Alvin, Stark, and Norman Osborn entered the innermost chamber of the Pyramid together.
Little Morgan was left with Gwen and Wanda. The young women stayed by the Altar, watching the others' battles and thinking up ways to cause them trouble.
The Pyramid's trials had been a truly awful experience for Peter and the others.
The revolting, poisonous corpses had given them no end of trouble, and the endless hordes of skeleton monsters had left them completely exhausted.
But when it was Nick and the others' turn, the corpses had been replaced with Clay Monsters. They were even more aggressive, but in every other respect, they hardly seemed like proper monsters.
Pietro had spent the whole day running around the Pyramid and had come away with nothing. After enduring hours of Nick and the others looking down on him, he even volunteered to deliver monsters, just so he could make things harder for Nick.
As they made their way toward the Pyramid's core, Norman Osborn noticed the complicated expression on Alvin's face and smiled. "What's wrong? If you're worried about those kids, you can go back. Stark and I can handle the Predator problem."
Alvin heard him and shook his head slightly. "I'm not worried about their safety. I just suddenly realized that I don't really understand those kids as well as I thought.
"I have my reasons for the others, but I don't think I've ever really understood Nick, either.
"I prepared a super Short Sword for him, thinking it would help him get used to being a Dragon Rider. But even though he picked it up, he ended up putting it back."
Alvin shook his head and chuckled. "I don't understand them as well as I thought I did. That's a little disappointing."
Norman Osborn was remarkably shrewd whenever