Valerie is furiously tapping away at her computer when Mr. Torger cautiously enters the room,
“Dr. Polina...are...are you finding everything you need?”
She doesn’t look up from her screen, “This is far worse than I’d expected.”
“Yeah...Oscorp sent us a bunch of more work...than what we’re accustomed to.”
“No kidding.” she mumbles.
Valerie and Mr. Torger sit in relative silence, with only the rapid pitter-patter of Valerie’s keyboard to occasionally break it,
“Did you have any idea Mr. Gull was engaging in these activities?” shes asks him.
He shakes his head vigorously, “No...no doctor. Di...did you?”
“If I did I would’ve put a stop to it from the start, now wouldn’t I?” she presses her hand on her temple, “But God, I should’ve known.”
Hayden barges into the office, scaring Mr. Torger and causing him to jump back against the wall, “Valerie, please, let me explain.”
She looks up from her work for only the slightest instance, “You’ve got one minute. Go.”
“Felicia brought in the champagne, not me, and I never took a sip. See? Am I acting drunk right now?” he asks.
“And yet you still let her drink in your presence. And how did she sneak an entire bottle of champagne past the team?”
“You’d be surprised what a person can fit in a designer purse.” he jokes lightly, “...listen, she’s had it really hard with Mr. Osborn’s health, and the fact that she feels you’re encroaching on her relationship with him-”
“I am not encroaching on her relationship with him anymore than she is encroaching on our professional relationship.”
“And...what does that mean?”
She takes a heavy sigh, “It means that her behavior has clearly affected your ability to work in the office. I mean, I know you’ve never been proficient at office work, but you’re not this bad.”
“But that also means you’ve been getting quite close to Mr. Osborn, or is it Norman to you?” he accuses.
“Mr. Osborn sees me as a pupil of sorts, someone he can pass on his knowledge to. He also sees me as a confidant, as he’s shared some rather personal information with me.” she explains.
“Personal information like what?”
“...I can’t tell you.”
“Why not? I...I thought you told me everything.”
She bites her lip as she finishes up her work and shuts down the computer, “...there’s a lot of things I haven’t been telling you lately.”
Valerie steps out of her chair and walks out of the office, leaving Hayden and Mr. Torger hanging in unsettling silence.
She rounds the Oscorp building to the special elevator. She strides into the elevator and barks her name into the elevator AI. It begins to ascend, and she watches the view of the city through the clear glass. She spots a red and blue fly between two skyscrapers. So Spidey’s out already, maybe she should meet up with him later on.
She exits the elevator to find the front desk eerily empty. Guess Felicia’s not on the job right now. She knocks on Mr. Osborn’s office door, but the unlocked door cracks open by itself.
“Valerie, come on in!” Mr. Osborn invites cheerfully.
She chuckles nervously, taken aback by his sudden friendly gesture. He certainly looks a lot better than when she last heard from him,
“Thank you Norman.”
“What do you need Valerie? Personally, I’ve been looking into some upgrades for your suit. How do miniature grenades sound? Oscorp has them anyway, one of our many contributions to the war effort.”
“Grenades...don’t really sound like my style, to be honest. I’m actually here because I’m running low on that perfume you gave me. You know, the one that conceals my pheromones?”
He nods, “Oh, of course! I should really give you the recipe, you can easily get the chemicals here at Oscorp, maybe add a personal scent of your own. For you, I’d recommend vanilla, or maybe peppermint.” he pushes his wheelchair over to a personal bar in his office. On it, he presses a small switch under the bar and moves away as it pulls out and is replaced by a chemical lab. He immediately goes to work, mixing together several different combinations and mixtures.
“So Norman, how’s your condition?” she asks, as he sets the concoction onto a Bunsen burner.
“The disease I have comes and goes. When it’s gone, like right now, I feel great, but when it comes back, it’s always stronger than ever. I know I can only handle one or two more occurrences.”
“Have you contacted your family?”
He pauses, watching the liquid boil on the small fire, “Having power can be a great honor, but it’s also a lonely existence. An old colleague of mine once said, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. I agree with that statement wholeheartedly.”
She frowns and lowers her head to the ground, “I think I know what you mean.”
With a pair of tongs, he removes the beaker from the flame and sets it down, “But anyway, I have one remaining family member that hasn’t attempted a hostile takeover: my son, Harry.”
“Well, one family member is better than none at all.” she assures him.
“Yes but...the relationship I have with Harry is...complicated. I really should’ve been there for him more, I see that now. It’s my fault he turned out...like he did.”
“‘Like he did?’ What do you mean?” she asks.
“He’s very...rebellious, and unambitious. You’ll probably get to know him when he takes over the company.”
If his son really is unambitious, then why is Oscorp being passed down to him?
“One more thing Mr. Osborn, I seem to be having trouble controlling my powers-”
“Yes, I saw the pictures of the wreckage, that Lizard fellow sure took you and the Spider-Man for a spin, didn’t he? Anyway, I have the perfect place for you to practice, right here in Oscorp. Here.” he hands her a black Oscorp keycard, “There’s a weapons testing facility just below this office, it’s where we test all of Oscorp’s military equipment, but it’s not in use right now, so it’s all yours to use as you like.”
Her mouth is agape in shock, as she tentatively receives the card, “Norman...than-”
“Normie, you have a phone call.” it’s Felicia, standing at the door, apparently sobered up, “It’s Harry.”
Mr. Osborn moves his wheelchair back over to his desk, “Valerie, you’re perfume is ready. I’ll send you the recipe so you can make it yourself.”
She picks up the cooled off beaker and empties it into the perfume bottle. She still has to mention to him that Spider-Man got his powers on accident, but honestly, she wasn’t entirely sure he’s telling the truth. She should hold off until she has enough evidence.
She waves goodbye to Mr. Osborn, who’s clearly preoccupied with a heated conversation with his son,
“What?! What do you mea-...No, no! You don’t need to do that, I’m fine! Don’t you think you’re overreacting-”
Valerie finds it best to give Mr. Osborn some privacy and slips out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind her.
“Well, you two certainly had a lovely heart-to-heart.” Felicia comments bitterly.
“What is your problem Felicia?” she upsettingly questions.
“Hey, if you’re referring to Hayden, the poor sap didn’t give me the booze, I gave me the booze. And I was just giving you a taste of your own medicine.”
So he was telling the truth, but that still doesn’t mean he’s in the clear, or that Valerie forgives him,
“And why did you feel that need to do that?”
Taking this as a challenge, Felicia stomps up to her and gets in her face, her heels clacking on the glass floor, “Because you know who this company’s going to belong to? Not Menken, not Harry, and definitely not you. Oscorp will be mine, because I worked for it, not because I piggy-backed off of an engineer and his ideas. And also, if you really insist on calling yourself the CEO of a company, than at least keep your employees in line, because Hayden was easier than Tony Stark, and I didn’t even have to lie about my age.”
Valerie feels the slightest tears begin to swell up. She stumbles backwards into the elevator, pressing the button to close it. As she wipes away her tears with the sleeve of her polo, she realizes that the keycard Mr. Osborn had given her was still in her hand. Before the elevator AI could bring her back down to the entrance, she sticks the keycard into the slot under the buttons, and the elevator starts up, going down a lot less than usual. Then, instead of continuing to go down, the elevator shifts forward, into the building itself. Through the clear elevator glass, Valerie watches as she passes various green-tinted storage rooms full of unimaginable weaponry. What interested her the most was the room containing various suits, apparently Mr. Osborn has a pension for suits. A bird-themed suit with bird-like wings, a set of eight long, metallic appendages, even a makeshift Spider-Man costume that looks more like a casual hoodie and sweats.
The elevator stops and opens to a wide room with emerald green lighting. There are training dummies and a small shooting range. On the walls also hang various weapons, from knives and swords to military-grade guns. Valerie goes into the shooting range, and grabs one of the sheets of paper marked with targeted points meant for guns. Posting it against an empty wall, she allows a charge to build in both of her hands. Shaking, she tries to control it, keep it from releasing just long enough for her to raise her arms and take a steady aim at the center of the target...and she fires.