Chapter
26: The Hunt for the Lizard Part One:
Dr.
Curt Connors made one final note, before he looked at the final
formula, the lizard DNA had been genetically altered with several
variables taken into account to enhance the effects of it. He took
the vial of the formula and placed some in a syringe, before he
raised it up and injected the syringe into where his right arm should
have been. He felt a tingling motion but perhaps it was just wishful
thinking.
“Once
again nothing,” thought Connors in despair. “This experiment
nothing I try is working. I’ve tried to make it as strong as
possible without making the injections lethal, but still nothing. All
a dead end, all a failure, I’ll never…”
Dr.
Connors gave a wince, before he slumped forward, before he felt
something, a burning searing pain. It was the most painful experience
of his life but seconds later, the pain was replaced by another
emotion.
Joy,
as he now had both of his arms. The lizard formula had worked quite
well and he had quickly, but neatly put his notes away. He planned to
revisit this line of research in the future because the potential was
just too great to ignore. The world would be changed for the better
and he was glad this worked out okay, even if he had to use himself
as a test subject.
-
“Not
looking forward to school today, after I pretty much shut the door in
Gwen’s face last night, I mean its not her fault what happened,”
thought Peter as he made his way up towards the school, dragging his
feet. “I just took what happened in that lab, what I learned, very
badly. Sinister saw my face, if he wanted to, he could find out who I
am and while he might not use that information, he can sell it to
others to track me down. I can’t put my friends in danger, Aunt
May, what about her? And my powers were the experiment of a genetic
madman, doing who knows what to get that point. What if they turn me
evil, like him? What if they turn me into a monster? I can’t put
them in danger….but it’s not like I can abandon them. These
spider powers are a double edge sword, I mean they’ve helped me
save people but…they could end up turning me into something I’m
not. My life was so much simpler when my biggest problem was being
ridiculed by Flash Thompson on a daily basis. Still what if they turn
me into something that needs to be put down and hurts people close to
me in the process.”
Peter
just swallowed at the thought, try as he might to block them out of
his head, there was some nagging notion in the back of his mind that
taunted him. It didn’t get much sleep, if any, all he saw was that
face, that sadistic expression. If there was a moniker that fit
someone based entirely on their looks, Nathaniel Essex earned the
name Mr. Sinister one hundred percent. He spotted Gwen as she walked
towards the school, obviously running a bit late herself.
“Gwen!”
called Peter and his girlfriend turned around as they looked at each
other. There was a lot of uneasiness after their little argument last
night and it was a few seconds, before Gwen responded.
“Good
morning, Peter,” said Gwen calmly, who was just a tad bit upset at
the way Peter acted last night but any anger she had towards him
quickly was brushed away when she saw Peter. He did not quite have
the same look on his face that he did last night, before he had
abruptly shut the door in her face, when she had tried to ask him
what had put him in such a state. “You look completely…”
“Awful,
yeah I know,” said Peter as Gwen looked tentative around him, as if
trying to decide whether to be angry or sympathetic. It was not a
simple situation. “I might have been a bit of a jerk last night,
but it was a rough night and…you don’t know how lucky I am that I
came out in one piece. You don’t want to know, really what I saw.”
That
evasive answer actually made Gwen more worried than any concrete
piece of information. There could have been many explanations.
“Man
Pete, you look like you’ve been burning the candle at both ends,
didn’t get much sleep and for what, a few pennies from Jameson?”
asked Harry as he walked up, with Gwen and Peter abruptly turned
around. Peter was quite frankly glad someone was in a cheery mood
because after his Sinister ordeal, he doubted he would ever be
cheerful again. “I mean, if you were kept out late last night, you
should have taken the day off.”
“Harry’s
right Peter, maybe you should have, to get some sleep, you look
pretty sick,” said Gwen concerned.
“I’m
fine!” said Peter sharply before he turned around briefly,
regretting his sharp tone. “Look all I had was a rough night, I’ll
get over it, but I need to be at school right now.”
“I
really do, because its not like I would ever get any sleep, all I see
is that face,” thought Peter, as he tried not to shudder at the
thought the face of Mr. Sinister. “Besides it’ll give me
something else to do. Keep my mind off of what happened and what I
learned.”
“If
you say so Pete,” responded Harry with a shrug as he turned around
with a spring in his step but he seemed to just take Peter at his
word. Gwen was not too convinced and she opened her mouth to say
something but was interrupted.
“The
bell, we need to talk later Peter,” said Gwen and Peter gave her a
sharp look as if warning her not to test him this early in the
morning but Gwen did not back down. “Give it some thought Peter,
because something happened to you last night.”
“You
don’t know the half of it Gwen,” said Peter. “See you later.”
“See
you later, Peter,” said Gwen as she watched Peter leave. It just
tore her up to see Peter this miserable and she knew he would carry
whatever burden he was by himself. In fact, she bet all of the money
in the world that he might have never let her in on the fact that he
was Spider-Man, had she not pretty much forced the issue.
“Peter,
I love you to death, but you just can’t think you can cope with
everything,” said Gwen. “I’m supposed to be there for you, but
how can I when you won’t let me?”
-
“Peter
good to see you!” said Doctor Connors in a jovial mood as Peter had
walked into the class room trying not to look too downtrodden. The
images of that lab and Sinister kept plaguing him at the worst
possible times and was really interfering with his concentration.
“Hello,
Dr. Connors,” said Peter who was a bit distracted for the moment
and unable to pinpoint what caused the scientist’s jovial mood
right away but even in his preoccupied state he quickly caught on.
“Dr. Connors…your right arm…its…back.”
“Right
you are, it took multiple experiments and varieties of lizard DNA to
get the experiment right, but you can’t argue with the results,”
said Connors as he waved his fully functioning right arm towards
Peter and extended it, which Peter shook in congratulations. “Years
of work and I finally completed it. I had about lost hope, but one
injection and a momentary stab of pain and well you can see the
results.”
“That’s
great,” said Peter with a nod and a forced smile, but he had too
much experience with the effects of genetically altered animal DNA to
wonder if Connors was not making a colossal error in judgment.
“I
just hope that it just grew your arm back, Doctor, I mean, I don’t
even know the full extent of these spider powers and that’s just
one little arachnid, who knows what throwing lizard DNA into the
equation will do,” thought Peter, but the arm looked completely
normal, nothing out of the ordinary.
“Just
think of the benefits Peter, I have detailed notes for this and maybe
this line of research will work for me, just think of the limbs that
can be grown back,” said Connors as he surveyed Peter. “Why don’t
you sit this one out? We weren’t doing anything that I needed a
hand in today anyway and well as you can see, I have that problem
well in hand.”
“Well
I’m glad your experiment worked Dr. Connors, you put a lot of work
into it,” said Peter who tried be positive at this new development,
as Connors was very pleased to have both of his arms back.
“I
just hope that you don’t regret using yourself as a guinea pig,
doc,” thought Peter as he put on a forced smile as he watched the
members of the class begin to file in.
-
“You
wanted to talk Gwen,” said Peter as he sat down right next to her,
during their lunch period, both of them having arrived rather early,
before many people had. “So I’m here, let’s talk.”
Gwen
looked at him, carefully. Peter had been in quite the mood since what
happened last night.
“Last
night, I don’t know what happened, but wherever you went for all
that time…” started Gwen before she chose the right words.
“Genetics lab, one that was shut down, at least it was supposed to
years ago.”
“Okay
Gwen, you want to know what happened, here’s what happened,” said
Peter as he took a deep breath. “I was captured at the mansion
during my meeting with Xavier and then…well let’s just say it’s
not pleasant because I learned far too much about my powers. The lab
is cleared out by now, so it really doesn’t matter. I really don’t
want to talk about this.”
Gwen
just remained silent. She had gotten this much out of Peter once he
had cooled down after what happened last night but she had this
sinking suspicion that he was keeping something from her.
“It’s
deeper than Professor Warren,” prodded Gwen and Peter looked at her
uneasily.
“Much
deeper, just don’t bring it up Gwen, I don’t even know how I’m
going to deal with this or the long term consequences,” said Peter
sighing and Gwen looked at him in irritation, at his evasive going
around the question. “I’m sorry for being so sharp with you last
night and earlier, but if you learned what I learned, then you
wouldn’t be able to sleep.”
Now
that cryptic statement did not serve to alleviate Gwen’s worries,
only amplify them. She could only begin to imagine what Peter could
have gone though.
“Fine
Peter,” said Gwen with a sigh, as if admitting defeat. Besides, the
others would be showing up soon so there might not be a chance to
talk about it again today without the wrong person overhearing.
-
Curt
Connors was now at home. Perhaps it was a good day only because his
arm had grown back but he was in a fairly good mood. Still the second
that he stepped into his house, he shivered and felt ungodly cold.
Which was rather strange as the heat in the house was cranked up
rather high, in a rather tepid September weather. He staggered a bit
and made his way into the bathroom. The thought crossed his mind that
perhaps something had went wrong with the lizard experiment but he
tried to push that awful thought out of his head.
Connors
placed his hands down on the sink in the bathroom but he noticed they
felt unnaturally rough. He raised his hands to his face, feeling it.
“Scales,”
muttered Connors in shock and sure enough, as he looked at his hands,
they were growing with greenish scales, with his nails growing
longer. He looked up into the mirror and jumped back with a scream of
terror in absolute shock.
His
face was covered in scales, completely green, with sickening yellow
eyes.
“No,
this can’t be happening, it’s a dream, a nightmare, the
experiment could not have gone wrong,” muttered Curt trying to
reassure himself as he looked around as he rolled his sleeves, before
he felt the scales growing on his arms and he felt it, his thoughts
were slowly sliding more primal and savage.
“CURT!”
called his wife, Martha from downstairs. “Is everything alright?”
“F-f-fine
Martha, dear,” said Curt, but everything was not fine. His skin was
growing scales more and more by the second. He felt something from
behind him and knew it would not be too much.
“The
experiment did more than grow my arm back, it altered my DNA, into
something different,” thought Connors. “Got to get the lab,
collect your thoughts Curt, find a way to reverse the experiment,
while I still can.”
Another
look in the mirror showed that Curt Connors had maybe about fifteen
or so minutes before he turned into a full fledged lizard. At least
that’s what his rapidly devolving brain had calculated and then he
moved outside the bathroom, where he saw his wife down the stairs.
She caught a good look at his face. She screamed in terror for a
moment before she realized what happened.
“Curt?”
asked Martha.
“Yes,
experiment gone wrong, I made a terrible mistake, got to get back to
the school, got to reverse it, before its too late, my notes will
tell me everything that I need to make an antidote,” said Curt as
he made his way out the door, without so much as a good bye. It was a
good thing that his son Billy was hanging out with friends right now,
he did not want his son to see him like this.
Thankfully
the school was such a short walk from his house, so he could make it
there on foot. He ducked into an alley way, to try and hide from
bystanders, but he winced as two young teenage girls spotted him.
Eyes widened and they shrieked, which grew more onlookers who looked
fearful and curious. Connors stepped back, panicked.
“Please
don’t, leave me alone, I need to get away, change this, trust me,
I’m just as human as the rest of you,” pleaded Curt, but the
crowd moved in closer, as if he was some exhibit at a zoo to gawk
out. Normally Curt Connors was a mild mannered man, but the primal
side of the lizard DNA was beginning to slowly overtake his brain.
“Look
at that freak,” muttered a man.
“How
does he have the guts to go out in public like that?” asked another
man.
“I
wonder if he escaped from the circus,” said another woman
thoughtfully as the group crowded around the mutated Connors.
“AWAY
FROM ME!” growled Connors in a primal roar, jumping towards the
crowd, who scattered in fear. He regretted this action immediately,
this made him look like a rampaging monster but this was proof to the
rapidly shrinking rational part of his mind that he did not have too
much time left to concoct the antidote.
His
intelligence was eroding more and more by the moment and the part was
that he retained enough of his sanity to realize what was happening
and know there was no chance in stopping it.
-
The
moment he arrived home, Peter Parker crashed completely. He was
deathly tired and he hoped he would not be plagued by the same
nightmares involving Sinister. To be honest, Aunt May was more than
persistent that he get some rest and he was not one to argue with his
aunt with these things. Besides, he doubted he got more than a couple
of minutes of sleep.
The
cell phone jerked him out of his restful state after not even an
hour. Peter woke up, in frustration. There was no doubt who would be
calling him at such an inappropriate time.
“Hello,”
said Peter half groggy, half irritated.
“PARKER!”
bellowed the familiar and very unwelcome voice of J. Jonah Jameson.
“There is some freak terrorizing the citizens in the Midtown era!
It looks like a nine foot lizard!”
“Wait
a minute, did you say nine foot lizard?” asked Peter, nearly
dropping his cell phone in shock.
“Did
I stutter, Parker?” demanded Jameson loudly. “I want you down
there, five minutes again! Pictures and you better bring me
something. You’ve been slacking lately! I need something big, the
Globe is threatening to overtake us. I don’t want that overhyped
gossip rag beating me. Do you hear me?”
“Crystal
clear, Mr. Jameson,” responded Peter in a tired voice, but he moved
over, grabbing his camera and then his bag, looking at his Spider-Man
costume and web shooters. He gave a sigh, he was not looking forward
to having utilize them again but there were just some things that had
to be done. He rushed down the stairs where he nearly ran into Aunt
May.
“Peter!”
said May in a surprised voice. “I thought I told you to get some
rest, young man.”
“Sorry
Aunt May, Mr. Jameson wants some pictures for the Bugle, something
big downtown, I have to cover it,” said Peter which caused May to
frown.
“The
nerve of that man, you’re being worked to death, if he keeps it up
too much longer, then I might have to words with him,” said May.
“That
won’t be necessary,” responded Peter quickly. “It shouldn’t
take too long. Snap some pictures, drop them off to Jameson, then
I’ll be back in bed straight away within an hour.”
“I
hope so Peter,” said Aunt May as she watched her nephew walk out
the door. To an extent, she was glad that Peter was taking
responsibility where most young people his age would not but he did
tend to take that responsibility too far. It was almost like he
thought that his responsibility carried some kind of great power that
he had to utilize.
-
“Everyone
move it, we don’t want to antagonize it any more than we need to,”
ordered Captain Stacy, as the officers moved in. “Protecting
innocents is a high priority, but we need to capture this creature
and figure out what it is.”
“LEAVE
ME!” growled Connors sounding more primal than human but the
officers pointed their guns, before several tranquilizer darts were
fired towards it, but they all bounced across the skin of the beast.
He was not slowed down, in fact, he seemed to be agonized.
“Everyone
fire again, maybe we actually get something to penetrate if he gets
close!” yelled Captain Stacy, but the creature grabbed the guns,
before he bent them backwards. The creature gave a loud growl, before
he bent the guns backwards with superior strength and turned, with
his newly developed tail, knocking several officers to the ground.
They flew with a loud thud. The standing officers backed up.
“We
need to get back up Captain, something more specialized, because I
don’t think there’s any way we can take down this creature,”
said Officer DeWolff but a very familiar figure swung into the scene
towards the lizard on a web line.
“That
help has just arrived,” said Captain Stacy as he watched Spider-Man
drop down right in front of the creature, who growled, drool flying
everywhere.
“So
you’re the creature that’s been terrorizing the city,” said
Spider-Man in a tired voice, as the lizard creature backed off. “I
think someone really needs a breath mint.”
“Spider-Man,”
growled the Lizard sending spit everywhere.
“And
it talks,” thought Spider-Man but he stopped. In his tired state,
he could not have put together the obvious clues right away, but it
struck him. “Connors, of course, I kind of suspected it of course.”
“Listen,
if you need help, just calm down and back off, nice and easily,”
said Spider-Man as the Lizard looked rather confused before he gave a
primal roar and tried to shake his head.
“Too
late, feel it slipping,” grunted the Lizard and Spider-Man held his
arm, ready to immobilize the creature just in case he got out of
control, even though he really doubted that he could do so. “Sanity
gone…too late…”
“It’s
never too late,” said Spider-Man but his spider sense alerted
himself to something flying above his head.
Several
canisters dropped to the ground and exploded. It released a gas,
which caused the Lizard to be dizzy. Spider-Man pulled himself onto a
building, as he watched that the creature thrashed around, slamming
around a car. The SWAT team that moved in with nightsticks and
holding canisters walked in, but the Lizard bounced forward, swiping
his claws and snapping at the armored group. Spider-Man shot a line
of webbing out, wrapping around the right arm of the Lizard.
“Wait,
wait, look, I can still help you!” shouted Spider-Man but the
Lizard raised his hand and sliced the line of webbing which caused
him to fly to the ground with a thud. The Lizard jumped around,
causing bystanders to scatter. More canisters of gas dropped to the
ground, as the Lizard ripped the manhole cover off, before he dropped
down into the sewers. Spider-Man threw all caution to the wind and
threw himself right after the Lizard. He landed with a splash.
“Ick,
I don’t even want to know what I landed in!” thought Spider-Man,
as he tried to move away, climbing on the walls, avoiding the ground,
as he looked for the lizard. “You would think you would not be able
to lose a nine foot lizard in the sewer, but you would be wrong.”
Spider-Man
continued to climb around and he heard a loud primal growl. He swung
down to the ground and dropped right in front of the Lizard who
turned with a growl, causing spit to fly right towards Spider-Man.
The Lizard took a step back, as he put his hand on his head.
“Midtown…notes…antidote!”
bellowed the Lizard but this would be the last intelligent thing that
the creature would ever say, as he turned, before he swung his tail.
Spider-Man was cracked right in the ribs and he was propelled
backwards right into a wall. He landed with a loud thud right to the
ground and winced.
“Got
to get up, ouch,” thought Spider-Man in pain. He would not be
surprised if one or more of his ribs had been shattered from the
impact. “Got to find him!”
Spider-Man
managed to summon enough fortitude to walk but the Lizard was long
gone and he could have gone anywhere in the sewers. It would take
hours to search and he dropped down, before he made his way out. In a
way, the wall crawler felt like he had failed badly. Not only had he
got knocked around, but a good man who had a family had been
victimized by an experiment gone bad and may have lost his mind to
savage brutality forever.
Not
only was his failure taunting him, but he wondered if his own altered
DNA would strip away his intelligence and turn him into a similar
monster one day. That did more of a number on Peter’s self
confidence than battle with the Lizard did with his body.
-
“Parker
these photos are utter crap!” yelled Jameson in his usual charming
tone, as he stared down Peter before getting a whiff of the young
man, before he backed off. “They’re about as bad as you smell
right about now!”
“Yeah,
Jonah, you try smelling like roses after you were thrown into raw
sewage and fighting a giant lizard man though the sewers,” thought
Peter in an irritated manner but he wisely kept his tongue and temper
to himself.
“Still
better than anything else we got on this story, but you better shape
up Parker and for heaven’s sake leave and take a shower!”
bellowed Jameson as he waved the pictures around. “Robbie! Print
it, we can get this into the paper an hour before most of the news
and we can scoop all of the other papers.
Peter
walked off, the thoughts of the mind of Curt Connors still trapped
inside that savage beast. He had to find someway to help the good
doctor, but Aunt May would have expected him home by now.
“Not
to mention it’s kind of hard to find someone that doesn’t seem to
want to be found, hopefully I figure this out,” thought Peter. “I
should really have a look at his notes, and concoct an antidote but
exactly how am I going to do it when the Lizard could surface his
head at any time. Times like this where I wished I didn’t have to
worry about these things but great power, great responsibility,
yeah.”
-
“The
lizard creature was Dr. Connors,” gasped Gwen in a surprised voice
later that evening as she had swung by to check on Peter, who she
admitted looked a bit better considering that he got a lot of sleep.
“Yes
and he’s getting more dangerous by the moment,” replied Peter. “I
need to take him down now and for that I need to create an antidote.
Thankfully he left good notes; otherwise it would take a lot more
trial and error that I ever had time for. Gwen, don’t worry about
this, I can do this on my own. You weren’t the one who got bitten
by the spider. This isn’t your responsibility.”
“But
how are you going to go after the Lizard and create the antidote at
the same time?” questioned Gwen and Peter winced, she was making
too much sense.
“I’ll
figure it out, the Lizard went underground, that should bye me plenty
of time,” argued Peter. “Gwen, I’m gong to have to get the
antidote there quickly and…I’m going to have to force it down his
throat.”
“I
know, the tranquilizer darts had no effect,” said Gwen with a nod
but she looked at Peter, as she gripped both of his hands. “Are you
sure I can’t help you?”
“I’m
sure Gwen, I don’t really want to involve you in this any more than
I had to,” said Peter.
“You
think I can’t handle it,” challenged Gwen as she stared at Peter
but he was not backing down.
“No,
I don’t think that, but I don’t think I can handle it if anything
happened to you,” said Peter. “Besides, I did work with Connors a
bit because I am his student assistant. It might take more time that
I need to explain some of the specifics of his work. I know you might
catch on but that might be minutes that I can use, minutes that I
could have saved innocent lives.”
“Why
does he have to lay the guilt trip card on me?” thought Gwen. “He
always accepted my help before but now after last night, he’s
pushing me away.”
“I’ll
be careful Gwen and I have a plan,” said Peter as she leaned
forward and kissed him.
“Good
luck Peter, I hope you can find him before anyone gets hurt,” said
Gwen with a forced smile.
“The
feeling is mutual,” said Peter before he turned away.
“Especially
Dr. Connors and his family, they are going to be the one’s hurt the
most by this, right up there with all the innocent people,” thought
Peter, as he slipped inside. He would tell Aunt May that he was
heading up to bed and then would sneak out to create the antidote
before he would go lizard hunting. “You know, at least it’s just
the Lizard who is running around. I would hate for this situation to
get any more complicated. It could be worse, much worse. All I have
to do is force the antidote down his throat and not get mortally
wounded.”
“See
you tomorrow, Gwen,” said Peter. “Good night.”
“Good
night Peter,” answered Gwen. “See you tomorrow.”
“I
just hope it’s in one piece,” said Gwen as she opened the door
and walked away.
-
A
van drove up into the city. A large impressive looking man exited the
van and turned around, with a smirk on his face. He had been to this
city months prior and had spent a bit of time as a guest to one of
their prisons but he was not kept for too long because there was not
enough evidence to keep him.
The
man’s name was Sergei Kravinoff and he prided himself to be one of
the best hunters in the world. He had heard word on the radio of a
giant lizard creature that he been loose in the city. Such a creature
was unheard of so naturally such a rare animal would fetch quite a
price on the black market. Kravinoff walked into an alleyway, his
appearance and outfit would have drawn stares had it not been so late
in the evening.
“Back
in this concrete jungle, with its weak inhabitants,” said Kravinoff
with a twisted grin as he talked to himself. “And this impressive
creature is on the loose, I’m certain he may be brutal and savage,
but he is no match for the cunning of Kravinoff. But naturally last
time I came to this city, my honor was befouled by the creature who
called himself Spider-Man. But no longer, as I will capture the
Lizard and my honor will be redeemed once I go after Spider-Man”
Kravinoff
opened up his briefcase to reveal several vials of the same chemical.
It was an orange shade, as he looked at it with a grin. It was a
special serum developed from an exotic and endangered plant in his
native Africa. It would give him the strength and instincts to
capture even the harshest prey. In addition to his own cunning and
skills, he would be the ultimate hunter. He raised the vial, before
he prepared to inject it into him. He dropped to his knees, as his
muscles rippled and bulged, as he gained heightened senses of smell,
sight, and hearing, not to mention heighted strength and speed.
He
climbed to his feet, a brand new man. Sergei Kravinoff was no small
man to begin with, but he had gained much size once he injected this
serum into his bloodstream.
“Sergei
Kravinoff may have been made a mockery out of before but now Kraven
the Hunter will succeed, as I will capture the Lizard and prove to
the world who the ultimate hunter is,” said the newly dubbed Kraven
as he jumped across the street with expert ease. The scent of the
Lizard was everywhere and it would be only a matter of time before he
located the creature and brought him home to be stuffed and sold as a
trophy.
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