Oscorp Industries
Altering the future, from the cell to the superstructure.
Their tagline said it all. Oscorp was focused on the future of humanity, mostly specializing in genetics and biology, but they did also have their fingers in the fields of cybernetics and other technologies such as robotics and other life enhancing tech. Through this quality of life research, scientists like Dr. Spencer Smythe were able to develop cybernetic technology using the foundation of robotics and biology. His advancements came after he saw footage from London, an invasion of a cybernetic life-form that soon threatened mankind. Smythe wanted to harness this technology, craft it under his own moniker and make it his.
As Dr. Smythe was approved all monetary measures to do so, he acquired as many pieces of these Cybermen for his research, to discover what they were and how they worked so he could replicate their technology. A head piece here, a hand there, even a few stray pieces was all he was able to get a handle on. It wasn't until a few years after the fact was he able to finally acquire the holy grail to his research, a full bodied Cyberman. This could mean a breakthrough in his cybernetic research, or the downfall to all his research.
Gwen Stacy, still employed with Oscorp, had once been the senior intern, studying and working under the once esteemed geneticist, Dr. Curt Connors, until he transformed himself into a lizard, killed her father and almost changed every living person in New York into a lizard person. She, with the help of her wall crawling boyfriend, defeated the crazed scientist, and thus putting her back into the student intern pool. She had hoped to work with Dr. Miles Warren, or even the celebrated Dr. Otto Octavius as she was familiar with both of their works, both of whom having collaborated with Dr. Connors from time to time.
She was eventually placed under the elder Dr. Smythe's tutelage, who held seniority now over Oscorp's robotics and cybernetics division and now needed an intern assistant. Gwen filled the role very well, helping Dr. Smythe with his notes and documentation of his tests upon the Cybermen parts. She wasn't as interested in his work as much as she had been under Dr. Connors, but she wasn't going to protest, as she had hoped to one day join the ranks at Oscorp.
"Yes, mother. I know. I promise to be home right after work is finished," she said, speaking into her cellphone to her worried mother. Her mother had become a little paranoid of Gwen's employment at Oscorp, seeing it took her husband's life, and didn't want her daughter to suffer the same fate, as she almost did that fateful night of the Lizard's attack. "Yes. I love you too."
Pressing the "End Call" button, she finished putting on her labcoat, tucking her cell phone into one of it's many pockets. She smoothed out her black skirt before finally making her way to Dr. Smythe's lab. When she finally made it to the lab, she opened the door and entered. The lights turned on automatically upon her entry and lit up the empty room.
There was nothing in the room but the cybernetic tools used by Dr. Smythe and the eerie statuesque form of the fully formed cybernetic construct from London. The very sight of it sent chills down the young platinum blonde's spine. She walked over to a nearby desk which had a note written on it, from Dr. Smythe for Gwen. Gwen's green orbs washed over the handwritten words as she took her mental notes as she read it.
Ms. Stacy,
Please be sure the cybernetic components are maintained and polished. I have a seminar tomorrow and I would like it if they looked their best. I will not be in today, so please get this done before you leave. Also please double check the computer's readings of the components we are cataloging. Thank you for all your help.
Signed,
Dr. Spencer Smythe
Gwen sighed. She was not looking forward to polishing the cybornetic man, it creeped her out and she just couldn't put her finger on what it as that gave her the heebie jeebies. Was it the lifeless eye sockets disturbed her, or was it the almost battle like stance it stood in? She will never fully know, but all she knew was that there was something about this figure that was not right.
She opened a cupboard, taking out the polishing solution and a rag and got to work. She started with the feet of the cyber figure, then worked up to the legs, moving towards the torso then the arms and finally wimping the head. The cybornetic man's chrome finish now shown as if it just came from whatever factory it had originated from. Pleased with her hour's worth of work, she then moved over to check the readouts and continue to catalog the other components that Dr. Smythe had been collecting.
There was an eerie silence that took over the lab as she sat, typing away at her station. Gwen glanced up at the cybernetic man that stood in the middle of the room and shivered. Her eyes moved back to the screen then she heard something. It sounded as if a mechanical joint moved, she looked up. The cyberman looked off. Her natural curiosity took over as she moved close to investigate it to try and figure out what had happened. It looked as if one of it's fingers moved.
She moved close and tried to move it back, but it didn't budge. She shook her head and moved back to her station, but as she spun on her heels and started to walk back to her vacant chair, the figure moved again. The whirring sound was louder. She turned around to see an arm moving, as it slowly started to grab at the air behind her as it reached for her arm. She felt fear wash over her and run down her spine as it began to slowly whir to life. It began to speak to her.
"Uuuppppp... uuuuuuppppggggg... upggggggrrrr.... rrrrraaaa... aaaaade... You will be upgraded."
It started to move faster as it came to life, being restored by whatever experiment Smythe had performed upon it. Gwen shrieked, not knowing what else to do as the cyberman came barreling towards her. She ran, taking off for the door out of the lab and began to take off as fast as her thigh high booted legs could take her as the technological terror followed behind her. She did not want to be upgraded, whatever that meant. She called for help, but there was no answer.
Who was going to help her?
