Chapter 1
T was busy collecting himself at his desk chair. His hands were anchored to his knees, breath heaving, with sweat gathering on his skin. He had escaped the other universe intact. It was a surprisingly easy process. Were it not for the adrenaline, he would have been worried about how easy it was. Here his target was: shrunk down to the size of a mouse in a large tank. He was sedated with a tranquilizer. He thought about how cute his new pet looked. So serene. T knew he wouldn't be serene when he woke up.
He has about an hour before his little pet wakes up. He wonders if he should go out to get his other target too, but figured he should stay in case his pet woke up early and freaked out.
T eventually caught his breath and went over to the mini fridge in the corner of the dimly lit basement room. He took out a bottle of water and downed nearly half of its contents. The cold temperature of the water started to ground him. Well, there's no changing what's been done now. He planned extensively up until this moment, a little overwhelmed with what to do next. After a long pause from spacing out, he decided to sit and stare at the creature asleep in the doll-sized bed. A feeling of unsureness crept its way inside him.
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Norman woke up with a gasp. Another nightmare. He'd been having a lot of them. He was under a lot of stress lately. He dreamed he was finally beating Spider-man--Peter Parker. He groaned and held his head, pulling off blankets. He glanced at the green flight suit still on him. The Goblin. At least he managed to get us into a bed this time. Although, he didn't recognize these covers. Anxiety immediately found its way to him. He was getting sick of this. He wasn't sure if there was anything that could be done. He couldn't get over the feeling of hopelessness.
He looked around. He didn't recognize his surroundings at all. A dark wooden desk with a lamp was on one side of the room, contrasted against light beige wall paint. On the wall parallel to the bed was a door with a tall mirror hanging on it. Next to the bedside table was another door, which he assumed was the bathroom. And to his right was... No wall. He got off of the bed and slowly went to peer off the side where there was no wall. It seemed like he was in a house that was cut completely in half. He was on the second story, he thought. Maybe there was a set of stairs past the bedroom door.
"Norman, where the hell are we?"
Goblin was around. He didn't know either...? Norman grimaced. He suddenly felt sick.
"Goblin, if this is some kind of sick joke, stop for fuck's sake."
"I'm not lying to you, Osborn. Christ. C'mon. Let's go down. I'm going to take the front just in case."
The Goblin tried searching for his bombs. None. There was nothing in here that could be too helpful, other than the lamp on the desk. He unplugged it and took it with him. At least they still had the majority of the flight suit. He tried to be relatively stealthy moving about. He opened the bedroom door. There was a hallway and of course the stairs down to the first floor. He decided to go down the spiral staircase.
'It wasn't a dream. I was just about to end the spider's life when someone showed up and shot a weird gun at me.'
He didn't hear Norman respond but he could feel his anxiety. He pushed on. At the end of the stairs, there was a large open kitchen connected to a living room space. There was no one else there. There was still a missing wall. He went towards the kitchen to search for a knife.
"You're awake." A booming voice startled the man.
Goblin turned. Beyond the house was a lawn of seemingly fake grass until it met the end of a glass wall. Beyond the glass wall, he saw an incredible giant of a person. They were eye-level with the cage.
"Where am I and who are you? You're the one who shot me, aren't you."
"Mm, right. Good questions. Hold on," the giant being shoved what looked like the last of a morsel of cookie in their mouth and soon swallowed. "didn't expect you to recover so fast. Glad I decided to stay to check up on you. You are in my lab, Dr. Osborn. As for me, you may call me Dr. T. Technically, I'm a God from a different universe. I brought you here to be my pet. I shot you with a little mixture I've concocted. Oh, an' then I shrunk you."
"You're no God from a different universe. Give me proof. You're just blackmailing me for money, aren't you? Clearly, you know my name."
Goblin was unsure how to approach this situation. It was obvious they weren't kidding about making him a pet. He was in a cage. And this talk of being a God? God didn't exist. It was more than likely just words.
"Your money? Yeah, I know you, more than you do yourself with some things, even. That doesn't mean I want or need your money. I'm being genuine. You're going to be my pet until you die. And you'll understand as soon as I get your buddy. Are you hungry? Thirsty?"
He was but that wasn't the priority when they woke up. The threat of being a pet until he died was both shocking and humiliating. What was this about a buddy?
"I'm not ingesting a single thing you give me. So let me out or I'll rot and then there won't be a 'pet'."
"You're seriously going to be like that? Under normal conditions, I think I heard humans can usually live about 3 days without water. This isn't normal conditions though. With your powers as well as being shrunk, I'm curious to see if that affects anything. If you do want some water though, I rigged your home to have actual working sinks. There are cups in the cupboard behind you. Oh, and the bathrooms are fully functional as well. Try to behave yourself while I'm gone getting your equivalent of a certain Dr. Octavius. If my testing is correct, it'll take no more than an hour."
The man so-called Dr. T pulled out a gun-like machine from one of his lab coat's pockets. He inspected it before pressing buttons into it and shooting it at the ground. He leaped into a shimmering pool of light as if there was no ground below it.
"Did he just say Octavius?"