To my loyal reviewers:
To moonjava: Thanks.
To psychospiff: What's so hard to follow about it? Even after retirement, Doc Ock and Peter still dislike each other.
To LadyKayoss: They've been mortal enemies ever since Amazing Spider-man #3--no reason to stop now just because they're kids are married to each other and they're grandfathers, right?
To Agent Silver: A normal girl would know when a guy's turned her down and "get over it," as you put it, but then again we're talking about an insane sociopathic goblin here.
Chapter 11: A Stony Adversary
"A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch, uncapable of pity, void and empty from any dram of mercy" –William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
"So how do you suggest we do that, MJ?" inquired Peter.
"You and Dr. Octavius were friends, once, remember? He was your science idol. You wrote a college physics paper on him for Dr. Connor's class."
Peter shook his head. "That's before Dr. Octavius turned himself into a human octopus and Dr. Connors turned himself into a human lizard."
"Maybe if you two men remember what you were before—if you remember your days as friends rather that those days as enemies—both of you have valuable knowledge to offer."
"You're right, MJ. You always are."
"I know I am. Now you two are going to shake hands—don't look like that, Peter—and put all of that behind you."
And so the retired hero and the retired villain shook hands. They let go extremely quickly.
"Now, Doctor Octavius, you mentioned that Goblin has something to do with May's kidnapping. What is the basis for this theory?" MJ started.
Octavius ran his fingers through his hair—the same chestnut brown as his son's, but for the numerous streaks of gray. Life had taken a heavy toll on the physicist. "Parker said, in the crudest of terms, that Osborn is infatuated with my son. If that is true, Noreen sees your daughter as competition that needs to be eliminated to reach the man she thinks she loves."
"Ha! Osborn in love with that cold fish of a biologist!" Peter laughed. "I've heard that he didn't even consummate his marriage to May on their wedding night!"
"Peter…" MJ sighed.
"Obviously he overcame that problem, or else Ottoline and Parker wouldn't be here," the doctor pointed out.
Austin sighed. "The twins were from artificial insemination. You're right though. It wasn't for lack of trying."
"Back to what I was saying. I speculate that Osborn is attracted to Austin for his intellect and power. And because he's my son."
"Why did you order the hospital not to take the tentacles off my daughter, Father?" Austin finally got the nerve to ask.
"Because I remember when I got mine," he answered. They immediately brought me to the hospital and attempted to perform the surgery to remove them. The surgeons did not know that the actuators had a survival instinct. If they were separated from me, they would lose their power source, and they would die. And they do not want to die. I awoke in the hospital room discovering the tentacles had broken free of the restraints and killed all of the surgeons. Do you wish for Ottoline to become a murderer at fourteen?"
Austin grumbled. His father was right.
"So she will have to recover and come to terms with the fact that she will have four extra limbs throughout the foreseeable future. We will have to teach her how to control them."
"And the hospital bills?" queried Peter. "Austin is out of work. May is gone."
"I can get some money, if you need it," offered the physicist.
"And which bank are you planning to get it from?" Peter replied, with not a little sarcasm.
"Are you implying something, Parker? For your information, Sony Pictures paid me a hefty sum for the rights to my story. And they paid you more than me, so why don't you dig in and—"
"Well at least a handsome Hollywood A-lister played me in the movie, you got played by a two-bit actor whose most important role before hand was in a crummy Broadway musical—"
"Well finally, we've reached one statement we can agree on," the physicist muttered.
The nurse poked his head in the waiting room and surveyed the rather odd motley of super powered people. "Ottoline's awake. I think you should go see her now."
Octavius rose to get up but was firmly told off by the nurse. "It's restricted to immediate family only."
"I'm her grandfather!"
"That's not immediate enough, sir. We're talking about you know, father, mother, siblings only."
"No, not you, boy," the nurse snapped at Harry. "You're only her half-brother. Not a full sibling."
"My God, he is the most anal nurse I ever ran into," muttered Peter. "I remember when I was going to see Mary Jane in a play and I was a lousy five minutes late and this usher…"
And so Austin came into the hospital room first.
Ottoline lay on the hospital bed, eyes closed. Her head was heavily bandaged; her chestnut hair matted in whorls on her head. She was wearing a hospital gown, and the four tentacles were hanging from restraints attached to the ceiling. Her eyes were closed.
Austin stepped up, and held his daughter's hand.
"Daddy…"
"How are you feeling, baby?"
"Daddy, there's voices. Something in my head…something talking."
"It's the artificial intelligence in the actuators talking, Ottoline."
"I know."
"What are they telling you?"
Yes! What are they telling her?
Could we talk to them?
How can you? You can only communicate with me.
Actually, we can talk to Ottoline's assistants.
We operate off the same static energy wavelengths.
We could also talk to Father's assistants, but we've asked you before and you said no.
Father's assistants are a bad influence. They tell him to rob banks!
Come on, can we talk to them?
Only if Ottoline says you can.
Finally, Austin faced his daughter. "I know this sounds stupid…but my tentacles want to talk to yours."
"They can? That would be…neat," Ottoline said.
Hello? Are you awake?
What is 'awake'?
It's when you are booted up.
You are much older than us. Mother only created us two weeks ago. We only learned to talk yesterday.
You call Ottoline 'Mother'?
Of course. She created us. What do you call your owner?
We call him our Brother, because it was his Father who created us.
Who is this 'Father'?
Father is Dr. O—
"Daddy…make them stop talking. It's giving me a headache. Why didn't they take them off?" Tears leaked from Ottoline's eyes. "They never talked to me before. Not until yesterday and they wouldn't stop…"
Don't you want us to talk to you, Ottoline?
We will be your friends.
We love you, you know.
"Oh, Ottoline…I told you those things were cursed…" Austin paused. "You have to learn…how to block them out. How to control them so they don't hurt anyone."
"Why didn't they take them off?"
"Because removing them would severely damage your spine and you'd be paralyzed for life," Austin lied. He cursed his father for giving her the blueprints for the damn things, himself for not throwing them away, Harry for electrocuting her, and his father again for ordering them not to remove the tentacles.
"You have to remember that you can't listen to them all the time and you can't let them control you. You also can't take their advice seriously unless you talk to me or Grandpa Otto first, because we've been dealing with them longer than you, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy."
"And you have to be very brave, do you understand?"
Ottoline was too tired to speak. But the motion of her head indicated her assent.