-Saturday, May 6th, 2019-
"YES! FINALLY!"
Twilight couldn't help but yell out in joy, before grinning at her handiwork.
It had taken near a month, but she finally did it.
The device Flash had taken off of Scorpion's suit lay before her, the covering removed and its inner workings exposed. None of the components were fried, none of it was damaged in any way. Now all she had to do was start dissecting it further and take a good look at those components to try and find who made it.
The elevator opened and a familiar voice said "You sound happy."
She turned to see Flash walking into the base, smiling when he saw her. She smiled back and replied "Well, I had an idea on how to pop this thing open." She moved to reveal the now partially dismantled device. "And it worked!"
"That's great," he replied. He then gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and asked "How'd you manage that?"
"That is a long and complicated story."
"Abridged version?"
"I figured out there was a flaw in the device that allowed me to drain the power cell, thereby negating its 'Self-Destruct', as you put it. Once that was done I just had to pull off the back and voila!"
"Great. Now we can figure out who's been helping Cinch in the tech department."
She nodded. "Once I pull out some of these components and scan them, Thorax'll be able to run a search on them and we can go from there."
A groan came from the computers, revealing a half-asleep Thorax with an impression on his face of the keyboard. He lazily grumbled "Can you lovebirds please keep it down? Some of us were working all night."
"I thought you just got here early this morning and fell asleep," Twilight replied.
"I came right here after I got done at F.E.A.S.T. I've been here since about... seven o'clock I think."
"You've been here all night," Flash stated.
"I have?" Thorax looked at the time and his eyes widened. "Shit. Well, at least my brother's out of town for the weekend."
"Dodged a bullet there."
"Yeah." He yawned and asked "Can I get some coffee?"
Flash smirked and walked over to the coffee machine and poured him a cup. As he walked back he said "Here you go, your morning pick me up."
"Thank you," he replied and downed the contents of the cup in one go, savoring the bitter taste and the rejuvenating feel of the caffeine.* "Oh, that's so much better."
"Now all you need is a shower and to brush your damn teeth."
Thorax glared at him and replied "Don't patronize me, prick." He stretched and continued "And yes, I have been here all night. While you two were busy on your date, I was busy data mining. Speaking of which, how'd the date go?"
Twilight blushed, but replied "Well, considering I kissed him last night, I'd say it went pretty great."
"So, you guys are together?"
"Yep, we're officially boyfriend and girlfriend," Flash added.
"So which one are you," Thorax asked jokingly. Flash and Twilight rolled their eyes at his joke, but he said "Seriously though, congrats. But for the sake of my stomach, please don't do any of the mushy-gushy stuff around me."
Flash rolled his eyes, before saying "Back on topic, did your program find anything?"
Thorax winced. "Bit of a problem with that."
"Oh boy."
"When I said it was going to take about a day for the program to run its course, that might have been a bit premature. In truth, if what my computer's telling me is true, it's gonna take roughly a month for it to sift though all the data."
Flash sighed. "Which I doubt we have, since my little note to Cinch is probably gonna make her step up her timetable."
"Guess I better double-time it on ID-ing this device," Twilight said while looking at said device. "At the very least, we can be thankful she hasn't sent anymore supervillains since Rhino."
That puzzled Flash. "Yeah. It's been just shy of a month and we haven't seen anymore of her homemade super-thugs."
Twilight thought about it for a second, before asking "Maybe she ran out of willing volunteers?"
"Or maybe she didn't want to pull another jailbreak," Thorax suggested. "Those things do tend to be kinda public."
Flash shrugged. "I don't know. But I don't want to be surprised again like we were with Rhino. So-"
He was cut off by the familiar call of the Crime Alert. Thorax looked at it and said "Break in at an Oscorp Medical Laboratories. Cops are en route."
"And so am I," Flash replied, grabbing his suit.
The Oscorp Medical Center was built with the purpose of studying rare diseases, some of them so rare they didn't even have a name, in an attempt to find a cure. It's design was similar to the Research Center that Twilight interned at. The difference, aside from the logo on the side, was that the building was a bit shorter than that one. Which made sense seeing as how from what Twilight said most of the labs inside were underground, a measure taken to try and insure that in the event of a containment breach nothing would reach the surface until they could get it under control.
Arriving at the center and perching on a lamppost, he immediately noticed something odd. "Ah, Thorax? You sure there's a break in? Because all the windows and doors on the outside are perfectly intact."
He heard some typing through the com-link before Thorax replied "Something tripped the alarms in there. And the police scanners have said there were shots fired. So either it's- What the hell was that?!"
"Uh, can't see what you're seeing dude."
"Something just moved past one of the cameras he's hacked into," Twilight replied. "It was roughly human sized. And it had scales, claws, and a tail."
"Oh great. Anything else?"
"The thing moved too fast for us to get a good look at it. But it's heading for the parking lot. He should be there real soon."
He wasn't kidding, because the moment the last word left Thorax's mouth a large desk came smashing through the doors of the front entrance, eventually smashing into some poor guy's car.
Dropping down onto the blacktop, Spider-Man watched at the guy who through the desk. And...
"You can't be serious."
It looked like a strange mishmash of a human and a large lizard, with several patches of blood red scales across his exposed face, chest, arms, and legs. His hands and feet were now transformed into claws, each talon at least six inches in length and looking very sharp. His face was grotesquely twisted, parts of it starting to stretch out to resemble that of an alligator, but his mouth was filled with sharp, curved fangs. Add on to all of that was a long tail coming out from where his spine met his torso, completely covered in red and black scales. And barely hanging onto his frame were a pair of shredded blue jeans and a black leather jacket.
Tucked under his right arm was a metal crate. What was in it, Spider-Man didn't know. But he knew he definitely didn't want this guy getting out of here with it. So he fired a web shot down in front of him to get his attention and said "Last I checked this isn't a pharmacy, scale-face. Drop the crate and I'll help you find your way back to the zoo."
The reptilian man's response was to put the case on the ground, the glare at Spider-Man with hate filled purple eyes with yellow sclera. He then roared at Spider-Man and made it clear he wasn't in a listening mood.
He rolled his eyes behind his mask. Why do they always want to do things the hard way? "Fine, have it your way."
He fired an Impact Web and nailed the monster in the chest, knocking him to the ground and webbing him to it. "Huh. That was easy. Well I guess I'll just-"
The words died in his throat as his opponent ripped through the webs with his claws with relative ease, rising back up and snarling at him. "Of course it wouldn't be that- Huh?"
His bewildered statement came from the fact that the reptile man in front of him seemed to be in pain, clutching his head and all but screaming. Upon closer inspection Spider-Man could see that his scales were starting to peel off to reveal patches of lightly tanned human skin, and his claws were also falling off and revealing human fingers."Oh-kay... Twilight?"
"I'm not sure," she replied. "But judging by the screams of pain and what your mask scanners are picking up about his vitals, he seems to be going through something akin to some sort of withdrawal."
"Judging by the peeling scales and reappearing human parts, I'm gonna guess it's whatever made him a wannabe Velociraptor," Thorax added.
"That makes things easier. All I need to do now is keep him occupied until he runs out."
Almost as if in response to Spider-Man's statement, the reptile-man grabbed a nearby car and with a surprising display of strength flung it at him. Spider-Man easily managed to jump out of the way, and dodge when he felt his Spidey-Sense go off. It was a good thing too, since at that point the reptile-man had lunged at him with what remained of his claws outstretched. Spider-Man dodged a few more strikes before delivering a few hits of his own, striking his enemy's chest, stomach, and face. The last few hits he scored sent his opponent staggering backwards against a car. And before he could recover Spider-Man quickly fired a series of Impact Webs and standard Web shots, gluing the monster man to the vehicle. He tried to struggle but the thick amount of webs and the rapidly depleting... whatever it was that was in his system, made the task all but impossible.
Eventually he stopped struggling, settling for just screaming in pain as his transformation full reversed itself, revealing a man of about twenty-five with orange-yellow hair styled in a messy mohawk. He groaned one last time before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out. Fortunately, the scanners said he was still alive.
"Well, that went better than I expected," Spider-Man said. "I was expecting at least a few tears in my suit."
"Let's not tempt fate," Twilight replied. "Pick up some of the scales and talons he dropped. I might be able to figure out what made him like this."
Picking them up and slipping them into a pouch in his belt, he said "Alright, samples collected." He then remembered the crate and said "Let's see what he was trying to steal."
Carefully he opened the top of the crate to reveal-
"Uh, guys? We might have a problem."
Back at the lair and with his mask off, Flash pulled up a photo on the computer that showed the same person he'd been fighting; but with noticeably less scales, claws, and tail. "According to the police files this guy is Garble Burns, twenty-three years old and a real piece of work."
"No kidding," Thorax said at his own computer, looking up Garble's record. "See that tattoo on his left arm?"
They looked at the big screen and sure enough, on Garble's left arm was a stylized tattoo of a serpentine dragon coiled around his arm from his shoulder all the way to his wrist. Thorax continued "That tattoo marks him as part of a gang. Specifically, this dude's part of the Dragon Tail Brotherhood."
Twilight nodded. "Yeah, I've overheard Shining talking about them. These guys are into drug running. And arson. Racketeering. And arson. Vandalism. And-"
"Let me guess," Flash asked sarcastically. "More arson?"
"What can I say? These guys apparently all have a fire fetish."
Thorax nodded. "I know. Back when Pharynx and I lived in Harlem, these guys were notorious. Burned down multiple restaurants and businesses if they wouldn't pay their 'protection fees.' At least until Luke Cage kicked 'em out and they decided to migrate to Brooklyn. According to his file he did three years in juvie for lifting cars. Once he got out he got busted six months later for running drugs for they Dragon Tails. Currently he's out on parole. Or rather, he was." He glared at the picture of Garble, and then asked "So how did this fine piece of work get turned into a piece of rejected Dino Crisis 3 concept art. God that game was stupid."
"Well Twilight's scanning the stuff I brought back," Flash replied. "But I got a pretty good idea. The crate he was trying to steal had several cannisters filled with animal DNA. Specifically, lizards. I caught a few names like Sphenodon punctatus-"
"Tuatara," Twilight explained, seeing Thorax about to ask the question. "New Zealand reptiles."
"-Eublepharis macularius-"
"Common leopard gecko. Sunset actually has one as a pet."
"-and last but not least, Varanus komodoensis."
Twilight's eyes widened at that. "The Komodo Dragon?"
"You mean those really big lizards from Indonesia," Thorax asked.
"Yeah. Those things are extremely aggressive and poisonous. And confirmed cannibals."
"Ew."
"That's not the only thing," Flash said. "A few of the canisters were filled with something else."
"What was that," Twilight asked. "Dinosaur DNA?"
Flash shook his head. "The Cross-Species Formula."
If he didn't have their attention then, he had it now. "You mean the stuff they put in that spider, which then bit you and made you Spider-Man," Thorax asked. "That Cross-Species Formula?"
"Yep." Flash looked at his hand and continued "If a little bit of that spider's venom was enough to make me Spider-Man, just imagine what a few canisters of this stuff loaded with lizard DNA could do for the Brotherhood."
"Slight problem with that theory," Twilight said. "According to his file, Garble's a high school dropout."
"He ain't the only one," Thorax added, rapidly typing at his computer. "According to the police files, most of the known or suspected members of the Brotherhood are either high school dropouts or they never made it to college."
"And unless they think splicing their genes is as easy as mixing together fruit punch, none of them have the expertise to make the formula without killing themselves."
"So somebody who does know what they're doing is making it for them," Flash figured. "Probably someone who knows a thing or two about genetic engineering and Cross-Species Genetics." Looking at Twilight he asked "Any ideas who?"
"I can think of one person who knows more about Cross-Species Genetics than anyone else in New York City," she replied. "and that's Doctor Curt Connors. He was the former Head Researcher for the Cross Species Genetics Project, with a Masters Degree in multiple fields of genetics and Herpetology.**"
"You don't mean 'former' like Adrian Toomes, do you?"
She shook her head. "No. Doctor Connors decided to take up a teaching position at Empire State University, but Oscorp still let him run some experiments using the formula."
"Really?"
Twilight nodded. "Connors lost his right arm at the elbow in an accident years ago. He believes the formula holds the potential for unlocking the future of human evolution. His own experiments are mostly focused on trying to give humans the regenerative abilities of lizards. Just imagine the good that could do for war vets and accident victims who've lost limbs."
Flash could agree with that. "Well, if Garble got a taste of his formula, I'd say the formula's still got a way to go."
"Found something suspicious," Thorax said, getting their attention. "According to ESU's records, Connors has been out sick for the past week."
"Yeah, that definitely sounds fishy. Is his wife in?" Seeing Thorax nod, Flash grabbed his mask and said "Let's see what she has to say then. What's her schedule look like?"
"She's in the middle of a lecture. Should be done by the time you get there."
"Good. In the meantime, listen in on Oscorp. And let me know how the hell Garble got in there."
"Can do."
Empire State University was arguably one of the most well known places in Greenwich, an outstanding university with an impressive series of accolades and awards, that boasted some of the most cutting edge equipment and had arguably most qualified teachers/professors for their respective fields. Anyone lucky enough to attend and obtain a degree would no doubt have career options out the yin-yang. Especially if your going into a field of science.
In other words...
"This place is pretty much my dream school," Spider-Man said, swinging onto the roof of a building.
"Mine too," Twilight replied.
"Sweet. What majors are you gonna pursue?"
"I'm planning on doing a double major in Physics and Chemistry."
"Let me guess; creating clean and renewable energy sources?"
"Yep. Hopefully something that'll be a lot cheaper and easier to make and distribute than the Arc Reactor. What about you?"
"Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering for me. I've got some ideas for next-gen Neuroprosthetics."***
"Really? Do tell."
"Well for starters-"
"Guys," Thorax cut in. "Focus. You can gush about science afterwards. Preferably when I have a doggie bag."
"Sorry," they replied in unison.
Finding the right building he slipped in through an air vent before exiting into the room. Looking down he saw the group of students listening intently to the woman teaching; a woman in her mid-thirties with light red hair that reached her shoulders wearing a lab coat and black shoes, a pair of wire-rimmed glasses over her green eyes.
Once she finished her lecture she said "And that's that. See you all next Thursday."
Once the students had all left and she was packing up her stuff, he lowered himself down on a web line and asked "Doctor Martha Connors?"
"That's me. How may I-" Her eyes widened when she saw him hanging there. "Spider-Man. What are you doing here?"
Releasing his line and landing on his feet, he said "Well, while I find the world of Herpetology fascinating, I'm actually hoping you can help me with something."
Looking at him confused, she asked "How?"
"Well, this morning..."
"So considering your husband helped to create the original formula, I was kinda hoping either you or him could help me figure out who might be helping to create this formula that Garble used."
The entire time that Spider-Man spent explaining what happened, Martha had spent it listening intently and looking quite shocked and even a little horrified.
When he finished, she sighed. "I was afraid of this."
"Afraid of what?"
Taking a deep breath, she said "You have to understand, he didn't mean for this to happen."
"Curt's not sick, is he?"
She shook her head. "Well, not exactly. He doesn't have the flu, but he-"
At that moment his Spider-Sense went off, and he raised a hand to quiet her. "Guys, my Spidey-Sense is going crazy," he whispered. "What's going on?"
"Nothing's on the CCTV or the police scanners," Thorax replied. "But I do have something for you. Chatter on the Oscorp channels said that Garble didn't come in through the front door. He made his own entrance."
"How?"
"Turns out the basement of that medical center was directly over the sewers. Garble crawled through it and then dug up through the concrete. Took their security team by surprise."
His blood ran cold at that statement. "Thorax, is ESU directly over the sewers?"
There was a pause before Thorax replied "I'm afraid so."
SMASH! CRASH!
Turning towards the wall the sounds came from, Spider-Man asked "What's on the other side of the wall?"
"That would be the men's room," Martha replied. "Why?"
The answer came when a large object smashed through the wall, landing on the floor and skidding to a stop to reveal.
"A toilet," Spider-Man stated, while looking at the hole in the wall. "Not sure if I should laugh or be very...very...scared."
What walked through the wall was another lizard man similar to Garble. The difference was unlike Garble, who still retained a strong majority of his humanoid features at the time, this guy looked far more reptilian. His head resembled an alligator's, with a full on snout and a large mouth filled with curved, serrated fangs. His whole body was covered in dark green scales, with a set of dorsal spikes lining his spine to halfway down his long tail. And he wore a pair of shredded blue pants and equally shredded black shirt, finishing his ensemble with a torn up white lab coat. All of that, and he stood at a very imposing seven feet tall.
He glared at Spider-Man with red eyes with slits, and angrily hissed at him.
Unfazed, he asked "Doctor Connors, I presume?"
An angry hiss was his only answer.
"Curt," Martha said, walking in between him and Spider-Man.
He looked at her, and his eyes seemed to soften. Slowly and carefully, she gently laid her hand on the side of his face. "I'm close, Curt. I just need a little more time, and I'll be able to cure you."
The reptilian-Connors blinked, before moving away and shaking his head. "I get the feeling mister Lizard here doesn't want to be cured," Spider-Man whispered.
The Lizard looked and glared at him, before looking back towards the hole and letting out a series of snarls and clicks.
And walking out of the hole were four more reptile men; one with light purple scales (once they were arrested he'd later learn that their names were Fume-), one with charcoal gray scales (-Charcoal-), one with grayish turquoise scales and a very long and very thick tail (-Whip-), and the last one had pale white scales(-and Fizzle).***** None of them looked as completely reptilian as Lizard, still having a large amount of human parts, but they all shared a similar look of feral anger (and in some cases, hunger.)
Martha looked mortified. "My God. Curt, what have you done?!"
Stepping in front of her Spider-Man said "Mrs. Connors, you need to leave. Now."
"No, I can-"
Lizard roared before grabbing a desk and tossing it at them with little difficulty, forcing Spider-Man to push Martha out of the way (coincidentally towards the door) and then back-flip out of the way as it plowed through everything in its path. "Mrs. Connors, if you don't want to get hit by a desk, I really have to insist that you get out of here. Now!"
She nodded and ran for the door, but before she left she said "Please don't hurt Curt. He's not in his right mind!"
Seeing the other four lizardmen start to come forward with their claws extended while Lizard stayed in the back, Spider-Man got into a combat stance. "I'll try, but I don't think he's gonna give me the option."
Fume lunged at him with his claws outstretched, but he was so clumsy that Spider-Man dodged it with little effort. He subsequently dodged an attempted slash by Charcoal, and then flipped over a powerful and very quick tail-swing by Whip. Jumping back to avoid another swipe from Charcoal, he landed on a desk and said "Man, you guys are out of shape. Maybe outta do some cardio."
Fume glared at him before letting out an earsplitting screech as the skin around his neck unfolded into a massive yellow frill that vibrated and made a loud rattling sound. When his Spider-Sense went off he immediately ducked out of the way, just as Fume shot out a large glob of dark green... something, where Spider-Man had been standing moments earlier.*****"Jeez, the scanners are saying that stuff has incredible Cytotoxicity" Twilight said. "I recommend not letting that stuff get on you. If that stuff gets through your suit-"
"Got it. Don't let the venomous spit from the wannabe Dilophosaurus get on me." He dodged another glob of venom, another tail swipe from Whip and a few more swipes from Charcoal, he said "Okay, time to end this."
Whip tried to tail... whip him again, but instead of dodging Spider-Man instead grabbed it and fired an Electric Web at his back. As he shook and spazzed from the electricity coursing through his body, Spider-Man yanked on Whip's tail with all his might and flung him right into Fume, both of them slamming into the wall. After webbing up his mouth he fired a few Impact Webs and all but plastered them to each other, and the wall. Charcoal tried to lunge and bite him, but a quick throw into a wall and a few Impact Webs put a stop to that. "Okay that's-" He looked around, only to notice something wrong. "Where's Doctor Connors?"
"Forget that, weren't there four lizard men," Thorax asked.
He was about to respond when he felt something wet drip down onto his shoulder. He looked up-
-and immediately something slimy and pink shot down and wrapped around his throat. As he struggled to remove it from his neck it suddenly began pulling him upwards towards the ceiling. Following the slimy pink thing to the ceiling, he saw part of the ceiling seemingly peel away and start to change color to a pale white, eventually taking on the familiar form of the last lizard man, Fizzle.
And the slimy pink thing wrapped around Spider-Man's throat... was his tongue. EW!
Through his slightly oxygen deprived brain he vaguely heard Twilight yell in disbelief "It's part chameleon?! Seriously?"
Before he got any higher, Spider-Man pressed his Web Shooter right on Fizzle's tongue and fired an Electric Web, nailing his target.
Plain old electrocution would be painful enough, but on the tongue? The pain was immeasurable as Fizzle started to spasm and fling his tongue around wildly, eventually releasing Spider-Man and unintentionally throwing him into a wall. Getting his breath back, and ignoring his very bruised spine, he attached twin Web Lines onto Fizzle and yanked him off the ceiling, before spinning him around the room like a tether-ball and throwing him against the wall with a very loud and painful sounding SLAM! A few Impact Webs later and Fizzle was plastered against the wall and he wouldn't be moving anytime soon. Wincing from the large bruise he no doubt had on his back, he grumbled "First a Dilophosaurus and now a long tongued Indominus Rex? What am I in, a Jurassic World fan film?"
"Doubtful," Thorax replied. "The Velociraptors were a lot smarter than these losers."
"True. Thorax, where's Lizard?"
"CCTV shows a nice big hole in the wall of the Connors' lab."
"Then I guess that's where I'm going."
By the time he got there Lizard was long gone and the lab had been seriously trashed, with broken equipment left and right and lots of claw marks in the walls.
And in the center of it all was a large hold big enough for the Lizard to fit through. And judging by the faint smell it went all the way down into the sewers.
"Damn it!"
Spider-Man turned to see Martha Connors standing near a cold storage safe that had its door ripped off, and a nice big empty spot in the center shelf. "What did he take from there," Spider-Man asked. "And please tell me whatever it was wasn't toxic."
Martha sighed. "Curt and I were experimenting with combining the Cross-Species Formula with lizard DNA. We were trying to find a way to give ordinary humans the regenerative capabilities of lizards."
"So what happened?"
"We thought the formula was safe and ready for human testing," she replied, tears starting to form. "But we were wrong. So wrong. Curt turned into that... thing. At first he wasn't able to talk outside of snarls and growls. But now..."
She said he spoke to her. "What did Curt say to you?"
"I told him I could cure him. He looked me right in the eyes, and he said... He said HE was the cure."
Spider-Man could put the pieces together from there. And the results weren't looking good.
He wasn't working with the Dragon Tails Brotherhood. He was using them as guinea pigs. He's trying to replicate the formula to make more lizard people like him. But he couldn't get all the right materials as he was, so he had Garble try and steal them. But since I stopped Garble, he decided to come right for the source. "How much of your formula did he take from the fridge?"
Tears were running freely from her eyes as she replied "I'll put it to you this way. If he manages to get the formula into a gas form, he could potentially turn the entire city into lizards like him."
Spider-Man couldn't help but feel sympathy for her, and for Doctor Connors himself. He had wanted to use his knowledge and work to help people. But instead, his work ended up turning him into a monster. Neither of the Connors deserved this.
Putting a hand on her shoulder he said "Mrs. Connors. I promise you, I will bring Curt back. Scale-free and 100% human."
Wiping her eyes she replied "Thank you. I may have a way to do that. But I need a little more time to complete it."
"Complete what?"
"A Lizard Gene-Cleanser. Inject it into his bloodstream and it should purge out the Lizard Formula."
How much longer do you need?"
"Not long. I just need to finish the mixing process and it'll be ready."
"That's great." Spider-Man then looked at the hole. "In the meantime, I need to make sure Curt doesn't end up hurting anyone." Picking up a loose piece of paper and a pencil, he scrawled out two numbers. "The top number is for a burner phone that I gave to a reliable and trustworthy friend of mine on the police force. Call him, tell him everything, and he'll do his best to make sure what happened to your husband doesn't make the news."
She nodded, gingerly taking the piece of paper. "And the second number?"
"That's the number for my earpiece. Let me know when you got the Cleanser ready."
And with that he jumped down the hole, intent on ending this nightmare before it got any worse.
Meanwhile, in a hidden lab within the sewers, the Lizard formerly known as Curt Connors was busy running the multiple test tubes of the Cross-Species Formula through a machine, watching as the green liquid was transformed into a gas and then sucked into four metal spheres the size of baseballs. Smiling, he whispered in a raspy voice "Ssssoon, humanity'ssss full potential sssshall be unlocked." He looked over at a map on a nearby table and a large machine that looked like some sort of homemade cannon, his smile transforming into a full on grin as he did so. "Ssssoon, the ssssuperior sssspeciessss will risssse.
'And nothing, not even Sssspider-Man, will sssstand in my way."
To Be Continued...
Now this was good and I hope to see some more of this kinda implimentation of canon characters down the road..... and just off hand mention.... did you know Adrian Toomes had a group of guys that were basing themselves off him out of respect? Called themselves The Vulturions.
Connors may be one of the villains you can fell sympathy for, he only want's his arm back, he didn't ask to be turn into a lizard.
Great chapter. Loved the SAO Abridged reference. Can't wait to see the next chapter.
REALLY good job on the exchanges, action, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places. I especially liked the bits of backstory on Garble and his old gang (definitely makes sense; particularly the run-ins with Cage), Twilight and Flash's discussion about their planned double-majors, the little bit of Hypocritical Humor involved with TWILIGHT telling somebody NOT to tempt fate and the first run-ins with Curt (in his Lizard form) and Martha.
Anyway, I think this is a good first foray into writing villains that actually have a sympathetic backstory.
This was great. Perfect version of the Lizard here.
Great job with Lizard here. I wasn’t expecting for the human versions of Garble and some of the other dragons to show up or be turned into Lizard-like creatures. Though speaking of dragons, I wonder what Spike would think of The Lizard since Cadance said that he liked lizards in general, even if he especially loves dragons?
Also, I find it quite funny and ironic that Thorax, the human version of a Changeling, apparently isn’t a fan of lovey-dovey stuff.
Whew! I mean, I feel bad for Dr. Connors, but I was expecting the situation to be much, much worse, as in involving-a-certain-sweet-little-kid kind of worse. Then again, that could still happen. The emotional punch isn't as hard since Flash doesn't know Dr. Connors like Peter did, but the story is still plenty sad.
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Thank you. And trust me, there will be. Did you think I just mentioned the human version of Queen Chrysalis for the lulz?
And no, I didn't know that. But now I do. Did you know there is a Spider-Man villain that's made entirely out of BEES?
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That, and if it worked he wanted to share it with people who have lost their arms. Or legs. Or really anything save for the head (ain't no regrowing that unless your DP.)
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Thank you. Saw a clip from it, found it to be hilarious, might watch more later. And I can't wait to write it.
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Thank you. I'm trying to include more MLP characters in this universe, and I figured if any characters would fit into a gang of thugs it would be Garble and his crew. Plus, how awesome is the mental image of Luke Cage beating the ever-loving st out of them?
How often has Twilight tempted fate? (I haven't seen every episode so it's hard for me to keep a running tab.)
I'm hoping I can keep it up in the future, without overusing it like MLP started to do.
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Phew. Audible sigh of relief. I was so scared I'd botch it up.
9774571
Like I told 9774534, I'm trying to include more MLP characters in this universe, and Garble and his crew fit the bill. Plus I like the mental image of Luke Cage beating the st out of them.
We'll probably find out next chapter.
Well, he's a human. Not a Changeling. He doesn't need to feed on love or other emotions.
9774696
Eenope. I have no idea what you're talking about. (quickly hides the rest of the plans for my story underneath my mattress) No idea at all~!
9775519
He recently TURNED INTO A DINOSAUR VERSION OF HIMSELF! DINO-SWARM!
9775520
0.0 Say what?!
Comic Books can be fun, but boy are they WEIRD.
9775519
Oh, you mean Swarm. I saw that in an old Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode back when ToonDisney was still a thing.
9775529
I did too. In comic book form though, he's actually a Nazi scientist who turned himself into a monster, rather than a sentient swarm of bees courtesy of a meteor. When he shows up in my story, he'll actually be a HYDRA scientist.
9775523
Yeah. And if you want I think we can move the discussion to PMs since you're spoiling out things.
9775534
Honestly it's just small spoilers, so I don't think it'll be that big a deal. Now if it were major spoilers, then I would.
9775537
I mainly wanted to discuss...... affairs....... of the alien nature if that's fine.
9775541
Oh, sure. I'll be waiting.
9774469
9775519
That is odd. I love SAO Abridged and can usually spot references, but I didn’t see it in this chapter. Where did I miss it?
9775555
9775568
Oh, thank you. Can’t believe I didn’t recognize that sooner. I guess Abridged Kirito’s one-liners and overall personality aren’t that different from Spider-Man’s taunts.
9775577
Though Spider-Man's not nearly as much of an asshole.
9775519 Well if you want more great quotes, there right here.
9775519
To be honest, I have no idea how often Twilight has tempted fate either. I just know it's so often, I've lost count.
And, speaking of Cage, I couldn't agree more. And speaking of Cage, I think it's probably going to be either him or Ben Grimm who will end up mentoring Applejack once her powers come in, depending on who she will be closer to in strength and durability when THAT happens.
I feel slightly embarrassed it took me a bit to realize it was Garble the dragon. :D Anyway, great chapter. Doctor Connors was always one of the more tragic characters in Spider-Man. You're right. He had good intentions.
One minor thing.
Should be 'your'.
9776053
Thank you.
9776060
No spoilers.
9776826
Yep.
And thank you, I will fix that.
Humm wonder if the Lizard has any less coprative test subjects too? Plenty of humans with dragon counterparts might have been additional subjects and some not willingly. I recall the episode of Spiderman the Animated series "King Lizard" we Conners flushed a batch of his formula and accidently made Lizard people in the sewers. It was sad as a lizard woman named Gila ended up setting off a gene bomb to stop the Lizard after her "people" sided with his plan to take over the surface. She decided if her people wanted act like mere animals they ought to be mere animals and "cured" everyone with the bomb.
9790622
Well, I kinda gave him a power that he rarely uses outside of certain issues of the comics. But I'll save that reveal for the next chapter, which should be done by either tomorrow night or the night after.
I'm calling it.
The leader of the Dragon Gang is gonna be Ember.
And Thorax is gonna fall for her.
I am betting it. I will be really disappointed if that doesn't happen.
Good work with this chapter! Didn't expect to see Garble and his gang as Lizardlings (I don't care, that's what I'm calling them XD) but it works. My first thought reading through this chapter was that Cinch was using Curt to test the formula on the Dragon Tails gang, but I'm glad that I was wrong.
9791445
You only got one of those right. Not saying which one.
9791589
Thank you.
9791445
Personally, I prefer Ember with Spike, but Thorax is my next choice for her.
9791908
Well, Spike is alittle kid in this story, so it's better XD
9791908
9791910
Me personally I'm more of a Spike x Smolder fan. SPOILER ALERT FOR BOOK 2!
And yeah, in this fic their ages are:
Ember: 16
Thorax: 15
Spike: 12
So yeah, having Spike and Ember in a romantic relationship like this would probably be a bad idea.
9792206
I have no problems with that pairing either, even if I personally see them as having more of a "brother and sister" relationship. But in this case, I understand why Spike and Ember wouldn't be a thing.
9792630
Thanks for understanding.
Out of curiosity, will there be an arc that resembles Spider Man edge of time where Flash has to work with a 2099 successor to the mantle of Spider-Man to prevent the universe from imploding at the hands of his evil, future alternate self?
9801680
Not planning on it, because I try to avoid time travel in my stories. With one notable exception for the next story in the EQGMU, which involves Starlight Glimmer and my version of the Season 5 finale.
9802091
Got it. Would’ve definitely given Flash the ‘Either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain’ type of slap to the face.
Good thing you are planning for a book two, because as much as I enjoy this (and I do, it's very Spider-Man, the good kind!), it feels a lot like... well, Spider-Man with some of the serial numbers filed off. I have a hard time seeing some of the characters in the ones here, like human-Twilight, who is not at all goofy and awkward and clumsy. No real hint of Flash's vanity or his awkwardness either. And nothing really of the cinnamon roll that is Thorax. The most IC so far is Pinkie Pie. I get characters with different life experience will turn out differently, but finding out his mother is the worst and always wondering if she did anything to them (because they don't look normal!), I would think Thorax would perhaps not be quite so open and jovial.
Anyway, about the dragons. Is Whip this one?
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/3/29/1693917__safe_artist-colon-pink1ejack_ballista_gauntlet+of+fire_absurd+res_background+dragon_dragon_dragoness_female_simple+background_solo_teenaged+dr.png
Because that's a girl.
And, if Connors used them for his experiments and basically enslaved them, shouldn't they be let out of jail relative quickly? Seems weird they'd get arrested and he probably won't, if this goes anything like most iterations. I could understand leaving them locked up in a hospital to make sure all those drugs are flushed out of their systems... perhaps even using that as a pretext to keep them locked up even when they were more or less innocent. Could create some interesting drama, especially with Smolder down the road, who might be very angry at Connors for getting her big brother locked up when for once in his life he didn't do it willingly.
Seeing how Garble is, I wonder how Smolder be handled?
Since she is his sister
9792206
Will Spike x Smolder still happen?