Chapter 33: The Lizard
Peter calmly tossed his phone aside, webbing it to the wall to hide it.
He glanced at the opposite wall, where a camera was attached with webbing.
The Amazing Spider-Man planned to use it to film himself battling the Lizard, creating evidence to prove his innocence to Captain Stacy - that he was indeed fighting the Lizard to protect civilians, not some outlaw as Stacy believed.
He believed with this footage, plus his heroics on the Williamsburg Bridge, Captain Stacy would certainly change his stance.
This would resolve the first half of the "Captain Stacy is biased against Spider-Man and Peter Parker" issue.
As for the second half...
Their conflict stemmed from Spider-Man himself.
Since Spider-Man was so misunderstood, didn't that mean Peter was too?
He had to make Stacy admit "Peter, I was wrong. You were right" with his own words eventually.
Peter's mind raced with these thoughts.
Then -
Buzz!
Just as he zoned out briefly, his Spider-Sense jolted wildly.
Peter startled, instinctively leaping aside.
Splash!
A huge, fishy-smelling figure burst from behind, crashing heavily into the water below.
It was Dr. Connors - the Lizard!
"Dammit, why'd this guy sneak attack before I could turn on the camera? The footage is ruined now!" Peter pressed against the wall, this being his first thought amazingly.
"You wretched insect, you stopped me once last night. I wasn't looking for trouble, but you dared come to my doorstep!" the Lizard roared, surging from the water.
Peter dodged nimbly, spinning to fire several weblines behind and to the side.
The webbing struck the Lizard's eyes and face, blinding him momentarily.
Peter felt a twinge of annoyance. "Dr. Connors, you're supposed to be an authority in biology - why make such an elementary mistake? Spiders aren't insects. Insects are defined by three body segments, while spiders belong to the arachnid class."
"Who cares?!" The Lizard swiped the webbing from his face, charging at Peter again.
"Dammit, he just got himself wet, reducing the webbing's stickiness!" Peter inwardly cursed.
He had wanted to restrain the Lizard first, then activate the camera.
But the Lizard regained vision so quickly. If Peter went for the camera now, it would be exposed - and this treasured camera from his father's briefcase could be destroyed!
He couldn't risk losing his most prized possession!
Peter swiftly turned, wall-crawling into a side sewer tunnel.
He needed to lure the Lizard away from the entrance, since activating the camera was no longer an option.
Fighting here risked getting separated from his cherished camera, phone and backpack.
With footage, he could take calculated risks.
But without it, any risk felt needless.
"Stay still, you bug!" The Lizard seemed to have completely lost his higher mind, filled with baser urges to kill and destroy.
This mindset mirrored the white mouse Fred that Peter witnessed in Oscorp's biolab.
As Peter crawled swiftly, he pondered.
Last night on the bridge, when their eyes met, the Lizard had a human-like, intelligent glint.
Completely unlike his current feral performance.
"I get it now. Dr. Connors must have realized last night that the dosage wasn't enough, and he'd quickly revert to human form. That's why I saw him back at Oscorp's lab in the afternoon, normal again."
"But now, he's learned from that experience. He injected a much larger dose of the lizard serum. And because of that, his own mind became obscured by the serum's regressive effects!"
"Perhaps I can use this to my advantage."
If it were the original brilliant Dr. Connors, Peter wouldn't dare scheme against his superior intellect.
But as a Lizard driven feral by primal violence? He could give it a try.
Focusing, Peter dedicated part of his Spider-Sense's radius backward.
Soon, a blurry image of the Lizard appeared in his mind's eye. (The Spider-Sense's active ability did grant this, not just fiction. Like in the PS4 game visualizing enemies through walls - that Spider-Man is also an officially recognized alternate universe version. Of course, this place hadn't developed that far yet.)
Peter silently calculated the positioning between them, formulating a battle plan.
He missed the Iron Spider suit Tony Stark had gifted him - it had a timed webbing mode, delaying the webbing's explosive expansion until enemies passed by, like landmines.
In these narrow tunnels, a few timed webbing traps would definitely ensnare the Lizard.
Sadly, the Amazing Spider-Man's web-shooters, modified by Peter himself, only had three modes.
Other tactics weren't impossible, just reliant on his own experience and inventiveness.
And special maneuvers like timed webbing required tailored chemical webbing solutions as well.
Unfeasible at the moment.
If the Amazing Spider-Man produced organic webbing, maybe he could attempt it.
But Peter had another ploy in mind too.
He found a suitable ambush point, rapidly crisscrossing and fusing weblines together there into a thick, reinforced strand.
A single web-line was tougher than steel cable. Multiple weblines amalgamated made it exponentially more durable.
The oblivious Lizard charged from the tunnel straight into the thickened webbing.
"Argh!"
It was like a galloping horse slamming into a clothesline.
He went flying backwards, clearly dazed from the impact!
The spot Peter chose had minimal pooling water to avoid reducing the webbing's stickiness.
And from the Lizard's frantic pace, the water clinging to his body had largely air-dried.
Seizing the moment, Peter unleashed a barrage of web bullets, enveloping the Lizard in a full-body cocoon from head to toe.
Though the point-blank web blasts packed serious force, the Lizard's rugged hide left him only briefly stunned.
But soon enough, a freshly webbed "mummy" lay immobilized on the ground.
(End of chapter)