Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin

Chapter 8: A Little Bit of History Part 3

Pausing the video, I felt my eyebrows rise at that statement. One million years ago. That was a long time for some personal family history. Next to me, Azelea was leaning forward, incredulity clear on his face. "One million years ago. That's a bit hard to believe," he muttered. Part of me was inclined to agree with him. Then again, given that this was the Marvel Universe, I couldn't dismiss such a statement out of hand. Pressing play, I sat in my chair a little bit straighter.

On screen Pascale continued. "Now I know this may sound too fantastical to be true, but to the best of my knowledge, what I will relay to you is true, Isaac." Pausing for a moment, Pascale closed her eyes and straightened up, going into what Isaac dubbed "lecture mode." "Long ago, before man truly began to walk and shape the world upon which he stood, there came a group of beings from beyond the stars that we gaze upon. I do not know what they were called specifically, but what records of their presence I could find referred to them as celestials."

And that's when it clicked for me. Oh… Oooooooooooh! Celestials. Suddenly feeling dread about what this might mean, I refocused on the video. "Why they chose to come to this world I do not know. What I do know is what they did to the lifeforms here and the far-reaching effects it would have for mankind in the present. When these Celestials first arrived, they sought out this most prominent life-form, in this case, proto humans.

Three of these celestials took one hundred proto humans each and changed them on a genetic level into beings of varied appearances and power. One group was turned into immortal beings who were meant to guide the species that would evolve into man. These immortal people are known as the "Forever People." The next group were altered into creatures whose appearances were as different from each other could possibly be. These were the "Changing People." Finally, the proto humans of the last group, rather than being made immortal or mutated outright, but were implanted with a gene that would one day grant them, and any of their descendants, abilities that almost bordered on the supernatural."

Waving a hand towards Otto, Pascale dropped what would have undoubtedly been bomb to Isaac: "Your father has reason to believe that this last group were the ancestors of modern day "mutants." Otto made to speak, but the video suddenly paused. I turned to Azelea, only to find him wide-eyed and pale as sheet. "Mutants," he spoke quietly. "That is… okay, um wow…" He turned to me. "So that means that mutants were the product of otherworldly beings experimenting on early humans."

I nodded, suddenly feeling like my mouth was going dry. "Yeah so, I guess that means I'm a mutant for sure." Oh, that's just great… I really didn't want to have to deal with mutant related nonsense, but it would seem that that's where this video was going. 'Ugh, I don't wanna deal with mutant bullshit!' Honestly the only saving grace right now was that Sentinels have been preemptively dealt with, so I won't have to find a place and bunker down to survive in the future. 'Well, the foreseeable future,' I amended.

I hit play on the video and Otto went on. "Given everything that we have learned up to that point, your mother and I originally thought that both she and you were descended from mutants. However, after discretely making use of several methods for testing for the mutant gene in its active or dormant state, we found that that was not the case." I felt my eyebrows raise at that. 'Wait, what?' Otto continued; "our research into the matter, indicated that you may in fact carry the dormant gene for the second group: the Changing People."

Pascale took over from there. "Now at this point, you may be wondering how we could have discovered all of this. Given the timeline we are drawing from, it would be reasonable to assume that any evidence that we could have drawn from would almost certainly have been lost to the wear of time or stored somewhere beyond our reach." I frowned; that was definitely something that confused me. Any evidence about the Celestials and their experimentations would either be reduced to dust by now. That or, which was more likely, snatched up by others, like the Eternals or other interested parties.

On the screen, Pascale looked like she was having difficulty with something. Otto placed a hand on her shoulder. When she turned to him, he gave her an encouraging nod. With a small smile, she nodded then turned forward and went on again: "I was uncertain about how to tell you about any of this, but I realize that it would be best to just say it outright: Isaac, you and I have mages in our ancestry."

I immediately stopped the video. "What?" That was the only thing that my mind could come up with at the moment.

"Well now, how about that." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Azelea looking at me with a frown. Oh, that was definitely getting back the people of the Kamar-Taj. I fought back a wince. And here I thought being mutant would be bad. In some ways getting caught up in magical conflicts could be worse. I really did not want to think about all of that at the moment, so I just hit play and let Pascale continue with her story.

"Yes, Isaac. Magic does exist. In the case of our family, our magic is more focused on interacting with the spiritual plane and the creation of potions." Pascale paused. "Or at least, it was in the past. For some generations now, the magical potential that our ancestors possessed has declined with each generation. I myself can only see and hear the echoes of spirits and past events if I focused my senses. That is how I could learn so much about our history."

Pascale's face then went into a frown. "Given what I have learned about the dark origins of our families' abilities, I feel that everyone would be better off if we did not possess them to begin with." Pascale paused again, emotions warring in her eyes as she organized her thoughts. Azelea and I waited with bated breath. It was clear that whatever Pascale had to say next would be very important. Finally, she looked at the camera again and went on.

"Our family history is rife with dark deeds, conflict and powers too awful to speak of. This part of the tale begins thousands of years ago, in Ancient Egypt. Before, I told you of the 'Celestials' who visited this world and altered 300 proto humans. Well, after them there was another visitor from the stars, whose vessel landed somewhere in the desert. This visitor, named Rama-Tut, possessed tools and devices which allowed him to take control of Egypt as Pharoah. Around this time, a mutant baby, had been taken in by a tribe of bandits led by a man named Baal. Baal would name this child En Sabah Nur, meaning 'the Seven Lights.'"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. 'Oh, there we go!' Fucking Apocalypse. Cause that's totally the kind of person I want to get involved with. I knew then and there that I was not gonna like what Pascale had to say.

"Baal raised Nur to be a powerful warrior and their tribe grew in infamy. Eventually, Rama-Tut learned of this tribe and set out to have them exterminated. All of them would perish except for Nur, who would then go on a rampage in his quest for revenge. Before Nur could reach him, Rama-Tut would disappear, never to be seen again. To sate his desire for revenge, Nur would turn his wrath upon Rama-Tut's servants, torturing and executing them one by one."

Pascale took a breath, her hands, which were already clasped tightly together, seemed to tighten even more. "Among these servants, was Rama-Tut's advisor, Logos. Of all the people that served under Rama-Tut, Logos was the cleverest and with access to the technology that Rama-Tut brought, he had somehow developed the means to escape. Running into the desert, Logos began to develop a following of people who had no love for Nur and wished to see him fall. However, they could not hope to match Nur's superhuman prowess, or his army. As such, Logos and his cult, in their desperation sought out power from any source they could find."

Next to me, Azelea sucked in a breath. "Oh, I do not like where this is headed," he muttered. 'You and me both, buddy,' I thought.

"With Nur's forces slowly picking them off, Logos and his followers had almost given in, when they stumbled on to something… something too awful and horrid to describe." Here, Pascale shuddered, something like terror on her face and I had to wonder what the Hell did she see. Otto placed a comforting hand on her shoulder again, and Pascale began to relax.

After taking a few calming breaths, Pascale finally continued: "I do not know what it was, is. What I do know is that calling it a monster would be far too weak a descriptor. This thing, whatever it was apparently, contacted Logos and offered power to crush En Sabah Nur in exchange for a physical vessel. In their desperation, many tried to offer themselves one by one, but were completely killed due to not having the right 'genes' so to speak. To overcome this limitation, Logos and his followers sought people with strong bodies who might be able to withstand the entity's power. Many were offered, none survived. Eventually, Logos came across a person with a unique body shape that could be described as a vaguely humanoid creature."

"This was a Changing Person, and he was traveling through the area with several other Changing People." Pascale sighed, a look of pity on her face. "I do not know how, but Logos managed to earn their good graces and tricked them into confinement. With the devices and tools in his possession, Logos then tried to use their malleable DNA in a breeding project that would produce a suitable vessel for this entity. But despite many attempts, Logos and his cult would be met with failure once again."

"Growing frustrated, Logos was beginning to face potential revolt from his followers, when they came across a young mage studying the field of alchemy. Fascinated by the mage's demonstrations, Logos convinced the mage to teach all that he could about alchemy. The young mage, eager to display his prowess, showed Logos everything that he knew. Logos likely concluded that with both the remnants of Rama-Tut's technology and the alchemical knowledge he had learned from the mage he could finally create the vessel for his patron."

Pascale shook her head in sorrow. "That young mage would find himself as the latest of Logos' victims in his mad plotting. Even worse, Logos would finally succeed in creating a vessel that could potentially withstand the vile power of this dark entity. This vessel stood out from other attempts in his eyes." Here Pascale bit her lip as she looked at the camera dead center. "This vessel possessed eyes that had a strange petal-like pattern in a pool of glowing green." I paused the video.

…

…

"…OH, GODMOTHERFUCKING DAMMIT!" I stood up pacing around. "OF COURSE! OF FUCKING COURSE! BECAUSE OF FUCKING COURSE IT HAD TO BE-"

"ISAAC!" I was snapped out what would have been a very long rant by Azelea planting a hand on my shoulder. Once he had my attention, he placed his other hand on my other shoulder. With a worried expression he finally spoke up. "Isaac, I know that this is a lot to take in and that you want to scream and shout. You are definitely right to be upset about this, but I need you to calm down." I was about to say something, what I couldn't tell you, but he interrupted me: "Look, while going on a tirade might make you feel better in the short term, right now I need you to relax. So how about we go for a walk, and we do something fun for a bit. How does that sound?"

Breathing heavily, I took a moment to consider his offer. On the one hand, I wanted to rant. On the other hand, he was probably right about needing to take a break. After a few more breaths, I managed to calm down. "…I wanna go to the arcade."

Azelea nodded. "Okay, that's fine. You can take some time to relax, play games and have fun. That sound good?"

When I nodded, he slipped on his sling ring and opened up a portal to what looked like an alleyway. "Alright, I know a good place that you can blow off some steam at."

After an hour and a half of me refining my technique at street fighter (God I missed that game), I finally managed to calm down enough were I felt ready to see more of the tape. After getting a new shirt along the way (because of the tear from one of my tentacles), we arrived back at Otto's study.

Sitting back down in our chairs, I went into a slump. Next to me, Azelea got as comfortable as he could before looking over at me. "Are you ready to continue?"

After a few seconds, I sat up straighter and nodded. Azelea pressed play, and Pascale continued from where she left off.

"With the vessel in prepared, Logos began the ritual that would allow his dark patron to possess it. Midway through this ritual, Logos and his cult were beset by En Sabah Nur himself and his army. In the ensuing chaos the vessel was taken by several Logos' followers who were instructed to finish the ritual at some other point. Thus began the long conflict between our family and En Sabah Nur's followers."

Otto then took this moment to speak up. "I, personally, still have a hard time trying to process all of this myself. I have never been one for fantastical tales of magic, monsters, would-be gods and all. That all being said, Isaac, I implore you to heed our warnings. These people, both from your mother's family and this group of cultists, they are very real and would seek to do you harm. Up until now, I had hoped to keep them out of your life for as long as possible. Such measures included placing a search lock on your computer and steering you away from news involving mutants, but if you are watching this video then there is no longer any point to those measures. As such, your mother and I have been working on means to ensure that you can defend yourself in the future. Should the need arise, Pascale and I have left these means in my lab. To access the lab and undo the lock on your computer, the code is comprised of the two most important dates in my life."

Reaching out, Otto took one of Pascale's hands in his own, the two turned to each other and smiled. Turning back to the camera, Otto went on. "It is my sincerest hope that none of this is necessary and that you can have a peaceful life and develop your mind to reach your intellectual potential. No matter what though, know that we are proud of you son, and always will be."

Next to him Pascale nodded. "And we will always love you without end." The video ended.

"Isaac," the sound of Azelea's concerned voice shook me out of my trance, and it was then that I noticed I had somewhat curled up, rocking back and forth. Taking a shuddering breath, I patted my eyes to stave off the stinging sensation. "I… I'm not completely okay." I could at least admit that much. "It'll take a while, but I'll… I'll be okay. Let's just open up the lab."

Azelea looked me over for a while, before nodding. "Okay let's go."

"So do you know what the code for the lab is?"

Standing in front of the keypad, I nodded. "Yeah, those would be the day he and Pascale were married and the date of my birth." With that I entered the dates using the APA format that Otto preferred. With a soft beep and click, something unlocked, and the shutter lifted. Opening the door, the two of entered the lab and we both marveled at the place. I couldn't help but feel awed at the sight. The place was actually pretty big considering the space that Otto had to work with. It was a little bit bigger than half a basketball court. For the sake of space for his projects, Otto had built the place downwards into the earth and created what could not unreasonably be called a lair.

"This is… quite the lab your father built." Azelea eyes went over the place with wonder.

I nodded. "Yeah well, the man was working on some really big projects, some of which he could not work on at the places he did research for. Sometimes he needed to bring his work here." We took the stairs all the way down. At the bottom, was a switch. Flipping it on, lights came on and I could see all sorts of devices neatly organized on racks or tables, from where Otto had placed them.

A strange sort of nostalgia came over me then. Isaac used to spend hours watching his dad work. Shaking my head, I moved through the rows of shelves and containers of tools and equipment that Otto had made over the years. Eventually, I came to an area dedicated to working with and repairing glass. Looking over the supplies, I smiled as there was plenty of materials here to fix the casing on my solar cells.

Azelea stepped up next to me and looked everything over. "So, you got everything you need?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I've got all that I need for now." I grabbed a chair and placed my bag on a table. Pulling out several of the solar cells. I looked them over and organized the cells that needed repairs in front of me. "Well, time to get to work."

"Hey, Isaac?"

I turned to Azelea. "Yeah, need something?"

He held up the tape. "I would like to show this to the Masters at the Sanctum. Would that be okay with you?"

I paused. A part of me didn't want to, due to some of the attention that would place on me. Then again, given some of the things we learned, I was probably going to need all the help in future. Just thinking about what might be coming left me feeling anxious. I knew I would probably get involved in the craziness of Marvel eventually, but I had been hoping for a bit of time first. I frowned. Any help right now would be good.

"…yeah, it would probably be for the best if they heard what was going on asap."

Azelea nodded. "Alright. I'll make a quick call to the Masters and drop off this tape. I'll be back as quickly as I can." With that he made a portal and left. I turned to H2H. "H2H, go lock the door upstairs then come back and enter alert mode."

"CONFIRMED." With that H2H went up the stairs. As the sound of the shutter coming down went on, I went to work.