A Gift for New York

Inside Harry's safehouse, a 3D model of Osborn Tower was displayed on the large 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. "This is 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 made him crave a 'tribe.' Mutating alone was painful, just like being stared at differently because of his disability. But if everyone in New York became lizards..."

"Then there wouldn't be any outsiders," Peter quietly finished.

The room fell silent for a moment.

Gwen suddenly enlarged the device on Osborn Tower's top floor. "Worse, 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 around 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 plans to use my equipment, in my tower, to turn all of New York's citizens into lizard people?"

The four nodded in unison.

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

Compared to Stark Tower getting bombed by aliens, torn apart by Ultron, and used as a base by Thanos's men in the future, this is beginner-level difficulty.

"Do you need my 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 has retired. But I can clear out the building. Say it's an annual fire drill?"

"It would be better to say the employees are getting an early vacation. Otherwise, the fire department will actually send people over," Harry suggested.

An hour later, an all-staff email from Osborn Group went out: due to maintenance on the central air-conditioning system, all employees would receive three days of paid leave.

The next day, night fell over New York, and the group of four lay in wait throughout the tower.

Gwen sat in the surveillance room, watching the building's monitoring system. Harry waited 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 make his move 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 makes it rain Lizard Serum?"

Lin Hai took three special seeds from his pocket. 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 detonated before the agent disperses."

Peter was about to ask another question when Gwen suddenly gave an urgent warning. "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, bone spurs had grown from the tip of his tail, and he carried a metal case filled with serum.

"Just as expected, he came back," Lin Hai said, narrowing his eyes.

Lizard Doctor headed straight for the Weather Control Tower, his claws skillfully entering the password. When the emitter atop the tower began to rotate, he suddenly stopped, his forked tongue trembling in the air.

"Come out. I can smell you, Peter Parker, and that brat Lin who controls plants." His voice rasped like sandpaper.

Peter flipped into the center of the rooftop. "Professor Connors! Your serum will kill thousands upon thousands of people!"

"No, I'm saving them! Pain, disability, cancer—why should such fragile flesh dare call itself the spirit of all things?" Lizard Doctor's fanatical vertical pupils contracted as he spoke.

He violently plugged the metal case into the control tower's interface, 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 prepared for it. The backup power activated in an instant.

"Useless!" He laughed madly and pressed the final button. "Welcome evolution, humanity!"

"Whoosh—!"

Peter's webbing stuck precisely to the emitter nozzle, forcibly twisting it toward the sky. At the same time, Lin Hai threw out his seeds, and thick vines instantly appeared, wrapping 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 swung a claw at Peter.

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

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

"No!!" Lizard Doctor charged at Lin Hai in fury, only to be knocked aside by Peter swinging in on a web. As the two fought, the first raindrop had already fallen.

After being neutralized, the Lizard Drug changed from an agent capable of turning all of New York into lizard people into one that could "recharge" the entire city.

Those touched by the unusual rain showed no abnormalities. They simply felt as if their bodies were brimming with energy, healthier than they had ever felt before.

But it was only temporary. The effect would disappear completely after a couple of days. At most, it would keep weak and sickly people from being hospitalized over a minor cold.

Raindrops fell onto New York's streets, and pedestrians still out at night looked up one after another, savoring 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, but she suddenly felt a warm current spread from the top of her head through her entire body. The pain from her chronic shoulder inflammation was reduced by more than half in an instant.

"Roar—!"

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

"My evolution! My new world!" His voice had become almost entirely beastlike. His vertical pupils locked onto Lin Hai, who was forming hand seals. "You destroyed everything!"

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

"Humanity needs evolution! But you destroyed it all! How am I supposed to calm down?!" Lizard Doctor violently tore through the webbing, the scales on his arm gleaming coldly under the moonlight.

Having already scattered seeds across the rooftop, Lin Hai finally completed preparations for his ultimate move. He slammed both palms heavily against the ground. "Deep Forest Emergence!"

The rooftop concrete cracked apart once more. Countless sprouts burst from the ground, growing wildly under the push of emerald energy, and Osborn Tower's rooftop once again transformed into a miniature primeval forest.

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

Peter took the chance to swing over beside Lin Hai, who controlled the plants. "Now?"

Lin Hai took an upgraded version of the Purification Agent previously used on Green Goblin from his tactical pouch. This version could remove the violent factors in Professor Connors's body while allowing him to retain his lizard transformation.

In the movie, after Professor Connors was purified by the Purification Agent, he regained his senses but also lost the right arm regenerated 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 improved Purification Agent, keeping the essence while removing the harmful parts.

"Remember, inject the carotid artery. Finish the injection within three seconds."

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

Lizard Doctor suddenly felt a chill in his heart. When he looked up, the chatterbox Spider-Man was already in front of him, the needle in Peter's hand glinting coldly beneath the moonlight.

Only after the needle pierced his neck did Lizard Doctor realize it wasn't an ordinary sedative.

The agent surged through his blood vessels. Wherever it went, his raging emotions receded like a tide, and the beastly whispers vanished from his mind, yet the regenerated 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 aggressive nature of the lizard genes."

When the final scale fell away, what stood before them was a complete human form: a healthy, powerful new right arm, clear eyes as before, and the double-degree doctor—Professor Connors.

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

Professor Connors carefully moved his new right hand, sometimes clenching it into a fist, sometimes touching his own face, tears silently rolling down his cheeks.

"After all these years..." His voice choked. "I've dreamed of feeling what it was like to have both hands again..."

Peter crouched on the railing, his nose suddenly stinging. He remembered Uncle Ben's words: 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 operate an artificial therapeutic rainfall 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 bowed deeply to Lin Hai. "Thank you... for giving me a second life."

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