The War of Good People (Part Two)

Although the Lizardman wanted to run away, Peter couldn't just let the monster leave. If he were to break through to the ground, given his size, New York would be thrown into chaos.

As soon as the Lizardman turned to run back, Peter struggled to his feet and scrambled up the wall to follow the monster.

Peter had a pretty good sense of direction. He had been wandering around the sewers for so many days and remembered the routes very clearly. He estimated that the Lizardman didn't seem to be running around randomly, but was heading in a certain direction with a purpose.

Where is he going? What is he going there to do? What exactly is going on?

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

The Lizardman ran ahead, with Peter chasing behind. Perhaps the scientist hadn't figured out the dimensions of the sewers, because the monster he created was a bit too big, so much so that it had to duck while running. Although the ceilings of the New York sewers were over ten meters high, the Lizardman could only move forward by bending over in some of the narrower passages.

This gave Peter a good opportunity to delay his actions. Taking advantage of the Lizardman's inconvenience, Peter blocked his leg with a Silk. However, the monster seemed to retain some intelligence and was not tripped by the Silk. Instead, he shrank his body and stepped over it.

Peter, having failed with his first plan, devised another. He wrapped Silk around the Lizardman's neck, hoping to use the momentum to knock him down. But the Lizardman wasn't fooled. As soon as he was entangled in the Silk, he grabbed the section of Silk and swung Spider-Man away again.

This time, Spider-Man learned his lesson. He rolled on the ground as he landed and immediately stood up again. He realized that he lacked experience in dealing with such huge monsters, since no robber or thief was four or five meters tall.

Moreover, besides its claws, the Lizardman's most important weapon is its huge tail. With a sweep of its tail, Peter was slammed against the wall. Spider-Man, who did not expect the monster to change its moves, was hit hard by the sweeping blow.

Fortunately, he had plenty of energy and a strong ability to recover, and soon he caught up with the Lizardman again.

Peter discovered that to deal with this monster, he really had to lure it to the surface. Although the sewers were somewhat disadvantageous for such a huge monster, Spider-Man didn't have much room to maneuver. The entire sewer space was completely filled by the monster, and he couldn't even surround it with his Silk.

Moreover, as the monster's direction of travel became clearer, Peter realized that it seemed to be heading towards Stark Tower.

Peter knew this all too well; he usually walked along this path to his internship after exploring the sewers.

Peter couldn't figure out what the monster was trying to do, but he knew he couldn't let it just rush onto the ground and into Stark Tower. Stark was in bad shape right now, and might still be drunk. If he couldn't pilot the Jaeger, the hundreds or thousands of employees in the tower would be in great danger.

As Peter was thinking this, the monster realized that instead of moving through the sewers, it would be better to run to the surface. So it jumped hard onto the nearest manhole cover.

The Lizardman was no bigger than a manhole cover; he crashed through the road and sped off, with Peter close behind.

Suddenly, a monster emerged from the ground, causing chaos on the road. More than a dozen cars behind slammed on their brakes and crashed together, creating a violent explosion.

Spider-Man wanted to rush to the rescue, but seeing the giant monster speeding towards Stark Tower on a car, 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 and then called Steve, saying, "Captain! Come and organize traffic! A monster has run past! It's on the main road east of Stark Tower, and there are people here who need rescue!!"

Just as he was about to continue calling Schiller, he saw the Lizardman in front of him leap and land directly in the parking lot surrounding Stark Tower.

Peter had to hurry and follow. His Silk stuck to the glass wall of another building in Stark Tower, and he swung down quickly, kicking the Lizardman in the neck.

The enormous monster staggered, but managed to maintain its balance using its tail.

He reached out to grab Spider-Man, but the Stark Industries building consisted of five or six buildings arranged in a surrounding structure, which provided Peter with the best opportunity to utilize his mobility.

Seeing the Lizardman reach out, Peter another spider Silk to swing past him. Turning around, he used another Silk to stick to the Lizardman down.

The Lizardman swung his arm forcefully, breaking free from the Silk, and then rushed into the interior of Stark Tower.

The Stark Tower has a complex internal structure, but because the building is so large, each floor is also very tall, allowing the Lizardman to move around freely inside.

Although Peter's communications were not answered by Stark, Jarvis was at least awake. Upon hearing that monsters were coming, Jarvis immediately activated the safety protocol, evacuated most of the staff, and activated all available protective measures, which effectively delayed the Lizardman's actions.

However, the final security agreement requires Stark's authorization. Without this agreement, many permanently sealed security doors cannot be closed, and many weapons of mass destruction cannot be used. Although the Lizardman's progress has been slowed down, they still do not have an effective means to deal with him.

Spider-Man also realized that he seemed to lack some powerful attack methods. During the chase of the Lizardman inside the building, he knocked the Lizardman down several times and even tripped him a few times with his Silk. However, the big guy was too tough. Peter a few times, and the Lizard Man just shook his head.

This monster seemed to have superhuman regenerative abilities. Peter used the falling shards of glass to cut off a section of its tail, intending to sever its arm first. Without its tail, the Lizardman would have much more difficulty maintaining its balance.

Before Peter take any further action, the Lizardman's tail grew out rapidly.

Peter swung back and forth on the ceiling on his Silk, trying to use words to attract attention and distract the person from climbing up.

"Hey, big guy! Where did you buy your super glue? Look here, your spider daddy is going to kick you like this!"

Peter swung down quickly again, intending to kick the Lizardman in the chest. However, the Lizardman had learned his lesson. As soon as Peter swung over, he dodged to the side, grabbed Peter's foot, spun him around a few times, and then threw Peter away.

Peter knocked over a bunch of desks and then flew out through the glass of the floor-to-ceiling window.

Fortunately, he did a somersault in mid-air, a Silk stuck to the wall, and he swung back through the broken window on the other side, before kicking the Lizardman in the back.

Although Peter learned a lot of fighting skills from Steve, he is now only slightly better than throwing wild punches. He has learned to use Silk to increase his mobility and then use gravity and inertia to enhance his strength.

While this tactic couldn't completely subdue the Lizardman, it did effectively slow him down. After all, Peter was strong enough that a single kick would cause the Lizardman to stagger, and a follow-up punch would leave the monster dazed for quite some time.

The two raced and chased, advancing layer by layer, interfering with each other's progress. Finally, the Lizardman reached the upper floors of Stark Tower. Spider-Man shouted in exasperation, "Jarvis, Mr. Stark, how much longer? Can you hurry up?"

"I am initiating emergency wake-up procedures..."

"What emergency call..."

Before Peter could finish speaking, a deafening roar came from inside Stark Tower.

It was a rock music player with a volume of at least 100 decibels, and the huge sound waves made Spider-Man and the Lizardman tumble over.

"Is this the emergency wake-up method you were talking about?! Couldn't you have given him a headset?! This is just indiscriminate attack!!!" Peter shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice was drowned out by the loud music.

Jarvis turned up his own volume, saying, "Mr. Stark hates noise!!!! This will effectively sober him up!!!"

Jarvis had barely finished speaking when a mech flew in through the hole in the window. Stark was yelling at the top of his lungs, "Enough!!!! Turn it off!!! I'm awake!!!"

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

Spider-Man, still reeling from the ringing in his ears, yelled at the top of his lungs, "Jarvis!!! I have to say!!! This is your most effective weapon!!!"

Stark didn't have time for trash talk, since it was his own building that was being demolished. He immediately went for a full-power sprint and slammed the Lizardman out of Stark Tower.

The floors here are quite high; if a lizard were to fall, unless it could grow wings, it would definitely be smashed to pieces.

But this monster seemed to have good balance. While in the air, he flicked his tail, hitting Stark's mech, then rolled and hung on the edge of the window. With a push of his arm, he jumped up again and then leaped forward back to the center of the battlefield.

Stark seemed to have just sobered up and was still a bit dazed. He was slapped by the Lizardman and it took him a while to get up.

Spider-Man kept harassing the Lizardman from the sidelines, while Stark connected with Spider-Man's communication and began to formulate a battle plan.

"Listen, we'll drive it to the rooftop, then I'll use another mech to launch a sneak attack and shoot it off the roof. It shouldn't be able to fly, right?"

"No, if he were, he wouldn't be here anymore. But his super-fast regeneration is a problem; he might not die even if he falls."

"But he is absolutely incapable of moving."

Without further ado, Peter and Stark weaved back and forth, both of them incredibly agile. Stark also had control of the firepower inside Stark Tower, and with his palm cannon, they chased the Lizardman all the way to the rooftop.

On the rooftop, Stark stood at the edge of the building, continuously firing projectiles at the Lizardman. The Lizardman completely ignored Spider-Man's constant harassment and charged straight at Stark.

Stark feigned an opening and lowered his altitude. As expected, the Lizardman leaped up and grabbed Iron Man's mecha. Iron Man used the momentum to pull him off the roof, and the two began to fall together.

Stark originally intended to lure him to the edge so he could knock him away with another mech, but the monster was too fast and grabbed Iron Man's mech in one go.

The Lizardman was incredibly strong, and the mech quickly burst into flames. Stark yelled from inside, "Jarvis! Discharge!"

"Sir, you can't discharge electricity now. If the mecha is destroyed, you will fall to your death from such a height."

The two plummeted downwards, the whistling wind ringing in Stark's ears. Stark shouted, "Discharge immediately! Destroy the mech! Eject me! Someone will catch me!"

Jarvis paused for a second, and then the entire mech began to erupt with intense electric light. The pain from the electric shock caused the Lizardman to let go, and the mech exploded in a burst of electricity. The cockpit was ejected, and Stark was completely separated from the mech, falling to the ground together with it in mid-air.

Rather than saying the height was too high, it's more accurate to say that the time it took to fall saved Stark's life. A Silk swung over, and Spider-Man caught Stark as he was falling.

Soon, the wreckage of the exploding mech and the Lizardman crashed to the ground together.

Amidst the rising dust, Spider-Man lowered Stark down. It was truly a close call; falling from such a height, if he had actually hit the ground, even God couldn't have saved him.

Soon, the dust and smoke from the explosion dissipated, and the huge monster landed in a crater. All four of its limbs seemed to be broken, and its internal organs were probably turned into a mess.

But his Superman regenerative abilities continued to work, and within a few breaths, the twisted bones gradually returned to their normal position. Spider-Man exclaimed, "My God! He can even recover from this! This is practically a medical miracle!"

Stark squinted and said, "This is indeed a medical miracle..."

"We need to subdue him quickly, or things will get really bad if we wait until he recovers."

As Spider-Man was about to walk forward, another mech flew in from mid-air. Stark armed himself and blocked his way, saying, "This Self-Healing ability consumes energy, and his energy should be almost depleted. Let's see what he really looks like."

Stark seemed to be implying something, leaving Spider -Spider-Man somewhat confused. What was the Lizardman's true identity? A giant lizard?

Peter said, "A few days ago, I found someone doing experiments in the sewers. This monster must be the product of his experiments. We need to catch him and then find the real culprit."

Peter was explaining to Stark how he found those traces in the sewers and then encountered this monster. He glanced into the pit and noticed that the monster seemed to be shrinking. In just a short while, it had shrunk to about the size of a normal person.

Then the green color and lizard-like features on his body began to fade, Peter gradually opened his eyes. He saw that lying in the large pit was a middle-aged man with gray hair.

"Dr. Connors!"

Peter was utterly shocked; he even stammered, "How could it be... How could he be? What happened to him? How could this monster be Dr. Connors???"

"I knew this super-fast regeneration ability looked familiar." Stark raised his visor and walked into the pit, with Peter following behind him.

Peter stammered, "There might be some misunderstanding... Was he framed? How could he be a monster? Dr. Connors was a great teacher, he helped me a lot, I..."

Stark appeared somewhat silent, his face looking extremely haggard, as if he had just woken up from a hangover.

The man lying on the ground stirred, Peter, without thinking twice, rushed over to help him up.

Fortunately, although the Lizardman fell from such a high floor, his super-fast regenerative ability allowed his wounds to heal almost completely before he could return to human form.

Dr. Connors rolled over on his own, his head covered in blood, his clothes almost completely soaked. He turned to Stark and said in a low voice, "I was just a little bit... just a little bit, cough, away from judging you, you devil..."

Stark did not mock his enemies as he usually did; he silently looked at Connors.

Peter completely unable to accept the situation. He said, on the verge of collapse, "What on earth is going on? What's going on between you two? Dr. Connors, why are you... There must be some misunderstanding here, right?"

"Peter, Peter Parker." Dr. Connors closed his eyes, his voice filled with exhaustion. "Spider-Man, you've ruined him..."

He stopped, whether out of exhaustion or unwillingness to continue, it was unclear.

"Yes, I am Peter... Dr., can you tell me what's going on?"

Connors seemed to be completely exhausted; the frail researcher didn't even have the strength to sit up.

He lay in the center of the large pit, his voice hoarse as he said, "I told you this story before, but you didn't seem to be listening..."

"I'm a captain. I've served in the war with my unit. Although I was just a medic, I held out for a full sixty-three hours in the area under the heaviest artillery fire..."

"For this, I lost an arm and almost all of my comrades..."

"We obeyed their orders and held our ground. Of the 32 men in the squad, only 6 survived. I lost an arm, and others lost both legs, but we all came back alive..."

"Compensation... oh yes... of course there was compensation. They gave us medical checkups, had us hospitalized for a while, and then gave us some money. And then, that was it..."

"No one cares about the difficulties you face in continuing your life as a disabled person, no one cares about the embarrassing situation you're in after losing an arm, where you can't even open a can..."

"And no one will care about the pitying looks they give you, or their impatience when you can't carry things..."

"I just want to change all of this, I just want to change all of this..."

Peter felt a little suffocated, and complex emotions surged in his chest. He took off the hood and began to breathe heavily.

His eyes were red-rimmed as he said, "You've changed everything! We almost succeeded; that recovery serum really works..."

"Yes, it was so close... I thought it was so close too, but then I realized that this one point might be an insurmountable wall..."

Dr. Connors's voice grew increasingly slow as he said, "We're being driven away like rats, and nobody cares how much change this research will actually bring to these scum of the earth..."

"Even if I'm just one minute away from succeeding, I'll still be kicked out."

He turned his head, his somewhat lifeless eyes looking at Stark, and said, "Be driven out by these devils who only care about their own interests and profits..."

"No, no!" Peter knelt down beside him and said, "There's a misunderstanding here, I think I can..."

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

"No, wait... Dr. Connors! Dr. Connors! Hold on a little longer, we'll save you..."

Peter didn't even know how he could have said such a thing. Just ten minutes ago, he couldn't wait to destroy the monster.

The situation is now clear: Stark, under pressure from the military, terminated his medical technology research and development collaboration with them, preventing Dr. Connors's rapid recovery serum project from being completed.

Therefore, it transformed into a giant lizard monster, seeking revenge against Stark.

Peter suddenly realized that if the lizard monster was Dr. Connors, then the stronghold he destroyed was the place where Dr. Connors conducted his final research.

Was it because he destroyed that base that the serum failed? And that's what turned Dr. Connors into this monster?

A feeling of suffocation overwhelmed Peter. Why was this happening? Why was this happening? He was just trying to do a good deed!

This feeling of extreme helplessness was a pain Peter had never experienced before.

Dr. Connors was clearly a good man. He and his comrades had sacrificed their lives for their country. Even after being treated unfairly, he continued to actively participate in scientific research, hoping to improve the lives of these people through his intelligence.

Mr. Stark was also a good man; the mistake of terminating the medical project wasn't entirely his. He defeated the lizard monster and saved the rest of New York.

Peter felt he was a good person; he had acted immediately upon seeing potential dangers.

But now, Dr. Connors lies in the crater, covered in blood, his life hanging in the balance. Stark stands there silently, seemingly taking it all as a punishment for his crimes, and is suffering greatly because of it.

Peter felt immense pain, even more so than when the sharp blade had pierced his chest.

The teacher who meticulously guided him on his academic journey, and the senior who provided him with armor and protection and taught him various kinds of knowledge, were now at odds with him.

Peter didn't know who to help, like a double-edged sword he was holding, simultaneously stabbing them in the chest, his tears almost soaking the collar of his Spider-Man suit.

Peter stood up, facing yet another sunset. In a daze, he remembered Schiller's words: there was neither black nor white here, only a hazy, indistinct Gray Mist.

This is the true nature of the world; he cannot always stand on the side of justice as he imagines.

Now he finally understands that the most tragic thing in this world is not that good people are defeated by bad people, but that good people are defeated by good people.

There are no winners in this war between good people.

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