Hi there, second chapter is up, but don't expect to it to be always this fast, I'm still working on chapter 3 and it's gonna take a while.

uhm...what did I want to say? Right! Read, Enjoy and click on the review button, you know you want to!!!

08:20 am local time, somewhere in the pacific

Harry did not exactly know what woke him up, the screaming or the fact that someone was shaking his shoulders for several minutes now, but it did not matter, it had the same affect at the end, he was awake now and not very happy about that either.
"What?", he grunted not making the effort in opening his eyes.
"It's the Two, Harry, AJ's having problems", a nervous female voice somewhere on top of him said.
"Grace, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Da- WHAT???", realizing the words the young woman had said he jerked upright making her stumble backwards.
"I CLOSED THE TWO YESTERDAY!" Harry literally jumped off his bed and ran to the closed cabin door. "YOU ARE A DEAD MAN, AJ" He shouted already putting a hand on the handle as a small laughter behind him brought him back from his plans to kill the man called AJ and he turned around.
"What?" he asked a little confused.
"You might want to put on some pants or else AJ might die of laughing before you can put your hands on him."
"Huh?" he looked down on himself and realized with a shock that he was indeed not wearing any pants. "UHH!!! CRAP!"

One minute and thirty-three seconds later a completly dressed and very angry Harry blasted out of his cabin onto the deck of the oilrig. Scanning his surroundings it took Harry less than ten seconds to locate his victim on the other side of the platform.
"AJ!" he shouted taking a running start at the stair to the lower level.
"YOU'RE GONNA REGET YOU WERE BORN!!" half jumping, he took three steps at once to get down as fast as he could.
The victim AJ on the other hand did not really care about the furious man who was running towards the drilling derrick where he stood.
He had other problems. In fact, he had exactly one problem.

AJ felt he was loosing his grip on the ventil he tried to hold. His hands were sweaty. He knew the wheel would slip throuch his hands any moment now. Sweat was running down his face an dripping off his nose and the muscels in his arms protested against the strain.
The shouting of the man behind him, who was crossing the maze of stairs and metal bridges with a speed that was probably new world record, made it only worse.
"A ... little...uhhh...help..please!" He managed to say.
"AJ, YOU IDIOT!!" Harry suddenly stood behind the struggling man, his head had the color of a tomato.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING??"
"Trying ...uhh ...to close ...the ...friggin' ...ventil", he groaned, breathing hard.
His will was strong, but his body was too exhausted to hold on any longer and suddenly AJ just let go...
Falling back on his rear he saw the black fountain of oil and mud, that emerged from the ventil, shoot straight into the air.
Unfortuantely, everything that goes up has to come down sooner or later, in this case it was more sooner than later.
Seconds after he fell a heavy rain of black oil poured down on Harry and AJ, covering them and everything around them immidiatly.
Harry reacted first, he jumped forward grapping the now fast spinning wheel with both hands and tried to turn it the other way, but his hands were slippery from the oil, what made it an almost impossible task.
"GET OFF YOUR ASS AND HELP!" He shouted, his voice shaking with rage.
Not needed to be told twice AJ got back on his feet and also clinged onto the wheel of the ventil, what finally made it stop spinning.
Together with their combined effort they managed to slowly turn it in the opposite direction and after several nerve-biting minutes, which seemed like hours, the continous downfall of oil and mud finally stopped.
Both letting go of the wheel simultaneouly, Harry and AJ dropped down to the oil-covered floor.
"You-..." Harry started, but was interrupted by AJ's yell of excitement.
"I did it, Harry, I was right, I found it, I am so good!!" He gave Harry his widest grin, his teeth the only bright spot in their oil-covered surroundings.
AJ wanted to keep on talking, but paused as his look fell on Harry, whos expression made it clear that something really bad was going to happen.
AJ would have probably prefered it if Harry had started to yell and shout at him, but what came next almost made AJ's blood freeze.
"Who do you think you are?", asked Harry in a cold controlled voice not showing any emotion. The grin immidatly dropped from his face and probably landed somewhere in Australia.
He opened his mouth to answer something, but shut it again a moment later...Harry was not done yet.
"What do you think you were doing?" He continued with the same voice, which gave AJ goosebumps.
"I closed this derrick for a reason, you understand? I had a reason. I closed it and you do not have any right to keep drilling, if I closed it, that's why I am the boss. Somebody could have been killed today and that you found oil was sheer luck, that does't make you good, you understand? Sheer luck!!" He stood up, whipping his sleeve over his face to remove some of the black substance, which had not very much effect since his sleeve was as dirty as his face.
He looked down at AJ.
"That is why I am the boss, AJ, not you are, I am!"

THUK THUK THUK

The sudden noise made both of them jerk their head skywards. A helicopter was circling the oilrig, pretty close if not to say, too close. AJ wondered why he had not heard it before and figured that Harrys little speech must have made him blend out everything else.
"Are you expecting someone?" AJ asked carfully but Harry had already turned and walked off the drilling derrick.
"Okay, whatever!" He commented Harrys decision to ignore him and to himself he murmered: "It was luck, but I am good!"

Harry slowly made his way over to the helicopter landing platform. He crossed one of the many metal bridges, that connected the different parts of the oilrig. On the other side stood Rockhound, waving impatiently. The small man was bare chested and had a working helmet on his head, the hand that was not waving held the tail of a big fish, that was not quite dead.
"Harry, AJ did it, yeah? Harry, I am fishing", he lifted the fish to prove his point as Harry walked past him.
"You know what that means, Harry, I am fishing again."
Harry had no idea what that meant, but he could not have cared less in the moment. Rockhound was probably the craziest man he had ever met, but he was one of the best geologists on the planet.
He gave up trying to clean his face, he would have to take a long shower later, but first he had to deal with these unexpected visitors in the helicopters.
It was not unusual that clients came to the rig, but it was definitly unusual, that he did not know about it.
When he reached the platform Grace was waiting for him.
"Do you know something about that?" he asked her.
"No, but look at that", she pointed to the aircraft, that was now hovering over the platform. It had the blue symbol of the US Air Force on the door. "I don't think that is a client."
"What happend, Harry?" a deep voice behind them asked.
"I don't know, Bear, I have no idea what they want!"
The man the voice belonged to stepped next to them to get a better look at the landing helicopter. The body of the man showed that the nickname truly fit. He was about half a foot taller than Harry, but must have weight twice as much. Like Rockhound he did not wear a shirt and the muscle of his upper body shone in the sun, where he got oil on them.
The tool he hold looked like he got it straight out of the tool box of a giant, the wrench in his hand had the size of a baseball bat and probably weight about five times as much, but he lifted it without problems to let it rest on his shoulder.

As the helicopter finally hit the ground the whole crew of the oilrig was standing on the platform and watched the six marines climb out of the Sea Hawk followed by a high-ranked marine officer. Harry figured that he was an admiral.
The man stepped forward and faced the whole crew.
"Who is Harry Stamper?"
Harry just shook his head.
"And it's not even 9 o'clock.", he murmured and louder he said.
"I am here."
"We need to talk to you, in privacy."
Harry led them to one of the few buildings next to the cabins. Once inside the man started to talk again.
"I am Admiral Kelso, commander of the Pazific fleet. I am here on behalf of the Ministry of Defence and on a direct order of the President of the United States. This is a case of national safety. I have to take you with me in this helicopter. Please do not ask any questions and tell your men that you come with us by free will."
Harry tried hard not to laugh as he listened to the admiral.
"I am sorry to disappoint you, but I can't come with you. We just hit oil and there are many things I have to take care of...", he took a look out of the window to see AJ having a conversation with Bear, "...punishing one of my man is one of them."
"I see, you do not understand the urgency of this case. I have to ask you again to come with me.", the admiral continued.
"And I see that you don't understand what it means to be in charge of an oilrig. I am not leaving this platform unless the world is going to explode or something..., Harry snapped back and to his surprise a small smile crossed the admirals face.
"That, Mr. Stamper, it not so far of the truth as you might think. If you come with us then, a helicopter is waiting."
Harry was stunned for a moment.
"Uhm...okay...", he finally said and before he could say anything else the admiral interrupted him.
"Excellent, if you follow me then."

Outside again his gaze fell on Grace, who was still standing with the others on the landing platform, her dark long hair had been messed up by the wind from the rotorblades. She looked worried as she met his gaze.
"I want my daughter to come with me.", he told the admiral. It was not a question. The admiral seemed to think about it for a while then said: "Okay."

"Is something wrong, Harry?" Grace asked as she sat down next to him in the chopper.
"Actually I don't know myself."
He leaned out of the door of the helicopter.
"CHICK, YOU ARE IN CHARGE NOW!" he yelled to drown out the engine of the helicopter, "AND I AM NOT DONE WITH YOU, AJ, DON'T YOU THINK YOU ARE SAVE NOW!"
The man called Chick nodded and AJ pretended not to have heard him as the Sea Hawk took off the ground.

10:04 pm Eastern Time, New York

Otto Octavius struggled not to laugh and keep a straight face as he looked at the man in front of him.
The actuators might be able to think for him, but they were not able to keep his body under control and so it happened that he found the story Dan Truman had just told him very amusing.

"So, you are telling me, that there is a giant meteor somewhere out in space that is racing towards earth and is gonna hit us in about 18 days and the impact is gonna kill every single human on the planet? You gotta be kiddin' me. Okay, I did believe you, when you told me, you're working for the NASA, but that is just too much, sorry!"

"Dr. Octavius, I am dead serious about this situation. This meteor is going to eliminate the human race if we don't do anything to stop it."
The two men were sitting opposite each other in the back of the van. Otto shifted his weight for the umpteeth time to find a more comfortable position. The actuators on his back took most of the space of the small bench and he had to be careful not to slip and land on the floor.
The lower two metal arms were curled around his feet, their claws closed. The upper two hovered in their ususal position over his shoulders.

"And why hasn't the media picked up on this story yet?" He could not surpress a smile.

"We discovered it two days ago, for the next eight days it can only be seen from nine telescopes can see it and we control eight of them. We work hard, that it stays a secret for the coming days."

Otto was still smiling as Truman pulled a folded paper from one of his pockets.

"If you don't believe me, you might want to take a look at this." He handed the paper Otto, who took it with one hand and gave it to one of the metal arms. He earned a confused look from Truman as the upper two actuators started to unfold the paper.

"What's that?"

"It is a picture the Hubble telescope took."

The actuators had finished unfolding the paper and one was now looking at it, while the other one hold it up.

Father, what is that?
We have not seen anything like it before.

Why should I know? Show it to me.

A second later Otto saw the visual input of the actuators camera and he wished he would have formulated his request more precise, because the picuture overlapped with his normal vision and he was taken aback for a moment, but the fact that he suddenly saw two images at the same did not startle im as much as that what he suddenly saw.
You know, you could have just lowered it a little and I'd have seen it, too!

He could literally hear the actuators snicker in the back of his mind.

At first he thought it was a just a normal rock, but than realization kicked in and he knew what the object was.

It was huge, although there was no actual reference that one could say how big it really was, Otto just knew it was.

The object was a little bit longer than it was wide and its jagged surface represented every color Otto had ever seen, from pitch-black shadows thrown by pointy rocks over red, blue and green areas to several snow white spots that sparkled bright like water in the evening sun.

The object was surrounded by a foggy cloud that threw a haze of different colors over the dark background, it gave the whole image a hint of mystery. The beauty was overwhelming and was only surpassed by the danger that this object emitted.

After a few second Otto had already seen enough and withdrew the connection to the camera.

He let out a his breath.

"Holy shit..."

"Dr. Octavius?" Truman looked even more confused than he had already, if that was possible.

"Holy shit, is that the meteor?" He asked a puzzled Truman, who glanced at the mechanical arm that was still holding the paper.

"Uhm...yeah, how did you know?"

"How big is this thing??" Otto asked ignoring the question of the other man.

"Almost a hundred billion cubic kilometres. The size of Texas!"

For a long time nobody said anything, then Otto broke the silence.
"Damn, that is big."
Truman smiled. "Yeah, it is."

"So, where are we heading?"
"Houston, Texas"
"And what am I supposed to do there?"
"Help us solve the problem."
Otto raised an eybrow.
"Since when does the goverment ask criminals for help? Obviously the police doesn't know what you are doing, otherwise you would not sit alone in the back of a van with me and that leads my to the next question: Why are you not afraid?"
"For the first question I think: Hard problems need hard measures. And for your second question, I could ask you the same."
At this Otto could not help burst out laughing and did not manage to stay on the bench and fell on the floor of the van, holding his stomache.

Truman was not sure what to think about Dr. Octavius.

This man was a mysterium. When he first saw him with the vodka bottle in his hand he thought that Octavius was not in his right state of mind, but when he was talking to him just seconds ago he seemed perfectly sober and now?

Now the brilliant scientist lay on the floor of the van, laughing. Truman was more than just a little perplexed.

Was he drunk or was he not drunk?

And how did he knew what was on the photograph? He did not even look at it.

For the umpteenth time today Truman asked himself if he made the right decision to tell Octavius about the meteor, but then, who should he tell and who would believe him anyway. Everybody thought he was crazy, except a few people and Truman was not sure if he was one of them as he looked down at the laughing doctor.

"What is so funny?", he asked.

Octavius stopped laughing and looked up at him.

"What's so funny? You are funny!", he said as he pushed himself up in a sitting position on the floor.

"Why am I funny?"

Octavius really struggled not to laugh again as he said: "You do realize that I am probably the most dangerous man in the world, even now, that I am obviously not quite sober, I am probably even more dangerous. I could kill you any moment now and I don't even need a reason, and do you really thing these two laughing stocks with their toy guns in the front are gonna stop me if I really want to. You wouldn't even have time to scream!" He paused for a second and looked straight at Truman.

"And you ask me if I am afraid!" He continued with a cold voice and Truman felt cold sweat running down his spine.

He suddenly realized what he was actually doing. He was sitting in the back of a moving van with a wanted criminal with four mechanical arms attached to his back, alone, with the only protection sitting in the front of the van with two "toy guns" as Octavius had called them. That is probably one of the stupidiest things one can do.

He knew it would be dangerous as he disregarded General Falkins and flew to New York. Asking Octavius for help had been the only option or else the mission they planned would fail with a possibilty of a hundred percent. Even with him it was not certain that they would succeed, but they could at least try and that was better than doing nothing.

Knowing is not everything, I guess...

He felt a lump forming in his throut.

"Uh...I-...I just..", he stuttered, but stopped has he noticed that Octavius was grinning.

"Got you there for a moment, right?" He pushed himself up and sat on the bench again.

"W-what?" Truman asked in disbelieve.

"I got you!" Octavius repeated. "You actually thought I'd kill you, right?"

"Uhm...well." Truman did not know what to say and he swallowed hard. He had actually thought, that he was going to die this night.

"Do you really think, I just kill people randomly?" He asked, his tone was serious.

"I- I don't know!"

Octavius leanded his head back and starred at the roof.

"I won't hurt nor will I kill you. You know, most people don't dare facing me without pointing several guns at me. "

He took off his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes.

"Vodka does't become me!" He sighed.

Truman raised an eyebrow.

"I should try whisky the next time!"