While Kaine ponders his mortality over the corpse of a dead man in a funeral home, Spider-Man (Ben Reilly) silently observes the grave of "his" friend, Harry Osborn. Kaine decides that he should not die alone, and so he formulates a plan. He sends a stranger across the country in search of Ben, and in the meantime visits Ben, "firing the first volley in a war that, with luck would destroy us both." He leaves Ben's apartment in shambles, and so Ben goes to a bar to relieve himself of frustrations. In the bar he runs into Flash Thompson, who is drunk and philosophizing about his glory days. Ben gives him advice and leaves, and upon returning to his apartment finds the one person he never expected to see - Janine Godbe, whom he believed dead.
