Ok, this is my first ever fanfic, so please excuse me if it seems a bit slow at first. This story is set after Spiderman 2, and it is based entirely on Doctor Octopus. You could say he is slightly OOC, as he isn't evil in my story. But anyway, please just R&R, and I will be eternally grateful lol

I will not die a monster

Prologue

The broken science lab stood eerily at the end of New York pier, the autumn wind whistling through its metal frame and wooden boards. Abandoned and empty, nobody had entered since last month, when a scientist had nearly destroyed half of New York with an unstable experiment. The experiment had been intended to provide a source of clean, renewable energy in the form of an artificial sun. However the scientist had miscalculated, despite his protests, and the experiment had gone out of control. It became a hugely powerful magnet, attracting anything metal surrounding it, including the metal sheets which layered the steel frame of the lab. People had fled, and the experiment was shut down, the scientist's dreams killed, along with his beloved wife Rosie.

Now, one month on, the building stood alone and deserted, nearly completely destroyed save for its steel frame and cracked timber shell. Well it was not completely deserted, not quite. For inside the broken metal and burnt wood sat a solitary figure, wearing dark glasses and a trench coat, his shoulders hunched as he worked tirelessly upon a wooden desk. Beneath his leather trench coat, four metal tentacles slowly writhed from side to side, occasionally emitting a small hiss of displeasure at being covered up. Several times these monstrous appendages attempted to rise from within the coat, to disrupt what the man was trying to build. However they never succeeded. For as soon as the tentacles began to rise, the man would turn and look at them from over his dark glasses, giving them a fierce glare. They would then hiss and slide back beneath the coat, awaiting their next opportunity to rise again.

Now, as you can imagine, a man with four metal tentacles under his coat could be no ordinary citizen of New York. And he wasn't, not anymore. The man's name was Doctor Otto Octavius, although to the citizens of New York he was more commonly known as Doctor Octopus.

The interesting thing was, it was this very man, Doctor Octavius, who had caused the near destruction of the science lab one month before. He had been so determined, so set on showing the world his new invention, that he had failed to realise he miscalculated. So, his experiment had been destroyed, shut down by Spiderman in fact, and Otto was left with a broken dream and a broken heart. For not only had he managed to destroy half the lab, but his wife Rosie had been killed by falling glass as the lab began to collapse.

And the tentacles? They had been designed by Otto as a way of safely handling the experiment, as they were heat proof and were not affected by magnets. The tentacles were attached to Otto by a metal harness which secured around his waist, and he controlled them through a neural network which ran up the length of his spine. This network was attached to the scientist's neural system by pins which temporarily fused the network to his spine and brain. An inhibitor chip allowed Otto to gain complete control over the tentacles, without them controlling him. At least for a little while. During the disaster however, the tentacles became permanently fused to Otto's spine, and the inhibitor chip was destroyed. From then on Otto's mind became overpowered by the artificial intelligence of the tentacles, and he became a criminal.

Several days ago however, Otto had suffered a near death experience after attempting to recreate his experiment. After finally managing to regain control of his mind with help from Spiderman, aka, Peter Parker, Otto had managed to drown the experiment in the river. Unfortunately, Otto had accidentally gone down with it as well, and had nearly drowned. Luckily, his tentacles saved him, and managed to drag his unconscious body back onto the pier. From then on Otto was determined to regain complete control over his tentacles, and began to rebuild the inhibitor chip. This of course enraged the tentacles, and they tried desperately to gain control over Otto's mind once again. However Otto was determined, and eventually the tentacles backed down, letting him get on with his work. At least for the time being anyway…