In this chapter, we're going to be introduced to another villain. Professor Squid...of course, he probably reminds you of somebody. Well, squids are related to octopuses, so yeah...

Chapter 8: Kidnapped Scientist

"Oh man..." murmured Mary Jane.

As it turned out, Mary Jane had a rather embarrassing superpower...she could shoot a stinger out of her rear.

"Um..." said the superheroine. What was she going to say about that to Spiderman? Knowing him, he would probably start making jokes about that. She just might have to tell him to buzz off.

Oh wait. That seems like something HE would say. Was he starting to rub off on her?

On the plus side, her bees didn't seem to be mocking her for it. In fact, they didn't seem to realize what was so embarrassing about it. Apparently that was where they all had their stingers.

As such, maybe she shouldn't worry about it. If it wasn't going to bother her bees, why should it bother he?

And on the lighter side of things, it might be good for a surprise attack...and it would help her avoid being attacked from behind...

However, when she mentioned that to her bees, she realized that she had a pun...though they didn't seem to get the joke. Something she forgot that they were bees instead of humans...though she considered them to be more than mere insects.

"I sure hope that it doesn't tear a hole through my underwear..." noted Mary Jane. On the other hand, she wasn't exactly looking forward to going commando when she went on a superheroine mission.

Speaking of which, she wondered if it was only a matter of time before someone discovered her secret identity. if so, she was worried that one of these days someone might try using her loved ones against her.

But...maybe she could cross that bridge when she came to it.

For now, it was time for her to go to school again. She didn't want to be late for school, especially when Peter Parker was at the same school that she was.

Of course, now that she had powers, she doubted that she would ever be late for school again. She didn't even need to use the bus.

Not that she didn't use the bus anyway, however. People would start asking her questions if she showed up to school just by walking there. It was kind of far to travel from her house. People would wonder if she was some sort of marathon runner or something.

This time, she was going to have a lesson from a marine biologist. Hopefully she would be able to pay attention and not fall asleep in class. Sometimes being a superheroine could get to her.

On the plus side, crime seemed to be going down now that she had shown up. Nobody wanted to commit a crime in her presence, it seemed.

Unsurprisingly, her teacher was teaching her about sea life. What else would they be learning about?

For some strange reason, she found the one about squids particularly interesting. She wondered if it was some sort of foreshadowing for later.

But maybe it was just a coincidence.

Now that she thought of it, she heard that there was a popular scientist that was working with squids.

She wondered what exactly he was up to.

However, she also heard a rumor that some shady individuals had been hanging outside his laboratory lately. She was starting to feel worried about him.

Were they planning to kidnap him? If so, it might be best if she kept an eye on that particular scientist.

Wait, what was his name, anyway? She couldn't seem to remember.

"Let me think..." answered Mary Jane.

Wasn't it...Edward Squillium?

"Now I remember..." stated the girl.

Perhaps she should go check on him to see if he was alright.

Now that she thought of it...even though she was rather rich, nobody bothered trying to kidnap her. Maybe they were afraid of her father or something? He wasn't exactly Norman Osborn even if he had been abusive towards her in the past.

Well, it was probably best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. What if it turned out to be rabid?

Speaking of Norman Osborn, was he somehow related to Ozzy Osbourne? He heard a rumor that he bit off someone's head once...though she supposed it was probably slander spread by one of his rival business. He was kind of...ruthless when it came to rival companies.

If he got too crazy in doing so, she might have to step in. She was getting tired of rich people getting away with their crimes. Stupid cops taking bribes...

Immediately, she decided to check on him.

As it turned out, there were thugs trying to break in his office. Judging by the fact that they were wearing face masks so that nobody would figure out their identity...they weren't exactly friendly people.

And as it also turned out, they just so happened to have dynamite.

Quickly, they bust down the door.

"They did realize that the door was unlocked...right? Right?" asked MJ. She was starting to wonder if Edward Squillium should improve his security so that nobody would break into his lab.

Mary Jane shrugged.

It looked like it was time to put on her Honeybee costume before anything happened...oddly enough the police had not heard the explosion and had come to investigate. Apparently, they were off eating at the donut shop.

So it looked like it was up to her and her bees.

Wait, where was Spiderman?

Meanwhile...

"I'm a superhero and I have to wait in line?" questioned Peter Parker as he waited in line to get his checkup at the doctor's. Sometimes he wondered if supervillains had the right idea when they decided to use their powers for evil instead of good. THEY never had to wait in lines. One display of their powers and they would all run away screaming.

Of course, it seemed kind of redundant to become a supervillain NOW after all the good things that he had done...

He was rather disappointed, to say the very least. Incidentally, he had decided to get a checkup because he had fought against a doctor. It was rather ironic.

In this case, it was Doctor Octopus. Much like the Green Goblin, he had been fighting with him a lot lately.

Those metal tentacles presented a problem. They were made out of steel...and unlike Doctor Octopus, he did not have four extra arms...even if he was technically a spider. So there was no way he was going to be able to fight him hand-to-hand.

Of course, if he did have four extra arms, he'd have a hard time hiding them so people would not know that he was Spiderman. Maybe he shouldn't question why the mutation didn't give him four extra arms so that he would have eight limbs like a spider.

In fact, the first time he had gone up against him, he had lost. It had almost made him give up his superhero career...even if he did end up surviving the encounter. Perhaps he was luckier than he thought.

He just hoped that Mary Jane was having a better day than he was.

Elsewhere...

Honeybee decided to follow the criminals at a safe distance to see if they were planning to kidnap the scientist in the newspaper or if she was just being paranoid.

However, she realized that she had a problem...her wings were making noise.

"Darn it! Spiderman made this look so easy..." stated Honeybee. Unfortunately, she was not as stealthy as he was. Maybe she should try wearing more muted colors.

But then again, she did like her superheroine costume.

Fortunately, the criminals had not noticed her presence regardless. They were single-minded on their mission.

And as it turned out, they were in fact planning to kidnap Edward Squillium...

Sure enough, there was the scientist. He had blonde hair and was wearing a labcoat. He was also rather skinny and tall, and his hair looked rather messy and was rather spiky. And of course, he was wearing laboratory goggles. He wasn't interested in going blind.

"What do you want with me?" asked the scientist.

"We want to kidnap you so that we can learn all your secrets, what else?" inquired one of the criminals.

"Oh...yeah, a lot of people want to get into my head..." stated Edward Squillium. Personally he wondered if he should invent something that would make him LESS intelligent rather than more intelligent.

"Come along quietly or you're going to be taking a blow to the head..." threatened the leader of the abductors.

"Very witty...help!" screamed the scientist.

"Where's a gag when we need one?" asked one of the criminals.

"You can use my sock..." stated Edward, giving the leader of the criminal one of his sweat socks.

"Thanks..." answered the leader of the criminals as he prepared to gag the scientist.

At that very moment, Honeybee showed up.

"Darn it! It's her! We might as well cancel this whole operation..." stated the leader of the thugs.

"I guess you've already heard of me..." answered Honeybee.

"But I want to kidnap a scientist!" exclaimed one of the criminals.

"Fine, but count me out. I'm going to run away while you hold her off..." stated the leader of the criminals.

"Why do we always get such dirty jobs?" asked one of his lackeys in response.

"You're a criminal. Were you expecting a clean job?" questioned Honeybee.

"Oh yeah..." stated the criminal.

Immediately, the criminals attempted to hold Honeybee off while their leader fled like a sissy little coward. Why was he in charge again?

Fortunately for Honeybee, it wasn't hard for her to hold them off. They were ordinary criminals and she was a superheroine. Who do you think would win in a fight?

However, she quickly realized that maybe fighting in a laboratory wasn't such a good idea. There were spilled chemicals all over the floor and she had been only fighting the thugs for a few minutes.

In fact, some of the chemicals had spilled all over Edward Squillium and his lab coat.

"Aaugh! This is going to take forever to clean up!" bellowed the scientist.

"Sorry about that..." apologized Honeybee. Sometimes when she tried to be heroic she ended up leaving behind a mess...namely criminals with broken limbs.

Unsurprisingly, the criminals were all losing horribly. Eventually, they all collapsed one by one.

"I'd ask her for an autograph if my arms weren't broken..." said one of the criminals.

"Looks like a job well done." stated Honeybee.

"Yeah...too bad about my lab though..." answered Edward Squillium.

"That is a problem...there's broken glass all over the floor..." said the superheroine.

"I'll take care of it. It's the least I can do for saving my life..." stated the scientist.

"Thanks..." nodded the action girl. "And yet for some strange reason, I get the feeling that I'm forgetting something..." answered Honeybee.

Suddenly, one of her bees reminded her of that particular something.

"What? Oh, that's right...I haven't apprehended their leader yet. I better start looking for him..." stated the bee girl.

Immediately, she began to look all over the city for the leader of the thugs. She would not rest until he was brought to justice...

...but as it turned out, she would be resting tonight because he was right outside the laboratory with a twisted ankle.

"Ow, my ankle..." stated the leader of the criminal.

"Serves you right for trying to resist arrest..." answered Honeybee.

"My ankle hurts..." complained the man.

"Don't be such a baby. I can fix that..." stated the teenage girl.

Immediately, she used honey to heal the man's injury.

"Thanks..." said the leader of the attempted kidnappers.

"You do realize that I'm going to get you arrested now, right?" asked Honeybee.

"Oh..." complained the criminal. He should have known.

Immediately, Honeybee used her honey to plaster the criminal to a lamp post. It would only be a matter of time now before the cops spotted him.

Now that she thought of it...it was rather similar to Spiderman's spider webbing.

Maybe she should have a competition with him to see which was stickier...the honey or the spider webbing.

Curious, she noticed that the honeybees were making a sign saying "Come And Get Me!" pointing to the criminal's direction.

"You sure that's not overkill?" asked Honeybee.

The bees shrugged. Maybe it was...

"I'm just glad that our mission went without a hitch and that there won't be any problems later..." stated the superheroine.

Honeybee had yet to learn about tempting fate.

A few days later...

Edward Squillium woke up from his rest...despite the attempted kidnapping, he was still able to sleep at night. It was a good thing that Honeybee showed up when she did.

And yet, after that incident, he had been feeling kind of funny. For one thing, when he tried eating calamari from the fridge, he had ended up throwing it up all over the floor.

And when he saw a man selling sushi outside his shop, he had screamed just like a little girl.

Finally, when he went to see the aquarium, the squids appeared to be asking him why he wasn't in the tank with them and how he had managed to get out.

It was rather weird.

And yet, he had decided that maybe he was just being paranoid and that nothing was happening to him. Maybe his research was making him a little crazy.

Besides, it was a wonderful day today. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining. He shouldn't be worrying now.

Immediately, he rose from his bed and decided to look in the mirror.

He gasped in shock.

As it turned out, he now had two tentacles growing out from his abdomen. He looked like he belonged in the circus...and the circus wasn't even in town today.

Also, somebody had ripped off his shirt. It must be the work of his demented fangirls.

But he could hunt them down later.

"Oh no! What happened? Why do I have tentacles growing out from my stomach?!" exclaimed Edward Squillium.

Suddenly, he remembered what had happened a few days ago.

"Oh, that's right. The lab accident...this is all HER fault!" bellowed the professor.

She was going to pay for this later.

But for now, he needed to find a way to cure his new condition so that he didn't look like some sort of monster. Maybe the chemicals in his lab would help.

Immediately, he headed back towards his laboratory...after putting on a shirt of course. He was not too sexy for it.

However, as he went back to the lab, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that he had forgotten something.

"What am I forgetting?" thought the mad scientist.

Suddenly, he remembered that he had never cleaned up the laboratory after the thugs had broken in. Stupid procrastination.

Not only that, but there was no way he would be able to use any of the chemicals now that they had spilled all over the floor.

"Aaugh! What am I going to do now?" asked Edward Squillium. Chemicals like that didn't grow on trees...except for the tree that he had accidentally mutated in his backyard.

He was going to have to do something drastic.

Perhaps he could go visit his fellow scientists to see if they would help.

However, he didn't want them knowing about his condition. It seemed too much of an embarrassment.

Sighing, he decided to cancel that plan.

Now that he thought of it...maybe he should change his identity. If they found out this had happened to Edward Squillium, how would people react? They would probably be in an uproar.

From now on, maybe he should use a different name.

"Let me think..." stated Edward.

Suddenly, he came up with something.

Maybe he should start calling himself...Professor Squid!

Sure, maybe he could come up with something more original than that...but he thought that it would work for now.

Now that that matter was settled, it was time for him to search for something that could cure him of his condition.

Fortunately, he had a rough idea of the chemicals he would need in order to cure himself.

He was going to start with the pharmacy that was down the street. Maybe there was something that he could use...though he would probably need a lot more than that if he wanted to make an antidote. He wasn't sure just how many laboratory chemicals he had spilled on himself.

Sure enough, there was a man in charge.

Immediately, he picked up what he needed and set it on the table.

Oddly enough, his tentacles actually helped them with that task. Since he had two extra limbs, he might as well use them.

However, when he discovered how much they cost, he wasn't too happy.

"That will be a thousand dollars..." stated the man.

Frustrated, he wished to himself that he could simply mug the shopkeeper and get on with it.

But as it turned out, his wish was his command.

Suddenly, one of his tentacles reached out and grabbed the shopkeeper by the neck before lifting him off his feet.

Feeling rather frightened, the man decided to give in.

"Please, take whatever you want! Just don't hurt me..." stated the man. He wondered if he should have really taken the position of a shopkeeper in a city full of supervillains, even if this was a simple pharmacy.

Professor Squid happily took the chemicals as he made his way out of the store.

However, as he had thought to himself previously, there wasn't enough for him to even make a prototype of the cure.

He was going to have to look for more chemicals.

Perhaps the scientists in the laboratory across the city would be willing to give him a hand...or a tentacle as the case may be.

If not, he could always do things the hard way.

"I wonder if one of them will recognize me..." thought Professor Squid. Then again, who would expect that a regular scientist like him would suddenly develop tentacles?

It appears that Doctor Octopus is not the only evil scientist in the world now...of course, unlike Doctor Octopus, Professor Squid's tentacles are actually organic...heh heh.