On the rooftop of Metropolitan Hospital, Batman was doing something besides guarding Dr. Otto's surgery.
The armor on his forearm slid aside, revealing a miniature portable computer that displayed profiles of individual reporters under Batman's operation.
He needed to find a journalist bold enough to defy pressure and expose the truth, launching the first wave of attacks against General Ross.
"I've retrieved all meeting documents from Congress, the White House, and the military from the past three days, and not a single one approved General Ross's use of force to take over the Osborn Group."
"This is an illegal act of military privatization."
"It's expected that Congress will demand General Ross attend a hearing within a day, and I need to use the media to add fuel to the fire."
Batman's gaze finally settled on the profile of a young reporter named Eddie Brock.
From all the data, Batman could see that this was an ambitious journalist eager to expose sensational scoops.
He needed someone like him to convey a message to the world.
At the Osborn Group headquarters, besides the troops stationed by General Ross, the building was also surrounded by reporters and photographers from various newspapers and media outlets.
General Ross didn't show his face, and the silent, stationed soldiers remained tight-lipped, but the occasional researchers and staff entering and exiting the building became the targets of these reporters' frantic interviews.
General Ross had blockaded the entire Osborn Group headquarters, but he hadn't completely cut off access; he even allowed staff and scientists to come to work as usual in the morning and conduct their various experiments without interference.
Among them was Professor Connors, with one empty sleeve. When he arrived at the main entrance of the Osborn Group, wearing glasses and carrying documents under his arm, countless microphones immediately thrust toward him, accompanied by the reporters' loud questions:
"Professor Connors, what's your opinion on General Ross's military supervision of the Osborn Group?"
"Professor Connors, will the results of your subsequent research experiments be provided to the military first?"
"Professor Connors, as a scientist and director of the Osborn Group, do you tacitly support General Ross's actions?"
The noisy voices gave Professor Connors a headache; at one point, he was even blocked by the reporters and unable to move forward.
But as the soldiers formed a human barrier with their bodies, blocking the reporters, Professor Connors was finally able to proceed smoothly toward the Osborn Group's main entrance.
Connors sighed and stood in front of the broken glass door, looking back at the blocked reporters.
He had received a call from General Ross while still at home, requesting that he come to the Osborn Group to continue his experimental research. General Ross claimed he wouldn't interfere with the experiments.
He said that choosing military supervision was only to prevent Osborn's biotechnology from falling into the hands of ill-intentioned individuals—those were General Ross's exact words.
Whether he was telling the truth or not, Professor Connors had to come to the Osborn Group, even if he chose to abandon his experiments there.
For no other reason than that all of Professor Connors's various experimental data were in the laboratory inside the building. If he gave up now, his limb regeneration experiment would have to start from scratch, which would cost a massive amount of time.
Inside the Osborn Group, besides being quieter than usual, researchers and staff were busy coming and going, as if the outside commotion had nothing to do with them.
Professor Connors figured that these people, like himself, had received calls from General Ross claiming he wouldn't interfere with their experiments, which is why they continued to work here.
Taking the elevator to the laboratory on the twentieth floor, Professor Connors cast aside extraneous thoughts and immersed himself once more in his research on limb regeneration.
His gaze swept over the glass cabinets containing the experimental subjects, preparing to check and record the data for each mouse one by one.
According to past patterns, these mice would have been thoroughly dead by now, but soon Professor Connors's gaze lingered on one glass cabinet.
He was pleasantly surprised to find that the mouse injected with the regeneration agent yesterday was not only not dead but was lively and jumping around.
Most importantly, the mouse's right forelimb, which had been artificially severed, had grown back, and all its behavioral abilities and physical health were no different from those of a healthy mouse!
"This, this..."
Professor Connors's heart pounded, his lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a complete sentence, his eyes welling up with tears.
This was his first experiment to achieve limb regeneration in a mammal!
...New York Metropolitan Hospital.
This place was also guarded by armed police, and the atmosphere of tension was no less than that at the Osborn Group building.
If the surgery was successful, it would be fine, but if it failed, no one was sure if Dr. Otto would go mad again. Even with police guarding the hospital, the doctors and nurses in the operating room would have little guarantee of safety.
This was almost no different from performing surgery on the front lines of a battlefield; the doctors in the operating room, besides providing necessary assistance, were almost all ready to flee at any moment.
Aside from Dr. Otto, who was deeply anesthetized, Dr. Strange was the only one present who showed no trace of tension.
His hands remained as steady as rumored, precisely using surgical tools to separate the mechanical tentacles from Dr. Otto's spine, bit by bit.
Time passed minute by minute. When the last part of the mechanical tentacles was completely separated from Dr. Otto's body, Dr. Strange uttered a single word in a calm tone:
"Done."
After speaking, he winked at the instrument nurse next to him, who, though masked, still exuded a certain elegance:
"I heard there's a restaurant in Brooklyn that just got three Michelin stars. Want to go tonight?"
Everyone in the operating room breathed a sigh of relief; Dr. Strange was an authority in neurosurgery.
Once he made a playful remark after surgery, it proved that the operation was successfully completed, and this surgery would add another significant achievement to Dr. Strange's legendary career.
The doctors and nurses relaxed their nerves, chatting in low voices as they performed the final tasks of the surgery.
The famous Dr. Strange wasn't needed for the finishing touches. He opened the operating room door and had just stepped out, his mask still on, when he was stopped by a young man who looked somewhat nervous:
"Doctor, how did the surgery go?"
Dr. Strange looked at the young man in a plaid shirt. The short, dense beard on his chin made him look a bit more weathered. He said, not at all surprised:
"You're Peter Parker, right? Dr. Otto mentioned you to me before the surgery."
"Surgeries I preside over have never failed, and this time is no different."
Appearing outside the operating room as Peter Parker, Batman—who had taken off his Batsuit—extended his hand and shook Dr. Strange's twice:
"It seems the outside world's praise for you isn't exaggerated at all, Dr. Strange."
The police officers guarding with guns listened to the conversation between these two and finally let out the breath they'd been holding.
Dr. Otto's surgery was a complete success. Due to the documents issued by S.H.I.E.L.D., Dr. Otto, without his tentacles, reverted to being one of the world's top nuclear physicists.
Although he would be subject to necessary supervision afterward, that no longer had much to do with them, the police.
Meanwhile, at the headquarters of the Daily Bugle, in an office building.
Eddie Brock opened his mailbox as usual and found an anonymous email in addition to some junk mail.
His mouse slowly moved, and Eddie opened the email. The moment he saw its content, he immediately closed it. He looked left and right to make sure no one was paying attention to him before reopening it.
"Evidence of General Ross conducting gamma experiments and personally creating the 'Hulk'."
"The relationship between General Ross and the human experiments on fifty homeless corpses in the second basement of the Osborn Group."
"Confidential report on civilian casualties caused by General Ross during his past pursuit of the Hulk."
"General Ross..."
A dense collection of information, all accompanied by photos or videos, without exception, pointed to General Ross.
Clearly, this anonymous sender hoped that Eddie Brock—this journalist who had always yearned to expose sensational scoops—would publish it to combat General Ross's military takeover of the Osborn Group!