about the new kid,” Rhino told them. “I do not trust him, or Norman Osborn.”

“Osborn’s footing the bill for this little adventure, so I say we give the kid a shot unless we’re convinced otherwise,” Mysterio said. “I know he said we can’t kill Spider-Man, but… we’re gonna kill Spider-Man.”

“Oh, yes, the Spider will die,” Vulture laughed. “And there’s nothing Osborn or anyone can do to stop that.”

As the four villains laughed, Norman Osborn was watching from the comfort of his penthouse apartment, smirking evilly.

Spider-Man came in through the roof entrance of the auditorium, ready to take the Lizard by surprise. If he timed it just right, he could take the Lizard down and have back in custody within a few hours. The hero saw the the Lizard thrashing around and swung down, kicking the massive creature through a hole in the wall. Knowing enough that he couldn’t take Spider-Man at the moment, the Lizard disappeared into the darkness.

“Sorry, Lizzie, you’re not getting away that easy,” Spider-Man said as he noticed the blood on the floor. “Oh, no. I hope who ever’s blood that is, they’re still in one piece.”

Spider-Man followed the trail of blood, and found that it led to A.J., who was leaning against the wall with his eyes halfway open. His body was unmoving, laying perfectly still as the blood had finally stopped flowing from his wound. Spider-Man pulled off his mask and started breathing heavily. It couldn’t be him, he thought to himself.

“No, no, NO!” the hero shouted as he rushed toward the boy, taking his pulse. He’d been dead a good two minutes before Spider-Man had knocked the Lizard through the wall. Tears fell from Peter Parker’s eyes as he pulled the boy tightly against his chest. “Please, God, no.”

“You look like hell,” Flash said as he saw Drew coming in through the door of the apartment. “You okay?”

“Another exciting night as the Bugle photographer,” Drew said as he kicked off his sneakers and propped his feet up on the table. “Is A.J. home yet?”

“Actually, I’ve been waiting for him to call,” Flash said. “He’s usually never late without calling first. I’ll give him another few minutes, then I’ll go out to search for him. In the meantime, I think it’s time we… talked.”

“About what?” Drew asked as he leaned his head back. “Is this about keeping my grades up? Because-”

“No, no,” Flash told him. “It’s not that, it’s about the night you got shot. The night they said you weren’t going to wake up.”

“Yeah, a real miracle, wasn’t it?” Drew asked with a laugh. “I guess someone must have really been looking out for me up there.”

“Or somewhere else,” Flash mumbled before he looked back at his young charge. “Drew, something happened that night. And it’s kind of hard to explain, but the reason that you woke up was because-” It was at that point that both Flash and Drew’s cellphones began to ring. “Hello?”

Peter was on Flash’s line, and the Daily Bugle was on Drew’s. The Bugle had been the first to get the news, and Jonah was the one who decided to deliver the news to Drew personally that his brother had been found dead at the auditorium. It was one of the hardest thing s Jameson had ever had to do, but he knew the news had to come from someone he knew instead of the hospital.

While Flash had dropped his phone, in shock, Drew just sat there, unmoving. There was no emotion in his face, there were no tears in his eyes. He just sat there, as lifeless as a mannequin.

“Drew?” Flash asked, seeing the pale, lifeless expression in Drew’s eyes. he slowly approached the boy, putting his arms around him to hug the now brotherless child. And that was when Drew’s emotions began to pour out as he cried on Flash’s shoulder.

Spider-Man rapidly crawled through the sewers, cursing himself for letting the Lizard be on the loose for as he long as he had been. Uncle Ben, Gwen, and now A.J., all dead because he made the wrong decision. The anger was building inside of him as he tracked down the Lizard, keeping on his trail before it got too cold.

The only thought going through his head right now was getting justice for the young man he’d come to think of as a little brother. The boy who’d figured out his secret identity through logic and detection, and kept it to himself until the day he accidentally let it slip to the hero when he had a previous confrontation with the Lizard.

“What confirmed your suspicion?” the unmasked Spider-Man asked as he sat in A.J. Michael’s garage, having just heard the story of how the boy had pieced together his identity. 

“Your backpack,” replied A.J. as he showed Spider-Man a picture taken months ago. He pointed at the bag slung over Spidey’s shoulder in the picture. “The same bag you bring to school each day. Peter Parker’s the only person in New York who carries around an old man’s backpack.”

“It was my Uncle Ben’s, and he gave it to me when I was in high school,” replied Spider-Man as he finished the sandwich. “Have you told anyone else about this?”

“This was the only picture taken with the backpack,” said A.J. as he looked at the hero. “I’m not going to tell anyone, I swear. This secret’s too cool to share.”

“Then I don’t have to give the speech about you knowing who I am being dangerous to you and everyone you know,” replied Spider-Man as he stood up. “If anyone ever found out what you know, it could put you and your whole family in danger.”

“I know,” replied A.J. as he looked up at the hero. “Your secret’s safe with me, I promise.”

“Thanks, kid,” said Spider-Man as he stretched, making sure his shoulder was all right to travel. “Take care of yourself, and make sure your homework’s done, because it’s due tomorrow.”

And from that day, Peter knew he could trust A.J., having confided in the boy things he couldn’t tell anyone else in his life.

“I’m so sorry, kid,” Spider-Man said to himself as he felt himself getting closer to the Lizard. “I’m going to make sure the Lizard goes down for this.”

Spider-Man’s spider-sense suddenly went off as he jumped off he wall, just before the Lizard’s tail came crashing through, shattering the cement into nothing. Spider-Man held out his hands and shot webbing into the Lizard’s eyes to blind him as a series of kicks and punches furiously landed into the beast.

There were no quips, there were no puns. There was none of Spdier-Man’s usualy sense of humor when dealing with one of his rogues. It was all pure rage at this point, all of it for the child who had so much to live for, but now had his life cut short.

The Lizard roared as he finally pulled the webbing from his eyes and swung his arm at the hero, who jumped up out the way, doing a backflip and kicking the Lizard in the jaw. Spider-Man landed in the murky sewer water, shooting more webbing at the beast, who quickly tore it away from his body and rushed forward in a mad rage. Spider-Man caught him and flipped him over his shoulder, tossing him into the wall before firing more webbing to try to pin him down, but the Lizard was in too much of a rage to let a little webbing him trapped.

The two rushed toward each other as Spider-Man’s fist landed in the Lizard’s jaw with a force powerful enough to cause the walls to vibrate. The punch had hurt Spider-Man’s fist, but he didn’t care. All the pain in the world wasn’t going to stop him from getting justice tonight.

Flash and Drew had arrived at the hospital, where Drew had been tasked with identifying the body, something Flash wasn’t sure he was up for.

“I can do this,” Drew whispered as his hands shook. “I need to do this.”

The morgue attendant led Drew through the cold storage room and opened up the door in the wall, sliding the body bag out. He unzipped it carefully as Drew looked down in the face of his baby brother. He couldn’t stop the tears as he gently touched A.J’s cheek and hair, his hands trembling the whole time.

Flash was waiting outside the door as Drew came running out, vomiting into the nearest trash can. Flash could only stand behind Drew, rubbing his back for comfort to let him know that he was there for him.

Jameson sat at his desk, looking over his files for the next edition’s stories. Spider-Man vs. the Shocker was the obvious cover story, but then there was the young man who had given his life to save a class of children from the Lizard.

“I’ll have the Spider-Man story printed immediately,” Robbie told him.

“Spider-Man can have page two,” Jonah said, having finally put his cigar in the ash tray as he pondered things. “Let the real hero have the front cover. This boy saved several lives tonight and died for his troubles, something that webbed menace Spider-Man couldn’t even be bothered to do. The Lizard story gets top billing.”

“Yes, sir,” Robbie told him as he left the office.

Both Spider-Man and the Lizard were reaching the breaking point. Both were powerful, and both were giving the fight everything they had. But they were also evenly matched in both rage and power, and neither was willing to back down. The hero had to put everything he had into one last strike before it was too late.

Spider-Man gave one last powerful punch to the Lizard, sending him falling back into the water before his energy had been spent. The Lizard was out cold, but he knew that if the Lizard got away before he could get him into custody, more people would die. This had to end here. He picked up a large piece of debris and carried it toward the Lizard.

“No one else dies!” Spider-Man shouted as a hand put itself on his shoulder.

“Son, that’s not the way I raised you,” Ben Parker said as Spider-Man dropped the debris. “You know that’s not the way.”

“You died, Gwen died. A.J. died, all because I couldn’t protect you,” Spider-Man said as he pulled off his mask so his Uncle Ben could get a good look at him. “This is all my fault.”

“No, son, it’s not,” Ben said as he put his hand back on Peter’s shoulder, gently squeezing it. “It’s just a fact of life. You’re going to lose people. But you’re also going to gain more people who are just as important. Loss is a part of life, no matter how tragic. It doesn’t change the love that you felt for the person while they were there.”

“If he escapes again, he’ll murder more people,” Peter said as he tears fell.

“Peter, I raised you to be a good man, and I’m very proud of the gins you’ve accomplished,” Ben told him. “But can you really live with yourself if you take a life? Can you look at your Aunt May, or Mary Jane, or anyone else the same way again knowing that you’ve killed in cold blood?”

“I just want justice,” Peter said in a whisper.

“Then get justice, but do it the way that I raised you,” Ben told him. Peter closed his eyes as more tears fell. When he opened them again, his Uncle Ben was nowhere to be seen. Peter stared at the piece of debris, then back at the Lizard.

Several Hours Later

“The Lizard has been taken back into custody, this time with the security tripled to make sure that he doesn’t get loose again,” the reporter said as she stood at the sewer entrance, where the Lizard was being led toward a heavily armored van while sedated. “Meanwhile a memorial is being planned for tomorrow night for the young man who died protecting a group of children from-”

May shut the TV off as she brought a cup of tea to Peter, who sat unmoving on the couch for the last two hours. Ever since he came to the house, he had remained silent and unemotional. May had known about the events of the night and understood what her nephew was going through. She sat down and put the tea on the table in front of him.

“It’s alright, Peter,” May said as she put her hand on his. “I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk. Just take your time.”

A single tear fell down Peter’s cheek as he stared at the blank TV screen.

To be continued…