Once upon a time, Oscorp Tower was a skyscraper that reached the highest point in the city, standing one floor taller than the Empire State Building. And every floor and room of the tower was filled up and used. It was an ecosystem. Nay, an engine that pumped Oscorp to greatness.
Young students toured the labs. Ordinary civilians walked and glimpsed the work and the future.
Then Creature Z attacked and the building all came crashing down. Like any building or symbol, it could be repaired. The people could come back, stronger than ever.
Then Felix Faeth arrived and denied that transition. He caused the people to disperse and to not allocate everything into one symbol. One thing. One company.
It had officially been two and a half weeks since Felix took over Oscorp. He was not officially listed as CEO on legal documents. He was not written about on Wikipedia pages or the stock market or whatever. His presence was known to the elite as the shadow head of Oscorp. As the man that Norman Osborn respected and gave power to for his intellect. Perhaps too much power, they realized too late.
Felix Faeth sat on a black leather chair at the top floor. Once upon a time, there was to be additional construction. To keep building and restoring Oscorp Tower to its previous heights. It was a project that would take years, but like any company, time was a luxury they could afford. In ten years time, in twenty years time, on top of Oscorp Tower, they'd have immense control over New York City along with a flourishing connection with the government.
Well, not anymore.
Felix took the chair and he said no. Oscorp Tower would never, ever regain its previous heights. Ever.
"I wanna see Rio…"
Felix let out a heavy sigh.
It was so much work. Night in, night out, he worked and read and signed signatures. Messing this up wasn't an option. He met with people he'd never seen before. Encountered dozens of employees, many of whom wanted unions. For that particular request, he told them, "It will be your company. Don't ask me. If you want it, then form a union. If you don't, then don't."
The ability of choice. The manifestation of destiny. It couldn't be absolute. It couldn't ever be perfect or all good. But it was probably better than the future he heard so much about on Earth 2099. It was better than the darkness that he saw time and time again. With Cindy Moon, with Peggy Carter, these hierarchies needed to be smashed.
Felix was doing that, and mentally, it took its toll. He sat on the chair in a white collared shirt, tie loosened, and the belt of his tight navy pants shining from the blistering sun outside. It was rather hot this morning.
There was a buzz and an announcement from Samantha on the intercom: "Your friend is coming."
Friend. This time around, he actually smiled and didn't bother to put on his dress coat.
"Well, well, well. Never thought you'd be sitting there."
The doors opened and Felix was welcomed by the familiar red dotted forehead of Kavita Rao. She pushed up her glasses, white lab coat fluttering.
Felix greeted with a salute. "Hello to you too, Kavita."
"Right to first name basis? Hrm." Kavita crossed her arms. "Am I supposed to take that as us being equals or you being my superior?"
"As us being friends."
At that, Kavita snorted.
The R&D department: AKA research and development. It was the umbrella that Project Rebirth II fell under. Every Oscorp scientific endeavour fell under it. R&D was Norman Osborn's second child. There were many projects and thus many leaders and scientific seniors in R&D, such as Olivia Octavious (prior to her arrest) and Alistair Smythe. In any other company, there would be a senior executive or manager who bridged technical innovation with business strategy. That was not the case in Oscorp. Norman Osborn stood as the guy for R&D. He proudly and willingly involved himself. In fact, it was his intention to keep the groups and projects separate and to make them compete for his goodwill.
"So the rumours are true. You've taken over," Kavita said.
"Something like that."
For Kavita and the senior scientists that were not heavily involved in the politics of Oscorp, he had them take a vacation. Considering the weight of their work, they did not mind at all. Many of them had families to go back to.
Kavita didn't. She snooped around and of course found what was happening; that Oscorp was "restructuring", all because of a certain Dr. Faeth. She then wanted a meeting with him. She got it.
"I enjoyed my vacation, you know?" Kavita said. "Marathoned the Star Wars films, watched the newest season of Clone Wars. Quite fun, yes, yes, yes, but it doesn't answer the burning question that I've been wondering: am I losing my job?"
"No."
"So who am I working for? For what purpose? I quite liked Oscorp's meritocracy." To put it another way, Kavita liked her bonuses. Particularly due to the string of successes with Project Rebirth. "And if I'm going to join your new company, you better give the big bucks."
"Oh don't worry about money. An experienced woman with a PhDs in mutant genetics and biochemistry? I'd kill for someone like you to join my pharmaceutical company."
Kavita raised a brow at that. In a good way, with a smile. "Oh?"
"I'd like to create a new diluted, medical-applicable form of the Super Soldier Serum. An injection that will help people live longer and without disease. And something like that, given our current state, will take years. Years that I'd like someone like you to handle."
Kavita liked that. She liked that a lot.
"The current state of Project Rebirth II is at its infancy. It's succeeded, but you and I both know we can do better. We can be more ambitious. We can remove the need for a chamber. We can cater to the needs of scientists because our sole drive is innovation and not money." While Norman was good at striking a balance, Felix thought the singular purpose was greater. "We can do so much, and you'll be paid handsomely for it."
Kavita's smile was a smirk. "Felix, you drive a good bargain."
"Don't I?" He leaned back. "Vacation for another two weeks. I'll have the company up and running after that and you—" He pointed a finger right at her. "Will be at the helm of it, alongside me."
Two weeks. He could see the gears turning in her head. "Will Maya be there?"
"Of course. Her and anyone else you suggest."
"I do have a couple colleagues in mind…"
"We can start them with a base salary of a hundred thousand. Oh, will they need Visas?"
Kavita really liked that. She was practically smiling ear-to-ear.
"Ha. I can't believe I watched you enter this company as a wet behind the ears amateur and now you're sitting here as head-honcho. I'm impressed, Felix. I really am. But—I do have one last question."
"Ask away."
"What will you call this company?"
Felix blinked. He slowly spun in his chair, gleaning over the view of New York. He remembered the good of the city and only the good.
Felix smiled to himself. "How about…Parker Industries?"
***
FOUR HOURS LATER
Meeting after meeting. Blah after blah. Tablet on the table while he spun around in his chair.
He decided to call Emma on his tablet again. She had to have an update at this point, right?
"Hello? Emma?"
"Ah, Felix. Great timing," Emma replied, crinkling through the voice speaker. "I found your cyborgs."
"You did? When? How?"
"I'm eating dinner, so please, calm down." He heard chewing on the other end. Herbie quickly informed him that Emma was at a cafe a block down from Genghis Connie's in Chinatown. He wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Anyway, I never noticed how many Genghis Connie restaurants there are," Emma said.
"They expanded."
"Obviously."
"So what's your point?"
The address he gave Emma was a pizzeria in Harlem. The main Genghis Connie restaurant, the first. A family business inherited and led by Ms and Mr. Line. It was not the Genghis Connie Too in Chinatown with the portal. There was a reason for that.
"The first cyborg I found was in Harlem, working like a normal employee. He worked the cash register. He goes home, lives his life, blah, blah."
"You couldn't read his mind, right?"
"No. Not at all. Pretty much right from seeing him that he was the one."
"His name?"
"Abraham Lincoln."
"Ha. Ha." Felix paused. "You serious?"
"Deadly serious. Mr. Abraham Lincoln is your cyborg. He kind of looks like our old precious president too. Tall, dark, moody, with a thin beard."
Uhh, okay?
"What about the second cyborg? You mentioned there's multiple?"
"The second cyborg came today to visit Mr. Lincoln. He seems to be a representative of the Genghis Connie chain and is, from the brief investigation I've done, the investor that helped the Lin family expand into Chinatown."
"His name?"
See, Herbie wasn't able to find anything because the investor paid in cash and the cameras in that part of Harlem were nonexistent. On top of that, the Lin family stuck to landlines, not fancy smartphones. They hadn't yet made that transition, so there was nothing really he could do even with Master Control.
"I wasn't able to find his full name, but…he goes by Mr. O'Hara."
"Mr. O'Hara?" Felix stroked his chin. "Anything else about him?"
"Wears glasses, tall, brown hair, and dreamy. He has a nice, red fashion sense. Quite ferocious."
"You want to ask for his tinder?"
"Ha. Good one. Anyway, I have breakfast to eat. Is my mission complete?"
"You can kick back a little, but no, not yet. Has there been any mention of a Big Man?"
"No Big Man or Small Man! No men in general, really, just cyborgs and—oooh, dessert. Sorry, Felix. Gotta bounce!"
Emma hung up right then and there. Felix didn't mind. The tablet lay on the table, biting his bottom lip. His thoughts were a little scattered. He wanted to work, to see Rio, to maybe do something about these cyborgs while patiently keeping tabs on the Big Man.
"What's going on? The Big Man hasn't arrived yet. He should have arrived. Maria said so. Did she lie to me?" Then he thought about it. "No, makes no sense. Maybe…something happened in his dimension? According to Maria, this dimension in the view of Earth 2099 isn't very important. If it's not high on the list of important stuff, then…" He paused. "I should just call her."
The tablet was on speaker and in-tune with his commands. "Call Maria," he ordered and there came the normal buzz of ringing a call.
"Hello?" greeted the chill Maria.
"Where you at?"
"What's this about?"
"Oh no, just checking up on you."
"Do I sound like an idiot to you?" After a brief silence, Maria said, "I'm in the men's bathroom."
"What?"
"At 18th Street station. Just waiting for your secret door to open. I'm carrying lunch."
Felix rolled his eyes a little. "Yeah, yeah."
"Why did you have to pick the men's bathroom? It smells like shit, you know?"
"There was blood smeared in the women's."
"Ew."
"Yeah," Felix said with a wince of disgust from the memory. "Anyway, have you guys made progress on the portals?"
"Lots. I must say, your progress impressed us. In three years time, this might have worked."
Maria, Hobie, and Xina were at 18th Street station where he and Czarina had been working the portal to Earth 2099. There was a perfectly empty parking lot for the van as well as a power source to keep it on, that being the city itself. That whole place, he and Czarina customized for the portal.
"Might?" Felix questioned.
"Yes, might. Your work is quite…primitive. Not terrible but awfully outdated. I'm no scientist but even I could tell."
"Right, right. Anyway, yeah, that's all I wanted."
Felix was convinced; there was no way Maria was lying to him. And putting in doubt when he promised to protect her and to be fruitful with her was the wrong move.
"Really?"
"Really. Like I said, just checking up."
"Hm. Okay. Bye."
"Bye."
Maria hung up and the tablet returned to the home screen. Felix stared at the ceiling. Reminded of the portal, he was reminded of the elephant in the room: Czarina and SHIELD.
The ever-collapsing, ever-terrible PR of the organization was hitting hard. Some independent journalists that Felix didn't even know or plan for dug up misleading financial statements and tax fraud. He suspected SHIELD agents were defecting, either for justice or for a plea bargain in case their crimes ever went to court.
Felix picked up the tablet again. He stared at the black screen of nothingness.
"Harold's corpse…"
His corpse was officially in military custody. A basic autopsy was conducted but nothing more. They were not aware that this was a special man. That this was a failed super soldier.
Should he become Spider-Man and steal it from their hands?
…would it matter? Make a difference to anything?
He glanced out the window. The military weren't marching the streets or anything. But still. The future of Earth 2099 was not out of reach just because he stopped the rise of Oscorp.
The intercom buzzed. Samantha said to him: "Your next guest has arrived."
Doors opened. Felix spun on his chair, a fist tucked under his chin. He gazed upon a man that he could not quite get a grasp of. He carried importance though. Felix did not rise to greet him though.
'Oh yeah, this guy…'
This guy's complexion was as though he was permanently sun-burnt. A crisp red accompanied by white hair set in a mid-back ponytail. His fashion choice fascinated Felix right from the get-go. A yellow jacket with numerous pockets and lines and details over a white polo shirt and black pants. The classic suit was not at all entertained.
"Ah, hello." His smile was fatherly. "You must be Felix Faeth."
"Hi. You represent Eco Central, yes?"
This had been an appointment originally intended for Norman, not Felix. Considering the company name, might as well see what this was about.
"Absolutely!" They shook hands, with Felix half-heartedly reaching forward. "We are the up and coming private anti-pollution company of New York: Eco Central."
"I am so glad you're here." Felix tried to be excited about it. "Your ideas, I've been so very interested in them."
In passing, Norman Osborn mentioned his interest in anti-pollution corporations. With the increase in construction and planned innovation in construction technology came a risk. Things weren't built from nothing. There was a cost to the planet, whether it was in the creation process of materials or in the tech itself.
But if Norman was involved, there had to be some dirt in there.
"I appreciate it," said the Ecocentral representative. "I am absolutely glad Oscorp is still interested!"
"People may day, but ideas don't. Now, what did you and the former CEO agree to so far? I'm all ears," Felix said. He was all ears but for totally different reasons. "Nothing was on paper, I believe?"
"Ah, yes. But, I absolutely do not believe that will be an issue!"
"Mm." Felix gestured. "The floor is yours, my friend!"
"As I am sure you are seeing, the military and government are losing trust. They are losing the love of the people and their will in every way—and that includes the belief that they can solve the pollution issues. Everyone knows it and feels it. So much fossil fuel, so much…pollution. And yet, governments absolutely don't care!"
"True. Quite true," Felix admitted.
The representative smiled feverishly. "With the dissenting trust, people will turn to locals. They will turn to the police. Which is where Oscorp comes in. Mr. Osborn had a strong relationship with the NYPD."
Felix cupped his cheek. "Uh-huh."
"And that relationship extends to all of Oscorp! We wish to create a small investigation team that focuses on anti-pollution. Equip them with the right stuff and PR, and have them track down companies that step out of bounds. Arrest them! We have to be loud and big in how we expose them! Front page on the Daily Bugle! Cuffs and perp walks and everything!"
The representative's red skin got redder by the second with his enthusiasm. His smile bigger too.
Yet…
'Something stinks here.'
"Considering the current regulations, I'm not sure if that's possible," Felix pointed out.
"The regulations will come afterward!"
"Will? What, they absolutely will?"
"Yes! Absolutely! We scooped up a story on Stark Industries! That factory explosion that Oscorp had, this is WAY bigger than that! A factory which let out poisonous air that affected a residential area and killed over a dozen children!"
Children? Felix straightened up. "Are you serious?"
"It's what we were telling Norman! All this, if we expose all this, it will be show New York City that Oscorp and Eco Control are here to help! To do good!"
'Or to take down rivals,' Felix thought.
"You have evidence? Real evidence?"
"Absolutely! We have ALL the evidence, sir!" Look at that grin. The red man looked quite proud to have reeled him in. "Trust us. We are Eco Control."
Felix eyed him up and down. All this talk of absolutes and he didn't even know the guy's name. "I'm…sorry, really, I am, but what was your name again?"
The representative was thrilled to answer that. "Anderthorp Henton."