Over a month had passed since the Green Goblin attacked the city of New York.
During this time, Spider-Man, Silk, and Harry renovated the secret cave beneath the Osborn residence, turning it into a training facility for the two spiders. They called it the Spider-Cave. Eren trained relentlessly to make it to where he could stay in his Ultimate Godspeed form for as long as he needed. He meditated, ate, slept, read manga, and studied in his form, making it a part of his daily life until his body was used to it.
Harry and Eren worked together to create a high-speed treadmill that would adjust itself to Eren's speed, allowing him to train and actually measure his progression.
Before his intense training, Eren was running at Mach 1.
By the time his training ended, he was running at Mach 3.
If he were to transfer all of his energy to his legs, as he did in Wakanda, he could reach upwards of ten thousand miles per hour. However, this was only a short burst of speed that would fully exhaust him for a long period of time, serving zero purpose in battle.
Harry Osborn inherited ownership of Oscorp. Even though his father didn't plan for him to actually be the heir of the company, it was legally given to him. Knowing what his father was involved with, on top of the fact that his father didn't even want him to have it in the first place, made him not want anything to do with it, so it was closed for the time being.
Harry spent most of his free time messing around with his father's Globulin Green serum, trying to figure out where his father went wrong in creating it. He wanted to create an anti-serum just in case something were to happen in the future.
Along with the anti-serum, Harry had been secretly working on a Globulin Green serum of his own. He still had the desire to get out on the field with his friends, however, he kept this desire to himself. He made sure to never test any of the renditions of the formula on himself, and wouldn't do so until he was sure that it'd work properly.
Cindy Moon had gone through a lot of self-reflection during this time period.
Her parents eventually were released from the hospital, suffering burns all over their bodies and leaving them with some scarring on their faces. Regardless of their injuries, they were thankful to be alive and Cindy was grateful to still have her parents.
Her brother's funeral came and went. Cindy made a promise to him that she would dedicate her life to protecting people like him, so no one else would have to go through what her family went through.
Cindy thought about Norman Osborn a lot, making it hard for her to get back into the swing of things when it came to being a hero.
She still wasn't sure if she should've killed him or not. He deserved it in her mind, but looking retrospectively, she couldn't believe she almost took a life in such a horrifying way. She felt disgusted with herself. Since she didn't even take his life and still saw her actions as traumatic, she didn't even want to begin thinking about how she'd have felt if she had taken his life.
In terms of her powers, she's manifested psychic abilities when it came to her partner, Eren. She could sense Eren's location if he was within range, as well as what he felt and his well-being. Their theory was that she must be able to sense people with spider powers, but since they're the only two with them, they couldn't know for sure.
Once Norman had fully recovered, the two spiders were able to visit him for questioning. Both Silk and Spider-Man arrived at Rikers Prison to speak with him. The two walked into his cell, which was behind a metal door that led into a large room with a glass box in the back. The glass box dampened powers based on the strength of the person inside upon registry, along with a power dampener around his neck. This made it so that way they were too weak to escape, but not too weak to be unable to function.
Spider-Man walked in and Silk followed right behind him. Norman didn't care to notice when the two of them walked in, so Spider-Man called out to him.
"Norman? You there? Or is it the Goblin?" Spider-Man tapped the glass as he spoke, triggering Norman to turn around and immediately begin apologizing profusely to Silk.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to kill him. He made me. He made me do it." As he apologized, his mutilated face was pressed up against the glass. He was missing an eye and his skin healed unevenly. He almost didn't even look human anymore, in fact, he looked like a goblin more than anything.
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Both spiders were taken aback by the odd display in front of them. Norman was once again acting like his other half didn't exist. This was due to him being on medication that helped Norman's mind stabilize, however, the Globulin Green was still in his system.
Seeing this as an opportunity, Spider-Man spoke to Norman nicely, as if he were a therapist. "I need you to answer some questions for me, Norman. Okay? We could maybe arrange for you to get some help if you do." Eren spoke to him softly. He could tell that Norman was scared, a far cry from his disgusting alter ego. Eren opted to use this fear to get what he wanted.
"Yes. Of course, sir. I can help." Norman stood politely at the glass as he waited for instruction.
"What was this place?" Eren placed a printed-out screenshot from the footage of the secret base that Harry recorded. Norman pressed his face up to the glass in an attempt to understand it.
"Can you slide it through the little door so I can see it better?" Norman pointed toward the small slot in the center of his cell that was used to deliver food to him. Eren obliged and slid the stack of papers inside the slot. Norman grabbed it and looked at the image closely.
"They're A.T. R. A." Norman paused for a second. "They research alien tech. I funded them under the table for a while now. After around the time Fisk was killed."
"Why?" Eren's cold voice questioned him, immediately bringing an answer out of Norman.
"I discovered an alien. They wanted it, so we struck a deal. Oscorp doesn't do aliens. We were making no progress, so we let them do what they wanted with it as long as Oscorp got the credit for it."
"The black stuff is the alien right? What is it? What does it do?" Eren pointed through the glass at the image he handed to the prisoner.
"Oh, man. What doesn't it do? Its name is Venom. It's a symbiote from another planet." Norman almost sounded crazy, crazier than usual, as he said this. It was as if he were making it up. Like something from a fairytale. However, despite how delusional it sounded, Eren could tell he was serious.
"How do you know it's from another planet?" Eren asked him.
"Venom told us." The two spiders looked at each other once he said this, each having a million questions spawn from this phrase.
"Okay. What does this Venom do?" Eren questioned, crossing his arms and looking at Norman intensely.
"It binds itself to a host. It can view their memories, take combat experience, their strength and so much more. Once on a host, it gains the desire to do one of three things: Kill, feed, or multiply."
"Elaborate. Explain what you mean by feeding and multiplying?"
"It needs energy. So it must consume living beings. Animals are fine, but it really wants people. In order for it to continue its symbiotic relationship with the host, it must feed. Especially if the host-" Norman stopped abruptly, it was as if he were saying something he wasn't supposed to; it was as if his brain forced him to stop.
"The host what?" Spider-Man asked, maintaining that soft way of speaking to comfort the man. Norman's once fearful face soon began to form a grotesque grin before he began to laugh like a maniac.
"Norman… That's enough! Let him figure out the rest on his own. We can't let him disrupt the order of things." The Goblin continued to laugh as he spoke to his other half with his now gravelly, brash voice. Spider-Man aggressively slammed on the glass as he screamed at the Goblin, wanting answers.
"THE HOST WHAT!? ORDER OF WHAT!?" Although the Goblin couldn't see his face, he could imagine the angry expression that must've been under that mask and it excited him. This compelled him to laugh even more as he was in love with the feeling of getting under people's skin. The Goblin began to cackle even more loudly to the point where people from the outside could hear him. "HAHAHAHAAAAAAAA! GOOD LUCK SPIDER-MAN! YOU'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PLAY THE HERO! YOU WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CONTINUE TO SPREAD YOUR BULLSHIT SELF-RIGHTEOUS IDEAS. THEY ALL WANT TO SEE YOU FAIL. THEY ALL WANT TO SEE YOU FALL. AND THEY WILL!" Norman's yelling caused the guards to come in and ask the two spiders to leave as they messed with a panel on the side of the room.
"Wait! I'm not done with him!" Spider-Man shrugged off both guards before walking back up to the glass.
"Don't forget your pictures!" The Goblin teased as the guards began pilling in to pull Spider-Man out.
"Let go of me!" Spider-Man shrugs off the officers once more, this time much more aggressively. The officers started to grab their weapons until Yuri walked in and stopped them.
"Give him a minute. Just one." She commanded them, causing them to lower their weapons. They all exited the room, leaving Spider-Man and his partner with the prisoner for just one more minute.
"Tell me what you're hiding Norman." Spider-Man's voice was venomous as he demanded answers, however, his demands were futile.
"You'll see soon enough. Here." The Goblin slid the papers into the slot. Eren reached inside, however, the Goblin began to toy with him and pulled on the paper playfully. This frustrated Spider-Man and he began to tug o' war with the Goblin from the other side of the glass.
Once his guard was down, the Goblin bent over and chomped down on Spider-Man's hand, somehow biting hard enough to break through Spider-Man's costume and draw blood with his teeth. "Ah!" Spider-Man shouted as he recoiled backward, paper in hand, saying nothing as he stared at the Goblin.
The Goblin spat the blood out of his mouth before he began to giggle gently. Spider-Man looked at the man with a disgusted glare before turning around and leaving the room with Silk. However, the Green Goblin still had one last thing to say.
"See you soon. Parker." His cackle became much more antagonistic by the second as the spiders walked out of the room. Spider-Man didn't react at all to the catcall, however, he was furious internally.