[Olivia Octavius's POV]
I crash into my laboratory, barely keeping my balance as my mechanical arms carry my failing body forward. The pristine equipment and organized workstations mock my deteriorating condition. These once-magnificent appendages that gave me such power now serve as my life support, the only things keeping my withered frame upright.
With a howl of frustration, I slam one of my metal arms down on the nearest desk. The reinforced steel surface crumples like paper, sending beakers and precision instruments flying across the room in a shower of glass and sparks.
"God damn it!" My voice emerges distorted through the respirator built into my suit. The sound echoes off the sterile walls of my hidden facility beneath Manhattan. "To think Spider-Woman was one of my first interns! One of the brightest minds I'd ever encountered!"
I hurl a nearby lab table across the room with another mechanical arm, watching it shatter against the wall. The crash brings me no satisfaction, only the painful reminder of my own fragility as my lungs spasm in protest at the exertion.
Wheezing through damaged tissue, I drag myself to my primary workstation. The medical readouts displayed on the monitor confirm what I already know, my condition is deteriorating faster than anticipated. The constant beatings over the years from Spider-Woman have cost me everything.
"I don't have much time left," I mutter to myself, scrolling through the data with one metal claw. "And I'm running out of options."
The irony doesn't escape me. I created these arms to revolutionize scientific exploration, to reach places humans couldn't safely go. Now they're the only thing keeping me alive, feeding me nutrients, administering medication, and supporting my crumbling skeleton.
My plan had been so elegant in its simplicity. Capture the spider, force her to engage with my neural interface device, and challenge her intellect directly, mind against mind in the ultimate battle of wits. If I had prevailed, I would have transferred my consciousness into her young, healthy body, discarding this failing husk like the obsolete shell it is. I would have become truly Superior in every way, Olivia Octavius's brilliant mind housed in Spider-Woman's perfect physiology.
But now I know her true identity. Piper Parker. The one who showed such promise before apparently betraying me with her sanctimonious morality.
I sink into my reinforced chair, the metal arms curling around me protectively as my own limbs tremble with exhaustion.
"Parker," I whisper, the name like acid on my tongue. "All this time, it was you."
A memory surfaces through the fog of my deteriorating brain. Parker wasn't alone during her internship. There was someone else... a boyfriend who would wait for her after lab hours. A young man with striking red hair. What was his name?
I pull up my research database, fingers shaking as I command one of my mechanical arms to interface with the system. The neural link pulses with information as I access our old laboratory records.
"Mario," I wheeze, the memory crystallizing. "Mario Jane."
My mechanical arms dance across multiple screens, pulling up surveillance footage from Parker's internship days. There he is, waiting outside the lab, his striking red hair unmistakable. I connect to the facial recognition database I appropriated from A.I.M. during our last disagreement.
The scan runs quickly, cross-referencing against social media, traffic cameras, and public records. Multiple hits appear, tracking his movements across the city over recent months. The Empire State University performing arts program. A coffee shop near campus. An apartment in Brooklyn.
"Perfect."
The solution unfolds before me with elegant simplicity. If I can't capture Parker directly, I'll acquire the necessary leverage to make her come to me willingly. A trade, her boyfriend's life for her submission to my neural battle. We will finally learn who the smartest in the room truly is!