A/N: Hello, friends, and welcome to Chapter Four! I know, I took a bit of time with this chapter, but, as you can see, it's quite a bit longer than the others, so I hope I'm forgiven. As always, thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: All characters owned by Marvel.
Chapter Four
The sonic boom exploded the vapor cone around Carol's body, leaving only contrails behind her legs. She'd willed her mask onto her face, if only for the lenses to protect her eyes from the biting midnight wind. The thunder of her passage rumbled over Manhattan as she approached Spider-Island, her eyes scanning the buildings below for any sign of a man swinging between them. She refused to call him "Spider-Man," even in her mind, because he wasn't. He was a monster, one who'd stolen Peter's life, tarnished his name and reputation, and had the gall to think he could get away with it.
Carol passed over the island, floating down to the surface, turning in circles to search for him. The island was black, illuminated only by the lights crossing the Hudson, but the burning light from her fists was a spotlight into the darkness.
She heard him before she saw him, the tell-tale hiss of air pressure from his web-shooters turning her head just in time to see Otto Octavius in his stolen body land a few feet from her. "Hello, Carol," he said.
God, that voice unnerved her. She could hear that it was Peter—there was a lilt there, an almost breathiness that was unique to him—but the malice was undeniable. And the complete lack of sarcastic twinge at the end of every sentence was painfully obvious.
"I assume Strange informed you of the situation," he continued. "And now you're here to stop me?"
Carol's mask pulled back from her face, exposing the burning white smoke leaking from her eyes. "Let Peter go, Octavius," she said, "Now."
Octavius shrugged. "I'm afraid you're mistaken, Carol," he said. "There is no Peter for me to release. He's dead and gone. I am Spider-Man now. I am Peter Parker."
The ground where he'd been standing a second before exploded, Carol's fist still glowing from the blast. "Careful, now," he said. "You wouldn't want to damage this body, would you?"
"If it gets you out of his mind," she said. "He'll recover. And thank me."
Carol charged, her fists and feet flying with exceptional speed. Only Octavius was just that half-second faster. His body was fluid motion, a flag whipping in the wind, a thousand movements connected into a single seamless dodge.
Octavius slipped, however, and Carol managed to wrap her arms around his torso, binding his arms in a bear hug. "You're done, Octavius," she said. "Now let him go!"
"Oh, I beg to differ, my dear," he said, four mechanical arms bursting free of the device on his back. Two of them jammed their pointed ends into Carol's eyes, and she dropped Octavius to throw her forearms over her face.
Slinking forward, Octavius reared back to deliver another blow before jumping away. Through the blur in her vision she saw an orange glow, and felt heat around her feet.
"Where's my friend?" shouted the Human Torch, hovering above the ground a few inches to Carol's left. He placed his hand on Carol's shoulder, letting her absorb some of his warmth to fuel a faster recovery.
"Johnny!" Octavius shouted, "Carol's gone crazy! We've got to stop her before…"
"Shut it, Octopus," Johnny said. "Doc Strange gave us the rundown. Now let him go before I turn you into fried calamari."
Octavius straightened his stance and laughed. "You two? You're all Strange could convince?"
A thrumming ring sang through the air, and Octavius back-flipped just as it reached its apex. Carol's hand snapped in front of Johnny's face just before the sound collided with it.
"All? Oh, no," Johnny said. "We just got here first."
Carol flicked her wrist out, and the shield flew back to the hand outstretched from the open Quinjet door.
"Avengers!" Captain America shouted, raising the shield high. "Assemble!"
Iron Man and Thor flew down, slamming the ground behind Octavius. Spider-Woman landed next to her best friend, her fingertips sparking green with charged venom blasts. The Quinjet touched down, and Cap, Hawkeye, and Black Widow jumped out, followed by Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Daredevil.
"If this is the best you can do…" Octavius started, but was cut off by the sound of engines.
The Fantasticar appeared in the air, as the Invisible Woman released her power and allowed it to be seen. Reed Richards stretched down to the ground, his wife following on an invisible platform. The Thing leapt out of the cockpit, the ground crumbling beneath his feet as he landed behind Johnny. "Always wanted ta see if I could clobber the web-head," he said, slamming a rocky fist into his palm. "Now I got a good reason."
Octavius scoffed. "You don't scare me, you insignificant…"
He was interrupted again by the flash of lightning and a crash of thunder. Doctor Strange stood at the edge of an open portal, with Wolverine, Cyclops and Storm just behind him. Storm's eyes were misted white, and thunderheads gathered over Spider-Island. "Sorry that took so long," Strange said. "I had some trouble finding Wolverine."
"What?" Logan said. "Stark quit stockin' the good beer."
Stark black lenses turned the circle, starting and stopping at the blonde woman with the burning yellow eyes. "This is all you could muster?" Octavius asked. "This is paltry."
"Really?" Carol said. "I'm pretty sure this is the exact opposite of that."
Cap stepped forward. "One chance, Octavius," he said. "Let the man go."
The ends of the mechanical arms twitched, ready to help their master stave off the imminent attack. "I can understand why you would believe yourself to have the advantage here, Captain," Octavius said, pressing a button on the wrist guard on his left arm. "But you, and all your compatriots, will be little more than target practice for my Arachnauts!"
Behind them, the ground opened up in concentric circles, and dozens upon dozens of soldiers poured out of tunnels running beneath the former prison. Their faces were covered by goggles that resembled the eyepieces in Spider-Man's mask, and their assault rifles were trained on the heroes. Out of the building itself, several massive robotic spiders came stomping across the island, the ground quaking with every step of their armored frames.
"Arachnauts!" Octavius shouted, "Defense plan Theta-6!"
The mercenaries surrounded the heroes, their ranks staggered, their laser sights flickering across the costumed bodies and index fingers hovering over hair triggers.
Mutants, sorcerers, scientists, warriors and gods all turned to face the army around them.
All but one.
"You can bring all the soldiers you want," Carol said. "They won't stop me."
"We'll see about that," Octavius said.
The soldiers started firing, and the heroes scattered. Thor raised Mjolnir high, and together with Storm summoned a maelstrom of lightning, the electricity arcing between Octavius's mercenaries. Dozens fell, but were soon back on their feet, the rubber soles of their boots smoking from the heat. The mercs focused their fire on the street level heroes, those who were most vulnerable, and it was left to the others to keep them safe from the barrage.
"Avengers," Cap said, his shield a red-and-white blur around his body, "Keep your guard up! Sue, Strange, get some barriers between us and these bullets. Daredevil, Iron Fist, Widow: Take Octavius down."
The shield flew out and crashed into several soldiers. "The rest of you: on the offensive. Breach the lines and take out those robots before they reach us."
The Thing bounded over the mercenaries and slammed his stony shoulder into a spider-bot, denting its armor and dropping it to the ground. A heavy cannon popped out of the robot's side, and the Thing took a laser blast to the chest, shooting him across the island.
Daredevil and Iron Fist moved to engage Octavius, but Carol blasted the ground at their feet. "He's mine," she said, dropping into a fighting stance.
"No, Carol," Cap said, grabbing her by the bicep. "We need your help to take down the robots." More bullets bounced off his shield, and Carol hit the shooter with a photon blast. She looked at him, her eyes burning white-hot, a sneer obscuring her features. "I know how you feel, but this is where you're needed. Let the others handle what they can."
Another moment passed as Carol stared, first at Steve, then at the ground at her feet, before she shot into the air after the Thing, her fists glowing with power. The laser cannon on the spider-bot's side aimed at him again, but Carol punched straight through the giant machine, her voice tearing the air around her as she absorbed the heat from the explosion. Her whole body pulsing with energy, she reared back both her fists and fired a photon blast at the closest robot, splitting its side open and exposing its inner mechanisms. A crimson beam followed hers up, destroying the robot's interior, as Cyclops ran past on his way to deal with a contingent of mercs with Wolverine.
The ground rumbled as the Thing landed behind her. "You okay, darlin'?" he asked, dropping a massive hand on her shoulder.
"Let's just smash these robots and end this," she said, shrugging him off and bursting into the sky.
The Thing ran to the nearest spider-bot and grabbed one of its legs, flipping it over, then ripped open the armor on the underbelly. "I don't do smashing, that's the green guy," he said, plunging his arm inside the robot up to the shoulder.
As Carol flew to the other side of the island, she hit a few mercs with photon blasts, but it seemed that Octavius had outfitted his men with protection enough that her attacks weren't taking them out of the fight. She looked at him, saw that Daredevil and Black Widow were already down; Iron Fist was holding his own, but was on the defensive. She turned to fly toward him, but was hit by one of the spider-bot's laser cannons and thrown to the other side of the island.
Storm and Thor were working well together: the god of thunder hurled his mighty hammer, puncturing robots on both sides of him; the mutant stood next to him, lightning crackling out of her hands and into the openings Mjolnir had made, frying the circuitry. Finally, Thor caught the hammer and summoned the thunder. "For Asgard!" he cried. "And my friend." The abundance of electricity annihilated the robots. Carol picked herself up and brushed the mud off her costume, leaving the two to continue their assault.
When she looked back to Octavius, she saw Iron Fist lying next to Daredevil; Reed Richards was now attempting to bind Octavius with his elastic body, but the villain was too fast. Carol saw Cap hurl his shield, but his Spider-Sense warned him, and at the last second Octavius ducked. The shield struck Mr. Fantastic, sling-shooting off the rubber man's face.
A mechanical arm shot into the air and caught the shield, bringing it down to Octavius, who slipped it on his arm. "As I recall," he said, attaching a web-line to the shield, "The old Spider-Man used this to great effect against Doom." He spun the shield on the line a few times, flipping over the thread a few times before catching the disc again. "Would you like to know why?"
Johnny floated down in front of Reed, who was still trying to reconstitute himself after the powerful blow from the shield. "I wouldn't, actually," he said. "I'd rather you just give up. You can't beat all of us."
"You see, simpleton, when Captain America throws this metal disc," Octavius said, tapping the shield with his open palm, "It almost immediately begins to slow down by at least nine-point-eight meters per second per second due to gravity." Johnny shot a jet of flame from his fingertips, which Octavius absent-mindedly raised the shield to deflect.
"This slowing effect lowers the velocity of the object," Octavius continued. Cap tried to sneak up behind him while his attention was on Johnny, but as soon as Cap made a move on him, Octavius jumped and twisted, hitting Steve on the back of the head with the shield.
"As we all know, force equal mass times acceleration," he said, rolling Cap's unconscious body over with his foot. "A lower velocity means less acceleration, which means less force upon impact." Octavius threw the shield and Johnny dodged. The rock behind Johnny shattered as the shield hit it, and Octavius pulled it back with the web-line.
He twirled the shield around himself. "However, when an object is pulled by a fulcrum, such as this web-line, velocity is increasing rather than decreasing," Octavius said, stopping the shield with his palm. "Thus increasing acceleration, which increases force, which increases damage upon impact. And considering that this body has enough super-strength to lift crumbling buildings, that's an almost incalculable amount of force."
Johnny smiled at Octavius. "Well, incalculable amount of force," he said. "Meet the immovable object."
Snapping his head around, Octavius saw the Thing standing behind him. "Guess what time it is?" the Thing said, cracking his knuckles to sound like scraping pieces of shale. "G'head. Guess."
Octavius leapt into the air and spun, releasing the shield on its web-line. The Thing held out his hand to catch it, but the rounded edge sliced into his palm to the wrist. The Thing fell to his knees, screaming and clutching his arm, looking at the shield sticking halfway out of his hand. Octavius pulled on the strand and the shield returned to him, which he replaced on his forearm. The Thing toppled over in pain, and Octavius turned back to Johnny. "Not so immovable after all, eh?"
"Oh, no you don't," Johnny said, his body burning almost white. "You don't get to make bad jokes, that's his thing." The Human Torch started flying circles around Octavius, the muddy ground first drying out, then turning to glass as it burned. Octavius stood motionless for a moment before leaping into the circle, holding the shield before his body. Johnny crashed into it almost head first, flying too fast to stop, and fell to the ground, shattering the glass ring he'd made there.
"I am him, now," Octavius said.
Carol saw this exchange as she fought through a contingent of soldiers, their bullets not piercing her skin, but the fight damaging her all the same. Octavius was tearing them apart. Daredevil, Iron Fist, Black Widow, the Thing, the Human Torch, and Captain America were all down, and Reed wasn't going to be able to catch Octavius on his own, he was just too slow.
Luke Cage plowed through another group of mercs and faced Octavius. "Let's do this, crazy!" Cage shouted, charging at his foe.
Octavius leaped out of the way with ease, then landed on Cage's shoulders, slapping one of his ears with an open palm. Cage reached up and grabbed Octavius, then threw him to the ground, clinking through the glass and dust. "Unbreakable skin, fool," Cage said. "You can't hurt me."
"Unbreakable skin doesn't mean you can't receive internal injuries, Mr. Cage," Octavius said. "Especially when my nano-bots are crawling through your ears and are about to render you unconscious."
Cage furrowed his brow. "The hell you talking abou…"
He crashed to the ground.
"Pathetic, all of you," Octavius said. "I am superior in every way!"
A thrumming energy beam flew at Octavius, and the villain barely managed to get the shield up in time to protect himself.
"We'll see about that," Iron Man said, his armor clanking as he landed across from Octavius.
"Indeed," Reed Richards said, having managed to reconstruct himself.
Octavius looked around the island, noticed that the last of his spider-bots had been damaged or destroyed by the remaining heroes, and that his soldiers were falling in droves against Carol's onslaught.
"You can't stop me, Stark," Octavius said. "I don't have to beat you. I just have to be faster. Arachnauts! Defense plan Omega!"
The remaining spider-bots fired several metal platforms from their tops, which floated several feet off the ground in intervals of several yards. The soldiers started retreating toward the main facility, their guns still trained on the heroes.
Carol stared up at the platforms, and realized what they were as Octavius made his first leap. "Tony!" she shouted, firing a photon blast at the second platform, a second too late. "They're hitch points! He's swinging to the building! He's gonna fortify himself inside and purge Peter's mind before we can stop him!"
Iron Man shot into the air, his repulsors firing at the platforms, but even as they were destroyed Octavius managed to swing and bounce from the debris to make it inside the facility.
"Dammit, no!" Carol shouted, flying through the soldiers and bashing her fists against the door. The metal dented, but didn't break, which meant it had to be at least an adamantium or vibranium weave.
Thor and the X-Men mopped up the remaining soldiers while Tony and Reed examined the door's lock. "It's a constantly changing sequence of numbers," Tony said. "We could get the first one right, but if we don't get the second within a few seconds, the whole thing resets. Also if we get one wrong."
"I may be able to squeeze through," Reed said, sticking his hand near the seam between the door and the ground. After a few seconds though, he gave up. "It's water tight, at least."
"This did used to be a prison, after all," Strange said. "I could try to teleport us in, but I would need a schematic of the building so I don't put us in a wall."
While Tony started fiddling with the interface in his armor, trying to find a recent blueprint for the building, Carol, Sue, and Storm walked over to one of the conscious soldiers. "I know they're some of the smartest men on Earth, but sometimes they're idiots," Sue said.
Carol lifted the merc off the ground and smacked him once across the face to make sure he was paying attention. "Tell us how to open the door," she said.
The merc shook his head.
Storm's fingers sparked with electricity. "He isn't paying you enough for this," Carol continued.
The merc shook his head again.
Carol sighed, then nodded toward Storm. "At least what she or I will do to you, you'll see coming," she said before switching to Sue. "She, on the other hand, she'll mess you up and you won't have any clue what's going on."
Sue smiled and waved before making her hand vanish.
A few seconds later, Sue walked over, pushed past her husband, and input eight numbers into the keypad. The doors slid open.
The three men around her all stared at Sue for a second before she gestured into the opening. They ran inside, following the golden contrails from where Carol shot into the building as soon as the door opened.
A holographic interface popped up over Tony's forearm. "Looks like a massive power spike down this way," he said, laying the readout over the blueprint he'd just downloaded. They passed Carol, who'd been checking every door she found, and she fell in behind them.
The group found another door, this one smaller, but through the windows they saw flashing blue light. Carol kicked the door, splitting it apart, and she saw Octavius sitting in a massive chair, a large yellow device sitting on his head.
"You're… too late… Avengers…" Octavius said. "Parker… is gone…"
"No!" Carol shouted, grabbing his wrist and holding it in front of his face. "He's not gone. He's not."
Octavius's face… Peter's face… strained to look at her, a sneer across his lips. "You… can't have him… Carol…" he said. "He's… mine."
Tears streamed down Carol's face. "No," she said. "He's mine."
She squeezed, and shattered his forearm.
Octavius screamed in pain, and the three doctors behind her jumped forward. "What are you doing?" Strange asked.
"Breaking his concentration," she said. "Hopefully sending him into shock. Now figure out some way to use this thing to get Octavius out of his head."
Reed and Tony stepped forward, the scientists in them taking over. Reed stretched up to the top of the machine, examining it from there, while Tony focused on the helmet.
Carol and Strange stood to the side, waiting. "Are you okay?" Strange asked.
Waiting was terrible.
"Can you find out if Peter's still in there?" Carol asked. "If Octavius was lying?"
Strange sighed. "Now that I'm with his physical body, yes, much more easily," he said, walking over to Peter's body. He placed his hands against Peter's temples, his thumbs against the forehead. Blue light emanated from Strange's palms, his voice whispering an unknown language. After a few seconds, he stepped back from the body.
"Well?" Carol asked.
"Yes," Strange said. "There's hope. We're not too late."
Carol heard the concerned tone in Strange's voice. "What's wrong, Doc?"
Strange sighed. "Peter's been fighting in there for a while," he said. "He's tired. Weak."
"Aha!" Tony said, popping his face plate up. "I think I've got it!"
Reed came down from the ceiling. "What's your theory, Tony?"
"The device is set to purge whichever consciousness is considered foreign," Tony said. "Or, more accurately, whichever is weaker. All we need to do is give Peter's consciousness some juice, then press the button at the right time, and bam, Octavius is gone."
"How do you propose we do that, Tony?" Reed asked.
Tony pointed to Carol and Strange. "Magic and moral support," he said.
Reed scoffed, and Strange furrowed his eyebrows at him. "I'm more than willing to help," Strange said.
"Ok, Doc, just give Peter some energy, help him take Octavius down on the mental plane," Tony said. "Carol. All you need to do is talk to him. Right now, it's like it was when Peter was in a coma. He can hear you, he just can't respond. We need to get him to the place where he's responding, even a little bit."
Carol stepped forward and knelt down, taking Peter's good hand in both of hers. Strange stepped around her, and replaced his hands on Peter's forehead. The blue light glowed again, and Strange started mumbling.
But they weren't there. Right then, it was just Peter and Carol. "Hey, Pete," Carol said. "I know you're in there. I know you're fighting, and you're tired of it. But I need you to give it just a little more, okay?"
Strange continued to whisper, while Tony and Reed flipped switches and turned knobs on the device. "I'm here now. I've done what I can. I got everyone to listen. Now it's up to you."
Peter's body started screaming again, the sound ripping at Carol's heart. It did not sound like Octavius had; it was pain. Just pain. "I know it's hard," she said. "I know you may want to give up. But you're not done here."
The body gritted its teeth. "I'm not done with you yet," Carol continued. "So you better fight with everything you've got, or I'm gonna find a way in there and kick your ass."
Carol took off her right glove and intertwined her fingers with his, then stretched her head around Strange's arm so her lips were at his ear. "I miss you," she whispered. "Come home to me. Please."
The body laughed.
Sick, maniacal laughter.
"I… told you… Carol," Octavius said. "He's… mine."
Carol tried to stand out of instinct.
But his fingers stuck.
"Hit it!" she cried.
Tony slammed his palm down on a button on the console next to the body's broken arm, and electricity shot up and down the machine.
"No!" the body screamed, its eyes rolling up into its head, the torso seizing, the limbs flopping and jerking.
"Peter!" Carol shouted, covering her eyes from the blinding light of the electricity.
The pulse ended as quickly as it began, and the body slumped forward, smoke trailing from the helmet.
Carol caught him as he fell, and lowered him to the ground. "Peter?" she asked. "Peter?"