The Underground Laboratory That Had Never Appeared

"Dr. Connors?"

Yuri raised an eyebrow. How had those two ended up together? He looked around. The place was full of strange experimental machines, most of them covered in dust. The newest things in sight were a dozen cages containing white mice.

"That's right."

Tony led Yuri to the lab table beneath the surgical lights and pointed at the green Lizard Mouse inside the tempered-glass enclosure. "We've run into a problem with our experiment. No matter what we do, the potion that turned Connors into the Lizardman can't perfectly regenerate severed limbs."

Just then, the Lizard Mouse in the enclosure began to regress. The green scales on its body disappeared one by one, but at the same time, its limbs and tail began to crumble apart piece by piece!

Connors sighed, gazing helplessly at the fluffy white lump of flesh in the enclosure. "It's as if the potion has a memory. Once the time is up, everything returns to how it was."

Kate, who had been following close behind, could no longer contain her curiosity. She sneaked a glance at Yuri, and when she saw that he wasn't paying attention, she immediately reached out, snatched up a cage containing a white mouse with lightning speed, and held it up to her face to inspect it closely.

"Squeak! Squeak!"

The poor little mouse looked terrified. It scrambled on all fours to the corner of the cage farthest from Kate and buried its tiny, pointy head deep in its belly.

Seeing this, Yuri simply let go of the arm he had wrapped around her slender waist. "Take the cage over there and play. Don't open it."

"Yes!"

Under Tony's "You really know how to have fun" look, Kate stuck out her little tongue and licked Yuri's face, then obediently carried the cage over to the corner to play.

With the trouble temporarily out of the way, Yuri put an arm around Tony's shoulders and narrowed his eyes. "Before we get started on everything we need to do here, shouldn't you explain why an agent claiming to work for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division showed up at my workshop with more than a dozen men?"

"Haha!"

Tony had been planning to bluff his way through it, but when he saw Yuri's eyes starting to turn pure white, he quickly raised both hands in surrender. "I can't explain, but I can make it up to you!"

"Do tell."

Yuri sat on the lab table with his arms crossed and watched Tony, whose expression had turned rather grim. "You get one chance."

"All right."

Tony was every bit the capitalist one would expect from one of the United States' top businessmen, and a capitalist's greatest talent was making grand promises. Facing the caged mice, he launched into an impassioned spiel. "As you can see, I'm working on a great experiment! It'll bring hope to hundreds of millions of disabled people around the world, and earn its inventor immeasurable wealth and fame... Yuri, is that enough compensation?"

"Sixty percent!"

Yuri didn't hesitate. "Twenty percent is compensation for me. The rest is what I'm owed as one of the inventors of this technology."

"No!"

Tony immediately bristled. If this technology ever made it out into the world, it would need all kinds of support, and the most valuable thing he could give people would naturally be shares. If Yuri divided things up that way, the original shares left in the hands of the Stark family would amount to no more than ten percent!

"Forty percent at most!"

Tony held up four fingers and explained earnestly, "First, Dr. Connors needs at least five percent. Second, Stark needs to hold more than twenty percent. The rest has to go to Congress, various organizations, associations, medical institutions... So the most I can give you is forty percent!"

"Wait!"

Connors, who had been listening for some time, finally couldn't take it anymore. He looked Yuri up and down, puzzled by how little he looked like a researcher, then turned to Tony. "Why are you discussing how to divide the profits already? Who is he? Why do you think he can solve our problem? And why—"

"Snap!"

Yuri snapped his fingers, putting Connors to sleep on the spot. He held up five fingers and spoke to Tony, one word at a time. "Fifty percent. Not a single point less! You should be glad we have some history together. Otherwise, I'd have you end up just like Dr. Connors, helping count the money after I sold you off!"

Connors, his mind completely under Yuri's control, chimed in at just the right moment. "I'll provide any help I can, free of charge. I don't want any shares or profits."

Tony swallowed hard. He was reminded once more of the terror of being completely at someone's mercy in a certain cave.

His mustache twitched twice. In the end, Tony gave in. "Fine, fine. Inviting you here was a mistake. You're nothing but a bandit!"

Yuri chuckled and steered the conversation back on track. "Come on, Tony. Show me how you're running the experiment."

A flash of pure white eyes, and Dr. Connors—who had forgotten everything that had just happened—picked up a micro-syringe with a troubled expression and drew out a small amount of Lizard Potion.

Tony operated the mechanical arm, forcibly tearing off one of a white mouse's hind legs. Once he had secured the mouse in place, he worked with Connors to inject the potion from the syringe into the poor creature.

"Squeak! Squeak! Squeee—hiss, hiss..."

Yuri gently placed the tip of his right index finger against the tempered-glass enclosure. Strands of golden energy passed through the glass, which even bullets couldn't penetrate, and flowed straight into the mouse, now completely transformed into a lizard.

Scales, flesh, bones, claws, nerves, brain, cells, genes...

Yuri closed his eyes and quietly sensed the remarkable changes taking place inside the mouse. Kate, who had been playing with the mice in a corner, sneaked over to guard his side. A dangerously intense aura radiated from her flawless figure.

"Wow!"

Tony finally gave Kate a proper look. A jolt ran through his entire nervous system, and faced with such a stunning beauty and alluring figure, he instantly forgot his earlier displeasure. The playboy of the Stark family was back in action. "If you don't mind my saying so, are you Yuri's companion? I can't imagine what he has to offer that would make him worthy of—"

"Shut up!"

Kate moved with a speed the naked eye couldn't catch. She grabbed Tony by the neck with one hand and lifted him effortlessly into the air. In a low, uncompromising voice, she said, "If you say one more word and disturb the boss, I'll kill you on the spot!"

Tony had never encountered anyone with such a murderous aura. The instant he met her beautiful eyes, it was as though he saw a mountain of corpses and a forest of bones bearing down on him. The pressure was so terrifying that even after she put him down, he couldn't breathe for several seconds.

"Haaah—!"

Tony's face had turned purplish as he sucked in a deep breath. Kate was still guarding Yuri's side just as she had before, but to Tony, the beautiful, alluring woman now seemed like a primeval beast. Like a little white mouse in a cage, he scrambled away from her on all fours. Only when he could retreat no farther did his ragged breathing gradually settle.

Just then, Yuri's golden eyes opened again. He reflexively looked toward the spot where Tony had been standing and said, "All right. I know what's going on now."

He blinked, then looked at the innocent-looking Kate beside him. "Where'd he go?"