(New York, present)
Wolverine finds himself webbed up between two buildings. His wrists are facing the sides of his head, and he is pretty much immobile. He’s going to kill Spidey for this. Unfortunately for Wolverine, the webbing is showing no signs of dissolving, and he doesn’t even know how long the stuff lasts.
(New York, earlier that day)
Spider-Man is hanging outside a building in New York, eating doughnuts, whilst Wolverine is across town, speaking to Scott Summers on the phone. He is on the trail of a mutant that has been picked up by the X-Men’s locating devices. He is at their house, and knows he’s on the case, as he has the mutant’s scent. He assures Scott he’ll deliver, and check back with him later. As he wanders off, he thinks that at least Xavier had an excuse for sitting on his rear all day.
Spider-Man, meanwhile, spots some action below. An armored vehicle has been knocked out by what appears to have been an explosion in the street. Several armed goons surround the driver and his partner, and warn them to get themselves out. Spidey webs his briefcase to a streetlight and lands with a thump on the van’s roof. Three goons are disarmed in no time, and Spidey pops his head over the windscreen to let the driver know that he’ll be finished in a couple of minutes. He then swings around and fells two goons; a surprisingly painless exercise for a change. He grabs his case and swings away at speed, as he’s late for a class. The goons lay unconscious, waiting for the cops to arrive.
He quickly changes back into his civvies and sprints into the building. He arrives and apologizes to his class for being late, but then finds his boss is already there taking roll. He takes Peter into the hall and asks him to get a handle on this scheduling situation. He doesn’t want to see him coming in late again. Peter apologizes, and promises it won’t happen again.
A few hours later, Peter hits the cafeteria and sits down with Kyle and Miss Bradley. He tells a little white lie; informing them that his wife forgot to turn the alarm back on. It happens more times than he cares to admit. He clearly cannot reveal that he stopped an armed gang before breakfast. His companions tease him about his wife being a supermodel actress, but Peter takes it well. Kyle asks how he managed to land such a fine woman, and hopes they aren’t paying him more that he gets. He’s got tenure. Miss Bradley replies that he’s quite handsome. When he came to school with bandages on recently, she had trouble concentrating on class that day. She’d have renovated the janitor’s closet with him in a second. Peter is a little taken aback, but Miss Bradley soon assures him that she just likes to see him squirm.
As they eat, a fight breaks out in the cafeteria, and Peter jumps in to try and break it up. Before he can do much, though, the guy being jumped by several other students stands and, with his fists glowing, he throws the lot of them off him. Peter is speechless. He tells the kids to finish their lunches, and chastises the four aggressors for their actions. They’re gonna have to see the principal for this. One of the guys says it’s not fair. Paul has to be a mutant, he insists, or something, with powers like that. Peter replies that all he saw was a boy defend himself. They shouldn’t blame getting beaten on magic. It seems to him like they just picked the wrong guy to mess with. As he ushers them away, he offers an inquisitive backwards glance to Paul.
That afternoon, after school, Paul Patterson is walking home, listening to some music with his Walkman. Parker catches up with him, only this time he’s in costume. He asks if he has a minute. He heard about the incident at school and wonders if he wants to talk about it. “You’re him aren’t you? That teacher from lunch… Mr. Parker.” Spidey quickly denies this, but Paul appears to be sure, as Spidey sounds just like him. Spidey decides to take this conversation elsewhere before he draws a crowd. He grabs Paul and uses his webbing to lift him high onto a nearby building.
He tells Paul that he isn’t going to lie to him, but he and Parker are related, but he’s not him. They just sound alike, and have done for years. Paul replies that this is the problem with adults. They think kids are stupid, but he’s not fooling him. Just because he was born way after him, doesn’t mean he was born yesterday. He then asks Spidey when he first got his powers. Peter tells him that he was in high school, and was just a little older than Paul. Paul wishes he didn’t have powers. He’s always hurting people. Peter tells him that the way he handled himself today, kinda makes him wish he had his powers when he was Paul’s age. He then remembers he’s in character, and adds discretely that Parker told him about it.
Behind Spider-Man, a familiar snikt breaks up the conversation. Before Spider-Man can turn, Paul places his hands together and creates a blast that knocks Wolverine clean off his feet. He flies all the way across the gap between that building and the next, and crashes into the roof access, partially demolishing it. Spidey asks Paul why he did that. Wolverine’s one of the good guys… he thinks, though sometimes it’s hard to tell.
Wolverine picks himself up and assures Paul that he’s not here to hurt him, but if he wants to play rough, he can play rough. Spidey whispers to Paul that it wouldn’t hurt to apologize. Wolverine leaps back towards them. “Any time now Paul,” Spidey adds. As Wolverine lands, Spidey tries to keep him at bay, telling him to give the kid a minute. This is all just a big misunderstanding. Unfortunately, Paul blasts Wolverine again, sending him rolling over and over to the edge of the roof.
Spidey turns and asks why he keeps doing that. Paul replies that he was going to attack them. Spidey tries to say he wasn’t, but is rather unclear himself. Wolverine has had enough. His short fuse has burnt out and he leaps at Paul with claws extended. Spidey whisks the kid out of danger and leaps off the building with him. “This can only get worse from here. Berserker rage with a side order of blind fury coming right up. We’re in big trouble here, kid.” Wolverine leaps from the building in pursuit. Spidey asks Paul to stand back, and not to zap Wolverine again until he’s got the situation under control. Wolverine lands, and warns the wall-crawler to back off. He doesn’t have any idea what this kid’s about, and he’s coming with him one way or another. He tried to be nice and didn’t come looking for a fight, but if Spidey doesn’t get out of his way, he’s going to have more than he can handle.
Spider-Man takes the initiative. Without response, he leaps over Wolverine and fires webs at both his hands. He then continues to pour on the webbing before Wolverine can get a handle on what he’s up to. As he creates a web between two buildings, he asks Wolverine, rhetorically, when he’s going to get it through his thick, indestructible, adamantium skull of his. He’s not letting him hurt the kid - no matter how many times Paul blasts him for no good reason. Spidey leaves Logan webbed up, off the ground and with his wrists facing his skull, in order to prevent him from slicing the webbing and escaping. That pretty much brings us up to speed.
(present)
Wolverine thinks Spider-Man is being stupid, as he has no idea what’s going on. He may have lost his temper, but being stuck there isn’t helping anyone. The kid is dangerous. He can’t budge the webbing, which seals him in place like concrete. He knows that what he will do next will hurt, but he has little option. Slowly, he extends the claws of his right hand. The adamantium blades pierce the skin on the side of his head, but stop when they reach his adamantium skull. Slowly, he extends the claws further, and his arm begins to move away from his head. Eventually, his blades are at full length, and he has enough leeway to slash at the web holding him in place. He is soon free, and knows that all he has to do to get on Spidey’s trail is to follow the scent of bad jokes.
Meanwhile, Paul takes Spider-Man back to his house; the one where Logan was earlier. He asks if he wants to go inside, and Spidey replies that he’s sure Wolverine is on his way, so it’ll probably be better if he’s around when he arrives. As they enter, he informs Paul that, most of the time, Wolverine’s a nice guy. He was probably sent here by the X-Men to recruit him or something. “Really?” replies Paul. Spidey tells him that they might enroll him at their school. They train mutants to use their powers. They have some computers there that can detect mutants. It’s all a bit over his head, and he’s a whiz at science.
The place is a tip, and rubbish is strewn across the floor. Paul seats himself on the couch and says it sounds pretty cool. Spidey asks if his parents are home. Paul informs him that his mom left a while ago. He lives there with his dad. He’s in the bedroom down the hall. Spidey heads in that direction. He thinks he should probably let him know they’re here, especially with Wolverine coming. Paul grabs a soda and tells him not to worry about it. He’s not going to care.
Spidey knocks regardless and doesn’t get any response. He pushes the door open, despite Paul telling him he ought not to. As the door opens, he is greeted by the sight of Paul’s father who is in an advanced state of decomposition. Flies are all around, despite the flypaper on the ceiling. “Um… is he dead?” Spidey asks. Behind him, Paul’s eyes begin to glow. “Well… yeah.”
