I just want to thank all my readers or their sympathy and for bearing with my grounding and writer's block. As you see, this is the lastest chapter of NVN2; be warned that updates might still be sporadic.

Happy reading and review!

Chapter 5: The Genetic Template

"Status of Project Octopus, Cypher?"

"She has been spotted at the Galleria Mall with Miss Nicholas and Miss Gatsby."

"Status of Project Apollo?"

"In progress."

Agent Cypher of the Subdivision of Scientific Intelligence of the CIA trained the sight of her sniper's rifle. Eat lead, Octavius, she thought. Cypher had no family now. The eight-limbed villain was the reason—or at least part of it.

Her mother was a brilliant neurosurgeon. The last patient she had ever worked on was a scientist, a nuclear physicist, brought in bearing unusual, even freakish injuries. Four robotic remote manipulator arms, part of his laboratory equipment, fused right on his back.

The arms came to life, and the last thing Cypher's mother saw in her life was a long blade popping out of a long, pincered tentacle. She had fought bravely, swinging a chainsaw at the monstrous machine. But she was ultimately no match. Doctor Octopus had killed her mother.

The lens of one tentacle focused on the window where she was perched. Great, he saw me.

She started shooting again. The villain carried bags of money with his real arms, and the police were in hot pursuit.

"What happened back there with Brittany?" Jordan asked.

"I don't remember much of it."

Daisy Gatsby was incredulous. "You mean you clobbered the Queen Bee and you don't even remember?"

Octavia looked up at the new billboard. It was for designer sunglasses, and depicted a huge pair of blue eyes behind equally huge yellow-tinted sunglasses. The odd thing was no matter how or from where you looked, the eyes were always staring right at you.

"It's like I…lost control. Like someone or something else took over."

Daisy goggled at Octavia.

"You mean…the tentacles are taking over your mind?"

"My mind is brilliant by human standards, but still incredibly slow compared to the artificial intelligence of the actuators. I could be vulnerable to them."

Jordan was still laughing. "My god, Brittany almost peed her pants! She deserved it, picking on us for years…"

"Jordan," gasped Daisy, "Octavia could've really hurt her! We're lucky Carlyle went and performed the memory wipe—"

"And if she remembers?" asked Octavia.

"She won't."

Officer Sienna Taylor held a handgun in one hand and a bullhorn in the other. She stood at the head of a group of officers, each kneeling at their cars.

"Look…if it isn't New York's finest," the villain mockingly snarled.

"Octopus, surrender with your hands—er, arms—up, all of them!" she shouted through the horn.

The villain turned to face the officer. "Aw, where's the fun in that?" he laughed.

"No, Barnes, stand down—"

Taylor's partner had already started shooting too soon. Like sharks at a feeding frenzy, the other officers fed off each other, shooting too. This is not how a negotiation is supposed to go!

But the mad scientist merely raised himself up on his two lower tentacles, while the two upper arms wrapped around their master, forming a shield of unbreakable metal.

Cypher loaded her rifle and took her place by the officers. "Stand down! This one's mine!"

"And just who the hell are you?" Taylor snapped.

Cypher flashed an identification card. "Cindy Cypher, CIA, Subdivision of Scientific Intelligence." She smiled. "I'd tell you about what I do there, but then I'd have to disappear you."

Taylor looked at the agent, eyes narrowed. "Octavius is my catch. After this batch of crimes and the increasing unreliability of the 'super-hero' Spider-Man, the mayor has said capturing the tentacled terrorist is a priority."

"Same here."

Taylor rolled her eyes. She was not given to conspiracy theories. She did not have time for that. "What do the Feds want with him?"

"Classified, officer. Not at liberty to say."

Doctor Octopus swooped down, capturing a young girl in a long brown coat. Two tentacles held her tightly around the waist.

"Fire a shot, and the girl dies," the doctor warned.

Oh shit, Taylor and Cypher thought. He's taken a hostage.

"Octavia! He's got Octavia!" Daisy pointed.

"Who? Who's got Octavia?" Jordan wildly looked around. "One minute she's right next to me and the next she's gone!"

Daisy ran up the sidewalk, pushing yuppies out of the way. She pointed. "Doc Ock, you bubblehead!"

"What? He couldn't have taken me? Life is so unfair!"

"Report of Status of Project Octopus."

"We have a problem, Director."

The director's voice was tinged with impatience now. "What now? We've been running into walls since day one. How hard is it to dispose of a physicist and his clone?"

Cypher adjusted the laptop, microphone, and camera that allowed her to teleconference with the Director from her car. "Octavius has taken the clone hostage during the course of a bank robbery."

"Does he know who she is?"

"He seems to have picked her at random—unknowingly."

"What are you waiting for? You know the drill. You follow them and kill them both. Then their bodies are to be taken into the laboratory for study." He paused to light his cigar and digressed. "The standard issue human body has two arms and enough nerve endings to serve them. How is it that the artificial intelligence of the tentacles can so thoroughly meld with the nervous system, allowing the arms and the human minds of the owners can function as one?"

"All you do is sit at your desk giving orders. You've never tracked down a super villain."

The Director ignored her, still continuing on his lecture.

"Those marvelous arms unlock all manner of possibilities. Those actuators will be part of every American soldier's field equipment, the Pentagon will make sure of that."

"But the young clone…"

"The clone has outlived its usefulness. It is not a person, per se, in that a person is born from two genetic parents. It was grown in a lab from one person's cells. It is an experiment. Nothing more. We can easily make another one. The clone called Octavia turned out much too independent minded."

"And that's a bad thing?"

The Director groaned. "What is the point of any military boot camp, Cypher? You break a recruit down, build him back up from scratch, and teach him to unquestionably obey the orders of those above him. A soldier has no time for ethics in the middle of war. The enemy plays dirty and so do we. If a terrorist leader is hiding in a daycare center, our soldier can't refuse to blow it up for fear of killing the kids inside. It's called collateral damage. If terrorists capture one of our own, you can be sure that he's going to be beheaded on national TV. Us, we just pile our prisoners up naked and take pictures of it and the liberals bitch about it."

"Yes, sir."

"Did you know that our scientists are working on a brain implant that will enable us to control anyone?"

"No, sir."

"Actually, we tested the first versions of the implant in certain assassinations. But it only works on the naïve; a person with very strong willpower can defeat it. But once we clone genetically superior super-soldiers, attach the arms, and put the brain implant in, the current US military will be obsolete. No more drafts and no more recruiting. Regular soldiers need beer, women, and letters from home to keep them happy and going. The super-soldiers won't need any of that, and if they get killed, we can make some more! Isn't modern scientific technology grand?"

"How do I find the template?"

"What do you do when fighting an enemy? You go to your enemy's enemies."

A red and blue blur swooped past the black sedan.

Octavia looked into the face of the man she was cloned from.

At that moment, he ceased to be just the original, a genetic template, and became, in her eyes…

Her father.