MAXIMUM CARNAGE! Part 2 - The Devil's Deal With Another Devil
An unknown force had taken over Midtown High School. The reporters, police, and SWAT teams arrived quickly but were unable to break through the red cords that sealed every exit. Nobody could get in or out of the building, and an unspecified number of people were trapped inside. Calls to their cell phones received no reply.
All this was reported on the news. Norman Osborn was watching it on the computer in his office.
"This is terrible," Norman said in a monotone voice. The security man Hector Jones stood patiently behind him.
The field reporter used a great many words to express that they really had no info to work with. Norman shut the screen off. He already knew more than anybody. He knew everything.
"Call those what's-their-names scientists - Spider-Man's friends," Norman instructed.
Norman Osborn walked through the hallway. Backyard and Quarter kept pace with their boss, just a foot behind him.
"'The mind is the ultimate black box no one can look into.'"
"Sir?"
"That's something Carnage told me the first time we met," he answered. "Neurologists can study the physical brain, but the mind is just barely out of our reach."
"By 'first time,' you mean you met Carnage before the break-in?" Quarter asked.
The trio entered a lab - the same lab Carnage broke into not too long ago. They arrived at the door to the vault where Protoform X used to be stored.
Norman turned to his employees. "You asked me before how it was possible to fix the failed Protoform X, remember?"
Backyard and Quarter both nodded.
"The answer is simple: It's because Carnage helped me complete it."
That was one of the last answers they would have expected, and it showed on their faces.
Norman opened the vault. The glass case was still broken. No one had even bothered to clean the mess on the floor.
"But isn't Carnage just a teenager?" Quarter asked. "He couldn't possibly know how to do such advanced technical work."
"He didn't need to."
Norman began to explain. "I first met Carnage many weeks ago. Out of the blue, a young boy walked into Oscorp's lobby and audaciously demanded to see the boss. This was back when he lived in New Jersey - He made the trip by himself just to see me. I was curious, so I invited him up to my office. It seems he heard rumors about the incomplete Protoform X being worked on in Oscorp. Since you made a similar one, you must know how the bio-suits work... The B.C.I."
From their physical appearance, the bio-suits were just goo. They didn't have buttons or switches or touch-screens, so how did they work? How did Spidey make his suit invisible when not in use, and how did Carnage stretch his arms into spikes? The answer was B.C.I. - Brain-Computer Interface. While a person was wearing a bio-suit, it connected to their nervous systems and responded directly to their thoughts. Spidey and Carnage's minds controlled their costumes just like any other body part.
"Carnage told me about who he was, his multiple personalities, and his obsessive desire to erase Cletus Kasady. He thought a B.C.I. - a machine that connected to a person's brain - was his best chance of doing this.
"He made a proposal. I would use all of my scientific wizardry to create a weapon that can destroy his other personality. And in exchange... Carnage would give me himself, as a human lab rat!"
Backyard and Quarter flinched, but Norman didn't look at all uncomfortable.
"The government forced Oscorp to stop its human experimentations. But even before then, it was nearly impossible to get test subjects to cooperate. After all, who would be crazy enough to not resist such dangerous, unpredictable tests? But Carnage was different! He did more than cooperate - he wanted to be experimented on! He didn't care about the risks! That was how desperately he wanted to destroy Cletus. And even if he had a bad reaction, it'd still be okay with him because he'd be sharing the pain with Cletus.
"So, keeping my identity hidden, I pulled some strings and got his mom a nice job offer here in New York. She never knew what was really going on, of course. Once they finished moving, Carnage was coming here several days a week for his secret part-time job as a human guinea pig."
"Uh, sir..." Backyard spoke up. "What kind of tests were these, exactly...?"
Norman looked him directly in the eye and answered, "Open-brain surgery... obviously."
He continued, apparently oblivious to his employees' reactions. "The brain functions by sending electrical signals over synapses. Motor skills, the five senses, and even emotions each correspond to a signal in a specific part of the brain. If we observe this process close-up, it is theoretically possible to learn how the brain forms certain thoughts. Carnage hoped that we could see where 'he' ended and 'Cletus' began, and then deactivate Cletus' parts of the brain."
"Exploratory surgery on a minor's brain?!" Quarter cried. "That's totally illegal! You said so yourself!"
"But how could I resist an opportunity like this? This was a chance to look deeper into the black box than anyone has ever seen before!" He grinned. "Neurology... Psychology... Genetic determinism... Anthroposophy... Even spirituality and A.I. engineering...! Thanks to what we learned from Carnage, research in all these fields jumped forward by lightyears! We're on our way to creating a brand new brain from nothing!"
Norman stopped smiling. "And using what we learned, we completed the B.C.I. and Protoform X... That's when Carnage set up the hostage situation downtown. I revoked his access to the lab the instant I found out. But he just broke in and stole the suit. Well, 'steal' isn't the right word - It was made for him, after all."
He turned to his assistants. "I made a horrible miscalculation. I underestimated how much Carnage enjoys being a 'supervillain.' With or without the suit, I wouldn't want him to use his body full-time. But I don't have the luxury of shirking my end of the bargain. Not now that he's taken hostages again."
Hector Jones entered the vault. He wordlessly handed a tiny device to Quarter. One side had a L.C.D. screen and a single button. The other side had short metal prongs; the gadget would stick into skin if pressed hard enough.
"Is this the 'weapon' that'll erase Cletus?" Quarter asked, examining the device in her palm.
"Protoform X is the real weapon. This is just the trigger," Norman answered. "Carnage called it a 'brain pedometer.' I gave it to him so it could measure his brainwaves when he was out of the labs, for a little extra data. And he left it back here when he stole Protoform X. I've modified it to become the catalyst... Sort of like a software upgrade pack.
"All you have to do is attach that to the base of the subject's skull, over the bio-suit, and press the button. Then the suit will intensify the connection to the subject's brain. It'll target neurons that control memories, emotions, everything that makes up a 'personality.' Protoform X will imprint itself onto those parts of the brain... and shut them down, leaving everything else untouched. The deletion of one, and only one alter, exactly as Carnage requested."
"Is that really possible?" Backyard asked.
Norman chuckled. "We're Oscorp. We make the impossible possible all the time... That being said, while connecting a human's soul to a computer is common in science fiction, there's no precedent for it in reality. It should work, but we can't be certain until we see the final result... Yes, it'll be a very interesting experiment."
He held up a hand. "One more thing... And this is something I already explained to Carnage, back when it was still in development, but... This method can only delete the personality that's connected to Protoform X. Meaning the personality that's 'awake.' If he wants to destroy Cletus, it can only be done when Cletus is awake and controlling the suit."
"So then," Backyard said, "If we use the device when Carnage is awake, it'll destroy him instead and solve all our problems, won't it?"
"Indeed!" Norman nodded enthusiastically. "Erase Carnage but leave Cletus unharmed. That would be the perfect solution! However... Carnage knows this better than anyone. He definitely won't make it easy for you."
Norman turned away from the others. "Give that device to Spider-Man and tell him everything I've told you... He'll know what to do."
Backyard and Quarter ran out of the room, leaving only Norman and Hector.
"A very interesting experiment..."
To be continued...
Author's Notes: (9/25/2013) This should have been up much sooner. Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, we see the return of Kougami!Osborn. And if anyone's still interested, the name of his assistant, Hector Jones, comes from the TV series "Spider-Man: Unlimited." He was strongly implied to be the secret identity of Counter-Earth's Green Goblin.
Disclaimer: I still do not own "Kamen Rider OOO" or "Spider-Man: Unlimited."