Work Text:
The first spider comes a week before the first experiment.
She, because it was a she, put up a valiant fight. She manages to punch down the green goblin, stopping the collider. But she glitches out and Tombstone doesn't have any difficulty to put her down. Her body disintegrate quickly after that, leaving just her tattered and bloody pink and white bodysuit behind.
The scientists don't really know how to react. This spider is obviously not from this dimension, but they haven't even actually started, so what does it means? Octavius tells him it's good sign, an obvious tell that it had and will work.
His answer is that she better makes it happen.
The second spider dies the day of the experiment.
It's the regular one, with his showy blue and red suit. He is also his usual bothersome self, making annoying chit chat while punching his henchmen. The most aggravating thing is that he topples the whole operation, destroying the collider and killing the Green Goblin at the same time. Though that big idiot trusted Spider-Man into the machine, nearly capsizing their months of work.
Like the pink one, the spider dies. By his hands. He knew why he was doing all of this, and it was his fault.
So he kills him himself when he dares to bring up his family.
In a few hours, New York may mourn Spider-Man, but beside him, who was grieving his family when Spider-Man killed them?
Spider-Man is a broken twenty-six little blond thing, and he leaves him on top of rubble. Alone.
The third spider...
Does the universe think his life is a joke?
This cursed pig shows up at Alchemax, leaving mayhem behind him in the staff's mess. Octavius captures him, runs some tests and discovers that his cells aren't stable in this universe. She try to convince him that it's a bad idea, that she needs more time to stabilize them.
He doesn't care. It's a damn cartoon pig, obviously it will not last in their normal, serious dimension. It doesn't have anything to do with his family.
But he wants his wife and his child, not a... stupid cartoon animal version of them. So he allows her a week to understand their work better.
The pig dies a few days after, glitching out of this reality. Nobody is there to miss it.
The fourth spider finds him a back alley.
His dark trench coat flows behind him despite the lack of wind this day. It's just the two of them, and he doesn't care anymore about any Spider-Men, and just wishes to be done with those lousy doubles.
This dark doubles goes for the throat and punches him, hard. He have the advantage of the size, though, and the only reason Spider-Man got away for so long is that he dislikes dirtying his hand, and the only time he had him in his clutch he had other thing on mind by the time he could have finished him off.
Now that he have this pale copy against a wall, he doesn't pull his punches.
He should have taken his time with his own spider.
The fifth spider is somehow even weirder than the third one. A normal girl, no spider ability whatsoever for what they observed, but a gigantic robot is her shadow. The robot is slightly-themed; which is how they know she's a spider.
He doesn't meet this one. A stroke of luck made the cameras caught her, and by observing her Octavius is persuaded she was the one to hack them a few days ago.
As he orders the Prowler to go after her, he wonders how many more spiders he will have to suffer through.
He lets Octavius investigate the robot, until she seems liking it a bit too much. She forgets her job, and a strong discussion is needed to remind her who exactly pays her research.
The sixth spider tries to interrupt the most important Day of his life since the birth of his son, the Day where he would get him and his wife back.
For a second, he thinks it's his spider once again, with his usual blue-and-red suit, but he can still remembers the deep satisfaction settling in his bones when the news outlets announced spider-man's death so it has to be an alternate one.
A perfect clone.
No matter that this spider is being a grain of sand in the cogs, it is first a proof that he did not work for months for nothing, that he will get his family back. That the farce he had hosted this evening, pretending to regret the death of his enemy, was just a step towards greatness. He wants the be on the top of the world and that includes his family just behind him.
Now he just have to squash this pesky bug.
He refuses to admit it's a failure until he's dead, and he will not die before seeing the spider's body before his very own eyes. It managed to screw up the whole thing, pulling the collider into disarray, sending his underlings into oblivion and summoning universes into existence.
A skyscraper falls in front his eyes, masking his nemesis for a few moments. He cracks his fists and bids his time. The world is falling in pieces, and he doesn't care anymore. His last chance to see his family had failed, the world might keel over for all he cares. The last thing to do is kill.
His view finally clears and a black spider-man is standing there. No trace of the other one.
Another one, again? Well, if he can have the pleasure to kill the culprit again and again, he won't say no.
"And what universe are you from?" he asks for the first time.
Maybe he could take notes, starts a collection. He already have some hunting trophies.
"Brooklyn."
The spider raises his fists.
"And you better believe that Spider-Man always, always get back up."