In the dim night, at a deserted pier outside the New York refugee resettlement area.
To facilitate post-disaster reconstruction and the distribution of supplies, Stark Industries had invested immense manpower and resources to build several brand-new temporary supply ports.
However, this particular pier was much quieter than the others that operated around the clock.
Amidst the silent night, two shadowy figures were stealthily sneaking through the darkness.
"The signal stopped here!"
In the dark, Gwen whispered, her eyes glued to the patterns on the lenses of her tracking glasses.
Harry had told her about the S.H.I.E.L.D. investigator's strange behavior earlier. Although Gwen thought her friend might just be overly paranoid, she ultimately decided to lend a hand.
The target of their investigation was, of course, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Harry had flagged as suspicious.
The [Tracking Glasses] Luca gave Gwen earlier were perfect for this. The two of them followed the tracker's signal all the way to this warehouse at the pier.
Seeing the lenses on Gwen's face inexplicably glowing white, Harry's heart skipped a beat, but he forced himself to focus. Gritting his teeth, he said, "There's definitely something wrong here. We need to find a way inside!"
Saying this, Harry actually started walking straight towards the warehouse's main entrance.
But before he could take half a step, Gwen grabbed him.
"Don't use the front door!"
Whispering this, Gwen pointed to a small ventilation window high up on the outer wall of the warehouse.
Then, ignoring whether Harry agreed or not, she stuck to the wall using both hands and feet, quickly crawling towards the vent.
"Then... what about me?!"
It was quiet all around, so Harry didn't dare speak loudly to expose their position. Watching Gwen crawl up the wall, he could only stomp his feet anxiously, planning to wait for her to pull him up with a web line.
However, as soon as the words left his mouth, the Venom symbiote inside him expressed its dissatisfaction.
"What do you mean 'what about you'? Looking down on your Great Uncle Venom again!"
Venom didn't "pop out" to speak; instead, he automatically covered Harry's entire body.
In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a suit that looked very rubbery... a black and white spider suit.
"Huh? This...?"
"This what? Climb!"
Having been scolded by Venom again, Harry didn't dare talk back. He obediently mimicked Gwen, sticking to the wall.
To his surprise, this knockoff spider suit actually allowed him to stick firmly to the wall just like the real deal.
However, when he awkwardly crawled up to the open ventilation window, he found Gwen, who had entered first, frozen at the opening, blocking the way.
"What's wrong? Don't just stand there, make some room!"
Hearing this, Gwen moved aside. Harry didn't think much of it and climbed through the window into the warehouse.
But once inside, Harry finally understood why Gwen had frozen in place.
Or rather, now he was frozen too.
Because in the brightly lit center of the warehouse below, over a dozen strange creatures with pointed ears and green skin were staring intently at the window where the two of them were perched.
Gulp~
Harry swallowed hard, stiff as a board, not knowing what to say.
Beside him, Gwen, who had entered first, asked in a spooky tone, "Is this... the Green Goblin Serum you talked about?"
The next moment, gunfire erupted.
The dozen or so green-skinned goblins in the center of the warehouse simultaneously pulled out pistols and frantically pulled the triggers at the pair.
Even weirder, as they fired, the green-skinned creatures simultaneously shapeshifted into a completely new appearance: stern-faced agents in suits, looking every bit the part of high-level operatives.
For a moment, it felt like Gwen and Harry were the villains invading a S.H.I.E.L.D. base, being hunted down by "righteous agents."
Fortunately, Gwen, with her Spider-Sense and new suit, wasn't afraid of ordinary firearms.
Harry, possessed by Venom, simply tanked the incoming bullets and leaped straight into the crowd of "Goblins."
This time, the enemies didn't seem to have prepared those specific sonic daggers.
Without his weakness exploited, Venom tore through them like a tiger among sheep, taking down a large swath of enemies in no time.
In the end, Gwen only symbolically took down two with her electric webs before Venom finished off the rest.
But after the battle ended quickly, Venom stood amidst the Goblins, who had reverted to their original forms, and mused aloud.
"Harry, these green skins don't seem to be your dad!?"
"Wait, no, I mean, their physical fitness doesn't seem to have undergone Super Soldier modification!"
Harry was stunned for a moment but quickly realized it was true.
If these dozen green-skinned monsters were really super soldiers enhanced by the "Green Goblin Serum," even without the sonic daggers, the battle wouldn't have ended this quickly.
"So, these things... are they really the product of the serum your father and Dr. Otto created?"
Gwen blurted this out as a rhetorical complaint, but as soon as she said it, both froze. They looked at each other and said in unison:
"There's something wrong with S.H.I.E.L.D.!" x2
Confirming this, a look of regret appeared on Harry's face.
"My father isn't missing! He must have been tied up and replaced by these guys!"
Gwen looked at the Goblins lying on the ground and said seriously, "We need to bring these guys back to the lab and have Dr. Otto confirm it!"
...
"Impossible! This is definitely not a product of the Green Goblin Serum! These aren't even Earth creatures!"
Inside the lab, looking at the preliminary test results that just came out, Dr. Otto said decisively.
Initially, when Harry said Norman could clone himself, turn into a green monster, and disguise as others, Dr. Otto had been skeptical.
However, since the name "Green Goblin Serum" was coined by Norman himself, and the blood samples S.H.I.E.L.D. brought back later were indeed confirmed to be Norman Osborn's blood post-modification...
This led him to doubt himself, wondering if Norman had secretly developed new tricks based on the serum behind his back.
But the blood samples from the green-skinned monsters Gwen and Harry brought back bore absolutely no resemblance to Norman's previous samples. They weren't even human. How could they be serum-enhanced individuals?
"Wait! If the Norman blood S.H.I.E.L.D. brought back was fake, then..."
Bang!
Before Dr. Otto could finish his sentence, the lab door was kicked open.