The War of Good People (Part Two)

Although Lizardman wanted to run away on his own, Peter could not just let this monster leave. If he reached the surface, New York would definitely be thrown into chaos by a creature of his size.

The moment Lizardman turned and ran back, Peter struggled to his feet and raced along the wall after him.

Peter had an excellent sense of direction. After wandering through the sewers for so many days, he remembered the routes clearly. After estimating their position, he realized this Lizardman did not seem to be running around blindly. He was heading somewhere with a purpose.

Where was he going? What was he going there for? What exactly was happening?

Then Peter remembered that among the biological tissue samples he had seen at the reservoir maintenance point, there had been a lizard tail. Could this be the monster created by that mad scientist?

Lizardman ran ahead while Peter pursued him. Perhaps the scientist had not properly accounted for the sewer dimensions, because the monster he had created was a little too large. He had to lower his head even while running. Some parts of New York’s sewers had ceilings more than ten meters high, but in the narrower passages, Lizardman could only move forward bent over.

That gave Peter a perfect opportunity to slow him down. Taking advantage of Lizardman’s awkward movement, Peter shot a web across his legs. Yet the monster seemed to retain some intelligence. Instead of tripping over the web, he curled up and stepped over it.

When one plan failed, Peter immediately came up with another. He wrapped webbing around Lizardman’s neck, intending to use inertia to pull him down. But Lizardman did not fall for it. The instant the web caught him, he grabbed it and swung Spider-Man away instead.

This time, Spider-Man learned his lesson. He rolled as he landed and sprang right back up. He realized he severely lacked experience fighting monsters this large. After all, no robber or thief stood four or five meters tall.

And Lizardman’s most important weapons were not just his claws, but also that enormous tail. With one sweep of it, Peter was slammed straight into the wall. Spider-Man had not expected the monster to switch moves, and he took the horizontal strike hard.

Fortunately, his stamina was abundant and his recovery ability was strong. Before long, he caught up with Lizardman again.

Peter realized that if he wanted to deal with this monster, he really had to lure him aboveground. The sewers were somewhat disadvantageous for such a massive creature, but Spider-Man had no room to maneuver either. The entire sewer passage was practically filled by the monster, leaving him unable even to surround him with webs.

And as the monster’s direction became clearer, Peter realized he seemed to be heading for Stark Tower.

Peter knew this area better than anyone. After exploring the sewers, he usually took this route to his internship.

Peter could not figure out what the monster wanted, but he knew he could not let it charge onto the surface and run into Stark Tower. Stark was in terrible condition right now. He might still be drunk and not have sobered up yet. If he could not pilot his mecha, the hundreds or thousands of employees in that building would be in enormous danger.

As Peter thought that, the monster also realized that moving through the sewers was worse than simply getting to the surface and running there. So, at the nearest manhole cover, he leaped upward with all his strength.

Without caring in the slightest about the size of the manhole cover, Lizardman smashed through the street and burst out. Peter followed close behind.

A monster suddenly emerging from underground threw the street into complete chaos. More than a dozen cars behind it slammed on their brakes and crashed into one another, producing violent explosions.

Spider-Man wanted to go save people, but he watched the enormous monster stomp over cars and race toward Stark Tower. Peter had no choice. He pressed the communicator on his wrist and shouted, "Mr. Stark?! Mr. Stark?! Are you there?! Wake up! A lizard monster is heading your way! Wake up!"

There was no response from the communicator. Peter cursed under his breath, then called Steve. "Captain! Come organize traffic! A monster ran through here! It’s on the main road east of Stark Tower! People need rescue here!"

Just as he was about to call Schiller, he saw Lizardman make a powerful leap and land directly in the parking lot surrounding Stark Tower.

Peter had no choice but to hurry after him. His web stuck to the glass wall of another building in Stark Tower, and he swung down at high speed, kicking Lizardman in the neck.

The enormous monster staggered, but he used his tail to maintain his balance.

He reached out to grab Spider-Man, but Stark Industries had five or six buildings arranged in a surrounding formation. That gave Peter the ideal space to make full use of his mobility.

Seeing Lizardman reach for him, Peter shot another web and swung past his side. As he turned, he attached another strand to Lizardman’s arm, intending to pull him down.

Lizardman swung his arm violently, tore free of the web, and charged into Stark Tower.

The interior of Stark Tower was extremely complicated, but because the building was so huge, each floor had a very high ceiling. Lizardman could move through it without obstruction.

Stark had not answered Peter’s earlier communication, but at least Jarvis was awake. Hearing that a monster was coming, Jarvis immediately activated the security protocols, evacuated most of the employees, and deployed every available defensive measure. This effectively slowed Lizardman down.

However, the final security protocols required Stark’s personal authorization. Without it, many permanently sealed security doors could not be lowered, and many large-scale destructive weapons could not be used. Lizardman had been slowed, but there was still no effective way to deal with him.

Spider-Man also realized that he seemed to lack powerful offensive methods. During his pursuit of Lizardman through the building, he knocked Lizardman down several times and tripped him with webs several times as well. But the big guy was simply too tough. Even after Peter landed several punches, he merely shook his head.

This monster seemed to possess recovery abilities beyond those of ordinary people. Peter used falling shards of glass to cut off part of his tail, intending to take away one of his advantages first. Without the tail, it would be much harder for Lizardman to keep his balance.

Yet before Peter could make his next move, Lizardman’s tail had already grown back at high speed.

Peter swung back and forth from the ceiling on webs while trying to use words to draw Lizardman’s attention, so he would stop focusing only on climbing upward.

"Hey, big guy! Where did you buy that instant glue? Look over here! Your spider daddy is going to kick you hard, like this!"

Peter swung down again, intending to kick Lizardman in the chest. But Lizardman had learned his lesson. The moment Peter swung toward him, he sidestepped, grabbed Peter by the foot, spun him around several times, and hurled him away.

Peter smashed through a pile of office desks, then flew out through the floor-to-ceiling window.

Fortunately, he flipped in midair, fired a web onto the wall, swung back through another shattered window, and kicked Lizardman in the back.

Peter had learned quite a few fighting techniques from Steve, but right now he was only slightly better than throwing wild punches. He had learned to use webs to increase his mobility, then use gravity and inertia to amplify his strength.

That tactic could not completely subdue Lizardman, but it did slow him down effectively. Peter was strong enough that every kick made Lizardman stagger, and another punch after that would leave the monster dazed for quite a while.

As the two ran and pursued each other through the floors, constantly interfering with one another, Lizardman eventually climbed to the upper levels of Stark Tower. Spider-Man shouted helplessly, "Jarvis, how much longer until Mr. Stark wakes up? Can you hurry it up?"

"I am activating emergency awakening measures…"

"What emergency awak—"

Before Peter could finish, an earth-shattering boom came from inside Stark Tower.

It was a rock music player blasting at a volume of at least one hundred decibels. The massive sound waves knocked both Spider-Man and Lizardman off their feet.

"Is this the emergency awakening measure you meant?! Can’t you give him headphones?! This is indiscriminate attack!!!" Peter shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice was drowned out by the deafening music.

Jarvis raised his own volume as well. "Mr. Stark hates noise very much! This will effectively sober him up!"

The moment Jarvis finished speaking, a mecha flew through the hole in the window and into the building. Stark shouted at the top of his lungs as well, "Enough!!! Turn it off!!! I’m awake already!!!"

When the music ended, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Lizardman all felt their heads buzzing.

Spider-Man had not recovered from the ringing in his ears, but he still shouted, "Jarvis!!! I have to say!!! This is your most effective weapon!!!"

Stark had no time for trash talk. After all, this was his own building getting wrecked. He blasted forward at maximum thrust and rammed Lizardman straight out of Stark Tower.

The floor was not low at all. If he fell from here, unless lizards could grow wings, he would definitely be smashed into pulp.

But this monster seemed to have decent balance. While in the air, he whipped his tail and struck Iron Man’s mecha. Then he rolled, caught the edge of a window, pulled himself back up with his arm, and leaped straight back into the center of the battlefield.

Stark seemed to have only just sobered up, and his mind was still not entirely clear. After being struck by Lizardman, it took him quite a while to get back up.

Spider-Man kept harassing Lizardman from the side, while Stark connected to Spider-Man’s communicator and began devising a battle plan.

"Listen, we drive it to the roof. Then I use another mecha to ambush it and knock it off the roof. It can’t fly, right?"

"No. If it could, it would have left already. But its rapid recovery ability is a problem. Maybe it won’t die even if it falls."

"But it definitely won’t be able to move."

No sooner said than done. Peter and Stark weaved back and forth. Both of them were extremely agile, and Stark controlled the internal firepower of Stark Tower. Working with his repulsor blasts, they chased Lizardman all the way to the roof.

On the roof, Stark stood at the edge of the building and continuously fired missiles at Lizardman. Lizardman completely ignored Spider-Man’s constant harassment from the side and charged straight at Stark.

Stark deliberately exposed an opening and lowered his flight altitude. Sure enough, Lizardman leaped up and grabbed Iron Man’s mecha. Iron Man immediately used inertia to carry him off the roof, and the two began falling together.

Originally, Stark had intended to lure him over, wait until he jumped to the edge, then use another mecha to ram him away. But the monster moved too fast and grabbed the mecha Stark was piloting in one motion.

Lizardman was incredibly strong, and the mecha quickly began sparking. Stark shouted from inside, "Jarvis! Discharge electricity!"

"Sir, you cannot discharge electricity now. Once the mecha is destroyed, you will fall to your death from this height."

The two fell rapidly as the howling wind roared in Stark’s ears. Stark said, "Discharge immediately! Destroy the mecha! Eject me! Someone will catch me!"

Jarvis fell silent for one second. Then the entire mecha erupted with violent electrical arcs. The pain of the shock made Lizardman let go immediately. The mecha exploded amid the lightning, the cockpit was ejected, and Stark separated from it in the air, falling freely.

Rather than the height itself, it was the time spent falling from that height that saved Stark’s life. A web swung over, and Spider-Man caught the falling Stark in one hand.

Soon, the wreckage of the exploded mecha and Lizardman crashed to the ground together.

Amid the swirling dust, Spider-Man set Stark down. It had been incredibly close. From such a height, if Stark had truly hit the ground, not even God could have saved him.

Soon, the dust from the impact and the smoke from the explosion dispersed. The enormous monster lay in a crater. All four of his limbs seemed to be broken, and his internal organs were probably a mangled mess.

But his Superman-like recovery ability was still working constantly. Within a few breaths, the twisted bones gradually returned to their proper positions. Spider-Man said, "God! He can recover from that?! This is completely a medical miracle, isn’t it??"

Stark narrowed his eyes. "It really is a medical miracle…"

"We need to subdue him quickly. If we wait for him to recover, it’ll be bad."

Spider-Man started walking forward, but another mecha flew down from midair. After Stark armored up, he stopped him. "That Self-Healing ability consumes energy. His energy should be nearly exhausted. Let’s see his true face."

Stark seemed to mean something else, but Spider-Man was confused. What was Lizardman’s true face? A giant lizard?

Peter said, "A few days ago, I found someone conducting experiments in the sewers. This monster must be the product of those experiments. We need to capture him, then find the real culprit behind this."

As Peter explained to Stark how he had found those traces in the sewers and then encountered the monster, he glanced into the crater and realized that the monster’s body seemed to be constantly shrinking. In such a short time, it had already shrunk to about the size of a normal person.

Then the green color and the distinctive lizard features began to fade from his body. Peter’s eyes widened gradually as he saw a gray-haired middle-aged man lying in the crater.

"Dr. Connors!"

Peter was utterly shocked. He even began to stammer. "How could it be… How could it be him? What happened to him? How could this monster possibly be Dr. Connors????"

"I said that rapid recovery ability looked familiar." Stark raised his faceplate and walked into the crater, with Peter following behind him.

Peter spoke incoherently. "There must be some misunderstanding… Was he framed? How could he be a monster? Dr. Connors is a good teacher. He helped me so much, I…"

Stark seemed somewhat silent. The face beneath his mask was deeply exhausted, like someone who had just woken from a hangover.

The man lying on the ground moved. Peter could not spare another thought for anything else and hurried forward to support him.

Fortunately, although Lizardman had fallen from such a high floor, his rapid recovery ability had healed most of his injuries by the time he changed back into human form.

Dr. Connors turned over under his own power. His head was covered in blood, and his clothes were nearly soaked through with it. He turned toward Stark and said in a low voice, "I was only a little short… Just a little short, cough, of being able to judge you, devil…"

Stark did not mock his enemy as he usually did. He silently watched Connors.

Peter could not accept what was happening before him at all. On the verge of breaking down, he said, "What exactly is going on?? What is going on with you two? Dr. Connors, why would you… There has to be some misunderstanding here, right?"

"Peter, Peter Parker." Dr. Connors closed his eyes, his tone full of exhaustion. "Spider-Man, you ruined…"

He stopped, whether because he no longer had the strength to continue or because he no longer wanted to.

"Yes, I’m Peter… Doctor, can you tell me what exactly happened?"

Connors seemed to have completely exhausted his strength. A frail researcher no longer even had the energy to sit up.

He lay in the center of the crater and said in a dry voice, "I told you this story before, but you did not seem to listen carefully…"

"I was a captain. I once followed combat troops into war. Although I was only a field medic, I held on for sixty-three whole hours in the area under the fiercest artillery bombardment…"

"Because of that, I lost one arm and nearly all my comrades…"

"We followed their orders and held our position without retreating. Of a squad of thirty-two, only six survived. I lost an arm, and some lost both legs, but we all came back alive…"

"Compensation… Oh, yes… Of course there was compensation. They examined us, had us stay in the hospital for a while, then gave us some money. And after that, there was nothing more…"

"No one cared about the difficulties you would face continuing to live as a disabled person. No one cared that after paying the price of one arm, you could not even open a can…"

"Still less would anyone care about the pitying looks people gave you, or the impatience they showed when you could not pick something up…"

"I only wanted to change all of this. I only wanted to change all of this…"

Peter felt as though he could barely breathe. Complex emotions surged through his chest. He removed his mask and began taking deep breaths.

His eyes were red as he said, "You already changed it! We almost succeeded back then. That recovery serum really worked…"

"Yes, just a little short… I thought we were only a little short too. But later, I discovered that this little gap might be a high wall we could never cross…"

Dr. Connors’ throat moved more and more slowly as he said, "We were driven out like rats. No one cared how much change this research could bring to the scum at the bottom of society…"

"Even if I had been one minute away from success, I still would have been driven out."

He turned his head, his unfocused eyes looking at Stark. "Driven out by these devils who only care about selfish gain and profit…"

"It’s not like that, it’s not like that!" Peter knelt on one knee beside him. "There’s a misunderstanding here, I think I can…"

Peter’s voice stopped abruptly. He drew in a deep breath, then covered his face. His breathing began to tremble uncontrollably. When he realized Dr. Connors was gradually losing consciousness, he truly broke down.

"No, wait… Dr. Connors! Dr. Connors! Hold on a little longer. We’ll save you…"

Peter did not even know how he managed to say those words. Ten minutes earlier, he had wanted nothing more than to destroy this monster immediately.

What had happened was already very clear. Under pressure from the military, Stark had terminated the medical technology research partnership, preventing Dr. Connors’ rapid recovery serum project from being completed.

That was why he had become a massive lizard monster and come to take revenge on Stark.

Peter suddenly realized that if this lizard monster was Dr. Connors, then the base he had destroyed back then—could it have been the place where Dr. Connors was conducting his final research?

Had the serum failed because he destroyed that base? Had that turned Dr. Connors into this kind of monster?

A suffocating feeling swallowed Peter. Why had this happened? Why had this happened? He had only wanted to do good!

This overwhelming helplessness was a pain Peter had never experienced before.

Dr. Connors had clearly been a good man. He and his comrades had sacrificed for their country. Even after being treated unfairly, he had still actively participated in scientific research, wanting to use his intelligence to improve the lives of those people.

But Mr. Stark was also a good man. The mistake of ending the medical project partnership was not entirely his. He had defeated this lizard monster and saved other people in New York.

Peter felt that he was a good person too. The moment he saw a potentially dangerous situation, he had acted immediately.

But now, Dr. Connors lay in the crater, covered in blood, his life and death uncertain. Stark stood there silently, seeming to regard all of this as punishment for facing his own crimes, suffering deeply because of it.

Peter felt immense pain, even more painful than when that sharp blade had cut through his chest.

The teacher who had carefully guided him through his studies and the senior who had provided him with a suit and protection, teaching him all kinds of knowledge, were now standing against each other with weapons drawn.

Peter did not know whom to help. It was as though he held a double-edged sword in his hand, stabbing both of them in the chest at once. Tears had nearly soaked the collar of his Spider-Man suit.

Peter stood up. Another sunset lay before him, and in his daze, he remembered what Schiller had told him: there was no black and no white here, only a hazy Gray Mist that could not be seen clearly.

This was the true face of the world. He could not always stand on the side of justice as he had imagined.

Now he finally understood that the saddest thing in this world was not good people being defeated by bad people, but good people being defeated by good people.

There were no winners in this war between good people.

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