Chapter 4: Breaking In And Getting Out
Closing the door to Harry's bedroom, Norman stretched his arms and neck before turning and making his way down the hallway a short while to his study.
Though calling it study wouldn't really be truthful. It was just a glorified drinking room with a comfy chair and a fireplace where the walls were lined with bookcases. Norman had taken to sitting there and having a drink while thinking about things - sometimes he'd even play a bit of music while doing so if it'd been an especially annoying day.
Today wasn't an annoying day. He'd had a wonderful day watching his son and his team win a soccer match and then he'd gorged himself on ice cream with Harry soon after. Today, oddly enough, was Norman's best day since he came into this world.
But he needed to think. His time in the study tonight would be one of...preparation.
And so, when he arrived, he walked over to the mini-bar inside and poured himself a glass of high-class scotch before sitting down in front of the fire which was perpetually lit. He looked into the flames and just thought about what he was going to do tonight.
Oscorp was mainly a medical company but as profitable this sector was, there was one other sector that was of incredible importance and just as profitable. If not more.
The energy sector.
Norman didn't need the money and that wasn't his goal with his first plan. He wanted to get into the energy sector because of something he'd experienced in his previous life - global warming. Most countries burn fossil fuels to power their lands with even ones that use Nuclear power only ever using said power for bigger projects and infrastructure. After all, you don't see the everyday house being powered by a nuclear reactor, do you?
Which leads to said global warming as homes are powered by electricity produced by burning fossil fuels. Same goes for gasoline (or petrol in certain countries) being used to power vehicles, generators and other instruments of man.
As a past denizen of 2022 and seeing the effectiveness of electric cars and renewable energy, Norman was more than incensed to change the times before irreparable damage had been done to the world he lived on. He'd begun designs on effective electric cars and their batteries while also improving the effectiveness of solar panels, wind turbines, hydro dams that produce more power with less activity...but he knew that for now, it wasn't enough.
And with Tony Stark having been kidnapped and Stark Industries being like a boiling pot of stress, anxiety and confusion, now was the best time to strike.
He didn't need to copy Stark's ideas for it to be feasible to make the Earth run on renewable energy but it would sure help his plans if he could get the basics for the arc reactors down before he moved onto the acquisition for the other parts of his master plan - a renewable energy source reactor that could power an entire state.
Norman couldn't help but wonder the possibilities: the money, first and foremost, would be significant beyond belief. If he could make these super reactors of his, America would only need fifty or so to go completely green. No carbon emissions. No dangerous work environments that require someone out at sea for long periods of time all for the sake of oil.
It would also easily give Norman a monopoly over the energy industry and with that, he'd easily be the most powerful man in America, if not the entire world. The ability to cut off an entire country's power with the flick of a switch was, ironically, power than most would never have.
Of course, there's more to it: The loss of jobs around the world would be astounding but to remedy that, Oscorp would obviously be needing people to run these reactors which would be of a sizeable, well, size. Not to mention that the cost of energy would plummet drastically, meaning people would be saving quite a bit of money per year when compared to now. The company would also be opening up new branches of mechanics and engineering for the electric cars, solar panels, wind turbines and all sorts which will all need workers as well.
So, in the end, it'd even itself out or maybe even improve the situation.
But that all depended on how well tonight went. As in, how well Norman could get in and out of Stark Industries with the designs and information on the Arc Reactor.
He was no professional thief but he was a superhuman with one of the most brilliant minds in the world. With those two things, Norman knew he'd be able to make up for any deficit he had going into the plan tonight. It's not like he could hire someone to do this either - commit corporate sabotage on such a scale against such a big company? Not many people would be confident or insane enough to attempt it, no matter what Norman would pay them. Neither did he trust anyone just as much as he did himself.
It was, Norman would admit, arrogant of him. But it was something he needed done and no one other than himself had his...let's call them, talents.
'The perimeter for the facility holding the reactor shouldn't be as full of security as the main facility used for weapons development seeing as they don't know how utterly important it is,' Norman thought as he sipped at the scotch in his hand, 'But that doesn't mean it won't have any security at all. Nevertheless, it's not an insurmountable task.'
A knock on the door took Norman away from his thoughts and he turned to see Bernard standing in the doorway. The butler had seemingly seen the thinking his master had been doing and was wearing a somewhat worried expression but still spoke up, "It was a nice day, wasn't it, sir?"
"Hm," Norman hummed, a slight grin working it's way across his face as he thought about how Harry basically covered his lower face with ice cream with how quickly he was eating earlier, "It was indeed, Bernard. What's bothering you?" the older Osborn got straight to the point as he always did. Bernard paused by soon answered nonetheless.
"You're planning on going out tonight, yes?" he asked and Norman gave a nod, "But you refuse to tell me where or what for, sir. Why?"
Norman paused and furrowed his brow for a second before turning away from Bernard, "Because it matters no whether you know or don't know, Bernard." Realising his terse answer, he gave a sigh, "Sorry, Bernard. It's just that it's personal business and I need to do it myself - I won't be in any danger, okay?" he turned to Bernard and gave a smile despite the lie he'd told. He knew it'd be better for the butler's health if he didn't know what he was about to do.
Bernard stopped before forcing a smile and nodding, "Of course, sir. Just take it as an old man's worry and enjoy your night."
And then he turned and left.
Norman sat there with his glass in hand and looked back to the fire before knocking back the rest of the liquid in his glass. The alcohol didn't effect him anymore, his metabolism far too fast for any substance like alcohol to effect him. But the taste of good scotch was enjoyable enough for him to just drink it anyway.
Giving a grunt, Norman got up from the chair, placed down his glass and then made his way down to his personal lab.
He had a company to rob.
. . .
'Three guards, one with an attack dog...more inside if my senses and sensor are to be trusted - and they are,' Norman thought to himself before putting away the heartbeat sensor he'd been using. Pulling out a pair of wires and framing that looked loosely like a hand, he pulled them over the gloves he was wearing which seemed to absorb all light that hit them and he completed his ensemble.
Sneaking over to the fence nearby, every step was measured, the place his foot would be interacting with scanned over and over my his eyes to make sure nothing was there that would make noise if stepped on. His superior coordination and muscle control was used to make sure his movements were silent where he could as well. Both of these actions together - choosing his steps carefully and keeping a tight reign of control over his body - made his approach nigh silent.
Whatever noise was made was covered up by the wind or by the guards chatting to each other, however, so Norman was more than silent enough.
The clothing he was wearing was like the gloves he was wearing - a skintight suit that covered him from head to toe with armoured padding here and there, especially around the face to obscure any features that might be possible to see. It was all finished off by a voice changing module around the mouth.
All of this was made by Norman himself, so nothing could be drawn back to Oscorp or him. The suit was made of a complex material that could be made via some rather chemicals being mixed together and then poured over molds he'd made of himself. Then the suit was coloured by a shade of black that was by far the darkest shade ever conceived by man - in a light room it stood out more than anything but in a shadow or the darkness? It made one blend in completely.
And the direction Norman had chosen to break into had the least light of the entire facility. Not to mention that Norman wasn't exactly going to be standing still for long, so most people would probably think it was a shadow.
Kneeling near the fence, Norman tapped his palm with his fingers in a simple rhythm and the hole at the end of the frame on his index finger came to life and spurt out a near invisible hydrogen flame.
Looking down at the flame - a feat only possible because of his enhanced vision as most wouldn't be able to see through the suit he was wearing - Norman briefly smiled before beginning to cut a hole in the chain-link fence. Hydrogen flames burn hot, like most flames, and concentrated on such a small area the chain-link fence was quickly cut open.
Placing the removed piece of fence aside, Norman turned his gaze to his goal. An open window on the facility that held the Arc Reactor. The only problem? It was twenty feet in the air.
Norman could jump that high. He knew that for a fact. But to jump that high, quietly and with the accuracy needed to fit through such a small place? Even Norman had to doubt his Augment physiology could brute force this. To pull off something like this perfectly required training and experience, and Norman had neither of those things. The best he had was binge watching parkour videos and then trying to burn the maneuvers into his muscles.
'Less thinking more doing, Norman,' he mentally reprimanded himself and got into a sprinting position while under the cover of the nearby objects casting shadows over him.
Taking in a deep breath, Norman forcibly raised his heart rate.
You see, Norman, as an enhanced Augment, has heart muscles thrice as strong as a human's. What does this mean? Well, his resting heart rate is around 20 beats per minute for starters. But the opposite also applies as his heart can reach a maximum of 660 beats per minute without harming itself. This would be enough to kill a human two times over. Enough to make their hearts explode. And yet he could handle it without any health trouble.
A heart beating that quick, supplying oxygen that quickly...his muscles would basically never run out of it. Especially considering his improved lung efficiency. This leads to higher explosive power, speed and obviously stamina.
Getting himself to that state with his control over his body wasn't hard and soon he was firing on all cylinders. Muscles bulging, veins bulging, bones creaking, tendons straining--he was taut like a cheetah or a tiger, preparing to pounce. And then he was gone. With muscles eight times stronger than a human, that meant he was also capable of reaching speeds many times higher than a human could. To be exact, he could run between 90 and 100 MPH* - aka subsonic speeds which are faster than the human eye can really react to.
(*A/n - Technically, he should've been able to run much faster. Why can't he? Because muscle strength isn't the only factor in how fast you can go. There's body structure, biomechanics and overall physics. For those curious, if I multiplied the speed a person his build and athletic ability would have as a normal human by eight, I'd have gotten 152 MPH which is astoundingly fast.)
He crossed the ground between him and his target in about five long strides, his burst of speed being incredible but not surprising to him - he'd put his top speed to the test before. He didn't need fancy gravity weights for that, just a speed radar similar to ones used by the police.
Pushing against the ground, still silent, Norman pushed himself up and forced his body straight horizontally. His momentum carried him and in through the window he went. He clipped the side and spun out of control but his stable equilibrium helped him sort himself out mid-air just in time for him to land on all fours, a slight clattering the only noise to signal his entrance. Scanning around the empty facility, Norman saw the Arc Reactor humming along gently not too far away from his elevated position.
The catwalks, wires, cables and computers all over the place were of no interest to Norman as he crept closer and closer to the reactor. The closer he got to it, the more he understand why each piece was where it was--how the individual parts made the whole.
The Arc Reactor was basically a cold fusion reactor. Meaning, opposed to a hot fusion reactor like the sun or the many other stars in the sky, it didn't produce much heat. 'Barely above room temperature,' Norman made an educated guess while continuing to look and learn. 'The palladium inside it is put under ionization through a simple electrical arc which releases radiation as a result. This, coupled with the collisions of the particles inside the core, produces a current that flows through the reactor. Which creates energy. More energy than it needs to run which makes it self-sustaining,' he thought with wonder gleaming in his eyes.
'From one genius to another...Well done, Howard Stark. Even with the limited technology of your time, you made something this great. I won't let it go to waste,' Norman vowed this and memorised what he was seeing and continued his way into the facility. This place held the plans for how the reactor worked in more detail in case it broke down or had any other problems, and that was what Norman was looking for.
There were no guards so far which nearly made Norman curse Stark Industries for not guarding something so precious - but then again, as a burglar, should he really be thinking that? After all, it was making his job much, much easier. But then he found a few people.
Deeper in, in what looked like a data and blueprint storage room, there was a group of six people. Four scientists in lab coats and two guards.
Norman tilted his head as he went over what the guards had on them.
Sidearm on their hips. Batons around their thigh area. Kevlar vests. Armoured padding underneath their clothing. But they didn't seem very experienced - one of them seemed bored, chewing on the gun in his mouth seemed to be the only thing he was using his brain for. The other was giving a tough facade but her eyes would dart toward any sudden movement or noise like a terrified dog on the 4th of July.
Creeping above them, Norman crushed the thought that he was moving like some sort of Xenomorph and he placed himself above them on the catwalk. Silently swinging his first leg over the railing, he sat on it before leaning forward and letting gravity take care of the rest.
He dropped decently fast but to his eyes he might as well been falling in slow motion. His eyes focused in so much he could see the veins throbbing on the female guard's temple, the male guard's jaw tensing and relaxing as he chewed his gum, the scientist clamming over blueprints. Which is why he was so adequately prepared to deal with the first guard.
A palm to the back of the head and a little exertion combined with his momentum allowed Norman to easily slam the guard down into the ground, face first. The man crumpled like a stack of cards in front of the wind. Obviously he didn't kill the man - despite being a bad guard, he was still only doing his job, after all. Norman wasn't heartless, you know? Maybe a little brutal at times but hey, not everyone's perfect.
From one motion to another, Norman used his lower posture to spin on his back foot and take the other guard's feet out from under her. He used a little too much power and heard a slight crack but nothing irreparable. Following his momentum, he spun around 360 degrees and before she hit the floor, Norman had sent up a much lighter kick up into his falling head.
She, like the other guard, was out cold.
'Maybe I should get some formal tutoring? Sparring is out of the question seeing as I'd manhandle just about any normal person, but some instruction wouldn't hurt,' Norman idly thought as he sent rapid jabs at the four scientists, moving between them and clipping them just right on the chin.
Each of them fell unconscious just like the guards before them.
After making sure they were all well and truly out for the count, Norman moved to a nearby console and using the opposite hand to the one he'd used to cut through the fence he plugged a device into a port on the console after tapping a different rhythm into that hand's palm. Going through the data base, Norman was shocked at the lack of security but decided he couldn't care less in the end when he found all the blueprints he was looking for.
He found a few other things, like the omnium Obadiah Stane's suit would be made from, alongside a few rocket propulsion systems and satellite designs. They weren't up to his standards but he could improve them in his own time - it's better to start with something than to have work it up from the ground, after all.
Everything stored on his person and in his mind, Norman undid the the connection, erased everything he'd been searching for from the system and then hacked into the entire Stark Facility's network. Every computer that was in this facility was about to go haywire.
...Maybe a few rockets would have their jet propulsion systems activated as well. But nobody was gonna get hurt.
Too badly, anyway.
With the input confirmed, Norman heard a few of his machinations beginning and the console he was using flashing multiple different colours before sparking and switching off. With that done, he turned and went out the way he came. All in all, Norman thought he might have a career in being a burglar if his company and plans all go to shit.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Buff_Cat
Buff_Cat So, I've got three love interests in mind. This isn't a harem fic, so don't suggest that. The three love interests are as follows:
- Emma Frost (Hot, blonde and kinda mean but there's gotta be something soft under that hard exterior, right? Right?!)
- Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Also hot, redhead and I kinda wanna have her call me names in a cold voice--I mean, she's pretty badass, right?)
- Raven Darkholme/Mystique (Definitely also hot, also a redhead but with blue skin and she's definitely got that MILF or mommy vibe, right?)
And I know I'm down bad, you don't need to remind me.
— New chapter is coming soon — Write a review
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone