Last chapter you realized that big bad Doc Ock is back! A supervillain after 25 years can hold a pretty big grudge which I intend to show in this climatic chapter. How fitting, the fifth chapter being the main battle just like in my Origin story, funny how things work out huh? I originally wanted this story to be 5 chapters not 7 like the first one, but it just turned out that way. Anyway, on with the show!
Chapter 5: Brawl Out of Time
"You have to be appreciative."
x-x-x-x-x
The group of spiders stood in silent shock and terror as the giant holographic head of one of Spiderman's most dangerous enemies was projected above the city. The screams of the panicked citizens below had subsided for now, allowing them all to hear Doctor Octopus speak.
"TO ALL WHO CAN HEAR THIS, YOUR WORST FEARS HAVE NOW BEEN CONFIRMED. I, DR. OTTO OCTAVIUS HAVE RETURNED, AND I COME WITH ONE SINGLE DEMAND…"
"Unbelievable, Doc Ock is still around too?! Terrrrific!" Ghost Spider vented angrily.
"Sigh, well if anyone had to survive from the good old days, should have guessed it would have been him, he's just too resourceful," Spiderman said in frustration.
Spidergirl interrupted with a stuttered voice, "that's just it though…he's not supposed to be here, he's…he's supposed to be dead."
Spidey and Ghosty exclaimed, "WHAT?!"
Spidergirl continued her explanation, "it was a year after I first got my powers. I helped you, I mean my parents, fight against him. It was my first and only encounter with him. There was an explosion, we made it out, but he didn't. We thought he was gone for good."
"Well so much for that thought," Anti-Venom added in, before the mad doctor continued speaking…
"I WANT THE SPIDER FAMILY, AND THEM ALONE. IF THEY ARE LISTENING THIS BROADCAST, AND I'M SURE THEY ARE…THEY HAVE NO MORE THAN THIRTY MINUTES TO MEET ME AT THE LOCATION OF MY FIRST DEFEAT FROM SPIDERMAN. IF THEY DO NOT SHOW, MY LITTLE FRIENDS WILL TEAR THIS WHOLE CITY DOWN, BLOCK BY BLOCK."
His 'friends' were shown as the hologram changed appearance to show an army of his 8 limbed robotic minions covering an entire street.
"Robots," Spiderman said dryly, "he actually built himself an army of robots, sigh…after 25 years, I should have figured he would eventually get to that."
Spidergirl interrupted his quip, "not just robots, Octobots. He used them against my parents and I the last time we fought him."
"Octobots huh?" Ghost Spider questioned, "hmph, figures, the only thing greater than Doc Ock's number of limbs is his ego."
"IT'S UP TO YOU SPIDERS! SHOW YOURSELF OR WATCH YOUR CITY CRUMBLE TO BITS, THE CLOCK IS NOW TICKING…"
Ock's holographic face faded away to display a countdown from 30 minutes, which started counting down by the second. The spiders were now left to consider their options.
"He certainly doesn't waste time," Spidey quipped before getting serious, "alright, to stop him, we're gonna need to play it smart."
In disbelief of what she was hearing, Spidergirl interjected, "wait, you're actually going after him?! But he doesn't want you, he wants my parents!"
Spiderman replied, "your parents aren't here right now, you said so yourself. Gwen and I are all you got."
Anti-Venom cut in, "bro, you can't be serious about fighting him? Not HERE?!"
Spidey said with a self-gesture, "look AV, I may be a spider out of time, but Doc Ock is still MY problem, he has been since we first met."
Ghosty added, "he's also caused me nothing but grief. He nearly killed me once and blackmailed your grandfather Rose! There's no way I'm gonna do nothing while he levels the city!"
Spidergirl whispered, "but, the paradox…if you were to face him…"
Spiderman interrupted, "we're past worrying about that right now…sigh…Look, we will keep ourselves hidden away from the rest of the populace until we find him and face him alone."
Spidergirl argued, "It should be ME facing him! This is MY time, and I'm part of the Spider family too, so it's MY responsibility to face him!"
Ghost Spider sighed at her future daughter's stubbornness and independent spirit that was akin to Peter, "I guess like father like daughter too."
Spidey stood his ground and told his future progeny straightforward, "look Rose, I know I'm not your real dad, not yet anyway, but right now I'm close enough. So I'm telling you, asking you to trust me on this. I have no doubt you've been trained well, but I know Doc Ock better than anyone here right now. So, could you please give me the same courtesy you would give your old man, and follow my lead on this?"
Spidergirl hesitated to answer him, and in that moment, she saw a vision of her father out of costume overshadowing his younger self, and giving her an encouraging gaze like a guiding beacon. At that moment, she realized Peter was right, and relaxed before replying, "very well Peter, you lead, I'll follow."
"Thank you," Spiderman nodded before he relayed his plan to all of them, "alright, here's what we'll do."
The Octobots were crawling all over the street as the civilians currently in the area were running from the impending invasion. One woman and her young son actually ended up tripping as they ran from a robot behind them. The mother looked up and screamed before she shut her eyes and held her child close just as the robot was about to step on them…THWIP!
Until Spidergirl swung in and grabbed them both just in time, swinging away and setting them down yards away from danger.
"Are you alright?" she asked them.
"Yes, thank you," the grateful woman thanked her, with her son backing it up saying, "thanks so much Spidergirl!"
The future heroine smiled under her mask before saying, "Get as far away from here as you can, I'll handle this."
"Just you? What about your parents?" the woman asked.
"Don't worry, these things are just puppets, they're going after the puppetmaster," Spidergirl said as she turned to observe the swarm of Octobots crowding around her, "...and besides, I'm not alone here."
A large white web suddenly encompassed the group of Octobots before they could advance anymore. Everyone present looked up to see Anti-Venom holding his webs and the bots by the strand, before he went and piled-drived the nearest one. The civilians cheered at the sight of the two web-themed heroes defending them.
While appreciative of their support, as soon as he stood up, Anti-Venom shouted out, "everyone clear out of here! Head for the nearest safe shelter!"
Spidergirl added, "you heard the man! Evacuate now!" The crowd followed their orders, including the woman and her son joining them, while Spidergirl turned back toward the nearest Octobot that had broken out of Anti-Venom's web. She jumped on top of it and placed something on the back of its 'head' before jumping away and it activated. The Spider Zapper did its job shorting the bot out and collapsing it into a heap.
Spidergirl jumped and flipped onto another Octobot still trapped in the web before punching into a joint socket and pulling out some wires, making it spark. She repeated the process on the other arms, before it fully collapsed with one arm still attached. Anti-Venom meanwhile started breaking the bots apart that he had webbed, literally pulling the arms out of their sockets with his sheer strength. Other Octobots that weren't trapped converged on the reformed symbiote, but Anti-Venom used his dislodged arms like baseball bats and whips against them, sending them flying or breaking them apart.
Spidergirl landed in a spider stance by his side before Anti-Venom said aloud, "ah, nothing like letting out your aggressions by scrapping a bunch of killer robots."
Spidergirl laughed before saying, "you know, dad once said the same thing."
"And who do you think he first heard it from?" Anti-Venom quipped, but a response was interrupted as the rest of the Octobots captured in the web trap finally broke free and converged on the two webbed heroes. Putting on their game faces, Spidergirl and Anti-Venom said back-to-back.
"Guess they're ready for Round 2, I just hope Peter and Gwen can succeed while we hold out."
"You and me both kid."
As Spidergirl and Anti-Venom dealt with the Octobots, Spiderman and Ghost Spider were swinging their way toward where Spidey suspected Doc Ock was hiding. Recalling from his message that he was near the location of his first defeat from the wall crawler, there was only one place that came to mind. Within a few minutes, the Spider Duo swung atop a New York building near the coast, where the familiar sight of Coney Island lay in front of them. Despite the fact it was 25 years in their future, it didn't look like the iconic amusement park had changed all that much. Though some rides did look like they had been replaced if not refitted. However, they didn't have time to take in the sights, as they were here for one reason alone.
Observing the park perched in spider stances, Ghosty asked her partner, "alright, we're here. Where do you think he could be? I mean if he wanted to keep himself hidden, Coney Island is a pretty lousy place to hide considering how popular it is."
"True, but he said he was NEAR the location, not IN it, so he's most likely hiding in one of these adjacent warehouses, so let's check each one and investigate," Spidey suggested. They mutually agreed and jumped into action. Starting with the warehouse closest to the park front, they made their way up the coast along the amusement park line, checking each building top to bottom as they went. They spent a good 15 minutes checking 4 buildings, which all turned up empty. After completing their fruitless search in the last one, they met together on the side of the building before Ghosty checked the countdown on her phone.
"This isn't good, we have just under 10 minutes left, and we still haven't found anything. At this rate, we'll run out of time before we run out of places to check."
Spiderman pondered their dilemma, as Ghost Spider's words were true. Going from one side of the park to the other was taking too long. If they were gonna find Doc Ock, they had to think one step ahead.
Spidey thought to himself, 'Come on Parker think! If I were a multi-limbed genius supervillain with a grudge, where would I be? Where would he…wait…'
He jumped his way up to the building roof, leaving a confused Ghost Spider behind, "Spidey?"
She jumped up to join him as he looked at something in the distance. His stoic expression concerned her, "uh Spidey, are you ok? What is it?"
He gently took her head in his hands and turned it in the direction he was looking at, "...that."
A few blocks away, Ghost Spider saw what he was seeing, a vacant building with a faded sign that said, 'Tri-Corp Research Foundation'.
"Hey, isn't that the Tri-Corp building? Or at least it's supposed to be?"
"It is, or was apparently," said Spiderman, "it's where Doc Ock and I first faced off after his 'accident' at Oscorp. It was also where he was first employed and earned the credentials that made him one of the world's leading scientists, before becoming Osborn's top scientist."
"You really think he's in there? Why?" Ghost Spider asked.
Spiderman answered with a dreary tone, "because as much as I hate to admit it, Doc Ock is a lot like me, he's a sucker for nostalgia."
The two spiders swung their way over to the now abandoned Tri-Corp building. Being from the past, they were unaware of the fact that the company had relocated out of New York years ago, and left behind this empty shell that no one had yet to move into. It was most likely to be renovated into more tenant buildings with the Neo–Reconstruction project, but right now it was vacant, a perfect hideout for a supervillain everyone once believed dead.
The Spider Duo landed in the outside plaza of the abandoned building. So far, nothing seemed out of place other than the fact that the once crowded complex now looked like an abandoned mall. The two of them made their way through the broken entrance door and into the main plaza, where Spiderman remembered encountering the doctor who explained Doc Ock's Nanopac to him years ago. The whole environment sent a chill down even Ghost Spider's spine.
"Eww, this place gives me the creeps, huff, which I guess would make it fitting for a creep like Ock to hide."
"My thoughts exactly," nodded Spidey, "just stay alert, if anything tries sneaking up on us, we'll sense it."
'Hopefully,' Ghosty thought to herself as she followed her partner deeper into the building. Eventually they made their way outside the old Research and Development Vault where Spiderman initially encountered Doctor Octopus.
The familiar setting made Spidey think to himself, 'just like old times.'
They approached the vault, unaware that high above on the ceiling, a newly installed camera was watching their every move. Before the two spiders could enter the vault, the trap was sprung…"WOAHH!...AAGHH!"
They cried out as the floor instantly opened up beneath them making them fall into the trap door. It instantly closed again, sealing them off. Inside the tunnel, they slid down the chute, quickly realizing that it was made of a metal their spider fingers couldn't stick to. They slid for a good 30 seconds before falling out of an opening onto the floor below, Ghosty landing on top of her partner with a THUD.
"Ugghh…" they groaned before Spiderman painfully said, "ohhh, I can't BELIEVE we fell for the old trap door trick!"
"Me neither," Ghosty said as she pulled herself before helping Spidey up to his feet.
"Thanks," he said before stretching the kink out of his back.
"Sorry about that," she apologized.
Despite their dire situation, he couldn't resist a quip, "Well, better me than you right?"
They smiled underneath their masks before the tender moment was interrupted, "HOW CUTE…IT'S NO WONDER YOU TWO END UP TOGETHER…SADLY, IT WILL END AS TRAGICALLY FOR YOU AS IT DID FOR ROMEO AND JULIET."
Doc Ock's taunting voice made Ghost Spider yell, "Where are you Doc?! Show yourself!"
"WHERE AM I? HEHEHE, PERPLEXING QUESTION REALLY, FROM A CERTAIN PERSPECTIVE, I'M EVERYWHERE AROUND YOU…"
A light suddenly came on near a back wall, drawing their attention. What it was illuminating however, shocked them beyond belief. A pod was suspended up in the air by eight robotic limbs, with two anchored to the ground, four anchored to the two pillars that surrounded it, and the final two on the ceiling. The pod had two large oval lights on both the right and left sides, and nine smaller circular lights in groups of three in a triangle configuration on the harness above them. But what really surprised and also horrified them was that inside the pod chamber itself above the lights, was a bald white human head with multiple green tubes of nutrients feeding into it. The head had its mouth covered with some sort of breathing apparatus and its eyes were covered with red tinted goggles which gave it a sinister appearance.
The figure finished its earlier monologue, "...though I'm sure what you're looking for, is right here…"
The Spider Duo was flabbergasted at the horrid sight, even though his voice had a robotic vibe enveloping it, the tone was all too familiar to the webheads. Spiderman whispered, "D…D…Doc?"
Cyborg Doc Ock replied, "in the flesh arachnid, so to speak."
Ghost Spider stuttered to ask, "wh…what happened to you?"
"What happened?...YOU HAPPENED WEBSLINGERS!...Or rather, your future selves did."
The Spider Duo gasped, which Cyborg Ock commented on, "that's right spiders, I know everything. I know you came from the past due to an unforeseen accident. I know that you met with your future allies, including Spidergirl, your future offspring. Or should I say, Rose Parker?"
They gasped again, Ghosty was quick to deny it even though it was pointless, "no…No your wrong! Spidergirl isn't…"
"IS YOUR DAUGHTER GHOST SPIDER! Or should I call you Gwendolyn Stacy?"
"No…" Ghost Spider's terror grew from the revelation that Doctor Octopus now knew her secret identity, and if he knew hers, he most likely knew that…
"That just leaves you arachnid," Cyborg Ock said to Spiderman, "or would you prefer Mr. PETER PARKER?"
Spidey thought to himself in terror, 'no…no not again…not this again!' This was the second time one of his enemies had learned his secret identity, except unlike Venom, Doc Ock was far from wanting redemption, he was hungry for revenge.
"You know, it really is a wonder I didn't learn your identity years ago. Of course, who could have ever suspected that the annoying heroic little pest known as Spiderman, was really nothing more than A PITIFUL HIGH SCHOOLER?!" Cyborg Ock vented out, shaking the chamber from the echo of his yell.
"All these years, I had been defeated by a child, A CHILD! All while he spends his carefree days worrying about exam grades and acne, while I lay humiliated and incarcerated countless times as he hides his pathetic prepubescent face behind a mask!"
"Hey! Who are you calling prepubescent? I'm sixteen!" The silent atmosphere following Spidey's quip told him now was not the time for jokes, and merely whispered, "...just saying."
Ghost Spider took a breath to calm her nerves before asking, "how did you learn who we are? Also, how are you even alive? From what we've heard, you're supposed to be dead now!"
Cyborg Ock replied, "indeed I was, or rather, I was really close. In my last encounter with your future selves, heroes, they thwarted my latest scheme of rebuilding the city in my image. My equipment was damaged to the point of overload, and we all ended up trapped under falling debris. However, due to the efforts of that pathetic spider brat, her parents were rescued. I, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. My body was damaged beyond the scope of conventional recovery, fortunately, my brain survived. Through one last failsafe, my Octobots managed to rescue what was left of my body and delivered it to a hidden laboratory I had created as a last resort. Since then, I've been in a state of recovery, and even though Doctor Octopus's body has now died, my mind lives on, and with greater ambitions than ever before!"
He paused for a moment before continuing, "upon my revival, I decided to move my lab here, to the old haunt. It seemed only fitting, the place where Otto Octavius rose to greatness, in the time before the nightmare that was Oscorp…and where we had our first meeting as enemies Spiderman. It's the perfect spot from which Doctor Octopus will rise again, and Spiderman and his kin will fall, once and for all."
"Riveting speech Doc," said Spiderman, "though you never answered the question of how you learned our identities?"
"I merely took a page from your book, webslinger. The arrival of you and your partner in this time period released a concentrated amount of cosmic energy which I had detected. From there, I sent out tiny robotic drones the size of a literal bug that followed your every move, starting from your confrontation with Killerwatt all the way to now, and here we are."
"Okay, if it weren't for the immediate and awaiting trouble we are in right now, I'd be suing for trademark infringement," Spiderman argued.
"Past, present, or future, you know we're not gonna let you get away with this Octavius," Ghost Spider declared.
"You don't have a choice, she-spider," Cyborg Ock taunted, "I'm free now to expose your entire family at my leisure. As an added measure, if anything were to happen to me, a compiled video of you and your precious family unmasking is set to automatically upload to the World Wide Web, in the blink of an eye. I'll bet Mr. Jameson will be thrilled to learn the secret he's been after for so many years. Not to mention what your father's old police force will think of all this Ms. Stacy? A decorated police captain who turned a blind eye to his own daughter's vigilante activities? ohhh the scandal! Of course, let's not forget your precious daughter, her only chances of a normal life gone forever in a heartbeat, that is if I don't stop it for her first."
That last comment did it, as the mad doctor's direct threat toward their daughter's life broke the Spider Duo's composure.
"You so much as lay a TENTACLE on her Doc, I WILL TEAR YOU APART!" Ghost Spider yelled at the top of her lungs.
"My thoughts exactly…" Spiderman added in a growling hiss, the tone of their voices clearly indicating the witty banter was over.
Their outrage however only intrigued Ock, "well now, looks like I've hit the right buttons, if only to make you pests cease with your pathetic little jokes. You're in my domain now arachnids, and in here, YOU ARE MY PREY."
The walls came alive with lights, and all around them they could see how the walls, ceilings and pillars had numerous circular protrusions sticking out of them. Their purpose was made clear as they opened up, releasing tentacles twice the size of Doc Ock's original tentacles, and twice as deadly as they reached for the heroes. The duo jumped to avoid the closest ones reaching for them, immediately realizing they were two spiders trapped in the domain of an octopus.
More arms proceeded to grab them from all around them, but Spiderman used his agility to the max as he snuck, squeezed and spun between every one of them avoiding their reach. Ghost Spider repeated his actions in her own way, though decided to pull her special trick and activated her invisibility just as soon as a herd of six tentacles converged on her, halting them. The multi-limbed villain anticipated this however.
"Your little concealment trick won't help you Ms. Stacy! As I've proved over the years, I learn from my mistakes!" Cyborg Ock declared as he activated his tentacles built in thermal vision. The tentacles observed the whole room with their many eyes, and soon found what they were looking for, a big bright glowing white mark in their sights that wasn't Spiderman. The tentacles reached for her all at the same time overwhelming her, and Ghosty unfortunately found herself captured within one's grip. She quickly pulled something from her belt before others soon joined it and ended up trapping her in a cluster. She groaned under the pressure, which forced her to drop her invisibility.
"Gwen! NO!" Spiderman shouted. He jumped up to aid her, but was met with more tentacles protruding from the ceiling, and was captured all the same. The tentacles brought the captured spiders up close to Cyborg Ock's pod.
"As I said, in here, you are my prey, and like all prey, you will succumb to your superior," the cyber-bionic villain declared.
As she struggled to pull out her hand, Ghosty threw back with a venomous tone, "...drop DEAD Ock."
"Now now, that's not very lady-like of you Ms. Stacy," Cyborg Ock taunted as he applied a bit more pressure, "you would be wise to show respect to your elders, otherwise I'll be forced to TEACH you."
"Let her go Ock!" Spiderman shouted, "I'm the one you want, we both know that. So let her go free and you can have me."
"Times have changed Mr. Parker," Cyborg Ock corrected the captive hero, "while it's true you were the first one I had a score to settle with in the old days, it took the two of you TOGETHER, to bring me to what I am now. So as far as I'm concerned, you're both top on my elimination list, and it's an execution I've looked forward to for years."
Ghost Spider continued to squirm her one hand free, now it was close to breaking out, which allowed her to say, "sorry, but not sorry to disappoint you Doc! But this…may come as a shock to you."
She finally freed her right arm, and then slapped the Spider Zapper atop her tentacle cluster before yelling aloud, "WEBS!"
The discharge from the pack zapped the tentacles loose off her freeing Ghost Spider while Cyborg Ock yelled in pain from the feedback of the Zapper. The discharge extended to Spiderman's tentacle trap next to her, who was able to free himself all the same. Ghost Spider took advantage of her surprise and prepared a web grenade in her right hand.
"Chew on this!" she yelled before pressing the button and throwing the grenade at Cyborg Ock's pod capsule. The webs exploded over the body engulfing it and Doc Ock beneath a full web blanket. Now free once again, the Spider Duo turned around to deal with all the remaining tentacles in the room, and there were A LOT of them protruding from the ceiling, walls, and floors.
"I TOLD YOU THIS IS MY DOMAIN ARACHNIDS, SO THERE'S NOWHERE IN HERE YOU CAN HIDE, AND NO WAY OUT!"
The tentacles lunged at them and jumped away and avoided the first wave. They continued dodging their way through the tentacle bombardment that Cyborg Ock could control even beneath his web blanket. The spiders continued their evasion for untold minutes, until one tentacle finally caught Ghosty by the foot and pulled her away from Spidey.
She screamed as she was pulled through the air as Spiderman cried out in horror, only to be hit on all sides by more tentacles around him. Four more tentacles joined the one that had grabbed Ghost, and held her out and spread her by her arms and legs while the fifth one wrapped itself around her waist and tightened like a vise. Once again, Ghost Spider found herself trapped by tentacles, except she had no trick or gadget she could reach to break free this time.
"THERE NOW, THAT'S BETTER. NOW, IT'S TIME FOR A LITTLE BIOLOGY LESSON. LET'S SEE HOW MUCH YOU KNOW ABOUT OCTOPI."
Ghost Spider groaned, unable to move before shouting back, "what are you talking about?!"
"LIKE I SAID, I'M THE TEACHER, AND YOU ARE THE STUDENTS. POP QUIZ…HOW DOES THE COMMON OCTOPUS FEED ON ITS HARD-SHELLED PREY? ANY GUESSES?"
Ghost Spider just remained silent, only for Doc Ock to continue, "...NONE? WHAT A SHAME, PERHAPS YOUR DEAR PARTNER HAS AN IDEA?" A whole pod of tentacles raised themselves up in front of Ghost, and they slowly unraveled themselves to reveal Spiderman's head while keeping the rest of his body wrapped up. He slowly groaned as he regained consciousness.
"Ugh…what's going on?" Spiderman asked, exhausted.
"WE'RE SIMPLY WAITING ON AN ANSWER SPIDERMAN, HOW DOES AN OCTOPUS FEED ON PREY WITH TOUGH HIDES?"
Spiderman narrowed his eyes and said spitefully, "I don't know if anyone has ever told you Doc, but you're a lousy teacher."
"BEEP...WROOONG! I'M SORRY, THAT ANSWER IS INCORRECT. I CAN SEE I'LL HAVE TO EDUCATE YOU BOTH THEN. YOU SEE, THE COMMON OCTOPUS BREAKS OPEN THE SHELLS OF TOUGH PREY WITH A BEAK IN ITS MOUTH CAVITY."
The tentacle wrapped around Gwen's waist pulled its head up to face her, directly between her and Peter. She watched in horror, as a makeshift beak with metal sharp edges protruded from the hole between its prongs, snipping like a pair of scissors.
"OF COURSE, EXPLAINING IS ONE THING, DEMONSTRATING IS ANOTHER, ALLOW ME TO SHOW YOU…THEN WE'LL SEE WHO'S THE LOUSY TEACHER."
Ock concluded in a sinister tone as Spiderman watched in horror as the beaked tentacle slowly made its way toward Ghost Spider, snipping the whole way as it approached her. She tried to pull herself free, but the tentacles that held her had rendered her immobile, and was now panicking as the beak drew closer to her face. She tried pulling away from it, but it was no good, and even let out a light whimper.
Spiderman couldn't take it anymore, "STOP! Please stop! Please don't do this…this isn't her fault! IT'S MINE! ALL OF THE FAULT IS MINE! So please…use it on me! This all started because of ME! I'm the one responsible for ALL of this…but this time, I won't let anyone else die for MY mistakes, so I'm begging you, take my life and spare hers."
"SO YOU'LL WILLINGLY TRADE YOUR LIFE FOR HERS? EVEN IF IT MEANS CHANGING HISTORY SO NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENS? ERASING YOUR FAMILY, AND YOUR LEGACY?"
Peter painfully said, "Like I said, this was my responsibility from the beginning. It's my debt not Gwen's, so yes."
The pain in his words broke Gwen's heart, thinking, 'Peter…no.'
"HOW NOBLE, AND TOUCHING…NOT TO MENTION PATHETIC AND POINTLESS!" Doc Ock's shout terrified them, "AS I SAID, YOU'RE BOTH RESPONSIBLE FOR MY PAIN, AND NOW YOU'LL BOTH PAY THE DEBT IN FULL, STARTING WITH YOUR LOVELY PARTNER."
The beak continued its progress, terrifying them again, but Ghost Spider called out to Spiderman before he shouted again, "Peter stop!...It's alright, it's alright…just always remember, I love you."
Peter thought in utter heartbreak, 'Gwen…no…'
Gwen shut her eyes as the beak drew within inches of her, ready to carve her up. She chose only to think of everyone she loved and cared about in what could be her final moments, her father, Aunt May, Mary Jane, Liz, Mark, the Doctors Connors and Billy, Eddie and Ashley, and just recently, Rose, whom she had known for only one day, but couldn't be more proud of. Finally, she thought about Peter and everything they had shared and been through together, and even if it came to an end now, she had no regrets and wouldn't trade it for anything.
A tear fell from inside her mask as the beak finally reached her face…THWIP!...only to be pulled back out of reach by another web shot at it from behind, a web held by Spidergirl perched on the far wall!
"Leave my mother alone you multi-armed MONSTER!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
To add to the surprise, Ghost Spider felt her right arm fall free as the tentacle holding it was severed, by Anti-Venom who sheared right through it with his claw-like hands. He then proceeded to cut through the beaked tentacle, rendering it harmless, and infuriating Ock, "WHAAAT?!"
Anti-Venom turned toward the cyborg's webbed up pod with a sneer and said, "lesson's over Doc!" He drew out his other claw before jumping up to claw through the rest of Ghost Spider's tentacles, freeing her. She fell to the ground joined by her symbiote ally, who she asked, "free Peter quick! Then we'll deal with Octavius."
He nodded before jumping up and proceeded to break Spiderman out of his tentacle trap. Spidergirl jumped down to join Ghost Spider and gave her a big hug.
"Thank goodness we made it in time," Spidergirl said.
"Right on time, how did you find us?" Ghost Spider asked after breaking the hug.
"Well, after Anti-Venom and I took care of the Octobots, I was able to backtrace their control signal to here. From there, all it took was a little deduction to find the hidden door that led down here, and viola," she dramatically gestured.
Ghost Spider grinned under her mask and said, "You're as much a Stacy as you are a Parker, that's for sure." The two spider women giggled while the two spider guys reconvened on the ground.
"Thanks for coming bro," Spiderman commented after taking a breath.
Anti-Venom nodded and said, "looks like just in the nick of time."
Spiderman stood up and shrugged, "ahh, a couple minutes ago wouldn't have been so bad either."
"What can you do?" Anti-Venom followed up by completing the quip which they both laughed at.
The moment came to an end as the remaining tentacles came to life and surrounded them, prompting them into battle positions. Two of Cyborg Ock's pod tentacles dislodged themselves from the pillars and tore off the webbing that covered him revealing his head to them, which made Spidergirl and Anti-Venom cringe in disgust.
"SO, THE WHOLE SPIDER ENSEMBLE IS HERE? FINE THEN, IF YOU WISH TO DIE TOGETHER, WHO AM I TO DISAPPOINT?"
"How about you skip the monologuing Doc, and we get right to the part where we kick your butt, again?" Spiderman threw back.
"SO BE IT." The tentacles extended themselves to attack the whole spider group, forcing each hero to jump away and avoid the closest one. Spidergirl and Ghosty flipped and spun to dodge every tentacle that came their way like trained gymnasts. Anti-Venoms methods were a little more aggressive, swiping aside any tentacle that came close, breaking them. Spiderman swerved and weaved between each tentacle and even proceeded to web two together so they impacted.
Cyborg Ock's frustration with them grew with each passing second and decided to add his own two free tentacles into the mix to try and grab the webhead himself. Fortunately, Spidey kept a step ahead of him dodging out of their reach.
"Come on Doc, you could barely hold onto me with four extra arms in MY time, do you really think you can get me with just two?" Spiderman's natural joking manner nailed it for the mad doctor.
"I hope you enjoyed your joke, arachnid," Cyborg Ock seethed before activating his pod. The sound of an activating mechanism drew the attention of the other three spiders. They all watched in horror as the remaining six tentacles dislodged from their tethers, and anchored themselves below the pod, standing it up on 8 robotic tentacles. The monstrous Octopod slowly crawled out from the pillars toward his archenemy.
"...as of now, it will be YOUR LAST."
A wide-eyed Spiderman recollected himself as he watched two of the Octopod's tentacles extend for him, forcing him to bend out of the way and retreat as Cyborg Ock pursued him.
Watching the fight for a moment, Anti-Venom stepped up, "cyborg or otherwise, he can't take all four of us, so let's gang up on him, hit him where he's vulnerable, and take him down."
"Right," Spidergirl nodded.
"Wait!" Ghosty interjected, "we can't just up and fight him, cause even if we win, he'll send out a viral video that will expose our identities to the whole world!"
"Are you kidding?!" Spidergirl exclaimed.
"I'm afraid not," Ghosty said, shaking her head.
Anti-Venom seethed while thinking to himself, 'great, well that complicates things, this kind of irony I can do without.' He felt appalled that the same thing he tried to do to his oldest friend years ago was about to be repeated, well now it was his turn to come up with a solution!
Spidergirl stuttered, "but, my friends, my life at school, all of it gone, just like that?...Gasp! What about Grandpa? And Benji?! They'll be exposed too?!..."
Ghosty sadly nodded again, but Anti-Venom cut in, "not if I can help it!"
Before the girls could hear his plan, they sensed more tentacles from the ceiling sneaking up on them, and all three quickly jumped away avoiding their reach. Spidergirl was on a wall opposite of AV and Ghosty, though the latter took the moment to ask…
"Eddie, what do you mean? Do you have a plan to keep us from being exposed?"
"Hopefully yes, as well as shutdown this whole lair, and leave Ock powerless," Anti-Venom explained.
"How?" She asked.
"One of the perks of being a SHIELD agent, I got access to the most cutting edge tech on the planet…within reason of course," said Anti-Venom, Gwen was baffled to hear of her friends new employment but was prevented from commenting as he continued, "anyway, I got a drive that can unleash a virus that will delete any and all data within any local server."
"Really?," Ghosty commented before asking, "but using a virus? Won't it leak out and damage everything else?"
"Nope, this one is designed only to delete anything connected to one specific IP address, it's not designed to spread out through the digital web," he finished explaining.
"Huh, I'll say this much about SHIELD, their tech doesn't disappoint," Ghosty said, now feeling hopeful.
"Yup, but it still has its limits, because in order to upload it, I need a terminal, which I don't see anywhere in here."
They sensed more tentacles were crawling toward them and jumped away to avoid their reach. Ghosty said aloud while wall crawling, "all these tentacles must be linked to some main power source, and a power source for all of this has to have a monitoring system. If we can get you to the core, you can find a terminal there and upload it."
"Hmmm, since you put it that way…" Anti-Venom said before he looked up at another tentacle expelling from another port, he smirked as it extended toward him, only for him to grab it with both hands and yank it clean out of its socket. Ghost Spider and Spidergirl saw what he did, and upon jumping to avoid another tentacle each, Ghosty asked, "what are you doing?"
"Opening a door to the source," Anti-Venom explained, "you two help Pete and keep Ock busy, I'll be back."
What Ghost Spider saw next shocked her out of her mind, as Anti-Venom turned into formless symbiotic plasma and jettisoned into the hole he had just made, disappearing from sight. Finding her words, Ghosty asked her future progeny, "since when can he do that?!"
"He's always been able to do that, why?" Spidergirl asked.
"Nothing, never mind," Ghost Spider dropped it, figuring it was something new that came with Anti-Venom's reform. The two spider women turned their attention back to the real battle a few feet away. Cyborg Ock had kept all his attention on Spiderman since he entered battle, tunnel visioned to everything else that was around him. It was a mistake that would soon turn fatal.
Cyborg Ock missed the webhead with his Octopod tentacles again before shouting, "you can't avoid me forever Parker, my new housing never tires!"
"That's ok," Spidergirl said jumping atop his pod window getting his attention, "because we can do this all day, right Ghost?"
"Right Spidergirl!" Ghost Spider said, swinging in and knocking one of Cyborg Ock's tentacles off its base, toppling him. Spidergirl backflipped away to join Ghost Spider who had landed next to Spiderman.
"Nice work ladies, now I really do feel like the luckiest hero in the world," Spiderman said cheerily with crossed arms, which made them both giggle at the subtle joke.
"You're welcome," said Spidergirl, "you said the same thing once at our daddy daughter dance."
Spiderman said back in the same tone, "I'm sure I did."
The tender family moment was interrupted by a fuming Cyborg Ock who stood back up on all eight of his tentacles yelling, "ENOUGHHHHHH!...I'll take care of all of you MYSELF! Starting with you Ms. Stacy, and when I'm done, you'll wish you had perished by my hand all those years ago."
The Spider Trio stanced themselves before Ghost Spider gave him a Spider-LOOK and shouted, "Forget it Ock! I'm not gonna let you hurt or threaten my family anymore! Especially my daughter!"
Cyborg Ock replied, "Foolish girl, don't you get it? I don't need to beat HER, I simply need to destroy YOU! After all, if there's no Ghost Spider in the past, there's no Ghost Spider in the present, and by extension, no Spidergirl either!"
The masked eyes of all three heroes went wide as Spiderman realized in horror, "that's why you lured us down here! You just wanted to destroy the two of us! You didn't care about our future selves at all!"
"Exactly, I've planned all this since you and your little girlfriend arrived here in the future, Parker. While I may have lost my chance at destroying the Spiderman and Ghost Spider here in my time, by destroying their younger selves instead, I can prevent them from ever existing here in the first place! It was a one in a million stroke of fortune that the past versions of my greatest enemies appeared here in a time where I will soon reign supreme! And it's an opportunity I will not waste!"
"Your insane Doc!" Spiderman yelled, "if you kill us, you change the history of everyone we've ever interacted with, including yourself!"
"That's the point you fool! You think I want to live like this?! A BRAIN IN A JAR?!" his shout made the chamber shake, "nothing would make me happier than changing my fate and ensuring this version of myself never existed, and that you two and your filthy progeny never existed at all!"
"Too bad that's never gonna happen Octavius," Ghost Spider promised.
"We will see," Cyborg Ock sneered as he brought up his front two tentacles and activated their buzzsaw function.
Spidergirl showed no fear and with a 'come get me' gesture, said back, "yes we will, bring it Arms!" The spider family jumped to engage Ock as he extended his spinning arms to resume battle.
As the battle between the spider family and the cyborg supervillain commenced, Anti-Venom continued snaking his way through the tentacle porthole. Eventually, he reached a cutoff maintenance hatch that was part of the old TriCorp infrastructure, and exited through and reformed himself to discover he had found what he was looking for. Standing in front of him was Doc Ock's power source generator the size of an SUV vehicle, feeding into an array of port holes that were arrayed through the building. Anti-Venom's attention however was on the computer station right next to it. He smirked and said after he pulled out from beneath his symbiote suit, a small USB data stick with the SHIELD emblem engraved on it, "...and now for my final trick."
Back in the Octopus lair, Cyborg Ock kept up his attacks against the spiders. Even though it was three against one, the robotic supervillain still had an array of tentacle portholes that were active and outnumbered the spider heroes at least five to one. Right now, Spiderman and Spidergirl jumped from wall to wall avoiding any tentacle's reach while Cyborg Ock's attention was now focused on Ghost Spider. He attempted to hit her with a buzzsaw tentacle but she jumped back avoiding it before shooting a web to swing and double kick the Octopod, which didn't even budge! Acting quickly, Ghosty swiftly dodged every tentacle Cyborg Ock sent her way as she swung away in retreat.
"Fleeing is futile! Eventually all of you will be helpless within my grip…"
Ghosty threw back from her wall perch, "been there before Ock, and I'm never going back!"
"True, because this time, you won't escape," Cyborg Ock said as he faced her.
"Man, my parents were right about you Ock," Spidergirl cut in, getting his attention, "you're nothing but talk and all arms, and mad schemes that always backfire on you!"
"You little spider brat! I'll show you what a real array of arms can do!" Cyborg Ock opened up the myriad of tentacle portholes near her, forcing her to jump away and dodge the oncoming brigade.
Just then the original webhead cut in, "I'll tell you what they can do!" He swung in and intercepted the tentacles that were after his future daughter, and using his webbing and agility effectively, managed to get four tentacles tangled together while avoiding all of them. "They get themselves tied up in knots!"
At the same time, Ghost Spider jumped up next to the portholes the tentacles were extruding from and gripped them at their bases, thinking, 'if Anti-Venom can do it…' She pulled with all her spider strength, and the tentacle ended up pulled out of its socket as it fell limp like a noodle.
"What?!" Cyborg Ock exclaimed upon seeing it for the first time.
"Yes!" Ghost Spider cheered, "pull them out by their bases you two! It's the only way to disable them permanently."
"Like pulling weeds," Spidey commented as he jumped up to another tangled porthole and pulled it out just like she did.
"NOOO!" Cyborg Ock shouted in defiance.
Spidergirl jumped into position on the ceiling to grab the final two under both her arms, "my turn!" She started pulling and pushing on the ceiling, but they stubbornly held their grip at Spidergirl's divided strength. Fortunately, her parents lent a hand on each tentacle.
"How about 'our' turn kiddo?" Spidey asked from the right.
"Don't strain yourself sweetie," Ghosty added from the left.
Spidergirl grinned at their comments under her mask, before she and them pulled the remaining two out from their bases, allowing the Spider Trio to acrobatically land on the ground together as the tentacles fell dead behind them, before they turned to face their controller.
Cyborg Ock roared in anger as he unleashed five of his own tentacles against them, two for Spidey and Ghosty and one for Spidergirl while he kept his Octopod stationed on the remaining three. The trio dodged, weaved, bobbed, spun and in general avoided each strike that came their way as they could, while slowly making their way toward Ock at the center. Suddenly, Ock retracted his tentacles, and managed to trap each spider in a ceiling suspended tentacle each, although Spidergirl's entrapment was painful as the tentacle wrapped around her neck, making her choke.
"NO!...ROSE!" Spidey and Ghosty yelled out in tandem from their tentacle traps.
Cyborg Ock merely laughed at their predicament, having trapped them once again, "now I've caught all of you in MY web, HEROES, at long last."
Spidergirl grunted as she tried to pry the tentacle off her neck, but it wasn't budging, and if it squeezed any tighter…she didn't want to think about it. Cyborg Ock on the other hand, "since you all attempted to pull me apart, it's only fair I do the same to all of you, starting with your charming daughter."
Ghost Spider spat, "Ock, you let her go right now, or I swear I'll…"
"SILENCE!" the cyborg supervillain shouted and echoed through the room, "your pitiful threats mean nothing to me Ms. Stacy! Believe me when I say, there's no amount of pain you can afflict to me that can surpass what I've already endured! You all are responsible for me losing my body, now…it's time for you ALL TO LOSE…"
CLICK…Shooooommmmm
Everything suddenly went black, which made Cyborg Ock cry out, "WHAT?!"
Future Doc Ock's appearance is based off his 2099 Marvel War of Heroes version. I never read the 2099 comic nor played the game, so everything I came up with regarding his abilities was made up by me in this chapter.
I am also unfamiliar with alot about the character Anti-Venom, other than his ability to cure other people of symbiote control, but I came up with the plasma form ability by myself just to fit in with the story, and the fact that he's now an Agent of Shield as was mentioned in the last chapter.