No one could stop Connors' actions, nor had anyone expected him to appear so brazenly on the streets of New York in broad daylight.
"What? The National Guard can't deploy? Are you kidding me? There's a monster out there that seems completely immune to light weapons, and he's frantically creating biochemical bombs!"
"What do you mean I'm joking with you? All of Manhattan knows about this by now, and you think I'm joking?"
"Can't you check social media? Hello? Hello!"
New York Police Commissioner George Stacy slumped dejectedly into his chair. The situation had completely spiraled beyond the control of ordinary police officers, and the military contacts seemed utterly disbelieving of what was now common knowledge throughout New York.
The liaison officer had laughed during their conversation, insisting that social media showed everything was peaceful, with news only about the Beast Band's latest single release.
Clearly, the National Guard showed no concern for what was happening in Manhattan. Perhaps someone had blocked the transmission of information, and what all New Yorkers now knew remained unknown to anyone outside those directly involved.
"Commissioner, the citizens who've transformed into lizard people have spread beyond three or four city blocks. The situation is becoming difficult to control. Our forces alone probably can't handle what's happening now."
"First, recall all officers who are off duty, then pull in forces from Brooklyn and Queens to help. We'll—"
Just as George was about to continue assigning tasks, his desk phone rang. The sound of the telephone bell was particularly irritating at a time like this, as only a few of his superiors knew his office landline number.
"Who is this? If you're not calling to provide reinforcements, please be brief. Reinforcements? Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division?"
George hadn't even reached the questioning phase before the caller hung up. He looked at his deputy, the two staring at each other until the deputy finally broke the silence.
"Are we still mobilizing?"
"Forget it. You saw that giant lizard person too. Our weapons have absolutely no effect on him. I just received a call—an official agency plans to reinforce us. Contact the teams maintaining the blockade and tell them to withdraw immediately."
"Will there really be reinforcements?"
"Who knows? But those lizard people are clearly beyond what we can handle."
The deputy didn't know who George had spoken with or what had been said or done, but at least the New York police wouldn't have to face the lizard people with just their M4s.
"By the way, have there been any casualties so far?"
He would rather not ask this question, but being mentally prepared was certainly better than burying his head in the sand.
However, the deputy's answer was surprisingly unexpected.
"According to the inspector's report from the scene, only a few officers sustained minor injuries. Those citizens who transformed into lizard people don't seem particularly interested in using deadly force."
"Really?"
"Yes, they accidentally stepped on rocks while fleeing, some were a bit older and suffered two fractures from falls—those are the only confirmed casualties so far. Of course, some people are missing, and I suspect they've turned into lizard people."
Just as Commissioner Stacy was expressing his disbelief at the surprisingly low casualty count, the mysterious caller's reinforcements had already arrived in Manhattan.
New York police had received orders to establish a defensive line in areas unaffected by the biochemical mutagen, forcing back the lizard people with armed officers. Encouragingly, the lizard people didn't show strong aggression.
After being confronted, they immediately scattered and fled, showing almost none of the ferocious nature their appearance might suggest, far less menacing than they looked.
"I always thought this kind of thing only happened 50 years ago."
"Agent Grant, we're about to face the first Class C emergency in nearly fifty years. You'd better not be too complacent."
Numerous armored vehicles bearing S.H.I.E.L.D. insignia had arrived in the affected district. A large armed force blocked off all areas where lizard people had appeared, while many S.H.I.E.L.D. special operatives disembarked from the armored vehicles.
"Special forces ready. Operation Viking Storm commencing."
Soon, many special operatives carrying certain weapons entered the districts affected by Dr. Connors' biochemical mutagen.
They quickly encountered the victims.
"I always thought lizard people were just a conspiracy theory."
"Well, now you've seen them. Don't use lethal weapons—they were originally citizens. We need to contain them, not kill them."
"Understood."
The fully armed black-clad special operatives sprang into action. Their pulse weapons began emitting an intense humming sound, with electric arcs flashing from the hollow gun barrels.
As one operative pulled the trigger, a powerful energy beam shot out, accurately hitting a lizard person who had been rubbing against a car. The creature began convulsing before stiffening and falling to the ground, only its tail continuing to twitch spasmodically before detaching completely.
The surrounding operatives gathered to observe their first success: the lizard person lying on the ground and the severed tail that seemed to have developed a mind of its own.
"My God, I never imagined a humanoid lizard's tail detachment would be so disgusting. Look at the tender flesh near the tail—it's still writhing."
"Shut up. I'd rather not see that a second time."
After S.H.I.E.L.D. intervened, the situation in Manhattan began to stabilize. The number of rampaging lizard people quickly decreased, and they no longer posed a threat to ordinary citizens.
The special forces continued to advance, controlling the lizard people, and encountered little resistance along the way.
Although these lizard people moved in groups and showed some aggressive behavior, they weren't particularly combative, which didn't match the intelligence S.H.I.E.L.D. had previously received.
________________________________________
"Lynn, it looks like the news broadcast has been cut off."
Jessica wanted to continue watching the news to follow developments, but clearly, the police had begun media control, cutting off all live feeds and recalling all reporters who had entered the affected areas.
Lynn was already digging a hole in the courtyard, planning to rebury the bones Jessica had excavated.
Jessica poked her head out and called to Lynn in the courtyard.
"Don't you want to come see?"
"I'm busy putting your friend back where you found him. Either come help me, or go check if the kitchen needs cleaning."
"Alright, I'll go look."
With that, Jessica turned off the television. The living equipment in this house was relatively complete, and although they would inevitably need to buy new items later, it didn't affect Lynn's temporary use.
"Hmm, attack aggressiveness effectively reduced. Using iguana genes was indeed an extremely poor choice. Combining salamander and some mammalian gene expression with modifications could effectively improve the problem of excessive aggression.
But the morphological changes brought by this mutagen cannot be reconciled—it requires extremely rare and specific human genes to produce a successful sample.
Overall, it's a completely worthless technology. Connors' use of mutagens—an entirely unpredictable method during treatment—for limb regeneration has far too much instability.
However, continued refinement could have some value. As a first product, it's passable. The remaining task is to destroy Oscorp's leftover experimental data.
Fortunately, someone is doing that for me."
Lynn mumbled to himself while digging, too engrossed in his own thoughts to notice Jessica approaching with a shovel.
"Lynn? What are you doing?"
"Hmm? No problems with the kitchen?"
"I checked it out. All the house appliances are quite dated, and the water heater has a rusty taste. I think we should replace them."
"Then let's do that. Also find a renovation company to come by and fix those bullet holes. But before that, let's get to work and send the former homeowner you invited out back where they belong."
"Mm! Sure thing!"
Jessica clearly had no aversion to this task. Seemingly influenced by Lynn, her personality had undergone quite a significant change, taking a path completely different from before.
With Jessica's help, Lynn quickly dug a two-meter-deep hole. The girl's superhuman strength was certainly useful at times like this.
Lynn tossed in the body pieces of what must have been one of the house's many previous owners.
"Goodnight, unknown sir."
The final skull landed with a crisp sound as it collided with the other bones.
________________________________________
BANG!
Connors' massive body made intimate contact with the Oscorp Industries building. He had depleted all his biochemical mutagen bombs, with nothing remaining.
The giant atomizer remained on his shoulder.
After installing the giant atomizer, injecting the biochemical mutagen, connecting the power supply, and waiting, Connors turned to see a familiar figure behind him.
"Doctor, you don't need to do this. It's not too late to turn back. Let me put the antidote in that atomizer, and we can still find a way back."
"Peter, you came as expected. I should thank you for your advice—it was very helpful and solved the bottleneck I'd been struggling with..."
Before Connors could continue his grand speech, Peter spoke first.
"Wait, you can talk? I thought you'd turned into a Komodo dragon. Put it down—we don't need to interact like this. How about you turn back into a human, and we swing out of here, get some coffee, and slowly work this out? It's not too late, Connors."
He waved the antidote in his hand.
"No! Shut up!"
BANG!
Connors threw a punch at Peter, and when Peter dodged, he didn't give up. He swung his giant claws, using both hands and tail, each attack tearing through rooftop air conditioners and exhaust pipes.
But all this wasn't enough to ease his anger—a nameless rage burned fiercely within him.
"What do you know, Peter? What do you understand? This is something I worked on my entire life, and Oscorp had the nerve to kick me out. Just a few bootlickers sitting in chairs, completely unconcerned with ethical boundaries, with no moral character, saying a few words to steal my achievements and throw me out. I won't accept it! I'll make Oscorp pay.
A company with no honor or morality shouldn't exist in this world. Today, I'm going to make it disappear!"
Connors' attacks didn't ease up during Peter's attempt at conversation. It seemed that Spider-Man's opponents had a certain immunity to his chat attacks.
"But what you're doing is hurting innocent people! Curt, don't you realize that? You've dragged too many people who have nothing to do with Oscorp into this!
You can't become a terrorist because of what Oscorp did. Haven't you even tried appealing? Couldn't you just find a prosecutor to handle this?"
Peter's words seemed somewhat reasonable, but after impulsively testing the mutagen on himself, Connors' neural pathways had clearly changed. He didn't care about Peter's arguments at all. There might have been other ways to solve the problem.
But none of that mattered anymore.
"Hurt them? I'm sharing my life's work with them, freeing them from the troubles of disease, from torment and pain, letting them consider problems with carefree minds, completing a perfect and necessary evolution. What's wrong with that?
You're still a kid, Peter! You wouldn't understand!"
"I'd say turning into a giant lizard, parading naked in the streets, licking people and cars with your tongue, and eating flies and cockroaches doesn't qualify as much of a gift."
After several rounds of maneuvering, Peter finally moved behind Connors. He nimbly clung to Connors' body, web-shooters firing at full capacity. Massive amounts of webbing quickly bonded Connors' body to the concrete ground.
When Connors swung to try to brush Peter away, he quickly dodged, and the webbing pinned Connors' left arm behind his back.
Before Connors could break free from Peter's web control, he suddenly felt an enormous force from below his feet. In an instant, he lost his balance and crashed heavily to the ground, sending debris flying.
Then came the full wrapping of massive webbing.
The high-strength webbing temporarily locked him to the ground. Finally, Peter had time to examine the giant atomizer Connors had prepared.
"Alright, let's see how to disarm this thing... red one here, blue one here, press the dial, done."
After a few operations, Peter halted the mixing process, then ejected Connors' mutagen. He took out the reverse transcription antidote he had created from the notes left in Connors' lab before the doctor's thought patterns had been altered by the mutagen.
He placed it securely inside.