SHIELD's belated awareness of Lynn's actions didn't bother him at all. He still had no intention of exposing himself unnecessarily; taking out the Purple Man had already been a risky move.
Fortunately, there were no subsequent repercussions.
Lynn took a detour through Brooklyn, then completely changed his clothes somewhere before slowly returning to Deacon Tower. The whole process took some time but didn't involve many complications.
SHIELD never found Lynn.
By the time Lynn returned to Deacon Tower, it was already deep into the night. Connors had been transported to the laboratory on the fifth basement level, his body completely covered with restraints. The vampire's understanding of restraints clearly had its own unique aspects.
This special vampire-made restraint device somehow prevented Connors in his lizard form from breaking free. The black magic inscriptions on it seemed to continuously weaken the body of the restrained person, keeping them in a perpetual state of powerlessness.
"Interesting. Why haven't I seen this before?"
"Because it was sealed away, Dr. Sidis. This is a restraint device I just had brought in from outside."
Maria explained from the side that this was a restraint device obtained from Nosferatu. Lynn seemed to recall something; when he had examined Maria's memories, he did have a slight impression of this.
"Is that one of the Blood Covenant?"
Maria was initially shocked, as she had never told Lynn about the Blood Covenant. But she quickly realized that when Lynn's psychic tentacles had played with her brain earlier, he must have obtained quite a lot of necessary information, and knowing about the Blood Covenant wasn't incomprehensible.
"Yes, Dr. Sidis, one of the Six Blood Covenants."
"Interesting. Deacon doesn't seem to be counted among the Blood Covenant? Is your clan so insignificant?"
"Mixed-blood servants. We're just the weakest of several servants."
Lynn could naturally guess that Deacon, plainly speaking, only controlled some entertainment service industries. Even though they secretly supplied humans to the Blood Covenant, they obviously weren't in a very important position and didn't have any justifiable foundation.
"You're also mixed-blood?"
"I've heard that the leaders of those Blood Covenants have all lived for over two hundred years and consider themselves descendants of Atlantis. From their perspective, perhaps everyone is mixed-blood."
Maria seemed to have no respect for the Blood Covenant she mentioned, even though she herself was a high-level vampire.
"Keep Connors secure and continue arranging the initial construction work for the laboratory. Hmm, I have other things to do."
Connors was now completely restrained by black magic-reinforced metal, and these things designed to control vampires looked extremely effective.
"Dr. Sidis, I..."
Maria seemed to want to say something, but given Lynn's demeanor, she didn't know how to begin.
With Deacon, she could use a coquettish voice coupled with sexy clothing, topped off with two or three low-level vampire beauties for enhancement.
Maria could then make most of her requests in bed or in the hallway.
But facing Lynn...
She couldn't imagine this grim-faced, ruthless fellow with a lecherous expression.
"Your recent performance has been good. What do you want to say?"
With Lynn's permission, Maria dared to speak.
"Those things you mentioned..."
Lynn naturally knew what she wanted to ask without her finishing. This female vampire's inner thoughts were filled with various hedonistic ideas, and her vampire body had surely brought many inconveniences.
Through Insem's modified formulations and his own exploration of his mutant abilities, Lynn could basically eliminate the direct effects of vampirism at the genetic and dark magic levels.
As for whether these vampires were still vampires...
Lynn couldn't say for sure.
Lynn didn't directly answer Maria's question, instead smiling and saying: "A mission. Complete it well, and I'll help you reclaim sunlight.
The lizard man before you is Curt Connors, the former helmsman of Osborn Industries' genetic engineering. Go find his daughter and wife, investigate their past, and give me a report.
Not difficult, right?"
After speaking, Lynn left the underground laboratory that was under construction. The biochemical reaction area had begun construction, and Lynn's equipment had been moved to the top floor of the building, which had been converted into a fully equipped small laboratory.
White tiles and a clean environment, stable power and water supply—it was much better than Lynn's previous laboratory.
When he entered, he saw Jessica watching the bioreactor in the room, seemingly quite interested in the laboratory.
"How about it? Is my little friend interested in learning some knowledge that might be useful here in the future?"
Jessica's mood visibly brightened when she saw Lynn. She immediately darted to Lynn's side, and with her superhuman speed, she barely controlled herself this time.
"I was just wondering how that big glass cabinet lets you create those big monsters."
"Big monsters? Hmm, I don't think they really qualify as big monsters."
"But what are you doing here?"
"The rooms here are too luxurious, and I don't like that much. This laboratory feels more comfortable to me."
Lynn roughly knew why she didn't like the room Kara had arranged for her. He patted the girl's head and then said:
"It's fine. After I deal with some things, we'll leave this place. Now, just let me finish my work."
As he spoke, Lynn took out the biological compound Connors had completed. The laboratory had enough equipment for him to analyze how Connors' creation worked.
"What's that?"
"A limb regeneration serum."
"It doesn't look like that to me. This thing feels more like some kind of virus, like in those horror movies."
"A virus? No, but from your perspective, it is indeed something similar. This is a mutagen recombinant, using a series of complex reactions to update an organism's genes, although the method isn't mature."
As he spoke, Lynn began lecturing Jessica, spouting a string of technical terms one after another while operating the laboratory equipment to analyze Dr. Connors' work and educating Jessica.
However, Jessica obviously had no talent for scientific research. After Lynn's barrage of technical terms, her eyelids began to droop, and she quickly started to doze off.
Lynn shook his head helplessly and gently tapped her head.
"Sleepy?"
"A bit."
"If you're sleepy, go to bed. Don't sleep here. What I'm analyzing now is very dangerous, not so safe."
"Mm-hmm, I got it. But Lynn, don't you ever get sleepy? Since the first day I met you, I don't think I've ever seen you sleep."
Lynn naturally wouldn't tell her that he didn't need to sleep at all due to his mutant abilities. His brain could function twenty-four hours a day, and his body never felt fatigue.
"Is it possible that I don't need to sleep?"
"Your superpower is not needing sleep? That's pretty great, isn't it? You get to live eight extra hours every day compared to normal people."
"What, you want to live eight extra hours every day too?"
"No, no, no, I'll pass. Lynn, I'd better go to sleep. I find sleeping quite comfortable."
As she spoke, Jessica walked to the laboratory door with a grin, closing the door for Lynn and leaving him alone in the laboratory.
After Jessica left, Lynn quickly returned to his previous state, continuing to analyze Connors' serum, though results wouldn't come for a while. Looking at the three vials of serum before him, Lynn had his own ideas.
He extracted one of them, then used telepathy to notify Kara who was nearby.
The distance was sufficient for him to sense her.
Soon after, Kara arrived on the scene.
"Doctor, you called for me?"
"How is Connors' situation?"
"Almost no possibility of escape."
"Go extract some of his tissue. I need it."
"I'll do it right away."
After arranging the task for Kara, Lynn looked at Tom in the bioreactor and decided to use this vampire one last time.
———
A few days later in the morning, Lynn was taking Jessica to look at a house in a peripheral area of New York. The location was quite remote with poor security around it, so the house price was relatively cheap.
"Mr. Sidis, the security here is actually quite good. Both state and city police patrol the area, gang members don't like to come here, and the community environment is warm and pleasant.
Moreover, such a detached house with a yard for only two hundred thousand dollars is already a very rare find in this area."
Ignoring the chattering real estate agent who was spewing nonsense, Lynn had long known that several former owners of this house had died in gang shootouts.
The security in the Ebony Wood neighborhood was probably worse than Hell's Kitchen.
"This should be about right..."
"Hmm? Mr. Sidis? Are you planning to buy it?"
Lynn glanced at the agent and then said unhurriedly:
"One hundred thousand dollars. If you don't agree, this house still has bullet holes in the roof that haven't been repaired, the floor is full of gunpowder smell, and my daughter just dug up a leg bone from the garden outside.
If you don't agree, I'll call the police and notify the Daily Bugle. By then, I guarantee you won't be able to sell this house for even ten thousand dollars."
As Lynn was speaking, Jessica had already dug up a complete set of human bones from the garden and placed them together. A few ribs were missing, but it was close enough.
After finishing, Jessica waved to Lynn who was standing by the window.
The agent's face went through several expressions before he quickly made a phone call and then stopped arguing.
"When do we sign the contract?"
"Right now works."
This haunted house welcomed a new resident, while Manhattan in New York was about to welcome an uninvited guest.
On a rather ordinary morning, Peter Parker was preparing to meet MJ. While watching the morning news on TV, he was pulling at the toast Aunt May had baked for him. However, after just a couple of bites, Peter Parker couldn't eat anymore.
"Connors?"
The morning news on TV clearly showed a helicopter view, with Connors' figure running through the camera's frame.
The Lizard was nimbly moving between buildings, with surrounding crowds exclaiming in surprise, occasionally taking photos with their phones, observing the huge lizard monster before them.
"Damn, I need to get over there."
Peter instantly recognized what Connors was holding—an industrial-grade nebulizer. In an instant, he deduced what Connors was trying to do.
"Aunt May! I'm going out, I have a date with MJ!"
"Remember to come back early."
Aunt May had just walked out of the kitchen but found Peter heading upstairs. She thought he was going to change clothes, but after waiting for a while and finding Peter hadn't come down, she carried a glass of milk upstairs.
"Peter? What are you doing?"
There was no sign of Peter Parker in the room.
"Peter?"
Aunt May thoughtfully looked at the open window, then took Peter's milk and started drinking it herself.
"Next time, I'll tell him not to run out through the window. Hmm, I should go eat this with toast, plus some apple jam and blueberry jam."
Peter rushed through the air, taking only ten minutes to reach Manhattan. By this time, Connors was in a standoff with the New York City police.
Their submachine guns spat fire, sending bullets into Connors' body, but most were blocked by his hard scales. Those bullets lucky enough to penetrate the soft scales and enter Connors' body had no effect whatsoever.
Almost within seconds, they were expelled under Connors' regenerative abilities, falling to the ground with a tinkling sound.
"Damn, light weapons are ineffective against him! We need backup, repeat, we need backup."
Connors casually pulled out two long tubes from his large pack and threw them. The moment they hit the ground, the two tubes began frantically spraying greenish mist.
After that, he ignored the police completely, leaping up to once again climb New York's skyscrapers, while continuing to scatter those biochemical bombs.
Under the influence of those inhalable nebulized compounds, those unfortunate enough to inhale them began a strange transformation. Their bodies rapidly grew scales, and the hair on their skin began to fall out.
They all started transforming towards a lizard-man form.
Connors paid no attention to his actions, continuing to spread his technological creation while advancing toward Osborn Industries' building. His goal was extremely clear—to go to Osborn Industries and trigger a crisis capable of shaking all of New York.
"Lynn, that's not a movie on TV, is it?"
"Hmm? Of course not."
Jessica hadn't directly seen Lynn transporting Dr. Connors, so she didn't know that the Lizard and Connors were the same person.
"Doesn't it say there? New York Central News."
"Ah... a lizard monster in New York?" Jessica was initially surprised, then thoughtfully frowned, putting her lips to Lynn's ear and whispered: "This wouldn't be something you created, would it?"
Lynn turned his head to smile at Jessica, then continued: "What do you think?"
"I think it probably was you."
She jumped over the sofa and sat next to Lynn, hugging her legs, saying with some concern: "Won't people get hurt this way? I mean, it's tearing apart those buildings."
"They won't. It's precisely to prevent people from being accidentally harmed by the marginal effects of what Connors created that I'm having him advance while spreading my improved lizard-transformation serum."
While Lynn and Jessica were watching the news, New York's streets had already filled with many running lizard people. They randomly invaded shops, and after eating all the food inside, they would roughhouse on the spot and chase those unaffected police and pedestrians.
They would pounce on them for a round of licking, tear their clothes to shreds, or smash things like small cars to pieces.
But overall, these lizard people affected by Connors, though full of energy, seemed to lack... aggression and bloodthirst.
As the situation spiraled out of control, the news began showing a lot of mosaiced footage. Lynn and Jessica continued watching the news.
Jessica wanted to see the subsequent developments, while Lynn was waiting for a hero to appear.