I appologize for the delay, Read & Review.
New York City: 15 Minutes Before Sunset
A burly, brown haired man in his early forties walked into a New York bank, located in the area known as the Village. He wore a full-length, dark brown trench coat, a rain hat and sunglasses.
His eyes scanned the entire perimeter, there were two guards who were looking at him, probably recognizing him from his photos in the 'Daily Bugle'1 a few months back.
"Damn," he mumbled, more guards were carefully approaching as they noticed him.
"Ah well, time to be done with the errand," he said to him self in an American accent before reaching back with his left gloved hand and yanked off the tail of his trench coat.
Four metal extendable tentacles, six feet in length, Each ending with a claw-like-clamp of three points, and had a small red glowing circle between in the center, sprung out from within his coat, the tentacles were welded right on to his back, with a simple thought, the tentacles extended and each one moved in a motion that swept the ten guards off their feet.
A Few Minutes Later.........
The multi-tentacled man walked out of the bank. In two of his tentacles he carried four money bags. He seemed a tad gleeful about what he had done.
"Dr. Octavious2," he heard someone call him, he looked to his left at a distance of about fifty feet to see a number of police cars with about twenty Policemen taking cover behind them and aiming their guns at him, their leader was the one speaking to him threw a Bull-Horn.
"Put your arms and tentacles up, or we'll fire!" continued the policeman, ready to signal to his men to fire.
"Then fire," shouted Octavious furiously, before dropping the bags and reaching with his tentacle to his right where a van was. He lifted the van and hoisted it to his left, using it as a shield to protect himself from the storm of bullets coming to him from the guns of the twenty officers. When he heard the gunshots stop he flung the truck at their direction.
"Look out!" yelled one of them as they all ran out of the way, the truck landed on top of their cars and exploded sending smoke, flame and scraps of metal in all directions.
Octavious then took hold of another parked car and threw it to his right, where another police car was nearing; it collided with it and caused it to flip over its side. The car then bounced and was about to collide with a blue truck that was hauling a trailer, till the truck did a rough swerve to get out of the way in the last second.
"What the 'ell! Did you just see that?" shouted Jack.
"Are you talking about the car he threw at us or is it something else?" asked John sarcastically.
"Cynicism is my thing, Johnny-boy."
Jack, Marcie and John were in the trailer of the truck almost hit by the car thrown by Octavious, while Mina was driving.
"Are you all alright?" asked Mina worriedly through the intercom.
"Yes," said John.
"I'm getting the impression that this will be a bumpy recruitment," stated Marcie.
"You're getting the right impression," said Mina.
Dr. Octavious grabbed hold of one of the Policemen then threw him violently into a brick wall.
The League had gotten out of the truck, and gathered near the entrance of a tiny ally, observing Octavious battling the policemen.
"Can you pick him out?" asked Mina.
"Given a few seconds of stillness and a clean line of fire, I could do it." said John, who carried a sniper rifle loaded with tranquilizer darts.
"A few seconds of distraction I can definitely provide" stated Jack.
"Fine. John, go through the ally and try to get closer."
"What about me?" asked Marcie, who was fully invisible.
"You're back up, Take this," said Mina as she handed Marcie a syringe just like the one she gave in Australia.
"What will you do?"
"There is not much I can do. My powers are dormant in the sun."
"Why don't we wait till then?" asked Jack.
"The more we wait the more he'll end up killing."
A single gunshot was heard, the League whipped their heads towards Octavious to see him man-handling a policeman with a gun.
"Good luck," said Mina, "Deploy."
John then disappeared into the alley. Marcie's footsteps were heard as she left while Jack walked speedily towards Octavious.
"What? That's what he meant by diversion?" hissed Mina as she saw where Jack was heading.
Octavious threw a policeman threw a store's window. He then glanced to behind him to see a bearded man wearing a knee length grey hooded coat.
"Good Evening Doctor," said Jack, who -inside his mind- was cursing the second he said yes to this mission.
"What do you want?" asked Octavious.
"I'm Jack Skinner, Esquire," Jack Introduced himself, "I believe we have a common acquaintance, you know that little bluish squid that hangs around the Hudson?" he followed.
"Crazy British man," murmured John from his position, he was aiming through the cross-hairs at the back of Octavious. He would have already taken the shot if Octavious had stood still for a second, and as much as he would think it stupid, Jack's plan was working.
"You don't? My mistake then. Say, you wouldn't know the way to the Village?" asked Jack who was starting to calm down a tad.
"We're in the Village." growled Octavious.
"So you're saying that I should go in a circle? Eheheheh." said Jack with a chuckle.
"You're insane." said Octavious, as he turned away.
"My good sir, a man who has iron tentacles is in no position to accuse people of insanity."
At that instant one of the tentacles sprung to Jacks left arm, where he was shot days earlier.
"My arm!" howled Jack, who was elevated off the ground.
"Take your shot!" hissed Mina.
Just as John was about to pull the trigger, he noticed the red spot in the axis one of the tentacles fixated at him, almost as if it was looking at him, then suddenly the tentacle lunged at him puling his rifle out of his hands and braking it into a shreds.
Jack was caught of guard by that, Octavious turned around to go after John, seeing that as an opportunity, Jack jumped on to his back, not realizing he was facing one of the clamps which grabbed hold of him and threw him threw a hardware store window.
A tentacle grabbed John from the waist and beat him into a wall three times, knocking him out.
As Jack lay among the bits of glass and splinter of the wooden counter he landed on, he saw a plump figure of a mustached man come into his view, (he was probably the store's manager,) who had a surprised look on his face.
"Are you okay?" asked the manager.
"Sure, this is nothing comparing to what my ex-wife did to me," said Jack painfully.
"They can see," said Mina as she came in threw the broken window.
"What?" asked Jack tiredly as he lifted his head to look at her.
"They can see, the tentacles also serve as four extra-eyes," she said as she extended a helping hand.
"Ugh, now she tells me," murmured Jack as he took her hand and got up.
The two looked out at the Menace to see him handling some officers.
"Some much for sedating him, John is out," complained Jack.
"Ready for round two?" Mina asked as she handed him a wrench she took from a rack.
"I was born ready." said Jack as he accepted the wrench. Mina took a sledgehammer for herself, and then the two walked out.
"Where the hell is that invisible minx?" asked Jack as he clutched his weapon.
"Never mind her, let's give him hell."
With that, Mina and Jack charged at Octavious, beating him with their weapons.
Octavious's dropped the officer he was holding and slowly turned to face Mina and Jack.
"Can't you see that I'm BUSY!" said Octavious before bursting out in the end and slinging a tentacle trying hit them both, but both Jack and Mina were able to duck just in time.
As John started to stir around, he opened his eyes and saw the sky above him getting dark, he heard a voice, that of Marcie speaking in a whisper.
"John, are you up?"
"Yes."
John got up and nursed the back of his neck for a bit, all he saw of Marcie was the floating syringe she held.
"His tentacles can see."
"I know I found out the hard way."
"I think they might be infrared, if so, he could easily detect me."
"Where are Jack and Mina?"
"They're fighting him."
John and Marcie walked over to the entrance of the ally to look at the three fighting.
"The rifle is damaged; we'll have to make do with the syringe." said John.
"Can you hit him?"
"Not from here, and I can't get close to him, If they could just faze him for a few seconds."
Jack barely avoided a shot from Octavious' tentacle. The relentless fight was still going on, and neither front was wiling to throw in the towel.
"It's no use, he has eyes in all directions," said Jack in despair, and just as he finished saying that, he was thrown into a pile of garbage bags thanks to Octavious, for seconds his vision blacked out, and when it came back, he saw Octavious scaling a tall building with three of his tentacles, his human hands were loaded with his loot, and in the fourth tentacle was Mina, fighting to escape.
"Hey, put her down!" Yelled Jack as he hastily got up.
As Octavious and Mina reached the top of the 50 floor building, she saw the tiny figures of Jack and John below, and felt the cold metal of a tentacle surrounding her neck, she was forced to face Octavious, who was grinning deviously and raising his eyebrows from behind his sunglasses.
"Well Ma'am," he started in sarcasm, "It's been a pleasure fighting you."
The next thing she knew, the image of Octavious was growing smaller and smaller, and air was blowing from behind her, she was falling, and since it was still in the daytime, she wouldn't heal upon her Impact, she would die.
'Oh God, help me!' she thought as she plummeted. Her body was twisting in the air and as she came within twenty feet from the ground she spied with the corner of her eye the distant horizon, and the Golden Sphere of the sun disappearing behind it.
Jack held his breath at the sight, 'Could the mission end before it began?'
John and Marcie gasped in shock, 'Would this be the first incident that would cause a chain reaction that would lead to the demise of the human race?'
But Mina was calmly smiling.
It was nighttime, the rules have changed, and it was a different ball game.
Octavious glided on the roof of the building, it was a good day for Dr. Otto Octavious. He got plenty of money and exercised his flair for Anarchy.
He looked at the sky; the stars were beginning to brighten. Something about the woman he just threw had rang a bell in his mind, her hair had reminded him of someone dear, his late wife, Rosalie 3. Whom he loved, but… what in the hell was the squeaking noise?
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to throw people off the tops of buildings?" scoffed Mina as she blended into her human form in front of Otto.
"What are you?" asked the wide eyed Doctor.
"More than meets the eye." replied Mina with a growl, before giving him a mighty shove that flew him off the building.
After a few moments of soaring, Otto managed to grab hold of the side of the building with his tentacles, still holding on to the bags of money, but that wasn't enough however as the bricks gave away and broke off, he fell again to the concrete ground two stories below him.
He had let go of the money bags, and as he pushed himself to stand up, he felt a pinching pain in his neck.
He used a tentacle to see what it was: a small syringe. He tried to pull it out but he was quickly passing out.
As Jack, John, Mina and Marcie walked over to his motionless body, a crowd began to gather.
"Excellent shot," said Jack to John.
"We got him, let's get the truck over here," ordered Mina.
"Who are you people?" asked a young woman from the crowd that gathered to observe the group's relentless fight for the past moments.
"We are," said Mina then took a pause to figure out what to say. "We are done in here; we have to go."
2110 Hours
Marcie flinched as one of the claws came within feet to his face; she then thought it would be best to retreat to a safe distance.
The group had transported Octavious to an empty warehouse using their truck, where he was chained in order to keep him from escaping or attacking them.
And Octavious was fighting restlessly to escape the chains binding him. To each of his tentacles were 15 chains that were buried in the walls, beams and ground around him. Some chains were binding his arms and legs as well.
"Won't they break? You've seen how powerful he is," asked Marcie as she stood next to Mina.
"Unlikely, those chains are made of super-titanium. To break one is tricky enough, and 15 is impossible."
'Stay back, if you value your life.'
The Sight of Dr. Octavious fighting to escape brought back memories of her first League, remembering the night Edwards Hyde was apprehended in the Rue Morgue, except this time she was included in the hunt and Hyde didn't have as many limbs.
She glanced at Jack who stood on her other side, who was looking with interest at the doctor. Something about him irritated her. 'Irritating me might be in the Skinner blood,' she briefly thought before realizing what it was. Jack had a silver cross hanging from his neck, which was strange since Jack didn't seem to be the religious type.
"Could you please put that thing away?" she asked uneasily.
"What?" he asked as he looked at her, "This thing?" he asked as he pulled the cross to inches away from her face. "Does it bother you?" he asked with an irritating smirk.
"Does this bother you?" she barked as she wrapped her fingers around his neck.
"I see I've caught you on the wrong time of the month." he said as he chocked.
'Choking to death and still cracking jokes; he certainly is a Skinner.' she thought as she squeezed some more.
"Ow! Sorry, bad Skinner." pleaded Jack as he lifted a hand to her wrist.
She saw something on his hand gripping her wrist trying to pry her grip open. It was a golden ring, and on it was the Freemasonic symbol: an eye surrounded by a compass and two crossed rulers.
"You're a mason?" she asked as she let go.
"Yeah, so?" Jack answered as he gasped for air.
"Nothing; I've just had some bad experience with some 4."
Mina the turned her attention to Octavious and spoke, "Give it a rest Dr Octavious. They won't break."
The Doctor didn't seem to bereave her as he resumed his struggle.
"You have two choices. One: keep doing this until you go mad, or two: listen to us and the chains will be released."
After a few more seconds, Otto gave it a rest and calmly spoke.
"Fine, I'm listening."
"You are a man on the run, and once were a brilliant scientist."
"Key word: once."
"We can help with the first, so you can become again the second."
"Who are you?"
"We are members of an elite society, mostly of civilians, called the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. We were recently recruited to carry out an investigation in Britain. Accept, and the state of New York will wipe out your criminal record, and we will help you get rid of those things." said Mina, gesturing at the tentacles as she finished.
"What makes you think I want that?" said Otto with a faint laugh.
"Because I am a freak, such as yourself, and I would give anything to be normal again."
"Yeah right, that'll convince him!" said Marcie as she rolled her eyes, even though no one could tell.
"Your offer," said Otto. He paused, then moved one step towards them, saying, "is accepted."
A sigh of relief came from the group.
"Well, the League is set." said Mina with a smile, quoting the great late Allen Quatermain, eve though no one knew it.
"This calls for a cigar!" hollered Jack gleefully.
"Where did you get those?" asked John as he rejected a cigar offered by Jack.
"Remember when he threw me into that Hardware shop? The owner had a whole box of 'em under the counter."
As John expressed his lack of knowledge of how could Jack be some care-free, Mina's cell phone rang, she answered the call.
"Hello?"
"Mina, it's Kate. How are you enjoying your world shopin' spree." came the voice of Dame Kate on the cell phone.
"Excellent, got the things I wanted from Sydney, Chicago, Shanghai and New York." answered Mina, speaking in codes.
"How was the weather?"
"It was a tad snowy in Sydney, and hot in New York."
"Is that where you're at?"
"Yes, how are the flowers?" asked Mina, referring to the patients.
"They wilted."
"What?" asked Mina in shock.
"A day or so ago, you better come here soon."
"That's the plan; I'll be on the first plane." said Mina hastily.
"See you soon, good friend."
"Goodbye." said Mina. Kate then hung up.
Author's Notes:
1 'The Daily Bugle' is the newspaper that Peter Parker works for in the 'Spider-Man' comics.
2 Dr. Otto Octavious was originated in the popular comic-book 'The Amazing Spider-Man', a scientist that builds a harness containing four Mechanical Arms to control Unstable Elements in his research about fusion, one day the Experiment goes askew and his tentacles fuse to his spinal column, and goes mad and becomes a criminal questing for Wealth ad Power, eventually becoming one of Spider-Man's most popular Enemies.
The Character was introduced in the motion picture 'Spider-Man 2', portrayed by Alfred Molina. I'm using the movie version.
3 Rosalie Octavious is Dr. Octavious's wife in the movie.
4 Freemasons are hinted at in relation with Prof. Moriarty in the graphic novel LXG was based upon, as his henchmen bare the Mason symbol on their attire, it is also hinted at in the movie, as the Doors in M's office bear the same symbol.
Hope you enjoy it, a special thanks to my Dear Beta: ElvenBookWyrm, who is always ready to cover up my massacre of the English Language.
I EEnjoy your reviews, and look forward to sugestions.
New York City: 15 Minutes Before Sunset
A burly, brown haired man in his early forties walked into a New York bank, located in the area known as the Village. He wore a full-length, dark brown trench coat, a rain hat and sunglasses.
His eyes scanned the entire perimeter, there were two guards who were looking at him, probably recognizing him from his photos in the 'Daily Bugle'1 a few months back.
"Damn," he mumbled, more guards were carefully approaching as they noticed him.
"Ah well, time to be done with the errand," he said to him self in an American accent before reaching back with his left gloved hand and yanked off the tail of his trench coat.
Four metal extendable tentacles, six feet in length, Each ending with a claw-like-clamp of three points, and had a small red glowing circle between in the center, sprung out from within his coat, the tentacles were welded right on to his back, with a simple thought, the tentacles extended and each one moved in a motion that swept the ten guards off their feet.
A Few Minutes Later.........
The multi-tentacled man walked out of the bank. In two of his tentacles he carried four money bags. He seemed a tad gleeful about what he had done.
"Dr. Octavious2," he heard someone call him, he looked to his left at a distance of about fifty feet to see a number of police cars with about twenty Policemen taking cover behind them and aiming their guns at him, their leader was the one speaking to him threw a Bull-Horn.
"Put your arms and tentacles up, or we'll fire!" continued the policeman, ready to signal to his men to fire.
"Then fire," shouted Octavious furiously, before dropping the bags and reaching with his tentacle to his right where a van was. He lifted the van and hoisted it to his left, using it as a shield to protect himself from the storm of bullets coming to him from the guns of the twenty officers. When he heard the gunshots stop he flung the truck at their direction.
"Look out!" yelled one of them as they all ran out of the way, the truck landed on top of their cars and exploded sending smoke, flame and scraps of metal in all directions.
Octavious then took hold of another parked car and threw it to his right, where another police car was nearing; it collided with it and caused it to flip over its side. The car then bounced and was about to collide with a blue truck that was hauling a trailer, till the truck did a rough swerve to get out of the way in the last second.
"What the 'ell! Did you just see that?" shouted Jack.
"Are you talking about the car he threw at us or is it something else?" asked John sarcastically.
"Cynicism is my thing, Johnny-boy."
Jack, Marcie and John were in the trailer of the truck almost hit by the car thrown by Octavious, while Mina was driving.
"Are you all alright?" asked Mina worriedly through the intercom.
"Yes," said John.
"I'm getting the impression that this will be a bumpy recruitment," stated Marcie.
"You're getting the right impression," said Mina.
Dr. Octavious grabbed hold of one of the Policemen then threw him violently into a brick wall.
The League had gotten out of the truck, and gathered near the entrance of a tiny ally, observing Octavious battling the policemen.
"Can you pick him out?" asked Mina.
"Given a few seconds of stillness and a clean line of fire, I could do it." said John, who carried a sniper rifle loaded with tranquilizer darts.
"A few seconds of distraction I can definitely provide" stated Jack.
"Fine. John, go through the ally and try to get closer."
"What about me?" asked Marcie, who was fully invisible.
"You're back up, Take this," said Mina as she handed Marcie a syringe just like the one she gave in Australia.
"What will you do?"
"There is not much I can do. My powers are dormant in the sun."
"Why don't we wait till then?" asked Jack.
"The more we wait the more he'll end up killing."
A single gunshot was heard, the League whipped their heads towards Octavious to see him man-handling a policeman with a gun.
"Good luck," said Mina, "Deploy."
John then disappeared into the alley. Marcie's footsteps were heard as she left while Jack walked speedily towards Octavious.
"What? That's what he meant by diversion?" hissed Mina as she saw where Jack was heading.
Octavious threw a policeman threw a store's window. He then glanced to behind him to see a bearded man wearing a knee length grey hooded coat.
"Good Evening Doctor," said Jack, who -inside his mind- was cursing the second he said yes to this mission.
"What do you want?" asked Octavious.
"I'm Jack Skinner, Esquire," Jack Introduced himself, "I believe we have a common acquaintance, you know that little bluish squid that hangs around the Hudson?" he followed.
"Crazy British man," murmured John from his position, he was aiming through the cross-hairs at the back of Octavious. He would have already taken the shot if Octavious had stood still for a second, and as much as he would think it stupid, Jack's plan was working.
"You don't? My mistake then. Say, you wouldn't know the way to the Village?" asked Jack who was starting to calm down a tad.
"We're in the Village." growled Octavious.
"So you're saying that I should go in a circle? Eheheheh." said Jack with a chuckle.
"You're insane." said Octavious, as he turned away.
"My good sir, a man who has iron tentacles is in no position to accuse people of insanity."
At that instant one of the tentacles sprung to Jacks left arm, where he was shot days earlier.
"My arm!" howled Jack, who was elevated off the ground.
"Take your shot!" hissed Mina.
Just as John was about to pull the trigger, he noticed the red spot in the axis one of the tentacles fixated at him, almost as if it was looking at him, then suddenly the tentacle lunged at him puling his rifle out of his hands and braking it into a shreds.
Jack was caught of guard by that, Octavious turned around to go after John, seeing that as an opportunity, Jack jumped on to his back, not realizing he was facing one of the clamps which grabbed hold of him and threw him threw a hardware store window.
A tentacle grabbed John from the waist and beat him into a wall three times, knocking him out.
As Jack lay among the bits of glass and splinter of the wooden counter he landed on, he saw a plump figure of a mustached man come into his view, (he was probably the store's manager,) who had a surprised look on his face.
"Are you okay?" asked the manager.
"Sure, this is nothing comparing to what my ex-wife did to me," said Jack painfully.
"They can see," said Mina as she came in threw the broken window.
"What?" asked Jack tiredly as he lifted his head to look at her.
"They can see, the tentacles also serve as four extra-eyes," she said as she extended a helping hand.
"Ugh, now she tells me," murmured Jack as he took her hand and got up.
The two looked out at the Menace to see him handling some officers.
"Some much for sedating him, John is out," complained Jack.
"Ready for round two?" Mina asked as she handed him a wrench she took from a rack.
"I was born ready." said Jack as he accepted the wrench. Mina took a sledgehammer for herself, and then the two walked out.
"Where the hell is that invisible minx?" asked Jack as he clutched his weapon.
"Never mind her, let's give him hell."
With that, Mina and Jack charged at Octavious, beating him with their weapons.
Octavious's dropped the officer he was holding and slowly turned to face Mina and Jack.
"Can't you see that I'm BUSY!" said Octavious before bursting out in the end and slinging a tentacle trying hit them both, but both Jack and Mina were able to duck just in time.
As John started to stir around, he opened his eyes and saw the sky above him getting dark, he heard a voice, that of Marcie speaking in a whisper.
"John, are you up?"
"Yes."
John got up and nursed the back of his neck for a bit, all he saw of Marcie was the floating syringe she held.
"His tentacles can see."
"I know I found out the hard way."
"I think they might be infrared, if so, he could easily detect me."
"Where are Jack and Mina?"
"They're fighting him."
John and Marcie walked over to the entrance of the ally to look at the three fighting.
"The rifle is damaged; we'll have to make do with the syringe." said John.
"Can you hit him?"
"Not from here, and I can't get close to him, If they could just faze him for a few seconds."
Jack barely avoided a shot from Octavious' tentacle. The relentless fight was still going on, and neither front was wiling to throw in the towel.
"It's no use, he has eyes in all directions," said Jack in despair, and just as he finished saying that, he was thrown into a pile of garbage bags thanks to Octavious, for seconds his vision blacked out, and when it came back, he saw Octavious scaling a tall building with three of his tentacles, his human hands were loaded with his loot, and in the fourth tentacle was Mina, fighting to escape.
"Hey, put her down!" Yelled Jack as he hastily got up.
As Octavious and Mina reached the top of the 50 floor building, she saw the tiny figures of Jack and John below, and felt the cold metal of a tentacle surrounding her neck, she was forced to face Octavious, who was grinning deviously and raising his eyebrows from behind his sunglasses.
"Well Ma'am," he started in sarcasm, "It's been a pleasure fighting you."
The next thing she knew, the image of Octavious was growing smaller and smaller, and air was blowing from behind her, she was falling, and since it was still in the daytime, she wouldn't heal upon her Impact, she would die.
'Oh God, help me!' she thought as she plummeted. Her body was twisting in the air and as she came within twenty feet from the ground she spied with the corner of her eye the distant horizon, and the Golden Sphere of the sun disappearing behind it.
Jack held his breath at the sight, 'Could the mission end before it began?'
John and Marcie gasped in shock, 'Would this be the first incident that would cause a chain reaction that would lead to the demise of the human race?'
But Mina was calmly smiling.
It was nighttime, the rules have changed, and it was a different ball game.
Octavious glided on the roof of the building, it was a good day for Dr. Otto Octavious. He got plenty of money and exercised his flair for Anarchy.
He looked at the sky; the stars were beginning to brighten. Something about the woman he just threw had rang a bell in his mind, her hair had reminded him of someone dear, his late wife, Rosalie 3. Whom he loved, but… what in the hell was the squeaking noise?
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to throw people off the tops of buildings?" scoffed Mina as she blended into her human form in front of Otto.
"What are you?" asked the wide eyed Doctor.
"More than meets the eye." replied Mina with a growl, before giving him a mighty shove that flew him off the building.
After a few moments of soaring, Otto managed to grab hold of the side of the building with his tentacles, still holding on to the bags of money, but that wasn't enough however as the bricks gave away and broke off, he fell again to the concrete ground two stories below him.
He had let go of the money bags, and as he pushed himself to stand up, he felt a pinching pain in his neck.
He used a tentacle to see what it was: a small syringe. He tried to pull it out but he was quickly passing out.
As Jack, John, Mina and Marcie walked over to his motionless body, a crowd began to gather.
"Excellent shot," said Jack to John.
"We got him, let's get the truck over here," ordered Mina.
"Who are you people?" asked a young woman from the crowd that gathered to observe the group's relentless fight for the past moments.
"We are," said Mina then took a pause to figure out what to say. "We are done in here; we have to go."
2110 Hours
Marcie flinched as one of the claws came within feet to his face; she then thought it would be best to retreat to a safe distance.
The group had transported Octavious to an empty warehouse using their truck, where he was chained in order to keep him from escaping or attacking them.
And Octavious was fighting restlessly to escape the chains binding him. To each of his tentacles were 15 chains that were buried in the walls, beams and ground around him. Some chains were binding his arms and legs as well.
"Won't they break? You've seen how powerful he is," asked Marcie as she stood next to Mina.
"Unlikely, those chains are made of super-titanium. To break one is tricky enough, and 15 is impossible."
'Stay back, if you value your life.'
The Sight of Dr. Octavious fighting to escape brought back memories of her first League, remembering the night Edwards Hyde was apprehended in the Rue Morgue, except this time she was included in the hunt and Hyde didn't have as many limbs.
She glanced at Jack who stood on her other side, who was looking with interest at the doctor. Something about him irritated her. 'Irritating me might be in the Skinner blood,' she briefly thought before realizing what it was. Jack had a silver cross hanging from his neck, which was strange since Jack didn't seem to be the religious type.
"Could you please put that thing away?" she asked uneasily.
"What?" he asked as he looked at her, "This thing?" he asked as he pulled the cross to inches away from her face. "Does it bother you?" he asked with an irritating smirk.
"Does this bother you?" she barked as she wrapped her fingers around his neck.
"I see I've caught you on the wrong time of the month." he said as he chocked.
'Choking to death and still cracking jokes; he certainly is a Skinner.' she thought as she squeezed some more.
"Ow! Sorry, bad Skinner." pleaded Jack as he lifted a hand to her wrist.
She saw something on his hand gripping her wrist trying to pry her grip open. It was a golden ring, and on it was the Freemasonic symbol: an eye surrounded by a compass and two crossed rulers.
"You're a mason?" she asked as she let go.
"Yeah, so?" Jack answered as he gasped for air.
"Nothing; I've just had some bad experience with some 4."
Mina the turned her attention to Octavious and spoke, "Give it a rest Dr Octavious. They won't break."
The Doctor didn't seem to bereave her as he resumed his struggle.
"You have two choices. One: keep doing this until you go mad, or two: listen to us and the chains will be released."
After a few more seconds, Otto gave it a rest and calmly spoke.
"Fine, I'm listening."
"You are a man on the run, and once were a brilliant scientist."
"Key word: once."
"We can help with the first, so you can become again the second."
"Who are you?"
"We are members of an elite society, mostly of civilians, called the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. We were recently recruited to carry out an investigation in Britain. Accept, and the state of New York will wipe out your criminal record, and we will help you get rid of those things." said Mina, gesturing at the tentacles as she finished.
"What makes you think I want that?" said Otto with a faint laugh.
"Because I am a freak, such as yourself, and I would give anything to be normal again."
"Yeah right, that'll convince him!" said Marcie as she rolled her eyes, even though no one could tell.
"Your offer," said Otto. He paused, then moved one step towards them, saying, "is accepted."
A sigh of relief came from the group.
"Well, the League is set." said Mina with a smile, quoting the great late Allen Quatermain, eve though no one knew it.
"This calls for a cigar!" hollered Jack gleefully.
"Where did you get those?" asked John as he rejected a cigar offered by Jack.
"Remember when he threw me into that Hardware shop? The owner had a whole box of 'em under the counter."
As John expressed his lack of knowledge of how could Jack be some care-free, Mina's cell phone rang, she answered the call.
"Hello?"
"Mina, it's Kate. How are you enjoying your world shopin' spree." came the voice of Dame Kate on the cell phone.
"Excellent, got the things I wanted from Sydney, Chicago, Shanghai and New York." answered Mina, speaking in codes.
"How was the weather?"
"It was a tad snowy in Sydney, and hot in New York."
"Is that where you're at?"
"Yes, how are the flowers?" asked Mina, referring to the patients.
"They wilted."
"What?" asked Mina in shock.
"A day or so ago, you better come here soon."
"That's the plan; I'll be on the first plane." said Mina hastily.
"See you soon, good friend."
"Goodbye." said Mina. Kate then hung up.
Author's Notes:
1 'The Daily Bugle' is the newspaper that Peter Parker works for in the 'Spider-Man' comics.
2 Dr. Otto Octavious was originated in the popular comic-book 'The Amazing Spider-Man', a scientist that builds a harness containing four Mechanical Arms to control Unstable Elements in his research about fusion, one day the Experiment goes askew and his tentacles fuse to his spinal column, and goes mad and becomes a criminal questing for Wealth ad Power, eventually becoming one of Spider-Man's most popular Enemies.
The Character was introduced in the motion picture 'Spider-Man 2', portrayed by Alfred Molina. I'm using the movie version.
3 Rosalie Octavious is Dr. Octavious's wife in the movie.
4 Freemasons are hinted at in relation with Prof. Moriarty in the graphic novel LXG was based upon, as his henchmen bare the Mason symbol on their attire, it is also hinted at in the movie, as the Doors in M's office bear the same symbol.
Hope you enjoy it, a special thanks to my Dear Beta: ElvenBookWyrm, who is always ready to cover up my massacre of the English Language.
I EEnjoy your reviews, and look forward to sugestions.