Beyond Responsibility

Chapter 11: Trigger Part 2

GGRAA- KRAASHH- GRISSAK- GRROOOM The villain continued to screech and flail to remove the bothersome webbing from its eyes with no regard for whatever Spider-Man was chattering about.

"I knew you'd appreciate my sense of humor. Such a good listener. Wish I could stay and chat, but I've got an appointment to catch, so if you don't mind, I'm going to knock out your lights, hopefully bringing you back to your senses in the process, and then tie you up for the police to find."

With no further delay, Spider-Man delivered a final blow to leave his opponent well and truly punch drunk. Upon which the monstrous reptile fell to the ground motionless before shrinking back down to a much more humanoid, but still distinctly lizard-like, appearance. Spidey noticed the punk kid couldn't have been more than a few years older than Peter himself.

"*groan* uhh... my head... where am I, whassh goin' on? Whassh all this gunk on my face?"

Oh? Still conscious. Good, I can get some answers.

The sudden shrinking has loosened the webbing around his eyes, and the kid was able to peel it away from his stiff scaly skin without too much difficulty, even without his previously enhanced strength. Though his hands were still stuck together. Upon having his sight restored, he was met with the sight of the masked vigilante Spider-Man looming over him in the shadows of a dark alley.

"Gah!" The kid tripped over himself as he tried to get up, landing on his butt and scuttling back until he collided with a trash can and winced, the bruises from before catching up with him. "D-don't hurt me!" he yelped as he swatted at the bugs that were buzzing around the trash covered youth.

"I want some answers, talk!"

"Anything you want, man. But I'm telling you, you've got the wrong guy, I don't know anything, I don't even know how I got here."

"Oh really? Well then why don't we start with why you were rampaging around town transformed into a giant flying lizard monster! That ring any bells?"

"Huh? B-but my quirk doesn't do that! I'm a mutant type, not transformation. I'm telling you, you've got the wrong guy!"

"Then how about you start by telling me just who exactly you are? What's your name?"

"Rapt- Raptor Tokage." he stammered. "Please, I'll do whatever you want, but I'm just some random dude in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don't have anything you'd want."

Tokage? Peter thought. That's Setsuna's last name! And a mutant type lizard quirk too. Aww, don't tell me I just beat up her cousin or something.

"Alright, alright, relax. I believe you, Raptor. I just want to help. Why don't you start by telling me the last thing you remember?"

"Last I remember? I- I was with my buddies. And, and there was this guy- Ah!" Raptor dug around in his pocket and pulled out an empty syringe. "Yeah... now it's starting to come back. The other day some cockroach kid and his grappling grandpa made fools outta us. Anyway this guy—looked like a salaryman—offered us a way to get some payback. He had a briefcase full of these:" he explained as he held up the syringe. "He said it was some wicked new drug that would supercharge our quirks. It felt... exhilarating. Addictively so. I remember the first bit well enough, but then I started running, and, and flying. I was getting into the zone, blood pumping, ready to show those punks who's boss. And then things get blurry from there."

That was all because of a drug!? A drug that enhances quirks... That shouldn't be possible. At least not for another 10 years. I've studied the neogenics work done by Doc Connors so I know. Stimulating quirk factors? Sure, you can do that. There have been quirk enhancers in the past, but those are little more than glorified steroids and adrenal stims. But to activate and catalyze quirk factors to this extent; that'd be like if someone made a drug that caused you to put on an instant ten pounds of muscle, or heal ten times faster than normal. Even if you had a lizard-like regeneration quirk like Doc Connors, cells just don't divide that quickly. And yet this guy grew and shrank two feet in an instant right before my eyes without a transformation quirk! And if you can catalyze quirks to that extent, then it's a very small step to re-catalyzing them. Doc Connors spent his whole life trying to restore his quirk that way and he never even got close to this!