Chương 68: Project V
A few weeks after the Halloween party, Norman asked Harry to stay the weekend at the house, rather than Harry's dorm. Harry was reluctant, but his father seemed to have really wanted to see him so he agreed to it.
On Saturday, as Harry was finishing up some homework, Bernard, their butler, knocked on his bedroom door. "Master, Harry. Your father would like to speak to you."
Harry groaned. "You don't have to call me that, Bernard. Just Harry is fine." Harry got up and began walking toward his bedroom door, which Bernard was holding open for him. "My apologies, Sir."
Harry hated being pampered like this. Despite trying to get Bernard to treat him normally, he always was so formal with the boy. He was also somewhat overprotective, like a second father. Harry walked through their massive home with Bernard following close behind before knocking on his father's office door three times.
𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬
"Father? You called?" Harry cracked open the door to his father's home office, peeking inside as he spoke.
"I did." Norman, using a sort of advanced tablet at his desk, responded without looking up at him.
Harry frowned, once again his father wasn't even speaking to him as if he were a real person, still caught up in his work despite being the one calling Harry to him. His whole life, his father never really gave him any sort of attention. The two of them have never been close, likely due to Harry being a troublemaker at a young age and never being as into science as his father was. Harry also reminded Norman too much of the boy's mother, which made things very difficult for him.
Harry shut the door behind him and approached his father. "What? I don't have all day."
Norman finally looked up at his son, laughing a bit before putting a serious look back on his face. "Wanna tell me what you were looking for at Oscorp during Otto's presentation?" his father saying this sent a shiver down Harry's spine.
'Shit!' he thought, thinking that he'd gotten away with it.
"What are you talking about?" Harry called his father's bluff, however, Norman simply turned his tablet around to face his son. It showed Harry walking around inside the restricted area of Oscorp, looking around in a very suspicious matter.
"This is what I'm talking about. Did you think I wouldn't find out?" Norman scolded him. "DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID!? His father started to yell at him, however, Harry was sick of being the punching bag.
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TREATS ME LIKE I'M THE STUPID ONE. ALL THE TIME!" As Harry shouted with a fiery passion, his father looked on with wide eyes before grinning at the boy.
"You've finally grown a backbone, huh, Son?" Norman was loving this. One of his main issues with his son was how he didn't act like how a man of his status should. Once the business was passed down to Harry, he would be one of the most powerful men in the country. He needed to start acting like it in Norman's eyes.
Harry said nothing, continuing to look at his father with a frown on his face.
"Now, I want you to tell me why you're sneaking around." When Norman said this, Harry's brain began rapidly thinking of what he should say. He needed something that would make his father the least amount upset.
Suddenly, a perfect idea clicked in his head.
"I want to be more involved with the family business. As the heir, I think it's time for me to learn about these things for when I have to take over in the future. I want to change the world with you, Father." Harry's face seemed significantly serious as he said this. His father hadn't seen him with this much determination in a very long time.
"Where'd all this come from?" Norman asked, giving his son his full attention. He was now very intrigued.
"I'm tired of being behind Eren. I need to get ahead of him. He's smarter than me, but being your son and the heir to the company gives me an edge. Has he told you about his aspirations for having his own tech company? 'Parker Industries' is what he told me he wants to call it. If we're going to be future competitors, I need to start getting involved now." Harry stared into his father's eyes with intense determination as he spoke. He didn't mean any of the things he just said about himself, in fact, he couldn't care less if Eren's future tech company grew larger than Oscorp. He often hoped that it actually did take over the industry. It'll be less work for Harry in the future.
"So Parker inspired you, huh? Interesting." Norman looked up at his son in deep thought. He's been waiting for years for Harry to finally take being an Osborn seriously. In fact, he was excited to learn that he and Eren had become close friends as he'd hoped Eren's genius would rub off on him. He smiled slightly behind his hands which he was resting his chin before speaking once more.
"Okay, Son. Tonight, I will take you with me so you can see what Oscorp is truly about. I've been waiting for you to take things seriously for so long. Once I'm sure you're ready, I'll show you my magnum opus."
'Huh, it was that easy?' Harry expected him to have to practically beg his father to let him in on what was going on, so he wasn't prepared for things to go this smoothly.
"Yes, Father. I will prove myself to you."
"I hope that is the case. You're my only son, Harry. I want the business in your hands."
With that said, Harry excused himself and went back to his room to immediately text Eren and Cindy about what happened in their group chat.
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: My dad just confronted me asking about what I was doing in Oscorp.
𝘌𝘳𝘦𝘯: Huh? Wym?
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: He saw footage of me during the presentation. He was pissed.
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: But I stood my ground. He was impressed I guess, idk he's weird.
𝘊𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘺: Did he see me?
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: No, I don't think so. Just me.
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: Anyway, he said he's going to show me something tonight. Something big. Might be Project V.
𝘌𝘳𝘦𝘯: You have your contacts and comms with you?
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: Yeah, I brought them. I'll make sure to wear them.
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: Guess, it's time for the real hero of the group to finally take action ᕙ(`▿´)ᕗ
𝘌𝘳𝘦𝘯: (o_o)
𝘊𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘺: (o_o)
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: Huh? What's that supposed to mean?
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: Guys?
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺: Hello?
Hours passed and Harry was called by his father once again. The two of them got into one of Norman's cars and drove to someplace on the outskirts of the state. They eventually found themselves outside of what looked like a military base in the middle of nowhere. As they continue into the base, Norman pulled into a hangar and parked to the side before instructing Harry to exit the vehicle and follow him.
Spider-Man and Silk followed them there, however, there were far too many people there for them to go any further than a hill beside the base. Harry would have to be on his own there, and that terrified him.
The two Osborns made their way deeper inside the hanger, through multiple security doors, and down multiple staircases and lifts until they were within the depths of the military facility. So far, no one was suspicious of Harry, nor did they notice the contacts in his eyes.
'Be careful in there. There are too many guards and systems for us to sneak through unseen. If anything happens, I'll rush through security and get you out of there in an instant.' Eren spoke through Harry's unseeable earpiece, getting no response so as to not get his cover blown.
Inside the building, which looked like a sort of lab with metallic walls, there seemed to be hundreds of people attached to machines and incubators. Some appeared to be mutated or deformed in some type of way. Skin discoloration, animal body parts, and other deformities were amongst the horrors in front of the two Osborns. Harry looked over at his father as he attempted to comprehend the horrors in front of him. A frown of disgust was plastered on his face as he saw his father walk through the house of horror as if it were nothing.
'Jesus Christ…' Eren's voice could be heard through Harry's communications device. Cindy said nothing as she covered her mouth in disgust while watching the horrors through Harry's eyes.
"Surprised, Son?" Norman asked as he looked at his son with a disturbing smile. "This is the future of Oscorp. Military funding is the key to the company's growth. Our profit margins have increased nearly ten-fold."
"What is all of this." Harry's voice couldn't hide how disgusted he was at his father's work. His father laughed before answering his question.
"These are various test subjects for our super-soldier program. These here:" Norman pointed to a section of the facility where multiple test subjects appeared to have taken the appearance of various animals.
"These are from trying to replicate Dr. Connors's lizard serum with other animals. Sadly, none of these have given us any meaningful results."
"You see these?" Norman pointed over to a test subject zipping around aimlessly inside a small glass enclosure. He looked as if he were completely made of electricity, besides his agonizing screams, nothing about him seemed human.
"We tried to replicate whatever had happened to Maxwell Dillon… Electro is another name he went by, I'm sure you've heard of him on the news. Sadly we failed in these aspects as well. We have hundreds of test subjects down here, a lot of them were captured after the lizard incident, which made it easy for the disappearances to go under the radar. We replicated the cure and now use these people for our own testing."
"You're just… kidnapping people?" Harry's jaw might as well have been on the floor as he looked at the innocent people practically being tortured in front of him.
"Harry, I know it's hard but you have to pretend this stuff doesn't bother you." Eren spoke into his ear. "Act like you want to see more. This is part of the job. I'm sorry."
Reality soon set in for Harry at this moment. Being out in the field was not all that it was made out to be. He didn't feel like a hero at all, he felt mortified. Regardless, Harry removed that disgusted expression from his face and spoke to his father as if they were pals.
"I guess that makes sense. No one would willingly volunteer, right? It must be done." As Harry spoke, he was using everything in his power to hold back his true feelings. He knew Eren was right, if he wanted to stop his father, he must play along.
"I want to see more. Any substantial ones anywhere?" Harry shifted his tone completely away from the disgusted tone he had just a few seconds ago, the mark of a true future businessman.
"You seemed bothered. Now you want to see more?" Norman raised an eyebrow as he looked at his son's face which was now completely different.
"I was just surprised is all. Who would've thought you were hiding such an amazing facility from me this whole time!" Harry plastered a fake smile on his face, in reality, he was dying inside as he walked past the poor souls who were trapped in glass prisons.
"I see... Follow me, then." Norman then took Harry even deeper into the facility. They ended up in a room where a man was standing inside an incubator, covered in a strange black goo. Around him, were people inside small habitats fulfilling small tasks such as putting a shape in the correct hole or cutting up fruit. As they were doing their tasks, these people seemed inhuman. They moved like creatures or primates, they were also covered in the goo.
"Here it is: Project V." Norman gestured toward the black goo as he spoke.
"Woah, it's like a black sludge… What's it do?" Harry faked enthusiasm to hide the feeling of having to throw up.
"It's some sort of alien life form that seeks a host. Once connected with a host, it uses that host to sort of… reproduce, creating almost identical but weaker versions of itself to take over another host. Our current host here, Eddie Brock, is able to control the smaller hosts by acting as the main host. It's theorized that we can use this on the battlefield. Imagine this: One commander is leading hundreds of soldiers who are all in sync and obey every single one of his commands. I haven't even mentioned how it gives enhanced strength and many, many other enhancements."
"That's sick!" Harry exclaimed, though he truly meant sick in the negative sense. He felt sick to his stomach as he watched the smaller hosts being marionetted around by the main host.
"Very sick indeed, Son." Norman smiled, looking over at Harry. He felt as if his son was finally understanding him and is making his way to becoming a real businessman just like him.
"That's all for today. Let's head back home, I'll show you more when we get the chance. It's called Globulin Green, you should look forward to it."
"I can't wait..." Harry told him in a fake excited voice.
Deep inside, Harry wanted to scream, cry, and run away. This was all too much for him, to even be related to the man made him want to rip the flesh off of his body and drain himself of his father's blood.
Things were about to change fast, for all three heroes.
And this discovery was just the beginning.
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