FATR: Finally! The return of the action! The scene with Max and Mac was really fun to write... type... compose. Okay... um... "chill your beans" comes from NatzandtheRatz's profile. Leonis Del Armand is entirely my pal Bill's character. The old woman is mine. Emma is mine. Ana is mine. The Nasarian lore is mine. I don't own McDonald's, I don't own any Spider-Man related characters or situations, blah, blah, blah, you get the picture. This whole thing was actually really fun to compose. Ever since the declining action after chapter 8, I'd been in a bit of a slump. However, I refused to give in and abandon my story, and now I am being rewarded. I hope you as the reader also feel rewarded for sticking by me through slump time. Thank you Phoenix Sheriden and NatzandtheRatz for keeping me going during the dry period. /Looks over chapters 15 and 16/ Yes, definitely back to the rising action. Enjoy chip chip, all!
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A man in a smart black suit and white lab coat made his way down the corridor studying the numbers on the doors. His luxuriant black hair hung down his back, bound in a low ponytail, and his sea-green eyes sparkled. Just one glance from those heavenly orbs made most girls weak at the knees. Let's see, D-12... D-14... Aha! D-16. He raised a well manicured hand, ring finger adorned with a single gold band, to the door and gave it three sharp taps. He heard a female voice and movement inside. A lock clicked and silver eyes peeped around the door.
Emma beamed at the water demon on her threshold and yanked the door open all the way. "Leo!" She pulled him into a sisterly embrace. "What a pleasant surprise."
Leonis Del Armand hugged back with his free arm, the other being encumbered by a black medical bag. "I only wish I was visiting under more pleasant circumstances."
Emma stepped back and led him down the short, cramped hall into the livingroom so he could sit down and rest himself before she questioned him. She knew he had come a long, long way. "Have you eaten yet?"
"I stopped by McDonald's on my way here. How is this life treating you?"
Emma put some fresh water down for Picasso and settled into a chair across from Leo. "Let's see... My current biological family lives in Salt Lake city, where I attended school until, well, I think Ana discovered my hiding place. I moved here to finish college and keep her away from my family. I don't know if she would go that far out of her way to hurt them or not but..." Emma took a breath. "I became a reporter for the Daily Bugle so I could keep an eye on what was going on in the city, in case she showed up again. How are things domestically?"
Leo was fiercely family oriented. His wife, Lilly, and his twins, Alaina and Zach, were the most important things in the world to him. "Alaina flew a foot and a half yesterday." He beamed with fatherly pride. "Have you ever considered motherhood in any of your lives?"
Emma shook her head. "I don't need to give birth to have children." She smiled at Picasso who purred back. "Besides, I am the chaste one, and with Ana hunting me it would only complicate things."
Leo nodded slowly. "I see your point."
There was silence. "Why are you here, exactly?"
"Your parents told me to find you."
Puzzlement wrinkled Emma's forehead. "You mean my parents as in... Cshicomi and Nasarack? They never got involved before, at least not since Ana and I first began fighting."
"You know I wouldn't usually get involved myself, either, but Ana's going to do a lot more damage this time, if she succeeds. I can let good and evil live their lives but when one becomes a threat to the order of the dimensions... Anyway, you can't take this on by yourself, and Peter, even with his powers, is hardly a threat to Ana."
Emma felt immensely relieved knowing she had someone to share her burden with, a being who was a worthy opponent for psychotic sister. "I've been trying to locate the Spirit Stone all morning. George Richmond was its last known holder, but he has an unlisted phone number. I'd use magic but I don't want to leave residue hanging around here for Ana to trace."
Leo grinned and hoisted his bag into his lap. "Give me a place to set up and I'll get right on it."
Emma smiled back. "Would the kitchen table be large enough?"
Leo nodded, walked into the kitchen, and put his bag on the table. "But first, to get more comfortable." His human shaped ears became pointed, elongated, and more fin-like. A long tail with fins on the end snaked out from under the hem of the lab coat. Leo settled into a chair and the tail lay on the tile curled around the chair legs, tip flipping slightly. "That's better. Now let's see what I can dig up on this George you speak of." When he first opened his bag, it appeared empty, but he reached in and began pulling an amazing assortment of bottles, tubes, and dishes out of it. Emma sat at the counter and watched, fascinated, as he worked.
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Ana, dressed in the black leather pants, a neon blue tank top, and a black fishnet shirt, strolled casually down the street whistling the song from Gremlins. As she made her way through the crowd, people stepped out of her way without even realizing they were doing it. The song ended as she stopped at the corner and looked around. She put one arm across her stomach and rested her other elbow on it, putting her hand to her chin in thought.
"Excuse me, miss," a shaky old voice croaked. "Might you spare some change?"
Ana turned to face the old homeless woman. She had a tattered shawl clinging to her frail shoulders and cheap plastic rosary around her neck. The old woman turned pale as Ana's eyes literally lit up and her pupils narrowed into reptilian slits. Her mouth opened into a snarl that revealed snake-ish fangs and let out a low hiss.
"Dear God..." The old woman trembled and unconsciously drew a cross over her breast. "Evil thing... be gone! In the name of God, be gone!" Her voice rose to a shriek but no one paid any mind to the crazy old woman on the corner.
Ana was debating making a snack of the old woman, or at least an amusement, but she was pressed for time. She had to locate this George guy before her goody two-shoes sister. "Your god cannot help you," she growled as she turned the corner and moved on. The time would come, but for now she couldn't just slaughter people in the streets, as she had done on Nasaria. These people actually had rules for dealing with things like that. Not that a prison cell would hold me for long, but it would be quite inconvenient.
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If Stephanie hadn't had to go to work the game probably would have gone on until the deck was gone. That, and the betting balance was thrown off by the addition of a fifth party. Stephanie did alright for herself, and as a result Quinton barely made back what he had lost this time. Otto had done very well because he could, with aid from the computer on his back of course, keep track of the ratio of, for example, Queens to the rest of the deck. As the number of cards dwindled he could use probability to figure out which card he held. Now that the game was over he was perfectly content to slither off to his underground world and look further into the blood tests, perhaps repair the crashed computer.
Max watched Otto creeping out of the room. He knew Otto would fight him to the last stand but Max was determined to find out what had been eating away at the doctor's mind for the past nine days. As he started after the man, an unnaturally strong hand clamped on his shoulder and yanked him around. Max was faced with Mac, and Mac didn't look happy.
"Wha' the fuck do yah think yah doin?"
Max seriously thought about this question. "I'm following Otto, at least I was. Now I'm talking to you."
Mac grabbed Max's collar and jerked him closer. "Tha' innocent smart ass routine don' work on me. Stop fuckin 'round with Steph or I'll cave yah fuckin face in."
"Woah, there buddy." Max held up his hands. "It's not like she's responding anymore to my advances than she is to yours."
"I may no' be gettin anywhere now, but I still don' want'cha fuckin with m' chances."
"You feel threatened? By me?" Max laughed.
Mac shook him by his shoulders. "Stop laughin at me!"
Max had remained level headed until the physical attack made him automatically release a bolt of electricity to knock Mac off. The man in the green hoodie flew a few feet away and landed on his back. Max straightened his shirt and ambled over to Mac.
Mac looked up to see Max offering him a hand up. Somehow this enraged him even more. He grabbed Max's hand as though he was accepting the peace offering and threw Max to the floor. Mac latched an arm around Max's neck and squeezed. "Stay away from 'er! She's mine!"
Max managed to turn his head just enough to lick Mac's wrist.
Mac jerked back, appalled but not really shocked. "Wha' the fuck?! Yah sick freak!"
"It made you let go, did it not?" Max smirked as he picked himself up and dusted himself off. "Listen. I'm not trying to horn in on your action or anything, okay? So chill your beans. You really need to come up with a more passive aggressive way to express yourself." He left the homicidal bug to contemplate these words and went to seek out Otto, dismissing what had just transpired between him and Mac in his usual attention deficit way. He took a few steps out of the room before lifting off the ground and zipping down the hall on the energy in the wall wiring. There certainly was enough of it, what with all the rooms and appliances in the mansion. He wanted to catch Otto before he disappeared into the impenetrable fortress known as his lab. The walls of the stairwell lit up as Max zipped down into the gloom.
Otto stepped off the stairs and heard the crackle of electricity. He knew he could easily reach the door before Max reached him, but he didn't. Instead, he put on his glasses and waited.
Max caught Otto standing in front of the doors with his arms and the top two tentacles crossed in front of him, leaning on the bottom two as usual. It was weird to think of the tentacles as so much a part of him that they could automatically mimic just about any action of Otto's organic limbs. There were very few things that unnerved Max, so he didn't feel compelled to mask his intentions, or worry, with a lot of macho bullshit. "Are you doing experiments on yourself in there?"
Otto could understand how Max would have jumped to that conclusion, but he couldn't decide if he should let Max believe that was the truth or make up some other story. He finally laughed, "How did you make that leap?"
"I think Mac said it best: 'Yah look like shit.'"
Otto decided that this was one thing Max wasn't going to make a joke out of. But is it really anyone's business but my own? Why did this guy have to latch on to me? Honestly... He sighed. "I had a... a nightmare I guess you could call it. In it, I succeeded, the generator worked, and everyone was praising me..."
"And that is a nightmare because...?"
"There's more than one way to have a nightmare," Otto mumbled as he turned to the key pad. He did want to talk, or at least sort of did. If he hadn't wanted to he wouldn't have waited, but he wasn't quite sure if... Well, if any of these clowns were good enough to talk about Rosie, Max was the one. He left the glasses on, even though it was dark, to control just how much was given away in this little chat. "Did you know I was married?"
Max raised his eyebrows in surprise. "No I did not." He decided not to ask what had happened to give Otto the chance to back out of the discussion if he wanted.
Otto nodded, his back still to Max. "Her name was Rosie, I met her in college. She was... my first and last love."
"What, did she leave you after your accident?"
"In a metaphorical sense, yes," Otto whispered.
Realization donned on Max and he mouthed a silent "Oh."
Otto had to take a breath before taking the next step. "That's not all, though. It was... it was my invention that killed her." Here the scientist turned around to see the lightening rod eyeing the metal creatures that danced and hovered around their creator. "No, it wasn't them. It was my fusion reactor. They actually saved my life when the glass broke."
Max had a vague recollection of newspaper accounts of the accident, but he didn't quite understand how a magnetic effect could have sucked in the glass. "What have you been doing down here, then?"
"I'm analyzing the mutagenic elements in your blood samples, how they react to various foreign agents, the effect they have on the nucleotide bases, DNA replication, et cetera."
Max thought this over for a minute. "Okay... Can I watch?"
Otto shook his head.
Damn it, so close. "Eh, worth a try," Max shrugged and waved. "See you later, octoman." What do the blood samples have to do with his wife dying? Huh. I guess they don't really have anything to do with each other. Now, how to fill up the rest of the day...