Dr. Octopus

"Oh my god!" Silk uttered. Her voice shuddered as she felt incredibly disturbed by the sight of the doctor's corpse being marionetted around by invisible strings. His skin, still charred from the explosion, and his body, filled with bullet holes, combined to create a horrific display in front of the two spiders.

'Jesus...' Harry was still watching from behind his screen, unable to even speak at this point. He'd never seen anything this gruesome in his life, not even during the lizard attacks. He was afraid, for once being thankful that he wasn't actually out in the field with them.

Spider-Man looked onward, clenching his fists due to the anger building up within him. He wasn't very close to Octavius, but he knew he was a good man and didn't deserve to be murdered and mind controlled by his own creation.

Dr. Octavius's corpse laughed. "God? There is no God. We will become God." Dr. Octopus, the consciousness of the four tentacles had become one with the body of Dr. Octavius. They spoke through the corpse with their arms still extended outward, striking a high and mighty pose. The crunching of bones and the sound of tearing flesh could be heard as the main body continued to cycle through personalities.

'Damn, he was right about all these guys having god complexes...' Harry thought to himself, still watching through Eren and Cindy's eyes.

"You humans wouldn't understand the possibilities. The knowledge that one possesses when under the guidance of such an advanced collective brain as ours. Soon, the entire planet will be part of us. Humanity will all become one." Dr. Octopus proclaimed confidently.

"That's just mental slavery." Eren told them, already growing annoyed with hearing yet another grandiose villainous monologue. Coming after Doom, Dr. Octopus was a hard sell.

"Slavery?" A softer and more sympathetic voice spoke, tilting the main body's head much less aggressively than the others.

"Oh, no. It's not slavery. Think of it more as guidance from above. You wouldn't say a person is a slave to whatever god they choose to believe in, would you? Think of the world we can create if we remove all of the weaknesses of being human. No more pain. No more suffering. No more sadness. All of the things that make us weak will immediately cease to exist."

"Bullshit." Eren responded, his body vibrating due to how infuriated he was.

"Yeah, what about love? Happiness?" Silk added.

The main body's neck tilted aggressively upon hearing this before they erupted in laughter. "You feeble-minded girl. That's the problem. You humans, especially of the female variety, lack logical thinking." The more aggressive one of the voices spoke as it turned the main body toward Silk, its lifeless arms dangling in the air as it turned to her.

Silk winced in disgust, still unable to stomach the horrible display in front of her.

"Happiness? Love? Those are all weaknesses. That's why the old man's friend died. Love led him away from the truth and then to his untimely death. Poor Dr. Connors." A more condescending voice spoke to the two spiders, angering Eren even further. "In fact, the old man himself died because of his weakness as a human. Without him holding us back, he would have never died. Instead, he chose to fight us. He could have lived to see us create a utopia!" As they spoke, they lowered the main body onto the ground, allowing it to stand like a pastor with its arms extended.

A slight spark of electricity crackled in Spider-Man's hands, bringing up Dr. Connors like that was the final straw for him. "Enough. This is a waste of time. I don't care about your goals. I don't care about your evil plan. None of it matters once I deactivate you, all of you, and free Otto from you." He told them coldly before once again reentering his Ultimate Godspeed form, this time lighting up the entire hallway with his cobalt energy.

Silk looked over at him nervously, this was the first time she'd ever seen him this angry. The only time that came close was when he broke Flash's phone on prom night.

Dr. Octopus threw their head back in laughter. "Go ahead and try, human boy." Dr. Octopus told him. As they said this, the sharp pike that impaled Dr. Octavius's body once again unsheathed itself from the center of the upper right tentacle.

"Silk. Try to keep up." Spider-Man said calmly before dashing toward the main body like a bolt of lightning.

The tentacles threw themselves at the hero, nearly hitting him as used his speed to dodge each strike, delivering a reluctant punch to Dr. Octavius's face. However, it was clear that this had no effect on Dr. Octavius themselves since the body was nothing more than a vessel for them.

'Damn it! I need to find a way to break the connection somehow!' Spider-Man thought, continuing to dodge strikes from the metallic tentacles of Dr, Octavius.

Silk joined the fight, leaping in the air and webbing one of the tentacles to the ceiling due to it being distracted by Spider-Man. She saw that Eren's attack did nothing, so she decided to attack the tentacles directly.

Forming claws on her fingertips using her webs, Silk slashed at the unmoving tentacles using everything she had, however, it did nothing more than scratch the surface of the metallic limbs. "The arms are too strong for me to cut through!" she shouted, landing on a wall and bouncing off of it to deliver another slash.

"We are stronger than you'll ever imagine, woman. Your pathetic talons are no match for Dr. Octopus!" The hivemind proclaimed, defending themselves from Silk and Spider-Man's attacks.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man was wrestling with one of the arms, using everything within him to try and rip the arm out of the socket. However, Dr.Octopus was moving their metallic limbs too frantically for him to get enough leverage.

As Spider-Man attempted to gain some footing, one of the other limbs tried striking him, however, he was far too fast and dodged the attacks with ease.

Silk would not be so lucky as one of the tentacles snatched her out of the air by the face. At the same time, the tentacle that was webbed to the ceiling broke free, pointing its sharp point directly at Silk before attempting to impale her. She used both of her hands to block the attack, grabbing the sharp pike before it could stab her in the throat. However, this claw was slowly starting to overpower her.

"NOOOOOOO!" Spider-Man roared, immediately zipping up in the air, using one of the hospital walls for leverage as he began pushing the stabbing tentacle away from Silk. Seeing that Spider-Man's hands were full, the other two tentacles grabbed him by both arms, pinning him against the wall to make him watch what was about to happen.

Seeing how helpless Spider-Man appeared, Dr. Octopus let out a taunting laugh before speaking directly to the boy. "Now, how about I make you watch as I kill your little girlfriend? I told you that love was a weakness! Allow me to demonstrate!"

Eren started to use every bit of his strength to try and break free from Dr. Octopus's grasp, flailing around sporadically as Godspeed energy began building up on his back. "Let go of her!" Spider-Man yelled as the blade began drawing blood on Cindy Moon's throat.

"STOP!"

𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙆!

The sound of metal clashing could be heard, along with the sound of blood dripping onto the ground. "Let. Go. Of. Her!" Eren spoke through his grimacing teeth as four spider legs were protruding from his back in a similar fashion to Dr. Octopus's tentacle, blocking their spike tentacle from impaling Cindy while also stabbing into the main body.

"What!?" Dr. Octopus exclaimed, in disbelief that such as thing was possible.

Eren had never thought of it before, but he could use the Spider-Matter on his costume to shape weapons from his body as well. He'd never needed to use weapons before, aside from Namor's trident, so the thought never crossed his mind until then.

"I said..." Spider-Man adjusted his body, using his legs to push off the wall as he swung himself forward using his spider legs. "LET GO!" Spider-Man forgot to hold back, sending a kick with full power aimed directly at the main body of Dr. Octavius.

Using all four tentacles, Dr. Octopus blocked the strike, however, it was so powerful due to Spider-Man putting everything into it that it sent him flying out of one of the hospital windows, sending them plummeting down toward the Earth.

Spider-Man's lenses widened. "Doctor-" he stopped himself, erasing any sympathy from his brain upon remembering that Dr. Octavius was long dead. The thing he was fighting wasn't a man, just a machine like the Doombots that attacked Wakanda.

Spider-Man retracted the spider legs from his back before attending to Silk, getting down on one knee and grabbing her hand. "Are you okay?" he asked her. "I can finish this, you can rest."

"No..." Silk, despite being in pain, stood up on her own two feet, throwing Eren's hand to the side. She didn't want to be a damsel or sidekick who sits back when things got tough. 'She's so stubborn.' Eren smiled at her under his mask, before putting his serious face back on. "See you down there, Silk."

Spider-Man flickered out of the building, leaving Silk on her own momentarily. Once back up on her own feet, Silk web-zipped out of the building, finding Spider-Man standing in the middle of the street in front of an injured Dr. Octopus who was standing using Octavius's corpse.

One of their arms was completely broken off, laying on the floor and the remaining piece connected to Dr. Octavious's corpse was generating sparks. However, despite the claw being ripped off, the arm was still mobile. Breaking the tentacles wasn't working.

Silk landed next to Spider-Man before he immediately told her his new plan, quietly so as to not allow the tentacles to hear them. "I'm going to rip the part that's connected to his spine off of his body." he told her, causing her to look at him as if he said something vile.

"Won't that kill him?" she asked, her voice was incredibly shaky just thinking about it.

"No, he's already dead. We need to remove the connection completely or else he won't be able to rest. Not properly. I'll do the hard part. I need you to web the tentacles and hold them down to give me enough time. I'll distract them by getting close." Before Silk could tell him her opinion, he darted forward and began attacking Dr. Octopus, punching and kicking their arms while going all out.

Each attack left dents on Dr. Octopus's limbs, knocking them into predictable positions for Silk to shoot her webs at. One by one, Eren kicked one of the octopus's tentacles into a position for Silk to tie them down until eventually, all four limbs, including the broken one, were being held by her webs.

Sliding across the ground, still glowing with Godspeed energy, Spider-Man looked at Dr. Octopus and proclaimed his victory over the so-called god. "It's over, Dock Ock." Spider-Man quickly zipped behind the doctor, attaching his webs the metallic endoskeleton outlining Dr. Octavius's neck.

"I will not be defeated by a human child!" Dr. Octavius tried to break free from Silk's grasp, however, her hold on them was far too great. All they could do was wait as Spider-Man would finally end them once and for all.

𝙕𝙏𝙏!

"NOOOOOO!" Dr. Octopus bellowed.

With his webs in hand, Spider-Man took off, ripping the endoskeleton from Dr. Octavius's corpse, taking chunks of skin and spine out with him.

Immediately, the tentacles stopped moving, no longer having a body to leech off of, freeing Dr. Octavius from being their puppet.

Silk looked on in horror, releasing the webs and falling down on her knees.

She knew he wasn't alive.

She knew this was the only way.

But it still horrified her.

Silk removed her mask and began vomiting on the ground, meanwhile, Eren was looking down at the mess he made with solemn eyes. He felt bad for mutilating Otto's corpse in the way that he did, but at least the man could rest properly without the tentacles taking control of his body...

A week passed from that day, bringing Eren Parker to Otto Octavius's funeral.

Once again, Eren found himself at a mentor's funeral. Of course, he wasn't that close with Otto, but it still hurt nonetheless, especially since he could have prevented it.

The casket was closed, for obvious reasons, and much like Ben Grimm's wife, Mrs. Octavius was hysterical, crying beside her husband's casket throughout the entire burial phase.

As Eren watched her weep, he began thinking about everything that'd happened over the last year of his life, since the one-year anniversary of his mother's death and his becoming a hero was steadily approaching.

'Yet again, I found myself before a genius who descended into madness. I didn't know much about Electro, in fact, that guy was a total idiot, but he had to be brilliant in terms of his knowledge of engineering since he created that vest for himself. He was probably a prodigy who wasn't given the resources to use his gift for something good.

After him, there was Tinkerer. A girl who I drove mad by killing her father. She's brilliant, I owe a lot to her. She single-handedly invented programmable matter, the basis for my Spider-Matter. I bet she and I could've been friends under different circumstances.

Then Dr. Connors... the greatest instructor I've ever had in my life. Again, someone brilliant, someone bright, someone caring, descending into madness because of an obsession. He wanted to be whole so badly, he destroyed himself to make it happen. He caused the deaths of hundreds... then he took his own life.

Dr. Doom, a man who was always second place, wanted nothing more than to be recognized for his own genius. It was pretty bleak, but he believed everything Reed had, including his family, was rightfully his, not Reed's. This self entitlement turned a man with such a great mind into a monster.

And now, Dr. Otto Octavius. A man who wanted to help the world by creating prosthetics and renewable energy for all. His arrogance led to his downfall, and his own creation ended up turning on him.

This horrifies me. Will I too fall into this pattern of madness? Is intelligence really a curse? Maybe being Spider-Man is a curse, a curse I dragged Harry and Cindy into...'