Of Spiders and Spies

Chapter 2: Octopus VS Spider, a Fight Nature Never Intended

I feel strange. Where even am I? WAIT oh frick. I was kidnapped by Doc Ock. So… I am strapped to table, missing my jacket, I can't feel my phone, I don't know what time it is, and no one is going to suspect anything for six to nine hours. Because Michael will find it strange that I'm not there at five and wait or go looking, but the Avengers won't notice anything until I'm seriously late for the orientation dinner. I don't know their policy on lateness as it's sure to look like I high-tailed it out of there and that I'm ghosting them because I can't answer their calls. But I know someone will find me eventually. Just how soon is the-"Wakey Wakey Peter. It's time you opened your eyes. We have lots of things to do." Opening them, he'd taken my glasses away, so I can't see at all. And it's seriously bright, I think there's a lamp or something over me?

"You know, you look so much like Michael. Like twins really. It really makes me want to hurt you all the more." Slowly, I see a knife come up to my throat at such an angle so if I move at all it'll cut me open. "What do you want from me?"

"You know Spider-Man don't you? You're one of his closest confidants almost like brothers. I bet he tells you everything. Including his weaknesses, yeah? You know me, we really have worked together for so long. So many late nights together in the labs, going to class together, me covering for you when something unexpected happening, so many memories. You know, when I found out the giant secret you were harboring, I was so shocked. Weren't we friends Parker?" He purred at me in such a strange voice.

"We were friends, we really were, but I don't think friends kidnap friends unless they're being a shut-in. Plus, you know the whole being Doc Ock, trying to kill my family so many times, being in cahoots with the sinister six, it's really put some strain on our relationship. So I know you kidnapped me for reasons other than not leaving my house much. What are those reasons? Really, I'd love to know."

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My phone's vibrating, and is on metal making it louder. Who is texting or calling me now? Doc Ock walks away, having a mechanical arm hold the knife before he says, "Oh, you have one foot in each camp ay? Why is Tony Stark calling this number at this hour?"

"I was invited to dinner, mind letting me answer that?"

"Sure, you know the rules though. No telling them what's going on or using code."

My ear is put up to the phone. And I hear, "This is Tony Stark, not a prank. Just wondering when you were planning on showing up, because you're about three hours late to dinner."
"Sorry about that sir. I got caught up in some personal business and am going to be relatively late. Am I fired or can we reschedule the orientation?"

"When will you be open? We just need to know when to be expecting you."

"Well…I think I can be there by tomorrow or the day after perhaps?"

"What are you doing?"

"Reconnecting with an old friend. He seems really keen on keeping me here and I can't really say no to him, so I should be back in about three days to a week depending on how fast I can annoy him into my welcome being worn out. So sorry about all of this. I did not intend for any of this. Well, he's coming back, so I'll call you back when I can." Ock hung up the phone for me so I asked, "You didn't take Michael's truck did you? He'll be really suspicious if it's gone but I haven't made a call so he can pick up his pick-up. Anyways, can I have my glasses? I seriously can't see anything." He places them on my face and voila! I can see his angry glower now! Kittens and rainbows for everyone! And now I know what time it is. It's nine O'clock at night and I never showed up to take Michael's truck, he can't find me, plus I'm not answering my phone and it's Spidey's patrol time. Sounds like I might be getting rescued tonight, if I don't die before that. Right on schedule, my phone starts playing, 'Message in a bottle' and vibrating. He lets it ring, getting back to being at the table. "Tell me Spider-Man's weaknesses, and I'll let you answer that."

"He's lactose intolerant, but can't resist good ice cream. He can resist almost no puppy eyes, including mine. He refuses to shave his face during autumn and winter and subsequently has no girlfriend to speak of due to it. He visit's his Aunt's grave when he needs courage. Cannot forget anything embarrassing I ha-"

"Not those weaknesses! Like what can kill him?"

"Oh ho ho, not going to buy me a drink first, just gonna keep me strapped to this turntable before you what? Interrogate me to death?" My phone rings again playing 'Sunflower' it's Miles' ringtone. "Tick tock, Peter. Tell me or I'll make that smooth face of yours real rough."

"Aw, you noticed my skin? Yes, I have been moisturizing daily and drinking green tea. You should really do the same. Now, weaknesses… nope, he's the strongest guy I know. There's no physical weaknesses I can think o-" He then begins spinning the turntable as my phone begins playing 'Claire de Lune' Gwen's ringtone. They're looking for me.

"I know he has one, and I know you know what it is. Tell me and this can all be over sooner."

"Nothing's coming to mind. Logic says it's possible for him to die as he once was human and was therefore mortal…but I'm not sure, he might be unable to die now. He might get close, but his heart has never stopped before."

"Wrong answer." Yes it was. The knife was then stabbed into my arm and taken out in a split second. I screamed like the fires of Hell were upon me. Blood began gushing out of the wound.

"Are you ready to tell me Peter? Or do we have to repeat this again?" He began turning the table again, blood running off of it, and the sickly warmth seeping into my clothes. "Why kill me if I'm the only one you can ask?"

"Oh Peter. I'm not going to kill you. If I wanted to kill you, I'd have done it long, long ago. You are just not cooperating very well Parker, and it's not treating you very well now is it?" I just hang my head trying to breathe right. "Ready to tell me?" I don't say anything, limp in the restraints. "I SAID, READY TO TELL ME?" He then plunges his filthy fingers into the wound. I scream once again, trying anything to get away from him, but to no avail as the burning pain grew stronger. He took his hand out, quickly wiping it on my face. I whispered, "Pepper." It was true, peppermint was a weakness, but an easily defeated one. It caused a bit of panic and aggression, but it smelled like trash to them, so they didn't eat it and it takes a lot of the scent to incapacitate him. Pepper like the spice or vegetable however, was fine. "What was that?"

"Pepper. He's weak to pepper. But he's careful not to show it by telling people he doesn't like it, asking for it to be held in restaurants and picking around it when it's unavoidable. Let me go."

"No deal. You're staying here. I'll go try it, and if it works, then I'll let you go. If it doesn't, you can imagine what will happen you." He then left to go shopping, probably. I wait for what feels like hours of cycles of ringtones, my only measure of time here. I pray that someone will find me. When I hear Doc Ock come back in and begin working. I feel lightheaded. Like, really lightheaded and tired. But I shouldn't sleep now. My ringtones keep playing though. They know something's up. They just don't know where I am. I feel both like crying at my situation and like screaming at myself for getting in this situation. As darkness begins closing in around my vision and I begin to cry weakly, praying that I might not leave my family upon this fallen earth. When I hear a phone ring in the other room. Doc Ock gets up and leaves to answer it when I hear the window open and my vision fills with red and blue as my eyes close against my will.

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When I finally picked up on the ringtone and the distraction in place, I entered the window to see him. He's covered with blood, tears running down his face, stab wound weakly pumping out precious blood. His eyes close. We don't have much time. I unstrap him as fast as I can, grabbing the phone, and leaving, webbing up his wound in a tourniquet. Gwen's on the outside, and we carry him between us to The Web. Working fast, we decide that the wound is only lethal because it burst a vein. It only punctured the vein and the skin. So after fixing the vein, we put gauze around it hopping for clotting, but he's lost too much blood. We look in the store Peter makes us keep on hand in case of emergency, but we're fresh out of Peter blood. We've tested on the small scale who can give and take, and it's a list posted on the side of the vampire pantry. He can take from Miles because they share blood type and the mutation was the least severe, so he can give to almost anyone. Including Peter. We hook them up and wait. We can do live transfusions because we're fast enough that we know it works. Once we're sure he's on the road to recovery, Gwen goes home. I drive Miles back to his place before returning to The Web. This is one of the worst cases of Parker Luck I have ever witnessed.

0o The Next Morning o0

Opening my eyes, I'm decidedly not dead. I'm not even hooked up to anything. Just dull and the feeling of needing a shower coupled with a low grade fever. Looking over, there's Michael, half on my bed, half draped off but holding on in that spidery way of his. I burst out sobbing. I was sure I was about to die, but here I am still kicking. He wakes up with a start before scooping me into a hug as I sob into his chest. "Michael, Michael. I thought I was gonna die there."

"Shhhh…not on my watch. You'll be okay. We'll do it together." I nod and he lets me cry my tears for a good while before I was done.

"How do you feel?"

"Surprisingly good. My arm doesn't hurt like I've been stabbed. But it might be infected, 'cause I feel kinda sick. I could really use a shower too. What day is it?" "It's… Tuesday of the same week. Just so you have the rundown, we found you in bad condition, moved you here, fixed the punctured vein and gauzed the wound, but you had lost a lot of blood. Uh…don't get mad but we were out of your blood and after checking the chart, Miles was marked as a candidate for donation. So we gave you his blood. But you needed a good bit of it. Knowing that, any changes to how you feel?"

"Not yet. But I have…today and tomorrow to recover. So, how much exactly?"

"Uhm…a lot. Like Miles was pretty weak when I brought him home last night and I called to excuse him from school."

"That's quite a bit. I've been able to take around half a human's worth before he even gets slightly woozy. But I'm pretty sure you guys run around with more blood than usual anyways. Uh, the gauze seems to be rather extra. Think I got spider healing this time?"

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"Yeah. You seem to be running kinda like us at this point. Hopefully it's just the 90-day period." Peter has needed blood before and with our experiments in who can have what, he's acted as our control of sorts. The base of normality. Turns out, spider-person blood, when accepted into a human causes a 90 day period of time when weaker spider powers present themselves due to the red blood cells, and leave whenever his body filters them out with his own red blood cells. That's part of what made researching our type of nuclear mutation is that it is apparent on a structural and cellular level. It's always the difference because it only shows up in his blood, nothing else. We've only experimented in small doses though. My gut says this is going to be different, even though he seems to be fine right now. He takes it off, and it is indeed completely healed outwardly. It's tender to the touch, but with spider healing, that'll clear up by tonight at the latest. He gets up with a slight wobble, before going off towards the showers. He's back in thirty minutes, wearing one of our emergency tracksuits. "My uh, clothes were all bloody. Seemed like a bad idea to put them back on." Nodding, I proceeded to make him rest the day away, healing up. Tomorrow, the Peter and Michael of tomorrow will deal with, but for now we make sure we're okay.

A/N: Heyo! I'm baaaaack! This is really fun for me as I've been working on this for so long that I know what I want and I'm not making as many mistakes. I've decided what kind of shape the story should take. Before you ask, yes. Peter is a Christian. It made more sense for his character. That is all I will be saying on that. Moving on, any other comments, questions or requests are welcomed in the form of Comments. (Sorry about the misspelling on the last chapter, it was auto correct.) See you next time my readers!