Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin
Chapter 20: Family Reunion Part 2
Vincent Azelea stood in place, eyes wide and mouth hanging from shock at the sudden vanishing of Isaac and Remy. Several seconds passed as he tried to process what had just happened. And then…
"…FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"
"VINCENT!" He whirled towards the door to find Sarah Wolfe and several mages from the New York Sanctum rushing in through the door. "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!"
"He- Laveau- he just-." Vincent shook his head. "Sonnava bitch! Laveau vanished with Isaac!"
"How?! You were right there! How does he just vanish like," Sarah pressed.
"He- he spoke in a different language. Then the-." Azelea paused eyes widening. "The receipt…" Vincent rounded on the waitress, who he just noticed was slowly stepping away. The young woman in question froze under the sudden harsh stare. "YOU!" The waitress turned to slip out towards the back.
Before she could move further a commotion in the back interrupted them. "HOLY SHIT, What the fuck are-gurrkkkk!"
"What the-," was as far as Vincent got before a tentacle burst through the backdoor and caught the front of the waitress's uniform. The woman let out a scream as she was lifted into the air and slammed into the wall.
"COLLABORATORS APPREHENDED," H2H intoned, the android's red gaze focused on the woman and the cook held in two of its Octo-arms, the remaining ones poised to strike.
"I-I… didn't… I swear I had no idea what… that was," the waitress, Patricia Combs, said. "I didn't even know magic was real."
"Whatever your intentions were, you have aided in kidnapping," Vincent warned. "I don't think I need to tell you how badly this could go for you."
Patricia's brown eyes widened in fright. "N-no! I- I swear, I-I had no idea what was going on. I only just started a few days ago."
Vincent stepped forward, giving the waitress a hard stare. "Then tell us what you know."
Looking between the people assembled in front of her, Patricia's eyes darted back and forth nervously. After taking a moment to lick her lips, she finally spoke. "It was- it was on my first day here." She pointed to a cash register. "The register was acting up a bit, the paper-roll for the receipt got jammed. Most everyone was busy, so I had to unjam it. I was having a little trouble with it. Then the guy, R-Remy, had offered to help me fix it up; said that he had that kind of problem with the cash-register where he worked and knew a trick to fix it up."
"Did he do anything strange while working with it," Vincent asked, while Sarah and several other mages immediately went over to check the machine in question.
Patricia rubbed at the back of her head nervously. "Well, not that I could see exactly… except…"
"Except what," Vincent pressed.
Patricia bit her lip. "Well, I… think he pulled out something from his pocket and rubbed it on the paper while muttering something under his breath. I thought it was a little strange, but he said that it would help with preventing more jams in the future." She suddenly clasped her hands in front of her. "I swear, I had no idea what was really going on, he just offered to help with the register. I didn't know he was some kind of wizard or anything like that! You have to believe me," Patricia pleaded.
When Vincent's gaze turned to the cook, the man immediately went into a panic. "Hey! Don't look at me! I'm just the cook on shift! I don't know anything about whatever the fuck just went on!"
Vincent's foot tapped rapidly as he considered the two people in front of him. As much as he wanted to think otherwise, it was clear that the waitress and the cook were both telling the truth. That being all said however… "Okay, here's what's going to happen: I'm going to take you both at your word for now. Stay put, or else."
When the two nodded, Vincent went over to the mages at the register. "Have you found anything yet," he asked.
Sarah turned to him and held up the roll of paper. "On the back it barely there but there were a series of sigils on the back repeating over and over." She then held up an imprint. "This was in register. "It was pressing barely visible ink on the back of the paper as it came out." She placed it in Vincent's hand, and he blinked as he sensed a faint spark. "Wait this is…"
Sarah nodded. "It's barely there, hell, we didn't notice it because it was so weak, but I'm certain that this is an enchanted press meant to press a teleportation spell."
"Of course," Vincent sighed. He turned to one of the mages present. "Any luck on getting us a portal to Isaac right now?"
The mage shook his head, a grim expression on his tan face. "No, something… is blocking us."
"FUCK," Vincent swore. "Damn it!"
A hand on his shoulder had him turning to see Sarah looking at him with a worried expression. "Okay, Vincent, I know this is bad, but I need you to calm down some, okay?"
"I-," Vincent started, only to stop himself, his shoulders sagged. "Goddammit, what do we do?"
"We have to keep focused," Sarah said. "Right now, we have to figure out where they might have gone."
"How though," Vincet asked helplessly. "These guys have somehow made it impossible for us to get a bead on them."
Sarah made to speak but-
"LOCATION DISCOVERED."
Everyone suddenly turned to H2H, the machine then turned its gaze to Vincent and walked up to him. "OFFICER AZELEA; UNIT HAS LOCATED CREATOR."
Vincent perked up. "What?! How?!"
"CREATOR HAS CREATED A TRACKING DEVICE AND PLACED IT SOMEWHERE AMONG HIS POSSESSIONS IN THE EVENT OF A KIDNAPPING. UNIT HAS LOCATED HIS CURRENT APPROXIMATE WHEREABOUTS."
Vincent turned to Sarah. "Alright, Sarah could you get back to the Sanctum and inform Master Drumm about all of this?" When she nodded, Vincent turned to the other mages. "Alright people, we might have a lead, let's get ready and get going!" At their nods, Azelea turned back to H2H. "H2H, can you give us a general location?"
"AFFIRMATIVE. SIGNAL EMINATES FROM AN AREA NEAR J.N. ADAM MEMORIAL HOSPITAL."
'Head… fuzzy… where… where am I…?'
I couldn't open my eyes much; they felt so heavy. 'C'mon… c'mon… c'mon… wait… there…'
Slowly, my eyelids began to open and then I shut them down again because of a sudden flash of light. Taking a few seconds to open them again, and then…
'Wait… is that… fire?'
The first thing that I noticed was a great big flame right before me. Taking a moment to look around I could see broken windows and a lot of rundown infrastructure. Attempts at movement were met with resistance and I was suddenly made aware of something holding down my wrist and ankles. Looking at my left hand I found it held down by… cuffs?
'What the hell?' Looking at my other hand and then my feet, I could see cuffs holding them down as well. With a little more looking I realized that I was held down onto a slab.
"Where… what?"
"HEY! HE'S AWAKE!"
Snapping to the source of the shout, I was met with the site of several people dressed up like they were about to do a scene from The Mummy. As people started looking towards me, I could see that they were all dressed in robes. Hell, one was dressed like an honest to god pharaoh, with the fake goatee, headdress and eyeliner.
'And now that I'm thinking about it.' I looked down at myself. The clothes I had been wearing was replaced by some kind of loincloth.
"What the fuck is going on," I blurted, feeling completely weirded out. All of the people around me began to mutter. Some pointing and others tsking repeatedly.
"Enough!" The muttering stopped as everyone looked somewhere towards my right. Following their gaze, I blinked as I was met with the site of three men dressed in elaborate clothes. One of them was an older man a lighter brown complexion. Gray Eyes stared at me from bushy white hair stuffed into a regal looking headdress as the man stepped up to where I was held down. I don't know what it was about him, but something about the way he looked at me made me want to punch him dead in the nose.
To his right, was a man who looked like he was in his mid or late 30's. Whereas the old man seemed to hold nothing but contempt for me, this guy looked at me in a way that was… unsettling. Honestly, the man set off all sorts of warning sirens and I tried to pull away from him, but the cuffs holding me down prevented me from getting any space.
On the old man's other side…
I felt my lips curl in distaste. "Really, Remy? So much for caring about your family, you asshole."
The man stiffened. "I do care about my family," he bit out. "But you were going to be difficult. Just like Pascale has always been difficult. Why do you have to make things harder for everyone else? Things would be so much better for all of us if you would stop-"
"Remy," the old man snapped out, "do not worked up over the vessel's taunts." He then turned to the other guy on his right. "Antione, I thought you gave the vessel a full dose to knock him out."
'…and just like that, my distaste for these people has become utter loathing.' Doing my best to bore a hole into the man's head, I made a mental note to get a few good hits in for Pascale as soon as I got out of these cuffs.
"…don't know how, Michelet. I know I gave him a full dose," the man's (Antione) voice suddenly came into focus. "Maybe we should give him another dose, just in case."
"Don't worry about it," the old man waved him off. "All that matters is that we have all that we need." He turned to someone in the crowd. "Is everything prepared?"
"Yes, Vizier! All is prepared."
He turned back to me and nodded. "Good then let us begin."
'Okay, I've had enough!' I took a moment to try and draw on my tentacles but-
"GYAAAARRGH. FUCK!" PAIN shot up my back and I would have curled up if I could.
Some light laughter had me turning to Remy. "I'm guessing you tried to draw on whatever power's in your blood right now." He then tapped a finger on my arm, and it was then that I noticed with no small alarm the angry red outline of veins in my arm. "We noticed from your back that you already showed signs of being a changing person. So, we gave you something that would suppress a changing person's power."
'…well fuck, that's not good.'
He patted me on the head, and I had to fight the urge to squirm. This was… this was not good. I… needed to think of something fast or…
"Just lay there and wait," Remy interrupted my thoughts. "Everything will be over soon; we will have the power we need to destroy our family's enemies and take our place as the leaders of a new world." The man was no longer looking at me or anything, his mind far off somewhere else. "It will… be better this way…"
"Yeah, because that definitely doesn't sound like something you'd hear from a scam religion," I managed to bite out.
Remy's face darkened. "Well, unlike those so-called faiths, our god is real, and it's promised us real power!"
"Everyone," Michelet suddenly began. "It has been a long time coming, but the hour has finally arrived, we now have vessel deemed suitable for our god." He raised both of his hands. "Let us commence with the ceremony!" There was sudden cheering among the crowd followed by a chanting.
Someone came up to where I was being held down, holding a pot. "Oh, Ancestors, we offer up your blood, to link the Dark One to the vessel," the old man uttered. The guy holding the pot made to pour it into my mouth. Before I could even try to turn away or close my mouth, Remy and Antione held my head in place and shoved a funnel into my mouth.
'Holy FUCK, that is awful!' There was nothing I could do at the moment, as I felt all that ichor go down my gullet.
"Now begins the summoning of our god. *#(# &&$&* #$*!" Whatever he was saying, I couldn't even begin to understand, but suddenly everything seemed to drown out as the chanting went on. Before I knew it… everything began to go black…
As I came to, I realized that I was…
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Oh, fuck meeeee…" I was back in this literal hellhole. Before me the poor soul was still screaming in agony.
"YeS, tHE TimE hAS Come…," a new voice rang out.
Fucking ICE went up my spine at the sound of the new voice. A sudden flash brought my attention to the portal behind the screaming soul. Slowly a figure began to emerge from it. The… guy was dressed in a red garb that was slung over his right shoulder. He wore a pair of sandals that looked like they were made of papyrus and on his head was a silver circlet with an emerald at the front.
Honestly, the guy would have been completely unremarkable… if not for his eyes. Twin pools of sickly glowing green glared into my fucking soul, and it was all I could do to breathe.
His face split into a wide savage grin, his face stretching out further than any human face should, and the monster slowly made his approach. I… couldn't… I… need… to…
"YoU nEEd NoT DO anyTHing," the monster interrupted me. "ALl yoU nEEd dO IS accept tHIs LighT oF DEstrucTION. THEN… All WiLLb E WAshED AWaY."
"Who-,"
"Am I…" and here, the monster's face twisted into something that might have been amusement. "COme noW… SUreLY yoU KnOW ME…" It stopped next to the screaming soul, whose agony somehow seemed to intensify in the monster's presence. "AFteR ALL… I laY wITHIN You, aLL of You… bELow, at THe LoweST POInt…"
"Below at the lowest-!" My blood froze, a horrifying clarity hit me.
"…no, nonononononononono!" This couldn't… this can't-!
"OH, BuT IT iS!" The monster's face, somehow, stretched even further.
"But- but there's no way- how the FUCK could Logos possibly-"
The monster shrugged. "THeRE iS aLWAYs a wAY. WHiLE noNE of You have the NATURal apTitude, LoGOs wAS AblE tO cREate a WoRK ArouND." He tapped the poor soul next to him on the shoulder, and the poor son of a bitch screamed even louder.
Then he began to approach me. "YouR FamilY bELIEVE THat I WilL GraNT THeM PoweR. AnD I WiLL iN a WAy, buT EventualLY THeY tOO WIlL Be DEstroyED… NoW iT Is TimE for AlL TO cOme TO aN EnD!" With that he picked up the pace.
…I… need. I need to do… something… any- There was sudden feeling of vertigo as reality seemed to glitch.
"WhaT?!" The monster's face twisted into a scowl. Reality glitched again. I had to blink. I turned my head down and then… I stared in wonder as my body was… phasing in and out.
"NOOOO!" The monster roared, sprinting towards me. Before he could reach me, everything glitched again and-
"HCCK! CCKK! GCCKK!" My body was wracked with coughing as I suddenly came to.
All around me, everyone stared at me in shock.
Remy pointed at me. "Ho- HOW!? How are you awake?!"
"That- that's not possible!" The leader, Michelet, looked pale. "You should not- our God has not yet…" It was then that I noticed the green smoke emanating from green fire.
Trying to get my breath under control, I had to take a moment to figure out what was going on. I couldn't help but shiver despite the fire nearby, I felt cold, my muscles ached, my head pounded. Fuck, it felt like- like the effects of a flu shot. 'What- what is going on with-"
My back went ramrod straight as a familiar tingle went up my spine. 'This is-!' Taking notice as others began to approach, one of them with a needle again, I focused on that tingle in my back and then-
A wrenching noise echoed loudly through the room as my tentacles burst through the slab as was on and lashed out.
"WHAT TH- GRKK!"
"OH SH-HRNK!"
"FU-GGH!"
"GRRGGG!"
The men approaching me were sent flying away, each of them hitting the walls, floor or ceiling with a hard smack.
I quickly used my appendages to tear myself free and rolled off the slab I was on.
"REMY," Michelet rounded on the man next him. "WHAT IS GOING ON?! HOW IS THE VESSEL AWAKE?! HOW CAN HE USE HIS CHANGING POWERS!?"
Remy, for his part, looked pale. "Bu-but-bu-but- I- that- that can't be! I gave him a full dose, there is no way his body could have fought it off. The drug should have suppressed his changing powers!"
My mind went at light speed trying to figure out what had happened. I was still a bit sluggish, but things were getting clearer and clearer. If what those guys said was true, then there was no way I should be able to move my tentacles. '…wait,' I went still as a sudden possibility crossed my mind. '…no way… no fucking way…"
"Ha… haha… hahaha… hahahahahaha- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" My body doubled over in hysterics.
"Wha- what is- what is so funny," Michelet growled.
"It- no fucking way it worked!" I turned to the crowd, some backing away at the manic grin on my face. "It actually fucking worked!"
"Wh-what worked?! What have you done," Remy snapped at me, confusion and outrage twisting his face.
My grin turning vicious, I stared Remy down, my tentacles poised to strike. "Oh Remy, did I forget to mention?" I shifted a bit, trying to get more feeling back in my arms and legs. "That robot I told you about… that wasn't the only thing I was working on."
"What," Remy said dumbly.
Rolling my neck a bit, I went on. "I was also working on another project, one that would help in situations like this."
"What the fuck are you talking about," Antione snapped. He and several others had pulled out sticks and knives. One of them even conjured up a ball of fire. My tentacles began to weave back and forth, and I began to draw up energy for several bolts.
"As a famous senator put it 'Nanomachines Son!' Miniaturized machines meant to help deal with foreign bodies." I could only feel elation and a bit of hysteria as I realized that my work was suddenly bearing fruit at the best possible time.
"Whuh- whu- what- but…" Remy could barely get anything out, shock plain on his face.
"ENOUGH OF THIS!" Michelet looked ready to blow a gasket. "WE MUST RESTRAIN THE VESSEL NOW! MAGES HAVE ALREADY FOUND THE HIDDEN SITE! THEY WILL BE SURE TO COME LOOKING FOR THE VESSEL! WE NEED TO COMPLETE THE RITUAL BEFORE-!"
*BOOOOOOOOOM*
"Wh-GACKK!" Michelet and several others were sent flying by a ball of energy that had burst through the wall. All eyes turned to the new hole in the wall at the far back as several shadows stepped through.
"Well, well, well," a familiar voice rang out. "This is quite the fitting little hidey-hole for you rats!" Roderick Slade stepped into the room on the far side.
*BOOOOOM* *BOOOM*BOOOOM*
More explosions and more members of Clan Akkaba stepped in through the new holes.
Walking up next to Roderick, Brashir sported a feral grin as he smashed a metal fist into his palm. "Oh, look at this, so much prey to be hunted and crushed." Upon noticing me, he perked up. "Oh, it's you! I was hoping to see you again." A glint flashed in his eyes as he took particular notice of the bolts of energy gathered at the tips of my tentacles. "And I see you're coming into some power. Good! That means you'll make for a better hunt!"
As more members of Clan Akkaba made their way into the room, I had to resist the urge to groan. 'Oh, this is going to get messy… the only way this could get any worse is if those DnD cosplayers show up. Then we could really have a party.'
"Clan Akkaba," Michelet spat. "We will not be-GRRRKKK!" A gleaming silver knife cut him off, quite literally. As the man fell to the ground clutching at the knife in his throat, all eyes turned to the armored men and women who had appeared out of nowhere, armed to the teeth.
'…to whatever higher power is listening in right now: Fuck you and your mother twice!"
Slowly shifting away to a corner, I took in Isaiah Curwen's form as he stepped up, two silver knives gleaming in his hands. The man looked around at all of us, his face twisted in disgust. "All these freaks and devils gathered in one place… God willing, I shall see you all put to the sword!"
No one moved, tension building higher and higher. Lowering myself to a crouch, I got ready to duck out of the way. One wrong move would be the end of me.
An unsettling quiet pervaded the hall we were in. And then-
*SCREEECH* A piece of scrap hit the ground.
"DIE!" "FUCK YOU!" "SEND THEM ALL TO HELL!"
Chaos ensued.