Chapter 85: | The Good Mans War (2)
Chapter 85: | The Good Mans War (2)
Although Lizard Man wanted to run away on his own, Peter couldn't just let this monster go. If he were to charge up to the surface, with the size of this monster, New York would definitely be thrown into chaos.
As soon as Lizard Man turned around to run back, Peter struggled to climb up and quickly crawled up the wall to follow the monster.
Peter had a pretty good sense of direction. Having spent so many days in the sewer, he remembered the route very clearly. He estimated that Lizard Man didn't seem to be running randomly, but was headed towards a specific direction.
Where was he going? What was he going to do there? What was going on?
Then Peter remembered the biological tissue samples he saw in the maintenance point on his way to the reservoir, which included a lizard tail. Could this be the monster created by that crazy scientist?
Lizard Man was running ahead while Peter was chasing behind. Perhaps the scientist didn't understand the size of the sewer, and his monster was too big. Even when running, Lizard Man had to lower his head, and in some narrower paths, he had to bend forward to move forward as the ceiling of the New York sewer was only about few meters high.
This gave Peter a good opportunity to procrastinate his actions. Taking advantage of Lizard Man's inconvenience, Peter used a spider web to block his path, but this monster seemed to have retained some intelligence and was not tripped by the spider web. Instead, he retracted his body and leaped over it.
Peter tried another plan. He wrapped the spider web around Lizard Man's neck, hoping to use momentum to knock him down. However, Lizard Man did not fall for his trick. He grabbed the spider web and swung Spider-Man away.
Now, Spider-Man had become smarter too. When he landed, he rolled on the ground and quickly stood up. He realized that he lacked experience in dealing with such a huge monster. After all, no robber or thief could be as tall as four or five meters.
Moreover, Lizard Man's most important weapons, in addition to its claws, were its huge tail. When it swept its tail, Peter was thrown onto the wall. He didn't expect this monster to have such a varied attack, and he took a heavy hit.Fortunately, he had a lot of energy and strong recovery abilities. He quickly caught up with Lizard Man.
Peter realized that to deal with this monster, he had to bring him down to the ground. Although the sewer was not very advantageous for this massive monster, Spider-Man did not have much space to maneuver. The entire sewer was filled with this monster, and he couldn't even surround it with spider webs.
Moreover, as the monster's direction became clearer, Peter realized that it seemed to be heading towards Stark Tower.
Peter knew this very well. After exploring the sewer, he usually went to Stark Tower to intern.
Peter couldn't figure out what this monster wanted, but he knew he couldn't let it run up to the surface and into Stark Tower. Stark was not in good shape at the moment; he might still be drunk and unable to operate his Mech armor. If so, the hundreds or thousands of employees in the building would be in great danger.
While Peter was thinking about this, the monster also realized that it would be faster to run on the surface. So, he jumped up from the nearest manhole cover.
Without caring about the size of the manhole cover, Lizard Man broke through the pavement and rushed out onto the street. Peter followed closely behind.
Suddenly, a monster emerged from the ground, causing chaos on the road. Over a dozen cars behind it slammed on their brakes, crashing into each other and causing a loud explosion.
Spider-Man wanted to go and rescue people, but he also saw the enormous monster stepping on cars and quickly heading towards Stark Tower. Peter didn't know what to do, so he urgently activated the communication device on his wrist and shouted, "Mr. Stark!!! Are you there?! Wake up!! There's a lizard monster headed your way!! Wake up!!!"
There was no response from the communication device, and Peter cursed under his breath. He then called Steve and said, "Captain! Hurry over to organize traffic! There's a monster running towards Stark Tower on the main road east of here, and people need rescue!!"
Just as he was about to call Schiller, he noticed that the Lizard Man in front of him suddenly jumped and landed directly in the parking lot around Stark Tower.
Peter had to quickly follow, using his spider web to stick to the glass wall of another building in Stark Tower, and then swiftly swung down, kicking the Lizard Man in the neck.
The enormous monster staggered for a moment, but managed to maintain its balance with its tail.
It reached out to grab Spider-Man, but Stark Tower consisted of five or six buildings in a surrounding structure, providing Peter with optimal mobility.
Seeing the Lizard Man reaching out, Peter shot out another strand of spider web, swinging past him from his side. He then turned around and used another strand of spider web to stick to his arm, intending to pull the Lizard Man down.
Lizard Man struggled and broke free from the spider web, then rushed into Stark Tower.
The interior of the Stark Tower was complex, but as the building was very large, each floor had high ceilings, allowing Lizard Man to move around freely inside.
Although Stark did not answer Peter's communication earlier, JARVIS was awake and heard that a monster was coming. JARVIS immediately activated the security protocols, evacuated most of the employees, and activated all available protective measures. This effectively delayed Lizard Man's actions.
However, ultimately, the security protocols required authorization from Stark himself. Without the security protocols, many security doors could not be closed, and many large-scale weapons could not be used. Although Lizard Man was slowed down, he still had no effective means to deal with him.
Spider-Man also realized that he lacked some powerful attack methods. During the chase inside the building, he knocked down Lizard Man several times and even tripped him up with spider web. But this big guy was too resilient. No matter how many punches Peter threw, he just shook his head.
This monster seemed to have recovery abilities beyond that of ordinary people. Peter cut off one of his tails with a piece of falling glass and planned to break one of his arms next. As long as Lizard Man lost his tail, it would be much harder for him to maintain his balance.
However, before Peter could take the next action, Lizard Man's tail quickly grew back.
Peter swung on the ceiling with spider web while trying to use language to attract his attention, hoping to distract him from climbing upwards.
"Hey, big guy! Where did you buy your Instant glue? Look here, your spider dad will give you a kick, just like this!"
Peter swung down quickly, planning to kick Lizard Man's chest. However, this time, Lizard Man became smarter. As Peter swung over, he directly dodged to the side, grabbed Peter's leg and spun him around a few times, then threw him out.
Peter crashed into a pile of desks, then flew out through a broken window.
Luckily, he rolled in mid-air, shot a spider web at the wall, and swung back from the other side of the damaged window. Then he kicked Lizard Man in the back.
Although Peter learned a lot of combat skills from Steve, he was only slightly better than using brute force. He learned to use spider webs to increase his mobility and then use gravity and inertia to strengthen his strength.
Although this tactic could not completely defeat Lizard Man, it was able to slow down his pace very effectively. After all, Peter's strength was great enough that one kick would make Lizard Man stumble, and a punch would make the monster dazed for a while.
The two of them ran and chased each other, pushing forward layer by layer, interfering with each other. In the end, Lizard Man climbed up to the high floors of Stark Tower. Spider-Man helplessly shouted, "Jarvis, how much longer until Mr. Stark arrives? Can you hurry up?"
"I am activating the emergency wake-up method..."
"What emergency wake-up...?" Peter hadn't finished speaking when a deafening roar came from inside Stark Tower.
It was a rock music player with a volume of at least 100 decibels, and the huge sound waves made both Spider-Man and Lizard Man stumble.
"Is this your so-called emergency wake-up method?!!! Can't you just give him some headphones?!!! This is simply indiscriminate attack!!!!" Peter shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice was completely drowned out by the huge music.
Jarvis turned up his own volume and said, "Mr. Stark hates noise very much!!!! This can effectively help him sober up!!!!"
As soon as Jarvis finished speaking, a Mech armor flew in through the hole in the window, and Stark shouted, "Enough!!!! Turn it off now!!! I'm already awake!!!"
When the music ended, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Lizard Man all felt their heads buzzing.
Spider-Man hadn't recovered from the ringing in his ears, and he was still shouting hoarsely, "J.A.R.V.I.S!!! I have to say!!! This is your most effective weapon!!!"
Stark didn't have time to trash talk, after all, this was his own place. He immediately made a maximum powered dash, slamming Lizard Man out of Stark Tower.
The floors here were not low, and if you fell, unless the lizard could grow wings, you would definitely end up as minced meat.
But this monster seemed to have good balance. In mid-air, it swung its tail, hitting Stark's Mech armor, and then somersaulted, hanging on the edge of the window. With a strong arm, it jumped back up and leaped straight back into the center of the battlefield.
Stark seemed to have just woken up from a hangover, his mind still not very clear, and it took him a while to get up after being hit by Lizard Man.
Spider-Man kept harassing Lizard Man from the side, while Stark connected to Spider-Man's communication and began to formulate a battle plan.
"Listen, let's drive it to the rooftop, and then I'll use another Mech armor for a sneak attack and knock him off the rooftop. He shouldn't have flight abilities, right?"
"No, if he did, he wouldn't still be here. But his super regenerative ability is troublesome. Even if he falls, he may not die."
"But he definitely won't have any mobility left."
"Peter and Stark acted immediately, their movements were both very agile. Stark controlled the firepower inside Stark Tower and used his Repulsor Ray to chase Lizard Man to the rooftop.
When they reached the rooftop, Stark stood at the edge of the building and fired missiles at Lizard Man non-stop. Lizard Man completely ignored Spider-Man, who was constantly harassing him, and charged towards Stark.
Stark pretended to reveal a flaw and lowered his flight altitude. As expected, Lizard Man jumped up and grabbed the Mech armor of Iron Man. Iron Man used the inertia to fly out of the rooftop, and they both started falling together.
Originally, Stark wanted to trick him and make him jump to the edge before smashing him away with another Mech armor. However, the monster's movements were too fast. It immediately grabbed the Mech armor driven by Iron Man.
Lizard Man was very strong, and the Mech armor quickly caught fire. Stark shouted inside the armor, "Jarvis! Release the electricity!"
"Sir, we can't release the electricity now. If the Mech armor is scrapped, you will be killed when falling from such a high altitude."
As they fell quickly, the whistling wind sounded in Stark's ears. He said, "Release the electricity immediately! Scrap the Mech armor! Launch me out! Someone will catch me!"
Jarvis remained silent for a second. The whole Mech armor began to burst with intense electric light. Lizard Man was shocked by the pain and let go. The Mech armor exploded in a burst of electric light, and the cockpit was ejected. Stark directly left the Mech armor and fell through the air.
Rather than saying that the height was too high, it was more accurate to say that the time spent falling from such a height saved Stark's life. A spider web came over, and Spider-Man caught Stark in the air.
Soon, the wreckage of the exploded Mech armor and Lizard Man fell to the ground. Amidst the flying dust, Spider-Man put Stark down. It was really a close call just now. Falling from such a height, if they had hit the ground, even God couldn't have saved them.
Soon, the dust and smoke cleared, and the giant monster fell into a pit. Its limbs seemed to be all broken, and its guts turned into a mess."
However, his superhuman recovery ability was constantly working. Within a few breaths, his twisted bones were gradually returning to their normal positions. Spider-Man exclaimed, "God! He can recover from this! Isn't this already a medical miracle?"
Stark narrowed his eyes and said, "Indeed, this is a medical miracle."
"We have to subdue him quickly. If we wait for him to recover, it will be bad."
As Spider-Man was about to move forward, another Mech armor flew in mid-air and blocked him after Stark had armed himself. He said, "This self-healing ability consumes energy. His energy should be running low. Let's see his true face."
Stark seemed to imply something, and Spider-Man was a little confused. What was Lizard Man's true face? A big lizard?
Peter said, "A few days ago, I found someone experimenting in the sewer. This monster must be the result of his experiment. We need to capture him and then find the real culprit behind the scenes."
Peter was explaining to Stark how he discovered the traces in the sewer and then encountered this monster when he glanced into the pit and saw that the monster's body seemed to be shrinking continuously. In such a short time, it had shrunk to almost the same size as a normal person.
Then the green and lizard-specific features on his body began to fade away. Peter gradually widened his eyes and saw a middle-aged man with gray hair lying in the large pit.
"Dr. Connors!"
Peter was shocked beyond words. He even stuttered, "How could it be... How could he? What happened to him? How could this monster be Dr. Connors?"
"I knew this kind of super-fast recovery ability seemed familiar." Stark raised his face mask and walked into the pit, with Peter following behind him.
Peter said incoherently, "There must be some misunderstanding... Was he framed? How could he be a monster? Dr. Connors was a great teacher who helped me a lot, I..."
Stark appeared somewhat silent, his face under his cheeks looking haggard, as if he had just woken up from a hangover.
The man lying on the ground moved, and Peter couldn't care less about many things, he quickly went over to help him up.
Fortunately, although Lizard Man fell from such a high floor, his superhuman regenerative abilities had already healed most of the wounds on his body and he had returned to human form.
Dr. Connors turned over with his own strength, blood covering his head, and his clothes soaked in blood. He turned his head to look at Stark and said in a low voice, "I was so close... just a little more, cough, and I could have judged you, devil..."
Stark did not taunt his enemy with words as he had done in the past. He silently looked at Connors.
Peter couldn't accept the situation in front of him. He said with some desperation, "What exactly is going on? What's the matter with you two? Dr. Connors, why... There must be some misunderstanding here, right?"
"Peter, Peter Parker," Dr. Connors closed his eyes, his tone filled with exhaustion, "Spider-Man, you've ruined..."
He stopped, whether he didn't have the strength to continue speaking or didn't want to continue.
"Yes, I am Peter... Doctor, can you tell me what's going on here?"
Connors seemed completely exhausted, a frail researcher who didn't even have the strength to sit up anymore.
He lay in the center of the large pit, his voice dry as he said, "I told you this story before, but you didn't seem to listen carefully..."