10 Chapter 10: Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man!

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Giant lizard attack the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Lizard attack Midtown High School.

Those were the news. The news Edward watched, his fists clenched, ready to punch the TV in pieces.

The first attack happened on a Sunday. Edward was eating dinner with Diana when he saw the news, a giant lizard about two meters tall had appeared on the Brooklyn Bridge and killed several people, and injured tens of others, only to be stopped by a guy in spandex.

Two weeks ago he had seen one of their serum was missing, and he reported it to Connors, but he didn't have any news since then, so he didn't think much of it and continued with the testing. Actually, their serum was showing incredible results, they tried on human tissues and everything seemed fine… until they waited for a week. As it turned out, the mutation would take place after a week.

It was nothing, just a minor setback they would have to get over to finally finish their serum. But that night, that Sunday, when he saw the giant lizard on the news, he understood immediately.

The serum that disappeared, that giant lizard was the thief. And since Connors hadn't come at work for the whole week, nor did his wife, Edward already knew who stole the serum.

To say he was angry would be an understatement. They had been working so hard for several months, no, Connors worked hard for his whole life for this serum, and now everything would crash down because Connors couldn't wait a fucking month.

If he could guess the identity of the thief, then he held no doubt Osborn would too. Soon, the news would leak and everyone would know that the monster ravaging the city was the one working on the serum.

Maybe Osborn wouldn't care, which was debatable, but the board of directors were sure to shut down the progress, which meant Edward was now unemployed, and his work on the past months was for nothing. Went down into the trash for nothing. The worse was, he didn't only destroy Edward's future, he destroyed the entire team's future with his action. It would be a miracle if anyone wanted to hire them in the future.

That's why he wasn't even surprised the next day when mister Osborn himself came to him, firing him for 'creating' a monster, although he made it pretty clear those weren't his words.

Anyway, on that Monday, he lost his job, any kind of reputation he could have gathered as a scientist, and a friend. Because he became a monster and attacked a fucking school. A. SCHOOL!

That afternoon when he came back home and saw the school was attacked, he decided to put an end to all of this, Connors had lost his mind and needed to be stopped. That spandex guy, Spiderman he believed was his name, was fine, but he was obviously outmatched by the Lizard, the name the media gave to Connors.

However, just leaving like that was dumb, he had no chance of finding him in the city, so he left his apartment and began walking around the city, listening to the different news channel with his headphones.

And finally, when night came and he was about to go back home, Connors finally surfaced. He was in the middle of the city, in Manhattan, spreading a gas that turned people into monsters similar to him.

As soon as he knew, he started running toward toward Time Square, it was quite the advantage to have the news channel's helicopter flying above the scene.

Thankfully, by the time he arrived, Connors was still spreading his gas around, meaning he wasn't too late. He went into a small deserted alley, changed into his costume and went to confront Connors.

But as he came back, he saw Spiderman, the guy from the bridge and the school, fighting against the monsters, doing his best to fight them all. The guy was obviously strong, he could send the monsters flying as he wished, but he lacked fighting skills. And yet, he was capable of dodging the attacks.

As he watched him, Edward couldn't help but be reminded of himself, that was exactly how he fought back when he first awakened his powers. But now wasn't the time, so he activated his Chi Sense and entered the fray.

As he did he found something surprising, quite shocking actually, but he stayed mute and knocked out the monsters surrounding Spider-Man in a few seconds.

Spider-Man looked at him and said "Wow, you look cool!" Edward couldn't help but roll his eyes, he knew who this Spider-Man was, he was Peter Parker, the middle school student from Oscorp. It was quite shocking seeing someone so young fighting, but he seemed to have great powers.

He immediately knew it was him despite the mask because everyone had a unique presence, and so Edward recognized Spider-Man's presence as he used his Chi Sense. But what made him roll his eyes was his voice, he didn't even change it.

His armor naturally giving him a deeper tone, he said "We need to stop him before he does any more damage, and neutralize the infected. Take care of the infected, I will take care of the Lizard."

However, Spider-Man protested as he said "Wait, I can take care of him too!" Without looking back, Edward said "We already saw what happened the first two times."

Then, he ran toward the Lizard, leaving an embarrassed Peter behind. He stopped thinking about the kid, he could do well on his own, he had a tough fight ahead of him.

From what he saw, the Lizard was stronger, faster and more resilient than him, meaning he would have to rely on his skill to defeat him. Thankfully, although the Lizard seemed to have retained some intelligence, it fought like a beast, whom Edward had learned to fight. Ben, or Bronze Tiger, fought exactly like that, like a beast, like a tiger.

Some of the other hybrids tried to attack him, but Peter would fire webs at them and get them out of his way, allowing Edward to reach Connors. When he saw Edward in his costume, Connors growled as he said "We are there so many of you trying to stop me! I am trying to make humanity better!"

Edward dodged the Lizard's deadly claws and kicked his knee as he said "Better? Are those mindless beasts really that good?"

The Lizard swiped his arm, forcing Edward back as he growled "You understand nothing! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

Edward ducked under another attack and dealt an uppercut to the Lizard's jaw, before using his elbow to strike his solar plexus. This stunned the Lizard, and allowed Edward to swipe at his legs, making the two meters tall monster fall, breathless.

He tried to strike Edward with his claws, but he had become slow and weak, and it was with ease that Edward broke both of his shoulders, incapacitating his arms. Lizards were good at regenerating limbs, but even for him healing his shoulders should take at least some hours, and without his claws he only had his teeth. He used one last kick to knock out the Lizard, long enough for the police to take him in.

As he turned around though, he saw that all the hybrids had been taken care of, Peter stretching on top of their bodies "You took your time!" Although he said that, Edward could see several scratch marks on him, some seemed pretty deep.

He clicked his tongue and said "Come on Mr Parker, time to go home." As he said that, Spider-Man froze, before he stuttered "Pa-Parker? Who is that? I, I'm Spider-Man!"

Edward rolled his eyes and said "Whatever boy. Are you really going back home covered in injuries? Do your parents even know what you are doing?"

Peter didn't answer and instead looked away, so Edward said "Come on, go change and meet me in that alley back there."

Peter suddenly crossed his arms against his torso as he said "What do you want to do to me?!" Edward rolled his eyes and said "Piss off kid."

With that said, Edward walked toward said alley, and a few minutes later, Peter appeared, this time in civilian clothes, and he couldn't see a trace of his injuries. However, Peter couldn't hide his limp and how he would wince everytime he walked.

Edward, who was still in his suit, said "Can you even walk?" Peter nodded, looking at Edward up and down. The later smiled and had the Armor of the Ancients turn back into his eyes, while Peter watched with a wide opened mouth.

Edward smirked and said "Come on, let's go." He began walking away, and Peter followed him as he asked "How? Nanobots? Or is it…"

Edward stopped him as he said "Magic. Now, hurry up before I leave you behind." Peter obviously had a lot of questions, but he kept them to himself. They didn't take long to reach his apartment, and he said "Come, I know someone who can help you."

As he walked up the stairs, he saw Diana, waiting for him at the doorstep with a smile. But when she saw Peter her face turned into a frown as she asked "Why isn't he at the hospital?" Edward looked back at Peter, who had awkwardly raised his hand to say hello but immediately dropped it, and said "Come on Diana, you are scaring the kid. You probably were watching the news?"

Diana nodded, and said "Don't tell me this is Spider-Man?" Edward grinned and said "Touché. He didn't even intend on going to the hospital, so I figured you could help the boy. You are better than any doctor in my eyes."

Diana smiled at his words as she said "Alright, come on in." Edward patted Peter's shoulder and said "Come on boy." Peter nodded wordlessly, following them inside.

As Diana began bandaging Peter, she asked "Were you at Oscorp all day Edward?" Edward shook his head though and said "With the shit Connors did, I got fired. And he attacked a school earlier this day, so I spent most of the day searching for him to stop his madness."

Diana abruptedly stopped as she asked "You lost your job?" Edward nodded and said "And I don't think I can even find another one… Actually, I have been thinking about this all day, and I think I found the solution."

Diana went back to bandaging Peter and said "I'm listening." She personally didn't care whether Edward was working or not, she had enough money to provide for the two of them, but she knew Edward would be bored out of his mind if he didn't find a job, and he probably would feel guilty.

Edward said "Connors turned many people into hybrids, like Barbara, and he used the formula he used on the rats, and we had long made serums to reverse the process. Although those serums will need a few changes, those are fundamental to change them back into humans and not kill them. But since Oscorp completely shut down the project, I am the only one left who knows how to change those people back into humans."

Diana raised an eyebrow and asked "So your idea was?" Edward grinned as he said "No one will be willing to employ me, so I am going to start my own company. I will first create the anti serum to earn back some reputation, and more importantly help those people, before finishing my work and creating a working serum."

Peter, who had remained silent until now, said "Sir, are you searching for an assistant?" Edward and Diana both looked at the boy with surprise, and Edward said "Well, I didn't think you would ask. In fact, I do indeed need one. You would come in handy, because I can't just let you continue what you are doing."

As he said that, Peter's face changed.

Author's Note: Just posted the 30th chapter on Patréon, and I have to say it is quite the interesting chapter. The title is Vikings, and quite the interesting character has just appeared! If you are curious, you can head to my Patréon, which I invite you to do!