22 HOURS PRIOR TO OUTBREAK...
The sewers reek the stench of dead animals and flies. The murky depths of the waste water smell of partially-digested burritos and canned beans. Atop the walls and ceiling, mold, bacteria, and all sorts of grime thrive in this waste-filled kingdom. To most people, this would be disgusting...
...the Lizard isn't most people, and that's putting it lightly.
A pair of dark green, scaly, digitigrade legs push through the water in a cumbersome fashion. A familiar snout sniffs through the air, searching for a meal. The beast snarls, continuing to push through the water as he does.
Streams of water pour from the various orfices and pipes imbedded within the cement, creating an almost "jungle"-like atmosphere. The animals scouring the sewers almost give the cold, dead concrete a bit of life. In their own way, the sewers are much like an ecosystem. Animals battling for territory, food always coming in through the waste ways, and plenty of water, no matter how filthy, to drink. Indeed, all the rats, spiders, roaches, and flies have truly made the sewers natural in their artificial existence.
But like most ecosystems, there is an alpha predator. A creature that manages to outlive all the other organisms by eating other organisms, maintaining his place at the top of the food chain. For lack of a better term, a "king" of the ecosystem.
In this underground "jungle"... the Lizard is that king.
Beneath the surface of the cool waste water colliding with the humidity of the general air of the sewer, a filthy, off-white jacket floats through the water, a long, green, whip-like tail slithering behind it, swaying from side to side.
A pair of glowing, yellow orbs shine through the water, slits in the middle of them.
The pair of eyes then ascend from the water, narrowing as they still illuminate the darkness of the surrounding maintenance chambers that make up the sewers.
It snarls as it makes itself known. Roaches and rats scurry away at the sight of their ultimate alpha predator. The beast then makes landfall onto the concrete catwalk and begins lumbering about.
It snarls. Unlike that of a jungle cat or snake.
As it wanders about the artificial catacombs, it's hearing begins to pick up... voices.
Very human-like voices.
"...It's over here..."
"...do we do to get the thing off?"
"...not hard at all..."
Following the sounds of the voices, the beast wades through the catacombs towards their origin.
The Townsville sewer line has a direct connection to the subway line. From there, maintenance workers can work between both systems.
Right now, a pair of workers are walking through the subway line, approaching a sparking control box.
One is older, thicker, and fatter. The other is younger, taller, and leaner.
"So, yeah. Like I was saying earlier, you're gonna absolutely love it down here! It's cool in the summer, warm in the winter!" says the older maintenance worker.
"Well, it sounds better than my last job. I was in the TV business." says the younger worker.
"TV, eh? Hey, I use one of those old box TVs, and it gets them flashy images sometimes. It gets these static images, ya know? Think you could give it a tune up or something?" asks the older worker.
The younger worker chuckles to himself. The older one turns to him.
"What's so funny?" asks the older worker.
"No, I was a TV executive." says the younger worker.
"Oh! Yeah, you're better off down here. No office politics, ya know?" says the older worker.
All of a sudden, though, his face goes pale as a large shadow envelops the pair of workers. Confused, the younger worker turns as well, only for the pigmentation in his skin to drain as well.
"Holy... !" stutters the younger worker in horror.
In front of them, is a familiar, large figure in a lab coat. It is mainly shrouded in shadow and silhouette, but it's ominous, glowing eyes pierce right through the darkness.
It growls, same as a wild lion or bear.
It then opens it's mouth and hisses like it's snake brethren.
"OUT! OUT OF MY KINGDOM!" screeches the Professor.
Instantly, the pair of workers begin dashing straight for the drainage pipe.
"The heck is that thing?!" asks the younger worker.
"Who cares?! Let's just get outta here!" says the older worker.
They manage to get up the drainage pipe via the ladder and get to the street.
"Run, you fool!" shouts the older worker as they dash towards their work van.
A few minutes later, the loud screeching of tires is heard as the van speeds down the nightly, plowed streets of Townsville.
In the sewer, the Professor seethes with rage.
"Today, I rule the sewers! Tommorow... the world!" screams the Professor, bellowing out into the rest of the sewer line.
18 HOURS PRIOR TO OUTBREAK...
As the beast pushes on through the water, the reptilian mind inside it's skull drifts back to memories. Very recent memories...
2 HOURS AGO...
The Professor, after managing to find a break in the current and having dragged himself back up to a dry surface, had begun to make his way back towards where he had fought his former savior.
"Sssssstupid humanssssss... they do not know anything!" mutters the Professor.
As he makes his way back towards the edge, he overlooks the chasm he had just worked his way back to, looking at the infinite system of pipes that had been scrawled out to make way for the humans' water systems.
However, at this moment... a scent catches the Professor's attention. A very familiar scent.
The Professor then begins to sniff about the air, bringing him to a wall on the right side. Walking back, the scent takes him back to where Spider-Man had managed to avoid one of his first blows against him. He then sniffs the spot for a few moments, taking a realization to where he had come across that scent before. Only hours earlier, in fact...
"...Peter Parker?" mumbles the Professor, questioningly.
After a few moments, the Professor lowers himself and snarls, showing his teeth.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" howls the Professor, resonating through the sewers.
"I cannot believe... that Parker... isssss Ssssssspider-Man!" hisses the Professor, enraged.
That boy. The Professor put his trust in him, and he was deceived. Him, his daughters, the people of this city. A child wearing a mask, lying to those around him about the truth.
He then turns his long, scaly neck, look towards the wall. Narrowing his glowing yellow eyes, the beast takes note of... something. Something small. Something moving...
...something yummy.
There, on the wall, is a big, brown, juicy cockroach, just skittering across the concrete. The Professor gives a sinister grin, revealing his sharp, animal-like canines. He then swiftly lunges at the wall, his left hand colliding with the cement. A loud scushh is heard as the limbs of the cockroach twitch and fade out as it dies.
The Professor then removes his hand from the wall, looking at the squished brown, black, and purple mixture of blood, organs, and exoskeleton in his palms. He licks his lips in excitement.
16 HOURS PRIOR TO OUTBREAK...
The Professor continues to wade through the sewers aimlessly, wondering when the next wave of humans would be sent after him. More humans he would have to fight, but this time, the first he would outright kill.
That is, of course, unless he could enact his plan for world domination, and turn the rest of the human race into beings such as himself.
Just think.
No more suffering...
No more pain...
They'd all be like him. He was Patient Zero. The first of a new race.
A better race.
One that would overcome the imperfections of mankind and lead the charge into a new world order.
And the Professor would not stop for anything.
Anything.
He continues to trudge on, trying to find a way to "evolve" humanity. He could try and find a laboratory to try and re-create the formula...
But then he'd have to contend with the local authorities. He could probably take them on, but it'd be at the cost of the element of surprise, which is paramount to ensuring his plan could be successfully executed.
As the beast walks along the lines and lines of sewage-covered catwalks, he soon comes to a stop, overlooking another water chasm, similar to the one he had fought Peter in just hours ago.
Just the mere thought of his name makes the Professor snarl in rage.
Peter...
The self-centered little brat who deceived him. Lied to him. All the times he thought Peter needed to run "medicine checks" for his aunt, interrupting the process of flow of their experiments, were actually excuses to go out and play hero.
Some hero.
If he were faster, Blossom wouldn't have had to spend a week in the hospital, getting Mac Gargan's poison partially pumped out of her body. They actually may have accomplished tasks in their experiments sooner than they actually did. The Professor wouldn't need to have looked after Peter's aunt while he was out over-glorifying himself in red and blue spandex while wearing a mask.
All the deceptions...
All the lies...
While the Professor may want most humans on Earth to mutate into reptile-like creatures, there are a few people whom cannot be a part of his kingdom and must be eliminated.
Peter Parker is at the top of that list.
As the Professor stares down into the chasm, looking into the deep, artificial waterfall, he, all of a sudden, feels a stinging sensation on the tip of his tail.
"RRAAAGH!" snarls the Professor.
Without hesitation, his tail swings to the right with prehensile movement, slamming into the wall next to him.
As he raises his tail towards his face, the Professor sees a pair of small bite marks. Bite marks which, thanks to his accelerated regenerative powers, heal instantaneously.
He then looks over to the wall, only to see a small... something, laying on the ground.
Something brown...
He then wades over to it, kneeling down and getting a better look at it.
It's a rat. A fairly fresh one, too, at that. Not that filthy...
..except for the fact that it's been physically flattened, it's intestines have been squished out of it's body, and one of it's eyeballs is popped like a water balloon.
However, it's not the goriness of the rat's corpse which intrigues the Professor...
It's the green scales partially forming out of it's fur, covering some of it's body.
It's the elongated tail which now much more resembles the Professor's own.
It's bird-like, extended talons.
The lengthened snout protruding from it's face.
The rat has certainly become more reptilian than mammalian.
"What? What isssss thisssss?" asks the Professor aloud to himself.
He leans over the mammalian-reptilian hybrid creature. It's blue-green blood seeps from the various open wounds and ulcers inflicted on it when it slammed against the wall.
As the Professor looks down at the rat, he begins to process what he had just seen.
Somehow, when the rat bit his tail, his blood had managed to cause a genetic change within it, giving it reptilian features.
This... his blood...
It could be the catalyst. The key to be-ridding the Earth of the curse of man without committing outright genocide.
He needs to act. Now.
Before it's too late...
6 HOURS PRIOR TO OUTBREAK...
"GYYYYAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" screeches the Professor in pain.
The serrated metal slowly slices it's way through the Professor's scaly forearm, causing a small, but thick, drip of green blood to drip into the flowing drinking water below.
He had somehow managed to traverse his way through the sewers and end up near a water purification plant near the Townsville Reservoir.
If he could get the citizens of Townsville to ingest his blood, they would turn into reptilian beasts like him.
He had broken off a piece of serrated, rusty, and sharp metal from an old, worn out pipe in the sewers. Sharp enough to break through his flesh... given enough force.
The Professor grits his teeth and his reveals his gums, snarling his snout a little bit as he recoils in pain.
The green liquid pours from the open wound into the tap water, flowing towards the millions of oblivious and brainless idiots and morons who prefer to place their cups under the barebones faucet rather than place a purifier on it, or even just buying gallon jugs of water from Malph's, as a source of refreshment.
Soon enough, said idiots and morons would evolve far from that.
They would evolve into the future of Planet Earth.
The future is now.
GROUND ZERO...
The cars begin swerving off the roads, avoiding the rabid psychotics rampaging the streets, attacking the fleshbags whose skin wasn't green or covered in scales.
People take refuge in the stores, the shopkeepers hastily barricading the doors and windows in any way possible. The rabid half-human, half-reptile monsters beat on the barricades, ruthlessly trying to get in.
In the streets, pedestrians run and scream as they attempt to escape from the monsters, running through alleyways, up ladders, and into the stores in a desperate attempt to stay alive.
The snow slows the half-human hybrids down, but it fails to stop them.
Within the ours since the outbreak began, the streets were filled with the incoherent screeches and snarls of the infected individuals, most of whom have green scaly skin partially covering their bodies, and a few even have tails growing from their rears.
At City Hall, the police form a defensive barrier around the building, trying to keep Mayor Bellum and her aides alive for as long as possible and buy time to call in the National Guard. The hybrids keep on coming.
One officer in particular stands on the steps of the building. Lieutenant George Stacy.
"Kowalski, analysis!" shouts Stacy.
"More coming up ahead, sir! Rubber bullets ain't doing anything! Should we switch to live ammo?" asks Kowalski.
"Negative! Those are innocent civilians we're talking about! We just need to hold the line long enough for the Mayor to call for help!" replies Stacy.
"Sir, with all due respect, we're not gonna be able to hold this line if we don't get some of these bodies off of us! We need some breathing room, Lieutenant!" says Kowalski.
Stacy is the most senior member of the squad currently protecting City Hall. The Commissioner and Chief had left to hold the line at the Northern Townsville Bridge in order to stop the outbreak from spreading further out of the city and into the surrounding areas around the city. Therefore, he has the most senior authority to give the order to switch from rubber to live.
He hesitates for a moment. It's his duty to protect and serve, not be judge, jury, and executioner...
However, Kowalski does raise a good point. They're gonna run out of breathing room pretty soon if they don't start using actual force to get these creatures to back off for a little bit.
Finally, he makes a decision.
"Alright, switch to live ammo! But aim for the legs! We don't need fatalities on our hands!" orders Stacy.
The group switches from the non-lethal rubber bullets and begins to use the live lead. Instantly, the infected are set upon by the live rounds...
...but to the horror of the officers, the lead bullets don't seem to be doing much better than the rubber ones.
The live ammo seems to hit and pierce the targets, but the wounds just seem to... regenerate.
The flesh comes back together like nothing happened.
"Good God, what is this?!" asks Kowalski in disbelief.
"They're not slowing down, they're not slowing down!" says another officer.
Behind them, Stacy silently prays for a miracle.
"Please, God almighty, don't let this be the end of us..." whispers Stacy to himself.
All over Townsville, various rescue and news choppers circle overhead, getting civilians out of the lines of fire and reporting on the incident, respectively...
All over Townsville, the streets are filled with smoke and flame from the various car accidents that had occurred...
All over Townsville, the infected rampage through the various neighborhoods, attacking innocents and households...
All over Townsville, millions of terrified citizens pray that their city would survive such a horrible outbreak...
It would see that their prayers would go unanswered.
Only a miracle can save them now...
Only a miracle...
Apologies for lateness. Laziness got the better of me.
But don't worry friends, next update will be the last one for this arc. Also, special thanks to Kspence92 and his story Death of a Nation. That part was a primary influence for the "outbreak" portion of this chapter.