Chapter 14: Whosoever Fights Monsters

"Whosoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. For when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."

—Friedrich Nietzsche

Secrets, as Nancy Melitta or Otto Octavius could tell you, are more unstable than tritium or uranium-234. Mary Jane Watson-Parker eventually called her friend Susan Storm-Richards, explaining the dangerous creature her husband had brought home and fretting over what she could do to her children, young Benjamin and infant May. Susan agreed with Mary Jane's analysis, saying she would never let an enemy, or a clone of one, in her house, especially since she had two young children as well, young Franklin and infant Valeria. Susan advised Mary Jane to call Nick Fury at SHIELD-CIA.

The call was made. Mary Jane called Fury.

Fury called Melitta.

Melitta called Cypher.

Agent Cindy Cypher snapped open her cell phone. "What? I never expected him to—well, would you have?—Yes, I'll bring him down. I swear if I find the clone with him, I'm going to pull his mask off myself!"

In the driver's seat, speeding towards downtown Manhattan, Peter's eyes widened. "Octavia—jump out of the car, now."

"What—?"

By now, Peter knew better than to doubt his spider-sense. He promptly jumped out of his side, racing around to grab Octavia by the trench coat collar and drag her out—

Just in time to see an SUV hurled through the air and plopped on top of the car, and just in time to avoid being crushed along with it.

Peter wildly looked around. Each of his archenemies carried a unique spidey-sense signal; he knew this one. If his spidey-sense was right (and it had only been wrong once so far, when he mistook the clone for her progenitor—a small mistake), he would soon hear the all-too-familiar and unpleasant crunch-crunch-crunch of adamantium on pavement.

But he did not.

His senses pinpointed the danger, blurring the crowds until he clearly sensed a short, stocky man in a green trench coat walking on the sidewalk, heading towards him. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that was him!

Better to be safe than sorry. "Octavia—go and run towards the SDSI headquarters; it's 7 blocks that way, the tall building with the blue glass panes. I have someone to meet." With that, he ducked into an alleyway, stripping off his civilian clothes.

Octavia was curious. "Who?"

Peter was tempted to reply, Just an overgrown Eric Cartman with too many arms, but he was not the sort to insult a young lady's father in her presence. So he simply pulled his mask on.

Then he heard his enemy's hated voice behind him. "Is there a doctor in the house?"

"Oh, do you want an autographed picture? You'll have to get in line behind all my other stalkers."

Octavia shook her head as she ran. She despised Spider-Man's amateur comedian approach to battle.

"Your sophomoric humor never ceases to amaze me, Spider-Man. On an etymological note," he digressed, "the word sophomore comes from two Greek words: sophos, which means wise and from which comes the English sophisticated, and moros, the root of the modern English moron."

"You don't have to explain to me what your insults mean, Ock. I have important things to do, so can I just whoop your ass, web it up, and get it over with? But first, tell me how you managed to plop a car on top of me without using your tentacles."

This asshole just loves the sound of his own voice, Spidey knew. He held his hands behind his back, loading the artificial web-shooters Cypher had given him. Ever since that fight with Octavia, his natural web had been behaving erratically and his wrists still pained him. With Octavius, he couldn't afford to leave anything to chance. The longer Otto talked, the less he noticed what Peter was doing.

"Do you really think that Doctor Octopus is some low-grade film villain, who freely reveals his evil master plan in front of the hero at the climax of the battle? Suffice it to say I've learned some new skills. You have someone I hold dear, someone important enough to me to fight you for. You certainly mean her no good."

Spidey decided to play ignorant, wishing he could punch the insufferable super-powered gasbag already, anything but standing here in the middle of the street chatting with him. "Do I get three guesses as to who that is?"

"Please, you're betraying your ignorance. You and your friends at Marvel Comics and Sony Pictures certainly enjoy mocking my less-than-perfect eyesight. But don't try to convince me that I didn't see you driving my daughter to the headquarters of those agents trying to capture and kill her as we speak."

"I was trying to help her, something you know nothing about because you think only of yourself. You want to keep her for your heir, just like Norman's legacy killed his own son."

"And where are your children, Parker? Oh, don't look surprised and don't think I've already forgotten how you foolishly unmasked yourself to plead with me to destroy my first experiment. Where are they, Parker? With your wife, perhaps, wondering where Daddy is and why they never see him?"

That insult drove Spidey over the line; exactly what Octavius, who had been spoiling for a fight ever since he'd discovered a few new powers, had intended it to do.

Spider-Man's teeth were gritted; he lunged at Octopus, outraged. "Never speak of my family again, or I'll—" he started, but his threat was never finished, because both his words and his fist, seemed to freeze in midair. Then Spidey found himself hurled into a nearby wall. The hero slowly stood up, leaned against the wall, and hastily fired off spider web; with one careless wave of Octopus' hand, the web sprayed back onto him, thoroughly gluing him to the alley wall, a Spider trapped in his own web. Spidey's reaction is not fit to be printed here.

Melissa Breedlove and her children Jordan and Morgan Nicholas, Dr. Payton Gatsby and his daughter Daisy, and Maryann Jackson and her adopted son Mack, crowded themselves into a small room in Hotel 6. All of them had one thing in common: The teenagers were all linked to Octavia Jones.

"So basically," Jordan finished saying, "my best pal Octavia Jones is actually the second human clone in scientific history and Mack here is the first. They were both created by a CIA-affiliated government agency called the SDSI to serve as genetically-enhanced, but disposable super-soldiers to fill out the ranks of the US military in the War on Terror so they won't protest a draft like in Vietnam. Octavia and Mack are both cloned from infamous supervillains and have certain powers, and now the government's trying to get them back. Octavia's already been kidnapped twice and she's missing again. We suspect that the government knows that Octavia's been living with my dad and that they had a hand in his death."

"What if they finally succeeded in capturing her?" Dr. Gatsby asked.

"What?" For Jordan, ever the optimist, the possibility was unthinkable.

"You said she must have gone missing in the government's midnight raid on your house or shortly before. That sounds like government capture to me. It's the only logical possibility—though I have heard a lot of things tonight that challenge everything I've believed about America."

"If that's true, the only logical possibility after that would be to bring her back." Jordan's voice was hard.

"Don't even think about it, young lady!" Melissa shouted. "This Octavia—person, I guess—already got your father killed!"

"You don't mean that, Mom! How dare you say—!" Jordan screamed, but Mack interfered with the imminent catfight.

"Jordan," Dr. Gatsby asked, "You have told me about your friend having dreams about her progenitor. I suspect that her unconscious mind is retaining biological memories of him."

Jordan turned toward the psychologist. "Yes, I've suggested that. She wouldn't hear a word of it."

"Do you think they could have a psychic link to each other? Strictly genetically, they are almost the same person."

Daisy piped in, "I saw—the progenitor, Doctor Octopus—almost die protecting Octavia, Dad. I think they bonded very closely while she was held by him."

To Dr. Gatsby, the solution was obvious. "Then we go to this Doctor Octopus and ask him for his help."

Spidey came to a sickening realization as he started to pull off the web. Octavius must have always had some psionic ability. That's why he could control his arms so well even when they were surgically removed after his latest arrest. Now he's found a way to use his psychokinetic powers without involving the arms. Boy, am I screwed now. I must look like such an idiot. His personal embarrassment would have to wait. The future of the free world was at stake, and where was Captain America when you needed him? He spotted Otto down the street, calling his "daughter's" name. Otto could redeem himself, or at least begin to, tonight, and besides, Winston Churchill once said he would have allied with the Devil himself to defeat Hitler.

"Wait! I know where she's headed!" Spidey called.

Otto stopped in his tracks. Then he suddenly appeared in front of him. "What?"

"You heard me. I know where Daddy's little girl is," Spidey snarled, still struggling.

"Be still!" Otto commanded, and Spidey froze, constrained by an invisible force field.

"I'm listening, Parker," Otto replied, popping out his tentacle blade to cut the web. "Let's call a truce. You have knowledge I want, and I have the power to release you. Fair exchange; with my new powers, you're no longer a threat to me."

"She's going to the Blue Tower, the New York SDSI-CIA Headquarters a few blocks from Times Square. She intends to confront her creators and destroy the building and with it, their research. She will not let them create another clone."

"Thank you," Octavius acknowledged.

"Anytime, pal," Spidey replied, with as much sarcasm as possible.

"Oh, shut up," Octopus told him, and clubbed him over the head with a tentacle without releasing him. "Truce rescinded."