After feigning their farewells to Adrian, the three continued toward the new Web Base. As mentioned before, this base was actually located directly beneath Toomes' workshop, though the entrance was not inside the workshop itself, but accessed from the other side.
"I still think a Spider-Man base being underground feels a bit weird," Harry remarked.
Amadeus expressed a degree of agreement. Spider-Man, after all, was a hero who primarily moved by swinging on webs; putting the base underground was not only a hassle for others to enter and exit, but it also didn't quite fit Spider-Man's style.
One could hardly say that Spider-Man and the sewers were a perfect match.
"That's the beauty of it. No one would expect an Avenger to put their base underground like a villain, which is why it's even safer here."
Peter didn't care whether his base was above or below ground. The three walked up to an iron door that looked like it couldn't be cut even by a pair of giant bolt cutters. Peter placed his hand on the lock, and the entire wall surface quickly descended, revealing an elevator leading downward.
"Besides, there's an extra benefit to underground construction."
"What benefit?"
Peter smiled as he answered Harry's question: "Plenty of space."
As the elevator descended, the doors eventually slid open to reveal a vast space nearly seven or eight meters high. Various pieces of Spider-Man's equipment were stored inside, and there were over a dozen rooms of various sizes, making the place look incredibly spacious.
Harry couldn't help but gape, asking back with a hint of disbelief, "How on earth... was all this done in just a few months?"
"The answer is, it wasn't completed in a few months. This place used to be a Hydra underwater laboratory at the bottom of the Hudson River, not far from the pier warehouse. So, an elevator was installed to lead directly here from there, and some renovations were made along the way."
It was hard to imagine that so much time had passed since Hydra had conducted human experiments at the bottom of the Hudson River, yet no government officials had come to take over the place, leaving it abandoned.
Perhaps S.H.I.E.L.D. had the capacity to take it over, but they had better locations in New York, so they simply abandoned this dump. It wasn't until Peter's old base was rendered useless that Norman fixed the place up and transformed it into the new base.
Compared to the old base, which was only the size of a top-floor storage room, the new Web Base covered an area of over two thousand square meters. As a former Hydra experimental base, despite the damage, the overall foundation remained intact and was still usable after being refurbished.
Equipment like the Spider-Mobile and Spider-Cycle could be kept here without hesitation. In the future, once Peter learned how to pilot a flight craft, he might even be able to park a Spider-Plane here.
"Are you Spider-Man or Batman...?"
"Spider-Man, I guess. If it had been you who was bitten by that spider, Harry, it would have fit the Batman persona much better."
Though Harry's personality bore no resemblance to Bruce Wayne's. Normal people's parents don't usually die in an alleyway, so normal people don't become Bruce Wayne.
Truth be told, even people whose parents die in an alleyway find it hard to become Bruce Wayne.
Because the new base was so massive, everyone was momentarily unsure what all the rooms were for. Well, Peter didn't really know either; it was large enough to provide a dormitory for every Spider-Man-related character he knew with room to spare.
"If Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Connors are both at the Web Base..." Amadeus noticed something and asked with slight confusion, "Then who exactly is in charge of their original work?"
Peter spoke the man's name with a knowing smile: "His name is Miles Warren, another student of my father."
Of course, this man had another identity in the Marvel Universe: the Spider-Man villain known as the Jackal, a master of cloning technology. In the comics, his cloning skills were so sophisticated that he could pull the souls of the deceased back into cloned bodies, triggering the "Clone Saga" event and creating the first Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly, and the second, Kaine Parker.
However, Peter didn't mind letting the man try his hand at it. Besides, if the man didn't take any action, how could Peter lure him out?
Furthermore, could he even pull it off?
Back at the New York headquarters, Miles Warren was attempting to work on the "Brute Force" project—the research for an animal-based Super Soldier Serum. After taking over the research results of Jonathan Drew and Curt Connors, Miles Warren's project shifted toward studying the compatibility between mammalian abilities and humans.
According to Oscorp's own official statements, they had discovered that the DNA gap between humans and both insects and reptiles was too large, leading to the failure of the Super Soldier Serum research. However, given the series of successful results like Spider-Man, Silk, Spider-Woman, Scorpion, the Lizard, Electro, and Ultimate Octopus, Miles felt that Oscorp's conclusion was incredibly bizarre.
So, since such mature research samples already existed, why go through the thankless effort of researching new enhancement protocols?
Thus, Miles Warren confidently brought out the "materials." These items were left behind by a master who was equally passionate about cloning technology and had once attempted to use it to achieve immortality—Otto Octavius.
Specifically, they were hair samples left behind from Spider-Man's early battles with Scorpion and Mysterio, his defeat by the Sinister Six, and his final showdown with Otto.
"With these samples, I will surely be able to clone the perfect Super Soldier!"
Beep.
As the results from the analytical equipment came out fresh, Miles excitedly hurried to the computer, only to reveal an expression of disbelief, incomprehension, shock, and total chaos.
What on earth is this?
Why were the three test results for Spider-Man different? All three DNA sequences were distinct. No, what is this? This DNA is a total mess—is this gene sequence even legal?
Staring at the chaotic DNA sequences, Miles Warren attempted a clone. Then, as a cloning expert, he discovered for the first time that cloning equipment could explode so quickly and directly.
"...It's not like Spider-Man gets bitten by a new mutant spider every other day, causing him to stitch too much random junk into his DNA, right?"