Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin

Chapter 1: Memories and Files

My story began in the same way that most stories like this do; a bit of bad luck, an early death as a youngish adult, and suddenly you're in a different body in a different, but familiar world. You have to wonder if the Reaper is getting annoyed with all these isekai protags popping up left and right. I mean there they are just doing their thing, collecting souls to take to the afterlife, only for some random cosmic force to sucker-punch them and take a few souls off to who-knows-where. I wonder if they have insurance for that? Do reapers get insurance at all? I would like to think they do; they have a tough and thankless job after all (human stupidity knows no bounds).

…I digress. Allow me to introduce myself: I am Isaac Renate Octavius, son of Otto Gunther Octavius and Pascale Octavius nee Laveau. Yes, you read that right, I am in fact the son of a variant of a certain Marvel Supervillain. It was quite a shock for me when I became aware of myself. I had been in denial at first. I thought it was all just a coincidence, that my father shared a name with a supervillain and that I was not somewhere in the Marvel Universe. Then I saw an Army recruitment ad featuring Tony Stark with weapons covered in his company's logo two weeks after the whole 9-11 incident. You know with everything that went on in my past life and what was surely coming in this life, I had to admit that 9-11 had never really clicked for me. I mean yeah sure, it was terrible and all, but with everything that came out about the Bush Administration after, I feel like America's overall response was… disproportionate at best.

Anyway, once I got a sense of what was likely to happen in the future, I immediately began planning on how to deal with it. The first step of course was to figure out how different this world was from the basic MCU. Knowing what I know about the multiverse, I had no doubt that events would likely happen differently from the films.

First was my family history. Digging through my new memories I discovered that Otto and Pascale had met sometime in college during the late 70's. Apparently no one in the family had been happy about the union due to racial tension at the time. Otto and Pascale often got into fights with their relatives about it and eventually decided to elope and move to New York city proper to start their life together.

Otto, as was consistent with his portrayal across the multiverse, was a Caucasian man of Polish and Italian descent. He had several degrees centered around nuclear physics, engineering, robotics, and biochemistry. He had made quite a name for himself and had several projects going on that could have revolutionized the fields that he focused on. Naturally one of his more notable inventions were the cybernetic tentacles that he used for his more dangerous experiments involving his fusion reactors.

Pascale, an afro-Canadian, was no slouch either. While she did not have as many degrees as Otto, she was an actual Doctor in Anthropology. She also studied history, astronomy, and art in her off time. She had actually given Isaac a string of beads with a miniature obsidian carving of man hanging from it for his 10th birthday.

Obviously, the jobs they had had kept them in the office a lot, but, while their work kept them busy, both Otto and Pascale did everything they could to make sure that Isaac was raised well. They always made sure to know that they loved him and made sure to give praise whenever Isaac did particularly well in his studies. Whenever they had time, they would take him to places across the world like Germany, Morocco and even Japan. One of Isaac's (and my own) favorite memories had been a trip up to Churchill, Canada, where we spent hours watching the Aurora Borealis and they went on talking about it at length.

Honestly, they were probably the best parents anyone in my unusual circumstances could ask for.

Which made their deaths that much worse for me and the previous Isaac.

The accident that took their lives had occurred a few months after the 2000 election, while Otto had been doing a presentation on his latest design for a fusion reactor. Isaac had been at school at the time. The authorities had been sparse with the details, but what could be confirmed was that the blast had taken out the entire building where the lab had been stationed. While at first people had been ready to point fingers at Otto for faulty work, investigations into the matter had made it clear that whatever had happened did not involve Otto's reactor, what with any nuclear materials being off site at the time. So, on the one hand, there was no need to worry about potential nuclear fallout. On the other hand, both Otto and Pascale were dead which left poor Isaac without his mom and dad.

If you asked for my opinion there had to have been sabotage involved. Considering the type of sensitive research that Otto was conducting, security would have been tight, and I know for a fact that Otto had a team hired specifically to point out any flaws in his designs that he might have missed. Sadly, I had no way of getting involved in the investigation to figure out what had happened. Thus, Isaac was left in a near constant state of grief until I awoke in his body. Even with my previous life experience, I could still find myself overcome with the urge to cry whenever I got a reminder of my new parents. I missed them and would have loved to have their support for what was coming. Regrettably, all I had right now was my aunt and uncle.

Rudolph and Janice Octavius; two people who didn't quite fit the mold of "peeked in high school," but only just. Rudolph was a former star of his high school football team with the high point of his life being winning a state championship with his team. He could best be described as what Otto would look like if he focused more on weightlifting than hitting the books. While he did have a decent job in the auto industry, it was quite clear that he was about as average as one could get in academics. Sadly, due to dear old Torbert's influence, Rudolph acted somewhat like a bully towards Otto. Otto made it a point to avoid contact with him, particularly after Rudolph had said something awful about Pascale and Isaac at Grandma Mary's funeral. What specifically was said, Isaac didn't know, but it was probably really bad given how Otto, despite being mostly of average build, had actually gotten into a fight with him and had to be pulled off of Rudolph by everyone else attending.

Janice Octavius worked as a dietician at the local clinic. With dusky blonde hair, green eyes, and a healthy complexion maintained by aerobics exercise, Janice could actually be called pleasant to look at for anyone who cared about that sort of thing. Personality wise she was more distant from Isaac than anything else. I don't think she really cared about my mixed ancestry in the same way that any of my relatives did.

And really you would think that with their own turbulent family history they would be more open-minded about the struggles of other races. In the case of my paternal family, they had emigrated to the U.S. during the 1920's. During WW2 and the Cold-War people treated them with mistrust due to their foreign roots and that may have left Torbert bitter towards others as he tried to be accepted by his peers. On my mom's side of the family, slavery had been a major defining point. Originally, starting out in the French Caribbean, my ancestors had fled to the southern U.S. hoping for a better life. When that turned out to be a bust, they then headed even further north and settled around Kingston, Ontario. Even then, the Laveau still had to deal with some bigotry every now and then.

Really it was just a big mess, all around, and until their deaths, Otto and Pascale had had a tense relationship with their relatives. No one had really tried to reach out to them. No had really tried to reach out to Isaac after the funeral. He had only ended up with Rudolph and Janice because they had been the only ones available who cared enough to take me in. It was probably for the best that I had taken over recently, cause I'm pretty sure Isaac was going to end up in a dark place otherwise. With that, I planned on moving out as soon as possible and setting up a base of operations of sorts to get ready for the kind of problems that only the Marvel Universe could throw at me.

For that I needed money, which brought another set of problems. I needed to acquire a lot of money and quickly, but I was only physically twelve. As it currently stood, there were not many legal options available to attain independence from my aunt and uncle. Other less than legal options carried the risk of being under the increased scrutiny of groups like S.H.E.I.L.D. (and by extension, H.Y.D.R.A.) and me being 'recruited' or "taken off the board" so to speak. As such I decided to start small. There were jobs like grass cutting and baby-sitting that I could do to get the money to buy the tools that would help me in preparation for the future without drawing in too much attention from the secret organizations all over the country.

I also had to take into consideration how exactly I would fight the coming threats. At first, I had considered acquiring the various super-serums like Erskine's formula and the unclaimed bits of Vibranium around the world but then I recalled a conversation that Isaac had with Otto…

Isaac crept his way down the stairs towards the basement, where he could hear his father shouting. It was not unusual for noise to make its way up from down that way; sometimes Otto could really get into his work when inspiration struck him. But that was when he was working on his projects and usually during the day, to avoid disturbing anyone sleeping; right now, it was almost midnight, and he definitely wasn't working on any projects at the moment. So, a curious and concerned Isaac chose to get out of bed and check on his father.

"-told you Carlyle, that I will not be party to any of your attempts to produce more tools of destruction! My goal has always been to bring prosperity to my fellow man!" There was a pause as Isaac crept closer to the basement door. "I do not care about Erskine's legacy! Yes, I want to make a name for myself, but I will do so through my own innovations! Let other's chase after Erskine's ghost!" Another pause. Then Otto growled "Might I remind you Carlyle, that 1: as stated in my contract I am a freelance consultant and researcher and thus do not technically work for anyone in Nexus Enterprise, 2) as also stated in the contract, any designs made by me are my own to do with as I see fit, and 3) I have a well-established reputation within the tri-state area, while you have those rumors surrounding you. You would do well not to try and make threats. It will not end well for you. Now you have wasted enough of my time with your inane schemes. Rest assured that Jerod will hear of this attempt at coercion. Goodnight."

"…honestly, how is it that that lout has managed to work his way up to executive assistant is beyond me." "Dad," Isaac spoke up, as he opened up the door. Startled, Otto spun towards Isaac, as the boy shuffled in. "Isaac! What are you doing down here, this late at night?"

Isaac shifted, feeling uncomfortable, "I woke up because I heard yelling, so I came to see what was going on." Otto sighed, suddenly looking tired. "My apologies, Isaac. I was just discussing important matters with someone. I did not mean to wake you." "Who were you talking with," Isaac asked. "Oh, just some insignificant worm," Otto replied then paused, "hmm… perhaps that is bit unfair; worms despite their size, actually provide a great deal of use to the world as a whole."

"This guy must be really awful to work with, huh?"

"Son, you have no idea," Otto replied, a wry smile on his face.

"Were you talking about Erskine," Isaac suddenly asked, then froze before questioning excitedly, "were talking about Erskine's formula, about recreating it?!" Isaac had already learned about the Super-Serum that had produced the famous Captain America during his studies and had shown a keen interest in how it worked. Otto sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his right hand, "yes we were," he quickly held up his other hand to halt Isaac's response, "and as you have likely heard; I have no interest in it whatsoever."

"But why," Isaac asked, looking disappointed.

"Because I wish to use my knowledge to help people in general. Son, what you need to understand is that while something like Erskine's formula may have its uses in regard to conflict, it does not do any long-term good on its own," Otto answered, "my research into the fusion reactor on the other hand could lead to unlimited energy for everyone. Would it not be better for me to focus on that instead?"

"…yeah, that would be better for everyone on its own."

"Indeed," Otto nodded as he walked up to Isaac, "furthermore, even if I did decide to recreate Erskine's formula, I would not really be breaking any ground. I wish to chart a new course to force my mind beyond current thinking, to inspire others to dream of greater heights and reach for them. That is not to say that I do not use other people's work as a reference; any field of science can only make advances by building off of what has come before. It's just that I want others to look at my work and push the boundaries. Do you understand son," Otto finished as he placed his hands on Isaac's shoulders.

Isaac took a moment to consider his father's words. After a few seconds, he nodded. "Yeah dad, I do. We can't move forward if we don't try something different."

Otto nodded with a smile. "Indeed, now off to bed," he said pointing upwards, "you have another evaluation for your advance courses tomorrow and your final examination in just a few weeks, it would not do for you to let a lack of sleep impair your progress."

As if on cue, Isaac yawned, "okay dad, I'm headed back to bed. Goodnight."

"Goodnight son."

If I'm actually going to get involved in all this, I need to do it my way. Simply just going about grabbing all power-ups already available just doesn't sit well with me. Not to mention that coming up with something new might give me an edge over everyone else scrambling for the scraps of other people's success.

With that decided, it was time make my own path. Getting up from my bed, I walked over to the desk on the opposite side of the room. On the desk was a computer custom built by Isaac and Otto for the former's birthday. After booting it up, I took a moment to look at the hand mirror that Isaac used whenever he combed his hair. Looking into the reflection, I took a moment to examine my new appearance. Ever since I 'woke up,' I had had moments when I would find myself thrown off, by the considerably lighter skin-tone compared to my last life. For a while I wondered if this was some weird symbolic dream or something. A few painful pinches of my new skin had shot down that notion.

From the memories I could pull, I found that while Isaac did get some crap for being half-black/half-white, it had mostly been in the form of whispered slurs and being left out of groups. That, on top of practically breezing through school all the way to senior high school, meant that Isaac didn't have much in the way of friends. Otto and Pascale tried their best to help Isaac socialize, but even they could only do so much, given the kid's circumstances. It was a good thing that I had plenty of life experience to draw on, otherwise I would probably be a mess even without taken puberty into account.

Setting that aside, I focused on my other features. Like my hair for example, which I got from Otto. Fortunately for both of us, it was more in line with his live action variant rather than his comic book counterpart. If I had had that god awful hairstyle, I probably would have opted for a total shave.

Finally, there were my eyes; like Pascale, I had green eyes. Unlike Pascale, my eyes had this strange petal-like pattern around the pupil, which almost looked like they were glowing. I was rather curious about that, as had been Isaac. In fact, Isaac had asked once about them when he and his parents had gotten a visit from his uncle Remy once…

Isaac was in the middle of studying when the doorbell rang. "Mom! Someone is at the door," he called out. "Could you get it for me? I'm just about done with this sculpture," Pascale replied. Sighing, Isaac got up from his desk and headed downstairs towards the front door. Once he got there, he stood on a small stepping stool and looked through the peephole. On the other side of the door, he saw a dark-skinned man in a brown trench coat, black slacks, and derby hat.

"Who is it," Isaac asked after a few seconds. "It is me, Remy," the man answered back. "…who?" Isaac had never heard the man before. "…you don't know me? Wait, who are you," the masked back. "…my mom said not to give my name out to people I don't know?" Through the peephole, Isaac could see the man stand up straighter. "Mom?" Then the man smiled; "It is me your uncle Remy!"

That confused Isaac for a second, as far as he knew, no one on either side of his family was close enough to his parents that they would go out of their way for a visit. "…hold on a minute." Isaac got off the stepping stool and went to the room where his mom kept some of her art pieces. Pascale was working on a stone carving (a statue of a man dancing) at the moment when he opened the door. "Mom?" "Yes, Isaac, who is it," Pascale said absently, focusing on her work. "…someone saying they're my uncle Remy." Pascale snapped up to Isaac, green eyes alarmed, as such she hammered the chisel into the leg of the state which caused the whole thing to break off from the base and fall to the floor with a crash.

"…um, mom?" Isaac suddenly felt worried, he had never seen his mom look this shaken. Pascale shook her head, and then with a deep frown on her face, headed towards the front door. "Mom," Isaac called out to her again, following in her wake. When Isaac, got to the front parlor, he found his mom hissing at the man. "- I told you and the others that I wanted nothing to do with you anymore! Whatever is happening right now is none of my concern." "Look, Pascale, I know that we separated on bad terms, but someone is-," the man started, but then he turned towards me, and his brown eyes nearly popped out, "his eyes!" Pascale turned back to Isaac in alarm. "Isaac!" "He has it!" The man tried to step in, but Pascale stopped him and pushed him back. "Isaac, go upstairs, now!" "…momma?" At this point, Isaac was starting to get anxious. Seeing this, Pascale took a deep breath and spoke again, "Isaac, just go upstairs, please?"

"What's all this noise?" Everyone turned towards Otto as he came up through the door to his lab. When he saw who was at the door, Otto's face set into a scowl. "…oh, it's you," he stated walking up beside Pascale. The man, Remy, now looking apprehensive, gave an awkward wave, "hello, I, um… I was just… visiting." "And now you will be leaving," Otto grounded out. "But the boy- his eyes! He can change things," Remy practically begging. "We can use him for-." Otto stepped up to the man's face and almost growled, "you will not be using my son for anything! YOU will leave now, or I will have the police drag you away." "But-." "GO, NOW," Otto snapped. Remy, looking frustrated but defeated, turned away and began to walk off.

Once he had disappeared into the distance, both Otto and Pascale seemed to sag. Isaac chose that moment to speak up, "momma, dad?" Both of them turned to Isaac. "What was that, what did he want, and what's with my eyes?" Otto and Pascale looked at one another, before Pascale turned back to Isaac with a sigh. "That was… your uncle," she answered. "…what did he want," Isaac asked again. Suddenly looking exhausted, Pascale pinched the bridge of her nose before she responded. "Nothing good, you can be sure about that." "What's wrong with my eyes," Isaac pressed again. Pascale groaned, clearly not wanting to go on with this conversation. Fortunately, Otto stepped up; "son, I know that there are probably a lot of questions going through your mind right now, but I ask that you hold to them for now." "But-." Otto held up his hand. "Son, I know you are curious, but right now circumstances with your mother's family are not good. So, for your mother's sake, just wait a while, please." Isaac really wanted to know more about what was going on, but the pleading looks in his parents' eyes convinced him to do as he was asked. "…okay, I'll wait." At that, Pascale gave him a relieved smile, "thank you, son, I promise I will tell you when things with my family have settled down."

"Okay," Isaac nodded. As he headed upstairs, he could hear hushed whispers from his parents. He really hoped that whatever was going on, things would be okay…

…now that I think about it, that was probably going to be important. I really wish Otto and Pascale had told Isaac what that had been all about. Whatever family problems that Remy had been talking about was going to be a problem for me. Given the setting I was in, I was almost certainly going to need that information to survive whatever was going on with that. …eh, just add to the list.

As if on cue, a ping from the computer brought me back to the moment. After entering a few passwords, I brought up a few files locked behind more passwords. After looking through them I came to a file named "Metas." Opening it up, I took a look at the goals I set for myself after coming to terms with my new circumstances:

Create a defense system.

Personal Defense: power armor or something more subtle

Software programs and protection

Project Iolaus

Find digital snake and get rid of him.

Free B.B.

Root out all the snakes.

Determine Full extent of variations.

Otto's background

Culprit of explosion?

Metal-man background

Determine career prospects!

Join up with Metal-man or go my own way?

Laveau Family history (?)

Eyes (?)

After adding that last point I then went down to the section under means:

Continue mom's routine!

Biking

Tier Machete, N'golo, Savate (maybe add something later)

Start weightlifting!

Get into a good school!

Should I stay in the state, head to New York, head west, or abroad?

Cash for tools!

Lawn work

Repair/custom shop.

Maybe tutoring?

I looked over the list for a bit longer. Honestly, I was not really sure which way to go. There were a lot of unknowns that I would have to add as time went on. I really had my work cut out for me. All I could do for now was prepare the worst and hope for the best. After closing the file and looking over a few works in progress in other files, I shut the computer down, hopped into bed and let myself doze off.

AN: There it is ladies and gentlemen, the first chapter of my first story.