Chapter Thirty-Seven: Primal

The Connors' apartment had been circled by the NYPD since the remains were called in. It was difficult to get closer for both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. The perimeter was tight, so it looked to Spidey like the C.S.I. crew was working the crime scene.

Perched on the side of a building a block away, Peter furrowed his brow.

He hadn't found anything traceable earlier...but maybe the police could. After all, he didn't exactly have a crime lab. Peter knew coming back here wouldn't accomplish anything...but he didn't know what else to do. His friend's family had been butchered.

"Woah, what the hell is going on over there?"

At this point, like you, Peter wasn't surprised to hear a certain obnoxious voice interrupt his rumination.

Spidey turned his head and spied Protonslaught hovering down from the night sky. Peter wasn't in the mood. "Not tonight," he said bluntly.

"Geez. Must be serious then. Shouldn't we be down there?"

With a sigh, Peter turned back to face the apartment building. "Unless you're secretly a coroner, I wouldn't bother."

"...This is going to sound really bad...but what's a coroner?"

Peter inhaled sharply. "People died today, Prote. Could you just...not, for once?"

She fell silent. Peter watched as the cops maintained the barricade and kept nosy neighbours at bay.

"Look...I'm sorry."

"I can tell when someone's forcing a personality. Trust me, I wrote the book on it. Why are you doing it so hard?" Spidey asked.

Prote glanced away.

Suddenly, there was a loud 'bang'. It wasn't a gunshot...Peter was very familiar with what they sounded like at this point. The cops stirred and peered at the alleyway next to the apartment building.

Peter reached toward his backpack and pulled out his phone. After tapping away at it, a feed from the local police channel came through.

"--some bum going through the trash. Gimme a sec," said a police officer.

He then trailed off from the rest of the group and slunk into the alleyway.

"Watch it, Kev. Heard Plant-Man's running around again."

"Ha ha. Ha ha. Shut up. I got a concussion from that stupid goddamn coconut."

"Right. Well, I heard there's a guy working Soho who got shot in the head by Bullseye and he got up and continued pursuit before he realised he had a bullet in his brain."

No smart remark came from the officer investigating.

Peter narrowed his eyes.

"Kev?" asked the cop's partner. "Goodman, Nguyen, you're with me. Mo, you stay put."

Peter locked his phone and stashed it in his backpack, an anxious feeling starting to settle in the pit of his stomach.

Prote cocked her head. "You'd think you'd have pockets in your suit by now."

"Works in theory. In practise? I can't afford to buy a new phone whenever I get thrown against a brick wall," Spidey explained. "Come on. I have a bad feeling about this."

Peter webbed his bag to the wall and leapt off it before Protonslaught had a chance to say something witty. In the next few minutes, Spidey swung around the edge of the complex and landed in the alley. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Once they did...

One of the police officers was lying face first in the pavement. A manhole lay wide open at the end of the alleyway. Within a second, Peter hurried over to the cop and turned him over. His ballistic vest was shredded, like someone with five swords had hit him in quick succession.

Thankfully, there was no sign of blood. Spidey looked out of the alley and called, "Hey! Officer down!"

Just as Prote landed on the wet concrete, the last cop on the perimeter came rushing in. "Holy shit...!"

Spider-Man stood, letting the officer tend to his friend. "Don't worry, we'll find the others. Let's go, Prote."

"Sewers. Ugh," she muttered.

The tunnels were pitch black. Good thing Peter had a durable flashlight stowed on his hip next to his web-fluid cartridges. With this device clipped to the side of his mask, Spidey crawled along the side of the pipes and scoured the darkness.

The light painted what it could, but the pair was enveloped by shadow.

Protonslaught floated in the air above the disgusting, green water, noticeably tense for once. "You have a flashlight on your costume. That's pretty neat. Do you have nose plugs as well? It smells like...well...shit in here."

Peter ignored her comment. Instead, he remained vigilant as they swept along the tunnel.

The pipes lurched to the left, and the terrible smell seemed to amplify. "Is it me or is it starting to smell even worse...?" quipped Prote. "How is that even--"

A sound that caused the hair on the back of Peter's neck to stand on end filled the tunnel and echoed on to infinity. A wail...a pained and shrill cry. He froze.

"O-Oh my God..." muttered Protonslaught. "Where is it coming from...? This way...!"

With that, she shot off like a rocket, leaving Spidey to spur himself after her. The shriek was so bone-chilling, so raw...someone, maybe one of the cops, was in unbearable pain. Peter scurried along the walls with intense speed, eventually coming up on Prote once more.

The path branched via a steel walkway, where Protonslaught now stood. Hanging over the railing of this catwalk were a series of tattered white rags. The crying had stopped.

As Peter dismounted the wall and approached her, Protonslaught carefully pinched a corner of the material and lifted it up. "Doesn't look like police uniform," Peter declared.

However, when Prote tilted it, Peter saw an ID card attached to what would have been the breast pocket. Like a viper, his hand lashed out and snatched it.

The card read 'Dr. Curtis Connors'.

"God..." Peter gasped. It was clear to him now. Whoever...or whatever hurt Martha and Billy had gotten to Curt too.

Prote lowered the scraps, snapping Peter back into the moment. As they proceeded, the temperature fell sharply. The stench became unbearable. As the catwalk led into a tighter corridor, the pair noticed that this said hall didn't appear to be made of concrete...

Some kind of translucent resin coated the hallway. It looked like dried glue under Peter's flashlight. It was slick, wet. His eyes started at the base of the wall and slowly traced upward...until he saw a face staring back at him.

"Fuck...!" snapped Protonslaught.

Instead of jumping, Peter inhaled. Wrapped in this strange material was a person. Barely visible beneath the slimy substance was the black of a NYPD uniform.

As Peter reached for him, the intense echo caused by the narrow hallway shook his teeth. The horrible crying was back and so loud that Peter knew that its source was just around the bend.

"I'll be back...just gotta make sure it's safe." He wasn't sure if the officer could hear him...but he said it anyway.

As they continued, Peter's discomfort only grew. Dozens of people were strewn about the walls. Men, women, children...but they seemed to be alive. This was animalistic behaviour, like they were prey being preserved for food to last a season or two. Was this a nest?

The sobbing was dreadfully close. Spidey turned one final corner and what he saw stopped his heart.

Some kind of creature; reptilian in physical appearance. It was larger than an average man, hunched over itself and clutching its head...as it wept. Tears pooled around its shut eyes, drawing lines down its scaled face. Peter could hear Prote gasp behind him.

As suddenly as it began, the wailing stopped and the Lizard's blazing yellow eye snapped open. Its iris narrowed, fixed on Peter's face. His skull vibrated as his brain bounced across its interior. His Spider-Sense was screaming at him. Just in time, Peter raised his hands.

He had no bearing on what happened around him...the only thing Peter knew was that the beast had propelled itself right at him and if it weren't for that last minute bracing, thanks to his Spider-Sense, he would've had his throat ripped out.

Peter was speared off his feet by the Lizard, whose jaw was being held at bay by nothing but Peter's raw strength. He felt the two of them tumble through the air then suddenly, slam into a body of water.

Furious and unrelenting slashes of talons as thick as butcher's knives tore at Peter's chest, reddening the water and forcing him to scream. Bubbles were blown upward as Spidey wrestled with his terrifying foe.

With every ounce of strength in him, Peter tucked up his legs and thrust them out into the reptile's gut. The Lizard was launched free, and Peter now concerned himself with avoiding death by drowning...or bleeding out.

He desperately clawed upward, searching for the surface of the water. Spidey heard a faint voice calling from above the liquid.

Peter broke the water line, gasping to fill his empty lungs. Using his web shooter, Spidey launched himself out of the rotten liquid and onto the wall of the basin that he found himself in. He was, quite frankly, too busy to comment on being dunked in sewerage.

Instead, he frantically searched for the Lizard. No bubbles indicated a submerged foe...no more ripples tore through the water.

Prote swept through the air toward Peter and widened her eyes. "P-Peter...! Oh God..."

He glanced down at his chest. Dozens of lacerations criss-crossed his body several inches deep and oozing with blood. All of a sudden, he started to feel faint. His grip slipped, head heavy with an impending darkness that he couldn't shake...and yet, all he could see was Protonslaught. Her voice echoed through his mind, repeating that one word; 'Peter'. She knew his name.

Peter finally lost all strength and fell from the wall, only to be clumsily caught by the girl waiting below. His weight threw her to the ground, but she never let go of him. Her face came into view again, but this time Peter could see right through her mask. Her voice...her eyes...the realisation struck through his chest like a javelin.

"Belle?" Peter's voice trembled and then, before he could truly watch the guilt hit her eyes, everything vanished.