Now, to my reviewers:
To jla2snoopy: Thank you. In the comics, Doc Ock always did have a dry, sardonic sense of humor...
To Agent Silver: Not a point I consciously intended to make, but yeah. The reason that even Austin sees his father as a villian is that he never knew him. Everything he knows about his father he got from tabloids, the grapevine, and his Aunt Laufey, who may or may not be biased because of her friendship with Spider-man (see The Octopus' Spawn--oh wait, you already did). And the idea of Austin becoming May's partner-in-crime-fighting is intriguing. I must look into that.
Now, for the story! Will Austin's father and girlfriend get to him before the evil Girl Goblin does? Read and review, because after this there's only one chapter left!
Chapter 9: Noreen
Austin woke up, stretched—and bumped his head, hard, on something as he tried to stand up. He felt the surface with his hands. Glass.
At first thought, he thought his tentacles were sleeping in. However, he realized that each of them had been securely bound by their pincers to the walls of this—cage?
Help us, Brother!
She has us tied up—and she has you locked in a cage!
Austin felt the walls some more. He seemed to be in some kind of glass transparent column. From here, he could see a desk piled high with pictures, drawings, writings and tabloids.
We're stuck!
Well—can't you break yourselves out? You're much stronger than I am.
This is not a good position to be in, Brother.
If but one of us were free, we could all get out.
I just thought of something. Hold still.
Austin slipped his Swiss Army knife, a gift from his Aunt Laufey, out of his pocket. He always wondered why there were Swiss Army knives when Switzerland was always neutral in a war. Pulling out the saw attachment, he began to saw away the bonds of the upper right tentacle. From there, it was an easy matter for the rest to get free.
Ah! That's better!
Good for you. Now look and see what's on that desk.
The tentacles' cameras focused on the papers haphazardly sprawled on the desk. Austin closed his eyes, concentrating. There were multiple drawings of him, and an array of love poems. At least a dozen bags of fancy designer clothes, piled up indiscriminately, surrounded the desk. The most significant find, however, were four tabloids.
Focus in on the tabloids. What do they say?
One was the four-year-old "Doc Ock's Love Child" tabloid.
The other two were copies of the Daily Bugle. One had the headline, "Freaks of a Feather Flock Together: Spider's Daughter and Octopus' Son an Item?"
The Daily Bugle—impartial journalism at its best.
The third featured a picture of his kidnapper. The headline read: "Girl Goblin Wreaks Havoc on the Big Apple!"
The fourth also featured his kidnapper. The headline read: "Girl Goblin's Rampage Continues—Department Store Robberies Continue, Thousands of Dollars of Designer Clothes Stolen."
Whoever owned this desk was clearly obsessed with him. And whoever owned this desk knew the Girl Goblin.
What am I doing here? What do they want? Do I have a lovesick stalker?
We always said you were handsome…
Do not worry about that, Brother. We are going to escape!
With a monumental thrust, the tentacles had smashed through the glass window. Austin was free.
And at any rate, he was going to get some answers one way or another. Green Goblin was standing right in front of him.
"If there were no words
No way to speak
I would still hear you
If there were no tears
No way to feel inside
I'd still feel for you…"
--Martina McBride, "Valentine"
May sat on the ledge of the clock tower. The sun was going to set any minute. No one had come yet. She briefly wondered whether she had walked into a trap. At any rate, she was going to get some answers.
Someone was walking up to her.
"Austin?" May asked.
"No, but people say there is a certain family resemblance."
"Doc Ock!" May screamed. "What do you want?"
"I know where he is. I just ask for one favor."
"Don't even ask where my father is. You've tormented him enough."
"May, where do you get your crazy ideas? At this point in my life, I don't care where your father is or what he's doing. However, I do need you to work with me."
May's eyes narrowed. "And why should I work with you?"
"Because, young lady, we are going to have to put our common affection for Austin Smith ahead of our past. You are going to have to trust me."
May still hesitated.
"Come on—do I look like I would kill my son's girlfriend?" He held out a gloved hand. "Truce?"
"Truce." May agreed. "Which arm should I shake?"
Austin's tentacles were at the ready, and shards of glass lay at his feet. But instead of attacking, Green Goblin extended a hand. "Congratulations! You've passed the test with flying colors!"
Now Austin was really thrown for a loop. "And what is that supposed to mean?!"
"I wanted to see how fast you could break out. From the time you came to, you took just twenty minutes—but you wasted time looking at what was on my desk."
(why did that voice sound so familiar?)
"Who are you?" Austin demanded. "Take off your mask and let me see who you are."
"Fine…but you're not going to like it!" Green Goblin took off the mask, revealing an auburn-haired beauty.
"Noreen Osborn?!" Austin spat. "You witch!"
"So where is he, Doctor?" May asked.
"Oscorp," he said.
"What business would Austin have there?" she inquired.
"I was working for them long before the fusion reactor experiment," Otto confessed. "I knew about Norman Osborn's supersoldier project. And we all know what became of that."
"Both Norman and Harry Osborn are dead, Doctor," May replied. "The Green Goblin can't have taken Austin."
"Au contraire, May," he responded. "Can you think of no one connected to the Osborns who happens to be obsessed with Austin?"
"Noreen?!" May croaked. "My best friend? Shit!"
"Well?" Otto looked at May. "We've got someone to save."
"Who said 'we'?" May asked archly. "You're usually the reason someone needs saved in the first place. Who said you were coming?"
"I did. Like it or not, he's my son."
"Let's go, then. Hope you can keep up."
"Funny you should call me that," Noreen said. "Wasn't it the witch who put Ariel in the cloven pine in The Tempest?"
"For that thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands;
Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee
By help of her most potent ministers,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprisoned, thou didst painfully remain…"
"Well, I hope I'm not going to be stuck here a dozen years like Ariel," Austin said. "What do you want from me? My family's all the way in California, and they're not terribly rich."
"Oh, I'm not thinking ransom," Noreen said. "I ask for nothing more and nothing less than your love."
"Man, if you think I'm dating a crazy girl in a bad Halloween costume, you're…"
"Nuts? We've already established that." Noreen laughed. "Don't you see? I'm the only one who knows what it's like!"
"What?"
"To have supervillian fathers! To inherit powers from them! To embrace their legacies!"
"'Embrace their legacies'?" Austin repeated. "Speak for yourself. You're nuts."
"Yeah, I know. You could have been greater than your father. But May Parker has turned you from who you are!"
"Noreen, I'm not my father. I'm not a criminal."
"You think you're not, but you just haven't realized it yet. It's in your blood, and it's on your back. We could join forces—and together we can hold the entire Big Apple under our sway. What do you think?"
Austin's tentacles were transfixed on Noreen. They were actually listening to her crazy talk.
Listen to Noreen.
The girl is right!
Shut up. I will never be a criminal—never.
"I think you're living in a fantasy," Austin retorted. "I was never interested in you. I love May Parker."
"You think you love her," Noreen replied. "You and May will never make it. What if you wish to marry? You'll just be asking for in-law problems."
"I'm not concerned about that."
"Hm. If you'd chosen to work with me, I'd have gotten great things out of you. I would have gotten things out of you that you didn't even know you had. Too bad your loyalty to that slut May Parker cost you your life. Because if I can't have you, no one will." She drew the ceremonial dagger out of its sheath hanging on the wall, the very dagger her father had used when he attempted to kill May's father.
Right then, as the Oscorp office had become a comedy set, Doctor Octopus and Spider-girl crashed through the walls simultaneously, obviously looking for Austin. They were both in a fighting mood.
However, Green Goblin did not care to fight three to one odds. She put her mask back on, grabbed her purple glider, and with a parting, "Smell ya later, suckers!" she was flying out the window before anyone could do anything.