Stegron could smell traces of blood, meaning there was an injured creature, a mammal, but no hint of decay like the other corpses, suggesting it was still alive.
"Alive, for a week, in these conditions?"
Surprised, he turned around, scanning his surroundings. If this temperature stayed even at night, a mammal would long be dead with no food or water and little oxygen. It must have been a matter of hours before it would only be adding to the list of corpses they found with Connors so far. Yet here it was, may be not so well, but alive, and the scent was getting stronger with every step towards a little collapsed country house on the left.
Then, suddenly, he saw it through a crack in the wall. A small boy was sitting on the concrete floor a level below the ground in what must have been a basement. The house was obliterated like most building around here, but the top floor strangely balanced in an impossible manner on what remained of the ground floor, just barely hanging in suspension.
Stegron examined the debris as he circled them. He was not knowledgeable enough in architecture, but he had a hunch that the concrete blocks supported each other not unlike a card house. Individually they were not difficult to lift, but if he as much as pushed one, the rest would crumble, crushing the human underneath. This left the reptile in front of a small crack through which he initially noticed the human child sitting silently and leaning against the far wall, sleeping or, most likely, unconscious.
Stegron examined the breach closer. Pushing his massive dinosaur form through would likely topple the construction, so he had to somehow make the boy come to him instead. However, if the little one could escape in the first place, he probably would have done so already. The opening must have been too high for him to climb without help. Firstly, Stegron decided to see if he could reach the child and pull him out.
The dinosaur man crouched and leaned as far as his dorsal plates would let him, but even his arm muscles alone were too thick to move anywhere past the shoulder. He reached out as far as he could, unable even to peek how far he made it, but the claws only grasped thin air. Sometimes being smaller had its advantages. He growled lowly in irritation. The child, surprisingly, seemed to react to the noise, but his glance was still distant and unfocused.
"Give me your hand, now" the reptile ordered, making his intentions clear when he noticed the child was awake.
The boy who was watching the scene unfold suddenly jerked to the side, screaming in panic.
"Oh God! No-no-no! Please leave me alone! Don't eat me! Go away! Please!"
Stegron flinched, feeling his frustration rising further at the mammal's incompliance.
"I am here to sssave you. Thisss thing can go down at any moment. Come on, we don't have time for thisss. Jussst give me your hand already!"
But the boy didn't listen. He was crying and pleading not to hurt him, covering his head in fear and squishing even further into the corner, staying well out of Stegron's reach.
Crouching inside this narrow crack in the wall in a very uncomfortable position and asking the stupid mammal to listen to him and to get saved was quickly starting to tire him down. The nerve of this little twerp! The little mammal was as feeble and pathetic as they got. The wall to the surface wasn't even that big! It was hard to believe these creatures would come one day as a dominant species.
Eventually he would grow and learn how to hate, how to use weapons like guns and bombs, how to destroy everything he does not understand, roaming free and happy as if he owns the world while other creatures have to nestle around or rot in cages. Stegron touched his wrists where the bracers would have often been. Perhaps it was better to just leave him here or, better yet, put him out of his misery.
Yet it was not the case that the dinosaur didn't understand already that not every human was like that. A vast majority were, but not all of them, and Connors with his family were the best examples he could think of. He couldn't think about Billy without a hint of a smile as well – so young, but so kind and curious, even surprisingly brave for his age. It was impossible not to feel some sympathy for him.
The boy here looked somewhat similar to Billy, indeed. He was clearly tired and scared to death. Who knows how he even survived this long and what horrors he'd seen? Truth be told, he most likely tried to escape already, but saw his attempts fail and had already given up before Stegron found him moments ago. He was certainly in deep emotional stress and not behaving efficiently enough to survive.
Taking a step back, the saurian sighed and dropped to the ground, observing the boy calmly through the crack. The child looked skeleton-thin and pale, may be 7 or 8 years old, indeed not unlike Billy, with dark short messy hair and a sickly face. He had a few scratches here and there and seemed to be holding his right leg. Stegron noticed the trousers being darker on that side, probably a result of the injury he got when he tried to escape after the explosion. That must have been the cause why he couldn't climb on his own.
Then he noticed an empty plastic bottle and a rat skeleton near the other wall. So he was lucky enough to find nourishment even in his condition, but the child looked well past his limits already, and Stegron's carnivore's intuition discerned from observing the boy's condition that he would almost certainly be dead by dawn.
Such unusually fierce for a mammal determination to survive, and all for naught, he thought. Sometimes life was just this cruel and no matter how tough the creature, it was doomed with no ways out. Human or not, he felt something akin to respect for the child's sheer tenacity to survive. It was something he could relate to with his own experience. It had to count. He had to make it count.
Stegron considered the boy's situation again. Connors would have been better suited for this task. Not only was he better with mammals, but he could have easily slithered through the crack. He used to do that a lot back in the days when he loved exploring the sewers.
"Perhaps, we might have divided the wrong way there" Stegron realised grimly. Why did he not just ask Connors to come along?
The Doctor took a deep breath. He could do it. How hard could it be to convince the little warmblood to cooperate? He tried to think back to everything he learned from Connors. So far the advice was to be more patient, to wait for the human to make the first move and make them feel more at ease in his presence. As annoying as it was to waste time like this, it didn't look like they were getting anywhere with the way things were.
"Doesss your leg hurt?" the reptile asked in concern, trying to sound as friendly as he could, despite his persisting trouble with sibilants. Being a 7'5'' carnivorous dinosaur didn't help to look less imposing either. Truth be told, Stegron did not expect much from this interaction.
For some time the boy didn't answer.
"It does" the child finally admitted. "It hurts really bad and is getting worse. I am so afraid! My parents work on the plant, but from that day they never showed up! I was waiting and waiting, but nobody came! God, I hope they are all right... I really do! But..."
Stegron waited a bit more, but the child didn't look about to continue. It was painfully obvious his parents were dead, probably among the first victims of the explosion. Stegron and Connors knew it now, but the mammal must have not realized it yet. No. Something was off in the way he didn't finish the last sentence.
"He understands what happened" Stegron realized. "He just doesn't say it"
Stegron was not sure whether he should tell him the truth now, or play along a bit longer, or somehow hint at what happened...? It was all very confusing and the more Connors explained, the less he felt he understood. This was exactly the kind of situation the saurian felt most uncomfortable with. Stegron did not even remember the last time he consciously tried to gain a human's trust and be the one to initiate it. Perhaps it was when he was first assigned to work with Curtis Connors on the regenerative serum. That sure looked now like a lifetime ago, or even two. Not only did he forget all the finer nuances of human psychology after such a long time as a dinosaur, but even his instincts were of no help here. They were not polished for interacting with humans after all, as the humans did not appear yet in the time they were formed, and sure enough if he did not perceive the human as neither threat, nor prey, he had no 'hunches' of what to do. It was a very unsettling feeling of utter emptiness, uncertainty and confusion.
Back to rational deduction it was then. He had already suspected that the boy was smarter than he'd let on. There was no way he didn't realize what happened and there also must have been a reason he chose to lie to himself instead. If these assumptions were correct, it would be wise to keep the act. Perhaps, he could even use this misconception to get the boy out of the rubble.
"We will return for them later" He announced, taking a risky gamble. "Do you want to ssshow me where you've sssen them lassst? We will find them, but now you need to hurry. It isss really dangerousss to ssstay where you are. Pleassse, come with me"
The boy lifted his head in surprise. He looked genuinely not expecting the reptile's proposition. This expression mildly amused the saurian, but also gave him a hint of sadness at how despite his valiant effort and risking his hide for all these ungrateful creatures, it was still so surprising for them to hear that he cared for someone. He was just a monster for them after all.
"All right" the boy suddenly said, reaching out into the opening with a feeble hand. It was the Doctor's turn to be astonished. Was that all it took? Was he not afraid? He rushed again towards the crack, diving in as far as he could fit. The boy stifled a gulp at the sight of an orange hand-paw the size of him head to toe squeezing through the crack. He regarded the extended sharp claws with nervous caution, but brushed his fear away and decisively grabbed the palm. The claws gently locked around his miniscule hand and pushed him up. In seconds the boy was out, breathing loudly on the ground. Looking up he saw his savior stand to his full height which threw a long shadow over the ground, and the little human gaped in awe, falling backwards. Stegron was towering a good head even over most adult humans, but to the tiny boy at his feet he must have looked all the more terrifying. Yet the boy was not scared. He knew the creature meant him no harm, and that was all that mattered.
"What isss your name?" Stegron asked.
"Jamie"
"Ssso, Jamie, about your parentsss…" Stegron offered the injured boy a lift up, where the child grabbed firm the dinosaur's dorsal plates, resting on his back.
"They work at the power plant. I haven't seen them for a long time now, ever since the explosion. I wonder if they are all right. I was afraid they could be trapped like I was and they would worry about me. I didn't want them to worry, so I did my best… I just did… my best…" the boy's voice got weaker and weaker. Stegron thought he was about to cry, but the boy never did. Perhaps he couldn't even if he wanted as his body was already on the verge of dehydration.
Jamie must have been tired and utterly exhausted, but he would have to endure just a little longer. Turning back this far from the border would not give them much of a head start anyway. Besides, if the villain was still truly occupying the plant, he must have sustained himself somehow as well. Perhaps they would find some water inside to help the boy.
[+]
Meanwhile, the Lizard was already at the doors of the main building. They were massive and looked impenetrable, with five centimeters of steel pressed together like an air lock. No matter how much he pushed or pulled, the metal didn't even budge. Tired, he took a step back to rethink the situation and catch a breath.
"Perhaps, we might have divided the wrong way there" He thought bitterly. He had no doubt Stegron would hardly even be paused before smashing this thing out, with the whole frame if need be. Stegron was clearly the physically stronger of the two.
Connors never quite understood his way of thinking, but that was what made him brilliant, wasn't it? Daring, fearless, independent and a little… eccentric, for lack of a better word. He never shied away from challenging even the most well known facts, adding twists which hardly any scientist would even consider. Stegron always had that bizarre approach of mixing science with occult, math with psychology and body with mind, making even mutually exclusive things look like they were on the same spectrum.
Curt couldn't boast being so memorable as an individual, but he too had made his fare share of discoveries. Connors felt more exploratory when the boundaries of the problem were clearly defined. If it was a technical problem, it made sense to approach it from the technical perspective. If it was a methodological problem, it made sense to go back to theory. He preferred to work on "How" rather than "Why". That being said, he was completely aware that sometimes by diving into minute details he'd miss the bigger picture. Perhaps, this once he would agree that raw strength would save him all the time he was currently spending on thinking to come up with a plan, the time he didn't have.
Connors tried to think back to what he knew. The nuclear station was based in a desert area, the nearby town mostly built for workers and their families. The plant had four units, all of which were monitored at the control tower. The cause of the explosion was a safety disable on one of the units which was still a few miles to the North. Obviously there was no information on which unit the terrorist planned to explode next. For all Connors knew it could be all of the remaining sections, as he seemed to threaten an even bigger explosion, on a State's scale. The terrorist must have set the bombs already, either with a timer or remote control to trigger them when he would be already in safety, but since nobody saw him leave the place yet, he must have been still planning his evacuation. The best place to remain in control of all three units would be from the command tower, which was where Connors headed.
The Lizard foresaw the main entrance would be likely monitored, so he studied the outline of the tower from a distance to get an idea of where the emergency exit might have been and now he found it, but getting in proved to be more trouble than he anticipated. How else could he open the door?
Connors took a deep breath and looked around more carefully. He must have been missing something. If the answer didn't come to him, he had to look at the problem from another angle, try to think differently. Stegron was good at coming up with unorthodox solutions. What a shame he wasn't around when he was needed. He'd probably laugh at Connors struggling with such a simple task and do something completely ridiculous out of the blue to get them inside in an instant.
"Actually" Connors smiled a little nervously "He does that all the time. The solution just appears out of nowhere and it is so plain and obvious that it is often hard to believe nobody could see it sooner. He said he was just following his intuition, his instincts. I bet he'd phrase that differently now. Or would he?"
"Would he?" Connors repeated one more time, suddenly feeling like he was on to something, but had not even realized what it was. Was he feeling happy? Why? He felt like he was about to solve something. No, that he had solved it already, but simply couldn't comprehend the solution.
"Stop thinking" he tried to close his eyes and take another deep breath. "Don't act like a Lizard, be the Lizard. Just do what I feel like doing and have absolute trust in myself, right, Steggy? I know the answer, I just don't understand it yet. The Lizard knows"
"How do I get in?"
Right? Left? Curt was confused by the erratic thoughts he subconsciously dampened the entire time. He thought it his weakness, his indecisiveness, but perhaps he was wrong and there was more to it than he ever imagined: an entire world of a different species. Up? He tasted the air. There was a slight breeze, barely noticeable if not for his acute senses. Up we go. Connors' red eyes darted and stopped on the air vent. How did he not think of that? Back in the days he spent a lot of time in the sewers. The opening looked large enough to fit him. Besides, he was very dexterous.
The Lizard kicked off his shoes and crawled up the wall, sticking to the microscopic dents and bruises the eye couldn't even see with tiny scales on his hands and feet, like a gecko, then removed the cover on the vent and in he went. It was dark and narrow, but manageable. Besides, he did not rely on his vision, but sense of smell to get the direction. Connors took another breath, trying to calm down his trembling hands. It was a very strange feeling. It never even crossed his mind to scale the wall even though he was aware it was possible for him. He was just thinking… too much like a human, he guessed.
Stegron was right. He was so out of touch with his natural side that he would even forget which abilities he possessed! Laughable, wasn't it? It was a strange feeling, but he was not afraid this time. It was a bit like having a somewhat dumb and unloved, but very loyal brother. He did his things, but they would never harm Connors. Now he fully understood that. He was not just a human trapped inside an animal's body; he had another friend now who would always have his back when worse comes to worst. This was the world of the reptiles, but it was still the same world he shared with everyone even if he was a little… different now. In the end, all people were different and what made him 'the Lizard' was not unlike what made Martha 'Martha' and Billy 'Billy'. It was just who he was.
[+]
On the ceiling of a dark room lit only with the lights of many screens over the control panel, a vent cover slowly moved to the side and a dark figure silently dropped to the ground. The creature stood upright, tasting the air for any suspicious scents in case it was a trap before turning around to the panel and uncurling its tail. The red reptilian eyes gleamed in the dark as they stopped on the panel with screens and buttons.
Connors leaned closer, examining the feeds. One of the screens was black, but the three next to it showed different parts of the structure, which he assumed must have been the remaining units. All of them had strange boxes around the reactors. Were those bombs?
Another scene he recognized was that of the main entrance to the control tower. Next to it were feeds of places unfamiliar to him. Suddenly he caught movement on one of them. On a closer inspection there appeared to be a man in a robotic suit assembling some sort of device he couldn't quite make out at this angle. This must have been the villain! The suit reminded him of the protective gear from Stark Industries, but this one was clearly a custom design.
"Very strange that the villain would get his hands on it when the military couldn't" he though.
Curt examined the background, noticing flat empty walls and lots of boxes, probably some kind of a warehouse. Next to the boxes on the left stood a crane with letters "B1-0" on it. Perhaps he should remember those in case the sections inside were numbered. If his guess was correct, he'd be looking for section 0 on floor B1.
Was "B" standing for "Basement"? It was as good a guess as any. First, he'd have to find his way down and figure it on the run. Curt wall jumped back into the vent and was gone as quickly and silently as he appeared. He didn't notice how a few seconds later another large bipedal reptile with a little boy on his back appeared on the feed from the entrance.
[+]
Curt took a few turns and crawled down to the section a floor below. As he passed by the openings into different rooms, he gave them a glance in case there was anything of interest. Suddenly he caught a glimpse of the familiar numbers on a wall. This was the place that he saw on camera!
Curt crept out of the vent and silently dropped to the ground behind a large box. He could hear the robot now just a few meters away. The Lizard froze completely, careful not to make even a single movement that would betray his presence. So far he somehow appeared to remain undected, but he couldn't afford to be sloppy. At first he wanted to just deactivate the bombs and escape without being noticed, but after seeing what the villain did to the innocent citizens just to make a point… He couldn't let him go. He's seen the bombs already, but first he'd need to figure out how exactly the villain was planning to detonate them and what he was after.
Connors examined the box he was hiding behind. The smell around here was weird and he couldn't quite place the chemical composition on anything he was familiar with. Curious, he cut the tape with his claws and pried open the top to peek inside.
The box appeared full of some kind of purplish-black rocks, not unlike pieces of ore. The Lizard's eyes widened in shock as he stifled an involuntary gasp. Was all of it Vibranium?! He had only heard about the mythical "anti-metal" from Savage Land with properties so unique and priceless entire countries would wage war over a mine, and its existence was largely kept secret among top government officials. If his guess was correct, the amount here was probably worth well over a country's yearly GDP! Something clicked.
Ransom. The villain demanded an astronomical amount of money in exchange for deactivating the bombs! About the same amount Stark Enterprises demanded for the protective suits. Furthermore, the terrorist appeared to be using Stark technology. Was that a coincidence? Did someone pay off the villain already? If that was the case, did he deactivate the bombs as promised? Did he even intend to or was he going to detonate them in any case?
Curt needed a plan to take him down. For now he could only hide his presence, lying in ambush like a real lizard stalking his prey, but his claws and teeth alone would not be effective against an armoured opponent. Was there another way to knock him out?
The doors opened and a second crane came in, carrying another set of boxes. Nobody was driving it. Was everything automated? There wasn't any other way, Connors realized. No human would survive in these conditions without a special suit as the town painfully illustrated. Iron Man probably never expected anyone would be stupid enough to come here against his warnings. The element of surprise was still on the reptile's side.
The man moved on to examine the new batch. He would be distracted for some time, his back to Connors' position, hopefully long enough for him to get behind. Curt braced himself, trying not to think too hard about what he was about to do before panic would stop him dead. The Lizard slowly rose behind his cover and stepped towards the unsuspecting mammal, jaws open wide and claws at the ready. Before he made another step, suddenly an orange hand burst from the box Iron Man was about to open and seized his throat, lifting the man high in the air as the hiding creature reaped through the wood, standing to its full impressive height.
The man screamed in surprise, his feet dangling helplessly in the air as he desperately grasped the creature's thick arm with both of his to pry the claws open – a comically ridiculed effort against 870 atmospheres of pressure his neck armour was currently under, unless his gear also happened to be a Hulk power suit. The metal armour was saving him against the deadly choke, for now, but his fate might as well have been sealed. Very few would possess the inhuman strength to get out of the saurian's hold.
"Hiding inside one of the boxes as they stopped before the gates to get in unnoticed was a clever strategy to get as close to the target as possible without being noticed!" Connors exhaled with relief. "He made use of the fact that the cranes didn't have pilots and were fully automated. As long as the program was not disrupted, nobody would notice a thing!"
"Get… off me… you big stupid lizard!"
The armoured man gave up trying to win the contest of strength and lifted his hands to the reptile's face instead. Something flickered and a pair of blasters shot the saurian clean in the head at point-blank range. Stegron roared in pain and dropped the man, staggering backwards and swinging his tail as he struggled to remain standing, with one hand over his eyes. He managed to close them just in time out of reflex, but the damage was there.
"Vincent!" Connors cried, realizing a second too late he just revealed himself needlessly. Oh well, so much for the effect of surprise. Connors leapt at the human, clawing and biting relentlessly everything he could reach, but just as he expected his claws and teeth slid harmlessly against the hard steel.
"Woah there!" The man exclaimed, firing another series of shots to force the other reptile to retreat. "There are two of you?! Any more hiding around?" He spinned his head, scanning the area. "Guess not. But where the hell did you two come out of and who are you anyway?!"
"We are heroess, The Lizard and The Dinossaur Man! And we are here to sstop you… whoever you are!"
Stegron already had a hand over his face so he didn't need to make the gesture any more explicit. Let them talk away, he thought. The orange reptile was not about to break the awkward pause just yet. His eyes were healing as the combatants dragged the fight, but he still needed a few more seconds to get the vision completely back.
"Never heard of you"
"Ssurrender now!" Connors demanded, unfazed. "And deactivate the bombss!"
"Or what? Are you going to scratch me to death?" Iron Man laughed. "Don't bother. Everything is already set in motion and there is nothing you can do about it! With this much Vibranium I can make weapons far beyond your comprehension that can destroy entire armies at my whim! Surely you two must realize by now just how much outclassed you are. Do you know the saying about bringing claws to a gun fight?" he smirked.
"You mammalssss like to talk big, don't you?" Stegron snarled in disdain. "All I sssee issss a tin can" he smirked in turn, demonstrating his curved claws. "Good for me that I jussst happen to have a can opener here"
"The heck are you supposed to be anyway?!" the villain pointed out as he stared at Stegron, measuring his seven-and-some feet head to toe. "Are you… a dinosaur?!"
Stegron wished he could see his expression behind the mask. He must have been missing a priceless moment here.
Connors was first to react. Seeing that Stegron had just opened both of his eyes and was fully recovered, he took the opportunity to assault the opponent while he was still talking. He knew his attacks weren't getting through, but clawing randomly was not the only way to fight. The armour had to have gaps where the moving parts were. Perhaps he could take it apart if he just pushed at the pieces that made it.
Iron Man responded almost immediately as he was alerted by his suit about an incoming attack from behind. He fired a blaster, but a second too late, the beam missing the green reptile completely. A set of claws reached his chest before he could use the repulsor again to gain some distance and fire a second beam from the other arm. Another miss as the Lizard's uncanny reflexes and speed sent him in a somersault over the target to dodge the attack.
Iron Man had locked on him in mid-air and was about to fire again, but he was interrupted by another warning. The villain dodged the first slash, but a spiked tail caught him straight in the back with a brutal impact that sent him flying through a wall.
"Damn these things are fast!" Iron Man thought in annoyance, rebooting his systems as he got up from the rubble. "But now I see what they are up to. The green is the sneaky one. He is clearly scheming something up. I have to keep an eye on him. He is also too fast to aim at automatically and I am unable to hit him in time even after I lock on with only one blaster. He manages to dodge that in the split second the blaster is being fired! I was sure I could have just gotten a shot in with both if the big guy didn't help him out, but that was a blunder on my side. If I focus all the fire on one of them, it gives the opening for the other to attack. That big guy is crazy strong! Even his tail is strong! My back still hurts after I dampened the impact with the repulsors! Damn! Come on, man, keep it together! You aren't Iron Man if you let the technologies of future get beaten by unarmed cavemen from a Jurassic Park movie!"
Although 'unarmed' would have been a misleading definition. Stegron's entire body was both armour and weapon. The dinosaur man let out a bellowing roar as he jumped in to finish the human before he could catch a breath. Iron Man fired back the repulsors which dispersed harmlessly against the saurian's hide, unable to prevent him from closing in on the human. As both fighters drew near, Stegron turned sideways to give his tail a better reach and assumed a wider and lower stance at the same time to increase his agility, turning his legs into springs. He swung the long spiked tail around like a flail as he relentlessly chased the human. Iron Man cleverly dodged, flying just out of range as Stegron was about to turn around again, and closing in before the reptile would start his next attack.
From a distance their exchange might have looked like a very blood-chilling and bizarre dance, with Stegron piling the pressure with vicious attacks as he aimed tail strikes mixed with occasional claw swipes, while Iron Man flew around and ducked at a breathtakingly dangerous distance to keep his blasters effective, staying just inches away from deadly attacks and keeping his own fire coming.
[+]
"Oh wow" the Lizard stood motionless in a mix of awe and terror as he watched the battle unfold before him from a safe distance. "I have to stop them! He is seriously trying to kill now!" An image of Stegron laughing at how Connors forgot his clothes flashed in his mind, turning darker. "I've never seen Vincent so violent and bloodthirsty. This is not like him at all!"
The Lizard thought back to all the fun and exciting times they shared together. Stegron was always a somewhat reclusive, a bit too prideful and perhaps a little impulsive when things didn't go his way, but he was always so humorous and easy going. Never once he saw him lose his temper like this or fight anyone, let alone to death. They were both men of science after all! It was hard to believe this was the same man he knew. But was he? Or did he?
"I can feel your anger, Vincent. Those people who died in the town did not deserve it. This man is a heartless, cold blooded monster" he stumbled at a poor choice of words. "Not literally, but the point is, he is an egotistic psychotic megalomaniac who sees murder as a means to his goal. To confess my feelings, I also thought about killing him when we found out all the citizens have died, but then how would we be any different? He may be a worthless scum of a man, but he is also a human! We are not judges or kings to decide someone's fate! And we are intelligent beings, not animals!"
[+]
The blasters had little effect on dinosaurian hide, but over time at such close range they were slowly starting to char even his tough natural armour.
"This huge guy looked like a tough customer from the get go and he got me off guard twice with the sneaky tricks and his speed for such a size, which I did not expect, but I clearly overestimated him. Sure, he has remarkable physical strength and durability, and even speed, surpringly, but he is still a poor fighter with no experience" Iron Man noted. "Reflexes or not, it is clear nobody taught him how to fight at all. His attacks have monstrous strength, but are disappointingly simple and predictable. No matter how fast and strong he is, if he telegraphs all his moves, I can always simply stay out of range. It is obvious he is trying to force me into a position to hit with his tail again, but you'd have to be plain stupid to fall for that twice. He has no strategy or fighting style. Brute strength alone will get you nowhere, dude. Too easy!"
Iron Man was gradually speeding up, feeling more and more confident and eager to finish off the ancient reptile, but suddenly a load bang made both fighters involuntary turn their heads. A box of vibranium lay shattered on the floor, its contests spilled, and the Lizard casually trampling the fragments into dust under his feet while the two other fighters were busy.
"We don't have to be mindlessly tearing each other's throats out" Connors thought with a bit more courage. "Surely these must have been important to the villain if he was after them the entire time. There is more than one way to fight!"
"Ooppss" he said with a theatrically exaggerated gesture. "How carelesss of me"
"What do you think you are doing with my Vibranium, you sneaky bastard?! Do you know how much it's worth, lizard brains?!" Iron Man snapped.
"But that's a distraction, now is the time to attack… is what you are thinking" Iron Man turned around, completely calm and unsurprised by the view of the orange monster jumping at him with claws out. "Told you. Too easy"
The villain fired a super-charged Unibeam from his chest directly into the dinosaur, almost point-blank, sending his huge body flying across the room, into a few unfortunate boxes of vibranium on his way and through the wall.
"An unfortunate, but acceptable collateral damage"
"One down, one to go" he announced, turning to Connors.
[+]
Stegron lay on his back on a mountain of scattered smoking rubble and purplish ore pieces, doubled over from the impact, with legs in the air and tail thrown over the remnants of the container. His injuries were not as bad as the fight made it look. In fact, he was hardly even tired or damaged at all, the little burns and bruises on his scales sure to heal in no time. The only deeper damage he received so far was the burn from that last attack, but the fight was clearly not going too well for him.
Stegron flexed his clawed toes as he thoughtfully pondered on his next options, taking his time to heal while enjoying the view of his body. He was tough, fast and incredibly powerful. Honestly, he was bewildered that there was a mammal around that could keep up with him. Even giving the human some credit for his experience, there was little doubt that without the armour in the equation the fight would have been over in seconds and, likely, in one hit.
At first he did not regard his current opponent seriously, or as an 'opponent' at all, really. He was just prey, an annoying little pest that stubbornly buzzed around without any understanding of what it was provoking. As the fight dragged on, however, his instincts told him not once that the meal was starting to be more hassle than it was worth. He was not even injured, but catching the little fly was starting to get tiresome, and the fight left him with a bad aftertaste. Of course he knew he wasn't loosing, but he doubted he looked winning either, and that arrogant piece of canned meat might be full of the wrong ideas. It was his duty to fix them and remind the mammal of their positions in the ecosystem.
However, as confident as Stegron was in his abilities, deep down he couldn't deny the fact that his opponent was skilled, and his own results deemed… lacking. Stegron knew he could break even through that armour eventually, but getting hold of the mammal long enough to do that was a different story. As he pondered on this, the saurian took a piece of purplish ore and rotated it between his claws. Light reflected off the smoother angles and at places it was even shiny like metal. A pretty, but useless toy. He threw the shard away with annoyance and stood back up.
As he did, Stegron sniffed the air and looked around. He saw a huge hole in the wall he broke, but the rest was new. He was in a different room, noticeably dimmer than the warehouse, but also much larger. At the far end there was an enormous cylindrical container with gigantic pipes going in and out. The center of the structure was glowing in crimson-red and emanating considerable heat and radiation, so much that even Stegron had to take a step back from it. Was this the core? So, one of the reactors was in this very facility?
The saurian regarded the structure with a mix of caution and interest. He didn't know much about nuclear reactors, but somehow he had a feeling these hazardous conditions were hardly its planned normal state. As he looked closer, sure enough he found the remnants of another layer of walls that used to have been around the core at some point, quite thick, probably steel or some other alloy which has been, by the looks of it, liquefied. In the same area there was a workbench with some tools which Stegron approached for closer inspection.
There was a pool of metallic purplish substance in a bowl of hardened plastic with various tools, Stegron assumed were for metalworks, around it. What an odd combination. Stegron's eyes gleamed with curiosity as he examined them closer. Why would there be cutting tools made out of molten rocks? What was all of it doing here, right next to the Core? Stegron was sure he would recognize parts of a bomb if he saw them, but the working place appeared to be designed more closely after a melting pot. It was not a bomb he was making, Stegron realised, but melting tools.
"So you think you are so smart, mammal? Leaving your weapons here and thinking I cannot use them against you? Stegron will have a surprise for you! We'll see who is the smarter one!"
The Dinosaur man took a piece of purplish ore from under his feet and threw into the plastic bowl. There was no sound as it joined the molten pool. He glanced over the variously formed plastic tools in his service. He could just barely grab them, but using was out of the question. He'd have to make his own, or find his own.
That meant only one set of tools left. Stegron paused for a moment before cautiously dipping his own claws into the boiling liquid. To his surprise it wasn't even that hot. Now his claws were coated in a fine thin layer of purplish liquefied metal, but nothing seemed too unusual about them. Yet the human had clearly used the same process somehow to melt the reactor walls. Stegron touched the metal casing of the oven under the bowl with his coated claws and the metal instantly started to vibrate and melt right before his eyes. A human might never guess it, but the expression the saurian had now was that of a smile.
[+]
Connors staggered back, staying standing with the last of his strength. Fighting the villain one on one was a big mistake. He never intended to fight anyone in the first place! Curt originally volunteered only to help the injured, but that was before they learned their fate. He didn't have a backup plan anymore, all his routes to escape cut off and with no means to bring down the opponent. All he could do was run and dodge with his reptilian reflexes. Yet the opponent was much more experienced than him and they both understood it was only a matter of time before the nearing conclusion.
The Lizard hissed defiantly, his red eyes gleaming, the irises a pair of narrow slits, the tail slashing behind like a whip and claws out. He would not go down so easily. Not without a fight, if it was the last thing he'd do.
He dashed forward, jaws wide open. Curt knew it was useless, his bite was not strong enough against that armour, but he never tried to bite with full force yet. He could still have a chance. To his fear the Lizard saw the man's hand lift, a repulsor aimed right at his teeth, as the man seemed to be waiting for him to do just that.
"But that's a distraction, you stupid mammal. Now is the time to attack" Stegron thought with vengeance as he picked this exact moment to jump back into the fight, taking both combatants off guard. Even though Iron Man was warned about the new threat again, he couldn't stop his own movements in time to avoid his hand being grabbed during the attack. With the repulsor's aiming off, the energy blast missed all the targets completely. One mistake was all Stegron needed to finally rip the mammal limb from limb. The human pulled his arm back, to no effect, then switched on the jets, but still only just managed to slip out with the output on maximum.
"You just don't stay dead, do you, fossil?" the villain gritted through his teeth. Something was off. The internal pressure was dropping and there was a critical damage sign on his left arm. Did the dinosaur finally cut through the armour?! Iron Man lifted his hand to check. The armour was a mess, deep claw marks still clearly visible, with metal dissolving around them to reveal his bare hand.
"What?!"
Stegron was not about to leave him any time to think. Another warning snapped Iron Man back to reality, in which a huge dinosaur was about to drive his claws right into his skull. Iron Man dodged to the side he thought safe, trying to keep at the saurian's back to make attacking him harder, but only to be instantly met with a powerful tail he forgot about in his rush and confusion from the maneuver earlier. The impact was so powerful it left a dent in the armour, breaking the repulsor and possibly even some bones.
With both repulsors out of order, Iron Man dashed back into a safer distance, but was caught by the Lizard. Unable to fight him back without the weapons, he couldn't do anything now against two sets of curved claws slashing his chest. The titanium alloy on his torso melted around the scratches, exposing his rib cage with a glowing mechanical heart to the reptiles.
"Damn! In such a short time, did he learn how to forge Vibranium and cover his claws with it?!" Iron Man realized, too late.
With most of his armour damaged and melted, Iron Man was out of options and weapons. Cursing, he was forced to retreat for now and make a run for his life, but Stegron was not about to let him go so easily. The large reptile jumped on him, pinning the human down to the floor with a powerful stomp and 383 pounds of weight.
"If I were you, I wouldn't try anything ssstupid" Stegron warned menacingly, glaring down at the defeated opponent as he loomed above him. "And if you asss much asss move a mussscle" the saurian lifted his middle toe, pointing the tip of the claw right at the exposed glowing section in the cyborg's chest. "I'll pierccce your beautiful heart here"
Iron Man exhaled with a grimace of pain, going limp in acceptance of his defeat.
[+]
The two reptiles were heading back, with Stegron carrying the two humans on him – the little Jamie whom he left to wait at the entrance, now safely again on his back, and the defeated Iron Man, extracted from the remnants of his armour and tied down for good measure, under his arm.
Connors was genuinly surprised to see his obstinate friend allowing a child to sit on his back. This was the first time he'd seen him ever being so generous and tolerant to a human. Perhaps the trip to Florida didn't go to waste after all. Connors even considered to introduce the saurian to his faculty back in New York and see if he could secure him a position as a teacher. Stegron was a very smart guy after all, even if with his little quirks, and Curt was confident now he was ready to try something a little more challenging.
The reptiles marched for some time side by side through the desert without a word, and then suddenly Stegron audibly chuckled. Connors turned to him with surprise. He was sure both of them were thinking back to some of the darker moments of the day, so Stegron's behavior struck Curt as odd.
"What iss it, Vincent? Why are you laughing?" curiosity finally took the better of Doctor Connors.
"No, nothing" the orange reptile smiled back. "Just noticed sssomething. For all your ssseriousssnesss, sssometimesss you can be sssuch an airhead. That isss rather adorable"
"Neither ssounded like a compliment" Connors noticed skeptically. "Did I forget ssomething again?" he cast a glance over the lab coat, black sweater and trousers, confident nothing was missing and feeling them rub against his scales. Then it hit him.
"Oh, come on!"
For quite some time already he felt the hot sand under his feet, but never gave it a second thought. And indeed, looking down, he found his feet bare and dirty, with no traces of shoes. He remembered taking them off to climb the wall. Connors looked back at the silhouettes of the ghost town on the horizon a few miles behind them.
"I am not going back" Stegron teased, not slowing down for his friend. Curt had nothing left, but to catch up to him.
"Now that I think about it, walking like thiss iss… rather uncomfortable" the Lizard confessed after a few more steps. "The feeling of soft earth and grasss wass actually quite pleassant for a change back then, but ssand is rough and hot. How do you sstand walking barefoot all the time?! And you walk like thiss on snow too?!"
"Then don't think about it" was Stegron's advice. "I don't pay attention to what'sss under my feet either. Grassss, sssand or sssnow don't make a differenccce. You'll get usssed to it"
There wasn't a better one in their circumstances. Connors sighed, but left the case at that. He didn't want to get used to this, he wanted his shoes back! And loosing the expensive custom-made footwear was a shame. He made a mental note to order a replacement and a spare next time.
[+]
"Sso Iron Man wass Tony Sstark all along?! I can't believe it! Why would you, a billionaire and a CEO of the mosst powerful enterprisse do ssuch atrocitiess?!"
"And how do you think people become billionaires and raise the most powerful enterprises, lizard brains?" Stark posed his own question with some resentment.
"Sso you wanted to force your way into clossed countriess like Muganda and take over their economiess?" Curt continued. "But you already have everything! Why did you need to kill all those poor people?"
"An acceptable sacrifice." the human stated. "I didn't have anything personal against them. It was just business. Economy is a zero sum game. Profit doesn't generate from nowhere. Somebody has to lose something for another person to gain it. I only generated an opportunity"
"You are… a monster" Connors concluded with disgust.
"We are living on the same planet" he continued. "It is a place we share, humans, reptiles or any species. All of us call it our home. It is like having a lot of neighbours in a very small house. Sometimes we step on each other's tails, but at the end of the day we all want to live in peace. There will always be those who think they own the place, like this man, but I believe we can all find our little homes somewhere and there will be enough for everyone… What do you think, Jamie?"
The little boy showed his head from behind Stegron's shoulder. He was thinking about this for some time now too: about the fate of his parents, about the fate of the man who killed them and the fate of creatures who saved him. As he opened his mouth to answer, suddenly two silver cybernetic tentacles emerged from under the sand and wrapped the reptiles, incapacitating them, as a group of costumed heroes started to appear around them out of thin air. The pincers on the end of a third tentacle whirred and grabbed the boy by the shirt, gently lifting him and leaving in the hands of a man with a clairvoyance ball for a head and a green-purplish outfit.
"Surrender, villains! Your atrocities end now!" declared the woman with vibrant purple hair, in a green costume and in a golden headgear, lifting herself above ground on the two remaining tentacles of the four coming from her back - the leader of the Mighty Scavengers, Lady Octopus.
"Let the boy go, now" Stegron growled, drilling the new enemy with menace in his cold green eyes. The controller of the tentacles did not move, meeting his stare with one of her own.
A hunter, a bird-man, a brightly coloured lightning-themed hero and a mass of sand all surrounded the reptiles, ready to take them down. The man with a fish tank for a head took a step back instead, vanishing with the boy into the background.
"You are safe now" Mysterio whispered to the child. "Stay close to me. My illusions will make us invisible"
Seeing his demands not being met, Stegron was done talking to these people. He grabbed the metal tentacle with a roar, his powerful muscles bulging with force as he intended to rip the cybernetic appendage into pieces.
"No! Wait! No!" Jamie struggled free. "You got it all wrong! Stop, please! They saved me!"
"Saved… you?" Lady Octopus turned back in surprise as she examined the boy and the reptiles with doubt.
"He was the villain!" Now free of Mysterio's magic, the boy pointed at the unmasked Iron Man under Stegron's arm. "They saved my life!"
The heroes all stopped mid movement with their respective attacks at the ready, unsure what to do.
"Oh" Lady Octopus was first to recover, uncoiling the remaining reptile as she approached the strangers on her remaining tentacles. "That is… quite unusual"
"Sorry for the mistake. We only heard that a villain bombed the power plant. We didn't know who it was and you looked… well, suspicious. I am really sorry" the Vulture descended to the ground, folding his wings and bowing apologetically. "Is there any way I can help? You don't look too good, and neither does this little fellow" – the old man cast a glance at the boy.
"We'll manage. More importantly this boy needs urgent medical attention. He has suffered prolonged dehydration, extensive blood loss from the rupture of hamstring tendon and is in severe psychological shock" Connors interrupted.
"Oh! A doctor!" Carolyn exclaimed, surprised once again. "I understand. We'll do everything in our powers from here on out. Sandman, clear the sandstorms around. Vulture, take the child and fly him to the nearest hospital. Kraeven, Electro, take the criminal to the police. Mysterio and I will see these gentlemen to safety, and then rejoin you. Scavengers, disassemble!"
"So… who are you guys anyway?" the woman started to walk, expecting a long story.
[+]
The local newspapers around the State were buzzing with articles about the two reptilian mutates saving a boy from a terrorist attack. Jamie even agreed for an interview once he was better and came out of the hospital. He was thanking his scaly saviours from the bottom of his heart and asked everyone to fight prejudice against these majestic creatures. Coming from a seven year old boy only starting to regain a healthy colour and body mass, these simple words had a profound impact in the media. Connors and Stegron were now both renowned as local heroes and urban legends.
Later Curt agreed for an interview too. He appeared in the best of his suits, with a white shirt, black jacket and trousers, and a pair of new shiny shoes, as he humbly concurred that he was only doing his duty as a citizen of America and anyone would have done the same in his place.
Stegron disregarded his invitations for the interviews entirely, stating he had better things to do. With regards to his breakthrough contribution to genetics and society as a whole, the National Science Foundation recognized Dr. Stegron's works in genetic retroengineering and offered to renew his membership after a prolonged absence, but the saurian declined to everyone's surprise, stating that he didn't want anything to do with his human name. A compromise has been reached, in which NSF unprecedentedly agreed to issue him a new membership under the name of "Stegron, the Dinosaur Man", thus making him the first official non-human member of the association (Connors was still listed as a human) and the first ever dinosaur to be nominated for an award.
Tony Stark was publicly sentenced for mass murder and numerous corporate crimes, which led to his imprisonment for life on Ryker's island – the most impenetrable prison for super villains, where he met Spider-Man.
[+]
"This country has gone insane" a viewer said, switching off the TV. "Accepting lizards as US citizens? Did America turn into a zoo? What are we going to do next? Vote for a Yeti on an election? I can't stand this nonsense anymore. These imbeciles in power forgot what true America stands for, they disgrace our proud nation. We are a military might unlike any other and the pillar of world peace. The time has come for me to remind everyone what true Americans are and take care of the monsters myself if need be"
The man stood up, raising a blue and red shield with a white star in his hands.