Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin

Chapter 32: All Clear

"Uooooouuuuuggh…" As her vision returned to her, the first thing that the Ancient One saw was the wavering form of Ogun. Where once the corrupted Vodu god seemed to be an unwavering force brimming with tainted power, now he seemed on the verge of a total collapse. All over his body cracks and blisters covered his flesh. His physique, once imposing, was now emaciated and haggard.

Looking around, the Ancient One could see that all the other undead thralls were in a similar state of decay, other outright dissolving. Reaching out with her senses, the Ancient One could sense the number of formerly hostile thralls rapidly decrease now that the dark power fueling them had been cut off. And speaking of…

The presence of the malevolent entity… was no longer present. The Ancient One allowed herself a small smile at that.

"W-what has happened?" Looking over her shoulder, the Ancient One turned her attention to Yaroslav. The chimp turned this way and that as the thralls dropped one by one, like puppets with their strings cut. "Miss, what is going on?"

"It would seem, my friend," she responded, "that Isaac and the others have succeeded in putting an end to the malevolent power that had threatened our world."

The chimp perked up at that. "T-truly?"

The Ancient One nodded. "Truly."

"Oh, thank goodness!" The chimp sagged in relief at the news. "This has been such a terrible ordeal!" The chimp's mood dampened slightly as it turned its attention to the Vodu god before them. "…what will you do about him?"

A frown crossed the Ancient One's face as she considered that question. Carefully she approached Ogun until she was just outside his range of attack. The formerly corrupted God slowly turned its gaze towards her as she watched him.

"Sh… Shan… go," he gurgled out, his eyes fixed on the Ofo Rod.

"Brother," Shango called out to him, distress in his voice. "Oh, my dear brother… what… what did they do to you?!"

Ogun wavered, his face going blank at the question. The Ancient One's lips pressed into a thin line as she watched him carefully. In her long years as Sorcerer Supreme she had seen many horrible deeds committed by mankind and the effects thereof on their victims. Just from the way the Vodu god seemed to curl in on himself, she knew that whatever had been done to him was horrific beyond words.

Dropping his pickaxes, Ogun curled in on himself, rocking back and forth on his feet. "…pain… pain… pain…"

"Oh… oh Ogun…" Despair radiated from the Ofo Rod, as Shango watched his brother relive his torture. "…if… if only I had come for you back then…"

"Back then," Yaroslav asked.

"…back… back then… after the Divine War…"

"The Divine War?" Despite herself, the Ancient One found her curiosity piqued at the name.

"It was," Shango began, but hesitated. The Ancient One was about to inquire further when a groan from Ogun brought her attention back to the matter at hand.

"BROTHER," Shango cried out as Ogun fell to his knees, his current form beginning to crumble. "BROTHER!"

Ogun looked up at them, looking somewhat more serene from before. "…do… do not… fret… brother… I am… finally… free…" The decaying god reached for his pickaxes and lifted them up to the Ancient One. "Take… these… and keep them… safe… I must… rest…"

The Ancient One hesitated for a moment, but after seeing no sign of hostility from the Vodu God, she nodded and gently pulled them from his hands. As she held them in her hands, Ogun's body finally broke down into dust.

"OGUN," Shango cried out. "OGUN!"

"Do… not worry… brother…" From the dust came a small phantom wisp. It floated into the pickaxes, which gave off a soft glow before going inert. "I… just… need to… rest…"

"Ogun… oh, if I had just sought you out back then…"

From his pickaxes, Ogun let out a weak laugh. "Oh Shango… do not… blame… yourself… it was… my own fault… for siding with… the fallen ones…"

"I cannot help how I feel brother," Shango responded. "I should have put more effort into finding you! To see you in this… state is too much. I-"

"Brother," Ogun interrupted. "Let… us not… dwell on… past… failures… let us… dwell on… being reunited… once more…"

The Ancient One nodded. "An admirable mindset. Shango of the Vodu, your brother has gone through much, but he is here with you now. Focus on helping him recover."

"Exactly," Yaroslav chimed in. "You have your brother back and he needs you. You must be strong for him!"

The Vodu god was silent for several moments, then he let out a weak laugh. "You… you are right. I have my brother back. I must help him to grow strong again. Thank you… thank you both for all that you have done."

The Ancient One shook her head. "Don't thank me. Thank young Isaac and the others. They were the ones who freed your brother from his shackles."
"Oh, right!" Yaroslav bounced on her back a bit. "Should we not go and check on them?"

"Yes," the Ancient One nodded. "Let's go see how they are doing."

"Ancient One!" Turning at the new voice, the Sorcerer Supreme found one of the mages running to up to them. "Ancient One! We have spotted several people from government agencies approaching the area!"

At that, a frown came over the Ancient One's face. Looking around she spotted several artifacts and tools that, if left alone, could cause problems down the line if certain parties got their hands on them. Turning to address the mages of Kamar-Taj, she raised her voice. "Everyone, if I could have a moment of you attention!" When all eyes were on her she went on. "I ask that you all scour these caverns and take any artifacts, devices, and tools that have not already been taken from our first search and transport them back to the Kamar-Taj!"

"YES, ANCIENT ONE!" They all quickly moved to do as asked.

"Right then." The Ancient One turned and headed to the main chamber. "Let's go check on the others."

I will admit, I felt really antsy about my current situation. Yeah sure, the immediate threat of the One-Below-All was well and truly handled, buuuut… now faced with the One-Above-All… I think anyone would understand how I felt about this all of a sud-

"So sorry about all of this," he said interrupting my thoughts and I kind of hated how I jumped at him speaking. One of the OAA's eyebrows rose at my rection. "…okay you're still a little bit jumpy, how about this…" There was a flash of light, and I was suddenly faced with the old man in a polo shirt again. "This better?"

"Honestly… yeah," I admitted. Without really thinking about it, I began to scratch the back of my head. "Look, I know that you mean no harm right now, but… I just got down dealing with… that and I… well, you know."

The old man nodded, looking genuinely apologetic. "Oh, I get it. No need to explain yourself." The old man crossed his arms. "You've dealt with a force far more dangerous than anything most people will ever even know. And you've done far better than anyone else could expect of you." He gave me a small smile. "Your parents would be proud of you, Isaac."

I looked away at that. Thinking about them… well it wasn't really so hard to do now; I mean I can actually consciously acknowledge them as mom and dad now, so there was that and-

Wait.

I turned back to the old man, a finger raised. "I have a question."

The old man nodded. "Shoot."

"How… how did my mom know to use Cosmic Radiation against OBA and how did she discover the mystical aspect?" That had been a question that had been burning in the back of my mind since meeting with the apes. Even considering the Apes' story and whatever research dad might have done on the subject, there was no way to know about how it could counteract gamma mutates.

"Oh, that." The old man leans back in his bean bag chair. "That was an accidental discovery on her part." He waves a hand and another bean bag chair pops up behind me.

I look at it, then back to him. When he gestures to it, I sigh and shrug before plopping right down onto-

"…oh fuuuuuuuuuck, this feels really goooooooood!" Oh, I can just feel all the aches and pains just melt away…

A cough brings me back to focus, and the old man has a rather amused smile on his face. Doing my best to fight down a blush, I get back on topic. "So… accident?"

With a nod, the old man goes on. "It was around the time when your spirit manifested within your current body."

Blinking, I lean forward. "When I manifested?"

"Basically, when you partially reincarnated into Isaac as an embryo."

"Oh." Suddenly feeling a bit squeamish about where that particular topic could go, I waved him off. "Let's not focus on that. What happened during that time?"

"Well, you know how you had those eyes, signifying your… status as a suitable vessel," he asked.

"Yeah?"

"Well, you got those eyes because of the other soul that had tried to incarnate in your body."

Suddenly alarmed, I went ramrod still. "Wait! What other soul?!"

The old man frowned a bit. "The soul of the… original vessel. The one who would have gone along with… your relatives' insane plot because that had been what he had been made to do in the first place."

He sat up straight. "That spirit… did not appreciate your presence and…" The old man's lips pressed into a thin line. "It tried to eat your soul."

Ice went up my spine as those words hit me. "E-eat… eat me…"

The old man nodded. "Yeah, it tried to consume you before you could take your body for your own." The old crossed his right leg over his left. "Fortunately for you, as a soul with a full lifetime of experience, you were able to fight back somewhat."

The old man gave me some time to process that, before he went on. "Now of course, considering that this was going on in your mom's body, she could feel the effects of this fight going on within her."

I grimaced. "I imagine that that could not have been pleasant."

With a grimace of his own, the old man went on. "Oh yeah, she felt a lot of pain that day. Fortunately," he said as his face shifted to a smile. "She just so happened to be in Otto's lab when this happened."

"…what the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"Well," he responded, his smile turning into a grin. "It just so happened that she was getting something for Otto in his lab when all this occurred. She was in the section where Otto works on energy sources…"

Suddenly feeling a surge of incredulity, I interjected. "Let me guess… she just so happened to be walking by where Otto had stored several containers of Cosmic Ray energy, taken from Ivan."

A nod. "Go on."

"The sudden pain and panic at what she can probably sense is going on within her causes mom to lash out wildly into the containers."

The old man gestures for me to continue.

"Because she's flailing about, she just so happens to knock the containers loose causing them to hit the floor, allowing the cosmic radiation contained within to leak out."

"Keep going."

"The cosmic radiation hits us, and the original vessel is weakened and Isaac-I… eat it instead."

"Almost done."

"Mom can sense all of this going on and puts two and two together sometime after the fact, and… starts her little project with the necklace."

The old man points a finger at me. "Bingo!"

"…a freak lab accident… you do realize how ridiculous that sounds, right?"

The old man just shrugged. "Hey, we've both seen much weirder."

…I thought about some of the more… ridiculous origin stories throughout the multiverse. "…point."

Looking around, my eyes fell on the spirit of the mage who had been made to suffer all this time. "So, what happens to him?"

The old man, already following my gaze, sighs as he looks over the spirit of the young mage that had got caught up in all of this. "Him? His spirit will pass on. It'll be… scrubbed clean before it re-enters the cycle of death and rebirth."

"Pass on huh…" I frowned a bit as I mulled it over. I wasn't really sure about how I felt about that. There were half-formed questions in my head, but I was halfway certain that I didn't have the time to properly form them. Instead, I got up from my chair and walked over to the young mage and looked him over. Like this, he seemed… well I can't say peaceful… given that he was being tortured not too long ago, but at least he wasn't screaming in agony anymore."

Crouching next to him, I took one his hands in my own and just let my thoughts out. "…okay, so… you're probably too numb right now to hear what I'm saying but… I'm sorry… I'm… so, so, so sorry that you had to endure… all of that." I sighed. "I'm not sure if it helps or anything, but… here's hoping that… wherever you end up… you get to live the life that you want and become… whatever is you were planning on being."

I blinked as I felt the hand twitch. Looking to the spirit's eyes I saw a… flicker of something. Whether it was awareness or not, I didn't get a chance to figure out as the spirit of the mage suddenly burst into golden motes of light that floated away.

I watched the motes float into the sky for a bit, before I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking over it, the old man gave me a soft smile and a nod of approval. "That was kind of you."

I scratched my neck at his praise. "You sure? Didn't really feel like I was doing anything for him."

"Hey, you tried to offer some semblance of comfort. It might not have been much, but you know what they say…"

"Every little bit helps," I finished.

"Exactly." He retracted his hand and suddenly everything seemed to glitch. "Well, it seems like it's time for you to get going." He stepped back as I began to rise up and the glitching became more erratic. "Just remember, Isaac, your parents love you and are proud of you. As long as you keep that light of yours going, you'll be fine."

He gave me a wave and everything glitched hard before-

I wake up with a gasp.

"ISAAC!" I blinked a bit and found Azelea kneeling next to me, concern on his face.

"Oh…" I raised a hand and waved a bit. "Hey… how's it going?" I sat up slowly, wincing a bit at the ache in my back.

Azelea placed a hand on my shoulder to help steady me. "Are you okay?"

Stretching a bit, I gave a thumbs up. "Yep! I'm good… was a bit touch and go there for a bit but… the monster's gone, so we're good."

"Wait, mon-" He leaned in. "The One-Below-All, it's gone?"

"Yeah, banished it back to where it came from and freed the souls being used to open up the door." Grinning a bit, I gave him a thumbs up. "All's good."

Azelea's shoulders sagged in relief at the news. He gave me a tired smile. "Oh, okay, that's good." Standing up, he offered me a hand, which I used to get back on my feet. All around us, I could see mages moving things in and out via portals or checking the walls for any hidden rooms and tunnels.

"What's going on now?"

Azelea looked over his shoulder. "Oh yeah, that. Right now, we're just going over the place to make sure that there isn't any leftover… artifacts and such, that could be used to harm others."

He looked at the corpse on the slab. "Which reminds me, we need to do something about the poor souls trapped in these half-dead bodies."

"Oh, uh yeah don't worry about."

He turned back to me. "What do you mean by that?"

"I already freed them."

Azelea's eyebrows shot up. "Oh… you did?"

I nodded. "Yup, there spirits have already passed on, so we can give the bodies a proper burial."

"Well then, that settles that!" We turned at the voice and found the Ancient One approaching.

Azelea stood a bit straighter. "Ancient One!"

The Sorcerer Supreme waved. "Oh relax, Vincent, no need to be so formal right now. You've done well given the circumstances."

Azelea looked away. "Oh! T-thank you!"

Shaking her head, the Ancient One turned to me and smiled. "Well, I must say Isaac, you've done very well for yourself as well."

I stretched some more. "Yeah, I guess I did." I winced at the slight ache all over my body. "Although, I'm probably gonna be feeling some of these hits for a while."

The Ancient One nodded in sympathy. "Yes, that's how this sort of things goes sometimes."

"Isaac!" That was the only warning I got before something leapt at me and I had to use my two lower tentacles to keep my balance, while holding…

"Yaroslav," I barely managed to get out.

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay! If you had been lost, I would-"

"Too… tight… hurts!"

"Oh! My apologies!" The chimp let me go and dropped down. "My apologies! You must have been through quite a lot and here I am-"

I held up a hand to stop Yaroslav's rambling. "It's fine… right now I'm just a bit sore and tired and-"

"CREATOR. UNIT IS IN NEED OF REPAIRS."

Looking over at H2H, I spotted several more dents in his chassis. Swallowing a groan at the work I would have to do to fix him, I give Azelea and the Ancient One a tired look.

"You know what, I think I'm done for today. Can I go home and sleep all of this off, please?

"That's fair," the Ancient One conceded. "You've done more than your fair share of work. Vincent if you could escort Isaac home, please? We'll just finish cleaning up here."

"On it." Pulling out his sling ring, Azelea created a portal then turned to me. "Alright, let's get going."

"Yes let's. H2H! Follow!"

"CONFIRMED."

"Would you be so kind as to escort me back to my fellows as well," Yaroslav asked. "They will want to know what has been happening as soon as possible."

Azelea shrugged. "Yeah, sure I can do that."

"Oh! One more thing!" The Ancient One stopped us before we could step through. She then pulled out a satchel, in it were the Ofo Rod and-

I blinked. "Are those… pickaxes?"

"Yes, they are," the Ancient One said as she handed me the satchel. "Ogun's spirit currently resides within them, and we thought it would be best if we kept them near the Ofo Rod as he recovered."

"Right, okay, sure, whatever…" I turned and stepped through the portal. "I'm out!"

Several of the mages responded with their own farewells as we made our way through the portal.

"Ahhhh," I groaned out. "Home, sweet home." Now that we were in the lab again, I felt myself relax much more. It was nice to be in a familiar place now that everything was over and done with.

Setting down my bag and the satchel on a table I turned to H2H. "Alright, H2H, go to the designated workstation and power down. We'll be doing a major overhaul on your chassis and internal systems when I wake up."

"CONFIRMED." The android went on to do as ordered.

"You settled for now," Azelea asked. He had opened up portal to the Apes' underground base.

I waved him off. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Alright then, I'll take Yaroslav back home and then come back to make sure the place is secure. Hey, Yaroslav," he addressed the chimp. "Let's get going!"

"Coming! Farewell, Isaac," the chimp waved.

I waved back and watched as the two went through the portal. As soon as it closed, I went to the area where I had set up a cot for sleeping. After switching out my suit for pj's, I laid down and closed my eyes.

Immediately, after sleep took me and pleasant thoughts of possible projects filled my dreams.