Big Nephew

Tough transmission tubes flickered with an eerie green light inside them; the speed at which Dr. Lizard's shattered cervical vertebrae were recovering dropped sharply, while Yuri's healing superpower, sourced from Ajako, pulsed at a high frequency within him.

Mysterious patterns swelled and contracted, their golden light flickering on and off, waves of soul-ascending pleasure crashing over him. Yuri forced himself to stay alert, maintaining his speed as he trailed not far behind Mark I.

"What have you done to me?!"

Dr. Lizard only now sensed something was wrong: based on past experience, reverting from lizard form to human form would strip away the newly grown arms and immense strength, but before that, it would absolutely heal any other injuries on his body.

But now, as he was about to return to human form, the injury to his cervical spine showed no sign of improvement. The doctor panicked—losing the lizard form wasn't scary, but what was terrifying was that he didn't even have the ability to grab the gene serum and inject it into himself!

Yuri let out a long, satisfying breath. He glanced down and quickly retracted the transmission tubes embedded in the doctor's body: there was a difference between eating your fill once and eating your fill every time, and he undoubtedly chose the latter.

"As you can see, your self-healing ability doesn't work on me. I advise you to behave and not pull any tricks. Our flight altitude is over three thousand meters above the ground, and I don't think even you could survive that."

The self-healing factor began to take effect, converging at the neck of the doctor as he gradually reverted to human form. In just a few seconds, it transformed him from a high-level paraplegic back into a one-armed hero.

The doctor watched in agony as his arm crumbled inch by inch. He clung tightly to the Steam Armor's arm, terrified of accidentally falling off.

He thought this Metal Giant was right—let alone in his human form, even in his giant lizard state, falling from this height would definitely kill him.

The large villa on the coastline was now clearly visible. One small and one large metal armor slid along the runway into Tony's luxury garage.

Once they stopped, Yuri directly threw the doctor to the ground. Seeing that Tony was still armored and on alert, he waved his hand and said, "Feel free to show your face, Tony. By the time I leave here, I guarantee he'll have forgotten everything that just happened."

Dr. Lizard scrambled up from the ground on three points, staring in terror at Yuri, who had voluntarily stepped out of the Steam Armor: "What do you mean, forget everything? What have you done to me?!"

At that moment, Tony was also slowly removing his armor with the help of mechanical assistants. When Dr. Lizard got a clear look at that slightly sweaty face, he blurted out in shock, "What the fuck! Tony Stark!?"

Tony ignored him completely, staring only at Yuri for confirmation: "You guarantee it?"

"I guarantee it!"

Yuri nodded and snapped his fingers softly beside the doctor's ear: "Tell me everything you know about the lizard you turned into."

The doctor's eyes went blank for a moment, then he unreservedly recounted the entire chain of events that led to him transforming into the Lizard Monster.

Yuri treated it as if he were listening to the plot of The Amazing Spider-Man again, only showing some interest in the "Decay Rate Algorithm" the doctor mentioned, because when he heard the specifics, the healing superpower inside him began to pulse faintly once more.

But after listening, Tony fell into deep thought. He finally understood why that little guy in the spider-tight suit had said Dr. Lizard "didn't deserve to die."

"So."

Tony glanced at Yuri, who also seemed to be in thought, and leaned in close to the dazed doctor's ear, whispering sneakily, "Do you know who that Spider-Boy is?"

Doctor: "..."

Tony: "???"

Yuri chuckled at Tony Stark, who was frozen in embarrassment, and pretended not to have heard as he asked the doctor, "What did he just ask you?"

The doctor answered without hesitation: "He asked me if I knew the real identity of that Spider-Man."

Tony walked over to Yuri's Steam Armor, bent over with his butt in the air, trying to use the pretense of research to escape this moment of social death.

Yuri saw through it but didn't call him out, deliberately raising his voice: "Not just Mr. Tony Stark—I'm also very interested in that question!"

The doctor understood and said, "Spider-Man's real identity is Peter Parker. He attends Midtown High School and once interned in my lab. His father was a great biologist, and the Decay Rate Algorithm was his greatest work."

Just then, the AI Jarvis suddenly asked through the external speakers, "Mr. Stark, should I generate a file on this person?"

Tony, who had been staring at a certain vent on the back of the Steam Armor for a long time, twitched his mouth and had no choice but to show his face. He decided that as soon as Yuri left, he would have a serious talk with Jarvis—at least teach him when to speak and when not to speak!

"Go ahead."

Tony pretended nothing was wrong, leaning against the Steam Armor and waving his hand. "If anything else comes up, you can call my phone... There are guests at home, aren't there? You'll scare them."

Yuri played along, shrinking back like a bear: "Yeah, Jarvis, I'm really scared of you."

"Ahem."

Tony cleared his throat, the corners of his mouth lifting and his eyes narrowing into a formal smile: "Then, Mr. Yuri, please move to the Living Room. I think a little drink might ease your fear. What do you think?"

Yuri nodded and agreed readily, pointing at the dazed Dr. Lizard standing there: "What about him? Is he drinking with us too?"

"Better not."

Tony shook his head decisively. He didn't want to be drinking merrily when one of the party suddenly threw back his head, howled, and turned into a Lizardman.

"Alright then."

Yuri raised his right hand lightly, and the Steam Armor slowly split open from the middle. His brilliant golden pupils turned white in an instant, and the doctor walked in on his own.

"Click, click, click...!"

One of Tony's handsome eyebrows shot up. He leaned back, pointing a finger at the Steam Armor, which had directly shrunk by a size: "If I'm not mistaken... you locked him inside?"

"Yes."

Yuri snapped his fingers, sending the doctor inside the Steam Armor into a deep sleep, while also erasing the last hour of his memory.

The white vanished, and the gold reappeared.

Yuri stared unblinkingly at a certain mustache-twitching man: "There will always be people who get certain bad ideas, trying to enter my armor through certain means. I'll make sure they understand what it means to catch a turtle in a jar and shut the door to beat the dog!"

"Wow!"

Tony turned and walked away immediately. He absolutely refused to admit that certain someone was him. The great Tony Stark would never abandon his greatest work to enter someone else's not-so-great work, would he?

He silently jotted down a note in his mental notebook, signed by a certain binocular-vision patient who was projecting his own pettiness onto a gentleman.

"Ring, ring...!"

Tony answered the phone. It was exactly 10:00 PM New York time, and the caller ID showed none other than his dear Uncle Obadiah!

"Click!"

The call connected, and Obadiah's deep voice came through the receiver: "Nephew, you're not home?"