Twin Hybrid

(Ch9 Coffee and Tentacles)

Doc Ock, Harry Osborn, Spiderman © Marvel Aqua Arachnia © DBR

"You don't have to be frightened. I got it under control." Ock smirked as he held the box under his arm.

"You can say that. I don't want that thing near me."

"It didn't damage me when it accessed the A. I files. I did a mental system scan, after its attack. Everything turned out to be in satisfactory order."

She covered her mouth. Aqua then spoke, "You sure you didn't have too much to drink?"

He laughed. "You didn't see me passed out on the floor with shiny tentacles?"

She shook her head no. "Of course I did. I just thought you were on the ground because of your drinking. I really did see some odd new coating on your tentacles. It's not like I keep track of them. I've become so immuned to seeing them, I hardly pay attention when you pass me a cup of tea. With that I mind, I just didn't notice."

Ock holds the box of pizza via Flo's mouth. "That's nice. Would you like a piece of pizza?"

"--Whenever you lock that thing in a vault."

"I can't do that dear. I have to see how much more advanced it is." Mo took the special box and placed it in his lab. It hit a button to lock the room.

"Time for lunch."

The next day…

Harry headed down his enormous red-carpeted steps in his mansion. A guard approached him. "Sir, I urgently have to tell you what happened."

Harry rubbed his forehead. "I don't care if the next business is ahead of me. I have to think about what happened."

"Your Ally Project has been stolen!"

"What the--" Harry started, "Howard, how did this happen?"

Harry Osborn was handed a Disc. "What's on it?"

"Something about some new thief, with abilities."

Harry smirked. "I wonder who this is. I'm off to call Parker."

At Peter Parker's home, Peter just got off work. The nightshift for J. Jonah wasn't the best time to do his web slinging. It wasn't the best time for him to be a photographer either. He had to photograph local graffiti; the Mayor wished was cleaned up. He entered the house rather slowly, and up the steps. Mary Jane was still sleeping after her hours of shooting for her next movie. She didn't hear Peter come into bed. However, May was the only one she heard from her bedroom.

May walked past their room, as Peter said goodnight to May. Today would be her first day of going off to school without her parents being able to drive her there. As she past the door, her mother asked her. "You sure you can peddle all that way?"

"It's not even two blocks. I'm already dressed. I can just snack on a candy bar until I get there."

Mary gave Mayday an odd look. May corrected her reply. "Ok, I'll have a healthy fruit-bar. It tastes like cardboard."

Her mother laughed. She turned off the blue lamp near her bed. "It will have to do, until I go shopping today. I should be up around the afternoon. It's seven in the morning now. You don't have to be at school until seven-twenty. Be safe. Mommy loves you."

May blows a kiss as her mother blows one back. Peter's already fast asleep. Mary Jane stares at the ceiling. It's been hard for her lately. Something in the past eats her mind daily. Her face is often void of smiles when she's alone. "I wonder if things would have been different. I wonder what it would be like if that never happened." Mary Jane pats her stomach. "I am thankful for other blessings in my life. Although, blessings are nice, it's hard to not to notice the hole in your soul, when someone is gone."

It wasn't long before May left that the doorbell rang. Then a knock was heard. Peter heard it pretty clear from his bed. Mary Jane didn't have the DNA of a spider to let her hearing become sensitive likes his. It wasn't too much better, but the ringing woke him up. He rubbed his face. He slipped his feet out of bed, and walked carefully. The sun was partially up, so he could see decently.

He lazily walked down the stairs. "You know, I don't even know why I should get up. They'll tire out." No sooner than he reached the door he said, "I'm coming."

The door was pulled open to a cool breeze, but nothing more. "What a waste. If I don't get enough sleep, none of my shots will look right."

A few creaking noises perked his interest to his left and right. After his curiosity ended, he closed the door and walked up the stairs again. A soft flutter to his kitchen window also gave him an incentive to check it out. His body craved sleep and begged him to go back to bed. He rubbed his blood shot eyes. Peter waved his hand, "It's bed time," and soon walked up.

A few thuds on the roof made him wonder. "I hope the satellite isn't off kilter. I hate to fix it."

Peter stepped his last step on the blue carpet to raise his head to a familiar face.

A tentacle clicked in Peter's face.

"Now, I know it's been a long day."

Octavius laughed. "A long day for you?"

The chill of the open window heightened his senses. The thick smell of cigars inflicted Peter's nose and the loud hissing tentacles seemed to be as real as the sound they made.

"This is too real of a dream."

Otto held a small canister he took from Harry, and drank from it. The strong odor of alcohol cut through the cigar smoke on Ock's trench coat. "Oh, it's real. Did you Miss me?"

This was no dream!

Peter lost his hold on the railing and flipped backwards down the steps. Ock mused, then smirked. "Do I always have this way with people?"

Peter lay on the floor. He moved his arms and legs to check if they were broken. None of them were. Ock descended the steps majestically, and took a seat from the kitchen (via Mo ), and sat down on the hard wooden chair. It creaked as he first sat in it.

"Doctor Ock—octopus? I saw you drowned."

"Perhaps, you saw what you wanted to see. I knew my experiment more than you know everything about Mary Jane. I was there when I laid every circuit in it's structure."

"I never doubted your genius. I just—you're human---and well, the water…oxygen?"

"Yes, every creature needs oxygen, unless their molecular structure calls for another way to stay alive. My tentacles alerted me of the danger that I knew about before. They inhaled enough of it in inner tubes. There wasn't really much for more than two breathes—but it worked. I'm not a fan of the distasteful James Bond movies, but something like his apparatus for breathing underwater, was what I had. My special inventions were installed in the arms for another reason. I have a welding tool, in one of my arms that uses oxygen rather quickly. This was to give it some extra boost, instead of hauling another oxygen tank in and having it refuel before I use it. To cut through my long explanation, they stored enough oxygen for me before they went offline. I breathed the last of it, and they pulled upon the metal of my creation to less intensely heated water area to resurface."

Ock handed Peter a cup of coffee, in which he made earlier in his speech.

Peter just stared. His eyes were on Ock.

" I pulled upon some of the floating havoc, I caused, and stayed there. I blacked out not long after."

"So, why are you here?"

A small smile crept upon his face. "Oh, I'm curious as to know if you have a daughter."

"Why? She doesn't want to be a scientist. And she isn't in college. She's not even going to have Dr. Connors."

"Is she like you?"

Peter's heart felt like a cold knife wedge its way in it. "Well, not really."

Ock's bottom left tentacle wound its way around Peter. No spider-sense went off.

"Um," uncomfortably close to a possible past villain, made talking difficult.

Ock frowned. "You know, Parker. Does she spin webs and have the irritating knack of getting into peoples businesses?"

"Don't hurt her!"

Ock squeezed his tentacle around Peter's waist, which included his hands. "I have no intention on hurting your pathetic reproduced copy-cat. I only want to know if that's all the children you have."

Peter's brow raised. "No." He sighed. "There was another."

"Another?" Ock noticed Peter's solemn look. He actually felt pity. This gave his tentacles another emotion to analyze in there constantly processing, computerized minds. Ock folded his hands into a triangle.

A lump formed in Peter's throat. "She died."

"Oh? I don't have much sympathy on my enemies dying, but a child is different."

That was the first time Peter saw this sad emotion. He saw him repenting over his tragic monstrosity, but never seemed that concern in all his work that it would possibly be unsafe. Pride cometh before the fall. But from Ock's fall, one can tell that pride blinds first, then it carries out its final plan---failure, shame and/or death.

"Why do you say?"

"Rosie and I wanted to have kids. I was against the whole idea. They would make messes, get in my lab, nag me, or tell me horrible jokes. I'd put up with your puns over their stupid jokes any day. When we were at a local hospital, Rosie had a cold, and I strolled the halls. I saw children in the maternity ward. I looked into one of their little eyes. I thought to myself, 'what if one of them would be ours?'"

Peter asked, while his eyes were rather droopy. "Is that all you wanted?"

The tentacles released him slowly. They 'clicked' their way back under Ock's trench coat flap. "Yes."

He walked out the door This was an odd thing to see. Peter looked and wondered. "Is he more man than monster? Has he changed? Why care about if I had a child? Mary Jane is not going to believe this."

Ock huffed away. "Peter probably was so tired that his brain wouldn't be capable of thinking if he had a child named Bo-bo. If I go back again, that will only bring about suspicion that I'm back. If this story is true, then where did her powers come from? I don't think Parker would lie, but would he scare me off from asking any more questions? Argh! What am I going to do? This calls for more contemplation."

He laughed insidiously, in the shadows of the closest dilapidated buildings. He rounded the corner and was gone.