078

May 8, 2010.

It had been just over three months since the meeting of the most prestigious business and scientific leaders had taken place at Stark Industries Headquarters. At the same time, exactly the same amount of time had passed since Norman had obtained the Pym Particle information.

Currently, Osborn was in his personal laboratory in the Oscorp building, because during all this time he had continued to research the Oz Serum. Norman had found several curiosities about the Serum in his research.

On a completely theoretical point, the Oz Serum was developed in such a way that it is very similar to the versions he remembered from the comics.

He had tried to carry out certain experiments with different animals as well as spiders, however most of them died immediately when they were injected with a minuscule amount of Oz and those that didn't did not show any change and for that reason they were a complete failure.

At the same time he tried it with a few human beings, gang members to be exact, after all they die almost daily in confrontations, so a few missing ones would not raise any suspicion. Anyway, the results were basically the same, once they were injected by the Oz Serum they would start convulsing and after a few seconds they would die.

At that point, Norman was completely frustrated with his research, since no matter what he did, none of the experimental subjects could live longer than 5 minutes after the Oz injection.

At least that was until he extracted some of the poison that 01 generated, his reasoning had mainly to do with the fact that being one of the only two successful experimental subjects 01's body had almost completely assimilated the Oz Serum.

The results, although they were not a radical change, undoubtedly showed a small progress. Since that time a percentage of the experimental subjects were able to live beyond the injection.

The greatest progress was undoubtedly in the case of human beings were, in addition to increasing the chances of survival after the injection, certain characteristics that a normal human being should not have begun to appear.

However, it seemed that Norman could never get things easy, since the Oz Serum had a fatal flaw, or at least the one that was synthesized by 01. This was because it had a certain addictive property.

This meant that the experimental subjects had to be constantly injected or exposed to Oz. If this did not happen, they began to experience a feeling of massive weakness and hallucinations, which caused both their physical and mental state to become completely deplorable.

In other cases the experimental subjects would go completely insane and adopt a violent and erratic attitude demanding Oz like a drug. Seeing such results, Norman took a decisive step and eliminated all the experimental subjects, making sure it was permanent.

It may have been a hasty decision, but Norman made it because he would not want to regret not taking a preventive measure against a possible situation that could escalate into a major problem very quickly.

Since that time, Norman had focused on finding a solution to the addictive property Oz possessed. He had had some degree of success, but had not been able to eliminate it completely, although he could sense that he was close to finding his answer.

While Norman was patiently waiting for Oz's reaction to certain chemicals, he reached into one of the pockets of his lab coat and picked up a small pocket watch, the same one Felicia had given him.

After a brief glance Osborn realized that it would soon be time to go home anyway, once the results of the reaction could be seen he would be done with his work.

So, Norman waited for a while until he got a reaction from the Oz serum before he completely memorized the data and started to leave the laboratory, but not before activating the laboratory's security mechanism.

…

Once Osborn left Oscorp's building, he headed straight towards his home. His thoughts were still related to the Oz Serum, a thousand and one questions crossed his mind at a rapid pace.

In the end, no matter how many questions he had, he knew he would have no answers, at least not for the time being. After a quick trip, the Oscorp founder arrived at his destination, the Osborn Mansion.

As he got out of his car, he began to move slowly towards the main entrance of his home and continued in the same manner through the long corridors of the house. Once he was near the living room, he began to hear a faint classical melody.

Once Norman entered the living room he noticed a strange situation, "It's strange to see you with a book in your hands" commented Osborn towards the young white-haired girl whose presence in his home was becoming more and more normal as time went by.

Felicia just shrugged her shoulders at Norman's words, "Lately she has been gaining popularity among women and even men of my age, I was just curious as to why it was so popular" she commented explaining her action.

Norman moved a little closer towards her and took a seat next to her, "So what's your verdict?" he asked, he had reached a point in his relationship with Felicia where he could take the liberty to act like someone completely normal.

"It's average I guess" she replied quickly, "I mean it's not something innovative it's simply the typical love story between two completely different characters, I can see why it's popular, but in the end it's not something that's to my taste" she added taking some time to think about her words.

After saying that, Felicia started ranting about all the things she found wrong with the book and the plot of the book. Having nothing to do, Norman simply listened to her, although most of the time he didn't understand what she was referring to.

After a while the young white-haired girl finished talking and felt her throat dry, so she got up from her seat and headed towards the couches in the living room where there was a small mini fridge that kept juices, water and a small amount of candy.

After drinking some water Felicia returned to her seat as she looked at Norman, a small trace of hesitation crossed her eyes and after a few seconds she lowered her head, something that was an unusual attitude for her.

"What do you want to tell me?" asked Osborn softly as he saw Felicia's unusual reaction.

"Harry's birthday is coming up" after giving a brief sigh, Felicia said, "Do you have some kind of plan?" she asked, her voice extremely soft, almost as if she feared Norman would react in a bad way.

Osborn just remained silent for a few seconds, "I've never been in charge of planning a birthday" he commented shortly in a neutral manner without really showing any kind of reaction, either positive or negative.

Felicia was attentive to Norman's reaction and seeing that he didn't immediately reject the topic she knew it was okay to continue the conversation even though she couldn't be completely confident, after all this topic could be very delicate for Norman.

"How about planning it together? Of course, we'll ask Harry his opinion, but this way if something goes wrong at least we can split the blame between the two of us" she spoke with conviction and slight hope along with a hidden feeling of fear at the possibility of being rejected.

"Besides, I am sure that things that exceed our planning capacity will be solved by Bernard" she added with a smile, trying to lighten the atmosphere around them a little.

For a few seconds there was no sound from either person, both pairs of eyes stared at each other, her turquoise eyes showing overwhelming sincerity as they looked into his indifferent green eyes.

"It's okay" two only words came out of Norman's mouth, two only words that meant everything to Felicia and ended up making the most beautiful and sincere smile she had ever made in her life form on her beautiful face.

A smile so beautiful that it was able to leave Norman Osborn almost completely stunned.

…

Norman was currently in The Shelter, a day had passed since he and Felicia had started planning his son's birthday party, for the moment the project was in its initial phase because they needed Harry's opinions.

Although for the moment Osborn's thoughts were focused on something else, in his gaze was reflected the training room of the building, unlike a few months ago where it was practically empty most of the time now it was completely the opposite.

After a considerable time, Bucky had accomplished the mission Norman had given him to find potential recruits. They were all men and women who at some point in their lives had served in one of the country's defense forces.

They were people who were willing to sacrifice their lives without any hesitation, however, once they could no longer adequately perform their job they were completely abandoned.

As Norman had instructed him, Bucky managed to find people who lost everything because of the injuries and wounds that had been inflicted on their bodies due to their duty and who were subsequently forgotten by the country for which they had sacrificed so much.

What Norman was doing was extremely similar to what Killian had been trying to do since the founding of A.I.M. which he would have succeeded in doing if Norman had not taken action against him.

Of course, the similarities ended with that fact, as Norman had no plans to try to take over the country as Killian would have done in the future. The people he had recruited would serve as a shield for his various businesses and for his family.

The current number of recruits exceeded 100 people exactly 116, which while in the future might be a relatively low number at the moment was more than enough.

The 116 people had been injected with Extremis after having proven their conviction and loyalty, of course Norman had some surprise in waiting if at any time any of them dared to betray him. Since, although it might be unlikely, it was not impossible.

Overall, Norman was almost certain that he had one of the most powerful group forces in all of New York, the only reason he didn't directly award himself first place was because he was almost completely unaware of the power of The Hand's ninjas.

Norman's eyes strayed to where a blonde woman was having a fight against three men almost twice her height and body mass, no matter where one looked most people would think that fight was unfair.

That kind of thinking would be correct, but the actual fight was unfair to the three men who were being beaten almost one-sidedly, and though they tried to seek retaliation they could not get it.

Norman's line of thinking ended when he felt the man known as the winter soldier approach him. Bucky only moved to Norman's side, but at the same time left some distance between the two, clearly showing the positions of both.

"She looks like she's having fun" Bucky mentioned as he saw Yelena fighting three of the newest recruits.

"Yeah, she seems to be" Norman nodded at the Barnes' statement as he spoke words of confirmation.

"How's your progress with your little list going?" asked Norman after a few seconds of silence between the two, the list he was referring to was one that contained names of people he had in some way or another harmed or helped when he was under HYDRA control.

His goal basically was to try to somehow make up for all the mistakes he had made in that time span. Norman thought there was no need to do that, after all he was under mental control, but if that way Bucky got some peace of mind then he had nothing to say.

In the end Norman had given Bucky a large degree of freedom and as long as he accomplished his missions and that freedom never risked Norman's interests then Barnes could live his life as he thought best.

"It's not good, but it's not bad either, I just do what I can," Bucky revealed after a little debate with himself.

Just like that, a conversation began between two men of few words, at least until a loud bang was heard throughout the training room. Both men brought their gaze to the source of the sound, only to see how Yelena had subdued the last of the three men.

The former Russian spy paid no attention whatsoever to any of the three men she had just defeated, and her attention was focused on the two men who had been chatting just seconds before.

Her gaze focused on the man who was considered a living legend, "Come here" her tone of voice did not waver and instead held a strong conviction.

Bucky just looked at Norman waiting for his orders Osborn nodded his head, "Don't hold back" he mentioned and at the same time Barnes headed towards where Yelena was Norman turned around and started to walk out of the training room.

He already knew who the victorious person would be anyway, so he had no need or interest in watching their fight. Instead, it was much better to do something more productive, with that kind of thinking Norman headed towards his personal laboratory.

…

Norman was in his personal laboratory, his gaze completely focused on a circular structure in the middle of the room where a small mouse was located.

Norman's gaze shifted to a tablet in his hand before typing for a few seconds.

Then a kind of mechanical arm was placed just above the mouse, Osborn just pressed his tablet again and almost instantly a kind of lightning came out of the mechanical arm and hit the mouse directly.

There was no sound, and in Norman's eyes there was only a slight feeling of disappointment before he shook his head and began to write on his Tablet about what had happened.

The Pym Particles research had managed to represent a great challenge in these months, so far Osborn had managed to succeed when it came to inorganic matter, but organic matter was completely different.

Things just weren't getting any better, when it came to the Pym Particles their fucking behavior was complete chaos, even when Norman had managed to have a small success in his research he couldn't say that he fully understood how the particles worked and the science behind them.

So far, he knew that Pym Particles could shrink or enlarge an object, so how could they do that? The science completely filled out those details.

Time passed quickly and Norman had spent most of his day confined in the laboratory, yet there was no sign of fatigue on his face, because at the end of it all it was a small price to pay.

Norman was writing up the results of the day's experiments, however, there was a feeling of frustration, he knew his current progress was not bad, but at the same time he did not think it was good.

Various scenarios to speed up his research began to run through his mind, stealing information from Cross again was a big no-no, as he was sure he currently had more advanced information than the team of scientists working for Cross.

Stealing from Hank Pym would be a difficult thing to do, but not impossible, but to do it then he would have to do it personally, as he doubted any of his subordinates could carry out that mission successfully.

Before Norman's thoughts could deepen, a loud sound began to be heard from the monitors in the room. Quickly, Osborn looked up at the monitors, only to immediately disappear from the room.

Norman quickly used his teleportation to appear in the command room, once he appeared he noticed that Forge was already in the room, so he deduced that he had been in the command room long before.

"The tracker you gave was activated" Forge mentioned immediately as the world map was displayed on one of the monitors.

Osborn didn't mention anything and simply centered his gaze on the location where the tracker he had long ago given Betsy was activated.

"Argentina" he mentioned in a low voice as he saw the country where she was. What are you doing in Argentina? The question immediately popped into Norman's mind.

"What are you going to do?" asked Forge, he knew the relationship his boss had with the woman who found him was somewhat unusual, but the fact that he had given her a tracker must have been a sign that Norman held her in high regard.

Osborn didn't respond for a few seconds, he knew the situation Betsy was in was dangerous, otherwise she would never have used the tracker. It also meant that whatever had happened was beyond Ducard's reach and possibly was related to mutants.

The situation was a double-edged sword and Norman had little or none of the information, and that was something he has never liked. While Osborn was having these thoughts, the dot on the map disappeared completely.

Forge quickly tried to regain the connection again, but there was no success at all, that could mean many things, none of them were good.

Norman closed his eyes for a few seconds, thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of the two courses of action he could take. When he opened his eyes again, he had already made his decision.