7 The Merchant of Death

It has been almost a year since the death of Norman Osborn, and a lot has changed. Ownership of Oscorp immediately went to me and Oscorp as a business was never more successful with the sale of the Achilles Armor to the United States Military.

Yes I named the armor the Achilles Armor. What can I say, I was a History buff in my past life.

Spider-Man took my offer to borrow Oscorp's Facilities to upgrade his spandex to something a bit more durable. That's where I came in to help. Using a mesh weave of the Adamantine, I was able to remake his suit. Visually it looks almost the exact same, just a bit thicker than spandex. This mesh weave isn't quite as durable as the plates of armor the Military is using, but it is definitely able to protect him from stray bullets…

Now that I think about it, I should see if the local NYPD could use this…

"Fred, I came up with an idea. You remember the Adamantine Mesh I came up with last week? See if you can make a police uniform out of it."

"Yes sir."

Fred was my lead scientist; he was currently in charge of everything I do with the Adamantine. I gave him ideas and he made them happen.

Anyway, I was able to input into Spider-Man's mask a similar HUD to mine that connected him to police scanners and connected him to my facial recognition software, the main difference was where mine was reliant on either voice recognition or pressing a button on my suit, his was entirely voice activated. On the bright side, it only worked with his voice and while the mask was on. If it was anyone other than him wearing the mask, it wouldn't work. Another thing I helped him add was the lenses had the ability to darken, acting like sunglasses or let in more light.

But my all-time favorite thing was the utility belt. So I am a Batman fan, I can't help it.

His Spider-Belt actually is stored under his shirt, it holds extra web cartridges, some basic first aid, and some trackers that are connected to his suit's HUD so he can track them. Not much, but as he grows more experienced, he can add more or remove some stuff from it.

So essentially we end up with a suit that looks like the average Spider-Man suit, but much more durable, he doesn't have to worry about running out of web, and he can track bad guys all over the city.

Your welcome world.

Another thing we tweaked was his web. While an incredible mixture of house hold chemicals, we decided that as a weapon, it was severely lacking.

In messing with his web, I didn't help much, just gave him a few ideas like a web grenade, Taser web, stuff like that that he could switch with a small dial on his web shooters.

I was however able to take a look at his web, and I had to admit… It was impressive, the Tensile strength was off the charts, if I had a strand of this stuff, I could pull a passenger plane across the runway without the web even straining. It is truly incredible.

After upgrading his suit, we quickly became the good and bad vigilantes of New York, Spider-Man was the happy go lucky Boy Scout wearing red and blue, while I was the dark and terrifying one wearing body armor.

The Daily Bugle quickly started calling us villains and claimed that my Goblin motif proved I was working with or for the original Green Goblin, either that or I was taking his place as a villain because the original was killed.

Despite J. J. Jameson being a total idiot, we still managed to protect the city to the best of our abilities, often teaming up to take out various gangs or big deals we couldn't take out alone. We even ended up meeting Daredevil a few times. Hopefully my armor was able to block out my heartbeat from his incredible hearing, I don't want my Identity to get out to anyone other than Spider-Man, the only reason I let him see was so he could trust me and I wanted to help him.

Anyway, after Spider-Man nothing much has changed, Harry has seemingly gotten over his father's death, He isn't totally over it, but he seems to be doing better. He has been disappearing for extended periods of time though… I need to look into that.

After the sale of the Achilles Armor, I started funding Dr. Otto Octavius in his research for unlimited energy. I know what you are thinking; He turns into Doc Ock doing that!

Well, I am hoping to change that, I also may be hoping to borrow the designs to his arms, maybe make Spider-Man an Iron Spider suit or make me something for the Goblin.

Sighing in exhaustion, I lean back in my chair in my official Penthouse office, not my workshop, and rub my eyes. With everything going on, I haven't been able to get as much sleep as I normally do. Running a company is exhausting.

Looking up to the TV for a second, a news story catches my eye. Turning the volume up, I stare in shock as I realize what is going on.

"Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist Anthony 'Tony' Stark has been declared missing."

Turning the news off, I start to plan. This is the start of Iron Man 1, maybe I can use this? But how?

Getting up and stretching, I start really thinking. If Obadiah is going to make an Iron Monger suit, I should make me something that can defeat him.

Heading into my workshop, I pull my EMP weapon off the wall. Hopefully with a bit of tweaking, it will be able to short out the Iron Monger suit… now how to make it a focused beam instead of a pulse…

Time to set to work.

/

(A few days before in Afghanistan)

"Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves. For your consideration, the Jericho." The famous, or infamous in some circles, Tony Stark announced.

Tony Stark was having a good day, he just finished demonstrating his newest 'clean' Missile, the soldiers showed him respect, and he had his alchohol.

But one thing really turned off his good mood. As soon as he got to Afghanistan, he immediately saw all the soldiers wearing some body armor.

"Hey. You." He said to one of the lower ranking soldiers in the area. "What are you wearing?"

So confused at the armor, he couldn't even formulate a witty comment about it.

"It is a new body armor designed by Oscorp Industries Sir." The soldier said.

"Wait, Oscorp made this? That kid Alex Osborn? No way."

"Its true sir, it's saved my life more times than I care to admit. We were in active combat last week and I would have died if the armor didn't protect me from the sniper shot."

"Wait, this armor protected you from a Sniper shot? No way. How durable are these things anyway?" Stark said while looking the Armor over.

"We were told it could protect us from nearly anything short of a tank round sir."

Pausing in his movement he stared at the soldier in front of him.

"What? Th-That's impossible, no metal known could do that. It would have to be titanium, but that isn't it… you wouldn't be standing if it were titanium…"

In full on inventor mode, Tony Stark spent the next few minutes studying the supposed Impossible Achilles Armor.

"The metal would need to be three times as strong as Titanium, but a third the weight, that's impossible…"

"Sir, we need you for the presentation." Another soldier called.

Walking over to his missile, he pondered over the mysterious Achilles armor. How the hell is that even possible?

Two things he did know, Osborn was smarter than he let on…

And he had seen the armor before…