It took Octavius' brain a full thirty to realize he was falling. That the tentacles that were grapping onto the cement had suddenly gone dead.
Wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP, DAMN YOU! He shouted into their mind. He received no answer, heard no voice. Around him, they dropped like stones.
If he hit the ground at this rate, he'd die. Probably on impact. If not, he'd lose whatever hit the ground first.
His real arms began to reach out and try to get a grasp where his tentacles would have. But his weak, somewhat stubby human fingers did not have the strength nor grip to grab where his mechanical arms would have had an easy time.
A net caught him maybe six stories off the ground. He very well recognized the net as the police. Again his throat tightened, but this time it was more for fear of the now useless arms on his back – they were a lot heavier now. The policemen all practically glared at him, one of them sliding real handcuffs over his real hands, the other placing an metal ring over his unconscious arms.
"What did you to do them?" He growled at the nearest officer.
"EMP, Oc, electromagnetic pulse. Disables machines in the vicinity. Your friends conveniently happen to be in that area." He nodded to the fallen tentacles, "And just in case they wake up, we can just shock them into silence and peace. We'll have them off you in only a little bit."
"Don't take them off." He said quietly, his eyes downcast.
The officer did a double take, "Pardon, doctor?"
"I don't...think I could live without them." His voice remained quiet as he spoke, his eyes unmoving, "Not too long ago I would have begged you to take them off me....but, suddenly I realize, I need them."
"Well, I'm sure you'll deal," was the sarcastic reply as the officer loaded the shocked scientist into the police car.
On some far, far ledge, a skinny, blue and red clad figure watched. He shook his head. That wasn't right, what they were doing. He wasn't sure to stop them or not. Finally, stopping them won over, and he shot a long, thin, clear line out of his wrist and aimed for a bilding, then flew off, using the rope to swing himself.
Perhaps a half hour later, Kat reentered her apartment, "Tentacle boy! Are you almost done with that paper?!" She shouted into the small living space. There was no reply.
She listened carefully, trying to hear the mechanical sounds of the tentacles moving, or the shrilling almost-voice of them. Even Otto's voice would be enough. She heard nothing, and this unnerved her. Finally, she got up and walked to the window.
It was open.
Kat's mind began to race. The tentacle boy had gone out for a stroll. But...she knew he would have been back before her. It was something he always did. He always got back first. This was what worried her. Even the remainder of her electronics were intact. It was like they had just left.
She turned on the TV and scanned over the channels. If he had been caught, they'd broadcast it. Her breath caught in her throat as she listened to the newscasters. Her fear was confirmed – they'd caught Otto on a stroll.
"This just in...according to the New York City police, Otto Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus, has just been captured by authorities. Apparently, a new weapon known as an electromagnetic pulse, EMP for short, was used to disable the freakish mechanical arms fused to him as he was climbing the building on fiftieth and twenty-first street. The building itself had sustained damage from the horrible claws of the tentacles digging into it and the authorities say it will most like being Octavius who pays for these damages. The scientist is being transported via armored car to the nearest hospital, where surgery will immediately begin to remove---"Kat shut the TV off. She couldn't breathe. They'd cut off his arms. She couldn't let them do that. She didn't care if it was the police. She would NOT let them cut off her psychology project or, as weird as it sounded, newest friend.
She did a little map in her head. The nearest hospital was ten blocks from here, straight down south. She'd have to take a taxi. Grabbing her cell phone and bag, she was out the door and it was slammed before she spoke any more words. Finding the taxi was easy, and the ten blocks were nothing.
The arms began to reawaken as Otto was being walked up to an operation room.
Urghh...what...happened...we...feel....so...weak...
The police activated a device that deactivated machinery. Specifically, you.
Where are we, Otto? The arms' voice was nervous.
A hospital.
Why?
They are going to separate us.
At this, the arms began to lash out violently. Their pincers snapped open and closed, but the push of a button stopped them and made them screech in pain. A ghastly hiss flashed across Otto's mind, the joined voices of the arms' agony. That striking pain almost hit the human, but he closed his eyes and bit back the feeling. He could almost FEEL defeat within the mechanical creatures. They snapped the pincers once or twice more, then floated behind Oc, dormant. He could feel their mind think upon the lashing sting of the electricity.
......it reminds us......of before you almost died in the river...the cord...
It is the same concept.
They cannot separate us. We cannot be separated. They would never do such a thing. It sounded like the tentacles were trying to convince themselves of this fact.
They are going too. Even Otto's thoughts were tinged with fear. He had tried to remember being separated...and all he had thought of was what he would do without them. And now it was going to happen...and he had no idea. But he was afraid for them, if not just for him.
"Why the hell is the nearest room so high up the blasted building?" One of the officers grumbled, taking the fifth set of stairs.
"No..idea..." replied another, panting.
Kat blazed out of the cab, leaving a twenty for the driver. As her hand went to the door, a tap on her shoulder made her glance around. She turned wildly, some people beginning to stare, "Who's there?"
Living with Octavius had taught her to look up – and she'd thank him for that, after she saved his ass. Spiderman was sitting on the side of the building, and he motioned to the alley next to the hospital and crept over there. With no other idea of what to do, the girl followed.
"I'm going to save Otto, and there's nothing you can do to stop me, Spiderman!" She practically shouted.
"We're going to save him together," He replied. Kat's eyes opened wide in shock, but then she nodded. He continued at her silence, "Octavius is going to have his operation on the ninth floor. We need to get up there, quickly."
"His arms are dead, you know that, right? He can't help us."
"an EMP blast only lasts about five minutes. At this time, the tentacles will be awakened now, and they can't disable all the machinery in the hospital by setting off another EMP. They'll use an electric cuff instead."
"electric cuff?" Kat cocked an eyebrow.
"A metal ring brimming with electricity. Very dangerous and painful for certain sentient electronics. Grab onto my back."
She jumped onto Spiderman's back as he began to climb. Something about this was exciting. She was helping someone escape the police. She was on Spiderman's back. It was exhilarating in a strange sort of way. The way he moved was nothing like the way she's seen Oc move, for the masked webslinger's movements were fluid, graceful, and majestic, while the tentacles' actions were merely rippling with power and even arrogance, to some degree.
"Crawl into this window," Spiderman ordered, and she scampered up his back and into the window. He followed suite and closed said window, then beckoned her to follow as he almost slid over the top of the air vent. He opened a grate and the two of then slid inside.
"It's like one of those spy movies," She muttered to herself as she watched the blue and red figure, tailing him closely. As she finished her words, she bumped into the back of the superhero when he stopped. He pointed to a grate and nodded, "Tentacle boy's down there?" She whispered.
He nodded then slide the grate off it's hindges as quietly as possible. The doctors were preparing instruments as Octavius was strapped down to the table, his complaints of, "You can't do this," and "We need each other," floated upwards. The four tentacles were surrounded by a single ring of metal that occasionally crackled with energy. The arms sat against his back, their screeching clearly meaning something, and something was not good or pleased. It could even be frightened
"You can't do this! It's no different from cutting off a real arm!" He shouted at them, trying to struggle out of the leather strap tied tightly around his chest and arms. His mechanical appendages also fought against their binding, disregarding the pain and massive shocks that they were receiving. Despite this, the arms could not reach around far enough to break the coil, and they couldn't gather enough strength to fight off the pain and fight off the coil at the same time.
The rrrrr-ing of the saw activated and Kat gave a little gasp. The edge of the chainsaw glistening – it had been tipped with diamond, as they and found how much a regular saw had done to the arms. Spidey, however, kept himself fairly contained. He was silent, the mask showing nothing of his emotions.
Otto began to literally scream as they brought the saw down on the upper left arm. The three un-attacked tentacles screeched at an even more deafening tone, many, many decibels higher then safe. As the saw bit through the tentacle, Octavius's face twisted into an expression of sheer agony as if they truly were removing one of his real arms.
Kat dropped from the vent, the web fluid on her hands keeping her silent as she crawled down the wall, out of the doctors' views. Quietly, she grabbed a large scalpel from the tray closest to her and held it like one would hold a baseball bat.
The saw fell to the ground with a clatter as Kat nailed the doctor with the flat edge of a scalpel. The other two doctors, which had been watching and helping, glared at the teenage college student.
"Arrest her!"