"And this is the best part." Leo pointed at the screen, trying to show Spidey the beauty of the show.
"The part where he murders his best friend?" They sarcastically asked.
"No, the part where he makes the tough decision for the greater good, sacrificing his own happiness for the sake of others." The turtle explained.
"What about what happened five minutes before where he said it was the red shirt's job to take the hits for them like human shields?"
"While morally questionable, different ethics back when this was produced … also those guys were clones." Leo justified.
"We've been trying for years, web head, the geek just won't budge." Raph prattled on as he played with Mikey on the pinball machine. "And that makes it three to one."
"How the heck did a pinball machine end up in the sewers anyway?" Spidey asked.
"Leo found it while helping Donnie look for scrap metal in one of the abandoned tunnels of the sewers." Mikey explained. "Speaking of, where is D anyway?"
"He's been held up in his lab." April explained, messing with the laptop while trying to find more information on the Kraang, with sadly little result. "I tried knocking, but he just gave a frustrated scream of rage."
"Donnie … gave you … a scream of rage?" Leo asked with concern.
"Yeah, doesn't he give all of you guys one?" April asked, oblivious to what the implications to what this really meant.
"All the time, but it's weird that he-" Leo was cut off with a scream, followed by the door to Donnie's lab bursting open, a box tossed out.
"None of this makes any sense!" The turtle shouted, a visible vein bulging from the top of his forehead. "These genomes are a complete genetic, enigmatic nightmare of momentous proportions!"
"Wow, Donnie finally reached Raph's levels of rage." Spidey joked. "Was studying Kraang DNA that hard?"
"I was studying YOURS!" That made everyone pause in the room. "Remember that blood sample you gave me?"
"You mean the needle you stuck in my arm when I was eating pizza." Spidey groaned. Huh, Leo should probably keep one eye open if Donnie had gone full mad scientist.
"Yes, I've been going over it for the last twenty four hours, and concluded that 'radioactive spider-bite' is apparently the least of your problems!" Donnie shouted. "Your cells are like a tower of round blocks that's somehow completely stabilized!"
"In Mikey terms?" Raph pointed to the dazed out turtle.
"According to the data, you're one hundred percent human, and twenty five percent spider!"
The group looked at each other after a moment. "I don't want to question your math Donnie, but I don't think those numbers add up." Leo spoke.
"THEY DON'T!" The clearly stressed turtle accused. "By all accounts your cells should be exploding and your body degrading, but they don't, somehow." Donnie glared at the masked man.
"Guess I'm just a man of mystery down to the cellular level." Spidey smirked.
His purple brother stared at Spidey, before turning to Raph. "Is this how you feel every day? How do you deal with it?"
"How else, by hitting anything that annoys me." Raph answered immediately.
"Look, I'd give you more answers if I could, but I'm not too keen on learning more about them, least someone else finds themselves with Spider powers and either A, uses them for evil and gets me framed, or b, follows in my footsteps and carries a responsibility they're not ready to have."
"What would be the difference between them and you?" Leo asked.
"Why, the ability to take any horrific and traumatic event and bottle it up so deep down people never think you need therapy of course." Everyone stared at him in an awkward silence. "Something on my mask?"
"Do…you need a hug dude?" Mikey asked honestly, opening his arms up. "I'm always open for one if you need it."
"Thanks little green bean, but I have to pass on that. Our patrol for the night's about to start anyway." He cracked his back. "Alright crooks, beware, we're the guys that managed to beat up flying men and living power outlets."
"Right, just give us a second to sharpen our weapons." Leo said as Spidey walked out of the lair entrance. "He is definitely one step away from cracking, right?"
"Undoubtedly." April commented. "Can't imagine how he's able to joke one second and sound so serious the next."
"It's a conundrum almost as mysterious as his DNA structure… huh, actually, got to make a note of that." Donnie got a notepad out. "Source of abilities may cause damage in the psychosis."
"I think that might just be anyone." Raph muttered. "Mutants aren't exactly the standard of sanity, I mean, just look at Mikey."
"Have I always been this shade of green?" Mikey looked to himself, lost in his own little world.
"Yes." Leo sighed. "Either way, let's make sure Spidey doesn't break under his own pressure, for his own good." And their own of course, the guy hit as hard as a speeding car. Last thing New York needed was for the friendly neighborhood hero to snap.
Curt woke up in the middle of the night. He didn't know why, it just … felt right. He's been off all day, ever since his latest injection. After Max's attack, Curt noticed one of his hidden vials of lizard formula glowing brighter, almost pulsing with energy.
Upon further study, Conners discovered something spectacular. The formula had become more active. Upon interaction with normal cells, the process yielded the regenerative results he needed. It seems the electrification of the serum served as the catalyst he was missing the entire time.
Under normal circumstances, he would have tested the sample on an animal to be safe but … it was going so slow, and he didn't have the time to ponder and test how much electricity it would require to reactivate the catalyst again. This could be the one shot he had at fixing his arm, his one shot at being able to hug his son and wife again without using a prosthetic, without feeling like less of a man.
So he injected it into his stump as he waited … and then everything had been off since. His body felt empty, like he was using up all of his energy. Smells were strange and colorful in a way. And he felt so warm, despite no perspiration running down his face. Too warm, he needed to get out of bed.
He went to the mirror in the bathroom without bothering to turn on the light. His vision felt completely normal. He could navigate in the darkness just as well in the light, in fact, something in him told him even more so. His taste…or was it his scent, it hard to tell, his tongue feel more sensitive and delightful.
He winced, stump itches, it itches like nothing else. He began scratching the spot but it wasn't enough. He ripped off his own shirt to reach for it better, feeling the old wound pulsating under his fingers.
"Honey?" He turned to his mate-his wife, Curt turned to his wife. "Is everything alright?"
"It's … it's …" The itching was unbearable, he needed to rip the skin off, rip it off, get it off-the skin broke, tendrils formed from the stump and began coalescing. They melded and merged into … an arm. He had a right arm. He could feel it, just like old times. "Hehe." It worked … it fucking worked! "I did it Martha …"
"Did what … the formula? You took it?" She asked incredulously. "What about testing? The potential for side effects alone could-"
He went to her, hugging the woman of his dreams. "Martha, it worked. I … I can hug you again." He cried out. "I can hug you."
"Curt.." His wife caresses his arm, the warm sensation of her skin and the cool breeze of the open window danced across his once missing appendage. Curt felt goosebumps form. Every new sensation on his arm was more delightful than the last. "It's here..it's actually here."
"Dad, are you alright?" The sound of his son came into the hallways as Billy opened the bedroom door, rubbing his eyes.
"Billy!" He ran up to his son in tears and picked him up…actually picked him up with both arms, something he hadn't done since he was a baby.
"Dad?" The boy blinked the sleep out of his eyes, before gasping. "Your arm! You have your arm back!"
"I can pick you up now!" He joined in the cheer. "I can arm wrestle again, I can play baseball!" Maybe have an actual chance this time around to hit the ball without tripping. "And it's not just me! Amputees, war veterans., and that's just scratching the surface! If the serum can regrow limbs, it could heal damaged livers, collapsed lungs, and paraplegics!" An all purpose cure for everything!
"Hey, don't get too excited now." Martha calmed him down. "We need to run more tests at the lab to see.."
"Of course, we need to bring Eddie, Peter and Gwen in on the good news too!" He ran to get himself dressed. "Who's hungry for chocolate, because we're ordering cake!"
"Cake!" The little guy shouted.
"Seriously Curt, take it slow. You just regrew your arm, you should be beyond tire-this is a sentence in my life now."
"I can rest later, right now I'm going to do everything I can with two arms." Curt smiled. "Starting with driving to the bakery and getting that cake!" He was really craving something fierce at the moment. Absolutely nothing could bring him down at this moment.
It should've been one of the most miraculous moments of Eddie's life. Not only a complete scientific breakthrough in the world of medicine, but it brought the man Eddie admired so much a truly happy moment. A moment Curt got to share with his family and the rest of them in the lab.
It started off small. After a delicious round of cake, Dr. Connors began feeling cold when it was perfectly average temperature wise. Then his bro Pete got really scared when Connor's eyes started dilating when the man was in the mood for arm wrestling. It was right there Eddie noticed the man's grip was incredibly ironclad, way stronger than he'd ever give the doc credit for.
Then the scales started growing. After a small check up, it was confirmed to be a worst case scenario. Yes, the Lizard DNA was healing itself … faster than the body could adapt. It was running rampant and overriding the cells, soon Connors would become more Lizard than Man.
After that, they all did their best to try and look for a cure. Peter was messing with some chemicals, wincing when they came into effect. Probably a total cellular failure on that front. Gwen was adding in as well, but … well he didn't want to be rude, but she didn't have the level of experience everyone else had.
Eddie double checked the work. "It's no use." He groaned. "We can't take them out because they replicate faster than we can get rid of them. And anything that does takes out the whole thing." Dr. Connors may be becoming a monster, but they shouldn't try and put him down.
"Curt, you need to calm yourself down." Martha patted her husband on the shoulder as his hands started to tremble as he attempted to write down his formula on a board.
"I can't Martha … I can feel it. This instinct, crawling its way to the top of my brain." He pulled away. "Even if I could somehow fight it off, it wouldn't be forever." The man went back to work. "... If it all goes wrong, promise to keep Billy safe, please? Lizards aren't known to be kind to their kin."
"It's not going to come to that." Eddie swore on his life. "There has to be a way to make the human parts of your cells dominant over the lizard." The aggressive lizard half was ruthlessly attacking Connors from the inside.
"It's no use." Gwen said with a growl. "We can't separate the lizard DNA from the human DNA."
Peter stopped working, looking at them with confusion. "What if we separated everything?" Peter spoke up. "Like how a microphone filters sound, we eliminate the added foreign cells from Connor's body."
"Peter, be realistic." Eddie groaned out. "We can't just-"
"No, he may be onto something." Connors interrupted. "In my research I found that spliced DNA was capable of being subtracted…I guess I just got too eager to see the positive side of the end results to fully develop it." Right, thank god Pete had the answer … just like always … "We'd need a cross sample of Human spliced DNA first, as a way to cross out the similarities-"
"Curt." Martha cut him off. "It could take days to properly do that, we don't have the time."
"I can hold out until then, I swear I-" Curt began convulsing. "No…no…No!" The doc back began stretching out and deforming into inhuman shapes.
"Dr Connors, hold out just a little while!" Eddie shouted, looking around. They could try binding him down, or sedating him.
"I can't … it's too much … grab Billy and run, please!" The man shouted, hitting the ground and panting as he gripped the lab desk … hard enough to break it into pieces.
"Doctors Connors!" Gwen cried out to their mentor as a tail began shooting out of his backside, lifting up and slamming it on the floor, sending cracks into it.
"Everyone get down!" Peter called out as the transformed Doctor Corners head began reshaping, losing all its hair as it became more square like and reptilian.
"RAAAAGG!" Cried out Doctor … no, the beast he'd become. No longer was their clean pale skin, but bumpy green scales with talons and fangs than looked sharp enough to shred a human in seconds.
The beast, the Lizard, sniffed the air, tongue extended. "Hssss." They turned to Martha, a low growl in its throat as it began to walk closer.
"Sorry Doc, human's not on the menu today!" Peter shouted as he grabbed a nearby chair (didn't think he was strong enough to lift it in all honesty) and smashed it against the Lizard's back. The Lizard didn't even flinch, turning to Peter with a low growl in his throat. "Alright, not my best thought out process." It opened its jaws.
"Dad, no!" Billy shouted, suddenly standing in front of the creature while they were all too transfixed to notice him.
"Billy, get away!" Martha shouted.
"You're not a monster, please!" The boy cried out, the Lizard stopping as it moved in closer.
"Grrrrr." It growled in its throat, sniffing, before giving a hiss and running to the door. "RAAAAGG!"
"Curt!" Martha yelled as her husband disappeared.
"I'll go after him!" He needed to make up for not stopping Connors while he had the chance. He was the oldest, he needed to step up and protect Peter and Gwen. "I'll stay on call, make sure you start making the antidote!" Eddie rushed out the door, making his way behind the giant reptile.
"Eddie, wait!" He couldn't turn around to answer Pete's plea. Eddie was a scientist and Connors student. He was in the business to help save lives. Just like his parents used to.
Great, 'worry Aunt May', perfect excuse. Now they were going to think Peter Parker was a flat out coward. That's juuust what he needed right now. As he changed he dialed a contact, letting it ring as he began taking off his shoes.
"You've reached Donnie."
"Donnie, listen, I need you to make a Gene Cleanser fast. Something that destroys all non-human DNA." Peter spoke fast as he messed with his mask.
"Is it impossible o'clock already? Could've sworn that wasn't until ten tonight." He did not need the sass right now.
"Put me on speaker if the rest of the turtles are there!" He shouted, putting on his mask and swinging into the air, just in time to see the Lizard go into the subway. Great, more people in danger.
"We're all listening in, Spidey. What's up?" Leo's voice came on the phone.
"Doctor Connors was experimenting with Lizard DNA to regrow cells. Electro zapped one of the samples, and he regrew his missing arm back." Spidey explained as he moved down the stairs.
"Good for him, he could use the help." Mikey said with warmth.
"Except it overexpanded, and now he's a giant mutant lizard with no sapience running around downtown, possibly wanting to eat people."
"Not good for him, or anyone for that matter." Raph groaned.
"Exactly. I need you to take my blood to make the gene cleanser." He said, finding the Lizard about to eat someone. "Hang on a sec, need to punch a reptile." Spidey placed the call on hold, swinging in and knocking the Lizard into the train tracks. "Dude, get some breath mints, you could really use some!" He shouted.
"Spider Man!" Eddie shouted, running to him. Perfect, create a cover story.
"Was swinging by, saw a giant man with scales screaming all about, what's going on here?" If he just got the miracle cure out of nowhere, they would have suspected someone who knew about Connor's condition.
"That lizard is Doctor Connors, a lab experiment went wrong." The lizard roared as Eddie explained. "It's not his fault, he's a good man."
"Excuse me mr cold blooded creature with humanoid features!" Spidey shouted, hitting the man back. "We're having a conversation here!" He shot a few webs … which instantly broke under a single flex. "Then again, two cents from outside sources are always nice now and then."
"My friends back at the lab are working on a gene cleanser, but we don't know how long it might take to make it…"
"Fortunately for you, I happen to have a bit of expertise in dealing with mutated reptiles. Wait right here and my people will get in touch with your people." He replied as he got back on the phone with Donnie, just as the Lizard began scaling the walls of the tunnels. "Will people stop stealing my wall crawling stick!?" He needed to copyright that quickly before someone else did. "Donnie, I'm gonna send you the number of one of the scientists at ESU labs, they've worked closely with this type of DNA splicing before, their input will help out a ton."
"What about the rest of us?" Leo asked.
Spidey webbed the back of the eight o'clock. "Depends, you guys ever ride a train?" He asked before launching himself after the Lizard. "Because the Lizard is running rampant trying to eat the oh so juicy passengers on the inside."
"There's like a million empty train cars next to the lair. We can find our way through the tunnels pretty easily."
"Good, make it to Queens in about five, we'll work from there and try to restrain him." Spidey said as he shot more webs at the Lizard's face.
"Don't worry spidey, Doctor Scales is going down!" Mikey shouted. "And I refuse to call him anything else, alright!"
"He's not a villain Mikey, Connor's just a little off his meds, there's no need to give him a name!" The aforementioned lizard responded to this by taking the fight to the side of the train, forcing spidey to duck and dodge every five seconds from incoming signs on top of avoiding getting bitten and slash. "I'm trying to give you credit here, doc! You're making me look bad!"
"I take it you're going to need two hands and need us to call you back?" Raph asked in a sarcastic tone.
"I'm sure I can take-" {Strike} Unable to move fast enough, he took a tail to the ribs, being launched through the train windows. "... Yeah, call you back." He wheezed.
========================================================================.
Donnie had a bit of trouble mixing the chemicals as they ran, while juggling a phone call. Luckily, Mikey was managing to hold said phone without talking. "Adding heat, letting the chemicals properly react with one another." He muttered. While he was still struggling as to HOW it was possible for the genetics to be in their spliced state, the process of cleaning them out was luckily much simpler.
After the first test, he managed to clean out Spidey's DNA sample, leaving him with just regular old human DNA. It was a bonus to get to talk with other scientists, their research was fascinating. Now as he recreated the formula, they moved to follow where Spidey said the creature went … "The zoo?" Mikey asked. "Oh, can we ride an elephant!?"
"This isn't a social outing, Mikey, we're trying to stop a vicious reptile from killing everyone in their path, one that isn't Raph for once." Leo reminded them as they walked through the thankfully empty zoo.
"Hey!"
"He's got a point you know." Spidey came in, his hand and side covered in webs. "Luckily, we just have to worry about saving animals this time around, like the zookeppers of tomorrow or something."
"You okay?" Leo asked.
"Yeah, Lizard's tough but he tends to just run wild, he didn't stick around to finish the job." Spidey popped his back with a very loud and long crack. "Probably came to the zoo because he smelled the fresh prey."
"You know, for a giant rampaging Lizard running around to eat animals, this place is pretty quiet." Raph looked around. "Not even the guys locked up in here are freaking out."
"Most species of lizards aren't naturally hostile for the most part, they mainly look around for quiets spots to rest and don't try to actively engage in fights." Donnie spoke. "Only a few are known to actually try to engage larger prey."
"Well if I had to guess a natural target …" Spidey swung over to the reptile house. "This place seems like a good start."
"Enough talk, let's go skin us a lizard." Raph smirked.
"Metaphorically. There's still a man inside, he's just trapped in a large leathery skin of feral instincts." Spidey commented.
"I'll try to remember that as he's trying to bite off your head." Raph rolled his eyes.
"Mmmm." Mikey sighed in content as they walked in. "This place feels awesome."
"We're cold blooded, it's set to keep us at our most comfortable." Donnie noted.
Raph paused as he walked past some turtles. "Should really feed these guys more … maybe give them a scratch now and then on the shell …You know, seeing all these little guys in here kind of makes me want to break them all out, you know, a favor from one turtle to another."
"I'll make sure to mail your complaints. PETA will be thrilled to have you speaking up." Spidey joked.
"So what's the plan for when we actually get to the giant feral doctor?" Leo asked.
"Well I finished the formula, but if he's scaled, trying to inject it will be useless." Donnie muttered. "Meaning we need to get him to drink it." However that would work.
"Don't worry guys, I've got this." Mikey waved off. "We're brothers from different scales, I'm sure he's perfectly reasonable-" Before he could finish, a scale covered hand grabbed his face, everyone turning to the giant, lab coat wearing reptile with hungry eyes.
"GRRAAAA!" It shouted, squeezing as it went in for a bite.
Shing
"AAAAAAG!" The Lizard jumped back on the account of its missing arm, courtesy of Leo.
"DUDE!" Spidey screamed.
"He's a lizard, he'll grow it back, see?" Leo pointed out as the stump was reshaping the bones and muscles almost instantly. If the side effects didn't exist, medical purposes alone could revolutionize the world.
"Yeah, but can we avoid the excessive violence? You may have hit the arm that never was, but I'd rather not test what happens when he turns back." Spidey complained as he jumped in to hold the lizard back.
"Don't worry, I'll only get a little stabby with him." Raph growled as he plunge forward with his Sais to pin the creature to the wall. "Sorry about this, Doc, but it's for your own-AHHH!" The lizard forced itself forward, ripping the sais through its own arms and lunging at Raph.
"I think the good old Doc just realized it can ignore damage!" Donnie shouted as it lunged and ate Raph's head clean off. "RAPH!"
A few seconds later he popped out of his shell. "Forgot we were turtles, didn't you?"
"Legitimately, yes." Donnie sighed in a breath of relief as Leo swung his blades at the monster's chest while Spidey clung to the man's back. "He's too vicious and quick like this, we need to find a way to slow him down." Donnie announced as he swung his bo over the lizard's head.
Leo pushed back the feral reptile once more, looking around. "Spidey, set up a trap in the polar bear caves, reptiles don't like the cold, right?!"
"Yep, one drop in ice cold water ought to give his veins a good ole freezing!" The vigilante slung himself out of the building … leaving the four of them to deal with a nine foot regenerating reptile out for blood.
"Alright Doctor Scales, you and me!" Mikey shouted, trying to land a series of blows from the back. His younger brother was surprisingly adept at fighting the tail and keeping it pinned while everyone else focused on the front.
"If you were our usual brand of ugly mutants, I'd be making a briefcase out of your scales!" Raph jumped in, piercing the monster's scally talon filled claws. "Even if it would be a little self-defeating!"
"Come on Mr Connors." Donnie tried to reach down into his head. "You're a biologist, I'm an all around scientist, can't we work out our difference-" The response was a claw gripping his skull too tight for comfort. "Guess not!"
"Hands off my brother's brain, it's the best thing he has going for him!" Leo chimed in as they chopped off another limb. "Ugh, I definitely prefer fighting Kraang bots, it'll take forever to wash the blood off!"
"Traps ready, just get him near the ice caps!" Spidey shouted.
"You know, it really is a nice day for a swim, why don't we help you get ready?!" Mikey extended his nunchaku around the monster and wrapped it around the lizard. "Don't worry, as a fellow reptile, we'll do it free of charge!" He then proceeded to throw the doctor near the habitat, where a giant web was waiting for him to land on.
"Here's the webs, where's Spidey!?" Raph shouted.
"Geronimo!" With a swing in, the spandex clad hero kicked the Lizard through the web and straight into the captivity, both of them falling into the ice cold water. "Cold, so cold, really really cold!" The masked man shouted as the Lizard began flailing around, still trying to bite Spidey's head off.
"Come on, we have to go after-" Mikey was prepared to jump.
"Think before you leap, shell head, the cold's not good for us either!" Donnie reminded Mikey before tossing the vile down. "Hey Spidey, here's the medicine you ordered!"
The Lizard hissed, trying to whack the object, only for a web line to snag it over to Spidey. "Come on Doc, your self diagnosis could use a second opinion!" He shouted, trying to strangle the Lizard back into the water to get it slower.
After a few seconds, they came back up, Spidey popping the cork as he began draining the contents inside. "Bottoms up!" And shoved his entire hand down the Lizard's throat.
"GRRAAAA!" The Lizard cried, thrashing around as the scales began to flake off its body, giving way to human skin as it shrunk smaller and smaller. The right arm itself looked like a bundle of tentacles unraveling itself until it was gone, leaving behind no trace of a lizard arm, or any arm, ever being there.
"AHA! YES! It worked!" Donnie cheered. "My first genetic un-splicing! Cross-species genetics, you mysteries shall soon all be uncovered!"
"I … what … turtles?" The man asked as Spidey brought them out of the habitat.
"There is Doctor Connors, that's just the lizard brain weeding its way out." Spidey made a 'get out of here' hand motion. "This bad dream will soon be over."
"You heard him team, let's get…" Leo ordered, only a small click to be heard in the air. "Is someone else here?"
"Yeah, it kind of sounded like a camera going off." Donnie looked around.
"Nope, nothing here. My spider-sense would go off if there was." Spidey waved off and continued to shoo them off.
"You're spider-what now?" Raph asked.
"Doctor Connors!" They watched a jock looking guy run up. "I'm glad you're alri-are those giant turtles?"
"I don't see any giant turtles." Spidey gave a pretty lame excuse, one that signaled that they've already spent one second too long here already.
"Aww." Mikey sighed as they made their way out through the shadows. "Come on, the other science guys know about us, can't we talk to them for a minute or something."
"Maybe someday, little brother, but not today." Donnie patted his young brother's back.
Martha stared at her husband. "I know it's hard to reapply the bandages myself … but do you have to be so intent about it?" He asked.
"The last time I didn't keep an eye on you, you almost ate me. I'm never letting you out of my sight again, Curt." She chided.
The man sighed. "That's fair." Curt gave a small laugh. "I'm just grateful you managed to finish the gene cleanser, in record time too."
"That wasn't us, not entirely." Gwen explained as she labeled the vials containing their latest experiment. "We had an 'anonymous' caller help us speed through the process, although if what you said last night was true, I can guess who that was."
"Spider-man and those four turtle creatures." Martha nodded in agreement. "I don't know how they knew how to help us, but I'm grateful that they did."
"I'm just glad the nightmare's over." Peter spoke with relief as he helped Gwen. "I'm … sorry I couldn't stick around-"
"I understand Peter." Martha knew the boy was afraid at the time, no one could ask that much. "What's important is that we're all still here, and the worst is behind us." She looked around, seeing something was off. "Where's Eddie? He's usually here by-"
The front door slammed open, Eddie stomping in with a surprisingly vengeful look in his eyes. "Check the headline!" He spat, slamming a newspaper onto the desk.
They looked at the picture plastered in front of Bugle. It was one of Spider-man…fighting the Lizard. "What?!" Martha gasped. "Who could've.."
"Look at the bottom." Eddie growled, pointed his finger to the byline. "'Photo by Peter Parker."
"Peter?" Gwen asked, eyes wide. "But … why would …"
"Look." The boy looked ashamed. "I didn't take any pictures that had Connors in them, nobody knows the link between-"
Eddie didn't let him finish, grabbing the boy by the collar of his shirt and holding him against the wall. "We trusted you! And instead of trying to help us save a man, our mentor, you just went in for a photo shoot to make money!" He reared back his fist, intentions obvious.
"Eddie, don't." Curt made him pause. "I'm not exactly in the position to make judgements." He got up from his chair and went into his office. "It's the least I deserve for what I've done."
Martha looked at the boy, disappointed beyond belief. "I'm sorry, I needed to help Aunt May and.."
"Peter, you're young, and that means you're going to make bad decisions one way or another. When we're scared, we don't think straight."
"Thanks.."
"I understand why it happened, but I can't trust you." She firmly stated. "You're out of the internship Peter."
"What?" He asked, wide eyes.
"We can't allow you in the lab anymore if you're willing to expose us like this, please understand." Martha sighed.
"I…" Peter tried to speak, before closing his mouth and turning away. "I get it." He walked towards the door, sending one last look to Gwen and Eddie, the latter still fuming while the former just gave a sad nod to the boy, a sad look that Martha gave to Curt on occasion.
"I can't believe … I can't believe I vouched for him." Eddie muttered, walking to the back. Martha was disappointed, but they had to move on, even if the sting of betrayal would linger for a long while.
"Unbelievable!" April walked into the lair with the newspaper in her hand.
"I know right, the paper just called him 'the Lizard!" Mikey groaned. "Bad enough villains are naming themselves, now we have to worry about the local news coming up with horrible names."
"Again, I never wanted him to have a name to begin with." Spidey reiterated. "What's up April?"
"You know that Peter guy from my friend group? He nearly exposed Curt Connors with photos after abandoning the group while they were working on the cure!" She shouted. Gwen told her all about it during school. What frustrated her more was that the girl was still talking to the jerk after all that.
"Photos!?" Leo shouted. "I knew we should have looked around!"
"Don't tell me we have to deal with another angry loud mouth new yorker again, because I don't want another Spyder-Bytes." Raph groaned. "I'm not willing to learn the same lesson twice.
"No, we're lucky he only got a picture of Spidey and no one would ever think of connecting Connor's to the Lizard." April grumbled. "If that pencil necked jerk had his way, he'd would've exposed you guys too."
"Well … lucky him, getting a cash prize." Spidey muttered. "I'll try and look out, make sure he doesn't find you guys-"
"Oh no, you guys have your problems, I'm dealing with this one." April stated firmly. "I'm sticking closer around and making sure he doesn't get anywhere near the fights." They were already doing so much to help find her dad, she wasn't going to let some guy at her school ruin it for a few bucks.
"He's the pipsqueak you talked about right?" Raph asked. "Why don't we just head over and give him a little scare, break all his cameras just for good measure?"
"Remember what happened to Vic?" Spidey reminded him. "Now we have a spider mutant running loose in New York we need to lock up at some point, one that we can actually lock up now with Oscorp's deal with Rykers."
"Well, it's nice to know we don't have to let every mutant we come across now run free." Leo nodded.
"Well that's one problem down." April sighed as she sat down. "So now what, wait until Kraang starts attacking and deal with them when it happens?"
"Probably for the best we lay low after the attack …Hey Donnie, you can still make more of the gene cleanser, right?" Spider-man asked in a low and weirdly depressed tone.
"Technically yes, but I'm locking up the other samples tighter than Fort Knox … I don't trust Mikey to not drink them." The orange turtle raised his finger, paused, before nodding.
"Good…I'll know who to ask if I ever need it." The web-head sighed as he headed for the exit. "See you guys later."
"Hey, spidey, wait, we still haven't had victory pizza yet!" Mikey called out.
"Not hungry." Spidey blunted said as he webbed off.
A few seconds of silence. "What was that about?" Raph asked.
"Who knows, maybe the secret life is getting to him?" Leo shrugged
April idly wondered if she should try investigating that identity herself … nah, it was probably a secret for a good reason … also she had a pencil neck to deal with. Why couldn't everyone be as nice as Spidey?