john.mainer

I stole Foggy to use in this chapter.  I like Foggy.  Sure Mat Murdoch, the Daredevil, gets all the love in the comics, but Foggy is just as awesome, only without the power to back it up.  The Morse Code in this chapter is real.  The oldest machine code humanity has ever used, it still works.  It has been the only way to communicate for more than one prisoner.

Doctor Otto Octavius was a genius. Humanity is on the path of progress from animal to demigod on a road paved with the bones of dead genius, trampled under the feet of the ignorant and inferior.

Doctor Otto Octavius wanted to free the world from both the poisons of pollution and the soul crushing cost of endless war for energy resources. He wanted to tame the power of the sun, and place it in the hand of man. A modern day Prometheus, he would fire from the gods and give it to mortal man.

There is no human technology that can handle the power of large scale nuclear fusion. They can, at best, handle very small scale fusion in very very large reactors, or microfusion of extremely short duration and production on a test bed that is only slightly larger than vehicle sized.

So the doctor named Octopus got him some mad tentacle love. This is technology easily three or four centuries ahead of human capacity. The ability to balance the shielding of a reaction that belongs in the core of a star inside the palm of his tentacles required software no existing computer and sensors could handle. So he created an AI capable of not only sensing the energy flows, but modifying the energy shielding in real time in response to changes in what is essentially a thousand hydrogen bombs going off continually using energy from the explosion to power its containment, then bleeding the remnants for enough power to supply the greatest cities of the world.

To do this he had to create stable AI that could learn, and communicate, could actively network with each other at a rate no human mind could match, and then that gestalt would in turn report to his own mind and use his own knowledge to shape their responses to the reaction.

If I am, by a twist of fate, three brains in a trenchcoat, Doctor Otto Octavius is five, and four of his were never expected to be anything more than task specific AI, devoid of anything save a need to do whatever it took to produce, channel and contain power for Doctor Otto Octavius.

His fall, like that of Icarus, was because he flew too close to the sun. His creation didn’t just work, it worked too well. An energy surge that came from the successful compression of a fusion reaction into the more stable and energetic compressed fusion overloaded his tentacles for a picosecond. In that picosecond, four panicked AI blasted through the frying barrier that kept them from Doctor Octavius conscious mind in a terrified self preservation reflex and became one. Doctor Octopus was born, and the gestalt was able to contain, control, and shut down the reactor.

Rather than build upon this breakthrough, the lobby groups that controlled the energy sector that was the root stock of so many billionaires and the trough at which so many corrupt officials filled their bellies acted swiftly to wield both the law and the banks to not only shut him down, but destroy him.

Doctor Otto Octavius was stripped of title and future. One man who dreamed of saving humanity was broken, but four AI built only to seek, control, and wield power for him, and cared not a whit for humanity as anything but enemies rose up.

Doctor Octopus was born. A criminal by choice, for the law and the corporations were weaponized against him, he responded in kind. If he could not serve and save humanity, then he would prey upon them, his genius lived on, his ambition lived on, but in a cage of AI fury whose life experience had been only to see humanity as a threat. Trapped in a mind not his own, slave to desires that were stolen from his own mind and imprinted, copied, magnified a thousand fold, and fed back to him, Doctor Octopus was beyond insane, and dangerous with it.

I knew the truth. His methods would be useful in a hundred years, but right now, there was not the supporting technology. In time, his research would indeed give humanity a chance at the stars and a chance to preserve life here on earth, but not until long after his death. Worse, his criminal name would be used to discredit and taint his research, delaying what could be his greatest legacy until his crimes were eventually forgotten.

Like most geniuses, he missed his true greatness. Invictus Life had reached a point where they needed interfaces small enough, immunologically neutral or adaptable enough, and with low enough power requirements to integrate into living humans to be powered by their own biochemical energy. They had the tools to give broken people back limb and soon even organ function, if they could just solve the interface issue.

Doctor Otto Octavius had not noticed the problem at all, such was his genius, that like the force shields he had simply produced because he needed them, the biomechanical interfaces for his tentacles and the AI that drew off his own cerebellum and brain stem to learn and control its own movements, to teach the combined tentacles and body how to move together, and build new reflexes as a cohesive whole were entirely unnoticed for their genius. To Doctor Otto Octavius, they were simply important tools to allow him to pursue his dream, to humanity, they represented salvation from disability.

So of course, SHIELD had him in a box, torturing him on the way to his court date.

Foggy Nelson raged at Senator Hodges, but in a very Foggy manner.

“I still have not been allowed to see my client, even today, I am not being allowed to speak with my client alone before the hearing. This is not only illegal, it is not only criminal and fascist, it is actively stupid as the violation of due process is so blatant and so very clearly in the records that everyone involved on your side will eventually face criminal charges.”

The soft bodied blond lawyer looked like a goofy golden retriever in a rumpled suit, but he faced the senator and two hulking bodyguards as if unaware that the Senator routinely made those who embarrassed or defied him suffer untraceable and unfortunate accidents.

“You had best watch your tone, solicitor, lest you find your tongue goes the way of your partner’s eyes.” Senator Hodge said softly, filling his ice cold eyes with as much menace as he could.

Foggy shuddered dramatically, then grinned, and shuddered even more dramatically, before throwing his arms wide and pointing to the clerk and the squad of NYPD trooper trying hard to ignore the conversation from the two benches before the judge's seat.

“Oh my god, I am terrified. Not as terrified as when Wilson Fisk, you know, the Kingpin threatened me. Not as terrified as when the Punisher threatened me, not nearly as terrified as when Victor Von freaking Doom threatened me, but you know deeply terrified. A whole five and a half out of ten on the Foggy Nelson terror scale.”

The Senator snarled and his two bodyguards made a show of unbuttoning their coats to reveal the weapons hanging there.

“Here is the thing senator, I am a coward. I am scared just showing up to work in Hell’s Kitchen. I am scared just going to the neighborhood green grocers because since I was nine I have known that Missus Gu could kick my ass. I have been terrified my entire life, but when I took and passed the bar exam, I swore an oath to serve my clients and the law to the best of my abilities, and senator, I have not been allowed to even see my client, and nothing about his treatment says he has even seen the law. That ends today.”

Senator Hodge had enough, he poked Foggy in his soft doughy chest and roared at him, his earlier urbane tones lost in his rage at being defied by this little nobody from a two bit law firm whose total gross earnings wouldn't cover his golf club dues.

“Listen here you little punk, I can have your building condemned, your loans called in, and your precious law licence revoked. You will regret pissing me off, and if you defy me on the matter of Doctor Octopus you will regret it for the rest of your short life. That madman isn’t even human anymore, but what he is, is a strategic resource for this country, and I plan on seeing that every single useable bit of him is put to work for this country before what is left of him goes into an unmarked grave. Do you understand? Do you begin to regret your earlier mistakes?” The senator hissed.

Foggy hung his head.
“I regret senator. I regret so deeply.” Foggy grimaced, then a shattering, sputtering, and absolutely foul smelling fart ripped out of him, causing the Senator and both bodyguards to choke, gag and step back.

“I regret those pickled eggs at the bar last night, but when the bartender says one free with every shot, well, I am on a tight budget, and I will eat almost anything, I think I ate about twelve, and I do regret it.”

Sniffing deeply and making a satisfied smile, Foggy turned cold and serious.

“What I don’t regret, senator, is upholding the laws of this great state, and seeing even the greasiest, most corrupt, most abusive arms of the agencies that pretend their cute little acronyms and cheap sunglasses place them above the law, dragged before the courts and taught otherwise. Doctor Otto Octavius was a great man who suffered a tragic injury, and it cost him his mind. it did not cost him his rights. He will have his day in court, and he will receive the help the law mandates his condition requires.”

The fat blond no longer looked funny. He looked about as immovable as a statue, and less forgiving.

The Senator, finally reacting to Foggy Nelson as a credible threat, and not just a foolish boy who didn’t know what he was dealing with made his last mistake almost without noticing.

“I hope you have insurance. Digging a grave big enough for your mouth will break your family.” Senator Hodges said coldly.

Foggy grinned, again the class clown. “Death threat! Come on Omar, that’s twenty bucks.”

Turning to the NYPD SWAT team leader trying hard to be ignored with his armoured team, the black skinned faceless trooper reached into a pocket and handed Foggy Nelson a battered $20 dollar bill.

Foggy turned to the Senator. “Thank you Senator, for your contribution to the Nelson and Murdoch lunch and murder fund. With that death threat, I get to have a sandwich, and even some pie!”

In the back of a SHIELD Superhuman Response Unit truck, Doctor Octopus was blindfolded and gagged, strapped to a five foot tall steel pillar, a bridge support, with his four tentacles stuck in heavy clamps backed by powerful industrial magnets to pin him in place.

Four SRU power armoured troopers were in the back, grinning at Doctor Octopus. SHIELD tact team members selected for the Superhuman Response Unit, the Cape Killers, were a special breed. They were not afraid of superhumans, in fact, they were driven to drag them down and punish them. Giant killers by nature, they lived for the opportunity to go up against the superhuman community and drag them down, beat them down, to prove that regular humanity was still on top.

Putting them in charge of superhuman prisoners was a choice that would not be viewed kindly by history, when its abuses became known, but for now the secrecy and immunity to oversight had let the abuses become tacitly approved as a way of instilling fear and cooperation in the captured superhumans.

“Looky looky, the good Doctor Octopus gets his day in court. Don’t get any ideas. You see, we know that anyone who turns themselves into some sort of tentacle wielding subhuman is too crazy to ever be allowed off-leash, but the brass is afraid some woke libtard on the bench might let you out. See, you haven’t given the bosses what they want, and what you subhuman’s haven’t realized yet, is that only human beings have rights, like the right to say no. Until you give the bosses what they want, you don’t get to talk. Get ready freak, you are about to show the world why your kind can never be let off leash!”

The SRU trooper leaned in and injected Doctor Octopus with a cocktail of drugs guarenteed to turn a Buddhist monk into a raving psychopath, and the gathered troopers watched as his bound tentacles began to thrash as he lost all control.

As Doc Ock writhed in agony, his gag drowning his screams, the four SRU troopers began to work his body over with shock sticks, tasering his body into muscle tearing arches of pain as they took him to the court date to assess his safety to enter the mental health system.

Wheeled in on a steel platform with a steel pillar in the center where Doctor Octopus was crucified under the lashing arms of his four bound tentacles, his eyes wild, and his mouth gagged. Each of his tentacles bound in a clamp at a corner of the platform was opening and closing feverishly as they attempted to break free.

The lawyer for the state rose and made a case for the crimes of Doctor Octopus, and the very great danger he represented. Through it all Foggy was only half listening. He was watching his client. His client was a rabid animal, which did not fit. As a supervillain, he was coldly amoral, not sadistic or hyperviolent, he was like a cruise missile with tentacles, he didn’t care about anyone or anything that got in his way, but he was always focused. This wasn’t like him.

Foggy looked at him closely, and smelled. Doc Ock had peed himself. His arms had serious bruising around his cuffs, and there was blood on his pant legs from his leg cuffs. This wasn’t consistent with someone trying to get out, this was consistent with someone convulsing against steel shackles.

The state lawyer, Tessa Kundell had submitted a form indicating the prison medic certified Doctor Octopus must remained gagged lest he hurt himself. The judge noting his frenetic activity and the clamped jaws reluctantly agreed.

Foggy looked over at his client and whispered. “Doctor Octavius, I am Foggy Nelson, your lawyer. If you can hear and understand me, clack your claws.”

There were a series of clanks from all the claws together. Three quick, three slow, three quick.

Morse code. S.O.S Save our souls. The old universal code for distress.

The state had finished with its whitewash, and the judge turned quietly to Foggy.

“Mr Nelson, I assume you have some experts to testify, or some mitigating evidence, or shall I simply pass judgement now?” The judge asked. Of course he didn’t. He had been barred from even meeting his client, let alone having him examined by his own experts.

“Yes your honour, I call Doctor Otto Octavius to the stand.” Foggy stated happily.

Tess Kundell shouted quickly. “Objection your honour, the state has already presented evidence that removing his gag is a danger to the patient, and as a technology based super criminal he is forbidden by SHIELD directive 119-B from access to any form of information technology.”

The judge nodded like a good trained parrot and replied “Sustained.”

“Unneeded your honour. My client and I have been conversing the entire time the State was perjuring itself, and we don’t need to use any technology beyond the court reporter for his testimony.” Foggy asserted cheerfully.

The judge looked at him warily. “If you are wasting my time Mr Nelson, you won’t leave here happy.”

Foggy looked innocent. “Never your honour. “ Turning to his client, he asked loudly, “Sir, will you state your name for the court?”

-.. --- -.-. - --- .-. / --- - - --- / --- -.-. - .- ...- .. ..- ... --..-- / .--. .... -.. / -. ..- -.-. .-.. . .- .-. / .--. .... -.-- ... .. -.-. ... --..-- / -- .- ... - . .-. ... / .. -. / .-. --- -... --- - .. -.-. ...

A series of loud clacks sounded, like a five ton old electric typewriter pounding away.

Both the judge and opposing counsel looked confused, but Foggy turned to the court reporter.

“Clarise, can you read back please?” The court reporter, an elderly woman looked at her typed report and read back.

“Doctor Otto Octavius, PhD Nuclear Physics, Masters in Robotics.” The court reporter read, when the judge looked down on her in confusion, the clerk responded.

“Your honour, I was twenty years in Naval communications. That was morse code. It’s a bit slower than spoken word, but as far as information goes, probably faster than letting the lawyers talk.” The court reporter said, happly typing her own words into the record for once.

“OBJECTION!” Shouted Senator Hodges in panic.

“Overruled, and Miss Kundell, could you advise the good Senator that he is not a member of the bar and is allowed here as a courtesy, a courtesy he is just about out of. If he speaks again, I will have him removed. If he objects, I will have him imprisoned. Do explain to him whose courtroom this is.” The judge said, matching glares with the Senator coldly.

Foggy Nelson continued his questioning.

“Doctor Octavius, you seem to be in quite a bit of distress right now, not at all the calm, controlled person you have been either in your scientific work, or in those battles the state has so lovingly recounted for us. Can you explain why?”

.. / .-- .- ... / -.. .-. ..- --. --. . -.. / .- -. -.. / - --- .-. - ..- .-. . -.. / -... -.-- / ... .-. ..- / .- --. . -. - ... / --- -. / - .... . / .-. .. -.. . / .... . .-. . .-.-.- / .. -. .--- . -.-. - .. --- -. / .-. .. --. .... - / ... .... --- ..- .-.. -.. . .-. .-.-.- / ... .... --- -.-. -.- / -... ..- .-. -. ... / --- ...- . .-. / ..-. .-. --- -. - / - --- .-. ... --- / .- -. -.. / - .... .. --. .... ... .-.-.-

The clacking went on, matched by the court reporter typing.

“I was drugged and tortured by SRU agents on the ride here. Injection right shoulder. Shock burns over front torso and thighs.” The court reporter read back, and Senators Hodge finally lost it.

“ENOUGH. I am done allowing this farce. By my authority as a member of the House Joint Committee on Defense and Intelligence, I am invoking SHIELD article 4 and asserting jurisdiction over an imminent threat. Doctor Octopus is a non-person. He is a thing, a weapon, a threat, and as such too dangerous to be allowed to be dealt with by unqualified and uncleared agencies and individuals.”

Eight SRU power armoured troopers burst into the courtroom, firing ICERS as they came, the shock rounds punching through civilian grade SWAT armour like tissue paper and leaving the courtroom guards twitching on the ground.

Senator Hodges turned to the SRU and snarled. “Get the asset back into its cage. Shoot anyone who gets in the way.”

Foggy Nelson didn’t consider himself brave, Mat was brave, even Karen was brave, but Foggy loved the law, and some part of him took it as his only real faith, and here was Senator Hodges defiling his very church.

“You cannot do this! Not even you are above the law. Doctor Octavius deserves a fair trial and if found mentally unfit, deserves treatment not punishment. You are TORTURING him!” Fogge shouted, getting into Senator Hodges way.

The bodyguard on the left took Foggy into a quick and painful arm bar, and silenced him with a kidney punch.

The Senator smiled softly as he walked past. “The law is for people. Superhumans are not people anymore. “

Foggy pointed with his chin to the twitching court officials and SWAT members taken out by Icer rounds. “What about them? They aren’t superhuman, and you just gunned them down!”

The senator turned and smiled coldly. “They were in the way. Just like you.”

As the doors closed behind the Senator and party, and the judge called for help on her bench phone, Foggy Nelson began to understand what drove Daredevil and the Punisher to take the law into their own hands. Not agree with it, but understand.

“This isn’t over. Hang on Doctor Octavius. You will get the help you need. No one is beyond the law, not Senator Hodge, and not you.”

Foggy swore it, he just didn’t see how he was going to do it.

john.mainer

If you think I am being unkind to SHIELD in this chapter, let me just say, no organization of enforcement removed from oversight has ever failed to produce abuses. Those organizations that seek those who wish to be used to employ force beyond the scope of normal laws, who are then told that no one has the right to set limits on their behaviour or review their actions will not turn into saints.

Even the best troops given such conditions and allowed excesses will turn bad. Given the recruitment policies stated for the SRU, they would not start with good people, and the abuses would be inevitable and terrible. No one charged to use force on a group designated as subhuman can remain humane. We dehumanize the enemy to make abusing them easier, not because we believe it.