Preparations
The next day Pete shows up at The Bugle under the guise of getting his job back.. He knows that Jameson has obtained his costume after Flash was taken to the hospital, and is trying to find a way to get it back, as his store- bought one was ripped to shreds by Ock.
Jameson tells him to get lost; that Lance Bannon has exclusive photos from the Times Square riot , and even retrieved a "trophy"... He points to the bloodied mask hanging on his bulletin board and remarks that with any luck the wall-crawling menace is dead. As he's leaving, Peter notices his costume lying on a chair, next to a glass case.
Outside the office, Betty asks him about the scratches around his nose and he explains it away saying he had an" accident on his bike". When Jameson is called away, Peter, sees an opportunity, and exits via a vacant office window and crawls in Jameson's office, retrieving his costume.
When Jameson suddenly returns it appears he has surely caught Peter. But, alerted by his Spider-Sense, he has quickly skittered out the window and up to the roof to change in to Spider-Man. Jameson looks out the window, and is disappointed to see Spidey alive and well, on the wall above, waving to him.
Spidey tells him that if its the last thing he does (and it might be) he is going to stop Octavius, and that maybe just maybe...soon, he will not have him to kick around anymore.
Meanwhile Octavius is finalizing plans to sell his invention to Silvermane, although he has no intentions of actually turning it over to him. He plans a demonstration showing its capability by setting off a charge right in the middle of the city... one that will unleash a deadly radiation cloud on the population.
Later that night... angry, frustrated, and frightened, Peter prepares to face Octavius one final time. He knows he could be killed, but is bound to stop him and avenge Gwen's father's death. But if he makes it, he decides, he will leave Spider-Man behind forever, and spend the rest of his life making sure the girl he loves is happy.
Peter desperately tries to get a hold of Gwen, as he knows there's a real possibility he may never see her again... after tonight. He avoids Harry, (who leaves to meet Mary Jane, to go visit Flash in the hospital), by telling him he's trying to meet up with Gwen. But ... he can't reach her. She, he guesses, must be involved in preparations for her father's funeral the next day.
Out of his bottom dresser drawer, Peter pulls out the crude transmitting device he has been working on, and tunes it into the faint signal given off by the bug he planted in Ock's tentacle claw. He pulls down is mask determinedly and leaps from the 7th story bedroom window.
We see his empty room. The phone rings and rings... Gwen wonders where he could be...
"My Destiny"
Spider-Man follows a faint electronic signal from his crude Radio/Receiving device, to a run-down warehouse district in the New York Harbor area. He traces it to an old seafood storage building on the waterfront.
But as we know, Octavius is no fool. He has already discovered the small transmitter Spidey planted in his claw, when he noticed a small interference in one of the tentacle's "cameras"; the equivalent of having a "speck in one's eye". Laughing, he finds himself forced to admire the ingenuity and tenacity in his rival. Ock decides to lay wait for the hero's arrival, and plans an ambush.
Spider-Man approaches the forbidding looking building and peers in a window (hanging upside down above), finding not much inside, other than some old machinery and computer equipment inside. Upon closer inspection, he spots Doc Ock, his back to him, sitting... apparently working some controls.
Spider-Man prepares to jump in when his SPIDER-SENSE suddenly kicks into overdrive. Pausing, Spidey takes a quick precaution, and spins a small web "bomb", that he tosses at Ock. But, as his senses warned , "he" turns out to be a dummy...a fake and the result is an explosion.
Meanwhile from an undisclosed location, Ock watches, via video-link and believes Spider-Man to be destroyed.
Within the wreckage, Spidey notices a section of floor, that appears to be hollow, possibly leading to a room underneath. Following his spider sense, he finds a grate that leads to an airduct that takes him down below the ground. Sure enough, he reaches an end, to an underground high tech computer room/lab and finds the REAL Dr Octopus, feverishly working away. Spider-Man kicks in the grate and confronts the evil genius.
DOC OCK:
(surprised)
"YOU! here?!!
SPIDER-MAN
Hey Doc. You look surprised. Hate to barge in like this, but I got a fever and I knew you didn't make house-calls.
DOC OCK:
Make jokes while you still can Spider-Man. Dr Octopus will have the last laugh, I assure you.
Spider-Man gets in a quick kick to the chin, but Ock sends him crashing in to the wall.
DOC OCK:
Don't know how you found me, but I'll make sure you never leave here alive!!!
SPIDER-MAN:
( Dodges as tentacles knock hole in the wall)
Ya know somethin Ock. I believe you mean it.
(as he is struck)
Ungh!
A Tentacle slam into the hero's s head knocking him back. Ock moves in for kill. But a dazed Spidey webs Ock's glasses.
SPIDER-MAN:
Here's web in your eye Ock.
DOC OCK:
(laughs)
Not this time Spider-man.
(Rips web from glasses smiling).
I coated my glasses with a special solvent.
(Makes another relentless attack).
Spider-Man quickly jumps to the ceiling leaving Ock momentarily confused.
DOC OCK
( laughs)
You think you can hide up there from my tentacles?
SPIDER-MAN:
Well, the thought did occur to me. Besides, I just wanted to see if you were as ugly from up here.
(Leaps to avoid another attack )
We get the feeling our hero will ultimately be squashed in these close confines. It is just a matter of time.
SPIDER-MAN: (cont.)
(to himself)
That was too close... and yep...
(to Ock)
... still ugly!
DOC OCK:
(laughing)
I am no ordinary street thug; the ilk you are used to preying upon.... I Dr Otto--
(his mouth is webbed shut.)
SPIDER-MAN:
Go ahead finish. Oops you can't can you? Too bad you couldn't have treated your pie-hole too.
Eyeing Ock's console, Spider-Man reaches in his belt to retrieve his tracking device...
But the hesitation costs the web-slinger, giving Ock a chance to grab Spidey and secure him with all four tentacles. Writhing in the constricting "arms", Spider-Man goes limp seemingly unconscious.
DOC OCK:
Now I have you, you annoying creature and all I have to do is squeeze.... to be rid of you forever!
(laughs)
(pause)
But first, I must finally see who you are under that mask...
TO BE CONT.