Interview With an Octopus, Part 7: The Lizard

===============DOWNTOWN NEW YORK=================

 

“So that’s how I almost got ‘im. I swear if he didn’t tear my fackin’ legs off I would have stomped the fucka’ to death!”

 

Otto Octavius stares blankly at Brian Hibbs, better known as The Kangaroo. He is the class of costumed-criminals Otto intends to avoid in this business.

 

“Well, Mr. Hibbs,” Otto began, “I appreciate your…embracement of your Australian heritage as well as your confidence in applying for a position on my team. However, I would prefer not to associate myself with a man who wears rabbit ears as if he is celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

 

Yet to lift his metaphorical jaw off the floor, The Kangaroo stared flabbergasted at the eight-limbed man. Otto’s notorious mechanicals arms each let out a chirp, clasping their talons simultaneously. It was almost as if they were giggling at their hosts’s words.

 

“I’m afraid you will not be earning a position on my team. Thank you for your time. Please leave”, Otto concluded.

 

Finally, Kangaroo stood from his seat. His cybernetic legs buzzed as he rose, resembling the hind legs of the mammal he named himself after.

 

“You know what? Fuck you, mate! I won’t take slanda from a wanker who’s name is ‘Docta Octopus’!”.

 

Otto’s mechanical arms hiss at the man.

 

“Frankly, Mr. Hibbs’”, he began, “I despise that name quite a lot.”

 

SHINK.

 

One of the mechanical arms ejects a blade from the center of its claw, startling The Kangaroo.

 

“Now that I have your attention, I will not ask you again. Leave”.

 

The Kangaroo immediately turned and scampered to the door, panting frantically.

 

“Thank you Mr. Hibbs!”, Otto shouted back with a petty grin, which quickly turned upside down once his guest was out of sight.

 

Otto sighed in disappointment as he tossed The Kangaroo’s file to the side. He has interviewed a wide array of costumed criminals, but only a handful of applicants have piqued his interest. Forming a team of the deadliest supervillains in New York to destroy Spider-Man once and for all proved to be more difficult than he had expected.

 

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Otto slowly inhaled, filling his chest with as much air as he could before quickly exhaling. He signaled a mechanical arm, which immediately slithered through the air towards the door knob, opening the door. Standing in the doorway was a very battered, sickly-looking man with a duffel bag over his shoulder. Otto is taken slightly off-guard, as he barely recognized the man until he realized his right arm was missing.

 

“As I live and breathe! Doctor Curtis Connors. Please come in!”

 

“Hello, Otto”, Curt responded softly as he shut the door, locking it behind him.

 

“I will admit, you were the last person I thought I would see here. How are you, old friend? You look unwell.”

 

“I’m not here to join your team, Otto”, Curt sternly clarified.

 

“Is that so?”, Otto replied sarcastically as a pair of his mechanical arms prepared a cup of tea. “I’m not exactly sure why you have come here then. As you probably already saw, I have a long line of visitors outside and the last thing I need is your other half devouring any potential recruits.”

 

“I’m here to ask for your help,” Curt announced, dropping a duffel bag onto the ground.

 

Otto’s left brow peeked above his dimly lit glasses. One of his mechanical arms instinctively places its teacup on its saucer. It investigated the bag, then carefully pinched its zipper, opening it to reveal a pile of cash.

 

“Curt, what is this?”, Otto inquired.

 

“I used to consider The Lizard as a physical representation of all of my negative attributes,” Curt abruptly began. “My resentments, my frustration, my insecurities…”

 

Curt glanced at his amputated arm.

 

“But it’s become more complicated than that. He is…evolving. He’s become smarter. I can feel his grasp on my psyche growing tighter and tighter and…”

 

“You want me to help you destroy him”, Otto concluded.

 

“Yes! This thing has ruined my life! My reputation, my career, my family…”

 

The sheer thought of his wife and son shatter any composure Curt had when he first entered the room. Tears covered his pupils as he choked on his words.

 

“Please, Otto,” Curt whimpered. “Take the money. I’ll help you make the cure. We’ll work together, just like old times.”

 

“You and I remember the ‘old times’ quite differently”, Otto replied. Disgusted at the idea of reminiscing his past, he quickly changes the subject.

 

“I am sorry Curtis, but my hands are quite full at the moment. All of them, in fact. If nostalgia and your son’s college tuition are all that you have to offer then I am afraid I cannot help you.”

 

“Otto…he killed Martha.”

 

“Who did?”

 

“The Lizard”.

 

Otto’s left brow raised once more.

 

“I couldn’t stop him. All I could do was sit behind his eyes and watch as my wife was slaughtered. Slaughtered by me! He broke into my home while she slept…while my son slept and…and…”. Curt’s word’s quickly trailed off, turning into sounds of grief and remorse.

 

Otto swallowed the lump in his throat. Martha Connors was one of the few people he was quite fond of, and the news of her death at the hands of her own husband rattled even a villain such as himself.

 

“I do not understand, why would the creature do such a thing?”

 

“Martha recently discovered a new formula for a cure. His motives have always been solely based on eliminating any threat to his existence. After he got to her, he went after the only other person who knows the formula...”

 

“Who?”

 

“Spider-Man.”

 

The name ignited a primal rage within Otto. Subsequently, it fueled the devious engine within his brain. He raised his tea to his mouth, hiding the eerie grin stretched across his face.

 

“He almost got him too. I don’t want to put him in any more danger, and you’re the smartest person I know, so I came to you, Otto. I’m afraid…I’m afraid if I turn into him again, it will be the last.”

 

“I’m flattered”, Otto replied. “But surely the beast intends to finish his mission, no?”

 

“What…what do you mean?”

 

“Well, it seems like the reptile and I share a common goal. If he wants to kill Spider-Man, why should I stop him?”

 

Curt began to panic, resulting in a retort that should have been kept to himself.

 

“It’s always been about you, Otto. You and your massive ego”, Curt hissed. “Why can’t you just do something good for once? Are you that much of a maniac that you won’t even help an old friend?”

 

“I like my new friend more.”

 

THWACK.

 

With one swift swipe from a mechanical arm, Curt is sent flying across the room into a wall. It cracks on impact, startling the visitors on the other side. He takes one last gasp of air before he begins to convulse and shake. Green scales begin forming at the base of his absent right arm. While the rest of his skin followed, his bones and muscles crack and tear as they shift into different patterns and sizes. Curt’s cries drop several decibels lower while a tail pierces through the skin of his tail-bone. Otto watches attentively, sipping his tea.

 

Whatever trace of Curt Connors was now absent. What now stood in his place was The Lizard, a massive reptilian creature with the intelligence of his human counterpart. The beast raised its snout upward and licked the air, familiarizing himself with his surroundings. His forked tongue flicks in and out through a slight opening between his fangs.

 

“Octopussss…”

 

“Lizard.”

 

“Why was Connorsss here?”, Lizard asked with a growl.

 

“He asked me to help relieve him of your presence.”

 

Lizard scoffed. “How much did he weep?”

 

“Just enough. Why do you think you are here? I could not listen to him beg any longer.”

 

“He hasss become desperate coming to you, don’t you think?”

 

“Indeed. He thought I would fall for his guilt trip, but as you know I am not so easily swayed.”

 

“Did he tell you?”

 

“What, how you mauled his wife? Rendering his son a parentless child? Yes, he mentioned it.”

 

“Did he mention whyyyy?”, The Lizard replied with a snarl.

 

“Of course, she knew how to get rid of you for good. Along with…a certain someone else.”

 

“Yesss…the ssspider.”

 

“Yes. Spider-Man. Connors mentioned you came close to killing him as well?”

 

“Very clossse…”

 

“Please, do tell,” Otto implored, taking another sip of his tea.

 

===================2 MONTHS AGO====================

 

THWIP.

 

THWIP.

 

THWIP.

 

“I hate quiet nights,” Peter Parker thought to himself as he releases his grip on his previous swing, proceeding into the next. Despite desiring a reality where New York City and the rest of the world are safe from bad people, a crimeless patrol bothers him.

 

Suddenly, Peter’s emergency communications come online. He immediately web-zips onto a nearby building. Perched on a ledge, Peter places his fingers to his ear, answering a call from Yuri Watanabe. As the captain of the New York Police Department, she is grateful to be able to contact a superhero at a moment's notice.

 

“Yuri! Talk to me, girl. Everything alright?”

 

“Spider-Man, where are you?”

 

“West of 44th. Thought the Tracksuit Mafia would be sneaking around their usual spot but nope. Saw some homeless guy streaking though. Besides that, pretty lowkey night so far.”

 

“Good. You’re not far from me.”

 

“Where are you?”

 

“The Connors residence…”

 

Peter’s heart plummeted to his stomach.

 

“I’m on my way”, Peter said, hanging up and leaping in the direction of Curt Connor’s address.

 

“Me and my big mouth…”

 

~_~

 

As Spider-Man drew closer to the Connors’ home, flashing red and blue lights illuminated the neighborhood. He drops from seemingly thin air, landing elegantly on the sidewalk. Police officers and paramedics briefly glance at him with disgust, a look Peter is too familiar with. The one that people give him when they are let down. The one that asks why I wasn’t there earlier. He is approached by Yuri, who gives the other civil servants a nasty glare of her own. She explains the circumstances to Spider-Man, unaware of his alter ego’s close relationship with the Connors family. He tries not to convey too much emotion, but like many, he adored Martha Connors.

 

“Where’s Billy?”, Peter asked eagerly.

 

Yuri looked over at an ambulance where Billy Connors sat with her jacket draped over his shoulders. Peter immediately rushed over, sitting next to him on the ambulance’s bumper.

 

“Hi, Billy,”

 

“Hi Spider-Man”, Billy responded with a quivering voice.

 

“Did you call the police?”

 

Billy nodded his head.

 

“Good job buddy, you did the right thing. I’m proud of you.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

The two sit in silence for a brief moment. Peter’s instinct is to comfort the boy but struggles to find words.

 

“I should’ve stopped him”, Billy wept, tears streaming down his red cheeks.

 

“Billy, I know you think you could have changed how the way things happened, but there isn’t anything you could have done. Please don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault buddy. Your dad–”

 

“That thing is not my dad!”, Billy shouted back, gaining the attention of everyone surrounding them. “Not anymore…”, he muttered, looking away.

 

Peter sat still for a moment before wrapping his arms around the boy. He gently squeezed Billy as he buried his face into his emblem. After a brief moment, Peter steps off the bumper, kneeling down to Billy’s eye level.

 

“I’m sorry, Billy”, he said as he wiped off his tears with his thumb. “I will make this better. I promise. All I need you to do is to stay strong for me. Can you do that?”

 

“I’ll…I’ll try.”

 

Peter gives Billy one last hug before approaching Yuri, who meets him in the middle.

 

“Do me a favor and go with him to the hospital? He doesn’t have anyone else”, he asked desperately.

 

“I can do that, but I also need to do my job. We need to find him while his trail is fresh. Any idea where he could have gone?”

 

“Where he always goes…”

 

Peter gestured toward a man-hole in the road. He easily yanks the man-hole cover off with a web, scraping the concrete.

 

“Be careful’, Yuri said.

 

“Always”, Peter replied. He leaps into the air and into the hole, closing the hole behind him with the web still attached to the cover.

 

~_~

 

Peter hangs cautiously from the ceiling of the sewer. His nose scrunches under his mask. After all these years of fighting in all types of sewers, they all smell terribly the same. And look the same. He worries that he won’t be able to find The Lizard in time.

 

As if on queue, Peter’s Spidey-Sense blared in his head like an alarm clock. He turns to react, but the dark tunnels disorient his vision, allowing his attacker to slice into his back. The pain is sharp and distracting, but Peter assumes an attacking position.

 

“You–you were waiting for me, weren’t you? You knew I’d come down here looking for you.”

 

The Lizard emerged from the darkness, letting out a long hiss that echoed through the sewer tunnels.

 

“Sssmelled you from a mile away, little ssspider.”

 

“Me too! I just couldn’t differentiate it between you and the poop-water!”

 

The Lizard lets out a deafening roar before sprinting full speed at the hero, who leaps backward onto his hands, propelling himself onto the ceiling. Now directly above his foe, Peter launches himself downward, socking The Lizard in the snout. Then, a right hook under his jaw. Then a left one. Then another right one. Then another. Peter barrages him with his fists, discombobulating The Lizard before sending him into a wall with one last right hook.

 

“You killed her! Your own wife!”, Peter shouted, catching his breath.

 

“Not *my* wife…”, Lizard mutters. He rips a piece of concrete from the wall beside him and chucks it at the hero. Spider-Man swiftly ducks under it, retaliating by catching the concrete with a web and returning it to its sender. Just before impact, The Lizard splices the rock into pieces with his tail.

 

“What about Billy?!”, Spider-Man yelled back, dodging between the slices of debris launched back at him.

 

The Lizard snarled at the mention of Billy Connors. “I did not harm the boy!”, he hissed back.

 

“You’re right.”, Peter scoffed, “You did much worse.”

 

The Lizard lunged toward Peter, mouth salivating. He dodges multiple swipes, each swinging through the air with relentless intensity. Peter soon realized The Lizard’s tactic. The beast was trying to exhaust him, like a predator with its prey. And it was working. The Lizard manages to catch the hero off guard, wrapping his tail around his throat. He thrashes Peter around, slamming him into the walls and nearby debris. After several collisions with the concrete, The Lizard dangles Peter in front of his face. Peter’s sticky fingers scratch at the beast’s leathery skin, so much so that it begins to peel off. It doesn’t bother the beast in the slightest.

 

“What’s wrong, ssspider? Having trouble keeping up? Too fassst for you?”

 

The Lizard’s grip tightens. Peter gasps for air, struggling to trigger his damaged web shooters. They sputter in The Lizard’s face, annoying him. He grabs Peter’s wrists with one hand and squeezes, crushing his web shooters.

 

“I’m here to ssstay, ssspider. No one is getting rid of me. Not Connorsss. Not his wife. Not even you…”

 

The Lizard opens his jaws wide open, raising Peter’s head close between them. His eyes widen as they draw nearer to his face. In a desperate attempt to save his life, Peter grabs The Lizard’s tongue and rips it out of his mouth.

 

The Lizard releases his grasp on Peter, squealing and gurgling. Peter tries to recover with whatever time he has before his tongue will grow back. Just before his last taste bud reforms, Peter leaps over The Lizard. He stomps one foot at the base of his tail while grasping the end.

 

“I…am really sick…of this tail…”

 

In one firm tug, Peter rips off The Lizard’s tail from his body. He lets out a deafening screech before he’s swatted in the face with his own tail, knocking him to the ground.

 

The two stand across from each other for a moment, bleeding and panting. The Lizard’s removed tail wiggles on the ground before going still. A small nub begins to form on his back, growing into a new tail at an alarming rate. Peter braces himself as The Lizard lunges at him once more, knocking him into the water. The two wrestle underwater, each swinging at slower but still impeccable speeds. The environment makes it difficult for Peter to keep track of The Lizard’s movements and finds himself in his grasp once more.

 

CRUNCH.

 

Peter lets out a blood-curdling scream as The Lizard’s jaws sink into his left shoulder. He punches the beast’s snout, but his jaws do not open. Water begins to fill Peter’s lungs. He drives his knee into the beast’s throat, releasing himself from his jaws. Peter then grabs one of The Lizard’s teeth, removes it, and shoves it through his eye.

 

Peter quickly rushes to the surface, unaware of what direction he was truly going. Out of what he thinks to be pure luck, he erupts through the water. He pulls himself onto the pavement and lies on his back. Immediately trying to salvage any remaining web fluid to cover his wounds and prevent any more bleeding, Peter stares at the blood-stained water, waiting for The Lizard to emerge once again.

 

===================PRESENT DAY======================

 

“What then?”, Otto asked attentively. “Did you not heal?”

 

The Lizard responds with a low rumble.

 

“Right. Of course, you did. But alas, Spider-Man still got away…”

 

“He always doesss”, The Lizard murmured.

 

“Which is exactly why I insist you consider a positon on my team! Think about it, my scaly friend. This one man has prevented us from reaching our goals for far too long. It’s time we come together under a common goal, and kill Spider-Man.”

 

The Lizard squinted at Otto.

 

“And, in return, perhaps I will look into finding a way to get rid of your other half…”

 

The Lizard’s eyes widen.

 

“Ah, now I have your attention”, Otto proudly announced. “So, what do you think?”

 

“If I do help you, Connorsss will get in the way. If you destroy Connorsss for me, and we do kill the ssspider, I will tell you hisss name…”

 

Otto’s brows raised above his glasses while each of his mechanical arms perked up simultaneously.

 

“You know Spider-Man’s real name? How?”

 

“Hisss scent. It’sss the same as–”

 

“Same as who?”, Otto interrupted.

 

The Lizard grinned, his tongue flicking through the front of his yellow teeth.

 

“Alright”, Otto pouted. “We have a deal, but only if you answer the call when I’ve found enough members, yes?”

 

“We shall sssee…”, The Lizard responded, his tail slightly waving.

 

“Very well. Now, please, tell me how you almost drowned him again. I like that part quite a lot.”

 

======================================================

 

~Will THE LIZARD accept the offer? Will DOCTOR OCTOPUS finally form a SINISTER team of super-villains to finally destroy SPIDER-MAN once and for all? Find out in the final issue of INTERVIEW WITH AN OCTOPUS: MYSTERIO~

Done