2011, New York.
I sat at my table, frustrated at the lack of results towards the new serum that my team was developing.
"Mr. Osborn, I know that you feel frustrated at the lack of results, but that does not mean that you can force us to do something that cannot be done"
I looked towards who stared sternly at me, no doubt thinking that I was rushing this team of researchers too much to work on the Human performance enhancer that I had secretly had them work on again in the last two years.
"...Fine, , when will it be ready?"
"I believe that I can complete the enhancer even without Richard's spider formula to stabilize it, but it will take at least five years to complete, that is the time that Norman does not have"
I sat back in my chair, feeling helpless as the only hope I had to save my father in this life was lost at his words. For all the powers of a Class 5 mutant, I was still as helpless as a baby in the face of reality.
Four years ago, Richard and Mary had a huge breakthrough in their research to develop a separate supersoldier serum created from his study of the mutated Spiders he had developed using the Performance Enhancer, but soon after he informed me and dad about his research, he was targetted by an unknown party for his serum.
I and Dad immediately arranged for the Parker couple to be relocated to a secure facility that no one but us and the Board of Directors knew of, but their plane was shot out of the sky en route to the location. Killing both Richard and Mary.
Soon, I and Dad had used all our resources to investigate what happened and stumbled upon the fact that there was a leak in our board of directors who worked for some mysterious organization we never managed to get a hold of, but we did manage to find out just what weapon was used to shoot out a private jet equipped with state of the art stealth tech created by Oscorp.
Stark weapons.
I do not know what this mysterious organization was, but now we knew for a fact that they had access to cutting edge Stark tech that can only be obtained by making direct deals with the leaders of the company, but since Stark Industries was not run by a board of directors, that meant that only the CEO could directly influence such a deal, Tony Stark.
Tony Stark was responsible for killing my mentor and his wife, leaving their son as an orphan who is now raised by his aunt and uncle.
Ever since then, I started to publicly decry Stark and his weapons trade, I was also responsible for spreading his nickname as the Merchant of Death. Even if I have to use every resource I had, I will make sure to drag the Stark name through the dirt for his part in destroying the Parker family.
This I swear on my name as Harry Osborn.
Soon after the funeral held for the Parker couple, another news came to me that threatened to break my will.
Dad had fallen ill due to a genetic disease, Retroviral Hypodyslasia.
A genetic disease that was carried by every child in the Osborn line and started acting up when the child reached the age of 20.
The experimental cure that Richard used to inject dad with for the past two decades was the only reason that he had not manifested the biggest symptoms of the disease. Now that Richard died, taking the experimental cure with him, the disease returned with a vengeance and caused dad to be bedridden.
Using this chance, the Board of Directors had tried to evict me and him from the company so that they could control Oscorp. Fortunately, Dad had already seen this coming and used a considerable amount of connections he had in many government and private sectors to buy up all the shares that were owned by theBoard of Directors, effectively making their attempts meaningless while also establishing me as the new CEO of the company.
My first act as a CEO was to fire the rest of the board while also having the mole, Maximilian Fargas, arrested for corporate espionage, the look on that wheelchaired bastard gave me some satisfaction, knowing that at least one of the conspirators of the deaths of Richard and Mary had been brought to justice.
Soon after, I had and the rest of the Genetics department work overtime on the Human Performance Enhancer, hoping to find a cure for Dad's condition.
The reason I did not have them working on any other method of cure was because of what I had found out about the disease.
Most of the family history before World War I was lost, but what we did manage to find was that this disease had existed ever since the Oscorp line was first established in the early1600s, and whoever was responsible for cursing my family line with this disease, most definitely had extensive knowledge about mutants, specifically, the X-gene.
This disease was created in such a way that it would lay dormant in the DNA of the host until such time that it was passed on enough to reach a host that had the X-gene in them, then it would activate the X-gene, making the host a mutant.
This disease is the reason why I still had my mutant power even after I was reborn, it was responsible for triggering the X-gene in this body which shared the exact same DNA as my precious body.
I believe that something may have interfered with the process of the gene trigger, forcing the disease to activate in every single Osborn child even without the X-gene, forcing them to undergo a mutation that they never even should have had in the first place, thus resulting in accelerated aging, scaly features on the skin and green pigmentation with the steady deterioration of eyesight, ultimately leading to an early death.
This is the true origin of the disease, Retroviral Hypodysplasia, the Osborn Curse.
This cannot be cured by regular means due to the fact that the disease is trying to trigger a specific set of the gene sequence that does not exist in the body of a normal human, leaving only one option available. To forcibly give the body the X-gene so that it can be triggered and repair the body to optimal condition.
And what better way to give the X-gene to someone that did not have it in the first place than to use a serum that forcefully evolves the body of the host by millions of years in a single hour?.
Unfortunately, this aspect of the Enhancer was something that Richard never put down on paper or any other notes, keeping it in his mind alone so that no one would misuse this serum to do harm to the world. Meaning that this serum was lost for good with his death
" Then what do you suggest we do ?" I asked tiredly.
The doctor's eyes shined with excitement as he walked towards the laptop near the end of the table and turned it towards me, showing me the presentation for a project dubbed. 'The Lizard Serum'
"This, , I think can cure Norman better than the Human Enhancer could. This serum used Cross-species genetics to give the user the ability to regenerate entire limbs once used, meaning that it can easily cure a genetic disease. Currently, I don't have enough funding to continue the project since it has not yet been authorized by Oscorp-"
"Do it, , I will grant you all the permissions required to continue this project, I want to see results for this as soon as possible" I interrupted him as his eyes shined in happiness before he took the laptop in his only had and left the room to head to work.
I knew that the serum developed by Connors will not work on dad, not unless it can replicate the same effect of forced evolution as that of the Performance enhancer, but at this point, I had no hope for curing dad so I am desperate enough to bet on anything to save him.
I was already an orphan in my previous live thanks to the Sentinels, I refuse to have the only family I have in this life be taken away by some kind of weird disease.
I was distracted from my thoughts as a knocking came from my door, revealing my assistant with an urgent expression on her face.
"Sir, we have received a recording of today's meeting at the Senate Armed Services Committee's Weaponised Suit Defence Program hearing"
I immediately opened the file forwarded to me by email, hoping to find some satisfaction in knowing that another one of the people responsible for killing Richard and Mary would face justice.
Instead, what I found was Tony Stark playing the corrupt senators and forcing them to let him go without any repercussions.
I barely held myself back from destroying the entire building by losing control of my powers.
This bastard, he only got away today because of the fact that he had created a powered suit that allowed him to do whatever he wanted and the Government wanted that suit for themselves.
If this is how our prosecution systems run, then fine, I will beat him at his own game.
I will use an inferior suit to his own to completely destroy his image in the public.
I immediately took off towards the restricted section of the company through my private elevator.
If the Law will not bring justice for my friend, then I will do it myself.
As I walked through the restricted section of the company which housed many prototype weapon systems and military projects, my eyes landed on one particular suit locked up in one of the older vaults that had not been opened in years.
The Horizon Project.
The exoskeleton suit was designed to enhance the strength, speed, and durability of the user along with monitoring their vitals using a state of the art virtual intelligence. The concept was that if the user of the suit was in critical danger, the suit would release and experimental bio-foam to contain the injuries and stabilize them enough to rush them to a hospital, reducing casualties in a war significantly. It also had direct neural connections to the user's nerve cluster at the back of their skull, allowing for the user to control the suit as if it were a part of their own body, making them even more effective on the battlefield.
The Suit also came with a Glider unit that allowed for flight at impressive speeds while also carrying the weapons built specifically for it to carry, allowing for maximum versatility.
Unfortunately, the funding on the suit was stopped when General Ross had shut down the Human Performance Enhancer which was supposed to be taken by the user of the suit before it was used. Because of the burden placed on the user by the suit, any human that was not enhanced would be dead in a matter of minutes using the suit.
When Stark had announced himself as Iron Man last year, I had wanted to restart the Horizon Project, but compared to the things that Stark's suits were capable of, the Horizon Project only held the advantage of neural command, nothing else. Thus I left the project as-is.
Looking towards a partial vial of chemicals kept near the suit, I contemplated my next action.
"I guess I will have to find out if the serum is indeed capable of turning me, a Class 5 mutant, insane"
I walked towards the control panel near the vault and put my fingers on it.
FINGERPRINT SCAN CONFIRMED.
WELCOME MR. OSBORN
PRIMARY VAULT SEAL RELEASED
HORIZON SUIT- OPERATIONAL
HORIZON GLIDER- OPERATIONAL
Generalized Operations and Battlefield Logistics management Intelligence Network (G.O.B.L.I.N) V.I system- OPERATIONAL.
HUMAN PERFORMANCE ENHANCER-100%
I slowly walked towards the enhancer, taking it out of the injector and placing the vial of liquid in it.
"Tony Stark, you think you are invincible and above the law just because you built a power suit in a cave, then I will show you that you are not so special, I will show you the brilliance of Oscorp science and defeat you using an inferior powered suit, I will not use my mutant powers to defeat you, I will only use the Serum created by my father and the suit designed by the best researchers in Oscorp over twenty years ago, I will not kill you, but I will make people see you for who you really are, Merchant of Death"
I pressed the trigger on the injector as the serum entered my body.
And on this day, A Goblin was born.
Author Notes:
Okay, so before you guys send me questions about the MC's motives, I will make some things clear.
Harry does not want to kill Stark, he wants to show the world the 'True' face of Tony Stark as the Merchant of Death.
This is because Harry does not know the fact that the black market deals which caused Stark weapons to be sold to terrorists were not done by Tony but his former partner Obadiah Stane, and since Tony does not know about the incident where the Parker couple was killed by Stark weapons, he did not clear this misunderstanding with Harry who thinks that he was the one who sold the weapons to the mysterious organization who used them to kill the Parker couple.
You could say that Harry's revenge against Tony is due to a massive misunderstanding between the two of them. And this understanding will lead to a massive clusterf*ck of a situation in the next chapter.
And also, for those who have already deduced where I am going with the Osborn disease, congratulations. For those who have not yet deduced it, I will explain it in the future chapters.