Today

Miles Warren sat behind his desk in his office. He held the phone to his ear as he spoke with the man on the other end of the line, one of the benefactors for the research of Professor Curtis Connors.

“Have you received the fax?” asked Warren.

“I have. Miles, am I reading this right?”

“You are, sir,” said Warren. “It looks as if the good professor left some things out of the report he filed.”

“But if this is all real, then that means Connors has successfully combined human DNA with that of another creature. He’s created some sort of a hybrid?”

“I think so.”

“Where is he now?”

“Unfortunately, Connors has gone missing. He kept these documents locked up in his office,” said Warren. “The police are doing everything they can to try and track him down.”

“Find him, Miles. Quickly. This research could be the answer we’ve been searching for.”

“I understand, sir.”

“If Connors had proof to back up his findings, then why didn’t he include it in his original report?”

“It’s fairly obvious—Connors used a human test subject,” said Warren.

“Do we know who?”

“No, but I plan to question his lab assistant. Perhaps he knows something that we don’t,” said Warren. “I only hope—”

Warren’s words cut off once he noticed slight tremors which shook his office. A few of his pens rolled off the desk and struck the ground. Warren could hear a pounding noise as the brief tremors grew in their frequency. That was when his office door suddenly blew open with force and he ducked scant seconds before it flew over his head.

Warren backed into a corner of his office and his desk was whisked from its position and tossed aside. That was when Warren saw the giant, reptillian creature which stood before him. It was monstrous, at least seven feet tall, with a light, green hide and beady yellow eyes that kept the dean in their sights. Its tongue flickered out as the creature growled. But one feature Warren thought as particularly odd was the fact that the creature was wearing the torn remains of a lab coat.

“Miles? Miles, are you there? What’s that noise? Miles?”

WITH GREAT POWER

Part VI: Rampage

By Dino Pollard

Beneath the rubble, Peter groaned. Consciousness was starting to flow back into his body after the Lizard dropped a wall on top of him. He tried to move, but his muscles felt like they were on fire.

That thing called himself (itself?) the Lizard. Peter could see why, although he questioned how the creature came to be. Peter knew it had to have something to do with Connors. It was too much of a coincidence for Connors to go missing just before this thing showed up. Plus. Connors was working with reptiles while trying to combine human and animal DNA. Like he had accidentally done with Peter. And why was the Lizard wearing a torn lab coa—

“Oh no…” muttered Peter. A sudden lightning bolt of revelation struck his mind.

Peter’s DNA. Connors’ research. The experiments with reptiles. The professor’s sudden disappearance. It was all becoming clear to the young man now. Connors had wanted to regrow his arm using reptile DNA. He must have grown impatient. Resorted to the cocktail drug to combine his DNA with a reptile’s.

Professor Curt Connors. The Lizard. They’re the same person.

Now, more than ever, Peter felt the need to lift this rubble from him. He had to find the Lizard and try to reach Connors, somehow. There had to be something of the scientist left inside of that monster.

Monster…?

Peter’s thoughts were suddenly awash with what this might mean for him. Connors obviously used far more reptile DNA in his experiment than there was when the spider bit Peter. But maybe that just accounted for the rapid change. Could this mean that Peter would become something inhuman, just as his mentor had?

“C’mon Parker… no time to think about that now…”

He placed his hands flat against the slab of concrete that rested on his back. He was able to lift it just enough to bring his body into a crouched position. His arms felt like they were going to fall off his body at any moment now. Pain shot through his entire nervous system.

Peter shut his eyes and clenched his teeth in strain as he tried to push his body upwards. He wanted more than anything to just give in and let the rubble crush his body. But he couldn’t do that. Connors, regardless of whether the scientist knew it or not, was counting on his student. He had inadvertently given Peter an amazing gift. And now it was up to Peter to use that gift to help the man he had come to consider a friend over the past few weeks.

“Just… a little… more…!”

He moved slowly, but little by little, his body began to rise from the rubble. His muscles were growing weak, but he would not let it deter him. He breathed in deeply and exhaled suddenly as he threw his body up and the concrete slap fell behind him, freeing him from his makeshift prison.

Almost immediately, Peter collapsed. His body was sprawled on the ground and he could feel nothing but pain. He breathed heavily and fought the urge to throw up. His gaze fell on the rubble and he looked down at his hands in shock at what he just accomplished.

A hand fell on his shoulder and Peter jumped.

“Hey, easy,” said the woman. Peter looked at her face and he recognized her as the detective he saw with Warren the day prior. She knelt down beside him and held out a bottle of water for him. Peter grabbed it and started to chug the bottle.

“Easy, easy, not so fast,” she said. “Slow sips.”

Peter nodded and did his best to comply. Once the bottle was finished, he handed it to her. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she said. “Now, let’s get down to business. I’m Detective Jean DeWolff. Who the hell are you, what the hell was that thing you were fighting, and how the hell did you survive that?”

“I… I really don’t know,” said Peter. “This is all kinda new to me.”

“Well, I think you know more than you’re letting on, so I’m going to have to take you in for questioning.”

“You can’t!” said Peter.

“And why not?” asked DeWolff. Her radio crackled and she pulled it from her belt. “De Wolfe.”

“Detective, we have a situation here. Dean Warren is missing and his office is a wreck. We think that creature took him.”

“Damn,” she muttered.

“Leave it to me,” said Peter. “I can take him.”

“You can barely stand, kid,” said DeWolff. “How old are you, twelve?”

“Twenty-six,” said Peter.

“Right, whatever,” said DeWolff.

“Look, you saw what that thing can do, and you’ve seen what I can do. I’m the only one strong enough to stand up to him.”

“SWAT can handle it.”

“Trust me.”

“Trust you? I can’t even see your face, what makes you think I’m gonna trust you?”

“You don’t have a choice,” said Peter. “That thing is going on a rampage. He almost killed me and he’ll kill Warren if I don’t stop him.”

“You had your chance, time to leave this to professionals,” said DeWolff. She lifted her radio.

Before she could hit the button, Peter extended his arm and released a glob of webbing, covering the radio and her hand. DeWolff looked at her hand in shock and once she looked back at Peter, he shot another burst of webbing, this one covering her mouth. Peter quickly webbed her feet to the ground, preventing her from giving him chase.

“I’m sorry about this, but I’m kinda short on options right now,” said Peter. He leapt into the air and shot off a webline connecting to one of the other buildings and swung from it.

The residents of Lieber Tower’s tenth floor all gathered in the rec room. It was the largest room on the floor and usually reserved for floor meetings, although residents would sometimes go there for group study sessions or to play cards or watch television.

Today, however, the television was set to the local news channel, which was covering the reports of the wild animal loose on campus. Gwen Stacy watched the report nervously, unsure of what to do. She was advised to keep all her residents indoors and not to let them leave the floor until further notice.

As she looked around the room, she noticed something odd. There were two people missing.

“Has anyone seen Pete or Flash?” asked Gwen.

“Who’s Pete?” asked one of the residents.

Gwen rolled her eyes. “Flash’s roommate.”

She looked around the room, but all she saw were shakes of the head. No one seemed to know where the two freshmen were. “I’ll be right back.”

Gwen ran from the rec room down the hall to Peter and Flash’s room. She knocked on the door, but received no answer.

“Guys, are you in there?” she asked. She knocked again, but still received no response. She turned the doorknob to find it was unlocked but once she walked into the room, she didn’t see either one.

“Just great…” she muttered.

In Connors’ laboratory, Peter frantically searched for his professor’s notes, but could find nothing. There was no trace of the notes, nor of the cocktail drug he had used to create the hybrids. Everything was missing.

“Where is it?” asked Peter, as he frantically searched among the stacks of papers and books, searching for some clue for how he could find a way to cure Connors. There had to be something that he could use, anything to put a stop to the Lizard’s rampage.

But everything seemed to be missing. Even the cocktail drug and the DNA samples he took from Peter were now gone.

“Argh!”

Peter lifted up the desk he was searching on and flipped it over in his anger. He sat on the floor and leaned his back against the wall. He pulled the mask from his face and sighed. His eyes glanced around the room, and took notice of something.

Slowly, he approached the canisters he saw and examined them. They had the words “liquid nitrogen” printed on the label. Peter smiled as an idea started to come to him.

Flash Thompson had snuck past the police barricades. He had been out for a morning jog when the Lizard attacked and the football player wanted to be where the action was.

He moved carefully through the central quad as he tried to get closer. He was there when the Lizard kidnapped Miles Warren and now Thompson was interested in discovering more about this turn of events.

He pressed his body up against a wall and slowly moved closer. Warren was pleading with the creature and, much to Flash’s surprise, the Lizard was able to respond. As if it was human in some form.

“Enough, Warren,” said the Lizard. “I’m sick of your pathetic begging.”

“Just tell me what you want,” said Warren. “I have money, I can get you money—”

“It wasn’t money Connors wanted and you know it, it was the chance to eradicate disease,” said the Lizard. “You took that away, didn’t you?”

“I took nothing away from Connors! His research, it wasn’t—”

“Then why were you on the phone discussing the possible applications of his research?” asked the Lizard. “You simply wanted all the glory and the patents for yourself, didn’t you?”

“No, I swear! It was all in the name of science! Connors, he kept things from us! Wouldn’t give full disclosure! We can’t publish his findings when he offers no solid proof!”

“Proof, Miles? You want proof?” asked the Lizard. He crouched low and moved closer to Warren, so that his teeth and flicking tongue were mere inches away from the dean. “The proof is staring you right in the face.”

“…Curt?”

“No, not Connors. The Lizard. Connors was searching for a way to make humanity strong enough to withstand the effects of aging and disease, and I am the result,” he said. “Connors’ research will provide the building blocks, and you will help me concoct a way to transform the rest of the world.”

“Transform into what?” asked Warren.

“Into me, Miles,” said the Lizard. “Think of it. An end to disease. It’s now possible, and this is the way to do it.”

“By creating a society of monsters?” asked Warren.

“Monsters, Miles? Look around. We already live in a society of monsters,” said the Lizard. “Perhaps it’s time our appearance matched our nature.”

“This is fuckin’ crazy…” muttered Flash under his breath. He was confident neither of the two could hear him, but the Lizard’s heightened senses proved him wrong.

The monstrous creature leapt in Flash’s direction. Before the young man could move, he saw the seven-foot monster towering over him. Flash screamed and the Lizard grabbed his arm and whipped him towards Warren.

“Apparently we have a spectator,” said the Lizard. “Or shall I say, a volunteer?”

“Wh-what?” asked Flash.

“You will be our test subject, boy,” said the Lizard. “To see if the procedure can be duplicated. Surely, I cannot risk harming the good dean. Without him, who else would assist me?”

“Well, I hear they’re making another Jurassic Park movie, ever consider a career in showbiz?”

The Lizard growled and turned to face his opponent. Peter Parker stood before him, dressed in a blue sweat suit, a red ski mask, and black gloves. The can of liquid nitrogen was attached to his back by webbing.

“You again,” he hissed. “I thought I dropped a building on your head.”

“What can I say?” asked Peter. “Guess I have a thick skull.”

“This time, I’ll do it right,” said the Lizard. He leapt forward and Peter once again leapt out of the creature’s path. He twisted in the air and fired a burst of webbing at the Lizard’s eyes, blinding him.

Peter turned to look at Warren and Flash. “What are you still doing here? Ru—”

Peter’s spider sense blared in his head and he jumped back, narrowly missing the Lizard’s flailing tail. He landed beside Warren and Flash, then wrapped his arms around them. He leapt into the air with both of them in tow, avoiding the Lizard’s tail once more.

The Lizard roared in his frustration. Peter set down Warren and Flash and jumped away from them. He landed on the side of the building and the Lizard whipped his tail once more. Peter jumped from it and landed behind the Lizard on his hands. He thrust forward and drove both his feet into the Lizard’s back, throwing the creature against the rubble he created.

“C’mon Connors, I know you’re in there somewhere,” said Peter.

“Connors is dead,” said the Lizard. He lifted a piece of the rubble and threw it. “Just like you!” Peter shot out weblines at the slab and swung it, hurling it back at the Lizard.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” said Peter. The Lizard’s response was another attempt to slash at the young man with his claws. Peter avoided them and pulled the canister free from his back. He lifted it over his head and flung it forward.

The Lizard whipped his tail and slammed it against the canister, rupturing it. Liquid nitrogen spilled from it, coating the former science professor in the contents.

“No!”

Peter charged forward and with the Lizard weakened from the liquid nitrogen, it gave the young hero the chance he needed to pummel his adversary. The Lizard tried to retaliate, but he was too weak from the effects of the nitrogen.

“I’m sorry, doc,” said Peter. He pulled back his fist and slammed it against the Lizard’s rough face, effectively knocking the creature unconscious.

“Holy shit!” said Flash. “That was awesome!”

Peter looked at Flash and Warren, then back to the unconscious form of the Lizard.

“Dude, you rock!” said Flash.

Peter looked up at his roommate in surprise. He then looked at Warren. Rather than waiting for any questions to give way, he leapt into the air and shot a webline, swinging off into the distance.

Warren watched him leave, then turned his attention to the Lizard, who was now beginning to revert back to the form of Curt Connors. Ideas started to form in the dean’s mind.

Once Peter climbed back into his dorm room, he pulled off the mask and clothes he was wearing and shoved them into his laundry bag. His body was dripping with sweat and he wanted nothing more than to take a shower and then pass out.

That was when the door to his room opened and Gwen walked in. Peter stood there, naked, his brown eyes wide in shock. Once Gwen caught a glimpse of him, her eyes had the same reaction and her cheeks quickly turned a bright shade of red.

“I—I’m sorry, it’s just… the door, it was… I mean, I was just… I…” Gwen cut her words short and simply stepped back outside the room. Peter closed his eyes as embarrassment washed over him. He grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his body, then opened the door. Gwen still wasn’t looking at him.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” said Gwen. “I’m sorry, I…”

“It’s okay, I should’ve locked the door,” said Peter. “Still not quite used to that.”

Silence hung in the air between them for a few moments and then Peter finally decided he should be the one to break it. “So… did you want something?”

“No!” she said, then realized what she was saying. “I mean, yes. I mean… I was wondering why you and Flash weren’t in the rec room with the rest of us.”

“Oh, sorry, I…”

“You what?” asked Gwen.

“I… I was working out,” said Peter.

“Working out?”

“Yeah… working out. That’s why I’m all sweaty.”

“…but campus security had every building locked down. How did you get into the rec center? How did you even get out of the tower?”

“I… I wasn’t at the rec center.”

“…but you just said you were working out?”

“I was, I was… I was running up and down the stairs,” said Peter. “I went downstairs and I saw security, so I decided I’d just try exercising that way. Great workout, I really recommend it. …not that you need to work out or anything like that, I’m just saying…”

Gwen just regarded Peter with a puzzled look on her face. “You’re a strange one, Pete.”

Peter just offered a shy smile and shrugged slightly. “Thanks?”

“Woo-hoo!”

Peter and Gwen looked down the hall to see Flash walking towards them, a giant grin on his face.

“You guys missed it!” he said. “This weird lizard-thing was going crazy on campus, right? And he kidnapped one of the deans. And I was there, too, and I saw it happening, but then this guy showed up!”

“What guy?” asked Gwen.

“I dunno, he wore a mask, though and he had all these powers and he just went fucking crazy on this Lizard dude, right?” said Flash. “And he could shoot webbing and he moved really fast and he was strong and shit, like really strong. Jumping all over the place. Just like a spider, man!”

“Spider-Man, huh?” asked Gwen.

“Yeah,” said Flash. “Hey… that actually sounds really good! I gotta make a call! One of my buddies is dating this chick who writes for the newspaper! If I hurry, maybe I’ll get to be interviewed or something!”

Flash pushed past Peter and Gwen and closed the door. Gwen rolled her eyes. “He’s another strange one.”

“I’ll say,” said Peter. “Look, I gotta shower, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Alright, sure,” said Gwen.

In the shower, Peter allowed the warm water to rush down his body. It felt relaxing, although he knew he was going to need quite a few painkillers to get through the next several days. While he showered, he thought about what Flash had said.

“Spider-Man…” Peter laughed. “How lame is that?”

NEXT: Big-Time Superhero