Silvio Manfredi smiled with satisfaction as everything he had been working for, for the past thirty years had finally come together, in an old abandoned warehouse. He had finally found it, the mystical artifact he had been searching his whole life to find. The properties of said artifact were worth millions, but because of what it could do, what it was going to do, to Silvermane, it was priceless. Getting to this point had taken almost half of his wealth, and a decent "contribution" from the local banks, but the machine that would make the hunk of rock priceless was finally ready. Thanks to the talents of Dr. Otto Octavious, the Vulture and the Tinkerer, they had a machine that could drain the rocks energy for his intended purpose. They were going to use the artifact to become younger.

There was so much untapped potential with regaining lost youth. The possibilities were endless. There was so much that could be done with the unlimited amount of time granted by the artifact. And Silvio knew that there were certain people who would do a great deal to get their hands on that power. Shocker, Sandman, and Rhino knew the potential of this and had lent their services to gathering the required materials for the project. Now, it was time for them to reap the fruits of their labor. The Tinkerer was making a few last minute adjustments to the machine when he found his hand stuck to the console.

"Let me guess, you guys came together to form a sinister 7?" Spidey joked. "Let me guess, that hunk of junk is the key to my demise."

Spider-Man's sarcasm rang loud and clear. No matter what stunts they tried to pull, they were never going to beat him. He was going to stop them, one way or another. You'd think after him kicking their butts so many times, they would learn to give up. But the giant metal tentacle coming for Peter's head gave him great doubts about that ever happening.

Spidey leaped off of a metal pillar right before a sonic wave from Shocker bent it. The building gave a small groan as bits of the dilapidated ceiling came crashing to the ground. Spider-Man rotated mid air, trying to knock some of the debris away from him. It left him vulnerable to giant fist made of sand.

"INSOLENT SPIDER, this fragment will allow us to remain young forever. As soon as-" Dock Ock growled as one of his tentacles went for Spider-Man's head.

Spidey had barely any time to react to the incoming tentacle, but managed to leap away in the nick of time.

Spidey cut him off in an excited tone as he leap frogged over the head of Rhino, "REALLY! Cool! But there's no way," Spidey was maneuvering around the room to avoid hits, "I'm going to let you guys use that."

Spider-Man was just happy that in this cramped warehouse, the Vulture wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him. He and Silvermane weren't even in their suits, meaning that the old men was essentially useless in the fight. Spidey just had to end the fight before the Vulture and Silvermane could do so, liking the current odds better. Going up against four was a lot better than the six that could be fighting.

Sandman and Shocker tag teamed a coordinated attack that sent the webbed hero into a pillar, bending its form. Spidey could practically see stars dancing in his vision. The structure of the warehouse let out another groan as its structural integrity started to give way even more.

"If you really want to regain your youth, just look at some old photos. It's a lot less work." Spidey said, back flipping and weaving from a barrage of tentacles.

In the heat of the fight, one of the tentacles collided with the machine. A huge sonic blast and a blinding yellow light filled the room. What remaining windows in the warehouse shattered and more debris rained from above, coating everything in a thin dust. The force of it sent everyone flying into opposite ends of the room along with the rubble. A moment later the super criminals sat up and started rubbing their heads.

They were surprised to see that the blast had done more than the initial damage; it had made them younger. Silverman looked ans felt like had had in his late thirties. While it wasn't the youthfulness of his twenties that he had been hoping for, it would be enough. The Vulture looked like he had just entered his thirties with his auburn hair on his head. The Tinkerer's hair had gone back to the light brown color it had been in his mid twenties. Dock Ock now resembled a thinner younger form of himself, barely passing as twenty. Sandman and Rhino looked about the same with only a few years shaved off. Shocker yanked off his mask and found that he looked as he had in his twenties as well. After taking the chance of admiring their newfound youth, the saw the super powered hero. He appeared no more than a three year old. His costume was falling off his shoulders. The super hero looked like a child playing in his father's old clothes. Most importantly, he looked scared and confused.

The seven were shocked to find that the boy couldn't remember anything. Otto suspected that it had to do with his brain reverting back to that of a young child. It was all but confirmed when they had taken the young boy back to the new hideout. With that information, Otto decided that he needed to inform the group so that they could plan accordingly.

"Well Marko," Otto said pushing up his glasses on his thinner nose, "I do believe i have some good news for the group. Come on and bring the child."

For some reason, the spiderling had taken a liking to Sandman the most. Flint was the only one that the young boy wasn't terrified of. Otto wondered if it had to do with the compassion Marko had been reported to have for young children. It was strange to think that somehow children could innately pick up on that. Then again, maybe it had to do with how Sandman had "accidentally" saved the spider from the burning ship. Regardless of the reason, Otto was thankful to have someone else taking care of the small child. He didn't need the boy distracting him from much needed work.

The three of them entered the common room where the remaining members of the sinister seven were waiting patiently.

"So, what's up with the bug?" Shocker asked, setting his steaming cup of coffee down.

"Bug, where's a bug?" the boy asked looking scared as he squirmed in Flint's grasp.

"There's no bug kid." Flint said, trying to reassure the boy.

Otto rolled his eyes at the display. Children were the worst in his opinion. They were so terrified of irrational things like non harmful insects or the dark.

"Well Jackson, it was as I had suspected." Otto said. "Our greatest enemy, our perpetual roadblock, is no more. He had been reduced with a child."

The tinkerer looked lost in thought for a moment before he responded. "So what do we want to do with him? There's no doubt that he could be an excellent asset once he is older."

"Yes," Otto said thoughtfully. "We can mold him into whatever we wish. I highly doubt that he will be able to remember anything from his life before."

Adrian let out a long breath, filled with slight annoyance. "We can go through all that work, but what happens when he gets old and finds out about his alter ego. He'll put two and two together and know something is up. He'll know the ins and outs as to how we work. The boy will be even more of a threat than he ever was before this incident."

"Yeah, we should get rid of him now once and for all. He's too puny to stop us." Rhino said.

The hulking figure leaped to his feet, shaking the ground. His hands were clutched in tight fists as he marched up to Flint and the boy. The child gripped Flint's shirt tightly and buried his face into his shoulder.

Otto held his hands up, stepping between them. "Alexander, please let's not do anything rash right at the moment. Besides, I would like to remind you that we are all in this together. The decision should be unanimous, which it isn't right now- not until we've all said our peace at least."

"Doc, you remember when you almost got into the homeland security data base?" Flint asked.

"Yes, I remember that failure clearly." Otto said, sounding annoyed.

"If you could get back in, you can control any data base in the world. You could erase any trace of the web head's existence." Flint said.

"But what about dem news papers. Ya can't just erase him from all of that stuff." Rhino said.

Otto thought for a moment. "There may not be a need for that."

"And why not?" Adrian asked.

"Because, the web head used these." Otto said, pulling out the web shooters, pressing the trigger down and shooting out a string of webs. "For all he knows is that he is another one of my - and his words not mine- genetic misfits. We can control the narrative. We'll have years to build it and get our stories straight. And anything we say or do tonight will be forgotten by the child." Otto turned towards Sivlio. "Silvio, you've been remarkably quite though out this whole debate. What are your thoughts."

"I like your idea Otto, but I want contingency plans for if he does turn on us." Silvio replied.

"Of course. We would be foolish not to have them in place. Now, would anyone else like to add anything to this?" Doc Ock asked.

The room was silent as the men thought things over. There was a lot riding on the decision made tonight. Either way, it was a new chance for them to take over the city. One of the options may bring them to ruling more than the city just as much as it could destroy everything they had built over the years.

"Are there any objections to the idea?" Otto asked after a few more moments of deliberation.

Otto waited for a response. The room was silent as each of the men looked at one another.

With a smile, Otto said, "Well then, if there are no objections, let's get started on building our new empire."