I’m Not Becoming Spider-Man - Chapter 60: Taking Down the Lizard (Patreon)

“Wooooah!” Harley shrieked as the car's acceleration slammed her against the seat. Beneath the scream was unmistakable excitement.

This was amazing!

Everyone else was running away. Peter and Harley were driving straight into the oncoming stream of people and traffic, threading between cars as screams, alarms, and police sirens blended into one deafening racket. It was like driving through a nightclub gone completely mad.

“Harley, I think this car's going to need some serious repairs!” Peter called.

“So what? We'll buy another one!” Harley leaned out the window, letting the wind whip through her hair. “Peter, you should get a job as a stunt driver!”

“I'll consider it when we get home. Now get your head inside and close that window!” Peter hauled her back in without taking his attention off the road.

He wrenched the wheel, mounted the sidewalk, knocked down a streetlight, and kept racing along the edge of the road.

By then Harley could make out the figures fighting in the distance.

Gwen was racing along the rooftops with the Lizard close behind. There were far too many people around for a fight like this. She needed to draw the monster somewhere safer.

But she'd underestimated him. The Lizard lunged, caught her in midair, and dragged her down with him. Gwen kicked herself free and caught a web line before she hit the ground. The Lizard wasn't so lucky. He slammed straight into the street, ruining her plan to lure him farther away.

He staggered upright to find police cars surrounding him. Officers drew their pistols and opened fire, but the bullets barely scratched his scaly hide.

Then someone brought up a rifle. Those rounds actually left shallow wounds in his flesh, but the regenerating muscles soon pushed the bullets back out.

The repeated impacts hurt. Roaring in pain, the Lizard charged at the officers.

“Fall back! Fall back!”

This was no ordinary criminal. They needed a SWAT team for something like this. And even SWAT might not be enough.

The Lizard smashed through the cars blocking his way. The police scattered, and he even lifted a small car and hurled it at them.

“Hold on, Harley,” Peter said with surprising calm.

He shifted gears and swerved. The flying car tumbled twice across its roof as it sailed just above their vehicle. Harley heard metal scrape and bang overhead. Peter immediately took another sharp turn, diving into the underground shopping arcade of a nearby mall and bouncing Harley's head against the window several times.

“OW! That hurts! I take it back! This isn't fun at all!”

“Glad you've realized that.” Peter found another route and accelerated back toward street level.

“I think I'm going to throw up my dinner!”

“You haven't even had lunch!”

They emerged onto the road with Gwen and the Lizard still fighting up ahead.

A savage swipe sent Gwen crashing into a car, leaving a dent in the metal. “Oh my God. Give me ordinary robbers and thieves any day.”

She flipped upright onto the roof, ducked beneath the Lizard's sweeping tail, and drove a powerful kick into him. He stumbled backward, clutching his head, only for Gwen to knock him down with another punch before he'd recovered.

“Will you calm down already, big guy?”

Something suddenly caught her leg. The Lizard's tail had wrapped around her ankle. With a violent swing, he hurled Gwen onto a car that was still moving.

“You're blocking my windshield, Spider-Woman,” Peter remarked.

He switched on the wipers. They squeaked back and forth against her suit.

“Uh... sorry... Look out! He's coming!”

Gwen barely had time to speak before the Lizard came leaping after her. She shot a web and swung away, while Peter swerved in the opposite direction.

The tires shrieked. Something had gone wrong with the car's handling, though Peter couldn't tell what. Slamming on the brakes seemed his only option.

He fought the wheel until the car whipped through a ninety-degree turn and slammed sideways into a fire hydrant. For a moment, the momentum threatened to roll the car completely over. Wheels on one side lifted clear of the ground.

“Aaaaaah!” Harley screamed. The world seemed to slow around her.

BANG!

Gravity finally pulled the car back down. The impact was so hard that both passengers felt as if their hearts had been shaken loose.

“Harley, out of the car!”

Harley flung the passenger door open and jumped. She almost fell as her feet struck the ground, but scrambled upright and pulled a syringe of inhibitor from Peter's backpack.

“Spider-Woman, catch!”

She hurled it toward Gwen, the syringe spinning through the air.

“Just what I needed!”

Gwen swept in on a web, snatched it out of the air, and executed a perfect midair spin. Then she drove the needle straight into the Lizard's head.

THUMP!

Peter climbed out of the car and slammed the door. Walking over to Harley, he took a photo with the camera he carried.

“That move gets a ten out of ten from me,” he said.

“Same here. But you're pretty cool yourself, buddy.” Harley gave his shoulder a friendly punch.

Gwen flipped away from the Lizard, who was roaring and writhing as though in terrible pain.

He suddenly broke into a run. Gwen chased him and watched as he ripped open a manhole cover and disappeared into the sewer. She was about to go after him when someone shouted behind her.

“Freeze!”

Several police officers approached with their guns drawn.

“Oh, come on... I really hope that inhibitor works,” Gwen sighed.

She sprang upward and swung out of reach. The officers didn't dare fire. They could only watch Spider-Woman disappear.

“Everything okay, Harley?” Peter asked, patting her shoulder now that the danger seemed to have passed.

“Yeah. I'm fine, Peter. But I'm getting hungry...”

“Did you throw up in the car?”

“Absolutely not!”

“How about Beef Wellington tonight? My treat. I did wreck your car, after all.”

“Don't worry about it, Peter. I'll just buy another one.”

“Could you get bulletproof windows fitted?”

“I think we'll need thicker steel panels too.”

Police officers approached them, and the pair raised their hands without showing the slightest concern.

With police and ambulances arriving to secure the scene and redirect traffic, the officers questioned and checked them before allowing them to leave.

“Well, that was exciting,” Harley said after they'd hailed a taxi.

“We were lucky, that's all,” Peter replied. “I'm definitely not taking a risk like that again. It was way too dangerous.”

“So we're heading home? Wait, what about Gwen?”

“I got in touch with her. She's fine, and I told her to head back first.” Peter glanced at Harley. “But we're not going home yet. We need to stop somewhere.”

“Where?”

...

“Cough... cough... Hah...”

Curt Connors dragged himself out of a sewer pipe, reeking of filth. The green scales had vanished from his body. Unfortunately, the new arm he'd grown had disappeared along with them.

“I... What happened to me? How did I get here?”