"Click."
After scrawling the final character, Peter tossed the marker back into the bin with a casual flick. Almost the instant he stopped, Connors surged forward like a man possessed.
He stared at the whiteboard, entranced, his entire body trembling with suppressed excitement.
He verified the math—once, twice, three times—until he was absolutely certain. Every parameter was flawless; every derivation was airtight. He whipped his head around, looking at Peter with a gaze bordering on religious awe.
"Who... who are you, exactly?"
Meeting Connors' wide-eyed stare, Peter offered a faint, modest smile. "My name is Peter Parker. My father... his name was Richard Parker."
"Richard..."
Dr. Connors murmured the name, one he hadn't spoken in years. Confusion flickered in his eyes for a heartbeat before being eclipsed by a tidal wave of realization. "Richard?! You're Richard's son?!"
"No wonder you're so brilliant. It makes sense now... everything makes sense..." Connor stammered, his voice thick with emotion.
"Peter, I don't even know how to thank you. If I had met you sooner, the Lizard Serum might have been finished years ago!"
Standing to the side, Gwen looked back and forth between the near-manic Dr. Connors and the suddenly mysterious Peter. Her brain felt like it was short-circuiting. Peter's parents? Decay Rate Algorithm? What is going on?!
"Peter, all this..." she started, wanting to demand a full explanation.
But before she could get a word out, Connors interrupted. "Gwen, please, go make three cups of coffee and grab some pizza from downstairs.
Today, no matter what, Peter and I are going to finalize the application of this algorithm to the lizard genome!"
"Umm, and maybe you should give George and Uncle Ben a call while you're at it?" Peter added with a mischievous wink. "You know, since we probably won't be getting home early tonight. Don't want them worrying."
Gwen opened her mouth to protest, but seeing the two "mad scientists" already leaning back over the table, she sighed and turned to leave, officially relegated to the role of the lab's errand girl.
For the hours that followed, the lab became Peter and Connor's private playground. A one-armed scientist and a teenage genius in a lab coat, huddled over data and formulas that would give an ordinary person a migraine.
Dr. Connors provided the overarching theoretical framework, while Peter—armed with his "prophetic" knowledge and an overclocked brain—sliced through every dead end with surgical precision.
By the time Gwen returned with the coffee and pizza, they had already moved past the chalkboard. They were huddled around a gene extraction device, performing a series of incredibly delicate operations. Gwen stood by, drifting from restless to stunned, and finally to a state of total numbness.
"It's done!"
After what felt like an eternity, Dr. Connors slammed his hand on the table with a triumphant shout. He held up a vial of emerald-green liquid—the lizard gene extract. To him, it was the key to a new world; a world where he was no longer an amputee, and humanity had entered a new biological era.
"Now, let us witness a miracle!"
Connor injected a sample into a lab mouse and placed it into a specialized observation chamber.
Under their tense gaze, the mouse twitched violently for a moment before settling down. It began to eat and drink normally, its vitals on the monitors reading perfectly stable.
They watched, unblinking. Five minutes later, an alarm chimed.
Connors rushed to the screen, his face tight with anxiety. Then, he let out a jagged breath and laughed. The monitors showed abnormal cellular activity at the site of the mouse's missing limb. Cellular regeneration was spiking to a rate hundreds of times faster than normal!
Half an hour later, a brand-new, fully functional leg had sprouted. The mouse scurried around the cage with ease. Had they not seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed this creature had been a "cripple" only thirty minutes prior.
"I did it... I actually did it..." Tears welled in Connors' eyes. Gwen was equally speechless, overwhelmed by the sci-fi reality unfolding before her.
Peter, appearing just as captivated as the others, made his move.
With practiced invisibility, he slid a spare vial of the lizard extract into his pocket. Simultaneously, he "accidentally" elbowed a different test tube off the counter.
The glass shattered, creating the perfect illusion of a clumsy, over-excited teenager breaking a sample in the heat of the moment.
In any other situation, Connors or Gwen would have scolded him. But right now? They were too busy staring at the mouse to care.
Got it.
He had the raw extract. Now, he just needed to add the remaining catalysts to synthesize the complete Lizard Serum.
Thanks to his photographic memory, he already knew the exact proportions and chemicals needed. He didn't even need high-end equipment for the final mix; the basic gear at Midtown High's lab would suffice.
Sure, a DIY lab might lead to impurities or an unstable ratio, significantly increasing the danger of the serum.
But what did he care? The Noble Horse feared nothing.
"Doctor, it's getting late," Peter said, choosing his moment to exit. "Gwen and I should probably head out. Our families will be worried if we're out much longer."
Connors, who fully intended to spend the entire night—and possibly the next three days—cuddling with his "star" mouse, didn't suspect a thing. He waved them off immediately.
As they stepped out of the Oscorp Tower, Gwen still felt like she was walking through a dream. "Peter..." she whispered, turning to him.
Beep-beep!
A car horn cut her off. A police cruiser was idling by the curb—Gwen's father, George Stacy, was waiting for them.
Seeing Captain Stacy, Peter had to fight the urge to whistle. Perfect. With a police escort for Gwen, his path to the Midtown High lab was completely clear.