The Invincible Spider-Man
Chapter 22: Reptilian Rampage
NO, NO NO!" Shouted Norman, in his penthouse, as he pushed his arms to a wall and screamed.
"Come on, Osborn! Have a spine! To have true power, you have to cooperate." Said the voice in his head.
Norman banged his head to the wall multiple walls. "I can't hurt Peter! I just can't." He whispered.
"PARKER MADE HIS CHOICE! IT'S TIME YOU MAKE YOURS!" Shouted the voice at the top of its non-existent lungs.
"W-what…what if w-we…give him a c-ch-choice?" Asked Norman, swallowing hard as his mouth turned dry.
"You mean, give him a chance to see our way?" Asked the voice, curiously.
"Y-Yes." Said Norman.
The voice thought for a while, then cackled loudly.
Curt staggered back at home, feeling extremely dizzy, only to see cops surrounding his house, asking Martha questions, while Billy sat near an ambulance. Martha was teary-eyed, worried for her husband. Curt watched from an alleyway.
All of a sudden, his eyes turned green again.
"No! I cannot do this again!" Said Curt, holding his head in his hand and pulling his hair, as he ran away at an inhuman speed, towards a different alleyway. His back started hurting as he stood erect, his teeth growing sharper.
A homeless man was sleeping in the alleyway, when he woke up to Curt's screams. He hobbled towards Curt, who was writhing in pain.
"Yo man, you okay?" Asked the homeless man.
Curt stared back at him, with his green pupils now turned into slits, as he quickly released and retracted his forked tongue, his skin a scaly green.
Peter quickly started to leave school, ready to go hunting for The Lizard, only to run into Flash. But he noticed something: Flash crying.
Peter raised an eyebrow. He had rarely seen Flash whining, and now he was bawling out tears near the school steps. Peter took a deep breath, ready to get punched, and walked towards Flash.
"Flash, what's wrong?" Asked Peter.
"Nothing, Parker. Just leave me alone." Said Flash.
"Flash, listen I-"
"Peter. Please." Said Flash, his voice breaking.
Obliging, Peter walked away, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Liz had witnessed the entire thing, and quickly walked to Peter.
"Hey Liz! What's up with Flash? He literally called me "Peter" instead of Lil' Parker." Asked Peter, still confused.
"It's his dad. He wants him to stop concentrating on football and he wants him to "get a life." Sheesh." Said Liz, rolling her eyes.
"Oh man, that's harsh. Who is his father anyways?" Asked Peter, curious.
"Alex O'Hern. He's a construction worker so he doesn't make much money. That's why he wants Flash to do work and make money to support both of them." Explained Liz.
"Oh. Well, if there's anything I can do to help, let me know." Said Peter, as he said goodbye and walked away.
Spider-Man swung towards a tall building and sat on its edge, unsure of what to do, as he held the empty vial of The Lizard serum under the moonlight.
"As if Green Goblin wasn't enough, I need to find a way to bring Dr Connors back. But how? Maybe I could reverse-engineer the process?" Thought Peter to himself.
All of a sudden, he had a Monster Spider-Sense tingle, as he backflipped out of the way of a Pumpkin Bomb. Behind him stood The Green Goblin, hovering on his glider.
"Speak of the devil. Or in this case, Goblin." Said Spider-Man, masking his terror with the fake determination in his voice. In truth, Peter was truly terrified of The Goblin.
"I can tell you're afraid, Parker. Oh and by the way, your secret's safe with me." Cackled Goblin, as he got off the glider and imposingly walked towards Spider-Man.
"H-How do y-you know who I am?" Asked Spider-Man, his voice faltering a bit out of fear.
"I'm not here to hurt you. That comes later, and it depends on you!" Exclaimed Goblin.
"What do you mean?" Asked Spider-Man confused.
"The people of this city, who are they to you? To them, you're not a hero. They don't think of you as someone like The Avengers. No, they think of you as a criminal, partly because of that sleazeball, Jonah Jameson." Explained Goblin in a raspy voice through his helmet.
"I don't care what they think of me. I'm here to help."
"Until they hunt you down like a pack of dogs! How long do you think till the entirety of New York turns against you? How long until they treat you like the scum you fight every day? Scum like me!" Shouted Goblin.
"What's your point, Gobby?" Countered Spider-Man.
"I'm giving you an offer. New York will eventually turn against you. So you either quit, or stay out of my way! If you continue to meddle in my affairs, well…let's just say that me and your loved ones will have a hell of a time!" Shouted Green Goblin.
Peter clenched his fists, He remembered how Kingpin had given him the same choice a few months back, and he remembered how he promised he would always be Spider-Man.
"Sorry Gobby, but this is my responsibility!" Shouted Spider-Man, as he punched Green Goblin straight across his face. However, Goblin's neck didn't even move a bit. He was unfazed by Spider-Man's powerful punch.
"Big mistake!" Shouted Goblin, as he kicked Spider-Man straight in his ribs, and off the huge building. As Spider-Man plummeted to the ground, he quickly shot a web, and managed to swing into the building, and he went crashing through the office window. Luckily, there was no one in the office at the time, os no one was hurt.
As Spider-Man got to his feet, Goblin threw 3 Pumpkin Bombs inside the window, destroying the entire floor as Spider-Man managed to jump out of the building before the explosion.
However, as he jumped out, Goblin grabbed him and slammed his face brutally into a wall, before pulling it back and throwing Peter into the street. Luckily, Peter shot another web and swung off before hitting the pavement. However, as he swung away, Goblin threw a sharp boomerang-like blade, which cut Spider-Man's web.
Spider-Man fell and crashed on a moving pickup truck. "We'll meet again, Spider-Man." Said Green Goblin, sadistically as he flew off.
Peter managed to get up and he swung away to another building. "Great. Just what I needed. The Green Goblin breathing down my neck." Lamented Peter, as he held his bruised left shoulder. Miraculously, the vial containing residue of the serum hadn't broken.
"I bet I could reverse-engineer the process to formulate an antidote! There is already some residue of Lizard DNA in this vial, but I'm gonna need a vial of The Lizard's blood. Guess it's time to head back to the sewers. Sheesh." Thought Peter, as he swung towards Dr Connors' lab to grab a syringe.
As Spider-Man waded through the shallow waters, he reached another circular junction, leading to 6 different tunnels. All of a sudden, Peter's Spider-Sense tingled, as he noticed three lizards, walking in a perfectly synchronized manner into tunnel number 3.
"And we have a winner." Muttered Spider-Man, as he stealthily jumped to the roof of tunnel 3, and crawled ahead.
As he crawled forward, he noticed many more lizards moving forward, almost like a miniature army. Peter closely followed them, as they moved from one junction to another, until Peter saw a shadow of someone.
"Oh my god." Said Spider-Man under his breath, as he quickly swung towards the person. It was Curt, standing at the end of a four way junction. He looked petrified.
"Doctor Connors? Is that you?" Asked Spider-Man, approaching cautiously.
"S-Spider-Man? No, don't come near me!" Pleaded Curt.
"Curt, I'm here to help you. Just stay calm."
"It wasn't my fault! I don't know when it happens!" Shouted Curt, his shaggy hair coming down till his forehead, as his eyes started to turn green.
"Okay, okay. I'm standing right here. I just need a sample of your blood to create an antidote for you. Just stay calm, doc." Said Spider-Man.
That's when Curt's forked tongue came out, and his eyes turned green. Before Spider-Man's eyes, Curt started to horrifically transform into The Lizard, it was enough to give Ridley Scott nightmares for days.
The Lizard ferociously growled at Spider-Man, as he slashed at him with his claws.
"Doc, come on! You gotta work with me." Groaned Peter, as he flipped over Lizard and landed on his back. However, Lizard grabbed Peter and threw him towards a wall.
Before Spider-Man could get up, Lizard held his leg with one hand, lifted him over his head and slammed him down on the other side.
Spider-Man shot a web on Lizard's face. That's when he got an idea.
"Lizards have very sensitive photoreceptors in their eyes, making them sensitive to light, especially bright flashes!" Thought Peter. As Lizard clawed the webbing off of his face, Spider-Man took out his camera and quickly aimed it towards Lizard, with the camera's flash enabled.
"Say cheese, Kaiju!" Shouted Spider-Man, as he started taking pictures, aiming the bright flashes towards Lizard's face.
As Lizard was disoriented, Peter jumped on his back and stuck the syringe into The Lizard's neck, extracting as much blood as possible.
Just as Peter was done, The Lizard grabbed him and threw him into another tunnel, before escaping.
Spider-Man got up, panting for breath. He had a vial of Lizard's blood now, more than enough for the antidote.
"And, I got some A Plus photos of The Lizard for Jonah." Said Peter, as he swung back towards the nearest manhole.
Spider-Man had no time to rest, as he quickly swung to Dr Connors' lab. It was 3 am.
"Okay, I have about 4 hours to concoct an antidote. Come on Pete." Thought Peter, as he got the centrifuge ready.
Finally, after about 3 hours, he had a clean antidote ready.
"Phew. I hope this works." Said Peter, completely exhausted.
That's when he checked his watch and yelped.
"A job for later." Said Spider-Man.
Peter managed to get home, take a long shower and get dressed for school. By now, he was used to being an insomniac.
"Hey May, I'm gonna head to school. See ya!" Said Peter, as he quickly hugged her and rushed out of the house. However, as he left the house, he found something on the porch. It was a carved Halloween pumpkin.
"Goblin." Peter muttered, as he slowly approached the pumpkin. But his Spider-Sense was not tingling.
Inside the pumpkin was a note, and there was something scribbled on it in green:
"So it begins…"
Well, that was a fun chapter to write. The next 2 chapters will be the last of Season 2: "Green Grows The Goblin." And then, Season 3 will be released sometime in August. And I might as well reveal a tease for the last chapter:
If I had to describe the ending of Season 2 in one word, it would be "Heartbreaking." Well, that's all I'm gonna give you guys for now!
Shawna1999: Thank you! I bet you'll be surprised by what happens in the end. I've got a huge twist planned.
redbird12: Thank you so much for your review! I mean it when I say AcaSM was truly inspiring. As for any actors who I think could play these characters, I wanted to give the reader the freedom of imagining what their version of these characters would like. When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man, Stan said that he wanted the reader to imagine themselves under the mask of Spider-Man. So, I'm trying to emulate that by allowing the reader to imagine their version of these characters. As for any inspiration other than the MCU, I took a lot from Spectacular Spider-Man and the Raimi Trilogy, especially while thinking of Norman Osborn. I also took some inspiration from the TASM series for the Lizard, and Electro from Spectacular Spider-Man. And for next season, I've taken inspiration from Marvel's Spider-Man on the PS4. And as for Kingpin and Daredevil, I looked at the Daredevil Netflix show, which is a masterpiece, by the way.
Stay tuned and reviews are greatly appreciated!
Yours Truly,
Shadow Strike.