In Shanghai, China, a commercial for a Parker Industries wrist-mounted smartphone called Webware plays as a group of Zodiac's Leo Sect speed down the highway, firing energy bolts behind them. Pursuing them are Spider-Man and Mockingbird, in a futuristic-looking Spider-Mobile. Spider-Man sings a theme song, and when Mockingbird tells him to stop he activates an auto tune function. Mockingbird tells him that her S.H.I.E.L.D. training affords her fourteen ways of killing him, and Spider-Man shuts the auto tune off just as he receives a message alert from Nick Fury, Jr. who asks Mockingbird for a status report. She informs him that the Zodiac broke into Parker Industries' Shanghai branch and made off with its servers, which would allow them to hack into the Webware devices. Fury tells them to not let it fall into Zodiac's hands, and Spider-Man tells him he has no intention of letting S.H.I.E.L.D. have access to it either, cutting off Fury's protests by threatening to stop designing tech for S.H.I.E.L.D. if necessary.

As they swerve to avoid energy bolts, Spider-Man boasts of his superior driving skills, courtesy of his superhuman reflexes, Spider-Sense... and private lessons. In the driver's seat of the Zodiacs' getaway car, Leo tells his grunts to take out the road. As Mockingbird complains that the Spider-Mobile is slowing down, Spider-Man tells her not to worry about crashing because it has web-fluid airbags. The Zodiac thugs blow up a car, destroying the road, but as they gloat the Spider-Mobile tails them, driving along the underside of the overpass. Cheered on by the citizens of Shanghai, Spider-Man switches the steering over to Mockingbird and opens the roof, addressing his fans in Mandarin, which he picked up taking his driving lessons. The Spider-Mobile's wheels unfold into insectoid legs and it flips over, cutting off the Zodiacs' escape. Spider-Man jumps onto the hood of their car, displaying a couple of the new webbing types he developed: micro-coiled Z-metal "Bug Zappers" capable of being electrified, and shock-absorbing expanding web-foam. The Zodiacs' car crashes and Spider-Man checks on the citizens to see if anyone's hurt. When one of them reprimands him for letting the Leo Sect escape, Spider-Man states he's delegating their apprehension to Mockingbird, who knocks the grunts out and interrogates Leo as to why Zodiac has been trying to steal the Webware servers. Leo bites a suicide pill, but Spider-Man shoots him with an antidote he developed, griping that he's tired of them killing themselves. Mockingbird accuses him of adhering to his "no-one dies around me" idealism, but Spider-Man tells her he's not so naïve anymore and simply wants to save everyone he can.

As they return to Parker Industries to check out the crime scene, Mockingbird teases Spider-Man for his dramatic speech. A young Chinese woman, Lian Tang, exits a nearby vehicle and reprimands Spider-Man for taking the Spider-Mobile without her permission. When Spider-Man brushes her complaints aside by stating it's his car, Lian snaps that the Spider-Mobile doesn't belong to him but to her and Peter, since they designed and built it together. Lian threatens to report Spider-Man to Peter, saying that they are very close in a manner that implies physical intimacy, and Mockingbird quietly teases Spider-Man for sleeping around. Changing the subject, Spider-Man introduces her to other members of his staff: Min Wei, Peter Parker's personal secretary; Dr. Yao Wu, the head of the bio-tech division; and Phillip Chang, in charge of renewable energies research. Min inquires as to Peter's whereabouts since he has a press conference in ten minutes, and Spider-Man remarks that he knows where to find Peter as he enters an elevator. Changing out of his costume and into a business suit, Peter psyches himself up for the worldwide press conference.

Later, in front of a crowd of reporters, Peter denounces rumors that he built the Webware industry in China to exploit cheap labor, stating that he's paying fair wages and is not out to build a fortune, but to build the future. Citing his Uncle Ben, Peter explains that his intent is to make sure that the world superheroes risk their lives to save is one worth saving, announcing the Uncle Ben Foundation - using technologies to help the less fortunate and improve standards of living around the world - as his next venture. When a reporter accuses him of being a "poor man's Tony Stark" for having Spider-Man as the company's mascot and his personal bodyguard, Peter replies that unlike Tony he capped his salary at a middle management level. After the conference ends, Peter asks Min Wei how he did, and she reveals his fly was down and tells him the corporate jet is waiting to take him back to the States. On board the jet, Peter places a call to Hobie Brown, who's been operating as Spider-Man in San Francisco. Hobie laments that he'd rather be out as the Prowler, and Peter remarks that he pays Hobie more than he himself makes, asking him to come to a wedding that evening.

That evening, Peter, Hobie, and Sajani Jaffrey attend the wedding of Max Modell and Hector Baez. Despite them having fallen out during the time Otto Octavius swapped minds with Peter, Max congratulates Peter for Parker Industries' success and Sajani for being appointed manager of the company's European branch. Hector thanks Peter for putting him and Max in charge of the company's west coast operations, the Parker Institute for Technology, but Peter informs them there were a few last minute changes: he renamed the institute the Horizon University in honor of Max's now defunct Horizon Labs. Peter says that while he couldn't get any of Max's intellectual property back from Alchemax, he cut a deal with Liz Allan for the name. While Max is touched by this gesture, Sajani pulls Peter away to dance, using the opportunity to criticize him for his humanitarian approach instead of dominating the global market. Just as Sajani makes an ominous remark about taking things into her own hands, Peter's Spider-Sense goes off and Zodiac's Pisces Sect emerges from the bay. While Peter offers himself up as a distraction, Hobie changes into his Spider-Man costume. Pisces reveals they are after Peter's Webware specifically, because it has access to restricted data caches. Hobie - as Spider-Man - intervenes, and Peter tells Sajani to help the wedding guests - former Horizon Labs employees - find cover. Hobie's lack of a Spider-Sense gets him knocked out of the fight, and Peter realizes that he could be killed. Encrypting his Webware, he gives it to the Pisces Sect, who depart as the police arrive. Peter tells Hobie to change into his Prowler costume and that they'll retrieve the Webware together before Zodiac undoes his encryption, while the Horizon Lab alumni lament that they'll find themselves targeted by supervillains again, reminiscing over past incidents.

Peter confronts Sajani, who assumes that he's going to ask her out, but instead he reveals that he knows that someone in the company has double-crossed him and that he's well aware that she'd been sabotaging his projects to undermine his authority and usurp control of the company, and that she had colluded with supervillains in the past, making her his number-one suspect. Peter lets her off with a warning that he won't tolerate her insubordination anymore, and a dismayed Sajani returns to the Parker Industries HQ in London, where she's greeted by Anna Maria Marconi and the Living Brain. Sajani irately tells Anna to call an emergency senior staff meeting and advance their nanotech program to Phase Three, brushing aside Anna's protests. Once Sajani is out of earshot, Anna jokingly orders the Living Brain to terminate her, but he responds that his programming prevents him from complying. Anna remarks that she'll have to upgrade his sarcasm-detection software and sets off to comply with Sajani's orders. The Living Brain follows and offers to assist her, making her remark that ever since his last upgrade he's become clingy, not realizing that the Living Brain contains a copy of the consciousness of her deceased lover, Otto Octavius.