After the police evacuated all the kidnapped people from the Lizard's nest, Peter and Annabelle didn't have much of a trail to follow. It vanished entirely. Left no trace. So Peter was back to brainstorming.
It perferred dark, cold environments. It hunted and stockpiled food. The amount of people it had stuck to the walls was extremely high. It would be trying to make up for all that lost food as quickly as it could. What was a dark, cold place filled with potential prey?
The New York Subway.
As much as this seemed to be a groundbreaking revelation, the subway system ran for 230 miles. That was a lot of ground to cover. However, if you triangulate that with ongoing missing persons reports, you start to see a pattern.
Spidey hurried down to the subway platform with Protonslaught right beside him. "Honestly, I don't know what else to do," he said to her quietly.
"Dude, better than my idea."
"What was your idea?"
"Fucking I don't know, call Steve Irwin?"
"I think this one would be a little big, even for him. God rest his soul."
The crowds of people stared and got a little rowdy in the presence of two superheroes kind of just standing around on the platform.
Peter looked to one of the attendants in the ticket booth. They were on the radio looking a little shocked at what they were hearing on the other end.
With a glance at Annabelle, Peter urged, "Come on."
The pair headed over to the ticket booth and, quite strangely, the attendant looked relieved to see them. "O-Oh thank God! I just got a call from the next train...! S-Something about a monster...I-I don't know!"
Protonslaught whistled. "What are the chances?"
"Which way is it coming--"
As if summoned by Peter's question, a train hurtled through the platform like it was travelling a million miles an hour. "Prote, go!!"
Annabelle hesitated for a split second, but ultimately took to the air and throttled toward the tunnel faster than Peter could even comprehend.
Spidey fired a webline and watched as it soared across the platform...and latched onto Annabelle's foot. As she ramped up the speed, Peter was pulled through the air like some kind of Spider-Man-shaped kite.
"Hey! What the fuck is this!?" shouted Annabelle.
Peter gritted his teeth as he tried not to fall and get himself killed. "Stay on the train!"
In the blink of an eye, the track inclined and was now above the surface of the street. The open air gave Annabelle plenty of room to manoeuvre so she trailed above the screeching train.
"Something's definitely wrong! It's going too fast!"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, an aircraft dropped down from above and locked itself in a hover above the train. Emblazoned on the side of the craft was the SHIELD insignia.
"Great! They're gonna blast him full of holes!" cried Prote.
Peter shouted over the raging wind, "Keep them busy for me!"
He let go of his webbing, twirled, and landed in a crouch atop the moving train.
Several quick flips and sweet moves later, Peter had kicked though the window of the subway car and slipped inside. He should've expected to see what he did, but honestly, it probably wouldn't have helped.
The entire car was covered in the same goo that lathered the Lizard's former nest. Dozens of people were strung up in it.
At the end of the car, though...there it was. It was pinning someone to the wall and...secreting a thick, milky yellow substance from its mouth. The liquid poured over them and began to solidify as it was exposed to the air.
"Hey!" Spidey shouted. "Put him down!"
The Lizard turned and cocked its head. Its throat pulsated. It moved like a streak of lightning. Like that little scurrying lizard you saw in the yard, except it was 7 feet long and had an appetite for human flesh.
Peter's Spider-Sense was almost too late. The Lizard's jaws snapped shut inches from his throat after he made a last minute back step.
Spidey threaded himself around the gargantuan creature's body and slammed a fist into the side of his head.
It might as well have done nothing.
Claws were slashed in Peter's direction, but luckily for him, he already had some gnarly scratches on his chest that worked as great motivators to avoid getting any more.
He dodged, weaved, and flipped between these would-be lethal strikes.
"Listen to me! You're human! Deep down, you can hear me! Listen!" Spidey pleaded.
As if agitated by his words, one attack found its mark. Three of the Lizard's razor-sharp talons raked downward across Peter's face.
They tore straight through the fabric, shattered one of his lenses, and sliced across his chin. Blood flecked onto the subway floor as Peter stumbled back, his mask hanging ragged on his face.
When he looked back at his foe, it froze.
"P-P...Peter," it mumbled.
Suddenly, it clicked. Peter's eyes twitched. He didn't want to believe it. No, he couldn't. Dr. Connors. He was the Lizard. He tested the EGR on himself...to regenerate his arm. He turned himself into this thing. God. He fed on his own family.
"Peter..." it repeated.
Peter raised his hands in surrender. "D-Doc? Curt...?"
They both stared at each other. The Lizard's eyes softened. Its pupils dilated.
Peter slowly approached him. "I'm going to help you, okay?"
"No," he replied.
The windows on the car exploded as figures repelled in from above. Peter glanced toward them. They were covered in the deep purple BDUs of SHIELD agents. They weren't just your average guys either. Armed to the teeth with heavy gear, combat helmets, and assault rifles.
"Get down on the ground now!" yelled the squad leader. They landed inside the train, unfastened their descent lines, and trained their rifles on Connors.
Peter was frozen in place, raising his hands towards the SHIELD operatives. "D-Don't shoot him!"
He felt his Spider-Sense ringing between his ears. It was one of those moments where he didn't know what it was trying to tell him. Who was making the first move? Connors, or the SHIELD agents?
When one of the soldiers squeezed the trigger of his rifle, he was too busy focusing on that...and didn't pay enough attention to the Lizard's quickly approaching tail.
Peter motioned to web the weapon and yank it off target but was interrupted by the appendage whirring into him like a sledgehammer. He was thrown off his feet and head first into one of the subway's handle poles.
His vision dimmed and tripled. The loud, skull-drumming pulses of gunfire turned into dull puffs. Peter desperately tried to wrangle his senses...but he only beheld shadows as the Lizard ravaged the SHIELD strike team.
One fell to the ground after being chomped around the throat. Another was gutted by a lightning-fast swipe of claws. As the Lizard lunged toward the last agent, Peter screamed as his body refused to respond.
However when the Lizard's colossal jaws clamped around the agent's arm...there was no blood. No screaming.
Connors then snatched the agent by the head and squeezed. As the helmet snapped and fell apart under the sheer pressure, Peter could see the face of a woman. But...it was the same gunmetal grey tone as the rifles used by the SHIELD strike team. She wasn't human. That was for sure.
The last agent was tossed down the opposite end of the car by Connors who seemed disinterested in the one person he couldn't eat.
At that point, a human missile punched through the side of the subway car and tackled the reptilian onto the ground. It was Annabelle.
Spidey, finally able to think straight, managed to push to his feet and leap into action. He seized the Lizard's legs as Annabelle clutched him around the chest.
Together, he and Protonslaught wrestled the 8-foot creature to the ground.
"Curt!" Peter pleaded. "Listen to me! It's okay! It's going to be okay!"
Annabelle's face went pale when 'Curt' left Peter's mouth. It made her fight even harder.
"No!" growled the Lizard. "NO!"
A 'thud' atop the subway car was enough to momentarily distract Peter. Through the same hole in the wall that Annabelle made, another figure entered.
He was dressed entirely in black combat fatigues, had matted brown hair, and a prosthetic left arm. Anybody who went to high school in America would've recognised him. James Barnes. Once he fought on the frontlines as Captain America's closest friend. Now, he was the Winter Soldier. A killer.
The Winter Soldier fixed the barrel of his assault rifle on the Lizard's face but Peter pulled one of his arms free, sent a web cable onto the weapon, and tugged. It took more force than usual, but regardless, the gun was thrown into the air and landed behind Peter.
The Lizard, with Peter's attention elsewhere, broke free from his compromised grip.
Spidey rolled down the length of the car, and almost slid right out the hole in its side...if it weren't for the Winter Soldier's hand halting his momentum.
"H-He's human! Please, we need to help him!" cried Peter as Bucky gripped him by the back of the neck and pulled him onto his feet.
Bucky snarled. "He needs to want that help first, pal."
Impressively, Annabelle managed to hold in place Connors by herself. It was as if through instinct, she manipulated her mass so that the Lizard couldn't move her. She punched him in the head in an effort to knock him out, but it only angered him further. The Lizard reeled up its right leg, then unfurled it. The fierce front kick sent Annabelle hurtling towards the window and out of sight.
Peter's heart skipped a beat. "N-No...!" He couldn't leave. He knew that a fall from an elevated railway wasn't enough to take Annabelle out...but it was one of the hardest choices of his life to not go after her.
The last SHIELD agent, the one who was bite-proof, re-emerged on the opposite end of the car. She hit the brakes, steadily dropping the train's breakneck speed.
"Beckett, stand down!" commanded Bucky.
The Lizard hadn't moved. It cautiously assessed the three people surrounding it. Peter noticed that the bullets Connors had taken were beginning to drop onto the floor like marbles. The EGR had given him an accelerated healing factor... If he could regrow an arm, of course he could expel foreign objects from his body.
This Agent Beckett had an intense scowl on her face. Peter could see the fire in her eyes. She wanted to shoot him. But her hand trembled. Maybe Bucky's word was important to her.
Peter spoke calmly and softly, "Curt, we don't want to hurt you."
The Lizard twitched.
"Do you want to hurt me?" Peter continued.
"...N-No," it answered promptly. It's eyes latched onto Bucky. "They. They hurt...me."
Connors lunged at Bucky, ramming him into the side of the car. Peter, before he could intervene, watched as Beckett trained her pistol on the Lizard's head. It didn't matter how good his healing factor was. You can't heal if your brains were splattered against the wall.
Spidey dove at Beckett and clutched her pistol, gritting his teeth as he overpowered the SHIELD agent.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" she spat.
Peter keyed his web shooter, pouring a steady stream of netting all over Beckett's arms. Once she was wrapped in enough of the web to keep her in check, Peter turned back to Bucky.
He held the Lizard by the neck with his right hand, and pounded his face with his metal left hand. Jagged teeth littered the floor, floating in puddles of blood.
"Hey! What the hell do we do now!?" Bucky growled.
Peter didn't know. Undoing genetic tampering wasn't something you could do instantly. You needed millions of dollars, a team of hundreds of geneticists, and a state-of-the-art lab. Hold on...Annabelle. She was the key.
As if beckoned by Peter's thoughts, Annabelle finally caught up with the train and slipped inside. As Peter joined Bucky in restraining Connors, he shouted at Annabelle, "Prote, you're the only one who can help him! You have to cleanse his DNA!"
"W-What? That's crazy, I can't do that!"
"You can! He's between human and reptile right now, you just need to push him!"
Annabelle could influence his cells...his DNA. Revert it to its original state instantly.
The Lizard roared, sending spit flying all over the place. It flexed its arms and shoved Bucky out the edge of the hole in the car. His absence made holding the Lizard even more strenuous. Connors thrashed, writhed, and flailed.
"Belle! Trust your gut!" Peter shouted, closing his eyes. "He needs you!"
Protonslaught clutched the Lizard's forehead and poured every ounce of concentration and energy into reverting this creature's cells. She screamed. Loud enough to shake the very foundations of the entire city.
Peter felt the Lizard's muscles contract. The fight he put up was...dissipating. His skin smoothed. His roars mutated into pained cries.
"P-Please, no!" It was Curt's voice.
Opening his eyes, Peter saw Annabelle collapsed on the ground, clutching her head. In his arms was Curt Connors. Tears streaking from his eyes. "I-I can still taste them! O-Oh God! Martha, Billy...!" His sobbing trailed off and became unintelligible.
Spidey pulled away, panting and covered in sweat.
He heard rustling behind him. When Peter spun, he saw Beckett. She managed to tear an arm free of the webbing; it held a pistol primed for fire.
Peter snatched it, but it remained in her grip. "Let go! He's not a threat anymore!"
Beckett didn't give up. When her eyes widened in shock, Peter knew something terrible was about to happen. He glanced over his shoulder.
Curt was standing. He took a step out of the open train and into thin air. His silhouette dropped out of sight.
Peter propelled himself after him...but tripped onto his face. His ankle. Annabelle was clutching his foot. Stopping him from diving after Curtis.
The sound of a body hitting the pavement 88 feet below echoed over and over in Peter's mind.
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Author's Note: Beckett is the oc from Red Dawn, the Winter Soldier story in this series :)