22 Grazing

"My dear, you should consider pulling your punches. Seriously, it's really painful. Half of the time you were punching me more than the Lizard... and it still fucking hurts."

Gwen's visage relaxed slightly as she leaned against the wall of the server. Opening her eyes halfway, she retorted, "I'll consider it when you stop calling me dear."

Peter remained silent, his gaze fixed on Gwen as he forced a grimacing smile.

"We have a deal, my dear,"

The girl released a deep, exasperated sigh, a small smile creeping onto her face. She closed her eyes momentarily before musing regretfully.

"Should have punched harder,"

For a moment silence permeated the sewers other than the guzzling sound of the murky water.

Peter cast a glance at Gwen, noticing that she had fallen asleep, her back resting against the wall.

An amused smile crept onto Peter's face as he rested his cheek on his palm, his gaze fixed on Gwen's peaceful sleeping visage.

Gently touching her nose, he couldn't help but giggle. "Cute,"

Simultaneously, Peter felt a sense of concern. He realized that Gwen's trusting nature allowed her to sleep peacefully in his presence, but he hoped she wouldn't find herself in a vulnerable situation with someone else.

However, after conducting some investigation on Gwen's body, he discovered that she had been poisoned, although the poison was relatively weak.

She would be able to digest it, and it was not life-threatening, causing only a temporary paralyzing and weakening effect.

'So that's why she fell asleep...'

Noticing sprinkles of blood on the side of her chest where she had been grazed, Peter reached into his pocket and retrieved a vial. Carefully, he collected the blood into the vial, ensuring its safe containment.

This was something Peter had planned from the beginning. He had been patiently awaiting the perfect opportunity, and when the Lizard appeared, he believed the timing couldn't have been more ideal so he quickly stol- *cough* borrowed a few glass vials from a chem equipment shop.

Standing up, Peter surveyed the sewers and the dilapidated makeshift laboratory of Dr. Connors. He silently pondered as he made his way toward the broken desk and the damp notes strewn about. "Perhaps the sewers could serve as a suitable base for my secret organization,"

He contemplated the possibilities of creating smell-blocking and sound-blocking barriers, along with an underground basement within the sewers or a similar setup.

Peter believed that with such modifications, the sewers could indeed serve as an ideal base for a secret organization.

He chuckled self-deprecatingly as his eyes fell upon a few vials of Lizard Serum. "Well, I'm no S.H.I.E.L.D. with government backing, able to afford flying around in the air with unlimited resources,"

From his pocket, Peter carefully retrieved a dying Lizard. The small creature had miraculously managed to survive thus far, but its condition was critical.

'It guided me well through the sewers. It's a cutie as well... I feel sad.'

Suddenly, an idea flashed in Peter's mind. Although uncertain of the outcome, "What if... I inject a Lizard with Lizard Serum???"

Acting swiftly, Peter retrieved the vial of Lizard Serum created by Dr. Connors. It was an incomplete version, but Peter believed that using the imperfect version wouldn't make a significant difference in this situation.

According to his theory, the incomplete Lizard Serum should only be harmful to species other than lizards. If his hypothesis proved correct, administering the Lizard Serum to the dying lizard could potentially bestow upon it the characteristics of a super soldier.

So basically, Lizard Serum was a Super Soldier Serum for Lizards.

'A Super Lizard. Haha, I like the sound of it.'

Injecting the serum into the dying lizard with haste, Peter stood there, his gaze fixed on the creature. He patiently waited, observing closely to see if any changes would occur.

As the liquid entered the lizard's body, its form convulsed several times. Wisps of smoke-like substance emanated from its mouth, creating an eerie sight. Miraculously, no significant physical transformation occurred, aside from the lizard's green skin turning translucent and its eyes taking on a hollow black appearance.

In a surprising turn of events, the lizard blinked and opened its mouth, as if expressing shock or astonishment. It then turned its gaze towards Peter, locking eyes with him.

Against all expectations, a smile began to creep across the lizard's face—an expression that seemed implausible for a creature of its kind.

A trickle of sound crept from the Lizard's mouth.

"Eep!"

Peter was pleased to see his little experiment yielding positive results. He gently rubbed the lizard's neck and even tickled it, enjoying the translucent creature's response.

He spoke with a soft smile as he gave the Lizard a small mission.

"Why don't you go and scout the sewers for me? Then we can form a map of it."

The lizard nodded with a salute as it crawled with astonishing speed, almost like a blur. After a brief pause, it turned its little head around, waving its tiny feet in a playful gesture before dashing again.

Peter couldn't contain his excitement as he murmured softly, watching the little lizard disappear into the distance.

"Super speed, huh? That suits a super-powered lizard. With its translucent body, it'll be practically undetectable. It has great potential as a spy,"

Shaking his head, Peter turned away from the lab and returned to the remains of the exploded lizard corpse.

Turns out that it is easy to escape from the insides of a Lizard. While the Lizard was hard to defeat from the outside, it was easy from the inside if one ignored the extremely toxic stomach acid and punches of Spooderwoman.

Raising his palm, Peter felt an overwhelming urge to slap it as he pointed it at the remains of the Lizard. The glove had been clamoring for a while now, eager to consume.

Black wisps escaped from the menacing mouth on Peter's palm, they enveloped and consumed the flesh of the Lizard.

A surge of euphoria coursed through Peter's body as he felt his hunger rapidly diminish and the insatiable appetite of the glove finally sate a little.

In a matter of seconds, the entire lizard corpse, once Dr. Connors, vanished without a trace. It was as if the entire ground had been cleaned, leaving no evidence of its existence behind.

Suddenly, the mouth on Peter's palm emitted a burp, and a glowing green crystal dropped from its opening. Peter's eyes widened in surprise as he carefully picked up the crystal, intrigued by its mysterious origins.

'Za fuq is this?'

Examining the glowing green crystal, Peter couldn't help but notice its striking resemblance to the drop items he had seen in RPG video games that his friends used to play.

'It's kinda warm... and cold at the same time.'

Simultaneously, five pits formed on Peter's palm, captivating his attention and diverting his focus from the crystal he had dropped.

Four of the five pits remained empty, while one contained a crystal resembling the one in his hand, but with a distinct brown coloration.

Frowning, he shifted his gaze back and forth between the enigmatic crystal and the newly formed pits.

*Boop*

Subconsciously Peter dropped the crystal into an empty pit as if his intrusive thoughts had taken over. Realizing what he had done, horror etched on his face since he had no idea about the danger of such an action.

He freaked out for a moment and then stood still, staring into the distance.

'Nothing happened.'

Then something happened.

A surge of information and knowledge flooded Peter's mind, he felt a profound sense of enlightenment wash over him. It was as if a veil had been lifted

'The green crystal symbolizes Dr. Connors... his soul captured in a crystal. Placing it into my glove has bestowed upon me two random abilities of Dr. Connors, akin to a whimsical gacha mechanism. The abilities are- Lizard Hypnotism and Lizard Transformation. It seems that other than devouring, this is one of the abilities of this mysterious glove that is stuck to my arm.'

Realization dawned upon Peter's face as he nodded. He wondered what would happen if he acquired the soul stone and used it as a source of power for the glove. However for now at least, he believed it was wishful thinking.

It would take him a heck of a long time to gather up enough power to snag the soul stone or set off on a quest to find it

'I shall call this newfound ability- Grazing.'

A smile of satisfaction played upon Peter's lips as he turned his attention to the other crystal. Carefully removing it from the confines of the glove, he held it delicately between his fingers.

However, much to his surprise, the crystal disintegrated into fine dust as soon as his touch made contact with it. The once-solid form of the crystal crumbled away.

In its place, a mesmerizing golden transparent wisp emerged, gradually coalescing into the ethereal form of a humanoid spirit.

Despite its transparency, hints of faded colors seeped into its spectral figure, giving shape to a skinny form adorned with brown hair and captivating hazel eyes with a pair of spectacles resting upon it's nose.

With a dumbfounded expression, Peter's gaze remained fixed on the apparition materializing before his eyes. A sense of recognition washed over him, for he knew this person intimately well.

A surprised utterance escaped his lips.

"Peter Parker?"