----
Back at the Oscrop R&D facility, Nolan dropped the captured Sentinels onto the main assembly floor. With the scale of his lab, hosting several of these machines was hardly a challenge.
Max and the others had already departed mission complete.
"Otto," Nolan called calmly, "meet me in my office. We've got some research to finish."
Truthfully, Nolan was intrigued.
Trask Industries had moved far faster than expected. Even if their foundation rested on Bolivar's research… the pace at which they applied Mystique's genetic mimicry was astonishing.
His eyes drifted toward a containment unit. Four symbiotes recently reassembled from the brutal deconstruction he'd performed to parse their genome were now twitching weakly. Still recovering.
The instant they sensed his gaze, the alien creatures shivered like frightened animals.
Nolan offered a cool smile. "Cooperate, and I won't tear you apart again."
Even though he'd already cracked their core genetic code, they still had value. Wearing a symbiote boosted physical stats a temporary enhancement Nolan had no use for, but others might.
Gene compatibility?
Please. For Nolan, that was child's play.
There were few people on Earth, Marvel's Earth who could rival his bioengineering expertise anymore.
Still, Knull, the god of the symbiotes, remained an enigma. Nolan hadn't yet found a way to counter him directly.
Norman had managed to track down Dora, though the researcher who first uncovered the symbiotes' major vulnerabilities. Nolan was trying to recruit her to Osborn Industries.
So far, she'd been hesitant.
Still, Dora's work had merit, especially in identifying the genetic handshake protocols between symbiotes and hosts.
She wasn't Otto's equal, but she had a unique perspective.
"Boss," Otto Octavius stepped in, the sleek arms of his mechanical rig humming behind him. He hadn't become Doc Ock yet, but he was getting closer by the day.
The enhancements had accelerated his output tenfold.
His gaze swept across the lab and the mangled Sentinel components scattered across the floor.
"What's this?" he murmured. Then his eyes narrowed. On one of the machine's heels was a familiar logo.
"Trask Industries? Aren't these smart drones?"
Otto had done his research. He knew Trask was founded by Bolivar Trask, a former top-tier military engineer. Publicly, they only manufacture smart drones for industrial or security use. But that was a front.
He'd once considered approaching them for funding until he found out they were directly funded by the U.S. military.
No point courting a black-budget branch.
"These are more than just drones," Otto added. "You didn't bring home scrap metal, did you?"
"This is a Sentinel," Nolan replied coolly.
Otto's eyes widened.
Now it made sense. After joining Osborn Industries, he'd been looped into their advanced research pipelines armor systems, nuclear power cores, vibranium tech… and Sentinel theory.
Sentinels were adaptive combat units, capable of scanning and morphing to counter superhuman threats.
He and Connors had been co-developing the prototype, using Nolan's theories and their own reverse-engineering of Mystique's DNA.
Their project was progressing… but slowly.
Working with Connors was refreshing finally, a colleague who could keep up. He wasn't an engineer, but once Otto explained a concept, Connors absorbed it instantly. A fellow genius.
But even with that dream team?
They weren't this close.
And now? Someone else had gotten there first.
Nolan watched Otto's expression darken.
"Don't let it get to you. Trask's been at this for decades. We had a late start and they might've taken a cue from my published work."
He gestured at the Sentinel shell.
"They just happened to be one breakthrough ahead."
Nolan's tone softened. "But your work with Connors is solid. Very solid. You're not far off."
Otto nodded, then hesitated. "There's one key issue we still haven't solved: how to embed shapeshifting genes into metal."
He scratched his head. "We were thinking nanometal integration, but it's still too unstable. Needs more time. So we shelved the project."
Now he leaned forward, curiosity renewed. "But Trask… somehow, they cracked it."
"Let's find out how," Nolan said.
He motioned toward the table. The lab team laid out the Sentinels, prepping them for dissection.
Nolan took the lead, Otto assisting.
Piece by piece, the Sentinels came apart with synthetic ligaments, neural cores, and adaptive panels.
Every layer revealed something new.
Eventually, Nolan slid a piece under the high-powered microscope.
And then he smiled.
"…So that's how they did it."
----
[Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
For early access to advanced chapters on p@treon:
P@treon/iamxeno
Thank you so much for your support and for reading!q