A Collapsing Star

Chapter Sixteen

Dr. Connors roared and when he tore off the webbing it showed the face of the Lizard. His yellow eyes narrowed into slits. "Spider-Man," he growled. "Of course. It all makes sense now." he threw a punch that Peter dodged, but his tail swiped in the path of his escape, causing him to fly backwards. "Why you were so obsessed with the spiders! And their mutation properties!"

The Lizard approached him but Peter shot a web at his face, hoping to distract him. He knew his dad and the rest of the Avengers were on their way. The Lizard growled and his tail slammed onto the floor, the vibrations making Peter's head spin.

"Dr. Connors!" Peter cried, as he dodged another punch. "This is madness!"

"No it is peace!" the Lizard growled.

"How is this Peace?!" Peter cried hysterically. "Look around you! Look what you've done!"

"And look at what I will do!" the Lizard said triumphantly. "I will cure all! Cancer. Sickness. Disease. Death. All will be cured by my gift!"

"You know, you're really starting to sound like a four-legged friend of mine. Maybe you know him--" whatever Peter was about to say was cut off but a punch delivered to his gut. His cuts tore open and Peter grit his teeth against the pain.

"I will cure this city of weakness!" the Lizard crowed. Peter grimaced.

"Why is everyone so bent on world domination? What happened to just getting through the day?" Peter asked.

The Lizard loomed over him, his claws ready to strike and Peter jumped up, kicking him the face. The Lizard staggered back before growling animalistically at Peter. Peter laughed and threw another punch at him, hoping to keep him contained in the lab.

The tail swiped forward, but this time Peter was expecting it and was able to dodge it. Just as Peter was about to move forward and web him up, part of the ceiling fell down on him. Peter lifted part of it off of him, but the part covering his leg was too heavy, even for him.

He was trapped.

The Lizard stalked forward, his face looming over Peter's as his claws raised, the venom glinting off his claws. Peter tensed, preparing himself for the strike.

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"Sir? Our agents have not reported since yesterday." Commander Hill said, looking at Director Fury with a passive face. "Do you think they've been compromised?"

"The man they're after," Director Fury said, his face turning to look at the screen. "Dr. Otto Octavius, do you really think he's capable of compromising our agents?"

"With all due respect sir, he did kidnap the Avengers." Commander Hill said. "He was able to incapacitate, take and hold the Earth's best Defenders."

"If It's a concern, you may send a recon team," Director Fury said. "But I don't think we have any reason to concern ourselves."

"May I ask why?"

"Dr. Octavius may be a formidable opponent," Director Fury said. "But he's only that way because of his mechanical arms. But it's not very difficult to short-circuit his arms."

"What are you saying, Director?" Commander Hill asked, her face scrunching up in confusion.

"I'm saying he's an idiot," Director Fury said. "Those arms were fused to him once. That's when he was most powerful. He knows it too. After he had them removed, he was considerably weaker."

"So you think that our Agents short circuited his arms," Commander Hill asked. "And in doing so, short circuited their communications with us?"

"What I'm saying is," Director Fury said, turning to face Commander Hill. "Unless he finds some way to magically regrow his arms, he's not a threat to S.H.I.E.L.D." 

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The Lizard let out a loud screech and Peter let out a sigh of relief when Steve's shield bounced off the Lizard's back. "Step away from him," Steve said firmly. The Lizard turned, moving to attack Steve.

"Captain America," he hissed. "How great to see yet another consequence of groundbreaking science."

"What you're doing is wrong, Dr. Connors," Steve said. "You need to come with us quietly. No one needs to get hurt."

"Oh I disagree, Mr. Rogers," the Lizard grinned evilly. "Everyone who tries to stop me will get hurt." his head turns back to see where Peter was attempting to free his leg from the large block of concrete roof. "Starting with that bug!"

"I thought you were supposed to be smart, Dr. Connors," Peter grinned. "Spiders aren't bugs! They're arachnids!"

Dr. Connors growled and made a move to attack Peter but was stopped by an arrow landing in his shoulder. The Lizard let out a cry and ripped out the arrow, throwing it back at Clint. Clint rolled out of the way, the arrow sticking into a computer that short circuited and exploded. The force of the blast knocked everyone off their feet.

"Dude! If your computers are exploding because of a little arrow, you know somethings wrong with the coding," came his Dad's amused voice.

"Why are the Avengers attacking me, Peter?" Dr. Connors hissed at Peter. "How did they find out about this?"

"The second you decided to claw up my son, I decided to get involved," Tony hissed. The Lizard started in surprise.

"Son? What are you talking about Stark? Peter is Richard Parker's son!" he hissed.

"Nope. He's mine." Tony said, popping the 'p'. "And hurting my son is a big no-no in my book."

"Tony Stark is your father?" Dr. Connors asked Peter, his eyes searching Peter's face for any sign of a joke. He didn't find one. "Of course! That's why Richard acted so strangely about the whole thing. That's why he used your DNA for our experiments. You weren't his."

"Wait, you knew he took my DNA?" Peter asked.

"What the hell are you talking about? Someone stole your DNA?" Tony asked.

"I will make you pay for this, Peter," the Lizard hissed, and he raised his hands to cut Peter;'s throat but a loud blast rang through the room and the Lizard let out an inhumane screech before crumpling to the ground. When he fell, his Dad's repulsor was shown powering down.

Peter took one look at the Avengers, still tense in their battle formations and the unconscious doctor at his feet and sighed.

"Well that was anticlimactic."