Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin

Chapter 16: Meeting with the Apes Part 3

There was a moment of silence after my outburst.

The chimp (Yaroslav) looks at me for a moment before turning to Peotor. "I guess that means we can finally get to the matter at hand now."

Peotor nodded. "Indeed, we can finally speak of the dangers ahead of us." Turning his attention to me, the Orangutan took lead of the conversation. "From your outburst, would I be correct in assuming that Pascale has mentioned us to you at some point?"

I shook my head. "No, she didn't say anything directly, she only mentioned you guys in her diary."

"Wait," Azelea interrupted. "What diary?"

"One of the things that I got from the lawyers that I visited the other day was a box. In that box was the diary, which mentioned Yaroslav and had that note we looked up at the library, among other things."

"What other things," Azelea asked.

I gave him a flat look. "Things that I would rather not talk about, due to personal reasons, thank you very much."

Azelea winced, raising his hands placatingly. "Alright, fair enough."

I turned back to Peotor. "Anyways, my mom mentioned you guys because she was worried about something to do with the eyes of mine."

"Ah yes, the infinite-beast-without," Peotor replied.

Azelea and glanced at each other, then back at Peotor. Azelea's face settled into a frown. "The infinite-beast-without? That's… a rather grand title."

Peotor leaned back in his seat. "Indeed, it is, but according to Pascale, that was the name ascribed to it by her family."

Azelea leaned forward. "Is there anything that you can tell us about this thing?"

"From what Pascale could tell us," Peotor began, "it was apparently a being of destruction that existed long before any form of life. And it that regard it was supreme. It is apparently hateful to anything and everything that exists and wishes to see everything end."

"Is there anything else," I asked. "Like, why would she think that Yaroslav, would be helpful?"

The apes glanced at each other, before nodding. Peotor then went on. "When you were born, Pascale sought any means of keeping you safe from any dark influences. She then began studying charms that could help with that effort. One particular effort included the development of your necklace."

I blinked. "My necklace?"

Peotor nodded again. "Indeed, she began her work by first seeking an object capable of mystical energy. From what she said it was known as the Star-Stone."

"The Star-Stone?" That was a rather generic name for a magical object.

"Correct. From the sources she had, Pascale had learned of a meteor that had crashed into the earth during what you call the Middle Ages," Peotor elaborated. "When she obtained it, she carved it into the necklace that you wear."

"Wait," Azelea interjected, "hold on. Now I have not really done much research on specific items used for making enchanted items, I seem to recall tales of a similar object from the Middle Ages being used by Merlin to create items in service of Camelot."

"Really, so my necklace is a real enchanted object?" 'Huh, you'd think I would have noticed something from it.'

Azelea glanced over at me. "If what I'm hearing so far is true, then yes it would be." His mouth pressed into a thin line. "Of course that might not necessarily be a good thing."

"Why would that be?"

"Well, Isaac, from what I recall, if this Star-Stone is the same one from the stories I have heard, then there is a chance that it may be cursed."

I sat up straighter in alarm. "Wait, what? Cursed, how?"

Azelea sighed. "Truth be told, I'm not really sure. Maybe there was some part of the forging process that brought about the curse in question, or maybe it had something to do with the one who wielded; in this case the individual commonly known as the black knight." He turned back to Peotor. "Either way, I can't exactly leave something like that out in the wild." Leaning forward, Azelea looked Peotor right in the eye. "I need to know what Pascale did with that necklace."

Peotor shifted. "She asked that Yaroslav use his ability to help her empower the stone."

When we turned to Yaroslave, the chimp scratched his head in a nervous gesture. "She only asked that I direct energy into her, so that she could directly channel it into the stone herself."

Azelea's head tilted in confusion. "Wait, she channeled the energy into the stone herself?"

"I was confused about that myself," Yaroslav admitted. "From the way she went about it seemed rather painful…"

Yaroslav felt a well of guilt grow within him as he watched Pascale strain herself as she took in the converted energy and directed it into the carving on the table. He did not know what exactly she was doing with that influx of power, but, surely, she did not have to push herself so hard!

"GRRRRAAAAAGGGH!" Pascale grit her teeth as whatever ritual she was performing turned the pure cosmic energy he provided into some strange radiant light that flowed into the stone carving. Yaroslav could not begin to understand what kind of energy it was. It constantly shifted colors and seemed to have a strange "weight" to it.

"GUUHHH!" With one last gasp, Pascale finally collapsed, and the strange energy dissipated.

Yaroslav immediately cut off the flow of energy to her and was immediately by her side. "Miss, are you well?!"

Pascale turned to the chimp, offering him a tired smile. "I am… I am fine Yaroslav. I' m just feeling a bit sore."

Yaroslav could feel frustration at the obvious lie. "No! You are not fine! I… I am not learned on human biology, but even I can see that you are in a lot of pain. Please, just rest for a moment!"

Pascale shook her head. "No, I can't stop now… I am almost finished with this! I just need to pour a little bit more energy into this stone and I can be sure that Isaac will be safe."

"Miss, if you are nearly done with this task, then surely some rest would be in order, yes," Yaroslav pleaded.

"No! I cannot wait any longer." Slowly Pascale stood up. "After that encounter with Remy, it's likely that the others might approach Isaac soon. I need to finish empowering this charm now! Now, Yaro, if you would be so kind…"

"Miss," Yaroslav tried again, but the resolute look on Pascale's face made it clear that she would not stop. With a defeated whine, Yaroslav grabbed onto the electric wire and began converting the charge into the energy Pascale requested. "Very well."

Pascale offered a strained, but grateful smile. "Thank you, Yaroslav. I promise I am almost finished."

I stared, right then, I could not even begin to describe what was going on with me at the moment.

Next to me, Azelea's expression had turned grim. "Do you have any idea what she was doing with the energy you provided, or what kind of energy she converted it to?"

Yaroslav shook his head. "No, all I know is that she poured it into the stone carving. What kind of energy she was using or how exactly she used it, I could not tell you. For some reason, Pascale refused to speak about what kind of energy she was using, what kind of ritual she used in making the enchantment on the necklace or where she learned it from."

Azelea's foot began to tap at the negative response. Clearly, he did not like that answer. Neither did I for that matter.

After taking a breath, the mage rubbed his nose for a bit, then looked back towards Peotor. "Okay, at the very least, would you mind handing it in. I can take it back to the Sanctum and have the Masters look it over."

Peotor nodded. "Yes. I think that would be best for now. Igor if would please."

The baboon fished through one of his pockets before producing the necklace in question. "Here you are," he said tossing it over to Azelea. "And once again, my apologies for the sudden run."

The officer/mage caught and carefully examined it for a bit, before pulling out a container and placing it inside.

Standing up, he stretched a bit. "Right," he addressed the apes, "I think it's about time we get going, unless there's anything else you wanted to let us know about."

Peotor shook his head. "No, there is nothing else…," but the orangutan paused. "…except…"

"Yeah, what is it?"

Peotor shifted a bit, seeming nervous. "Good sirs, I understand that our dwellings here are not exactly… permitted, but we would very much appreciate it if you kept it hidden from others."

Azelea frowned at that. Looking around the place, we both noted how on edge some of the apes were. It was very likely that if anyone found out about these guys, then they might end up in a lab somewhere. Considering everything they went through, and the trouble Otto and Pascale had gone through to free them, it didn't seem right to expose them.

Azelea took several minutes to decide what to do. Finally, he slumped a bit with a sigh before he looked back up at the apes. "Fine… I guees it would be better for everyone if this placed remained secret for now."

At that, several apes let out whoops, jumping around in excitement. Peotor in particular, sagged in relief. "Thank you, kind sir. Your discretion is truly appreciated."

Azelea waved him off. "Yeah, sure, whatever." He turned to me. Alright, Isaac let's get going." With a wave of his hand, a portal opened up. As we walked through, I gave a wave to the apes, who returned the gesture.

"Well, that just happened." Azelea dropped into a chair, as he processed everything that had happened in the last few hours.

I nodded. I was getting hit with a lot of weirdness really quick. Honestly, I just wanted to go to bed and take a nice long nap before anything else.

"Hey, Isaac."

I looked over to Azelea. "Hm?"

He lifted the container with my necklace in it. "I'm going to take this to the Sanctum and have the masters examine it. You need anything right now?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm good… Wait!" I snapped to the mage-cop.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"The stuff that I bought! Where is it?!"

Azelea's lips pressed into a thin line. "As yes, the bags of tools and materials that you left on the street when you ran off life a reckless idiot." I winced at the admonishing tone. Seeing my reaction, he nodded in satisfaction. "Well fortunately for you, I managed to gather them up and dropped them off at the lab in the basement."

I sighed in relief. "Oh, that's good." It would have been really annoying to have to buy that stuff all over again.

"Well then, anything else?" When I shook my head, he stretched with a yawn. "Alright. Well, I'm going to head out now." Azelea walked over to the window and looked through the blinds. "…there's Johnston pulling up now. And I can see Wolfe and Jackson nearby as well." He turned back to me. "Alright, I'll be heading out now. Keep an eye out for trouble and call me if anything happens."

At my nod, he stepped out. I, on the other hand, went up to Isaac's old room. I needed a nap right now…

"Alright, Mr. Laveau, it would seem that you are free to go."

"Hmph! Finally! Honestly, all of you are the same wherever I go, judging me for nothing at all!" The man walked out through the door with all due haste.

Azelea watched the man go with a scowl. "Are you sure that you don't have anything to go on?"

Next to him, Capt. Dolan shook his head. "Sadly, no. He technically didn't do anything that would warrant anything more than a ticket, and that didn't seem like it would be worth pushing. He just kept saying he wanted a lawyer over and over again."

Azelea grunted. "Well, that's just great. Guess we're gonna need to have some mages watch him, too."

"Yup seems like it," Dolan nodded, then he turned to Azelea. "Hey, how's the kid by the way?"

Azelea glanced at Dolan. "Isaac? Well, he's doing fine so far. Although he's been rather rattled so far."

"Yeah, I imagine all this monsters and magic shit would have a lot of other people unnerved. Speaking of, how's your order handling this situation?"

Azelea scratched the back of his head while glancing around for any eavesdroppers. "Well so far, we've pretty much cleared out all the hidden bases that Clan Akkaba and the Knights have been occupying. Nothing new has come from that. As for Remy Laveau and his family, we can't seem to find anything out of place so far."

Dolan blinked. "Really? Not even on the more… esoteric side of things."

Azelea chewed on his lip for a bit. "Surprisingly, no. Somehow, something is blocking our leader's foresight." Azelea's foot began to tap.

"Huh, no foolin?"

"Nope," Azelea shook his head.

The Police Captain looked around a bit before going on in a low voice. "You don't think that that has anything to do with the… monster?"

Azelea tensed up. Even now mention of that… thing left him with a great deal of anxiety. So far, the consensus among the mages was that whatever had lashed out at The Ancient One may have been the same monster from Isaac's nightmare. If that were the case, then maybe it was also interfering with attempts to observe the rest of the Laveau family through mystical means as well. "That… might be the case, but we'll need to look into it more."

Dolan took off his hat and scratched his head. "I was kind of hoping you'd have something by now."

Azelea bowed his head. "Yeah, sorry about that; I know that you're still under a bit of pressure to wrap this whole thing up soon."

"Yeah, you can say that again. It's getting to the point where I'm getting calls from the mayor's office three times a day now."

"Look, Dolan, I get how it is. We'll do what we can to deal with these guys. Just hang in there, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I guess that's all I can ask for." Waving the mage off, Capt. Dolan headed to his office. Azelea, in the meantime, headed towards the bathroom preparing to use his sling ring, to update the other mages.

"So, Kabar, my brother in arms," Roderick began, "how are those burns doing?"

The bronze-colored mutant looked over at his fellow mutant for a second. Then in a single motion he swung his fist and smashed through a wall. Looking over his metal-coated arm, he swung it in a circular motion. Satisfied with the motion, he curled it while turning a wide savage grin at his fellow clansmen. "As you can see, my brother, I am back to form and ready to hunt."

Roderick nodded. "Well, that's good, because The Fittest has decided to send us out again."

Kabar perked up, excitement in his eyes. "Oh, so we're going for the target again?"

"Yes, we are," Roderick nodded. "On top of that, we have several other more targets."

Kabar blinked. "Oh, and just who will we be hunting this time?"

"Well," Roderick drawled, "it would seem that our original target has managed to lure out the rats of Logos."

Kabar leaned in, growing more eager. "Oh, the cult of Logos has finally crawled out of there hiding holes?"

"Indeed, they have." Roderick held out several photos. As Kabar took them, he went on. "Several of our scouts have spotted them gathering in northern New York. After a little bit of sleuthing, we think we figured out where they have been holing up. So Fittest has given us the green light to bring a whole hunting party to take them out completely."

Kabar's fists slammed together with a loud clang. "Finally! I have waited too long to get back on the hunt again. And it is high time that we finish off the stain on Clan Akkaba's honor."

"Sir Curwen!"

At the sound of his name, Isaiah Curwen turned to Squire (wait… no knight. Knight) Grant. The younger man came to a stop in front of his leader and stood at attention.

Isaiah waved at him. "Knight Grant, what news do you have for me?"

"Sir Curwen," Grant began, "we have spotted members of Clan Akkaba scurrying about!"

Isaiah's eye narrowed. "Speak, now!"

Grant continued. "At around 19:00 hours, we spotted several of the freaks moving through the shadows northward."

"What were they doing," Isaiah pressed.

"Sir! We believe that they were scouting the area. While employing stealth tactics we followed their trail to Northern New York. We eventually came upon a most unusual sight."

Isaiah frowned. "What do you mean unusual sight?"

Shifting a bit, Grant's eyes flittered about for a bit before settling on his superior's single eye. "Well, from what I could tell, it seemed like a group of mages setting up a base."

"What?!" Isaiah's eye widened. "Was it the Kamr-Taj?!"

Grant shook his head. "No sir! It would seem that they are related to our target from the other night, sir."

Isaiah scowled. "How can you be certain, squire?"

Grant pulled out another photo. In it was a picture of Remy. "This man here was seen trying to make contact with the target just a few days ago." He pulled out another photo. "As you can see here, sir, he is clearly intermingling with the mages here carving up some strange symbols into the ground."

Isaiah's scowl deepened as he looked over the photos. "Damned, devil-worshiping, freaks!" He snapped up to Grant. "Knight, inform the others; we are to take arms. We will cut them down without fail this time."

Grant saluted. "Sir! Right away, sir!"

As the fresh knight ran to do as ordered, Isaiah took a moment to work his arm. After finding no sign of stiffness or soreness, he nodded. 'Good. I am back to optimal condition.' His gaze sharpened as he looked over the photos. 'It is high time that I finish this work and cut down these devils.' With that, Isaiah began to prepare his weapons.