Using his Ultimate Godspeed form, Spider-Man saved as many as he could before delivering them to the safe haven that was the Oscorp building. After scouring the city for anyone else that may have been leftover, he received a message from Reed Richards, informing him that he had arrived at their meeting place.
Spider-Man's body ached due to the overuse of his Ultimate Godspeed form. Despite his training, he still couldn't use the form for as long as he would have liked. Regardless, the hero entered his form once more and zoomed through the city to Dr. Connors's old lab.
In a flash, the hero arrived, finding Reed standing at the entrance and looking at the hero. "This is the place." Spider-Man said as he powered down and began walking over to Reed Richards while the two of them looked forward at Dr. Connors's old lab. Reed approached the door, pulling the handle to see if it was locked.
Spider-Man stepped forward, though Reed waved him off. "I got it." Mr. Fantastic told the young hero as the stretchy man inserted his finger into the keyhole and began unlocking it by recreating the correct key with it.
Soon enough, the door clicked and the two entered the building together.
Just as it was the last time Eren had entered the lab, there were vials, files, and test subjects scattered all around the room. Spider-Man searched through it all, along with Reed, looking everywhere for completed serum until he eventually found a few vials inside a drawer. "I found some." He said, prompting Reed to stretch his arm out to the young hero.
Spider-Man handed them to him before walking over to the Neogenic Recombinator. "This is the Neogenic Recombinator. This is what activates the serum after it's been injected." Spider-Man told him. "Do you think we could perhaps turn this into a-"
"A Neogenic Decombinator?" Reed said, finishing Spider-Man's sentence. Spider-Man nodded in response and Reed began stroking his chin as he began thinking about the most practical way to create such a device.
"We can. We'll need some time, but it's possible, I'll just need to repurpose the machine and reverse engineer the serum." Reed continued to stroke his chin in deep thought, before walking over to the machine and continuing to think out loud. "What we need is-" Before he could finish his sentence, a loud roar could be heard coming from outside, though it was clearly coming from miles away.
The screech was so powerful, it shook the building similarly to how booming thunder would. Spider-Man's lenses furrowed as he looked over at Reed, who shared a similar expression to him. "What the hell was that?" Spider-Man said, though his lenses soon widened upon making a realization. "It's Connors... I didn't think about it before, but he injected himself with God knows how many different serums. Do you think..."
"That it mutated him even further than it did everyone else? It's very possible." As Reed said this, his earpiece began to ring. Mr. Fantastic placed his finger on his ear, pressing the earpiece before answering the call. "Hello?" he said, leaving Spider-Man wondering who was on the other line.
Reed frowned. "Oscorp?" the scientist muttered, having no knowledge of why that place would be relevant to the current situation. Spider-Man, however, looked at the man with wide eyes. "That's where people are taking refuge! It's the most concentrated area of humans in the city right now, he's going to attack the building!" Almost instantly, Spider-Man transformed into his Ultimate Godspeed state and zoomed out of the room, leaving Reed to figure out the cure on his own.
"It looks like Spider-Man is coming there now, he mentioned something about the Oscorp building having a high concentration of humans inside, perhaps attracting the monsters to it. I'll stay behind and see what I can do about making a device to turn Connors and the others back." said the scientist as he watched the blue streak left behind by the red and black hero dissipate in front of him.
๐ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ๐ด ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ
Sue Richards (The Invisible Woman), Johnny Storm (The Human Torch), and Ben Grimm (The Thing) stood atop a skyscraper across from the Oscorp building. Not too far off, a hulking, green creature that looked to be at least five times larger than the other lizard creatures hung from the edge of another skyscraper, screaming at the top of its lungs.
The scream seemed to be attracting the smaller lizards to it, almost as if it were a warcry of some sort as they began climbing the building to make their way to the alpha.
๐๐ค๐ค๐จ๐
In a Flash, Spider-Man appeared next to the three members of the Fantastic Four, startling both Sue and Johnny. "Jesus, dude." said Johnny Storm, nearly falling off the building's edge in reaction to Spider-Man's arrival.
"What's happening?" Spider-Man asked frantically, prompting Ben Grimm to point at the building where the Lizard was commanding his army of smaller lizard creatures. At this point, there were hundreds of reptilian creatures covering the building, and the Lizard, Dr. Connors, stood atop them all.
Spider-Man looked over at the Oscorp building, noticing the army of white armor-wearing soldiers aiming their weapons toward the building. "Who are those guys?" Spider-Man asked, never having recognized those people aside from when he delivered the civilians to the building.
"Sable International. A private, Symkarian army for hire, I'm assuming they're with Osborn." Sue said, glaring down at the army along with Spider-Man. "They've been gunning down any creature that gets close to the building.
"We can't just let Sable kill them. I've seen some of the reptiles acting as if they still had some humanity in them. As if they were trying to fight it. We can save them. " Spider-Man said, looking at the three members of the Fantastic family. They all nodded, thinking the exact same thing as he.
"We're the Fantastic Four, saving people's kinda our thing." Johnny added.
"Yeah, ๐๐ฆ are." Sue said, emphasizing the fact that Spider-Man was one of them at that moment. "Here, take this earpiece so we can maintain communication with each other, Spider-Man."
Spider-Man took the earpiece, retracting a piece of his Spider-Matter mask to reveal his ear, and place the earpiece inside. Once the earpiece was in, Eren changed his costume back to the blue and black color scheme of the Fantastic Four, bringing a smile to the family's faces.
"Those colors always suited you, bro." Johnny told him. Spider-Man nodded, though the warm feeling of being accepted into the family was short-lived as the monstrous Lizard screamed once more.
Spider-Man's lenses scowled as he looked on at the lizard army that continued to grow across the block from them. Realizing someone needed to take Reed's role as a leader in his absence, Spider-Man stepped up to the plate.
"Sue, I need you to form a barrier around that building and one around Oscorp, are you capable of that?" Spider-Man asked her. Sue was taken aback by him seemingly appointing himself as the leader, though she gave her answer regardless.
"I can, maybe for ten minutes, covering two things of that size, along with the likelihood of attack may shorten how long I can hold." She admitted.
"Okay, that's enough time. Johnny?" Spider-Man directed his attention toward Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, who glared back anxiously as he awaited his directives. "I need you to protect your sister from any and all reptilian creatures that may try to attack her from outside of the barriers. I also need you to protect both barriers from the outside. Can you do that?"
"Of course, I can." Johnny said with a sly smile before covering himself in flames.
"And Johnny..." Spider-Man added. "Hold back a little, there are people under there."
"Aye aye, captain." The Human Torch said, saluting their temporary leader.
"What about me?" The Thing asked.
"You're with me. We're taking them down from the inside. I want you to protect Sue's barrier, I'm going to fight Connors myself." Spider-Man told him.
"Are you crazy!?" Ben exclaimed.
"You can't fight him like that by yourself!" Sue added.
"I have to. He's my responsibility. Besides, your jobs are just as important as mine. The barrier is the most important part and you guys need to protect it. Don't worry about me." As Spider-Man spoke, his eyes were beaming with determination for the first time that night, everyone could feel it
"Alright, kid. Fine. If you need any help, call for any of us." Ben told him, knowing that Spider-Man had already decided.
Spider-Man nodded and all four members of the Fantastic Four stood at the ledge of the building, looking onward at the continuously growing army. "Let's save the city." Spider-Man declared before covering himself in his blue aura once again and immediately blasting toward the building.
Johnny followed suit, flying through the air covered in flames as both Sue and Ben followed behind on floating platforms created by Sue.
From inside Oscorp, the hundreds of survivors looked on as the Fantastic Four went to work and both buildings began to become shrouded in see-through barriers.
"It's the Fantastic Four!" Many of the citizens taking refuge screamed as they saw the family form up across the block from them.
"The Invisible Woman!" Numerous people shouted, pointing at Sue Richards as she suspended herself in the air, extending both hands outward to project her barriers on both buildings. Though she claimed it would be difficult, she wasn't straining in the slightest, floating in the air as if it were as easy as standing.
"Look! It's Johnny!" The girls in the building screeched as the pretty boy flew past the building, making sure to wave and give some fan service before flying down to the ground level to protect the barriers.
Using a mixture of flaming punches and blasts, the Human Torch decommissioned many of the stragglers outside of the barriers, making sure to hold back as Spider-Man requested. The soldiers inside the barriers looked around at each other in confusion, not knowing what to do in that situation due to the barrier getting in the way of them interfering.
From atop Oscorp in his office, Norman Osborn looked down at the Fantastic Four with a flat expression on his face, showing no emotion. "Hmph." He said before walking away from the glass nonchalantly.
"The Thing!" The people inside the building then pointed at the orange, rocky hero as he punched his way through the army of lizard creatures inside the opposite barrier, holding back just as Johnny did in order to not harm the people trapped inside the reptilian bodies.
"Where's Mr. Fantastic?" Many wondered, though their curiosity would soon wane upon seeing the other member of the team.
"Look, it's Spider-Man!" Someone yelled, pointing at the young hero as he ran up the building using his Godspeed energy. As he raced up the building, Spider-Man punched and webbed down dozens of smaller creatures as he continued making his way up to Connors.
The mother from before, the one that he saved, approached the window, holding her belly as she looked at the hero scale of the building. She had a smile on her face, knowing that just as he always did, Spider-Man would save everyone.
Soon enough, Spider-Man reached the top, finding himself face-to-face with Dr. Connors in his new lizard form. Now that the two were close, the Lizard was far larger than Spider-Man had expected. He had to have been at least twenty feet tall and his mass had to have been greater than ten lizard creatures combined. His muscles were massive and he no longer had any characteristics of a human. All that was left was a massive hulking beast, almost appearing as if he were a dinosaur come back to life.
๐๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐๐ง!
The Lizard looked down at Spider-Man before delivering a mighty roar, one so strong that it would've thrown any normal man on his back. Spider-Man, however, covered his face with his forearm and held his ground.
Eren began to tear up under his mask, thinking about the man that Dr. Connors used to be and the man that he had become. Spider-Man released the aura from his body and began attempting to speak with the beast. "Dr. Connors?" Spider-Man asked. "Are you in there?"
He had hoped that somehow, his words would remind his teacher of who he once was, but it was of no use. He was seemingly too far gone.
๐๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐๐ง!
Once again, the Lizard yelled at Spider-Man, this time the scream being so powerful it nearly toppled the blue and black-wearing hero.
Knowing that he had no other choice, Spider-Man reignited his body with his Godspeed aura and clenched both fists. 'Fine. All that's left is to buy enough time for Reed to get back with the cure and the decombinator.' Eren thought, glaring with pained eyes at his former teacher who towered above him.
Spider-Man kicked off the ground, sending himself flying toward the massive beast.
The Lizard, with an aggressive growl, pounced toward the spider with the intent to take his life.
The time had finally come for the two to face off.
Spider-Man vs the Lizard.
Student vs Teacher.
A duel between close friends.