Chapter 69: The Green Goblin Appears
One full week had passed since the Oscorp internal board meeting.
Today, at its annual World Unity Festival, the Oscorp Group was making it official: the company was for sale.
Times Square was doing what Times Square did, only more so. Even Tony Stark, one of Oscorp's chief competitors, had made the invitation list.
In fact, every business in New York with any kind of standing had received one. Matthew was no exception.
At the reception, Tony had a cocktail in one hand and was making idle conversation with Matthew across the table.
The noise level around them kept climbing. Tony made a face at it, then directed his attention to Matthew.
"Honestly, I'm not enjoying this kind of thing anymore. I would rather be back in the lab working on my research than standing here at a party that isn't accomplishing anything."
Matthew gave a mild laugh. "That's something I don't hear often."
"The Tony Stark who used to haunt every celebrity venue in the city and throw those wild parties of his. Apparently even he has days when he doesn't want the spotlight."
"If I were a journalist, that statement alone would put you back on the front page."
Tony let out a short laugh. "All right, I'll admit I genuinely enjoyed the celebrity circuit. But that other thing? I never did."
He looked at Matthew. Matthew's response was the handsome face of a man who didn't believe a single word of it.
"...Fine. But at least I was the only man at those. I don't enjoy getting undressed in front of other men." Tony gave a resigned shrug.
Then he changed direction and pulled the conversation back to the Stanavistin project.
"Matthew, I have to say, the people you brought in have genuinely taken a lot off my plate. But in the research process lately, we've hit some bottlenecks we can't get around."
"Bottlenecks?" Matthew raised an eyebrow.
"Yes." Tony nodded.
"Even with specialized talent and AI assistance both running in parallel, the technical complexity of this thing is still well beyond what we projected."
Something close to a troubled expression crossed his face.
"You described Stanavistin's core principle before: the device instantaneously overclocks the user's entire nervous system, making the user subjectively faster, achieving a pseudo time-slow effect that lets them dodge incoming threats."
"Easy to describe. Almost impossibly difficult to build."
"To get the effect you're talking about, you have to simultaneously accelerate the brain's information processing, the body's reaction speed, and the body's structural strength. If any one of those three isn't handled correctly, the whole thing collapses into self-interference. You end up with your left foot tripping your right."
"What we can do right now is install an external chip dedicated to filtering redundant information, offloading the surrounding noise from the brain, and producing what amounts to a pseudo time-slow."
"But to get true time-slow, the body has to keep pace with the brain. If danger arrives and the brain reacts but the body can't follow, you still can't dodge it."
Tony let out a long, tired sigh.
He was the world's acknowledged genius in his field. But starting from zero on a research line outside that field was a different category of difficult.
"So what are you actually telling me?" Matthew looked at him.
Tony didn't bother with any buildup. "Our current progress has gotten us to pseudo time-slow. How to achieve true time-slow, we don't have an answer for yet."
"Getting there requires the nervous system to transmit instructions to the limbs at a one-to-one ratio, and it requires strengthening the body to match. If both problems aren't solved at the same time, the muscles and bones won't be able to handle the sudden high-speed movement. They'll tear themselves apart."
"So. Do you have a solution?" He looked at Matthew with undisguised hope.
Matthew was quiet for a moment. "Possibly yes. Possibly no."
"What does that mean?" Tony frowned. Yes or no. Not possibly.
"Tony. Do you know what wetware is?"
"Wetware..." Tony's eyebrow shifted. Then he placed it. "You mean a living biological system?"
"Yes."
"If you're open to it, I can provide a wetware component. You can use it as a reference for inspiration, or you can work with it directly. It might solve your current problem."
"If it doesn't, there isn't much more I can do." Matthew spread his hands.
Technology research wasn't his field. He genuinely didn't know whether the Las Plagas parasite would function as viable wetware for Tony's purposes, or whether it would give him anything useful to work from. But as a friend, he was willing to make the attempt.
Tony let out a quiet sigh.
"All right. I'll wait for the wetware. Let's hope it gives us something."
They were still talking when a burst of noise came from the balcony outside the hall.
"Look at that! What is that?!"
"Is that new tech?!"
"It's Iron Man!"
"Iron Man? Get your eyes checked. Since when does Iron Man come in green?"
A series of exclamations carried in from the balcony.
Both of them looked toward it without deciding to.
Tony even pulled out his phone to use as a makeshift scope.
"Is that... a person?" His eyebrow went up.
He looked at the green shape on his screen and delivered his verdict with his usual level of self-regard.
"I understand that everyone who wants a quick headline and a stock bump tries to copy me. But whoever this is, the equipment is pretty rough. That barely qualifies as a suit."
"Also... Matthew. Do I normally look that ugly?" He turned to Matthew with complete unawareness that something dangerous was approaching.
While Tony was still talking, Henry, standing beside him, let out a sharp exclamation.
"That's... our company's glider?!"
Disbelief was written across his face.
Tony turned immediately. "Oh. I'm sorry, Henry. I genuinely didn't know that was something your company built."
"If I'd known the aggrieved party was standing right here, I would have kept my voice down."
Henry, considerably older than Tony, glanced at him once and said nothing. He had more pressing things on his mind.
What he couldn't understand was why their company's glider was out here. That piece of equipment was still in the experimental phase. Getting it out of the building required board approval that hadn't been given.
While Henry was still working through that, the green shape in the distance was closing fast.
A pumpkin bomb, already in the air, traced a graceful arc across the sky and dropped directly into the crowd on the balcony.
"Henry."
Norman Osborn's voice carried clearly over the chaos.
"I heard I've been kicked out."