After the bookshelf slid aside, cold air crept up Harry's calves.
He held the Brass Key and stood at the top of the stairs without immediately descending.
A light glowed in the basement.
It wasn't white.
An eerie green light flickered deep in the darkness, as though some creature were breathing behind the wall.
Harry descended the last step.
The moment his foot touched the metal floor, the entire laboratory lit up.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Rows of light tubes switched on in sequence.
Inside the central incubation chamber, murky liquid slowly drained away. Behind its door lay no corpse, only a suit of black armor secured to a metal frame.
Its shoulder plates were long and narrow, and a green energy core was embedded in its chest.
Behind the armor, a folded glider hung in midair. Its wings were tucked in, its exhaust ports slightly open, revealing dense blue electrical arcs within.
Harry stopped where he stood.
Had I been here as a child?
As he remembered it, his father had never allowed him near the study, much less let him touch the basement door.
But there was a faint scratch on the side of the armor's helmet.
Harry remembered that scratch.
Ten years ago, he had broken a glass in his father's laboratory. Norman had lifted him onto the table and checked his palms. That evening, glass had torn his father's cuff in that very spot.
The armor hadn't been built recently.
It had been here all along.
The main computer's screen lit up automatically.
[Identity confirmed.] [Harry Osborn.] [Vital signs match: 98.7%.]
Harry's fingers slowly tightened.
A line of red text appeared at the bottom of the screen.
[Estimated natural survival time: eleven months, twenty-six days.]
The laboratory was quiet.
In the distance, coolant