I Really Messed Up Because-
Tuesday, July 4, 2018, 7:31 AM
Octavius cackled. It bounced off the walls and rang in Peter’s ears. “You thought I’d keep that fail-safe? You think I’m stupid enough to keep a way for you to shut off the one thing that gives me power?”
A metal arm slammed into Harley’s chest and lifted him off the ground. It coiled around his chest like a massive snake and squeezed. Peter could see Harley’s fingers poking out from beneath the arm. Trying to grip something, anything to free himself.
“Your designs were always lacking heart though, weren’t they?” Octavius grinned at Harley who was still kicking and struggling in his grasp.
Peter’s stomach dropped. No. No no no. Octavius must’ve noticed Peter’s look of confusion.
“You never told him?” his grin somehow spread even wider. “You truly outdid yourself this time, Harley. I didn’t think it possible for you to not trust anyone. I thought there must’ve been at least one person in your life you really trusted.”
Harley stopped fighting. He was staring at the floor. Peter couldn’t read his expression.
“Go ahead and tell him all the amazing things you designed for me,” Octavius ordered.
Harley shook his head.
“Do it!” He roared. The arm tightened its grip. Peter heard a crack and Harley gasped.
“I designed stuff I knew could take you down… In case you ever- In case you turned.”
“Harley-”
Octavius screamed with laughter. “He basically wrote me a step-by-step manual on how to destroy you.”
“I was never gonna build any of it! It was just-” He was slammed against the wall before he could finish.
“It was just a precaution? A precaution isn’t one hundred pages of machines to kill the Spider.”
Peter had heard enough. He shot a web at Octavius’s mouth. The arms holding him down instantly retreated to get the web off of his face.
He launched himself toward Octavius and just nearly reached him before he was snatched out of the air by one of the metal arms. It squeezed his ankle and held him upside-down inches from Octavius’s face. The other two free arms grabbed Peter’s wrists before he could shoot more webs. The arms squeezed his wrists so tightly he could feel his bones grinding together. Then, there was a snap and a crunch. He cried out as his wrists surely snapped under the pressure.
Web fluid oozed from under the claws. He felt dizzy. He used his free leg to kick the base of the claw holding his leg. He couldn’t tell if anything happened so he kicked again and again and again. He heard a metallic crunch under his heel. There was a beeping from Octavius’s back. Peter took that as a good sign and continued to kick at the arm.
The arm that had been holding Harley released him and immediately grabbed hold of Peter’s free leg.
~
It was hard to see. His head was pounding and his brain was fuzzy. Something loud was happening around him. He peeled his eyes open. He was slumped against the wall. Facing a fight. It took him a moment to register what was happening in front of him. His stomach dropped when he realized. Octavius had Peter pinned to the ground. He was raised a few feet off the ground and then slammed back into it.
Harley instantly tried to stand. His brain kicking back into fight mode. His body flooding with adrenaline. He was being held down by one of the claws. How had he not noticed? He punched and pushed on the claw. It stayed motionless.
Again and again, Peter was slammed into the ground. His grip on the metal claw slowly loosened until his arms hung limp beside him. A puddle of blood slowly grew beneath him.
“Now we see the real face of the masked hero!” Octavius jeered. The claw snaked around Peter’s torso and lifted him a few feet from the ground.
Octavius reached out his hand and grabbed a fistful of red spandex and yanked it from Peter’s head.
Peter groaned. His face was covered in blood and his hair slicked to his forehead. His eyes flicked open and he was instantly struggling against the metal arm.
The metal arm tightened against Peter’s wrists. He cried out and kicked his legs.
Octavius laughed. “A child. Why did I think any different,” He pulled Peter closer and inspected his face meticulously. “I did expect someone important though. Harley, you could’ve been better. It’s a shame I have to kill you when you showed such talent.”
“Wait! Doc, you don’t have to-”
It happened so fast. Peter kicked both his feet forward and hit Octavius on the chest. He released Peter and Harley to catch himself from falling. Peter landed on his feet and instantly bolted toward Harley.
“Grab your helmet we gotta- Woah!” One of the tentacles had latched onto Peter’s wrist before he could finish. He was yanked backwards and into the air. His other wrist was grabbed by another tentacle. Peter kicked and fought against the grip.
“You’re bothering me,” Octavius hissed.
The claws’ grip tightened against Peter’s wrists. A third claw soared into Peter’s chest and slammed him through the wall.
Without a second thought, Harley launched himself after Peter. The jets on his boots roared to life and boosted him downwards. He reached his arm out for Peter’s leg. He felt the tips of his fingers brush against his ankle but was stopped abruptly in his fall and yanked back upwards.
He looked up to see one metal arm snake its way up his leg. “NO!”
He was pulled back through the hole in the wall before he could see what had become of Peter. He raised the palm of his hand at Octavius. The blast charged for a second. Just before it blasted Octavius’s face off, One of the metal arms knocked his arm back and sent the blast through the ceiling. He didn’t even have time to charge a blast with his left hand before it too was tightly held upward by one of the arms.
The fourth arm reached toward Harley’s chest and dug into the metal of his chest plate around the arc reactor.
“I can’t have you flying off on me, Harley. I need you to understand.”
Shards of metal dug into Harley’s chest as the metal claw dug deeper into his chest plate. It eventually latched onto the arc reactor and yanked it out. Sparks and pieces of wire and metal fell to the floor as Octavius discarded the glowing blue reactor as if it were garbage.
“We could’ve had the power of the sun in our hands! But you wanted to play hero.”
He slammed Harley to the ground, one claw still pressed against the empty hole in his chest plate.
“You know what your problem is?” He asked. The claw lifted Harley by the chest. Another claw collided with his jaw. His teeth slammed together and tore a chunk of his cheek. His mouth flooded with hot blood. “You lack vision.”
His helmet was lifted in front of him by one of the mechanical arms. Octavius smiled as he crushed it and threw it behind him. “Your designs are weak and you know it. You’re afraid of what you could really do. I’m not.”
The claw on Harley’s chest snaked its way up around his neck. It slowly coiled tighten and tighter. He punched and kicked the arm but it didn’t release him. Blood poured from his mouth down his chin and onto the tentacle.
“I’m going to do to you what Tony Stark did to me. Thank you for all your help. But I’m afraid they won’t know you were a part of this project. Well, no one will even remember you anyway,” He moved towards the fusion reactor and began typing on the laptop. The core lit up upon his command and began to glow orange, yellow, then white.
Octavius turned and grinned. “I’m sorry, Harley.”
Harley's vision grew darker. The only thing he could really see was the bright glowing core of the reactor. Octavius was just a blurry blob next to it. He tried to choke out a word to him, but it just came out as a wet cough and a hollow gasp for air.
Octavius laughed sadistically. “What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”
The metal around his neck loosened just enough for a bit of airflow. It made him dizzy. Still, he took in as much as possible. “It’s not- stable yet-” He said between shallow breaths.
“Oh shut up.”
The arm tightened again.
“You were always afraid of risk. We’re scientists! Risk is in our nature. How can you ever hope to succeed if you don’t risk everything?”
As if on cue, the laptop in front of Octavius lit up red. The current was destabilizing.
“Told- you,” Harley choked.
“It’ll re-stabilize! I know it will. Just give it a moment.”
Harley’s vision was completely dark. The sounds of Octavius’s shouts and the blaring alarm from the computer were fading out. His arms weighed a hundred pounds each. The pounding of his heart in his chest had slowed to almost nothing. He didn’t even have time to think he was about to die. His brain was so fuzzy and slow.
He hit the ground at the same moment air filled his lungs. He coughed and swallowed down as much air as possible before it was too late again. His vision slowly returned. In front of him, he could see Octavius typing on the laptop and all his mechanical arms bracing him against the roof and walls which were shaking and crumbling around them.
A few feet away from Harley, was a speck of red. Peter’s mask which had been thrown haphazardly by Octavius was right there. He could call for someone. He could alert Karen.
He tried to get up. He didn’t get far. Instead, he dragged himself forward with his arms. His whole body felt broken. Every move he made was just pain. But he had to get to that mask. His fingers closed around the red spandex. He smiled.
The current was unstable though. He heard Octavius scream just before a bright flash and-