Part 2 begins now!
Area 11, Kawasaki District
Spider-Man perched himself on a steel beam overlooking the crew of hardhats working on the still-unfinished building.
"Hey, spread the word, get outta here and pass the police line or you're gonna get caught up in a fight." Spider-Man thumbed toward the direction towards the police perimeter.
"Whaddya mean? We got a job to finish here." One of the men in the construction crew motioned to the work in progress.
"If you and your men don't want to get stuck in between a big lizard and bullets, I think it'll be in your best interest to leave." The crew looked at each other and decided to heed his warning, they dropped their tools and made their way to the police perimeter.
"Stacy, I got another group heading your way."
"Alright, we'll keep an eye out, Knightmares have finally arrived, we're ready when you are." Spider-Man looked at his surroundings again, the last hour has been nothing but evacuating civilians, he was confident that the district's residents and workers were safe behind the perimeter.
"Alright, I'm going down. This fight might get ugly, so be ready for anything." Stacy acknowledged, and Spider-Man found his way to a nearby sewer drain and dropped down.
George brought down his radio and clipped it to his belt, beside him the Viceroy stood and commanded her Glinda Knights into the perimeter. They carefully patrolled, ready for a fight at any moment.
"Shouldn't you be in your Knightmare Viceroy?" It wasn't very often Britannias best general was seen overlooking an operation outside of the battlefield.
"Still in maintenance, I'm afraid. The battle at Narita did a toll on it, I'm not too eager to leave my soldiers alone on the battlefield." George nodded and looked out to the streets in front of him, keeping an eye out.
Beneath the streets of concrete, Spider-Man crawled on the top of the sewer making his way as best he can. "Uh, god, it smells terrible in here." Next time he made a suit, he was gonna put an air freshener in it.
Spider-Man continued forward, keeping his wits about him as he made his way through the sewer system. It was a while before he finally made his way to what seemed like an intersection, plenty of directions to go but no way to tell which to take.
"Ssssspiderrrrr." The low growl of Jacob's voice echoed across the walls of the sewers, mixed with the running water all around him, it was difficult to pinpoint where his voice was coming from.
"Jacob Connors, you need help. Please, I don't want to fight you." Jacob gave a hearty laugh.
"Becausssse you might lossssse?"
"You killed a lot of people Jacob, eaten them, how many of them had a family to go back to? Like your family."
"They werrrre...regrettable. But I'm betterrr now, indestrrructible. I've never felt more aliiiive. But youuuu keep botherrring meeee. For the firrrst time in a decade I'mmmm in control, but you thrrreaten to take that from meeee. I won't allllow it."
"Please Jacob, it doesn't have to end in a fight, you can still come back." Silence. Spider-Man looked at each direction, hoping to see him coming, maybe he could catch him before-
"NEVERRRR!" Beneath him, the water exploded and the green-scaled monster that was Jacob Connors roared with ferocity as it tackled him to the ceiling. One of his hands clenched around his throat while the other threatened to stab his face with his long claws.
"Jacob...stop!" Spider-Man struggled against both of his aggressors' arms.
"I WWWON'T GO BAAAACK!" Jacob reeled back his free arm, read to gore him. But the freedom gave Spider-Man the leverage to punch him in the snout, making Jacob recoil. Spider-Man used the time to pry the hand around his throat off of him and kicked Jacob away.
"No more warnings, you're gonna take your medicine and like it, young man!" Spider-Man sprung forward with a haymaker punch, sending Jacob to the wall.
As Spider-Man threw another punch, Jacob caught it in his hand, stopping the assault.
"Um...whoops?"
Above ground, Captain Stacy and Viceroy Cornelia continued to survey the area, it had been some time since they last heard from the vigilante.
"It must be the sewer blocking us," Cornelia said.
"You're probably right, but not being in the know is making this operation harder than it needs to be. We should have sent a squad with him."
"Trust that he can get it done, Captain," Cornelia told him.
"You trust him?" George asked.
"I can trust he can get results, as I can trust you to do your job. There is a large difference between that and putting my trust in someone." George nodded, he could understand where she was coming from.
"I suppose I can as-" Before he could finish there were a crash and rumble, George immediately had his hands on his sidearm. One finally crushing sound erupted a block in front of their perimeter and a body fell to the ground.
"Ow." Spider-Man slowly stood back up, messaging his shoulders. From the hole in the ground, the monster that was Jacob Connors erupted from the ground.
"Todayyyy, you dieeee!" The monster roared as it leaped towards Spider-Man.
Spider-Man dodged to the side, and as the monster landed, he shot his webbing at the monster's hands and feet to pin him down. "This is for your own good Jacob!" Spider-Man ran forward to find a spot to inject the needle, but none of the scales gave any surface to do so. Before he could reconsider, Jacob broke free and swatted Spider-Man away.
"ONLYYY I KNOWWW WHATSS BEST!" Jacob roared as he made to give chase to Spider-Man but was peppered with bullets from the police perimeter.
As their bullets impacted Jacob, they simply pinged off his scales. Jacob turned back towards the police line and charged. The police continued to fire but nothing worked, and as Jacob was right in front of them, ready to attack, a Knightmare tackled him before any blood could be shed.
"Stand back monster!" Guilford shouted from the Knightmare and pulled out the standard-issued rifle, he aimed and fired as Jacob ran from the bullets.
Jacob made a quick turn and ran towards Guilford, and pounced on the Knightmare. The long claws cleaved into the metal and tore it to shreds.
"Jacob!" His attention was turned to his right as a pair of black boots kicked him in the face, and knocked him off the Knightmare.
In front of Jacob, Spider-Man crouched ready to take the monster head-on. "You okay Guilford?" Spider-Man called out.
"I'm fine." The knight pulled up next to Spider-Man, and surrounding Jacob were other Glinda Knights in their own Knightmares. All guns were trained on Jacob.
"You're outnumbered, Jacob!" Spider-Man shouted.
"RRRAAAAAAGH!" Jacob charged again, the Knightmares fired at him but the lizard physique allowed him to dodge it. He pounced onto the nearest Knightmare and clawed at it, just like Guilford his claws shredded the metal like tissue.
"Get him off!" The pilot of the Knightmare screamed, scrambling to pull off Jacob.
Spider-Man zipped to Connors and knocked him off, "I'll take care of this!" Spider-Man said as he threw another punch. The punch impacted Connor's jaw, but the scales still didn't come off.
Connors swiped at Spider-Man again, this time scraping his arm as Spider-Man couldn't move away fast enough. Small wounds were replaced with dripping blood, not too bad but it still stung. Spider-Man shot a glob of webbing to stop the bleeding.
"Yourrrrr blood will paint thisss city!" Before he continued his assault, a blinding light swept over them. Above them, a helicopter flew, and Spider-Man could barely make out the visage of a camera. It was the press.
"Nows not the time for this!" Spider-Man shouted over the roaring of the machine's blades. Unfortunately, this had the side effect of him not hearing Jacob pounce on him in another violent attack.
"DIE!"
Across Area 11, news of the evacuation of Kawasaki had been on the news. The police and military had been tight-lipped on the situation, but Hi-TV were not ones to be behind on the news. With some dubious consent, a helicopter was sent over the scene, a fight between Spider-Man and the monster that had been terrorizing the streets, the Lizard.
Everyone in Area 11 was notified of the recent news...everyone.
Flash Thompson stood with his insane soldiers, the villains he was given to kill Spider-Man. The Sinister Six.
"You think lizard brain is gonna kill the bug?" The villain Electro, aka Max Dillon, asked him.
"No. Spider-Man will find a way to defeat him, but right now I see an opportunity." They had practiced the scenario a dozen times over, he was confident.
"We doing it?" Flynt Marko, the Sandman, approached him.
"Dillon, get to the power plant, we're going to begin the operation." Electro stood up, Flash couldn't see his face behind the suit containing his pure energy but Flash could tell he had a devious smile on his face.
"Time we fry that bug." Electro gleefully said as he left to start their plan.
Back in Kawasaki, Spider-Man dodged Jacob's tail that almost skewered him. Behind him, one of the Glinda Knights launched forward with their lance. But the attack was a failure, as Jacob sidestepped the lance and smashed the lance in two with his forearm. The Knight reeled back and was met by a tail stab.
"I'm hit! I'm sorry Viceroy." The pilot pulled the eject lever and was blasted away from the battle.
Spider-Man let out a ragged sigh, Jacob stood tall above the remains of the last Knightmare. "Weeeeeak, jussssst like Connorrrrrrrs." Jacob laughed a deep chuckle.
"Don't say that, you're still Jacob Connors." That seemed to make him angrier.
"NO! I ammm above thaaaat! Jacob Connorsssss is deeeead! And sssso will yoooooou!" Jacob charged forward on all four.
Spider-Man closed his eyes, he couldn't persuade him to stop. So there was only one thing left to do. He felt his venom energy focus in his right fist, the energy grew and grew until he needed to release it. When he opened his eyes, Jacob was only a couple meters from his face, it was time to take him down.
Spider-Man zipped forward, residue of his venom energy streaked from his fist, and he flew forward. His fist impacted the scales of the monster in front of him, and the energy in his fist erupted causing a bright flash and a force to push back Jacob to a nearby building's wall.
The wall buckled under the weight, and collapsed on top of him. When Jacob stood back up and wiped away the debris, he saw Spider-Man with a street lamp raised high. "Eat this lizard brain!" Spider-Man shouted as he brought it down and hit his target. Spider-Man raised up the street lamp again and swung it down but was caught in Jacobs scaly hand.
The street lamp was yanked out of Spider-Man's hands and thrown back at him. Spider-Man ducked under the lamp, but as his attention was drawn away Connors pounced on him and wrapped his fist around his throat.
"Thisssss is where you END SSSSSSSSSPIDER-MAN!" Connors tightened his grip and raised him off the ground, this is where Spider-Man would die.
"You aren't the first to say that, and you won't be the last!" Spider-Man pooled all his venom to his core, streaks of energy sparked from his center causing concern from Connors. Not for Spider-Man's sake of course. Jacob pulled back his left arm, and went to stab Spider-Man's heart. Before he could, a large blast erupted from Spider-Man blanketing the area in a bright yellow light and caused a shockwave that destroyed windows and flipped cars.
Spider-Man was the first to stand, groggily but still standing. "Ugh, I shouldn't do that too often." He told himself as he steadied himself. He approached Jacob, the entire right side of his body was...he wanted to say scorched but this was different. The scales were darkened and chipped, plenty of them were even missing showing off the raw skin underneath the scales. Perfect.
"Time to bring you back Jacob." Spider-Man pulled out the syringe and injected it into Jacobs exposed shoulder. Slowly but gradually the monstrous form slowly turned back towards the regular human teeanger.
The ragged clothes he wore were stretched beyond his small frame, and the large trunk legs dissipated replaced by nothing. Jacob groggily sat up, and the realization suddenly dawned on him.
"You...you bastard!" Jacob lunged forward but only fell flat on his face with the loss of his legs.
"Sorry Jacob, but this is for your own good."
"I had it! I had a life and you took it from me! Damn you. DAMN YOU!" Jacob crawled to him full of rage.
It didn't take too long before Cornelia's and Captain Stacy's forces arrived and took control of the situation. Police grabbed Jacob and handcuffed him, he was their problem now.
"He's not gonna see the outside of a cell for a long time." George said as he approached Spider-man.
"That's what I was afraid of." Spider-Man sighed.
"You stopped a killer, I think you should pat yourself on the back."
"That killer was a smart man, someone who could have changed the world if he put his mind to it. Now he's a hateful man with nothing but revenge on his mind. Every time I think, this is going to be the one that makes a change." Spider-Man let out another sigh.
"They never do, do they?" George didn't receive an answer.
"Men will never change, some would rather wallow in their past then see the opportunities in front of them. Unfortunately, it's much too easy to be a prisoner of the former than the latter." Cornelia walked up beside him, folding her arms as they watched the police do their job.
"For what it's worth, you have my thanks." Cornelia said, Spider-Man appreciated it.
"As long as a certain Bugle reporter isn't ranting and raving about me everyday in Times Square, I'm always glad to help." Before he could say anything else, the lights went out.
"What the hell?" George said as he looked around. None of the lights were on for blocks, hell he couldn't see any further back into the city.
"Status!" George called out.
Before anyone could reply to him all the radios in the area, created a screeching ring before slowly being dialed back in.
"Good evening people of Area 11, I am Agent Venom. I'll be quick, your power, your communication, your government, is all under my foot. But I'm not here to destroy the local government, I'm here for one thing only. Spider-Man, I know you're hearing this somewhere, give yourself up to me and my team or the people of this nation will suffer. I will wait for your answer on top of the Hi-TV tower, you have 24 hours."
The Lizard has been beaten, but not all is pleasant in Area 11. It's finally time for the Sinister Six to enact their plan against Spider-Man!