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chapter eight
GET OTTO YOUR MIND
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PETER IS ON A mission. In an effort to change the minds of MIT's Admissions Committee, he'd asked Flash about to whom he should plead his case. Lena and Graham have to tackle Cornell and Juilliard's teams later, because Peter's best chance at getting into MIT is about to leave the city on an airplane.

After he hangs up on Flash, Peter whirls toward Graham. "Can you shadow travel us to Happy's place?"

Graham blinks. "What? Peter, he just said she's going to the airport."

"I know, but if I'm gonna talk to the assistant vice chancellor of MIT, I don't wanna be wearing a flannel jacket and jeans."

"Good point." The taller boy grabs both of them by the crooks of their elbows, causing Lena's stomach to do a knowing flip. "Hang on tight."

They're sucked into the shadows. Nothing exists but darkness and the nauseating sensation of movement at breakneck speed, along with a faint pressure where Graham holds onto her. Then, just as quickly, they pop out into Happy's living room, causing Mrs. Seager to scream and launch a file full of papers into the air.

"Sorry, mom," Graham says, quickly stooping down to help clean up the mess.

"No, it's okay," she sighs as she snatches a falling paper out of mid-air. Tired lines permeate her pale face. "I'm just not used to that trick, yet. Or any of this, for that matter." Mrs. Seager turns toward her two younger sons who are doing homework at the kitchen table. "There's nothing I need to know about you two, right? You didn't gain any superpowers when you absorbed your triplet in the womb?"

Max's pen clatters out of his hands. "When we WHAT?"

Peter bursts out of the spare bedroom, dressed in a gray suit jacket, dress pants, and a blue shirt with a matching striped tie. Lena hadn't even seen him leave to change. Sometimes she forgets that he can move faster than the average human.

"Here," he says, tossing Graham's Specter suit at him and Lena's Havoc's stuff at her.

"What's this for?" Graham questions.

"You guys are coming with me," Peter replies in a 'duh' tone. "I want you in the shadows in case something goes wrong. The spell didn't work, so people are still going to recognize me."

"What spell?" Mrs. Seager questions, her brow furrowed in suspicion.

"I can't believe we ate our sibling," Owen mumbles miserably.

Lena's heart sinks as she realizes that Peter is right— the spell hadn't worked. Flash had still known that Peter was Spider-Man. Now they have a sorcerer who's angry at them on top of their myriad of issues.

Once Lena has activated her nanotech, Peter is in his Iron Spider suit, and Graham is swathed in darkness, they shadow travel to the top of Midtown Tech so nobody sees them leave Happy's apartment.

"Ever been to the High Bridge?" Peter asks.

"No," Graham answers with a tint of nervousness in his voice. If he had, he'd be able to shadow travel them there.

"Then hang on tight." Peter wraps one arm around his waist.

Graham's face falls. "No—"

He's cut off by Peter securing a web to a nearby street light and leaping from the rooftop, sending them swinging through the streets of New York. Lena shakes her head when she hears Graham's high-pitched scream. He hates when Peter swings him around, and she could totally push him in an energy bubble, but part of her likes seeing him freak out.

Lena flies above Peter as he swings toward JFK Airport. Once they reach the outskirts of the city where swinging is no longer an option, Peter activates a protocol that expels sheets of fabric near his arms, allowing him to glide through the air. Graham's continued screaming makes Lena wince, turning the volume down on the comm in her ear.

They land on top of the High Bridge that overlooks i-95 and the Harlem River. The interstate is jammed with motorists trying to reach the exits to the airport and New Haven, Connecticut, horns blaring when aggravated civilians get tired of waiting. There's no sign of a direct cause to the standstill, but knowing how busy New York is, this may be an everyday occurrence for mid-afternoon.

"Stark Network unavailable," the voice in Peter's suit says. Luckily, now the AI's information comes through all three comm systems— Lena had quickly gotten tired of Peter having to repeat everything it had said so she could stay in the loop.

"How are we supposed to find her in this?" Graham asks, squinting as he inspects the bumper-to-bumper traffic clogging the four lanes heading north.

"Facial recognition unavailable."

"You're telling me all the fancy bells and whistles on that suit don't work anymore?" Lena asks teasingly.

Peter sounds mock offended. "I still have a heater."

It feels like a lifetime ago when Vulture had dropped both of them in freezing cold water. Lena had been knocked unconscious and almost drowned, but Peter had revived her and kept her warm due to the heater in his old suit.

"Yeah, well, so do I, now."

The sound of helicopter blades cutting through the air causes the trio to look to their left. A Daily Bugle helicopter circles them, likely filming their every move for a new broadcast.

Peter hangs his head with a dismayed sigh and gives the chopper a halfhearted wave. "Hi. Yeah, we can see you!"

"How mad do you think my mom would be if I flipped them off?" Graham asks.

"Very," Lena replies. "Not worth it."

"Okay, guys." Peter takes his attention away from the helicopter and turns to them. "Stay in the shadows, but make sure you can see and hear what's going on. I don't trust that the Bugle's here."

Graham nods. "Aye-aye."

He grabs Lena's wrist and yanks her into the shadow realm without warning.

It's horrible. They resurface only for milliseconds at a time, popping out of the darkness on the pavement provided by the motionless cars. Each time they burst out is like gasping for a breath of air and being dragged under the water again and again— and Lena knows painfully well how that feels.

By the eighth time, she's practically green in the face and clutches his arm, gasping, "Stop, stop."

Graham pauses, allowing her to gather her bearings while they remain smothered in shadows, invisible to everyone else. Her chest heaves with uneven breaths. Lena's lungs are on fire, and she can't breathe because the waves are too heavy, pummeling her face right when she tries to inhale—

"Hey," Graham whispers, shaking her a little to dislodge her from the flashbacks. "Hey, it's okay. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I didn't even consider how that would feel to you."

Both he and Peter know what Mysterio had done to her during his separate illusion attacks on each of them. He'd assaulted her with her worst fears, then forced her to face her greatest one: open water. She still can't force herself to draw a bath. The sensation of water surrounding her is too stark a reminder of what it feels like to drown.

Lena takes a few more seconds to steady herself before she nods. "I'm fine. Let's catch up."

Graham tightens his grip on her before they delve into the darkness one more time. When they emerge, they're hiding in the shadows provided by a shiny black Honda. Graham's powers ensure that their forms are completely swathed in shade. Nobody will be able to tell they're here.

An impeccably dressed, dark-skinned woman sits in the back seat of the car. She has a cell phone pressed to her ear and an impatient expression on her face— probably due to all of the traffic that may force her to miss her flight. The no-nonsense aura around her is exactly what Lena would expect from an MIT administrator.

Peter stops behind the car, narrowly missing a taxi that almost bumps into him. He fixes his rumpled suit jacket and exhales a slow breath to calm himself.

"Ya look great, dude," Graham tells him through his comm. "Go get that MIT lady."

A trace of a grin appears on Peter's face before he smooths his expression over to sobriety. He steps toward the car and raps his knuckles on the window, giving the woman inside a dorky wave. She scans him with an unimpressed look before hanging up her call and rolling down her window.

"Hi," Peter says. "I'm Peter Parker."

"You do know you're in the street, right?" she asks.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I just — I really needed to talk to you. I know you're on your way to the airport..."

Come on, Peter, Lena encourages him in her brain. Slow down. Think of what you want to say.

As if he can actually hear her, Peter pauses, seeming to remember that he doesn't have a lot of time. "MJ Watson and Ned Leeds are the two smartest people I've ever met in my entire life, and I'm the dumbest person, because... I let them help me. But if I didn't let them help me, then millions of people would've died, so please... don't let MIT be dumb like me."

The assistant vice chancellor raises her brows. "MIT is dumb?"

"God, I forgot how painful it is to watch Peter improv," Graham whispers.

Lena nods in agreement. When Peter had tried to sneakily ask MJ about the projector she'd stolen from Mysterio, they'd almost died of secondhand embarrassment on the sidelines. He'd fumbled his way through that. And then MJ had revealed she knew about him being Spider-Man.

"No!" Peter exclaims, squeezing his eyes shut as he tries to phrase his words correctly. "I'm saying don't let MIT be dumb. I mean, like the... the dumber version of me that wouldn't have let them help."

"I feel like we should've just done the talking," Lena says.

"Even if we gave him a script, he would've messed it up," Graham counters. "The only way to help him would be complete possession of his body."

"Too bad your powers don't let you do that."

"Gross. I don't want to be in his body."

In the car, the woman blinks at him. "You didn't rehearse that, did you, Peter?"

A car horn blares in the distance.

"Basically, what I'm trying to say..." Peter cuts himself off, turning to the side as something catches his attention from beyond. Lena's stomach drops. She knows what that expression means.

"The Peter Tingle," Graham realizes.

Peter forgoes all sense of shame as he leaps onto the car in one graceful leap so he can see over the packed interstate. Lena buries her face in her hands. That is not the right way to get an administrator to take you seriously.

A young woman sprints past the vehicle. Peter watches her as she passes, questioning, "Why are you running? Wh—"

Explosions from down the road cause Lena's head to snap toward the sound. Immediately, Graham breaks them free of the shadows, leaving them crouching beside the administrator's car. Lena releases a gentle stream of energy from her hands until she's floating level with Peter.

Further along the highway, craters burst through the asphalt, knocking over cars and sending screams through the air. Dust erupts from a broken section of the street as it splinters. She can't see what's causing the sudden destruction, but it can't be anything good.

"I've got the civilians," Graham says as he disappears into the shadows. Lena notices him pop out closer to the totaled vehicles, grabbing people as they struggle to escape and shadow-traveling them to safety. By the time she blinks, he's already gone there and back six times. She's never seen him use that ability so quickly.

"Oh, my God," Peter exclaims as he lowers himself into a readying crouch. His nanotech suit forms over his wrinkled dress clothes, his mask covering his face. He pounds his knuckles on the top of the car. "Ma'am? You should get out of the car. Everybody get off the bridge!"

More people have started fleeing from the chaos, abandoning their cars. Panicked screams fill the air. Lena helps people move faster with gentle pushes of energy, her heart climbing into her throat when she remembers how close Graham is to the action.

"The door's locked," the assistant vice chancellor says, fighting with the useless handle. Doors..." Her head snaps up when she sees her driver fleeing with the keys in his hand. "Hey!"

More explosions erupt from the interstate. Lena uses her energy to hurl chunks of flying concrete away from bystanders, but everything happens so fast that she can't catch everything. A yellow taxi heaves a mechanical groan as it tips into a semi and then explodes.

Lena throws up a force field in front of her, Peter, and the MIT administrator's car to protect them from flying shrapnel and debris. A mechanical arm bursts from one of the cavities and arcs toward them. The road cracks where it digs into the asphalt. Then it retracts, slowly drawing back to expose a sinister red laser in the center of the three-pronged claw. More arms punch carelessly through empty cars, creeping toward them.

A man's figure emerges from a thick plume of smoke. He uses the mechanical arms to hover over the ground like the legs of an octopus, his oval-shaped sunglasses obscuring his eyes. But his lips are pulled into a sinister smile as the wind blows through his dark curls.

"Hello, Peter."

Peter gives him a confused wave. "Hi? Do we — Do I know you?" He glances at Lena. "Do we know this guy?"

She pulls her lips downward in an I-don't-know expression and shrugs.

"What have you done with my machine?" the man demands.

"Your mach..." Peter trails off questioningly. "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know... What machine?"

"The power of the sun in the palm of my hand. It's gone."

This guy is a lunatic. But while he's talking, he's not causing destruction, so they have to make sure they keep him going.

"Listen, sir," Peter says, "if you stop smashing cars, we could work together and my friends and I can help you find your machine."

Lena nods. "We have lots of machines here. I'm sure there's one that can... harness the power of the sun."

She winces. That was bad. Maybe Peter is starting to rub off on her.

Instead of distracting him, all that ends up doing is angering the man. He raises a malicious eyebrow as the mirth drains from his lined face. "You wanna play games?" One of his outermost mechanical arms plunges into the roof of a nearby Jeep, causing the people inside to topple out. "Catch!"

He tosses the car at Peter, but Lena blocks it with her force field as Peter performs an impressive side aerial off the car. Just as he lands, though, another car is thrown at him. Lena cries out as the sedan slams into his chest and sends him flying off the bridge. But just as quickly, he swings a web onto the barricade lining the interstate and lifts the family inside safely onto the road.

The administrator tries to open her door, but since her car has been knocked toward the concrete barrier, it merely slams uselessly against it. Lena casts an apprehensive glance at the mechanical-armed man as he stalks closer, but for some reason, he doesn't seem to be paying her much attention. His sole focus is on Peter.

Sorry, Pete, she thinks as she takes that fact to her advantage for a moment. Lena rushes toward the MIT woman's vehicle. The lady screams, but soon calms down once she realizes it's Havoc in her peripheral vision and not a car flying at her.

"Back up," Lena instructs. The woman obeys, and Lena concentrates on slipping her energy through the gaps between the door and all of its hinges. If she were Wanda Maximoff, she wouldn't need to be so precise. Unfortunately, her powers are only telekinetic when she pushes her energy itself around, not the object it holds. So in order to break the door off, she has to do this right.

The metal becomes surrounded by a light blue aura as Lena focuses. She drowns out the sounds of a car rolling across the interstate and Peter yelling. Then, she pushes her hands in a downward motion, causing the car door to rip and melt at the hinges. With an arc of her arms, the door gets tossed over the side of the bridge.

Lena offers the woman a hand to help her out. "You know, Peter, MJ, and Ned really are fantastic and smart people. You should give them another chance to prove that to you."

The lady stares at her in bewilderment instead of accepting her help. "What?"

Lena screams when the car jolts forward, knocking her over the barrier and toward the Harlem River below. She plummets toward the water for a heart-stopping moment before she rights herself with bursts of energy. Once she lands on the interstate again, she notices Peter wrapped in one of the mechanical arms like a python squeezing its prey.

"You think your fancy new suit's gonna save you?" Octopus Man taunts.

He catapults Peter through the air so quickly that Lena doesn't have the time to catch him with her powers. She watches him slam through a directional sign and crash through the windshield of a UPS delivery van like a rag doll.

"I should've killed your little girlfriend when I had the chance."

"What did you just say?" Peter demands. "What do you want with Lena?"

The man's face darkens, turning almost purple with rage as he bellows, "You dare speak her name?"

Ignoring whatever that's supposed to mean, Lena shoots her arms out and wraps her energy around two of the mechanical arms. Octopus Man jolts in surprise when she heaves the arms upward and back, preventing him from moving forward.

He finally acknowledges her by looking over his shoulder with a sneer. Lena manages a smirk, waving the arms up and down. "Shall we dance?"

"Who the hell are you?" Octopus Man spits. The arms thrash in her grip, but she holds them steady while gritting her teeth.

"Your new dance partner. Look!"

Lena plants her feet and yanks her left elbow back, pulling one of the appendages forward. It forces the remaining two to skitter around, fighting to keep their master balanced. Energy allows her to rise into the air and have more fun with the dancing arms. They're too heavy to do much with aside from a wave and annoying pulling, but seeing her foe struggle to remain steady is worth the trouble.

"Do you know the Tinikling?" Lena asks, unable to hide her grin as she starts performing a series of single and double hops in midair. "It's never too late to learn."

Peter comes flying in from Lena's nine o'clock. He slams into Octopus Man, his Iron Spider legs at war with the two mechanical ones holding their opponent in the air. In doing so, he accidentally makes Lena break her concentration. A claw bashes into her side. She goes soaring backward, barely managing to break her fall with a blanket of energy before she lands on the debris-coated asphalt with a pained groan.

Lena breathes through the agony for a moment. Then she raises a hand to her comm and asks, "Graham, have you gotten the civilians taken care of?"

"Almost! Just a few more near the JFK exit," he replies, sounding breathless through the earpiece. His voice makes a wave of relief wash over her nonetheless. "What the hell is going on up there?"

"Uh, a guy with mechanical arms coming out of his back is trying to kill us and really hates Peter for some reason," she answers.

"Cool. Be there in a minute."

Lena grits her teeth against the bone-deep ache in her side and rises to her feet. The interstate is covered in rubble and hazy smoke that rises into the air, nearly blocking the Daily Bugle helicopter that's still circling around them, trying to get a better view of the battle. But there's no sign of Peter or Octopus Man.

"Peter!" she exclaims. "Where are you?"

"AAAHHHH!" comes his reply through her earpiece.

The bridge shudders under her feet. Lena turns toward the edge, then breaks into a sprint once she hears the mechanical whirrs of those God-forsaken claws, planting one foot on the hood of an abandoned car and the other on the barricade to launch herself over the edge. She controls her fall with energy until she's hovering near the action.

The MIT administrator's car is hanging on by a few of Peter's webs. Octopus Man continues his assault on Peter underneath the bridge, wrapping his metal arms around his middle and yanking him around carelessly.

"Help her!" Peter orders. "I've got this under control!"

He definitely doesn't have it under control, but Lena doesn't waste any time telling him that. Instead, she forms a half-circle of energy and positions it under the woman's suspended car. A controlled pushing motion has the vehicle rising, giving the webs attached to its front some slack as the tension in them eases. Lena is careful to keep her movements as slow as possible so the woman doesn't fall— her back door is still ripped off.

Once the car is back on solid ground, Lena double-checks that the lady is okay before heading back under the bridge. Octopus Man has Peter shoved against a support beam. A chunk of his suit is missing, exposing his tie, and one of the claws has a needle-sharp appendage sticking out of the middle. It's aimed dangerously close to his face.

"I underestimated you," the man says thoughtfully. "But now you die."

The claw extends at breakneck speed. As it slams into Peter's chest, his mask retracts, showing his slack-jawed expression and how his pale skin is turning florid from being held upside down. He releases a choked groan. Lena's heart stops for a chilling moment, cold fear encasing her from head to toe until the claw retracts, holding the bottom half of Peter's tie. And Peter is smirking.

That asshole. He'd totally faked being in pain.

Octopus Man stares at him with an unreadable expression. He rips his sunglasses off and draws Peter closer to him. "You're not Peter Parker."

"I am so confused right now," Peter says exasperatedly.

Lena uses a burst of energy to seize the arm holding her boyfriend. The metal turns a molten orange as her power starts to melt it, but Octopus Man uses another claw to strike a needle at her. She zips to the side so it merely rips through her suit near her bicep. Burning pain travels down her arm, but the nanotechnology in her suit allows it to repair the small tear.

"This isn't your score to settle, girl!" Octopus Man shouts at her.

"Lena!" Peter cries as the claw surges forward to seize her.

She projects a force field to block the attack, but it doesn't come. All of Octopus Man's attention has returned to Peter.

"Stop!" he bellows, shaking with rage. "Stop it!"

Peter taps a few holographic icons on his wrist. Lena realizes belatedly that the mechanical arms are no longer their former silver color — now, they're a deep crimson, the same color as Peter's suit.

"Don't listen to him, you listen to me," the man says, seemingly talking to his claws. As one does.

Peter raises his arm. The tentacle closest to him copies the action, rising and falling in time with his movements. The claw clicks open and shut when Peter waves.

"Hey," he says, chuckling against all odds. He's still upside down and being held by an insane guy's metal arm, but he's laughing.

But Lena does have to admit that it's pretty funny. She inches closer, still floating via energy projecting from her feet, and stops beside Peter with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I still think you should make him dance," she says with a smirk.

"Maybe later," Peter promises. "But for now..."

He lifts his other arm and guides the tentacles along the underside of the bridge.

"Hey. Hey. Hey!" Octopus Man protests. "Listen to me! No, not him. Me!"

They grip onto the concrete, gradually climbing out and back onto the highway. Once they reach the road, Peter allows the arm to drop him and fully retracts his suit, racing toward the MIT woman's car. He peers through her broken door.

"Ma'am, are you okay? Come on, you can still make your flight."

She stares at him, wide-eyed. "Peter... You're a hero."

"No. Well, I'm..." Peter shrugs nonchalantly, pulling a face. "No, I'm..."

"I'm gonna talk to Admissions about your friends, and I'm gonna talk to them about you."

Lena's face breaks into a grin. Then she realizes that Octopus Man is still standing next to her — or, rather, he's slightly suspended in the air by the claws that are doing the standing for him — but he's making no move to continue his agenda of destruction.

"So..." she says, rocking back and forth on her feet. "Do you normally attack interstates and try to kill people, or is this a new thing for you?"

He fixes her with an icy glare before shaking his head. "It makes no sense..."

Lena can absolutely agree with that. All of the dialogue during that fight had been confusing. First, he'd spoken to Peter like he'd known him, and completely ignored Lena. It was as if he'd had a vendetta against Spider-Man alone. Then, he'd backtracked, claiming Peter was not Peter once he saw his face. Not to mention the odd reactions he'd displayed with Peter had said Lena's name. But he's not giving any indication that he knows she is Lena.

Does this guy watch the news? Read the newspaper? Look at anything?

The MIT administrator climbs out of her wrecked car and points a firm finger at Octopus Man. "You. I see you. Come here! That was not okay. Unbelievable."

Graham pops out of the shadows, making the woman scream in fright. He slightly sways on his feet. But when he notices the lady, he manages a woozy smile. "Oh, hello. A one-way trip to JFK, I presume?"

Before she can speak, Graham shadow-travels her to the airport and returns in the blink of an eye. He looks exhausted. She doesn't blame him— all that traveling for those civilians must have taken a toll on him.

Peter tries to join them, but Octopus Man swings a wild punch toward his face that he easily dodges.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey!" he exclaims, standing just out of reach of the man's desperate lunges toward him. "Until you stop trying to kill me, I'm in control, buddy. Of this whole tentacle situation you got going on here. Okay?"

"Damn, I missed fighting Squidward Tentacles," Graham mumbles.

Peter's voice comes out harder when he demands, "Now, who are you? What is going on—"

He cuts himself off and turns to his right. Lena follows his gaze, her eyes whirring around to find the source of the threat. There must be one if Peter's Spider Senses had activated. It's never been a false alarm, like a squirrel or something.

She flinches when an explosion rocks the ground a little ways down the interstate. Peter takes a step back, his suit conforming to his body in seconds.

A figure emerges from the dark plumes of smoke just as Octopus Man had. But instead of having mechanical arms, this is a dude on a flying drone-thing, dressed in all green. The eerie cackle that echoes across the road is heart-stopping.

"Osborn?" Octopus Man asks.

The little elf man soars closer. Lena raises a force field, but just as he threatens to crash into it, an orange portal overtakes the quartet.

Lena finds herself in a dark, cold room. Her hands tremble with fear as she slowly circles around to get a sense of her surroundings. Stone walls arch high above her, columns supporting the towering ceiling. She finds one of her hands sneaking toward Peter's. He grabs it, the nanotech material cool to her fingers before he retracts his suit.

Graham summons the shadows around him in case he needs to use them. The trio jumps back when a ginormous lizard pounces from their right, causing Graham to shoot darkness at it. It merely bounces off of an invisible barrier that keeps the monster contained.

Lena's heartbeat is a thunderous roar, blood rushing in her ears as she tries to shove down her fear. Her breaths tremble when they emerge from her lips. Confusion and panic crowd her mind, stuffing it with questions and alarm bells.

A hand seizes Peter's shoulder, causing him to scream and bump into her. She wraps her arms around him protectively.

But it's just Stephen Strange who stares at them, looking battered and bruised as he says darkly, "Be careful what you wish for, Parker."

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a/n:

otto when he hears that cackle:

(my apologies if this meme is lame; i could NOT think of a good one for this chapter)

i didn't expect the battle to be as long as it was, so  meeting the other villains will have to wait until the next chapter. i'm so excited for that— i think it's going to be so cool to write!

also YES i finally used a gif of hailee as kate bishop. i was trying to keep the kate gifs to a minimum because kate is different appearance-wise than lena (since hailee dyed her hair black and used blue contacts), but now that lena's hair is longer, i was running out of options for recent projects to get gifs from. it's weird but i didn't want to blur the lines between kate and lena. my brain is strange and just didn't want to do it, but. alas.

thank you for reading and i'll see you in the next chapter!

—kristyn

*note: the tinikling is a popular dance in the philippines