Carl's ghost trembled violently inside the containment field.
The glowing wires embedded throughout his spectral body pulsed brighter with every surge of energy flowing into the machine.
His hollow eyes locked onto the picture resting beneath the robotic platform.
Inko Midoriya.
A stranger.
Yet somehow connected to him getting back his family.
Carl's form flickered weakly.
"…If I do this…"
His voice sounded raw and broken.
"You'll tell me where they are?"
Professor Utonium adjusted one of the glowing control panels without even looking up.
"If you succeed."
Carl clenched his spectral teeth.
Every instinct screamed that this was a trap.
That the man standing before him was dangerous in ways he couldn't even comprehend.
But the moment Sandra's name had been mentioned—
the moment her and Ben's name was brought up—
he already knew he had lost.
Because hope was cruel like that.
"…Fine."
The word came out strained.
"I'll do it."
The robotic arms surrounding him slowly relaxed.
Professor Utonium smiled.
"Excellent."
He turned proudly toward the machine.
"Glad to have you on board, Carl Tennyson."
Carl stared at him through the glass.
"…What are you?"
His voice lowered uneasily.
"A demon?"
The laboratory lights flickered softly.
"…Or a devil?"
For the first time, the professor genuinely laughed.
Not loudly.
Not maniacally.
Just amused.
"I'm neither."
He stepped forward into the glow of the monitor.
"I'm simply a small-time doctor."
The mechanical tentacles extending from Carl's steel prison coiled with a metallic hiss.
"Doctor Octavius."
His gloved hands folded neatly behind his back.
"A simple man with a love for science…"
The tentacles flexed slowly.
"…and robots."
Carl looked up at him from within the containment chamber.
Professor Utonium stood beneath the laboratory lights, yet unlike the bright, cheerful professor from the Powerpuff Girls universe, he now looked completely different.
Dark sunglasses concealed his eyes.
A long layered trench coat draped over his frame.
He had adopted the persona of the famous Spider-Man villain almost perfectly, the only major difference being that the four massive mechanical arms were attached to the spherical drone Carl was trapped inside rather than his own back.
Their joints glowed with ectoplasmic energy and hissed like mechanical predators.
Cold.
Calm.
Inhuman.
Doctor Octavius smiled faintly.
And Carl finally understood something horrifying.
This man truly believed everything he was saying.
What kind of dissociation did someone need to commit atrocities like this without feeling guilt?
How could anyone smile after tormenting a man's spirit and denying him the afterlife?
Carl's fractured consciousness couldn't understand it.
He stared at the doctor with disgust, no longer certain which of them was truly human anymore.
Then the monitor suddenly cut to black.
The mad scientist had disabled his screen.
Carl sat alone in total darkness, hearing only the echo of retreating footsteps and the gradual hum of the machine powering down into a dormant state.
—
The self-proclaimed Doctor Octavius walked calmly through the laboratory toward the glass containment chamber holding the spasming symbiote, which had somehow survived over twenty minutes in a constant cycle of decay and regeneration under Temp V.
Skree! Skree! Skree!
The black-green mass writhed violently as he approached.
Its tendrils formed a distorted face lined with jagged teeth and venom-like eyes.
It stared at him with pure hostility—
and desperate hunger.
The need for a stable host radiated from every twitching strand.
Doctor Octavius smiled faintly as one of its tendrils suddenly reshaped itself into a gun barrel.
Bang!!
The projectile slammed against the reinforced glass but failed to break through.
The doctor calmly removed his coat, revealing an exoskeleton of wires strapped around his torso. Thin cables extended from an MP3 player mounted against his chest, running down his arms and connecting to audio conductors built into his gloves.
"Your vitals indicate that even if you find a host," he said calmly, "you won't survive another four minutes."
He turned toward a nearby table.
Syringes.
Glass slides.
Scanning equipment.
And a pair of reinforced metal gloves.
He slid his hands into them carefully.
Then he tapped the chamber controls.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The password was entered.
The containment locks disengaged with a hiss.
"Even so…" he murmured, "you've been very helpful in sending our new friend to another world."
The symbiote immediately forced the chamber open and launched itself toward him.
The instant it made contact—
Doctor Octavius grabbed the tendril with one hand and activated the MP3 player.
A piercing ultrasonic frequency blasted directly through the wiring and into the transmitters embedded inside the gloves.
SKREEEEEEEE—!!
The symbiote convulsed violently.
Its entire body twisted like boiling tar.
Black-and-green tendrils lashed wildly through the air while the creature released a distorted scream that echoed across the laboratory walls.
Doctor Octavius didn't even flinch.
Instead, he tightened his grip.
The reinforced gloves groaned softly as the sound waves continued pulsing through the writhing mass.
The creature spasmed harder.
Its unstable body melted apart before rapidly stitching itself back together under the effects of Temp V.
Decay.
Regeneration.
Decay.
Regeneration.
Again.
And again.
Suddenly, part of the symbiote's body surged upward.
Shlk!
A jagged barrel-shaped construct formed from its own flesh and pointed directly at Octavius's face.
Bang!
A compressed spike launched forward—
CRUNCH.
Doctor Octavius caught the malformed weapon in his free hand before it could fully fire and crushed it instantly.
Pungent acid, splattered, across the floor.
"Still attempting projectile formation?" he muttered calmly.
The MP3 player continued screaming with ultrasonic feedback.
"You really are adapting faster than expected."
SKREEEE—!!
The symbiote writhed harder in agony.
It desperately tried tearing itself free, but every movement only spread the vibrations deeper through its unstable structure.
Its tendrils suddenly shot outward in all directions.
Smack!
One latched onto a metal tray.
Another wrapped around a hanging cable.
A third hooked onto the edge of a worktable.
The creature yanked violently.
Tools, syringes, and shattered glass launched across the room like bullets.
Doctor Octavius stepped aside calmly.
Clang!
A tray smashed against the wall behind him.
Crack!
Glass exploded across the floor.
The symbiote shrieked again and stretched itself further, desperately attacking from multiple angles.
One tendril sharpened into a blade.
Another formed jagged teeth.
A third grabbed a fallen screwdriver and hurled it with enough force to punch through steel.
Doctor Octavius tilted his head slightly as the screwdriver flew past his face.
"Hostile aren't you" he observed aloud.
The creature lunged again.
This time, it wrapped itself around his forearm like a starving parasite trying to burrow into flesh.
Its distorted face formed briefly across his sleeve.
Rows of jagged teeth snapped violently.
Venom-like eyes widened with desperate survival instinct.
It needed a host.
Needed stability.
Needed to live.
Doctor Octavius simply raised the volume.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEE—!!
The symbiote screamed so violently that its entire body burst apart into twitching strands before slamming back together seconds later.
Its tendrils thrashed wildly across the laboratory, smashing monitors, tearing apart equipment, and ripping through holographic displays in blind panic.
Sparks showered from the ceiling.
Yet through all the chaos—
Doctor Octavius remained perfectly calm behind his dark glasses.
Then he dragged the writhing creature toward Carl's dormant drone body.
Ding.
The symbiote slammed against the spherical machine as a dark tome materialized out of nowhere in a burst of green light.
Its pages fluttered violently through strange diagrams and ancient symbols before stopping on a single page.
Necromendus-I.
The book hovered in the air, summoned by nothing more than the doctor's will.
Doctor Octavius raised one hand.
"#$&@ $#@&."
The words sounded ancient.
Wrong.
A language soaked in something older than humanity itself.
His eyes glowed emerald behind the sunglasses as underworld magic flooded the laboratory.