"Now we know that the root of all evil came from Norman Osborn's psychiatrist and the terrible artificial intelligence that was trained by his own wicked and perverted psychiatrist!"
The large and small screens on the streets of New York returned to normal. At this moment, almost all news channels were reporting on the major events of the past two days—naturally, about the damned Goblin King and the city-wide, short-term network anomaly.
And, of course, J. Jonah Jameson's undeniable defamation and yelling about Spider-Man.
"And during this whole process, Spider-Man completely failed to provide anyone with a sense of security!" Jonah baselessy denounced Spidey's actions: "I personally saw Spider-Man arresting those so-called supervillains when they posed absolutely no threat! This goddamn wall-crawler has no respect for human rights whatsoever; this is an infringement upon the human rights of those supervillains!"
"Human rights? Seriously? If I hadn't dismantled the bombs on them beforehand, you might have been blown up, Jonah, you know that?"
On the last day of the Christmas holiday, Peter was speeding through the Manhattan sky, carrying two boxes of pizza. Today, he was going to the Osborn residence to visit Harry, and Norman, who had just been discharged from the hospital. Although Gwen had secretly visited the Osborn house once, Peter still didn't know the way.
Oh right, for a long part of the journey, because it was in the suburbs of the Upper City, Venom was still recovering, and the Iron Spider Suit had been blown up by Peter (for probably the third time), so Peter hitched a ride on the way—sitting directly on the roof of a car.
A few minutes later, he had changed his clothes and arrived at Norman's house. After ringing the doorbell, the main gate opened automatically, and a voice Peter had never heard before rang out.
[Hello, Peter Parker.]
"Oh, uh, hello. May I ask who you are..."
[I am Emily, Osborn Industries' new central AI system.]
Peter didn't know whether Norman was truly unlearning lessons or if the hidden dangers of this new system had been eliminated. But considering that the Avengers were still struggling with the handling of Ultron, Peter felt that the Avengers probably weren't in a position to criticize Norman, so he just nodded and walked in with the pizza.
Before even entering the main door, Peter witnessed a surprising sight. The Osborn father and son were playing a console game in the living room in front of a large television, but they weren't using any mainstream console or controllers. Instead, they were using a glider. Harry was standing on the glider, constantly twisting his body to avoid obstacles that appeared on the screen.
Peter pushed the door open.
"Pizza time! Gentlemen!"
Perhaps startled by Peter, Harry fell off the glider. Regardless of whether it was Peter's fault or not, Harry blamed him: "Peter, if you hadn't suddenly startled me, I could have flown for much longer."
"Sorry, sorry. Want some pizza? It'll get cold if you don't eat it."
"You two eat first, boys, I'll have a go." Norman smiled and stepped onto the glider, then began his performance. Peter opened the pizza, handed a box to Harry, and the two watched Norman skillfully play with the glider. Peter ate and quietly asked, "What's up with your family's new AI?"
"My dad restored her using my mom's data. She didn't scan a human brain, so the security is higher." Harry mumbled while eating: "I was a little uncomfortable at first, but later I felt... perhaps he truly needed something like this."
Norman Osborn defeated the Green Goblin, but no one could definitively say whether the Green Goblin personality had been completely annihilated or if Norman had simply regained control of his body and the Goblin would never surface again.
In any case, the current Norman Osborn was certainly more amiable than before. Even though the news outside reported that Osborn Industries' stock had fallen dramatically, Norman seemed completely unfazed.
He played one round, and his score was even lower than Harry's, so he sat down as well and started eating pizza with them. While eating, he asked, "Peter, are you two going to Europe after the new semester starts?"
"Yeah, a school-recommended trip to Europe, in February."
Peter nodded while eating his pizza. It was said to be a European Cultural Tour, booked through the "Globe Trotting Education" travel agency. The students would spend a month starting from Spain, then going to Italy, followed by Greece, then moving to Hungary, Austria, Germany, and then France, finally ending the trip in the UK before flying back home.
He was quite looking forward to it, especially London, so he could visit Baker Street.
The only thing was that New York would have to do without Spider-Man for a month.
"Go ahead, Spider-Man! I believe the Avengers can protect New York."
For some reason, seeing Norman's smile sent a slight shiver down Peter's spine. He wasn't worried about whether the Avengers could protect New York.
But for some reason, he felt as if something was going to happen.
"Hello, Mr. Bentley Wittman, a scan has detected an artificial implant in your brain."
Before being swiftly sentenced by the court and transferred from the NYPD detention center to the Raft prison, the Technomancer, whom Peter had defeated earlier, was being inspected by an Ultron robot. Looking at the Ultron robot, which was slightly different from what he had imagined, the Technomancer narrowed his eyes but answered the question honestly.
"That's the brainwave device I use to control the gravity discs. It's also the equipment I use to maintain my daily life—I have ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)."
"Muscle-related scan completed. Confirmation of atrophy status and possibility of removal is underway. We will keep the device in your brain, but your activities will be restricted within the Raft prison."
Three Ultron robots escorted the Technomancer into an armored transport vehicle. Peering through the small window of the transport, the Technomancer saw the large screen outside. Although he couldn't hear the specific sounds, he could still see the chart showing the massive dive in Osborn Industries' stock.
He couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.
It seemed that Norman was burying himself in a bottomless abyss, even without his intervention. However, eventually, someone would need to give him a push.
The Raft prison... the place he should have gone to long ago, was only now about to be reached. It truly was a long way around.
Glancing at the Ultron robot beside him, the Technomancer remained silent.
Six more months, Norman. Enjoy your wonderful life.
The Technomancer, no, Otto Octavius, who had transferred his consciousness into this cloned young body in his twenties, gave a cold smirk.