chasing waterfalls [Peter Parker]

~61~

The door to Happy's apartment unlocked, and most of the men from the cells went in, followed by May, Peter, and me. The only one who stayed in the truck was the lizard. Peter closed the door and started to talk to May. 

"I feel kinda bad using Happy's place like this." May shook her head. 

"He'll get over it." Over by the tv, Max was using his powers to turn the tv on, and Marko sat on the couch, immediately getting sand all over it. He apologized, brushing some of it off. 

"So this is your plan, Peter?" Octavius asked, restrained in his robot arms. "No lab, no facilities? Just performing miracles in a condominium? What, you gonna cook us some cures and some frozen burritos in a microwave?" I rolled my eyes. In the back of the room, Osborn spoke up. 

"I could go for a burrito." Octavius turned his head. 

"He's gonna kill us all." Peter shrugged. 

"Well, let's hope not." He started walking towards the doorway into the next room, patting Octavius on the back. "You're up first, doc." Octavius grumbled. 

"Hey, I told you I don't need fixing." Peter opened the door. "I don't need fixing! Especially by a teenager using scraps from a bachelor's junk drawer" Max walked toward Octavius. 

"Nah, nah, nah. He got something back there. I can feel it. That weird energy." Curious, I followed him into the room. Peter was pressing buttons on a machine. 

"What the hell is that?" Osborn asked. Peter turned around. 

"It's a fabricator. It can analyze, design, construct basically anything." May folded her arms. 

"I thought that was the tanning bed Happy broke." I raised an eyebrow, mouthing tanning bed. 

"Look at that." Max muttered, his eyes glowing for a second. 

Peter and Osborn got to work on fixing Octavius. Meanwhile, the rest of us basically hung around the condo. I was on my phone, and May was filling up a glass of water. She hesitantly went over to Octavius and tapped him on the shoulder. 

"Thirsty?" Octavius looked at the glass, then back up at her. 

"Well, yes, I am thirsty." May nodded. 

"Fresh water or salt?" Octavius raised an eyebrow, confused. I looked up from my phone. "You know, because you're an octopus." I snorted, and he shot a glare at me. "Fresh water it is." I noticed that Marko and Max were talking, and I wandered over to make sure they weren't arguing or something. 

"How'd you end up like that, anyway?" I heard Marko ask Max. 

"The place where I worked at, they were experimenting with electricity created by living organisms, and then, uh..." He sighed. "I fell into a vat of electric eels." I winced, picturing being surrounded by electric eels. 

"You're kidding. I fell into a supercollider." Max seemed impressed. 

"Damn. Gotta be careful where you fall." He looked over at me. "What about you? I saw you moving water. How did that happen?" I shrugged. 

"I mean, it's kind of stupid. I swam too close to a glowing space cube." Marko turned around and they both shot me a look of confusion. "Told you it was stupid." 

All of a sudden, Peter came running out. 

"I got it. I did it. Will you send him up?" May nodded. I walked over to the stairs, where Octavius was being lifted into the air. 

"Oh, will these humiliations never cease? You keep your science-fair project away from me!" Peter's at the top of the stairs now, both hands on the back of Octavius's neck.

"It'll work." Osborn started. "Have faith." Octavius scoffed. 

"Says the reckless fool who turned himself into a monster." He fidgeted some more, while Peter put the chip in. "I swear, when I get out of this, we're gonna rip you a new-" 

I heard a beep, and he went limp. Peter held out his hand.

"Doc?" After a moment, Octavius straightened up. 

"It's so quiet." He whispered. "Those voices inside my head... I'd almost forgotten." I smiled. Osborn looked up at Octavius. 

"Otto." Octavius looked down at Osborn. 

"Yes. Norman." He came back down to the ground, smiling. "It's me." Peter landed on the ground. 

"Would you look at that?" Marko chuckled. Peter pressed a couple buttons, and the nanotech from the arms went back to Peter, creating a yellow spider on his suit.

"I'm grateful, dear boy. Truly." Octavius and Peter shook hands. 

"Yeah, you're welcome." Octavius nodded.

"How can I help?"