A Gift for New York

Inside Harry's safe house, a 3D model of Osborn Tower filled the large display screen. Gwen rapidly tapped at the keyboard, pulling up a set of meteorological data.

"Among the equipment Professor Connors took was a Weather Particle Diffuser." She pointed to a line of code on the screen. "It's the core component of Artificial Rainfall Technology."

Harry shot to his feet. "He wants to mix the serum into the clouds and mutate the entire city through rainfall?"

Lin Hai nodded. "The lizard genes make him crave a 'group.' Mutating alone is painful, just like how people used to look at him differently because of his disability. But if everyone in New York became lizards..."

"Then there won't be any freaks," Peter quietly finished.

The room fell silent for a moment.

Gwen suddenly enlarged the device on the top floor of Osborn Tower. "Worse still, the tower's Weather Control Tower was originally designed for artificial rainfall. If he hacks into the system, he won't even need to install additional equipment!"

"So he'll definitely return to Osborn Tower," Lin Hai concluded.

"And it'll be tomorrow night. The New York Weather Bureau predicts cumulonimbus clouds will pass through at midnight tomorrow," Gwen added.

Harry immediately called Norman Osborn.

In the top-floor office of Osborn Tower, Norman listened to the full report from the four people seated before him. His expression was as colorful as if he had swallowed a lemon and a chili pepper at the same time.

"Let me get this straight." He rubbed his temples. "My employee is going to use my equipment, in my tower, to try and turn every citizen in New York into a Lizard Man?"

The four of them nodded in unison.

Norman suddenly laughed, a bitter smile tinged with absurdity. "My tower really is... cursed with disasters."

Compared to Stark Tower getting blown up by aliens, torn apart by Ultron, and used as a base by Thanos's men in the future, this is tutorial-level difficulty, Lin Hai silently mocked.

"Need any help?" Norman meaningfully glanced at the hidden safe in the wall, where an improved version of the Green Goblin Armor was stored.

"No!" all four answered at once. Peter even instinctively assumed a defensive stance.

Norman raised both hands. "All right, all right. The Green Goblin is retired. But I can clear out the tower. Say it's an annual fire drill?"

"It'd be better to use 'early employee vacation' as an excuse. Otherwise, the fire department will actually send people over," Harry suggested.

An hour later, a company-wide email went out from the Osborn Group: due to repairs to the central air-conditioning system, all employees would receive three days of paid leave.

The next day, night fell over New York, and the four of them took up positions throughout the tower.

Gwen sat in the surveillance room, monitoring the entire building's security system. Harry stood by in the power room, ready to cut off the Weather Control Tower's energy supply at any moment. Lin Hai and Peter hid on opposite sides of the rooftop platform, waiting for their prey to appear.

"The clouds are beginning to gather. Lizard Doctor is expected to act within half an hour," Gwen's voice came through their earpieces.

Peter crouched atop a ventilation duct and couldn't help asking Lin Hai quietly, "What if the plan fails? What if he really uses the Lizard Serum to make it rain?"

Lin Hai took three special seeds from his coat. He had cultivated them yesterday using Life Force and Lizard Serum. "In the worst-case scenario, these can neutralize the serum in the air. But they have to be triggered before the agent spreads."

Peter was about to ask another question when Gwen suddenly warned them urgently. "Movement in the eastern drainage pipe! He's here!"

Bang!

The metal cover of the ventilation shaft was blasted away by tremendous force, and a massive green figure leaped onto the rooftop. Under the moonlight, Lizard Doctor looked even more grotesque than he had in the sewers. His entire body was covered in armor-like scales, bony spikes had grown from the tip of his tail, and he carried a metal case filled with serum.

"He really came back," Lin Hai said, narrowing his eyes.

Lizard Doctor walked straight toward the Weather Control Tower, his claws skillfully entering the password. When the tower's transmitter began to rotate, he suddenly stopped, his forked tongue trembling in the air.

"Come out. I can smell you, Peter Parker, and that Lin brat who controls plants." His voice was as rough as sandpaper scraping against metal.

Peter flipped through the air and landed in the center of the rooftop. "Professor Connors! Your serum will kill thousands of people!"

"No, I'm saving them! Pain, disability, cancer—what right does such fragile flesh have to call itself the spirit of all living things?" Lizard Doctor's fanatical slit pupils contracted as he spoke.

He violently inserted the metal case into the control tower's port, and the serum began flowing into the cloud-seeding device.

"Harry, now!" Lin Hai shouted.

Harry immediately cut the main power, but Lizard Doctor had come prepared. The backup power source activated instantly.

"Useless!" he laughed wildly as he pressed the final button. "Welcome evolution, humanity!"

Whoosh—!

Peter's Silk precisely stuck to the transmitter nozzle, forcibly twisting it toward the sky. At the same time, Lin Hai threw out the seeds, and thick vines instantly erupted and wrapped around Lizard Doctor's legs.

"You can't stop the Weather Particle Diffuser! The agent is about to enter the clouds!" Lizard Doctor roared as he tore apart the vines and slashed a claw at Peter.

Lin Hai suddenly leaped onto the top of the control tower and slammed the three Purification Seeds into the launch pipe. "Then we'll change what the rain is made of!"

Emerald light burst from within the tower, mixing with the rising serum into a strange blue-green mist.

"No!!" Lizard Doctor charged furiously at Lin Hai, only to be knocked aside by Peter swinging in on Silk. As the two fought, the first drop of rain had already fallen.

The neutralized Lizard Drug had changed from an agent that could turn all of New York into Lizard Men into one that could "charge up" the entire city.

Those drenched by the unusual rain showed no abnormalities. They merely felt as if their bodies were overflowing with energy, healthier than they had ever been.

But it was only temporary. The effect would completely fade after a few days, though at most it might keep frail and sickly people from being hospitalized over a minor cold.

Raindrops fell onto the streets of New York. Pedestrians still out at night looked up one after another, enjoying the sudden freshness. No one knew that this had originally been meant to mark the beginning of a disaster.

"Mom, the rain is sweet!" A little girl stuck out her tongue to catch a raindrop and shouted excitedly.

Her mother was about to stop her when she suddenly felt a warm current spread from the top of her head through her entire body. The pain from years of shoulder inflammation eased by more than half in an instant.

Roar—!

Lizard Doctor's roar shattered the rooftop water tank. He wildly swung his claws, tearing the entwining vines into pieces.

"My evolution! My new world!" His voice had become increasingly beastlike. His slit pupils locked onto Lin Hai, who was forming hand seals. "You ruined everything!"

Peter backflipped away from the sweeping tail, his Silk accurately sticking to Lizard Doctor's right claw. "Professor! Calm down!!"

"Humanity needs evolution! But you ruined everything! How am I supposed to calm down!!" Lizard Doctor violently tore apart the Silk, the scales on his arms gleaming coldly under the moonlight.

Having already scattered seeds across the rooftop, Lin Hai finally finished preparing his ultimate move. He slammed both palms heavily onto the ground. "Deep Forest Emergence!"

The rooftop concrete cracked apart once more. Countless shoots burst from the ground and grew wildly under the driving force of emerald energy, turning Osborn Tower's rooftop into a miniature primeval forest once again.

"Useless!" Lizard Doctor roared as he struggled, only to discover that the plants automatically loosened whenever he exerted force, then tightened again whenever he relaxed—perfect nonviolent restraint.

Peter took the opportunity to swing over beside Lin Hai, who was controlling the plants. "Now?"

Lin Hai took an improved version of the Purification Agent previously used on the Green Goblin from his tactical waist pouch. This version could remove the berserk factor from Doctor Connors while allowing him to remain transformed into a Lizard Man.

After Professor Connors was purified by the Purification Agent in the movie, he regained his sanity but also lost the regenerated right arm brought by the Regeneration Drug, causing him to fall from Osborn Tower.

Lin Hai didn't want that scene to happen again, so he and his companions had developed this new Purification Agent that retained the essence while removing the harmful parts.

"Remember, inject the carotid artery. Push it all in within three seconds."

"Got it." Peter was unusually quiet, his gaze frighteningly focused.

Lizard Doctor suddenly felt a wave of palpitations. When he looked up, the spider kid who was always such a chatterbox was already standing before him, the needle in his hand gleaming coldly beneath the moonlight.

Only after the needle pierced his neck did Lizard Doctor realize that it was not an ordinary sedative.

The agent surged through his blood vessels. Wherever it passed, his rage receded like a tide, and the beast's whispers vanished from his mind. Yet the regenerative tissue in his right arm remained warm and strong.

"This... this is..." Connors's voice gradually returned, no longer a beastly roar.

Lin Hai stepped forward and gently pressed down on his right hand as the scales faded away. "We preserved the serum's regenerative function and only removed the aggressiveness of the lizard genes."

When the final scale fell away, what stood before them was a complete human form: a healthy, powerful newly grown right arm, clear eyes restored to their former clarity, and the double-doctorate holder—Professor Connors.

When Gwen and Harry hurried onto the rooftop, they saw a deeply moving sight:

Professor Connors was carefully moving his newly grown right hand, sometimes clenching it into a fist, sometimes touching his own cheek, tears silently sliding down his face.

"It's been so many years..." His voice choked. "I've dreamed of feeling what it was like to have two hands again..."

Peter crouched on the railing, his nose suddenly stinging. He remembered Uncle Ben saying that a true hero didn't just stop disasters—they protected hope.

Norman's voice suddenly came from the stairwell. "So does that mean my Osborn Tower Weather Control Tower can now legally run an artificial healing-rain business?"

Everyone froze for a moment, then burst into laughter. Even Connors couldn't help shaking his head with a bitter smile.

Connors stroked his right arm, then suddenly gave Lin Hai a deep bow. "Thank you... for giving me a second life."

As Lin Hai helped him up, a mysterious smile touched his lips. "Perhaps this is also a gift for New York."