All my loyal minions have been wondering what Otto and his clone Octavia are going to do next! Oooh, I just love keeping my readers in suspense!

Thanks to all my reviewers and to everybody else, read and review!

Chapter 6: Octavia Held Hostage

Doc Ock's eyes widened as he looked in the face of his young hostage. Somehow, she looked exactly like him. Same eyes. Same nose. Same hair. Same nose, mouth, chin, ears. Cut to female proportions, but exactly the same as his.

Octavia scowled. "What are you looking at? Do I remind you of someone?"

"Yes. I think so. Perhaps myself as I should have been. I have made many mistakes in my life."

"Well I should hope so."

"I remember it all…the accident that turned me into who I am. I remember my wife, Rosalie—I met her on the college steps. We—wait. I just took you hostage five minutes ago, why am I telling you this? I am not in the habit of revealing my life story to my hostages."

Octavia scowled again. "Maybe we have a connection. Now that I've met the great Doctor Octopus, I think I'll just go now."

"Oh no you don't." A tentacle blocked the door. "I'll need a hostage in case the police come after me again."

"So pick up another girl. I know one girl who'll be glad to be your hostage."

"I find this hard to admit…but I think there is some kind of connection between us too. I must find out what it is. I can feel it—just as surely as I feel the actuators on my back and in my head."

She just stared. He did not know yet.

Cypher was driving at top speed, but still could not keep up with the spider-powered hero leaping from the rooftops far above her. "Spider-Man!" she howled.

The blur faded to reveal a tall, slender but muscular man in a red and blue suit standing in front of her. Cypher had to brake to keep from running over him. "Oh, I thought you were one of those giggly fangirls. You don't look like a fangirl."

"Of course not! I am not a fangirl!" Cypher's teeth were gritted.

"Look, miss. I don't have time to get your cat out of a tree. Doc Ock's robbed a bank and he's heading out—"

Cypher flashed her ID card. "Agent Cindy Cypher, SDSI of CIA. I'm after him too."

"Why would the CIA be after—"

"Top secret defense project, Spider-Man. I'm not at liberty to say."

"Right."

"You have fought this man many times, have you not?"

"Yes."

"Defeated him?"

"Mostly. Not all the time."

"Help me find him. He's taken a hostage, who I also need."

"Who's the hostage?"

"Classified. Look, I have a lot of resources at my disposal. I can pay you $100,000 dollars to kill Octavius and bring the cl—hostage to me."

"Kill him!" Spidey shook his head. "You Feds are a real piece of work. If you want that kind of hero, call the Punisher."

"Are you aware that the CIA building in New York has a half-inch file on you and your family?"

"What!"

"Including your true identity, Mr. Peter Parker."

"Now that's just low."

"And information on your wife, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, and her family. Your Aunt May, who raised you from childhood. Your newborn baby May, named after her."

Spidey was aghast.

"Now if that file were to just—slip—to the media…"

The hero snarled behind his mask. "You wouldn't dare."

"How would your boss, Mr. J. Jonah Jameson, like to find out that the hero he slanders in his paper is actually one of his employees? We've got a lot of dirt on you, and I'm willing to use it to ensure your cooperation."

He never had a choice. A short time later…

"Report on Projects, Cypher."

"Can you believe I got Spider-Man riding in the car with me?"

"What!"

"You suggested I go to my enemy's enemies."

Spidey butted in. "Gee, couldn't I get there faster my way?"

"What am I going to do, ride piggyback while you web-sling?"

"Oh. Right."

Cypher turned to the computer image of the Director. Spidey was riding in the back. She pushed a button, making a soundproof partition go up, the better to have privacy. She leaned into the microphone. "The Spider will do the dirty work. As soon as Octavius is webbed up, I'll finish him and his degenerate clone."

"I hope you don't tell him anything classified."

"No, I just said I needed to capture Octavius and told him about his SHIELD file. He cooperated. He is eager to protect his wife, elderly aunt, and newborn daughter."

The Director signed off, and Cypher put down the partition. "Sorry there, Had to talk to my boss. Classified."

"What isn't with you guys?"

"In war, you have to know your enemy better than he knows himself."

"Uh huh. By getting to know him, you will also know his weaknesses."

"You're catching on. I figure you'd know more about him than anyone else."

"Not really. Some stuff about his career, and a little about his late wife, but that guy is a riddle inside an enigma inside an adamantium tentacle harness."

"Let's remember that file, Spider-Man."

"What do you want?"

"Well, I'll tell you two words. Then you tell me everything—but everything—you know about those two words. The words are: Doctor Octopus. Go."

Spider-Man told Cypher everything.

"So Doc…do you even eat or what? I'm starved."

"Of course I eat, girl. Sometimes a bit too much, which of course accounts for my slight excess of poundage. Grilled cheese?"

"Sure." Octavia was still sullen. He was her biological genetic template. She ought to trust him. Why didn't she?

The tentacles reached for a skillet, butter, bread, and cheese.

"Could you make it with pepperoni in it?"

A tentacle held up the package of deli meat while a blade popping from another tentacle sliced it open.

"Don't you even want to know my name?" Octavia snapped.

"Why? You are just a hostage. You are my means to keep the police and that accursed arachnid aberration from seriously injuring me, which would be most inconvenient."

Octavia's eyes narrowed. "I'm an actual person, even though some may disagree. My name is Octavia. Octavia Mary Jones. What's your real name, anyway?"

"Why do you wish to know?"

"I just told you mine. If I'm going to be here for awhile, we may as well know each other's names."

The doctor sighed. Perhaps he should have picked a less feisty, cocky hostage, but there was that mysterious connection again. "Otto. Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius."

They ate their grilled cheese sandwiches in silence after that, each cautiously studying the other.

"So what are we going to do, Otto?"

"Octavia, have you ever been to a scientific conference? There is a most interesting exhibit there I would like to show you."