Chapter Text
“You heard it here first, folks! The spider menace is back at it again, his endless fighting with Doc Ock causing destruction wherever they go. And this time some of the citizens he so gleefully claims he will protect were injured! I urge you, the good people of New York, to wake up, and see spider man for what he truly is! A crooked vigilante that can’t even protect-“
Peter sighed as he shut his phone off and tucked it away in his pocket. Yesterday’s fight with Doctor Octopus was another failure. The villain had managed to escape, and Peter couldn’t even properly protect the people caught in the crossfire. No one had died, but it didn’t make him feel any better about the situation. It was almost halfway through Peter’s second year of dealing with the man, and much to his dismay the fights were steadily getting harder. The doctor was smart, and even as Peter improved, he was adapting even quicker than him. He didn’t have time to dwell on it though, hence the reason he turned off his phone.
Peter had finally found a seemingly decent lead on the whereabouts of Doc Ock’s hideout. The current one at least. He was going to start reviewing what he’d pieced together, but got distracted when he saw another rant from J. Jonah Jameson. He wished the man’s words didn’t hurt him as much as they did, but he was starting to make people doubt him. And it wasn’t a feeling Peter liked in the slightest. Still, as he said goodbye to Ned and rushed out of school for the day, he was steadily getting more and more excited to put on the suit, as well as for the weekend.
He and Mr. Stark were planning on making some upgrades to his web shooters. The part Peter was most excited for was the chance to actually develop his web fluid. He’d always managed at school, but having access to whatever chemicals he needed, working alongside one of the smartest people in the world, and not having to hide it and rush things? It made things stupidly easier.
Peter was only a couple of hours into his patrol for the day, and he’d stopped a few muggings, helped multiple cats out of multiple different trees (seriously, why were Fridays always cat-in-tree days?) and even prevented two car crashes. As he swung through the city, he and Karen were working together to narrow down the base location, when they finally succeeded. They actually succeeded! Peter almost flung himself straight into a building out of shock. Before he got the chance to alert Tony and the other Avengers about the good news, he was forced to dodge a very angry mechanical arm.
“Oh come on !" Peter whined. "Didn’t I send you running yesterday? And every other day before that? Cant you take a day off, it’s a Friday after all!” Peter shouted as he swung around the corner and locked eyes with Doctor Octopus. Well, more like he saw the villain's sunglasses. The man never took the bloody things off, and it got frustrating on more than one occasion.
“You should count yourself grateful for your victory yesterday. It’s a shame I won’t let you win again today.” Ock mused with a grin. If Peter didn’t overthink things, he would have taken that for what it probably was. A taunt. But something about how close yesterday’s battle was, and the cocky air that was hanging around the Doctor today made his hair stand on end.
Peter jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding two of Doc Ock’s robot tentacles, and swung back the way he came. He’d been heading towards a less crowded and more run down part of Queens, and if he was going to engage in a fight, it seemed like the best place to go. Fewer people meant less of a chance for anyone to get hurt. Peter swung for a time, dodging the Doctor’s attacks and doing his best to hit him back, landing a few good shots with his webs and successfully slowing him down enough for Peter to stay in the lead. But something didn’t feel right.
Peter chose to ignore it, and kept leading his foe through Queens when he spotted an opening for a good fight location. Unfortunately for him, Doctor Octopus noticed it as well. Peter didn’t manage to dodge his attack this time, and Ock launched him directly towards an old construction site. Peter hit his back on one of the concrete pillars, wincing in pain as he noticed a light gash on his side from where he was grabbed. He quickly patched it up with a web and glanced up to another attack, barely managing to dodge again. Peter made a mental note to thank whatever god was up there for his spidey sense.
Still outside, Peter launched the remaining building materials lying around at his foe. While the Doctor managed to block most attacks, he got a direct hit on the man’s chest, winding him for a few moments. Stationed on the wall of the building, Peter took the opportunity to grab Ock with his webs and launch himself towards him, and while the arms prevented Peter from hitting him directly, he knocked him back far enough to collide with the meant to be temporary walls blocking off the site.
“So are you just going to keep barely hitting me while I kick your ass?” Peter mocked. He wasn’t sure if making the ever more frustrated villain even more motivated to win was a good idea, but joking relieved stress and made openings he could exploit. Usually.
“You’ll regret your words, Spidermenace ” he spat, venom dripping off of the crude mockery of Peter's alias.
As Doc Ock approached him, Peter used his webs to fling bits of debris at him, but the Doctor managed to push him further and further inside the building. The pair were trading blows evenly, but an old building that might collapse was one of the last places Peter wanted to be right now. Or ever really.
Ock managed to snag Peter by the leg, throwing him through a wall. Before the webslinger could recover, he found himself smashed through multiple roofs up to the third floor, and his face slammed into a pillar.
“Not so cocky now, are we?” The Doctor sneered. He was getting the upper hand.
“Shut up!” Peter hissed as he managed to pry out of Ock’s grasp and use his webs to drop one of the pillars and part of the ceiling on the man. With the villain distracted, Peter used the opportunity to jump up to the fourth floor and hide, waiting for a good opportunity to strike.
This could be going better. Much better. Along with the start of a headache, Peter could feel the blood trickling down his nose, soaking his mask a deep shade of crimson. What’s worse is his back felt very bruised. Something, no, multiple things were definitely broken, and he didn’t have time to figure out what. Peter heard and felt the floor break as Doctor Octopus climbed to his floor.
“Playing hide and seek are we?” Doctor Octopus mocked. “Well, you’d better pray I don’t find you. Because when I do, you aren’t going to win this fight Spiderman. And I think we both know that.” He cackled.
Peter would be a liar if he said he wasn’t afraid. He’d only just noticed that the Doctor had managed to disable Karen with the blow to his head. Or maybe it was the roof. It was hard to tell. Well isn’t that just spectacular!
Peter shuddered as he heard the unmistakable clicks and groans of the Doctor’s arms. It put his spider sense and his normal senses on edge. He was searching for him, and Peter had to act. He really didn’t want to think about what would happen if he made a mistake here. For once his Parker luck wasn’t kicking in, as the floor he was on was substantially darker than the others. Frantically looking around him, he managed to locate a broken metal rod. The edge was threateningly sharp, and the metal was sturdy.
Careful not to accidentally alert his foe of his location, Peter slowly and quietly made his way over to it and picked it up.
“I must say, for a moment there I did think you’d gotten the upper hand. But you underestimated me and my machines. And it is going to be your downfall.” Ock’s voice echoed throughout the floor, taunting him.
The webslinger carefully made his way from room to room, mainly sticking to the ceiling. Peter, weapon in hand, located his target. Doctor Octopus was entering the next room, with his back turned. He noticed his opponent was standing hunched over, and he could see a bloodstain on the back of his trench coat.
Taking his only opportunity, Peter shot himself forward with as much force as he could muster, leaving cracks in the ceiling. And before the Doctor could react, Peter flung the rod forward, piercing one of the tentacles’ joints and lodging itself in Doctor Octopus’ right shoulder. Ock howled in pain as his human hands instinctively grabbed at his shoulder, and Peter swears he could see the man’s rage through his glasses. The bright red light on the right upper tentacle flickered, and the entire thing started to malfunction and shake.
Adrenaline propelling him, Peter dodged a furious swipe from two of his working tentacle arms, and landed a solid kick to his face. Peter could hear the crunch as it ricocheted around the room, but as the momentum knocked Doctor Octopus out of the building, the final arm collided with Peter’s head and made a sickening crack. The impact ripped a large gash across his face and broke part of his mask, sending him careening through a pillar and across the room. Peter didn’t have a chance to follow his foe, instantly falling unconscious, buried under the rubble caused by the impact. Doctor Octopus had no other option but to flee, too injured to risk another confrontation, leaving the vigilante alone in the rubble and dust of their shared defeat.