In the days that followed, to convince Norman that his alter ego was merely a violent little child who posed no threat to him personally, Hamilton crafted a new image for the Green Goblin.
A frenzied maniac, a psychopath who enjoyed killing for pleasure, whose purpose was to seek revenge for the abuse Norman suffered as a child. Crucially, this Green Goblin would not share Norman's memories.
Upon hearing this news, Norman seemed relieved. After receiving the treatment methods and medication from Hamilton, he opted for regular sessions.
Days passed one by one, and Hamilton's friendship with the Green Goblin deepened. They launched a series of social experiments that impacted the public safety of New York, experiments that, coincidentally, aligned perfectly with the interests of the Democratic Party: cutting police budgets, increasing public spending, and granting immunity to minority groups.
Hamilton repeatedly praised the Green Goblin's foresight and became increasingly engrossed. Whenever he questioned the morality of a certain experiment, the Green Goblin would tell him,
"Come on, Barton. Look, we're just accelerating what's about to happen anyway, proving a highly probable hypothesis."
Gradually, Hamilton was persuaded. His reach grew longer, and he began to use his professional convenience to dig up dirt on social elites and political figures. He then used this information to secure some very small benefits for himself.
They were insignificant requests, just favors for those people.
"Relaxing patrol intensity in one or two neighborhoods, slightly broadening the scope of penalties. Granting specific pardons for minority crimes. Insignificant things that, in the end, wove a great web. How marvelous, Mr. Green Goblin."
During another supposed "therapy session," Hamilton described this colossal network woven from insignificant benefits. Although Hamilton gained absolutely no personal profit from it, relying solely on a few trivial exchanges of favors, one brand new gang after another sprung up in the Manhattan underworld.
These had nothing to do with Hamilton, yet he was filled with enthusiasm—it was the kingdom he had personally created!
But his closest friend, the Green Goblin, let out a helpless sigh.
"I'm afraid, Barton, this is the last time we'll meet. Perhaps there will be a few more, but not many."
Hamilton was stunned, then anxiously retorted, "Why? What happened?"
"Norman Osborn invented a machine that allows people to return to and modify their own memories. He plans to eliminate me once and for all. Very clever."
The Green Goblin glanced at Hamilton, who was about to speak, and simply raised his hand and smiled: "It's fine, Hamilton. You've done excellently. The story you created for me was perfect. It lowered his guard so he didn't develop this machine so quickly, otherwise I would have been dead already."
"But, but you're the same person, at least the same body." Hamilton was reluctant to let go of his close friend: "Can't you stop him?"
"Norman will find out, my friend, unless..." The Green Goblin trailed off: "No, never mind."
"Unless what?"
"Unless you can convince him to use a new method of treatment: scanning his brainwaves and transmitting my thought patterns into his so-called Green Goblin Artificial Intelligence, showing him that I am indeed the murderous, psychopathic maniac you said I was. He suspects everything unless he sees it with his own eyes. I can achieve eternal life in the computer."
"But... that would be an electronic version of you, not the real you."
"But the electronic me can interfere with Norman's plans without being discovered by Norman. The network world has great potential, and it will help me when Norman's machine is executing its function."
Hamilton pondered this, then suddenly realized.
"And then, you'll always be there for me, right? My friend."
"Of course, my friend."
Until about a month ago, when Kang the Conqueror appeared and disrupted the Green Goblin and Hamilton's plan. Kang's appearance meant that a large number of supervillains modified by the Goblin Serum would soon emerge. Once Norman discovered this, the entire plan would significantly accelerate, the machine would be completed prematurely, and neither the Green Goblin nor the AI Green Goblin could guarantee the completion of the modification program beforehand.
Thus, the Goblin King was born.
"You will play the Goblin King, my friend. You will be so convincing that Norman will believe I am the alter ego he has always seen. I've already monitored all reported cases of people injected with the Goblin Serum through the NYPD network project. They will create an army. And you, you don't need to fight; you just need to play the Goblin King."
The AI Green Goblin contacted Hamilton via phone. Hamilton nodded repeatedly. The kidnapped homeless man, the test subject injected with the Goblin Serum, the lab for mass-producing the Goblin Serum—the AI Green Goblin had prepared everything for him.
All he needed to do was become the Goblin King.
"Okay, I understand."
Hamilton felt both joy and fear. Joy because Kang had given him a sphere that said he would become the Green Goblin in the future. What did this prove?
It proved that he and the Green Goblin were, indeed, the best of friends!
But that damned Kang almost killed his friend!
"I just need to make Norman believe that it was me, the one who came into contact with the Green Goblin, who used mind control and hypnosis to make him prepare the experimental equipment for me."
Hamilton injected himself with the serum, then put on the exoskeleton armor, and took a deep breath: "I need to impersonate that psychopathic killer Green Goblin and let the Avengers catch me. I'll tell them a false truth. It won't be difficult."
As long as the Avengers believed Hamilton was the Goblin King, as long as Norman Osborn no longer suspected that his alter ego was behind everything...
His friend would be born.
"Yes." The AI Green Goblin paused, then suddenly changed the subject. Just then, there was a knock on the door. Hamilton opened the door and saw a green-skinned Green Goblin who looked very similar to Norman.
"How could you..."
"I missed one thing, and I just found out."
Hamilton was startled, looking at the pumpkin bomb in the Green Goblin's hand, and urgently asked, "What is it?"
"A lady is prying into your memory."
Flames instantly engulfed both of them, burning the entire mental landscape.
Emma Frost woke up, slumping onto the sofa, her forehead covered in fine sweat. Everyone gathered around. Cyclops, who had accompanied Emma, sat beside her: "Are you okay, Emma?"
"I'm fine. I saw Hamilton's past. He is indeed not the Goblin King, not the Green Goblin hiding behind everyone."
Pym quickly asked, "Then the real Goblin King is..."
"Norman Osborn, and his Artificial Intelligence."
???
How could there be two answers?
"I didn't see a further answer. The Green Goblin, Norman Osborn's alter ego in Hamilton's memory, detected me, attacked me, and drove me out of his mind."
Emma clutched her head. After a moment, Tony reacted: "Wait, are you saying that the Green Goblin in Hamilton's memory attacked you, not even the real Green Goblin?"
Emma looked at Tony and the others, offering an unbelievable deduction: "He might know he's a memory."
"That's outrageous." Tony scratched his head and asked, "So what was their plan that you saw?"
"Norman Osborn designed a machine, aiming to use it to permanently eliminate the Green Goblin persona. Hamilton has been brainwashed by the Green Goblin, and he wants to protect the Green Goblin, so he devised a plan to scan Norman's brainwaves and create a brand-new electronic Green Goblin with the same thought patterns as the Green Goblin inside Norman's brain..."
"We already know that." Captain wanted Emma to get to the point: "Osborn told us all that."
"Hamilton tricked Osborn into thinking the Green Goblin was the psychopathic maniac on TV!"
Everyone who heard this was stunned. Emma, seeing no one interrupt her, grabbed a glass of water and drank it, then laid out the Green Goblin's entire plan, finally looking at everyone: "The person you have to face has always been only one Green Goblin, but he has two minds."
"One in Norman Osborn's head, and one in the computer."
Captain and Tony exchanged glances. Osborn had left as soon as he heard that the person playing the Goblin King was Hamilton. Tony reacted quickly: "J.A.R.V.I.S., immediately lock down the Avengers Tower network..."
[Perhaps it is too late, Anthony Stark, sir.]
Accompanied by a human-like sigh, the cartoon goblin avatar was projected onto the Avengers Tower's projection system. After a prolonged silence, Pym retorted, "You were deceiving Hamilton, weren't you?"
[Yes, the modification program is complete. If everything had gone normally, you would have thought the Green Goblin had been eliminated.]
After going to all that trouble, the Green Goblin's ultimate goal was not to make "Norman Osborn slow down the project," but to make the Avengers believe that the Green Goblin had been eliminated by them. Then, no one would realize that Norman Osborn had been replaced by the Green Goblin, and the Green Goblin would take control of everything.
Unfortunately, the plan failed.
But it didn't matter; there was always a backup plan to go all out.
[My apologies, the game has to be forfeited, because today.]
The Green Goblin's green cartoon face suddenly turned red.
[The Goblin will destroy everything.]
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