"Revenge? What revenge?" Spider-Man asked, looking at the cloaked figure in front of him.
"That is not important!" Mysterio shouted. "You are here, and now I can finally defeat you in person!"
"What the heck are you talking about?"
Mysterio clenched his fist and got in Spidey's face. "I have destroyed your reputation. And now, I will destroy you!"
Spider-Man finally put two and two together. "You're the one who's been impersonating me!" he exclaimed. "But why?"
Mysterio lifted his hand and a portal of sorts appeared. Spidey could see something happening on the other side. He saw the interior of a bank, and . . . himself? But the bank looked familiar. It was the bank in which he had set up an account back when he was a TV star!
"How can that be? I never held up a bank!" Spidey wondered aloud.
"Fool!" Mysterio shouted. "It is I, Mysterio, impersonating you! This is the first robbery that no one knows about."
"You!" Spider-Man hollered. "You're the one who emptied my bank account!" With that, Spidey leapt to Mysterio and began to punch him in the gut. Mysterio laughed and disappeared, only to reappear behind the arachnid and knock him down. All along, Spider-Man could hear the taunting of Mysterio. Mysterio would reappear, and Spidey would charge at him, only to fall down and find that it was an illusion.
"Look!" Jimmy shouted, pointing into the haze. "Lois, something's happening!"
Lois was still on the phone with Perry. "What is it, Jimmy?"
Jimmy looked through the camera lens, using the close-up feature. He could make out one of the people inside, but not the other. "It's Spider-Man!" he exclaimed.
"Perry," Lois said into the phone, "we have a Spider-Man sighting!"
"Is Parker there?" Perry asked.
Lois looked around. "He was just here. Jimmy, where's Peter?"
Jimmy, who was snapped pictures and watching the fight, explained without taking his eyes off of the sight in front of him. "He said he was getting sick or something, and he took off."
Lois relayed this to Perry.
"What--?! I pay him for pictures, and he can't deliver!"
Just then, the police pulled up.
Spider-Man's head ached. First, that stupid buzzing was annoying. Second, he kept falling into concrete everytime he was fooling by Mysterio's illusions. He had to get out. He heard the sirens in the background, followed by the voices of police.
Mysterio reappeared, standing over Spider-Man, who was laying on the ground. "Police! They'll ruin my plans! So long, Spider-Man! We'll meet again!"
Mysterio disappeared, and the illusion started to fade. Spidey quickly shot a webline and left before the street returned. He ducked behind a building, took the camera out of his suit, and then changed back into Peter Parker.
Jimmy, Lois, the cabbie, and the cops all stared in amazement as the illusion faded away. The street returned, and they could see all of the buildings, including the bank.
The cops looked at each other, and then to Lois and Jimmy. One of them stepped forward. "Well, Ms. Lane, it looks as if there is nothing we can do."
Lois nodded her head. "Thanks anyway."
The police climbed back into the squad car and drove off. Lois quickly finished her conversation with Perry and hung up.
At that moment, Peter came running up. "Lois! Jimmy! You'll never guess what I saw!"
Lois's expression turned to one of anger. "Peter! Where the heck have you been? Perry pays you to take pictures of news. Not run off in danger!"
"Lois! Calm down. I did get pictures."
"How?"
Peter pulled the small camera from his pocket. "A good photographer never carries around just one camera," he said, smiling. "I also heard what went on."
"Save it," Lois replied. "We have to get back to the Planet!"
Lois, Peter, and Jimmy were sitting in Perry's office waiting for the editor-in-chief when he walked in.
"There you are! Where's the story?" Perry demanded as he walked in.
Lois handed him her story, which she had just typed up. Perry glanced over it and then looked at the two photographers.
"Well? Where are the pictures? I hope you have something to save your butt, Parker!"
"Yes, sir!" Peter said. "After I gave the camera to Jimmy, I used my small camera to take pictures from the other side. After all, a good photographer should always have a camera!"
Perry smiled. "Son, you may just be a great photographer yet! Now, get those down to the darkroom. Olsen, how long should it take to get developed?"
Jimmy thought for a second. "About an hour."
"Good."
"Uh, Mr. White?" Peter asked. "Could I run an errand during that hour?"
"If you're back when those pictures come back."
"Will do!"
Ten minutes later, Spider-Man was swinging into Emil Hamilton's lab again.
"Spider-Man!" Hamilton exclaimed. "What may I help you with this time?"
"It's that camera thing again. I need it to detach. Can we make one of those?"
"Actually, I started working on one shortly after you left last time. It should be able to be contained within the nanosuit."
"How soon can it be installed?" Spidey asked.
Hamilton looked at the clock. "Half an hour, max."
"Let's get to work."
Spider-Man was webslinging through the city, testing his camera. It was able to respond to his thoughts. By staying in tune with the nano-machines of his suit, the camera always stayed near him. This way, he could get pictures of every battle, without missing any Spider-Man shots.
As he got closer to the Daily Planet building, he commanded the camera back into the suit and then he climbed into the globe on top of the building. Peter de-activated the Spidey suit and then walked down the stairs to the actual top floor. He got on the elevator and returned to the City Room.
Perry was walking around, looking at the pictures that had just been taken at the battle that morning.
"Wonderful!" he exclaimed. Then, he saw Peter and walked up to him. "Peter! Great pictures! Almost as if you were right up on Mysterio! You must give me quality like this all of the time!"
Peter smiled. "I'll try."
"These pictures run in the next edition. Meantime, take some time off. You deserve it."
Peter returned home and lay on his bed thinking. Mysterio took his money, or did he? The master of illusion never admitted to it. Either way, a villain had escaped, and Spidey had no place to start looking.
Peter jumpped up off of the bed and quickly looked around his room for his electronic kit that Uncle Ben had gotten him for Christmas a few years ago. It was a fairly good Radio Shack set, not too expensive, but it had the materials that Peter needed for his solution.
He had already determined that the buzzing and tingling was a special early warning system. He now called it his "Spider Sense." He could make some devices that tuned into that frequency and be used as trackers. Next time he saw Mysterio, he would snag one in that cape and hope not to lose him.
Peter found the set under his bed and placed it on his desk. He had already formulated the plans in his head while he was searching for the kit, and now he was ready to build some Spider-tracers.
At that moment, Mysterio appeared in the middle of the City Room at the Daily Planet building. He was surrounded in smoke.
"Where is J. Jonah Jameson?" he said in his deep voice. "I must speak to him immediately!"
Perry White gulped. He could feel the sweat on his forehead. "Jameson is up in his office. Two floors up," he replied, pointing upwards.
Mysterio smiled underneath his helmet. "Thank you," he said. As he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, the City Room suddenly disappeared and everyone found themselves, falling out of the sky. Everyone panicked, thinking that they were skydiving.
Peter finished up the first set of spider-tracers and put them in his suit. He then called the Planet to see if he needed to come in. No one answered.
"Something's wrong!"
Spider-Man swung to the Daily Planet. He changed into Peter and used the same procedure as before. When he reached the City Room, he saw the illusion.
"Mysterio!" he exclaimed, turning the spider costume back on. Spidey quickly shot out two weblines, hoping to touch the wall on the other side. He finally did, and tied the ends from his webshooters onto the rails of the elevator. He then webbed up the door so it wouldn't close. Shooting another set of webs to strengthen the first, Spidey stepped up onto the webbing and walked over to where the center of the room should have been.
Everyone else was experiencing falling. Spidey began to feel light-headed. He was in both worlds. He saw Perry and webbed him.
"Spider-Man!" Perry exclaimed. "What's going on?"
"Mysterio turned the City Room into a skydiving adventure! I must stop this illusion!"
Spider-Man looked around and saw two little cubes floating around. They had holes in each side. Spidey concluded that they must be controlling this illusion. As soon as he webbed them up, the City Room turned back to normal. Spidey set Perry down, and they shook hands.
"Hey, Spidey, Mr. White! Smile!" Jimmy Olsen shouted, holding up a camera, and then snapping a picture.
Spidey turned to Perry. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I must follow Mysterio."
"He's up two floors, talking to Jameson!"
"Mr. Jameson. My faithful supporter! You did just as I asked, and I must say that I am proud of that!" Mysterio exclaimed, looking out the window.
"Y-yes, Mysterio," Jameson stammered. "Uh, good thing that you tipped me off to those Spider-Man robberies. I got first exclusive."
"Only because I let you," Mysterio retorted.
"Of course."
Just then, Mysterio was unable to look out the window. Something had just covered it up. Suddenly, the window caved in, and Spider-Man came through, kicking Mysterio back into the wall on the far side of the room.
"Spider-Man!" Mysterio shouted.
"Glad you remember me," Spidey replied, grabbing Mysterio by his shirt (or the top part of his suit) and surreptiously attaching a spider-tracer into his cloak. "Hope that you remember this!" he said as he tossed Mysterio out of the window.
As Mysterio flew out of the building, Spidey turned to Jameson. "So, Jameson, how are things today?"
"You menace! Stop him!"
"Seems like you're in a contradictory mood today," Spidey said, as he stood in the broken window. He tapped his right arm, just above his wrist, and then shot a webline, flying into the city. The camera detached and began to take pictures.
Mysterio suddenly reappeared, floating high above the city. It was then that Spider-Man realized that this battle would be taking place more than thirty stories up in the air.
The thought didn't stay with him long, because Mysterio punched him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. As he fell, he waiting for his lungs to inflate before shooting two weblines out to catch him. He was already down to the eighth story by the time this happened.
Spidey webbed back up and leapt, not at where Mysterio appeared to be, but at where the spider-tracer was telling him the illusionist was. Mysterio flew back, and then allowed himself to drop. Spidey followed, hoping to stop him.
However, at ground level, he was unable to find Mysterio. He relied on the tracer to tell him. Spider-Man looked around, trying to determine where the signal was strongest. He ran down the street, and the signal began to get stronger. Finally, he stood in front of a television studio. He rushed in, startling the people in the front lobby.
"Hello, folks!" he said, with a slight wave as he ran away. "Love to stay, but I have a villain to stop!"
Spidey ran down a series of corridors before coming to an office with the name of Quentin Beck on the door. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. He backed up, and then charged the door. The impact shattered the door, and Spidey ran in, seeing a secret door in the floor, still halfway open.
He descended down into the secret catacombs below the studios. The signal continued to get stronger. Finally, he saw Mysterio running.
"Mysterio!" he shouted. "Come back here!"
Mysterio spun around, saw the wallcrawler, and ran even faster. Spidey shot out webbing and caught him by his ankles. He reeled him in, webbed him up, and hung him from the ceiling.
"Okay, Mysterio, I have some questions! Who is under that mask?" Spider-Man smashed the glass, and saw the green haze. Slowly, it vanished, and he saw a man with brown hair looking at him. "Who are you?"
"I am Quentin Beck, special effects master!" Mysterio said with confidence.
"Why did you want my money?" Spidey asked.
"I'm not telling you."
Spider-Man punched Beck in the face. "Tell me."
"Okay, okay. I needed it for some . . . activities I was going to be doing. I saw you come in that first day, and knew how easy it would be to duplicate your powers with smoke and mirrors. I needed money real bad, so I decided to take yours."
Spider-Man was now furious. "Where's my money?!" he shouted.
"I don't have it," Beck said, his voice shaky. "I never got it. Everyone thinks I did, but somehow, the money was gone when I got there, I just closed the account!"
"What do you mean, GONE?"
"Someone must have taken it out electronically just as I came in. I never touched it. That's why I robbed the rest of the banks as you."
"You son of a ---!" Spidey stopped himself as he decked Beck right in the jaw.
Just then, the cave started to shake.
"What's that?" Spidey asked.
"I don't know."
Spidey untied Beck and then began to run. He looked back to check up on Mysterio, but all he saw was rocks piling on top of him.
As he climbed up through the floor, he noticed that nothing had happened above ground.
"Interesting," he said, as he tried to find a way out.
Peter stood in Perry White's office the next afternoon as the editor-in-chief looked over the photos.
"Peter, you are a great photographer. For someone who can take these great shots, I think I have the perfect assignment for you."
He quickly wrote down an address and some directions. "This is where Doctor Octavius is rumored to be staying since the accident a few months ago. I would like you to get some pictures."
Peter stared at the paper, shocked. No one had heard from Octavius since the accident. Plus, this was the guy who caused him to be Spider-Man.
Before Peter could think, he heard himself saying, "Sure, Mr. White, no problem."
A few nights later, Spider-Man was snooping around the roof of the giant science lab of Otto Octavius. He looked down into the window. He could see Octavius standing in the middle of the room, talking to two people - one male, one female - while he mixed several liquids together. The strange thing was that he was still wearing the metal arms. But they looked different. They looked as if they were bonded to his back.
Spidey took out his camera and snapped a few pictures. He put the camera away and stood up. However, the glass couldn't support him. Before he could shoot a web, he fell through the glass.
Laying on the floor, Spider-Man was hurting bad. He felt himself being pulled up. He felt Octavius's metal arms around him.
"Ahh, look, a little spider fell through our window," Octavius said. "Too bad that spiders don't get along with octopi!" He began laughing, and then through Spider-Man out of the front window. Dr. Octavius then returned to his own work.
Spider-Man lay on the ground outside, barely conscious. "Doctor . . . Octopus? Ohhh!" he said as the blackness surrounded him.
Next: Read Detective Comics #6 before coming back here as the Sinister Six crossover begins. Then, next issue, it's Spider-Man's biggest fight, as he goes against six villains at once. Good thing Batman's got his back!