"Spi! Der! Man!"
Hearing Otto's roar once again, Peter no longer cared; in the span of just a few short minutes, Otto had already died twice. Peter's side was straightforward enough, but Gwen's ability was truly absurd. As long as Gwen willed it, no one could perceive her, and all the effects she caused would be filtered by the perception of others, becoming rationalized in their minds.
For instance, regarding the recent electrocution, Otto himself probably felt that he had simply suffered a lapse in judgment and crashed into the power lines. He wouldn't even consider that, given his array of equipment, the possibility of him being electrocuted to death was actually minuscule.
However, that didn't stop his self-perception from believing he had just done something stupid.
"Leave this place to me. The important thing is to find Doctor Octopus's cloning tanks; otherwise, we'll have to keep fighting this infinite battle. The Avengers are currently dealing with Kang the Conqueror, so we don't have that kind of time."
After exchanging a few words with Gwen, Peter let her leave first while he remained to deal with the Superior Octopus. Otto launched himself like a cannonball, crashing heavily in front of Peter. Immediately, countless small octopus-bots crawled out from his mechanical limbs and swarmed toward Peter.
"This is the method you're using to deal with me, Otto? Tiny robots? Tiny robots won't stop me!"
Peter executed a swift and agile backflip to dodge, simultaneously firing web-bombs to trap the surging swarm of mini-bots. Otto, however, watched Peter without a hint of panic. Instead, he chose to retreat, triggering the octopus-bots to explode one after another. As the intensity of the explosions increased, the entire floor began to shake.
Peter realized what Otto intended to do. Neither fleeing nor continuing to tank the damage were good ideas, so he chose to turn invisible and charged rapidly toward Otto.
Relying on his "Octopus Sense," Otto perceived the approaching danger.
Peter, meanwhile, relied on his Spider-Sense to see the defensive measures Otto was about to take, landing a preemptive punch squarely on Otto's face.
"First it was the reporter and cameraman in the Daily Bugle helicopter, and now an entire building?!"
Peter grabbed Otto by the collar and slammed a headbutt into his forehead. "Have you lost your mind?!"
"These deaths are meaningless! Once today is over, they will never have died!" Otto shouted like a madman. "The only one who dies is you! Spider-Man!"
Ignoring the peril of this new body, Otto chose to directly detonate all the octopus-bots and activated the molecular resonance device on his body, attempting once more to expel the symbiote from Peter. But without Scorpion to suppress his Spider-Sense, Peter evaded the attack with ease, watching Doctor Octopus perish in the sea of flames along with his mini-bots.
The price, however, was that the building began to collapse, nearly snapping in half.
"Your name will surely ring out across the skies just like those two planes on 9/11, Otto."
Taking a deep breath, Peter began the rescue operation. Using the Anti-Venom symbiote, he continuously bound the various load-bearing pillars and exterior walls of the building together, repairing it as much as possible. The only piece of good luck was that because Otto had taken over all of New York yesterday, no one had to come to work today, so the building wouldn't "spawn" any New York citizens.
Furthermore, Peter's Spider-Sense could cover a range of roughly three floors above and below him, generating shadow images. This confirmed that there were no other people inside, allowing him to quickly and safely catch all the falling debris with web-nets and barely stabilize the structure.
"Ha, back when I first started, I struggled just to hold up a single overpass." Peter let out a long breath as he used massive webs generated by Anti-Venom to link the building to several others to maintain its stability. "And now? Now I can handle an entire skyscraper. Growing up fast, aren't you, Spider-Man?"
"Spi! Der! Man!"
"I've heard that shout four times now, Otto. I'm begging you, stop coming back."
To prevent Otto from damaging the building again, Peter chose to take the initiative. This time, however, Otto had brought a new toy: a giant octopus-mech with him seated inside. Peter leapt directly onto the cockpit, shifting into a form resembling the Venom-style Anti-Venom, and pierced the cockpit with a single claw.
This was exactly the opportunity Otto had been waiting for. A larger molecular resonance device was rapidly activated, and the Anti-Venom began to surge violently across the surface of Peter's body. Otto lunged out, grabbing Peter. To Otto's surprise, however, the Anti-Venom did not leave Peter's body.
This was because Anti-Venom was actually birthed from Peter's own body, rather than being an alien parasitic lifeform.
Right at that moment, Peter received new good news: the Spider-Team had finally found Otto's cloning incubation tanks. This tedious game was finally over.
"It's time to end this, Otto! Your cloning base has been discovered!"
Peter broke free from Otto's restraint. Although Anti-Venom wouldn't be expelled like Venom, the molecular resonance device still greatly interfered with its normal operation. But that didn't matter. Peter tanked a punch from Otto and countered with a fist to his face.
"Whether you're driven by hatred, anger, or simple arrogance, your ambition ends here, Otto!"
"Ends? It ends?!"
Otto threw another staggering punch, but instead of hitting Peter, he nearly tripped himself. "How could it end?! Something must have gone wrong! What went wrong..."
Something indeed had gone wrong. Both Peter and Otto realized it at the same time: Otto's voice had become aged and raspy. He took off his mask and gloves in disbelief, finding that his body had already aged to that of a man in his late forties.
"Once a cloned body undergoes catalyzed growth, its rate of aging becomes rapid. Furthermore, the Erskine Serum and Spider-DNA essentially require a complete replacement of the body's genetic material through gene transcription—this has once again accelerated your body's senescence. The power you sought has turned you into an old man."
"Your ambition shaped your failure, Otto. Perhaps this is destiny—the destiny you forged with your own hands. It's all over."
"Over?"
Otto looked at Peter and suddenly began to laugh. Yes, an artificially manufactured clone was destined to be unable to exist for long.
"Do you think I went to the Xavier Institute just to steal the Danger Room generator? Why do you think I was able to transfer my consciousness into the clone so promptly?"
In that case, he would just use the natural body right in front of him.
"I might not be able to be the Superior Octopus anymore."
"But I can still be the Superior Spider-Man!"