Octavius was staring as spellbound into the wall before him. In the distance the sound of the alarm and guns being fired was heard. After a moment the wall suddenly burst open and a large hole was made in front of the doctor, bricks and plastic flew across the cell and the plastic television set hanging on the wall fell to the floor. Out from the opening came seven metal objects like amoebas crawling out of a wound.
"Ah, there you are. I was getting rather worried." Octavius said with a smile.
The seven objects started to circle around Octavius in his cell like a flock of birds.
"No, this won't do. Not at all. Let's go for something a little more classic."
The metal jumped at Octavius and wrapped themself around his body, taking a much more apparent shape. At the same moment two security guards came running up to the bars of Octavius cell.
"My god... Shoot him!" one of the guards shouted, both of them aiming their stun guns at Octavius, but it was already too late.
Two long metalic arms reached out between the plastic bars, took a strong grip of the guards throats and snapped their necks with a cracking sound. After dropping the bodies to the floor, like two long snakes backing up, the tentacles slowly returned back into the cell and joined their two sisters. The four tentacles grabbed the walls around them and lifted their master up on his legs.
"Yes. This is much better." the evil doctor said with a content smile. "Not as distinguished as your older sisters, but this is more then enough."
The four metal arms reminded of a group of large snakes made from metal junk, they stuck out from their masters back and reached a lenght of nearly twenty feet each. Now they lowered themself around Octavius like a pack of obediant dogs and the evil mastermind stepped closer to the bars of his cell.
"Come now children. We have so much to do and so little time."
And the next second his tentacles ripped the bars apart with the same ease as a grown man ripping apart a piece of paper. Doctor Octoups was once again free.
Menace stepped inside his hiding place and threw a large money-filled bag in the corner. He walked right pass Jackpot's and Spider-man's hiding-place, his feet making heavy thumps by each step.
As the giant monster passed them, Jackpot gave out a small gasp and nudged Spidey in the ribs. She pointed right at the wall on the other side of the room. Her backpack were still lying on the floor right under the open vent, and Menace were standing between them and it.
Quietly, Spider-man took aim with his right hand and, when Menace was looking the other way, he shot out a webline right behind the villains back. A 'Thwip' was heard from Spider-man's webshooter and Menace stopped. Spidey hit the backpack and pulled it towards him as fast as he could and Jackpot stood up, catched it and dived back down just before Menace turned around. The grey monster scanned the room with his eyes for a moment but saw nothing that could have made the sound. He turned around with a irritated snort and mumbled "Stupid rats."
The two teen heroes felt an incredible relief when Menace turned back around. They had been to scared to even breathe, yet along move in their little hide-out. They peeked up from behind the crates and observed what the bare-chested monster was doing. They saw him walk around and inspect the equipment on the tables, and then standing completly still. And what happen'd next came as a huge surprise to them.
Menace's arms suddenly started to twitch and he got down on one knee. And before the two hero's eyes, he started to shrink and change color. His wild hair turned from blood red to blonde, the horns disappeared into his head and his giant swollen muscles shrinked down into a much more slimmer size. The skin of the creature changed from grey and scaly to tanned and silk smooth, and with a grunt of fatigue, stood up.
Instead of the masculine looking, intimidating grey monster it was a few seconds ago, stood there now a blonde and attractive young woman wearing nothing but a pair of worn-out trousers that were a few sizes too big.
Spider-man dropped his jaw in shock, and Jackpot was equally surprised.
"He's a SHE?" she whispered, and after starring for a few seconds in shock, she came to realize that they were looking at a topless woman. So she quickly covered Peter's eyes with her hand.
The blonde woman took down a lab coat from a hatpeg which she put on (after which MJ could safely take her hand off Peter's face), and then she stepped up to a laptop that laid on the table in front of her. She turned the computer on, and even if Spider-man and Jackpot could not see the laptop poperly, they could hear.
"Mister Declun, how nice of you to call." the woman said to the portable computer. "I hope that I didn't let you wait for too long."
"Not at all Doctor Hollister." a voice said from the computers speaker. Spider-man and Jackpot was listening very carefully what was said in the conversation.
"I am guessing that you're not taking the risk by contacting me just to have a nice chat." the woman told.
"No, actually I'm here on behalf of the board. They're getting anxious that you won't hold your deal of the bargain."
"Peh, that doesn't surprise me much. You tell the fat cats at Roxxon that I will have a functional formula on their table by monday morning."
Hearing the name Roxxon made Peter clench his fist and grinded his teeth in anger. Far to many problems in his life had been caused by that company.
"Then I trust that everything is going as planned?" the man named Declun asked. "You had no problems finding a willing test subject?"
Dr Hollister chuckled to herself. "No problems at all. In fact, finding a test subject was quite easy."
"Yes, please, spare me the details. The less I know, the better. But I have to say, the things you allready asked for were quite strange. I can't see what you needed all that adamatium for."
"As you said yourself, Mister Declun. The less you know, the better."
"Very well then. Just remember, we are risking a lot on this project. Considering everything our company allready been through, I don't think we can afford another setback. Neither can you, for that matter. If you fail at this, your career is over."
"Watch your tone with me, Declun!" Hollister snapped. "I am not just one of those simple drones on your paycheck anymore. I am practically giving you and Roxxon the chance to take the lead in a future that we know are allready happening right now. You can either take my offer and give me the respect I deserve, or you can all go down with your burning ship to the bottom."
There was no sound coming from the man on the screen for a short period of time, then he said "Just make sure Osborn's formula can't be traced back to him, and bring it to us by monday. Goodbye, Doctor Hollister." Then the screen turned black.
She turned off the computer, mumbling "Idiot. And the axe, I got to take that axe back." to herself and then turned around, facing the table with all the unsorted papers that she started going through. As she did, she started to move her hand over her hair to sort out the mess it was in after her transformation. Suddenly she stopped and pulled out something she had found in her curls.
The thing was tiny, like a fingernail, and reminded of a microschip. She looked at it for a moment, trying to figure out what it really was. Not understanding what the small object was, she placed it between her fingers and broke it.
Spider-man yelled out so loud that he scared the hell out of Jackpot, making her scream out too. The feeling in his head when the tracer was broken apart felt like someone stabbing his brain with a knife. When he screamed, he lost his balance and fell over the stacked pile of crates that they were hiding behind. The pyramid fell apart and Spidey came tumbling out between them.
The blonde woman turned around and stared at the two heroes acroos the room in great shock. "NO! YOU TWO ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!"
Spider-man, still lying on the floor, looked up at at the woman and shot out a large amount of webbing from his arm, gluing her to the wall.
"Man does my head rings." he complained as he stood up and rubbed his head.
"YOU CAN'T BE HERE! YOU ARE RUINING EVERYTHING! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?" Hollister yelled.
"Maybe you should have thought of that BEFORE you tried to chop my head off." Jackpot said. "You okay, sweetie?" she addressed towards Spidey.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But I'm gonna need one big ass aspirin when we get home."
"KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!"
"Oh pipe it down, blondie! You are not in condition of making any threats. The only thing you're gonna do is go directly to jail." Jackpot told the adult woman.
"Oh, I have to disagree." the blonde answered as her eyes turned the color yellow.
In just a a short moment the womans skin turned grey and scaly, and two horns grew out from her forehead. The web holding her to the wall bursted as her body grew, muscles swelled up to huge size and breasts disappeared behind large pectorals. The labcoat fell in shreds to the floor as the female monster broke free.
"Allright," Spidey said in a tone of disgust over this apparent female-to-male transformation, "I'm gonna go throw up now."
Menace roared out with her voice full of rage and jumped at the two heroes. The teenagers tried to jump out of the way, but the grey monster knocked them down and slammed them across the room. Jackpot flew right into the wall while Spider-man crashed into a table stacked with chemicals in their jars. The table and all the glass shattered in a million pieces and Spider-man let out a "Sonofabitch!" from the impact.
Jackpot charged towards the monster and jumped, landing a powerful kick with both her heels right in Menace's face and the started punching her in the stomach.
While his girlfriend was fighting the supervillain, Spider-man staggered up on his legs, and as he stood up, his head got very dizzy. Unbeknown to him, under his feet, all the chemicals had mixed together on the floor and was now rising in the air as invisible vapour. The airborne mixture was toxic to a normal person, to a young healthy man with the proportional strenght and stamina of an arachnid on the other hand, it had a strong numbing effect.
"Whoa... feeling a little... woozy-boozy." Spider-man slurred as he wobbled on the spot. He then said "Uhhh everything going dark now..." and fell to the floor where he passed out.
Jackpot turned her head, noticed her boyfriend hitting the ground, and let out a gasp in shock. That one second she lost her guard was all her opponent needed. Menace punched Jackpot in the face, stunning her for a few seconds, and then grabbed on to her. She lifted the small girl up with one hand and pressed her against the wall, then she ripped off a water pipe with her other hand. While a small spray of water shooting out into the room, Menace nailed one end of the pipe to the wall, bent it across Jackpot's torso and arms and shoved the other end of the pipe into the wall on the other side of her, therefore sticking the girl there to the brick wall. When the villain let go of her grip of the heroine, the young redhead hung on the wall like a mounted bass.
Jackpot pulled with all her strenght to break free, but she got nowhere. She started to kick and flail with her legs, but nothing she did could move her from the spot on the wall. She was trapped, and Peter was lying unconscious on the floor while the giant villain let out a long and angry breath through her nose.
Things looked rather dark right now.