Chapter 32: Waiting for the Lizard
When Peter opened his eyes again, he found himself, or rather, the Amazing Spider-Man, in a dark place.
Beneath his body was a web made of spider silk strands, each shooting into the depths of different passages.
"Hey, where is this?"
Peter began receiving flashes of footage from the Amazing Spider-Man's day.
In the morning, he was strangled on the playground with his girlfriend Gwen Stacy.
In the afternoon after school, the Amazing Spider-Man went to Oscorp, where he saw two people arguing.
Coincidentally, he knew both of them.
One was Gwen's mentor, the geneticist Dr. Curt Connors, who was previously a colleague of Peter's father, Richard Parker.
Previously, the Amazing Spider-Man had visited Dr. Connors to investigate his father's unexplained disappearance, providing him with a formula for a decay rate algorithm from his father's notebook.
But the other man was the one Spider-Man had saved the previous night - a disgusting guy who leered at Peter, claiming to be the head of Oscorp's biotech division.
His name was Nils Van Adker, right?
When the Amazing Spider-Man arrived, the two were heatedly arguing about something, though the thick glass muted most of it except a few keywords like "lizard", "super", and "spider".
Afterwards, the feuding pair stormed off unhappily. Nils shoved open the door angrily and glanced at the maskless Spider-Man, not recognizing him.
Afterwards, the Amazing Spider-Man talked with Dr. Connors. During their conversation, he sensed something was off about the doctor.
Dr. Connors abruptly left, leaving some strange, ominous words before hurrying away.
However, the Amazing Spider-Man witnessed in the lab that the once-docile white mouse had transformed into a bloodthirsty, savage rat - gnawing on the body of its companion. He remembered this particular white mouse, named Fred, had a broken leg.
Not long ago, Dr. Connors had perfected a serum using the decay rate formula provided by Peter, injecting it into Fred with promising results - the serum, derived from lizard DNA, had regrown Fred's broken leg!
But now, if remembered correctly, there was a serious flaw causing increased aggression in anything injected with the lizard serum.
It unleashed their reptilian ferocity!
So Fred the white mouse, injected with the lizard serum, had his gentle nature replaced by this vicious cruelty!
The Amazing Spider-Man suddenly understood everything.
Dr. Connors was the Lizard that appeared on the Williamsburg Bridge last night!
He rushed to the police station to tell Gwen's father, Captain Stacy, but Stacy didn't believe him, thinking Spider-Man was mocking him.
Desperate, he could only try capturing Dr. Connors himself, now transformed into the Lizard.
Originally without leads, Spider-Man happened to learn that lizards liked lurking in sewers, giving him the idea to search there and see if he could find the Lizard.
When Peter took over the "web line", it was precisely when the Amazing Spider-Man had that same idea - to stake out the sewers and wait for the Lizard to come, web lines at the ready.
It seems Peter's spontaneous notion to continue hunting the Lizard wasn't just his own idea after all. The Amazing Spider-Man shared it too.
A funny coincidence between their connected minds.
"The web line is linked, and Peter joins Peter. As expected of me," Peter chuckled to himself.
He rolled over, continuing to lie on the large woven spider-web.
This was admittedly a rather foolish stakeout method. But what choice did they have?
If scouring each tunnel one-by-one, the labyrinthine Queens sewers meant they might not find Dr. Connors even by next year.
And Dr. Connors' parting words haunted Peter whenever he recalled them:
"Don't worry Mr. Parker, I'll be back soon. Something wonderful is about to happen...something very, very wonderful!"
His intuition warned that the Lizard was brewing some sinister plot!
He had to find him quickly!
How could waiting around be quick? Yet here he was, waiting quickly?
Peter laid boredly on the spider-web, wondering if he'd come too early.
Maybe he should've let the Amazing Spider-Man pinpoint the Lizard's location first before taking over?
Out of boredom, he pulled out his phone to play Bubble Bobble and kill some time.
As the screen lit up, an extra sentence appeared on the wallpaper:
"Hey, brother."
"Oh?" Peter's eyes lit up. It seemed his left message had reached the Amazing Spider-Man.
However, he only found that one sentence reply.
Why?
Peter had a hunch - maybe the actions he took while possessing other Spider-Men left corresponding memories for them after departing.
But they shouldn't be able to read his own thoughts.
Thinking this, Peter left his own greeting on his phone's wallpaper: "Hi brother, I'm Peter."
After the silly exchange, Peter felt amused for a while.
He imagined having a half-brother from another dimension and universe, someone fundamentally similar yet uniquely shaped by divergent experiences and environments.
Their relationship was complex, depending on how you viewed it.
But one thing was certain - they were more like true brothers than most blood-related siblings.
Then, Peter checked his web-shooters again. After minor adjustments, they had a brand new look.
Past lessons told him to be vigilant, though. It wouldn't be pretty if the webbing jammed mid-fight.
Twang!
A spider strand suddenly flickered.
Peter's expression hardened as he immediately pocketed his phone.
Something had touched his webbing!
Though many creatures dwelled in the sewers, his elevated web-lines made chance encounters with small fauna unlikely.
Down here, only one being could trigger the web-lines.
Dr. Connors...the Lizard!
As Peter concentrated, his Spider-Sense switched to active mode, its radius expanding outward.
He immediately sensed a dangerous presence slowly approaching through a nearby tunnel!
(End of chapter)