-Chapter 2-

Night of the Lizard, Part 2

In her room, Peni was on her bed reading when she heard a knock on the window. She turned, seeing Peter in full Spider-Man costume outside. She got up, locking the door before opening the window to let him in. As soon as he was inside, she sniffed the air, wincing.

"Dude, you smell like crap," she told him.

"Still?" Peter sighed. "I took a thirty-minute shower before I came here."

"Sorry. You might need to burn that costume."

Spider-Man shook his head. "Not important right now. Peni, I saw the sewer monster."

"So it is real," Peni remarked.

"And that's not all. I snagged this off him before I got away."

He presented the nametag. Peni took it, gasping.

"Is… is that…?"

"'Fraid so," Peter nodded. "I think that sewer Lizard is Dr. Connors."

"Damn it. His lizard serum must've turned him into that thing." Peni's eyes widened in horror. "And we helped him make it... Oh my God, Pete…"

"I know," Spidey sighed. "This is on us. Me maybe more so. It was my DNA that gave him the idea."

Peni took a deep breath, composing herself.

"No…" she shook her head. "No, let's calm down and think for a sec. I mean, how were we supposed to know the doctor would jump right to using the formula on himself?"

"Right," Peter nodded. "We need to find a way to fix this."

Peni thought for a minute before snapping her fingers.

"The Neogenic Recombinator!" she realized. "If it made the Lizard formula work, then it can work in reverse too."

"It's worth a shot," Peter agreed. "We need to get to the lab."

"I'll go," Peni decided. "You go find the Lizard and keep him from hurting anyone."

Peter nodded, hopping out the window and swinging into the night.

Meanwhile, Yuri was leading a SWAT team into the subway, having gotten clearance to investigate the sewer monster.

"So, what exactly are we looking for down here?" one officer asked.

"Anything unusual or suspicious." Yuri replied.

As they continued on, they were unaware of something skulking them from the water. Suddenly, one of the officers was pulled under with a yelp. They all turned, looking and seeing nothing. Yuri saw small ripples on the surface, as well as bubbles that soon stopped, and immediately realized what was happening.

"It's in the water!"

They stepped back as the Lizard burst out of the water with a roar, landing before them.

"Open fire!" Yuri screamed.

Gunshots filled the tunnels, peppering the water as the monster weaved through the bullets. A few grazed him, but were essentially useless. He lunged at the officers, tackling one of them to the ground. As he reared back with his claws, a bullet hit him in the back, drawing blood. The Lizard roared in pain, spinning around in time for Yuri to pump multiple bullets into his chest. He reared back before seemingly dropping dead. Yuri slowly approached, keeping her gun trained on the beast. She jostled the body with her foot, seemingly getting no reaction. At that very moment, the bullet wounds rapidly healed before disappearing, and the Lizard's eyes snapped wide open. He lunged forward, slapping Yuri's gun away before knocking her off her feet with a tail swipe. Yuri hit the ground hard as the Lizard loomed over her. He raised a claw, ready to strike, only for it to start falling apart. The Lizard looked at his arm as it crumbled away.

"No!" he shouted. "Not now!"

He turned tail and took off running, the officers firing on him as he retreated. After a minute, Yuri let out a groan, slowly sitting up.

"Oh, yeah…" she winced. "Something's definitely bleeding."

She fumbled for her radio, attempting to radio for help.

Meanwhile, Peni made her way to Oscorp, hoping to find Dr. Connors. She ran as fast as she could, barging in through the doors and heading for his lab. Just as she stopped to catch her breath, she heard a low growl and monstrous hisses, turning in their direction to see Freddy's cage had been broken open.

"Freddy…?" she let out.

She slowly approached, finding him in the midst of messily eating another mouse. He had mutated into a horrific mouse-lizard hybrid, twice his original size and with the hind legs and mouth of a lizard. Peni gasped, a hand going to her mouth as she stepped back.

"Oh God…"

She slowly backed away, only to bump into something behind her. She yelped, spinning around to see Dr. Connors.

"Peni," he greeted. "Are you alright?"

"Dr. Connors…" Peni gasped. "Listen, your lizard formula... it's gone horribly wrong. Look what it did to Freddy!"

She pointed at where the rat-lizard was. It merely gave a hiss before going back to eating.

"We have to get rid of it!" she insisted.

"There's just a few bugs that need to be ironed out, that's all," Connors insisted flippantly.

"Bugs?!" Peni shrieked. "You call that a bug?!"

"The rewards outweigh the risks," Connors replied. "With this formula we can heal any wound, replace any limb. Weakness would be nothing but a memory."

"Doc, for God's sake!" Peni cried. "It's turning people into monsters!"

Connors walked past her, heading for the vial containing what was left of the serum.

"'Monster' is a relative term," he told her. "To a canary, a cat is a monster. We've just gotten used to being the cat."

"I don't think Peter appreciated being the canary," Peni pointed out. "You could have killed him!"

Connors filled a syringe with the serum.

"He and I are living proof of Neogenics' benefits, Peni. Don't you see that?" He turned to her. "I spent my life as a scientist trying to create a world without weakness, without outcasts. I sought to create a stronger human being, but there's no such thing! Human beings are weak, pathetic, feeble-minded creatures... why be human at all, when we can be so much more? Faster! Stronger! Smarter! This is my gift to you!"

Before Peni could stop him, Connors jammed the syringe into his stump, injecting the contents into his body.

"NO!" she screamed.

He twitched and spasmed, transforming into the Lizard a second time. She backed away in horror as the Lizard turned to her, his eyes wild.

"Dr. Connors, take it easy!" Peni pleaded. "Can you hear me?! Dr. Connors!"

The Lizard hissed before lunging at her. Peni narrowly dodged before taking off running. She fumbled for her phone, putting Peter on speed dial

Elsewhere, Spider-Man observed the SWAT team exiting the subway, a battered Yuri supported by George Stacy. At that moment, his phone buzzed. He pulled it out, hitting the answer button.

"Hey, Peni. No sign of the Lizard yet, but I'm sure he's-"

"RIGHT HERE!"

Peter recoiled before slowly returning the phone to his ear.

"Uh... say that again?"

"He's at Oscorp and after me, Pete! You've gotta get over here right now!"

Spider-Man's visors widened again before closing as he took a deep breath.

"I'm on my way, don't worry. Just take a deep breath, stay calm… AND RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!"

Spider-Man immediately took off swinging to Oscorp.

Peni ducked into an office, desperate to escape as the Lizard followed.

"Nowhere to hide, Peni!" the Lizard mocked.

She quickly hid under the desk before the Lizard could see her, doing her best to keep quiet. She covered her mouth, holding her breath as his reptilian claws passed by her. She heard his footsteps slowly leaving, tapering off into nothing. After a moment, Peni slowly emerged from under the desk, looking around and then up-

-to see the Lizard clinging to the ceiling much like Spider-Man, looking down at her.

"Found you."

She let out a shriek of fear as the Lizard dropped down in front of her, grabbing her by the arm.

"No!" Peni struggled to get loose as he dragged her along, out of the door. "Let me go!"

"You heard the lady! BACK OFF!"

Both turned in time for the Lizard to take a double flying kick to the face from Spider-Man. Peni was dropped, and Spider-Man quickly rushed to her side.

"Go!" he shouted. "GO!"

Peni wasted no time running off as the Lizard recovered.

"Don't you understand?!" the Lizard demanded. "All these souls, lost and alone- I can save them! I can cure them! There's no need to stop me, Peter!"

"I'm not boarding this train, Doc!" Spidey shot back. "You're not the engineer driving it right now!"

The Lizard leapt towards him, forcing Spidey to shoot a web and slide under him. As the Lizard landed, Spidey landed on his back, trying his best to web him up. The Lizard, however, thrashed around, trying to throw him off.

"You're not thinking straight, Doc!" Peter shouted.

They charged out into the hallway, Spider-Man managing to web his arms to his chest.

"Stop it!" he pleaded. "This isn't you!"

"Don't you understand, Peter?" he demanded. "This is me! Just like that is you! This is the next step in evolution!"

"Your mind's devolving, Doc!" Peter cried. "You wanted to help mankind, not play God with it!"

Spider-Man finally leapt off of the Lizard and onto the ceiling

"You just can't see it. I can fix everything! I can make everyone like us!"

"The world has enough mutants and monsters, Connors! It doesn't need more!"

The Lizard climbed onto the ceiling after Spider-Man, clawing at him with every step.

"C'mon, let's just sit down and talk this out!" Spidey begged.

He jumped off, ducking under a claw swipe before webbing his hand to a metal door. The Lizard tore his arm free, a jagged sliver of steel attached to his arm like a sword.

"Oh boy…"

The Lizard swung the steel at Spider-Man, prompting him to backflip out of the way. He quickly zipped between his legs, much to the Lizard's fury.

"Okay, so you don't wanna talk?"

The Lizard let out a frenzied shriek, which was abruptly cut off when Spider-Man shot a web over his mouth.

"There ya go!"

The Lizard instantly tore it off before swinging his tail at Spider-Man. He quickly caught it and tried to hold the Lizard down with it. The Lizard smirked before swinging it around, slamming Peter against the walls repeatedly.

"Don't-" Spidey managed with each whack. "Make me… have to… hurt you!"

"Who's hurting whom? Hmm?"

He swung his tail again. The tail detached, flying down the hallway with Spider-Man still clinging to it. The Lizard skulked towards him, his tail growing back as he did so.

"Okay…" Peter shoved the still twitching tail off of him. "That is disgusting."

He vaulted to his feet just in time for the Lizard to grab him by the face and slam him against the window, shattering it in multiple places. Before he could do more than that, something collided with the back of his head. He turned, dropping Spidey as he did, to see Peni standing there, a metal folding chair twisted out of shape in her hands.

"Peni…" he hissed before advancing on her.

"You need help, Dr. Connors!" Peni exclaimed. "Give it up!"

"Peni, Peni, Peni…" the Lizard sighed, wagging a finger. "You're just as blind as he is. You can't see the bigger picture."

"See this!"

The Lizard turned just in time to see Spider-Man shoot him in the face with a web. Spidey took advantage of that discraction to leap onto him, covering his entire body with webbing.

"Please hold, please hold, please hold…" he muttered.

It did, but it was clear it wouldn't for long. Peter hurried over to Peni, taking the chair and using it to smash the window completely. With that, he grabbed her by the arm.

"I'm gonna throw you out the window now." he told her calmly.

"You're gonna what?!" Peni shrieked.

Peter proceeded to do just that, catching her with a webline and lowering her to the ground. It was at that moment they heard police sirens. As the Lizard ripped free, Spider-Man crouched down.

"Uh-oh…" he taunted. "Somebody's been a bad Lizard."

Their fight then spilled into a copy room, where an elderly man with a mustache was listening to music with headphones while making some copies. Never once noticing the two mutated combatants in the room, he calmly walked out with the copies in hand as Peter was thrown into the copy machine, smashing it to pieces. By the time Spider-Man collected himself and pried his body out of the smashed machine, the Lizard was gone.

"Perfect…" he spat.

He hurried back to his lab, hoping to find any sign of him, only to find the Neogenic Recombinator removed from its spot on the wall, and Connors' research notes nowhere to be seen.

"Oh no…"

Author's Note:

Oh no! The Lizard has the Recombinator! Can Spider-Man save the day?

Please R&R. Until next time!