Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin

Chapter 3: Thinking and Not Thinking

With a groan, I slowly put myself into a sitting position. I looked over at my training bot which I had dubbed H2H. At this point, I could safely say that my creation worked well enough for training. Looking at the scoreboard on the screen which read 1-28 in H2H's favor, I concluded that I may have done a better job on H2H's design than I had intended.

When I had first activated H2H, I had it perform an exhibition of several fighting styles to see if there were any kinks that needed to be ironed out in his programming. Watching H2H move had been awe-inspiring, and I had really been excited to get to sparring with it. However, as Otto had instructed Isaac, just because a machine looked like it worked properly didn't mean that there would not be any issues to address. So, at first, I held off on immediately training with it and had it demonstrate its strength and precision. That had turned out to be prudent, as it turned out that H2H had trouble with handling small and/or fragile objects like CDs and toothpicks.

It took about two weeks of rebuilding and re-programming H2H before it could handle delicate objects with a level of speed and precision that I would find acceptable for an automated sparring partner. I then had it switch between combat exhibitions and delicate work for about a week and a half before I was satisfied. During this time, I made a few tweaks to the suit that I would be wearing when sparring with H2H. Said suit was meant to keep track of the points in my body that got hit and how often they got hit.

Once I was sure that I wouldn't have to worry about H2H hitting me and breaking any bones in my body, I decided to see how I would do in a fight. In a word, it was a complete disaster for me. As it so happens, an AI designed with multiple forms of armed and unarmed combat programmed into it was going to be pretty much to mop the floor with a mere novice like me. The only time I had won against it had been because it had slipped on a loose piece of tinfoil that had gotten onto the floor. Even when I had limited its program to using two forms of martial arts at time, it still mopped with me. It was only kind of frustrating. Still, this was better than any of the so-called dojos in the area. Most in the area where what others would call McDojos. On the bright side, I seemed to be doing better in at least defending myself. When I first started out, it became apparent that I had a lot of holes in my technique, and H2H usually was up by 80 wins to my one or two around 30 minutes.

Oh well, I would just have to keep going if I wanted to get any better. But before I could order H2H to return to the starting position, I heard someone call out for me. "Isaac! ISAAC! Where are you? You got a call, from those lawyers." The door to the basement opened and Rudolph entered looking annoyed. "There you are. Where the hell have you been? I've been calling for you for the past five minutes and…" It was at this point that he noticed H2H, and a sour look came on his face. "…oh… I see you're working with that robot, again…" I had to fight back a wince as I recalled how the first meeting went between Rudolph and H2H.

It was about mid-February, and I was in the middle of getting flipped around and knocked down by H2H. It had been a few days after I had gotten a letter from New York Hall of Science informing me that they had accepted my application. I had been really excited about that and had needed to work off some of the energy. Thus, I had gone to my lab/basement to workout with H2H. I had apparently been down there for a while, because Rudolph had come down to let me know it was time for dinner. It was only then that I realized that I had forgotten one potential issue: I had not told my aunt or uncle about what I had been doing down there.

"Isaac! ISAAC! It's time for dinner," Rudolph had called out. Being alarmed at the sound of his approaching steps, I quickly turned to H2H and hissed out an order: "H2H, hurry up and hide!" Admittedly, I had panicked somewhat because I didn't know how Rudolph would react to an actual robot under his roof. I didn't think he would freak out too much about it if I had shown him under different circumstances but considering it had just got done flipping me over like a pancake and I was covered in sweat, I didn't want to risk it right now.

Unfortunately, before H2H could begin to follow my orders, Rudolph was already opening the door. "Are you down here messing around this late again? And what the hell is that noise? I swear if you something else is about to blow up again I… what the FUCK IS THAT," he shouted, pointing at H2H with wide eyes. H2H stood where it was observing the man shouting at it.

"Oh, um, ah, yeah… this is… H2H, a robot I had built."

Slowly, Rudolph turned to me. "You… built this?"

"Yes, yes I did."

"In here? Using the money from those jobs you were doing?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

He turned to the robot which was still staring back at him. "…did you have to make it look like a fucking Terminator?"

I winced at that. For the most part, the chassis of H2H did resemble a terminator's mechanical frame, and the padding was made of a transparent gel I had made to simulate the average human musculature. Underneath that, there were wires that ran throughout the "body" acting as a pseudo nervous system. I had not really bothered to with skin because I didn't feel there was any immediate need for such at the moment.

"I was more focused on function than how it looked. So yeah…" I shrugged.

Rudolph walked up to it, looking it over. "Ugh, good God, this thing looks freaky… what's with all these wires poking out of it?" He went to poke at it.

In alarm I tried to grab his hand; "WAIT! NO, DON'T!"

"UNKOWN ASSAILANT IS ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS UNIT WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION. ENGAGING DEFENSIVE PROTOCOLS."

"What the fu- GYAAAAH," was all Rudolph got out before H2H flipped him over onto and trapped his arm in a restraining move.

"ARRRRRRRRGH!"

"H2H, DISENGAGE! DISENGAGE!"

Fortunately, Rudolph didn't suffer any serious injury and an ice pack had helped with the soreness in his arm. Although Rudolph and Janice had been upset about me building a robot in the basement, they had been surprisingly calm about it when I told them that it was part of my entry for the science fair. Honestly, I was expecting a lot more yelling and shouting and maybe some demands to get rid of the stuff I had down there, but I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Shaking my head a bit, I spoke up, "you said something about lawyers?"

Rudolph turned back to me, "yeah, the lawyers from Landau, Luckman & Lake called. They called about checking on… on Otto's things."

At that I froze up. I… I was still trying to work through that. Isaac's heartache ran pretty deep, and it could really throw me off at odd times whenever his parents came up. Taking a deep breath, I nodded to myself. "So, when… when are we supposed to meet them again?"

Looking a bit awkward, Rudolph took a bit of time to respond. "They said they would meet on February 28. The hotel you're staying at called, too. They got your room set up and you should be good for the fair."

"Oh, okay yeah, that's good. So, I'm good to go."

"Yeah, you're good to go." Rudolph stood there for a bit. He seemed like he needed to say something more. "You need anything," I asked him. He paused at that, he looked at me for a bit before shaking his head.

"No… not… I… are… are you… okay," he finally got out.

I paused for a moment. Now that was a question I really hadn't figured out. I mean, thinking about Isaac's parents really hurt. The only thing I could honestly say: "I'll be fine."

Rudolph stared at me for a bit. I just shrugged. Finally, he sighed. "Okay, that's fair."

With that, he turned and walked back upstairs.

"And once again, might I say that I am truly, truly sorry for your loss. Otto and Pascale were such good people." The lawyer, one Zoe Culloden, went on shaking Rudolph's hand and then my own. She was a rather pleasant woman to look at, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She had taken great pains to explain the entire process to me and Rudolph and was kind enough to leave a card for us to call her back at. That all said I really did not feel comfortable around her but that was more due to the subject matter rather than anything to do with her personality.

Speaking of which, Otto and Pascale had left Isaac a lot to make use of. For one thing, apparently, they had arranged for me to take full ownership of the house they had in queens when I turned eighteen, along with everything in it. Thanks to its original poor condition, Otto and Pascale were able to buy it for super cheap, after which they had renovated it to be both energy independent and exceptionally comfortable to live in. Any bills/taxes left on it were negligible at best and paid off by the sizable trust fund that Otto and Pascale had left for Isaac. Considering how much money the two had saved up and left in investments, it was safe to say Isaac could have spent the rest of his life living in that house without needing to find any work.

The other item of interest that they had left me was a diary. I was not really sure what that was all about. While I thought about reading it now, I wasn't really in the mood for it and decided to leave it for later.

Both Rudolph and I were quiet when we got back to the hotel room. The place wasn't too fancy, but it was comfortable. It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a mini fridge by the bed. Fortunately, that was being paid off through some of the money Otto and Pascale had left over. Rudolph sat on one of the sofas with a groan. "I'm gonna relax for a bit, you need anything?"

"No, not really," I answered. I went to my room and flopped onto my bed. It had been a long day and I just wanted to take my mind off the meeting with the lawyer. At first, I had considered working on my presentation, but at the moment didn't feel like I could muster up the enthusiasm for it. There had been the diary, but that was not something I was up for either. After lying there for about half an hour, I began to feel restless. With that, I got up and went to the front room to find Rudolph on the sofa watching tv.

"Hey," I called out to him.

"Yeah, need something," Rudolph said turning to me.

"I'm gonna go take a walk by the park nearby," I told him.

"Alright don't stay out too late and be careful," he waved at me as I headed out.

The nice thing about the hotel we were staying at, the Corona Hotel, was that it was pretty close to the Science Hall, which meant that I could get there on foot if I needed to. Past that, was the Flushing Meadows Corona Park. There were plenty of things to see there, but I just wanted to move around for a bit. This business with Otto and Pascale's last gifts to Isaac left me feeling all out of sorts. Taking my bike, I decided to just ride around for a bit. How long I was out I didn't know.

It was early March, so while it was a bit chilly it was not so bad to be out and about at the moment. Feeling the air on my face as I rode around was actually rather pleasant. It was actually nice to just ride around for a bit. No need to think about anything and just relax for a bit. By the time I felt like I had done enough riding around it was getting pretty dark and chilly. As I was heading back, it was then that I felt a sudden chill. At first, I thought it might have been the weather, but quickly dismissed that thought.

*SCREECH*

The sudden screeching behind me had me turning in that direction. How I didn't notice that big truck when there hadn't been any other car as far as I could see, I don't know. What I did know was that I needed to get out of the way as it suddenly charged right at me. I was sent flying off my bike as the truck managed to clip the back wheel.

With a groan, I got up and turned towards the truck. One of the doors opened up and out came the strangest man I had ever seen. He was clearly old going by the bald patch in his grey hair was anything to go by and on his upper lip was a bushy-grey handle-bar mustache. What alarmed me about him though was what he was wearing. Decked out in black/purple armor, the man looked like some sort of knight. Along his armor were several daggers that looked really fucking sharp even from this distance. Over his left eye he had a black-as-sin, honest-to-god eyepatch. When my eyes met his good eye though, I damn near froze. I don't who this man was or what I did, but that look of sheer murder in that eye told me that this guy was dangerous.

"Ca- can I help… can I… h-help you," I couldn't help the quiver. Every single fiber of my being felt such terror, that some part of me was distantly amazed that I hadn't passed out from fright.

The man sniffed as he stepped out in front of the truck. Looking me over, his lip curled in disgust before spitting on the ground. Slowly he reached for a knife and pointed at me. In a voice that seemed to be barely above a harsh whisper and yet somehow sounded so clear on this March evening he spoke, "I do not require anything from you, boy. Except of course, your immediate death." Slowly the balding man walked towards me, and I somehow couldn't muster the strength to move so much as a damn inch.