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seriousficOkay, I got totally lazy about updating this series, so from here on, I'm just posting one chapter a day until it's out there. So, enjoy. Or ignore.
Here are the previous chapters
.
The doorman had standing orders to send Peter Parker straight up. Harry’s duties were rare and his activities few. The noise of Peter’s arrival sent a nearly orgasmic thrill through him. At last.
He sat at his desk, feet up, sipping a cocktail, and feeling stupendously satisfied with himself. To himself, Harry counted floors. Almost heard the elevator chime its arrival. Felt the footsteps under his feet. The doors opening before him. And finally, Peter entered his presence.
“Hello Harry,” Peter said, uncomfortable, but determined.
”I’ve been expecting you, Pete.”
”Get up, Harry.”
”Or should I say Spider-Man?”
Peter had been advancing on him steadily. Now he slammed a fist down on Harry’s desk. ”What do you know about it?”
”Know about what?” He gestured to a chair, “sit down. Take a load off.”
Peter walked over to the chair, but didn’t sit. ”What are you up to, Harry?”
”I've been expecting you for a few days now. You know, to explain exactly why you killed my father. Until I found out for myself.”
He pressed a button. Peter turned to the mirror to see his reflection vanish and the portal to a ruined lair appear where it had been.
“You didn't kill my father,” Harry said. “You killed the Green Goblin. Game of pool?”
”Maybe later,” Peter said numbly. “What do you know about the Hobgoblin?”
“Hobgoblin?” Harry shook his head. “My father’s dead…”
”I saw him last night. Or someone wearing his stuff. You’re in Oscorp, you tell me… were there any back-ups of his gear?”
Again, Harry shook his head, more firmly… any harder and his head would come unhinged. “I destroyed it all. Can you imagine the embarrassment this company would go through… and my father covered his tracks too. Most of the files on the project were shredded. There could be additional prototypes out there.”
”Where are they and who had access to them?”
”No one. They were boxed up after the project was canceled… packed away.“
”Where?”
”Oscorp warehouses… all over the city.” Harry smiled, not quite sober. “The same ones getting robbed. My father’s work has been picked apart by grave robbers. How d’ya like that?”
“Harry.” Peter’s voice was slackening off, weakening. “Could we just take five minutes?”
“To do what, Pete?”
“I’m sorry about your father, Harry.”
“I’m sorry too. I’m sorry he was a mass murderer. I’m sorry you had to kill him. I’m sorry you thought I needed to be protected like some… little… girl!” Harry jammed his fingers into his temples, as if trying to ward off a migraine.
“Harry, whatever it is, don’t bottle it up. Trust me, if you don’t deal with these things…”
“I am,” Harry said. “I’m going to lay my father’s legacy to rest once and for all. This new Goblin? Help me destroy him. Please.”
“I’ll do what I can, of course…”
Harry nodded. “You’re a good friend. The police found a dead body at one of the robberies. Arnold Donovan. My people can’t turn up anything on him. Maybe you can. There’s a new executive at Oscorp, his name’s Kingsley, and I think he may be--”
The lights went dead. The computer screen blipped to dark and in the distance could be heard the sound of the elevators winding down.
“Blackout?” Harry asked.
Peter’s Spider-Sense went off. Like a spider in an all-encompassing web, he felt a tingle at the outer reaches of perception… down a flight of stairs, through a maintenance door to a metal fuse box crushed like a milk carton. Danger!
The floor caved in. With the reflexes of the quickest spider, Peter jumped to the side and grabbed hold of the wall. Harry wasn’t as fortunate. He fell… right into the grasp of a tentacle. It caught him by the foot. Harry hung upside-down in an office with only one exit, a door down a long and narrow hallway. He gazed achingly at that shut door.
The tentacle reeled him in until he was dangling in front of Octavius, who had dressed himself in the finest Armani. White suit, yellow tie, and a green overcoat with a split in the back for his tentacles. Harry felt faint, but at least his killer had good taste in clothes. Killer… Not that it would come to that, he felt sure…
”You know, Osborn,” Octavius said conversationally, his hands politely folded together. “I should have known you wouldn’t finish the job. But that’s not why I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you because of what you did to Rosalie.”
”Octavius, what are you babbling about?”
”Babble? Babble!?” Octavius tightened the tentacle that was clawing Harry’s leg. “You gave me impure tritium! You cut corners… I hope the money you saved was worth it, because now it’s going to cost you your life!
Harry laughed.
”Quiet!”
Harry was beat against the wall like a bag of potatoes. Bruised, he swung back and forth from the impact. “Before you kill me… there’s something you should know.”
”Really? And what’s that?”
”I’m expecting company.”
Spider-Man swung into Octavius on a webline. The kick jarred Harry out of Octavius’s grasp and sent the mad doctor flying through a partition, which his tentacles reduced to timber before their master could hit it. Octavius hit the ground rolling, a tight roll that his tentacles lifted him out of into an aggressive four-limbed posture.
”Well, well, if it isn’t the wallcrawler!”
”Personally, I prefer webslinger.” Spider-Man shoved Harry toward the door and braced himself for a fight.
“No need to be so mindlessly hostile,” Octavius said, dismissing Peter’s combative stance with a wave of his hand. “I was wrong about you before, Spidey, may I call you Spidey? You’re so familiar to me… something about you, right on the tip of my tongue… I’d like to get inside that head of yours.”
Well, he’s forgotten I’m Peter Parker… Spider-Man thought. And, apparently, how not to be a raving loony. Destroying the reactor must’ve really knocked him for a loop.
Octavius sat down, his tentacles pulling a chair under him. “I won't waste your time with foolish humility. I am quite possibly the most brilliant mind of our time. Not Hawkings, not Einstein, not Richards, me. Otto Octavius. And do you know why? Because I wanted it. I wanted to be the best, the smartest, the greatest. I refused to settle for anything else. And yet you settle for this... mediocre life, helping these mediocre people. I'll admit it, some day I'll be surpassed. It is inevitable. All records must be broken. But! I can hope that the man who replaces me is not just intelligent, but wise. Wise in the ways of the world. I can tell you're a young man and I only want to help you.“
Harry was creeping toward the door on all fours, trying to keep as silent as possible. All I can do is distract Ock long enough for Harry to get clear or for help to arrive… like the Fifth Armored Division. ”If you want to help me, why don't you dismantle those freaky tentacles and turn yourself over to the police?”
The tentacles snapped indignantly. Octavius took a moment to mentally calm them, opening his eyes to once more smile benevolently at Spider-Man.
”I'll let that one slide for now. Tell me, Spider-Man, before you rush to judgment… where ever did the Green Goblin get off to? Did he take a cruise? Decide to retire to Florida?”
Spider-Man was, for once, quiet.
”It wasn't my fault,” he said at last.
Octavius nodded sympathetically. One tentacle placed itself around Spider-Man's
shoulders like a supportive arm. “Of course not. That's your only problem. You care too much.”
The other three tentacles lifted Octavius up, chair and all, so that he was face to face with Spider-Man.
”This is a great reason to have you on as a partner. Your naiveté amuses me! It would be perfection disabusing you of your misguided notions of justice. I have... a proposition.”
A tentacle shot out, grabbing Harry just before he got to the door. It dragged him back to lie between the two superhumans. “Help me get rid of our mutual friend here. He’s as big a thorn in your side as he is in mine. Together, we can cause him considerable agony. Enough for him to give up his father’s Swiss bank accounts for the pain to end… permanently.”
Harry's eyes darted back and forth from Octavius to Spider-Man and back. Spider-Man looked up, lenses to sunglasses. He brushed the tentacle off his shoulder.
”No deal, Ock.”
”I thought you were smarter than this!” Octavius cried, aghast and offended. “For God's sake, he tried to have you killed!”
”Yeah, by you!“
”A deal I will now honor!”
One of Octavius's tentacles lashed out, swatting Spider-Man backwards. He made an imprint on the wall upon collision, falling weakly to the floor in a crumpled heap. His hand stuck out, and reflexively curled into fighting position. A glob of sticky webbing shot out to splatter on Octavius’s sunglasses.
Harry made a break for it, running back into the hallway that led to the exit. Tentacles flailed around Octavius, reducing the walls and floor to rubble. The roof caved in, debris nearly pegging Harry, one falling ceiling beam cutting across his shoulder.
Recovering from the hit, Spider-Man jumped between the whipping tentacles to land beside Octavius. He threw a punch that knocked Octavius into the fallen ceiling beam, snapping it in two. More ceiling tiles and electric wiring fell, temporarily putting a halt to the offensive. Octavius took the opportunity to easily pull the webbing off his glasses. He lunged all of his tentacles at Spider-Man, who leapt up and clung to the ceiling as the tentacles tunneled through the wall under him.
”Trick me once, shame on you…” Octavius shook the no-longer-sticky webbing like a conquering hero. “I’ve added a non-stick formula to my glasses. You won’t be able to blind me again!”
”Did you add a non-punch formula to your face? Because otherwise, you’re still going down!”
As Spider-Man boasted, one of the tentacles snuck up on him and wrapped around his leg. Octavius grinned as the tentacle immediately pulled Spidey down and smashed him against the floor.
”Think about who you’re protecting, Spider-Man! A murderer! A man who gave me impure Tritium, endangering countless thousands!
He tried to smash Spider-Man again, but Spider-Man shot out weblines to the walls and caught himself.
“Then go to the police. Prove it in a court of law, expose him for the whole world to see. Don’t take the law into your own hands!”
Octavius's other three tentacles cut Spider-Man’s weblines and wrapped around him, squeezing him like four anacondas choking a single prey.
“Fancy words from a vigilante. You leave me no choice. I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m not a murderer like your friend.”
”No,” Spider-Man gasped out. “You're just a regular guy who happens to be controlled by robot tentacles that want him to kill the boss.”
Octavius smashed Spider-Man’s head upward into the ceiling. “You’re wrong there, freak. For the first time in my life, I’m in control!”
Spider-Man struggled to break free, but his arms were at his sides. He couldn’t get a clear shot with his webbing. Then he saw Octavius’s feet.
”Shine your shoes, mister?”
Thwip! He fired two lines of webbing. Each one hit Octavius’s shoes. Spider-Man pulled, yanking Octavius’s feet out from under him, and Doctor Octopus did a somersault. His tentacles let go of Spider-Man and stopped Octavius’s fall. Spider-Man hopped onto the facedown Octavius, straddling his back.
”How about a piggyback ride?”
He curled his arms under Octavius’s armpits and pulled upwards, planting a knee in the small of Octavius’s back. The tentacles flailed in panic.
”Unhand me or I’ll destroy you!”
”’Unhand me or I’ll destroy you, please.’”
KA-CHUNK! Both men looked up to see a security guard looking down through the hole in Harry’s office, a shotgun trained on them.
“Both of you, down on the ground, now!”
”I think not,” Octavius sneered.
His tentacles lashed out, all four of them, hitting the guard in the chest. With rib-cracking effect, the guard smashed through the window behind him and flew out into space. Spider-Man immediately let go of Octavius and kicked off the back of Octavius’s head. He broke through the window on his floor, shot webbing to hit the top frame of the window so he traveled in a large arc, picking up the guard at midpoint and then completing the arc to deposit the guard on the roof.
Octavius was right on his heels, climbing straight up the building, tentacles punching through the windows, smashing through brick.
”You okay?” Spider-Man asked the guard.
”Look out!”
Spider-Man dodged out of the way as a tentacle speared through where he had been a minute ago. It grabbed the guard and brought him next to Octavius, who was still climbing.
“This is for daring to order me about like a common criminal.”
“Octavius, wait!” Spider-Man stuck to the wall above Octavius. “I thought you weren’t a murderer! If you kill him, everything they say about you will be true!”
Ock snarled. “Point taken!” He threw the guard to safety inside the building. “You bring up a good point. I would like to see Osborn brought low, humiliated as I have been humiliated. But I would also like to see a stop brought to your constant prattle!”
“Aw, makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.”
He somersaulted backward, ascending the building as Octavius clambered after him. Tentacles slammed to either side of him in eruptions of glass, throwing him into gymnastics just to avoid them. Finally, Spider-Man ran out of room. The roof was one floor up. He kicked off the top of the building and into open space, shooting a webline behind him that stuck to Octavius.
His momentum tore Octavius off the building. Octavius’s tentacles groped for a foothold, leaving him wide open. Spider-Man pulled Octavius to him and delivered an uppercut that sent Octavius flying back, landing on the roof next to the manor.
The whine of jet turbines filled the air as Spider-Man landed on the side of the building.
”Oh no, not now…”
He looked up to see the Hobgoblin fly overhead. The glider fired two rockets at Octavius and jetted away. Octavius transformed a tentacle and fired a stream of bullets at the missiles. One was hit. It exploded in a ball of flames which the other emerged from unfettered. Octavius knocked it away with a tentacle and it flew off-course, destroying a cornice.
Octavius regarded the departing Hobgoblin with great interest. “Is that the best you can do?”
Spider-Man came out of nowhere, drop-kicking his enemy into Osborn Manor.
“Don’t be so greedy, Ock! You should always finish off one enemy before you tackle another!”
Teeth violently clenched, Octavius lashed out with his tentacles. Spider-Man parried two blows, fired a webball that knocked Doctor Octopus’s glasses askew, then was caught by a claw that clamped down on his throat. It pinned him to the wall as its brethren transformed into their alternate weaponry.
”Look how my children have grown!” Octavius screed proudly. “They’ve completed the transformation you began, Spider-Man! The transformation into weapons of war instead of instruments of science!”
”Which one’s the can opener?”
”It takes guts to remain defiant in the face of death…” Octavius revved his buzzsaw. “I'll take pleasure in examining them!”
He moved the buzzsaw toward Spider-Man’s stomach. Spider-Man kicked the flat of the blade, sending it off-course to hiss into the wall. The flamethrower tentacle retaliated, singeing Spider-Man’s arm. He screamed and Octavius moved in for the kill… just as Harry swung a fireplace poker into the mad scientist’s head.
“You always did have a glass jaw, Otto,” he said as the arch-villain collapsed.
Doctor Octopus rubbed his head as he pointed the chaingun tentacle at Harry. ”You’re not exactly bulletproof yourself…”
A strand of webbing caught on the tentacle and pulled it so that Octavius’s shot was ruined. The bullets perforated the wall next to Harry. A cloud of plaster poured out onto the floor. Like a mad puppeteer, Spider-Man jerked the chaingun into Octavius’s face. The just-fired barrels scorched Octavius’s cheek. In his pain, he let go of Spider-Man. The hero dropped to the floor, gasping for air.
”Run!” Spider-Man yelled, and Harry didn’t have to be told twice.
Octavius clamped a hand over his burnt cheek and turned on Spider-Man, fuming darkly. The tentacles lunged at Spidey with incredible speed. Spider-Man moved like they were in slow-motion. He leapt over a tentacle, landed on the floor in a roll that took him under the second and third tentacles. The fourth tentacle, its taser flaring, tried to stomp on him. Spider-Man rolled to the side, dodging it. The shock of its miss set the carpet on fire.
Then the buzzsaw tentacle came down. Spider-Man kicked off the wall and log-rolled out of the way. The buzzsaw tore through the floorboards where he had been a nanosecond ago. The flamethrower was next, scorching the earth beneath Spider-Man. He jumped over the napalm, adhered to the ceiling, and scuttled over Ock’s head.
“Death from a-“ he started to say as he dropped down, but a tentacle caught him and banged him back against the ceiling. While he was dazed, the taser tentacle shocked him into twitching submission.
“Tell me, Spider-Man, satisfy my curiosity.” Octavius could’ve sworn he saw Spider-Man’s skeleton through his translucent, sizzling flesh. “How much does that hurt?”
”Not as much... as having a name like Otto Octavius!”
Ock scowled and shocked Spider-Man again. In a last-ditch effort, Peter grabbed the fireplace poker Harry had dropped and touched it to Octavius’s tentacles. The electricity traveled down the metal and electrified Octavius, who immediately shut off the current. Spider-Man and the tentacles collapsed.. Octavius picked up one of the limp tentacles with his human hands and stroked it.
Spider-Man was still sporadically twitching from his brush with death. “Otto… you’re free now. They can’t… control you anymore.”
”You… you uncaring monster! You hurt my children!” Dragging his tentacles behind him, he lunged onto Spider-Man and began pounding on him with his bare hands. ”This shall be our final encounter! Never again will you interfere with my plans! My work! My life!”
He wound up for one final blow, brought his joined fists down towards Spidey’s head… Spider-Man’s hand shot out and caught his hands, stopping them cold.
”How ‘bout one more interference for the road?”
His punch sent Octavius flying backwards, trailing his tentacles behind him like the tail of a comet. Octavius landed in acute pain as Spider-Man leapt to his feet.
”Not so big and bad without your little friends, now are you?”
Octavius sat up. “My tentacles? I’m never without them.”
Spider-sense! Danger!
He leapt upwards as two tentacles whipped where he was a moment ago like the blades of one enormous scissor. He kicked off the ceiling toward Octavius, contorting himself to jet between Octavius’s other two tentacles, his hands outstretched to wrap around Octavius’s throat… and Octavius's first pair of tentacles caught him by the feet. He stopped inches from Octavius's smirking face.
”You are helpless, Spider-Man! I warned you that the power of Doctor Octopus was far greater then yours!”
He flung Spider-Man backward with all his augmented strength, sending the wall-crawler flying down the hallway and through the wall at the end of it.
Spider-Man landed in a garden, tumbling past hedge sculptures and an elegant fountain. Moments later, Octavius followed him outside. He brought up his flamethrower and torched the entire place. Every plant was burnt to the ground. Spider-Man was nowhere to be seen.
The whup-whup-whup of helicopter rotors shook the air. Octavius sneered and his tentacles lifted him twenty-four feet off the ground. They ran him to the next rooftop, and the next, Octavius using the tentacles to throw himself across the gaps. The police helicopter pursued him. Inside, a sniper prepared his rifle. He aimed and fired just as Octavius spotted him.
A tentacle coiled in front of Octavius and the bullet ricocheted off it. Octavius extended his tentacles to attack, but the helicopter was too far away. He retracted them in time to block another shot, which bounced off and grazed Octavius's upper arm. Octavius gasped in pain and ripped an air conditioning unit out of the rooftop he was on, then threw it at the helicopter.
The AC hit the helicopter's tail rotor, damaging it. Octavius laughed at the fleeing chopper. He held a hand over his wound as his tentacles took over the task of locomotion.
Back at Osborn Manor, Spider-Man breached the roiling waters of the fountain where he had hidden. He took in a deep breath of air as Harry ran out into the razed garden, a gun in hand. When he saw Octavius was gone, he went to assist his friend.
“Are you okay?”
Spider-Man pulled off his mask to take several deep breaths. “That guy… has a serious attitude problem.”
”Listen, the police are on the way up, you’d better get out of here.”
”Sure… talk to you later.”
”Bring a present.”
”What?”
”For my birthday party. You’re invited.”
Peter wrung out his mask and put it back on. “Thanks. The promise of cake helps me with the fact that I was just burned, electrocuted, shot at, and nearly sliced open.”
”There will also be ice cream,” Harry said.
”Really? Cool.”
He jumped into the air and swung away.
Here are the previous chapters
.
The doorman had standing orders to send Peter Parker straight up. Harry’s duties were rare and his activities few. The noise of Peter’s arrival sent a nearly orgasmic thrill through him. At last.
He sat at his desk, feet up, sipping a cocktail, and feeling stupendously satisfied with himself. To himself, Harry counted floors. Almost heard the elevator chime its arrival. Felt the footsteps under his feet. The doors opening before him. And finally, Peter entered his presence.
“Hello Harry,” Peter said, uncomfortable, but determined.
”I’ve been expecting you, Pete.”
”Get up, Harry.”
”Or should I say Spider-Man?”
Peter had been advancing on him steadily. Now he slammed a fist down on Harry’s desk. ”What do you know about it?”
”Know about what?” He gestured to a chair, “sit down. Take a load off.”
Peter walked over to the chair, but didn’t sit. ”What are you up to, Harry?”
”I've been expecting you for a few days now. You know, to explain exactly why you killed my father. Until I found out for myself.”
He pressed a button. Peter turned to the mirror to see his reflection vanish and the portal to a ruined lair appear where it had been.
“You didn't kill my father,” Harry said. “You killed the Green Goblin. Game of pool?”
”Maybe later,” Peter said numbly. “What do you know about the Hobgoblin?”
“Hobgoblin?” Harry shook his head. “My father’s dead…”
”I saw him last night. Or someone wearing his stuff. You’re in Oscorp, you tell me… were there any back-ups of his gear?”
Again, Harry shook his head, more firmly… any harder and his head would come unhinged. “I destroyed it all. Can you imagine the embarrassment this company would go through… and my father covered his tracks too. Most of the files on the project were shredded. There could be additional prototypes out there.”
”Where are they and who had access to them?”
”No one. They were boxed up after the project was canceled… packed away.“
”Where?”
”Oscorp warehouses… all over the city.” Harry smiled, not quite sober. “The same ones getting robbed. My father’s work has been picked apart by grave robbers. How d’ya like that?”
“Harry.” Peter’s voice was slackening off, weakening. “Could we just take five minutes?”
“To do what, Pete?”
“I’m sorry about your father, Harry.”
“I’m sorry too. I’m sorry he was a mass murderer. I’m sorry you had to kill him. I’m sorry you thought I needed to be protected like some… little… girl!” Harry jammed his fingers into his temples, as if trying to ward off a migraine.
“Harry, whatever it is, don’t bottle it up. Trust me, if you don’t deal with these things…”
“I am,” Harry said. “I’m going to lay my father’s legacy to rest once and for all. This new Goblin? Help me destroy him. Please.”
“I’ll do what I can, of course…”
Harry nodded. “You’re a good friend. The police found a dead body at one of the robberies. Arnold Donovan. My people can’t turn up anything on him. Maybe you can. There’s a new executive at Oscorp, his name’s Kingsley, and I think he may be--”
The lights went dead. The computer screen blipped to dark and in the distance could be heard the sound of the elevators winding down.
“Blackout?” Harry asked.
Peter’s Spider-Sense went off. Like a spider in an all-encompassing web, he felt a tingle at the outer reaches of perception… down a flight of stairs, through a maintenance door to a metal fuse box crushed like a milk carton. Danger!
The floor caved in. With the reflexes of the quickest spider, Peter jumped to the side and grabbed hold of the wall. Harry wasn’t as fortunate. He fell… right into the grasp of a tentacle. It caught him by the foot. Harry hung upside-down in an office with only one exit, a door down a long and narrow hallway. He gazed achingly at that shut door.
The tentacle reeled him in until he was dangling in front of Octavius, who had dressed himself in the finest Armani. White suit, yellow tie, and a green overcoat with a split in the back for his tentacles. Harry felt faint, but at least his killer had good taste in clothes. Killer… Not that it would come to that, he felt sure…
”You know, Osborn,” Octavius said conversationally, his hands politely folded together. “I should have known you wouldn’t finish the job. But that’s not why I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you because of what you did to Rosalie.”
”Octavius, what are you babbling about?”
”Babble? Babble!?” Octavius tightened the tentacle that was clawing Harry’s leg. “You gave me impure tritium! You cut corners… I hope the money you saved was worth it, because now it’s going to cost you your life!
Harry laughed.
”Quiet!”
Harry was beat against the wall like a bag of potatoes. Bruised, he swung back and forth from the impact. “Before you kill me… there’s something you should know.”
”Really? And what’s that?”
”I’m expecting company.”
Spider-Man swung into Octavius on a webline. The kick jarred Harry out of Octavius’s grasp and sent the mad doctor flying through a partition, which his tentacles reduced to timber before their master could hit it. Octavius hit the ground rolling, a tight roll that his tentacles lifted him out of into an aggressive four-limbed posture.
”Well, well, if it isn’t the wallcrawler!”
”Personally, I prefer webslinger.” Spider-Man shoved Harry toward the door and braced himself for a fight.
“No need to be so mindlessly hostile,” Octavius said, dismissing Peter’s combative stance with a wave of his hand. “I was wrong about you before, Spidey, may I call you Spidey? You’re so familiar to me… something about you, right on the tip of my tongue… I’d like to get inside that head of yours.”
Well, he’s forgotten I’m Peter Parker… Spider-Man thought. And, apparently, how not to be a raving loony. Destroying the reactor must’ve really knocked him for a loop.
Octavius sat down, his tentacles pulling a chair under him. “I won't waste your time with foolish humility. I am quite possibly the most brilliant mind of our time. Not Hawkings, not Einstein, not Richards, me. Otto Octavius. And do you know why? Because I wanted it. I wanted to be the best, the smartest, the greatest. I refused to settle for anything else. And yet you settle for this... mediocre life, helping these mediocre people. I'll admit it, some day I'll be surpassed. It is inevitable. All records must be broken. But! I can hope that the man who replaces me is not just intelligent, but wise. Wise in the ways of the world. I can tell you're a young man and I only want to help you.“
Harry was creeping toward the door on all fours, trying to keep as silent as possible. All I can do is distract Ock long enough for Harry to get clear or for help to arrive… like the Fifth Armored Division. ”If you want to help me, why don't you dismantle those freaky tentacles and turn yourself over to the police?”
The tentacles snapped indignantly. Octavius took a moment to mentally calm them, opening his eyes to once more smile benevolently at Spider-Man.
”I'll let that one slide for now. Tell me, Spider-Man, before you rush to judgment… where ever did the Green Goblin get off to? Did he take a cruise? Decide to retire to Florida?”
Spider-Man was, for once, quiet.
”It wasn't my fault,” he said at last.
Octavius nodded sympathetically. One tentacle placed itself around Spider-Man's
shoulders like a supportive arm. “Of course not. That's your only problem. You care too much.”
The other three tentacles lifted Octavius up, chair and all, so that he was face to face with Spider-Man.
”This is a great reason to have you on as a partner. Your naiveté amuses me! It would be perfection disabusing you of your misguided notions of justice. I have... a proposition.”
A tentacle shot out, grabbing Harry just before he got to the door. It dragged him back to lie between the two superhumans. “Help me get rid of our mutual friend here. He’s as big a thorn in your side as he is in mine. Together, we can cause him considerable agony. Enough for him to give up his father’s Swiss bank accounts for the pain to end… permanently.”
Harry's eyes darted back and forth from Octavius to Spider-Man and back. Spider-Man looked up, lenses to sunglasses. He brushed the tentacle off his shoulder.
”No deal, Ock.”
”I thought you were smarter than this!” Octavius cried, aghast and offended. “For God's sake, he tried to have you killed!”
”Yeah, by you!“
”A deal I will now honor!”
One of Octavius's tentacles lashed out, swatting Spider-Man backwards. He made an imprint on the wall upon collision, falling weakly to the floor in a crumpled heap. His hand stuck out, and reflexively curled into fighting position. A glob of sticky webbing shot out to splatter on Octavius’s sunglasses.
Harry made a break for it, running back into the hallway that led to the exit. Tentacles flailed around Octavius, reducing the walls and floor to rubble. The roof caved in, debris nearly pegging Harry, one falling ceiling beam cutting across his shoulder.
Recovering from the hit, Spider-Man jumped between the whipping tentacles to land beside Octavius. He threw a punch that knocked Octavius into the fallen ceiling beam, snapping it in two. More ceiling tiles and electric wiring fell, temporarily putting a halt to the offensive. Octavius took the opportunity to easily pull the webbing off his glasses. He lunged all of his tentacles at Spider-Man, who leapt up and clung to the ceiling as the tentacles tunneled through the wall under him.
”Trick me once, shame on you…” Octavius shook the no-longer-sticky webbing like a conquering hero. “I’ve added a non-stick formula to my glasses. You won’t be able to blind me again!”
”Did you add a non-punch formula to your face? Because otherwise, you’re still going down!”
As Spider-Man boasted, one of the tentacles snuck up on him and wrapped around his leg. Octavius grinned as the tentacle immediately pulled Spidey down and smashed him against the floor.
”Think about who you’re protecting, Spider-Man! A murderer! A man who gave me impure Tritium, endangering countless thousands!
He tried to smash Spider-Man again, but Spider-Man shot out weblines to the walls and caught himself.
“Then go to the police. Prove it in a court of law, expose him for the whole world to see. Don’t take the law into your own hands!”
Octavius's other three tentacles cut Spider-Man’s weblines and wrapped around him, squeezing him like four anacondas choking a single prey.
“Fancy words from a vigilante. You leave me no choice. I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m not a murderer like your friend.”
”No,” Spider-Man gasped out. “You're just a regular guy who happens to be controlled by robot tentacles that want him to kill the boss.”
Octavius smashed Spider-Man’s head upward into the ceiling. “You’re wrong there, freak. For the first time in my life, I’m in control!”
Spider-Man struggled to break free, but his arms were at his sides. He couldn’t get a clear shot with his webbing. Then he saw Octavius’s feet.
”Shine your shoes, mister?”
Thwip! He fired two lines of webbing. Each one hit Octavius’s shoes. Spider-Man pulled, yanking Octavius’s feet out from under him, and Doctor Octopus did a somersault. His tentacles let go of Spider-Man and stopped Octavius’s fall. Spider-Man hopped onto the facedown Octavius, straddling his back.
”How about a piggyback ride?”
He curled his arms under Octavius’s armpits and pulled upwards, planting a knee in the small of Octavius’s back. The tentacles flailed in panic.
”Unhand me or I’ll destroy you!”
”’Unhand me or I’ll destroy you, please.’”
KA-CHUNK! Both men looked up to see a security guard looking down through the hole in Harry’s office, a shotgun trained on them.
“Both of you, down on the ground, now!”
”I think not,” Octavius sneered.
His tentacles lashed out, all four of them, hitting the guard in the chest. With rib-cracking effect, the guard smashed through the window behind him and flew out into space. Spider-Man immediately let go of Octavius and kicked off the back of Octavius’s head. He broke through the window on his floor, shot webbing to hit the top frame of the window so he traveled in a large arc, picking up the guard at midpoint and then completing the arc to deposit the guard on the roof.
Octavius was right on his heels, climbing straight up the building, tentacles punching through the windows, smashing through brick.
”You okay?” Spider-Man asked the guard.
”Look out!”
Spider-Man dodged out of the way as a tentacle speared through where he had been a minute ago. It grabbed the guard and brought him next to Octavius, who was still climbing.
“This is for daring to order me about like a common criminal.”
“Octavius, wait!” Spider-Man stuck to the wall above Octavius. “I thought you weren’t a murderer! If you kill him, everything they say about you will be true!”
Ock snarled. “Point taken!” He threw the guard to safety inside the building. “You bring up a good point. I would like to see Osborn brought low, humiliated as I have been humiliated. But I would also like to see a stop brought to your constant prattle!”
“Aw, makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.”
He somersaulted backward, ascending the building as Octavius clambered after him. Tentacles slammed to either side of him in eruptions of glass, throwing him into gymnastics just to avoid them. Finally, Spider-Man ran out of room. The roof was one floor up. He kicked off the top of the building and into open space, shooting a webline behind him that stuck to Octavius.
His momentum tore Octavius off the building. Octavius’s tentacles groped for a foothold, leaving him wide open. Spider-Man pulled Octavius to him and delivered an uppercut that sent Octavius flying back, landing on the roof next to the manor.
The whine of jet turbines filled the air as Spider-Man landed on the side of the building.
”Oh no, not now…”
He looked up to see the Hobgoblin fly overhead. The glider fired two rockets at Octavius and jetted away. Octavius transformed a tentacle and fired a stream of bullets at the missiles. One was hit. It exploded in a ball of flames which the other emerged from unfettered. Octavius knocked it away with a tentacle and it flew off-course, destroying a cornice.
Octavius regarded the departing Hobgoblin with great interest. “Is that the best you can do?”
Spider-Man came out of nowhere, drop-kicking his enemy into Osborn Manor.
“Don’t be so greedy, Ock! You should always finish off one enemy before you tackle another!”
Teeth violently clenched, Octavius lashed out with his tentacles. Spider-Man parried two blows, fired a webball that knocked Doctor Octopus’s glasses askew, then was caught by a claw that clamped down on his throat. It pinned him to the wall as its brethren transformed into their alternate weaponry.
”Look how my children have grown!” Octavius screed proudly. “They’ve completed the transformation you began, Spider-Man! The transformation into weapons of war instead of instruments of science!”
”Which one’s the can opener?”
”It takes guts to remain defiant in the face of death…” Octavius revved his buzzsaw. “I'll take pleasure in examining them!”
He moved the buzzsaw toward Spider-Man’s stomach. Spider-Man kicked the flat of the blade, sending it off-course to hiss into the wall. The flamethrower tentacle retaliated, singeing Spider-Man’s arm. He screamed and Octavius moved in for the kill… just as Harry swung a fireplace poker into the mad scientist’s head.
“You always did have a glass jaw, Otto,” he said as the arch-villain collapsed.
Doctor Octopus rubbed his head as he pointed the chaingun tentacle at Harry. ”You’re not exactly bulletproof yourself…”
A strand of webbing caught on the tentacle and pulled it so that Octavius’s shot was ruined. The bullets perforated the wall next to Harry. A cloud of plaster poured out onto the floor. Like a mad puppeteer, Spider-Man jerked the chaingun into Octavius’s face. The just-fired barrels scorched Octavius’s cheek. In his pain, he let go of Spider-Man. The hero dropped to the floor, gasping for air.
”Run!” Spider-Man yelled, and Harry didn’t have to be told twice.
Octavius clamped a hand over his burnt cheek and turned on Spider-Man, fuming darkly. The tentacles lunged at Spidey with incredible speed. Spider-Man moved like they were in slow-motion. He leapt over a tentacle, landed on the floor in a roll that took him under the second and third tentacles. The fourth tentacle, its taser flaring, tried to stomp on him. Spider-Man rolled to the side, dodging it. The shock of its miss set the carpet on fire.
Then the buzzsaw tentacle came down. Spider-Man kicked off the wall and log-rolled out of the way. The buzzsaw tore through the floorboards where he had been a nanosecond ago. The flamethrower was next, scorching the earth beneath Spider-Man. He jumped over the napalm, adhered to the ceiling, and scuttled over Ock’s head.
“Death from a-“ he started to say as he dropped down, but a tentacle caught him and banged him back against the ceiling. While he was dazed, the taser tentacle shocked him into twitching submission.
“Tell me, Spider-Man, satisfy my curiosity.” Octavius could’ve sworn he saw Spider-Man’s skeleton through his translucent, sizzling flesh. “How much does that hurt?”
”Not as much... as having a name like Otto Octavius!”
Ock scowled and shocked Spider-Man again. In a last-ditch effort, Peter grabbed the fireplace poker Harry had dropped and touched it to Octavius’s tentacles. The electricity traveled down the metal and electrified Octavius, who immediately shut off the current. Spider-Man and the tentacles collapsed.. Octavius picked up one of the limp tentacles with his human hands and stroked it.
Spider-Man was still sporadically twitching from his brush with death. “Otto… you’re free now. They can’t… control you anymore.”
”You… you uncaring monster! You hurt my children!” Dragging his tentacles behind him, he lunged onto Spider-Man and began pounding on him with his bare hands. ”This shall be our final encounter! Never again will you interfere with my plans! My work! My life!”
He wound up for one final blow, brought his joined fists down towards Spidey’s head… Spider-Man’s hand shot out and caught his hands, stopping them cold.
”How ‘bout one more interference for the road?”
His punch sent Octavius flying backwards, trailing his tentacles behind him like the tail of a comet. Octavius landed in acute pain as Spider-Man leapt to his feet.
”Not so big and bad without your little friends, now are you?”
Octavius sat up. “My tentacles? I’m never without them.”
Spider-sense! Danger!
He leapt upwards as two tentacles whipped where he was a moment ago like the blades of one enormous scissor. He kicked off the ceiling toward Octavius, contorting himself to jet between Octavius’s other two tentacles, his hands outstretched to wrap around Octavius’s throat… and Octavius's first pair of tentacles caught him by the feet. He stopped inches from Octavius's smirking face.
”You are helpless, Spider-Man! I warned you that the power of Doctor Octopus was far greater then yours!”
He flung Spider-Man backward with all his augmented strength, sending the wall-crawler flying down the hallway and through the wall at the end of it.
Spider-Man landed in a garden, tumbling past hedge sculptures and an elegant fountain. Moments later, Octavius followed him outside. He brought up his flamethrower and torched the entire place. Every plant was burnt to the ground. Spider-Man was nowhere to be seen.
The whup-whup-whup of helicopter rotors shook the air. Octavius sneered and his tentacles lifted him twenty-four feet off the ground. They ran him to the next rooftop, and the next, Octavius using the tentacles to throw himself across the gaps. The police helicopter pursued him. Inside, a sniper prepared his rifle. He aimed and fired just as Octavius spotted him.
A tentacle coiled in front of Octavius and the bullet ricocheted off it. Octavius extended his tentacles to attack, but the helicopter was too far away. He retracted them in time to block another shot, which bounced off and grazed Octavius's upper arm. Octavius gasped in pain and ripped an air conditioning unit out of the rooftop he was on, then threw it at the helicopter.
The AC hit the helicopter's tail rotor, damaging it. Octavius laughed at the fleeing chopper. He held a hand over his wound as his tentacles took over the task of locomotion.
Back at Osborn Manor, Spider-Man breached the roiling waters of the fountain where he had hidden. He took in a deep breath of air as Harry ran out into the razed garden, a gun in hand. When he saw Octavius was gone, he went to assist his friend.
“Are you okay?”
Spider-Man pulled off his mask to take several deep breaths. “That guy… has a serious attitude problem.”
”Listen, the police are on the way up, you’d better get out of here.”
”Sure… talk to you later.”
”Bring a present.”
”What?”
”For my birthday party. You’re invited.”
Peter wrung out his mask and put it back on. “Thanks. The promise of cake helps me with the fact that I was just burned, electrocuted, shot at, and nearly sliced open.”
”There will also be ice cream,” Harry said.
”Really? Cool.”
He jumped into the air and swung away.
The_Lurker
Date: 2009-09-03 12:05 pm (UTC)