All the answers (to almost every question)are revealed! Only the epilouge is next after this!

Chapter 14: The Crimes of Fate

"Perverse Mankind! Whose wills, created free,

Charge all their woes on absolute Decree;

All to the dooming Gods their guilt translate;

And follies are miscalled the crimes of Fate."

--Homer's Odyssey, translated by Alexander Pope

Dr. Otto Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus, cradled his sick "daughter" in his real arms. His tentacles were coiled like rattlesnakes about to strike at the rival super-villain standing before him with a distinctly menacing grin on his face. "We're on the same side. Don't you have a bug to swat?"

"That can wait. And I'm not on your side. I want the girl. The government agents are swarming the city. They want her and they want me to bring her in."

"I don't understand."

"The Subdivision of Scientific Intelligence of the CIA hired me to bring her in. You're in over your head this time, Octavius. She's not your daughter; she's your clone, a lab rat in the government's latest super soldier project. I just came over so I could take before the bug and the government agent with him got here—and then collect my money."

And I thought I'd seen it all, the doctor thought numbly. Norman and Peter are working together—against me!

"I won't let you take her from me! Don't you see she's—" he pleaded.

"Enough talk." Purple-gloved hands reached for metal arms, and the battle was on.

The black sedan screeched to a halt. "Good Lord! There's the hostage on that bench!" Agent Cypher, of the SDSI of the CIA, shouted to the superhero. "Spider-Man—you go after the squid while I retrieve the girl!"

"No way!" Spidey's injuries at Oscorp were still too fresh in his mind. He pointed out the window to where his two archenemies were fighting it out on the street. "If they kill each other, it's just easier on me!" He paused to think. "Why is Green Goblin involved in this?"

"You're not here for the Goblin, Spider-Man. Our business is with the Octopus, and you will act accordingly!"

Meanwhile, all the cars on that street were stopped and everyone was craning their necks out the windows. They wanted to see the fun. Apparently, someone had also taken out a camera cell phone and was snapping pictures.

In the meantime at the Nicholas house in Venice, Jordan Nicholas was shouting at her father. "Daddy! Come here and look at this!"

Anthony put down his leftover pizza. Daisy dropped her pop-tart. "In breaking news," intoned a pompous female voice on the television, "it's a battle royale in front of Phoebus General Hospital. The super-vigilante Spider-Man is pursuing the mad scientist Doctor Octopus, who has held a teenage girl, Octavia Jones of Venice, hostage for two weeks. For reasons unknown, another supervillain, Green Goblin, has joined the fray. Let's cut to our live reporter, Ann Anderson—"

"Get your coats!" Anthony had fairly leapt out of his chair. "We're not going to let the Illuminati get her this time! Daisy, get the car keys!"

"But I haven't finished my pop-tart—" Daisy sputtered. "They say the situation is under control—"

"The keys are on the rack by the front door!" Anthony shouted, in such an excitement that his jacket was inside out. "Everyone knows the Freemasons control the media anyway!" After hopping to the door and tying his shoe at the same time, Anthony shoved his hand down his waistband and entered into another vigorous round of ass-scratching.

Goblin never realized a basic fact of life—nothing, but nothing, fights harder than a parent for their child. Goblin was knocked to the side by two madly whipping tentacles—and Cypher, who was reaching for Octavia, was hit by another one.

"Get the girl!" she croaked, landing on her back. "I'll be alright in just a few minutes."

Spidey stepped out of the car and lurched towards the girl. His spidey-sense warned him just in time to leap over the tentacle snapping towards him. "Now really! I'm just trying to help the girl—oof!" He leapt out of the way of another tentacle. God, I wish he would listen to people just once.

Cypher had stumbled to Octavia. "Good Lord! She's burning up and barely conscious! What did you do to her!"

Now that all four tentacles were occupied with the Goblin (who was throwing razor bat wings; two tentacles were forming a shield around their master while the other two were in combat), Spidey had staggered there as well. He was kneeling by Octavia's prostrate form while the two villains were fighting.

The girl herself was almost unconscious, but her tentacles were acting out of reflex; one, in fact, had reared up at Spidey, preparing to strike. It popped out its lethal blade.

In a final act of desperation, Octavia weakly raised her arms, her own two very human arms, and pulled it back down.

"No. No more of that. No--more--killing."

Now, everyone was getting out of their cars and running down the street, because Goblin had just lifted a car and thrown it at Doc Ock, and the car was batted back with a tentacle just as soon. A man in a fancy business suit, obviously the hapless owner of that car, was yelling into his cell phone.

"What? What do you mean, your company doesn't cover that? What was I supposed to do, pay extra for the 'Car-thrown-into-air-by-supervillain' supplement coverage?"

"We've got to call her family!" Spidey shouted. "She's dying over here!"

"The girl has no family, fool!" he heard Goblin's voice cackle. "She's not even a person, she's an experiment, an abomination, a clone of this fat freak!"

"I can go on a diet, but you'll stay ugly forever!" the doctor retorted. And with that, Goblin's fist met squarely of Otto's jaw, spinning him over another car and onto the street.

Jordan and Daisy screeched as a trench-coat-wearing man flew right onto the windshield and rolled right onto the sidewalk.

"What the hell was that?" yelled Daisy.

"That, Daisy," shouted Anthony in sudden recognition, "is your best pal's old man!"

Octavius' bonelessly limp body lay pinned between two cars, which had been long abandoned by their owners. Agent Cypher leapt to his side, and pointed a gun straight at his head.

"Agent Cypher! What the hell are you doing!"

"What does it look like, Spider-Man? I'm blowing his brains out!"

"You can't! He's a super-criminal, yes, but he has to be arrested! He has to stand trial!" Spidey desperately webbed the gun out of her hands.

"Don't you understand? My mission, given to me by the CIA, is Operation Apollo: the assassination of Dr. Otto Octavius. Those are my orders: I'm just following them."

"That's what the Nazis said," Spidey said coldly. "'We didn't want to kill all those Jews, but those were our orders, and we were just following them.'"

"A frivolous and untrue comparison," replied Cypher. "The Jews were innocent. He murdered my mother! She was a neurosurgeon doing her job and the next thing she's swinging a chainsaw at her patient's tentacles—" Cypher's face was slick with tears. "Let me get it over with before he comes to!" She took out a second handgun and pressed it against the doctor's head. "This is for my mother, you—"

Spidey grabbed her arm with desperate strength, so hard he could almost feel small bones grinding in her forearms. "Would your mother wish you to murder someone for her? Would your mother wish you to lower yourself to her killer's level?"

Cypher's hand started shaking madly. After a few minutes of thought, she dropped the gun.

"The girl's dying, Agent. Is it true? Is she his clone?"

"Yes, Spider-Man. She was the subject of a government experiment, and I was sent to retrieve her."

"That explains it. Her body's shutting down. Don't you understand? It took millions of years of evolution—or extensive fine-tuning by an Intelligent Designer, whatever you believe—to perfect sexual reproduction. How can man presume they can replace God and create another person and not consider the consequences? Almost every attempt to clone resulted in the death of the embryo and those few born alive have suffered severe genetic defects. Even Dolly the famous sheep died much too early for a sheep. It's a miracle she made it this long—the processes of puberty are overstressing a body probably wracked by abnormalities. How many more lives will you government people destroy?"

"Stand back! I have an idea!"

"And just how are you involved in this, Goblin?" Spidey's voice hardened.

"My role in this sordid affair is really none of your business, but the clone is worth more to me alive than dead." Goblin drew out of his bag a fairly large vial of green liquid. "This is the Oz Formula—the chemicals that gave me my strength, the chemicals that healed my body stronger than ever after you saw fit to run me through my own glider. It would reverse the effects of the girl's cellular degeneration."

Agent Cypher blinked. "Should we?"

Spidey looked at Doctor Octopus—he was still out for the count. "Might as well. Her father certainly isn't saying anything to the contrary."

Goblin rolled up Octavia's sleeve and plunged the needle into her right arm. "It's only as much as I'd do for my own daughter."

Who woulda thunk Green Goblin would actually end up saving someone rather than killing them? Next, the exciting epilouge, The Sixth Day! Watch out for the exciting conclusion, coming soon to a computer near you!