The Adventures of Lizard-Man

#Issue 17: Task Force Op 1.

As MJ stared at the now abandoned Parker house for the 5th time this month, she felt tears well in her eyes. The place was finally for sale and she could hardly bear it. It had been 5 months since Aunt May died and Peter's 'Disappearance'. She of course tried calling him when she found out about May, but his phone kept going straight to voicemail. She then went to visit his house, only to find it labeled 'abandoned' by the authorities. She was getting very concerned, but then she saw the news 4 months ago:

'Daily Bugle Breaking News: Reports of the Lizard Man roaming the city causing chaos have permeated the city landscape! The Lizard Man, first assumed to be a hero for capturing a superhuman hunter, has now shown their true colors proving to be a menace to our fair city. Oscorpe was decimated by this savage along with a large Dino-like ally just last month causing a fire that almost tore apart the entire building. Reason stated by survivors for the monster's intrusion was 'they just wish to cause chaos'. Now Oscorpe CEO Norman Osborn has put out a statement saying 'a task force with experience dealing with such threats is underway at Oscorpe immediately, but all hands willing to help in obtaining this menace and his monstrous allies are welcome'. The Mayor has Green-lit this 'Oscorpe's task force; to be given free reign and authority while trying to obtain the Lizard Man.'

This made MJ realize why Peter was gone, but made her feel so guilty and hopeless. She had to do something to help. So, MJ used every bit of charm and feminine wildness she had to get info out of Harry about his father's plans and why he was planning them. The best she got was 'my dad thinks the lizard boy is his, you know, scientifically. Not really sure why, it confuses me, but for some reason he does and he says he's gona use everything he's got to get him back.'. She was glad to feel she had some info to help Peter, but had no way of getting it to him. She had hoped if she visited the house enough, maybe, just maybe, he would swing by, but no. He was gone and now so was his home. She just hoped beyond hope he would be safe.

Peter found the home him and Conners had made in the Sewer quite comfortable. Having realized Conner's lab in the city would be targeted next by Osborne after the breakout from Oscorpe, they cleared out their stuff and headed deep into the NYC Sewers.

Thanks to Peter's familiarity with the Sewer system, they were able to make a home in an abandoned pipe line big enough for all of them and Devil Dino. This spot was right off the main sewer line, located in the center of the city. Its main exit let out in an old abandoned well house where both the transformable Peter and Conners could enter and exit without prying eyes. Mostly Peter was the one doing the entering and exiting, since Conners could be spotted by Osborne's spies. Being extra cautious, since he knew Osborne knew who he was, Peter had changed his look and public persona. He had dyed his hair blond and when people asked him who he was he called himself 'Ben Riley', Ben after his late uncle and Riley being the maiden name of his aunt. Conners even helped Peter make a fake ID so he could get a job. They needed money for food so some work was needed.

Begrudgingly, Peter took on the Bugle Freelance job called 'Lizard Hunt'. It was a job taking pictures of things involving Lizard man and the developments at Oscorpe. It paid dirt cheap, 200 bucks a week (no overtime) for pictures of any possible Lizard sightings or Oscorpe updates. It wasn't glorious but at least it was something.

At first Conners protested, saying it was 'too dangerous', but then Peter brought up how this could help them see what the enemy was up to. So Conners agreed and it bore some fruit. Here in their sewer loft, Peter was going through the images he had taken on his phone that involved the recent Oscorpe press conference involving the 'Oscorpe Taskforce'.

He had seen 2 men there that he was familiar with and one he didn't know. Doctor Otto Octavious was the obvious one, being the tour guide for his school trip at Oscorpe, the same trip that led to him being bit by the spider and then saved by the lizard serum. The second was Max Dillion. Not many people would know who he was, but Peter was a subscriber to . Max was a head pioneer in clean electrical energy creation. He had invented the 'Healthy Habitat Generator', a large electoral eel habitat that produced large amounts of electricity in a humane way. Oscorpe's building was already on record and publicized to be running off these generators.

The third at the press conference was someone Peter had never seen before. His title was 'head of special security' whatever that meant and he went by the name Gargen. Peter found only one record of someone named Gargen and it was in public police records. He was said to be on death row for murder, poisoning an entire crime family with his own concoction, but now here he was an 'employee of Oscorpe', becoming part of the new Task Force. Clearly, Oscorpe was using his criminal persona of 'The Goblin' to call in some help. According to the conference, these three were said to be 'Task Force op1' and their 'retainment projects' were 'in development' at Oscorpe. In short, these men were working on ways of making themselves threats to Lizard Man and whatever they were making would be used for capturing him or worse, killing him. Peter shivered at the thought, but at least he knew they would focus on their skill sets.

Octavious was a genius. He would focus on something that would allow him to use his brain against Lizard Man. Max was a man of electricity. Whatever he made would implement that, and Gargen… well he was a wild card, but clearly a murderer who liked poison. Whatever he would use would most likely be deadly. That was good enough for Peter for now. He knew Oscorpe wasn't ready to strike yet and neither was he. He sent his pictures via email to the bugle and then it was time to rest and later, work on some new equipment.

In the Highrise of Oscorpe, floor level A, Osborne watched in awe at the creations made by his first three Task Force Operatives in the past 5 months. It was not hard for Osborne to recruit these men. Money and freedom talked to Gargan but the inclusion of Max and Octavius was entirely scientific. Not only were they interested in what Osborne could learn from the DNA of Lizard Man but this was a chance for them to make projects 'not sanctioned' or 'under code' that they had dreamed of.

For Octavius, it was a pair of Nano tech arms that shrank in and out of four different compartments in a back harness. These 'smart arms' were controlled entirely by using a neural inhibitor, a device so dangerous for its artificial intelligence it was banned from weapon use in the military. It took Osborne an arm and a leg to scrape one for Otto, but the result seemed to be worth it. The smart arms were both versatile for traversal and combat.

Max's request was a lot simpler but just as illegal. Max was so obsessed, so enamored with electricity, he wished to bond with it, to be able to morph between an energy and solid form. The only way to achieve this was to bond natural electric bonding agents in eels to the oz formula then inject it into one's self. Hopefully, Max's DNA would accept the mutagene fusing to his body.

The past few months had failed, with Max nearly being bed ridden from the effects of the formula, but this month showed promise. Though he could not fully enter an energy form yet, he could control electricity like a living conductor and it did not harm his physical form at all. He did tend to discharge electrical bolts at random however, so he had created for him an emerald body suit that kept random discharges from happening and focused his powers to his hands. When out in public, like for the press conference earlier that month, he wore it under his clothes and it did its job extremely well.

Gargen's creation was more of a collaboration with Oscorpe tech and Gargen's art for poisons. Though he never was a chemist, his knack for chemicals was inspiring especially when it came to deadly poisons. He brewed one up special that only required a handful of over the counter ingredients. It was then pumped into the chemical weapon chamber of a battle suit prototype that was made for special forces but rejected for its 'odd design'. The Scorpion 1.1 suit was a battle suit for a full-grown man with a tail weapon that responded to thought like Octavious's arms but with much simpler tech as well as defended its host with its strong armor. With Gargan's help it could also now secrete a chemical weapon from its syringe-like tip with its tail appendage. Made with the same Anti-conductor emerald material that Max used for his suit, this emerald armored suit was a piece of deadly art.

As Osborne looked on, admiring all the work that went into this Task Force, he couldn't help but be excited about his own contribution that he had kept secret from his men until now. With what little DNA of Peter's he could muster from the remnants of the fire after the escape, Osborne had created a little thing called a 'Lizard Tracker'. This device, disguised as a common bird, fly's through the city, looking for traces of Peter's DNA signature. After months of nothing, it had finally had a hit at an old abandoned house in the center of the city. The camera of the bird did not catch a good look at the kid, but the DNA reading matched and today, he was going to send his 'Task Force op 1' with their new gear to investigate.