Captured

He thought of a trick.

Since he couldn't use webbing to stop Doctor Lizard, he could use it to speed himself up, right?

As for how to speed up—

Web Jump!

After entering another straight stretch, Peter seized the opportunity and fired two strands of webbing at once.

Doctor Lizard had been watching Peter's movements behind him. Seeing him fire webs, he immediately dodged.

But this time, Peter had never been aiming at him.

The two webs stuck to opposite walls. Peter yanked hard with both hands, adding the explosive force of his legs.

In an instant, his speed more than doubled!

Doctor Lizard was horrified.

But he had just finished dodging and couldn't readjust that quickly.

Thud!

Peter slammed directly into Doctor Lizard's back.

Man and lizard crashed out of the passage and rolled into a heap.

By Peter's design, Doctor Lizard had been struck right in the spine.

His regenerative ability was formidable, but the spine was the neural center of vertebrates!

No matter how strong that regenerative ability was, as long as he remained a biological creature, he had to obey the basic laws of biology.

That blow was practically fatal.

Peter had shown no mercy.

He had already made up his mind. On one side was a villain about to endanger more than eight million people across the city; on the other were eight million innocent New York City residents.

What was there to choose?

Most people should have been able to make that decision.

The Peter of the past had simply been too young, too ruled by emotion, and far too indecisive!

"Mercy is for kind people. Showing mercy to evildoers is violence against the good!"

Peter didn't get up. He pinned Doctor Lizard down with his lower body, pressed his left hand against Doctor Lizard's head, then swung his right fist and hammered his head several times.

Doctor Lizard's skull was dented inward as he let out weak, helpless hisses.

But Peter was using tremendous force now.

Even at full strength, Doctor Lizard only possessed a few tons of force.

Peter, on the other hand, had over ten tons of strength even though Amazing Spider-Man had yet to reach his peak!

The several-ton gap in strength made Doctor Lizard seem like a frail child before Peter, unable to move at all.

After taking several punches in a row, Doctor Lizard was dazed and dizzy, as though he had suffered a concussion.

Peter stuck his head down with webbing, then turned his gaze to Doctor Lizard's tail. With a forceful pull, he ripped it off again.

Congratulations, Spider-Man! You have obtained the title: Tail Ripper!

If this were a game, it would probably unlock an achievement like that.

He wanted to see whether repeatedly ripping off Doctor Lizard's tail would force him to constantly expend energy regenerating it, rapidly draining the potency of the Lizard Serum in his body.

If that worked, perhaps Doctor Connors could return to human form.

However, after waiting for quite a while, Peter saw no sign of the tail regenerating.

It seemed the tail's rapid regeneration was actively controlled by Doctor Lizard rather than being an automatic bodily response.

And now, whether Doctor Lizard was truly unconscious or merely pretending, he clearly wouldn't voluntarily regenerate his tail anytime soon.

Doctor Lizard: Are you seriously farming achievements off me?

Peter turned Doctor Lizard around, wrapped him up tightly once more, and dragged him toward where he had left his camera.

The city sewers formed a complicated network, and their basic layout was all but identical.

Fortunately, the ground bore traces of their fight all along the way, allowing Peter to find the path back.

After locating the camera, Peter first put away his phone and backpack, then turned on the camera to record a video of Doctor Lizard and take several photos.

This was one of Amazing Spider-Man's sources of income. He could sell them to the Daily Bugle.

After finishing everything, Peter sat down nearby again and waited for Doctor Lizard to wake up.

He believed that after all that punishment, Doctor Lizard no longer had the ability to resist.

Even if some of the serum's effects remained, there couldn't have been much left!

Before handing Doctor Lizard over to Captain Stacy, he still needed to get some additional information from him.

"Spider-Man." Doctor Lizard's voice came from the ground. With his face pressed downward, it sounded somewhat muffled.

But Peter's hearing was good, so he didn't mind.

"Doctor Lizard." Peter returned the greeting.

"Do you know that I'm doing this for humanity's progress? Stopping me makes you a sinner against humanity." Unable to resist, Doctor Lizard began rambling again.

"Mm, you're right. I'm a sinner." Peter felt there was no way to communicate with Doctor Lizard.

He understood now. In this state, the doctor was Doctor Lizard. Though he retained his reason, he was extreme, stubborn, and impossible to communicate with.

So Peter waited for the doctor to return to human form.

"Survival of the fittest, natural selection!"

"I can save them! Save everyone!"

Doctor Lizard continued raging impotently.

But his voice grew quieter and quieter, and his strength increasingly weakened.

Anyone could hear that he was all bark and no bite.

About half an hour later, Peter noticed Doctor Lizard's body beginning to shrink. Chunks of grime fell to the ground—cells that had died from not receiving energy to regenerate.

The tightly binding webbing also began to loosen.

At last, Doctor Lizard completely reverted to a human face.

Doctor Connors's face!

"Doctor Connors?" Peter called out tentatively.

"Spider-Man." Doctor Connors blinked, rolled over, and stood up from the webbing.

"Do you remember what you did?" Peter asked.

"Of course I remember! Why did you stop me?" Doctor Connors demanded.

Peter's mouth fell open.

It's over. The genes got into his brain. He's beyond saving.

Peter sighed and fired a strand of webbing.

This time, one strand was enough to tie Doctor Connors up.

Afterward, Peter found a small retail shop by the roadside and used its phone to call the police. He also asked the owner for some clothes for Doctor Connors.

Though he was guilty, he was still a renowned scholar. Letting him run naked through the streets would have been downright cruel.

When the other party learned that Spider-Man was the one reporting it—and that he had captured the Lizard-Man—they were clearly stunned.

But Captain Stacy soon arrived in person with his men.

Peter brought Doctor Connors out of the sewers and personally handed him over to Captain Stacy.

Although Doctor Connors had already reverted from his Lizard-Man state, the lizard genes had affected him. His face and body still bore many obvious, bumpy patches of lizard-like skin.

Combined with Spider-Man's absolute certainty, Captain Stacy decided to take Doctor Connors back to the station for questioning first.

He also "invited" Peter along, but Peter obviously wasn't about to go to the police station with him, so he slipped away.