Chapter Text
Peter wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. The plan was simple: get into the RAFT, do some investigating, stop some bad guys if need be, then get out. He had to have a long debate with everyone else to decide how it would pan out. It was a difficult process.
Thankfully, Peter knew an awesome lady named MJ that was able to convince RAFT and Rykers employees that she was writing a paper on the inner workings of the prisons, and needed to bring her "coworker and photographer" there so they could document everything too. Her coworker of course being Doc (with a handy fake ID he whipped up unnervingly fast) and the photographer being Peter, who had managed to sneak in his mask and a couple web bombs in his old camera bag.
Doc of course complained about the whole operation and how vulnerable it would leave them at the prison, so to alleviate that Pete had Miles be on call and at the ready to swing over with their spidey suits and a bunch of extra gadgets in case things turned south.
Sure, they'd have to be there in civilian mode, which was uncomfortable on its own, Peter couldn’t deny that. But it had made it easy for them to get past the bag search, though Pete did have to come up with some quick thinking to convince the workers that his and Doc's web shooters were just decorative bracelets or watches. A new fashion statement, as MJ had quickly suggested.
And so they were now on a boat sailing directly to a prison full of some of the most dangerous criminals in the world. At this point, it was the usual. Peter had hoped they would fly them over on a helicopter or something similar, but according to MJ they didn't want to waste their time on them. Figures.
Speaking of MJ, she was sitting next to him now, answering any questions the guards on the boat asked about their totally real press assignment. Pete had to admit, she was good at making stuff up on the spot.
Doc stood across from him, gazing out onto the water. He was fidgeting slightly, looking uncomfortable. Peter stood up, ignoring the look he got from one of the employees on the boat, and wandered over next to him.
"What's up? Everything ok?" Peter says, keeping his voice relatively quiet, as they were surrounded by people in this tiny boat. "Actually, it's kinda stupid to ask if you're ok right now considering where we're going, but… are you?"
"I'll be fine. I have some RAFT related baggage, but there's no point in going into that. Let's just get this over with."
"Are you sure? You look kinda distant."
Doc sighed, looking at Peter as if he was examining him. "Why do you keep doing this?"
"Doing what?" Peter replied, concern evident in his voice. Doc had some self destructive tendencies, and not wanting to accept help was one of them. His tone of voice certainly reminded Peter of that fact.
"Being concerned about me. It is… appreciated, but it's also just a bit strange, to be quite blunt."
"Because you need someone to give you some affection for once." Peter huffed, also being blunt. "Sorry, that came out weird. Look, you just clearly aren't all that used to people caring about you and it shows. This isn't out of the ordinary-"
"You care about me?" Otto's voice was low, his expression unreadable.
"Way to prove my point about you, Doc. Of course I care." Peter replied, unintentionally raising his voice, a little offended that he would think that. Thankfully it wasn't loud enough to attract any undue attention. "I thought that much was obvious. I mean, for one thing, I try to care about everyone cuz that's my responsibility. Also, you kinda fell into my world with several broken bones. That should be reason enough."
"That's not what I mean." Doc was fidgeting with his fingers now, lightly scratching into his own hand. "At least not entirely."
"Then what do you mean?" Peter asked, genuinely confused.
"It's because you… I can't explain it." Doc huffed. He dug into his hand more, until it was nearly red. "You don't need to worry about me. My injuries are healing, and this situation is more important."
Peter took a chance and pulled Doc's hand away before he ended up scratching himself too hard. He didn't really know why, it was partly to show concern but also to just see if he could, if Otto would still let him get close. Sure, he hugged him earlier and that was a huge step forward, but tensions weren't as high then. Damn this crime plot, why'd it have to come out of nowhere and mess everything up?
"Stop doing that." Peter said, letting go of his hand slowly. Otto looked dumbfounded, surprised that he'd noticed, but he still said nothing. Peter looked at him with understanding. "Look, if you don't want to talk right now, I get it. We're all stressed. I'll leave you alone, but remember that I'm here for you, ok?"
Doc nodded, looking away. Parker couldn't help but be concerned, but Otto needed space right now, so he'd have to give him a moment. Peter moved back over to sit next to MJ.
"So… how's your friend doing?" She asked. "Is he usually like this?"
"Doc- Elliot is uh… yeah. He's always at least a little grumpy." Peter said honestly, making sure to correct himself on using Otto's other identity in front of her. "I can't blame him."
"I get it, it would be rough to get ripped away from your home like that. Or however he came here. Wait, how did he get here? You never really elaborated." MJ replied, shooting him an inquisitive look. Peter gulped.
"Is now really a good time for that?"
"We're going to be here a while."
Peter leaned a bit closer, making sure to keep his voice down. "Ok, fine. So apparently there was this other version of Norman Osborn that had beef with Elliot, so they fought and he lost and the other Norman threw him into the multiverse. Something like that."
"That is one of the most confusing things you've ever said to me, Pete. But even then, wow… other universes." MJ looked deep in thought. "Never thought I'd see the day where that got confirmed. It's all so hard to think about."
Peter glanced at Doc again, who was staring off into space. She was right, this was hard to think about.
"So how'd you meet? What's the story there?" MJ continued. Peter broke his train of thought, thinking of an easy way to explain it.
"He recruited me to come fight some multi-universe spanning spider battle. Really weird stuff like that. He wasn't exactly the best then either, but it was a bad situation. But I trusted him, and he pulled through."
"Way to be vague, tiger." MJ sighed. "But you still trust him?"
"He opened up to me this morning. After that? Of course. Doc is a good person, but he's just fussy sometimes."
"I know someone like that." MJ smiled at him. Peter raised an eyebrow and let out a quiet scoff.
"Hey, I've never been that fussy."
The boat jerked to a halt before he could continue. The room shook, and the guards onboard stood up and opened the side door.
"You'll have an hour and a half for visiting. Don't go out of the boundaries we have set, no pictures of any inmates, no standing within 10 feet of the cells, no-"
The guards rambling soon turned to mush in Peter's head as he walked out of the boat. MJ tailed behind him, and Otto rushed along in front, high tailing it off the boat before abruptly stopping on the main walkway leading into the prison. He was glaring at the tall metallic black walls as if they were a sentient thing staring back at him, and Peter felt a chill run through him at the look in his eyes.
The guards walked them inside, and MJ signaled to Peter for him and Otto to get to exploring the long ominous corridors while she handled the guards. Pete could hear one particular unit questioning why they were splitting up and MJ replying with a litany of professional sounding excuses. She had told Peter earlier that she would interview some of the workers to see what information she could pull from there, giving her one of the safest jobs while Peter had to, for lack of a better term, sneak around a hole full of his enemies.
Peter gulped. This was where things could get interesting. They still had other workers watching them, both on security cameras and in person, so they'd have to make due with that as they wandered into the first cell block.
Doc had his arms crossed, digging his hands into both his forearms as he looked around. The cells were spaced fairly far apart and the halls were anything but tight. There were several larger cells at the end of the hall, assumedly for prisoners of a "higher profile". Peter mentally compared the whole interior to some liminal space you might see in a bad dream.
It was surprisingly quiet as well, and as they were escorted past most inmates did nothing but stare. Peter pretended to take photos of the surroundings or any vacant cells, and kept on internally reminding himself that he was stronger than almost everyone in this building to try and shake that feeling of unease. He wasn't worried for himself, but rather worried about Doc, who's thousand yard stare was one of the scariest things in the building right now.
And then it hit Peter that Otto was likely uncomfortable because he'd been in one of these cells before. It was easy to read in his bitter demeanor. He should've thought of this already, but now he just had to hope that Doc's bitterness at the establishment wouldn't blow over and cause any problems for them. Peter decided he'd try to talk to Doc about it later to make him feel better.
Doc was walking faster now, evidently having an idea of which cell block the helmet had specifically pinged to. Peter kept tailing him, really not wanting to come off too suspicious to the guards stationed around each corner, even though Otto wasn't making that easy.
"Doc, slow down." Peter began. Doc slowed down, gesturing to a collection of inconspicuous cells up ahead.
"Signals connected to here." Otto pointed at one particular cell up ahead, but it wasn't what Pete expected. It was just some average looking scruffy guy, who looked rather confused that an equally unkempt visitor was staring at him outside.
"That's just some guy. How can you know for sure?"
"Are there any cells below or above this one?" Doc kept staring straight ahead as if he was processing.
"Not as far as I'm aware of. Look, maybe it's not as bad as we thought. It's probably just one of Tarantula's accomplices that thought he was being slick-"
"Then we're wasting our time!" Otto snapped.
"Woah, hey! We both blew this out of proportion. Tarantula was probably thinking he could break out his friend or something. We'll ask the guards to check it out, now are you sure the helmet pinged to that spot?"
"Yes, I'm sure. I never miscalculated it has to be there!" Otto growled. "This is barely even our problem anymore! Just some incompetent plan that'll never work and that we wasted our time on!"
"Is there a problem over here?" One of the prison guards had evidently noticed.
"Oh, nothing! Just trying to take pictures here-" Peter began, before Otto stepped in front of him.
"Sir that prisoner in there admitted to me that he was planning a potential prison break, I suggest you search the cell." Doc pointed back to the cell he pointed out before.
"What, Mordecai?" The guard responded. "He's well behaved, and you have no proof of that-"
"And it would do you no harm to check anyways, so do it."
"Well, I guess not. But you can't be involved, so step off and go back to the main entrance." The guard looked at Otto accusingly, but quickly turned away to say something into his walkie-talkie. Peter pulled Doc away before he could bring any more attention to them. At least the guards were actually going to do what they said.
"This isn't over." Doc grumbled. "It can't be over."
"Yeah, I agree with you, but right now let's not put on a show for all the inmates by bickering, ok?" Peter replied. "We'll figure something out."
They had walked all of a few steps away from the scene before Peter heard a voice that made him stop in his tracks.
"You're going to walk by without saying hello, Parker?"
Peter couldn't look at him. The only thing he could bring himself to do was stare ahead and sigh.
"I'm suprised they put you in a regular cell." Peter replied. He glanced quickly over at Doc, who's look of confusion quickly morphed into one of panicked frustration.
"I was surprised too, I'll admit. Though I suppose without my arms I can be seen as rather useless, isn't that right, Peter?"
"You know thats not true." Peter turned to look at the aging man in the cell next to him. Otto Octavius. His world's Otto Octavius, his mentor, now sitting in an orange jumpsuit behind thick plexiglass with a knowing smile on his face. Oh great.
"Are you here on business?" He asked. His voice was just calm enough to be unnerving. Peter could tell that the older Otto was very, very bitter.
"That's none of your business."
"And who's your friend?"
"That's also none of your business." Peter huffed. Doc (the younger one) stiffened upon defensively. Pete felt bad for him, he'd never wanted the two Otto's to meet at all.
"So youre just going to ignore me like you didn't put me here to begin with? You're trying to forget about me, aren't you?" Otto hissed. He slowly and shakily moved to his feet. Peter sighed.
"You know what? Sometimes I really wish I could forget about what you've done! I- I was really rooting for you, you know!" Peter snapped back. "Whatever. We're not here for you."
"That's a shame. Go ahead and keep avoiding me then." The older Otto sat back down, smiling slightly. Peter didn't like that. It was hard to tell what he was trying to convey with that look.
"Parker. Are we done here?" Doc fidgeted, continuing to glance down at his multiversal counterpart. "We can't pull anything else from this."
"You're right. Let's go, Doc." Peter turned away and he could hear his universe's Otto make a ' hmm ' noise as he went. Doc lagged behind for a moment, and when Peter turned around he saw him standing by the cell, seemingly listening to something his counterpart had to say. Shit. He overheard something about some street name before Doc turned and walked away quickly.
"What did he say to you?" Peter asked as he followed, clearly concerned, even more so when he noticed Doc's uncomfortable expression.
"It was nothing."
"No, seriously, what did he say? Don't tell me he threatened you."
"It wasn't any new information, now let's get out of this damn building." Doc nearly growled at him. Now must have been a bad time. Peter had to put that on the list of things he'd have to talk to Otto about later.
"Boys!" MJ came up to them as they entered the main hall. "Ok, interesting news is, a group of inmates that formerly worked with Tarantula were being held around the area that his helmet pinged to. So maybe-"
"We already notified some of the personnel and they said they'd look into it." Doc interrupted. "Now let's go."
He speedwalked out to the loading dock to get back on the boat. MJ looked over at Peter before they both followed.
"I guess we didn't have to worry much. Turns out it was just some guys thinking they could pull off some prison break. Funny, right?" MJ lightly elbowed Peter, trying to lighten the mood.
"It just feels too easy. There has to be something more. And then Doc decided to say some cryptic shit, and now I don't know how to feel."
"You spoke to Otto?"
"I didn't want to, honest." Peter admitted as they all boarded back on the boat. "I'm just worried."
"You know what?" MJ started. "Maybe for once you should just accept that not everything turns into some big crime scheme, ok? Now let's go home."
—---
The boat ride back was uneventful. Pete was tired more than anything, mostly nodded when Mj asked him something. Otto said nothing for the entire trip. Afterwards, Peter had swung MJ back to her apartment and told Miles the news as soon as he had gotten back into the city. Doc had gone back to the old lab, and Peter found him outside on the roof of the building, looking out on the street.
"Why are you out here?"
"You never gave me a key, Parker." Doc looked over as Peter sat down next to him. Peter chuckled.
"Oh right. Sorry. I'll get you one tomorrow, ok?" Peter patted his shoulder. "We should go back to my apartment."
"So we're just giving up on all of this, then?"
"We're not giving up. We did all we could." Peter replied. "We thought it was something big and it wasn't. We shouldn't stress about it. Unless Otto told you something and you're not telling me. "
"He didn't. And though it won't be my top priority, I'm still going to dig into this while I have the time."
"That's alright, Doc. That's what we're all gonna do. But for tonight…"
"What about tonight?"
"Miles invited me to go grab some pizza. You like pizza, right? You're a Spider-Man. You've gotta like pizza."
"It is tolerable." Otto admitted.
"Then let's go." Peter smiled at him. "I think MJ's right about this whole Tarantula case. We just got paranoid. The prison and city will be fine. We'll be fine. And if it's not, it's nothing we can't handle. Let's get you some pizza."