----
Nolan hadn't even made it far from the house before Curt Connors caught up to him.
"Boss," Connors said, panting slightly. "Here's the data on the Lizard Serum you asked for."
He handed over a flash drive.
"Good," Nolan nodded. "Is there anything else you left behind? Valuable equipnt, data, samples?"
Connors hesitated. "I had been moving so of the gear... into the sewers."
He sighed heavily.
Nolan gave him a faint smile. "Don't worry. You won't be living in the sewers anymore. I'll send a crew to collect everything. You'll have a proper lab soon."
---
By dawn, a delivery truck followed Nolan's car onto the grounds of Klaue's estate. Inside the vehicle, Connors sat, trying to process what he'd just learned.
One detail, in particular, had stuck with him.
The red-suited figure he fought in the street? That had been Peter.
"Could that have been Richard's super-spider...?" he murmured.
Back in the day, both he and Richard Parker had been working on cross-species genetics. Connors, due to his own amputation, had pushed for splitting the lab—so he could focus on reptilian DNA. Norman Osborn had backed the idea, seeing military potential in regenerative serums.
The Lizard Serum was born.
But Peter... had beco the spider's successor.
"You knew Richard before he disappeared," Nolan said, glancing over. "Do you have any idea what happened to his research?"
"No. Toward the end, he kept most of it to himself. I never thought... he actually succeeded."
Connors sounded awed.
"Do you still have your early notes from that project?"
"I do. They're at my house."
"Retrieve them. We'll examine them together."
When they arrived at the estate, Nolan spotted Klaue standing outside, looking agitated.
As soon as he saw Nolan, he stepped forward—then hesitated, noticing Connors behind him.
"Out with it," Nolan said. "He's with us now."
Connors blinked. Just like that... I'm one of them?
Klaue nodded grimly. "Green Goblin's gone completely off the rails. Several shareholders who refused to sell are dead. My team? All wiped out."
"You think he's found a trace of our plans?" Nolan asked.
"It's possible. Want to tip off Jessica?"
Connors raised an eyebrow. "Green Goblin?"
Nolan glanced at him. "Norman Osborn. He injected a prototype of your serum... skipped human trials. The result? Split personality. One of them is a galomaniacal maniac in a glider suit."
Connors' jaw dropped. "Norman? He's... he's the Goblin?"
Then it hit him—he wasn't one to judge.
He, too, had beco a monster. An enemy of Spider-Man.
Nolan waved it off. "Let him co. We'll be ready."
Then he looked at Connors. "Co with ."
---
Connors followed him into one of the estate's underground labs.
His eyes widened at the sight of the surgical table.
"...Who is that?"
"Logan," Nolan replied simply.
The Wolverine.
He was unconscious, heavily sedated to prevent him from feeling the effects of constant extraction. His body looked shriveled now his muscle mass reduced, like a fish left under the sun.
Nolan gestured. "This is the key to your salvation. Cut him."
Connors hesitated but complied. He made a shallow incision across Logan's arm.
Seconds later, the wound sealed.
Completely.
Connors stared. "That... was incredible."
Nolan handed him another flash drive. "These are the serum notes. I want your thoughts."
While Connors took to the data, Nolan returned to his terminal and began reviewing the Phoenix Serum's core structure.
He could've rebuilt the Lizard Serum from scratch it wasn't overly complex. But that would take ti.
And now he didn't need to.
Why reinvent the wheel when you can build a better car on top of it?
He skimd page after page, running simulations and formulas on the fly. A stream of calculations unfolded across his screen, resolving more of the Lizard Serum's instability with each line.
anwhile, Connors was absorbed in the Phoenix Serum docuntation.
"This is from a mutant?" he asked.
"Yeah," Nolan said. "Wolverine. Born with this. His genes are saturated with a regenerative factor."
Connors clenched his jaw.
He had spent years crafting the Lizard Serum struggling, sacrificing just to beco a freak.
And this man?
He had that gift since birth.
"And he still looks human," Connors muttered bitterly.
"Exactly," Nolan replied, catching his tone. "Mutants are born touched by God, yet most of them waste their gifts. My Phoenix Serum? It's based on Logan's DNA."
"Think of what we could do how many lives we could restore. Paraplegics. Amputees. Terminal patients..."
He turned to Connors, voice soft but firm. "If one man must be sacrificed... to save millions... isn't that worth it?"
Connors didn't reply but Nolan saw the gears turning.
He began drafting new combinations in real-ti.
"The Lizard Serum functions via rapid cellular regeneration and neuro-cluster overgrowth... You see here nodular expansion, followed by nerve cascade feedback."
He continued muttering as he coded.
"Transformation happens because the Lizard Serum over-saturates the host. But if we stabilize it with the healing factor... it might suppress the reptilian identity."
Nolan's eyes narrowed then slowly turned to Logan.
He already had the answer.
If he wanted to test how the healing factor interacted with Lizard Serum...
Why not use the perfect test subject?
Logan.
"Reptilian Wolverine," he whispered to himself.
A new hybrid.
A new evolution.
A new weapon.
----
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