Author's Note: Yep, we have a lizard! Moving forwards. I own nothing.
35. Bugged
Piper swore pulling on her mask one handed, using her other hand to fire a web at Dr. Connors. It caught him a few feet before he would have hit the pavement. He twisted and slashed through the webline. Screams echoed from the sidewalk as he dropped the last few feet to the pavement, his tongue flicking out to taste the air. Piper turned in the shattered window.
"Keep working on the cleanser! I'm going after him. I'll send someone to help you." With that she dove backwards out of the window. She dropped thirty stories before firing a webline to catch herself. She glanced down and caught sight of Dr. Connors tail slicking around the corner. She swung after him.
Glen had quite a lot running through his head as Piper leapt out the window after the giant green lizard that had been his boss. The first thought in his head was that he may have bitten off more than he could chew, he was good but he wasn't dealing with supervillains good, let alone giant mutant lizards. But then he remembered her smile, the blush on her face when they'd kissed, and he knew he couldn't back out now. As he dug through Dr. Connors altered Lizard formula the elevator opened revealing Tony Stark accompanied by White Tiger. He hadn't met any of Piper's team yet, except that brief glimpse of Nova that he was trying not to think about. Tony stepped up to him.
"Tell me what you got." He told Mr. Stark everything as fast as he could. The engineer nodded. "This isn't really my area. Bruce is on his way." Glen's eyebrows rose.
"Bruce Banner?" Tony nodded and pulled up a live news feed.
'Spidergirl appears to be chasing what I can only describe as a giant Lizard down Fifth Avenue. Our helicopter is in pursuit.' The video showed people scattering as Piper swung through the streets in hot pursuit of Dr. Connors. They disappeared from sight into an alleyway. By the time the helicopter had swung around they had both disappeared. Tony swore slightly. White Tiger tapped her wrist, a watch appearing out of nowhere.
"Spidey where are you?" The response was almost immediate.
"The sewer, following Doc Connors. I think he caught Oc's scent, which is one of the weirdest sentences I've ever said in my life." Tony pulled a face. "How are we doing on the fix to our scaly problem?" Tiger glanced over at Glen, he shook his head as the door to the elevator opened again. This time Dr. Banner stepped out and quickstepped over to Glen.
"Catch me up." Glen nodded and began to explain the situation to the doctor trying desperately to not freak out that he was having a conversation with the Dr. Banner.
"Dr. Banner just showed up so hopefully we'll be getting there soon. How about you?" There was silence over the line for a moment. When she spoke again her voice was barely above a whisper.
"I think we just found Doc Oc." The connection cut off and Tony swore. He tapped a few keys before Bruce laid a hand on his.
"She can handle herself, I need you here. She'll call back if she needs us." Tony hesitated but nodded slightly and the two of them huddled around the console with Glen.
Piper had never been happier that her mask had a filter in it. She didn't often have to venture into the sewers but sometimes when chasing bad guys it was unavoidable. She'd had a filter built into all of her masks. That at least meant that she wouldn't have to deal with the smell all around her as she followed Dr. Connors through the tunnels. She felt guilty that she was having to tail her friend like he was some kind of common criminal but if he was tracking Doc Oc then she needed to be there when they confronted each other. She tapped her watch, a holo-screen popping up, revealing a red dot a few tunnels away. She had placed a tracker on Doc Connors when she'd laid a hand on him before he had broken out of Stark Tower. She crept down the tunnels and onto the ceiling as she began to hear Doc Connors voice.
"Perfect thisss and we save millions." A harsh laugh sounded through the tunnels. Piper peeked around the corner. The room looked like an abandoned subway platform that had been repurposed into a mad scientist lab. Doc Oc was standing there laughing at Doc Connors, who was looking distinctly ruffled. He'd sprouted spikes along his back.
"You laugh at me, your saviorer?" Doc Oc let out another loud laugh.
"You've taken the mind of a true genius and turned it into a pea brain. You took a serum without waiting even twenty four hours to see what it would do. You must have been truly desperate to do something so monumentally stupid." He let out another dark chuckle as Piper slipped into the room. The two doctors were so focused on each other neither of them noticed her on the ceiling. One of Doc Oc's tentacles reached out and tapped at Dr. Connors' snout. He bared his teeth snapping at the metal arm.
"I am quite intrigued at what the serum has done to your skin though, this hide of yours seems nearly impenetrable. I never did get the chance to test my version of the serum. It doesn't surprise me that an untested experiment turned you into a monster." Doc Connors snarled.
"You want see monster? I show monster!" A roar shook the room and Doc Oc tried to dodge backwards but was too slow as Doc Connors grabbed one of his tentacle arms and pulled hard. The metal crumbled under his claws. Piper stifled a gasp as Doc Oc screamed. She really didn't like him but that didn't mean he deserved to die, she needed him if they were going to cure Norman Osborn. It was now or never, so she snapped her wrist out and shot a web into Doc Connors' eyes. He lurched back, clawing at the webbing.
"Sorry Doc, I don't want to hurt you but I can't let you kill him." The Lizard howled and hissed as Doc Oc backed off.
"You moron, you lead Spidergirl right to me!" Piper fired off a few more webs sticking Dr. Connors to the floor and barricading him in a corner with webbing.
"What did you do to your formula doc? Tell me and I'll leave, with him." Doc Oc scoffed.
"I don't believe you and even if I did why would I…" Another roar answered his question as Dr. Connors ripped through the last of the webbing.
"Would you prefer I left you to him?" Doc Oc shook his head as Dr. Connors lunged. Piper ducked and snagged him by the tail and yanked hard, pulling him of his feet and throwing him across the lab. Doc Oc hesitated but another roar seemed to convince him that the situation was enough to rethink his stance on spiders.
"Keep him off the computers." Oc made his way over to the computers as Spidey wrestled with the giant Lizard that had been her friend.
"Whatever you're going to do, do it fast!" Doc Oc let out another snort as Spidey was forced to tackle the Lizard to the ground.
"Stop fighting me Doc! I'm trying to help you!" She grunted as she was tossed across them room landing on the wall near where Doc Oc was working on one of the computers. He turned the screen.
"I don't know what he did to my formula, you seem to know more about this situation than I do. What's different?" Piper skimmed through the formula quickly before ducking as her spidey sense went crazy. A large green tail came down right where her head had been. She whirled kicking his legs out from under him. Doc Oc raced away towards what looked like a vault.
"Over here." Piper dove around the hissing Lizard and ducked flat to the floor as the Lizard lunged. Doc Oc smacked the Lizard into the vault before slamming the door. Doc Oc frowned.
"I'm surprised, we make a rather effective team." Piper scowled at him.
"You'd make a solid dog catcher doc." The wall shook, the vault door pushing outwards. "Or not. You got any other bright ideas" Piper faced the door, which in hindsight was probably a mistake.
"Have you ever heard the term, sacrificial lamb?" Piper didn't have time to register her spidey sense going off before she was electrocuted from behind. She screamed as the door was torn apart from the inside.