Call Me Doc Ock Arc 1: Origin Chapter 18: Last Bits of Preparation, a X-overs + Marvel Crossover fanfic

Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin

Chapter 18: Last Bits of Preparation.

In the underground facility where the apes made their home, Dimitri the chimp, watched the camera feed with mild disinterest. It was an important task, but Dimitri would be lying to himself if he said that he didn't find it quite dull. He would much prefer to be part of the group doing supply runs. While he didn't quite trust humans, it was always fun to watch the silly things they did. 'Perhaps I can convince Igor to allow me on another recon and re-supply run, later.'

Dimitri buoyed by the thought of seeing more of the world refocused on his task, idly tapped out a tune he had heard on the last recon run. A few more hours and his replacement would relieve him of this tedious task. He did not expect anything new from his observations today, no one knew about this place except for those humans who had helped them escape, their child and that human with the strange lights dancing around his fingers.

Those last two had brought quite a bit of excitement upon their arrival. Even now, there were still some who had spoken of the man and his ability to create portals. Dimitri had felt a bit of trepidation at the thought of that man. While he had promised to the four supers that he would not speak of the place to anyone who might bring them harm, Dimitri was still wary of him. To be able to travel to any location in the blink of an eye was both fascinating and terrifying.

Hopefully, they would not have to worry about someone simply appearing out of thin air in their domain for such a time before they had countermeasure in place.

For now, Dimitri put all of that out of mind as he continued his duty and watched the cameras overlooking the different entrance points to their dwelling.

'Still nothing but earth, pipes, lights, strange bald humans in robes and- Wait?! What?!'

Dimitri went ramrod still as a human female in a weird garb suddenly appeared in front of the southern main entrance. The chimp immediately sounded the alarm and panic ensued.

Pulling up a mike he began shouting, as all around him, apes went into a frenzy. "This is Dimitri of the second-round security! I have spotted a human standing in front of the door! Orders?!"

"Hold your position and keep a visual on the human," came Peotor's immediate reply.

The orangutan in question was quick to arrive and took over for Dimitri.

"Who are you and what business do you have here," Peotor demanded of the strange human.

"Oh, yes hello," came the human (female? It sounded like it) replied. "Who am I? Well as far as names go, I suppose you could call me the Ancient One. I happen to be the… let's say head of the group of mages, one of whom you have met and spoken with several days ago. As for what why I am here?" She then pulled out a rather familiar stone pendant. "Well, I was studying the enchantment and energies contained within this stone and I was very curious about the efforts that went into this stone and its ultimate purpose."

She looked towards the camera. "If it's no trouble to you, I was wondering if I could speak with the one who helped Pascale with its creation, please."

Peotor shifted nervously in his seat as he watched the woman sitting opposite him at the conference table. He did not know why, but somehow… he could tell that she was far more dangerous than anyone he had ever met. Around him the other apes chittered nervously as one of their own provided the woman with tea.

After blowing on the steaming cup and taking a few sips, the Ancient One perked up a bit at the expertly prepared blend. "This is an excellent cup of green tea," she addressed Peotor, "my compliments to the one who prepared it."

Peotor nodded. "Thank you, Gavril has been working on perfecting that particular blend for some time now."

"Yes, I can definitely taste the difference," the woman replied, "most places that prepare it nowadays never seem to get it quite right. It's either too sweet or too bitter."

Peotor grunted at that. "Honestly that always vexed me about American cuisine. Why must there be excessive sugar in everything that you eat? At the rate humans eat all that sugar, health problems will almost certainly develop within two or three generations."

The Ancient One shrugged. "Sadly, with the way the economic system is set up, it is much cheaper but less healthy food than prepare their own more nutritious meals. Of course, most major companies are likely aware of this and are happy to exploit that particular issue for their own ends."

That… did not sit well with the Orangutan. "Surely the humans are more empathetic to their own than that."

"No, I'm afraid not," the mage sighed. "Humans exploiting one of their fellows has been common theme long before recorded history, regardless of the consequences to themselves and all others. And on that particular topic, let us discuss the current issue regarding young Isaac and his relatives mad plotting."

Peotor straightened up in his seat. "Yes indeed, it would be best to discuss the matter involving Isaac. Pray tell, what exactly is it that you wish to know about the necklace?"

The Ancient One set down her teacup and pulled out Isaac's necklace. "Tell me, when one of your own, Yaroslav, helped Pascale channel energy into this necklace did they happen to identify what type of energy she concerted it to?"

Peotor turned to Yaroslav, now curious about that himself. The chimp, for his part, squirmed under the scrutiny of the Ancient One and his fellow apes. Looking around, the chimp took a moment to recall the event in question before he spoke. "…truth be told, I am not certain about what kind of energy she was using, all that she said was that it would protect Isaac from whatever evil thing his relatives were trying to call forth."

Yaroslav looked to the Ancient One. "I could not tell you what it was." He paused, chewing on his lip for a bit, ever since that day something had been nagging him about the whole thing. He looked back and forth between Peotor and the Ancient One. "Although…," he began.

Peotor, sensing Yaroslav's trepidation, tilted his head. "Yes, my friend, what is it?"

Yaroslav glanced at Peotor for a moment before turning back to the Ancient One. "That… power that Pascale put into the stone… something about it seemed… familiar."

"Familiar," Miklho interjected, "what exactly do you mean by that?"

The chimp shrugged helplessly. "I do not know. It just feels like I have felt something like it somewhere before." He turned to the Ancient One. "That is all that I can offer."

The mage nodded. "That is quite alright. Even if you do not know what it is, it will still be very helpful for the current matter."

Igor chose that moment to speak up. "Helpful? How exactly would it be of use to us?"

"That same question plagued me as well," the Ancient One admitted, "I did not know how it could be of use, until I just a few short hours ago, I had once again attempted to discern the nature of the vile power that the Laveau family was consorting with. As with my previous attempt, it had tried to repel me."

Yaroslav leaned in, now very curious. "Yes, and?"

"Well, when it made to strike me, suddenly the mystical energy within the stone reacted," the Ancient One went on, "it let out the most brilliant light I had ever seen in any lifetime and the beast actually recoiled from it!"

"Wait… wait, wait, wait, wait," Peotor interjected, "you're saying that this 'mystical energy' can be used to repel the monster that plagues Isaac?"

The Ancient One nodded, a note of excitement in her expression. "It may very well be the key to confronting it. More to the point, I was able to see past the veil it had erected to block my foresight, and I was able to get a general location of where that terrible ritual from Pascale's recording took place."

The Ancient One's face turned serious. "But so far, I could only get a general location, not the exact coordinates." She folded her hands together on the table. "As such, besides answering my questions, I would like to make a request of you."

Peotor folded his own hands on the table and leaned forward. "What would you need of us?"

"Let me start by saying that this is only a request," the Ancient One began, "you are not obligated to grant it. I will simply find some other means if necessary. That all said, I would ask that Yaroslav accompany me on my search to find the site of the original ritual. His ability to convert energy from one form to another would be invaluable in the face of this threat."

There was a sudden wave of low noise among the apes, as the four empowered apes considered this request.

Inside Otto's lab, I was currently at work. In three days, Azelea and I would be meeting with Remy at a diner to "talk." What exactly, Remy had to say, I couldn't be sure, I just knew that it wouldn't be good for me. Yet, as much as I wanted to blow him off, I knew that he and the rest of Laveau family might do something drastic. As such, Azelea and the other mages in the New York Sanctum had taken the time to scout out the diner for any potential traps and were setting up several stakeout positions to observe every road and alley within about a hundred yards of the place.

For my part, I had mostly taken refuge in Otto's lab. Right now, I had just finished enchanting the solar-cells using the sigils for drawing in power, heat-proofing and increasing overall durability. It had actually been rather fun testing out if this particular combination would work together…

Azelea and I were currently overlooking a cliff over a deep gorge somewhere in the Grand Canyon. I had several pieces of glass marked with the sigil for defense (which I think was for defense).

"So why are we here again," Azelea asked, perturbed.

"I want to see how effective these sigils from the journal are," I replied while examining the symbols for any flaws in its writing.

"Didn't the heat-proofing turn out just fine?"

I nodded. "Yeah, the pieces of wood and paper didn't catch fire."

"Then why do we have to come out all the way here," Azelea continued. "If Pascale wrote about those sigils in the journal, then wouldn't that mean she had taken the time to determine if they worked?"

I nodded again. "Yes, she likely did. What I'm doing is seeing how far those sigils can be pushed. How much heat can those heat-proofing sigils take? How strong of an impact can the defense sigil withstand? How much energy can the absorption sigil take in? If we're gonna take this matter with my family seriously, then I want to be sure that I've done the best to prepare."

I held up a pane of glass over the edge of the cliff. "So, there's no time to waist. BOMBS AWAY," I shouted as I tossed the glass over.

That had been… fun… for both of us. Azelea in particular had been really hyped up to see how much fire he could drop on the practice dummy we had set up. I also got to see what my extra 'arms' could do…

"Alright Isaac, I've got the targets set up, so it's down to you now." Azelea had just put the finishing touches on the impromptu obstacle course. He had managed to rope in several other mages for the task and they were currently off to the side to watch in case anything went wrong.

"…I still don't think this is a good idea," Sol Rama moaned. He looked around warily. We were currently atop a plateau in Colorado. We were in the middle of nowhere in an open area that most people would not normally travel to.

"Oh, it'll be fine, Sol, it's not like we're doing anything wrong." Sarah Wolfe waved him off. She had been all too happy to go along with Azelea's request for this whole thing.

"Are we," Sol returned. "I'm pretty sure that we are not supposed to be conducting training with anyone under the age of majority."

"That is mostly a matter of policy, not a rule set in stone," Rintrah answered. The… green minotaur (and hadn't that been a bit of shock to see) placed a hand on Sol's shoulder. "I feel that the Ancient One and the Sanctum Masters would allow us a bit of leniency for this particular circumstance."

Sol actually seemed to relax at that. "Well, I… guess for this case it would be fine." Looking more assured he turned to Azelea, his hands lighting up with sigils. "Okay, so just make the targets move and shoot back, right?"

Next to me at the starting line, Azelea nodded. "Yep, that's all for now." He turned to me. "Alright Isaac, are you ready to begin?"

I held up a finger, looking straight down the course to the end. I spotted several dummies with bean-bag launchers at the ready. We had practiced shooting targets with my regular hands to see how good my aim was. I was… decent and could hit a moving target with a bolt 6 out of 10 times. Of course, that number tended to fluctuate when I had to worry about dodging return fire.

Today, we were going to see if I could do better with my tentacles. Lifting up the back of my shirt, I let them out and took a moment to draw on that sensation that came with readying a bolt.

'Don't think, feel.' I let my body sway a bit, the motion helping me draw on the magic in me. Slowly the bundle of energy began to grow. It began to flow from my stomach up my spine, but rather than let it go up any further, I waved my tentacles to draw that energy into them. 'That is… weird… but… kinda pleasant.' As the energy reached the center of my tentacles' mandibles, the white gem-like protrusions began to glow. Slowly four balls of light manifested. I opened my eyes and nodded at Azelea. The older mage looked at the balls of light in wonder for a moment before shaking his head a bit. He nodded back and lifted his hand.

"Three…"

I got into a starting position.

"Two…"

I shifted my legs a bit.

"One…"

My tentacles pointed forward.

"GO!"

I sprinted forward. Coming to the first obstacle, there was a series of elevated steppingstones over a pit filled with pillows. I leapt on to one and- 'DUCK' My body ducked down as a bean bag flew past my head. The floating dummy was already readying up another shot by the time I got back up.

It fired, but-