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The campus is ridiculously huge, much bigger than anything you had ever been used to coming from a small town with a meager population and adorable little graduating class. It’s enormous and open with many areas to duck into and many stairs that lead to floor after floor of new places. Which sucks because running for your life is never an easy task by itself, but being lost while running? Awful. Terrible. Wouldn’t recommend it.
Your limbs flooding with panic nearly make you freeze up as shrieks of terror rip through the halls behind you and the floors quake. You swallow back nausea and black spots dotting your vision, determined not to pass out from the stress but it’s an uphill battle all the same. You have to move and you force your legs to run, though you can’t tell if you’re actually slower than you need to be or if that’s just fear making you feel like you are.
Those hellish tremors grow closer and you bolt around a corner, and things get eerily silent. Where the fuck did everyone go?! The hallway is bare save for you, and you have no idea where you are on this stupid campus or which way to turn. You take a left, then a right, then a left again. Your eyes scan for a flashing exit sign, or a classroom with windows you could possibly jump out of, but for whatever fucking reason there’s none. Ah- well there is a janitor closet but that’s not too helpful for your end goal. You want to escape, not hide.
The hair on the back of your neck raises like pin needles, a bout of uncontrollable trembling taking over you as the jolts in the ground get closer , metallic and heavy, and as you skid to a stop you realize you’ve cornered yourself. You don’t want to turn around and are content to cover your eyes like a child until the scary thing goes away, but against your better judgement you place your back to the wall, praying you somehow phase through.
No such luck.
The source of that god-awful shaking, a huge metal claw thing that had to be at least eight or so feet long, slams into the ground around the corridor in a flash of silver and you bite back a scream. Oh my god oh my god oh my god-
It’s fucking Dr. Octopus, and he looks just as lost as you do. Maybe he hadn’t seen you yet? His head is turned, a frustrated curl of his lip as those things on his back (tentacles, actuators- you don’t care what they’re called) move like real legs, one after the other bringing him closer to where you’ve pressed yourself as deep into a groove in the wall as you could. You are not starstruck like the reporters you know have probably gathered outside just for a shit quality picture. You are not brave enough to chance sneaking by him and being skewered just for moving. You know those things have blood on them figuratively, and you don’t want to stick around long enough for it to be literally. But you can’t. You’re fucking terrified.
Is your heart beating loud enough to hear? You feel your pulse race in your tongue and throat, and no amount of gulping it down eases it. You shift slightly. You feel like your chest is about to explode and you honestly believe you will at any given moment as his head rolls over his tense shoulder, stiff and alert, then relaxes when he spots you. Well, you’re sure he can see you, but you can’t read his expression past the dark sunglasses he’s wearing that shroud his eyes in mystery. You don’t like it. You’re sure all you will get as a warning before he stabs you through the heart is a raised brow.
You’d sure appreciate it though if Spider-Man showed up right now.
Doc Ock’s face breaks into a smooth, easy smile. Your stomach turns. He’s lowered to the ground by those dangerous tentacles, and his walk is slow and casual, approaching you like a friendly passerby and not a man about to kill you.
“Hello there.” He gives you a short wave but you don’t return it, being paralyzed with terror. “I won’t take too much of your time.” He continues as if you’d greeted him back.
“It’s been a while since I’ve walked these halls and I see some remodeling has been done. All I want to know,” you don’t pay much attention to what he’s saying even though you should. It’s literally your life on the line and all you can think of is how his form is so intimidating even without being suspended in air several feet above you, how he’s so much bigger than you are and how he could snap you like a twig without his enhancements. You’re going to die.
“-the labs are.”
What? You blink up at him. “E-excuse me?” You hate how tiny you sound and how each word you speak warbles just a little bit.
“The labs.” He repeats, and you know he’s not a man who likes to repeat himself. Your heart sinks as your eyes sting. You have the nerve to feel embarrassed that he’s gonna make you cry by just standing there. He looks down at you over his nose and you feel like a bothersome child. Compared to him, you supposed you were.
“I-I don’t know.” You answer honestly without thinking. “I’ve n-never been here before it’s my first year and- and I was just getting a tour s-so-“ it’s word vomit spilling past your lips and a flash of deep green in the corner of your eye silences you with a final small “eep!” Doc Ock’s arm made of flesh moves, but instead of a viscous sock across the jaw or straight up just strangling you, a gentle hand palms the hair on your head, fingers playing absentmindedly with the strands captured in their tips. You almost faint right there.
“Easy now,” his smooth voice purrs, and you feel like a mouse caught under the paw of a smug cat who knows everything is in its control. He bends down to your level, a smile that would be comforting on anyone else but him tugging at his lips. “I’ll just ask someone who does know then, hm?” He releases your hair and the tingling ghost of how close he was to your face prickles over your cheeks.
He lifts up higher and higher on those tentacles again, and you watch with unblinking eyes. Was he going to kill you now? You waited for your thumping heart to be ripped from your chest but you were instead given another short wave and a grin.
“Do try to enjoy your time here,” Dr. Octopus tells you, “I believe the college experience is one of the most important stages of development in a young adult’s life.” With a final smirk sent your way he turns to leave, the impact of those tentacles on the ground getting further and further away. There’s deep crumbling holes in the polished floor (that could have been your body ripped up like that!) and he’s gone.
You don’t leave immediately. Instead, after a few minutes of silence you let yourself exhale all the air in your lungs and you slide down the wall, movements reminiscent of a deflated balloon. Once your butt touches the floor your eyes roll into your skull and you slump forward, shock catching up with you as you spin into darkness. You’re honestly surprised you didn’t piss yourself first.