Chapter Text
“It’s okay,” he said. “Harry, it’s just me, Peter. It’s okay.”
Harry moved fast, a lot faster than what Peter had thought he could do in his state. He was ramming into Peter, sending them both crashing to the ground.
Whatever was happening to Harry, was pretty much what happened to Elijah. They had the same wild look in their eyes, the same rapid breathing, and heart rate. The only difference was their appearance, Harry still looked human. Letting out a grunt when his back hit the wall, he turned as Connors let out a laugh.
“You can’t talk to him, Peter. You need to fight him.”
Peter pushed at Harry’s shoulders, sending him back just enough for Peter to move up, skittering up the wall. Harry couldn’t climb, but that didn’t stop him from trying to. Peter watched as his hands grasped at the walls but found no purchase.
“Come on Spider-man,” Connors shouted out, sounding annoyed. “What kind of hero runs and hides?”
While Harry wasn’t making any progress getting up the wall, it didn’t deter him at all and began to throw themselves against it. The wall shook, but Peter wasn’t slipping, not even an inch, from his spot right below the ceiling. He looked around, trying to figure out what was his best chance at getting out.
Connors continued to taunt him, practically begging Peter to fight Harry, sounding more and more annoyed that he wasn’t willing to participate. The walls started to shake with each movement and Peter began to be concerned about Harry, who now resorted to slamming his head against the wall.
“Shit,” Peter cursed, letting himself fall to the ground behind Harry. “Come on Harry,” he called. “Don’t do that dude, you’re going to hurt yourself.”
Harry rounded on him, blood pouring down from a cut above his hairline, running down his face into his eyes and beyond. He didn’t look bothered, or in pain but Peter didn’t want to risk it. Harry came towards him and Peter once again let himself but slammed into, crashing on the floor.
Above him, Harry was trying to punch but Peter grabbed both of his hands and held them at bay. He was strong, but Peter was a lot stronger. It was pretty easy and Peter was sure it would have continued to be, had he not heard the same hiss of gas starting to fill the room again.
“Oh come on,” Peter moaned, looking away at Connors, who stood up against the wall, looking on in interest.
Without being able to cover either of their mouths this time, both Harry and Peter started reacting quickly. The gas was odorless but Peter could still feel it creeping into his lungs, Harry pulled away from Peter, falling back on his side, lying beside him. He was coughing, holding his hands to his throat.
Ignoring his own needs, Peter rolled and pulled Harry’s shirt up and over his face, Harry tried fighting back but it seemed this second dose of gas wasn’t making him any stronger or more feral, but instead he was slowly starting to choke.
“You’re killing him!” Peter shouted, holding his shirt back over his mouth with one hand. His limbs started to feel heavy, as was his head but as Harry started seizing again on the floor, Peter pulled himself together. He didn’t know exactly how to handle someone having a seizure but he knew not to try and hold them down, but instead turn them on their sides. It was hard to move Harry while his arms were flailing around, Peter got smacked a few times but he endured, taking in gasps of gassed air, as he kept Harry steady on his side.
“Fine,” Connors yelled, the sound of a door opening took Peter by surprise and he turned his head to see the containment door open and for Connors to take a step inside. He didn’t react to the gas at all, instead, he grinned. “I guess I’ll have to take care of this myself.”
“What are you doing?” Peter gasped, Harry stopped seizing and seemed to pass out below him. Peter spared a glance down, concerned for his friend but once he realized he was still breathing, he looked back over at Connors.
“Ah, now you want to know? When I was ready to tell you I seem to remember both you and Harry being brats about it. I guess you just don’t get to know what’s going on anymore then.”
“Sorry, the usual villain monologue isn't all that informative. I take it you were going to give us relevant information?” Peter questioned as Connors walked closer. His skin was starting to turn green, an emerald color a lot closer to Elijah. More importantly, where there was once no arm, Peter could see something growing there, as well as Connor’s body getting bigger by the second. “Are you turning into the Hulk?”
“No, no,” Connors said, his voice suddenly getting deeper. “I’m trying to better myself and everyone else. Project Oz, Peter, it was just the beginning, I combined it with my amphibian formula,” his voice faltered for a second as his body started to change even more. Right before Peter’s eyes, he was turning into something else, something more akin to a lizard or snake. All Peter could do was get to his feet, moving away from Harry’s body and backing up against the wall. The transformation looked painful and frightening but Peter couldn’t look away. “And now I’m something better, something stronger than Osborn could have hoped for.”
“Uh, okay,” Peter said, once his fingertips hit the wall behind him. Just as he’d done with Harry, he began to climb up backward, trying to get as far away from Connors as possible. Whatever the gas or the drug had done to him was still lingering in his body and he didn’t feel like he was at his best. He could fight the man, but if he was as strong as Elijah had been, it was going to be a tough fight. “Why do we have to fight about it? Can’t we just be chill? I mean I know you are trying to better yourself and other people, so fighting me is not going to help you then is it?”
Connors let out a loud growl, his body seemingly finished with its transformation into a lizard person. He was big, not as big as the Hulk, but his body was at least twice the mass as it had been before. His skin was emerald green, with scale-looking segments that disappeared under the tattered remains of his lab coat and pants. His face looked like Elijah’s, thin nostrils, eye slits but now he had a mouth full of very sharp teeth, on full display anytime he opened it. Whatever Connors was trying to do, it went wrong in some aspects, but he wasn’t going to bring it up. If he could end this without fighting, he’d try.
“Since when are you a pacifist, Peter? Are you too scared to try and fight me?”
“Not scared, just unwilling. Come on Dr. Connors, what you’ve done is fantastic! You grew back an entire arm, why are you going to ruin this by trying to hurt me or Harry? What do you gain from causing more havoc and destruction? Let’s sit down and talk about this, maybe we can work on a way to make you less… uh, you know, less,” he waved one of his hands around, trying to come up with a more polite term for a monster.
“Less like a monster, maybe?” Connors laughed. “What if I don’t mind this, Peter? What if this is the next step in evaluation? Look at me, look at what I’ve become? I’m more powerful than Osborn or anyone else. When you made Peter, he didn’t get the whole thing correct. Sure he gave you spider powers, but imagine if you had become a spider instead? Isn’t that the next great step?”
“Well now you sound like you’re way too into furries and that’s cool and all, but personally I’m happy with two arms and two eyes.”
While Connors seemed to be keen on talking with him, Peter knew he had to get out of here. Eventually Tony would realize he hadn’t called him back or checked in and thankfully they knew where he was going. However, Peter didn’t know how it took Connors to bring them where he was, Harry had said he was out for about an hour but it could have taken an hour to get to their current location.
Realizing he might get the jump on Connors if he went on the offensive first, Peter quickly planned his attack. He was at a slight disadvantage without his web shooters, he had them on his person when he went to visit Connors but the man must have removed them while he was out.
“You’re not thinking about the bigger picture,” Connors started to ramble on again, falling into the cliched villain's monologue with very little push from Peter.
Waiting until Connors seemed distracted enough, Peter took a chance and leaped off of the wall. He intended to slam himself full force into Connors, hopefully knocking the man down. But it didn’t go quite as intended, just before he made contact, Connors seemed to recognize the situation and turned his body, slamming a tail that Peter hadn’t even noticed, into him.
“Oh shit,” Peter said, as the tail slammed into his side, sending him tumbling. Holding onto the tail, he felt himself get body slammed into the front of the containment chamber, a handful of times before the glass finally shattered. It only then did he let go, sending himself sliding across the floor. “Ngghhh,” he moaned as he came to a halt.
Bits of glass had scattered everywhere, embedding them in his clothing and available skin. He could feel them littering his neck and arms. Nothing was big enough to cause much damage, but it was enough to leave little drops of blood on his clothing and skin. Connors had turned around, laughing as he stalked back toward Peter. “What did I tell you? This is the way, Peter, this is the new evolution of mankind.”
“No quoting Star Wars,” Peter gritted out, getting back to his feet, running full force back into Connors. He wanted to launch himself with more force, but without his webs to catapult himself, he jumped on the nearby desk to gain some kind of height. Instead of attacking his front, Peter jumped to another chair, allowing himself to land on Connor’s backside, wrapping his arms around the thick neck and wrapping his legs just under his armpits.
Connors moved around, arms not long enough to reach behind to grab Peter. “Ha,” Peter mumbled, holding on as tight as he could. “Evolution is not in your favor now, huh? Arms are a little too small for your body.”
Connors let out a growl and began to back himself up towards one of the walls. Peter didn’t feel like getting himself slamming into anything else. The after effects of the drugs, plus the several times he’d already met the wall were affecting his head. The only thing keeping him going right now was pure adrenaline and his concern about Harry, who hadn’t moved despite the loud commotion.
Moving at the last second, he jumped off Connor’s landing a little less than his normal gracefulness to the side, as Connors slammed himself into the wall. The direct impact on Connors and not Peter seemed to be enough to throw him off, as he pulled away from the wall he swayed just a little. It was then that Peter heard the welcome sound of footsteps, shouting, and even better, the sound of repulsors not too far off.
“Oh thank god,” he said to himself, getting ready to face yet another head on attack from Connors. “I feel like we’re playing football,” Peter addressed him. “You just keep running at me. Did you have any other plans, or was this it? At least Norman had a hoverboard and some weapons.”
Connors sneered at him. “I’m sorry this isn’t up to your normal expectations, I wasn’t expecting to deal with two annoying trust fund babies today. And unlike Norman, I don’t need fancy toys to show my strength. I’ve made myself into something better.”
Connors held his hands up, showing off the long sharp fingernails that Peter had missed seeing the first few go arounds. He hadn’t been that focused on the man’s transformation into a lizard very much, but once seen, he shivered. “Ugh, really? You’re gonna - oh shit!” Peter dodged to the right, as Connors came at him, swinging his open hand at Peter a little wildly.
Peter had moved out of the way, but Connors didn’t seem willing to stop the assault and managed to sink the claws into Peter’s upper arm and shoulder area. “Oh shit,” Peter said, as he felt the nails break into his skin. It reminded him of the Vulture’s mechanical claws sinking into his chest just a little too much and he found himself frantically trying to pull away.
“Little spider is no match for the lizard,” Connors said, dragging Peter closer to his face as he continued to struggle. He could hear the sounds of people approaching and noticed as Connors turned his head towards the door leading upstairs.
“TONY!” Peter screamed as loud as he could. “DOWN HERE, HURRY! TONY!”
With his free hand, Connors wrapped it around Peter’s neck and, as Elijah had done, lifted Peter from the ground, finally pulling away with his other hand. Peter hung Connors' large hand, nearly cutting off all of his air supply. Kicking and swinging his arms, it was fruitless, Connors just didn’t care about any damage Peter was doing to him.
Between one staggered breath and the next, there were several loud crashing sounds, followed by several people, including Iron Man, crashing into the basement.
If Peter could, he would have yelled out to his mentor, but he was barely able to take in a full breath.
“Put my kid down,” Tony shouted, rushing forward and standing in front of several SHIELD agents, all with guns pointed at Connors.
Connors let out a growl, gripping even tighter. “Or what Stark?”
“Fuck this,” Tony said and Peter watched with gleefulness as Tony aimed his gauntlets and fired, hitting Connors directly in the chest. Not letting go of him, however, Connors fell back, crashing both of them to the ground. Thankfully he did let go when they landed and Peter tried in vain to roll away as Tony came rushing in. “Shit, kid,” Tony said as he approached. “Sorry.”
Not even a little made, Peter found himself coughing instead of telling Tony how happy he was to see him. Tony didn’t seem to mind much, however, and as the crowd of SHIELD agents came to deal with Connors, Tony smiled down at him. “It’s okay, don’t try and talk. We’ll get this whole thing figured out, kiddo. You just have to stop getting kidnapped by guys with a fetish for the color green and choking you, okay?”
Smiling despite everything, Peter nodded, eyes starting to close on their own. Feeling safe with Tony finally around, the adrenaline seeped out of him and he could barely keep his eyes open. Tony started fiddling with his arm, once he touched an area that had been ripped open, he let out a little moan.
“It’s alright Pete, I’m here,” Tony said, moving his hand down from Peter’s shoulder to his hand, taking it in his. “Just looking at the damage, okay? Medics are right behind me and we’re gonna get you taken care of.”
Not needing any more confirmation that the ordeal was finally over, he closed his eyes and let himself fall back into unconsciousness.
-
It took a while before Peter was able to grip onto any type of consciousness. He drifted while they waited for SHIELD to evacuate them, he had vague memories of Tony holding onto his hand as they traveled to the Compound. He remembered bits and pieces of first getting there, the IV into his arm, nurses asking him questions he couldn’t really answer. As soon as the blissful pain relief took over, he let himself go, even more, allowing a peaceful sleep to wash over him.
When he finally did come back to the land of the living, May and Tony were in his room, both sleeping on the small couch up against the wall. Not wanting to disturb them, he easily got out of the bed, heading towards the ensuite bathroom. He really wasn’t injured, the rest did enough to take away the general ache and pain of being slammed against multiple surfaces. When he stopped to look at himself in the mirror, the marks around his neck were vivid purple bruises already on their way to healing, his arm and shoulder were under a bandage, but he was sure they were healing just as well. After doing what he needed to do, he washed his hands and face in the sink, when he came back into the room both May and Tony were up.
“You should have woken us,” May fretted, coming over to take his arm and help him back into bed. “You shouldn’t be up and about yet.”
“I’m fine,” Peter spoke, his voice only a little rough sounding. “I feel better already.”
“Doesn’t matter,” May said, pulling up a chair to sit it as close to Peter’s bed as she could. “You still need rest every once in a while.”
“Hmmhmm,” he hummed, almost going back to sleep before the memory of what happened slammed into him. He sat up, startled. “Where’s Harry? Is he okay?”
“We’ve got him,” Tony answered, standing next to May, leaning his side on the bed. “And we really don’t know to be honest. He’s currently in a coma, we’re hoping you can provide us with some more information? Connors hasn’t been that forthcoming.”
Peter told them everything he knew, about finding Connors and what happened before Tony arrived to save the day. When he finished, Tony nodded his head, pursing his lips. “We found some strange chemicals in all three of your blood tests.”
“Is Connors still…,” Peter faltered again, not wanting to call him a monster once more.
“A giant lizard creature?” Tony supplied. “No. Apparently, the effects don’t last forever, which was why he was still experimenting on college students. As to why it didn’t turn either you or Harry into lizard people, we don’t know either. Connors is being pretty tight lipped on all of it.”
“Do you have his research?”
“Most of it,” Tony answered. “SHIELD is working their way through it, hoping they will figure out exactly what he did and if it means anything for you or Harry.”
“Do you feel…,” May started, looking worried. “Okay? Any different?”
“If you’re asking if I feel like a lizard, no. The gas really didn't do anything to me, it just made me cough a little and feel dizzy, but now that I’m not being exposed I feel fine. Harry and Connors reacted immediately too, mine just never came. Maybe it’s because I was already exposed to Project Oz once before? He did say it was an improvement over what Norman had come up with.”
“We don’t know,” Tony answered, he walked away from the bed a little, looking both worried and distracted. “Nothing else about your blood test came off as being an issue. There’s no blaring obvious reason as to why you’re unaffected beside the spider bite, but correlation-”
“Doesn’t mean causation, yeah,” Peter finished Tony’s thought.
“Which is why we’d like you to stay here at the Compound for a week or so, just to be on the safe side, baby,” May added.
“Oh,” Peter said, frowning a little. “Really? I’m fine, I swear and I really don’t want to miss any more school than I already have.”
“We told them you were involved in an accident, we kept it vague enough but the school’s going to send over your work. Honestly, Petey, making sure you’re… okay, is far more important than school. If something… if something would happen…” May trailed off, her eyes starting to tear up a bit.
Feeling suddenly really stupid, Peter ignored the protest of his body and leaned forward hugging May. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll be fine, I promise.” He’d been putting May through a lot over the last year now, even more so than the usual Spider-man related things. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”
When they broke apart, May reached for a tissue on the bedside table. “I know you don’t do it on purpose, but I don’t know if I can take another kidnapping anytime soon.”
“I promise,” Peter said, mustering as much confidence as he could. “No more getting kidnapped. I’ll let Tony put a tracker on me.”
“Promise?” Tony broke in, looking far more serious than Peter thought he would. “Say the word and I’ll inject you with 10 of them.”
“Maybe something a little less extreme?” He requested with a yawn. “Like a watch or something.”
“Ankle bracelet,” Tony answered, reaching a hand out to squeeze his ankle. “Go to sleep, Pete. We’ll talk about wrapping you in a bubble later.”
Shaking his head, Peter fought to stay awake a little longer, he still had a few questions he wanted out there. “What,” he yawned again. “What did Norman have to do with this? Do we know yet?”
Exchanging looks between the two of them, neither May nor Tony answered him right away.
“What did he get out?” Peter said, sitting up again, only making a slight sound when his body protested.
“No,” Tony said firmly. “But his lawyers are having a field day with this. They want to pin this all on Connors, or so it seems that’s his decision.”
“Shit,” Peter replied. “Is there anything I can do?”
“You can go to sleep and heal,” May interjected, putting an arm on Peter’s. “You can let everyone else handle this, Petey. It’s not your-”
“But I didn’t help!” Peter exclaimed, exerting far too much so soon after waking up. He slumped back into bed as May and Tony exchanged another set of looks. “Don’t keep me out of the loop.”
“We’re not keeping you out of anything, Pete. You’ve got to take it easy now and when you’re feeling a lot better and when we know what’s going on, we’ll tell you.”
Even if Peter didn’t really trust them to tell him, he couldn’t do much anyway as sleep pulled him back under.
-
“Hey, Pete.”
Peter looked away from his school work at his desk, to see Tony standing in his door frame. He’d been stuck at the Compound for almost two weeks now, unsure when he’ll ever get out.
Turning in his chair, he watched as Tony walked over to sit on the edge of Peter’s bed. He could tell by his posture and face that the news wasn’t good.
“What’s up?” Peter asked, trying to keep the trepidation out of his voice, but it didn’t work very well.
“I just heard from the lawyers,” Tony started, when Peter visibly sagged, Tony seemed to realize he already knew the bad news. “It’s not your fault, kid. It was all part of Osborn’s plan, okay? He did this, not you.”
“I didn’t help,” Peter responded, looking away from Tony and back to his desk. “I did everything he needed me to do.”
“Not everything,” Tony insisted. “You saved Harry from whatever plan he had.”
“Yeah and look where that got him? In a coma, sitting in the medbay for who knows how long. And now, Dr. Connors-”
“I’m going to stop you right here,” Tony jumped in. “Connors did this to himself. You had nothing, let me repeat that, nothing to do with the decisions that lunatic made. He would have kept going for god knows how long if you hadn't stopped him.”
“But now he’s the scapegoat, isn’t he? That was what Norman was planning his entire time, right?”
Tony nodded. “There was enough evidence to suggest that Connors was behind all of the Project Oz issues, including the Green Goblin attacks. All of it seems very concrete and, well, unfortunately for us, very true. And Connors isn’t making any of this easy for us, he’s refusing to even defend himself. Whatever Norman might be holding over him, it’s enough for the guy to just take the fall for all of it.”
“What about all the corporate stuff that you were trying to pin on Norman? How’d he get out of that?”
“His lawyers pushed everything between Connors and Harry and with neither of them capable of coming to their defense… there isn’t much resistance. I know it’s not fair and it’s not right, trust me. I’m trying everything I can to get his ass back in jail.”
“I know,” Peter said softly. “I’m not mad at you or anything.”
“And you shouldn’t be mad at yourself either, Petey. This is exactly what Osborn wants out of you, okay? He wants to break you and I refuse to let anything close like that happen.”
Shrugging, Peter still refused to look over at Tony. He was still ridiculously embarrassed about his part to play in the whole scheme. He played right into whatever Norman wanted, without hesitation. With everything Norman’s lawyers had talked about and pushed, it seemed he really wanted Peter to fall for the whole Connors or Harry thing. It didn’t really seem to matter, he just needed Peter to get in the way and cause problems.
“What are we going to do?” Peter asked softly.
“Whatever we need to. I’ve got a whole team of people trying to cure Harry and we’re not going to stop until he’s better. We’re working on getting Connors to talk, find out what Norman has over his head and get the guy to switch sides. And we’re setting you free next week, you can go back to school, see your friends and get back out there as Spidey. We’re going to make this work, Pete. We’re going to get things back to normal.”
Getting up, Tony came towards him, holding his arms out and waiting for Peter to get up and all but fall into his arms. With his head on Tony’s chest, he tried so hard to relax and not worry, but he couldn't help but get the fear of the unknown settle deep in his belly. “What about Norman?” Peter asked into Tony’s chest. “He’s gonna be free.”
“And if you think for one millisecond that he’s getting anywhere near you again, then you don’t know me well enough. There isn’t a single thing I wouldn’t do to keep you safe and that’s not even considering what May’s gonna do too. She’s the real threat here and we know it.”
Chuckling, Peter tightened his hold on Tony, made a little too much but he didn’t pull away. Peter felt Tony plant a single kiss on the top of his head. “It’ll be alright, Pete.”
Peter only wished he could believe him.