"Ma'am." He warned, Peter's eyes landed on his finger inched even closer to the trigger. "We at Oscorp always appreciate a hero's help in keeping our cargo safe, but I am afraid that the information you're asking of me is classified. "
...
Again, Mirko shot Peter a look, with Peter shrugging in response.
Sure… this guy was acting incredibly weird and defensive, and were absolutely carrying something shady in the back of that truck, but it wasn't like they could just investigate out of nowhere! Had to follow the law and all that.
As Peter was about to tell Mirko that maybe they should just be on their way, his ears picked up the sound of a relief sigh off to the side.
"Hello? Mr. Osborn, sir?" The other man spoke into the phone, looking around in a small bit of panic. "Yes, I-I know you said to not contact you unless it was an emergency, but the… cargo nearly tipped the truck over in the middle of the road, it's banging against the inside and it's beginning to get hard to keep going on route."
Osborn? Like, Norman Osborn? CEO of Oscorp Norman Osborn? Why the hell were these guys calling their CEO ?
His mind tried and tried to come up with exactly what could be going on, with his thoughts being interrupted by the truck shaking.
He looked over at Mirko, noticing how she backed away a step from the truck at hearing the shaking.
"N-No, the cargo is still secure and in our possession, some heroes dropped by and stopped us from tipping over." The man informed, Peter felt the truck shake under him again as his spider-sense began to buzz.
"Dude, what is in here?" Peter asked, the truck shook again. In front of him, the man's eyes went wide as he took a deep breath and switched off the safety of his gun.
Alright, Peter was starting to freak out a tiny bit now.
They were in the middle of the street in broad daylight, surrounded by people and with a truck carrying someone or something desperately trying to get out that Oscorp apparently had an interest in.
His heart began to pump a bit faster, he could feel the buzzing in his skull growing louder in warning.
"What heroes? Uh…" The passenger turned to look at him and Mirko, apparently missing what was happening behind him. "That rabbit lady from the top ten and that one spider guy from UA, I think."
He didn't speak for a second, anxiously tapping his foot. Someone spoke on the other line, and he raised an eyebrow.
"I think his name is like… Parker, or something? Pretty sure I've seen him in the news or something." He informed, something slammed against the side of the trailer before slamming against the doors leading into it.
Peter's muscles tensed, inching his fingers toward the triggers of his web-shooters.
Around the street, people slowly stopped taking pictures and simply watched in confusion as the truck shuddered and shook, more and more dents appearing.
"Mirko… can you hear anything?" He spoke slowly, the woman next to him slowly shook her head.
"Barely, but whoever is in there is… clawing at the walls." She hopped away from the truck and into a better spot on the road, Peter shot a web and swung onto a lamppost
Neither of them took their eyes from that trailer, Peter could feel as adrenaline began to rush through his veins.
His lenses narrowed at the trailer, his mind trying to figure out what he could do.
He was sure Mirko knew they couldn't evacuate, way too many people to get away from some mystery danger. Speaking of, should they even try and keep something they didn't know inside that truck?
For all he knew, this thing was a scared wild animal or some eldritch monster. Even then, his spider-sense told him one thing through the continuous ringing that bordered on deafening.
Whatever it was, it was something Peter needed a warning for.
Slam , the truck shook harder and the man on the phone finally noticed. He quickly told who he was talking to what was happening and hung up.
Slam, a large dent in the doors into the trailer. Peter looked at Mirko, only getting a serious nod back.
Slam , the doors struggled against the force, barely staying on their hinges. A few people got back into their cars, everyone else on the street took a few cautious steps back.
Slam!
The doors flew off the trailer, getting thrown through the streets and drawing up sparks as they slid on the pavement to a stop.
For a moment, no one breathed.
Then a deep growl sounded from the shadows.
In a blur of movement, a green figure leaped out of the trailer and onto the hood of a car. As the sun shone on its scaly skin. Peter's eyes slowly widened.
From the looks of it, it stood taller than 6'5 at least , it's body covered in a tough looking hide of scaly green skin.
A long scale-covered tail whipped about aimlessly, with brown ripped cargo pants struggling to hold onto its double jointed legs as it stood on its clawed toes.
One of its arms kept twitching, looking as if the thing didn't have much control over its movement. Weirdly enough, it wore tattered and damaged a lab coat that struggled to stay on it.
With a snarl, it shot around to face him, Mirko and the truck it had come out of. Yellow eyes scanned over its surroundings, it's snouted face going through uncannily human fear before landing in confusion.
Peter took a breath, doing its best to not make a sound as the creature got on all fours and kept looking around like a confused animal, it's claws easily cutting through the metal hood of the car.
It roared at nothing in particular, pupils dilating and contracting as a low growl came from its throat.
What the actual fuck was that?
He's seen incredibly weird stuff before, it's hard not to while living in a world where so many people had crazy abilities. Hell, he's seen people with Reptile-like quirks before.
But that?
Whatever it was, Peter felt reluctant to say it was possible for a quirk to make someone into that.
It looked… wrong .
Hell, looking at it felt wrong.
Comparing it to people with animal quirks like Mirko, it was a whole different beast.
Whatever this creature was, it was unnatural .
His mind wondered if it was a mutate, but he pushed that thought away for later.
More important things to focus on right now.
The driver shakily kept his gun on the Lizard, his partner doing the same with a terrified look in his eyes.
And then, he turned his safety off with a tiny click .
At the sound the creature's head snapped to look at the passenger, pupils dilating at it took him in.
And then, they landed on a single word printed a patch on his chest.
Oscorp.
It's yellow eyes went bloodshot, pupils dilating into slits as it screeched into the air and people began to scream.
Now in a rage, the Lizard creature began wildly making its way through anything between it and the man.
Shooting two webs, Peter slingshot himself through the air just as the Lizard threw aside a car, not paying attention to the father and son on the sidewalk.
Good thing Peter was there, then!
Creating a net right above the two, he caught the car in a web before landing on it and looking down at the people.
"Suppose you guys don't get many Lizard people rising against the masses over here in Hosu, huh?" He asked, giving a small smile behind the mask.
Not a second later, the dad picked the boy up and began running away.
Guess he shouldn't have expected a response.
If he was that guy, he'd be long gone, too.
His spider-sense buzzed, making him turn around and see how Mirko was currently kicking and hopping all over the place while the Lizard guy 'fought'
When he looked at it, it wasn't really fighting on its part.
If anything, it looked like an angry and scared wild animal lashing out at anything he thought was a threat.
At least it looked like Mirko made it forget about the Oscorp guys it was just charging at.
Tensing his muscles, Peter leapt from the suspended car and into the air, shooting a web line and yanking himself into the fray.
Because that's what he does, apparently. Fight lizard people with a lady with rabbit ears.
A part of him missed dealing with simpler crime.
Peter landed with a kick straight to the side of the creature's face, rolling the landing on the pavement before jumping back up and kicking its face again.
As he narrowly backflipped out of the way of a claw swipe, his mind tried figuring out what exactly was going on.
Mirko was just as in the dark as he was, so there weren't any answers there. Quirk gone wild? He's heard about how people with animal quirks sometimes get things like primal instincts, maybe this was someone just losing control.
But… losing control like this?
Mirko huffed, kicking the Lizard's side and making it fly back into a car, with the creature screeching and charging at her in all fours as Peter ran in.
At first, when it first got out of the trailer, there was something in its eyes, you know?
A small bit of light that showed that there was someone inside that thing.
Right now, though?
The creature swiped wildly at the woman, it's tail whipping Peter across the street as one of its claws finally landed a big slash on her arm.
Yeah, not so much.
"Hey, I gotta ask! Who did your nails for you, man? You just have to give me their number!" Peter swung back in, landing on the creature's back and covering its eyes with webbing.
One of his arms went around it's wide neck to help keep him in place, with the other beginning to punch it on the side of its face over and over.
"So, are you just a regular lizard guy or one of those lizard guys running Facebook? I feel we could really build on human and lizard relationships if you just talked about yourself more, man!"
The Lizard thrashed around in an attempt to get him off, roaring and screeching as it blindly clawed at Peter.
As Peter got another hit into its face, a wild swipe slashed him in the shoulder, cutting through fabric and creating a deep gash.
And honestly? It hurt, a lot. Guess he should've known cloth wouldn't have stopped something that could cut through metal.
Over and over Peter punched, ignoring the gash and remembering to use his entire body in the motion like Mirko said as she checked the gash in her arm.
And yeah, it looked pretty bad.
Even then, Mirko didn't look like she cared.
"Oi, kid! Hold that thing still! Web it up or some shit!" She yelled, already running to them.
Nodding, Peter shot a few more webs at its face before sticking to its back on all fours.
...
If you want to read ahead of the public release, or just want to support me.
You can join my p atreon :
p@treon.com/Huvnn