[TL: What Monster you wanna see next? I'm between Mothra and Kong]
"Thanks. I'm glad to see you too."
Holding his side, Peter got back to his feet with a pained grin.
He had taken several solid hits from the Lizard, but thanks to his ridiculous physical toughness, even though he was hissing from the pain, he could still force out a smile.
Connors, on the other hand, was having a much harder time smiling.
Caught completely off guard by Fenris's punch, he now felt like his spine was about to snap in half. Pinned beneath a heap of broken brick and collapsed wall, his whole body twisted in agony.
"My God."
With nearly half a floor's worth of wall blown open, Peter swallowed hard as he looked at the still-smiling Fenris beside him.
His spider-sense had not lied to him at all.
"For Dr. Connors to turn himself into something this ugly and disgusting was seriously pointless."
"Fenris, you're the real perfect organism."
Peter staggered toward the Lizard, muttering under his breath, "Although I think this building might count as structurally unsafe now..."
"Hey, Peter."
After Peter moved aside the broken sections of wall pinning Connors down one by one, he found himself face-to-face with Connors's pained expression.
His spine was now bent into an extremely unnatural curve, and the savagery in his eyes was completely gone, replaced only by startling clarity.
"Doctor?" Peter Parker carefully leaned closer. "You're back to normal now?"
"Back to normal?"
Connors looked down at his lower body and gave a bitter smile.
"My arm may have come back, but I think I've got a much bigger problem now."
"Peter, what are you planning to do with him?"
Fenris walked over at just the right moment.
"You..."
The instant Connors saw Fenris, he reacted as though he had seen a ghost. His huge body instinctively shrank backward a little.
"Don't be scared, Doctor. Fenris is a good guy."
Peter hurried to reassure him.
"He didn't look like a good guy just now..."
Connors drew his neck in. The faint aura around Fenris made him recoil on instinct.
"Doctor, can you still turn back?" Peter asked.
Although Dr. Connors had caused enormous damage just now, he had not hurt any innocent people... aside from Peter.
"Before I came here, I injected myself with an extreme overdose of the serum. Unless I'm hit with a very powerful stimulus..." Connors struggled to shift into a different position, then said helplessly, "without the antidote, it'll be difficult."
"This..."
Peter immediately fell silent.
Even though Dr. Connors had just tried to kill him, kind-hearted Peter knew that was not really the doctor's true intent.
If the doctor could only remain like this, lying helpless on the ground, then arrest, imprisonment, or even being dissected for study were outcomes Peter could easily foresee.
That was not the end Peter wanted for Dr. Connors.
"Doctor, since you've already lost everything anyway, why not come with me?"
Fenris suddenly spoke up from the side.
"I can find you a place where you can continue your research. My condition is simple: I get the results of that research."
If Oscorp had not pushed Connors into a reckless human trial, he never would have ended up like this. And the results of his work carried enormous significance, both medically and biologically.
Given enough time, the value his research could create would be unimaginable.
"Really?"
Fenris's words made Connors's eyes light up.
"But in my current state..."
"You said you need a strong stimulus. I'll help with that."
Fenris rolled up his sleeve and stepped forward. His right arm began swelling visibly at a speed the eye could track.
An arm even thicker and more powerful than the Lizard's appeared, tipped with long, sharp claws. On top of that, Fenris's skin looked rougher and heavier, giving off an even greater sense of raw strength.
"Wh-what the hell..."
The moment Peter saw it, he practically jumped, covering his mouth as he yelped in shock.
"Fenris, y-you, you're a lizard person too?"
"Don't compare me to such a lowly species."
Fenris's eyes had changed now. His cold gaze swept lightly across Dr. Connors, and that alone was enough to make the doctor tremble uncontrollably.
Connors stared fixedly at Fenris.
Fenris was not larger than him, but in Connors's eyes, his body seemed to be rising endlessly higher.
And Connors himself felt as though he had shrunk into a tiny insect at Fenris's feet. No matter how desperately he strained to look up, all he could see was a vast, towering beast that seemed to hold up the sky itself.
The instant their eyes met, Connors's pupils contracted. It felt as though every drop of blood in his body had frozen solid. A faint, indistinct roar echoed by his ear, and in the next second, his body began shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Very soon, a frail man with a bent spine and an empty right sleeve appeared amid the wreckage.
"That... did it?"
Peter's eyes widened to their limit.
Dr. Connors had said he needed a powerful stimulus, so how had a single look knocked him out cold?
"I was getting ready to choke him unconscious..."
Fenris awkwardly pulled back his hand. He had not expected Connors to be that easy to scare.
"A top-tier scientist for free. Definitely not a loss."
Whatever the case, now that his goal had been achieved, Fenris simply slung Connors over his shoulder.
"Fenris, you can't take him."
Just as Fenris was about to leave, a sharp, orderly wave of footsteps rang out, and a group of heavily armed soldiers suddenly poured into the school building from every direction.
Only moments before, after the students at Midtown School of Science and Technology had called the police, the NYPD had taken control of the scene.
But because the case involved the supernatural, in less than ten minutes, an entirely new department had replaced them.
The familiar mild voice reached Fenris's ears, and he recognized the speaker immediately.
"Dr. Connors is extremely dangerous and poses a serious threat to public safety. He must be placed under strict supervision by us."
Coulson forced a smile and extended his hand firmly toward Fenris.
"He's of no use to your mutant group. Hand him over to me."
"So Fenris is a mutant?"
The moment Coulson appeared, Peter Parker, who had already pulled his mask back on, caught that detail and finally understood why Fenris possessed such terrifying strength.
The existence of mutants was no secret, and Magneto's name carried thunderous weight even among ordinary people.
"With a mess this big, Fury still didn't come personally?"
Fenris casually swept a glance over the several dozen soldiers surrounding them.
Perhaps because of Coulson's special instructions, every weapon's safety was still on.
"The director has other matters to deal with." Fenris's off-topic response made Coulson's expression stiffen. "Fenris, this is my assignment..."
"Then call Fury right now and tell him your assignment has failed." Fenris's expression turned cold. "If Fury insists on taking this man, then let him come stand in front of me and negotiate for him himself."
When Connors was tearing through the school, no one showed up. And now they had come to clean up afterward? Where the hell had they been earlier?
"So, Fenris, you're determined to stop me?"
Coulson's expression changed. The warm smile on his face slowly vanished, and his right hand rose high into the air.
All around them, the soldiers lifted their gun barrels in unison, and the atmosphere instantly turned murderous.
"Coulson, there is absolutely no way Connors is being handed over to you."
Fenris frowned.
"Excellent!"
"Fall back!"
The instant Fenris said that, the seriousness on Coulson's face melted away like snow under sunlight. His raised hand dropped without the slightest hesitation.
"Huh? Fall back?"
Fenris froze, just in time to see Coulson smile and nod at him.