4 004
As every morning Norman got up from the hospital bed where he was, the advantages of being a VIP is that he had practically all the comforts that you can have, basically it was as if he was in his own home.
With tranquility, he took his body to the bathroom where he took some water in his hands and drew it to his face, with a towel he began to dry the traces of water and looked at himself in the mirror.
It had been almost 22 days since he had been transmigrated to an alternate Marvel universe, 22 days since he woke up in Norman Osborn's body.
The days were very simple, he would wake up, have breakfast and then follow it up with some physiotherapy to help his muscles to be used again, as much as Norman wanted to do something else he knew that right now the important thing was to be recovered otherwise if he forced his body then it would only bring more consequences than benefits.
However, that did not mean that he had simply been doing nothing in all his free time, instead he took advantage of it to investigate a little more of the world he was in.
One of the things he was able to discover was about the apparent absence of Charles Xavier better known as Professor X, the most obvious deduction was that being an alternate universe the Professor simply did not exist, but Norman believed that Mutants in general did not exist in this reality.
There was no hint of them, nothing that could even remotely lead him to believe that they existed and considering the lack of a Charles Xavier it was very likely that his deduction was true. Of course, it could also mean that the mutants were hiding from normal people, however no matter how much they did they would always leave a clue or make a mistake that would give out their presence, so Norman was reluctant to believe this option.
The other things worth saying, was about the presence of Rand Enterprises in New York, although it was currently run by the Meachum brothers, he also found the lack of the Baxter Building which indicated that The Fantastic Four might take a while to appear considering they do, since as in the case of the mutants there was no clue to the existence of their members at least not at the moment.
He also discovered that Matt Murdock had started working as an intern for the law firm Landman and Zack along with his friend Franklin Nelson, in turn he was able to locate a female lawyer who was making a name for herself as one of the best in the entire country, her name was Jennifer Walters, cousin of Bruce Banner and if she was like her version of the 616 universe in the future she would be known as She-Hulk.
The Osborn thought the universe he was in was very curious, but he didn't give it any more thought, that sort of thing was out of his current ability so there was no point in thinking about it too much.
Stopping to think about that fact the Osborn decided to start his daily exercise routine, in a little while Bernard would come to give him the weekly report of Oscorp's activities.
…
The Osborn was listening carefully the report given by Bernard while he himself read and began to sign certain documents of the company.
Thanks to the fact that with the passing of time the memories came to his mind, he was able to know that Oscorp's main market was in medicine and drugs for various diseases, certainly a sector that would always be needed.
In addition to that before the accident Norman was planning that Oscorp began to expand into more areas of business including armament, of course due to his condition the project was delayed and now that he had the command he did not plan to venture into it, although the profits would be good, there would be many laws and restrictions if he wanted to make a deal with the military, so he simply discarded the plan.
"How is the company's stock?" asked Norman, the previous stock had been at a low point, not low enough to call it a big risk, but low nonetheless.
"It is stabilized Sir, after the news of your awakening they have begun to stabilize, and it is even likely to increase" mentioned Bernard quickly.
"Well" he said simply: "Inform the management department that I need a detailed plan to enter the digital technology and internet market" Norman mentioned casually.
In his short time in this world he realized one thing and that is that while the world he was now in had great advances in certain areas such as medicine or the petroleum industry and even the arms industry was a bit behind in terms of the Internet and digital technology at least those that were for public use, Norman was fully aware of the raw potential that those two areas of business had, so he would certainly take advantage of the lack of them as an opportunity to achieve market dominance before the competition even begins.
"If they don't know about the subject then they should hire more people, but it must be fast" he did not forget to say, since he doubted that Oscorp had people specialized in that area of business.
"I will, Sir" said Bernard, accepting Norman's order, in the days that have passed since he woke up things didn't seem to be too different, so he had no problem in following his orders, since everything he did was for the benefit of the corporation.
"How is Harry?" asked Norman shortly after the room had fallen silent again.
Bernard just flashed a smile at the mention of Norman's son, no doubt one of the things that had changed was about the older Osborn's relationship with his son. Of course Norman knew the reason behind his butler's smile, in the days that have passed he tried to change at least a little his relationship with his now son, which he achieved in a somewhat simple way.
While at their first "meeting" Harry seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable and nervous, that state was soon replaced by enthusiasm and joy at seeing his father try to talk to him, children are creatures of emotions after all just as easily as they can get angry they can grant forgiveness in the same way and for Harry who always wanted Norman to give him even a little of his attention, forgiveness was much easier to give, that fact made him feel sorry for the way of life Harry had to go through for four years also brought a little of resentment against the old Norman.
His relationship with Harold at the moment could be described as good, at least he was trying to be a good image for Harry, while the idea of having a child was still a bit of a surprise he was trying to do a good job.
"The young master should be in his tutorials at the moment, once he has completed them Miss Watson mentioned going for a walk to Central Park" Bernard mentioned to him bringing Norman out of his thoughts.
"Send a team of bodyguards after them to ensure their safety" mentioned the Osborn after a moment's consideration.
"I understand, if you'll excuse me" Bernard replied seriously as he left the room to carry out the task his master had given him.
The bodyguards were not because of a distrust of Mary Jane after all if he had wanted to do something he had eight months to carry it out plus the few times he had a talk with her, he could deduce that she was a good girl and possibly did not have any hostile thoughts against him or his son. The bodyguards were because in his old world, business was not at all simple there were many enemies both in the light and in the shadows who would not hesitate to attack someone's weak point, so it was logical to think it would be the same in this new world, so it was worth being a little careful.
Besides, it was very suspicious that when the old Norman was preparing to make Oscorp enter other markets he ended up involved in an accident that left him in a coma and practically killed him, a coincidence but that was a method with which he was very familiar so the alarms in his mind kept ringing.
Stopping to think about that scenario Norman began to read again the documents he had, first he had to finish his work before even thinking about doing anything else.
…
Today was the day he was to be released from the hospital it was February 5, 2009, after being in the hospital for almost a month his doctors had considered him to be in a healthy physical and mental state, so he was fit to be dismissed.
Bernard had come to pick him up and give him an all black business suit while a white shirt was underneath the suit accompanied by a tie.
The exit from the hospital had been a bit more difficult than he thought due to the reporters already on the scene, he gave a brief statement about his favorable state of health and without another word got into the car that would take him to Osborn Manor.
The Osborn Mansion was quite distance from the hustle and bustle of the city, once inside the territories of what he would now call home Norman could see two figures outside the front door of the mansion.
One of them was Mary Jane Watson, she currently had a simple outfit, it consisted of a simple t-shirt with an eagle print and above it a black jacket, no doubt it fit her well, covering the lower part of her body she was wearing simple blue jeans that even with the simplicity made her legs look magnificent.
Next to the beautiful woman was his son, Harry who seemed happy to see the car, he was wearing a simple green sweatshirt and brown shorts, honestly the outfit did not end up pleasing the older Osborn, but it was his son's decision to dress that way.
Getting out of the car Harry quickly approached him, Norman only looked at him for a few seconds before he carried him in his arms, maybe he wasn't the best person, but he would try to raise the little boy the best he could.
"Miss Watson, it's good to see you" the Osborn mentioned to the redhead: "Likewise Mr. Osborn, it's good that you are in a good state" the woman with green eyes mentioned to her employer.
Norman only nodded at her words, and then began to enter the big door of the mansion, it would be his first time in his new home.
After a bit of playing and chatting with Harry, Norman headed to his office where he began to work on certain projects that would be useful in the future, something he was delighted about his new body was the fact that his intelligence seemed to have increased, possibly he would have the same capacity as the old Norman.
Something he was truly happy about, not saying that he was an idiot, but he knew that compared to the Marvel geniuses it was possible that he could only be considered as a normal person and despite how reluctant he could be he had to admit that Norman was intelligent maybe not at the level of Tony Stark, Hank Pym or Reed Richards, but he was, and he would make good use of that intelligence.
Time passed quickly and the only thing that could be heard in the office was the keystrokes on Norman's personal computer, whatever he was doing he was concentrating at the maximum, a few minutes later he stopped typing and calmed down.
It was at that moment that he heard a small knock on the door: -Come in- he mentioned without taking his eyes off the screen.
"Mr. Osborn" a young woman's voice made Norman look at the person who had suddenly arrived at his office, a little surprise flashed in his eyes when he saw Mary Jane: "Miss Watson, do you need something?" he asked calmly.
"I just want to talk" she mentioned and the Osborn could clearly tell she was a little nervous: "It's about Harry" she said quietly.
"Miss Watson, first take a breath and order the words you want to tell me, I will listen to you calmly" mentioned the Osborn when he saw that she seemed to be hesitating, the redhead just looked at the man and followed his indications: "I think it would be a good idea for Harry to start attending the kindergarten" she mentioned quickly after gathering all her courage.
"Kindergarten?" asked Norman as he focused his attention on the redhead's words: "Why?" he continued to ask, he didn't find any problem in having his son receive an education at home, so he didn't understand Mary Jane's idea: "Several studies mention that the environment where children spend their childhood can affect their future development, and it is also mentioned that it is good to make them develop friendships from an early age, so I think it would be best for little Harry to go to a kindergarten" explained the redhead but each time her voice began to lower in intensity at the end it was almost a whisper, she knew that she was overstepping her limits and that could cost her job, but she really believed that it would benefit Harry in the future.
Her fear increased when Norman did not respond in any way, just when she was about to ask for forgiveness because of exceeding her limits the Osborn spoke: "It sounds good to me" he mentioned simply and plainly: "I will inform Bernard to look for the best school in New York, if that's all you can leave, also if you need someone to take you home inform Bernard to get a driver to do it" added in a delayed way.
In a state of surprise MJ managed to get out of the room, the moment she left she felt as if all her strength left her body: 'That was close' she thought, she really thought she just lost her job but luckily Mr. Osborn seemed to be nice, at least he was very different from how he was described in the media.
For his part Norman returned to concentrate on the computer screen, he did not know how much time had passed until an email message appeared, the name of the sender was Henri Ducard.
