(Author's Note: this chapter is basically a giant info dump and some of the explanations may seem a bit wonky for now, but I promise it'll all come together. Also I'm on the hunt for a new title for this story, since "The Web-Slinger" is kinda... meh. So lemme know if you have any suggestions! Otherwise, enjoy the chapter!) 

"Alright," I said, sliding into the seat beside of Ned as the cafeteria began to fill up around us. "So what do we have?"

"Well," Ned answered, "To be as thorough as possible... we have nothing." I sighed, slouching against the back of my chair as MJ offered a sympathetic look from across the table.

"There has to be something about this guy... somewhere... right?" I ran my hands through my hair, tugging on the strands in exasperation.

"We've scoured the internet," said MJ. "There's nothing about a Doctor Octopus terrorizing New York City."

"I just don't know what he wants with me," I replied, folding my arms across my chest as I leaned forward and placed my elbows on the hard surface of the table. "It's driving me crazy."

"Exams are next week, Peter," Ned reminded me. "Maybe we should take a break from this whole Doc Oc thing? After all, it's been almost a month since the last... incident." I snorted.

"By incident, you mean having to rescue my best friend from being kidnapped and murdered?" Ned didn't seem to know how to respond to that, and went back to chewing his sandwich.

"We'll keep digging," MJ said with a small nod. I smiled back in appreciation.

We hadn't gone on another date since that night. Neither of us had mentioned going out again, although I suspected she knew my reasons had nothing to do with her. Still, I supposed we needed to talk about it eventually.

The chance came later that afternoon when MJ arrived at my apartment. Ned would come by a little bit later, and the two of them were going to offer support during my first night back as Spider-Man.

"Hey," I murmured, leading her through the empty kitchen and living area to my room. "We should probably talk about... well, you know..."

"Us?" MJ finished for me as we entered the room. She turned to face me as I closed the door behind us, a bit needlessly since Aunt May was still at work. "I get it if you don't wanna go out anymore -"

"No, no," I interjected. "No, that's not it."

"Good," she said with a small smile. "I had fun."

"I did too," I replied with a sheepish grin. "But... uh..." my voice trailed off, and I struggled to find the words as I gazed into her soft eyes.

"You can't do something like this right now," she said, nodding her head as she glanced down at the floor. "I get it. This is important... and dangerous." I bit my lip, resisting the urge to reach out and pull her close.

"You don't know how much I want to," I said in a quiet tone. We stood for a moment, looking at anything but one another as the seconds ticked by.

"Ned will be here soon," she said, breaking the silence at last.

"I'm sorry, MJ," I replied, stepping towards her as she busied herself by sorting a stack of homework on my desk.

"I told you," she murmured. "It's fine." Despite the genuineness in her tone, I couldn't help but press on.

"Well, if... if you don't wanna be here... or you need a break or something... I get it."

At this, MJ whirled around with an indignant expression painted across her face.

"Do you honestly think the only reason I'm here is because I like you?" she exclaimed, planting her hands on her hips. I gulped.

"I mean... no, but -"

"Do you think the only reason I patched you up all those times is because I knew who you were? And because of how I felt about you?" Her eyes glowed like embers. I didn't know what to say, so I remained silent as she continued. "No, Peter. I'm here because you're one of my best friends. I respect what you do as Spider-man, and I would do anything to help you regardless of whether we're dating." My face flamed in shame.

"I know that," I said, rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... you know." Her face softened.

"I'm not saying I won't be sad about it," she responded, stepping closer. "But I'm not gonna leave you. I mean, let's be real... you need all the help you can get right now."

I laughed, and some of the pressure inside of my chest released.

"You're right," I relented. "And I -"

"Peter!"

Both MJ and I jumped as Ned burst into the room, red-faced and out of breath. There was a sheet of paper in his hands.

"Dude, what's going on?" I asked, helping him to the desk chair where he collapsed in a heap of sweat and heavy breaths.

"I... I know who it is," he stammered, grabbing the bottle of water on my desk and downing half of it in one gulp.

"Who... what?" I said, trying to make sense of his words.

"Doc Oc!" he exclaimed. Ned handed me the paper, and I glanced down at it in awe.

"Ned, start talking," said MJ. She plopped down onto the floor beside of him, and I leaned back against the desk.

"It hit me during... during history... and so I went back and looked some more... and it... it all goes back to him..." Ned gestured to the sheet in my hand. I showed it to MJ, perplexed. It was a news article.

"Stark Industries?" I asked, skimming the headline. "Ned this is from 2004, what does this have to do -"

"Look at the other side," said Ned. I flipped over the sheet to reveal a continuation of the article. Immediately, my attention was drawn to the photograph in the center of the page. There were three men, Tony Stark, a tall, balding man, and a short man with thick glasses and wiry brown hair. They stood close, but not too close, outside of a sleek building with the Stark Industries logo plastered at the top.

"Tony Stark, Obadiah Stane, and leading scientist Otto Octavius prepare to launch a new advanced weapons program at Stark Industries," MJ said, reading the text underneath the photo.

"Isn't that the guy who died in a radiation accident?" I said, scratching my head. "Ned, I don't understand why you're showing us this."

"They never found the body!" Ned blurted out. "The accident was in 2008, only two weeks after Iron Ma... I mean, Mr. Stark shut down the weapons program at Stark Industries. But a body was never found at the site of the accident. They only assumed that he was incinerated because of the explosion."

"So," I replied, putting the pieces together inside of my head. "You think this Otto Octavius is our guy?"

"I mean... it's all we have."

"No, it makes sense when you think about it," I said, thinking aloud. "He probably would have been furious that Tony shut down the weapons program after all the work he'd done. He might have quit... or even been fired."

"So this is about revenge?" MJ glanced between the two of us. "Revenge on Tony Stark."

"He must have been trying to use me to get to Tony," I murmured, starting to pace back and forth. "And then when Tony died..." I paused, pushing away the swell of sorrow that rose inside of my chest. "Then he knew he could dishonor Tony's legacy if he took me out."

"Which explains why he hasn't killed you yet," MJ agreed. Ned and I stared at her in unison. "He wants to make it public," she went on. "Obviously."

"Makes sense," said Ned. I nodded.

"What else do you have?" I asked, looking down at the article. "This is a good theory, but we need to be sure."

"That's what caught my attention," Ned responded. "There's almost nothing on this guy besides his death and his early years as a scientist."

"That's a little suspicious," I said.

"Very," Ned murmured. "This guy was a genius. But besides that article, I couldn't find anything about his time at Stark Industries, or the kind of work he was doing in the weapons program." I snapped my fingers.

"Personnel files! Even though they dismantled the program, they still gotta have files of everyone who worked there, and the kind of research they did."

"I'm not hacking into Stark Industries," Ned said, putting his hands into the air in protest.

"Wimp," MJ snorted from the floor. I waved my hand in dismissal.

"No hacking, I promise," I said.

"Then what do you suggest?" MJ queried, propping her elbows on her knees. I smiled.

"Let me make a phone call."

******

"I wanna be clear, I'm only doing this because Pepper insisted."

"We won't take long, Happy," I assured the older man as he led us through the winding maze of the small warehouse.

"I don't even wanna know what you kids are up to," Happy muttered, shaking his head. "But it better not be illegal." He paused to give me a pointed glare, to which I responded with the most innocent look I could muster.

"We're trying to stop a criminal, Mr. Hogan," MJ jumped in. "And don't worry about Peter. I'll stop him from doing anything irreparably stupid." Happy seemed satisfied at this.

"I like her," he said as we turned one last corner. "And here we go! Every file we have on the weapons program." Happy motioned towards the massive wall of filing cabinets facing us.

"Thanks, Happy," I replied.

"I hope you kids find what you're looking for," said Happy. "I'll be back in two hours to lock up. Any of you kids want a cheeseburger?"

"I'll take two!" Ned answered a bit too enthusiastically. I shared a knowing look with Happy, then shook my head. He seemed to understand, and left us to our search.

"Alright," I said, rubbing my hands together. "I'll look for Otto's personnel file. You two look for anything in the research and project files."

"Aye boss," said Ned.

Our paths diverged, and we began scouring the filing cabinets for anything that might pertain to our search. It only took a few minutes of digging for me to find the personnel file. It was, to my surprise, quite bulky. Various papers, charts, and graphs were sticking out of the folder. I gripped it with both hands to keep everything inside, then plopped down on the floor a few feet away to begin sorting through it. Ned and MJ joined me a bit later, and soon we were surrounded by papers and folders.

"What do you got, Pete?" Ned asked after a while of silent perusing.

"There's a lot here," I said, releasing a deep breath. "It looks like he was recruited to join Stark Industries by Obadiah Stane in the late 90's, right after he graduated from MIT at 19. He worked his way up to top weapons specialist after a few years. He didn't have any incidents worth noting until the accident in 2008."

"What does it say about the accident?" MJ inquired, looking up from her own file.

"It just says they were packing up some of the equipment in one of the weapons' facilities when there was a radiation explosion." I flipped through the file until I found what I was looking for. "They have a lot of pictures of the aftermath." I handed them to MJ, who started glancing through them.

"Well here's something that's interesting," Ned jumped in. "Obadiah Stane and Otto were real pals, apparently." He handed me a photograph of the two men next to a stack of weaponry. "So I started digging into the finances, and here's what I found." Ned paused to hold up a paper filled with lines and numbers.

"Translate?" I pleaded.

"Stane authorized an enormous payment on a new project just weeks before Tony Stark came back and shut down the weapons program. And guess who was heading this new project?"

"Otto," I said, starting to get excited. All the pieces were finally fitting together. "What was the project?"

"Some sort of mechanical weapon," Ned replied. "I didn't get all of the science lingo." Ned was interrupted by MJ, who had started to rifle through the papers with a look of intense concentration.

"MJ?" She held up a finger, and Ned and I exchanged a quick look before shrugging and lapsing into silence.

"Got it!" she squealed, holding up a small file. "It's all making sense now."

"Care to explain?" asked Ned.

"If you look at some of the pictures from the explosion," she said, holding up a photo for emphasis, "you can see the name of the building in the background. Weapons Facility Delta." I tilted my head to the side, confused.

"Go on," I pressed, certain there must be some point to all of this.

"Here's the thing," she continued. "Weapons Facility Delta was a low-level building. Not a lot of big projects got sent there, and certainly not one with this much funding or such a big-name scientist heading it. But here's where it gets interesting: according to this record, signed by Obadiah Stane, Weapons Facility Delta was marked cleared of all equipment and personnel three days after Tony Stark shut down the weapons program."

"But the accident wasn't until two weeks later," I said, my brow furrowing in deep thought.

"Exactly," said MJ. "So whatever was going on there was off the books, and off the radar."

"Obadiah Stane must have wanted to continue the project," Ned proclaimed. "Even after Mr. Stark did away with the weapons program."

"So he cleared out Weapons Facility Delta and moved the project there," I finished for him. "From there, it was just a matter of waiting until he had gotten rid of Tony and regained his status as the CEO of Stark Industries."

"Until the accident happened," MJ concluded.

"But even without the body," I said, "and with all of this theorizing, how do we know Otto is our Doc Oc?"

"Guys," MJ murmured.

"And if it is him, then why has he waited this long to make his move?" Ned added.

"Guys."

"We just need a direct connection between the two -"

"GUYS." I turned to MJ.

"What?"

"Look at this." MJ handed me a photo. I glanced down to see the charred remnant of some sort of machine.

"I don't -"

"Look in the background."

Then I saw it, sitting the debris just behind the machine.

The metal. The claws. The tentacle.

A shiver ran down my spine, followed by a sense of elation. I met the impatient stares of MJ and Ned with a victorious smirk.

"We got 'im."