Dr. Curt Connors' regeneration laboratory occupied the twenty-first floor of Osborn Biotech Tower.
The lab was packed with equipment—rows of polished instruments, sealed testing chambers, and complex mechanical rigs humming with quiet energy. Some of the machines looked expensive enough to fund a small startup on their own.
But none of that held Lucas Kane's attention.
What caught his eye stood inside a sealed glass chamber across the room.
A stone.
It rested inside a transparent containment box while a robotic arm hovered nearby.
Lucas didn't know what the rock was.
Yet the moment he saw it, something deep inside him reacted.
His instincts told him one thing.
That stone mattered.
Lucas turned slightly toward Gwen.
"What's that?"
"Hm?" Gwen glanced over from where Max Dillon was repairing the power unit. She followed Lucas's gaze and spotted the object behind the glass.
"Oh. That? Gamma radiation."
Lucas blinked.
"Gamma… radiation?"
His eyebrow twitched.
"I may not be top of the physics class, but I'm pretty sure radiation doesn't turn into rocks."
Gwen laughed quietly.
Then she glanced around the lab, making sure no one nearby was paying attention before lowering her voice.
"Do you remember the incident in New York back in September 2009?"
Lucas paused.
Of course he remembered.
That day was burned into his memory.
Not only because it was when the Cosmo Awakening System first appeared in his life…
But also because it was the day the Hulk rampaged through the city.
"I remember," Lucas said.
Gwen nodded.
"Then you probably know about the Abomination. The military used Bruce Banner's blood, and that's how that monster happened."
Lucas nodded again, then looked back at the stone.
"Wait. Are you saying that rock is… Abomination-related?"
"Not exactly," Gwen said. "These were transported here from the Quantico military base."
She shrugged slightly.
"Bruce Banner turned into the Hulk because of a gamma experiment that exploded. During that explosion, something strange happened. When the military cleared the lab afterward, they discovered these stones embedded in the debris."
Lucas stared at the glass chamber again.
"So those are… leftovers from that explosion?"
"Pretty much."
Gwen tilted her head.
"I only mentioned Abomination because a lot of people still connect gamma radiation with that incident."
She paused suddenly.
"Wait—did you even know Bruce Banner was the Hulk?"
Lucas gave her a flat look.
"You realize the news exists, right?"
Gwen folded her arms.
"You didn't even have a phone or computer until recently."
That reminded her of something.
"The phone I gave you last time—did you actually buy a SIM card yet?"
Lucas reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone she'd given him. It looked almost identical to an iPhone 4.
"I did."
Gwen had handed it to him twenty days ago when she helped him start his job at Osborn.
He hadn't wanted to accept it.
But Gwen had given him a reason he couldn't argue with.
Employees at Osborn clocked in digitally.
And the phone handled that.
She'd shoved it into his hands and walked off before he could refuse.
Lucas slipped the phone back into his pocket and turned his attention to the glass chamber again.
"So why are those stones here?"
"Because Dr. Connors' project is partially funded by the military," Gwen explained.
In fact, many of Osborn's research programs operated with military partnerships.
Osborn Industries had always maintained strong ties with the government.
Years ago, the company had been nothing more than a canned herring business. When war created demand for weapons, Norman Osborn shifted the entire company toward military production.
Now Osborn Biotech focused on scientific research instead of weapons—but the connections remained.
Dr. Connors himself had once served as a military surgeon.
So his regeneration project naturally received defense funding.
Lucas nodded slowly.
Inside the chamber, a researcher secured a vial of serum inside a test rig. A robotic arm lifted the stone and positioned it above the container.
"What are they doing?" Lucas asked.
"Testing regeneration serum."
"Lizard serum?"
Dr. Connors' research was hardly a secret. His academic papers openly discussed studying reptiles to understand how certain lizards could regenerate lost limbs.
Most scientists considered the idea unrealistic.
Lucas hadn't paid much attention to the research himself. Before unlocking Cosmo, science had never been his career path—and even now, it wasn't his focus.
Gwen nodded.
"Dr. Connors thinks combining the serum with gamma energy might be the breakthrough he's been looking for."
Lucas watched the robotic arm carefully.
The stone felt… different.
Something about it resonated faintly.
"Can I take a closer look?" he asked.
Gwen raised an eyebrow.
"You're not seriously interested in gamma radiation, are you? You know what it did to the Hulk."
Lucas shook his head.
"Not the radiation."
He pointed toward the containment box.
"The stone."
Scientifically speaking, gamma radiation couldn't simply be stored inside rock.
But this was the Marvel Universe.
Science followed different rules here.
Gwen considered the request for a moment.
Letting Lucas step inside for a closer look wouldn't reveal any confidential details about Connors' experiment.
Finally, she nodded.
"Alright. Just don't touch anything."
Lucas felt a small surge of anticipation.
As they walked toward the access door, he called over his shoulder.
"Max, I'm going inside to check out that weird rock."
Max looked up from the electrical panel with a friendly grin.
"Sure. I'm almost done here anyway."
Lucas nodded in thanks and followed Gwen as she swiped her access card.
The lab door slid open.
They stepped inside.
The air felt colder here.
Sterile.
Lucas's eyes immediately locked onto the stone again as the robotic arm held it suspended above the testing platform.
And then—
Something stirred inside him.
Deep within his awakening Cosmo, a sudden pulse of recognition echoed through his mind.
A clear message.
That's it.
That's the one.
Gammaion.