Chapter 15: Acts of Will
"I wish my life and my decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of whatever kind. I wish to be the instrument of my own, not of other men's acts of will. I wish to be a subject, not an object." –Isaiah Berlin
A stern-faced Secret Service agent stood his guard outside the entrance of the Blue Tower, the New York City secondary headquarters of the SDSI. To digress, the primary headquarters was in Longmont, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and it was there that other SDSI experiments in chemical and genetic engineering were performed, and which a horror novelist of some fame documented. Agent Bill Flowers was a show guard, as opposed to the real guards provided by SHIELD-CIA. The job was easy, nothing to do as most of the public was unaware of what exactly went on in the Blue Tower. With the real security performed by the SHIELD, he was basically a receptionist with a badge, paid to stand there, look menacing, and ask for proper identification. Hell of a lot easier than taking a bullet for the President! Talk about stress-free jobs.
At least until now, when the underground parking lot below the Tower rang out with the sound of crashing metal, cement, and glass. Agent Flowers looked up from his People magazine, ran to the source of the demolition derby, and saw the damndest thing—it looked like a tall person on stilts, bobbing up and down between the cars, and in fact, hurling some of them skyward, where they smashed mostly unsuspecting SHIELD men below. It wasn't until the front of the Blue Tower erupted in an explosion of peacock-blue glass shards, and he caught the sight of a two tri-symmetrical pincers attached to a pair of sinuous adamantium tentacles, that he began to suspect who might be behind this.
"Mayday! Mayday! The Tower is under supervillain attack!" Flowers shouted at his radio, hurriedly climbing up a tree.
"Description, please, or name of supervillain if you can make an identification."
Flowers, who occasionally read the papers (when he found a discarded one he could claim as his own) and watched the news and movies, could certainly make one in this case. "Octopus. I repeat: the Tower is under attack by supervillain identified as Doctor Octopus—"
Flowers was close, but no cigar. A tall, brunette young woman, supported by another pair of writhing tentacles, bobbed into the entrance, then stopped suddenly, adjusting the backpack she wore. He leaned close into his radio. "It's not Doctor Octopus. The supervillain's a female, but she does have the—"
A different voice came over his radio. "This is the Director Melitta," she said. "What are you waiting for? Don't be rude, let our guest in."
Then the strange young woman caught sight of him, and the hapless Agent Flowers was pulled out of his hiding place by the ankle.
Melissa Breedlove shivered by the riverbank, looking up at the entrance of Pier 56. "Do you really think Doctor Octopus lives and plots world domination in this dump?"
"Duh, Mom!" Jordan retorted. "I've watched the movie, you know!"
After a few minutes of Jordan's fruitless knocking and repeated shouting of the supervillain's real name, Daisy sighed and said, "Maybe he's not home right now."
"Maybe he doesn't even live here," added Melissa. "Real life isn't like the movies."
"Real life isn't even real life anymore," sighed Morgan. "If someone told me a year ago that Dad was right about an, pardon the pun, octopus-like government organization cloning octopus-like supervillains for a secret army, I would have said they were as crazy as he is."
By the time Flowers caught sight of the young woman's face, round but darkly beautiful, twisted into a hateful and agonized sneer, a tentacle wrapped securely around him, wresting agony from compressed and cracking ribs like a mighty python strangling its prey.
He croaked out one word to the woman who was about to murder him.
"Why?"
Her voice was slightly deep, exotic. She had a nice figure too, even though it was securely wrapped in a brown trench coat. He would have thought her dating material, if she wasn't, you know, a psychotic, rogue supervillain clone with tentacles sprouting out her back. "Are you really in a position to question me?"
Flowers couldn't breathe, so he hastily shook his head. His momma didn't raise dummies.
Octavia Jones sighed. "You know, I really don't enjoy senseless killing. And under different circumstances I might have allowed you to live. But I am under conditions that severely compromise my dignity, sworn to destroy the modern-day Frankensteins that violated the laws of Nature and of Nature's God by cursing me with an existence that should have never been. Even though you are a nonentity, by working for these people you are complicit in their crimes. Therefore…"
She held up another tentacle, and a blade popped out of it. In its reflection Agent Bill Flowers could see exactly what was coming to him.
Octavia dropped Flowers' body, and entered the building proper, smashing walls as she went.
She smiled. She'd lied when she told him she didn't enjoy it.
"I guess we're out of options," Melissa sighed to Jordan, Morgan, and Daisy, speeding down the street in her car. Payton followed behind in his car, accompanied by Mack and Maryann.
"Wait!" Mack called to Payton. "I see something! Pull over now!"
Payton figured that Mack must have enhanced, superhuman vision, because he couldn't see a thing. He trusted him, and pulled over.
What Mack had spotted out the window was a disgruntled superhero in red and blue tights wriggling in the spider web that held him securely to the wall, muttering, "The good news, this stuff dissolves in an hour. The bad news, I really have to pee…"
By that time, Melissa had pulled over her car next to Payton's. Figure if anyone would know about the original Octopus, it would be his archenemy.
Jordan boldly stepped up to him. "Hi, I'm Jordan Nicholas. I'm looking for Doctor Octopus, I'm a friend of Octavia Jones and—"
"I've seen you before!" Spidey exclaimed in sudden recognition. "You were in the front passenger side of the car that ran over Doc Ock a few months ago when I was working with Agent Cypher—"
Jordan was horrified. "You were working with an agent of the SDSI? The people trying to kill my friend?"
Spidey looked pained and sympathetic. He offered the same explanation he had given to Octavia. "Look, Miss, uh, Jordan, I didn't go into that mission by choice. I was blackmailed and threatened with the revelation of my secret identity. I have a wife and kids, you see."
"So you went to capture someone's daughter and friend."
Spidey nodded.
"Spider-Man, I want to know if you've seen either Dr. Octavius or Octavia."
"I've seen both. Last I've seen, they were heading toward the Blue Tower."
Jordan knew about the new, beautiful skyscraper, entirely paned with glistening peacock blue glass, constructed just a few feet away from the long-destroyed World Trade Center. A September 11th memorial stood in its shadow, and the top boasted the tallest, highest flagpole in the world, where Old Glory waved its promise of freedom. The official name for it was the Freedom Tower, but everyone in New York simply called it the Blue Tower, but with a sense of respect. However, the strange thing was that no one could tell you exactly what was in the Blue Tower or who worked in it. The closest guesses involved government offices, and individuals with a keen sense of irony would speculate that it was the new site of the Homeland Security Agency.
"By the way, why are you wrapped up in your own spider web?"
"Don't ask. Octopus has a few new powers now. He's more dangerous than ever."
Mack walked up, and using hands endowed with the strength of mighty scorpion pincers, started tugging on the web. It stretched a fair bit, but didn't break.
Since there was nothing else they could do, they simply climbed back in the car.
The alarm had been raised. All SDSI employees were hurriedly evacuated from the Tower, all except for Agent Cindy Cypher and the new Director, Dr. Nancy Melitta.
Melitta smiled. Who would have thought that her accursed creation would walk straight into her hands?