Off to the reviewers!
To moonjava: Thank you.
To sakuuya: No, it isn't the most action packed chapter. I am saving the action for Chapters 12 and 13.
"All in the Family" will only be 14 chapters in all. There will still be a few more huge twists, including the death of a major character.
Just to be clear, since there are now three tentacled people in this story:
(Otto's tentacles), Austin's tentacles, Ottoline's tentacles
Got it? Read and review!
Chapter 12: The Native Hue of Resolution
"Thus does conscience make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action."
–Hamlet
May stared into the blank eyes of the black monster that had her by the shirt. She remembered how her father used to tell her stories about Spider-man and how he fought all the bad guys, like Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Electro, Venom, and many more. May supposed this creature was what Venom once looked like.
The Girl Goblin, in costume, grinned and looked at the black monster like one would look at a pet cat bringing her master a dead mouse. "Drop her, Misery."
"Do we get to eat her brains out yet?" Misery asked.
"No. This girl is mine to dispose of. Go out and look for some crooks to feed on."
Misery slunk out of the room.
Goblin cocked her head, thinking. Then an insane smile lit up her face. "Wait a minute, Misery—go bring back Dr. Austin Smith. And I told you—harm one hair on his head, and I'll pull your brains out and feed them to you myself, do you understand?"
The anal nurse, knowing with Dr. Octavius' orders there was nothing more to do about Ottoline, filled out the discharge papers.
"Ottoline, you don't need to walk. Can you crawl on your tentacles?" Otto asked his granddaughter.
"Yes, I think so. I've done it before."
"Father, I really don't think we need to be using these out in the open where everyone can see us."
"Hell, Austin, everyone knows who we are anyway. Ever since the movie deals kind of blew the lid off."
Ottoline's tentacles slowly extended, sinking four metal pincers into the ground.
Stay still, Mother. We will help you.
(We will help you too.)
Who are you?
(We are the First Ones. We are Father's assistants.)
And we will assist you as well.
And so Mary Jane, two spider-people, three octopus-people, and Harry walked out to the SUV and the blue sedan parked in front. It was an odd sight.
And suddenly it got even odder.
"Who are you?" Peter addressed the black monstrosity. "Are you Venom?"
The monster laughed. "Why? Is there a family resemblance? We're just Misery, vigilante, daughter of Venom, and errand girl to Goblins."
"If Goblin wishes to speak to me she can do it in person." Austin's face was set.
"Aw, well, she would, if she wasn't babysitting your wife," Misery grinned.
With lightning speed, before anyone else could do anything, Austin's tentacles grabbed Misery by the throat. "Where is she, Misery?"
"Well let go of us and we'll show you where."
"This could be a trick," Peter said. "I've read about her in the papers. She's as strong as her grandfather and twice as cunning and sneaky."
"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it," Mary Jane intoned darkly.
"Shakespeare's Macbeth," Otto recognized. "I never thought a runway model like you knew that stuff."
"I was an actress once, remember?" MJ replied. "And I didn't know a nuclear physicist like you would know that stuff either."
"My late wife was an English Literature professor."
"I think she's telling the truth." This was the first time Harry had spoke up.
"And just how do you know?" Peter asked.
Harry sighed. "She's my mother. I'd walk home after school and see my mother in a green goblin suit torturing some superhero, or their various girlfriends, which she enjoyed even more. I mean come on, how can a six-year-old go in front of his kindergarten class for Mother's Day show and tell and say his mother's a professional supervillain?"
And so they arrived at the Osborn mansion. May lay on a brown chaise lounge, tied with barbed wire—in a very strange echo of the time May's father Peter lay there in that same predicament, and Noreen's father, Harry, had unmasked him.
Noreen Osborn was standing over her former friend, wearing her green suit but her mask was off. "Well, well, so the reunion party shows up. The murderer of my grandfather…the two-bit tentacled supervillain who thinks he's smarter than he is…the snotty brunette brat who thought a vacuum cleaner would save her from my schemes…my son, who has betrayed me…my symbiote henchwoman…and the Thane Macbeth to my Lady Macbeth, my only true love, Dr. Austin Smith. Throw in a few comic book fans and vendors and call it a convention." Noreen's cold, demented laughter rang in everyone's ears.
"Betrayed you?" Harry shouted. "It was the other way around!"
More demented goblin laughter. "Of course! Of course! Your half sisters were test-tube kids! I stole your father's sample from the fertility clinic and had you! You—you were just a pawn so I could sink my claws into your father!"
"And what about us?" Misery asked. "You told us you knew where our father was! You promised us you'd tell us once we captured the biologist for you!"
The manic laughter grew higher and colder. "You really want to know, Kelly? I killed your father. That's right, don't look like that. The symbiote aged Eddie before his time; he was lying in the hospital, a withered husk of a man. I took the symbiote from him and shut off the respirator. He went—very slowly."
Misery jumped at Goblin. However, Noreen pulled out a sonic-energy beam producing device. The symbiote, sensitive to sonic energy, fell down, weakened.
"Bad symbiote creature!" Noreen sadistically scolded. Then she looked at Austin. "I'm giving you an offer you can't refuse. I have the papers right here. Either you sign the papers to divorce May and marry me instead…or I kill May, right here and now. Sure, you'll never get to see her or your girls again, but at least she'll still be alive. And besides, you grew up without a father yourself, Austin. Don't deny Harry Octavian that chance."
Peter looked at Noreen with pure hatred. The girl was psychopathic and insane—but then again, her evil grandfather had given him a similar sick choice, dangling his dear Mary Jane and a cable car full of children off a bridge.
Noreen cracked her knuckles and looked down at May, waiting for Austin's answer.
"This is the end of our ancient rivalry, May Parker," she whispered.