AN: Ock isn't mine. Kat is. Thankee. I don't like this chapter much. Egh.
Our Future
.k.o.d.
Katarina read over the sheet somewhat numbly. The words still flew partially over her head, that is, until she read what she was 'testing' him by.
Your list of stimuli for your subject will include, but is not limited to, these:
Giving your subject a gift they want.
Making unwanted physical contact with your subject.
Doing something your subject would not expect from you.
Doing something your subject would expect from you.
Helping your subject with a task they know they are capable of themselves.
Merely annoying your subject
Please list three additional stimuli that are specific to your subject.
1.
2.
3.
"She did this for Doctor Octopus.." The girl mumbled absentmindedly, shoving the paper into her pocket and completely disregarding the backside of it. Staring at the ground as she walked down the steps of the hallway, she sighed to herself. This was going to be crazy.
Her ears began to hear noises outside. Strange noises, sort of like a mosh with no music. It got louder as she got closer to the door, and she peered through the glass in the door and saw them.
Oh God.
Oh. GOD.
Oh. My, FUCKING. God.
She backed up a few steps.
The fuckin paparazzi is after me.
She backed up the steps again and leaned against the wall in amazement. She needed to avoid them.
Otto could distract them. He had a very certain distracting thing about him. Maybe it was the mechanical arms.
She dropped her backpack and unzipped it, pulling out her cellphone. She dialed her apartment number, praying.
Ring…..ring……ring…..ring….
"DAMNIT Otto, pick it up!" She growled.
Ring..ring…ring……ring…HI! Her voicemail said happily, You've reached the pit of doom. That's Katarina Morrigan to all of you mortals. Leave a message and a number and I'll steal your soul later! Byeeeee!
"Otto if you're there, pick up, it's Kat," She said tersely into the phone, waiting a few moments, "If you're screening this Otto, I need you to get to the big silvery building on 43rd and 19th, as soon as tentacledly possible. Like now. The press are out there and—
Kat? Otto's voice finally came in from the phone at her house Kat, what are you doing at class? You should know better then to be out.
"Quit chastising me and help!"
43rd and 19th……I'm on it… There was the sound of the phone being hung up. Kat turned off her own celly and looked around patiently.
She was only half-surprised to see her professor come her way, "Why are you still inside, Katarina?"
"If I go out there I'll get maimed by the press," The girl pointed down the stairs, "So I'm here."
"They're not going to move," replied the adult matter-of-factly, "You can stay here for hours and they probably won't."
"I guess I can hope." She silently prayed Rachel would believe her bad lie, "And anyway maybe something exciting'll happen that'll draw their attention. You know how it is, you can never really figure out when to expect anything." Tapping her foot nervously, she looked up and back to the wall behind her, trying to hear the tentacles crashing against the brick and cement, "So I'm just praying here and stuff, you know how it is….."
Taies gave her a dubious look but said nothing, walking down the steps, "I will see you tomorrow."
"….I hope."
The professor shoved her way through the media, ignoring them pleasantly. The mob turned back to the door, waiting for her.
She looked at the time on her cell phone – time was passing very slowly. Inhumanly slowly, for that matter, and she wasn't happy about it. Not only that, but she was developing an extreme migraine.
Having no idea when the hell Otto would arrive (if at all), she dropped her backpack to the ground next to her and pulled out her CD player. A familiar orange CD was set inside of it, and she pulled her headphones over her ears and set the music on as high as it could go.
"December 24th, 9 PM, Eastern Standard Time from here on in I shoot without a script. See if anything, comes of it, instead of my old shit…" She half-sung, the broadway musical making her temporarily forget what was going on around her. About 15 minutes pass of her listening to her own off-key voice, "What'd you forget? Got a Light? I know you, you're – you're –"
THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK
Kat glanced over. Was her music skipping? Was there something happening out there? Was it Otto? She shrugged, then went back, "What you staring at? Nothing, your hair in moonlight. You look familiar, can you –"
THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK
Okay, she'd defiantly heard something that time. She turned the music off and glanced outside – the press was still there, and she saw no sigh of Otto.
CRASH CRASH CRASH.
She looked around – saw no one except herself and the paparazzi.
Something hit her in the head. Something sort of soft. Something white and plast –
Wait a second…
Something white and plastery.
Kat looked up. There was a nice sized hole in the ceiling, and in the center stood a man in a coat, supported by four mechanical arms. They dropped him inside safely, then looked at Kat then to the press, hissing and spitting as much as they could.
"Don't leave again." His voice was stern, condescending, "You should have figured this one out on your own."
"I'm sorry, alright? Can you just get us both out of here?" Katarina tapped her foot impatiently, setting the CD player and headphones away. She slung the backpack over her shoulder after zipping it, and when Otto gave a curt nod, she jumped on his back.
The tentacles reached for the new hole in ceiling and pulled them both up to the second story. Here the glass was broken in, clearly used for the doctor's entrance and now exit.
As the two climbed out, the media noticed her on his back. Pictures were taken. Many, many pictures.
"Your house," She said to him. His heart dropped. He couldn't go back there. Couldn't go back to the memories he'd seen there, the broken glass, the cemetery…
He jumped, grabbing onto a building. The arms pulled him upwards, out of side from the press. He heard sirens as well, one tentacle opening and listening intently. It snapped shut and screeched to Otto, who nodded.
"Spiderman's heading from that way. We'll have to head to your apartment."
This was a lie, of course. Spiderman wasn't coming, and the police were just about everywhere. His actuators began to scale the building and set them both on the top of it, "We can't go to my apartment!" She squeaked, "Won't police be there?!"
"How could they be there, Kat, when they're all right down here." He gave her a sidelong look, and one tentacle snapped at her.
"Alright, alright, cool it.." Eyeing the snapped tentacle, she clung tightly to Otto's neck as he jumped out into the air, the top arms grabbing the concrete of the next skyscraper as they headed back to the apartment.