Better Than One
Chapter Two: Misery, Misery
by DocCassieOck
Disclaimer: Same old song.
Summary: Cassandra Octavius finds out her father is dead and travels to New York. Harry and Cassandra, both crazed by now, start a strange kind of romance and plot the demise of Spider-Man.
The applause in the state-of-the-art Texas thermonuclear physics lab was tumultuous to say the least, as a pretty, young, dark-haired scientist of no more than 26 stood, modestly, waiting for the accolade to cease. She would be waiting for a while: the spectacular feat she just accomplished left many of the seasoned scientists dumbfounded, mouths hanging agape with disbelief at the miracle of nuclear physics just performed by this...this child.
"Thank you, my friends! I know that I definitely didn't deserve such a hearty round of applause..." There was scattered laughter among the scholars here, "...but I most certainly am appreciative of it. It goes without saying that this miracle of modern science (pardon my cliché) would not be possible without the generous funding from Oscorp, a truly brilliant corporation based out of New York." Here she gestured for a representative of said brilliant New York corporation to stand, and so he did, to light applause. Once the rep had seated himself, the young doctor continued. "I would also like to add, my friends, that I would never have been able to have completed the nearly four years of research, testing, and development necessary to have completed this fusion reactor seen here had it not been for my father, the brilliant nuclear physicist Dr. Otto Octavius. Sadly, he could not be with us today, as he is in New York City, undoubtedly quite busy on his own project of fusion reaction. Nonetheless, please join me in giving my father a round of applause!" Here, Dr. Cassandra Octavius started clapping furiously, a huge, smile breaking over her beautiful features. The tumult began again, as the modest Dr. Octavius bowed out of the lab.
"Mein Gott," Cassandra muttered as she made her way down the long, bleakly modern corridor that lead to her office. Once inside, she stripped off her white lab coat and, not bothering to hang it up, slumped onto the couch, grabbed a bottle of Smirnoff, and picked up the phone. Her aunt was in England visiting her fiancé, and she was expecting her niece to call right after her presentation. Dialing the seemingly endless string of country codes, city codes, and then finally her aunt's telephone number itself, Cassie thought fleetingly about her father's visit come the morrow. As the phone rang, and the odd ocean noise that always accompanied transatlantic phone calls started, she began wondering exactly how her dad's project was coming along. She remembered reading about some sort of lab accident in New York that happened a few days ago, but the details were sketchy outside of that state. Suddenly, her aunt, Sandy Octavius, answered.
"Hello?"
"Good even, fine lady!" Cassandra exclaimed to her aunt.
"Cassie! Oh, hey love! How did your demonstration go?" Sandy asked hurriedly.
"Terrific. Oscorp should continue their funding to both Octavius scientists for at least another five years now. I can't wait for Daddy's visit tomorrow. It's funny, though...Mom was supposed to call on Tuesday, but she never did. I guess her and Dad were busy, what with the famous Dr. Otto having a presentation of his own." The faint concern in her voice at not having heard from her family departed just as quickly as it came.
"Cassandra, that's great. We're all so proud of you, love." A sigh from her aunt, then several seconds of silence. Cassandra swore the fish were listening.
"So how's Dave?" Cassie inquired. Dave was her aunt's fiancé and although she had never met him face to face, she had spoken to him over instant messenger more than once and loved him like an uncle already. "I haven't heard from him in at least two weeks."
"Oh, he's doing fine. He's at work right now, but these British soap operas are fascinating, let me tell ya. Mm! There's the door. I'll have to run now, babe. Tell Rosie and Otto I love them both. And you."
Cassandra smiled. "I will. Love you back, Aunt Sandy."
After hanging up, Cassandra drank the last of her Smirnoff, tossed the bottle in the trash, locked her office, and headed for home. Luckily, her apartment was not more than seven blocks from the lab she worked in, and it being a warm June evening, she decided to walk instead of catching a bus like usual. As she made her way towards home, she pondered why neither one of her parents had telephoned. Her mother, especially. Otto, she knew, was always abysmal at remembering to return phone calls, but Rosie...that was just plain odd.
She unlocked her apartment door, flicked on the lights, tossed her keys on the table just inside the door and at the same time, glanced down at her answering machine, hoping to see a message. Nothing. "This is so strange," she muttered. "They must be busy with Daddy's fusion research. He does tend to get fanatical about his work." And with this, she shrugged off her concerns, and when she remembered the impending visit of her father tomorrow, felt her heart skip a beat. Cassandra fixed herself a quick dinner, showered, and then went to bed.
The telephone by Cassie's bed rang sharply. Jerking awake, the scientist threw bleary eyes at her alarm clock and, seeing the God-awful hour of 2:36 a.m., snatched the phone out of its cradle and muttered a sleep-clogged "Hello?"
The voice on the other end made her sit bolt upright. "Dr. Octavius? Cassie, it's Harry Osborn." Harry freaking Osborn! The two were practically lovers but had not spoken since late May when he had visited the lab to check the progress of her fusion research. The evening following had been much more productive than the day. But still, there was an undertone of panic in his voice, and she knew that he hadn't called for fun. He sounded like he had been drinking, too. "Hi, Harry. I'm here...what—what's wrong?" She heard him take a trembling breath, and then said, "Cassie, if you're standing up, then I want you to sit down. Okay? Because I have very bad news." All sorts of thoughts began to thunder through Cassandra's mind. He's pulling the funding. Oscorp went under. He has an STD that he forgot to tell her about in May. Disregarding Harry's last request, she stood. I always think better on my feet, she thought. "What? Stop goofing around and tell me." She could feel her heart begin to race. Another deep, trembling sigh from Harry, then the shaking words, "Cassandra, your father and mother are dead."
All at once, her world seemed to stop. She felt tears, horrible, burning tears well up behind her eyes. "No..." she whispered, those accursed tears spilling down her face. Then suddenly, terrible, heart-wrenching anger. "NOOOOOO!" she shrieked, and although she couldn't see it, her agonized scream caused her boyfriend on the other line to hold the receiver at a length for a second. "How? Oh, God, Harry, please tell me. How did they die?" She dropped back onto the bed, sobbing.
"Spider-Man let your father die. Otto tried to re-create a lab experiment—the one with the tridium fusion—and it went horribly wrong. Spider-Man could've pulled him out of the river where he had to drown his experiment...but he saved his girlfriend instead." The words Harry spoke shook with rage and hate, each syllable sharp as a knife.
"And my mother?"
"Killed during the first lab accident. Why didn't they call you?"
"I don't freaking know, Harry! If I knew, I wouldn't be sitting here, in shit-kicking Texas, talking to you about it in the middle of the night, would I?" she screamed. The pain in her voice halted her crying, and she was trembling with rage.
"Who is he?" she asked in a whisper.
"Who?"
"Spider-Man! Who else?"
"I..." Harry faltered here. Okay, he thought, She's obviously lost it. Do I tell her it's Pete? The name won't mean a damn thing to her, but she wants to kill him. Then suddenly, he could hear Norman's voice somewhere far off in the black corners of his mind. "And you do, too..." it whispered.
"Well? Do you know this son of a bitch or not, Harry?" she demanded. The fury was controlling her now.
"N—no, Cassie, I don't," Harry stammered. Then suddenly, a voice that was not his own, but rough, and evil, like his father as the Green Goblin's had been, spoke out of his throat. "But we'll catch the little rat and make him pay, won't we?" Dear Heaven, what was that? Harry thought.
Cassandra narrowed her eyes. "Exactly. I'm going to kill him. I will kill Spider-Man." She spun around. The actuators, she thought. The A.I. tentacles that she had developed in Denmark with her father! Yes...perfect...Dad probably had them on when he died...how appropriate with which to kill the spider.
"Cassie? Hello, Cassie? You there?" Harry was asking. She dropped the phone back in its cradle, hanging up in his ear. Cassie grabbed a copy of Wednesday's Houston Post-Centurion. Flipping to the obscure article near the back of the second section that told of her father's lab accident, the one in which Rosie died, she scanned it quickly, trying to pick up any and all information she can. Suddenly, one phrase stuck out at her. "'The crazed scientist, Dr. Otto Octavius, was dubbed 'Doctor Octopus', or 'Doc Ock' for short by the New York tabloid, the Daily Bugle.'" She narrowed her tear-swollen eyes demonically, tossed the paper aside, and stood. "Doctor Octopus, eh?" she sneered to the dark. "It looks like I better take my tentacles on up to the Big Apple and pay ol' Spider-Man a visit."