A/N: I should know how many chapters I've got left to write by next chapter - I'm getting there!

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Chapter 28: The Virus Checker

It was fully dark but still reasonably early in the evening. The group of condemned buildings were surrounded by plastic tape strung from lamppost to lamppost, spelling out 'Danger' in a long line, repeating the one word over and over, an unarticulated mantra intended to stop people from passing. It didn't stop the homeless. Nor did it stop Spidey, who passed overhead unseen to land softly on the roof of the outermost structure.

Coming back to this area took a lot of her nerve, as it was only two evenings ago that she and Peter had been set upon by a gang of low-lifes at this very spot. It seemed a lot quieter now, but that was in part due to the fact that no-one knew she was there, and she intended to keep it that way. She leapt to the next roof inwards, aiming for a rooftop in about the centre, knowing that the likelihood of being over-looked was very slim. However, halfway through her next leap, her spider-sense buzzed like a swarm of bees down a chimney. Instinctively, she changed direction in mid-leap, flipping back to the wall of the building she had just left.

Clinging there in the shadows, she studied the vicinity, trying to spy what it was that set her spider-sense off so alarmingly. Then she caught glimpse of a dark figure crouched on the rooftop of the building opposite, the one she had been about to land on. The person was holding something long and narrow, and Spidey didn't think it was an umbrella against unlikely rain-showers. She didn't think she had been spotted, or else the figure would have moved, or taken some other action by now. Spidey wondered briefly if the sniper was set for her, but how could it be? No-one, not even Peter knew exactly where she was headed tonight. Then his target must be someone else. But who?

An altercation started up below; two men apparently beating up on a third. Spidey nearly made a move to swing down, when she noticed the sniper still paused opposite, not watching or paying any attention to the fight down below. It was almost as if it were a staged fight, a set-up, and the marksman was waiting for another player in the unfolding drama to show. She too, waited and watched.

The players must have started their act on a hidden signal, because it wasn't at all long before there was more movement in the street shadows, and a figure in red stood on the pavement opposite and threw an object at the brawling men. It cracked across the head of one, bounced off, and rebounded onto the hand of another, then ricocheted back to it's source.

"Daredevil!" exclaimed Spidey under her breath.

The silent man caught it easily in a gloved hand, and returned the billy-club to it's scabbard. His head tilted slightly upwards, as if he had heard his name. Which he probably had, thought Spidey. She couldn't give him any further warning without tipping off the sniper as well. Daredevil must be his intended target.

When Daredevil made as if to step into the street towards the recovering combatants, and into range of the marksman, Spidey decided it was time for her to make a move. With a flick of her wrist, she fired off a webline and swung across to the rooftop where the sniper was perched. So focused was he on his target, that he didn't react to the approaching threat until she was almost upon him. Releasing her line and flipping onto the roof as the sniper brought his rifle around to aim at her instead, she rapidly shot web from both wrists, aiming for both the gun and the sniper's eyes before he even had a chance to start squeezing the trigger. She somersaulted towards him, then straightened out her legs, catching him in the jaw with both feet. He went down sprawling at the edge of the roof, out cold. Spidey took the rifle out of his motionless hands and twisted the gun until the barrel was bent like a cotter pin. Then she dropped the gun by the unconscious sniper, with an expression of disgust hidden by her mask.

Glancing down into the street, she noticed that all three combatants had disappeared, perhaps slipping inside a nearby building to lose themselves in the warren of rooms and corridors. She couldn't see Daredevil anywhere below, but a second later, a slight tingle alerted her to his presence behind her. She turned.

"'Well met by moonlight, proud Titania.'"

"'What! jealous Oberon.' And it's 'ill met', not well met." replied Spidey.

"That depends on your point of view," said Daredevil, relaxed, "Well met for me; ill met for him." He gave the sniper a small shove with his foot.

Spidey chuckled.

"Thanks for that," he continued, "I knew there wasn't something quite right about that fight - I couldn't sense enough fear from the victim, and I was sure there were more hidden presences about from the number of heartbeats I could hear. You I spotted almost immediately." He paused for a moment, taking in her form with his enhanced senses.

"You're injured," he stated.

"Broken rib," she said. She figured it was no good trying to hide that sort of thing from him.

"How's Peter?"

Now Spidey felt uncomfortable, and knew that Daredevil would know that too. "He's injured - it happened in this neighbourhood, as a matter of fact. I've come back to finish what we were going to do…"

Daredevil grunted. "So that was you two nights ago."

"Yeah…"

He bent his head down at the figure at his feet. "I'll take care of this; do you need any help?"

"Only some information if you have it. Have you ever heard of a man named Griffin Dealy?"

Slowly, after a pause, Daredevil shook his head. "No, I can't recollect anyone of that name…"

"Bugger," said Spidey, then blushed under her mask as she saw an amused twitch about DD's mouth. Then she felt herself going even redder as she realised her mask wouldn't hide her blush from him. She started talking again to cover up her reaction.

"We need to find out his whereabouts…"

"Is it his real name?" asked Daredevil.

Taken aback, Spidey stammered, "I-I hadn't thought of that." Pause. She thought further. "Yes. Yes, I'm certain it is, even though I can't find much about him."

"I'll do a brief check for you myself, through channels I use."

"Would you? That'd be bonza!"

Daredevil broke into a smile. "Quid pro quo," he said. "Give me a call tomorrow to see what I've got."

"Will do." Spidey held out her hand to shake. Without any hesitation, Daredevil took it in his firm grip and they shook hands. "Thanks Matt."

"You're welcome…?"

"Erica," said Spidey in reply to his unspoken question.

"You're welcome Erica. I hope to see you again."

"Count on it!" Spidey waved and ran off the edge, leaping for the next building in.

Finding a rooftop suitable to her purposes, Spidey quickly changed web cartridges for the ones containing the special foam formula. Aiming at the struts supporting an old water tower, she set off the triggers and jumped back quickly in surprise. She hadn't expected the way the foam splurted out in a gunky looking blob and expanded with extreme rapidity, engulfing the struts and the legs of the structure in a glistening mass of tiny bubbles, looking almost exactly like the result of an over-exuberant bubble bath. Good. Hopefully that would mean that Dr. Octopus would similarly be surprised. Spidey checked the cartridges - they were empty. So, the foam was a one-shot only, no second chances with it. That was good to know beforehand.

Pausing only slightly to remove one of her gloves, Spidey walked up to the mass of foam and prodded it with a bare finger, just in case the foam hadn't set. She giggled softly to herself - it was like testing a giant blamange.

It was set hard - 'Make that a huge pavlova,' she thought. But how hard was it? Spidey replaced her glove, then took a punch at the foam, not holding back.

"Ow!" She shook her hand. Pretty hard.

Satisfied with the results of the test, Spidey removed the empty cartridges and replaced them with normal webbing cartridges, preparatory to swinging across town to the Moroney Clinic and it's hidden tunnel.

Clinging to the shadows of the hospital building of the Clinic, as she had before, Spidey spent some time taking in the scene below. She wanted to be sure that the routines of the guards hadn't changed since the last couple of times she was here.

Since she didn't think she'd be so lucky twice to gain the tunnel unseen purely by chance, she decided to create a diversion, one that would not invite any undue suspicion on the part of the security guards. She slowly crept down the wall, nearer to the ground, and nearer to the corner of the main building where the light shone. As the ambulatory guard reached the light and paused there, Spidey reached behind her back for a small object she had secured there with webbing earlier, when she had retrieved it from where she had stashed her backpack.

Holding it in her hand, she grinned to herself under her mask; she would only have a very short time to get inside the prefab, and so would miss the reactions of the guards to the toy. She would've liked to see them…

She heard the crunching of footsteps on the gravel as the guard turned and walked a few paces before stopping again, this time closer to the door of the outbuilding. He looked around surreptitiously, then gave a light knock on the door. A minute later, the guard who had been within monitoring the cameras came out.

"Got a light?" asked the first guard.

"Hold on." He glanced nervously about as he fumbled in his trouser pocket. Neither of them were moving far from the door. He finally pulled out a lighter and flicked it on for his mate. Suddenly, there was a series of loud bangs sounding near the entrance of the carriageway.

"What…?" The lighter and the unlit cigarette dropped to the ground as the two guards ran towards the source of the noise. A shadow detached itself from the wall and silently slipped inside the outbuilding.

The sound from the air conditioning unit covered any small sound Spidey made while entering, but as the room was empty, she didn't worry so much about being silent. She did stay creeping along the walls though - no sense in being stupid. Quickly she entered the tunnel and literally sticking to the ducting, made her way down. The purling of the water in the channel seemed louder; there was evidence of more water being carried away from the walls to drain away harmlessly. Spidey hurried along. She didn't want to spend a large amount of time here if she could help it; if Doc Ock was going to announce his 'big discovery' to the world tomorrow, then it was possible he could be in the lab, working on last minute details, perhaps even faking up proofs to support it all. Though lack of proof didn't stop some crackpot group claiming they had cloned the first human. Spidey grinned; of course in this universe a couple of dangerous crackpots had already cloned humans, as Spider-Man had discovered to his sorrow and joy already.

The light grew. She was reaching the hidden laboratory now, and had to try and be a bit more stealthy. Keeping her body so close to the rough brick ceiling that she was almost hugging the bricks, she crept the last few paces and peered around the corner and into the interior of the lab. At the bench was a man, the man Spidey had presumed was Dr Whithead, busily occupied with an array of samples. Spidey watched closely, attempting to memorise his every move, so that she could report it back to Peter later. It soon dawned on her, however, that even she could figure out just what Dr Whithead was doing - he was taking one sample at a time, passing it through a naked flame until it blackened, pulverising the residue and then adding water to it. The resultant mess was then quietly washed down the sink. He was destroying the project samples.

So shocked that she didn't stop to think why he was doing such a thing, Spidey dropped to the ground, meaning to stop him before he went any further.

"Wouldn't it be easier to flush them down the toilet?" she asked rhetorically.

Whithead dropped the sample he was holding in startlement. He whirled around.

"Spider-Man?! Are you the Spider-Man?"

"I'm it until the next one comes along."

Whithead gave a tight little smile, that looked as if it would crack his head open if he allowed it to get any wider. Spidey thought he had the demeanour of someone under an intense amount of strain in recent times. She supposed working for Otto Octavius would be enough to do that to anyone.

"I'm glad you're here," Whithead said with a restrained fervour, "I can tell you… you must stop him before sets the final stage of his plan in motion!"

Spidey looked around. "You weren't expecting me were you?"

"No, but Otto had talked, or should I say ranted, about you often enough that I knew you were a threat to his plans."

"Where is he? If you're going to talk, I'd hate for him to interrupt…"

"No chance of that; he's at ESU finalising details for his conference tomorrow." Whithead pushed his glasses up and pressed a hand over his eyes in weariness. "Listen. I don't know how you found out about this lab, or how much you know, but I'm going to presume you know nothing. We'd better sit for this."

He turned to gather two lab stools; when he turned back, he found that Spidey had already spun her own perch from webbing, and was crouched within it.

Sitting himself on one of the stools, Whithead began.

"Two years ago, Dr Octavius approached me at my clinic wanting some help with his mechanical arms. He has a … I guess it would be like a telepathic link to them. He wanted to find out the exact neurological basis for the link. He was willing to pay a very worthwhile sum, and I thought it sounded a fascinating topic for research. Otto already had some ideas to start from… Slowly, I'm not sure exactly how, he insinuated himself into my business more and more, always keeping a low profile, but directing the path my work was taking."

He waved a hand at their surroundings.

"He financed and set up this lab when he found out about the tunnel, and hired security guards. It wasn't above-board, but he insisted that it was needed for our private research. Then, when we had just about pinpointed what the link was, he changed tack - said he had an idea regarding inserting different DNA in viruses, and using the virus to transmit that DNA into human test subjects. Needless to say, I was horrified by his ethics, but when he said it was only going to be a virtual human subject - a computer simulation of the results, I agreed. I'd gotten carried away by the interest of it all. The DNA he wanted to transmit was harmless, but the model could mean it's a way of carrying out a type of gene therapy, especially given the right kind of virus… for example, what if you used a virus that attached itself to parts of the brain - like meningococcal viruses - to attach DNA that would replace damaged areas to restore brain function?"

Whithead's eyes glinted behind the large lenses of his glasses in a brief spurt of enthusiasm. He sobered up pretty quickly as he continued with his tale.

"I was deluded; Octavius didn't use computer modelling to get results, he used live humans, human flotsam dragged off the streets. I discovered that by accident one day and was told I was too far in to not be involved, that if I wanted my name and reputation to remain intact, I should continue working for him, in secret."

"And what was the virus and the DNA?" asked Spidey. She was confused; this wasn't what Peter had deciphered from the notebook.

Whithead sagged even further. "The virus was based on the Ross River virus, usually transmitted by mosquito, but unknown in this part of the world…"

Spidey straightened slightly. "It's from Australia," she said, remembering a holiday she once spent on the Gold Coast, thankfully not during mosquito season.

"That's right," replied Whithead, surprised. "And the DNA was something Octavius designed - I knew the sequences, but not their function. Well, not until this morning, that is. But to continue… Octavius also wanted to insert a drug within the virus, one to make them go into a coma while the DNA inserted itself into their system - the idea was to allow this to happen without them being conscious of it … Sort of like putting a patient under anaesthesia so they don't feel any pain or sensation while being operated upon. What we chose to do this, was a modification of GHB, which was commonly used to induce a medical coma, because it had only minor cardiovascular and respiratory depressant effects. The side effect of seizures meant it was discontinued, but I've found a way of nullifying any harmful effects."

His face twisted in pain and distaste at the recollection.

"Unfortunately, the results on our live subjects weren't good at the early stage of development…"

Spidey thought back on the contents of the lab notebook - it was starting to make more sense.

"…got over that. He was insistent that you be one of those who would be exposed to the modified virus. I'm glad that it didn't take. That's one of the downsides of using a virus as a carrier - not everybody is susceptible. Enough are though. Octavius chose the victims, who were exposed to the virus by a device that sprayed a fine mist, somewhat like being sneezed on. He had some hired help to do the deed. My role was to take the victims into my clinic; ostensibly to care for them until a cure was found, but in reality for Octavius to continue experimenting on them. That's where the samples were from. For seeing how far the recombinant DNA had spread through the system."

He fell silent, the lines on his face dragging down. Spidey observed his downcast figure grimly. Sure he was being blackmailed, but he was still culpable; he still had the chance early on to approach the authorities and come clean, although she supposed his reputation would still have gone down the gurgler, but not as much as now, now he had obviously decided to tell her all. And he had also continued the research out of pure self interest - out of academic pride and kudos. She softened slightly - it was very easy to judge, and who was to say what they would have done in his place? Especially when Dr. Octopus was involved…

Loosening his tie, Whithead started speaking again, slowly leading to the conclusion.

"Octavius is evidently pleased with the results so far, and those results are the reason he's gone for a position at ESU and calling a press conference. He's going to announce that he has made a break-through in the treatment of certain types of nervous system paralysis, with a possible application for curing spinal injuries."

"I thought he was a nuclear scientist?" said Spidey, puzzled.

"He claims he's made a change of direction in his field of speciality, due to his appendages."

"Yeah, I suppose that could be seen as legit."

"But the actual purpose of the conference isn't - he's sent out invitations to a wide range of people - not only the press and the scientific community, but important political and business figures as well. And once he's gathered them all in one place, he intends to expose them all to the virus."

"But that's insane! What does Ock want with hundreds of people in comas?"

"Ah, that's the part I discovered by chance this morning. You see, once they fall into one, they won't be in it for long. Octavius will 'cure' them all. And you know that DNA he sequenced? That details section of the neurological link Otto has with his metal appendages. The upshot of which, is those victims will be able to be controlled by Octavius in the same way he controls his 'arms'!"

"That's totally piss-awful!" exclaimed Spidey, lapsing briefly into her native idiom, "He could do untold damage!"

"That's why I'm telling you. You're the only one who can stop him!"

"All right, but what are you going to do now? You'd best not be around when Dr Ock finds out what you've been doing."

"Don't worry about me, I can cover for myself."

"Well, OK." Spidey thought hard for a moment. Then she looked at Whithead. "Can you give me any proof? I might need it later…"

"Yes, yes I can. I quite see your point. Wait a minute…" He got off his stool and went over to the bench, where he took one of the samples he hadn't yet destroyed. He checked the label, then went over to the computer, punched a few keys, and waited for the screen to change. A few more keys, and the printer clattered into life.

"There, I'm just printing off the notes relevant to this sample," he said, as he continued typing, "I'm going to print off a few general background proofs as well."

The printer stopped. Gathering up the printouts, Whithead came back to Spidey, and handed them to her. She had hopped out of her 'chair' and torn the webbing down, not to leave any evidence of her presence - better to make certain.

"Thanks," she said.

"And these too…" Whithead pulled out a small wad of paper from a pocket. "These are notes I've made myself after my discoveries this morning." He unfolded them, smoothed them out, then took a pen from his shirt pocket and wrote something, explaining as he did so. "I'm adding my signature and the date. That should be all you need. Best of luck."

Folding the papers up again, he passed them over, replacing his pen. He took his glasses off, and wiped his brow with the back of his hand, nervousness straining with relief at his irretrievable action.

"Good luck to you too. I'd better get going before Ock returns. Can I ask you a small favour?"

"Certainly."

"Can you distract the security guards for me? I don't think the same ploy will work on them twice…"

Spidey turned to go, leaping up for the ducting and crawling along, glancing back at Whithead as she went. He stood, astonished for a moment, his eyebrows showing above the rim of his glasses. Then he strode forward, keeping his eyes on Spidey while they travelled the length of the tunnel. When they reached the entrance, he paused and indicated he wanted to speak.

Spidey crawled down the side of the tunnel a short distance, so that her head was level with his.

"I just remembered something Octavius mentioned," he whispered, knowing the noise from the plant machinery nearby would be enough to cover their conversation, "The device for spreading the virus will be disguised - I disturbed him laughing about it, though I didn't know what he was talking about at the time. It will be as something unexpected, I think. Also, knowing Otto, he won't attempt to set it off until after he has finished making his announcement."

"I think you're right. Thanks." Spidey made as if to move, but Whithead stopped her with an uplifted hand.

"I may not be there tomorrow, and I don't know if I'll get the opportunity to speak with you again, but I'd like to say - well, thanks for being Spider-Man…"

Spidey was taken aback. Did he somehow know? But no, he meant something else.

"…and giving me a sight I'll never forget. Adhering to the ceiling like that…" He shook his head. "How do you do it?"

Grinning under her mask, she replied "I hold my breath and think pure thoughts."

Whithead smiled. This time, the smile came more easily, not so forced. Spidey noticed that his posture was more upright as well.

"Never mind. Just… thanks."

He took one last look at her as she skittered back up to the ducting, then went into the prefab. Spidey, waiting by the entrance, heard him say to the guard who had returned to the monitoring screens, "Come with me! I think there's something that needs your attention…"

A few seconds later, when she poked her head around, the room was empty, and the door wide open. Making sure the papers and the sample were securely tucked under her belt, she discretely left.

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