Harry's next task was naturally to harvest the Gamma Serum.
And to deal with Dr. Stern.
Although this guy disappeared in the movie, Harry remembered that he was a supervillain. The Gamma Serum would drip into his brain, multiplying his intelligence and giving him powerful intuition, computational thinking, information storage, logic, and philosophical structures.
In short—a very difficult supervillain to deal with.
Arriving at the academy, Harry frowned:
All the serum was gone, leaving only some scraps, and Dr. Stern was gone too.
Fortunately, ctOS caught the figure of this doctor two kilometers away.
His head had undergone a drastic change, becoming incredibly large and constantly turning green.
Due to his injuries, he was limping, and Harry soon arrived in front of him.
Seeing Harry, Dr. Stern, who might become the "Leader," revealed an eerie smile on his face.
"Are you also here to pursue the power of gamma rays? I can give..."
*Thwack!*
Dr. Stern stared at Harry in disbelief, his hands reaching towards the plasma blade that had pierced his skull, as if he couldn't believe Harry would really just kill him like that.
Harry shook his head. If this were the normal Dr. Stern, he would have liked to recruit him to research the Gamma Serum.
But once he became a so-called "villain," their behavior became unpredictable and usually conflicted with Harry's goals.
Especially with a supervillain as ridiculously overpowered as the Leader; in the comics, he even possessed mind control and the ability to project gamma rays!
Anyway, he didn't appear in the movie, so killing him himself was the safest bet.
Although Professor Stern was dead, his research data remained.
"Harry? Uh, the big green guy is gone, and now that General Ross seems to want to take this big bald guy away, what should I do?" Harry received a message from Peter.
"The National Guard has arrived, you can go back. Good job, remember to report to the company in a few days."
Osborn had prepared an internship position for Peter.
"Of course I remember! By the way, can you reimburse me for mission damages? I mean, my suit—Aunt Mei will kill me if she finds out. Of course, if not, that's..."
Harry touched his chin. Honestly, he was quite surprised, because Spider-Man wouldn't usually ask others for reimbursement.
"Sure. Next time, get a suit with better quality; that pajama of yours really needs an upgrade."
"The federal Military recently launched a capture operation in the Harlem District, targeting the mysterious giant, Hulk."
"This operation eventually devolved into a fierce battle within the city, with the scene resembling a war zone."
"Fortunately, the Governor and the Osborn Group used ctOS to emergency evacuate citizens in advance, and there were no deaths in this incident. Let's hear the description from someone on the scene:"
"Is this live?" a young black man asked in front of the camera.
"Yes, this is live."
After receiving an affirmative reply, the young man took a deep breath:
"Screw you, Federal Government!"
"You're telling me a freak who caused massive destruction in the city is a war hero?"
"Governor, you can't just let them get away with this! They must pay the price!"
Norman spread his hands towards General Ross and his group.
After this incident, the public's opinion of the federal government and the state government was like night and day.
One had forcibly requisitioned state resources to carry out a capture operation, while the other had promptly evacuated citizens and promised to provide subsidies to affected residents.
Ross's face was a bit embarrassed, but Abomination was important.
That day they had wanted to sneak Abomination away, but who knew the National Guard would immediately surround the scene.
As everyone knew, New York State, with Osborn's support, was incredibly wealthy. General Ross's troops had a total of one power armor squad that night, with 10 units of power armor.
After the incident, the New York National Guard arrived with hundreds of people, 100 units of power armor, and tanks, and the entire area was placed under martial law.
This deployment speed shocked Ross; this was New York City!
In fact, besides the Military, S.H.I.E.L.D. had also sent people to negotiate, and they were now looking at Ross with ill intent—wasn't this Military bigwig a bit too careless in his actions?
"We understand your agency's dissatisfaction with what happened that night, but the subject you captured concerns national security."
Norman didn't like hearing that:
"This Agent, I don't know who you represent, but you really need to check how much of the national GDP New York contributed last year."
"Now this guy has caused massive destruction in New York State, yet you want to just walk away and tell me it's for national security?"
"Who do you work for? I want to see your ID." Norman reached out his hand.
The Agent was helpless and could only take out his ID.
"NSA, right? Come to think of it, the NSA seems useless in these few incidents; what a bunch of incompetent fools."
The Agent didn't dare to retort—first, he didn't dare, and second, he wasn't from the NSA; he was from S.H.I.E.L.D.
After a heated exchange, everyone understood that Norman would not let the person go. In fact, a few minutes later, the federal government even called to tell Ross to drop this mess; the internet was already in an uproar.
So everyone had to leave Norman's office in defeat.
"General, I have something to say to you." Just as Ross was about to leave, Norman called him back.
"Do you remember what you told me before?" Norman said with a smile.
Ross certainly remembered: The enhancement technology you have is a dead end, stop it; the Military will stop sponsoring your enhancer project.
He was talking about the Green Goblin Enhancer.
This was a slap in the face. Norman wished he could show Ross his super strength right now, but unfortunately, he couldn't; it wasn't the right time.
Ross could only nod silently.
"If you wanted to mock me, you've succeeded."
"No, I'm just curious. The Osborn Group's power armor has already given you enough achievements, why do such dangerous experiments?"
Facing Norman's question, Ross certainly couldn't say these were projects from years ago, when there was no such thing as power armor.
But thinking about it now, power armor was indeed much more reliable. If it weren't for his contributions to the power armor project, Congress would have thrown him to some remote Military Base long ago.
Actually, in the original story, it was about the same; after the incident, he was tied to Abomination, went to a mysterious Military Base to study Abomination, and didn't appear again until the Avengers Civil War, though he did get promoted.
Ross said: "Super Soldier, does that even need to be asked? The United States has always wanted a second Captain America."
Norman smiled and made a new proposal to Ross: "I think so too. We can continue to cooperate, General. There is more than one form of enhancement."
Norman handed Ross a document.
Compared to human enhancement technology, what Norman handed Ross should be called "human modification technology."
As everyone knew, Osborn had already achieved remarkable success in replacing human body parts, such as high-sensitivity prosthetic limbs and artificial organs.
This proposal was to militarize this technology: replacing the heart with a power source, using blood vessels as power supply lines, and driving limbs with stronger motors instead of muscle cells.
In short, this project aimed to create "robocop"-style Super Soldiers.
"Completely transforming humans into cyborgs, mechanical Super Soldiers." Ross looked at Norman. "This is turning people into monsters."
Hearing this, Norman smiled.
"Have you forgotten Bronski, whom we have imprisoned? He was once a loyal soldier; he is the real monster now."
"A loyal and enthusiastic soldier was tricked by you and went in, and a physically disabled, mentally broken living dead was transported out by you. You are the biggest monster production Base."
"Osborn just hopes these soldiers can move again."
The phrase "monster production Base" reminded General Ross of several wars in recent times.
Ross was silent; he felt a chill, but he didn't know what he was feeling cold about.
Perhaps it was this human modification surgery, perhaps it was Norman's idea of squeezing the last bit of value out of soldiers, or perhaps it was the "monster production Base" Norman spoke of.
However, he was the one most responsible for the birth of Abomination; if he felt uncomfortable about anything, it could only be himself.
"I will consider it."
Just as Ross was about to step out the door, Norman added: "Of course, if you are still interested in researching Abomination, we can also cooperate. We are old partners, aren't we?"
"Osborn just intends to have a hand in everything, right?"
General Ross looked at Norman and walked away quickly.
Norman smiled: The problem now isn't that Osborn intends to have a hand in everything; the problem is that your plans cannot continue without Osborn's participation.
The federal government could demand that Osborn hand over Abomination, but they couldn't demand that of the state government.
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