Otto Octavius was being transported to the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Although he had unreservedly confessed most of his plan while railing against Norman Osborn with a stream of trash talk, the Avengers didn't seem to fully trust him. They decided to take him to the White Queen at Xavier's School to use her telepathy to search for deeper contents.
Otto waited indifferently for the impending interrogation. However, while in the vehicle, an officer tossed him a cell phone that was already connected and on speaker.
"Otto Octavius, my old friend, my best old colleague, you truly surprised me."
The voice on the other end of the line instantly enraged Otto, who roared almost immediately: "Norman Osborn!"
"It seems you've made quite a few new friends, haven't you? You hacked into our company computers and prepared a video that is completely untampered with—one I can't find any flaws in—planning to pin everything on me. Then the Pentagon, which had already invested in Osborn Industries, could logically increase the pressure and take the Savage Strength project out of my hands, which you would then take over, right? What a magnificent revenge drama."
"I truly didn't anticipate Spider-Man being there, or that he had grown so quickly that I couldn't resist him, but that was just an accident. If it weren't for Spider-Man, you would be the universally despised failure today, Norman."
"That's very interesting, because my computer contains a clip of you outlining your evil plan to my employee, then modifying all of his records." Sitting in his office, Norman smiled and delivered the words that silenced Otto. After a long pause, Otto gave a dry laugh: "Truly... you are something else, Norman."
"You must think I'm stupid, right? Having security systems you could easily bypass despite my precautions, central computers running on the underlying programs you designed, and always arranging various labs in the headquarters building to make it convenient for you to easily find Osborn Industries' various high-tech equipment and use it against us. Oh, the Scorpion serum, the Rhino skin, Mysterio's brainwave amplification device, and, of course, Connors' little lizards. My OsCorp truly is a treasure trove, isn't it?"
Otto was silent for a long time before finally countering: "You were waiting for me?"
"Who has the time to wait for you? I was waiting for the Pentagon. Richard Parker used his genius to reactivate and modify the Savage Strength Super Soldier project, which Nathaniel Essex had originally rejected. It went from creating 'super animal soldiers' to creating 'super soldier animal serums.'"
Norman coldly stated his objective: "And he did all this at Osborn Industries. Even when he left, he left these things at Osborn Industries. Of course, his original idea wasn't really to create super soldiers; he wanted to achieve the greatest accomplishment of any scientist: to become God."
"To become God..." Otto muttered to himself. This was not difficult to understand. For a long time, the dream of biology, especially genetic biology, has been to become God. In the Bible, God created all life. Therefore, to achieve the great feat of creating life was to become God.
Thus, people began cloning, in-vitro fertilization, step-by-step stripping the privilege of creation from God's hands. Ultimately, humanity aimed to independently create entirely new species, even a complete, independent, new ecosystem, officially declaring their achievement of Godhood.
Osborn, however, discovered the project's link to the rejected Savage Strength project by Nathaniel Essex and chose to invest early, securing the entire project in his hands. He then negotiated with the Pentagon, gaining the rights to develop the entire project and securing financial support from them.
"But would the Pentagon really tolerate a Super Soldier project they couldn't control?"
Osborn laughed.
The birth of Peter Parker, or Spider-Man, was never an exception. Richard Parker was a genius, and a madman. When he began to conceive of fusing animal and human genetic sequences using gene-splicing technology, he didn't focus on how to achieve it on a large scale.
He chose to focus on the individual, starting with a single human's genes. First, he would create a genetically modified animal that perfectly matched one person's genes, then scale it up to others. He chose his own genetic sequence and created the genetically modified spider that was most compatible with his own DNA sequence.
In other words, the most perfect Spider-Man should have been Richard Parker, but he was already dead. The spiders designed later were merely copies designed by Jonathan Drew.
For his own plan, Norman needed a super soldier, so he sent people to lobby Peter Parker's middle school to set up that tech exhibition. He originally planned to leverage the vanity and youthful exuberance of young people to cultivate a superhero controlled by Osborn Industries. He didn't expect Peter Parker to be more self-aware than he thought, which, of course, brought him quite a bit of trouble.
That person called Silk was the real accident, but SHIELD had still helped him out.
"When Spider-Man appeared, what would the Pentagon think when they realized I could really create a super soldier? They would try to absorb it. They wouldn't crudely seize my project because they know that the scientists, not a few animals, are the ones who truly accomplished this. So, from that moment on, I knew the Pentagon would intervene in various ways. Buying shares in Osborn Industries was just one of the simpler ways they could think of."
"So, you did all this just to counter the Pentagon?"
"Counter the Pentagon? Why would I oppose the nation's highest authority? I simply cannot accept a drop in Osborn Industries' stock price or a hostile takeover. My terms are very low: I only need a good price."
Norman's hand rested on the disconnect button. Before hanging up, he spoke his final words to his old friend from his startup days: "So, I've concluded negotiations with the Pentagon, old friend. Thank you for helping me secure the leverage for the negotiation."
"Farewell."
With a gunshot, a bullet pierced the brain of Otto Octavius inside the police car. The vehicle screeched to a halt, and several officers hurriedly got out to check the situation, collecting the phone in the process.
On a distant building, a man wearing a Bullseye mask put away his sniper rifle. He had once fallen from a great height during a battle with Daredevil, breaking every bone in his body. Now, Bullseye had returned as the most elite assassin, having reconstructed his skeleton with Adamantium.
Doctor Octopus was merely his first contract.
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