"Peter, would you like me to give you a ride?"
Commissioner George Stacy looked at the boy with a smile that was friendly but contained a faint trace of caution.
He genuinely admired Peter.
The boy was kindhearted, honest, and an excellent student.
However, the increasingly ambiguous relationship between Peter and his daughter left George feeling a little uneasy.
He'd spent eighteen years raising his precious little girl. He wasn't about to let some boy sweep her off her feet without putting up at least a little resistance!
Surely, she could wait until she was twenty before getting serious about dating!
"No thanks, Uncle George. Dr. Connors recommended a few biology textbooks, and I was planning to stop by the library and borrow all of them tonight."
"I wouldn't want to make you drive all the way over there just for me."
After giving George his excuse and saying goodbye to Gwen, Peter hailed a taxi and headed straight for Midtown High School.
With his reputation as one of the school's top students, getting inside wasn't particularly difficult.
He told the security guard at the entrance that a teacher had asked him to retrieve some study materials.
The guard believed him without hesitation.
A short while later, Peter successfully slipped into the deserted chemistry laboratory.
Cold moonlight filtered through the windows, casting scattered patches of silver across the floor.
Peter switched on the lights, flooding the laboratory with harsh, pale illumination.
Then he carefully removed the vial of emerald-green lizard genetic extract from his pocket, holding it as reverently as though it were a priceless treasure.
Next, he opened the chemical storage cabinet.
Drawing on his photographic memory, he quickly located the various catalysts required to synthesize the serum.
One after another, he removed the colorful chemicals and arranged them neatly across the laboratory bench.
His movements were smooth, orderly, and remarkably efficient, as though he'd rehearsed the entire procedure a thousand times.
This was his stage alone.
There were no spectators and no applause.
Only Peter himself and the extraordinary transformation he was about to undergo.
He poured the lizard genetic extract into a beaker, then began adding the necessary catalysts in carefully calculated, milligram-precise proportions.
Bubble... bubble...
The liquid began boiling violently.
Its bright emerald color gradually darkened into a disturbing green, with thin streaks of blood-red swirling through the mixture.
An unpleasant vapor spread through the room, carrying the combined odors of chemicals and something distinctly fishy.
Peter held his breath, concentrating intently on the process.
After an unknown amount of time, the liquid finally stopped churning.
The substance remaining in the beaker had become a thick, dark-green solution that seemed to radiate an ominous aura.
'The Lizard Serum...'
'It's finished!'
Peter released a long breath and carefully drew the finished serum into a syringe.
As he stared at the unnatural green liquid inside the barrel, his heart began beating faster.
In the original Spider-Man universes, Peter Parker was the man destiny chose to become Spider-Man.
But this Peter was going to claim his own power.
He would crown himself.
Without hesitation, he rolled up his sleeve, exposing an arm made painfully thin by years of inadequate nutrition.
He raised the syringe and positioned the needle over a vein.
"Here goes!"
Then he drove the needle through his skin and pushed the entire contents of the syringe directly into his bloodstream.
'My fate belongs to me, not to heaven!'
Cold.
That was the first sensation Peter experienced as the Lizard Serum entered his body.
An icy chill spread through his blood vessels and raced across every inch of his body, as though his blood were about to freeze solid.
His entire body shuddered, and his teeth began chattering uncontrollably.
But the cold lasted less than a second.
Then...
A volcano erupted inside him!
An unimaginable heat surged through his veins like raging molten lava, tearing through his body and consuming every cell in its path.
Yes, consuming.
Not merging.
Peter felt as though some terrifying presence were watching him.
The lizard genes invading his body seemed determined to devour him completely, then seize his flesh as their own.
As though they intended to resurrect something monstrous through his corpse!
...
Thump! Thump!
Elsewhere in Queens, Gwen had just gotten out of her father's car when her heart suddenly began pounding like a war drum.
An inexplicable feeling of dread settled over her.
It was almost as though she were about to lose something incredibly important.
A strange warning sensation crackled through her mind like an electrical current, and goosebumps suddenly appeared along her arms.
Spider-Sense!
Or, as Gwen might have called it, a full-body spider shiver!
Without hesitating, Gwen glanced around to make sure nobody was watching.
Then she planted her hands and feet against the outer wall of her house and started climbing.
Her wall-crawling ability, which had been frustratingly unreliable during her earlier attempts, worked surprisingly well this time.
Within moments, she'd climbed onto the roof.
Looking across at the neighboring building, she saw a gap of more than ten meters separating the two rooftops.
Gwen instinctively took a deep breath.
"It's okay, Gwen. You can do this!"
She didn't know why she felt compelled to take such a dangerous risk.
All she knew was that her instincts were urging her forward.
She pulled her hood over her head, crouched, and leaped with all her strength.
Her landing was nearly perfect, as graceful and controlled as that of a professional gymnast.
She touched down without making a sound.
"Whoa..."
Looking back at the seemingly impossible gap between the buildings, Gwen couldn't help expressing her amazement.
A distance no ordinary human could have crossed had become something she could leap over with ease.
Confidence flooded through her.
She began running and jumping across the rooftops, weaving through the city's concrete jungle like an experienced parkour athlete.
Although Gwen hadn't developed her own web-shooters yet, her speed was already far beyond that of an ordinary person.
She could even keep pace with the cars racing along the streets below.
And the direction she was heading...
Was Midtown High School.
...
"Aaaargh!"
Inside the chemistry laboratory, Peter finally lost his ability to suppress the agony tearing through his body.
A strangled scream escaped his throat.
Pain.
Agonizing pain beyond anything he could have imagined!
He felt as though his entire body were being ripped apart and reconstructed over and over again.
His legs gave out, and he collapsed heavily onto the floor, convulsing uncontrollably.
An unnatural green tint began spreading across his skin.
Moments later, countless tiny scales coated in sticky mucus started pushing their way through the surface!
The nails on his fingers and toes elongated, sharpening into terrifying claws.
His spine began bulging vertebra by vertebra, accompanied by a series of sickening cracks.
His entire body was expanding and twisting before his eyes.
But the physical transformation was only part of the nightmare.
Animal instincts.
An endless tide of savage violence, bloodlust, and destructive impulses crashed against his consciousness.
His pupils narrowed into cold, vertical slits like those of a reptile.
A naked desire to kill burned within them.
He wanted to tear apart everything around him!
He wanted the entire world to tremble beneath his claws!
The birth of the Lizard seemed only moments away.
Yet just as Peter's consciousness was about to be overwhelmed by those brutal instincts, turning him into a mindless monster driven by slaughter...
Something changed.
Hummm!
A soft, warm white light emerged from deep within his body.
It spread outward like ripples across a still lake, instantly enveloping him from head to toe.
The noble Horse Talisman had awakened!
'You shall not harm my master!'
The savage instincts that could have shattered even an iron will began melting away the instant they touched the white light.
Like snow exposed to a blazing sun, they rapidly dissolved.
The gentle radiance repeatedly healed Peter's increasingly monstrous body.
Before that irresistible magic, even the deepest predatory instincts embedded within the lizard genes were forced to retreat.
They were driven back again and again until they finally disappeared.
"Hah... hah..."
Peter gasped violently, his clouded eyes gradually regaining their clarity.
He was saved!
But restoring his consciousness was only the beginning.
After eliminating the animalistic impulses threatening his mind, the Horse Talisman's power showed no sign of stopping!