Chapter 4

I have to say I'm relieved that you guys understand my version of Doc Ock so far. Some of you have pointed out how 'nice' he is. I guess that's because I traded his evil for super-intelligence, which is a power that can go either way. But this is only the beginning. You'll see more of his internal motives as the story progresses.

There's some interesting little factoids in this chapter. Forgive my attempt at . . . activism, I guess? I don't know, I just thought it was right up MJ and May's alley to know these things. Although I do try to avoid buying Nestle bottled water . . .

From the moment Otto Octavius left the Parker home there was a semblance of peace.

It was far from real, but it was there.

Peter immediately informed Shield of the intrusion and their house was given (yet another) brand new security system. Fury decided against relocating them. Nothing short of a complete upheaval of their lives would give them a chance to stay hidden from Octavius. And Octavius knew exactly what Peter looked like even if he changed his name; the scientist would be able to find them again someday.

Peter didn't really mind either way. He no longer felt intimidated by such in depth witness protection programs. Perhaps it had something to with his current identity issues.

To be honest, Peter didn't mind about a lot of things anymore. He felt kind of numb. The ultimate bombshell had been dropped upon him, and he was dealing with it. He was done freaking out for now. He'd save anymore panic for when the world was in danger and he had to beat impossible odds again.

Incredibly, this near peace spread even so far as Nick Fury himself. He smiled. Director Nick Fury smiled when he heard about Octavius' visit. Granted, it was a small, grim smile, but it was there. He understood the scientist's words the same way Peter did: they weren't going to hear from Octavius for quite a while.

Pigs would be very well trained in the realm of flight by the time Otto Octavius learned how to be a good teacher.

Unless, of course, he overestimated his abilities yet again, but they could handle it in any case. They had handled Octavius many times before. Peter's newfound relation to him changed nothing.

So why did everything feel so different now?

Peter walked down the hall toward Chemistry with MJ and Ava by his side. MJ didn't actually take the class, but it was on her way to Journalism 101, so she accompanied them. The two girls were talking about the school newspaper. Ava had really enjoyed MJ's expose on Nestle and their water sources. Apparently, the company had bought some land out in Africa and monopolized the sale of the water to the people who actually lived and worked there. MJ was trying to persuade Midtown Tech to boycott Nestle water products.

Peter didn't usually listen to their conversations so closely.

But then he usually didn't have so many painful, circuitous thoughts either.

They parted ways at room 233, Peter and Ava entering the classroom. When he had been listening to the girls' informative conversation, Peter's mind had been thoroughly distracted. Usually Chemistry also kept his mind occupied. Today, unfortunately, their teacher decided to go over their last lesson again. Many of the students had gotten a bit lost with the calculation part of the titration they had done in lab. Peter wouldn't have minded, the calculations were a tad tricky, but he did have a fairly good grasp on the subject, and there was something more pressing on his mind.

The one thing he hadn't told Fury, or anyone for that matter.

The folder of experimental theses that Octavius had left.

It wasn't that Peter really cared about the files. He hadn't stayed up half the night to steal the ideas or even fathom continuing them. No, it was curiosity with a dash of hope that had him poring over the old files.

No matter how mad and cruel Octavius was now, maybe, just maybe, he had once been as nice as he said. Maybe deep down in Octavius' heart and past was the core kindness that made up Peter's entire outlook on life.

Peter wasn't trying to defend Octavius. There was no way to make Doctor Octopus a good guy. But maybe he hadn't always been a villain. Maybe Peter didn't need to feel like his bloodline was entirely sludge. Maybe he didn't need to feel quite so nauseous whenever he thought about it.

But that sounded selfish.

No matter which way he put it, it just never sounded quite right.

He couldn't tell anyone. He couldn't.

"Pete? You okay?"

He glanced up to find Ava staring at him worriedly. That was pretty much the only kind of look he had gotten recently. His friends did try to hide it though. Peter was grateful for that. "Yeah, sorry. Um—lost in thought. What were you saying?"

She pointed to a paper on their desk. "I was asking why I got five points taken off here. I thought I followed all of the steps."

He examined her equations. "Well . . . the steps do look right. Your numbers are kind of weird though. I had similar measurements and I got very different answers. Maybe you plugged it into the calculator wrong?"

She glared at the red negative five. "Ugh, it's those parentheses again, I bet." She grabbed her calculator and began inputting the numbers fiercely. Just when Peter was about to turn back to his own thoughts, she looked up at him again. "You know it's okay to say you're not okay, right?"

"Of course I know it's okay, but I feel much more okay to say I'm okay."

Her brow furrowed. "How does that make sense?"

"It doesn't? I am doing pretty well though. School's a great distraction. I've hardly thought about it at all." Peter's jury was still out on the morality of lying to his friends to keep them from worrying too much. He had much more pressing things on his mind.

"And that's why you've looked like you're spaced out in every single class?"

"Have not."

"Have too."

"Ahem, Ms. Ayala, Mr. Parker, do you have something to share?"

Ava and Peter deflated, turning to face their teacher. "No, sir."

A few minutes later, after the teacher was wrapped up in the calculations again, Ava punched Peter on the arm. Her quiet words came out with a growl. "Never argue with me when I'm right and it gets me into trouble."

"Yes, ma'am," Peter apologized under his breath. "But how do you know you're right? It's an opinion."

"I know about the folder."

"What?"

Thankfully the word came out strained enough that nearby students only gave him a weird look.

"How on earth did you know? You all knew?" Peter asked as he and his team entered his house. He hadn't dared to discuss anything at school.

"May said she was listening last night," Danny explained. "She checked today and found the thing that did not belong."

Peter's heart sank. How could he have forgotten that his aunt had been right at the door the entire time? That Octavius had mentioned the folder right before he left? He had thought about it for so long last night.

It hit him then.

He really was affected. He really wasn't thinking properly.

"I'm—I'm sorry. Guys, I—" Peter ran a hand through his hair. What could he say? He had been wrong, he wasn't entirely fine, but they knew that. What was he supposed to say in response to that?

Wait, he wasn't entirely okay? Was he . . . was he really not?

Peter pushed past them and up the stairs. He needed to show that he still trusted them, that they could still trust him. He would show them the folder. He hadn't been able to look through it entirely, but then they would understand.

Gosh, listen to him. He really did sound like some sort of emotional wreck. At this point his lack of sleep was probably just adding onto everything, but still . . . he was the team leader. He was supposed to notice these things.

Peter stopped dead in the doorway to his room.

Someone was sitting on the edge of his bed.

He breathed again. It was only May.

"Peter!" She stood and ran over to hug him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was eavesdropping sooner. I know you probably didn't want to tell anyone because, well, you know what happened last time someone tried to continue Octavius' work. But I was nosy and—oh, take a look!"

Blinking a few times, Peter looked down at the sheaf of papers she was waving in front of him. "What?"

"I was curious to see what that man thought were 'good' experiments. I was disappointed with the first few, but then I found this one. Honey, it's a cure for cancer!"

By now the others had caught up and were murmuring curiously in the hallway behind him. Peter accepted the papers and looked through them. He was more than competent in all of his science classes, but he didn't know nearly enough to decipher the jargon printed on them. The few intrusions of Octavius' handwriting were also hard to read. The man's handwriting was fairly neat but very loopy and had a tendency to overlap itself. It was vastly different from Peter's own cramped and simple writing.

That had been very reassuring the night before.

As he stared at the papers, a few familiar words popped out.

Maybe it did look promising.

"Ava, do you see what I see?" He held them out so she could see the part that consisted of the most plain English.

Ava nodded, raising her eyebrows, impressed. "I think I do. We ought to tell Dr. Connors right away."

"What is it?" Luke asked. "What cancer is it for?"

"It's for some sort of cancer of the blood, I think," Peter replied, squinting at a side note. "It says it would successfully treat a really rare type." He frowned. "Well, that wasn't fair."

Everyone gestured for him to continue, but Peter waited until he finished reading the red words in a different handwriting. "He applied for funding, but it was turned down because this would really only work for the one rare type of cancer."

Sam's brow furrowed. "But isn't it a good thing when people find ways to treat rare cancer?"

May pursed her lips. "Of course it is, but that's where the commercial side of medicine shows its big ugly face. Companies don't want to spend millions of dollars testing a treatment that they can only sell to a few hundred people. It's sad, but it's true." She looked at her nephew. "I guess Octavius wasn't lying. He did try to do good things. He was just shot down."

For some reason, Peter bristled. "Yeah, but he could have done something about it. He could have gotten other people involved. The nation would have been outraged if he had spoken up!"

For some reason, a tiny smile seemed to pull at May's lips. "Maybe, honey, maybe, but those companies never let something like that go. Some people don't have your bravery to put their careers on the line."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Sam asked. "Let's go get famous!" He started tapping at his communicator.

Ava rolled her eyes. "You do realize that no one can know we gave this tip out, right?"

"You're always bursting my bubble!"

Dr. Connors peered at the pages intently. He flipped through them quickly at first, then slowly, assessing every figure carefully. He punched some numbers into his calculator, compared some facts to the literature, analyzed some cell samples Shield had on hand.

Meanwhile, in the Director's Office, Fury glowered at Spider-Man, who was shrinking further and further in on himself with each tense second that passed.

"You mean to tell me that you forgot to tell us that a super villain left a huge pile of papers in your room?"

"Well—er—I uh—"

"That's right, Peter, admit that you didn't notice it at all."

Peter snapped around to face Ava, who had her arms crossed and was totally lying to Nick Fury's face. "What?"

"We go to your room and we find that folder on top of the mess on your desk. It was so full of junk that you didn't even notice it until Danny pointed it out. I keep telling you that you need to keep your notes organized if you want to beat my GPA."

Peter gawked at her, but managed not to splutter. "Oh—well—yeah. I guess you're right. But in my defense, I—I know exactly where everything is on my desk. Just because I was too distracted to check for new items doesn't prove anything."

Danny, Sam, and Luke stared at the interaction, trying not to make it obvious that they were waiting to see if Fury bought the story.

Fury huffed. "Look, I don't care how you found it. I understand you were distracted last night." He looked down at his communicator, perhaps missing the relief that passed on the others' faces. "It's just a good thing you gave it to Shield. Connors says some of the work is viable. Octavius may have just inadvertently saved thousands of lives."

Sam perked up. "Say, since Doc Ock probably doesn't want that info ruining his image, could I get a mention in the—"

"No," Fury answered immediately. "You can stay and talk to Connors about what he's found if you want, but you're all off duty today."

They left the office, walking down the metal corridors of the Helicarrier silently until they reached the entrance to the labs.

"Did we seriously just get away with that?" Luke asked disbelievingly.

"Shush! You know the secret always gets out as soon as you start talking." Sam warned him. "We have to act as if we know nothing."

Peter looked at all of them, eyes resting on Ava. "Why did you do that anyway?"

She shrugged and began entering the lab. "You pretty much have a perfect record here. I know I don't want my perfect record tarnished by a tiny lapse in reasoning."

Peter followed, muttering a small "Thank you."

"There you five are," Dr. Connors said jovially, looking up from a microscope. "I've got to say I'm impressed by Octavius. Not everything here is realistic, or moral for that matter, but the cancer treatment seems to be checking out so far. It's incredible! He found such an innovative way to target not just the specific cells, but the specific parts of those cells that allow the cancer to grow and—" He coughed. "Well, it's definitely groundbreaking."

Luke smirked. "Not everything he does leads to a Venom or a Goblin, huh?"

Dr. Connors smiled sheepishly. "Exactly. Although you won't catch me getting carried away again."

"Good to know, Dr. Connors," Peter said, still thinking of Ava's words. "Good to know."