064

Norman was in the back of one of the vehicles under the name of Oscorp. He was currently on his way to the airport where his personal plane was already waiting for him.

At the same time both Gwen and Curtis were to head in the same direction, after all they were going to the same destination and in spite of everything it was better to have someone to talk to during the travel time.

Harry would stay in Felicia's care while Norman was out of the country, although he could have brought him with him, he preferred not to, since a ceremony like that would probably be boring for the little boy.

Even more so since he would not have enough time to be with him, so in the end he preferred not to take him, and instead he would compensate in another way, maybe they could take a little family trip.

Though that would have to be after Christmas, as Harry was completely excited to spend it at Osborn Manor which was being cleaned and restored immediately.

That reminded him that so far he hadn't bought a present for Harry so at some point he should, maybe one for Felicia too would be nice for the help she had provided these past few weeks. Bernard would be more than happy with a new tea set.

His vision simply watched the cars and buildings go by as the car he was in moved along, his thoughts soon shifted to what had caused his actions of the night before.

Because of his own little personal vendetta against Stane he had caused a bit of chaos at S.H.I.E.L.D. that would most likely last for a while.

Attacking the convoy had been a simple thing to do it only took a little poison to make all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents lose their consciousness completely without even being able to react, however, even if they did test which was most likely they would not find any trace of exposure to poisons.

So they would not even know how more than 20 agents became completely unconscious, the security system that protected and locked up Stane while it was a good thing was not a challenge when you had a mutant who could practically decipher all the technological mechanisms that existed.

Also, the fact that at this point it was very likely that S.H.I.E.L.D. had no connection whatsoever with mutants or other power groups that could serve as an advisor in this case would only cause them to chase ghosts for a long time.

At least that considering the information that was on the S.H.I.E.L.D. servers but if they did have such a contact then it was almost assured that only a few high-level agents or ones that Fury trusted would know about it.

But it wouldn't all be a bad thing for them, because if Fury started to dig a little it was likely, no rather it was almost certain that he would think that there was some sort of inside help towards Stane otherwise he wouldn't be able to escape so easily.

Which at the end of the day was likely to lead him to the discovery of HYDRA, at least that way he could be busy enough that he wouldn't make a big deal out of it. Although that kind of situation would only be the one that would suit him best, but it was by no means the one that was most likely to happen.

Norman closed his eyes as he leaned his head back on the seat, at least he could get some rest these days, his schedule had been completely freed up, so he had no obligation to Oscorp at least not an immediate one.

…

When he reached the section of the airport in which his own plane was located, Norman immediately looked up at a familiar figure.

From what he could see Gwen seemed to be concentrating on her phone, although it was most likely due to the fact that outside the lab she seemed to have some trouble communicating with other people.

Her clothing consisted of simple all-black dress pants and a dark green coat.

With a quiet step Norman began to approach the direction where Stacy was standing. Gwen on the other hand seemed to feel someone's gaze on her, and she looked up from her phone and quickly searched for who it was.

She soon found her answer when she saw Norman walking towards her and quickly put her cell phone away and started walking towards the man.

"Miss Stacy" greeted Osborn, "Good to see you arrived safely and on time however I seem to recall that I had given the order for them to escort you inside the plane" he continued.

"Well they mentioned something like that" Gwen began to say, "But I felt it best to await your arrival and Dr. Connors" she added sincerely, although there was some hesitation in her voice.

Norman nodded his head, sometimes Gwen's attitude was simply unpredictable even more than Felicia's, so the oddities she sometimes made no longer surprised him, at least not all of them.

"So what do you think about boarding the plane?" asked Norman, "Dr. Connors shouldn't be long in arriving, but it's much better to wait for him in a place where we're more comfortable, anyway, he'll be guided here" he explained his reasons.

It didn't take long before Gwen finally accepted Osborn's proposal, and they boarded the plane where they began to chat about the ceremony in which they would be present.

Gwen for her part was clearly excited and a little nervous at the thought of having to be in front of so many people and that it would be a televised event did not make things any better. Norman simply tried to reassure her, although he knew he couldn't do too much, as that kind of reaction was different for everyone.

Soon the talk turned to the other awardees, as it would be a very good way to strike up a beneficial conversation for everyone, especially Gwen who was likely to be the biggest focus of attention whether for good or bad.

Gwen was the youngest person to win a Nobel Prize in medicine and even overall she was the youngest to win it, of course Norman was the second, but nevertheless he already had a name forged in the scientific field just like Connors, so there really would be no one to question that decision.

On the other hand, Gwen did not have that advantage, in the eyes of most of the scientific community she could only count as a newcomer at best, so they were reluctant to believe that a 20-year-old had been a key player in such a revolutionary invention as the Connors Formula.

Geniuses and their arrogance were always a damn pain, much more so when they didn't even realize they were acting in such a way. But still this could also be a good opportunity for Gwen to grow up, so he would let her handle the situation on her own and only if he saw it necessary would he would intervene.

Words exchanged with each other along with small laughs continued between the two as they waited for the third member of the team to arrive. Once Dr. Connors made his presence known, it didn't take long for the plane to start moving and prepare for take-off.

…

The first two hours of the trip were spent between conversations among the three team members, whether it was something related to the ceremony or not, after that Gwen ended up taking a nap for the rest of the trip.

On the other hand, both the Connors and Norman began to talk about the Connors Formula that in a few days would begin to be sold. Of course this would be under strict security controls.

After all, Norman knew that somehow there would be people who would try to analyze the serum to create their own version of it and even try to improve it, however, some time ago he had made some measures, also taking into account that the version that went on sale was practically useless for war purposes would mean that there would not be so much interest in it.

And if in spite of that they try to decipher the Formula then they will get an unpleasant surprise because of the security mechanism he created to protect it.

At the end of his conversation with Connors, Norman simply leaned back in his seat as he waited for the plane to land at his destination. The thought that he should buy souvenirs to take home crossed his mind and he finally wrote it down as one of the things he had to do.

Norman was currently in the car that would take him to the Grand Hôtel where he would be staying until all this was over, and he could return home. Upon arrival, they were quickly guided to their rooms which were close to each other, Norman's room was next to Gwen's while Connors room was three rooms away from Gwen's.

Since they had landed around 1:00 am due to the different time zones there was really nothing they could do, so after a few brief words each person ended up going to their own room.

This time Norman simply decided to sleep, while he didn't need it in his current state in a necessary way, it was the most efficient way to train with Val, because while he could enter the training space without the need to sleep in the end it was better to do it for a long period of time.

Even though he had been training and fighting with Val for over a year thanks to the time difference in the training space, the truth was that he had not progressed as far as he thought he would.

Mainly due to two reasons, the main one being that he had greatly underestimated the knowledge that Val possessed, he was currently still training the martial arts of the earth and not just those that were the

"modern" ones but also those that he had no idea of their origins or what year they were from.

There were dozens maybe hundreds of martial arts that had been created throughout the history of mankind and that was what Val was teaching him, so for the moment he couldn't even think about learning the martial arts that were in the galaxy or even imagine how many styles of martial arts there will be.

The second point was that Val or at least this version was a very strict teacher and almost to a level where he could be considered a training and combat maniac. He was basically like Ducard only a thousand times worse.

Although of course this also had its benefits and that was because thanks to Val he had someone to fight with someone without the need to hold back, mainly because if he ever did then he wouldn't last five minutes against him.

Whenever he entered the training space it could be said that it was a fight to survive, and although he knew that his physical body would regenerate the damage he received in the training space. The sensation of pain that remained in his body even after the damage was regenerated, was what made him get stronger and better, as they were a reminder of the mistakes he made during combat.

It was hard training, but it gave him many more advantages in the long run.

…

After his rest period was over Norman quickly got up and decided to take a shower.

It didn't take him too long, once his shower was over he started to pick out the clothes he would wear however to his ears came footsteps approaching his door and soon after a small knocking also started to be heard.

Gwen's voice came from outside the room, "Wait a moment" mentioned Osborn, he still hadn't finished putting on his clothes so for obvious reasons he wouldn't open the door in such a way.

After a few seconds Norman opened the door to find a young blonde woman wearing all dark gray pants along with a dark green turtleneck sweater.

"What's wrong?" asked Osborn.

"I was wondering if you wanted breakfast?" she questioned quickly with a smile, "I tried to ask Dr. Connors the same thing, but he mentioned that he wanted to get a little more rest" she continued.

Norman thought about it for a few moments before giving a positive answer, "Sounds good to me" he said simply as he left the room and closed the door.

Along the way both Osborn and Stacy were able to observe the other winners of the different categories of the Nobel Prizes, most of them greeted them with a cordial smile, and they responded in kind.

Both Gwen and Norman simply continued on their way as they chatted with each other, since they had arrived in good time, they basically had a large part of the day to do whatever they wanted to do whether it was to stay at the hotel or do a little sightseeing.

Gwen seemed to be completely excited to spend part of her day walking around the places that could be considered as tourist attractions in the city, also considering that they had to be ready some time in advance for the ceremony.

In the middle of the conversation they both had Gwen ended up inviting Norman, who accepted after some thought, after all the purpose of this trip was not business, so he could have some fun and also that way he could see what kind of souvenirs he could bring to Harry.

"Should we invite Dr. Connors?" asked Gwen.

"We could do that, but I doubt he'd want to leave his room" commented Norman.

Gwen gave a brief nod of her head in understanding, from the response she had received a short time ago it was most likely to happen, "I'll text him anyway to get his response" mentioned the blonde.

"Should we start planning the itinerary?" Norman questioned, at this point they had reached their destination, and he lowered his voice so as not to disturb the other guests.

"I think we should" said Stacy thoughtfully, "But I also think it would be fun to not have one and just go by our desires" she said with a smile as she looked into Norman's green eyes.

"Just like that huh" Norman told her with a smile of his own, "Then I think it would be good to take your advice, even if it's just this once" he added.

Soon the image of a young, but beautiful blonde woman chatting and laughing next to an attractive black-haired man could be seen in the restaurant of the Grand Hôtel. The scene of that beautiful couple made a large part of the guests that entered the spacious room smile.