Metal tentacles darted through the shadows, steel claws suddenly shooting out from every corner of the room. Ben Reilly's suspicion had been correct. Doctor Octopus had indeed laid a trap for them; the room itself was a giant cage filled with lethal danger.
Otto seemed to have deliberately made all these new mechanical arms from pure black alloy. They moved like fish in water through the dimly lit space, appearing and vanishing without a trace. The four Spider-Men relied entirely on Spider-Sense warnings to predict and evade the attacks, weaving through the relentless offensive with agile, shifting footwork, but even they found it quite strenuous.
Though the four Spider-Men were enhanced humans, their stamina would eventually run out if they kept dodging like this. If they could not get close to Doctor Octopus himself, they would never have a chance of winning. In less than the time it took to burn an incense stick, the four had narrowed the battle to within a radius of four or five meters around Otto. But as the radius shrank, the resistance from those mechanical arms grew stronger. Every step forward brought tentacle attacks several times denser than before, and each tentacle struck even faster.
While the other three drew most of the attention, Ben Reilly dodged the attacks and quietly circled around to the left flank. He sprang up the wall for two steps, then leaped from more than four meters above the floor, diving straight at Otto's head.
Otto did not even look up, as though he had not noticed the threat from above at all. Yet a mechanical arm abruptly shot from the shadows on the ceiling and lashed Ben Reilly across the waist in midair, sending him flying hard.
Kaine rushed to the right flank, trying to fire webbing from Otto's blind spot. Otto did not so much as blink. A mechanical arm sprang up on its own as if it were alive, shielding its master as its steel claws looped twice around the webline and wound it tight. The arm yanked fiercely, its immense strength traveling down the webbing and lifting Kaine off the ground before hurling him against the wall. Two steel claws pinned both his hands to the wall one after the other.
Only the original Peter Parker and clone Gwen remained in the field. As Otto mentally controlled countless arms against them, he laughed loudly. "Your struggle is ridiculous and meaningless. I am your creator. I gave you these abilities—even yours, Peter. I helped Osborn launch the Oz Project. The serum I developed created the first Spider-Man. Do you really think you have even the slightest chance against me?"
For once, Peter did not answer with a quip. He was burning with fury, and he had never hated anyone as much as he hated this man now. He took a heavy blow to the back and broke through to within three steps of Otto, but he ultimately failed to evade the sharp stab of a mechanical arm from the left and was struck hard in the jaw.
Otto controlled another mechanical arm to seize Peter around the waist and back from behind, hurling him onto the ceiling and pinning him there by the abdomen, unable to move.
Peter's failed attempt ultimately created an opening for Gwen. She also broke through the encirclement, charging to within only three steps of Otto. Two tentacles launched surprise attacks from the left and right at different angles, but the girl evaded both with footwork so ingenious it was impossible not to admire. Her body spun, her golden hair flying, and she finally closed in on Otto. She raised her right fist, about to strike, only for a steel claw to seize her wrist when her knuckles were less than an inch from Otto's detestable nose.
It was one of the mechanical arms behind Otto—the four arms originally attached to him, the four he controlled with the greatest skill and the most precise, rapid movements.
The mechanical claws bound Gwen's hands together with irresistible force and lifted her into the air. She tried to kick the hateful face before her. The wind from her toes was strong enough to make Otto tilt his head slightly, but she ultimately fell just short and failed to hurt him.
"I implanted the coordinates of this place in all your minds," Otto said slowly. "No matter what, you would eventually find your way back here, because that is part of your programming—a form of suggestive hypnosis. It ensured that even if you were lucky enough to escape, you would eventually return here to see me."
Otto grinned, his gaze falling on Gwen, suspended before him by the mechanical claw. "In the end, you can't escape Daddy, can you?"
"You're a psychopath," Gwen said through clenched teeth.
"Great people are often called that, merely because ordinary people cannot understand them. But you will understand, since you are all my children. Your physical data and ability data have basically met the requirements. Next, I will further adjust your memories. I will erase your unnecessary memories and retain only what is necessary. Or perhaps modify your personalities a little."
Otto paused, then turned his dark green lenses toward Peter, who was pinned to the ceiling.
"As for you, the original Spider-Man," he said with a cold smile, "before you die, I will make sure to squeeze every last bit of value out of you. That will be repayment for all the trouble you've caused me."
Peter strained with all his might against the mechanical arm pressing on his abdomen. "I'll kill you, Otto."
"I doubt that."
Otto turned his gaze back to Gwen. Her stubborn face was reflected in his dark green lenses.
"You are my proudest and finest work," Otto said. "I originally designed you to alter your memories and make you hate Spider-Man. Then I needed you to get close to him, destroy his life, destroy his will, and end his life only after he had fallen into complete despair and given up everything."
He snorted heavily.
"But unfortunately, an unwelcome outsider attacked the laboratory and took you away before I could perform the memory alteration," Otto said coldly. "He ruined my plan and destroyed my greatest pleasure."
"That was my good fortune," Gwen said coolly.
"Was it? It certainly wasn't good fortune for that man." Otto lowered his voice. "Tell me his name. Who was that person? Who attacked the laboratory? Who took you out of the cultivation chamber?"
"I don't know," Gwen answered crisply.
"Lying is not a good habit. Daddy didn't teach you that." Otto increased the pressure of the mechanical claw gripping her wrist. The powerful grip of the metal structure seemed to squeeze a faint crack from the bones in her pale wrist.
Gwen bit her lip lightly and endured the pain without responding.
"Let her go!" Peter hammered the mechanical arm against his abdomen, but he could not budge the thing in the slightest.
Otto ignored him and continued, "You still want to protect him. Very well. But you will tell me eventually. You will tell me his name, his address, and then—"
Otto's pupils contracted. His body suddenly leaned back almost on reflex. A flame-colored disc whirled in from the depths of the darkness, trailing a vivid, brilliant arc as it sliced through Otto's prized mechanical arm as easily as cutting vegetables. Half of the uncontrolled arm fell to the ground in a shower of sparks, and Gwen was freed from her restraints.
Otto broke out in a cold sweat—if his instinctive reaction had not made him evade in time, what had just been severed would have been more than merely a metal arm. He spun around and roared furiously, "Who!?"
Fluorescence lit up, pale blue light outlining a V-shaped circuit in midair. Black Armor hovered in the room as if it had appeared out of nowhere, pale blue flames spraying from its back to keep it steady in the air.
He extinguished the thruster flames used for hovering and landed on the floor with a heavy metallic thud.
Otto instinctively took a step back.
"You wanted to see me." Black Armor slowly raised his head. "I'm here."