Yes, Yes I know….. "What took me so long?!" Well, when you get out of college, it's difficult to get your life back together. I'm living proof of that, but hey enough excuses. You didn't come here for excuses, you came here for the next chapter and so here it is!
Lizard Man: The Dark Hunt
Chapter 3: Troubling Rage
Peter had felt rage before. It was no stranger to him since the tragedy that had trailed after his power's birth. Thing was, he could still feel a sense of himself in control when he changed; a sense that complied with the monster that he now shared his body with. It was man that was in control at all times, and the beastly side of him was more of the compliant partner that could sway him in his own decisions. But with the change of yellow vision to red, that hinge seemed to crack. Now Peter felt more like a passenger imprisoned in his own skin, sealed in a vision of red and surrounded by his darkest feelings; pain, anger, rage, but above all…..fear. Peter was afraid, or rather his animal side defiantly was, and with that fear guided a sense of helplessness and despair that drove all his emotions to the surface as well as a powerful urge to fight…or die.
Peter saw through his new sight as his body lunged with the speed and power of a rabid animal and for the first time, it was without his control. His lung was guided at the first man of the group, who shocked from Peter's raved response dropped his gun and locked arms with Peter. He then tried to throw Peter off of him, but Peter's snout unhinged and lunged into the exposed neck area of the soldier, ripping out some of the man's flesh. Peter could taste the warm blood on his lips, trying to fight the animalistic urge to enjoy it. Following that was a muffled scream of pain and a spray of gun fire from the other men in silver armor. Peter's Lizard-self took the full blast of all four gunfire as he lunged unwillingly at the mob of silver. He seemed to send them all rolling towards a wall, thanks to his momentum. As Peter fell with them, he could see in his red vision something dark dripping from his scale covered body. He was defiantly bleeding, but his animal-self ignored it, pushing instead to start clawing at every man in silver. Like a boy with a crate full of rag dolls, The Lizard Peter threw a man in silver left, then right, then clawed at his face and his arms…. the carnage was constant, perhaps even mindless. Still, two of the men survived the onslaught and tried to take Lizard Peter on together, but that ended up being the worse decision they could have made. They came a Peter with knives, but when they slashed, both men lost an arm to Peter's claws, which not only ended the fight but brought Peter back to the driver's seat of his body. With this, came his normal yellow vision, a sense of relief, but also something more prolific: Pain and Guilt.
The Guilt came first. Peter looked around to see the pile of injured men through his lizard eyes. Most of the men were still screaming and ALL of their wounds looked fatal. Peter had seen the carnage as it happened in red, but even so it felt like he seeing it all for the first time. A man was holding his bleeding neck, two other men were holding bleeding stub-arms, and another 2 had tons of bleeding scars all over there broken bodies. Peter could feel tears flowing into his vision and grabbed with instinct the one thing he couldn't leave home without: his cell phone. He quickly dialed 911, and gave them the Broadway street with the tag line "abandoned theatre" and just as quickly hung up. This seemed to make him feel like he was less of a monster… but the view was so terrible… he still couldn't believe he did this. However, next came the other feeling: Pain. Physical pain allover his body. He looked down to see dry and now clotting blood all over his green self. He had at least 20 bullet wounds covering him head to toe, and though his body was healing, this was a lot of damage. Every bullet that exited his body was like a flaming needle and he dropped to his knees as it all came rushing to him at full force. He tried to drain the pain with questions to distract himself. Why did I lose control? Why was I so Careless? Who were those men? How can I…. but the pain was too much and his vision began to fade. He tried one last time to keep his eyes open by focusing on a bit of wall, but it wasn't enough. His body was drained, bust as he surrendered to the pain, he saw another dark silhouette lit by the moonlight come into the theatre and then…darkness engulfed him.
Peter didn't know how long he was out. An hour…maybe more, but he knew the sun was starting to come up. He could feel the heat on his face. And something else to. He was… higher up. Not only that but he was outside! He was no longer anywhere near the theatre. Someone had moved him. As he opened his eyes to focus his yellow vision, he could see a man standing with his back to him. He was muscular man of a short height, no taller than Peter. He was wearing nothing but a pair of black trousers and combat boots, puffing a pipe that seem to emit a pinkish hue smoke that had the aroma of sage and cinnamon. "Beautiful isn't it?" He said as he turned to face Peter, revealing his grizzly-like face. "Not the jungle I'm used to hunting in but beautiful still, no?"