Beyond Responsibility

Chapter 11: Trigger Part 2

"*wince* Hey, not cool man! I gotta sew this costume myself, you know." The tears in the costume revealed 4 openly bleeding parallel gashes. He'd have to take note to wear long sleeves today and tomorrow to hide them. For now he webbed the wound up in a makeshift bandage. "Can I just say again how awesome it is that I invented a sterile, biodegradable coagulant fluid that can both glue and bandage wounds instantly and dissolves on its own without reopening the wound? Because I am going to say it again: it's awesome."

GRAAASSK! His thoughts were interrupted by the screech of the lizard below as it clawed at the wall trying to climb up after him. "Oh, right, supervillain. Should probably handle that before they get the idea to try and escape."

Spidey put his hand on his chin as he planned his next move: I thought shoving them into this tight alleyway would have restricted their movements, but they're slippery and flexible as a salamander. Combine that with their weight, and I'm left at a distinct disadvantage when grappling. Even with my superior strength and agility, they'll get on top of me. His eyes flicked to the resulting web bandage on his forearm, reminding him of the result of his last attempt to do just that.

So I'll switch tactics and go for an out-fighter approach and keep them at arm's length. In this alleyway, they can only move forward or backwards, and there's not enough space for them to fly away either. With my better speed and reflexes, I can easily duck in and out of their range fast enough to stop them from getting a hold of me while I pressure them into a corner. And so long as they're facing forward, they won't be able to use that tail in here either.

Spider-Man sprung off the wall with a flip and retook his starting position blocking off the entrance of the alleyway.

"Okay Iguana breath, you won that round. But this ain't no wrestling match anymore, it's a boxing match!"

The villain hissed and punctuated his answer to the provocation with another blind rush. But right before it got in range to attack, Spider-Man lunged forward and delivered a right hook into the side of their head, derailing their charge and stopping them dead in their tracks. While the enemy was staggered, Spidey unloaded an onslaught of punches and kicks, each doing just enough damage to subdue the creature without doing permanent damage.

Of course it didn't take long for the lizard to adjust to the rhythm of the scrimmage. Swiping with claws and extending its long neck to chomp down on his foe in a deadly vice grip. Spidey, for his part, bobbed and weaved with little effort to avoid the creature, making sure to maintain a respectable few feet of distance with which to react by boxing the dinosaur street thug back into its corner.

"Float like a fly; strike like a Spider!" he quipped as he landed another stinging jab on the villain, and ducked under the responding swipe of its claws. "Man, you make this too easy. To your credit you're a lot stronger and faster than Shocker, but at least he was clever enough to banter back."

KRRIISSK!

"There it is, such stimulating parlance. But all good things must come to an end, and I've got somewhere to be, so let's finish this quickly." Spidey waited a half second for the lizard to inevitably lunge in another attempt to bite his head off, and extended his hand out in front of the lizard's face to meet it before firing a web bullet point blank into the villain's eyes. The response was immediate as it instinctively brought its hands to its face trying to wipe the gunk out of its eyes as it squealed and thrashed around with its hands now uselessly stuck to its face.

"Fun fact: some spiders are large enough to even catch small lizards and fish in their webs. Now, you're pretty overgrown for a lizard, but alas, I also tower over my arachnid peers, so this result is to be expected. Wouldn't you say?"