Sorry, I know this has taken me way too long... Blame my Writer's Block!! I hope the next chapter will be up sooner, I already started it, in case somebody cares...
Oh and I know, this is confusing, but it will work out in the end...I hope...
Truman stared in shock at the scene in the conference room.
"Octavius, what are you doing?" He yelled at the man that was currently strangulating another man with one of his tentacles. Octavius looked at him and smiled. "Hello Truman."
Truman glanced at the two scared scientists in the corner and then back at Octavius and De Neravario. "What?"
"Oh, he was getting on my nerves." Octavius simply said. De Neravario was visibly struggling to get fresh air in his lungs and after a few attempts to say something he passed out due to the lack of oxygen. The two scientists gasped and moved a little farther in the corner.
Truman stiffened up.
"Is he dead?" He asked worried.
Octavius shock his head. "Nuh, just unconscious." He paused and looked disgusted at the man in his tentacle. "Unfortunately."
Truman relaxed a little and then remembered why he had come in the room in the first place.
"Uhm, did you find a solution?"
He watched Octavius getting up and stretching still holding the unconscious man.
"Don't look at me. They had the idea." He gestured at the scared men in the corner, who suddenly seemed to get to live again and pressed themselves even closer to the wall, if that was even possible.
"Tell him." Octavius ordered.
Truman still did not know what had been going on in this room during his absence. It apparently ended with two scared to death scientists in a corner and one unconscious in the tentacle of the doctor. He would have to talk to Octavius about that later, that was not part of their arrangement, but then again what was an arrangement with Doc Ock worth? He probably could call himself lucky he did not end up unconscious when he talked to the man.
He listened to the men as they told their idea and felt some of the suspense, which he had built up inside over the past few days, loosen. They had the same idea the other team of scientists had three days ago. That was going to make things a lot easier, he hoped.
He rubbed his hands and said a little excited: "That is great!"
He smiled at the men in the room and suddenly two frightened pair of eyes met his.
"Can we go now?" They glanced back at Octavius, who was still standing behind the table with his arms crossed.
A little irritated Truman stepped aside. "Sure." He said as they already hurried past him and out of the door.
He turned back to Octavius and noticed that the man was still holding the unconscious scientist.
"So, that's it?" Octavius asked.
Truman gave him a puzzled look. "What?"
"Aren't you going to say something, like... "He paused for a moment than continued with disguised voice " Oh, this is not going to work. Or: What a stupid ideaOr maybe: Oh, we don't have the equipment to do that!" He gestured wildly with his hands to undermine his points.
The look on his Truman's face first changed form just puzzled to total confusion and than to amusement.
"No, no, I am totally content with that idea." He smiled.
Octavius crossed his arms again. "Why?"
"Our scientist had that idea three days ago and we already agreed to use it. You were just the second group to confirm it." He still smiled and added. "To be sure, you know?"
Something told him that it had been a bad idea to tell him that as he suddenly heard a loud i Bang /i and a soft groan. Octavius had just dropped De Neravario.
"What?", he asked in a low voice.
"Then why did you bring me here, if you already knew you were going to blow up this friggin' meteor?"
Although Octavius did not raise his voice Truman could literally feel the rage boiling inside the man and the same fear he already had in the back of the van was now creeping up his spine. With now all four tentacles pointing at him he could not blame himself.
"Uhm...Well that's complicated, you know?" Truman managed to say.
"No, I don't know that's why I want you to explain it. Now!"
"I thought you would be easier to convince to help us with another problem if you worked on this problem first."
"You certainly blew this change, no matter what that other problem is."
Truman ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "Seems like it."
There was a long silence between them and it would have lasted even longer if De Neravario had not suddenly stirred and mumbled something not audible. Truman looked down to the man and watched in shock how one of the tentacles smacked De Neravario alongside the head and he fell silent again.
He looked up at Octavius and asked in disbelief: "Was that necessary?"
The other man smiled crookedly at him. "Yes."
Truman sighed and looked up at the ceiling as if he was expecting some help from above.
Why me?
He looked back at Octavius, who had tilted his head and was curiously watching him.
"What are you doing?" Truman asked.
"I'm waiting."
"For what?"
Octavius moved his head back to its normal position. "For you to start trying to convince me to help you with the second problem, of course!" He pointed in turns at Truman and himself then crossed his arms again. "You're going to start trying to convince me, aren't you? If not, I'm gonna leave now!"
Truman breathed in and exhaled audible.
"Of course, if you would follow me then?" He turned to open the door. Octavius walked around the table, ignoring De Neravario. Truman faced Octavius and his gaze ran over the tentacles. "Uhm, can you ...uhm", he gestured at the tentacles, "hide them. You know, you're not supposed to be here."
Octavius raised an eyebrow but said nothing as the metal arms disappeared under his coat.
"Stop wandering around!", demanded Grace as she watched her father pace around the conference table. "You make me nervous!" She was still sitting at the table, she
"NERVOUS?!" Harry shouted. "I'll tell you what makes ME nervous!" He stopped on the other side of the table opposite Grace. "That guy!" In a jerkish movement he pointed to the door. "What was his name? Smith or something?"
"Truman." Grace rolled her eyes and sighed. She was already used to the outbursts of her father. Every time something does not work out like he had planed he flipped. It was annoying, but better than the endless pacing.
"Whatever! This guy, Truman, has us waiting for over an hour or something now." He clenched his fists in anger.
"10 minutes." Grace corrected him again, but Harry seemed not to have heard her.
He gestured wildly with his hands as he continued to blather.
"That's not "a little while" like he said. What is that guy doing and why do we have to wait here? I thought this was very "urgent". Why does he keep us waiting?"
Grace sighed again. She leaned backwards on her chair and balanced it on two legs.
"It's only been 10 minutes, Harry." She said again and at the sound of his name he finally listened. "What?" He asked a little perplex.
"It's only been 10 minutes, not an hour, ten minutes!" She told him a third time.
"Oh..." With the reason of his anger suddenly gone the rage disappeared too.
"I might have overestimated the time we were waiting...you know, I don't like waiting...and I'm not good at estimating times." He grinned at her and scratched the back of his head.
She rolled her eyes again and put one foot at the edge of the table, still balancing her chair casually. "I know."
Otto followed Truman through the long corridors of the space center. His headache had ebbed away as soon as he had silenced De Neravario, but he was still angry at Truman for not telling him the truth about the real reason why he was brought here. He wanted nothing more than to leave and go back to New York, although he was not sure what he would then do if he was back. It was not like he actually had a life.
Nevertheless he was still here. Otto could not tell why but something kept him here. A feeling he could not describe.
He did not care about the world. Why would he? There was nothing and nobody he actually cared about in this world. He had lost everything that was worth living for in that accident. His dream, a normal life, i Rosie /i ...
He had no reason to help saving the world; on the contrary, it would all be over. The suffering, the pain, the grief...
It surprised him how little he actually cared about other people. A year ago he would have done everything possible to help other people, he wanted to make a better world, but now...
They descended a stair and Truman led them into the hanger. Bigger and smaller airplanes where standing in rows with NASA technicians working on them. The hanger was huge, but Otto was barely paying attention, he was a little distracted.
We want to see.
Let us look, Father.
You can't look, now be quiet.
Why can't we look?
There is so much too see.
I'll get into trouble if they recognize me.
We didn't get into trouble when we silenced that man for you.
Why would we get into trouble if we just look around?
We don't understand.
That was something different.
Why?
"We're here!" Truman's voice suddenly interrupted Otto in his thoughts and brought him back to reality.
There were still in the hanger but were now in a part where no airplanes and machines stood. A large area around them had been cleared, it almost seemed like they wanted to separate something from the rest of the hanger.
Otto still had the same weird feeling he could not explain. It was like a soft tingle at the base of his neck. He unconsciously touched the spot where months ago the Inhibitor chip had been and it gave him a chill as he felt the cold metal spine beneath his fingers.
"We're here, Doctor."
Otto's head jerked upward and he gave Truman a puzzled look. They stood before large metal barriers that had been covered with black cloth to prevent anybody to look inside. A few meters away stood two soldiers with their weapons at the ready in front of what could have been an entrance. Otto gave them a quick glance and turned his attention back to Truman.
"I'm going to tell you the real reason, why I asked you to come. But please, don't rage."
Otto raised an eyebrow. "I'm able to control my emotions, Truman, I'm not the monster everybody thinks I am."
Truman swallowed hard. "De Neravario has probably a different opinion by now."
"De Neravario is an asshole and deserved it. Would you please explain now, I'm waiting." Otto said impatiently. The tingling in the back of his neck became more and more intense with every minute they stood there.
"Of course." Truman stiffened up. "I'll start at the beginning so might understand our intensions."
"Yeah, whatever." Otto let his gaze run over the black cloth and wondered what was behind it. The tentacles could have easily looked over the barriers, since it was only about three meters high, but in the current situation he would have to wait.
"One year ago, when you where still working on your fusion reactor, our request for money for a mars mission was approved and we started planning. The mission could not be manned of course. A journey to Mars takes three years even when Earth is closest to it. There is no way we could have possible fit the required food -"
"Yeah, yeah, get on with it, would you?"
"Of course, so we had to send a robot. A drilling expert had an idea for one and we changed it a little for our purpose. The only problem was how to control it. Usually the space probes are programmed to do just one or two thing. Taking pictures, scooping up some dirt, basic things our programmers could easily deal with, but this time we wanted it to be able to do more. We wanted detailed information about the composition of the surface. We wanted it to search for a convenient place to drill a hole and -"
"You're digressing. I don't care what that thing was supposed to do. Come to the point."
Otto's voice clearly represented that he was highly annoyed by Truman's tale.
"Uhm." Truman continued. "The point is that we wanted it to do complex movements and basically wanted it to think of its own. To much for a basic probe program, we needed something new. And that's where you come in."
Otto was already barely listening again, the feeling in the back of his neck was distracting him and he was sure the cause for it was behind that barriers.
"We used the basic program of the IA you invented and put it in the robot."
Truman paused and he rubbed his hands nervously.
It took a moment till the words sunk in, but as soon as Otto had realized them his pulse was up on 180 again.
"You did what?" He yelled in the other man's face. Truman backed up a little to get more space between them.
"Doctor Octavius, you must understand. We had every right to do so, well...maybe not everyone but...it was for the advancement of science. You, as scientist, have to understand that..."
Otto turned away from Truman and looked at the ceiling high above them. Of course he did not like what he had heard but what could he do against it? Nothing.
"And as a criminal, I can't even sue you." He sighed and turned back to the other man.
"So you stole my invention, great, you still didn't tell my way I'm here."
Truman stepped another half a meter backwards.
"Well, we now intended to use it to drill the hole in the meteor, but we had some problems controlling the robot after we activated the IA."
Otto's mouth fell open and he was not able to say a word.
"It won't listen to commands." Truman smiled abashed.
Otto's shoulders shook with rage. He had listened long enough to that guy, he decided; time to go back to New York. He turned around without saying a word and started to walk back the way they came.
Truman looked puzzled; he probably had expected something else. The first confusion wore off pretty fast and he leaped after the man.
"Doctor Octavius, I -", he did not get any further with his explanation, because Otto had suddenly turned around and grasped him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him closer. Close enough for Truman to see the reflection of his own eyes in Otto's sunglasses.
"You know, Truman", he hissed, " I have the strong desire to trash everything within my reach, but since I promised not to rage that will have to wait till I'm back in New York and then the Spider-freak has to take it. So when you watch the news and see he was killed by a crazed out Super Villain, it's your fault." He let go of Truman and walked a few meters, then turned around again. Truman was rubbing his neck.
"Oh and in case you wonder, I'm not so mad, because you took my invention, but because you are too dumb to use it." He shook his head in disbelief. "How did you think I would be able to help you with that issue anyway? Why don't you just take it apart?" He turned around still shaking his head.
"There's no time taking it apart or building a new one. We need to use it as it is. And we thought you might be able to control it, since you already have a connection to an IA." Truman panted a little bit, not because of the rough handling but mainly because of excitement and nervousness.
Otto stopped dead in his tracks. What was that guy talking about? He could still feel the tingling but it was weaker than before. He touched the spot again. He was not sure what to think. It was probably possible, but he had never thought about connecting to another IA, mainly because he had never thought he would ever see another one. Due to his natural curiosity he was tempted to just turn around and give it a try, but the rage that was still boiling inside and his anger at Truman told him otherwise. But then again, Truman only did his job, maybe he was ordered to be the one, to talk to him.
What do you think?
Another IA.
We want to meet it.
We did not know there could be others...
... like us.
He turned around eventually.
"Show it to me."
The relief on Truman's face was clearly written over his face. He hurried towards the entrance of the barriers and Otto followed him slowly. The soldiers let them pass without a word.
Inside the light was somber, because the barriers surrounding the area let little light from outside pass. Shadows were creeping along the edges of the barriers and one could barely make out the object that was positioned in the middle.
They slowly approached it and as they did it features became more and more clear.
"We call it Armadillo." Truman explained.
The tingling had now reached its peek and was now so strong it almost hurt.
The object really reminded Otto of an armadillo. It was a vehicle with four wheels and a cabin with space for two people. Otto slowly circled it and could make out several attachments to it that looked like folded arms that could extend and had different tools at the end.
The tingling was now hard to bear and Otto was rubbing the spot more and more intense.
"Something wrong?" Truman asked.
"No, just tell me what I'm supposed to do."
"Well..." Truman pulled a little object out of the pocket of his jacket. "It is turned off at the moment. We had some incidents with it, when we first started it."
"Incidents?" Otto asked.
"It attacked the technicians that were working on it. One is still in coma." Truman sighed.
"Oh, okay."
Truman turned to face him, he held out the object in his hands.
"That's the remote control for the power supply. Are you ready? It might attack us."
Otto chuckled. "And I think I might me able to defend myself."
"Uhm... yeah, of course. I'm going to turn it on in a moment and you try to connect with it...or something. I have no clue how that works."
"Neither do I, but you can turn it on." Otto gave Truman a crooked smile.
Truman nodded and pushed a little button on the remote.
The next moment the lights on the Armadillo turned on and a sudden pain emerged from the spot on Otto's neck where the tingling had been. The splitting headache made Otto wince, he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his palms at his temples.
After several seconds the headache ebbed away a little and left Otto with a constant pounding right behind his temples. He sucked in the air and let it out in relief as the worst pain was over.
Truman looked concerned. "Are you okay?"
Otto opened his eyes again and looked at the man.
"I have a headache again, but besides that I'm fi-"
Hello.
The sudden and unfamiliar voice in his head made Otto stumble backwards as if somebody had just punched him right into the face.
"What the h-?"
How was that possible? He looked up at the Armadillo and after the first shock wore off he relaxed a little.
"Now that was interesting." He met the gaze of a confused Truman and smiled.
"I think you can leave now." He said.
Truman glanced over to the Armadillo and then back to Otto.
"You got everything under control?" He asked concerned.
Otto nodded, his attention was already focused on the Armadillo again.
With a last glance back Truman made his way out of the fenced area and left Otto alone.
Truman hurried through the hangar, he had left the Stampers waiting in the conference room and he did not want them to wait any longer than they have to.
Five minutes later he opened the door to the room and found Grace Stamper sitting relaxed in a chair and her father walking impatiently around the room.
"Sorry, you had to wait." He stepped farther into the room and picked up the two papers that were lying on the table.
"As I see, you have signed the contract. Very good. I will now have you escort to your quarters. I am sure you are tired from the long journey."
Harry Stamper walked slowly around the table towards Truman.
"You're not gonna tell us, why we're here?" He asked impatiently.
"I'm afraid, that has to wait till tomorrow."
Truman heard the sound of a chair scratching over the floor and looked at Grace.
"Come on, Harry, I'm tired. Let's get some sleep." Harry, too, turned to Grace.
"I wanna know why we are here."
Grace stood up and walked to her father.
"Don't push the issue, Harry, I'm tired and I'm gonna get some sleep and you come with me."
She put her arm around his shoulder and pushed him out of the door and Harry was barely protesting. Truman watched as a soldier led them away to their room and then left the room too, making his way to his own quarter. He was finally getting his long desiderated sleep.
Everything was going fine, even better then he had expected. The first steps to saving the world have been taken and with a little luck everything would work out in the end. Just like he had planed.
Ten minutes later Truman opened the door to his room and fell on his bed. He did not even bother taking of his shoes. He fell asleep as soon as his head made contact with the pillow and a soft snoring could be heard only one minute later.