----
The OsCorp training facility designed to stress-test weapons and enhanced individuals was quiet, save for the occasional crack of electricity.
Max stood near a target rig, arcs of lightning dancing between his fingers. With a flick of his wrist, he sent a bolt screaming through the air, vaporizing the target in a flash of light.
Behind him, footsteps.
He turned and immediately straightened up. "Boss."
Nolan gave a brief nod, stepping into the room. "You're improving fast."
Max beamed. "Professor Connors has been working with me. Said I need to push my capacity—absorb more current and release it faster. Like building muscle."
"Good. I need your help with something."
Nolan's tone changed calm but purposeful. "I need to test my reflexes."
Max blinked. "You mean... you want me to shoot you?"
"Don't hold back."
They moved into the precision chamber.
Max hesitated, raising his hand. "Alright, but uh—don't sue me if I fry you."
The lightning-sparked, then snapped outward like a fastball. It tore through the chamber straight toward Nolan.
But just before contact—
He moved.
A fraction of a second early.
CRACK!
The bolt slammed into the wall behind him.
"Again," Nolan said, already resetting his stance.
Max didn't need to be told twice.
More bolts followed. Dozens.
Each one met the same fate dodged with inhuman precision. Nolan's body weaved between them, a blur in motion.
And Max?
He was stunned.
"Okay, what the hell…?" he panted, feeling his energy draining. "Boss, how are you dodging electricity?!"
Nolan finally stopped, catching his breath. "Spider-Sense," he said with a grin. "Passive. Predictive. Combined with enhanced perception it's like I'm seeing danger before it happens."
Max blinked. "So… this is the power of a real superhero?"
Nolan just smirked. "That's the power of science."
Next up: strength testing.
They moved to the reinforced impact rig. A thick alloy plate, sensor-lined and capable of reading up to fifty tons of pressure.
Nolan cracked his knuckles.
If the data from his gene stack was right, Soldier Serum, Jessica Jones' enhanced physiology, and now Peter Parker's spider DNA,, his baselin,e was terrifying.
He swung.
BOOM.
The plate vibrated. The screen blinked:
[23.0 tons]
Max's jaw dropped. "Boss… you could flip a tank."
Nolan tried the other fist. Same result.
[23.0 tons]
"Consistent," he muttered. "Good."
He rolled his shoulders, nodding to himself. "With my current flight capabilities, super strength, regeneration, and precog reflexes, there aren't many people on Earth who can touch me."
Then his tone shifted, introspective.
"But I'm not done."
The real breakthrough, Nolan knew, lay not in just power but precision.
His next leap would come from cracking the decay formula of the genetic stability algorithm Richard Parker had devised. With it, Nolan could custom-engineer hybrid organisms that could serve as living mutagenic editors.
Like the super-spider had been for Peter.
"Once I finish this," Nolan murmured, "I won't need random mutations. I'll design evolution itself."
He looked up.
At Max.
---
The lightbulb moment hit.
Of course. He had a spy with a backdoor pass into Parker's world.
"Max, I need you to retrieve something."
Max stood a little straighter. "Name it."
Nolan pulled up a photo on his phone—a battered, brown leather case.
"This belonged to Richard Parker. A company asset. Took it home before his disappearance. You'll find it in the Queen's residence address incoming."
Max nodded. "Get in. Get the case. Get out."
"You'll slip in as a current. Toss the case out before you leave. No confrontation."
Max cracked his knuckles, static buzzing between them. "Understood."
Nolan grinned. "You're not just lightning, Max. You're a scalpel. Let's go get our research back."
----
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