Before we get started, I would like to thank the people who left me some reviews for the previous chapter. I means a lot that you guys will share your thoughts and show that you're into what I'm writing. Thanks a lot, and please continue to review.

Hello, my name's Peter Parker. You don't know me. At least, I hope you don't. If you do, you probably just see me as an average Joe, just trying to fit it. But recently, something extraordinary happened.

I got bitten by an experimental spider, and the next thing I knew, I was developing these wicked spider powers. I can walk on walls, shoot webs, jump over rooftops, even sense the things in the world around me.

I got to thinking, my uncle Ben always tells me, "With great power, comes great responsibility." So, I figured it was time to take that advice. New York's a pretty dirty town. Maybe it could use a hero or two. That's why I'm gonna be that hero, and help the good people of this city. Who am I? I'm Spider-Man!

Peter sucked in his breath and narrowed his eyes. You can do this, Pete, he thought. You've faced beings of electricity, pseudo-vampires, crime lords, and robot rhinos! And you did it all with no fear! You are a hero to these people! A symbol of hope. So today, you will show no fear...

...as you dial a pretty girl's phone number! Peter closed his eyes as he held his phone and carefully typed the numbers in, holding his breath as he pushed the call button.

He then put it up to his ear as he heard the ringing, until finally...

"Hello?" came the voice of Gwen Stacy.

Nope! Peter suddenly hung up, sweat pouring from his forehead. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope! He nervously walked around the room, rubbing his forehead. Ugh, what am I doing? What am I doing?

Suddenly, he took a deep breath and looked back at his phone. Ugh, come on, Pete, you can do this! Tentatively, he picked his phone back up and re-dialed Gwen's number." He heard her voice again.

"Hello? Who is this?"

Peter panicked and hung up again. Grr, I'm such a coward! After nervously pacing the room, Peter sucked in his breath and dialed Gwen's number one last time, but this time...

"Who are you!? Why do you keep calling my daughter?" Peter gulped as he recognized the voice as Lieutenant Stacy's.

"Uh, I, um..."

"Listen, you," said George, "I am a professional police lieutenant. You could say... I have a very particular set of skills. But call my daughter one more time, and it'll be the last thing you ever do!"

Peter heard the dial tone as he stood there stunned, before pocketing his phone and saying, "Well, I'll try again at school tomorrow."

"Unbelievable," said George as he gave Gwen her phone back. "Someone torments my daughter? The nerve of that guy."

"Yeah, thanks, dad, but I can take care of myself," said Gwen. "Anyway, shouldn't you be getting to work?"

"Eh, it's been a slow day," said George. "In fact, I'm disappointed that we still have no leads on that Spider-Boy."

"Spider-Man," Gwen corrected. "And why are you guys hunting him down, anyway? In case you forgot, he saved both of our lives!"

"I know, I know," said George. "It's just... I can't just let him run around out there. Vigilantism is illegal for a reason. His actions could mess up our own police work, and he could put himself and others in danger. I got a responsibility here."

"Eh, I say he's doing a great job," said Gwen. "You know, I bet I could find out who he is."

"Oh, I don't think so, sweetie," said George.

"Come on, don't you want me to join the family business?" said Gwen with a smug smile. "How am I supposed to learn to investigate crime if I don't practice?"

"You don't get to be a detective by jumping head first into things, Gwen," said George as he walked out the door.

As he left, Gwen huffed to herself. I could be a detective. I'd like to think I'm smart. I want to be on the force myself. And I could if I could prove myself somehow.

The next day, it was time for chemistry class at Horizon High. Both Peter and Gwen came into the room and sat down at their seats, as the chemistry teacher walked up to his desk up front.

"Okay, everyone, for our class today, you'll all be working with a partner. We're going to be making an anti-rust agent. Billy, I want you to go with Sam, Isaac, you'll work with Alex, Peter, I think I'll put you with Gwen."

Peter suddenly and silently gasped, as he then looked over to see Gwen walking over carrying her stuff and setting it down on the table.

"Hey, Peter, you ready to get started?" said Gwen.

Peter struggled to find his voice, but as he forced himself to look at Gwen, he reminded himself, C'mon, Parker! You're a superhero! Grow a spine already! Talking to a girl can't be nearly as scary as all the other things I've done!

"H-hi, Gwen. Y-yeah, I'm ready to start."

"Alright, everyone, you have your materials, just follow the instructions on the table."

"Okay, uh, Gwen, can you hand me that red stuff?" said Peter.

Gwen picked up the vial of red liquid, but suddenly, it ended up slipping from her hand, spilling on the table. "Oh, no!" she said. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Peter. I'm such a klutz." She then looked at the table to see their instruction paper was now ruined. "Aw, and I ruined the instructions, too!"

"Hey, it's okay, Gwen," said Peter. "If you can just go get us some paper towels, I can find some more of this red stuff, okay?"

Gwen returned with the paper towels, and saw that Peter was already fast away at making the agent. "Whoa, Peter, you can do this without the instructions?" said Gwen.

"Oh, yeah," said Peter. "I'm actually really good with this sort of thing. My uncle tells me I'm gifted."

"Oh, you're really into this stuff, huh?" said Gwen, wiping up the spill. "You know, I do a little science like this too."

"You do?"

"Yeah. You ever hear of scientific investigators? Well, after my dad got into the force, I learned about all the ways the police use chemicals and stuff to search for evidence, so I tried learning everything about it I could."

"Really? That's kinda cool," said Peter. "What kind of methods do you use?"

And with that, the two of them got into a big conversation all about science and chemistry.

Eventually, class ended, and Peter and Gwen walked out of the classroom together.

"That was actually pretty fun, Peter. You're pretty smart, you know that?" said Gwen.

"You're pretty smart yourself, Gwen," said Peter, grinning, finally feeling confident about himself. "I think I really like talking to you."

"Man, that chemical you made in there? That was so cool! Literally!" said Gwen.

"Yeah, it gets really, really cold. It's good for keeping things at a low temperature," said Peter.

"Hold it!" came a voice. All the students exiting the classroom turned to see the teacher standing in the doorway looking angry. "One of you snuck into my cabinets and made off with a vial!"

"What?" said a student. "What are you talking about?"

"My cabinet, I had a whole vial of a chemical hiding in there!" said the teacher, but when I opened it just now, it was gone!"

"Why would we ever rob you of some chemicals?" said another student.

"It had to have been one of you! I know I had it in their this morning!" said the teacher. "Now come on, everyone line up, I need to search you all for it!"

Reluctantly, all the students lined up against the wall, their arms and feet apart, but even after searching all of them, the teacher found nothing. "Ugh, alright fine, you can all go, but if I find that any of you are hiding it from me, you're getting detention for life!"

Gwen looked at her teacher suspiciously as he walked away from the classroom, and as soon as everyone else had walked away, she decided to go wandering back into the classroom to investigate. She couldn't help it. She had a bit of a curiosity about her now.

She walked over to an open cabinet, and peeked inside of it. There seemed to be vials of liquids stacked neatly inside next to each other, but sure enough, one of them was missing. She saw a stain of red stuff where the vial once was, and picked some up on her finger to examine it.

"Gwen?" came a voice, and a startled Gwen turned around to see Peter standing behind her. "What are you doing in here?"

"I wanna see if I can figure out what happened to that vial," said Gwen. "In fact, this stuff seems to be some of the same chemicals we were using today. I have an idea. I'm gonna dust for fingerprints."

Peter was about to say something else, but Gwen cut him off. "Relax, Peter. You don't have to worry about this. You should just get going."

Peter felt like arguing some more, but finally, he nodded and left.

Later, as Peter was getting ready to leave, he saw Gwen standing by the door. He decided to walk over to her and ask, "Hey, Gwen, did you find anything in there?"

"Hmm? Oh, hey, Peter. I think I got some decent fingerprints. It's gonna take me a while to compare them, though. But you'll never guess what else I found."

She held out a tissue that held a small piece of something. It seemed to be a sickly color, and it looked like a flake of skin.

"You found some skin?" said Peter.

"I think so. I know a friend down at the police station that might be able to analyze it."

As the two walked outside the school, Peter suddenly saw a strange figure standing off to the side. He seemed to be hiding in a trenchcoat, but he didn't seem bothered by the kids walking by. Curious, Peter decided to walk over to him. "Excuse me? Sir?"

The figure turned to face Peter, and Peter was surprised to see a familiar face. "Dr. Connors?"

It was Connors alright. However, he looked a little different. His skin looked like a sickly color, almost green. "Oh, um, hello, Peter."

"What are you doing here?" said Peter.

"Oh, I actually dropped by to talk with your chemistry teacher. He's an old friend of mine. I wanted to discuss some chemistry sequences I've been working on with him."

"Oh, really?" said Peter. "What are they about?"

"Oh, it's supersmart adult science," said Connors. "I doubt you'd understand it."

"Hey, are you alright? You look a little sick," said Peter.

"Oh, I'm just a little tired and under the weather these days. Don't worry about it. I should probably get going. Nice seeing you, Peter."

Connors patted Peter's shoulder before he walked away, as Gwen walked up to Peter. "Who was that? He looks so sick."

"That was Dr. Curt Connors," said Peter. "I met him at Oscorp. He's a genius geneticist there. He says he came here to talking with our chemistry teacher."

"Wait, did you say our chemistry teacher?" said Gwen. "Wait a minute, if your saying he was in the chemistry room today, and if he looks like that color... Hold on a sec, Peter." She suddenly grabbed Peter by the arm, looking his shoulder over. "If he just touched your shoulder, I want his fingerprints!"

The next day, Peter was coming into school, when he suddenly heard Gwen's voice.

"Hey, Peter!" Peter turned around to see Gwen standing behind him. "Guess what? The fingerprints! In the chemistry room! They were definitely Connors's!"

"What?" said Peter. "Are you saying Curt stole from our teacher?"

"I think so! If my friend down at the police station finds what I think she will about that skin flake I gave her, we can prove it! But I think I can find even more proof!"

"Gwen, relax," said Peter. "It's just some chemistry stuff. I don't think it's a big deal anyway. If you're so concerned about it, just tell your dad."

"My dad says he and most of the other officers are busy with bigger cases. But I bet I could find some more evidence against Connors if I kept looking!"

"What are you talking about?" said Peter.

"Didn't you read the Daily Bugle's latest headline?" said Gwen as she pulled out her phone to show the headline to Peter. "It says that another kind of rare chemical was stolen from Horizon Labs yesterday. I bet Connors did that too!"

"What? Why would he do that?"

"I'm betting these chemicals are for some kind of experiment," said Gwen. "But I saw him yesterday. I think I saw where he lives. I bet I could find something else on him!"

"Gwen, come on, I know, Dr. Connors," said Peter. "I really don't view him as a thief."

"Only one way to make sure. I'm gonna find him again tonight, and I'll find the perfect evidence I'm looking for! Hey, why don't you come? Then you can see for yourself."

Peter sighed before saying, "You know what? Fine. But just to help prove to you that you're barking up the wrong tree.

Later that day, Peter and Gwen snuck over to where Connors lived, and that's when they saw him. Connors was walking through the neighborhood, making his way back to his house. He seemed to look even more green than he did before. Peter had to admit, something about Connors seemed a bit off. In fact, that trenchcoat of his, it seemed to be hiding something. There was something big hiding in the trenchcoat on Connors's right.

Eventually, he made it to his home, where a large mail package sat in front of his door. Connors tried lifting it with his one arm, but he was unsuccessful. But then, he did something that made Peter gasp.

Out of his trenchcoat came his right arm, which he used to pick up the package along with his left arm. Quickly, he made his way inside his home.

"D-did you just see that!" Peter said to Gwen.

"What?"

"He has two arms again!" said Peter. "He didn't have two arms when I last saw him! He had to amputate his right arm after an accident!"

"Wait, what?" said Gwen. "But-but how? How does a guy just regrow an entire arm?"

"Wait," said Peter, "you don't think that these chemicals could have anything to do with it?"

"Are you saying he's designing a formula to regrow appendages?" said Gwen.

"Could be," said Peter before he suddenly thought of something. "Hey, Gwen, if he's designing a formula, I think I know the perfect place to look for evidence of that. His lab over at Oscorp."

As a pair of scientists left Dr. Connors's lab, Peter and Gwen quickly came to sneak inside just before the door closed. Quickly, they invaded his desk, trying to find anything incriminating. On the top of the desk, Peter suddenly managed to find a syringe. As he picked it up and examined it, he saw that had tiny drops of a green liquid inside. He raised an eyebrow as he tried to think about what Connors must have put in this thing, but also just why it was even empty. He hadn't been using it again lately, had he?

"Peter, look at this," said Gwen, getting Peter's attention. He turned his head to see her holding up a clipboard with paper in it. The paper was filled with numbers and formulas from top to bottom. "I think Connors was trying to figure out some sort of formula. Hey, look! The chemicals that were stolen! They're on this sequence!"

"I see," said Peter, before he showed her the syringe. "Do you think he was making something to put in this syringe?"

Gwen took the syringe and looked it over. "Maybe. What was he doing though? It's like some kind of mad science experiment. If only we had more proof of what he did." She then looked the clipboard over again, before lifting the front page to find another page of sequences underneath it. "Hey, that's odd. These sequences, they're like an entirely different kind of sequence from what was on the first page. In fact, it looks like it's trying to find the opposite kind of reaction."

Peter looked up on top of the desk to see there were cabinets locked on it. "Do you think anything is hiding in there?"

"Maybe," said Gwen. Suddenly, she pulled out a hairclip and stuck it into the lock. "Hey, uh, please don't tell my dad I learned how to do this from a YouTube video."

"Uh, yeah, yeah, sure," said Peter.

Finally, Gwen pried it open and inside, they saw what they were looking for. Two empty glass vials. However, Gwen was able to quickly recognize them, picking them up and viewing the bottoms. "Aha! Look at this, Peter!" She showed the labels on the bottom that read, "Property of Horizon High," and "Horizon Labs" respectively. "These are the stolen vials!"

"For real?" said Peter.

"Yeah, I mean, look," Gwen said before whipping out her phone and searching something. She then showed Peter the results, which showed a logo for Horizon Labs. "You see? The logo, it's just like the one on the vial!"

"Okay, okay," said Peter. "So it looks like we just found our evidence. Still, I don't get it. Why'd Dr. Connors go through all this trouble? I mean, he works for Oscorp for crying out loud. Why would he even need to steal anything?"

"I bet what he's doing is something that his bosses didn't approve of, so he needed to steal some materials to do it in secret!" said Gwen.

Peter paused, but then said, "I don't know about that. I mean, I know Dr. Connors. He's not that type of guy. He seems reasonable. Ethical, even."

"Well, whatever the reason is," said Gwen, "I'm sure we can figure it out after I show all this evidence to my dad and Connors gets arrested." She quickly gathered up what she could and said, "Can you maybe get the clipboard, Peter? My hands are full. You can meet me at my house, okay? It's at the end of the street from here."

"Oh, sure," Peter walked over to get the clipboard, and as he turned around, he said, "You know what, Gwen? The two of us make a pretty good-" But as he turned around, he saw that she was no longer around. Sighing to himself, he then noticed that Gwen had left her phone on the desk. He picked it up, but just then, it started ringing. Peter was startled, but he answered it.

"Hello? Gwen? You there?" came the voice on the other end.

"Um, this is actually Peter," said Peter. "Gwen forgot her phone. But, uh, I can take a message for her."

"Oh. Well, this is her friend from the police department. The DNA analysis division. We just finished analyzing that skin flake you guys found."

"You did?" said Peter. "Cool. It's of Curt Connors, right?"

"Actually, not quite. What we found is that it's not really human skin. It's a scale. A lizard's scale. But the strangest thing is, we found something vaguely human in it, too."

"What?" said Peter. "How can that-" Suddenly, he paused as he looked at the clipboard in his hands. What had Gwen said? That there had been two different sequences written within this thing? Slowly, Peter's eyes widened in horror.

"Ma'am, I'll need you to call Lieutenant Stacy for me real quick," he said as he tore out of the lab.

Gwen burst into her home, quickly finding her father sitting at the kitchen table. "Hey, Dad? Guess what? I just found something you're gonna want to see."

"Huh? Gwen? Where have you been all day?" said George. "And what is all that?"

"I think I just solved a string of strange thefts around the city," said Gwen. "It all points to a man named Curt Connors."

"What? Slow down, Gwen. What are you talking about?"

"Well, the thing is, Connors has been stealing chemicals from labs around the city, and I just found evidence of where he hid it, and maybe even what he's been doing with them."

Suddenly, the landline phone rang. George quickly picked up and held it to his ear to say, "Hello?"

"Hello? Lieutenant Stacy?" came the voice on the other end.

"Brenda? What are you calling me for?"

"Well, this kid, Peter Parker, he told me to tell you to get to the residence of Curt Connors as soon as you possibly can. He says it's an emergency."

"Peter Parker?" said George, as Gwen silently gasped as she heard that name. "Yeah, I think I know that kid. Okay, I'll go right now."

As he hung up, he turned to Gwen and said, "Well, I guess that Connors guy is up to something after all. I just got a call to go down there ASAP."

"From Peter?" said Gwen. Before George could answer, Gwen said, "If Peter said you should go down there, then I insist on coming too!"

"Gwen, it might be dangerous."

"You don't know that," said Gwen. "Look, if Peter went there, then I want to go too. I trust him. If he's brave enough to go, then it must be alright."

George sighed as he massaged his forehead, before saying, "Alright, let's go."

Peter rushed to get to Connors's house as fast as he could. Eventually, he managed to arrive at his apartment building, and he decided to use his powers to crawl on the side of the building to make it to where Connors lived even faster. Finally, he found the right window and slipped inside, and he saw a pitch-black apartment that seemed surprisingly spacious. He pulled out his phone, turning it on to use the flashlight feature. The house was big alright, it could probably fit a family of five. Suddenly, Peter heard a loud noise. It sounded like metal clanging, so he quickly followed the sound to its source, which seemed to lead him directly to a big door that had a sign that read "Keep Out, Dangerous Equipment Inside". Despite this, Peter pried the door open, and was shocked to see Connors hunched over a long table filled with vials of mysterious liquid. The man seemed to be trying to lift a vial, but it then slipped out of his hand and shattered on the floor.

"Dr. Connors?" Peter said without thinking. Connors turned around to face this intruder, but then, Peter saw how awful he looked all of a sudden. His face, it was a sickly greenish color, and his skin looked bumpier. And his teeth, Peter could have sworn he had fangs.

"Huh? P-Peter Parker," Connors managed to say. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Dr. Connors, I know that you've been up to something," said Peter. "And I understand why. It's because you're getting sick, isn't it? And it's all because of that formula you used to regrow your arm!"

"Oh, you found out about that, huh?" said Connors, looking down at his trenchcoat, which still covered up where he was supposed to be missing an arm.

"Dr. Connors, please," said Peter. "I want to help you. Can't you tell me what's wrong with you?"

Connors was silent for the longest time, before he looked over to a corner in the room that had a laptop sitting on a table. "That computer. It holds all the answers you looking for." Peter walked over to get it, but as he did, he heard something plop to the floor. He turned around and was shocked to see that Connors's trenchcoat fell off. But that wasn't what shocked Peter. What shocked him was Connors's new arm. The last time Peter had seen it, it was a human's arm, like it had never been cut off in the first place.

But now, it was green, scaly, and had razor-sharp claws at the end.

"D-d-dr. Connors!?" said Peter. "Wha-what on earth did you do to yourself?"

"Lizard... D-DNA," Connors stuttered, as if he was having trouble speaking. "I-I can't remember... but... it's transforming me... in all... the wrong ways..."

Before Peter could say anything else, Connors suddenly fell to the floor, screaming in pain. And that is when he transformed. Ripping through his clothes, he seemed to grow a foot taller, and his skin was now completely green and scaly. His feet ripped through his shoes, and his toes turned into sharp talons. A gigantic tail suddenly revealed itself, ripping through the back of his clothes and slapping onto the floor. Finally, when Connors looked over to Peter, all Peter could see was a lizard's head, a long snout and razor-sharp teeth.

"Dr. Connors?" Peter said.

Connors growled, but Peter could swear he could make out some words. "Peter... run... run..."

But after that, Connors roared. Roared louder than the T. rex in Jurassic Park. He dropped to all fours and ran angrily through the room like a wild animal, before he suddenly set its sights on Peter.

"Dr. Connors! It's me! Peter!" said Peter. But Connors, or rather, the Lizard he had just turned into, did not care for anything he was saying and instead knocked him to the floor. Standing on top of him, he broke out the massive claws on his claws on his hand and prepared to slash Peter into ribbons, but suddenly, a gunshot ran out. The Lizard fell in pain, and Peter looked up to see Lieutenant Stacy and Gwen standing in the doorway, George holding a smoking pistol in his hand. He then aimed it at the Lizard on the ground, before Peter cried out, "Wait, don't! That's- that's not what you think it is!"

"What are you talking about," said George, turning to Peter. However, the Lizard suddenly rose from the ground and roared, seemingly unfazed by the bullet he was just struck with. As he walked closer to George and Gwen, George fired at him several more times, but the Lizard only flinched. As everyone in the room stared at him, the bullet wounds on his body seemed to be quickly healing.

"It's immune to bullets?" said George. "Oh, come on!"

Angrily, the Lizard slashed at the Stacys, but George quickly pulled Gwen off to the side, over to where Peter was. However, the Lizard quickly followed and attempted to slash George, but the Lieutenant dodged, and the Lizard inside slashed a hole straight through the wall. He then tried to attack Gwen, but Peter suddenly jumped on top of him, screaming, "No, get away from her!" However, the Lizard simply grabbed Peter and through him through the wall that he had just created, making Peter roll painfully along the ground towards the door to the apartment. The Lizard tried attacking Gwen again, but George fired another shot at it to distract it before pulling Gwen aside and back through the doorway.

"You know, Gwen, when you talked to me earlier, I thought I would be busting a simple thief, not fighting for my life against a miniature dinosaur!" said George.

"Yeah, me too, Dad, me too," said Gwen.

Meanwhile, as Peter rose from the ground, he thought to himself, Ugh, I gotta stop him. But sadly, that's not a job for Peter Parker. Carefully, he snuck out the door.

The Stacys tried to keep a distance between themselves and the Lizard, but the creature was just too fast. George picked up a chair to keep the Lizard at bay, but the Lizard smashed it into piece with one swipe of his claws. The Stacys tried to find a way past him, but the Lizard always managed to cut them off. After a long time, he had them cornered by a window, but just before he could attack, he was hit with a webline that pulled him to the ground. The Stacys looked up to see Spider-Man.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own species?" said Spider-Man, as the Lizard quickly got to the ground and jumped on top of him. Spider-Man managed to heave him off, but the reptilian beast just would not stay down. As they continued to trade blows, Gwen suddenly looked over to see where Connors's little science table was, and suddenly a thought struck her.

"Dad, you and Spider-Man can keep him busy. I'm gonna make something to help us real quick." Gwen then dashed off before her father could stop her, and before he could chase after her, the Lizard fell in his way. As the Lizard stood up again, he slashed at Spider-Man, sending him flying across the room. Before Spider-Man could stand up, the Lizard planted its foot on his back to prevent him from getting up. He then prepared to stab him with his claws, until George suddenly shot the Lizard once again, before managing to knock it backwards. As Spider-Man stood up, he looked at George amazed, before saying, "C'mon, we can beat this thing together, right?" George looked at him before Spider-Man said, "C'mon, let's do it for your daughter, huh?" At this, George finally nodded and prepared his gun again as the Lizard stood up once more.

Meanwhile, Gwen was scrambling through Connors's science table, trying to mix something together. "C'mon, c'mon. If he's a lizard, that means he's ectothermic. And that means if I can use Peter's formula against him, I can slow him down!" As she worked, she heard the ruckus outside as Spider-Man and her father struggled to get the Lizard to stay down. Finally, though, she was done, and she carried the formula outside to where the fight was taking place. As the Lizard stood before Spider-Man and roared again, Gwen charged forward and dunked the formula inside the beast's mouth. As the Lizard spit out the glass shards, he found himself feeling slower, more sluggish. He felt his entire body getting colder, and it became difficult to move. Realizing this, Spider-Man kicked the Lizard, causing it to stumble backwards, but it was moving towards the window. As the Lizard's weight crashed into the glass, it shattered completely, and the Lizard stumbled out through it.

"No!" Spider-Man said, as he ran over to the window and used a webline to catch the Lizard. However, the Lizard suddenly felt its strength returning thanks to the daylight outside, and and slashed through the web, resulting in him crashing all the way to the ground below.

Spider-Man cringed as the beast met the pavement, before looking back towards the Stacys and saying, "Um, I'm sorry, I couldn't catch him."

"Why on earth would you even want to catch him?" said George.

"Because..." Spider-Man paused as he thought about his next words. "Because that kid who told me to come in here, he said that wasn't really a monster."

"Kid?" said Gwen.

"You see, I was swinging by outside, but then this kid sticks his head out the window of this building, and he's screaming at me, so I came over to him, and he told me there was some sort of lizard-creature on the attack in here. Brown hair, blue-gray eyes?"

"Ooh, that must have been Peter!" said Gwen. "Is that where he went?"

"Uh, yeah," said Spider-Man. "But he also told me that some man had turned into that creature. He begged me to stop him, but not hurt him."

"A man turning into a lizard-creature?" said George. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Well, that's what the kid told me," said Spider-Man, walking over to the window. "He said there was a laptop that explained everything, and he-" Spider-Man stopped as he made it to the window, and saw that the Lizard had vanished.

"What? The lizard-creature! It's gone!"

"What?" said George as he ran over to the window, but was stunned to see the crater in the pavement below was empty.

"Oh, great, he could still be out there," sighed Spider-Man. He looked over to George and said, "Look, just promise me that you'll look at this laptop. The kid insisted it was important."

"Okay, okay, fine," said George. "We'll check this out."

Spider-Man grinned in satisfaction under his mask, but then, George decided to grab onto his arm. "But you know, as long as you're here, I'm afraid I'm under an obligation to take you in as an officer of the law."

"Seriously?" said Spider-Man. "Well, I suppose if you- Whoa, what's that!?" George turned his head to looked where Spider-Man had just pointed, but then felt his hand being webbed to the wall as he turned to see Spider-Man jump out the window to swing away.

"Oh, come on!" George complained. Suddenly, Gwen came forward holding the laptop, saying, "Hey, Dad, I think this is the laptop Spider-Man was talking about."

"Great, I'll take that down to the station so we can look it over." George then looked at his webbed hand, and, unable to pull himself free, he looked at his daughter and said, "You know how to dissolve a spider web?"

Later at the police station, George and other officers had the laptop turned on and were looking at a series of video diaries Connors had recorded.

On the first one, Dr. Connors looked normal. "This is Day 1 of my video log. I'm cataloguing everything that's happening to me so that I can get to the bottom of this. You see, yesterday, I was an amputee. I lost my arm in a terrible accident. But now, I've woken up this morning, and look at this!" He pulled his newly-regrown arm out of his trenchcoat. "Somehow my arm has returned! I don't know how, but I intend to find out!"

On the next video, Connors said, "This is Day 2 of my investigative research. I've found an injection site on the shoulder of where my old arm was amputated. It would seem that someone injected me with something when I wasn't looking. But now, look at this. The serum I've been developing, a serum that uses the DNA of lizards, it's gone. It would seem that someone tried testing my own serum on me without me knowing. I designed that serum to see if the regenerative abilities of lizards could somehow be transferred to humans. If I truly am the first test subject of this serum as I believe, that it would seem the serum is a success. However, the serum was experimental. I can't help but wonder if there are any side effects."

On the next video, Connors was looking a bit greener around the gills. "I think my worst fears have been realized. The serum does indeed have side effects. My skin is changing color, and it feels lumpier. I wonder if more than just the regenerative traits of lizards had been passed down onto me. I need to do some tests on myself."

The next video showed Connors with sharper nails and teeth. "My condition is worsening. It seems the serum is mutating my DNA in ways I never foresaw. My body, it grows more lizard-like by the minute. The serum is hereby declared a failure. I think I need to develop a way to cure myself."

Finally, the last video showed Connors as Peter had found him just before he transformed, the date reading on that same day. "I d-did not think it c-could get any worse, but I w-was wrong y-yet again. My mind, it's... broken. It would seem the serum is affecting not only my body, but my mind. I can f-feel it. Animalistic instincts. They threaten to cloud my human judgement. I'm g-going crazy. Soon, animalistic instincts may completely replace my human reasoning. I believe I have what I need to cure m-myself, but I don't have much time. The formula for my cure is-"

Suddenly, the video feed cut off, leaving everyone who was watching speechless.

Afterward, the whole thing was published in the Daily Bugle, where Peter and Gwen were able to read about it. The next day, Peter arrived at school, and ran into Gwen.

"Oh, uh, hey, Gwen," he said.

"Oh, hey, Peter," said Gwen. "I've been meaning to talk to you."

"Uh, yeah, Gwen, I'm really sorry I wasn't there to help you. I just-"

"No, Peter, you don't have to apologize for anything," said Gwen. "I think I owe you an apology, actually."

"You do?" said Peter.

"Yeah, I shouldn't have put us in danger like that. No, I shouldn't have put you in danger like that. I don't blame you for running away. I mean, we're just kids for crying out loud! What were we even gonna do against a man-sized lizard creature anyway? It's not like you have superpowers or something."

"Oh, y-yeah, that's true," said Peter. "But still, I was really ashamed of myself for not at least trying to help."

"But you did!" said Gwen. "After all, if it wasn't for you, we would never have found the truth about Dr. Connors. We'd never have learned the real reason he stole all that stuff. It could have been so much worse. Not to mention you found Spider-Man! He told me that!"

"Huh?" said Peter, before he quickly remembered what he said to George before. "Oh, y-yeah, I did! That's what I did!"

"Yeah, so in a way, you did save me!" said Gwen. "In fact, that formula you showed me in chemistry class before helped us defeat the creature. Really, you were a better hero than I was. I could've put people at risk, I could've made something terrible happen to Dr. Connors. I was so determined to prove that I'm a good detective, I forgot to protect and serve. But maybe now thanks to you, someone can help him.

"Eh, you would've figured it out, Gwen. You really are a great detective."

"Yeah, but you know what?" said Gwen. "I think maybe I should try going to an actual police academy or something before I declare myself ready to be a detective. Dad was right. I wasn't really ready."

"Well, for what it's worth, I'd say you'll be a great investigator someday," said Peter.

"Thanks!" said Gwen. "Oh, that reminds me, I am looking into a less dangerous mystery, just 'cause I'm so curious."

"Really?" said Peter. "What is it?"

Quietly, Gwen pulled Peter off to the side and pulled out her phone, before pulling up a picture of something that made Peter silently gasp.

It was some sort of evidence board of pictures and red string in her bedroom. Except the pictures were of Spider-Man. They were of him.

"I'm gonna do what Dad is still struggling to do. I'm gonna solve Spider-Man's secret identity!" said Gwen.

Peter was stunned for a long moment, before he said, "But, why would you even want to do that?"

Gwen suddenly got an almost perky look on her face. "Oh, this guy? He's something else. I don't care what my dad says. I know he's a great hero. This is why I'm gonna find his real identity and prove that he's a hero. Maybe then Dad will finally leave him alone."

Suddenly, the bell rang, and Gwen said, "Oops, we should get to class, huh? Well, I guess I'll see you around, Peter."

As she walked away, Peter gulped to himself. So, first, she's smitten with Spider-Man, and now she wants to know who he is? Ugh, why is this happening to me?

Sitting alone in the dark was a man sitting in a leopard-print chair. The heads of animals littered the walls. The man was holding his phone in his hand, and read the Daily Bugle headline of the events.

"Authorities are doing everything to capture this lizard-creature, but they intend to catch him alive in order to learn more about what it is."

Slowly, the man grinned as he saying the picture of the Lizard. "At long last, I've found my new quarry."

So, yes, we all literally knew that Curt Connors was the Lizard, BUT, I wrote this chapter mainly as a way to develop Gwen's character, and also her and Peter's relationship. Patience, my friends, this story's just getting started.