Chapter 5:
March 12th, 2010:
It's been 3 months since my father's funeral. After 2 weeks of grieving, I had decided to tackle the Oz-Serum myself. Siri is smart, but she's still an A.I. She doesn't have sentience yet. After about 2 months of working on it I had finally cracked it. I managed to separate the insanity factor from the serum. But first I had to see if the new serum that I named Oz-2,which was now turquoise in colour, was even compatible with me now that I had Spidey blood in me. Good news was, the serum was compatible. But what I observed was that I had to inject the serum directly into my blood for it to work. The method that Norman used for Oz-1 did not work with Oz-2. The bad news was, due to both the method and my spidey status, the serum had to stay in my body for 2 weeks for it to completely bond with me.
So now here I am, 2 weeks after taking the serum. Adding weights to the bar to see how much I can lift now. Right now I'm going 35 tons without actually reaching my limit. And thankfully no homicidal tendencies. That was my greatest fear. Siri even had orders to kill me while I'm asleep by dropping something heavy on me if I turn out to be like the Green Goblin.
"Siri. What do you think? Can I cross 50 tons?" I ask her.
"Sure Sir. My bet is on an even 54 tons after which you'll find it difficult to lift the weight." ...Since when can Siri bet on things? Huh.. You learn something new everyday.
"Well baby girl, my bet is on 60 tons to be my limit. How about this? If your estimate is closer to the limit than mine then your first body will be made of Vibranium." I want to see her reaction to it. Is she starting to learn more? I know I built it in her system to try and learn new things, but I didn't think she'll progress this much in 3 short years.
"You sure, boss? Where would you even get that much Vibranium? Currently there's only about as much Vibranium to build maybe 2 arms, or one of your suits." Siri asks me. She's excited! And nervous? Well that's good. She's starting to show emotions. Hope it doesn't turn into a Skynet situation.
"Oh Siri.. You have so much to learn yet. I'll give you a task. Find out everything you can about Ulysses Klaue or Wakanda. Its a small country in Africa. If you manage to even find their servers, I'll tell you more about it." If she manages to hack into their servers, its all the good for me. Their technology. Aah! Just imagining it makes me salivate.
"Yes Boss! I'll get to it right away. I'll notify you after I find either one." Is that a smile in her voice? Wow my AI is learning fast!
Well back to task. I manage to lift 58 tons before the pressure becomes too much for me to handle. Close enough to 60 tons. And way better than by previous record of 30 tons. 40 more tons and I might manage to actually hurt the Hulk! Now? Now I could probably fight Loki one on one in only hand to hand. You know, ignoring the fact that he's a 1000 years old and probably knows a lot about fighting than me. And that he belongs to a warrior race.
Freshening up a bit I call Peter on his phone. "Hey Pete? You up for training today?" We've trained together for about 10 times now. At first he had a lot of trouble keeping up with me. But after I had him run through some katas and combos, he could now fight on an equal ground with me. Boy is he in for a surprise tonight! Heeheehee..
"Yeah, hey Harry. Alright if I come at 6?" He asks me.
I have to think for a bit if my schedule is clear. And I tell him, "Sure. I'll tell Siri to let you in when you get here." He shuts the phone down after acknowledging my statement with only a 'Ok, cool!'
I think about what I still have to do in these next months. I already had a place in NYU for the next term's Engineering course. So that's one problem down. Iron Man events have already started. Tony Stark has been kidnapped for about a month now. So Tony will escape in about 2 months after this, and about a month or two later the big fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger will happen.
Hulk 2 events' timeline is not exactly known. I only know that they'll happen this year, sometime after Iron Man events. Nothing else special is supposed to happen this year.
I'm fiddling with the HUD of my mask when Siri informs me that Peter is here. First we warm up a bit. Then he lifts the weights for about an hour in different cycles. He can lift close to 28 tons now. But he can support as much as 40 tons. Still it takes a toll on him.
When we start fighting he could feel that something's different. When I start punching he definitely feels something very different. My punches are faster and stronger now. He flips back and just looks at me like I'm some puzzle.
"You know Peter, you're a nice guy. But you're not really my type." I smirk at him.
"Shut up, Harry!" he grumbles. "There's something different about you. What did you do?" he narrows his eyes at me.
I was amused by his reaction. "You don't know? Well.. When a guy gets to a certain age-"
He interrupts me before I can continue, "That's not what I mean and you know it! What. Did. You. Do?"
"Hmph.. Spoilsport. Take away all my fun, don't you. You remember that unstable defective drug that Norman took that made his mind into a homicidal maniac?" He pales at that and prepares for fight. I smirk, "Well thankfully I didn't take it." He sighs in relief.
"Goddammit Harry! Don't scare me like that! So what did you do?" he repeats.
"Well I improved it. I managed to perfect it actually. I and Siri worked together for close to 2 months on this and removed the impurities that caused the insanity. I call it the Oz-2." I tell him while showing him the data I had on my phone. I look at him seriously and say to him, "Now that I've told you, if I suddenly get Homicidal then please kill me before I hurt someone too badly. I'm smart enough to be a danger to a lot of people if I go dark. So please promise me." I was pleading at the last part.
"Why the hell did you take it then?! Did you not think about this before taking an experimental serum? Are you crazy?" he's shouting at me. Huh. He's really mad at me. Can't say, I'm surprised. He was always the goody two shoes.
"Peter. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you everything yet. But trust me, I had to get stronger. Something big is coming in a few years. Humanity is going to be attacked and We'll be at the fucking centre of it all. Peter trust me. I'll tell you everything on 28th September, 2012. Not before that. Can you wait for that much time? Please?" I wanted to tell him everything, but I don't think I could handle it if he doesn't believe me. For starters, he's my best friend. At the same he was also my favourite character ever . So yeah. I'll tell him what's going to happen. But it'll only be after Loki's invasion. I don't want my knowledge of future events to become obsolete. Control the battlefield and all that shit.
Peter looks me in my eyes. Looks like he found what he was looking for. He sighs again and slumps his shoulder. "I'll wait. I don't have to take the serum too, do I?" He asks with a nervous laugh.
"Well if you want to? Sure. I can have the serum prepped in about 2 hours. It takes 2 weeks to bond to you properly." I think it is a good idea for him to take the serum too. Stronger people means more chance of survival against Thanos. As I am now I'll last 5 minutes at the maximum if I'm fighting alone.
"Nooo! No. No. No! I don't want to take it. I'll get stronger on my own." Told ya. Goody two shoes.
I shrugged, "As you wish. It's still here if you change your mind. So don't you want to know what benefits it gave me?" I smirk at him. One thing that's common about all Peter Parkers in every Universe is that he's a big nerd.
His eyes lit up like it's Christmas and he starts bouncing on his toes in excitement. He seriously looks like a Labrador excited to see his human.
"Oh calm your tits. I'll tell you either way. Firstly my strength and speed have both doubled. At first I could lift 30 tons while being stable and a max of 35 tons before it gets too hard for me. And I could run at a speed of 45 miles/hour. Now I can lift 58 tons while doing squats and could probably support up to 75 tons. I haven't tested my running speed actually. So if you're up for it we could test it later?" I ask him and he just nods, too surprised to actually say anything.
"Next is my static electricity. Nothing much has changed in that department, only the output voltage increased by 15% when stable and the Venom blast output actually doubled! Basically, the Oz-2 combined with the spidey venom in my blood and somehow amplified its effects." We both laugh at how amazed I look with my new powers.
Next, to check for my speed, we go to the treadmill that I had made with Peter's help. I had gotten inspired by the Flash TV show for this. This treadmill could run as fast as 200 mph currently. I had neither the need nor any inclination to increase that speed. As expected, my speed did not increase much. Peter can run at the speed of 48mph. Yeah he was faster than me. My speed after the serum increased from 45mph to 50mph. Not much of a difference but sometimes 5mph can mean a lot. Especially if the best Olympics runner can run at the speed of 25mph. Pretty cool, huh?
Peter has taught me a lot in these two months. Among them was the most important skill I learned. Talking. I was a really bad conversationalist. I literally had 3 friends and one acquaintance. That acquaintance was only because Gwen was a fellow science nerd in school before she passed out of high school to start working for Dr. Curt Connors. Yes, that Connors. The Lizard. Meh. I'll deal with him when he gets here.
When I started doing night patrols with Peter, at first I was really bored. Who knew Superhero business was soo boring? We stopped like 3 muggings that night till 2 A.M and then left to go home. In 2 months I saw Peter talk someone into a fight, and another person out of the fight. Seriously movies didn't tell me how much of a sweet talker Peter was. The 'Friendly' in his name suits him a lot. Also the dude has a lot of patience. J. Jonah Jameson's trash talking barely affected Peter. My public speaking also improved after learning from Peter.
Thanks to Spider-Man, I was now known as The Black-Spider. Fucking stupid name. But it stuck. I just had to make a black uniform with a spider on the front, didn't I? At least they didn't call me Peter's sidekick. We were known all around New York city now. Peter as the good spidey, and me as the bad spidey. He was better than me at talking things down- helping a suicidal person, hostage situation, for these, Peter was the better one. But infiltration and incapacitating a criminal, punching through things, for that, I'm your guy.
The next 2 months pass the same. I started studying for my bachelor's while Peter started working at Daily Bugle as a photographer. He started dating Mary Jane after much, much persuasion by yours truly. I also started going on solo patrols. It was fun. I found out that criminals are really afraid of me for some reason. I have no idea why. Nope. No idea at all. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I punched a child abusers teeth in when he slapped a kid in front of me. Nope.
It was when I was working on fixing my HUD after I broke it. Again. While the TV is running in the background when I hear those words that I had waited for so long.
"... and that is why, effective immediately, I'm shutting down the Weapons Manufacturing Division if Stark International."
Tony stark is home. Iron Man will soon be born. Oh my God! My inner fan boy is jumping in joy with my inner nerd dancing with him! One of the smartest superheroes and the most sophisticated piece of technology on planet Earth. I'm crying!
"Siri. Keep an eye on the news. Tell me if anything major happens. And try and hack into Stark International servers if you can. It's okay if you can't. Tony Stark has an A.I too." I tell Siri as soon as I calm down.
"Sure thing, Boss. Do you want me to try and hack his private servers?" She asks me.
"Not yet, no. If you can manage run my encryption software on everything on Stane's private servers. He will definitely have some dirt on his PC." That way I can warn Tony Stark in advance about the under the table dealings. To hack into Stark's private servers I and Siri will have to work together to succeed.
Speaking of dealings, Oscorp has really flourished under Bernard's rule. We stopped with the super soldier work for the government after what happened to Norman. No one knows but we told them that it was a dead end. That it was impossible to fabricate without the insanity coming in. Now that Stark has gone out of the weapon's race we will be the top player for the military contracts. Hammer Industries is cheaper than us but so are their weapons. So I have no need to fear from them.
Wilson Fisk tried again to make a deal with Bernard, but damn. Bernard sweet talked him out of it in like 15 minutes. We have now a non-interference policy. You do whatever you want and we'll not tell on you in exchange for the same courtesy. Obviously Bernard doesn't do anything illegal. But still there are a few workers who were used to illegality. Getting them on line was a tough job, but not too hard for Bernard. Have I ever said that the man scares me? We he does.
Anyways. After fixing the suit and making some colour changes, nothing major, I go to the gym to prepare and then sleep. Major events start happening now. I'll have to be ready. Iron Man 1, here I come!