Chamelion

Synopsis: Inspired by The Amazing Spiderman. Young Camilla 'Millie' Hodel became hemiplegic after a near fatal car accident took her ability to walk. With therapy, she can walk, but haltingly. Inspired by Dr. Conner's research at OsCorps. She tries the serum he has made on herself, thinking it will regenerate her body. It does but gives her camofladge abilities (as well as reptilian appearance as one of its side effects). She is deemed a freak and she has to go into hiding. She ultimately blames Curtis for the discovery of the serum, but upon discovering he is not so different from herself, love blossoms.

Chapter 1-Turned Upside Down

Camilla 'Millie' Hodel was always an ebullient young woman. Everyone around her was immediately changed, especially if they had been experiencing a bad day before. There was something charming about her bubbly manner and her cheeriness. She was rosy in her outlook on everything. However, matters began to change one rainy afternoon on her drive home from OsCorps.

Camilla had been listening to her favorite classical radio station when the downpour had begun. Her Lexus had always been reliable in weather like this so, she wasn't concerned about returning home to her golden retriever, Marigold. She would be happy to see her mistress once again after having been gone so long at work. Little did she know there was a trucker on the same route she was taking that had not thought about taking some caffinee pills before driving in this inclimate weather. On the way home, Camilla took the routine turns on the freeway but didn't see the 18 wheeler coming from her perhipheral vision. Just quickly enough, the truck driver, Joe by name, slammed on his breaks, but sadly, his truck was already becoming an accordion, smashing everything inside, including himself, before he could escape. He had suffered worse than Camilla had. She had hit her head, hard on the steering column of her Lexus. There was blood everywhere and breathing hurt. Every muscle in her body was in excruiating pain. The Lexus itself had been flipped over a few times and had landed in the ditch.

Quickly as they could, ambulances, fire trucks and police officers arrived to keep traffic running efficiently while they exuded the body of Joe from his truck. He had died from the impact while Camilla, was pretty certain her life was about to be delievered from her. She was only 25 and she didn't even have enough strength to weep over this travesty of justice.

'I'm so young. I have had only a few people to love in my life. What will happen to Maggie? My deadbeat sister, Drucilla by no means will want any part of pet sitting.', she thought before everything went black. If this was the end, she thought, then so be it.

Chapter 2-Wheelchair Bound but Determined to Walk Again

Camilla was devistated when she learned she had become a paraplegic. However, she didn't allow this to totally defeat her. She was able to collaborate with the doctors, nurses and PT team in the hospital to construct braces for her to begin walking again. She wasn't about to be confined to a wheelchair for life, even though they had told her her probabilty of walking was 10% at the most. Such a miniscule number didn't ruffle her feathers or douse her hope. Inspite of the dour news, she strove, day in, day out, to use her wheelchair less and the braces more and more. Besides, she had heard that her boss, the benevolent and brilliant Dr. Curtis Conners, had recently developed a serum that could instantly heal one's body, and regrow cells, or regenerate, much like lizards were able to do at will. Even if they lost a limb, they could simply reproduce it and heal themselves. She had known this particular serum was going to be used in human trials but the impatient side of her could no longer wait. She would have to access the building later at night when no one was guarding it. Even though she had known of what had transpired with Curtis himself, she didn't care what the effects would be. She wanted to defy nature herself.

Chapter 3-Losing Almost Everything

With some of the last known serum in existence, Camilla had located the storage rooms in the very back of the laboratory. These had been saved for a future time when the Lizard would transform the entire town into freaks just like himself. She had known the story and knew that Conners and the Lizard were the same, even though their personalities drastically different. Albiet her conscious had forewarned her not to inject the serum directly, she shot it into her right leg. The braces on her legs immediately broke into pieces and she could walk at last. She practically paraded around OsCorps walking tall and proud until security had her thrown out, muttering such horrible, atrocious things as 'monster', 'abomination' and 'hellspawn'. She didn't understand this until coming home.

Marigold typically waited for Camilla at the front door, wagging her tail expectantly until she saw Camilla's altered form. Once she did, she dashed underneath the chair in the den and wouldn't dare to emerge.

'Marigold ! Whatever is wrong with you ?', Millie questioned, curiously, reaching out to pet her dog and was unexpectedly bitten. The frightened quadruped dashed out of the house and down the street until she was suddenly caught by a dog-catcher. Camilla wanted to free her from the dog-catcher's net, but then caught a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror next to her halltree. Horrified, she stumbled over furniture in her wake and ran as fast as she could.

'No one would ever want to look upon my hideous form ever again.', she felt as she tried to find sanctuary. There were random people shrieking left and right as they did what they could to avoid her. She finally found refuge in the sewer, where she would now have to reside for the rest of her life.

'All this for one rotten cure...', she mused, crying bitterly. There was a makeshift laboratory that was still in the sewer, everything in tact, including plans of a sinister nature.

'Dr. Conners, if you knew what pain you have caused with this invention. I will come for you and kill you myself...', she vowed. The vendetta sounded maniacle, not like her at all. But with the new ability came a new, primal power she had never in her entire life felt before. She had the ability to lift heavy objects, run and jump higher than any human being alive. And, most incredibly, she could camofladge into any color she desired, especially when she felt threatened. The only downside was that she had a jones to eat every sort of insect that crawled by her way. At first, she found the habit disgusting and vile but later on, didn't seem to be bothered by dining on hapless insects that wandered her way. Yet this didn't cause her hatred of Curt Conners to subside; in fact, her hatred welled up within her. He would pay for making her look this way, with his own blood.

Chapter 4-Unexpected Romance

At night under the cover of darkness, Camilla, or 'Chamelion' as she was calling herself now, had slipped beyond the surviellence and guards at the local penetentary. She stealthily switched off the alarms and broke into Conner's cell. Quickly, without much sound, she hoisted him away and into a dark back ally where no one else could see her or possibly hear him scream.

'What is the meaning of all this ? Who are you ? What do you want with me ?', Curtis whimpered, beginning to weep. She could feel the teardrops falling against her arm and along her legs and it was beginning to annoy her. She took him by the collar and slammed him against the wall so harshly that it knocked the air out of his lungs.

'Look at me ! YOU caused this to happen ! You should've destroyed that serum when you had the chance. I had the last vial in existence...', Chamelion said as she hammered Curtis against the wall so hard he was seeing stars. He had already undergone a transformation himself. He wasn't the same man he had been, no. The lizard DNA in his system had begun taking over.

'That isn't very ladylike. You know we are more alike than you will ever know.', came the voice of his alter-ego who now began possessing him. One look at him and she stopped feeling sorry for herself and felt an unfamiliar twinge in her heart, followed by warmth flowing throughout her body. She placed him down, gently.

'I misjudged you. In fact, I never properly introduced myself.', Chamelion lamented. The two of them began to exchange their tragic tales as they walked to a more secluded place where hardly anyone ever came at night, the city impound lot. There they knew somehow intrinsically that they were meant to be together as a team. Perhaps they would even be more than simply villains that fought against all sorts of heroes and heroines ? At this point, they weren't sure, but they knew they possessed quite a bit of chemistry together.

Epilogue

The Lizard and Chamelion needed a new hideout that wasn't so overt and conspicous. So, back into the sewer the two hid.

'I am aware the accomodations here are not really to either of our liking, but at least we won't be mocked and I have your company and assistance. One day, Spiderman will regret ever crossing me. I'll make him wish he was never born.', the Lizard said. Chamelion went along with whatever scheme he had hatched because no other man had ever looked at her the way Curtis had and no one loved her as intensely as he did. Even as his alter-ego, he was sensitive to her and gentle, even downright romantic. For the moment, she was his comrade, his 'companion' as he said so often with tinges of affection. The day would come for her to prove her usefulness to him but simply being near, basking in his genius and improving his inventions was more than enough and gave her everything she needed to exist as time marched on and the human population remained ever in the dark and in fear of their existence. That, they were sure, would be to their advantage someday, but they would simply wait until the opportune time to come and rise out of the darkness, conquering New York, and later, other cities. Eventually, the world would be in their slimy claws, under its cold-blooded masters. Nothing could be better than that remarkable dream.

The End