Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin

Chapter 7: A Little Bit of History Part 2

Looking the phrase over, I frown. Είδωλο της Γνώσης. I was going to have to look this up. If I recall correctly, there were two libraries near the Corona Hotel that I could visit to translate the phrase. The closer of the two was on the Northern Blvd. With that in mind, I packed up most of the contents of the box, put on a new shirt and placed Pascale's diary in my bag.

Looking towards the door, I thought about the first hurdle in this adventure. After last night, something told me that Rudolph might be reluctant to let me go off on my own. Which left me wondering how to convince him to let me visit the library. Stepping out of my room I found him in the main lounge, watching Good Morning America. "Hey, Uncle Rudolph." Jumping up a bit at first, Rudolph turned to me. "Oh hey, you alright?" Stretching a bit, I let out a yawn. "Alright as I can be I guess." The older man looked me over before nodding. He paused. "Oh, by the way, about the police, they said they were gonna send some guys to look out for us in case one of those whackjob cultists cause any more trouble."

I perked up at that. "Wait, they're sending guys over?"

Rudolph nodded again. "Yeah, you were a witness, so they want to keep an eye on you."

Huh. That could actually be rather convenient for me. With a cop watching over me, I could probably convince Rudolph more easily to let me visit the library when they opened up later today. "Well, that's good. Hey, when is room service supposed to get here?"

"About twenty minutes from now. Why?"

I rubbed my stomach, feeling it begin to rumble. "Well after everything that happened last night, I haven't had a chance to get something to eat."

"Oh. Yeah, yeah, that's fair," Rudolph conceded before turning to the tv.

Meanwhile, I went back to my room and began organizing my things for today.

I had just finished my pancakes when there was a knock on the door. "That must be them." Rudolph got up from his chair and walked over to the door. "Who is it?"

"This is NYPD. Can we come in?"

"Yeah, sure." When Rudolph opened the door two men in uniform entered and my eyes widened in surprise. The first guy was some random cop with a graying hair and a mustache, but the other man with curly reddish-brown hair and eyes…

"Hello, sir. I'm Officer Vincent Azelea and this is Officer Lucas Johnston. We've been assigned to keep an eye out for the witness currently staying here." The officer held out his hand.

"Yeah, I heard you guys were coming here." Rudolph shook his hand.

"Right, so we're just checking in, seeing how things are and if there might be anything that you might need."

Well, there was my chance. "Actually," I spoke up. When everyone turned to me, I went on, "I was wondering if I could visit the library and then my… my parents' place. There's something I need to take care of, if that's okay with you."

Rudolph frowned as he thought that over. "What exactly do you need to do now?"

Scratching at my head a bit, I looked away from him as I responded. "Well, I think some of the things I had took a bit of damage when I was out last night and there was something I wanted to look up. Something from my mom's diary."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Rudolph stiffen up a bit at the mention of Pascale. "Don't you think it might be a bit unsafe for you to be going out right now?"

"Actually," we both turned to Azelea as he spoke up, "I can keep an eye on him. I mean that's pretty much what I'm doing right now anyways. I doubt that those guys from last night will cause trouble so soon. If they do, we'll have backup on the scene really quick. After what happened, a lot of guys at the station want to take care of this in a hurry. Especially when people are talking about potential terrorists lurking around somewhere in New York. You saw the news earlier, right?"

Rudolph nodded. "Yeah, they were calling the incident a terrorist attack, right?"

"Hmph, yeah that's what the media hounds are calling," the older cop, Johnston, griped. "If you ask me, I think this was just a bunch nuts just shooting up the place for kicks. I think the so-called journalists are just trying to push a story for ratings. Terrorists are all the rage these days."

"Weren't some of those guys mutants though," Rudolph asked, and I couldn't help but tense up somewhat.

"Yeah, and," Johnston responded with an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, well from what I know, those types usually get to up to some serious shit whenever they pop out of whatever hole they're hiding in. I remember that incident with Nixon a while back when I was a kid."

"Yeah, that is true." Johnston frowned.

"Gentlemen," Azelea interrupted, a strained smile on his face as he flashed a quick glance my way. "Perhaps we should get going. How about I take Isaac to where he needs to go, and Johnston you can go on surveillance. Sound good?"

Officer Johnston blinked. "Yeah… sure that works for me."

Azelea turned to Rudolph. "I'll be with Isaac, so you don't have to worry about anything, alright?"

Rudolph looked to me then back Azelea, then sighed. "Alright fine, I guess."

Azelea then turned his attention to me. "Well then, shall we get going?"

"Okay, sure." As I stepped towards the door, I paused, before turning to my room. "H2H! Accompany me!" There was a brief whirring sound, before the robot came out of my room.

"…is that a fucking terminator?!" Johnston eyes looked ready to pop out.

"It's not a terminator!" I snapped. Every time anyone people had seen him, they kept referring to him as that, and that had gotten really annoying after the 20th time. "He's my robot assistant/training dummy/protection." I turned to H2H. "And H2H, I need you to go into incognito, so please layer up, we do not need you drawing attention."

"AFFIRMATIVE, ACQUIRING LAYERS FOR ANOMNIMITY." With that the robot went back to my room and began to put on layers to disguise itself.

"… holy fuck!" Jonston could only stare after the robot.

"…that is… quite the impressive automaton you have there." Azelea was similarly wide-eyed. "How did you acquire such a thing?"

"He built the damn thing in my basement," Rudolph groused, no doubt recalling his first encounter with the robot.

The two officers turned towards me in surprise. "Wait," Johnston pointed at me. "You built that thing?"

"Yes, yes I did," I stated, feeling rather proud of myself.

"…why did you make look like a terminator?"

…it was really getting annoying have to hear that question again. "I wasn't trying to make him look like a terminator," I ground out. "When I built him, I did so with the purpose of creating a training bot."

"A training bot," Azelea asked.

"Yes, to practice self-defense."

"Huh, that's interesting." Azelea rubbed chin in thought.

"Really creepy looking if ask me." Officer Johnston shuddered.

"Yes, well, like I said, looks were not my main focus, merely ensuring that it functioned properly," I bit out.

"Well, while I'm sure there are a lot of things that could be said about its appearance," Azelea interjected, "I think we should be heading off now. You ready to go Isaac?"

I already got everything together, so I nodded. "Yeah, I'm good to go. H2H! Are you finished in there; we need to go!"

"UNIT DISGUISE IS IN PLACE." H2H finally came out. He had on a green hoody, a pair of plain grey sweatpants, black sneakers and gloves and a scarf and beanie covering his head.

"…is it really a good idea to let that thing out into the public?" Officer Johnston looked rather skeptical.

I waved him off. "It'll be fine, as long as he keeps his head low it won't be too much of a problem." I turned to Azelea. "I'm ready to go!"

The man in question stood there for a bit before shrugging. "Alright then, let's go."

"So, um… what exactly are you looking at the library," Azelea asked as he drove.

"There's… something I found in my mom's diary that I wanted to try and translate."

Azelea glanced at me. "Translate?"

"Yeah, I don't know what language it is, so I figure that maybe the library might have a foreign language dictionary I could use to figure it out. Also, I need to look up some history about… about mutants. I was told by the guy yesterday that there was quite a lot of tragedy in regard to mutants, so I wanted to know what was going on there. Speaking of which," I turned to him, "are you… a wizard?"

A small smile came across Azelea's face at that. "Yes, I am indeed a mage, as you say. I am Vincent Azelea, an apprentice sorcerer."

"How did you end up joining this group, if you don't mind me asking."

Azelea glanced at me before turning back to the road. He remained quiet for a bit as he drove. After a while, things began to feel awkward, and I couldn't help but fidget a bit. "You know what, never mind you don't have to tell me anything. I was just curious."

"Hm… whuh, oh! Ah, yeah, some other time maybe." His shoulders, which seemed tense before, began to relax. "Anyway, here we are, the public library." As he pulled in to find a parking spot, I took a look at the large building to my right. Originally, I had wanted to go to the Queens Public Library at Corona, but Azelea had offered to take me to the New York Public Library. Naturally, I had accepted the offer.

"Alright, you head on, I be right behind you in a minute," Azelea told me.

Nodding, I got out of the car, H2H following behind me.

"Hello, excuse me sir," I addressed the man at the desk in the lobby.

"Hmm," the man looked up. He looked to be in his late 30's to early 40's based on the bits of gray I could see in his dark hair. Upon seeing me he sat up a bit straighter and adjusted the brown glasses on his face. "Good morning, young man," he said with a welcoming smile. "Welcome to the New York Public Library. I'm Derrick, Derrick Kent. How can I help you today?"

Pulling out the torn piece of paper from Pascale's diary, I placed it in front of the man. "I was wondering if there was anyone that could tell me what this wording means. Also, I would like to know if you had any news articles from around, say the 70's and 80's."

Derrick's brow furrowed as he looked at the words on the paper. "Hmm, I'm not sure, but I think that these words might be Greek."

"Greek?"

Derrick nodded. "Yep, I recognize some of the letters from my time as part of a fraternity in my college years." He pulled out a map and pointed to one area. "Here is where you can find some help with translating foreign languages and here," he said pointing to another area, "is where you can find articles in newspapers from the past in paper format or in data format on our computers. Is there anything else I can help with?"

I shook my head. "No, that's all I needed to know. Thank you!"

"You're very welcome, please enjoy your stay."

I waved to the man as I went to the area he indicated.

"Isaac!" At the sound of Azelea's voice, I turned to find the man walking up towards us. I felt an eyebrow rise as I took in his sudden change into a casual outfit. I hadn't been in that long so when did he- oh right. Sorcerer. Sling ring.

"So did you find what you're looking for," he asked as he reached the desk.

I held up the map. "Yep, I'm gonna head on up."

"Alright," Azelea nodded, "then let's get going then."

Finding some help to translate the phrase did not take too long. An intern who had apparently been studying Greek for preparation to take their studies in Greece had been very eager to put their newfound knowledge to use.

I found myself scratching my head in confusion. "'Idol of Knowledge.' What the heck does that mean?"

Azelea, looking just as confused, rubbed his chin. "That's a rather odd phrase to leave behind."

I couldn't make heads or tails of it at the moment. So, for now I chose to put it out of my mind for the moment. "Let's move on, I can figure this out later."

I stared at the newspaper article in consternation.

Next to me Azelea wore a grim expression. "Yeah, that incident with the Nixon Administration had been quite the talk from what my dad had told me. The way he talked about it, everyone thought that the end of the world was coming. I remember growing up, my dad would have us all run emergency drills in case of a potential mutant uprising."

While all that was rather fascinating, it was not really my concern at the moment. On the front page of an old newspaper that we were looking at, was a shot of a certain blue shapeshifter, staring down Nixon and a Midget, in the middle of tossing a gun aside. So, it looked like some version of X-Men: First class and Days of Future Past had occurred in this timeline.

While I was rather grateful for not having to worry about a Sentinel trying to stomp on me in the future, I still had two major issues.

First: What had happened after this incident had occurred? I had checked all the other articles and so far, there had not been anything that might have hinted at Apocalypse beyond some vague conflict in Cairo. From what I recall, that should have had a lot of repercussions, given that every single nuke on the planet would have been launched into space! I was probably going to need look into that when I had the time, because I knew it was going to be a problem later.

Now the second issue I had was one very simple question: HOW THE FUCK DID I MISS THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE?! I literally spent hours checking my computer for some hint about mutants and all related material. Considering just how big the incident with Nixon and Trask was, I should have gotten my hands on this article earlier! What the fuck was going on?!

A hand on my shoulder shocked me out of my brooding. Turning to find a concerned Azelea looking me over, I relaxed. "You know what? I think I 've gotten everything I needed for now."

"Very well," Azelea replied. "So, I suppose you'll want to visit your old home next?"

I paused at that. Oh… yeah. I definitely needed to check the place out. Taking a deep breath, I nodded to Azelea. "Yeah, I wanted to visit the lab in our basement, to see if there was anything I could use to fix some of my solar cells."

"Alright then off we go."

I stared at the building in front of me, hesitant to move forward. On a plot of land just off of Belt Parkway East, was Isaac's old home. At the time it was acquired by Otto and Pascale, the house had been a lot smaller. But as I said before, the two had made a lot of renovations. The place actually looked like it could house two or three families instead of one. It seemed so much smaller in Isaac's memories compared to now.

"Are sure about this?" Azelea's voice startled me out of my staring. I turned to the man, and he seemed unsure about being here. "Look, I know it must have been hard to lose your parents, that kind of pain doesn't really go away easily, if ever. And for it to happen at your age…" The man shifted somewhat, uncomfortably. "I mean, if you want, we can probably find whatever it is your looking for in a hardware store nearby."

I actually paused at that. Did I… I mean I could… No. I shook my head. I can't just avoid this forever. I need to go forward. Taking a deep breath, I looked Azelea in the eye as I spoke. "No, I… one way or another I'm going to have to deal with all this anyways," I said waving at myself. "I figure, better now than latter."

Azelea stared at me for a bit. Then he sighed and waved forward. "Alright, if, you're sure."

With that we stepped forward and I opened up the door to Isaac's house.

The first thing that we noted was that the place was dusty. Azelea pulled out some medical masks for us to wear so that we wouldn't be coughing the entire time. It was also dark in some places even with us opening the windows.

"We probably should have gotten some flashlights," Azelea noted before he made a gesture with his hand from which an orb of light emerged.

"Yeah, we probably should, the power system has likely gone into deep conservation mode without anyone occupying it. H2H lights, medium, please." The robot, who had been following silently let out a quick affirmative before its eyes let out light that lit up a good chunk of the space in front of us.

Azelea turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "Conservation mode?"

I nodded towards him. "Yeah, when he was renovating this place, my… dad set up sensors into this place to detect anyone moving within it. He designed them so that if the place was empty for an extended period of time, then the power in circulation would be diverted to a storage unit and everything would be locked down until a manual override was used."

"Okay, so how do we get the power back on?"

"I think that can be found in his lab down in the basement."

"Right very well, let's head on down there."

Upon getting to the door, we were met with an immediate problem.

"Of course, the place is locked down and needs a password that I don't know." I buried my face in my palms. In front of us, Otto's lab was currently behind a very sturdy looking automatic shutter. Next to it was a keypad that required a twenty-digit code.

"Yeah, that is definitely going to be a problem." Azelea's mouth pressed into a thin line.

I turned to him. "You wouldn't happen to know a spell that could unlock this do you?"

He glanced at me. "No, sadly I do not, and I don't think it would be wise to try and use force, less we trigger some sort of alarm."

I grimaced, yeah that would be the kind of thing that Otto would set up.

Rubbing my head for a bit, I tried to think. "Okay, so we don't know the password, and using force would probably not be a good idea. Maybe… maybe there might be a hint somewhere in the house."

Azelea gave me a flat look. "A hint? Really?"

"Well, there's gotta be something," I defended myself. "I mean, we've come this far, we have to at least try."

Azelea sighed. "Alright, let's start looking around. Are there any potential places of note that we should check at least?"

I stopped for a moment to think about that. My brow furrowed as I went through Isaac's memories. The only places that might be of note…

"The only places that I could think of would be the master bedroom, the study and maybe the studio outback."

Azelea shrugged. "Alright lead on."

I nodded then turned to H2H. "H2H, were going now- HEY! Don't touch that!" H2H stopped in the middle of pressing one of the keys on the keypad.

"AFFIRMATIVE."

Shaking my head, I turned to Azelea. "Alright let's go."

Going through the Master Bedroom did not provide anything of note. The only thing that I got out of that was a feeling of discomfort as we went through the closets and drawers only to find clothes and a few books here and there.

The study on the ground floor had also proven to be of no use. The only thing that stood out was the television and tape player on the desk, which were both on but were nothing but static. Azelea let of noise of confusion. "Well, that's odd. Why would a tv and tape player be here in a place like this?"

Next to him, I scratched my head in confusion. As far as I knew, Otto didn't really do television. Whenever he was in here, it was usually related to his research or to read any of the many books he collected.

"Let's just head to the studio. Maybe something will be there."

Letting a groan of frustration, I sat in one of the chairs. We were currently in Pascale's studio where she kept most of her art collection, self-made and acquired from abroad. "Well seems like there's nothing here."

Next to me Azelea leaned on a desk. "Honestly, I wasn't expecting much to begin with. It looks like we'll have to head ba-"

"H2H! Be careful with that stuff," I snapped out at the robot. It was currently in the middle of examining a flute it had picked up from the shelf. My robot assistant gave out an affirmative… before more slowly examining the other instruments on the shelf.

Letting out a sigh I turned back to Azelea. "We can't have come all this way for nothing."

Azelea simply shrugged. "I don't really see any other options right now. Unless you can find some way to open up that door."

Shoulders slumping, I had to admit that I couldn't see any other options as well. "Alright, I guess we'll have to-"

"CREATOR, THIS UNIT SUSPECTS THIS OBJECT MAY SHOW POSSIBLE SIGNS OF DAMAGE."

We both turned to H2H. In his hands was a lute from the shelf of instruments. I sighed. "H2H, please hand that over."

"AFFIRMATIVE." As H2H did so, I heard a shifting noise come from the lute. I blinked in confusion. Looking over the loot, I couldn't see any sign of damage that would be obvious to someone who didn't have much experience with musical instruments like me. I then shook it and got that same shifting sound. I turned to Azelea. "You hear that right?"

Azelea nodded. "Yes, I did. Is there something in there?"

Looking in the hole of the gourd I could just make out something wrapped up in newspaper. "I can just about see something through the hole." I then turned my attention to H2H. "Where did you find this?"

H2H pointed to one of the shelves of instruments. Looking them over, I vaguely recall from Isaac's memories, that Pascale kept these instruments organized according to their general classification, rather than their place of origin compared to her other art pieces.

Examining the labels next to each instrument. I quickly got to the woodwind and strings section. "Let's see… bamboo flutes, bone flutes, wooden flutes. Two mirwas and two sets of bongos. Finally we have, three lyres, a veena and a ha-"

"Wait! What was that last one," Azelea interrupted. I turned to him. "Three harps, a veena an-"

"Yes! That one!" Suddenly looking more intense, Azelea looked at the lute in my hand. Pointing to it, he spoke. "That, is a veena."

"Yes, and?"

"In Hindu mythology, veena's are seen as symbol of Saraswati, the goddess of music, flowing water, art, speech, learning and knowledge!"

I stood up straighter. I immediately pulled out the torn diary page. "Idol of Knowledge." I looked back at Azelea wide-eyed. "You don't think…?"

"One way to find out." Looking around, Azelea spotted a knife and began to carve into the ridge along the bottom of the gourd. Slowly he managed to get the knife deep until he made a slight gap. He then repeated the process on the other side. He turned to me. "Okay Isaac could you help me pull this apart?"

"Actually, I have a better idea." I took the veena in hand and turned to H2H. "H2H, please open this up."

"AFFIRMATIVE." With that H2H took the instrument in its hands and pried it open with a very quick pop and twang, sending something flying outwards.

"What was that?!"

"Shit!" Without my thinking, one of my tentacles tore its way out of my back and just managed to catch the object before it hit the ground.

There was a sudden awkward silence, as Azelea and I stared at the tentacle that had popped out.

"…I really need to get that under control." From what I could feel ( still not used to that), it was the bottom left tentacle that had popped out. Slowly retracting the tentacle, I made it drop the package and unwrapped it.

"…is that a videotape?" Azelea looked incredulously at the object in question.

"…yes, yes, it is." I looked the tape over, and then shuddered as I focused on retracting the tentacle fully into my back.

"So… wanna go watch what's on it," I asked.

Azelea sighed, then shrugged. "Fine. We came all this way, so why not?"

Standing in front of the tv and tape player, I inserted the video tape into the latter and grabbed a chair next to Azelea. "Alright, let's see whatever message, my mother has left for us."

The image on the screen flickered for a bit, before suddenly, I was looking at the somber face of Pascale Octavius, nee' Laveau.

"Is it running, cher," Pascale asked.

"Yes, it's running now Pascale," came the voice of Otto Octavius and I froze up at the sound of their voices. I felt something crawl around in my chest at hearing their voices and a sudden longing came over me.

On the screen, Pascale took a deep breath, as Otto took a seat next to her on screen.

With a sudden resolve coming over her, she looked dead into the camera, and I swear it felt like she was looking right into my eyes. I took a shuddering breath, as she finally began to speak.

"Mon chèr petit étoile, if by chance you are watching this video, then it is likely that both Otto and I are… are no longer with you." Pascale paused, a pained expression on her face, and I had to take some calming breaths. Azelea suddenly paused the video, before looking at me in concern. "Isaac, are you sure okay with this?"

It took a few seconds for me to calm down. Once I was sure that wasn't going to break down, I turned to Azelea. "I'm going to be honest: I'm not really sure what I'm feeling right now. What I do know is that I need to hear what's on this tape. So, let's just play it."

Azelea looked like he wanted to protest but relented at the look on my face. "…alright. Let's keep going then." He then pressed play.

"If that is the case, then it is important that you learn what I know about our family's history, a history that dates back to about one million years ago."