Chapter 25 - Spider V Lizard, part 1

"So, how did your date go?" Gwen asked Harry as the trio of friends walked to their next class.

"Honestly, not that great," Harry sighed.

"Oh, do tell, do tell," Peter said in an intrigued voice.

"Honestly, I just don't think that we...you know...clicked," Harry explained with a small shrug of his shoulders. "I don't know, I have my doubts about her and me."

"So you two aren't going out anymore?" Gwen asked.

"Well, the way I see it, if she's up for it then I'll take her out on one or two more dates just in case, and we'll see from there," Harry answered. "Either way," He added as they turned the corner. "I think that...oh...hi." He blinked when Chloe suddenly stopped in front of him, standing alongside her was a girl with short black hair that appeared to be the same age as her.

"Hi, Harry," Chloe smiled at him.

"Hey, Chloe," Harry returned the greeting. "Um...these are my friends, Gwen and Peter." He added whilst gesturing to the two of them.

"Nice to meet you both," She said, giving them both nods, slightly narrowing her eyes at Gwen for a brief moment before she turned her attention back to Harry. "Oh, and this is my friend, Lita." She gestured to the girl next to her.

"Hello," Harry said to Lita who gave him a small nod in response, she gave him a look that told Harry she wasn't that impressed with him. "So, how are you?" He asked Chloe, turning his attention back to her.

"I'm fine, I was wondering when you'd like to go on another date?" She asked.

"Um...how about tomorrow?" He suggested. "Maybe we can go to a restaurant or something?"

"That sounds great!" Chloe beamed at him.

"Ahem," Lita coughed, giving Chloe a look.

"Oh yeah," Chloe nodded to her before turning her attention back to Harry. "Lita's going on a date with her boyfriend tomorrow, would you be okay with a double date?" She asked hopefully.

"I...suppose it couldn't hurt," Harry coughed lightly. "If you want to then I don't have a problem with it."

"Great, I'll choose the restaurant and I'll get back to you, see ya." She smiled before walking past them with Lita following.

"Well, they seemed fun," Gwen lightly snorted.

"Yep," Harry sighed as the trio started walking again. "Honestly, at this point, I'd rather take on another bunch of criminals."

"Yay! Criminals!" Cheered Spiderman.

He had been swinging over the city when he suddenly spotted a gunfight down below, a group of four criminals were hiding behind a ghastly-looking green car and firing their guns at a couple of cop cars and the four cops hiding behind the cars. The cops seemed to have standard-issue weapons while the criminals had what Spiderman guessed to be AK-47s, though he wasn't sure, guns weren't really his speciality.

Spiderman swung high before sticking to a building behind the four criminals, he shot out a web which caught one of their guns. He yanked it backwards, causing the gun to slam into the criminal's face, knocking him unconscious, the gun was pulled all the way into Spiderman's hands, giving him the chance to pull out the clip from the gun.

"Salutations criminals," He said when they all stopped shooting at the cops to look up at him.

"Oh crap, it's the Spider!" One of the criminals hissed.

"Indeed," Spiderman nodded. "Now, this is the part where I feel obligated to give you the option to peacefully surrender so that you may simply go to jail instead of stopping at the hospital on the way. So...want to surrender?" He asked hopefully.

"Waste him!" Another criminal yelled before they all aimed their guns at Spiderman just before he leapt off the building, he flipped in mid-air and tossed the clip at one of them, hitting him in the head and knocking him out while the other hand tossed the gun at another, knocking him straight off his feet and into unconsciousness.

He twisted in mid-air to avoid the gunfire from the final criminal and was able to land just behind him and on top of the green car, the criminal spun around and tried to fire again, only to have the gun yanked out of his hands by a web line from Spiderman.

"Um...I'll go to jail now," The criminal gulped.

"I have no problem with that," Spiderman said, gently placing the gun down on the car. "But you did kind of shoot at me, so..." Spiderman trailed off before he shot a web at the criminal, catching him by the chest before pulling him to Spiderman who leapt forwards to greet him with a punch to the face. "Let it not be said that I am not fair." He said to himself, he gave a small wave to the cops before he jumped towards the nearest lampost, he jumped off the top of it and started swinging away.

"No," Dr Connors whispered to himself.

'This was most definitely not a good week,' He thought to himself.

Ever since his funding had been threatened to be reduced, he had been working overtime at his job, hoping to make a breakthrough. The lack of time at home was not great, he knew that his son was missing him and his wife was definitely not happy about it either, though he had taken the time to explain to them that this was only a temporary situation. Thankfully, they understood, even though they didn't like it.

He had nearly driven himself to exhaustion with his work, but thankfully he had made progress. Yesterday, he had tested his new formula on Doris, the three-legged mouse, and a minute later Doris was no longer three-legged, she had all four of her legs! He had re-checked his calculations and was positive that the formula would work on humans as well, filling him up with hope, hope that he would no longer be limited to three limbs either.

Unfortunately, he had not had time to organise more testing and human trials, leaving him with a decision. Do nothing, and hope for the best, or test the formula on himself and prove its worth. He didn't know if it was his exhaustion or desperate desire to regain his arm, but he had gone with the second option.

And for a brief time, it was the best decision he had ever made in his life. Shortly after injecting himself with the formula, he lost consciousness, he was woken up half an hour later after a weird dream of becoming a baseball player and was amazed to discover that his own arm had grown back! He had stayed in that room for another half an hour, testing to see if his arm would work exactly like before and thankfully it did.

He knew that the first thing he should have done was to seek medical attention to make sure he was perfectly fine, but he hadn't done that, he was too pleased with his success and wanted to head straight back to his family to show them exactly what he had been working so hard for.

Shortly after making it out of the building, he called a cab, which was when everything started to go bad.

As the driver drove him back, he couldn't help but suddenly start to feel a sudden pain strike throughout his body, a couple of minutes later his new arm had started twitching, he had looked down and was horrified to see his skin was starting to change colour, it was starting to turn green of all things! For the briefest of moments, he wondered if was suddenly going to start turning into another version of the Hulk when suddenly scales started popping out of his skin.

"Dude, are you alright?" The taxi driver asked, noticing he was acting odd.

"I...stop here..." Dr Connors gasped, suddenly feeling like he was going to explode.

"Do you need me to take you to the hospital?" The taxi driver asked. "I know where it is, I can..."

"Stop the car!" Erupted Dr Connors, shocking the taxi driver who without thinking had stopped his car as quick as possible. Dr Connors grunted as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bunch of money, he tossed it to the driver without thinking and quickly got out of the car and rushed away.

He wasn't sure what he was thinking, or even what he was feeling, the only thing he knew was that he had to get away, fast. He could feel his jaw aching, his skin itching, and his left eye starting twitching. He had managed to stop to catch his breath when he noticed where he was, he was standing near the subway entrance.

"I've got to...aargh!" He groaned when he suddenly fell to the floor. "What's happening to me?"

"Isn't this date going great?" Chloe whispered to Harry.

"Absolutely thrilling." He dryly replied before taking a sip of his juice.

Despite what Chloe might have believed, this date was not great in Harry's opinion.

He had at least made an effort to make it good, arriving in a fairly good black suit without the tie, and had even picked up Chloe with his family's limo. Chloe had also looked fairly nice, wearing a pretty blue dress. But other than that, there was not a single thing that Harry had so far enjoyed about his date besides the food.

The restaurant that Chloe had chosen was boring, and stuffy and was the type that even rich people avoided because it just screamed trying hard to look rich. He wasn't sure how much he would have enjoyed the date if it was just him and Chloe, but he didn't think he would have since Chloe appeared to enjoy everything that was happening. Lita, and her date, Adam, had met them up in the restaurant and the two were...interesting...to say the least.

Harry noticed that Lita would sneak looks at him when she thought he wasn't looking, the looks weren't overly positive or negative, to Harry it seemed the same way you'd look at an annoying dog. As for Adam, he was irritatingly loud, Harry had noticed that his loud laughter had annoyed quite a bunch of the other customers, despite it not bothering Chloe or Lita. Unfortunately, Adam's problem was coupled with another problem, he seemingly lacked the ability to shut up for more than a minute.

He had been talking loudly the whole date, not to mention that the majority of stuff that had come out of his mouth was not something that should be spoken in polite company, he imagined the outrage his mother would have if she had heard half of those things. The customers around had become noticeably irritated by him and apparently, Harry was the only one in his group that was embarrassed by any of it. The only saving grace was honestly the food, and even that wasn't worth the prices that were attached to it. Harry knew that in this life he was rich, but that didn't mean he had unlimited money to spend, he did have an allowance after all. Plus he had spent fifteen years of his previous life knowing just how valuable money was and wasn't fond of wasting it on things he didn't like.

"Alright, I'm done eating," Harry said to the group.

"Me too," Adam nodded. "The food wasn't even that good." He complained loudly.

"Then why did you eat so much?" Harry couldn't help but ask, not entirely able to stop himself from glancing down at the red stain on Adam's shirt.

"Harry, don't be rude." Chloe admonished him as she put her utensils down, Harry couldn't help but stare at her with disbelief. He had witnessed Adam be rude the entire dinner but she hadn't said anything, one comment from him and suddenly he was getting told off.

"Let's just pay and get out of here," Lita suggested before she raised her hands and started clicking her fingers. "Waiter, hello." She said loudly in a bored voice.

"I'm sorry, what are you doing?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

"Calling the waiter," She answered with a roll of her eyes.

"Yeah, have you considered doing that nicely?" Harry asked, resisting the urge to roll his own.

"That is nice," Lita scoffed.

"I don't think clicking at them like they're dogs is nice," Harry replied.

"Harry, it's not a big deal," Chloe spoke up.

"Not to you guys apparently," Harry lightly snorted before turning around and spotting a nearby waiter who was busy with another table. "Excuse me," Harry called politely. "Um...we're all done with our food and we're ready to pay whenever any of you have time."

"Okay sir, just one minute please." The waiter told him.

"Not a problem, take your time." Harry nodded to him before turning back to the others. "See, just be nice, it's not that hard." He told Lita.

"Whatever, Osborn," She said flippantly, Harry glared at her for a moment before he coughed and took out his wallet.

"So, how are we paying for this?" He asked, "Do you guys want to do it four ways? Two ways?" He asked the group.

"What do you mean?" Chloe frowned.

"I mean how much are we each paying for this?" Harry asked.

"What? You don't have money?" Laughed Adam. "Come on, Osborn, we all know you're rich."

"Yeah, and we all know that the sky's blue, what of it?" Harry retorted.

"You're not paying for us?" Lita gave him a disbelieving look.

"Why would I?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Come on, Harry, it's not a big deal," Chloe said dismissively.

"I am not a walking bank account," Harry responded. "I'm not paying for everyone, if that was what you guys had planned then you should have let me know from the start."

"Not enough money Osborn?" Lita taunted. "Daddy not give you enough?"

"No, I just don't have enough goodwill to pay for someone who has been staring at me and treating me the same way you have," Harry glared at her.

"Harry, why are you making a fuss about this?!" Chloe hissed.

"I'm not making a fuss, you guys are, I'm perfectly willing to pay my share of the meal, what I am not willing to do is pay for everyone's share."

"You have enough money to do so!"

"That's not the point, I..."

"Come on, man, don't be stingy," Adam commented, rolling his eyes at Harry.

"Stingy?" Harry repeated. "You mean like the sort of prick who eats the most and then expects somebody else to pay for it?"

"What's your problem?!" Chloe demanded. "Why are you ruining a perfectly good date?"

"I'm not doing anything, I said I'll pay for myself and I will, that's all I'm saying. I was willing to pay for you too since you're my date but that's it, I'm not paying for these two as well."

"Stop making a big deal of it and just pay the money!" Chloe ordered in a harsh whisper, causing Harry to narrow his eyes at her. He was getting fairly tempted to make use of Daredevil's advice and simply directly ask her what she thought of him. He was about to say something when he heard a police siren.

'Please be a good excuse,' He thought to himself as a police car sped by, he used his enhanced hearing to listen in.

"Disturbance at the subway station, need back-up quick!" He heard a voice coming through the police radio. "Reports of a giant..."

"Harry!" Chloe interrupted him, causing him to snap his attention back to her. "Are you even paying attention?"

"Sorry, I've got to go," He said suddenly as he quickly stood up.

"You're leaving?!" She all but shrieked.

"Yeah, sorry, something's come up," Harry said somewhat apologetically as the waiter approached.

"Are you guys ready to pay?" He asked. Harry quickly reached into his wallet and pulled out a bunch of notes.

"This is for my portion of the food, and there's a fairly healthy tip for you, those three are paying for themselves." He told the waiter before he rushed past him and out of the door. Once in the street he turned and rushed into the nearest alleyway, he grabbed his white shirt and started unbuttoning it to reveal the Spiderman suit underneath.

"What the hell is going on?" Spiderman wondered as he landed on top of a lamppost and spotted a ton of people running out of the subway entrance, he jumped down and started making his way through them before he went downstairs into the subway station where he found a sight that was not normal, even in this mad city. People were panicking, some running out of the subway and some into the parked train, running away from what appeared to be a giant, green lizard.

The lizard was around seven feet tall, his tail looked to be about six and a half feet. His long mouth was filled with sharp white teeth and he possessed two yellow, slitted eyes and sharp claws. But that wasn't where the weirdness stopped, the lizard was standing on its two back legs just like a human and was wearing what appeared to be damaged brown shorts and a torn-up white lab coat.

"At this point, my autobiography could just be titled 'What the fuck?!'," He whispered to himself just before he saw it stalk towards a young woman that had just fallen over.

The lizard was about to grab her when Spiderman's webs connected to his arms and pulled him backwards, forcing him to fall on his back. The lizard snarled and spun around before cutting through the webs with ease.

"That's not good," He gulped slightly now that the lizard's attention was on him. Though the only good news about it was that it distracted the monster long enough for the woman to run out of the subway. The lizard roared before it charged at him on all fours, Spiderman reacted and jumped forwards, he managed to get himself under it and kick it in the chest, sending it crashing into the ceiling. As it fell down he repositioned himself and struck it with a roundhouse kick to the face that sent it flying into a nearby wall, leaving a solid dent. Much to the amazement of the people on the train that were recording everything on their phones. "I hope animal rights don't make a fuss over this." He whispered to himself just as the lizard pushed itself up to all fours.

The lizard growled at him, only its attention quickly diverted when it noticed that the train was starting to move. It rushed forwards and jumped upwards, easily travelling over Spiderman's head before landing on the train.

"Hey! Where you going?!" Spiderman yelled as the train started driving away, he rushed forwards and jumped, quickly landing on the back of the train before it could build speed.

"Spiderman!" One of the passengers inside shouted. "There's a giant lizard on top of the train!"

"I noticed!" He shouted back before he hopped up to the top of the train where he spotted the lizard crawling ahead.

Spiderman rushed forwards and shot a web line that grabbed the lizard by its tail, he planted his feet and stuck them to the train before he started pulling. The lizard creature snarled and tried to crawl away, fighting against Spiderman who was struggling to hold it as he started to realise how strong this thing was.

"Come on," He said under his breath as he tried his best to keep hold of his web. "Come to Papa," He grunted and pulled again only to fall back and land on his back, he looked up and saw that the tail he had been pulling on was now no longer attached to the lizard and was flopping about on top of the train. The creature turned around and almost instantly a new tail grew out of his back, it roared and started charging towards him on all fours, he quickly jumped to his feet and found himself dodging a series of claw attacks. He ducked, dodged and jumped over several attacks before he suddenly found himself teetering on the edge of the train. "Crap baskets!" He yelled before he jumped back and off the train to avoid the swinging tail of the lizard.

He shot out a web that caught the creature and allowed him to pull it off the train, the creature apparently did not like that judging by the noises it was making. Before it landed on the tunnel floor it snapped an arm out and a clawed hand grabbed Spiderman by the leg.

'Shit!' Was the thought that went through his head before he found himself slammed on the train tracks below. 'OW!' Was the next thought that went through his head before he was suddenly lifted and smashed into the closest wall hard enough to dent it, he had barely processed that pain when he was thrown to the opposite wall, denting that wall as well.

He grunted before he fell down to the ground, though was thankfully able to land on his feet. He quickly aimed his webshooters at it and sent two web lines at it, only to miss when it leapt up into the air, for a moment he thought that it was going to crash through the ceiling, but was proven wrong when it twisted in mid-air and ended up crawling on it.

"Oi!" Spiderman yelled in a highly offended voice. "Wall-crawling's my schtick! Hey, you start spinning a web and I'll sue!" He yelled before he jumped up and swung after it, after several seconds of this he managed to catch it by the neck.

It tried to shake him off, but he managed to hold on to it, at least until it lost its grip and the two fell down before they landed on another passing train. They ended up rolling across it for several feet before they recovered, as soon as he got to his feet he jumped back to avoid a claw that had nearly taken off his face but was unable to avoid the tail that swung towards him right after. The air was knocked out of his body as he felt it crash against his side, he was knocked off the train and straight into a wall before he flopped straight down to the ground and landed face first.

"We...will..." He gasped out as he pushed his face off of the ground. "...call that a draw."

"Gwen, honey, remember to do the dishes after you've finished your homework." Gwen's mother called after her after she left the kitchen.

"Okay Mum," Gwen said loud enough for her to hear before she entered her room, only to let out a small yell when she spotted Harry in his Spiderman costume crouched outside of her window on her fire escape.

"What was that?!" Gwen's mother yelled.

"Nothing!" Gwen quickly yelled, not wanting her mother to come here. "Just saw a spider." She added before she got in and closed the door behind her before she rushed over to the window and opened it. "What are you doing here?!" She whisper-shouted.

"I need a pretty nurse, preferably blonde," He grunted before he slowly climbed in through her window and removed his mask and started coughing whilst holding his side.

"What's wrong?" She asked as he flopped down into her desk chair.

"I'm not sure," He admitted. "It might be bruising, or I might have just broken a rib, or several." He grimaced, as he moved around in an attempt to make himself comfortable.

"Harry, you need a hospital," Gwen said in a concerned voice.

"No hospital," Harry refused, shaking his head. "If I go there, then people will ask questions, namely how and why that happened and I'm in no state to think up a good lie."

"Well, I only know a bit of first aid but I'll help however I can, take off your top," She said before going to her door and locking it. "I'll try and see what I'm working with."

"I don't...normally do that before the third date..." He joked in-between coughs as he struggled to remove his suit.

"Wait, I'll help you," She said, walking over and gently removing his top half. "Why did you come to me?"

"You were the closest person I know, and I trust you," He grunted just as she had gotten the top half off of him.

"At least I get some eye candy out of it," She half-joked. "So, I'm guessing this means that your date didn't go so well?"

"Honestly, that might have been the worst part of the evening."