"I succeeded?"
That was Professor Connors' first thought after waking up and seeing his right arm. Before he could celebrate its return, he quickly remembered why he'd experimented on himself in the first place.
"The Regeneration Serum works. I have to get it to Leo right away. I can save him!"
At Metropolitan Hospital in New York, the young boy named Leo was still waiting for the perfect Regeneration Serum to extend his life.
Ignoring the hunger gnawing at him from the massive energy drain, Professor Connors—his pupils snapping back to normal in an instant—focused solely on delivering the Regeneration Serum to Metropolitan Hospital.
But a series of sharp clicks rang out as more than fifty soldiers surrounding General Ross chambered rounds and trained their weapons on the still-dazed Professor Connors.
Thud!
Startled, Professor Connors stumbled back several steps, raising his hands to show he posed no threat.
"General Ross, all core data for the Osborn Group's various biotechnologies has been erased."
At that moment, one of the scientific consultants—who had been setting up workstations and fiddling with the lab equipment—spoke up.
A minute earlier, General Ross had been furious upon receiving this news, but now his anger had evaporated.
General Ross eyed Professor Connors, who stood with his hands raised in surrender. His flushed face—one that might make anyone mutter "redneck" under their breath—was now split by a wide grin.
"Professor Connors, you've woken up at just the right time."
General Ross didn't understand the experimental data himself, but that didn't mean he was clueless.
Professor Connors and Norman Osborn were the only two scientific directors at the Osborn Group. Only they had the insight, authority, and capability to identify the key biotechnologies and transfer the data.
Now, Norman Osborn had been hauled off to the police station by Batman and was en route to the Ravencroft Institute in northern New York.
That left Professor Connors as the only one who could handle it, and he was standing right there. If General Ross could get him to restore the data, all the follow-up research could proceed.
It was like a gift from above when he needed it most, so he barked orders to his soldiers.
"Send five men to escort our esteemed Professor Connors to the computer and have him recover the data."
Then he pointed at the cryogenic sleep pod, which had only a trickle of liquid nitrogen left and would soon fail to maintain its low-temperature hibernation.
"I don't care why Dr. Banner's pod is offline. Just open it and strap him to the metal chair."
"General, let me go. Someone needs my Regeneration Serum to save their life—" Professor Connors shouted anxiously.
General Ross turned his back, ignoring him.
"You, you, and you—head to the twentieth floor, to the lab there, and bring up all of Professor Connors' research. I want to run separate experiments with Dr. Banner's blood."
Five soldiers closed in on Professor Connors, roughly twisting his arms behind his back and dragging him toward the lab table.
"No, General!" Professor Connors struggled desperately, but his strength was no match for the five burly soldiers. He could only yell futilely. "General, I was a soldier once too. You and I both know how precious human life is. You have to let me leave first!"
General Ross opened his mouth, then finally let out an impatient sigh and strode over to Professor Connors, grabbing his collar in a tight fist.
"Since you were a soldier, you should know what's more important than life—"
"If you cooperate with my experiment today, I'll push your Regeneration Serum hard in the military, making it the top medical project."
"You could help thousands of wounded and disabled soldiers, instead of wasting time yelling about one kid!"
General Ross released his grip on Professor Connors' collar. Looking down at the professor sprawled on the ground, his tone grew even more irritable.
"Work with me, and you'll be a hero. If you don't—"
His next words caught in his throat; before he could finish, seven or eight smoke bombs came hurtling in from the outer wall, clattering and spinning across the rooftop.
Whoosh!
White smoke billowed up, and then a shadow burst out from the side of the Osborn Building.
Black spider silk unfurled like a massive fishing net. The smoke bombs obscured the vision of the soldiers, the scientific consultants, and General Ross on the rooftop, but they couldn't block Batman, who possessed Spider-Sense.
In that moment, they all became little fish caught in the net, while Batman's figure moved like a fisherman hauling in his catch at will.
His cape, shredded by Norman Osborn, hadn't been replaced yet. As Batman's form whipped through the air at top speed, it snapped sharply, stirring the smoke into swirling eddies.
Five seconds earlier, in General Ross's eyes, everything had been going perfectly.
Dr. Banner was in the cryogenic sleep pod, and even if he woke, a specially reinforced metal chair with multiple restraints awaited him.
Batman had been misled by intercepted intel and was supposedly locked in a fierce fight with soldiers on the tenth floor of the Osborn Building.
Professor Connors had awakened, his missing limb regenerated—a success that could bolster General Ross's own experimental plans.
The reason General Ross had left only fifty soldiers on the rooftop was his assessment of the situation; he believed no one could threaten him anymore.
But now, with Batman's sudden appearance, General Ross realized he'd been played.
He'd released false information to draw the soldiers to the tenth floor, making Batman think the Gamma device on the eleventh was the priority.
Yet Batman hadn't actually gotten bogged down with the soldiers there. From start to finish, the chaos on the tenth floor had been caused solely by the Batmobile, controlled by the Oracle AI.
General Ross had thought fifty soldiers was more than cautious enough, but now he knew he'd been dead wrong.
Five seconds later, under the onslaught of smoke bombs, spider silk, and Batarangs, General Ross's soldiers dropped one by one.
Some reacted with lightning speed, fingers itching to pull triggers, but Batman's honed Spider-Sense outpaced them all.
The instant a soldier's hand touched the trigger, Spider-Sense pinged him, followed by a strand of spider silk or a swift Batarang.
The luckier ones weren't hit by silk or Batarangs, but by Batman's iron-hard fists.
Professor Connors sat on the ground, staring blankly into the white haze around him, the whooshing sounds in his ears unending.
He had no idea what was happening.
He tried to move in one direction, but a dark strand of spider silk shot out from the side, blocking his path.
Professor Connors shifted directions, only to be blocked again by more silk.
A flicker of anger crossed his face, and his pupils stretched once more into elongated, vertical gold slits.
"Professor, I'm here at Peter's request. I need to get you and Dr. Banner out of this building."
"Don't worry—I won't hurt you."
Batman's voice echoed from within the smoke, deep and directionless.
"Regeneration Serum—I need to take it to the hospital. Leo's waiting for it to save his life—"
Professor Connors' voice came in fits and starts. He felt hot and cold all over, an unbearable itch spreading from deep inside, like the prickling of healing scars and growing muscle.
Within the smoke, Batman said nothing more. He could clearly see Professor Connors' transformation.
His skull expanded, his jaw thrust forward, sharp fangs gleaming like steel nails.
His skin shifted from normal human tone to grayish-green, layers of scales erupting to cover his body.
His frame swelled and grew, bones warping, talons extending.
As the smoke fully cleared, Professor Connors had become the Lizard. If the Regeneration Serum had been rigorously tested and proven free of side effects or adverse reactions, Batman wouldn't have minded—hell, he'd have gone out of his way to deliver it to Metropolitan Hospital himself.
But Professor Connors' current state proved the serum's flaws; it had restored his arm, but it had also turned him into a monster.
Worse was yet to come. With a soft "drip," the cryogenic sleep pod holding Dr. Banner finally signaled that its liquid nitrogen was depleted.
Dr. Banner opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a colossal lizard over four meters tall, as massive as a dinosaur.
There were soldiers strewn across the ground, and among them, General Ross—whom Dr. Banner recognized instantly, even prone.
"General Ross."
Dr. Banner's inner rage ignited.