Ethan and Venom pressed deeper into the maze-like sewer tunnels, boots splashing lightly in the stagnant water. After a while, a dim light flickered in the distance.
"How is there light down here? This is supposed to be a sewer," Ethan said cautiously, narrowing his eyes.
"It means we're finally getting close to something interesting," Venom replied through their shared consciousness, its voice low and expectant.
Ethan crept forward silently, sticking to the shadows until he reached the source of the illumination. The narrow corridor opened up into a natural subterranean chamber, roughly 100 square meters wide. Inside, fluorescent bulbs dangled from makeshift wiring crisscrossing the ceiling, casting an eerie glow across a crude but functional laboratory.
The lab was cluttered with tables, surgical tools, broken computers, cages, and shattered vials. Strange green fluids shimmered in cracked containers, and charts covered with lizard anatomy were pinned to the walls.
"This… this looks like some kind of underground lab," Ethan whispered, eyes scanning every corner. "Could the missing people be connected to this setup? Was he using them for experiments?"
The idea chilled him. But something didn't add up.
"If this place is where he conducts tests, then where are the victims? There should be bodies… or at least evidence."
The more he studied the lab, the more unease gripped him. There was no question now—this was the work of a scientist. The layout, the modified genetic samples, and the bio-equipment all screamed one name from the Marvel archives: Dr. Curt Connors—a brilliant biologist who once tried to regrow his missing arm using reptilian DNA. The results? He transformed himself into The Lizard—a towering, cold-blooded creature with human intelligence buried under reptilian instincts.
But still, the eyewitness reports of a rampaging beast in the subway didn't match the clinical precision of this lab. Was Connors still in control? Or had the Lizard taken full hold?
As Ethan pondered this, a sharp pulse of warning flooded his mind—Venom's senses flared in alarm.
"MOVE!"
Ethan reacted instantly, diving to the side just as a massive slab of concrete exploded against the spot he had just been standing, obliterating a steel table in a spray of debris.
"Damn it!" Ethan hissed, quickly rolling into a crouch as he scanned the darkened edge of the chamber. And then he saw them—two burning red eyes in the shadows, unblinking, filled with a primal fury.
The figure stepped partially into the light, and Ethan's breath caught.
Towering over seven feet tall, the creature had thick green scales glistening with moisture. Its body was a terrifying hybrid—reptilian yet humanoid. A shredded lab coat clung to its broad shoulders like a ghost of the man it used to be. The claws were long and serrated, and the teeth, jagged like a crocodile's. But the most disturbing thing wasn't its monstrous form—it was the intelligence simmering behind those bloodshot eyes.
Venom's voice whispered, "That's no suit. That's no imposter. That's the real deal. Curt Connors… has fully transformed."
As if to confirm it, the Lizard let out a feral snarl and hurled another concrete chunk. Ethan dodged, barely avoiding a skull-cracking impact.
He cursed under his breath. "Great. It really is a giant lizard. New York just can't take a break, can it?"
Dodging boulders and staying low, Ethan scanned for an opening. There weren't many projectiles left in the chamber. If the Lizard wanted to finish this, he'd have to do it up close. And that was exactly what Ethan needed.
Venom's claws sprouted along Ethan's forearms, sleek and sharp. "Now we're talking."
As the barrage ceased, Ethan launched forward. With inhuman speed, he ducked under a swipe of the Lizard's tail and darted up the nearest wall. Timing it perfectly, he rebounded from the ceiling, landing behind the creature in a blur.
"Now!"
His claws slashed forward, piercing the Lizard's back.
Pfft!
They hit tough muscle and armor-thick scales, and though his claws dug in, the resistance told Ethan all he needed to know—this thing was heavily mutated and ridiculously durable.
The Lizard let out a deafening roar that echoed through the chamber. Blood dripped from the wound, but the monster's rage only deepened. Those burning eyes locked onto Ethan with pure animal hatred.
Ethan clung tightly—until the Lizard twisted its powerful torso and flung him like a ragdoll.
He slammed into a stack of lab equipment, glass shattering around him. Venom instinctively shielded him from the worst of the impact.
"Okay," Ethan groaned, cracking his neck. "Definitely not a guy in a costume."
"Let's rip his tail off," Venom growled, venomous tendrils writhing with battle-lust.
Ethan rose to his feet, eyes narrowing. "You read my mind."
Ethan nimbly landed against the damp wall of the sewer chamber, bracing with one foot before launching several bursts of webbing at the Lizard.
Though the synthetic webbing, created from Venom's biomass and Ethan's adaptation of Peter Parker's original tech, was strong, it wasn't unbreakable—not against something like this. The Lizard shredded through it repeatedly, but Ethan didn't relent. He kept firing, layering web after web. Despite being torn apart again and again, the sheer volume tangled the mutated creature into a thick, thrashing cocoon of black strands.
Ethan seized the moment. Locking his fingers together into a piercing wedge, he compressed the symbiote around his arm into a hardened, lance-like point. Then, channeling power through his legs, he launched off the wall like a missile, aimed directly at the Lizard's chest.
The web cocoon parted under the force of his charge, and his clawed hand pierced into the scaled hide of the Lizard. But instead of plunging through, it was abruptly halted—stopped cold by the creature's breastbone. His fingertips had hit the sternum; the heart was just inches away, but the bone was too dense.
Before Ethan could pull back, the Lizard snarled and clamped a vice-like grip around his wrist, completely immobilizing him.
Schlick!
With a violent flex, the Lizard ripped apart the webbing cocoon from the inside. One arm snapped free first—his clawed hand still locked tightly on Ethan's wrist, holding it in place like a bear trap.
Ethan's claws had drawn blood, but the Lizard's mutated physiology—enhanced muscle density, regenerative tissue, and reinforced bone—held strong. If not for the sternum, Ethan might have ended it there.
"ROAAARRR!" The Lizard bellowed, his voice echoing through the chamber like a subterranean cannon blast. His grip tightened, threatening to crush Ethan's wrist entirely.
Reacting fast, Ethan raised his other hand in a knife-like strike, swinging at the Lizard's forearm to break free. But the creature's other claw shot out just as fast, trapping his second arm mid-strike. The grip was unrelenting. Both of Ethan's arms were pinned, his claws useless.
Just as he prepared to use his tentacles for a counterattack, a thick, muscular tail swept in from the side.
CRACK!
The tail collided with Ethan's ribs, launching him across the chamber like a cannonball. He slammed into a stone wall and then plunged into the foul, waist-deep sewer water with a loud splash.
"Damn it!" Ethan cursed under his breath, surfacing quickly. "I forgot—he's not just strong. He's a damn lizard. Of course he has a tail."
The symbiote surged around his injured wrist, tendrils knitting fractured bone and tissue together. The pain told him the truth—the bone had been cracked clean by that hit. Venom worked fast, but it still needed a few more seconds.
Across the chamber, the Lizard had noticed. Blood still dripped from the wound in his back, and his rage only deepened. He let out another monstrous roar and bolted toward Ethan, claws slashing through the air in anticipation of the kill.
The pain clearly hadn't dulled his instincts. If anything, it made him more dangerous.
Ethan's hands still hung limp from the recent injuries. Seeing the Lizard barreling toward him, he staggered backward in a feigned panic.
The sight of the "wounded" prey only triggered deeper bloodlust. The Lizard's red eyes gleamed with madness, and he rushed in with his full weight, claws ready to tear Ethan limb from limb.
But just before the strike landed, Ethan sprang his trap.
From his back, four black tendrils erupted, forged from the symbiote's hardened biomass. They lashed forward with perfect timing—two wrapped around the Lizard's arms, one coiled around his tail, and the last latched onto a leg, halting his charge like iron chains.
In the same instant, Ethan's arms, which had been limp only moments before, shot up with renewed force.
"Now!" he roared, driving both claws forward.
The claws punctured the Lizard's left shoulder with a wet crunch, sinking in deep. Ethan screamed from the exertion—and then ripped with both arms in opposite directions. The tentacles constricted simultaneously.
There was a sickening snap—then the Lizard's arm was torn clean off.
"RAAAAAAGHHHH!"
The Lizard howled in agony, the sound almost inhuman. Blood sprayed across the chamber, coating broken machines and cracked walls. The beast reeled back, stumbling and flailing like a wild animal blinded by pain.
He crashed into a nearby pillar, shattering part of the ceiling. Stone dust fell like ash as the Lizard rampaged, slamming into walls and letting out guttural screeches that echoed through the sewer tunnels.
Ethan, breathing heavily, tossed the severed limb to the side and immediately bound it with webbing for later study. There was no time to relax.
Without hesitation, he charged forward again—ready to end this.
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