Spider-Man: Web Of Lies

EVER feel like the universe has a twisted sense of humor?

Yeah, that's pretty much my life.

I'm Peter Parker. Six months ago, a radioactive spider decided to make me its personal science experiment. Overnight, I went from awkward teen to... well, awkward teen with superpowers.

At first, I thought that bite was the moment everything changed.

I was wrong.

See, that spider gave me strength, speed, and sixth sense that puts seeing dead people to shame—it's a movie reference—Anyways, I used them to make money, thought I was helping out at home. Thought that was the reason I got these powers.

Wrong again.

The real moment that changed my life was the day I lost Uncle Ben. That's when I realized something he used to always tell me, something I didn't quite get until it was too late...

With great power comes great responsibility.

So now, I'm the "Amazing Spider-Man." Okay, amazing might be pushing it. How about the "Spectacular Spider-Man"? ...No? Alright, we'll stick with Spider-Man for now.

And what does that job entail? Usually keeping the city safe from your everyday criminals like...

"The Easter Bunny?" I mutter, swinging onto the scene. A girl in a rabbit suit is sprinting out of a bank with a bag of cash.

No way. The Easter Bunny robs banks?

I fire a web at the money bag, stopping her in her tracks. "What's up, doc?"

She turns to me, unimpressed. "Wrong rabbit, genius." Then she yanks me in by my own web and clocks me across the face.

I just got punched by a rabbit.

Awesome.

I flip backwards, dodging her next swing, and start webbing her up from all angles. She's fast, but I'm faster. Before she can finish her next insult, I have her cocooned in webbing. "Hey, what are you mmmrrfffff—"

"Silly rabbit," I grin, pulling out a scrap of paper from my backpack, "bank robberies are for felons." I say with a smile, scribbling "busted" on the scrap of paper, slapping it on her forehead, and taking out my phone for a quick selfie. "Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm late for class. Say cheese!"

She glares through the webbing, muttering angrily.

"Good enough," I say, snapping the picture just as the cops roll up. "Finally! This Spider's got a tight schedule, y'know?"

Captain Stacy steps out of his squad car. He looks at me, hand hovering near his gun. Used to be friends with his daughter, Gwen, back when things were simpler. But these days, we're not exactly in the same circles.

"You know we're going to have to bring you in for—"

"Yeah, yeah, paperwork's not really my thing," I say, firing a webline to the nearest rooftop. "You guys got this, right? Cool! See ya!"

I swing off, bouncing between rooftops.

Losing Uncle Ben taught me something I'll never forget. I hung up the wrestling suit and built myself these web-shooters. I promised to never let these powers go to waste again.

Because now, I know better.

I've got a responsibility.

And right now, that's making it to school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Peter? Peter, are you listening?"

I look up from my desk still. "Yeah. Yeah, you were talking about Lizards right?"

"Lizar—What?" Harry asks. "No, man. I was asking you if I should ask out Felicia. Is it a good idea or no? And honestly even if you say no, I'm just gonna do it."

I shrug. "I don't know. She's...Strange."

"By strange do you mean really hot? Because in that case she's really strange." Harry turns in her direction. "Super strange. Mega strange."

I look over at her sitting by herself in the back, she never really spoke much. She always kept to herself mostly. "No, I don't mean it in that way. I mean the normal strange. I mean why is she always wearing black? Why does she hide cats in her locker? Where did she even come from?"

"Don't know don't care." He says standing up. "I'm gonna go talk to her."

I chuckle lightly. "Go for it. But don't say I didn't warn you."

"You didn't."

"Oh."

We both stare at each other for a few seconds.

"Harry, don't do it."

Harry shakes his head. "Whatever. Just watch and learn Parker."

He walks over to her and places a hand on her desk, I can immediately see her face go from bored to disgusted. I can't bare to see what happens next so I turn away and try and think back to last nights fight with the lizard.

He got away. Again.

I've only been doing this Spider-Man gig for half a year now and it hasn't gotten any easier. Most of the time I'm lucky to even make it back alive, let alone on time for Aunt May's curfew. It'd make things a lot easier if the bad guys learned to stay down after the first punch. I mean, I don't think I have any more ribs left to break.

"Hey, Peter. I got someone I'd like to introduce you too." I hear from behind me.

I turn to see Harry with the girl Felicia on his side holding him with her head placed on his shoulder. "I think we've met." I say trying to avoid eye contact with her.

"Well, let me reintroduced you to my new girlfriend." He says with a smile.

"Nice to meet you." She says. "I hope we can get along." She reaches a hand out for me to shake which I take hesitantly.

"Yeah. Same." I say awkwardly.

"You got any plans tonight, Pete?" He asks me.

He knows that I don't. Well, that Peter doesn't. But Spider-Man is all booked up, and I'll give you one guess why. First name 'the' last name 'Lizard'.

Can't let him keep wondering around in the sewers aimlessly. He'll either end up hurting himself or someone else if this continues on any longer.

"Actually, I have thi—"

"Perfect! You can come by my place at nine, I wanna show Felicia that new thing we've been working on." He says holding her tighter.

"Well, like I was saying I'm actu—"

"I don't know, Harry. He seems like a busy man, probably doing someone's homework or something." She says with a sly smile.

I grit my teeth.

"No way. Peter only does my homework." He says obliviously.

Felicia purrs. "Come on, Harry. I thought it would be just you and me tonight."

"Yeah...but...Pete's my best friend. He's gotta go. Right Pete?" He asks.

How can I say no to that? He seems so—

"And also he makes a mean lasagna. So I was hoping he would cook some for our first official couple meal." He continues.

I smile defeatedly. "Yeah sure. But just for tonight."

Looks like Spider-Man has the night off.

But...is this really the right thing to do?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Peter, good to you see you. How's your aunt?"

Mr. Osborn greets us at the door, he's always so nice to me. I would kill for him as a father, he seems so genuine and caring. The money wouldn't hurt either.

"I'm good, Sir. And she's just as vibrant as ever. She's actually working on starting up her own restaurant right now." I say.

He smiles. "That's good to hear. And who may I ask is this?" He says his eyes turning towards Felicia.

Harry gently pushes her forward. "She...Dad. Is my new girlfriend."

"Hello, Sir. It's a pleasure." She says, that same sly smirk on her face.

Mr. Osborn smiles back. "The pleasures all mine. Please, come in, I was just about to get dinner started. Harry, any requests for tonight?" 

"Actually, Peter is going to be making dinner for us tonight Dad, so don't even worry yourself." Harry says nudging my back.

"Uh. Yes, Sir. Harry wanted me to make my Aunt's lasagna recipe. It's pretty popular in our neighborhood." I say sheepishly.

"Well then. Shall we—"

His phone goes off.

"Excuse me for a moment." He then moves past us and down the large parking lot that he owned in front of the mansion. Harry looks back at his father with a sense of longing, I'm sure he wants his father to spend time with him.

Honestly, I can't blame him. The guy is always busy, if he isn't at work he's in his office at home. I'm sure Harry would appreciate some father-son time.

"L-Let's get inside." Harry leads us both in and I expected to see Felicia go, 'ooo!' or 'ahh!' but she just kept that same smirk. "This is the inside. It's a lot smaller than it looks."

"It's plenty big." She says.

The door opens behind us and I see that it's Harry's father. "Son, somethings come up so I can't stay for dinner unfortunately. I hope you enjoy yourselves while you're here, if there's anything you need Harry will make sure it's provided. That goes for both of you." He says to Felicia and I.

"Thank you, Sir." I say.

"Have a good night." Felicia says.

"Y-Yeah. See you later, Dad."

Mr. Osborn nods then is out the door as quickly as he came in. Harry takes a few moments before speaking again. "Okay, we got the house to ourselves. Isn't that great?" But it seems like he was just trying to force himself to believe that. I've known Harry since we were five. I can tell when somethings bothering him.

"Pete, why don't we get started on dinner?" He says looking over at me with a smile.

"Sur-"

I get a notification on my phone. It's a police report about the Lizard, apparently he's being cornered by the police in an abandoned zoo. But...can I trust that they'll be fine?

No. No, this isn't right. He isn't as mindless as the police think. If they found him then it must've been...because he wanted them too.

"Harry, somethings come up. I've gott—"

"No way, man! You're always leaving last minute. Can't you just stick around for once? I mean my Dad already left, you can't go too." He pleads. "Come on. Please?"

This is the part of the job I hate the most.

"I'm...sorry. I'll make it up to you."

"Pete!" He yells after me, but I'm already out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's something about swinging two-hundred feet in the air that makes you really think. Maybe it's the New-York streets below, or the roar of planes above. But it gives me this sense of calming, like this is what I'm meant to be doing. But who really believes in destiny?

That doesn't matter right now, because currently I'm about to make my way towards the Seneca Park Zoo.

Where the Lizard a.k.a Doctor. Conners currently is. He was a professor at the university I was interning at. He was the nicest man, he and his wife. They also had a daughter around my age, she never really seemed interested in their work though.

They showed me all sorts of research projects that they were currently working on, It always seemed so controlled. They always told me they had everything under control. They'd work on researching how to use animal DNA to improve human life, and I always found it so fascinating.

Then one day Doctor. Connors showed me that he was working on a serum laced with Lizard DNA to regrow lost limbs. You see, the Doc had an incident a few years back and the result was a lost arm and a broken marriage, and well...the explosion that took his arm...also took his daughter.

He lost his job at Oscorp and his wife never forgave him. I don't think he ever forgave himself either. It was devastating news to hear, and I remember seeing his face the last time we'd officially spoken. It didn't seem like he was the same nice and generous man anymore.

Though how can I really blame him? He lost everything. He continued his experiments, until one day...well...you know the rest.

I finally arrive at the empty abandoned zoo, where obviously there isn't a single person. Which is good because now I won't have to worry about someone getting hurt.

Except for me.

I swing around looking for any sign of Doc Conners or the police officers. But I see none, until I happen upon a lions den where people could go to get a look at the king of the jungle. But now it's an empty cage with the metal bars ripped apart like something broke out of it, or maybe...broken into. 

I swing towards the top of a lions den and a hole leading somewhere underground is on the inside. "That doesn't look menacing at all. But that's gotta be where Conners is. And hopefully the officers as well."

I make my way down the tunnel of doom until I can finally see a light of some kind. Once I get there I can see four bodies on the ground, they're the police officers. Their bodies are being...eaten by a multitude of small lizards.

"B-Back off!" I yell, stomping around the lizards in puddles of what I can only assume is sewer water. "Get away from them!" The lizards scamper off leaving me with the corpses of the officers.

Their bodies unrecognizable. I lift up my mask puking on the ground, it's one of the worst sights I've ever seen. It's the reality of fighting against these kinds of people, I want to save everyone...but sometimes...you can't.

"I should've...I should've gotten here sooner."

I kneel down closing the eyes of the officers...well the ones that still have some to close.

I grab the flashlight that was still on and continue down the dark tunnel. My heart was racing, I wanted to run away and go hang with Harry.

But I know that if I did more people would end up hurt or even worse dead. There's scratch marks all along the sides of the tunnel wall, and chunks of meat and bones which I can only hope aren't people.

It doesn't take long for me to reach the end of the tunnel and enter some sort of work space, there's an old desk with a computer and vials of god knows what just sitting in the middle of a pitch black room. There are papers littered everywhere.

I wonder what they're for.

I check the paper seeing exactly what's written on it, some sort of formula, a formula I'm guessing that's to perfect the lizard transformation. But there are also photos of the inside of people. More specifically their organs, why would these types of photos be lying around? A menu? It makes me sick just thinking about it.

That's when I feel something slimy begin to wrap itself around my neck. I try to move but then the slimy thing tightens it's grip around me and squeezes my neck choking me.

I grab the slimy thing using all my strength to pull it down from wherever it came from slamming it hard on the ground. The grip of it loosens as the main body comes crashing down to the concrete, and I can see that when it begins to stand up...It's the lizard.

He towers above me his teeth foaming with blood, and his eyes glowing an intense yellow. His torn lab coat still on his body and his pants in the same condition.

"Not...yet...." He says. "Not....done...yet."

"Doctor Conners? Wh-What have you done? Do you realize how many people you've killed?!" I scream. "You have to turn yourself in! Think about Vanessa...what would she..."

He charges at me slamming me into a wall before slicing at my chest with his razor like finger nails. I could feel the blood begin to trickle from my suit and onto the ground beneath. "That's gonna sting for a while." I say painfully.

He tries to swing at me again but I shoot a web into his eyes blocking his eyesight, I use this opportunity to slide through his legs webbing his back and pulling him down hard on the floor. He stands up quickly hissing at me, then charging once more.

I charge right back at him jumping right before we collide landing my foot in his face using the momentum to bounce back from him a bit then webbing him and launching myself right towards his chest this time with a double kick in the gut. I hit him with an uppercut breaking a few of his fangs in the process.

"I won't let you hurt anyone else!" I say as he leans against the wall for support after that last punch.

"How...about....you?" He growls.

"Uhm." I say but he's already charging at me, I move to evade but he's got my leg and bites down onto it causing me to scream in pain.

I use my other foot to crack his jaw which releases his grip on me and I put a few feet of distance between us. But he closes them in seconds and tackled me through the concrete wall and into another part of the tunnel.

He uses his tail to hold me by my neck, I try and pry it off but he begins throwing punches into my chest which causes blood to erupt from my mouth and all over my mask.

"Doctor...Connors..." I say weakly. "You have...to stop..."

He releases me from his tail grabbing me by the throat with his hands. I try to fight back but at this point all my strength has left me. He peels back my mask and takes a look at my face. His reptilian eyes widen as he realizes who I am.

"Pe...ter...." He says. "Pet...er..."

He drops me to the ground.

"Peter...Peter..." He says his hands clutching the top of his head. "Can't...kill...should...kill..." He looks up at me roaring with the might of ten lions before running back through the hole he smashed me through and out of sight.

I just lay on the ground in a pool of my own blood. "Yeah..." I cough. "You better run..."