Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the delay, I've had so much work to do, (Spazing out ) however, I can't believe I hit the 20 chapter mark! This is so exciting. But I plan to write until I run out of ideas, so I could have like… I dunno, 30? We'll just see how it plays out. I'm so pressured right now.

Yes Alex, your review made me happy!

And yes LadyKayoss, I have updated quite a bit since then, thanks for the review!

Chapter 21: It Runs Deep

Peter was up and about in a few days. Limping out to the living room, he caught sight of Otto standing in front of the windows, the actuators holding him up. Peter slowly limped over and looked at Otto's face. It had some color in it, but for the most part it was pale and livid. The cuts on the sides of his face were healing quite nicely actually, but Peter knew that they would leave gruesome marks. Peter felt himself staring at the scars and when Otto glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. Peter looked away.

"Peter…I'm gonna be fine," Otto said sternly. His voice was barely above the volume of a mutter. There was a long, awkward pause. "As soon as Rosie leaves for work…" He broke off and swayed slightly before continuing, "When she leaves…I'm going to do…one last experiment." Otto closed his eyes and sighed as he desperately tried to rid himself of the growing lightheadedness. Peter glanced worriedly at him.

Otto was lost in thought about yesterday's little escapade. Though it didn't quite go as wrong as he had expected, but he couldn't help thinking, 'Was Cat okay?' The actuators weren't responding and for a second, Otto feared that they had suffered severe permanent damage from that sonic blast.

"What's wrong?" Peter inquired. Otto smiled weakly, "Nothing…The actuators are just… I really don't know how to say it, but… they're weak."

"Is that possible?" Peter asked with a chuckle.

"Quite," Otto sighed. Peter quickly realized the seriousness of Otto's condition. Rosie came out of her room, buttoning up her jacket. She walked over to Otto and looked into his eyes, "Are you sure that you'll be okay?"

Otto put his arms around her, "I promise I won't do anything strenuous, okay?" He whispered. "I just need to do one quick experiment and then I'll rest."

She looked up at him and gently touched his cheek, "You're a trooper," she sighed. He looked like a ghost, due to the fact that he was so pale. Tears were once again flooding in her eyes, "If you die-"

She was cut off as Otto gently kissed her. As he broke away, he whispered, "Let's just hope I'll make it through today… go on, you'll be late."

She back up from him, looked him full in the face and nodded before disappearing down the stairs.

Peter leaned against one of the brick pillars heavily and sighed. Otto turned and looked at him. "Peter." Peter looked at him. "Promise me something. Don't let anything happen to MJ."

"What're you talking about?" Peter was confused.

"I'm saying… Don't let her go. She could be the last tie you are left with to your sanity." Otto cut off there and looked away. Peter knew why he had told him this. 'Otto doesn't want what happened to him, happen to me,' he thought. "I'm going down," Otto murmured. Peter followed him. "Have a seat," Otto said motioning to a chair. Peter sat and watched as Otto drummed his fingers over the keyboard. "You might want to put these on," he said as an actuator handed Peter a pair of black ear-phones. Otto lit a cigarette and took a drag on it before continuing.

"What're these for?" he questioned, putting them on. As Otto started to tell him about them, all sound shut off. Peter's eyes widened. Taking them off again, he sighed, "So that's what they do."

"Yeah," Otto said, pulling his goggles down over his eyes and pulling his own pair of head-phones over his ears. "Well, wish me luck."

"Huh?"

Otto smiled. "Nothing." He sighed heavily as an actuator gently unfolded its lager pincers and pulled out a sizeable chunk of the symbiote with its smaller pincers. It writhed as Otto held it in front of his face before placing it in a small glass box to his right. Turning back to the console, Otto rapidly tapped a few keys. The hatch on the box closed as the symbiote began slinking about, looking for an opening. Peter reached out and tapped Otto on the back while pulling off his head phones, "What exactly are you going to do with it?"

Otto pulled of the headphones and answered, "Well I put it in this air-tight container so that whenever I turn on the sound waves, the sound won't escape and destroy everything glass in this house," he said raising an eyebrow. Peter spoke curtly before putting his head set back on, "Alright, fine. But if this works, you quit cold turkey." He placed the earphones back on his head.

Otto held the cigarette in his fingers before crushing it in an empty ashtray. "Alright," he nodded as he placed his earphones back on. From his workbench, he picked up a pair of computer chips and placed them into small receivers on each end of the box. "Okay," he said, once more taking his place at the console. "What?" Peter asked pulling one side away from his head.

"No, nothing, put em' back on," Otto said, striking a few keys. Peter replaced them as a tiny screech started up. He watched in amazement as the symbiote inside grew irritated. Otto tapped a key a few times and glanced back and forth between the box and the screen. 1.72 decibels…Jeez, he thought to himself.

Pretentious little bastard

Perhaps a little higher?

Lemme see!

…, the fourth one stayed silent, watching intently as Otto tapped a key on the keyboard again. On the screen, the number rose a few points and inside of the box, the pitch rose in key. The symbiote began writhing as Otto continued to tap the key a few times every minute. As the decibels and pitch of the sonics went up, the symbiote writhed more and more in agony. After about five more minutes, the symbiote quit writhing and Otto shut off the sonics and typed again at the console. Both he and Peter pulled their sets of headphones and rested them around their necks.

"Oh my God," Otto said, massaging his temples. The resonance had built up and a tiny, screeching shriek was reverberating around the room. They waited for the sound to silence before Peter spoke, "Well?" He looked to the box, at the symbiote.

Otto gently opened the box and reached in. His fingers felt the alien substance; it was not staying together when he raised his hand. He sighed after a few seconds as he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. "It's… dead," he said as a smile stretched itself across his face. He looked at Peter, who smiled back, "Yesss. Keep your promise," Peter said.

"Easier said than done." The smile from Otto's face dropped as he stared at the screen. He switched it off and slumped down in his chair, "Don't celebrate… at that power it took just to kill that bit, we'll need something huge to take out the entire thing…though it would be humorous to see what would happen if I tried to stuff Eddie in that box."

Peter couldn't help but laugh at his blatant remark.

Later that evening, Harry sat brooding on the couch in his penthouse. His one arm, bandaged and in a sling, was still numb and useless, in his other hand he held a full glass of liquor. Downing half of it in one gulp, he slammed the glass back on the table and seethed. He climbed to his feet and walked down to the lab where he found Eddie still in the intensive care unit. The doctors had left for the night, leaving him alone. The buzz and whir of computers was the only sound in that room, apart from Harry's heavy breathing. The gas, if only for a moment, lessened its effect and his true feelings broke through. He felt terrible as he looked at all of the gashes and bruises that covered his body. How could he have let this happen? Eddie constantly put his life on the line just to do Harry's will. He did anything he was told, even go up against Otto. Eddie was, pretty much, his best friend and… he had been a little harsh with him. He hadn't given Eddie any praise for tying. The gas took effect again, what use are emotions? He thought. Harry turned on his heel walked stiffly out of the lab to his work room.

The next morning, Otto stood with his arms around Rosie as they both stood in front of the large windows. She wore a black t-shirt, over which was a flower-print silk blouse, and a tan pair of jeans. Otto was happy with his usual dress code: Black shirt, brown pants. Rosie turned around and wrapped her arms around him. She looked up to his face; he had taken off the bandage and where the cuts were, three long white scars ran down his cheek.

"How could Eddie have done such a thing?" she whispered as she gently placed her hand on his cheek. Though her hand felt cool on his face, a dull, aching pain caused him to grit his teeth. Rosie lifted her hand and slowly began drawing it away but Otto caught it about and inch away from his cheek.

"It's out of jealousy. Eddie still holds on to the fact that you were his girlfriend. He's using that for the source of his hatred and he'll do anything to get you back." Otto smiled down at her, "But I won't let him."

She laughed and shook her head before hugging him, "My husband… Doctor Octopus."

"Aren't you glad it's a Saturday?" He said with a grin.

"Why do you always change the subject?" she laughed again.

"Because I'm a hardheaded nutcase."

She smiled and walked towards the steps, "Then we shall have to enjoy the day!" She said in a British accent and giving a low bow before disappearing to the library.

"And we shall!" he called back. The phone rang only a moment later. An actuator extended itself and brought the phone back to Otto. "Hello?"

"Hey Otto!" Felicia's voice called.

"Felicia! How're you feeling?"

"…why are you worrying about me? Worry about yourself first." She broke out into a laugh after speaking.

"Well, I was just asking because you were bummed out the other day."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. It's just a bruise… I'll live. I really should've stayed there to help you guys, but I had to get that guy out of there. He's fine just-"

"Felicia… we did that so you wouldn't get hurt." There was silence at the other end for a few minutes. "Felicia?"

"Um… okay." Her friends really did care about her. "Sorry, I was just spazzing out for a moment. I guess you guys really do care about me huh?"

"Of course. Listen, Peter's wanted to talk to you… and I can't find him right now, so why don't you just come over and we'll talk, okay?"

There was a pause, "Okay," Felicia said with a sigh. "I'll see you guys in a few hours. See ya'."

"Bye." There came a click of the receiver on the other end followed by the dial tone. Otto sighed, "I hope she's okay," he said to no one in particular.

"What's up?" Peter asked, coming out of his bedroom. He had on a blue shirt his jean-jacket, and a pair of faded Levis.

"Cat just called," Otto mumbled. "She's coming in about an hour. It was weird… She started saying something about the man she took to the hospital but when I told her that you did that so she wouldn't get hurt, she just… I dunno," Otto shrugged. Peter stared at him before the wail of sirens caused him to dart off to his bedroom. As he ran back out to the main hall in full costume, MJ grabbed his arm, "Peter no! You aren't going out are you? You're not fully healed yet!"

"I have to go MJ… they need me."

MJ shook her head sadly, "You're not strong enough yet." Otto looked on with growing frustration as MJ pleaded him not to go. "I'll be back, I promise," Peter finally said, struggling away and vanishing out of the window.

Otto pursed his lips and furrowed his eyebrows angrily as MJ shuddered and began to cry silently. Softening his expression, he looked at her. He hated seeing this happen to anyone, especially MJ. She was only trying to help. Silent tears were streaming down MJ's face and her shoulders shuddered. She didn't want to cry, even in front of Otto.

Otto walked over to her as she closed her eyes, and placed his arm around her trembling shoulders. "I could yell at him when he gets back. You didn't deserve that."

"He just doesn't listen…to me," she sobbed. "I warn him so much. He just doesn't listen." Otto's hand on her shoulder was soothing, all she really needed right now was someone to comfort her. She whipped around, wrapped her arms around his waist, and buried her face in his shirt. Otto stood dumbfounded for a few seconds before clearing his throat. "If you'd like, I could yell at him when he gets back." His shirt was now wet in the place where MJ had her face because of her tears. She looked up and smiled before backing away from him and sitting in one of the chairs. Otto came over and sat down in a different chair next to her.

MJ wiped her eyes, "You've changed… a lot."

"How?" Otto had heard this quite often.

"You're just…sweeter." This was a shock to him because everyone had said he was different in the physical way, which was true, but anyway.

Otto chuckled as he remembered kidnapping and running off with her, "Well I was a bit insane at the time."

"A bit?"

Otto suppressed a laugh. He liked talking to MJ, she reminded him of Rosie. Otto lay across the chair, legs dangling over the side. Yeah, Peter and I are going to have a little chat when he gets back.

Uh Oh

I saw this coming

Yeah… I did too

Yeah right, like you're telepathic

"That's enough," He said curtly.

"Hmm?" MJ asked, bewildered.

Otto jerked his thumb back towards the actuators, "them."

MJ nodded, it must be really freaky to have voices in your head. She thought those scars…that must have been painful. The three long, white scars ran almost vertically down his face, giving him a rugged look.

About half an hour passed before Peter came back. He took off his mask and rubbed his face, nearly running into Otto. "Oh hey," Peter said uneasily, noticing his frustrated look and crossed arms. "Um… if you'll excuse me," Peter said walking off towards his room.

"Oh yeah, which reminds me, about earlier." Otto paused, not turning to look at the young man, who was staring at his back. Suddenly, an actuator shot out, grabbed Peter by the ankle and flipped him off of the ground. It held him upside-down above the concrete. "Smooth move Romeo!" Peter stared at him.

"What?"

"Don't do that again. You are doing exactly what I told you not to do! You're losing her, boy!" Otto paused to catch his breath before speaking in a lighter tone and placing him back on his feet, "You really hurt her, running off like that." Peter panted slightly as Otto turned his back and walked to the stairwell. "If you'll excuse me, I have someone very special waiting for me. And if you had half a brain, you could have the same. I'm saying it again. You really hurt her." And with that, he walked away.

Peter stood alone, guilt rising in his heart. What had he done? "MJ," he whispered. "I have to find her." He ran towards his bedroom. Otto was right, he needed to make it up to her.