The Amazing Spider-Man: Spiders of Two Worlds

Chapter 5

"Well well," the female Doc Ock said, her tentacles slowly elevating her until she was level with Peter, though still at a distance. "This IS a surprise!"

"I'll say," Peter replied. "I've seen a lot of cosplay over the years, but no one's tried their hand at matching dear Ol' Doc, even if your costume is a bit off. Can I get a picture? He's, you know, in jail for doing the kind of thing that you're doing right now, and I really think that seeing something like this might boost his spirits a little for the holidays."

"So, you go by Spider-MAN, I presume?" the woman inquired, still appearing rather relaxed.

"The one and only," Peter assured her, performing a mock salute, "and what about you? Lady Ock? Huh, that has a nice ring to it."

"You can call me Doctor Olivia Octavius," the woman replied, rising still higher at the mention of her name. "Well, unless you want to be friends, then you can call me Liv, but something tells me that's not in the cards for us."

"I'm afraid not," Peter answered, shrugging. "It's just kind of a habit of mine to try and avoid hanging out with people who cause lots of property damage and endanger people, though they always seem to find me anyway."

"I haven't endangered anyone," Olivia spoke up. "Not yet anyway. Who knows? Maybe I'll still get my chance to leave a mark on this world yet."

Well, there it was, though Peter had already guessed the woman's home as being from somewhere across the multiverse, as was his other visitor.

"Alright lady," Peter said, "since you're a stranger from another world, I'm going to give you one chance: if you surrender peacefully, then I'll help you figure out a way back home."

"Aww, aren't you a sweet boy, trying to help the poor stranded woman," Olivia replied, putting on a faux sympathetic performance, complete with wiping her eyes. "But you'll see quickly that I can handle myself pretty well."

The female Ock then shot one of her mechanical arms over her left shoulder, sending it right in Peter's direction. He narrowly leapt out of the way in time to dodge it, firing a web. Just as he started swinging though, one of Olivia's arms then cut through the web, and another one lunged for Peter again. Reacting quickly, he grabbed the arm and used it to swing forward, hopping off another one of them before somersaulting through the air and landed on a wall a distance away.

"Wow, not bad!" Peter complimented her. "You could teach my world's Ock a thing or two."

"That's interesting, since I never said that I was from another world," Olivia pointed out.

"Uh, yeah you did," Peter assured her, trying to cover for himself as he realized his error.

"No," she replied, moving over to him. "I only said that I'd 'make my mark on this world,' but that didn't mean that I was from another world. Perhaps another came before me...someone like you, perhaps?"

Great, this was the last thing Peter had wanted; he'd left Gwen back at his place to keep her OUT of situations like this. Now that he'd specifically run into what was likely one of her own enemies, he especially needed to be careful. Thinking quickly, he responded.

"Call it self-recognition I guess; I've been lost on another earth once before as well, so, you know, it's basically an 'I know that look because I've seen it in myself' kind of thing."

"I mean, it didn't really matter," the woman said, one of her mechanical lunging at Peter again, forcing him to dive out of the way once more. "Whether she's here or not, she won't stop me, and neither will you."

Peter continued hurtling out of the way of the mechanical arms, trying to figure out a way to subdue his newest opponent. He'd always had a policy of not hitting women even in the field, and he certainly hoped to maintain his perfect record thus far. He also glanced occasionally in the direction of the technology she appeared to be examining before he'd arrived. He couldn't really tell what it was, but it looked like it was a couple pieces of a larger device sealed away. Whatever it was, he had a feeling that he needed to prevent her from getting it, all while subduing her and doing a better job of keeping his mouth shut about anything that could even remotely hint at Gwen being on his world too.