A/N: Hold on to your webs, Spidey fans! It's Spidey vs. Doc Ock!

(shameless stealing from Stan Lee here… :) )

#cliff-hanger alert#

Don't be too annoyed - it was the best way to break it into a manageable chapter.

Many thanks for the reviews, Appreciative reader & reandn - I'm working my methodic way to the end!

Cheers,

Apteryx

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Chapter 31: Hounded Innocence.

At first, Mary-Jane thought it was someone in the audience trying to be funny, then, at about the same time as Dr. Octopus and many others, she realised that the sound had come from above and behind them. She twisted around to look. There, perched high on the railing of the third floor walkway, was Spider-Man. Or rather, a Spider-Man impersonator, though nobody else besides Peter and herself knew it.

"Spider-Man!" exclaimed Octavius into the microphone, drowning out the voices and gasps of those present. "You've interfered with my plans for the last time!"

"Good to hear. Does this mean you're giving yourself up?"

Octavius gave a hostile glare in the wall-crawler's direction, before gaining control over his rage and facing his audience again.

"See," he said, modulating his voice persuadingly, "See how the innocent are hounded. I come to you today to announce my legitimate scientific breakthrough, and I am hounded, nay, persecuted by this vigilante Spider-Man."

"I've always said he's a menace…" interrupted Jameson.

Octavius ignored him.

"See," he continued, raising his voice and pointing at the second floor balcony, his tentacles now swirling at his side, "See how he has vandalised my equipment, just to gratify his own petty little vendetta!"

Heads turned, and Mary-Jane saw that the slide projector she had noticed earlier was now completely swathed in webbing, so much so, that you couldn't discern the original shape of the appliance within.

"So that's how…" muttered Peter beside her, snapping away furiously.

The press would be having a field day, Mary-Jane thought, Jameson's in his real element here… She also noticed that the audience seemed divided in their loyalties; some were doubtful, treating Dr. Octopus's words seriously, with Jameson's ranting confusing things more. Glancing up at Spidey silently watching and waiting, and back to Doctor Octopus, MJ wondered who was going to make the first move.

Now that the crowd were in turmoil, Octavius upped the ante.

"The time has come," he said, still ignoring Spidey, "to deal with this once and for all. Scientific progress must not be stopped by Criminals!"

Above the mixed tumult of voices, clapping, and hissing, Spidey's voice rang out.

"I agree, Ock. That's why I'm here to stop you! You're still a criminal, and I've proof of it."

"Insolent Spider!" hissed Dr. Octopus, his attention now totally focused on his old foe above him. He didn't notice the arrival at the edges of the crowd of a squadron of NYPD officers. "You're bluffing, speaking through a hole in your tiny little webbed head as usual. Trying to make me look bad." He was still trying to hold his temper, hold on to the sympathy of his audience.

"I don't need to make you look bad; you can do that adequately yourself," Spidey replied, "And as for proof - I've had a little talk with a certain Dr Whithead…"

Octavius looked momentarily taken aback, then he recovered and smiled, more a sneer than a smile. "Well, isn't that too bad?" he said, "My esteemed colleague Dr Whithead, met with an unfortunate accident this morning and is no able to join us."

Mary-Jane gasped at the implications; Peter was looking very grim as he heard that last statement, and she guessed that the news affected him the same as it had her, maybe more, though possibly not as much as it had Erica. MJ tilted her head to observe Spidey's reaction.

Spidey was very still; a pause that resounded throughout the open spaces of the atrium. Then, with a sudden fluid movement, Spidey stood upright on the rounded metal of the railing, balancing there with no apparent effort as she said enigmatically, "Time to clear out now!"

Several things happened at once, so fast that MJ had trouble sorting it all out. Police poured in from the sides and began forcibly herding the audience towards the main entrance. Spidey shot off a line of webbing and swung down directly towards Dr. Octopus, with people below her line of travel scrambling out of the way, some screaming, some in panic, adding to the confusion already caused by the NYPD's methodical but unexpected evacuation procedures. Octavius stayed on the rostrum, sheltering his body behind the lectern, but letting his mechanical arms spring out and stretch rapidly towards the approaching red-and-blue figure.

Out of the corner of her eye, before she got swamped by part of the audience and separated from Peter, Mary-Jane spied Jameson remonstrating with a couple of policemen, who were having to remove him physically from the scene, and he wasn't the only one who was causing New York's finest trouble - some of the other media personnel thought they should stay to cover the breaking news as well.

MJ dropped to the floor and trailing the camera bag behind her, began crawling along behind a row of chairs, some still upright, aiming to reach the other side of the atrium. She had some sort of unformed idea about hiding somewhere, to witness the unfolding battle, and maybe help Spidey if she could. She had to stop and curl up next to a chair twice as people ran past, still trying to escape from the chaos.

Eventually she reached the bulletin boards; the table had been knocked over, and one of the boards had fallen and was resting at an angle over the side of the table's legs. Mary-Jane crawled into the space and peeked around the corner of the board back to the podium.

Spidey had let go of the web and flipped herself dextrously out of the way of Ock's oncoming tentacles, landing in a crouch a short distance away, then immediately leaping up again as they came striking at her. They hit the floor where she had been only moments before with such force, that the marble was shattered.

Mary-Jane turned away and looked around the area, seeing that almost all the audience had now been removed by the police, who were now helping the final few out, leaving the wide open space free for the two combatants. Peter was nowhere in sight - he must have been evacuated with the rest. MJ almost chuckled, imagining Jolly Jonah hassling Peter for not staying inside and photographing the battle. She turned her head again to view how Spidey was getting on against Dr. Octopus.

Spidey was doing very well to avoid Doc Ock's tentacles so far; the lectern that was protecting Ock's body from Spidey's attack was also limiting slightly the manoeuvrability of his arms, so that Spidey was able to leap and dodge with alacrity, gripping on to the square marble-faced pillars supporting the walkways, and leaping off sideways onto a walkway itself, twisting and turning in such a way that Ock's tentacles, following her movements, became momentarily tangled in the stainless steel railings and supports.

From her viewpoint where she crouched, MJ could see Spidey taking the small opportunity granted to lean back against a pillar out of Octavius's sight and change web-cartridges. Of course, the special foam! Mary-Jane frowned. A problem that she was sure Spidey had figured out a while ago occurred to her suddenly; that same lectern that benefited both Ock and Spidey, also prevented Spidey from using the foam. Not only that, but she'd have to make sure all four tentacles were in the same place long enough to deploy it

With a roar, Ock pulled his tentacles free from the railings, bringing down sections of steel tubing and concrete, exposing wire and leaving a shattered gap. Spidey hopped onto a section of the railing still intact and tut-tutted, "You'll have to make up for that out of your wages, you know." And as the tentacles came for her again, she performed a powerful handspring off the railing and upwards, leading with her outstretched feet up over the railing on the third floor to land upright on the walkway. Fortuitously, this was out of the reach of the Doc's arms, as long as he stayed where he was.

As he tried in vain to reach Spidey, she got in a little taunting, hoping no doubt to draw him out.

"'Reach for the sky!' No, no, that's not right, even if you are a cowboy. Howsabout 'irritable reaching after fact and reason?' No? Well I can't call you Stretch; a Reed Richards you ain't."

Octavius started using his tentacles to bash at one of the pillars supporting the two levels of walkways.

"I don't know what you hope to achieve by that; even if you bring these floors down, I can still stay out of your reach…"

"Not for long," replied Doc Ock, desisting, "Haven't I shown proof to you before this I can go wherever you can?"

"Yeah, well proof is not always what it seems, as you so kindly pointed out to me earlier. I don't believe you."

"Fool." Octavius retracted his arms and brought them down with a crash upon the lectern, sending splinters of wood flying through the air, then with a rapid movement, he braced two of his tentacles against the floor and telescoped them out, propelling his body upwards, at the same time extending the other two towards the walkway where Spidey stood.

"Oopsy," she muttered, as she did a massive flip across and over Dr. Octopus and landed facing down on the internal windows of the administration offices opposite. Just below her was the top of the large screen. She grabbed the pole that kept the top of the screen rigid, and as Octavius reached her 'walking' on all four of his arms, she quickly flipped off the windows and over Ock again, this time trailing the screen, twisting it and letting it go before she reached the ground, so that it covered Ock and hampered him, blinding him and causing him to flounder into the windows, smashing them.

It didn't take Ock long at all to untangle himself from the wreckage, but it was long enough for Spidey to leap towards him, obviously intending to administer a huge punch to his head and knock him senseless. Mary-Jane cheered silently from behind her barricade. 'Really,' she thought, 'Spidey is remarkable.' It was the first time she had seen Erica as Spider-Man in action, and she was taken afresh with just how incredible the Spider-powers were; when they were part of Pete, who she had known for years, she had taken them, if not exactly for granted, then pretty close to it. She had thought they were cool, apart from the unfortunate side effect of being a magnet for every nut-case super-powered villain to hit New York City. Or was it the other way round…

In the meantime, Ock managed to bring one of his tentacles speeding across straight for Spidey to intercept her path of travel. She impossibly twisted her body in mid-flight to avoid being hit, and therefore lost her chance to bring Ock down. Landing on the floor, she quickly bounced then dived through two of the tentacles as they converged, ducking under yet another.

The two foes were now in an area to the right of the podium that was clear of the debris of the sudden evacuation; there were no obstacles to get in between Octavius's arms and Spidey.

"Now you get to see why Dr Octopus is your master!" Ock raved.

"Still the same aren't you Ocky; completely unspoiled by failure," quipped Spidey as she rolled then leapt out of the way of a tentacle or two that barely missed her moving form. Two more whipped down which she avoided by grabbing hold of one and swinging around it and over the next, like a gymnast on a set of parallel bars if a gymnast ever had to cope with the bars coming to life like large snakes...

"I've read about you on jam tins!" Side-slipping, Spidey sprung back into the jumble of chairs, and rapidly started picking them up and tossing them in a constant stream at Dr. Octopus. He stood there, almost casually swatting them aside with his tentacles, a big sneer on his face.

"Is that the best you can do?" he said, "And yet…" he added thoughtfully as he watched the web-slinger.

"Heck no, this is just for starters." Spidey blithely kept throwing chairs.

MJ wondered what Spidey was up to; chairs wouldn't slow Ock down. Perhaps she was waiting for a conjunction of arms. Mary-Jane was worried though about Doc Ock's speculative expression - that couldn't bode well for Spidey…

"Enough!" Octavius suddenly roared, and moving forward, he feinted with two of his appendages, throwing a couple of chairs back to Spidey, and while she was averting them, lashed out with the remaining two arms at full speed.

The first tentacle wapped into Spidey's right side as she had an arm up to deflect a chair. There was a dull thud at the impact, and she immediately crumpled over. Mary-Jane winced at the sound and sight of Spidey kneeling curled up on the floor, head lowered, one arm held protectively to her side and the other barely supporting her body off the surface. It must be her already broken rib, thought MJ in distress.

Doc Ock looked surprised at the ease at which his blow had halted his foe, "What is this? You'll not get me by play-acting this time!"

Mary-Jane could see Spidey struggling to recover.

"Fat show, you scungy polyp," she gasped.

Just as she raised her head and was slowly starting to pick herself up, Ock followed through his first blow, and with the other tentacle, struck her on the head. Spidey was thrown back through the chairs, sliding along the marble floor to come to rest, head lolling and limbs spread out with a laxness that indicated obviously, and very much so, unconsciousness.

Mary-Jane involuntary let out an audible groan; luckily, Dr Octopus was too involved with his enemy to notice. MJ nibbled at her fingers, anxious for Erica, and mad keen to help her in some way, but how?

Octavius had used his mechanical arms to lift Spidey's body out of the wreckage and bring it closer to him. He inspected her dangling form briefly but intently before giving a startled exclamation.

"A woman!" Another arm darted out and quickly removed her mask, revealing Erica's face.

"I was right!" he exclaimed again, peering at the unfamiliar woman he held. "I knew there was something not quite right about 'Spider-Man', something different in his movement and manner of speech. When you've got to know your enemy as thoroughly as I've got to know Spider-Man, you can't be fooled by an impostor, though it's been attempted in the past. So, I see that part of my scheme succeeded. But who is this woman? And where is the real Spider-Man?"

………………………………………………………….

"Right here, Ocky!" And as Octavius turned to the source of the voice in astonishment, a powerful crimson-clad fist shot out and punched him in the cheekbone.

"No!" whispered MJ from her hideout, her hands up to her face. "No, Peter, not you too…"

Dr. Octopus stumbled back with the force of the blow, but somehow stayed conscious. He threw Erica's body off to the side, a piece of detested detritus, where it skidded through and under the bunting that was draped around the edge of the make-shift podium, and was forgotten about.

"You!" Octavius said, not quite believing his senses, "I'd know your voice anywhere. Daring to tackle me yourself, now that I've disposed of your minion?"

Spider-Man, taking the advantage while Ock was still disconcerted by the first blow, came in quickly with another left hook, but, partially blocked by Ock's tentacles, only managed to connect with Octavius's left shoulder. There was a howl from Doc Ock, and he gripped at his shoulder with his right hand, as his left arm went limp; dislocated, MJ guessed, but how was Peter able to deliver a punch like that without his spider-powers? Then she remembered the red ribbon of the Untongued, and the formula that Pete and Dr. Connor had made up. Oh no…

Although one of his flesh-and-bone arms was out of action, Dr. Octopus's artificial ones had no such disability. With a quickness that Spider-Man could not avoid in his powerless state, Ock's tentacles had him pinned and helpless. Octavius leant forward, closer to Spider-Man, his face distorted with pain and hate.

"So," he said, quietly, with a quiver in his voice that deeply worried MJ, "The 'real' Spider-Man is helpless. By rights I should kill you here and now. You know I'm not the sadistic sort normally – when I kill people I make sure the job is done quickly and efficiently. But you, you're a special case. For all the pain and disruption you've given me over the years, I ought to return the favour eightfold."

Spider-Man laughed bitterly. "You don't think you have already? Besides, without me, you'd cease to exist; you'd no longer have the raison d'être…"

"Don't speak such drivel. I have plenty of plans formulated to occupy myself. You are trying to talk up your importance to me – trying to buy yourself time, I think."

"Oh yeah? Then why did you try to get rid of me before I was even aware you were planning something? Admit it Ock – you're becoming paranoid in your old age, else you're developing another Spider-Man phobia!"

"Never! I will never fear you again. I defeated you too many times to count, and this will be the last…"

"Then why are you dwelling on it? Why don't you finish me off right now?"

Octavius growled. "You think I can't?"

Mary-Jane frowned. Here was her husband, a powerless captive, and yet he was goading Doctor Octopus almost as if he were welcoming his own death. He must have some idea what he was doing. MJ shoved her hands in her pockets to stop he biting them again. She was afraid for Peter. If Doc Ock really meant to kill him, she didn't want to witness her own husband's murder, what could she do to stop it? Her hands closed around the spare rolls of film - the very least she could do was throw the canisters as a diversion, hope that that would help somehow…

Octavius stood back and bared his teeth in a grimace as he tightly gripped Spider-Man's limbs in each tentacle.

"You think I can't?" he repeated, raising his voice until he was shouting, "I will tear you apart immediately!"

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