Chapter 68

The instant that Peter's feet hit the rooftop once more, he looked for the Lizard. What he saw told him that the antidote that Gwen had cooked up had worked perfectly.

Already, the Lizard was fading away, only for Doctor Connors to begin reappearing. His lizard-like face was near gone, returned to near-human with pain-filled eyes and thinning straw-coloured hair on his head. His green scaly skin was patchy at best as normal pink skin increased in appearance. Despite his reduction in size, Doctor Connors was bound quite securely by ropes and chains and laying amidst the ruins of a metal wall.

After that one glance, Peter ignored him in favour of the prone form of Captain Stacy. The fact that Mage was frantically waving his wand over the man's torso told Peter that he'd been injured, most likely severely.

"Captain Stacy!" Peter gasped, dropping to his knees beside the man.

Mage barely paused in what he was doing on the opposite side of Captain Stacy.

The Captain's eyes opened and focussed in on Peter.

"I was wrong about you, Peter" he said. "This city needs you. Here, you're going to need this."

From nearly under his body, he pulled out Spider-Man's mask and handed it over. Almost tentatively, Peter took it from him.

"You're going to make enemies," Captain Stacy continued. "People will get hurt. Sometimes people closest to you. So, I want you to promise me something, okay? Leave Gwen out of it. Promise me that. You promise me."

"No," Mage growled, as he gave his wand one vicious wave, vanishing the Captain's flak jacket, shirt and tie to leave the man bare-chested, four bloody gashes in the man's stomach oozing thick red blood.

"No," Mage repeated, his force of will seemingly enough to make Captain Stacy keep his eyes open, eyes that were now looking at the wizard. "You will not make him promise that. Sometimes those closest to us are the very ones that give us the strength we need to keep going, even when everything seems darkest. And this is not even your choice to make. That's between Peter and Gwen. She deserves to make her own choices. You can tell her what you'd prefer, but don't make her choose between the two of you."

While Mage had been saying this, he'd reached into one of the many pockets of his belt and pulled out a small glass vial. The lid, after he'd unscrewed it, contained a small dropper. He used this to place a single drop of liquid into each of the four vicious slashes that had been made by the Lizard's claws.

As each drop landed and went to work, a small cloud of steam rose and Captain Stacy's body arched, a gasp hissing from between his teeth.

"What is that?" Peter asked anxiously.

"Phoenix tears," Mage answered. "Incredibly expensive and even harder to get a hold of. This bottle had only fifty drops."

"Phoenix tears?" Peter echoed.

"Yes. The tears of a phoenix have amazing healing powers. It won't completely heal him, but it'll keep him alive until I can get him to a hospital," Mage replied.

They watched as the blood that had been flowing from the wounds slowed to a near stop and the skin around the slashes closed slightly.

Mage nodded before picking the man up.

"I think that that's the best we'll be able to get. I'll be in touch."

And without another word, the two vanished with a crack from the top of Oscorp Tower.

For a few minutes, Peter stared at the dark, shadowed patch of blood left on the concrete where Captain Stacy had been laying. He straightened then and pulled his mask back on. One look confirmed that the Lizard was no more; Doctor Connors was back in his place, still heavily bound.

Sound from the nearby stairwell caught Spider-Man's ear and he moved away into the shadows, disappearing from the scene moments before the police arrived.

ooo00ooo

Mage stood in the corner of the hospital waiting room. Most passed him by without a second glance thanks to the mild notice-me-not charm that he'd dropped on himself.

It'd been close to an hour since he'd arrived at the hospital with Captain Stacy in his arms. The instant that he'd arrived, doctors and nurses had swarmed. A trolley had appeared for the Captain and he'd been whisked off, straight to surgery he'd been told.

Mrs Stacy and her sons had arrived half an hour after that; Gwen hot on their heels, brought there by the police officer who'd been charged with her safety. The family had thanked him for saving him before retreating to huddle together for the long wait.

Nearly an hour after Captain Stacy had disappeared into surgery, Peter had arrived, wearing normal everyday clothes and looking incredibly worried. His face was still dirty, grimy and even a little bloody from the fight, but he either didn't care or didn't realise.

The instant Gwen saw him, she was up, near-sprinting across the room to throw herself into his arms, her shoulders heaving as she cried. Peter looked across at Mage and received a single nod of acknowledgement.

Thankfully, the news footage on the TV mounted in the top corner of the room was muted, making it that much easier for the family to ignore, not that there was much that it showed, mostly just Spider-Man's web-swinging rush towards Oscorp Tower and some limited footage of the Lizard scaling the building. The fact that Mage was there and involved in stopping the Lizard had become known, but the image of him that they showed was stock footage from the Battle of New York.

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