Peter Parker honestly didn't think his life could get any worse at this point. The whole world knew he was Spider-Man, and thanks to that Mysterio scuzzball and Jameson, everyone thought he was a psychopathic murderer. Even worse, he'd gotten cold feet when he'd gone to Dr. Strange for a spell that would erase everyone's memory of him being Spider-Man. The spell had pretty much blown up in their faces and Strange, understandably angry, had tossed him out of the sanctum. Sure, he'd had a good lawyer who'd managed to at least get the charge of killing Mysterio dismissed (thank you, Matt Murdock), but he couldn't even go to school without some asshole throwing trash at him. What was the point anymore?
At that moment, Peter was sitting, or rather, sulking, in the passenger seat of Aunt May's car as they drove down the highway. She'd insisted he not use public transportation, seeing how anyone would recognize him walking down the street or on a bus. He saw her point, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He couldn't even web-swing to school anymore without getting jeered at.
Peter sighed to himself as he felt the tiny metallic bracelet that was the compressed Iron Spider suit on his wrist. He wore it in case of emergencies, which could happen anytime now. It was times like this that he missed Tony Stark more than ever. Sure, according to Dr. Strange, there had been no other way to defeat Thanos, but did the universe really have to take a third father figure from him? He bet Tony would've known what to do in this disaster. Pepper and Morgan were great, of course, but they could never replace the man himself.
"Are you okay, honey?" asked May, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder.
"Oh, sure," Peter snorted. "Everything's just ducky. I've probably blown my chances at going to college forever, and you, Happy, Ned, and MJ are all going to be in constant danger for the rest of my life, but besides that, yeah, everything's great!" Then he felt a single tear begin to drip from the side of his eye. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have tried to bite your head off."
"No, it's okay, Peter," May replied. "With your situation, I'd be more concerned if you didn't snap sometimes. I'm sure you remember how bad I was when Ben died."
Peter did. He'd been drowning in his own guilt over letting the burglar go, but that didn't mean he hadn't noticed May's mood. He had only been fourteen, after all. She'd calmed down in a couple of weeks, but in those weeks, it was like anything would set her off.
"Still, it's no excuse," Peter continued. "It's not like any of this mess is your fault."
"No. But we'll find a way out of this, Peter," she insisted. "We always do—"
She suddenly cut herself off, looking up. Peter's eyes followed her gaze, discovering what had caught her attention. Now that he took his focus out of his own head, he could see that many cars had stopped in the middle of the road, and people were abandoning them in droves, running down the highway and screaming like the devil was on their tails. Peter swallowed uneasily.
"Now what?!" he groaned. He reached down to release the seat belt.
"What are you doing?" May demanded.
"Stay here!" Peter yelled back at her as he pushed the door open. He climbed onto the roof of the car to assess the damage.
Several cars ahead were lying in ruins, covered with scratches and dust, and Peter couldn't tell if the drivers were injured. His eyes began searching for the source of the terror, but before he could find anything, Peter heard a rumbling sound and looked ahead. Beyond the sight of the blast, cracks were beginning to appear in the street, as though something were striking it from below. His spider-sense was buzzing like crazy, warning of danger. Peter wisely headed it, mentally activating the Iron Spider suit and causing it to form over his body.
He didn't have to wait long to discover what was below the highway. The still cars beyond him were lifted briefly by something below, before the street was punched clean through. A long, segmented, metallic tentacle, tipped with a three-pronged claw and glowing with a red light on the tip, emerged from the new hole. Peter leaped off of May's car to land in front of the tentacle, as three more followed it.
Finally, the source of the tentacles was revealed: a tall man wearing an open, dark green trench coat, as well as a pair of sunglasses. The arms were emerging from his back, and from what Peter could see from the front of his body, the man was wearing some kind of metallic harness, likely the source of the arms.
"Whoa. What are you supposed to be?" he asked, looking up at the man. "I mean, I've kinda got the monopoly on the whole-spider theme, dude. Unless you're supposed to be an octopus? I don't know what else has eight limbs."
The man merely looked down at Spider-Man, a knowing smile gracing his round face. "Hello, Peter," he chuckled to himself. "I'm guessing you thought you'd seen the last of me? Nice upgrade to the costume, by the way."
Peter blinked beneath his mask. "Um, do I know you, sir? Were you some small-time punk I put away years ago and now you've got this whole revenge complex going on? Because I have no idea who you—HEY!"
He leaped out of the way as a tentacle came lashing downwards, aimed at the exact spot he'd been standing in. Spider-Man seized the overhead sign and swung up to land on top of it, as the man raised himself up on his lower two tentacles.
"You've forgotten me already? I'm hurt, Spider-Man," he quipped. His top two tentacles seized an empty corolla and raised it into the air. "I thought you admired Otto Octavius. I assure you, I didn't forget you."
With a swipe of his tentacles, he hurled the car at Spider-Man, who jumped over it and dived towards Octavius. The four spider leg appendages sprouted from the back of his armor, aiming to non-lethally jab his new enemy. However, one of the other tentacles snapped upwards with a speed Peter hadn't predicted, and coiled around his torso like a snake. The spider legs stabbed at the metal repeatedly, but they failed to do any damage.
Octavius didn't fail to take notice of the spider legs. "Hm. Interesting," he muttered. "Looks like we have some competition, boys." He seemed to be directing that last comment towards his tentacles.
"Okay, Dr.-urk-Octopus," Spider-Man grunted through the constricting pain. "That actually has a nice ring to it now that I say it out loud, but seriously, I don't know you!"
"Maybe this will refresh your memory," Octavius replied, raising another arm.
The metal limb shot straight downward, the claw clamping down on Spider-Man's head like a vice. Even through the metal of the armor, Peter could still feel his skull being compressed, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.
"Karen..." he wheezed out, "...taser...webs..." He pointed one of his hands at Octavius, and squeezed the trigger for his web shooter.
The fibrous material fired out of his wrist, before smacking Octavius directly in the chest. The man's surprised gasp turned into a shout of pain as the electricity coursed through him, sparking and sending electricity down his tentacles. Fortunately, the Iron Spider suit's insulation kept Peter protected from getting shocked. The pain caused Octavius' tentacles to loosen their grip, allowing Peter to leap out of the hold.
Now airborne, Spider-Man fired two webs at the stunned Octavius, preparing to launch himself towards his new foe. But before he could make a move, his spider-sense flared to life once again, causing him to glance in the indicated direction. Unfortunately, even his enhanced reflexes failed to act in time. Something moving at incredible speeds slammed into his side, causing him to go flying and lose his grip on his webs. Spider-Man struggled to reorient himself in midair, but he eventually did so, landing on his feet on another abandoned car.
Looking up, Spider-Man beheld another new attacker. This one wore some kind of green, armored flight suit, topped with a mask that looked like some kind of grinning goblin. He rode on a flying glider device his feet were strapped to, and in his hand, he held an orange sphere with green lights.
"Good to see you again, Spider-Man!" he cackled.
"Oh, look. Someone else I'm supposed to care about," Peter groaned.
The goblin didn't seem to care for his response, rearing back and chucking the sphere. Spider-Man didn't know what it was, but he wasn't keen on finding out. He leaped off the car, fired a web at the ball, snagged it, spun it around, and chucked it upwards, where it exploded harmlessly. The goblin man growled in annoyance, before grabbing another grenade. But before he could throw this one, a dented and cracked car door came flying at him, smacking into him and threatening to knock him off his glider.
"Sorry, goblin," proclaimed Octavius, as he ripped off another car door with one tentacle, "but he's mine!"
The goblin merely snarled in anger, before hurling the bomb at Octavius. However, instead of exploding, this one simply shed its outer skin, revealing two metallic, sharpened wings, like a bat, and began flying towards Octavius. The goblin chucked a couple more of the flyers at Octavius, who merely shielded himself with two tentacles, and lashed out with the other two. He even managed to catch one of the flyers in the grip of his tentacle, where it exploded, but failed to damage the tentacle.
"Great," Spider-Man mumbled to himself. "Now I have two crazy supervillains fighting over who gets to kill me." He briefly toyed with the thought of running away and leaving these two to beat the snot out of each other, but the responsible part of his brain won out. Just like every other time.
He fired two webs at the ground and yanked, launching himself into the air and flying directly at the guy in the goblin mask. He pulled one arm back and punched the goblin in the face, but he failed to knock the guy off the glider. Even worse, before he could make a recovery, one of Octavius' tentacles snaked upwards and smashed into his chest. Spider-Man went flying, smacked into the barrier, and fell under the highway. He only barely managed to land on his feet.
"Oh, geez, ow," he groaned, standing up and rubbing his chest. "How do those things hit so hard? I'm surprised they didn't tear my shirt—WHAT THE?!"
He frantically palmed his chest where he'd been struck. Indeed, Octavius had hit him so hard he'd actually managed to smash through the armor, leaving his shirt exposed. His tie was flapping in the wind.
"Quite impressive technology you have here, Peter," Octavius snarked. Spider-Man looked up, discovering the man was lowering himself down to Peter's height. What was far more alarming, however, was the red and gold coloring advancing down his tentacles, coating them in what looked like even stronger metal. Peter's heart nearly stopped as he realized what was going on: somehow, Octavius' tentacles had absorbed the nanites from the Iron Spider suit.
"What...how...?" Spider-Man stuttered. He was so shocked that he barely felt his spider sense as it futilely tried to warn him before one of the tentacles smacked him in the face, knocking him to the ground. He was dazed so badly he barely registered another tentacle picking him up and wrapping around his body once more.
"It's been nice to see you again, Peter," Octavius commented, he raised one of his tentacles, "but I think I'm going to put an end to this now." With those words, he braced Spider-Man against a concrete pillar, and sent a tentacle flying at Spider-Man's exposed chest.
Peter's brain thankfully kicked into overdrive, seconds stretching into what seemed like hours, trying to frantically figure a way out. He'd tried snapping these tentacles before and that had failed. But if he got hit with a blow that fast, it'd probably shatter his ribs. In the end, he could think of one solution, even though it might leave him more vulnerable.
Drawing on the neural link of the Iron Spider suit, Peter ordered the remaining nanites to reroute from his face to his chest, in order to cushion the blow. Luckily for him, they reacted just in time, covering his chest again just before the tentacle hit. The blow still pushed him hard enough into the pillar to crack it and knocked the wind out of him, but he survived.
Looking up, he prepared to fire another taser web at Octavius. But before he could do so, he noticed the look on the man's face. Instead of being mildly annoyed that his attack had failed, as Peter expected, Octavius looked shocked and confused.
"You...you're not Peter Parker!" he exclaimed, pointing at Peter's face.
If he hadn't currently been hanging upside-down, Peter was fairly certain his jaw would've dropped. "Uh, yeah I am. Have you not watched the news recently?"
"No, you're not!" Octavius snapped. "You're too young! Who are you?!"
"I'm Peter Parker! Everyone knows that!" Peter groaned.
The man in the goblin mask glided down to their level, another grenade in his hand, clearly intending to blast Octavius. However, the second he laid his eyes on Peter's face, he froze.
"Who the hell are you?!" he demanded. "You're not Spider-Man!"
"I'm so confused," Peter complained. "Seriously, who are you guys and why don't you think I'm Peter Parker—"
This time, the interruption came in the form of web blasts, though these didn't originate from Peter's web shooters. Instead, they came from behind him. Two hunks of webbing covered the eyes of Octavius and the goblin, completely blinding them. Octavius was reeling so much he actually dropped Peter, who barely managed to twist and land on his shoulder instead of his head.
Climbing to his feet, Peter saw two blurs zip past him, one smacking Octavius aside, and the other kicking the goblin off his glider. It was only when the two figures landed that Peter realized the shocking truth: both were men wearing Spider-Man costumes. These costumes were made of simple cloth, or at least they appeared to be, but there was no mistaking the fact that they resembled the first suit Tony Stark had given him.
"Sorry, Ock, but it looks like you'll have to—" one of them began, then stopped as he noticed the Spider-Man next to him. "What...who are you?"
"I'm the one who should be asking that question!" responded the second Spider-Man.
"No, I am!" Peter cut him off, causing both Spider-Men to turn around and face him. "What the hell is going on?!"
All three men wearing Spider-Man costumes stared at each other, as though their brains were desperately trying to comprehend this insane reality they found themselves in.
"I think..." said the first Spider-Man, "we may have to put that aside for now."
"Why?" asked the second.
"Because that." He pointed to Octavius and the goblin, both of whom were climbing to their feet once again. They didn't look happy.
Peter braced himself, but suddenly remembered something Strange had said. About the multiverse, and how tampering with it could have dire consequences.
"Oh, damn," he whispered.