Villains sure are crawling out of the woodwork lately. First this new Hobgoblin shows up, then the Vulture returns to try to take a stab at me, now I’ve got a new rogue named the Mad Cow. Luckily I was able to put that guy out to pasture (pun intended. Get over it, I like puns), which just leaves two villains on the loose.

But it could be back up to three since Curt Connors has returned to town, desperate to win back his son by any means necessary. And when ‘by any means’ involves genetic mutation, that spells trouble…trouble with a capitol ‘L’ and a lowercase ‘izard’.

But luckily the doc’s agreed to let me help him work on a cure this time, so maybe there’s a chance I can stop this before things turn deadly…

LIZARDS & VENOM

Part I

By Tobias Christopher

Spider-Man swung through the city, headed towards the address Doc Connors had given him. His former mentor had used the last of his savings to pay for an apartment, as well as the space next door so he could set up a private lab. The man’s main goal was to get rid of his alternate personality and to regain the love of his son.

Peter Parker couldn’t get out of Flash’s AA meeting fast enough. He was glad to help out his friend, but he could really tell that everyone there needed the support of each other. But at least there were free doughnuts and coffee. Not the crappy generic glazed donuts, but the ones that have jelly and custard in them. Peter made a mental note to pick some of those up on his way home.

Landing in the alley next to the building, Spider-Man changed into the clothes that Flash had loaned him, hiding his Spider-Man costume under the outfit that was two sizes too big for him but, with the costume underneath, the clothes actually seemed to fit a lot better.

As he walked up the front steps to the apartment building, he heard the sounds of a thunderstorm brewing, and got into the building just as the rain started. Hopefully it would pass before he headed home later.

“Doc?” asked Peter as he knocked on the door. “It’s Peter. Sorry I’m late, but—”

Listening closely, Peter thought he heard the sound of a glass smashing. His instinct took over as he kicked in the door. “Doc? DOC!?”

Letting his spider-sense lead the way, Peter found the lab Connors was working out of, finding the man laying on the floor. “Doc?”

Connors was laying face down on the ground as Peter rolled him over. The man’s eyes were half open as Peter started smacking him lightly.

“Doc, wake up. What happened?”

“Peter?” said Connors as his eyes started fluttering. He slowly raised his hand to look at it, realizing there wasn’t any Lizard skin there. “It worked. It worked!”

The man quickly jumped up, smiling. “Peter, I think the cure worked!”

“You shouldn’t have worked on this without me, Doc, what would have happened if—”

“Peter, don’t you understand? It’s over. I can’t feel the Lizard anymore,” said Connors as he put his only hand on Peter’s shoulders. “He’s gone. I can get Billy back into my life once I give him this cure.”

“Doc, it’s been five minutes,” said Peter as he looked at Connors. “At least wait before you give this to Billy. You don’t even know if there are any side effects. At least let me make sure that the stuff’s going to last long term. A few days, tops, then if it checks out, you can give it to Billy. It’s to protect him, and you.”

Connors sighed as he gathered up his notes. It was then that he knew he’d gone to the right person. “You’re right, Peter. I’m not thinking clearly. But try to hurry; I’ve lost too much time with my son as it is.”

Spider-Man swung home through the pouring rain, the notes Connors had given him safely placed in a webbing bag that was waterproof. After a long night, he just wanted to head home for a good night’s sleep.

All right, Parker, you’re on a serious deadline. Connors has injected himself with something and I don’t have much time to find out if it’s going to turn him back into the Lizard. I know I’m looking at the glass as half empty, but Connors could be putting himself and his son in even more danger. Billy’s not exactly my favorite student right now, but the kid’s been through hell enough as it is. Plus the last thing I need on my plate is an emo Lizard running around town. It’s a good thing tomorrow’s Saturday. Two days without teacher-related worries.

As Spider-Man swung above the streets, someone was watching from the shadows, getting ready to strike. Extending his hand to shoot another line of webbing, Spider-Man’s spider sense went off just before he was knocked off balance, causing him to fall toward the street.

Before he could extend his hand to shoot another line, his attacker swung again, knocking him into a building, creating a human sized dent in the side. As Spider-Man fell off the building and towards the street, he grabbed a street light, swung around it and landed on the top of it in a crouching position.

The rain was coming down even harder, making it nearly impossible to see. He could take off his mask, but he’d learned his lesson when fighting the Hobgoblin about the dangers of taking off the mask while on duty. As he looked around, Spider-Man tried to see if his attacker was close.

It was only when a bolt of lightning shot across the night sky that he saw a glimpse of the person who tried to kill him. Laughing on a rooftop was Venom, who disappeared just as soon as the light from the bolt faded.

Billy was laying in his bed, listening to the sounds of the storm outside. It was hard enough to get to sleep as it was with the pounding of the rain. Finally giving up, he reached over to his phone and texted A.J.

Wat R U doing?

A few seconds passed before the answer came.

Watching bad movies. U?

Billy typed his reply, glad his best friend was still up. If it hadn’t been raining, he’d ask A.J. to meet him somewhere. He hated being alone on nights like this. Billy soon realized he was starving as he headed downstairs to get a quick snack. He continued to text as he walked, not watching where he was walking, and ended up stubbing his toe against the kitchen door.

“Dammit,” said Billy, almost in a whisper. He didn’t want to wake up his foster family. He limped to the fridge, his toe throbbing as he opened the door. That’s where he saw it: a nice, raw steak. The pain he was feeling, combined with the anger, was triggering something in him that he couldn’t control.

Grabbing the steak, Billy started chewing away at it, not caring that the raw meat was dripping blood over his clothes and the floor. He just wanted the juicy, tender meat. It was only when he got through half the steak that Billy realized what was happening. Dropping the steak to the floor, he backed up against the wall, terrified of what he found himself doing. Grabbing the phone, he quickly texted A.J.

Need 2 C U 2Nite.

Spider-Man crawled back through the window of his apartment and promptly removed his mask. He was glad to be out of the rain, especially after that run in with the shadowy figure.

It couldn’t have been Venom, said Peter as he stripped off the rest of his costume and got dressed for bed. Venom’s never set off my spider-sense before. The symbiote’s always been able to get around that, no matter who was wearing it. Not that I’m arguing, I’m glad that I was finally able to sense him coming, but—

Peter grabbed the notes Connors had given him regarding his antidote for the Lizard. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he started looking over them.

Curt Connors is one of the greatest minds I know, but his eagerness to find a way to get of the Lizard’s always clouded his judgment. I just hope that this is the right formula, and if it’s not, that I can stop the Lizard before he ends up hurting anyone else.

Hours later, the alarm next to Peter’s bed went off. He reached his hand over, trying to find the snooze button, pushing down on it a little too hard. Peter’s eyes opened as he heard the sound of his own hand smashing the alarm clock into several dozen pieces.

“Gotta talk to Reed Richards about an adamantium alarm clock,” said Peter as he started cleaning up the mess. Once he was finished, he walked over to the window to greet the new day, only to met with a pumpkin bomb exploding on his bare chest, sending Peter flying backwards.

The apartment wall exploded as the Hobgoblin flew in, laughing wildly.

“Come out and play, little spider,” the villain mocked as he tossed another bomb at Peter to keep him off balance. Before he could stand up, he was rammed in the back by the Vulture, knocking him towards the ledge of the now exposed room.

Peter felt the cuts on his body as he tried to stand up, only to see the Lizard jumping up in front of him, spinning, and using his tail to knock Peter onto his back. As the three villains surrounded him, he heard cries for help. He looked up and saw Aunt May, Flash, Mary Jane and Billy, all standing on the edge of the room.

“You can’t save them,” said the Hobgoblin as he impaled Flash with his glider, sending his body tumbling to the streets below.

“All your loved onessss will die,” said the Lizard as he snapped Billy’s neck, tossing him out of the room to join Flash.

The Vulture kissed Aunt May deeply, not shy about letting Peter know he was going to use his tongue, before pushing her out of the building to her death.

That left Mary Jane.

“No!” shouted Peter as he tried to get to her, but before he could reach his beloved wife, the Green Goblin arrived on his goblin glider and pulled her into his arms.

“You’ve lost, Spider-Man!” the Green Goblin shouted. “Your friends, your family, everyone you care about will die!”

“MARY JANE!” Peter shouted as he grabbed his web shooters and ran to the edge. Jumping off, he shot two lines of webbing. One at a nearby building and one at the Green Goblin’s mask to blind him. Using the distraction, he grabbed Mary Jane and started to swing away. “They won’t hurt you, MJ, I swear. I’ll never let them hurt you.”

“It’s too late,” said Mary Jane as Peter looked at her, seeing he was holding a severely decomposed body. “You didn’t save me, Peter. Why?”

Peter bolted awake, covered in sweat, as he realized he was still lying in his own bed. Breathing heavily, he saw it was daylight outside. Glancing at the un-destroyed alarm clock, he saw it was past noon.

May Parker stepped outside, ready to do her weekly gardening when she heard the sound of a lawnmower coming from next door, which was vacant as early as yesterday. Looking over the fence, she saw a young man pushing the lawn mower to cut the grass that was in desperate need of trimming. Noticing the old woman looking at him, Rhett Carson stopped mowing and smiled at her.

“Good morning, ma’am, I’m your new neighbor,” said Rhett as he approached her. “I’m Rhett.”

“May Parker,” said May as she noticed that the yard was looking better already. “You’ve got a lot of work cut out for you. No one’s lived here for a few years.”

The house had been vacant since the Watson family had moved out. May missed having them around, at least Mary Jane and her mother, may she rest in peace.

“I don’t mind, I’m used to working around the house,” said Rhett as he looked at her yard. “Speaking of which, your yard could use a trim. Why don’t I come over and take care of that after I’m done here?”

“That’s kind of you, but I’m afraid I couldn’t afford to pay you very much,” replied May as Rhett laughed.

“I wouldn’t dream of taking money for a good deed,” replied Rhett as he leaned against the fence. “I’ll tell you what, if you’ve got a nice glass of lemonade waiting for me afterward, we’ll call it even.”

“Deal,” replied May as Rhett went back to mowing his lawn. It looked like she was going to have a good neighbor living next door once again.

Spider-Man was hanging upside down on the top ledge of the Empire State Building as he read the notes Connors had given him the previous night. A small police scanner was attached to his belt so he could head out at a moment’s notice. As he got to the final page of Connor’s notes, he noticed that the ink had been smudged, and final few equations were too blurry to make out.

“Must have been a hole in the bag,” said the hero as he looked at the paper closer. “The paper got wet, now I can’t tell what’s what in this so called cure. He could have literally used any mixture in the serum and I have no way of knowing unless I go back and get a new copy. In the meantime, I hope Connors doesn’t do anything that’ll trigger the Lizard if he took the wrong stuff.”

As he put the notes back into his bag, he started thinking and quickly realized something.

“Wait a minute,” said Spider-Man, mentally kicking himself. “Why didn’t I think of this before? I know one of the most brilliant minds in the world! If anyone can decipher this, Reed Richards can!”

Swinging off, Spider-Man made his way towards the home of the Fantastic Four

Billy was sitting at an outside cafe with several emo goth kids just like him, when his father showed up.

“Get lost,” said Billy as he picked up his copy of ‘Guns & Emo’ and started reading.

“I just need a few minutes to talk,” replied Connors, pleading to be given a chance. “Just a few minutes, then I won’t bother you again.”

“Fine,” said Billy as he stood up, and joined his father as they started walking to somewhere more private. “Make it quick. We’re challenging the goths to a double dutch challenge this afternoon.”

“I’m working on a cure,” said Connors as he focused on the road ahead of him. “If it works, you can take it and you’ll be cured, too.”

“Don’t screw with me, old man,” said Billy bitterly. “You’ve been talking for years about a cure that’s never happened. And every time that monster comes back twice as worse…and now you’ve dragged me into it.”

“This time it will work,” said Connors as he looked at his son, who was already almost as tall as he was. “Peter Parker’s looking over the formula as we speak. Once it gets his okay, we can do this.”

“Yeah, right, I’m putting my life into the hands of a high school science teacher,” sighed Billy. “What, the clown who stands out in front of the car wash and waves wasn’t available?”

“Billy, just give this a chance, we can both be normal again,” said Connors, trying to give his son some hope. “We can be a family again.”

“Is that what you call this?” asked Billy. “We stopped being a family when you turned me into a freak. Even if you find this cure…I don’t think we can ever go back to the way things were.”

“I—I understand,” said Connors sadly. “But at least let me try to make things right. Peter should get back to me soon. What do you say we meet for breakfast tomorrow morning and at least try to work through this?”

“There’s a coffee house just up the street from where I’m living, I’ll be there at 8 tomorrow,” relented Billy, knowing father wouldn’t give up.

“Thank you,” said Connors, wanting to hug his son, but knowing the boy wouldn’t allow it.

“What do you mean Reed’s out of town?” asked Spider-Man as he swung through the city while talking on his cell phone.

“Well, technically, he’s in another dimension,” replied Johnny Storm, who was sitting at home, watching Spongebob. “It’s Reed and Sue’s anniversary, so he took her to an alternate universe where being a brainy nerd’s like a pheromone or something. Anything I can help you with?”

“Not unless you’re good with scientific equations,” replied Spider-Man. “No offense, but I kind of need the guy with the brain.”

“Hey, I’m pretty smart,” replied Johnny. Spider-Man heard the sound of a laughing sponge on the other end of the line, which quickly disproved that theory. “Put the Olsen twins side by side and I can tell you which one is which.

“…right. If Reed gets back before tonight, let him know I need to see him,” said Spider-Man as he hung up. “So much for that. It looks like I’ll have to swing back by Connor’s lab and find a new copy of these notes.”

Rhett took his time drinking the lemonade as he sat at May’s kitchen table. He’d mowed her lawn and trimmed the hedges for her and was now worn out from a full day of yard work. But Norman Osborn had instructed him to be a friend to the kindly old woman and she seemed nice enough.

“So you live here all alone?” asked Rhett as he finished the lemonade.

“Yes,” replied May as she took the glass to the sink. “Since Peter—my nephew—moved out, this house has been pretty empty.”

“Peter, huh?” asked Rhett as he looked around to see if he could find a picture of this no good nephew. “He does come to see you, doesn’t he?”

“Peter’s got his own life now,” said May as she sat down, bringing a tray of cookies with her. “He’s holding down two jobs and has other commitments.”

“A sweet old lady like you should be one of his first priorities,” replied Rhett as he took a cookie. Biting down into one, he was reminded of the homemade cookies his mother used to make. “You know, I see a lot of things around here that need some fixing up. I’m pretty handy with tools, maybe I can come by after class on Monday and take care of them for you.”

“I couldn’t ask that of you, I’m sure you want to go out and have a social life,” replied May, smiling at the young man’s charm.

“It’s no problem at all,” said Rhett with a slight laugh. “I can fix up this house and still have plenty of time to be a wild college student.”

It was then that Rhett caught sight of a picture of a young man with shaggy brown hair hanging on the wall. That must be Peter, the worthless nephew who couldn’t even make time in his schedule to visit his sweet old aunt. If he’d been a more aggressive person, he’d have the Hobgoblin visit this guy and teach him a few manners.

It was starting to get dark out as Spider-Man was heading towards Doc Connor’s apartment. If he wasn’t home to let Peter in, Spider-Man would find a way to get inside. A light rain was starting again, which was supposed to turn to worse rainfall as the night progressed. Landing in the alley, Spider-Man once again changed clothes, emerging as Peter Parker.

As he entered the apartment, he knocked on the door, waiting for Connors to answer. He’d give him a few minutes before letting Spider-Man take a shot at it.

“So, are you going to do it?” asked A.J. as he sat on the living room couch with Billy.

“Yeah,” replied Billy as he propped his feet up on the coffee table alongside A.J.’s. “I’ll give my dad one chance, but that’s it. If this cure is legit, I have to take it. I’m tired of living in fear of this monster.”

“Monsters, they come in all forms, don’t they?” asked A.J. as he leaned back. “Turning into a scaly green monster, cancer, death. It’s not people like the Green Goblin that we should be afraid of, it’s our own mortality.”

“Wow, that was kind of deep. You know, you should match your outer appearance with the inner one,” said Billy as he ran a hand through A.J.’s brown hair. “A little black hair dye and the right clothing and you’d look great.”

“Thank you, Emo Eye for the Normal Guy,” laughed A.J. as he pulled Billy closer, just as Drew came walking through the door, causing the two to jump apart as fast as they could.

“You won’t believe some of the awesome shots I’ve gotten of Spider—” said Drew as he looked at Billy. “What the hell is he doing here?”

“What, I can’t have friends over?” replied A.J. defensively. “Billy’s my best friend, he’s allowed to come over if I want.”

“Well, I can have the rabid dogs that live next door over, too, but that doesn’t make it a good idea,” said Drew sarcastically.

“I think I’ll go, it’s getting little too… asshole-ish in here,” said Billy as A.J. grabbed his arm.

“You don’t have to go.”

“Yeah, he does,” replied Drew as he took Billy’s other arm. “Time to take out the trash.”

A.J. looked at his brother. “I actually took out the trash when I came home earlier—”

“I was talking about ‘Twilight’ here,”

“It’s fine, I’ll talk to you later, A.J.,” said Billy as he pulled away from Drew and headed toward the door.

When he was gone, A.J. punched Drew in the arm. “He’s my friend, why do you treat him like dirt?” asked A.J. as Drew sighed.

“Because I don’t like that little goth-emo-Darlene Conner in season 4 of ‘Roseanne’-whatever the hell he calls himself,” replied Drew as he headed upstairs. “I’m going to get ready for work. Need anything before I come home in the morning?”

“Yeah, a brother who’s not a dick,” muttered A.J.

“I heard that!”

Connors apparently wasn’t home, and since nothing inside was setting his spider-sense off, Peter quickly ran to the janitor’s closet to get back into his Spider-Man gear. Re-emerging from the closet, he saw there weren’t windows to exit from, so he’d have to go directly to the roof and go through the window of Connor’s apartment. Seeing the elevator, he quickly pushed the button, getting in before he could see who was in there with him.

Jonah Jameson had been following a lead on a story that was going to crack open a major investigation into the mob. A lead that had led him to the very same apartment building Curt Connors lived in.

Neither man had expected the elevator to move as slow as it was, with neither saying nothing for practically the entire ride. It was only when the elevator reached the bottom floor that Jameson finally spoke up.

“That is the cheapest imitation Spider-Man costume I have ever seen,” said the man as he exited the elevator.

“Cheap?” asked Spider-Man as he looked at his gloved hands before exiting the elevator himself. Once outside, he started climbing the wall on his way to Connor’s apartment. “I admit, I had budgetary restraints when putting this thing together, but—”

The rain was starting to come down harder now as he got closer to Connor’s window. Even if it was closed, he could easily get it open with having to break through it. Just as he found the right window, his spider-sense went off. Spider-Man jumped out of the way, just as something crashed into the wall he was clinging to just seconds ago. Spider-Man looked in shock at the creature now looking at him with a venomous stare.

“You,” said Spider-Man as Venom roared with a horrific laughter.

“We’re ba-ack,” said the villain, in a dark, disturbingly echoing voice as his fist flew towards Spidey’s face.

To Be Continued