That’d been close. Really close. He’d almost lost everything. He still was pretty close to losing his life’s work, but the fear was dissipating now. If Spider-Man knew where they’d gone, then the police would already be searching. But they weren’t. He’d checked the cameras himself. They’d searched the first room, but that was it. Even a chicken wasn’t stupid enough to leave even a speck of dust behind in a situation like this. Of course, they hadn’t found anything. He’d started moving the stuff into the escape passage and straight into the secondary storage in the sewers, whilst Spider-Man had been fighting in the building.
Spider-Man was on to them. He didn’t know how. He’d made certain there were no flaws in their planning, he was sure of that. It must’ve been dumb luck. Either way, he’d stumbled across their base But they’d managed to save themselves on the verge of defeat. One of the lab techs had been fast enough to release the clones onto Spider-Man and use a spoken command rather than a recorded message. That’d been risky but It’d paid off. Then Jack had come up with the absolutely marvellous idea to activate the exo-suits explosive capabilities. Sure, it had killed a lot of people and Lupus would probably lose all its funding, but it had brought them public opinion and more importantly time. The media outlets were eating it up. They were all calling it the biggest attack yet and framing Lupus Labs like a tragic victim of the laboratory terrorism. The Bugle was even trying to blame Spider-Man, which was quite funny. But even if Spider-Man wasn’t just going to give up. He'd seen them. He’d recognised Miles. Spider-Man had probably gone straight to Captain Stacy right away, or at least discussed things with him. But as long as none of his lab techs screwed up their joint alibi, when the police inevitably came knocking, they wouldn’t be able to prove anything. He’d just have to lay low for a while, let Spider-Man get distracted with other nonsense and then he was home free.
He’d have to separate from Lupus first of course. But being funded by someone… a little less than reputable was better than embezzling anyway. Miles ran his hand through his hair and glanced behind him. He watched the men they’d requested go to work packing up everything. They were working fast, but he wasn’t sure it was fast enough. The sewer storage was safe, but a bit too close to the labs.
Still, not everything had gone badly. They’d managed to get a sample of what he assumed to be Spider-Man’s blood. One of the clones had cut him before they’d caved in the ceiling, and one of the lab techs had put as much as they could in a test tube. Spider-Man was like Lorien. No. He was better. Negative energy radiated from his blood. Miles grinned. Just the idea of an army of Spider-Man clones doing his bidding was enough to make him giddy. The first batch were already on the way. They’d done a splice between control two and a regular clone to start with, just to test if it worked. It had, though the sample size hadn’t exactly given them much to work with and control two’s genes had been more prevalent, resulting in female clone. For the rest they’d used control one. He was a closer fit than Lorien. Miles had wanted to use him, though he wasn’t enough of an expert on negative energy to understand how the clone’s growth would be affected by copious amounts of the stuff. Jack had told him it wouldn’t be good, and he trusted Jack enough. Regardless, he’d noticed the face the clones bore elicited a striking sense of familiarity. He knew he’d seen someone like this before, but he couldn’t quite recall who. Probably one of his many students. Spider-Man had recognised him after all.
Not that it mattered. He had more important matters to deal with than the identity of some spandex wearing vigilante. Miles grinned, looking to some of the other tubes. The rest were growing into their exo-suits already. They’d be the last to move. He clapped his hands together giddy and turned to Lorien. He pressed his hand against the cool glass.
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“I guess we won’t have to work you so hard now” he said laughing.
The laughter quickly faded, his face growing serious. He was close. So very close. He could feel it. A few more tests and he’d be able to reverse engineer everything. Sure, the bombings of other labs, late night intimidations, and all that extra stuff had made his life easier – and he’d no doubt continue – but he could never forget the main purpose of this whole thing.
Helena.
She’d been perfect. Bright, beautiful, inquisitive. Everything he’d desired. Then it’d all been ruined when she’d been crippled and left with permanent brain damage after getting half her body crushed during Spider-Man’s fight with that slime monster. She’d been ruined. He shook his head, kissing his teeth. The world had been stripped of a real specimen that day. Horrible stuff. Thankfully Lorien had survived- well, not just survived. He’d probably been near the BRC explosion, and it had changed him. He's cells were just, better. But he’d been in pain. Physically and emotionally. Whatever had changed him was killing him from the inside out, and his cousin and sole guardian was in need of care he couldn’t even hope to afford without selling a kidney. Once Miles had realised what had happened to him, it had been easy to coax Lorien back to the lab to,” help”. The first version of the exo-suit they’d made had stabilised and trapped him. That had been a glorious day. Then he’d started testing. Miles grinned. It was great to have a powerful army at your finger tips you could literally grow at a moment’s notice. He’d gotten rid of quite a few people he’d disliked with the bombs. But he had never forgotten the true purpose, even when the clones and other tech had come along the way. Two years. Two long years. He couldn’t let Spider-Man ruin everything. He was essentially one step away to use Lorien’s DNA to reconstruct Helena’s.
He’d be able to have her back. The unsullied version. He could even make a few tweaks to make her ideal. He couldn’t let Spider-Man ruin that.
“Dr Warren?” a familiar voice said. Dr Warren turned around. Jack, his protégé, and another young scientist whose name currently evaded him stood in front of him, waiting expectantly.
“What do you want Jack?” he said curtly.
“I’m looking at the numbers and I don’t think we’ll be able to uphold our end of the deal with the Kingpin”
“We don’t need to” he responded, rolling his eyes.
“What?”
“Kingpin’s a nobody. He was just a useful tool to get the exo suits and equipment we wanted in return for the odd piece of info about cloning or clone”
“Dr with all due respect, I know you don’t exactly like Kingpin, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to-”
He tuned out from Jack’s babble, turning his attention to the workers. He watched closely, a frown seeping into his face. His mask of calm vanished and he rushed forwards, shouting obscenities.
“You blithering imbeciles! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” he shouted. Two workmen handling one of the cloning tubes stared at him confused. “These machines require the utmost precision to work effectively. The specimen you currently hold is one of the better clones we’ve been trying to replicate. Handle it with care” he said, his voice constricted by rage.
“S-sorry” one of them mumbled.
“Damn right you should be sorry. What the hell am I paying you for?” he said. They stared at him for a few more seconds, before he waved his hand, gesturing for them to move along. Jack walked over to him, visibly frustrated.
“Dr W-“
“I’m busy Jack. Just leave the Kingpin stuff alone” he said curtly to him. He looked around the rest of the room.
“Alright everyone! We’ll have everything packed soon, and then we’ll ship it to the warehouse incrementally. I’d like everyone here by tomorrow at twelve sharp so we can make sure everything’s accounted for. You’re dismissed”