----
The ssage was simple: an address, a severed hand, and silence.
Nolan paced in his office, staring at the image.
"Was she there to take out?" he muttered. "Or does she have her own ga?"
It didn't matter.
He needed to go. Whether to retrieve The Hand's mystic ditation thods or to drag Mada Viper back into a containnt cell, either outco would be valuable.
But first...
He needed to finalize the one piece he'd been chasing from the beginning: true, perfect regeneration.
---
Phoenix Lab – OsCorp Underground
Inside a sterile lab chamber, Dr. Curt Connors hunched over a tank, surgically precise fingers working under a microscope. Inside a reinforced containnt unit, a mutated salamander squird.
The creature wasn't ordinary it had been genetically altered using Nolan's formula. Curt was close. So close.
Nolan stepped in behind him. "Progress?"
Connors jumped slightly, then gave a small nod. "Almost there. I'm running target mutations through the salamander's geno, using your decay formula as the catalyst."
Nolan approached the monitor. Onscreen, genetic diagrams stread past. Several markers flashed red.
He scrolled down, tapped a few commands, and all the reds turned green.
Curt stared.
"You... solved the last sequences?"
Nolan just smiled. "They weren't that complicated."
Connors muttered to himself. Genius. All this ti, he'd prided himself on being one of the best biogeneticists in the world. But Nolan wasn't just talented he was sothing else. A mind that saw through bioinformatics like it was kindergarten math.
"Finish it by tonight," Nolan said, lifting the newly repainted shield now with a silver S emblazoned across the front. "I'll check in after I deal with this eyesore."
Connors barely nodded. His gaze was locked on the complete dataset Nolan left behind.
---
Hours Later
Sweat beaded on Connors' forehead as he watched the salamander begin to heal from repeated, brutal incisions. He had torn it apart, cut skin, removed organs, and broken limbs. Each ti, it regenerated faster than anything he'd recorded before.
Better than Logan.
He grabbed his phone.
Curt Connors: [ssage Sent] "It's done."
Nolan returned shortly after, armor still half-reinforced and carbon fiber tight beneath his coat, shield slung casually over one shoulder.
"Show ."
Curt showed him the logs. The mutated salamander was now a living bio-editor, able to trigger and accelerate genetic modifications based on a subject's DNA profile.
"This one," Curt said, pointing, "is matched to ."
"And now," Nolan said, "you inject."
Connors nodded. He extracted the newly synthesized green serum and pushed it into his own veins.
Within monts, he gasped. Not from pain but from relief. Old injuries, years of nerve damage from lab accidents, experintal burns, and joint stiffness are gone.
Every cell felt like it was buzzing with life.
He looked at Nolan, eyes bright. "It works."
"Good." Nolan tapped into the system, uploading his own genetic blueprint. "Now modify one matched to ."
Connors selected a new specin that was larger and more aggressive and began altering its geno accordingly. Before long, he handed Nolan a fresh vial of shimring green liquid.
Nolan didn't hesitate.
He plunged it into his arm.
A burning rush of power ripped through his bloodstream. His muscles clenched, bones resonated, and his skin flushed.
He staggered but then stood straighter than ever before.
He flicked a scalpel across his hand. The wound vanished in seconds.
A drop of blood hit the slide. Under magnification, his regenerative markers danced across the screen more active than even Logan's.
"You're not just healing," Connors said quietly. "You're evolving."
Nolan nodded, eyes glinting. "Ti is no longer my enemy."
---
"Put Norman and Harry into the sequencing queue," he ordered. "We'll tailor the formula to cure their genetic instability and start distributing 3.0 prototypes imdiately."
Connors took notes.
"Also," Nolan added, "label both the mutant salamander and the enhanced spiders as Class-1 Strategic Assets. I want full isolation protocols. No unauthorized personnel near them."
"Understood."
As Nolan watched the sample shimr in the vial, his thoughts returned to Mada Viper and the whispers of The Hand's secret teachings.
He was ready now.
He had the mind.
He had the body.
Soon, he'd have the spirit.
----
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