Usually, a series of coincidences – when so perfectly intertwined with one another - will result in either horrifying tragedy, or unbelievable fortune. But for the events about to occur on the fateful morning that Doctor Ock had picked for his 're-introduction to society', things would turn out rather more strangely.

Ten o'clock in the morning, and down-town New York was already in uproar. And Doctor Octopus found great triumph and satisfaction in seeing the people of New York flee from him in terror – scrambling over one another in their haste – screaming and begging him to spare their pointless little lives. Cars rolled and windows smashed as Doc Ock ripped a clear path through the bustling, traffic-filled streets – and leaving a path of desolation in his wake. While the lower pair of gleaming tentacles stomped along, holding Otto high above the ground, the other pair weaved freely around the Doctor's head, lashing out at any object within their range – people included. So much destruction without purpose was not usually Doc Ock's style, but in this case, it seemed perfectly appropriate. He was announcing his miraculous return, after all. He had to set an example.

Yes, make them fear me! Ock's mind raved. Let them scream and panic and flee from my presence like frightened sheep! Show them all that Doctor Octopus has returned! Show them that he will not be defeated so easily! Show them-

Otto paused in his stampeding, for the mechanical arm on his right had suddenly snapped out towards something on the road – a discarded newspaper. Clipping its articulate metal claws around the paper, the snaky arm rose up and back round toward Otto, placing the newspaper carefully in his own hands.

Otto glared at the headline with a sudden frown of realization. 'Man-eating Menace Threatens City!' the headline read, and there, by the text, was a shadowy and slightly blurred photo of a giant bird in flight.

As cars swerved and people continued to run and panic, Doctor Ock stood unmoving in the middle of the road, reading the newspaper as casually as if he were sitting at home.

'A gigantic eagle – fully capable of carrying a human child in its talons – has been threatening citizens of New York with its carnivorous appetite' read the smaller, bold text under the headline. Otto smiled coldly. This was his thief, without a doubt. So the bird was a murderer now, was it? Well kudos to the eagle...!

Quickly erasing the shred of tolerance that had been creeping into his mind, Doc Ock proceeded to scan quickly through the important parts of the article; '…bigger than any known bird of prey …experts predict its wings and talons are capable of killing a full grown man … reported to have carried off a five year old girl…killing livestock and terrifying Americans around the country …now taken up residence somewhere in New York… authorities prevented from taking action by 'Paranormal Lifeforms' expert Katherine Goldin, freelance researcher for a crypto-zoology company in London…'

Otto's gaze flicked to the photo of the featured researcher – the eccentric-looking nineteen year old girl smiling crookedly at the camera, her pen posed artfully over her notebook. Long dark blonde hair hung with casual messiness around her shoulders, framing her smooth facial features and piercing green eyes. She was slim yet strong in figure, wearing a loose, fashionably scruffy long-sleeved shirt and baggy washed-out jeans. She had the look of a free spirit, bearing a sort of natural beauty, and a bright gleam of humour and wit in her eyes. An interesting-looking person to be sure, and if she knew as much about the eagle as the article claimed, Doc Ock reckoned in might be worth keeping an eye out for her…

Suddenly, the daylight around Doctor Ock darkened for a moment, as a looming shadow passed swiftly overhead. Startled into action, Doc Ock dropped the newspaper and whirled round to see – as he'd suspected – the giant Golden Eagle gliding away down the street. The huge bird had swooped mockingly low over the Doctor's head, before sailing back up into open sky, uttering its mournful, piercing cry as it travelled. With a snarl of rage, Doctor Octopus tore off in pursuit of Roc.

Kate was out and about that morning, patrolling the streets as usual. For a while she had been walking slowly up the street, lost in her thoughts, until suddenly realising that everyone seemed to be running in the opposite direction to her. She stopped, suddenly alert and listening. There appeared to be a great deal of commotion coming from the next street – a sort of loud stomping noise.

"Maybe Godzilla is in town." Kate murmured to herself, and stepped forward, before pausing once again, as she heard the familiar whoosh of powerful wings pass over her, of soft feathers brushing her hair.

The increasingly loud stomping momentarily forgotten, Kate quickly turned round to see Roc landing nearby on a low wall. The eagle's vicious talons briefly scrabbled for balance, before Roc folded his mighty wings and tipped his golden head on one side to regard Kate placidly.

Kate grinned, always happy to see the eagle. "Well this is a switch. You know it's meant to be me that finds you." She said with gentle fondness.

The huge eagle bobbed his head as if gesturing to something, and it was at that point that Kate caught sight of something glittering on Roc's left foot. It seemed that some sort of necklace – an antique locket on a delicate silver chain, to be precise – had somehow got itself tightly tangled around the bird's talons. In some places the tangles were particularly tight, and were starting to cut into the flesh. It certainly looked very uncomfortable, and no doubt the eagle wanted to be rid of it, which was why he had flown down to her.

Wincing sympathetically, Kate leaned forward to start untangling the mess of knotted chain, but she'd only got as far as taking hold of the locket before Roc suddenly and unexpectedly took flight again, and narrowly missed hitting Kate in the face as those huge wings snapped open. The force of the sudden take-off broke the link holding the locket to the chain – it came off in Kate's hands as Roc beat his way up into the air.

Dazed, Kate watched as the Golden Eagle sailed off round a building and out of sight, then looked down at the locket in her open palm. She may as well have been holding a time bomb.

Doctor Octopus had rounded the corner just in time to the eagle – who somehow always managed to stay way ahead of him – land near a girl. A girl that Doc Ock instantly identified as the researcher he had moments ago been reading about in the paper.

Taking his chance while the bird was no longer airborne, Ock had prowled closer, but of course the eagle saw him coming and took off once again. Otto then saw something glitter brightly in the sun, something come away in the girl's hand as the bird took flight. The thieving bird had been carrying the necklace, and now the girl had it!

Seething, Doc Ock lurched forward. But now, with the eagle well and truly out of his reach, he had a new target…

Meanwhile, Kate was still oblivious and engrossed in examining the locket she'd just acquired. She turned it over in her palm, frowning. There was something very strange about all this…and there was that stomping noise again…getting rapidly closer…

"What the hell is tha- …woah." Kate turned round to find herself confronting a very strange sight indeed.

A man – a rather unhinged-looking man – with four long metal tentacles protruding from his back. He appeared to be heading straight for Kate and, though he was still quite a way off, Kate could see the man's wild eyes staring right at her.

"Ok, no one mentioned anything about a psycho Inspector Gadget!!" Kate shouted in an almost accusing way at the oncoming menace. She could see those snapping tentacles lashing out many feet in front of the man they were attached to, while the lower pair carried him along in wide strides. He was approaching with terrifying speed. Kate knew it was officially time to start running.

Kate turned tail and took off at a rapid sprint down the street. Her dangerous profession had turned her into a surprisingly fast runner – she travelled swiftly, nimbly dodging cars and people, and for a while it seemed that she was keeping a good distance between herself and the multi-armed man. But as she chanced brief glances over her shoulder, she realised that she just wouldn't be able to keep this up. She could see the man using every available structure and object in his attempts to catch up with her – at some points, she even saw him clambering up the sides of buildings.

Kate knew that if she wanted to survive this, she was going to have to do something clever, and it might help if she started by getting off the main street. And so, at the first available opportunity, she skidded round a corner into a narrow ally way. Her sudden and unexpected change in direction caused Doctor Ock to actually continue on past the ally entrance for a few paces, before stumbling to a halt, swerving round, and tearing off down the ally path, his tentacles smashing bricks and plaster in all directions as they fumbled for space between the narrow walls.

Meanwhile, Kate was already facing a problem.

"Ah, Mr Dead-End, we meet again." Kate muttered grimly to the solid brick wall she now faced. Whirling round and pressing her back against the wall, she frantically looked around for any sort of escape route, but there was nothing. So instead she just watched despairingly as her looming pursuer stalked towards her, bearing the sadistic smile of a predator that's just cornered its prey.

"Give me the necklace!!" Otto snapped, causing Kate to look down at the locket she still had clutched in her hand. So, this was why he'd been chasing her…

"Give it to me!!" Otto barked again, a metal tentacle snaking out towards Kate with vicious intent.

"Alright alright, keep your tentacles on." muttered Kate, holding the locket out towards him.

Immediately, the tentacle that had been hovering in front of her face dipped down to her hand and plucked the locket from her open palm, before curling round and – in a surprisingly tender way – placing the trinket into the man's coat pocket. But the man's frowning face continued to watch Kate expectantly.

"Where's the rest of it…" he asked her with a tone of dangerous insistency.

"That's all I've got. The chain is still tangled round Roc's foot." Kate replied, meeting Doc Ock's gaze with a calm confidence that made the man blink.

Doctor Ock fell silent after that comment, his scowling expression clearing slightly as he slipped away into his own thoughts. And Kate, who had in the past dealt with much more frightening opponents than this one, was calmly taking in everything about the strange man, now that he was finally holding still.

At first, it was difficult to focus on anything else but those four snaky mechanical arms. As magnificent as they were horrific, the gleaming tentacles moved with a dark, foreboding grace, as if with a life of their own – a disturbing thought, for Kate had noticed instances where the arms looked like they were dragging him along, rather than the other way round. The ends of the arms clicked and whirred as if whispering to one another - occasionally one would fold itself out to form a vicious set of articulate metal digits with a gleaming red lens at its centre – a single glaring eye. It was dangerously hypnotic to watch them, and Kate wondered how on earth this man had ended up in such a state. The tentacles were fused with him, working as one with his mind and body – that much was clear, for how else could a machine move in such an organic way? But it was how he had come to be fused with them that was the mystery. The arms appeared to be protruding from his back, and though Kate could not see anything because of the man's coat, she suspected that it wasn't pretty. Or comfortable, for that matter. And it was these thoughts of sympathy that drew Kate's attention to the human half of this strange fusion.

He bore the look of a man who had once been a normal person with a normal life, until some tragic event had turned him into someone completely different. Once a well-groomed man of comfort and security, now sunken and dishevelled, a stocky figure now made impressive and powerful by his symbiotic appendages. Dressed in grubby clothes to match his mood – thick boots and scruffy trousers, bare-chested beneath a heavy black trench-coat. Dark hair, once neatly styled, now a scruffy mop. Equally dark eyes, once soulful and kind, now wild and malicious. And, with his evil smile and confident manner, Kate concluded him to be of the 'dangerously charming' calibre. Yes indeed, dangerously charming and – it had to be said – unconventionally attractive.

While Kate pondered all this, it was safe to say that Doc Ock's own thoughts did not concern the girl's appearance. He'd been through that already with the newspaper photo. Right now, he was reviewing the current situation. Surprisingly, Kate's last comment – which obviously proved the eagle's theft of the necklace to be unintentional – had not had much of an effect on him. He still continued to be enraged by the whole principal of the situation – the simple fact that the eagle had flown off with Rosie's treasured necklace. He had the locket now, but the bird still had the chain, and he was going to get it back. The problem was, his recent encounter with Roc had proved his attempts at capturing the bird to be utterly useless. Despite his agility at climbing buildings, Otto simply could not keep pace with something that could fly so high and so fast. Plus, he also had the problem of actually finding the creature. The eagle was big, but the city was bigger. There were a million and one places for a bird – however large – to hide. And now that the police – not to mention that pesky Spider-Man – knew that he was still alive, he didn't exactly have the option of gallivanting around searching the city's every nook and cranny. No, he needed to find someone who knew exactly where the eagle lived. The only person who knew where the eagle lived…

Kate, who had for a while been sitting on the ground, staring up at Doctor Ock with an innocent smile on her face, was now becoming slightly unnerved by the fact that the multi-armed man was staring at her with a sly grin spread over his face.

"Um….hi." Kate ventured after a while. "I'm Kate. And you are…?"

For a moment, it looked like Otto wasn't going to answer her. But then he said, "I am Doctor Otto Octav- …Hm." The Doctor gave a rather depressed sigh before starting the sentence again. "I'm known as Doctor Octopus."

Kate nodded slowly. "Okay…yes, I see the relevance there. But what do you call yourself? Did you say 'Otto' just then? Ott- arrgh!!"

Kate gave a sudden yelp of fear as a metal tentacle shot towards her, its head snapping open as a lasso of metal cable coiled out from its centre, curling itself tightly around Kate's waist. The next thing she knew, she was hauled roughly into the air.

"Whoa!" Kate exclaimed, her head spinning from the sudden surge upwards. She then found herself staring straight into the Doctor's face. "Um, yes, hello there. Um…why??"

Apparently amused by the young woman's scatty speech, Doc Ock chuckled softly before answering calmly, "I've just thought of something you can help me with. You're going to tell me where your bird friend is hiding."

Struggling uncomfortably within the tight coils of cable, Kate shook her head stubbornly. "Sorry, can't tell you that. That's classified. Plus, you don't look like much of an animal lover to me…"

"Tell me…" A second tentacle snaked over to Kate's face, opening out to reveal an extending – and horrifically sharp – spike. "…Or I will make life very painful for you."

To Otto's surprise, the girl scoffed at his threat. "Oh come on, I've seen this movie. There's no way you're going kill the only person in the city who has the information you need. More likely, you'll take me hostage and-

Kate was abruptly cut off as the tentacle's splayed claws – the spike now thankfully retracted – lurched forward and clamped themselves around Kate's head, completely encasing her face.

Automatically, Kate's hands flew up to prise the claws away, but her efforts were of course useless. She tried to speak, but her words were completely muffled. Meanwhile, Doc Ock just watched her, his face unnervingly calm.

"A hostage. What a nice idea. Let's do that, then. But let me make one thing clear – I never said I was going to kill you, I said I would make life painful for you. Alright?"

Unable to speak, Kate made a thumbs-up gesture with both hands. Satisfied, Otto allowed the tentacle to open and withdraw from Kate's face.

"Urgh…that's going to leave a bruise…" Kate groaned in discomfort, wincing as she placed her hands against her sore face. After a while, she looked at Otto, a surprising lack of contempt in her eyes, considering the circumstances. "Right then, onwards and upwards. Though preferably not upwards." She said cheerily.

Doctor Ock frowned at her. "I'll be the one to decide when we leave."

Kate nodded, pulling her face into a serious expression. "Sorry…"

And so Otto did not move. For a while, there was an awkward silence, save for Kate tapping her fingernails against the metal claws clasped around her waist. Eventually, Kate asked quietly, "…Can we go yet?"

"….Yes." Doc Ock grumbled. He then lurched into action, prowling out of the ally and off down the street, holding Kate up high as if she were some sort of trophy. A few onlookers, amongst those who cowered on the streets or hovered timidly in shop doorways, stepped out to watch with horrified fascination as Doctor Octopus marched away from them. All of them secretly prayed that Spider-Man would be around to save them the next time Doc Ock came to call.

Notes: Whooo! Finally, a more fast-paced chapter! Hope y'all like the way this is going. Sorry for any delays in uploading this – I managed to get myself temporarily banned for uploading something elsewhere that was considered to be a 'list'. shrugs Whatever. Anyway, some replies to your groovy comments:

Shadow Fox Forever: Hey, I must be doing something right, then! XD

Karina of Darkness: Yeah, I know what you mean, I probably screwed up on the logic there. The trouble is, if I'd had Ock encounter Roc in chapter2, then I'd have just been repeating myself in this chapter. Narrative over logic, in this case. But anyway, I'm glad you like Kate. She's great fun to write.

Lady Suneidesis: Aw, shucks. Thanks much. :)

Lieutenant Lindsey: Oooh wait n see, wait n see! Heehee.