013

A week later.

Things were developing in a good way, after having followed the advice of Gwen, Norman found that the void was still there of course he quickly confirmed it with his lawyers after all if he did something like that he would be risking his reputation, so it was always good to have the law on his side.

In addition to receiving approval he had been given an ultimatum and Osborn had no choice but to use certain animals to see the results of the serum, to his luck and great satisfaction the serum had proved to be a complete success on the animals.

However, the use in humans was still a matter of debate, so the next step had been paused for the moment.

Still the atmosphere was somewhat cheerful in the laboratory, however that did not stop them from taking their work seriously, a single mistake could turn out to be fatal, and they were not disposed to let that happen.

For his part Norman was more focused on his tests with The Lizard Serum, actually after a period of evaluation, he was brave enough to test it on animals, nothing too big, just small animals such as the rodents.

The results had been both encouraging and discouraging on his first attempt, the rat has gained strength and regeneration beyond what should be possible, however it showed a madness and aggressiveness too great to be controlled.

That undoubtedly made Osborn kill it quickly before things got out of control, which was also why he used such small animals, as they were much easier to kill if it was required.

That way his secret experiments continued and just when he thought he had solved the problem it only resulted in the rat dying after a while, he had solved the problem of aggression and madness, but now a new one appeared.

The rats that were injected with the serum only survived for about a 3-5 hour interval before they simply began to show traces of fatigue and died shortly thereafter.

That brought a new series of questions, the first of them was if that happened before, an experimentation later concluded that it was the case, only that he killed them as soon as they began to show a hint of aggressiveness and for that reason he did not realize that fact.

After an investigation he discovered that all the rats had suffered from a cellular degeneration that ended up affecting all their systems and finally caused a collapse that resulted in the death of all of them.

It took him about 4 days without sleep plus the concern of Harry, Mary Jane and Gwen to think of a possible solution.

And after all that effort his experiment had turned out to be completely successful, the Osborn would admit that a few tears of joy ran down his cheeks that day.

After being injected by the Connors Formula, the rat had shown an improvement in strength and regeneration as well as demonstrating an improvement on an intellectual level.

With that fact he had a functional serum, however now the next question on his mind was about if it would work in humans.

Theoretically and with the simulations he had done showed that the serum worked in people, but, in the first instance the simulations had not predicted the death of the rats, so he could not take the information as true.

However, if his deduction was correct, he would soon have several volunteers to help him.

…

The Osborn was currently looking at a sample of the regeneration serum he had created along with Gwen and Curtis, his contacts had informed him that the approval to use the serum on people would soon be given.

The list of possible candidates was already made, so he was just waiting for the green light before proceeding.

The door of the laboratory soon sounded and Osborn just watched the arrival of a young blonde girl: "You are early Miss Stacy" he mentioned when he saw her.

"Not as much as you, Mr. Osborn," the blonde replied with a smile: "No matter how early I am, you are always the first one in the laboratory, and you are always the last one to leave" she added as she started walking to her workstation and put on her lab coat.

"I prefer to be in the laboratory than in my office" answered Osborn simply: "Besides I have already mentioned that there is no need for you to come so often, me and Dr. Curtis will be able to manage, on the other side you should concentrate on your studies" he continued saying.

"Just as you prefer the lab to your office, I prefer the lab to the university" she answered with sincerity and a smile spread across her face: "Besides, I have always been the best in my grade" she declared proudly.

"All right," accepted the Osborn: "However, if at some point you feel that the burden between the two things is too heavy, you can stop coming for a while and nothing will happen" he reminded her.

"I know" she replied "Now tell me how can I help?" asked the blonde and Norman just shook his head at how dedicated she could be in her work.

…

The work day was very quiet most of the time they simply monitored the experimental subjects, this was to see whether there was any kind of risk, so the workload was much less than usual.

Besides being a bit boring for Norman there was really nothing he could do besides observe so in the end the three people just talked to each other to make the time flow faster.

They continued that way until it was time to leave work, of course security measures were something that had to be implemented before leaving.

As he left Norman just walked down the long hallway of the floor he was on, as he passed he looked up at a somewhat thin man dressed as a janitor and a smile appeared on his face.

His solution to the dilemma he was in for the Connors Formula had been solved and best of all he wouldn't have to do anything, their volunteer subjects were going to come directly to him.

With that thought and a somewhat Machiavellian smile he took the elevator.

...

The midnight had fallen in New York, most of the activities had ceased completely, however there were still a good number of people who were working.

As was the case of Walter Hardy, known by few as The Cat a world-famous thief, he was never caught and always accomplished his goal, he had "retired" long ago, he had met a beautiful woman with whom he fell in love and then had a daughter so there was no way he would continue with a dangerous profession like his own.

However, a week ago an old business partner had called him to give him a robbery mission, and although he wanted to turn it down he knew he couldn't, he didn't have enough courage to do it.

Oscorp was the target, it took him a full week to come up with a plan with the help of the informant they had in the Corporation.

He had to admit that they had a good security system, but they probably never thought that someone could infiltrate their employees, an absurd thought.

He entered quickly and simply, he had no time to waste, if his wife discovered his absence it would not be a good thing, more when their daughter had shown interest in his line of work, which made things a bit tense in his family.

Stopping to think about it, Walter simply took what he was told and placed it in a container after that he soon left, he needed to get rid of that thing, he could not allow something to affect his life.

He was so deep in thought that he never saw how a shadow seemed to follow him, although even if he had been paying attention he would not have done it.

Walter soon arrived at the meeting location, it was the ports that were under the complete control of his partner when he arrived there were already several people waiting for him.

He just delivered the container: "Tell Fisk, I need to talk to him as soon as possible," Walter spoke before simply leaving, refusing to stay a second longer, he knew his message would be delivered.

The place was silent again, at least for a while, because a few minutes later the cawing and flapping of birds were heard, the people on the pier only looked at the crows with surprise, but did not give it much importance.

Seconds later, choked cries of pain and agony began to be heard, all under the watchful eye of the black birds.

But Walter had already moved away, so he could not hear them