Negative Ten Epilogue
Life, like always in this godforsaken world, slowly began to go back to normal with Martin Li leading the charge as he worked his way around the many blocks of the city to get rid of as many negative energy binds as he possibly could.
Both as a form of repentance for what he's done, even if it wasn't really him, and as a way of showing the world that he wasn't the monster everyone thought he was because of his other selves' past actions.
It took only a week before everyone went from hating the guy and thinking everything he did was just some publicity stunt to lowering their guards and loving the guy and treating him on the same wavelength as Iron Man, aka a misunderstood genius or whatever.
Honestly, it's hard to understand where the world is at with him, as every day it seems people flip and flop between the two extreme emotions of loving or hating the guy, with people basically making it a job to share said love or hatred for the guy.
The person in charge of hating him seemed to be some kid online called "Aracna-Boy420," who had a picture of Spider-Woman's face logo thing but the inverse colors, as the black went where the red went and the red went where the black went.
Harry, however, was the very public spokesman for Martin Li being a saint of a man, as he had to do so or else the city would go insane and also because he was now the CEO of Oscorp and needed some form of good PR to distract everyone from the question about what happened to his father and why he was seen walking from Xavier's Academy for the Gifted.
Everything was far too much for Harry, as everything he did, he heard the dark voice of his inner insecurities speaking to him as it tried to get him to cut loose and let out his inner beast, just like what was probably happening to his father.
Thankfully, the one thing Norman did, even if Harry hated it, was teach his son everything he'd ever be forced to learn from every school in the state when he was nothing more than a child, so Harry could quickly graduate and fully run Oscorp without any fear of his education.
After promising a huge salary, Harry managed to get Penny to stop working at the bugle and instead work for him as his secretary, as he couldn't really hire her as anything else considering she was just sixteen and still in school.
Harry: "At least with this we can meet each other every day, and you can also use my private lab for whatever you might need."
Harry said as he caressed Penny's shoulder so gently that Penny didn't really know he was doing it, along with probably being in complete awe of the lab, as it had everything a girl like her could ever imagine!
This was the secret secondary reason he made Penny his secretary, as he finally thought he had a chance of possibly getting with the girl of his dreams, the only woman in his life to never treat him differently because he was an Osborn and also the only girl that matched his preferences when it came to looks.
Although Penny did completely screw him over with that, as she was literally the only woman he's ever had such feelings for, she is his preference as much as any living person possibly could be.
Penny, meanwhile, was just worried over her buggy along with her Aunt May, as she had no idea where the heck she went, but by the time she finally met back up with her, she was wearing a very massive shirt and boots.
No matter how hard Penny asks what happened to her aunt, May just begins to smile and stares off into the sunset for a while until something eventually snaps her back to reality, and she starts up a brand-new conversation.
Aunt May: "Sweetie? What happened to your Daily Bugle badge? And also, why have you been looking around my makeup? I told you last time if you needed—"
Before she could finish talking, Aunt May walked into Penny dressed up in the only suit she had, which was just small enough that it didn't seem to be good to wear it outside but also big enough that it wasn't trying to rip itself apart.
Aunt May found this very distracting, as on one hand she wanted her niece to be free to do whatever she wanted, but on the other hand, as basically her mother, she wouldn't want Penny to go anywhere dressed like that.
Aunt May: "May I ask why you need clothes like that, sweetie?"
Penny: "Well. Harry just got me a job as his part-time secretary since he's forced to run Oscorp now that his dad is missing, and since we're not really going to see each other that much, he gave me and Jake a job at the company."
This was one of the few yet soon-to-be many white lies that Harry has told Penny, as he never once attempted to give Jake a job, and while friends, he viewed Jake as a rival for Penny's affection and was not about to take the chance they might get together.
Aunt May, possibly knowing what was going to happen and not really wanting anything to happen to Penny, took her to a local shop to get her a man suit that would hide all her figure, as she didn't want her niece to be nothing more than a hot pair of legs.
Jake... Jake was something else, as he didn't know what he was anymore, as he had the memories he should have, but at the same time, he didn't feel the way he felt he should have.
Like the instance of the men in the warehouse he killed as a kid.
He knew he should feel guilt, hatred, and so many other emotions for an event such as that, but he felt nothing, as it was just something in the past that could have happened to anyone if they were in the same situation as him.
Another thing that Jake feels is different about himself is how he feels towards the women in his life, as he no longer cares about the what-ifs or buts of his relationships with them, as he likes who he likes, and he feels he's been holding back for long enough.
And the first person he wants to meet is the first person he's ever truly been with besides Penny, as he knows how Harry feels, and as they're friends, he wants to give the guy some time to see if he and Penny can get together or not.
Jake: "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad! Bye, Sis! I'm going out for a bit to meet with a friend!"
Haeley just huffs and puffs over her brother leaving once more to do something she thinks of as pointless, as everything's been fine for nothing more than a week, and they've only reunited for a day before he decided he had to suddenly leave.
Their parents were fine with Jake leaving, as they didn't think their son was going to do anything too stupid or irresponsible, as he's never been the type to do that before.
Once he was outside the house, Jake went in between some allies and grew a pair of wings with cybernetic enhancements as he began flying his way towards the Helicarrier, as that was the place he needed to go.
Meanwhile, far off in another kingdom. A land of nothing but mutants and mutant-loving kinds, aka Genosha. What was once Norman Osborn, now nothing more than a massive, hulking goblin creature, was walking through the place just trying to figure out what to do.
As the crash landing caused him to lose most of his memories, the exceptions being his intense hatred of Spider-Woman for some reason and the desire to make amends with someone.
He doesn't know who that person is, nor does he understand why he feels the need to make things right, but it's something he feels deep in his heart that he has to fix, whatever problems he has going on with his past.
Magneto and the rest of the mutants were at first kind to their new "mutant" brother but were very quick to turn on the creature once they realized he was not a true mutant, along with him absorbing some of the powers of the mutants he touched.
By the time they realized what happened, the man was already gone with a couple of powers from the brotherhood, with the most dangerous being Mystique, but the powers he took were very weak, as he could only turn into his Norman form, monster form, and a half-monster form.
Norman: "(Looks at his reflection in the water.) So I guess this is what I look like... Now all I have to do is find out who knows what I look like along with where I am currently located."
Back to New York, Jake has found the place he wanted to go and knocks on the door of the first person he wanted to talk and have a chat with after he finished the task Nick wanted from him, as he somehow had a robotic pigeon send him the info.
Jake: "Okay. Be calm. She's just like you and me."
Ekaj: "Well, more like me than you, but I get what you mean."
Jake: "(Mumbles through his teeth.) Shut up, me!"
And that is all for now hope you all enjoyed and until next time stay safe and peace!