Chapter 13- Come!

Arthur opened his eyes, finding himself under an unfamiliar ceiling. He tried to sit up, but stopped as a searing pain shot through his abdomen. Looking down, he saw that someone had applied bandages to his wounds, now stained with blood.

"Argh!... haaa... is anyone there?" Arthur inquired, bringing his hand to his face and realizing that his mask had been removed. 

"It's better for you to stop moving; you might worsen your injuries." A red-haired woman entered the room, holding a basin of water and cloths in her hands.

"The people... the monster..." Arthur said with difficulty. 'This woman saw my face...'

"They're okay. I rescued the people from the cars, and that creature ran away for some reason," the woman replied, approaching. "Now, stay still; I'm going to change the bandages."

***

"Ouch!" Arthur exclaimed as the woman wiped the wet cloth over the deep cuts on his abdomen.

"Calm down, it'll be over soon. It's a miracle you're still alive; you must have some level of regeneration, Arthur Maxwell."

"Who... ouch!... are you?" 'She already knows me, and by the way she's cleaning my wounds, she must have some kind of training or be used to doing this... she has defined arms, possibly an excellent fighter.'

"I'm part of a secret organization, spending some time in New York. I saw you needed help, so I decided to lend a hand," the woman replied, finishing cleaning the wounds and rebandaging them.

"Secret... organization?" Arthur asked suspiciously. 'Do they have anything to do with my father's death? But why show up now?... should I kill her? No, I need to find out how many people already know about my identity.'

"Supreme Headquarters of International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division."

"That's... a long name."

"It's what everyone says, so we just go by the abbreviation SHIELD. I'm Agent Romanoff. Nice to meet you, Spider-Man," Romanoff replied.

Arthur continued to look at her with suspicion. He was still weak, but if he needed to act, he would.

"No need to give me that look; I won't go around disclosing your identity. Very few know within the organization. Actually, just 4 people, including me."

"That's very reassuring," Arthur said, lying back down, the pain unbearable. 'She's not sharing all this important information for no reason.'

"I'd explain what we do, but it's already 2 AM, and you better rest if you want to make it to class," Romanoff said, placing the replaced bandages into the basin. "I'll investigate the origin of that thing."

"Why are you helping me, Agent Romanoff? Orders from above?" Arthur asked, looking in her direction. 'I need to think rationally. I don't know if this is the same organization that killed my father. If it is, they don't know that I'm aware of what they did and pose a threat. I won't gain anything by killing her now. I'll use her to learn more about SHIELD.'

"No, we shouldn't even be talking," Romanoff replied, turning towards the exit. "I just... couldn't let Spider-Man die again. Your life means much more than you think, Arthur. Kids all around the world wear the Spider-Man mask, not because they think it's cool or anything, but because they have faith that one day a hero like you will save them from their hardships. You represent a beacon of hope in this dark world."

Arthur continued to look at her, processing her words. 'Kids all around the world... it seems like I'll have to broaden my conduct in the future.'

"How can I... communicate with you?"

"I'll show up when I find out something," she concluded, leaving the room.

"How troublesome," Arthur muttered. That monster was much stronger than he had imagined. 'I'll have to make modifications to the suit.' After all, he took a beating even using everything he had. 'I miscalculated the variables... it won't happen again!'

Closing his eyes and trying to rest a bit, Arthur knew it would be a tough day. 'If she wanted to kill me... she would have done it already.'

***

Already distant from the room, Natasha Romanoff puts her finger to her ear, activating the communicator. "Established a favorable initial contact with Arthur Maxwell. I intend to support and get to know him during my mission. This will contribute to a positive impression of us."

***

Arthur walked with difficulty down the school hallway. He only managed to get there thanks to a taxi and a lot, a lot of medication. Looking around, he noticed that he had attracted the attention of some students, but he was too doped up to care.

Heading to his locker, Arthur searched for the day's books, realizing he had left one of them in his room. 'Damn! My luck is acting up again,' he thought, closing the locker and accidentally hitting his head on it.

"Do you need help, Tur?" Felicia asked beside him but grew serious when she saw his pale face. "Are you okay, Arthur?"

"Hehe... I thought we'd only talk using nicknames," Arthur replied with a tired voice.

"I'm serious, Arthur, what happened?" Felicia approached him, looking for any injuries or something.

"I was stabbed by a three-meter dinosaur."

"...Okay?" Felicia began to suspect that her friend was under the influence of drugs.

"Arthur Maxwell! We need to have a serious talk," Gwen interrupted the conversation, visibly irritated.

"Ah, Gwen, what a surprise to see you."

"Are you his girlfriend or something?" Felicia asked seriously.

"I'm his sister," Gwen replied, placing her hand on Arthur's arm and starting to pull him away. "If you'll excuse us, I need to take him to... take his medication." She finished awkwardly, pulling Arthur's arm away from the hallway.

"Alright..." Felicia said, knowing Arthur well these days; she sensed something was wrong. 'I'll investigate... maybe some dinosaur really showed up? This town is crazy, after all,' Felicia thought, heading to her classes for the day.

***

"Art, how badly are you hurt?" Gwen asks, concerned, pulling Arthur's shirt off in an empty room.

"It wasn't much, just a superficial cut," Arthur replies, raising his arms to let the shirt come off.

"OH MY GOD, ART! That's clearly not superficial," Gwen exclaims, seeing the bandages on his stomach. News about Spider-Man's fight against a giant lizard was already circulating in the media, so she came to check on him.

"It's not as bad as it looks."

"Tell me how it happened."

***

"So, will your spider-sense warn you when it's going to attack again?" Gwen asked, processing the fight in her mind.

"Apparently yes... I don't sense anything now, so that lizard thing must be calm or maybe reduced in size?" Arthur responds seriously. The effects of the medication were already wearing off. 'It seems like, aside from resistance to drugs, my powers speed up my metabolism.'

"It could be... or it reverted to its original form."

"You mean it turned back into a regular lizard?"

"No, a human."

"Human?... Tell me your train of thought."

"Think about it, Arthur. That thing spoke to you and was looking for someone on the bridge; that's not the behavior of an animal, even a modified one."

"So, a failed experiment?" Arthur asks, reflecting on the situation. 'That makes sense... as I thought, you're an excellent partner.'

"I believe so," Gwen replies.

"Okay... we need to go to the spider base today."

"Agreed," Gwen said, checking her wristwatch. "Class is about to start; can you make it?"

"Of course, I've already made the sacrifice of coming this far," Arthur replies, making his way to the door with difficulty. "Let's meet up as soon as classes are over."

***

"We have to be quick, Gwen. I want you to look for types of metals in that area. I'll fix the suit," Arthur said shortly after the two entered the spider base. They didn't have much time until the monitors' rounds.

"Okay!" Gwen replied, heading to the area that stored some types of metals. "What are you planning to do?"

"I'm going to add claws to the tips of my fingers and build shields on the forearms," explained Arthur, fixing the tears in the abdomen of his suit. 'It would be good to work on a cure for the Lizard, but I don't even know the formula... I'll have to trust the agent, which is not a good idea.'

"Arthur, there's titanium, iron, niobium, copper, and... adamantium?"

"Adamantium? Never heard of it," said Arthur, going over to Gwen and examining the metal. There was very little of it, but even so, it caught his attention.

"Me neither. Maybe we should try making the claws with it?" Gwen suggested, doubtful about the material's resilience.

"Let's give it a shot and see how it goes," said Arthur, shrugging, grabbing the metal, and heading to the area where Peter tinkered with his gadgets.

After 20 minutes of trying, Arthur and Gwen concluded that they had no means to manipulate the material; none of the tools there could even scratch it.

"Let's go for plan B, then," said Arthur, tired. 'Even all my strength wasn't enough... this material would be perfect for the claws.'

"What a curious metal. How do you think Peter Parker managed to get it?" Gwen was very curious about how such a resistant material is made and why she had never heard of it before.

"I have no idea. I just know we wasted a lot of time on this thing," remarked Arthur, in a bad mood, going to grab another metal to make his claws. 'I'll come up with three plans.'

***

"Sorry I can't stay longer, May. We need to get back before curfew," Arthur said in front of the friendly lady's house, bidding farewell.

"No need to apologize, dear. I heard the news. Anything you need, just come talk to me," May said before turning to Gwen. "And you too, sweetheart. I enjoyed meeting you."

"The pleasure is mine. I always wanted to meet the May Parker Arthur talks so much about."

"Hehe! Just May is fine. You're welcome to come have tea with me whenever you have time," May bid the two farewell with a small smile, reminiscing about the times when Peter and MJ worked together.

***

"AAAAHHHHH!!" Gwen screamed, holding onto Arthur as tightly as possible.

"Stop screaming, Gwen! You're going to make me deaf." The two were swinging toward the school, the wounds on Arthur's stomach had healed enough for this.

"GO SLOWER!!"

"I thought you wanted to experience this."

"I DON'T WANT TO ANYMORE!"

***

In the sewers of New York, Dr. Curtis Connors filmed his progress with the serum in an improvised laboratory; part of his skin had scales, and his severed arm maintained lizard-like features.

"Subject: Dr. Curtis Connors. Current temperature: 32º degrees. Stable for 20 hours. Blood tests reveal consistent lymphocyte and monocyte levels," Connors said to a camera recording his results. "Increased coagulation rate. Noticeable increase in muscle strength and elasticity. Enhanced vision; subject no longer requires corrective lenses. The goal is no longer just curing diseases; the goal is achieving perfection. Due to the small dosage, the subject reverts to its weakened state in less than 2 hours. In an attempt to prevent this degradation, the dosage has been increased to 200 milligrams."

Connors concludes the recording by applying the serum again; he had a goal: to evolve the human race. Curtis Connors would be the hero of the modern era.

***

"That's it for today, folks. See you tomorrow," the teacher concluded the class. Arthur gathered his belongings and left the room, abumping into Felicia.

"Hey, Thur," she waved at him, "You look much better than yesterday."

"Hi, Licia. Yesterday I wasn't feeling well in the stomach," Arthur said, walking towards his locker with her beside him.

"I thought it was because of the medicine?" Felicia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Medicine?" He didn't understand where she got that ridiculous idea.

"Your 'sister' mentioned it right after you said you were stabbed by a three-meter dinosaur."

"Hmm... did I say anything else?" Arthur asked anxiously.

"No, just that," Felicia replied. She had researched about dinosaurs and such, coming across the news about Spider's fight against the newly-named Lizard. 'Could he be? No, that's too crazy... but Arthur did seem injured...'

Running his hand over his face, Arthur made a mental note never to use so much medication in the near future.

"Hehehe! There's a good explana-"

!!

Arthur interrupted himself as he felt his Spider-Sense; he knew what it meant.

"Arthur, is everything okay?" Felicia saw his expression shift from embarrassed to serious within seconds.

"I have a commitment, Licia. See you later," Arthur replied, turning and rushing to his room; it would be the best place to slip away without being detected.

"See you later..." Felicia continued to watch his back until they disappeared down the hallway, too curious to uncover what her friend was hiding beneath the facade of the clumsy boy.

***

"Where are you going?" Spider-Man murmured, swinging between buildings, guided by his spider-sense to Manhattan. 'What's your objective here?'

"Spider-Man."

"Ah!" Arthur was startled by the unfamiliar voice in his communicator. "Who are you, and how did you get this number?"

"It's me, Agent Romanoff," the voice replied. "And I hacked into your mask."

"Hey! That's a privacy violation," he said indignantly. 'So the tracker wasn't the only thing you did.'

"Let's cut the small talk and get to the heart of the matter. I've found out who the Lizard is. His name is Curtis Connors..."

***

"So the guy is a regeneration psychopath and turned into a lizard because of the arm?"

"...Basically. I spoke with his wife. Apparently, the serum hadn't even been tested. She worked on a possible cure, but she's not sure if it will work," Romanoff said next to Martha Connors, who had just finished the antidote. Both were at OSCORP.

"It's better than nothing. Lizard is moving through the sewers, and apparently, in that direction, there's something important at OSCORP for him?" Arthur said, trusting his Spider-Sense, which constantly alerted him to danger.

"Does he have something important here? Something he could use for...evil?" Romanoff asked Martha.

"We have a lot of machinery here. I'll have to take a look," Martha replied, heading to the computer and starting to explore all of its projects.

"She's going to search here," Romanoff warned Arthur.

"Okay, the Lizard is out of the sewers. I'll go confront him."

"I'll take the antidote to Spider. Find out what the Lizard might want to do here," she said, grabbing the antidote and heading towards the ongoing fight.

***

The Lizard destroyed the ground, emerging in the middle of a street. People began to run, and cars attempted to escape in the midst of the traffic jam, resulting in a series of collisions.

"ROOAAAARRR!" Lizard roared before a device entered his mouth, exploding into a tangle of webs.

Spider-Man descended, activating his claws and driving them into Lizard's right eye. 'It might be better to blind him, but there's a risk that, when he returns to normal, his eyes will remain torn.' Spider-Man leaped away when he noticed that Lizard had released his throat.

"Hello, ready to become a handbag?" Spider-Man asked, waving at the furious Lizard.

"Spider-Man, your death will be the beginning of a new era."

"Wow, I'm touched," he said mockingly. 'Did the monster get smarter?'

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, studying each other. Arthur noticed that the beast had grown a bit larger and seemingly more intelligent. Meanwhile, Lizard saw that the insect in front of him had new accessories on his costume, like the plates on his forearms and the claws that had ripped out his eye.

So, the two engage in the fight. Lizard leaps toward Spider-Man with the intention of cutting him in half. Spider, seeing this, turns invisible and moves out of the way.

'He's become stronger and faster,' Arthur concludes, surveying the damage the claws made in the asphalt where he was. Using his invisibility, he jumps on the monster's back and delivers an electric shock.

"ARGH!" Feeling the shock coursing through his body, Lizard tries to grab the spider, but unlike last time, he grabs nothing. Sensing the difference in the air, Lizard looks up with his remaining eye and sees Spider-Man coming down with his foot on his face, propelled by his web.

BAM!

Lizard is thrown far, hitting a tree. Spider-Man, now visible, looks around, seeing that the street had cleared. 'I should be worried or anxious... so why? Why am I smiling?'

!!

Jumping backward, Arthur dodges a car thrown in his direction and quickly turns left, using one of the shields to intercept five claws coming his way.

Spider-Man tries to cut Lizard's throat with the other arm, but Lizard wraps his tail around his abdomen, lifting him and forcefully slamming him onto the asphalt.

ZAP!!

Releasing energy beams from his hands, Arthur lifts both of them off the ground. In the air, he spins, and with an agile move, manages to break free from Lizard's grip.

Lizard, now upside down, seizes the opportunity and delivers a powerful kick to Spider's chest. The impact reverberates through the street, but Arthur doesn't let himself be shaken and quickly shoots a web at Lizard's abdomen.

Pulling himself, he spins in the air and hits the monster's chest with both feet, forcefully throwing him to the ground.

BAM!!!

Landing smoothly on the ground, Arthur looks at the dust cloud that rose after Lizard's impact on the asphalt.

Lizard slowly emerges from the crater, walking towards the small ant in his way. "You are weak."

"First, you make me emotional, and now you hurt my feelings? I don't understand our relationship," Spider-Man comments, raising his hand. With his index and middle fingers, he starts beckoning Lizard. "Come!"

Lizard, with wild eyes, advances with impressive speed.

Seeing the claws dangerously close to his eyes, Arthur quickly analyzes the situation, 'I need a closed place...'

The first attack is quick and calculated. Spider-Man dodges the arm and slashes it with his claws, ripping off one of Lizard's hands.

Lizard passes through Spider-Man's body, stopping his momentum, and looks at his severed hand, which was already regenerating.

"Don't tell me you're going to cry?" He hears the human in the background, mocking him.

Lizard, infuriated, roars and charges after Spider-Man. The creature, with its enhanced agility, quickly catches up to the hero. The confrontation intensifies as Spider-Man dodges Lizard's powerful attacks, who is determined to tear his opponent apart.

'He's getting faster,' Arthur thinks, starting to have difficulty avoiding the claws. 'Now!' Arthur ducks under the swing of the left arm and defends against the right.

'Focus.' Arthur throws a punch with his right hand and tries to imbue it with electricity but fails. 'Time for plan A!'

Pushed back a bit by the punch, Lizard lunges forward and finally manages to land a slap on Spider-Man, sending him crashing into a nearby building.

Breaking through the glass, Arthur falls to the ground and rolls a bit until the momentum from the blow stops. "That hurt," he exclaims as he gets up.

"Are you okay?" A woman hiding under a counter asks, frightened.

"Of course! I just slipped."

"You can't stop me, weak human," Lizard says, entering the building.

"I think it would be a good idea to get out of here," Spider-Man suggests to the woman, who flees desperately. 'She's already here,' he thinks, seeing her location through the mask.

'As I thought, she wants to make a good impression on me. Good thing I hacked that tracker,' Arthur concludes, opening a compartment in one of his shields.

Lizard watches as Spider-Man throws something to the ground, releasing a dense smoke throughout the ground floor of the building. He tries to move his arms to disperse the smoke but without success. "Stop with the games and face me."

Spider-Man takes advantage of the poor visibility and the blinded eye to attack from the right. He shoots a web towards Lizard's arm, securing it to his chest. Arthur then begins to spin rapidly around Lizard, winding more and more webs around his body, immobilizing his other arm, tail, and legs, forming a kind of cocoon.

Seeing that Lizard is immobilized, Spider-Man reinforces his bonds even more, shooting webs at the walls and anchoring them to the cocoon, ensuring that the monster won't easily break free.

When the smoke clears, Romanoff appears and quickly goes to the cocoon, applying the antidote.

"You took your time," Arthur said as she approached.

"I had to take a detour, for some reason, the police closed the street," Romanoff replies, shrugging.

"So... how long until it works?" Arthur asks, watching Lizard starting to break free.

"...it should have worked by now," Romanoff answers, drawing two pistols.

"This is not good."

"ROOAARR" Lizard roars, finally free from the webs.

The antidote hadn't worked.

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Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or songs featured in this fic. Additionally, I do not claim ownership of any products or properties mentioned in this novel. This work is entirely fictional.