IV: Eight-Legged Freaks, Part I


Wilson Fisk was a patient man most of the time. Today, however, he felt like he needed to kill someone. He had arrived at Warehouse 94 an hour ago, and all he'd managed to get from his people was a bunch of nonsense and conjecture. He stood where the bloodstain of the man found dead with a broken back, cleaved heart and several bullet wounds was found.

Eddie, one of Fisk's more reliable people from New York City, walked up looking less than happy about what he had to report. Fisk lit a fresh cigar as the thug gave his report.

"The tapes are all dead," he said. "Some kinda electrical surge or somethin'. Some of the guys still alive said it was some broad with metallic tentacle arms. It's about the only thing they seem to be able to agree on."

"Tentacle arms," Fisk repeated after blowing smoke from his cigar and putting his gold lighter away. "So it's this Octopus person who also hit that industrial warehouse last night."

"Yeah, the guard said she called herself 'Doctor Octopus'."

"I'll bet my bottom dollar it's Ritsuko Akagi," he said immediately.

"But she's been reported dead, boss," Eddie replied, scratching his head. "Her obit was in the papers an' everything."

"But no funeral was announced," Fisk pointed out.

"So?"

"So, she might have been put in jail on conspiracy charges related to the Second Impact, but she is still directly responsible for the tech that saved us from the Angels. How much sense does it make to not have a publicized funeral for such an important figure, unless she's not actually dead, or they don't know for sure if she is dead?"

It started to make sense to Eddie.

"She did a lot of damage, but did she actually take anything of value?"

"Just what was in this crate," Eddie replied. "Some kind of high-tech gizmo."

Fisk looked at the name on the side of the crate and knew exactly what it was.

"It's an advanced dynamo," he said with finality.

"Dyna-what?"

"Dynamo," came the voice of another of Kingpin's best, Herman Schultz. He wore a standard business suit but his gloves were specialized. They looked like metal bracers and special knitting gloves that almost looked like a quilted pattern. These were black to match the overall color of his suit. His hair was red and slicked back and his face looked like someone who needed to be punched...repeatedly.

"A dynamo, my inept friend, is a device that contains lots of high-quality conductive wire and spinning magnets. It uses electromagnetic induction principals to push electrons along the wire and produce an electrical energy. They make up an important part of every power generator in the world."

Eddie really hated how Herman always knew everything when it came to industrial tech. They may have both grown up in the streets but Herman had skills Eddie didn't. Eddie made his living by being tough and acting as an enforcer for one of the gangs that reported to Kingpin, eventually becoming one of his top enforcers. Herman, however, was a safe-cracker and engineer. Sure, he dropped out of high school, same as Eddie, but that was only because he found that general education studies were boring and Herman wanted to do something practical with his skills. Eddie had no idea why he wore those weird gloves.

"What would Doc Ock need with that?" Eddie asked.

"I think it's obvious," Kingpin replied. "She's trying to build another reactor. Which means the first one must have failed somehow." He rubbed his chin in thought a moment. "She'll be after the elements soon enough, but I think she'll be working on building the rest of it first. She knows I'll have the elements themselves well protected."

"I think I can come up with what she would need as a shopping list," Herman offered. "Based on that, we can look at what she's stolen so far and figure out what she's likely to go after next."

"And then trap her," Kingpin stated, completing the thought. "I like the way you think, Mister Schultz. Get ahold of Aleksei and let him know I'm gonna need him, and get to work on that list."

"You got it," Herman replied. He turned to Eddie, giving him a satisfied look before leaving the area.

"Mister Lawrence," Kingpin said, "I need you to check our shipping manifests and make sure nothing else was stolen from this warehouse."

"Gotcha," Eddie replied.

"Don't take Herman personally," Kingpin reminded him. "He thinks he's all that, but I know a brown-noser when I see one. We'll see how loyal he really is once the shit starts hitting the fan."

Eddie couldn't wait for that.


NERV had jurisdiction over the greater Tokyo-3 Area, but Juno Station sat just outside of the city proper and was owned by the JSSDF. On the surface, it was just another guard station for JSSDF personnel. The reality was much different. Everyone working for NERV knew that it was a watchdog instillation as well as an Intelligence HQ. It was there with the sole purpose of watching NERV closely for any changes, just in case something like Third Impact becomes more likely. As an intelligence locale, however, it was also privy to a direct data connection to the Japanese Intelligence Service, their own personal MI-5.

But not being MI-5 itself, however, presented the group with several problems. None-the-least of these problems were from the utter lack of proper security procedures. The secure connection was set up on a network different from the internet, and thus sensitive information wasn't simply being broadcast though "the cloud". But their total security force was a meager 12 men, enough to stop casual assaults and catch spies but not likely enough for a determined attack.

At least, this is what Doctor Octopus was counting on when she started her assault. The building was a simple one-story structure with a guard post at the front and rear gates. The guard's nightly perusal of the local newspaper was interrupted when he was grabbed from behind by a metal claw and torn from the guard post. The claw was able to get in through the open window, but the window as now destroyed as his body was used as effectively a reverse battering ram.

The second guard on duty was grabbed around the face and jolted forward with enough force to snap his neck. Both now-dead bodies were dropped before Doc Ock made her way to the heavy armored doors at the entrance less than 30 yard away. She put down in front of them, slamming her lower set of clawed tentacles into the ground as a brace as her upper arms slammed into the door, grappling them with a couple of tons of pressure each. Once they had the proper hold, the door was simply ripped from its housing and thrown aside.

Machine gun fire could be heard but already the tentacle arms were blocking the incoming shots. Two claws launched forward between blocks and took out the two offending guards by slamming into them with enough force to shatter their ribcages.

Ritsuko knew she should be feeling some guilt and remorse from the murders she was purposely committing this time, but she reminded herself that these guys were trained killers. They would kill her if given half a chance, so she had no choice but to make certain they weren't getting back up and that meant abandoning the kid-gloves altogether.

As those bodies were thrown back, ejecting blood from their mouths as they flew, Ritsuko propelled herself forward into the main computer center where there were a total of 2 operators. These were the only noncombatants in the building. By now, the alarm had been tripped and she expected it would take about seven minutes, max, for the JSSDF to respond to this attack, which didn't leave her much time at all.

The door was torn apart by a clawed tentacle and Doc Ock walked into the room.

"Good evening," she said pleasantly, as if she weren't just slaughtering their protectors. "I'll make this quick because I'm sure you're both very busy."

Doc Ock took note that one was male and the other was female. One of her tentacles grabbed the man about the chest and slammed him into the ground. A second tentacle extended its blade and held it between the man's eyes.

"This is how this is going to go down. You, my dear, are going to access the primary mainframe using your credentials and get me all the information the Japanese Military has on Trithic Elements or I'm going to administer an impromptu lobotomy to this man."

The girl, completely terrified, immediately started working on the computer to pull up the data requested. Doc Ock tossed a thumb drive into the air above her and one of her claws caught it with its fine tips. As soon as the girl had the information on the computer, the thumb drive was inserted and she downloaded the data. Moments later, the drive was removed from the system and placed into the inner pocket of her trencher by the same claw.

That moment, the door was kicked in and the remaining guards entered the computer center. Ritsuko instantly used a claw to throw the table in the room at them as she got ready to fend them off. There were four men here; meaning two were still unaccounted for.

As bullets ricocheted off the tentacle arms, the men knew the true meaning of horror as one by one the claws took them out. One was impaled though the head with a blade, another took a burning cutting torch to the face. A third was stabbed in the neck with the electrical jolting mechanism she normally reserved for cameras. The last managed to escape back into the previous hall, but a fifth she didn't see rushed her and managed to get inside her tentacle reach.

Doc Ock reacted by using an arm to block the incoming attack which wasn't from a gun, but a nightstick. She realized too late that doing so would earn her a broken arm and took her last moment to brace herself for the pain to come.

The stick shattered against her arm.

Both attacker and defender stared in shock for a moment as splintered pieces of the nightstick fell around them. Doc Ock responded with a backhand from one of the tentacles which sent the man into the wall hard enough to go partially into it and remain stuck there. She then took a moment to hold her arm, feeling a residual vibration in the arm. She pulled down the sleeve and saw a bruise spreading over the arm at the point of impact, but the bone was perfectly intact.

"That's impossible," she whispered. "He should have shattered my forearm." A sinking feeling came over her that something was seriously wrong with her now, beyond the obvious. "I have to get to the bottom of this."

"Um..." the female computer tech whispered. Doctor Octopus took note that she was keeping the other tech next to her now and out of harm's way. "If something's wrong you... um... could try a hospital."

Doctor Octopus stared at the tech for a moment in disbelief that she would even try to interject, especially since she hadn't been talking to her. But then Doc Ock came to the realization that she was partly right.

'Tokyo-3 General has the new hand scanners in, I could use that to figure out if something else is happening internally.'

"I might just take that advice," she said aloud. "But if you tell anyone where I'm going, I'll come for you. Got it?"

The girl nodded vigorously. With nothing further to do there, Doctor Octopus escaped.


"Are you sure?"

The question was direct, allowing no room for misinterpretation.

"Positive, Misato-san," Spiderman replied as he swung through the streets of Tokyo-3. He conversed with his commander via the communicator in his mask. "I have no doubt now that she's alive. I got word that one of Fisk's warehouses was also hit recently."

"Fisk? Why wouldn't he report it to the authorities?"

"You do know that he's basically an evil mastermind that controls most of the world's criminal underworld, right? He's the man they call 'the Kingpin'."

"How do you know that for sure?" Misato challenged. "The authorities have never been able to prove anything."

"Because everyone on the street knows about it. Press the right people and you can get a wealth of information."

"Thinking like Batman again?" she asked humorously.

"Something like that," Shinji admitted, chuckling. He took another corner hard. "It's paid off so far. Can't say it's my style, though. I normally just beat the crap out of petty crooks... Ok, so that's a little of Batman too."

Misato chuckled again.

"I'm gonna try to get into that warehouse of Fisk's and see if I can't get any closer to figuring out what she's up to." He heard a commotion that sounded like someone talking while she had her hand over the microphone.

"Cancel that, Shinji-kun, I need you to head to the listening post the JSSDF has outside of town. It looks like Doctor Octopus just hit it recently."

"Of course, now that I'm more than halfway to the waterfront. Oh, the things I do for frequent flyer miles."

He changed directions by spiraling around the antenna of a building and picked up the pace.

Minutes later, he arrived at the listening post. The men outside gave him some trouble but finally relented in letting him conduct his investigation. Spiderman shook his head as he tallied up the destruction and the blood. One of the JSSDF investigators saw him enter and approached him.

"You must be Katsuragi's lapdog," he said sardonically.

"Woof," Spiderman replied with sarcasm. "I get the fact I'm not wanted here. But the truth is, this is still a NERV matter. So, if you don't mind, why don't we stop posturing and get down to brass tacks, eh?"

"Fine," the investigator said shortly and opened his small notebook. "Twelve men on duty here and she killed nine of them. One guard and both of the techs survived. Doctor Takani said Doctor Octopus was after the data on the Trithic Elements."

"Wait, if Wilson Fisk owns all the samples, why would you have any information at all?"

"Article 176 of the International Trade and Supply Code states that everything a company brings into the country has to be examined and cataloged in order for public safety to be assured. About a month ago, Fisk brought in a supply of the Trithic Elements, stating it was to be used only for display purposes. Ergo, we have a lot of data on the Elements themselves."

"Is that so?"

"Would you mind telling me why she needed that data badly enough to kill nine soldiers?"

"I'm not authorized to release that info, sorry," Spiderman replied. "That would be Article 7 of the NERV Charter, if you had any question on that policy."

"Smartass," the investigator grumbled.

"Really? My CO usually calls me the opposite," Spiderman replied as he examined the damage done during the attack. He picked up a few splinters from the nightstick. "Someone actually tried attacking one the tentacles with a stick?"

"Actually, the tech stated the guard struck her left forearm."

Spiderman froze at that. "Really?"

"Yeah," the investigator replied. "Why don't you tell me something...off the record?"

"What do you want to know?"

"What the fuck are we dealing with?"

Spiderman sighed. "I wish I knew. This new information doesn't fit with anything else. We know there was an accident of some kind, and I know she likely hasn't disengaged the 'tentacle arms rig' since then. I also know she shouldn't be able to control the rig nearly this well, and she sure as hell shouldn't be able to shatter a military nightstick with a bone that breaks under 16 psi."

"So what the hell is happening to her?" the investigator asked.

"I don't know, but I can tell you she's probably going insane as a result of it. The woman I knew before she became Doc Ock only tried to kill someone once, and she couldn't even pull the trigger herself. The fact that she's killing this recklessly is not a good sign at all."


Ritsuko arrived at Tokyo-3 General about 20 minutes after Shinji arrived at the JSSDF base, entering the hospital through the roof access hatch near the helipad. She tried to be as quiet as possible so as to not attract too much attention. While she, at this point, wouldn't hesitate to kill, she really didn't want to do so in a hospital. There is a fine line between massacre and atrocity after all.

Moving quickly, she reached one of the storage areas on the fifth floor and broke into the room using the strength of one of her claws. She stepped inside and easily located one of the suitcase-like cases that contained the scanner.

"Easy enough," she whispered. A scream, however, made her life more difficult. She turned in time to see one of the nurses staring at her and screaming in terror, realizing who she was. "Well, there goes that." She ran, making her way back to the stairwell. Using her tentacles she managed to get back to the roof where she climbed down the building towards street level. She figured she could just disappear into an alleyway. But as she passed the middle of the road, two police cars slid to the side facing her and their operators took aim using their cars as cover.

"Freeze!"

"Not this again," Doc Ock complained. "All I wanted was a simple medical scanner! You wanna play rough? Fine!"

The taunting provoked the cops into opening fire on her. The shots were easily blocked by two of her tentacles. One of her free tentacles slammed the ground behind her to stabilize while a second one grabbed the car on her left and threw it back over her head and down the block. The cop behind it ran behind the other car as his cover was lost. After the second one was thrown, both of the cops stopped firing and put their hands up. Doc Ock threw away their pesky firearms and then escaped into the alleyway.

Reinforcements scoured the streets nearby but they lost her.

Under the city, Ritsuko escaped easily by moving through the access tunnels between the first and second armor plates. There were no alarms here since these plates were normally used by civilian workers maintaining the city.


Misato rode the elevator down to the lab level. Connors finally came through for her and she would now learn what changes took place with Rei and if those changes affected her daughter. The labs looked about as ominous as one would expect for being this deep underground. The halls were barely lit, it was cold, and it even felt a bit more claustrophobic than other parts of the base. Misato didn't register any of this, and although she personally had never been this deep into the labs (Terminal Dogma being another matter), she felt comfortable here. As she walked towards the lab, her ears could almost make out whispers of another time, as if the energies of the Day-That-Never-Was still lingered in this thoroughly unhallowed place.

She pushed open the door to the lab that Curt Connors was working in, taking note of all the cages on one wall containing reptiles of various species. Misato really didn't care what they were for.

"What do you have for me, doctor?" Misato asked.

"My studies into the DNA of Rei Ikari were virtually inconclusive," he explained. "Her DNA is completely unchanged, based on the samples we had left over from the Angel War. But that seems counter-intuitive based on what I learned about Eve Ikari's."

"Which was?"

"There are definite DNA markers that match up to the base DNA code of the symbiotes. While they could have come from the father, I can clearly see the markers she got from him. These markers are different, closer to the base DNA code."

"Meaning?"

"I literally have no idea what Eve's capabilities will be, but they are likely to manifest when the child hits puberty in about 10-14 years from now. Perhaps when the child gets older, we'll have some hints as to what she can do by then."

"Good work," Misato said flatly. "Keep at it, and see if you can't figure out what we can derive from the DNA. We know for certain that the DNA of the symbiote is mutable. I need to know to what extent."

"Very well, but tell me something, Commander. What exactly does this research have to do with Project-E?"

Misato turned towards him with both of her hands behind her back in the position of "parade rest", a position Gendo was famous for, but who's meaning would be lost on Connors.

"Nothing at all," she replied. "And I would appreciate it if you kept this information in the lab strictly. Do not discuss your findings with anyone."

Curt didn't look very comfortable with that idea.

"Is there a problem, doctor?" Misato asked.

"No, I suppose not, just a little uncomfortable with this situation. I'm sketchy on what kind of rules NERV has to follow when it comes to possession of DNA data and experimentation, but this sort of thing was frowned upon even when Cartigan was in charge."

Misato seemed to consider him for a moment. "I'm sure all the reptiles in this lab have nothing to do with Project-E either, but I am willing to overlook them, if you are able to do the same. Otherwise, whatever extracurricular activities you are engaging in down here might be subject to extreme scrutiny."

Doctor Connors felt his heart skip a beat. He really didn't want the commander to know the experiments he was running down here, and it was obvious to him she didn't really care, but would use this knowledge to secure his silence. He knew how to play the game though, and this close to his ultimate breakthrough, he couldn't chance that Commander Katsuragi would follow through with such a threat.

"In that case, I think we could agree that this conversation never took place," Connors offered.

"I couldn't agree more," the commander replied and proceeded to leave. Even Curt realized at this point that Commander Katsuragi was acting very out-of-character...


To Be Continued


The me that you know, he used to have feelings,
But blood has stopped pumpin' and he is left to decay
The me that you know is now made up of wires,
And even when I'm right with you, I'm so far away