Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin

Chapter 10: Science Fair

"Let's see… solar-cells, check! …containers, check! Dummies… check! And… presentation board… check!" With everything in hand, I secured everything in several suitcases and turned to H2H. "H2H, take this and follow me!"

"ACKNOWLEDGED." My robot companion picked up the dummies and the presentation board, while I placed the solar-cells and nanite containers in my bag along with my laptop and notebook. After checking my suit, we made our way down to the Hotel Lobby. Quite a few people stared after us on the way. Honestly, I wasn't sure why. I mean the Sentinels were a thing only a few decades ago.

Spotting Rudolph I waved to him. "Hey, we're ready to go!" At the sound of my voice Rudolph looked up from the newspaper, and grimaced (most likely at the sight of H2H) as we approached.

After eyeing the robot for a bit, he turned to me. "You sure you want to bring that with you?"

I nodded. "Yup. He's rather important to my presentation."

"I thought you were doing something with nanomachines."

"That is the official presentation, I'm also doing an informal presentation."

Rudolph raised an eyebrow. "Informal?"

"While the nanomachines are the focus of my presentation for the Science Fair, H2H and my Solar-Cells are an advertisement of sorts."

"What do you mean by 'advertisement?'"

"I'm going to use them to put myself out there for any colleges or research facilities that might be showing up at the Fair. It'll show off my engineering skills."

"…right, I guess that makes sense." Rudolph shrugged. "Let's get going."

The New York Hall of Science loomed before us. It seemed so much bigger the first time I visited a few days ago. Now though, after everything that has happened in the past few days, it wasn't as intimidating. That being said, I was still a bit nervous. I had a much bigger goal in mind than simply winning first place. I needed to get noticed by people with money. With New York City being the business capital of the world, I could probably get the attention of one or two major corporations.

"So, you good to go?" Rudolph's voice shook me out of my musings.

Glancing over at him, I nodded. "Yeah, I've got everything I need for now."

"Alright, I'm gonna find a place to park, and I'll find you inside later." With that Rudolph got into his car and drove off. Looking toward the hall, I took a deep breath and moved forward. "H2H, we're going!"

"AFFIRMATIVE."

With that we moved forward, wheeling my suitcases to the entrance.

"Hello, welcome to the New York Hall of Science, I'm Elizabeth Kine, are you here… for…" The brunette at the front desk trailed off as she stared at H2H with wide brown eyes.

After a few seconds of staring, I spoke up. "Uh, miss?"

"Oh! Um… yes! Excuse me! I'm Elizabeth Kine. A-are you here for the annual Science Fair?"

"Yes ma'am, I am."

"Okay. May I have your name?"

"Isaac Octavius."

"Hmm… Octavius, Octavius… ah! Here we are! You'll be in section 3. Here's your I.D. tag." After handing me a tag, she typed away at a computer on the desk in front of her. "Okay, you've been registered. You'll want to head over that way." She pointed to her left. "There should be a section with your name on it. Thank you for your participation and we do apologize for having you come all this way twice."

I waved her off as I moved along. Yeah, that had been a bit of a hiccup. Normally, during the first round of the Science Fair, we would just send in video presentations and the judges would pick the finalists from those, then we would have come to the Hall of Science later this month. Some poor sod had somehow gotten some powder into their mail entry. Said powder then exploded outward when one of the judges had opened the package. This had led to a lot of panic at which point the legal authorities had decided to use rather destructive measures to check all of the other mail entries. In their zeal the cops and feds pretty much destroyed all the packages.

Needless to say, quite a few people had been annoyed by this turn of events and the judges had been put into a bit of a bind about how to accommodate the entrants who had not gotten a chance to be judged yet. That was when several bigwigs in various fields of science had decided to rent out the Hall of Science for the day so that we could have the first round in-person. That all worked out for me; it just meant that I would have two chances to show my stuff to potential future employers.

I paused mid-step. 'Was I being overconfident in thinking I would be one of the finalists?' After a moment, I shrugged and went on. "Meh, whatever, it's not like anyone here has anything better to show." Speaking of everyone else, I could hear people in the crowd whispering about me as I passed by, likely because of H2H. Upon reaching my display area, we immediately began taking out my display for the Science Fair. As I was putting up the Poster Board, someone next to me spoke up. "Woah, hey man, is that an actual robot?"

Turning to the person next to me, I was met with a guy in a tan suit. He shaggy dusty blonde hair and brown eyes that looked over H2H with wonder. He looked like to be a bit taller than I was and apparently weight-lifted if the bulging muscle in the arms of his suit was anything to go by.

I turned back to my display and went back to setting up my display. "As a matter of fact, yes, it is."

"Wow…," the other guy breathed. "You built this yourself?"

"Yep, all on my own dime."

"Seriously? This looks pretty advanced to be something that you made on your own." Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the guy walk up to H2H. "Huh… so you went with a metallic skeleton for the internal chassis… and based on the way the wiring is setup, I'm gonna guess that it's meant to mimic the human nervous system."

"You'd be correct." Taking out one of the synthetic bodies, I took a moment to figure out how to arrange them without blocking the posterboard without risking it falling over.

"Is that… are those things part of your project?" He asked as H2H set up one of the other synthetic bodies.

"The synthetic bodies, yes. H2H, no."

"H2H? Is that the name of your robot?" He went on.

I turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Not that don't mind the questioning, but… are you going somewhere with this?"

The other guy blinked before he jumped up looking a little abashed. "Oh! Sorry, sorry! Um… I was just curious, that's all. I've never really seen a robot that looked this advanced outside of a lab." Standing there awkwardly, he looked between me and H2H, who had just set up the third synthetic body before turning to me.

After a few more seconds, the other guy finally seemed to remember something, because he straightened up. "Oh, right my name is William 'Bill' Oakley III, currently in my senior year." He shot out his right hand. "Pleased to meet your acquaintance!"

Looking at his hand for a moment, I thought about how to respond, before I took his hand and shook it. It doesn't cost anything to be polite. "Likewise, Isaac Octavius. Already finished high school."

'Bill' blinked at that. "Wait… Octavius…" His eyes went wide, and I closed my own and sighed as I knew where this was headed.

"Wait, as in Otto Octavius? Holy shit! I didn't know someone like you was gonna be a part of this whole thing!" Suddenly, whispers started to erupt around me, and I had to fight off the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose.

Normally, whenever people hear my last name, it doesn't get much of a reaction. Otto didn't really have any presence among most ordinary people. The most that I have gotten is condolences for his and Pascale's passing. I didn't really hold it against them. Otto was never really much for recognition beyond being credited for his work. In fact, he tended to avoid crowds, whenever he could because he really didn't like all the "pointless fawning." Sadly, given that I was currently at the Hall of Science for the Fair, it meant that the people here were much more likely to know who Otto was, and by extension were likely to "fawn."

"I never really thought I would get to meet someone like that here!" Excited, Bill got a little bit closer than I would have like and seemed to be getting really worked up. "I've always been amazed at some of his theories behind nuclear energy and his work on robotics and prosthetics pushed things years in advance! My friend Ritchie almost had to give up baseball after that accident, but thanks to Octavius, he has a new arm that works just as well as the old one! And it doesn't even have the problem with rejection either!" He paused for a second, then he grinned. "Wait is he gonna show up?! I mean you're hear, so of course he's gotta support his son, right?"

My face going flat, I stepped back from him. "…he's dead."

There was a sudden silence. 'Bill's' face went blank for a second, before he blanched. "OH, OH SHIT! I- I- I completely- shit!" Now panicking, Bill held up his hands. "I am so sorry! I completely forgot!"

I held up my hand, stopping his panicking. "It's… fine. Let's just all go about our business, shall we?"

"R-right." With that Bill went back to his display and everyone went back to their own preparations. I ignored the anxious glances directed my way as I went back to my own work.

I had a few moments of blissful peace, before a speaker went on and someone started speaking through it.

"GOOD MORNING TO EVERYONE, AND PARTICULARLY TO OUR ENTRANTS. THIS IS DR. ERIC SCHWINNER. THE JUDGES WILL BE MAKING THEIR ROUNDS SO PUT YOUR BEST EFFORT FORWARD! AND ONCE AGAIN WE DO APOLOGIZE FOR THIS CHANGE IN SCHEDULE. THANK YOU FOR COMING AND GOOD LUCK!"

'And now it's Showtime.' I make several a few more preparations and get ready to impress.

Due to the way everyone had been organized, it actually took some time before anyone got to the section that I was in. I was mentally debating getting a chair, when I was finally approached by one of the judges, Dr. Eric Schwinner, himself. After going through William Oakley's project, which was actually an interesting experiment on the usage of magnetism in physical therapy, he finally came to my display.

"Ah, and here we are, Isaac Octavius," the balding man smiled as he offered me a hand. Taking his hand, I returned his smile with a nod. "Dr. Schwinner."

He turned to my display. The main title read "Nanotech Materials: Possible Alternatives to Metals to Reduce Toxicity." Leaning forward, the man's eyebrows rose as he read through the display. "Oh my… nanotechnology." He turned to me, a glint in his eye. "I see you decided to go into one of the more difficult fields of modern science. So, tell me what brought about this interest in nanotechnology?"

Standing up straighter. "We'll Dr. Schwinner, I was reading about the possible uses of nanotechnology in the use of medicine when a random thought occurred to me: It is well known that accumulation of metal in the body can lead to metal poisoning if it is not treated, so I thought wouldn't it be possible that having nanomachines could have unintended consequences for the body like the aforementioned toxicity issue." I turned to H2H. "H2H, activate the pseudo artery track."

At my command, H2H pulled out three solar-cells put them into a port in the synthetic bodies and switched them on.

"Oh my! Is that fully functional automaton?" Dr. Schwinner looked amazed as H2H went to work.

"Yes, it is. I built it myself. H2H has plenty of functions that I programmed to him, but right now, it's acting as my assistant for the Science Fair. It and the synthetic bodies you see here are powered by those solar-cells that I designed and made myself."

"Oh my, oh my..." He leaned forward as he looked over the bodies and the extra solar-cells on display. He turned to me, looking rather impressed. "So, for your research, would you be so kind as to explain what materials you proposed for alternatives and how they faired."

I nodded. "Well, you see, Dr. when it got down to it, the two main issues I had with deciding which materials to build the second and third batches of nanites came down to the durability of the material and making sure that the composition didn't compromise the nanites ability to receive signals" With that, I would go on a thirty-minute spiel. By the time I was done, I actually had a crowd.

"…so yeah, as it stands, we have a bit of work to do in nanotechnology."

As the good Doctor and several other people in the crowd began to clap, I relaxed somewhat. Can I just say that even in this life, talking to a crowd was nerve wracking! I don't know how I didn't freakout in the middle of that speech. Oh god and I was going to have to do this more often in the future.

"Well, let me just say that you have certainly impressed me young man!" Dr. Schwinner took my hand again and shook it firmly. "You definitely seem to have a bright future ahead of you. I look forward to seeing how well your work will compare to Otto's." I tried not to, but I couldn't help but flinch. Dr. Schwinner must have noticed, as his expression turned sympathetic. "Oh, my apologies. I did not mean to bring up such a sensitive subject. You have my condolences. Otto's passing was a loss for all of us."

"Indeed, it was Dr. Schwinner. The man was taking from us too soon." At the new voice, I turned to the speaker. The man was clearly well off. He was dressed in a classic two violet business suit, with a white dress shirt underneath. He had on a black and purple tie. The shoes he wore were made of an obviously expensive violet material that I couldn't identify, and he had a pair of socks that matched his tie. His brown and gray hair was neatly trimmed and slicked back. Striking blues regarded me as the man came up to my display.

"Oh! Mr. Whitehead, so good of you to visit today!" Dr. Schwinner held out a hand, which the man in the suit took.

"Dr. Schwinner, good to see you too." The man responded. He then turned back to me and held out a hand. "Hello young man, I'm Jerod Whitehead, CEO of Nexus Industries. I have had the pleasure of working with you father on several occasions."

I blinked for a bit. Well… this was… actually pretty convenient. I took his hand and shook it. "Uh, hello. I'm Isaac Octavius. So, I guess you're here to scout potential employees?"

The man offered a winning smile as he nodded. "Indeed, I am, Isaac, Indeed I am. Right now, my company is looking to make a splash in next gen technology, and I decided to come on over to see if there might be some new talent to look out for."

"Oh, well, right, um…" 'Seriously, that's all you could come up with brain.'

Mercifully, he seemed to be aware of my sudden mental block and turned to my display. "So, nanotechnology, huh? That's definitely field rife with opportunity." He then noticed H2H. "Oh what do we have here?" He turned to me. "Is this yours?"

Shaking out of my mental block, I responded. "Yes, it is." Stepping next to H2H, I elaborated. "This is H2H. It took me about several months to make. Right now, it's basically a prototype design. He has several functions that I felt may be of use to me. However, I eventually want to make it so that he can learn new functions on his own as need be."

"So, you built it yourself and managed to program it for several functions. Quite an impressive bit of technological know-how. Especially at your age," Whitehead complimented as he looked it over.

"Yeah, it's not a bad design overall, but did you have to go for the Terminator look? Also, might want to work on the design for those batteries or you might catch flak from SEGA."

We all jumped a bit at the new voice and turned as one. I immediately felt my eyebrows shoot up towards my hairline at the new addition to the conversation. Whereas Jerod Whitehead had the businessman looked down pat, this guy could not be more different. Wearing a pair of worn jeans and AC/DC shirt with a white long-sleeved shirt underneath, the newcomer swaggered over in a pair of boots. Brown eyes behind a pair of expensive glasses sized me up under messy black hair, before turning to my display. Where before there was whispering, the new arrival caused several people to start shouting in shock and excitement.

"Hmm. Nanotechnology huh? Interesting." He turned to me. "Tony Stark, Stark Industries. So, tell me what you got going on here."