Peter felt a surge of anger boil up from his gut as he stared at the monster before him. Without a second thought he fired a web, and violently yanked the man forwards. He snatched Otto out of the air, holding him by the neck with a grip strong enough to bend steel, then he ripped off his mask, staring into Otto’s eyes without the bar of a lens.
“You… you.. you bastard!” he roared, slamming him against the ground. The concrete cracked, sending tremors outwards as the entire wreck groaned. Otto lay on the floor, coughing violently as tears streamed from his eyes. Peter hefted him off the floor again, holding him tightly.
“P-Peter” Otto garbled, “Peter… please”
“What did you do?!” Peter roared. Otto gasped trying to pull away, but Peter held tightly, refusing to let go.
“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!” Peter cried, his voice filled with more sadness than anger. He was met with a cold silence, as Otto wheezed uselessly. Peter dropped him and cursed turning away.
“Answer dammit” Jess muttered stepping forward. Otto mumbled nonsense on the floor and twisted slowly onto his front, attempting to drag himself away from the two. Jess grabbed him and flipped back him over.
“Why'd you try to kill me?! I’ve known you for years!” she said. Otto chuckled as blood trickled from his lips.
“Years? You’re just a clone” Otto spat.
Jess stumbled back, wiping at her face. Peter caught her, before stepping between them. Otto looked to who spat blood onto the floor.
“Look me Doc” he said. Otto stayed silent. “Look at me dammit!!”
Otto looked up, his formerly hazy eyes focused, as his gaze centred on Peter.
“What the hell did you do? What was all this?”
“My life’s work” Otto said wistfully.
“Don’t give me that bullshit. What were you doing? I want details”
“Why don’t you ask the clone? She saw it and she seems to know me so well” he chuckled.
“I’m not humouring you Otto. Tell me or I swear to God I’ll-”
“Fine. It’s all gone anyway. All gone…” Otto said his gaze drifting.
“Otto?”
Silence.
“Otto!”
“Jesus. Can’t let an old man reminisce?”
Peter stared at him silently, seething.
“I… after your friend, Harrison, fired me I was disgraced”
“You weren’t”
“I might as well have been”
“Seriously?! That’s your excuse for this?!”
“Are you going to let me talk? Or are you just going to shout at me” Otto said curtly. Peter released his shaking fist, cursing under his breath.
“After years, years, with Oscorp, they just… threw me out. I thought Norman was cruel enough to only remove me from direct affiliation with the company, but no- he had to remove me from any Oscorp affiliate as well. His pathetic ego wouldn’t allow for. We were doing good work. We were doing well! And just-” Otto stopped, coughing violently.
“Finished with you rant?”
“I could go on for hours”
“Just get to the fucking point”
“Norman... he barred me. He had a grip on the science industry. Practically any notable research lab at the time was funded by that scumbag. If anyone hired me, they’d be cutting their budget down to nothing dust and pennies. No one would hire me as far as Trenton. And all the negative energy research is here. There are a few places in California, but none as well equipped as anything here”
“And?”
“And?! I couldn’t start from square one again! I couldn’t! So I found someone. They got me in contact with someone else, and I hired the Prowler. I had him take back what was rightfully mine”
“You took the research!? You had him break into the lab?!”
“Not the lab you fool. He attacked the clean-up crew”
“Why didn’t I hear about this? Harry said they were relocating us and then they just didn't and all the work disappeared.”
“Norman probably covered it up. Listed the items as properly disposed of then just told the next poor sod to use what little I’d left”
“Wait I- what the fuck does any of this have to do with anything?!”
“Kingpin” Otto said.
“What?”
“Prowler double crossed me. He’d been paid off and he took my stuff to Kingpin. Well, he wasn’t Kingpin yet, just Wilson. I doubt anybody would recognise him compared to who he is now. Anyway, he had it delivered to here. One of Tombstone’s old lairs” he said gesturing to the surroundings.
“Tombstone?”
“Before your time. Famous criminal. Might arrested him thirty years ago. But that’s besides the point. Kingpin told me to work with him. He wanted an army of metahumans, and he wanted to lead that army. He’d heard about me, heard of about my research and of Dr Li... he was smart, he’d thought of human application beyond just improved health; of improved cell capability on par with that of metahumans. People like you. It was just a theory at the time, but he believed it could be done, wanted me to do it to him and any loyal servant he could find. He agreed to fund me for any and all experiments, as long as I did what he wanted too and showed results”
“So, you just took the fucking job?”
“Of course I did!” Otto shouted. “It was more freedom and resources than I’d ever been allowed before. And apart from what I had to do for him, apart from that, it was incredible. It was all for the greater good”
“Greater good? You experimented on humans, didn’t you? You piece of shit” Jess spat.
“Only one! Connor Raine. He’d been indebted to Wilson. A gambling addict. Serial sexual offender. A no good piece of shit degenerate. Hadn’t been able to pay him back with anything other than his body. He’d expected them to take a kidney or…” Otto shook his head. “Even then I didn’t want to do it. But I couldn’t work if I didn’t” he said. He let out a long breath.
“I tried to be as humane as possible. As many different things for his comfort. Regular exposure, constant exposure, intermittent, through fluids, gases, pills. anything you can think of, I tried. But it didn’t matter. He grew ill quickly, so I had to ignore his short term health in order to obtain long term benefits. Real results. I learned the best way to stably improve his negative energy was by proxy. Irradiate another animal to the point of instability, then put it into regular contact with him. Unstable negative energy is like heat when there’s living organisms involved. It allowed me transfer large amounts of negative energy to him and keep him stable. But he never remained stable for long, and I couldn't figure out why. To keep him healthy... I had to keep on exposing him to animals with larger and larger doses. I- there was an incident. He became a chimera. Too many energies from separate animals and the like fighting for control at once. He… the host couldn’t be stabilised. Complete transformation, and loss of higher brain function. First time it tried to escape it caused a ruckus, nearly completely destroyed the insect containment and a few got free. The second time it tried to escape, it broke free. I was worried I’d get caught, that the work would somehow be traced back to me. There wouldn’t be an Athena to deal with it you see, and I thought the operation would be discovered because of the scrutiny that would be place on an event that caused so much havoc. But it didn’t. You stopped it”
“Me? I wasn’t-” Peter stopped himself, as Otto frowned. He’d nearly said too much. Whatever had been dealt with, it must’ve been Lucas.
“After that Kingpin was stricter. He moved me down here permanently. I wasn’t allowed to leave”
“That’s why you fell off the grid”
“Three and a half years I spent down here, working for him. Only recently did he let me leave, start working for Roxxon once he got the CEO under his thumb. And even then I could only move freely as long as I provided his wonder boy with help”
“Wonder boy?”
“Jack. Well Dr Kale this days”
“The other lead scientist from the dossier?” Jess said. Otto nodded than smiled.
“He was one of Warren’s assistants. It's a shame he got caught up in all this. He’s a genius. A little bit of creative freedom and he gave Kingpin an army in less than a year”
“The clones, they’re for Kingpin!?”
Otto nodded.
“The only reason they haven’t started using them yet is because Kingpin and Jack came up with a plan to implement them into the police force after they get that state senator to do a few things for them. An extra division of the MDA or something like that. A proposed hostile takeover of the police, not that they haven't already started"
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"This is insane" Jess mumbled.
"They're quite good like that. Bouncing ideas of each other and coming up with plans. Real natural talent for evil, those two. Though Jack doesn’t seem all that fond of it”
“Wait, just how big is this?” Jess said. Otto sighed.
“There’s a lot of moving parts. Even I don’t truly know who else is involved. I’m sure I've barely scratched the surface”
“Why’re you telling us all this?” Peter said.
“You asked”
“I asked about what you’re building here, about the clones, not about Kingpin. Why?”
Otto sighed again, the sound heavy.
“Kingpin’s dangerous. Tombstone dangerous. He’s not like Athena’s villains, who make a big splash over and over, no. He’s the kind of man who spends years slowly expanding his influence until his presence is undeniable, until he’s a force that can’t be stopped, and that was before I... changed him”
“Changed him?”
“My work for him was successful. Well partially successful. When I gave him what he wanted just over a year ago now, he became stronger than anything I’d ever seen, but he lost something. Something human. He’s more than just dangerous, Peter. He’s evil. True evil. I’ve seen what that man can do, even without power. He’s ruthless. And he believes the city belongs to him. He’ll do anything, anything to make it reality. And he's close. Really close. A year or two and… he needs to be stopped. I was planning to betray him, to poison him and hope that would be enough to stop this madness in its tracks but it’s too late now. I’m as good as dead”
“What?!” Jess and Peter cried in unison. He looked injured, and his body was malformed, but nothing that looked like it would kill him.
Otto took a long breath.
“I’ve been taking temporary versions of the formula I created and gave to Kingpin. It’s a semi stable one. I didn’t realise it at first, but it’s had… less than desirable effects on my mental state. I’m sure its responsible for certain changes in Kingpin, too. But that’s besides the point. If I didn’t have this within my body, I’d be dead within the hour”
“But what about with the BRC? No one died then”
“The assured death radius is small. The people who were in the room probably died of exposure if they weren’t killed by debris. Their deaths were probably consider a result of the explosion or due to being crushed by debris”
Peter and Jess glanced at each other.
“It’s funny really. In terms of destructive power, negative energy bombs aren’t exactly all they’re made out to be. Norman’s spent so much money looking for a way to make a big bomb that’s not all that effective at killing people” Otto chuckled.
“Otto. M-maybe there’s a way to fix it, or stop it?” Peter mumbled. Otto sighed.
“Just look at me Peter. Does this look the body of a healthy man to you?”
Peter didn’t know how to respond. He felt angry for feeling any sadness, but guilty at that anger. The in his heart for Otto still rang true despite everything he’d seen. He shook his head. The man in front of him wasn’t what he’d thought. He needed to forget it.
“I’m telling you because Kingpin can’t harm me more than my own body will, and regardless he’ll be the least of your worries in the coming months”
“What? Why?!” Jess said, stepping forwards.
“Well let’s just say you should hope the explosion eradicated all of my work. If anything here’s still alive, given very few were stable and the amount of exposure they got… either way, the city’s doomed” Otto shook his head. Peter’s stomach suddenly sank. No. There was no guarantee that what he thought Otto was talking about was correct.
“What’re you talking about?” Jess said.
“The explosion” Peter mumbled.
“Right. You probably saw a light diffuse outwards from the explosion, didn’t you Peter?”
Peter’s stomach twisted into knots.
“Shit”
“Wait, am I missing something?” Jess said, looking between them.
“It… there was a paper Otto and I were working on. About sustained negative energy and the effects it could have on people. We started it because of the increase of metahumans after the first negative energy explosion, from what was probably a temporary field. But it was all theory-”
“For you. I tested our theorems. We were mostly right”
“Wait wha-”
“We were right Peter”
“Right about what?” Jess said.
“A negative energy field like that would do wonders for people in a small, controlled environment. But even in a completely sterile environment, it’d be difficult to control, and that’d make it difficult to ascertain the side effects it would have on people. And we’re talking about three or four hours of constant exposure in a cubic metre, not an entire city for weeks, months, and even years. For most people life will continue normally, but for the few with less resistance? There’s no telling what could happen. You could get metahuman’s as strong as Icon popping up all over the place, or entire families could get cancer in a matter of days. And that doesn’t even account for how organisms other than humans would be affected”
“But wouldn’t that need a lot of energy. More than just two explosions, right? Right?” Jess said looking around frantically.
“Well you can thank the wonderful Norman Osborne for illegal negative energy bomb tests all over the city”
“What?”
“He broke a few laws and had to pay a few fines when people found out, but he was more than happy to pay the fines regularly. He’s been doing testing in rooftop labs throughout the city. Marketed it as a new frontier for affordable science. Absolute scumbag”
Jess stared at him blankly.
“Everything is about to go to shit. You've got a madman in the under world in the midst of trying to crown himself King of the city, and about 1 in every 1000 people maybe even more is about to become a dangerous metahuman, or keel over and die. The police are useless. The MDA’s useless. There are no superheroes left in this godforsaken city and nobody seems to care since they think Might will handle it. But he won’t. Not until it’s too late at least” Otto said. He glanced to Peter. “Well… I guess you’re back”
Peter went to say something but paused. What was that? He listened closer, turning as his spider sense buzzed lightly. A voice. It was faint, but he could hear it. He glanced to Jess who looked back to him.
“He’s still out there” she mumbled.
“What?” Otto said.
“The kid, we heard him” Peter said, as Jess began scrambling forwards.
“Impossible. No regular human would’ve survived that explosion”
“We can hear him Otto just stay h-”
“Free… finally… free” a broken voice said, cutting Peter off. They all froze looking out to the wreckage. Otto’s eyes widened, as he sputtered, spraying blood and spittle everywhere.
“Run, we have to run”
“Run?!” Jess said, angry.
“Yes. Christ. Your friend’s gone. The symbiote has him now” Otto said, scrambling up from the floor.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Peter said.
“There’s no time! We have to leave!” Otto said, turning to run. Peter grabbed him, yanking him back.
“Peter! We can’t j-”
An unholy screech echoed all around them, shaking the wreckage. What was left of the metal walls groaned, creaking as pieces of debris fell, spraying everything in a blanket of rain like shrapnel before kicking up a cloud of dust.
“What the hell was that? What the hell did you make?” Peter said, turning back to Otto.
“Wait. It wasn’t- he had something that made him like Dr Gonzales. Back at the BRC” Jess said, her expression filled with worry. She looked to Otto, as the rubble began to groan again.
“You said it was a symbiote? So, it needs a host. Doesn’t that mean Yu’s still alive? That he took control of it?” she said.
“That was not the voice of any man” Otto said, fear in his eyes.
“Shit! There must be something we can do right?”
”A person in his condition wouldn’t be able to control the symbiote. It manipulates your thoughts enough even when you’re in control. He was near dead before the explosion. He’s probably brain dead and the symbiote just had his body”
Peter’s eyes widened, before he cursed.
“How do you know that?” Jess said.
“I tested a few theories” Otto said.
“You tested it on someone?”
“Only a clone”
Peter looked away sick as the rubble overhead began to creak again. Otto cursed.
“We have to go”
“No. How do we stop it?”
“What?”
”We need to separate him from the symbiote. It’s weak to acid, right?”
“It’s not- we’d need to get him to the chamber, expose him to positive energy. But I doubt that would work. The chamber was probably destroyed”
“You don’t know that for sure. We can try to s”
“What? Peter look aro-“
”Doesn’t matter. Even if the chamber’s broken, we’ll stop this thing here, before it gets into the streets. And you’re helping”
“What?!”
“Jess let Otto lead you to the chamber. I’ll lead the symbiote over to you”
“Got it” Jess said, grabbing Otto.
“Wait! Peter you don’t understand! Without the human host in control, I don’t even know what it’s capable of when free! It’s beyond our comprehension, you’ll die!” Otto cried out. Peter ignored him, and fired a web, swinging towards the sounds. He sensed out, but he couldn’t feel anything.
He came to a stop. A giggle came from the darkness below him, but he still couldn’t sense anything. Weird.
“Yesss… cook with mom… he he he, so stupid… ssso sentimental… easy to control” the broken voice said again. Peter looked around, searching for the origin of the voice. His eyes came to a stop on a shifting spot of darkness and his blood ran cold. A monster stared back at him, a familiar sight from three years ago. It was trapped under a mess of rubble, it’s shifting form slowly solidifying around a much smaller, unmoving human. Yu.
The monster writhed again, as Peter stared, frozen partially out of fear and partially out of intrigue. This wasn’t like with Dr Gonzales. Whatever it was, he was seeing the real symbiote for the very first time. It was almost alien in nature. Suddenly it looked up, the face of the monster staring directly at him, even within the darkness. It screeched, as its form began to writhe with more vigour.
“Smell like him… like pain” it hissed it’s forked tongue snaking through its mouth. Then his Spider sense buzzed. It screeched, its form solidifying completely before it leaped up at him, in a rush of rubble and debris.
His leapt out of the way. But the monster was fast. It snatched him out the air and slammed him into the ceiling before screeching in his face. He elbowed it away and then launched a piece of concrete at it. It shatter it with a single fist and then leapt at him with claws. He dodged the initially blows as it roared gleefully in his face and then his already aching heel gave out, and for a moment he lost his balance on the ceiling. The monster raked him across the chest with it’s claws before grabbing him and slamming him to the wall. It dropped him and Peter fell, barely catching himself.
The monster’s laughter echoed above him. He felt at his chest, the claws marks wet.
“Dammit”
----------------------------------------
I trembled with excitement as I licked the blood off my fingers. So delicious. So very delicious. I looked down at the glowing man before laughing gleefully. I had him. I finally had him, and I could have revenge. Sweet, sweet revenge. It’d been so long, but now the chance was here. I wouldn’t waste it. No, I’d savour it. I’d savour every second.
I blinked, coming to my senses. I was staring blankly at the cutting board fingers in my mouth. I pulled them out, staring at my hand, confused. What? What had just happened?
“Yu? What’s wrong honey?” mum said.
“N- nothing. I… nothing…” I mumbled. But as I picked up the knife again my hands trembled violently and a laugh escaped my lips. I covered my mouth quickly.
“What’s wrong?”
I glanced at mom, her face twisted in a wide smile. My stomach churned, twisting into knots.
“Something’s wrong. I don’t- something’s wrong”
I snarled, grabbing at the human as it cried out. It leaked, dripping blood everywhere as I chased it. It smelled good. So good. It wanted to eat it. It? Yes. It needed to eat it. Everything else could wait.
I blinked once again coming to my sense. I was on my hands and knees, sweat dripped from my face as my skin burned. Mom stood over me silent. I looked up. She stared back at me with no face. I screamed and scrambled backwards, but she remained still. I looked away, staring down at my chest. My solar plexus throbbed hard, and a spot of red slowly spreading outwards.
“What’s happening? What’s happening to me?” I mumbled, my voice shaking with fear. When I looked up, the kitchen was gone, filled with an empty darkness.
“M-mom?!” I shouted. Nothing.
“What’s going on? Where am I?!” I cried out into the void. I was met with only an echo. I tried to shout again, but my voice vanished. Then the darkness around me took on form, racing towards me. Pressing against me. Crushing me on all sides. It surrounded me, completely encompassing my body. Then came the pain. It shot through me like lightning as my brain became aware of my body again. The broken bones, the scrapes, the bruises and the hole in my chest. They burned. They all burned against the black liquid, bubbling violently. I tried to move, to retreat into myself but there was too much damage. I couldn’t move. No. I was moving. The viscous darkness pulled at him, puppeteering his body. I tried to cry out in pain, but the viscous darkness sealed my lips. I couldn’t breathe. My body wasn’t my own and I couldn’t breathe.