Call Me… Doc Ock – Arc One: Origin

Chapter 35: Unexpected Developments

Slowly, I withdrew my tentacles while doing my best to burn a hole in the Sorcerer Supreme's head. "You know, you could do me the courtesy of letting me know ahead of time when you're going to just pop in."

The Ancient One raised her hands in surrender and nodded. "That is fair, and again, I do apologize. However, there are certain matters of importance that I would like to discuss with you, and I would like to get through them quickly if you wouldn't mind."

With a sigh, I go over to the table and pull up a chair for her to sit in before getting one of my own and plopping myself right into it. "Alright, what is it?"

Seating herself neatly, the Ancient One folds her hands in her lap before addressing me. "First, there is the matter of your relatives. As I'm sure you know, the few that are still alive have been taken into custody and Vincent and Arthur are working to keep your involvement in both the nuclear panic and the wave of gang violence concealed."

"Well, that's a load off my mind." And it really was. With everything that had happened in the last few hours, I had no doubt that the entire alphabet soup was going to be going over the entire state with a fine-toothed comb. I really did not want to have to deal with someone like Nick Fury with my currently non-existent ability to lie to a government agent. That would bring all sorts of trouble that I was not ready to deal with.

The Ancient One nodded. "Yes, you have enough on your plate as it is without having to watch your back constantly. At least this way there is one less potential unknown I'll have to factor in for now?"

I blinked. "Wait… 'one less potential unknown?' What do you mean by that?"

"Oh! That…" The Sorcerer Supreme rubbed at the back of her head as she looked to the side. "Well, the issue is…" She looked at me with a frown. "For some reason I… can't see anything about you in the future."

Now suddenly more alert, I leaned forward on my chair. "Wait… you… you can't see anything about me?"

The woman before me shook her head. "No. When I tried to foresee your future, all I managed to get was static."

"B-but wasn't that because of the One-Below-All's interference."

"I had thought the same at first," the Ancient One admitted. "However, when I managed to focus my senses on the 'static' itself, it had none of the malice that came from before you managed to banish that creature back to its cage."

"So, what, was I always like that or is there something else currently screwing with me right now," I asked, slumping into my chair. Because I really needed some other cosmic force screwing with me right now.

The Ancient One hesitated, before she herself slumped in her chair. "I have no way of knowing. I have rarely ever encountered issues such as this when observing potential future or interdimensional threats to this world. As you have experienced firsthand, those rare few cases tend to be catastrophic when hostile." Then her head tilted to the side. "On the other hand…"

I looked back up from where I had hung my head. "Yeah?"

A contemplative frown came across her face. "Something… odd occurred just before I arrived to assist with the One-Below-All. Up until that point, I had no idea what exactly it was we were dealing with and what place it held within the multiverse." She looked me straight in the eye. "In fact, I didn't even know of its name until that exact moment, and this is after several hours consulting the more… obscure tomes within the Kamar-Taj library."

"Y-you just… out of the blue…"

She nodded. "Yes, somehow, I managed to learn what the creature was and what it was capable of through no effort of my own."

While I sat there trying to process that statement, the Ancient One stood up and began to pace back and forth. "Now, given the situation at the time, I was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth and was willing to accept the information. Of course, after the immediate danger passed, I had a moment to consider how I suddenly came to possess this knowledge."

She stopped and turned to look at me. "I came up with three possibilities."

I swallowed. "A-and they are?"

She held up a finger. "The first is that one of my counterparts across the multiverse granted me this knowledge at that moment when I could best make use of it." She shook her head. "Of course, this leads to the question of how they could have acquired this knowledge and if they were limited to the means I made use of, then a) there would have also encountered the same issues I Had and b) suddenly transferring that knowledge into my head so seamlessly would have been difficult given my defenses against mental assaults."

'Which reminds me, I should work on my own mental defenses at some point,' I thought.

"So," the Ancient One went on, a second finger joining the first, "there is the possibility that another cosmic entity transferred that knowledge into my mind."

I frowned as I considered that option. "…wouldn't that run into the same problems as the first option, ie. the powers-that-be being unaware of the One-Below-All's existence and that trying to discern its true nature could result in some form of backlash?"

The Ancient One nodded. "Yes, that had occurred to me as well. More to the point, when such powerful beings get involved like this, there is usually a price to be paid." She crossed her arms in front of her. "I have confronted such beings on numerous occasions during my tenure as Sorcerer Supreme. From my own experience, they would have appeared by now to ask for something in return, or at the very least would have appeared then and there to make such an offer."

"Maybe, there's a long-term planned involved," I offered.

"Yes, I thought of that and took a moment to foresee if such was the case, but nothing I glimpsed indicated such. Of course, there is the possibility of someone blocking out my foresight, but I have not detected the usual or more esoteric signs of interference."

I scratched my head as I took this in. This was a lot for me to take in at the moment. "Alright if it's not that, then what is option 3?"

"Well, this is a bit of a longshot," the Ancient One said, "but there is the possibility that this was…" Here the Ancient One gave me a particular look. I blinked at her expression, not really getting whatever it was she was trying to get across.

After a few seconds went by, I finally pressed for more. "Well, who?"

The Ancient One bit her lip as she mulled over whatever was going through her head, before she sighed and sat back down in her chair. "There is the possibility that this was from the opposing force, the One-Above-All."

I… actually, I'm not sure why but… "Actually," I spoke up. "I think… I think that might be it actually."

The Ancient One's head tilted in curiosity. "Oh, what makes you so sure?"

Taking a moment to consider how to put this, I decided to just come out and say it. "Because, after I sealed up O.B.A., I met O.A.A."

My guest's eyebrows rose at that. "Oh, truly?"

"Yeah," I nodded, "we had a little chat, and they answered some questions for me. They said that mom had been working on that necklace since before I was born, apparently. So, I figure, if I got to meet the person after a few moments of exposure, then it may have left an impact." For some reason, the thought buoyed my spirits. "Yeah, that has to be it."

A small smile came across the Ancient One's face. "Yes, that was what I had guessed as well."

Yeah… that did sound nice didn't it- wait…

My smile dropped as the mage's words registered. "Wait… that was what you thought from the start?"

"Yes," she replied with a nod. "Given the evidence at hand, I had come to that conclusion almost immediately."

"Then why ask me about it," I asked, feeling annoyed.

"I wanted to see how you would respond to such a scenario," the Ancient One admitted. "It would be very easy to fall into a spiral of negative thoughts when presented with such a situation. What you need to remember is that while there could definitely be a caveat with such a stroke of luck, sometimes, good things could happen without there being some bout of misfortune close at hand."

Leaning back in my chair I took a moment to think that over. Given the kind of universe, I was in right now, having knowledge planted into your head without prior warning was the kind of thing that one would normally expect to be because of some sort of plot going on in the background. 'And to be fair, that is the kind of thing that happens because there is some sort of plot going on in the background. But on the other hand, this isn't just some story. …oh right, transmigration… You know what, I think I'll just hope for the best but prepare for the worst.'

"…yeah, I can see how this kind of thinking could spiral out of control…"

The Ancient One nodded. "Good, just try not let yourself get overwhelmed by thinking about how things could go wrong." Her eyes swept over the lab. They fell onto the table where I had put most of the things I had managed to take with me from the whole mess. "Now, let us talk about the issue with Shango and Ogun."

With a grimace I focused my attention on the Ofo Rod and Ogun's pickaxes. "Yeah, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do about that. Like, how would I even go about 'healing' Ogun. Who knows what those assholes did to him."

Lips pressing into a thin line, the Ancient One nodded. "That's quite alright, I don't expect you to be able to do any sort of 'healing.'"

"Yeah, that's good. I'm probably going to have to put those things somewhere safe for now."

"Yes, that would be for the best," she agreed. "For extra security, I would suggest looking into that journal your mother left you in your spare time. If Pascale did seek out means of protecting oneself, then there may be something that can help with that."

"…shouldn't you be trying to discourage me from practicing any of this stuff on my own?"

With a wry smile, she shrugged. "There's really no need for that in this case. I trust that your mother would focus mostly on spells that you could use for defense. More to the point, I would think that by now you would understand how dangerous magic can be and would likely seek assistance with something you don't understand. While we don't accept anyone under the age of majority, the Masters of the Mystic Arts would have no issue with giving out a few pointers here and there."

I nodded. "Okay, that's good to know, then."

"Now, there are two more things I would like to go over," she said as she pulled something out of a pocket from her robes. In her hands was a device in the shape of a phone. "Azelea said that this would be of help with our search. Would you mind showing me how to get it to work?"

"Oh right! That." I got up and walked over with a hand held out. "Pass it here real quick."

The Sorcerer Supreme did as I asked and stood next to me. "Okay, so let's turn this on…" A few quick presses and the screen on the device turned on. "Okay, so first you do this…"

The Ancient One leaned in. "Mmhm…"

"Then, you do this…"

A nod. "Yes…"

"And to adjust or expand your search area…" I moved my finger across the screen. "Just go like that."

"Yes, I see."

I went over to the table, the Ancient One following behind. I reached into my bag. "That's just a general rundown of how to get it to work." I pulled out a little booklet and presented it to her along with the device. "This will have more information for anything else you might need it for."

With a smile, she took the device and the booklet. "Thank you very much for your assistance, Isaac."

I shrugged. "Eh, it's no problem." I scratched the back of my head. "Honestly, the sooner you take care of that the better."

"Yes, it would," she agreed. Then the smile slid off her face. "Now for the last matter we need to talk about."

'What's with the sudden mood change?' "Yeah, what's up?"

The Ancient One folded her eyes behind her back, her brow furrowing. "There is one particular… issue, that you need to be made aware of."

"Yes," I pressed.

"There was an incident with one of your… relatives just a few hours ago," she said.

Like that my mood soured. "What happened," I asked, resigned.

"Well… one of the cultists, Abeje, I think her name was caused a flood at the station she was at."

"So… she tried to bust out?"

She shook her head. "No, she did not try to bust out. The manipulation of water was an accident on her part."

"So, she had a mishap with some spell? So-"

"No," the Ancient One interrupted. "This was not some attempt at magic. In fact, Abeje herself admitted to being very poor when it came to the use of magic."

I blinked. "Then how did she manage to flood a whole police station?"

The Ancient One sighed. "In the same way that I can do this now." She lifted her hand. For a moment nothing happened and then-

*glurp*

My eyes damn near popped out of my head as the Ancient One's hand turned a silvery color and begin to twist and turn in ways that shouldn't be possible for a human hand to bend.

Now sporting a tight smile, the Ancient One went on. "It would seem that our continued exposure to Cosmic Rays has had some… long-term effects."

My mouth worked up and down for a few moments before my brain managed to register something she just said. "Wait, 'we?'"

She nodded. "Yes, Vincent, Sarah and Sol have also been… affected."

"SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!" Vincent ran through the halls of the Kamar-Taj as he headed towards their freezer. He had only just managed to grab the Logos Cultist and take her to a secure location before his hand began to glow and melted the door handle. In his wake, stone and masonry showed signs of melting due to proximity and several other mages were quickly doing what they could to contain the damage before a fire could start.

"AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH!" Off in the distance, Vincent spotted Sol as he floated helplessly in the air somehow turning into a greenish mist.

"WONG! I AM SO, SO SORRY!" Behind him, he could hear Sarah profusely apologizing to Wong as the two followed after him. Wong now sported a new cut along the cheek after Sarah had sprouted some sort of stone-like needle from a protrusion in her palm while the older mage had been examining it.

"Sarah! It is quite alright; you meant no harm! Right now, we need to focus on Vincent and Sol!"

*HSSSSSSSSSSSS* Vincent nearly tripped as his bare feet began to sink into the melting stone.

"FUCK! THE HEAT IS GETTING WORSE!"

"SOMEONE! HELP ME!"

"…so, you can imagine that things became quite hectic in the past few hours," the Ancient One finished.

"…huh. Well… fuck."

The Ancient One nodded. "Indeed, so considering that you seem capable of emitting cosmic rays, it would be best if you were careful with it, lest you draw undue attention to yourself."

"Right… I'll keep that in mind." I made to sit down to process all of this before I paused and turned to the Sorcerer Supreme. "Wait! What about Yaroslav!?"

"Yes, Yaroslav," the Ancient One responded. "I was planning on having a chat with him as well. I doubt that he and the rest of his fellows would want to do anything to bring attention to themselves."

With that, the Ancient One opened up a portal. "I'll shall take my leave." Looking back at me, she smiled once more. "Once again, I would like to commend you for how well you have handled yourself throughout this whole mess. Stay safe and farewell." She waved as she stepped through.

I waved back as I plopped into a chair. When I was alone again, I groaned. "Well… this just got more complicated.

To keep my mind off all that, I decided to focus my attention on something I had been looking forward to for a while now: namely the results from my nanites. Despite everything that has happened in the past few hours, I couldn't help but be excited to see the results as I extracted the nanites and placed them into a container and went over the data they transmitted.

As I looked over the screen, I read over the data input, while eating a bowl of recently bought cereal.

'Let's see… sudden shift in location, along with a whole number of energy readings and captured frequencies followed by unknown substance entering the bloodstream.' That would be when the I was teleported and the jack assess drugged me.

'Chemical reaction and sharp pain, followed by consumption of substance laced with blood.' My face twisted at that. 'Ugh, that's disgusting, who knows how long all that blood has been left standing.' I shuddered at the thought. I was really glad that the nanites managed to purge that crap from my system.

"How I didn't throw up then and there, I'll never know…" I shook the thought out of my head. 'Forget that and focus on this' I went back to reading the data. 'Energy expenditure and food consumption. From the fighting… Then there's gamma ray emission.'

I shivered as I recalled being influenced by O.B.A. 'Let's hope I won't have to go through that again… There are the mutations, cosmic ray exposure, purging of gamma-induced mutations… followed by second mutations induced by cosmic rays. Energy expenditure, followed by shifting in location and captured frequency, which I think is from the sling rings opening up portals.'

With a smile, I focused on the information caught from moving via sling-ring. 'Hopefully, I can use this for making my own form of teleportation.' That was a pleasant thought. 'Right more energy expenditure. Rem-sleep, which is likely from my astral form being elsewhere… Sudden injury from right arm and upper torso.' I rubbed my right arm. That had hurt like all-hell. 'I really need to get to work on finding a way to better protect my astral form from harm; I'll probably need it in the future. Unidentified liquid consumed'

I frowned at that. I… was not sure about how I felt with the Mages of the Kamar-Taj allowing the cultist to pour that stuff down my throat. On the one hand, it had apparently been the only reason I had managed to get back in the fight. On the other hand, the bitch was still part of that stupid cult… 'You know what… I'll just be glad that everything turned out well enough. I'll ask Azelea and the others about checking me over sometime later.'

Going back to the data, I began to wrap up my quick review. 'Okay, there's the cosmic rays again… portal frequency… sleep… and done!'

I leaned back in my chair and stretched. 'It wasn't ideal, but hey! It seemed to work out well enough!'

Turning to the nanites I leaned in and observed as the small cloud floated in the container. "Thanks, you were a life saver."

*Beep*

"Huh?" I turned back to the screen at the noise. Looking through the data, I again at the bottom, noticed a new input and-

I blinked and leaned forward. "'I help!' Huh?'

"What the heck is this?"

*Beep*

I blinked as another line appeared at the bottom. "I… help?" 'What the hell?' What's going on? "What the hell is this? What's going on-" My brain stopped as my eyes fell on the container. Within it… the nanites were… were moving in a figure eight pattern while giving off weak but noticeable sparks. Leaning slowly, I raised a finger and tapped on that container.

My eyes widened as the nanites stopped moving and as one formed a single tendril… and pressed against the container where I tapped it. It then let out a sudden spark.

*Beep*

My eyes snapped back to the screen.

"'Hi!'"

Slowly I turned back to the container.

'…no…' With that same finger, I tapped on a different spot of the container… and felt my jaw drop as the nanites pressed against that spot too. A spark followed.

*Beep*

"'Hi!'"

'…nooooooooo…' My tapping continued and the nanites continued to respond by pressing against the glass, with more spark and excamations on my computer screen. Eventually, the nanites began to tap against the container in time to my own.

"…greaaaaaat… …just fucking great…" My shoulders slumped as the nanites went back to moving that figure eight pattern.