Chapter 7: Escaped From the Hospital

Octavia jumped out of the hospital bed. "Where are my clothes?"

Dr. Melitta actually seemed sympathetic. "But Octavia…you're not fully recovered from the surgery yet."

"I don't care!" screamed Octavia. "I'm not spending another minute in this hellhole!"

"But…don't you have anymore questions?"

"I've heard enough! All I am is your guinea pig in your little experiment! I'm a monster, a freak, someone who wasn't even supposed to exist!" The tentacles swirled around Nancy, preparing to do the same thing they did to Grace.

"Please," said Dr. Melitta. "I didn't do much—Grace, the one you killed, was my boss. I didn't know what I was getting into, and I'm sorry." The tentacles backed off. "I just want to help you."

"You can't," Octavia said. "No one can." She slowly put on her shirt, pants, sunglasses, and trench coat.

She walked over to the window, and wished she could break it open somehow. Obeying her wishes, the tentacles smashed through the window.

Octavia stepped out to the balcony, and then started climbing down, her pincers cracking the brick building as they bore her down.

Octavia, still dazed, stumbled out into the middle of the busy New York City street. A red-light running cabdriver screeched to a halt to avoid hitting her.

The cabbie stuck his head out the window and shouted at the young girl. "Where the hell are you going, you frickin' stupid broad! Are you blind, nuts or just stupid…aaahh!"

Those were the last words that particular cabdriver ever spoke. The tentacles shot out of Octavia's back, quickly flinging the cab a good quarter mile.

Octavia looked on in astonishment, and some measure of amusement. The tentacles were even more powerful than they were in the movie!

Peter Parker, also known as the superhero, town fixture, and crook (but only according to the Daily Bugle) Spider-man, was having lunch, sans costume, in a café with his beloved wife Mary Jane. He resolved not to think about his superhero duties. This was his and his wife's anniversary, damn it, and he was going to enjoy himself.

Peter unconsciously grabbed the back of his neck. His spidey-sense was going off, big time. He ignored it. Whatever megalomaniac, insane, Spider-man hating supervillian was out there, he could wait. He was going to enjoy himself in the company of his wife.

But it's awful hard to enjoy yourself in a café when a taxi cab crashes right through the window straight at your head. He pushed MJ out of the way. He swore this situation was familiar somehow. But he couldn't be back, he was in jail again, wasn't he?

"MJ, I'm sorry," Peter said. "It's another situation, I'll make it up to you, I swear…"

"Don't worry, Peter," Mary Jane said. "I know you will."

Peter ducked into the men's room, changing into the red-and-blue. He swung out the skylight above. But where was he? If he was after him, he would already be right there, confronting him. So what the hell was he up to now?

Spider-man climbed out onto the roof. Down below him on the busy street, an eight-limbed figure was frozen in the middle of the busy street.

What the hell is wrong with him? Peter thought. On my anniversary, too. Pardon the pun, but this is not what the doctor ordered.

Spider-man swung down to the street. "Ah, yes, Doctor Octopus, I keep taking you out, and you keep coming back for more…are you some kind of masochist, or what?"

Octavia turned and blinked at him. "What…what did you call me?"

Spidey gasped in astonishment. This person looked exactly like him…but this was a female!

"Why did you call me Doctor Octopus?" Octavia repeated.

"Well, you gotta admit, there is a slight resemblance…" Spidey began. Here he was, talking to a possibly insane, possibly maniacal, definitely tentacled young woman in the middle of the street. He'd bet his pal Johnny Storm never had absurd moments like this. This was positively surreal.

"Don't you dare call me that!" The tentacles seized a completely unprepared Spider-man and flung him like a rag doll into the air.

"Oh boy oh boy oh boy…" Spidey was hurtling towards a skyscraper. "Well, here's hoping my arm stays in the socket." He shot web connecting to the wall of the building, and then…gravity took its course. He swung down and then slammed smack dab into the brick wall.

"That's going to jack up my bill at the chiropractor," he muttered, rubbing his shoulder. "This is just great. Now I have two octopuses to worry about."

Octavia was watching it all. She smirked as the bug went splat on the wall. Overnight, she had become freakishly, ungodly powerful. And she liked it.

Driving almost on instinct, the clone made her way towards Venice…