Chapter Fifty-Four:


Doctor Otto Octavius staggered into the sewers. Two of his arms damaged slightly from the battle. The other two sparked a little bit, but were still functional. The pounding in his head resounded. The man dragged his robotic arms across the ground as he shuffled over. The breathing continued to escalate before he could control it.

The good doctor hovered halfway off the ground onto the robotic arms, before smashing down onto the ground.

OsCorp, being a vast company, had several locations. Some of the locations were not in the books. The higher up you were in the company, the more knowledge you acquired of the secret locations. The man closed his eyes, a loud pounding escalated to his head.

Otto accessed one of the secret labs, trying to break inside it. The man slid inside the lab. The robotic arms thumped against the walls as he slipped deeper inside the lab. The man's frown widened.

"There, right here."

Otto closed his eyes. Memories swarmed around his eyes. Memories before the accident, from another time before everything changed.

'Actually, I'm lost, do you think you can lead me in the right direction.'

'Oh, it won't be any trouble at all, you just need to go up about one set of stairs, and turn to the right. Here, let me get this…..sorry if I startled you.'

'You didn't startled me…just a lot of culture shock on my first day here.'

'Don't worry, we all have our moments. Just be yourself…..try and be yourself. No matter what anyone thinks.'

Otto adjusted the circuits in his robotic arms with the meeting continuing to flicker in his mind. The humming ceased in the back of his mind. The scientist recalled the memory.

'Are you trying to talk to me, or are you trying to talk to yourself….my name is Mary-Alice Alders.'

'Otto Octavius.'

In Otto's mind eye he could see himself meeting with his wife. The two of them shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. The scene twisted around him, and his wife faded away. Someone dragged her way from him.

Otto shook his head, and started to adjust the robotic arms a little more. Another tweak allowed him to test the repaired robotic arm.

He reached across the lab to grab a larger metal crate.

Otto inclined his head for a second. The voice of Norman Osborn echoed in his mind. Otto tightened his robotic claw around a pipe. The pipe bent underneath his grip.

'Otto, come here for a second.'

Otto turned his attention to the distorted, grainy memory of Norman Osborn replaying in his mind. A bit younger Otto Octavius, with a bit more hair, and a few less years on his body, walked down the hallway.

'I've recruited one of the most brilliant young scientific minds in this company. And I'm sure the two of you will find some kind of common ground.'

Otto in the lab shook his head at the past Otto walking towards him.

"No, I have to focus."

The image of Harry Evans-Parker appeared into greater prominence. Otto, the younger one, reached in and shook hands with Otto.

'It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Octavius. I'm a huge fan of your work. It will be an honor to work with you.'

'You've made a name for yourself, Doctor Evans-Parker…and at such an age. If I only accomplished about as much as you did at your age.'

'We're working together on the Oz3 project, and I hope we can accomplish something which would change the world.'

The mental image of Otto's world shattering in his mind flickered in. The heavy robotic tentacles waved in every possible direction.

"It all returns to you. Osborn, yes I know what he's responsible for. And vengeance has been delivered, but not by me. You should have never robbed me of revenge against Osborn. If it wasn't for you, I could finally be at peace."

Otto ran one more last tests of his robotic arms. The arms twisted. The damage done to them disappeared.

"But, it's your fault. You were the one who came to OsCorp to perfect the Oz formula, you were the one who made Norman assume he could control it! Norman tried to use the formula on himself. It almost killed me, and….if I had not been knocked out, Mary-Alice wouldn't have suffered the stress which caused her health problems to turn fatal."

Otto couldn't very well make Norman Osborn pay on the account of his death. The man ceased his ranting and kicked his brain into high gear. With a calm and steady arm, he turned on television screen.

"And now, we have this Doctor Octopus showing up in the city. If you ask me, the spiders and Doctor Octopus are working together. After all, they both have eight arms. Why wouldn't you think they would work together?"

Otto scoffed for a second. As if he'd work with…there was a Spider-Man now? He filed the statement from Jameson in the very interesting file. His lips curled into a long frown.

Regardless, in the calmest manner possible, Otto planned and plotted to see where he would go next. He made another adjustment on his arms.

"Perfect."

Spider-Girl and Harry's bodyguard both caught him off guard and did some damage. Otto realized he attacked in rage and didn't plan for any fallout. This time, he would prepare to fight in a more efficient manner.

Otto exited the lab and prepared to gain revenge. Only through gaining revenge, he could have piece.


Robbie Robertson returned to his home after the usual insanity at the Daily Bugle. Jonah really railed about this new Spider-Man thing. As a veteran on the journalism industry, Robbie's suspicions about who the spiders were….well he had them. Also as a veteran in the journalism industry, he knew all about not making accusations.

Jameson really railed on the two spiders. Would there be more?

'Likely now there might be because he said something. And the bodyguard he brought in, he has a few screws loose as well. Don't know where Jonah finds some of these people. Hopefully he doesn't end up like Gargan.'

Robbie shook his head. He fumbled with his keys. The keys fell into his hand. After a second, he slipped the key into the lock, which opened the tumbler and allowed him entrance to inside his home.

Turning on the light, Robbie stood up, doing a double take. He nearly stumbled backwards falling into a lamp. The long time Bugle employee grabbed onto the wall and prevented himself from falling back.

A thump, thump, thump, of his heart increased with each second. The man sitting on his couch caused him to wonder what kind of nightmare he entered him.

"You….you…."

"Yes, Robbie, me."

Lonnie Lincoln, better known as Tombstone, rose to his feet. Robbie shivered at the man who he knew all too well.

"You forgot after all of this time, the past can come back. And more importantly, the past can haunt you, can't it?"

Robbie's eyebrow twitched with his breathing increasing. He must have entered a nightmare. No question about it, he must have entered some kind of nightmare.

"I've not come here for a social call, Robbie. I've come here on the matter of business. Nothing personal….your wife won't be coming back for a couple of days and your son is away at college, so I figure you won't be disturbed."

"I won't be….I won't…what do you want, Lonnie?"

Robbie tried to look into the monster his former childhood tormenter had begun. As a child, Lonnie bullied those weaker than him, Robbie being one of them. As an adult, the man became even worse.

"Relax, sit down. If I wanted to hurt you, you wouldn't be walking right now. You wouldn't even be breathing."

Not content with those words, Robbie sat down. The beat of his heart grew tighter in his chest. He kept his gaze firmly locked onto Lonnie.

"I'm sure you've heard about my boss. They call him the Big Man."

"The Big Man…you're working for…him?"

Robbie wasn't surprised. The rumors were the Big Man fought a war on two fronts. And he heard the Green Goblin's declarations just as well as anyone else a few weeks ago. He didn't want to say anything.

"Yes, and certain…individuals didn't leave well enough alone. And my boss isn't happy. I understand you have a reporter, Miss Brant."

"You….she's just doing her job," Robbie said.

"We have a conflict of interest. I'm doing mine. And as you know, sometimes we have to do a job which we're not pleased with. We have to agree with an employer who has become obsessed with a single motive. I'm sure you know this. But, we have to do it. And I'm going to do it to the best of my abilities."

Robbie tried to read between the lines. Lonnie grabbed Robbie firmly by the shoulder.

"Do me a big favor, Robbie, and I won't bother you. And your wife and son don't need to know you got a visit from an old school chum….and I don't need to meet them up close and personal."

The implied threat hit Robbie full on. He found himself backed against the wall. Lonnie's hand rested on his shoulder.

"What do you want?"

"Tell, Miss Brant to come here, you need to talk to her. And….I'd leave if I were you. You don't want to be around when I get to work."

"You're not going to kill her!"

Lonnie's eyebrow raised at Robbie's declaration. He spoke in a gravely voice.

"I won't kill her. But, my boss has an interest in her, and…..well it wouldn't have developed if she didn't take an interest in him. Such is a hazard of being a reporter, as I'm sure you well know."


"Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be frank. The newly dubbed Doctor Octopus threatens to tear up the city. Property rates are going through the roof. The insurance companies will be happy. As for the newly dubbed Spider-Man, well, I'm sure he's doing everything a Spider-Man can. Listen, bud, he has radioactive blood. Well, it's how the song goes anyway."

In one of the more questionable decisions in the world, J. Johan Jameson handed a live mike to the one and only Deadpool. Wade kicked back, wearing a sports jacket over his usual attire.

"The spiders are coming to roost. I don't know what happened. Spider-Girl and Spider-Man are making a scene in New York City. So much, which I'm sure we're going to hear a lot more from them. Whether or not they liked it or not. Witnesses reported a fight between Spider-Girl and Doctor Octopus, which I'm sure has been epic, although just a teaser. The first fight isn't nearly as epic as the rematch. Well, most of the time. Sometimes the rematch is a disappointment, and the first fight isn't much better. But I have a feeling this is going to be a slobberknocker, bah gawd!"

Deadpool slipped on a black cowboy hat as he said these words.

"At least in the humble opinion of good old DP, when they beat the barbeque sauce out of each other. And if you ask me, Doc Ock is going to be taken to the woodshed and whipped like a government mule…whatever a government mule is anyway."

A robotic arm smashed through the wall and grabbed Deadpool around the shoulder.

'Hey, abuse!'

Deadpool flew back against the wall. The Merc slammed against the wall with a resounding impact. The air flowed through his lungs.

J. Jonah Jameson stormed into the picture. The man looked to be about ready to launch himself into a hell of a rant.

"HEY, YOU CAN'T JUST…."

Doctor Octopus, not in the mood for it, grabbed the desk and flung it into Jameson. Jameson barely avoided the desk smashing into him.

"Hey, Wilson, you're the bodyguard, why didn't you guard my body?"

"Yeah, listen, chief, my spine's a bit too busy being broken to guard anybody's body, so if you can just chill already….."

"SPIDER-MAN, SPIDER-GIRL!" Otto bellowed. "If either of you are listening, you shouldn't have interfered in my revenge. Now, you're on my list, and now I'm going to crush you."

A pair of feet knocked Otto in the face. The scientist skidded near an open window. Spider-Girl popped up next to him.

"You!" Doctor Octopus yelled.

Spider-Girl dodged the robotic arm before it slammed into her chest. The arm kept smashing against the ground as she dodged each attempt for it to take her out.

"Yes, me, again," Spider-Girl said. "Maybe it's just me, but all of this is getting old. Or maybe you're getting old."

Otto rushed at Spider-Girl in an attempt to take her out. The web slinger dodged the attack, doing a flipping motion in the air. Spider-Girl avoided his attacks.

"And there goes the wall!" Deadpool said. "And hey, a wild Spider-Man appears. And he nails Doc Ock with a venom blast. It works out, okay….and here come the tentacles. Well, Doc, if this revenge thing doesn't work out, at least you'd have a career in hentai which might work out kind of okay."

Harry groaned, blocking out the running commentary Wade gave in the background. Otto tried to take out the web slinging hero with a buzzsaw from his robotic arm.

Spider-Girl came in from the other side, dividing the focus of his arms. They brought him out of the window.

Otto's arms extended back, breaking his fall onto a nearby rooftop. Spider-Girl launched herself into the air.

A flying dropkick became caught in Otto's arms. Otto snapped his arm off to one side and sent Spider-Girl hurling to the ground. The heroine connected to the roof hard.

Harry caught Otto's attention.

"Hit me if you can!"

"You're becoming quite the pest, archanid."

"Don't forget about me."

Otto groaned, for a brief second, as Spider-Girl attempted to web his robotic arms to the roof top. The good doctor did his best in trying to rip his way out of his predicament.

"Your efforts might have worked on me the last time, but they might not have worked on me again."

Spider-Girl launched high into the air, crashing down onto the crazed scientist, sending him flying towards one of the large Jumbo Trons.

"And right through J. Jonah Jameson's face, talk about leaving your mark."

Deadpool watched the battle as giddy as a schoolgirl with a fresh new vibrator. The two spiders circled Doctor Octopus once more.

"And now, business is about to pick up, in the worst way….because…OH SHIT!"

Deadpool jumped out of the way, barely avoiding a missile from impacting into his crotch. The missile caught the wall, with the Merc landing down.

Another pair of missiles struck the rooftop Doctor Octopus and the two Spiders fought on. Doctor Octopus avoided the missile by extending his arms down, and the two spiders swung out of the way.


The dust settled. Spider-Girl's spider sense started humming.

"Yes, I know," she said.

An army of spider slayers charged them. One of them launched a stun grenade, which Spider-Girl dodged.

The two handily took down the spider slayers last time. Far more advanced on them this time and they had their backs against the wall.

Harry levitated some chunks of debris in the air, webbed onto them, and launched them at the spider slayers. The debris connected with the sides of the machines, causing sparks to fly everywhere!

"One down, about a couple dozen or so to go," Gwen said.

"Drones first, then focus on the big ones."

Spider-Girl understood where he went from.

A problem stirred out of the rubble. Doctor Octopus was not knocked out of the fight just yet. He rose up, eyes narrowed in anger.

The spider slayers didn't target him, which left Doctor Octopus at a bit of advantage. He focused his attention on Spider-Girl. Take her out first, she looked to be the weaker of the two. Then he could focus all of his attention on taking out Spider-Man.

Then his path to Evans-Parker would be clear, and revenge would be his.

Spider-Girl flipped from one slayer to the other. Her spider sense, which would not shut up, went off again. Ock's robotic limb fired off to one side. Spider-Girl arched onto it, catching it with her webbing.

"Thanks for the hand, Doc."

Spider-Girl rammed Doctor Octopus's robotic arm through one of the Spider Slayer drones. The backlash caused him to be knocked out.

Harry slammed three of the miniature drones together. A fourth drone shot a sticky looking glue at him. Harry manipulated the drone to shoot the glue, webbing one of the larger slayers in place.

The slayer heated up in an attempt to free itself from the glue trap. Harry propelled his web line and wrapped around the miniature drone. He whipped the drone down, swinging it like a lasso. The drone melted against the larger spider slayer.

Two wasps surrounded the top of his head. He avoided the attacks from Doctor Octopus as well as the attackers.

"Why do people think building an army of robots is a good idea?" Spider-Girl asked.

Harry turned over his shoulder, looking at her. He responded with a shrug.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

He engaged in some deadly dodging with the robotic limbs of Doctor Octopus. The attempts to skewer him made it too close for Harry's comfort. The young man avoided the robotic limbs slamming into it.

The Black Widow charged at him on the other side. Harry closed his eyes, avoiding the attacks of the spider slayer. A cutting yellow laser made its way to Harry.

Mentally, Harry calculated the pattern in his mind and made a decision. The laser array fired at him.

Three drones went up in smoke as Harry fired them. The devices exploded one more time.

Doctor Octopus prepared for the moment and his moment was right now. He grabbed the web slinging hero around the neck.

"Both of you have been a pest, getting in my way."

"Hey, you called us out, we just answered, the call….."

Harry broke free of the Doctor's titanic grip.

He looked over his shoulder, one spider slayer left, and it was a big one. Spider-Girl locked eyes with her partner.

'Just like we practiced.'

'Of course.'

The two arachnids manipulated the Black Widow Spider Slayer. The slayer's heavy armor prevented them from pulling off a direct attack. Like any other robot, it wasn't without it's weak points.

The exhaust vents underneath cooled it down. They launched all of their webbing at the exhaust vents, clogging it up.

Much like a computer without proper airflow, it heated up to the point where it could not function. Spontaneous combustion followed seconds later.

And the spider sense went off as Doctor Octopus took both of them out.

"And now, since they've stopped getting in my way, I have the both of you."

"Very good," Spider-Girl said. She struggled underneath his grip. "I suppose you want a cookie."

A rumbling could be heard. Harry grimaced, as he broke free of the attack.

"And here I thought the spider slayers were done for the night."

Harry noticed the shielding around them, so physical attacks were going to be a problem. He switched to the bond link, all while dodging the attacks of everything trying to kill him.

'Marla….'

'I have an idea…it's based off my control interface. Just works on a much larger scale. If you can disrupt the interface somehow, you can….'

'Shut them all down, I understand.'

Spider-Girl made Doctor Octopus follow her up the side of the building. The web slinging heroine avoided his attacks.

'Hopefully it can be soon, because….oh damn it, really, again!'

Spider-Girl staggered off of the side of the building thanks to a wild wasp spider slayer. She clutched onto the side of the building and pulled herself back up.

'And what's more, you should be able to disrupt Ock's arms in this way as well,' Marla thought. 'At least it's the theory, anyway.'

'Good, go with the theory,' Harry thought in a frantic manner.

Harry made a plan of what he needed to do. Doctor Octopus and Spider-Girl fought each other. He dodged to the side and charged up his suit.

Crossing his fingers and hoping it would work; Harry channeled the bio-energy through his suit. He sent a feedback loop through the circuits of one of the spider slayers.

The first spider slayer fell. The rest of them dropped to the ground, their strings cut.

Spider-Girl squared off against Doctor Octopus, only to realize he had been frozen in place. Doctor Octopus's eyes rolled into the back of his head, falling off of the building. He crashed into the river below.

The weight of his arms pulled him underneath, sinking him like a grotesque stone in the murky depths of the water.


Alistair Smythe pushed open the doors of his father's lab. The smell of burning flesh caused the man alarm. He moved in closer to him. The man frowned as he looked to the left and to the right.

"NO!"

Smythe noticed his father slumped against a control console. A helmet hooked to his head, with smoke billowing out of the top of it.

"Father, no…whoever is responsible for this will pay!"


"Yes, you heard it, the word's out. I want a bounty on Spider-Man and Spider-Girl. Twenty five million dollars on each, if someone can take them both out, a good fifty million in your bank accounts."

The Big Man finished his job well done. His criminal empire slipped from his fingers because of the maneuverings of rivals and he could ill afford any further distractions.


Betty entered the apartment, curious to what Robbie wanted. She entered the apartment.

"Robbie, hello…YOU!"

One second Betty saw a grotesque individual. The next second, she fell to the ground, unconscious.


To Be Continued on October 12th, 2015.