Down in the sewers, Curt Connors dragged himself through the filth, his movements weak and strained.
The effects of the Lizard Serum had faded again.
Once you've tasted that kind of overwhelming power, returning to this fragile, defective body felt unbearable. Frail. Broken. So weak that a stray germ or the smallest accident could cripple his life—could end it outright.
And above him, in the city of New York, millions of human lives were just as flimsy, just as pitiful.
"I can save them."
Connors leaned against the grimy wall, breath thin, eyes fever-bright.
His body was fragile, but the blood roaring through him burned like molten metal.
A burden weighed on him—an immense, righteous duty. He would lead this species, limping along at the end of its evolutionary road, toward a wider horizon… a new path entirely.
Only by shedding their weak human shell could Earth's people take their next step and secure a future.
That was the truth he clung to.
"I will be the one to save them."
"My research will uplift the entire world."
Even though his form had returned to that of a man, his thoughts had long been twisted by the serum. In his eyes, humanity was a fragile, inferior species. And he alone could deliver them from suffering, freeing them from sickness forever.
Of course, he knew most people would recoil from the monstrous appearance of a Lizard Person. But that resistance, he believed, was only because they had never experienced the sheer power that came with transformation.
Once they tasted it, they would crave it. As for the change in appearance—who cared about that?
Connors was still lost in his thoughts when a sharp voice echoed behind him.
"A magnificent vision, Doctor!"
Connors instantly tensed.
He twisted around, glaring into the dark pipe. A thin, blue-tinged old man stepped out of the shadows, eyes gleaming with admiration.
"You may call me Dr. Tong Wu," the man said, baring a shriveled, vampire-like grin.
The filthy sewer bothered him not at all. Instead, he spoke with an enthusiasm bordering on manic devotion:
"Dr. Connors, I share your purpose. We both want to change this world. To make it better."
Connors didn't buy it. Not that easily. His gaze turned cold and reptilian, sizing the old man up like a predator deciding whether to strike.
"No need for alarm, Dr. Connors," Tong Wu said gently. "In fact, I've brought a priceless gift."
He clapped his hands.
A thunderous rumble rolled through the sewer, deep and heavy as distant storms.
Connors' instincts screamed danger.
Four crimson eyes lit up in the darkness ahead.
And then the thing stepped forward—massive, hulking, mountainlike.
Connors froze.
"Allow me to give a proper introduction!" Tong Wu said, shabby clothes somehow unable to dim the theatrical flourish with which he raised both hands, as if unveiling a priceless artifact at an expo.
"My masterpiece!"
"A mutated organism!"
Connors stared.
Before him stood a colossal frog-like creature, easily three or four meters tall. It could swallow a grown man whole without even chewing.
"How did you do this?" Connors breathed. As a reptilian biologist, he knew frogs weren't lizards—but he'd studied them before. And nothing about a frog's anatomical structure should allow a body of this size.
Its skeleton shouldn't support it. Gravity should crush it like pulp.
"That, Doctor, is the brilliance of my invention—the Gene Modifier!" Tong Wu tapped the contraption attached to his head, carefully leaving out the part where he could control mutated creatures directly.
"And this world is not as simple as it seems, Dr. Connors."
Tong Wu, a man capable of building Level-5 tech out of supermarket parts, had done his homework the moment he arrived in this universe.
He'd already looked up Iron Man.
He'd also found something called S.H.I.E.L.D.
Which was exactly why he had kept his operations so quiet.
He stepped closer. Connors didn't move, his attention locked on the monstrous mutant bullfrog looming nearby. Tong Wu continued:
"Tell me, don't you think that to achieve our grand vision, we must claim greater power—and eliminate those who stand in our way?"
His voice sharpened, nearly trembling with fervor.
"Evolution favors the strong! Natural selection decides the future!"
"Your Lizard Serum and my mutation tech—together, we could create a species beyond anything on Earth. A power beyond anything seen. A—"
Tong Wu drew in a deep breath, voice echoing through the pipes like the whisper of a god.
He almost burst into a shout—almost—but held it back.
Instead, he stepped close to Connors, leaned in, and murmured:
"—a civilization destined for greatness."
Connors slowly turned his head. Tong Wu's ambition seemed to shake him, leaving him silent for a long moment.
Then, at last, he said dully:
"You…"
Tong Wu waited, smiling, ready for praise—ready for allegiance.
"…have bad breath."
"…What?"
Tong Wu nearly short-circuited.
I pour my soul out, and that's what you notice?I massacre streets without blinking, and you want to talk about my breath?You live in a sewer that smells like death's armpit and you're judging me?
"I said your breath stinks. Back up a little." Connors pushed him aside, then nodded once. "Your plan has potential. But first, we need to eliminate a certain obstacle."
He meant Spider-Man.
But Tong Wu shook his head, pulling out a small orange crystal with an air of deep secrecy.
"Our enemy is not just one. Lizard power alone won't cut it."
"This is… amber?"
—
Midtown High.
As usual, Bant headed toward the restroom to take a leak.
But just as he stepped inside, his Spider-Sense erupted—electric, explosive—every hair on his body standing up.
A second later, the entire restroom shook as if hit by a localized quake. Before Bant could process what he was seeing, a floor tile caved in, and a green head shoved its way up through the toilet.
Bant: …
…Dr. Connors?
Do you really have to crawl up through the toilet?
He didn't get it.
He truly didn't get it.
But he was deeply—deeply—shaken.
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