Orphic | Spider-Man

TWENTY-THREE

 SOMETHING WAS NAGGING at Octavia. Something Peter had said.
      Vee, you're doing it again. Peter had said. You had reason to disappear.
      But Peter wasn't the only one who had told her that. There was someone else who said the same thing to her. And she hadn't yet told Peter that Otto had done all of this himself without consulting her. So how did Peter know? Because the only other person she had told all of this to was-- 

      "--Spider-Man!" 
      Octavia jumped awake at the volume of the TV. She had crashed on the couch after coming back to her secret new loft apartment to stay out of the public's eye. The remote was underneath her arm, and she shifted when she slept, so it was her fault for scaring herself awake. And who better to be on the TV talking about Spider-Man, but J. Jonah Jameson himself. 
      "Jesus Christ," Octavia muttered, picking up the remote and during down the volume. She adjusted herself on the couch, fixing her numb legs so instead of lying on her stomach, she laid on her back. Her waistband with the actuators were on the floor in front of the couch. She fixed her long sleeves of her shirt, rolling them back down and fixing the different risen pant legs of her sweats. While she fixed herself, the Jameson was going off in the background on the TV. 
      "Perhaps Spider-Man is finally taking a break, or stepping down from his role as New York's vigilante and allowing Octavius to take the reigns. Look at the videos! She's done more work than him already but putting more Mambas in jail than he has, and she has no powers--this girl uses the robotics attached to her back. I'll say this pro: she's a walking, crawling, eight-limbed mechanical advertisement for Oscorp, and I bet they'll stay as the leading company against their other competitors!" 
      "Wow." Octavia told herself. "Jameson is actually saying some pretty nice things. Crazy." 

      Footsteps came from behind, way back behind the couch where the loft rounded into the kitchen. She knew it was Otto by the way he immediately went for the coffee, the scent spreading around the loft. Octavia stayed quiet as she listened to Otto's footsteps as they walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, rounding near the couch. The footsteps stopped when Otto noticed that the TV was on. He looked down to finally see Octavia. 
      "What are you doing out here?" he asked, holding a mug of coffee. 
      Octavia's green eyes looked up at her father. "I slept here." 
      Otto turned and sat in the arm chair next to the couch while giving Octavia a baffled look. "Why? It's not good for your back." 
      Octavia bit her tongue to keep herself from saying something like, Well, only 50% of my back works anyways, or, Neither is getting shot in the spine, but look where we are! She rolled her eyes and stayed quiet. 
      Otto scoffed seeing Jameson on the screen. "Why are you watching this? You hate him." 
      "There was a movie playing on another channel, I must've hit some buttons while I slept." she watched as Jameson was riffing on Spider-Man yet again. "Jameson just called me a 'mechanical advertisement for Oscorp.' Maybe when I finally see what you've created for me at Oscorp, you can mass produce machines to help paraplegics and people with muscle atrophy." 
      Otto nodded and hummed as he sipped his coffee. "Good, because you're coming with me to work today." 
      Octavia pushed herself up on the couch, and turned her chest around to face Otto. "Are you seriously going to babysit me?" 
      Otto shook his head. "No, but you'll be in my office doing your schoolwork." 
      Octavia shrugged, looking as if she didn't care. "Sounds fine to me." 
      "You'll be in a wheelchair." 

      Octavia's brows furrowed and her jaw dropped. "Jesus, Dad, I'm not going to go looking for trouble. I've been told enough to stop doing that. You're taking away my will to walk!" 
      "I remember you arguing that in order to feel normal again, you wanted a wheelchair." 
      Octavia rolled her eyes at her father and turned back on the couch. Just do it, she thought. Whatever will make him happy again and get off your back so you can help Spidey. 
      She huffed. "Fine."