Peter in his Spiderman outfit, sat there on the ledge of a tall building, waiting for Karen to display some kind of signal that there was a crime going on. He would take pictures of himself for Gwen and Jameson, but he figured it would be too suspicious if he were to take pictures of himself without any action going on. That's why he was lying on his back on the warm roof waiting for some kind of crime to hit. Karen was the only person he could talk to.
"I'm really tired,' Peter said to Karen with his hand on his belly. "I'm hoping that something would happen. So far in the last hour, I've saved a cat from a tree, put out a fire in a tree, cut down a tree, nothing but trees and that's all in Central Park."
Karen spoke back after he was done talking. "You should be happy that no one is dead or in danger. You also got a job at the Daily Bugle, so that is good news."
"Yeah," he agreed. "I guess so, Karen." He inhaled a breath of air through his mask before looking out to see the sun starting to set. "Hey, Karen, what time is it?" Five twenty-two p.m. "Wow, it's getting really late. I'm getting sleepy kinda, so I should be out here for at least one more hour. Tomorrow is Freedom Friday." He put his other hand on his belly.
"What's Freedom Friday, Peter?"
Peter chuckled at the A.I. who did not know what Freedom Friday was. "Freedom Friday is the last day of school for the week. After that, you get two free days without any school that starts as soon as school is over on Friday. It's probably the best day of the week after Wednesday."
"How did you do on your science test today, Peter?"
Peter was surprised that Karen remembered he told her about his test in science. He was proud that she remembered because he was happy to tell her his score. "I aced it; got every single question correct."
"That is good, Peter. How was Aunt May when you told her?"
"I didn't tell her yet, because I gotta finish this patrol and then I get home and then I'll tell her." Karen then asked if Aunt May was aware of his double identity. "No, I'm never gonna tell Aunt May, until I feel like she is ready to hear the truth."
"Why not?"
"Are you serious, Karen? If Aunt May finds out, she will never let me do this. She already lost her husband, she doesn't want to lose me. Whenever she worries, I worry."
"Who knows, maybe she would approve of all the lives you would save. Plus, isn't your motto, 'With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility?'"
"You even remember my motto, but I can't risk anybody knowing my secret. My secret is between you and me, Karen."
"Will you be telling Gwen?"
"That, I am actually conflicted about. I've considered taking off my mask to reveal that Spiderman is actually Peter Parker, but imagine how disappointed she would be if she was expecting someone like Iron Man."
"Who's Iron Man."
"Man, what else don't you know?" He slapped himself for being so mean to her; it just hit her that she was a sentient A.I. being and was capable of feeling hurt. Redips crawled from one of Spiderman's pockets and onto Peter's hand. He proceeded to caress and pet his pet spider lovingly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. He's this character in this Marvel comic that I'm reading. But, what if she was expecting someone else like Tony Stark and not me?"
"I don't know, Peter, but if I was Gwen," her voice took an alluring turn. "I wouldn't be disappointed at all."
"Thanks, Karen, you're so nice to me and I really appreciate it. I just hope that everything works out okay, you know? I mean, ever since he bit me, my life has turned upside down. I'm probably never going to go to college and I will probably never get a good night's sleep without having an earbud in my ear. Plus, I can never tell anybody who I really am and if people find out, my loved ones could be at risk. I will break promises, leave people behind to save others, and I will have to sacrifice the one thing I love to save others. There will be times where I won't be able to save someone, period. I can never get married, I can never have kids, I will never have a family of my own. I am going to die with my tombstone saying 'Spiderman', not Peter Parker and no one is going to remember me. No one is going to remember Peter Benjamin Parker." The realization sunk into Peter's chest like a block of ice.
"Aww," Karen cooed sympathetically. If Karen was a human, then she would be crying. "Poor Peter, you will never be alone. I will always be there for you and I will always be your sidekick. I will be your Karen until the very end of your days. I promise."
Peter's heart warmed slightly over Karen's words. When he first heard 'Suit Lady' in his mask and subsequently named her Karen, and she did nothing but guide him through his suit new weaponry, he always believed that Karen was just some kind of artificial intelligence with no feelings, just programmings on what to say and respond to Peter. But just hearing that one conversation from Karen proved that she was indeed a sentient being and she did grow attached to Peter and vice versa. If there was one thing that Peter could always rely on, it was Karen being there as his guide and friend. Even if she was nothing more than emotional artificial intelligence.
"Thanks a lot, Karen, you really are something, you know that?" he spoke gratefully and genuinely.
"I also wanted you to know, that there is a disturbance currently happening in Time Square, but nothing big to really worry about."
"What's going on?"
"Apparently, there was a small break-in near one of the stores at Time Square, but police were able to apprehend the criminals. Other than that, there is no real crime going on."
"You think I should check it out?"
"If you want to."
"I'll just swing on there just to be sure that everything is alright." He sits up and Redips crawls onto his back, jamming its appendages into the suit to cling on.
Peter jumped off the ledge with a cartwheel and swung from Queens all the way to Manhattan. By the time he got to Time Square, the sky above them was gray and the sun was almost out of sight. Peter swung and clung onto one of the advertising boards and watched the cops load at least a dozen armed criminals into multiple squad cars. "Well, at least the police know what they are doing."
What Karen said confuzzled Peter. "The police have twelve out of thirteen criminals in custody."
"What?" he exclaimed. "Twelve out of thirteen, where's the other one?"
One of the buildings' walls was smashed apart and bricks went flying out there. Spiderman focused intently on a set of huge mechanical arms emerging from the building and into sight. A couple of seconds later, a man with four mechanical arms attached to his back and lifting him off the ground made Peter's eyes widened in shock.
"Holy crap," spoke Karen.
"Holy crap indeed," Peter nodded while staring blankly at the new threat. "Now we got some action." Peter front flipped off the board and swung towards the eight-limbed opponent. As he got closer, he quickly recognized the adversary as Otto Octavius.
Peter leaped from the street light and onto the ground in front of the eight-limbed foe. Peter crouches down in front of Dr. Octopus and noticed that two of the four limbs had bags of money inside them. "So, let me guess, your name is Professor Squid. Science Squid? Octo-Man? Wait, I got it: The Kraken."
Dr. Octopus growled at Spiderman and clutched his left hand. "My callsign is Dr. Octopus. I've been hoping that this would get your attention, Spiderman."
"Ah, you know me," Spiderman spoke nonchalantly. "You know, I kinda know who you are, too. You look a lot like Otto Octavius."
"I am Otto Octavius, you idiot." Using his neural interface, he ordered for the two mechanical arms to throw the bags into one of the police cars. "I would usually give you a chance to let me go free and I won't hurt you badly option, but I am feeling pretty confident about myself."
"Oh what, you think I should be afraid of some robotic arms?" Spiderman mocked. That is until Karen told Spiderman exactly what he was up against.
"You should be a little worried, Peter," Karen warned. "Those four mechanical arms were designed for people with the lack of arms or lack of use for their limbs. They have the ability to lift a tank if they wanted to and the arms can respond to the wearer's commands as little as three milliseconds."
"What? Isn't there any kind of weakness on him?"
"Still scanning for weaknesses, may take a while."
"Ah screw it," he muttered. "I'll buy you time, Karen." Spiderman gazed up at Dr. Octopus and gestured with his hands for him to strike first. "Let's dance, Squidward."
Dr. Octopus smiled first and struck. One of the four mechanical arms suddenly launched themselves towards Spiderman, aiming for his heart area. Spiderman's sense warned him and he backflipped out the way and the arm struck the street. He shot two lines of webbing out towards Dr. Octopus' face. He reacted quickly and used his four arms to block the webbing and yank them towards him, bringing Spiderman with him.
Spiderman yelped in surprise as he flew towards Dr. Octopus, but his quick reflexes allowed him to time and think his next attack. Since he was flying towards the villain, he rotated forwards as he flew until his feet kicked Dr. Octopus in the face. He landed flat on his feet in front of the villain and began punching him, making sure to be alert at all times because his spider sense was going off crazy.
Dr. Octopus had one of his arms grab Spiderman's back and throw him as far as he could away from him. Police officers were about to fire on Dr. Octopus until he struck them first and knocked the police and their cruisers with the criminal inside away.
Spiderman crashed through a window to this one jewelry store and hit a lady in his path by accident. Neither one was hurt, so he quickly jumped back to his feet and swung through the broken window to get back into the fight.
He web yanked from street light to street light to avoid the mechanical arms coming at him way too fast, he almost lost his sense of direction. Spiderman did not risk going back on the ground for he knew it would be defeat waiting for him, knowing that it was always better to stay out of reach.
Even when Dr. Octopus was still out of range, he still proved to be dangerous. Dr. Octopus used his arms to grab a taxi and rip it in four. One by one, he threw the pieces at Spiderman. The young hero was able to dodge the first two while kicking the third one out the way. The fourth one actually hit him in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him. He lands on his side on the concrete ground and Dr. Octopus seizes his chance to grab Spiderman by the leg and drag him towards him.
"I thought you would be more of a challenge," Dr. Octopus mocked. "What a disappointment. I could squash you like a bug right now."
While Spiderman was dragged on his back, he quickly looked around to see what he could use to help him. There was a fire hydrant just a few yards to Dr. Octopus' left. He shoots a web out at the fire hydrant and with a loud groan, pulled it out of the ground, spraying water from its initial spot and threw it at Dr. Octopus.
The former scientist did not see this coming and the fire hydrant hit him hard in the side. He unintentionally forced his arm to release Spiderman. He backflipped onto his feet and shot more webbing at Dr. Octopus in an attempt to tie him with webs. The villain just threw more strikes at him.
"Karen, how's that scanning?"
Karen seemed to hesitate with her answer. "I am about ninety-eight percent done with scanning for weaknesses."
"He's beating me up!" He leaned all the way back horizontally when one of the mechanical arms went for his head. "Karen, give me a web combo!"
"Would you like me to activate enhanced fighting combat and web grenade?"
"Please do!" Spiderman shifted his body vertically to the left to avoid two incoming mechanical arms. Karen sent a message on his visor telling him that his enhanced fighting combat and web grenades were both ready. "Web grenade!" He throws his arm back and then forward like he was throwing an actual grenade.
Dr. Octopus caught the web grenade in one of his hands, but it still exploded and trapped the raging criminal in gooey webbing. Dr. Octopus groaned in anger as he trashed and kicked to get the webbing out of his skin but despite the mythology that spider webs are easy to break, this gooey webbing that covered him was anything but breakable.
"Hey, Doc Ock!" Spiderman charged with all his might. "I'm going to throw you back into the ocean where you belong!" Spiderman leaps, dodging the four mechanical arms and landing on Dr. Octopus' shoulders. He was about to pound his fist into his scalp, but two of the mechanical hands grabbed Spiderman's legs and pulled him out of reach. This did not stop Spiderman as he quickly shot multiple lines of webbing at Doc Ock's face and began pulling back.
"Any time now, Karen," Spiderman desperately urged with a wheeze. "Any time now!" Doc Ock was starting to break through the gooey webbing, but as he tried to keep Spiderman out of reach, the webbing on his face was yanking off his goggles. Doc Ock freed one of his mechanical arms from the webbing and used that arm to help the other hands pull Spiderman away.
The webbing around Doc Ock's face was slowly starting to peel off like a bandaid. Spiderman let go of the webs and went flying through the air. He looked around him as he fell and saw that he was going to fly into an alleyway. He quickly aimed his hands above his head and shot numerous balls of webbing out to create one big spider web for him to safely fall in.
He bounces against the web like a trampoline, but grips onto a web and begins communicating with Karen. "Karen? Please tell me the good news."
He waited seven seconds for a response before the A.I. finally spoke up. "I have found his main weakness." After that, she didn't say anything at all. Spiderman was waiting for her to say something while he kept his eyes on Dr. Octopus as he began removing himself from the gooey webbing, almost free.
"Why aren't you saying anything, Karen?!" Spiderman exclaimed.
"You didn't ask," Karen said simply. "You asked if there was a weakness on him, and I gave you an answer."
"You didn't tell me what his weakness was, though; he's almost about to yank himself out of the webbing!"
"Do you want me to tell you his weakness, Peter?"
Spiderman groaned in frustration. "Yeah!"
"Okay then." Karen flashed several images that she took of Dr. Octopus when he was fighting the villain. "It appears that the four mechanical arms are controlled through a neural link. The most plausible case is that Dr. Octopus has a neural link on his nape. If we were to destroy the neural interface, then he should lose control of the arms." Karen then showed Spiderman an image of the neural link on the back of his head. "I must warn you that it may be extremely difficult to destroy the device with all four arms coming at you."
"Can't we just rip off the arms?"
"Not necessarily. We could tear off the arms, but he would still be able to control them, even when they are detached from his body. We could rip the mechanical spinal cord holding the arms, but that could lead to paralysis or in extreme cases, death. Would you like me to activate the instant-kill mode?"
"What? No! We don't kill and we are not going to paralyze him." Spiderman knew he had to think of something because Doc Ock was just about free from the webbing. "Hey Karen, can you take pictures?"
"Of course I can."
"Well Karen, when I'm fighting Doc Ock, can you send Spider-Drone to take pictures of the fight for the Bugle?"
"Of course, Peter."
The spider emblem in Spiderman's chest detached itself and transformed into a mini-drone in the shape of a spider. Spiderman smiled under the mask as the Spider-Drone took pictures of Spiderman and then at Doc Ock. It flew a good distance off in order to get a better, more believable angle of the fight.
"Hey, Squiddy!" Spiderman launched two webs at the two street lights that Dr. Octopus stood between and catapulted himself. Just as Doc Ock freed himself from the webbing, Spiderman successfully launched both feet into his stomach and sent the former scientist flying back and crashing into the windows of one of the stores. Spiderman landed on his feet with a backflip and crouched down. "There is a reason that octopuses don't survive on land. Since you have eight limbs, you've should've called yourself Dr. Spider."
"Don't mock me!" Doc Ock exclaimed as he pulled himself out of the store. Doc Ock was eager to continue the fight, but the sound of more police vehicles instantly told him that it was better to fight Spiderman in a more secluded area. He turned his back to Spiderman and began climbing up one of the advertising signs, throwing chunks of debris with his free mechanical hands at the police to keep them off his back. The innocent bystanders of Time Square just watched and record as Spiderman wall ran up the building, following the mad scientist.
Spiderman stopped just twenty feet below Doc Ock and his back was still turned to the young hero. Spiderman seized his moment and shot a web at his back. This task was going to be more difficult done than said because one of the arms sensed Spiderman shooting a web for the neural interface and snatched the incoming web and pulled Spiderman up.
"Wow," Spiderman said in astonishment as he flew up in the air and began falling down but still continued to talk. "Did you know that octopuses can camouflage themselves? I bet that is something you can't do." One of the mechanical arms grabbed Spiderman by the leg in mid-air and smashed him into the wall a number of times before throwing him as far as he could off the building. "Oh crap!"
"Activating Web Wings."
Spiderman though he heard Karen's voice correctly. "Web wings?"
Suddenly, he raised his arms out like wings and webs sprouted out from his armpits to his upper arms and down to his waist. The feeling of falling suddenly replaced itself with the feeling of weightlessness. He was no longer falling, but gliding across Time Square like a bat. "Whoa!" Spiderman cheered. "I'm flying!" Spiderman rotates a three hundred and sixty-degree angle just for the fun of it before redirecting his flight path. "I'm the first flying spider in the world! Thank you, Karen!"
Dr. Octopus was stunned as he looked over his shoulder to see Spiderman flying, he actually almost lost his grip on one of his mechanical arms. He regained his posture and resumed his climbing. One of his arms alerted him that Spiderman was about to fly into him. So the two arms that weren't climbing up, they launched at the gliding Spiderman. Spiderman did three hundred and sixty degree turns on both attacks to dodge them and slammed headfirst into Doc Ock's back. Spiderman groaned in pain as he clung to the wall beside the hurt Doc Ock. Karen alerted Spiderman that he has a mild concussion and that he hit the metal spinal cord on Doc Ock's back.
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Back home in Queens, live news footage of Spiderman fighting the fierce Dr. Octopus was shown on a television set in a living room. Gwen Stacy sat on the leather brown couch and watched with a jaw dropped expression as Spiderman fought the villain dubbing himself, Dr. Octopus. If she had a driver's license and her own car, then she would drive all the way to Time Square just to get a picture of Spiderman or even, get a picture with Spiderman. Then she remembered hearing Peter say something about getting photos of Spiderman. Since tomorrow was Friday, she decided to ask Peter if he went to Time Square to get pictures. She dared not to turn off the television and continued watching her hero. She tried calling for her father, but she could not find him. He is the police captain, so he is probably already inbound to Time Square.
The web wings retracted back into his armpits and Spiderman's world stopped spinning from the mild concussion. Doc Ock was still hurting in the back but was slowly recovering. Spiderman noticed and quickly climbed up the wall and above the villain. He kicked the disoriented Doc Ock in the face. His four arms almost lost their grip on the wall, but Spiderman shot another web at Doc Ock's face to blind him. Doc Ock ripped the webbing off faster with his human arms and used one of the mechanical arms to trap Spiderman against the wall.
Fueled by rage, he began squeezing Spiderman's stomach as he climbed up to their faces were at the same level. So far, one mechanical arm was trapping Spiderman, two others climbing the building, so that left only one arm left to kill Spiderman. "You are getting on my nerves, bug," Doc Ock said with venom in his voice.
"I have a knack for that," Spiderman wheezed.
"I am going to crush you like the insect you are," Doc Ock declared. He wraps the last mechanical arm around Spiderman's head like a snake and began crushing it.
Spiderman groaned in intense pain and gasped for air. He grabs the mechanical arm crushing and attempts to loosen it to no avail.
SWAT officers down below saw that their beloved hero who kept New York safe for a month was in peril. A SWAT sergeant ordered for them to fire at Doc Ock and not a single SWAT soldier hesitated. They fired their MP5s, M16s, and other assault rifles at Doc Ock. The villain seemed unfazed due to his intense focus on killing Spiderman. One of the firing SWAT soldiers took this a step forward and aimed the barrel of an M21 sniper rifle up at Doc Ock. He lined for Doc Ock's back and fired.
The bullet hit Doc Ock in the metal spinal cord just a few inches above his waist. The bullet didn't pierce through all the way, but enough to make bleed and yell in pain for a brief second. This brief second of pain relaxed his grip on Spiderman's head, allowing the superhero to slither out and punch Doc Ock hard in the face.
Doc Ock reeled back in pain and tilted to the side. He was hanging between two vantage points and when he looked back at Spiderman, another foot came in and kicked him hard in the face. He directed one of his arms after Spiderman, but the superhero detected and dodged. Spiderman backflips onto Doc Ock's back and clings to him. He quickly spots the neural interface at Doc Ock's neck and put his index and thumb finger on the device. He forcefully removed the neural interface from his neck, ripping it out and causing Doc Ock to scream in realization.
"NO!"
Terror overcame Doc Ock as he made one last attempt to take out Spiderman. He used two arms to grab Spiderman and throw him high into the air. Spiderman soared like a falcon as he got closer to the ground, but he wasn't worried about himself. Doc Ock was about to fall to his death because he lost the uses of all four mechanical arms.
Spiderman shifted his body so he was facing Doc Ock and reloaded his web shooters. He thrusts both arms out and fires balls of web between the two vantage points that Doc Ock was about to fall through. He shot as many webs as he could before he successfully created a spider web big enough for Doc Ock to fall in.
Spiderman cheered in triumph and shot a line of webbing out and swung across Time Square. He swings down to the ground to get a better view. The Spider-Drone returned back to Spiderman's chest with excellent shots of him fighting Dr. Octopus. When Spiderman saw the police holding Doc Ock at gunpoint in the web, he decided, "The police got this." Confident that Time Square was safe, he leaped into the air and swung away.
As he swung away, someone sitting on a gargoyle displayed on one of the buildings wore a Jackal mask over their face and smiled gleefully.