Chapter 215 Third Adventure through Multiverse

In a converted laboratory elsewhere in the city, a crowd of scientists and investors had gathered for a demonstration.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I extend a warm welcome to all of you. I present my wife, Rossie, and as many of you already know.....I am Dr. Otto Octavius."

Octavius smiled at the crowd. "Before we begin.....did anyone lose a roll of twenty-dollar bills held together with a rubber band?"

He watched with amusement as several audience members patted their pockets. "Because we found the rubber band."

Polite laughter rippled through the room.

"Thank you for coming. Today you will witness the birth of a new energy source based on fusion. Renewable, safe, and affordable electricity for the entire world. Today you will see that Stark Industries is not as unique as many believe."

He walked backward and pulled a cloth from four sleek mechanical arms mounted on a chassis.

"These four actuators were developed and programmed specifically for the purpose of creating a successful fusion reaction. They are resistant to heat and magnetism."

He stepped into the harness. The belt fastened around his waist and the cybernetic spine aligned with his spinal column. Microneedles and nanowires connected to his brain. He winced. The audience winced with him.

Then the arms moved. Four mechanical limbs responding to thought alone.

"My brain controls these intelligent arms through a neural link," Octavius explained, taking several steps forward. The audience reflexively stepped back. "Nanowires connected directly to my cerebellum allow me to operate these arms and control a fusion reaction in conditions where the human hand could never reach."

"Doctor, if the artificial intelligence in the arms is as advanced as you claim, does that not make you vulnerable to their influence?"

Octavius smiled. He had been expecting the question. "You are correct. That is why I developed this inhibitor chip, which protects my higher brain functions. It ensures that I control the arms.....and not the other way around."

"The blue light, Rossie," Octavius said. The room dimmed. A single spotlight illuminated the fusion machine.

He adjusted several parameters with his mechanical arms, then carefully placed the tritium fuel into the magnetic chamber.

"Precious tritium. The fuel that makes this project possible. There are only eleven kilograms on the entire planet. I thank Hugh Jones and Roxxon Corporation for providing it."

"It is a pleasure to support such a brilliant mind, Doctor," Hugh Jones replied from the audience.

Octavius glanced at his wife, gave her a reassuring smile, and accepted the safety glasses she offered.

"Ladies and gentlemen.....fasten your seatbelts."

Lasers fired from the machine toward the tritium. Seconds later, a miniature sun ignited at the center of the magnetic containment field.

"Doctor.....successful fusion reaction!"

The room erupted in applause. Both Octavius and Rossie beamed with pride. The other scientists shared expressions of elation.....years of sacrifice validated in a single brilliant moment.

"Surplus output.....one thousand megawatts!"

Octavius extended his arms, fine-tuning the reaction to a stable point. "So much solar energy.....in the palm of my hand."

Then the ceiling lamps began to rattle. Every metallic object in the room started sliding toward the machine. Chairs scraped across the floor. Equipment flew from desks.

The fusion sphere was growing.

"Stay calm!" Octavius shouted. "It is just an adjustment! It will stabilize!"

It did not stabilize.

A wave of fusion energy burst from the containment field and struck the ceiling, blowing a hole through concrete and rebar. Debris rained down toward Rossie.

"Otto! Be care.....AHHHH!"

"Turn it off, Otto!" Hugh Jones screamed. "Turn it off!"

"It will stabilize! It is under control!"

CRASH!

A window exploded inward. Spider-Man swung into the laboratory, catching Hugh Jones mid-flight and webbing him to safety before the man was crushed by a tumbling computer bank.

"YOU!" Hugh snarled with undisguised venom.

Spider-Man ignored him and moved straight to the machine’s power coupling.

"What are you doing?!" Octavius screamed.

"Unplugging it. If this reactor finishes ’stabilizing,’ it will absorb everything within two city blocks at best. The entire city at worst."

He began ripping cables free.

"NOOOOO!" Octavius swung one of his mechanical arms and launched Spider-Man across the room.

Peter hit the wall hard. Time slowed. He saw Rossie standing unprotected, directly in the path of a cascading wave of fusion energy. He shot a web toward her and pulled.....but he was a fraction too late. Glass fragments grazed her skin as she flew toward him, but she was alive.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Don’t touch her, murderer!" Octavius struck him with another arm. Spider-Man threw himself aside.

’Everything is spiraling out of control,’ Peter thought. ’Otto is not thinking rationally. If he had not had his back turned, his wife would have already been hit.’

His spider-sense screamed. He looked up.

Octavius had gathered Rossie in one arm and was glaring at Spider-Man with murderous fury.....completely unaware of the fusion wave building behind him.

"Octavius, let her go!" Spider-Man shouted.

Too slow.

The wave struck Octavius from behind, hitting the inhibitor chip directly. A chain reaction tore through the arms’ circuitry and fed back into Octavius’s neural link.

Both Otto and Rossie screamed.

Spider-Man lunged for the power source and ripped every remaining cable free. The fusion reactor expanded violently, then collapsed inward on itself, consuming nearby equipment before vanishing entirely.

Silence.

Peter walked to the two smoking bodies and activated his suit’s bioscanners. One life sign.....Octavius. Faint, but present.

The other body.....Rossie.....registered nothing.

’Otto should be alive. This matches the accident. But something is wrong. The data and statistics in the computers are correct, but someone sabotaged the experiment to make it fail. Someone wanted Octavius dead and planned this entire disaster. The sabotage was done manually, four days ago, which means no digital trail.’

He accessed the laboratory’s computer system through his suit and downloaded everything.

’The question is.....who was the bastard I have to find?’

He emerged from the ruined building to find a crowd of onlookers.

"The situation is under control. Please wait for police and paramedics. Anyone with medical training who is uninjured.....check on the people inside."

Several scientists rushed back into the building with medical kits.

Spider-Man prepared to leave. But as he pushed off the ground, his foot stuck. Then something pulled him backward. He turned his head and saw a dark spot on the ground expanding rapidly into a swirling dimensional portal.

He recognized it instantly.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," he muttered.

The portal swallowed him whole.

Plop.

He was gone.

---------

Location: East Africa.

A rhinoceros charged through the savanna, maddened by fever, fighting off swarms of insects. A group of hunters raised their rifles.

"At my signal!"

A large hand pushed the nearest rifle down.

"Sergei Kravinoff¹ does not need tranquilizers to subdue his prey."

The rhinoceros saw Sergei and charged. Sergei met it head-on, vaulted onto its back, and wrestled the animal across the terrain until he brought it crashing to the ground just meters from a cliff edge.

A veterinarian rushed forward with a tranquilizer syringe. Sergei remained beside the unconscious animal, supervising.

A lion pounced on him from behind. Sergei laughed as he recognized the beast.

"My old friend Gulyadkin."

Looking past the lion, he saw a beautiful dark-haired woman riding toward him on horseback.

"Sergei, my love," Calypso ¹said. "You were magnificent with that poor rhinoceros."

"Do not underestimate me," Sergei replied, helping her dismount. "It was very easy."

"Then perhaps this will improve your mood." She produced a package from the horse’s saddlebag. "Another delivery from our anonymous friend in the United States."

Sergei opened the envelope and read the documents inside. His eyes sharpened.

"Your new beast is interesting," he murmured. "There is no creature on Earth with this combination of speed, agility, and strength. I am convinced it is a worthy target."

He took Calypso’s hand.

"We fly to New York. We capture Spider-Man."

--------

Location: Unknown.

Dimension: Unknown.

A figure in a red-and-blue suit swung between buildings, silhouetted against a golden sunset. He landed on a rooftop, pulled down his mask, and grinned at no one in particular.

"Okay! Let us do this one last time."

He cleared his throat.

"My name is Peter Parker. I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and I have been the one and only Spider-Man for ten years."

He cracked his knuckles.

"I saved a lot of people. Notice how I emphasized ’a lot.’ I fell in love. I saved my world. I saved the city again.....and again.....and again."

He paused.

"And then I did.....something. But we do not talk about that."

He straightened up.

"I have a comic book. I have cereal. I recorded a Christmas album. I have an excellent theme song. And I have.....a lollipop. More or less."

He looked out over the city.

"I have seen worse. But despite everything.....I still love being Spider-Man. And who would not? No matter how many times they knock me down.....I always find a way to get back up. Because the only thing standing between this city and oblivion.....is me."

He leapt from the building. The sunset caught him mid-swing, turning him into a silhouette against the sky.

"There is only one Spider-Man." He winked behind the mask. "And you are watching him."