The Amazing Spider-Man
Livin' on the Edge 12/???
Mini-arc: Night of the Lizard 3/4
Chapter Eighteen: Containment Breach
Peter staggered down the dim, humming corridor, Flash slung over his shoulder like dead weight. Normally it wouldn't have been a problem, his spider-strength made Flash's weight almost negligible, but Peter was careful. Every few steps he had to stop, shift his grip, steady himself, and force down the rising panic tightening his throat, half-expecting the giant Lizard to burst out of the shadows again. "Jean," he sent mentally, breath ragged, "Where are you girls?"
Jean's reply brushed against his mind like a cool hand against fevered skin. "We moved to the administrative wing. Ms. Connors thought it'd be far enough from the Lizard to stay safe if we couldn't get out."
Peter let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, half relief, half dread.
"Good. Stay there. Don't move," he answered. Then, after a beat, "Also… prepare your costumes. We might have to go have a talk with Dr. Connors. As a Jurassic Park reject"
He pushed himself forward again, boots echoing softly against the polished floor of the glass-walled hallway. Outside, rain drizzled steadily against the windows, dark clouds smothering the sky and turning the world into a blur of gray and silver.
And then he saw them. Norman Osborn stood just beyond the glass, phone in hand, his face stern, his suit immaculate despite the chaos unfolding inside the building. He looked untouched by it all, like disorder simply bent around him. Beside him stood another man, tall and composed, wearing round, thick goggles whose lenses gleamed like insect eyes beneath the overcast light. His hair was slicked neatly back, his coat a sharp slate-gray that matched his cold, deliberate stillness.
Something about him made Peter's instincts itch. "He reminds me of someone… Peter thought. I just don't know who." Both men were calm, too calm for a facility under siege by a super-powered reptile. They weren't panicked or alarmed. They were curious. Observing. As if they were watching an experiment unfold exactly as planned.
Ms. Connors noticed Peter then. Her face was streaked with tears, her hands trembling as she caught his eye. She mimed holding a phone to her ear and pointed urgently upwards, Peter imagined towards Curt's office, a sharp, decisive gesture. I will call.
Peter nodded faintly in response. Norman Osborn met Peter's gaze through the glass and gave him a small, confident nod in return. A nod that said, Everything is going to be fine. Peter tightened his grip on Flash and hoped, desperately, that Norman Osborn was right.
Peter made his way carefully toward the office, every nerve on edge, half-expecting the Lizard to erupt from every corner, every shadow, every ventilation shaft. But it never came. The silence was almost worse. He reached the door and pushed it open.
Dr. Connors' office was a disaster. Papers were scattered across the floor like fallen leaves, drawers yanked halfway open, their contents spilled out in frantic disarray. A chair lay overturned near the desk, another was missing entirely. It was obvious what had happened someone had torn through the room in a desperate search for the reaserch of Dr Connors, racing against fear, against time… and against the giant reptilian nightmare stalking the building.
Peter carefully lowered Flash onto the only chair still standing. He adjusted his position gently, then crouched beside him and checked his breathing. Steady. Still unconscious. Still alive. Relief washed through Peter, brief, fragile. He straightened and turned toward Curt's desk.
RRRRING
The sudden shrill of the phone made him flinch so hard his heart nearly leapt out of his chest. He snatched up the receiver before it could ring again. "H–Hello?"
"Peter?" Martha's voice spilled through the line, trembling and strained. "Thank God. Listen to me, the serum wasn't fully stable. Curt… Curt won't survive like this unless we stop the mutation, time is short."
Peter's throat tightened as he swallowed hard. "Do you have anything anything at all, to reverse it?"
"We… we might," Martha said, her voice breaking. "I tried to find the paper, but I panicked. I got scared. I had to get out." She hesitated, grief and guilt weighing down every word. "Curt took notes on an anti-serum. But without context, without him guiding the process, I don't know if anyone can finish it."
The line rustled softly. Then another voice replaced hers. "Parker." Norman Osborn's tone was crisp, calm, and infuriatingly in control. "S.H.I.E.L.D. is en route, but they're tied up with an incident off the coast. We're on our own for the next hour." An hour. Peter didn't have minutes.
"Stay put," Norman continued. "Evade the creature if possible. We'll figure out a solution." The line clicked dead.
Peter stood there in the wrecked office, the phone still pressed to his ear, Flash's faint breathing the only proof he wasn't completely alone.
Peter stared at the mountain of papers spread across the desk, scribbles layered over scribbles, half-finished equations, diagrams branching into dead ends. Curt Connors' handwriting shifted.
He caught fragments, genetic mapping, regenerative sequencing, adaptive mutations, but the deeper meaning slipped through his fingers.
He exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Sorry, Mrs. Connors," he muttered quietly. "This is way over my pay grade."
His gaze drifted across the office, searching for anything, anything, that might help. Then something caught the light. In the corner of the room sat the 3D holographic projector, the same one Dr. Connors had used earlier to display the recorded message from the Fantastic Four. Sleek. Advanced. Way above anything a high school lab should have access to.
Peter's eyes widened slightly. An idea clicked into place. It was reckless. Dangerous. And very, very Spider-Man.
He moved fast. Too fast to second-guess himself. Peter grabbed a battered suitcase from the floor and began stuffing Connors' notes inside, loose pages, folders, anything that looked remotely important. The rest he folded as tightly as he could and slipped into the hidden pockets beneath, in his suit which he wore under his clothes. Then he reached for the office keys.
If he locked the room down, the Lizard wouldn't immediately tear Flash apart or destroy the only research that might save Curt Connors' life.
Peter crouched beside Flash and adjusted his slumped posture, propping him up as best he could. He forced a crooked smile, trying to keep his voice light despite the tight knot of fear crushing his chest.
"Well… uh… stay safe, buddy," he said softly. "You kind of saved my life back there, so maybe try to keep the streak going, okay?" Flash didn't stir. Peter nodded to himself. "Cool. Great talk."
He stepped out into the hallway with the suit case on hand, pulled the office door closed, and locked it from the inside. He eased it shut carefully, waiting until the click of the lock echoed softly through the room. One less thing to worry about.
Peter sprinted down the corridor, ducking behind a row of towering chemical tanks. He stripped off his shirt in one smooth motion as the spider-suit unfurled from beneath his clothes, clinging to him like liquid shadow. In seconds, it sealed over his body. The mask slid into place last, locking in with a soft hiss.
The fear dulled. The focus sharpened. "Jean," he whispered into the mental link, his thoughts precise now, controlled. "Tell me where you guys are. I'm getting everyone out of here."
Her response came instantly. "We're ready. Just say when."
Peter closed his eyes and pulled his mask out of the inside of his suit.Breathed in. Breathed out. Then he stepped back into the nightmare.
---
The halls echoed with distant metallic crashes, each violent impact a grim reminder that Curt Connors wasn't Curt anymore. Peter reached the locked meeting room and knocked softly, carefully.
The door cracked open just enough for a single green eye, glowing faintly behind a tight black mask, to peer out. "…Peter?" Jean's voice. Shaky. Relieved. Almost afraid to believe it.
Peter lifted his mask just enough so they could see his face. "Yeah," he said gently. "It's me."
The door flew open. Jean threw herself at him without hesitation, her arms wrapping tight around his neck. Cindy and MJ followed immediately, the three of them colliding into him in a messy, desperate tangle of relief, laughter, and barely-contained panic.
Figures. Nothing healed interpersonal teenage drama quite like a giant mutant lizard stalking the hallways.
Cindy was the first to pull back, her expression shifting to mock annoyance as Se adjusted her silk-weaved suit that shimmered faintly around her wrists. "Took you long enough, Web-Boy."
MJ smacked Peter lightly on the arm. "Just so you know, we're still mad at you."
Jean, however, only tightened her grip, resting her forehead against his shoulder. "Don't sweat it," she said softly. "They're incredibly glad you're not dead… me included. And for the record, I wasn't mad at you."
Peter looked at MJ and Cindy who each tried to hide their blush, what Jean had said was true then and so he let out a shaky breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Same." he murmured.
They broke apart reluctantly, the moment giving way to reality. Jean stepped back and pressed two fingers to her temple, her posture straightening as her psychic senses flared outward.
"I've located him," she said, voice shifting into focus. "Doctor Connors... The Lizard. He's trying to force open the sewer hatches to escape, but they're sealed because of the lockdown."
Peter grimaced. "Guess he's not taking that well." as he said that Cindy was putting on her web mask.
"He's not," Jean replied. "He's getting frustrated, his thoughts are primitive but I can tell that he wants to get out, sooner rather than later."
"Good," Peter said. "Frustrated is better than eating us."
Jean suddenly froze. Her breath hitched. "Wait…" Her eyes widened. "He's sensing something else. Smaller. Panicked." She snapped her eyes open. "Five signatures."
Her face went pale. "Oh no. Peter, he's heading for the other students."
No one hesitated. Peter took off at a sprint, boots pounding against the tile. MJ ran beside him, jaw set. Cindy vaulted upward, sprinting along the walls as silk streamed behind her like silver ribbons. Jean lifted from the ground, telekinetic energy shimmering around her as she surged forward, eyes blazing. They didn't say another word.
They ran.
---
The broom-closet door rattled violently, terrified whispers leaking through the thin metal.
Peter, now fully back in his Spider-Man role, cleared his throat theatrically.
"Knock knock," he said. "Housekeeping!"
The door cracked open. Then swung wide. Five terrified students screamed and scrambled backward, crashing into shelves and each other in blind panic.
"It's okay! It's okay!" Peter said quickly, hands raised. "It's just me, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!"
The screams tapered off into shaky breaths, relief just beginning to settle...
CRASH!
The wall to Peter's left exploded inward. Concrete and metal burst apart as the Lizard came through it like a scaly freight train, claws gleaming, jaws snapping, eyes locked on prey.
Peter barely had time to gasp before the creature slammed into him, driving him across the hallway and into the opposite wall hard enough to rattle the lights. Cindy reacted instantly.
Silvery, organic webs shot from her wrists, wrapping around pipes and beams as she vaulted into the air. "HEY!" she shouted. "Godzilla reject! Over here!"
The Lizard whipped its massive tail in response. The blow caught Cindy midair and sent her crashing into a stack of storage bins, metal shrieking as they collapsed around her.
Jean sucked in a sharp breath and flung her hands outward. The five students vanished, not physically, but mentally, wrapped in a shimmering psychic distortion. To the world, they were still there. But to the Lizard's mind…
Nothing. The creature froze. Its head tilted, tongue flicking in and out. It could smell them. Sense the warmth of bodies. Hear heartbeats. But its thoughts couldn't lock on.
Peter seized the opening. He sprang off the wall and slammed a kick square into the Lizard's jaw. "Get them out of here!" he shouted. MJ didn't hesitate.
She darted into the closet, grabbed the nearest student by the wrist, and hauled them toward the stairwell. "Come on! Move, move, move, don't stop!" The group bolted up the stairs toward the roof.
Peter wasn't so lucky. The Lizard backhanded him mid-leap, sending him flying up the stairwell. Peter crashed into the locked roof door with enough force to dent the steel inward.
He slid down with a groan. "Ow. Okay. That hurt like hell. "He glanced at the warped metal, eyes narrowing. "…But I'm filing that under possible plan." Peter twisted and made a sharp hand signal toward the ongoing fight. "Silk!"
Cindy was already scrambling up beside him, shaking off dust and pain. "On it!"
Together they attacked the door, punches, kicks, shoulder-checks, webbing yanking at the bent seams. The metal groaned, buckled, then split just enough to form a jagged escape hatch. "Jean!" Cindy shouted. "Now! Distract him!"
Jean hovered in the air, dread written across her face. "I... I don't know if I can," she said, voice shaking. "Spider-Man… he's too angry. Too loud. I can barely touch his mind."
"Just try!" Peter pleaded.
She did. Telekinetic pressure slammed into the Lizard's chest, hard enough to stagger him, but it only fueled his rage. With a deafening roar, the creature lunged for Jean, claws outstretched.
Peter dove between them. The claws meant for Jean raked across his back instead, tearing through fabric and biting into muscle. White-hot pain exploded through him, but adrenaline drowned it out.
He retaliated with a flurry of punches, fast and desperate, each impact cracking against reptilian scales. The Lizard staggered.
Cindy leaped in, spinning webs around his legs, torso, and jaws, trying to cocoon him in layers of silk. Peter added his own, firing web after web until the creature was buried under sticky restraints.
Jean ripped a chunk of metal railing free with her telekinesis, twisting it midair into crude, brutal chains. They snapped tight around the Lizard's arms and throat.
The Lizard roared. The sound shook the building, dust raining from the ceiling.
They ran. Out onto the roof, dragging students with them, slamming the hatch shut behind them. Webbing flooded the door, sealing cracks, reinforcing hinges, binding anything that might give way.
Peter staggered back, panting, and held up a hand. "Okay," he said between breaths. "We're either geniuses… or dead." The roof door buckled violently from the inside. Peter winced. "…Probably dead."
He turned to Cindy and Jean. "The second I leave get everyone out. Keep it from breaking more than we already did."
Jean swallowed hard. "What about you?"
Peter stepped back, web-shooters humming as he took a running stance. "I'm going somewhere with a better chance of keeping Dr. Connors alive."
MJ stared at him, voice small and shaken.
"Where are you going?!"
Peter grinned beneath the mask. "To get help." He fired a webline through the broken roof hatch. "I think I can convince some fantastic friends to help Doctor Connors."
And with that Spider-Man launched himself into open air, swinging at full speed toward the shining spire of the Baxter Building.
To Be Continued...