Part Five

            Ben Parker stormed into Mary Jane's room furiously, "Peter was in New York in costume." He said sternly to the young redhead sitting on the edge of her bed quietly looking through the pages of a small book. "Why didn't you tell me?"

            She was hesitant for a moment, "He was on his way to a party with Betty."

            "He went to a party alright, look at the television." Ben said in a no-nonsense manner.

            MJ followed Peter's uncle to the living room; she saw a half-empty bottle of liquor and realized that the smell of alcohol filled the room. Then she looked at the television and fear gripped her heart. The headlines played across the bottom of the screen: Spider-Man and Dr. Otto Octavius take hostages."

            "This is your equipment?" Peter asked; the lower half of his mask had been pulled up away from his lips. "No wonder you're having trouble." He stated looking at the sadly-out-of-date material.

            "The machinery can handle it if I control the power distribution correctly; this is one of my greater problems." Otto remarked. His tentacles still continued to keep a strong hold on the poor mother taken hostage.

            Peter sighed, "No offense, Ock, but I think you're living a pipe-dream here. Half of the circuitry looks like it's going to burn out and besides that little sphere of yours will probably overload this entire city grid without something to dispose of the residual power being left behind."

            Otto grimaced, "That is the problem with your generation, Spider-Man, always willing to whine but never able to try. It will work." He said obsessively. "Now, see what can be done with that conductor."

            Ben sighed and leaned over the table staring at the wall coldly, "There's nothing I can do for him; he just won't listen to me." His eyes watered, "I give up."

            MJ was quiet, trying to grasp what Ben must be feeling, "I think it's something we have to accept."

            "No, he can't go on like this." Ben said with a sense of urgency, "I need to stop it but I can't."

            "Why do you need to stop him?" MJ asked.

            Ben frowned, "I-I never told you, I've lived with this for a long time." He rubbed his eyes, "Every day I wake up I pray that Peter doesn't become like me."

            Mary Jane placed her hand on his shoulder, "What did you do?"

            "I-I…" He could barely muster the strength to whimper, "When May died, I went after her killer and in my anger I murdered him. But that wasn't the worst of it, no, Peter was there, he had found him too and he saw me." She closed her eyes at this revelation.  

            "That's not the worst part, it's my burden; I can carry it." Ben said, his grief threatening to consume him, "But now Peter, when he's out there he has the potential to become as bad as I am. I wish-I wish he had never seen me that night, that I could have committed the crime in secret."

            MJ shook her head, "You men, you never open up to one another when you should and you just let all this stuff build up inside you until it explodes."

            "What's that supposed to mean?" Ben asked skeptically, "How am I supposed to even begin to deal with this situation?"

            "Peter would kill me for telling you this, but it needs to be said, sooner rather than later." Mary Jane took a deep breath and began, "The night Aunt May died, Peter was out wrestling and it just so happened that a robber was going there as well, Peter saw him and he did something he's not proud of, he let him go. This man was the same man that-." The fiery passion that had governed most of her life had decided to reinstitute itself and she was once again ready to let all the barriers fall, shedding whatever of her old deceitful skin remained, even if it meant knocking them down.

            Peter rubbed his eyes, they had worked all throughout the night, "Listen, Otto, the equipment that we have here just isn't going to work." He said rising away from the mess of wires under a computer panel, "The power's just too much."

            Otto grimaced, "You haven't tried hard enough; it can be done." He adjusted the black spectacles on his face.

            "I'm saying it's impossible." Peter replied looking at the equipment, "This stuff is hardly enough to power a high-school science project."

            "Then we'll need something else." Otto said sternly, "Something better."

            Spencer entered the room, "That is impossible; this is the best I have."

            Peter grimaced, "You mean to tell me that you created the Sandman and this is the best you've got?"

            "You are to blame. When the Kingpin was killed I lost my funding and thus access to any of my original labs." Spencer replied angrily, "Consider this Karma, Spider-Man."

            Peter sighed, "Whatever but I can't work with this junk."

            Spencer shrugged, "Then I suggest you go out and get the necessary machinery."

            "Oh and pay them with what?" Peter inquired and tugged on his costume slightly, "I don't know if you noticed but this stuff isn't exactly of the same caliber as that of an Avengers outfit, buddy."

            "Steal it." Spencer elaborated, "My Lord, your comrade is quite the simpleton isn't he, Otto?"

            Meanwhile, Ock was already planning, "Yes, I know of several places where I could obtain the necessary machines, it wouldn't be excessively difficult."

            "Hey, I think we need a time-out here guys." Peter yelled loudly gaining their attention, "I've done my part, Otto, I tried so let's allow her to go and we'll be on our way."

            Otto frowned, "What? No, she is here to ensure you do what you are needed." He repeated, "As long as I feel you are needed you will assist me, is that understood."

            Peter pulled his mask back fully down his head, "No." He said slyly and leaned casually against the wall.

            "What?" Otto asked again and raised his hostage off the ground, "If you've forgotten I have all the cards."

            "Not anymore." Peter raised the sphere in his hands, "While baldy over there was insulting me and you were thinking I managed to swipe it, nice having the proportionate strength of a spider, right?"

            Otto reached out to which Peter withdrew the sphere, "Wait, this doesn't have to get crazy. Give me the sphere and I'll forget all about this."

            Peter laughed, "Ock that explosion must have knocked all your marbles around. Now, let the nice lady go and we'll talk this over a pizza or something." He looked at it, "You see this sphere, it's made out of some pretty rare stuff but it's also real fragile, I figure I can break it by just squeezing enough."

            "I will not be controlled by you." Otto declared.

            "Just do what he wants, Octavius!" Spencer said.

            Otto's tentacles extended, "No, I've not come this far only to be stopped now by this child!" He raised the hostage higher, "Your final chance, Spider-Man."

            "Let her go!" Peter yelled back, "Or you spend the rest of your life hooked up to those things."

            Otto smirked, "The blood from this is now on your hands, Spider-Man." He killed the mother without batting an eye and dropped her lifeless body on the ground.

            Peter smashed the sphere in his hands, "You're insane."

            "Otto, how could you?" He grimaced, "He would have given in; you fool! Why did you kill her?"

            Otto impaled Spencer with a tentacle without turning away from Peter, "This was our responsibility; you should have given me what I needed."

            "Say whatever you want to but I wasn't the one that killed these people." Peter let the fragments of the sphere fall to the ground, "You killed a priest and a mother. You're not a man, you're an animal."

            "An animal you say?" Otto extended his tentacles, "Very well, then I shall be an animal, no more than that!" He stared at Peter from behind his glasses, "I will be an element of nature, merciless, I will become the most potent bane in your life. If this is what the world wants than so be it!" His tentacles lifted him off the ground, "Otto Octavius is dead; in his place is as you said an animal." Otto glanced at his tentacles, "Yes, in his place his Doctor Octopus!"