Lizard Man: Dark Hunt

Issue #7: Blood-Trail Part 2

Peter was clawing at his torso almost incessantly, his own blood pouring out like streams on his chest as it dripped into the hip deep, disgusting sewage water. This was his third tunnel in 10 minutes and he was getting dizzy from loss of blood, but he knew this was the only way. Dizziness was worth the risk with this home field advantage.

The waterways of NewYork had become Peter's best way to travel when he first went looking for Tombstone. Half a dozen times they lined up with a sewer line and more than a dozen times, Peter had used them as a quick lane to cut back into the heart of the city, so he knew these tunnels. He knew them well and as he scratched one more wound and smeared his own blood to the wall of the sewage tunnel, he heard a sudden splash and a roar of laughter echo down the tunnel. Kraven had done exactly as he expected and with a quick breath, Peter dived into the brine.

Kraven felt a huge splash and a disgusting smell hit him as he landed in the hip deep water. It was of no consequence to him. He had been in swamps that smelled twice as bad.

Before Kraven were three tunnel ways that eventually merged into one, but not before curving and turning, possibly connecting to other unseen tunnels as well. On top of that, Kraven could see smears of his prey's blood all on the walls, located close to the lightbulbs as to be seen in the dimness of the tunnels. Kraven let out another hearty laugh. "Amazing! Absolutely amazing!" He hollered with joy. "Not only do you bring me to your world, but you set paths to confuse me, to trap me even! Oh how I longed for something like this, my scaly friend. Human intelligence mixed with predatorial ingenuity.. It cannot be beat. You are truly worth my time.". Kraven, reckless and unafraid, decided to just walk down the center tunnel first. He didn't know what awaited him, it could be anything, at any corner. He simply clenched his knife and trudged through the water. He was not afraid or concerned. He was simply excited, the anticipation invigorating him with each step.

Eventually his perked hearing from the herbs signaled movement. It was coming from deep at the end of the center tunnel. With as much speed as he could muster he trudged down the tunnel until he came to the joint basin where the tunnels merged and separated again. He stood there for a minute, listening to his surroundings. Then suddenly, he heard it again! An obnoxious splashing of water. He ran straight at it, down the tunnel to the right. He ran for about two minutes and found nothing but a dead end. How.. Kraven thought… How could he have sneaked past me without me knowing? The herbs give me the senses of all predators… suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the same sound but at the opposite end! He began to run back the way he came when suddenly he heard an animalistic laugh echo as he came back to the large merging basin. "Having trouble finding me down here Mr. Kravinoff?" said the echoed voice that could only be the Lizard boy. "You can call me Kraven, my prayer. You've earned that much respect" Replied Kraven as he tried to pinpoint the voice. "Well I'm honored 'Mr. Kraven'." replied the echoes of the lizard. "Who'd have thought little old me could earn the respect of a pompes lumberjack like yourself.". Kraven's face flinched with anger, both for not being able to find the voice, but the name calling as well. "I'm sorry, did I pinch a nerve?" said

the voice. "Was it pompes or lumberjack, cause I'd like to go for the same reaction in the future.".

Kraven threw his hunting knife into the wall of the sewer with frustration, causing it to stick in the concrete . "I grow tired of your antics Lizard!" screamed Kraven. "Face me with dignity! Show me first hand your true capacities as a beast!". Kraven stood there, his arm stretched like a gladiator waiting to fight. "Well why didn't you just say so" said the lizard voice, and then suddenly a distant splash occurred down a center tunnel he had not yet explored. With speed and rage fueling him, Kraven took off down the tunnel like a rabid beast, moving faster than any normal man, water parting like the red sea with every lung. His hands were bare and tense, ready to tear into his foe better than his knife ever could. With his superhuman speed, he reached the end of the tunnel, but there was just another dead end, this time into a pit that waterfalled into a deep pool of sewage. It was about a 10 foot drop and though the water rippled from the waterfall Kraven could see there was additional movement below. He assumed it to be his prey and with a swan dive, he dove into the pool of sewage below without hesitation.

With a scream he entered the water, slashing and moving, trying to grab anything he could, but after a minute of savagery, he realized there was nothing to grab. Bringing himself up from the slime with a vivid look of confusion, he looked around at the walkways they protrude over the water. He saw nothing until he did a 180 and saw a small bearded dragon lizard staring at him. At first, Kraven was confused, not understanding what had just occurred until he watched the lizard climb up the wall of this reservoir. He followed it with his eyes and at the top of the spot from which he dived, stood his prey, his hand on a lever he had not seen. Kraven looked at where he was and looked at where his target stood. He had put two and two together, his face going white with fear. "My god" he said, staring at his foe. Then, The Lizard Man pulled the lever….

For Peter the plan had worked perfectly. It didn't matter which tunnel Kraven went down at first, they all joined together anyways and they led to 3 other tunnels that had supposed dead ends. What mattered was Kraven suspected a trap and didn't realize what the trap was until it was too late. Where Kraven stood was a sewage flush basin, the usual entrance hatches Peter had learned to use to go from the water ways into the sewer. They collect the less dangerous sewage and flush it into the water that surrounds New York. Usually they are always opened a slight bit, enough that Peter could sneak in from the outside, but sometimes they are closed for mass collection. Peter was lucky enough, this one was closed and now he could flush Kraven into the waterways of New York like the garbage that he was. However, this wasn't the end of Peter's plan. Oh no. Peter had questions for this man, and he was gonna get his answers. He may be flushing Kraven but he wasn't done with him.

With one fluid motion, Peter pulled the lever he held to "Full" which opened the hatch under Kraven wide open, pulling all 75 gallons of water below as well as Kraven himself into a large pipe and then Peter dived in after him.

Using the force of the deep dive and the flowing of the massive water to speed his swim, Peter punched Kraven hard in the face for safe measure and then grabbed him by his vest, the water pulling them both into the New York waterways. Peter then pulled himself and Kraven up to the surface and with all his might chucked Kraven on to a nearby boat dock. The force of Kraven landing hard on the dock caused him to gag up water and begin to catch his breath.

However, it was short lived, cause within seconds of catching his breath, Kraven found his airways stricken by a scaly foot. "Alright Mr. Hunter" said Peter with a growl. "Talk? Who sent you?! Why are you hunting me?!" Kraven went to twist Peter's ankles, but Peter brought his left claw down and seared through Kraven's hand. "You want blood? I want answers!" screamed Peter, who brought his other set of claws down over Kraven's face and then on his neck. Squinting through the blood in his eyes, Kraven winced. "It was… Tombstone…tombstone and his handler…". Peter squeezed harder. "Handler?! What Handler??". Yelled Peter. Kraven's eyes widened from the lack of oxygen. "The… Goblin.." and with that Kraven was passed out. Frustrated he couldn't get more, but also not wishing to fight him again, Peter began checking Kraven's pockets. Mostly he found just soaking wet herbs, a pipe and a throwing knife, but in Kraven's left boot he found something interesting. He found a phone, waterproof casing and everything with no security keeping Peter out of it. Clearly Kraven thought he was too clever to lose his phone or no one was brave enough to take it, hence no pass code or anything. That or he wasn't very tech-savvy. Peter was about to put the phone in his pocket and run off with Dexter, who had just crawled out of the sewer, but he had one more idea to make sure this hunting man didn't cause him any more trouble…

Back at Conner's lab, Peter felt great relief just lounging in an old lazy boy while Conner took blood samples and gushed over the stories Peter had told him. "Your life is crazy my friend." said Conners. "Hunting down criminals, getting cornered by more criminals, outsmarting a hunter!? God, you could write one hell of a book!". Peter laughed. "I doubt anyone would read it", Said Peter picking up the T.V. remote off the side table. He then began to flip through the channels, until he came to 'NYC' Breaking News' segment with the tag line Dock Capture. He watched as a young girl went on to say.

'Good Evening welcome to Breaking News at 4 brought to you by the Daily Bugle. I'm Betty Brant, reporting to you live from the Eastern Docks of NYC Ferry ports. No more than an hour ago an anonymous phone call was made to 911 that a man who hunted men for sport was tied up at the docks. Around the same time an enanonamous tip was also emailed to the Daily Bugle claiming the very man tied at the docks, Sierge Kravenoff was hired by various agents to hunt superhumans and possibly a political problem or two down for sport. We have Private messages sent from his own phone to prove this that we're attached to the email. Unconfirmed reports claim to have seen this Sierge hunting some kind of a Lizard person through the streets earlier today. We can confirm this is the case because of a cheap phone video sent to us a few hours ago and a message carved in the docks next to Seirge saying "Courtesy of your Scaley Friend Lizard-Man". Well, Lizard-Man from all of us here at the Daily Bugle, thankyou for bringing this man to justice and welcome to the city of heroes.

Peter turned the TV off after that, not wishing to get a big head from hearing too much of the same. "Making a name for yourself," said Conners with a smile. "Everything you hoped?". Peter got up from the lazy boy and stretched. "Not entirely". He said. "Didn't exactly end up in this position for fame or notoriety. Just glad to see the Hunter is no longer my problem. How is my blood work Doc?". Conners put his hands up with joy. "You're as healthy as a horse my boy! The phasing and everything involving your physiology seem to be stable… ill have to test out more of what caused that 'red vision' you claim to have experienced but I do believe that was just a taste of the fact that there will be minor additions to your power set as you get older…

hard to tell exactly what though.. Suddenly, Peter felt a phone vibrate in his pocket. It was Kravens phone. Peter got a smirk on his face and transformed into his Lizard self. "Give me a second Doc" he said to Conners. "I have a call to take". Peter took a few steps until he was under a hatch in the ceiling of the lab and jumped up through it. Once on the roof, he answered the phone and a nervous deep voiced man began to talk.

"Kraven is that you?" said the deep voiced man. "I saw the news and I was just so nervous that you lost your phone and…"

Peter cut the voice off with his own. "Tombstone I presume". Said Peter in his deepest, growling voice. The line went silent for a minute, and then Tombstone's deep voice came back. "So you got away did ya freak? You're smart for a scaly abomination".

Peter huffed, "Your one to talk, sending a hunter to do your job. What's wrong Stone? Afraid to face this freak in a real fight?"

Tombstone went silent again and then respond. "Fine kid. Let's finish this. You and Me. One Week from today, meet me at the Davis Motorcycle Shop outside of queens."

"I'll be there" responded Peter, and then he hung up. Peter could feel his heart pumping fast. This is what he had wanted for weeks, a chance to face the man who hired Kasady to capture him and in turn got his uncle killed. Problem is, things were more complicated now because of Kraven's confession. Tombstone was working for someone as well. He was not the top of this food chain. One known as 'The Goblin' was. So, Peter had to get information out of Tombstone about this Goblin who was king. Kraven's hunt was over, but Peter's had just begun.

As Tombstone hung up his cell phone, he drank whiskey from a crystal glass and said in a dark office, "You were right sir. The plan is set. Either I kill the Lizard or I lead him to you to enact your plan." From the shadows behind Tombstone came Mr. Osborn, who put a hand on Tombstone's shoulder with a kind pat. "Very good Stone" he said soothingly. "This Lizard has been a thorn in our side for too long. It's time to stop going easy on him and pull out all the stops. His blood is precious to me and it will be mine."

To be concluded in the Epic Two Parter 'A Clash of Scale and Stone'

Authors: A few days later then I wanted but here it is. The end of Kraven's hunt. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you're ALL excited for the Epic Two Part Finally for this over arching Tombstone Rivalry. I can't believe Its finally time to conclude it. Never thought I'd get close to this point... :'). In any case, thanks for reading, keep on reading, and I'll catch you all next Issue.