Author's Note: Aw… I've got to get out of the habit of updating every two weeks… Well… I can't help it I've got school and band… That's pretty much the only sucky thing about high school… But any who, Guess what! I'm probably going to put up a new story sometime in the next few weeks as a tribute to my reviewers go read my blog thing to know the basic outline.

Sorry this one was so late, I had to be a living traffic cone at the local race way and that didn't give me anytime to do squat.

And is it just me or are the two best on-screen couples Alfred Molina and Donna Murphy, and Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst? Am I right or what?

Chapter 23: Deceit

Time seemed to pass slowly for Peter mainly due to the fact that the week was almost over. Though, on Saturday morning, Peterfound himselfalone in the house with Otto. MJ had received a call from one of the theatre managers saying that he had a great new opportunity for her in a new play, and she had taken Aunt May along. Rosie was attending a short seminar at the university. Peter sighed. He looked over at Otto, who stood at the window with his arms crossed.

"I don't believe it… This entire time and you haven't had one flippin' craving. What's up with that?" He questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.

Otto turned and looked at Peter with a smirk and shrugged. "Well… I-… never mind, you don't want me to say anything."

"No, I'm serious, how?"

"Well, whenever I had the actuators fused to me… I told you about the nanotubes in my brain, right? Well, thanks to that, I can access different sections. Just so happens, basically, I can go in and block those impulses." He finished with a smile.

Peter sighed, "You sure you don't have an extra set of those?" Otto shook his head as Peter groaned. "I love MJ with all of my heart, and this would be easier if I wasn't Spiderman."

Otto walked behind him and looked down into Peter's face "Well, at least you're doing what your heart tells you and not your instinct. That's a sign of maturity." Otto walked back over to the windows. Reaching out with his tentacles, he opened the four glass doors on the half-moon windows and stood there as a strong, arm breeze flowed into the room. A few loose papers that sat on the desk began flitting around. Otto heard the door open and close downstairs as well as MJ's happy voice.

"Peter! You won't guess what happened!" She happily exclaimed all smiles and candor. Peter looked over to Otto, "What?" MJ ran up and kissed him full on the lips. "I've gotten another lead role in the play 'A Woman of no importance.'"

Peter looked at his girlfriend. "Wow, your stage manager really likes Oscar Wilde, Huh? That's wonderful MJ!" He got to his feet and kissed her. Peter was truly happy for her.

A few minutes later, Rosie walked up the stairs to find Otto in front of the windows. "You used to hate that."

"What?"

"Whenever anyone would open the windows. 'It would always scatter something,'" she said trying to lower her voice in a mocking way.

"Well, I'm not an uptight old git anymore," he joked. Rosie shook her head before walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his waist. "You never were one." She said as they embraced. "I have to go to class again tonight."

"Again?"

"Yeah… apparently they want me back tonight for another seminar… I hope that's okay." She asked looking up to Otto.

"Oh that's fine. You do what you need to do. I've got some research I need to do anyway," He said stretching.

In about an hour and a half, Rosie had left for class again. Otto waited before walking slowly down to the library. Otto made his way back to the one part of the library that he hadn't finished looking in. His eyes and actuators scanned the colored spines, randomly pulling out books and placing them on the table. After a few minutes, he sat down in front of the small stack of books and began thumbing through them. Most of them were books about old towers in the area. Otto quickly thumbed though the first one, skimming the pages as he went along. The actuators busied themselves by skimming some of the others. Otto put the book he was looking through on the other side of the table and picked up another, skimming through it just as he had the first one. When he didn't find anything in that one, he, along with the actuators, placed their books on the other side of the table and sighed.

"Nothing!" He ran his hands through his hair in deep frustration. He climbed to his feet and skimmed the end of the bookshelf one more time before taking down another book and flipping through it. As he flipped, he passed a section that looked quite promising. He returned to it as he sat down at the table and read carefully:

"…There has been record of a bell tower that seemingly disappeared from knowledge a couple hundred years ago. Though the exact location of the tower has been forgotten, it resides in the NE of New York, on the mainland," He read aloud to the actuators. A chill ran down his spine. This could be it! Oh, and lucky that no one saw him talking to his actuators, that unknowing person would have thought he was bonkers.

He slowly turned the page to almost cry out in success. The drawing of the tower matched the one from his dream. He stood up and sighed. Now that he knew where it was, he had to wait until something happened that required him to make that journey. Now however, he really needed to go outside for a while, due to the fact that he was still a bit giddy. He ran upstairs and snapped the gauntlets and armor on. (He never folded it away.) Before disappearing out the window, he noticed how damaged and scarred it truly was from all of the past battles.

Hopefully he wouldn't run into trouble tonight. He stepped outside onto the balcony and looked up at the roof, finding Peter and MJ sitting at the edge, their legs dangling over the edge. Otto climbed onto the railing, "Stay boy, stay!" He called up, laughing as Peter rolled his eyes.

Watching as Otto disappeared into the night, Peter pulled MJ close and nuzzled her cheek with his nose as they stared into the almost-full moon.

The warm spring air in his face felt relaxing. A definite change from being cooped up in the house for weeks on end. Curiosity got the better of Otto and he attached himself to the side of The Empire State Building and ascended to the very tip of the spire, noticing the extremely faint blood-stains that splattered the white marble. That was in the past though. He faced the direction of his house, sticking his arm in front of him.

North

To the Left a bit

But that's North West!

No, that's the North East of the Mainland

True to the book's saying, In the North East corner of the mainland, a large area wasn't alight with city life. Inside, he felt a tremendous sense of pride at his accomplishments. Otto abruptly flung himself from the spire and freefell downwards. Breaking his fall with an actuator, he pulled himself to a roof top. For a while, he walked along the eaves, stopping when hurried and panicked voices met his ears. Otto peered over the edge to find a small group of thugs back-to-back in a circle.

"Shouldn't we be running?" One asked.

"No! I'm through running across rooftops. We stand and fight!" In the distance, a faint but shrill alarm bell from a jewelry store shrieked.

Interested in whatever they were talking about, Otto crouched ready to pounce. Out of nowhere, Cat swung in and landed perfectly on her feet. Otto relaxed his stance and watched.

"Now, Now boys, why are you running? Dont'cha know Diamonds are a girl's best friend?" She said with a hint of laughter in her voice. Otto watched the next five minutes as his partner gracefully defeated the ring of thugs, wincing and smiling when one of them was beat particularly hard. Something about Cat was different: Her gloves and boots weren't white. They resembled black leather army equipment. They still had the white-fur fringe, but they were much more armored.

Otto stood up to leave. The moment he was about to launch himself upwards, he watched Cat look around a few times before rummaging around in the leader's belt, pulling out a small leather bag and emptying the contents into her hand. She looked at the sparkling gems in her hand before glancing around and putting them back in the bag and running off.

"What?" Otto was appalled. Was that Cat? Was she really a thief? He had to follow her. Slipping into the shadows, he tailed her.

For twenty minutes, Otto followed her through the city. Where was she going? And what were her motives? Otto felt crushed. How could she? He and Peter had fought by her side for God knows how long. Cat's senses detected a presence behind her, so she stopped abruptly. "Who's there?" Otto moved into deeper shadows.

"Peter? If that's you, Otto's gonna cream you when you get back… Your deal's still in effect!"

Cat whipped around to come face-to-face with the scarred, gold chestplate. Otto looked down at her through his glasses. "Hi!" She chirped.

Otto shook his head, "How could you?" Cat stared at him. "Why did you take those jewels?"

"I don't have any jewels," she shrugged. Otto shot out a few actuators to take hold of her. Not to hurt her. Cat jumped up to the face of the nearest building and sunk her claws into the stone. "Otto Please, it's not what you think!"

"I don't want to hurt you Cat! I just need to find out why you took those jewels. And I'm not going to stop until I find out why!" Otto sent another actuator to try and grab her, only to be evaded again. Cat landed behind him.

Otto knew that there was only one way to do this without harming her. He extended his hand and straightened it to knock her out the most painless way. "Sorry, but lights out Lola!"

Cat extended her hand and released a powder into his face. She backed away and watched as Otto fell to his knees, clutching his throat. Everything went black and he fell over.

Cat stared at his limp body before walking over and checking his pulse. "You should be fine. I'm so, so sorry. I'll tell you the full story later." She bent over and kissed him on the cheek before standing up and vanishing.

By the next afternoon, Otto still hadn't come back to the apartment. And Rosie stood in front of the windows. Peter walked out of his room, pulling a shirt on over his costume.

"Where's Otto?" He inquired.

"He hasn't come back yet," Rosie answered, worried. Peter stared open-mouthed. It was already 12:30 and Otto wasn't back? That definitely wasn't like him and he wouldn't have done it on purpose. "I'll find him."

A minute later, Spiderman was swinging over rooftops once more. Screams of 'Welcome Back!' filled the air. "Trust my senses," he told himself. He followed them downtown. Panting, he landed on the roof of a tall skyscraper and looked around.

"This could take forever," he breathed. Though his senses lead him here, he couldn't see Otto. "Hmm… maybe if I go a little far-" Peter cut off as he saw Otto on his back, on the rooftop below him. "Otto!" he called. No answer. As Peter landed, he whistled. "What happened here?" chunks of masonry from the surrounding buildings lay all over the roof where Otto lay.

"Hey!" Peter said as he slapped his friend's face until he woke up. Otto groaned and laid his head back on the warm concrete. Peter caught sight of a fine powder on his shoulder. Brushing it with his finger, he closely examined it. "Cat's sleeping powder… Otto? What happened to you?"

The actuators pushed him up and he rubbed his head. "Well… I just stepped out for a little while. I found Cat beating up some guys, and then she ran off with the jewels that I assume that they stole."

Peter waited to hear the whole story; he was just as appalled as Otto.

"Anyway, I tailed her here and… I tried to get a hold of her or something just so I could talk, but I guess we both panicked. I went to knock her out in the most painless way possible and… she just puffed something in my face. Next thing I know, I'm falling asleep and she's running off." Peter stopped and shook his head. "I can't believe Cat did that."

Otto looked absently over to the side at the River as Peter thought to himself. A group of loud screams shattered the silence. As Otto got to his feet shakily, he waved Peter off, "Go, Go!" He followed a few seconds later. "Man, I've got to clear my head."

A few minutes later, the pair arrived at the bridge to find a group of frightened people hanging over the edge. Otto sat on top of one of the towers trying to see what they were screaming about. "If it's a shark," he mumbled, "I'm leaving."

"What's the matter?" Spiderman asked the group of people on the bridge.

"That girl just fell over. I don't think she can swim!"

"Don't worry," he reassured her, climbing onto the rail. "I'll get…her." He slowed down as he watched Otto dive from where he was into the gray waters. "Otto! What the Hell are you doing!

Underwater, Otto took hold of the young woman and shot towards the pier. With his actuators, he took hold of the wood and pulled himself up. He handed her to some police officers before taking a breath… at least, trying to. He felt himself slipping back into the deep, cold and gray water. What was going on? He was panicking as water filled his lungs. Although this is what he would've wanted over half a year ago, this isn't what he wanted now. He was drowning, dying. His thoughts flew back to Rosie. He would never see her again. Here he was, beneath the Hudson, partially unconscious, the actuators screaming fearfully again.

A black, leather-gloved hand reached in and grabbed hold of his armored wrist, and hauled him out of the water.

"Otto!" Peter yelled beneath his mask as he landed in the midst of the crowded pier.

"He isn't breathing!" an Officer hollered.

Cat searched frantically for the reason to why he wasn't breathing. "Dammit Otto!" She didn't want him to die either. Peter and Cat's mind raced until her eyes fixated on his chestplate. "That's it!" Cat took hold of his hand and lifted the flap on the gauntlet. Pressing the switch, she watched as the armor hastily folded itself back together. Otto's eyes instantly snapped open and he began coughing up water. Gasping, he turned on his side and coughed more.

"Otto, please say something intelligent!" Peter spoke in a very worried tone.

"My lungs are on fire…" He whispered before being cut off by another racking cough.

"Are you okay?" Cat asked. Otto stared as her face swam into focus before looking away and laying his head back on the warm wooden planks.

"Listen I'm really sorry about last night. I wanted to tell you, but you wouldn't really give me a chance. I was asked by the Police Department to track down that group of thugs last night. It just so happens that they had robbed somewhere beforehand. I gave all of that stuff back to the cops already." Turning to Peter, she continued, "they would've asked you, but they couldn't find you."

"Yeah… that reminds me… I thought the deal was still in effect?" Otto harshly panted.

"Nope, it ended at noon today."

"What's today?" He asked.

"Sunday…Why?" Peter continued.

"Ohhh," he groaned. "Rosie… I have to go…" Otto shakily got to his feet with the help of some nearby people. Cat ran forward and hugged him.

"I didn't want to hurt you last night and I had no idea that the stuff would last this long… Forgive me?" Cat asked, trying her best to make puppy eyes.

Otto laughed and hugged her back, "Yeah." Looking to Peter and Cat and back to Peter, he sighed. "Thanks for saving me, guys… I hate to dart off, but I have someone waiting for me." He climbed up the face of a building and disappeared over the top.

"He's incredible," Cat said, shaking her head.

"Yep, he's something. Sorry Cat, but I gotta get home too. I'll see ya."

Cat waved as she watched her friends disappear from view. At least she managed to keep their friendship in tact.