Just as Peter was about to continue—
The school building trembled.
Joren's brow creased.
Ripple energy spread beneath his feet.
Something was moving below.
Fast.
Unnatural.
Peter's face drained of color.
A piercing warning screamed through his nerves.
"!"
"Oh no… he's here!"
A scream exploded from the men's restroom at the end of the corridor.
A heavy impact followed — something slamming into tile and concrete.
Students trying to enter the restroom stumbled back in terror.
"Monster! There's a monster inside!"
BANG!
The restroom door exploded outward.
Wood fragments and metal hinges blasted across the hallway.
A towering figure stepped through the wreckage.
An upright reptilian creature.
Nearly three meters tall.
Dark green scales layered across its muscular body.
Tattered remnants of a white lab coat clung to its frame.
Dr. Curt Connors.
Or what remained of him.
The Lizard.
Its slit pupils scanned the panicking crowd.
A forked tongue flicked through the air, tasting fear.
Panic erupted.
Students screamed and shoved toward exits in blind terror.
Only two figures remained standing.
Peter Parker.
Joren Joestar.
"Go, Jojo!" Peter shouted, voice tight with dread.
"Leave this to me!"
He stepped forward, preparing to fulfill his role as Spider-Man.
Then he saw Joren's expression.
Indescribable.
Peter's face flushed.
Right.
Why was he telling him to run?
The Lizard's gaze swept past the fleeing students and locked onto Peter.
"Parker…"
The voice emerged hoarse and distorted.
"You… should not… stand in my way…"
It recognized him.
The Lizard charged.
BOOM!
It smashed through lockers, metal crumpling like paper.
Glass shattered.
Debris flew.
Joren slid two steps back, hands still in his pockets, avoiding the fragments.
Peter leapt forward, landing between the monster and the fleeing students.
"Dr. Connors! Stop! You're sick!"
ROAR!
A claw tore through the air.
Peter rolled backward.
Five deep grooves ripped across the terrazzo floor.
"I am not sick!" the Lizard roared.
"I have evolved!"
Its tail whipped forward.
Peter fired a web and swung upward, barely evading the strike.
Against an opponent this massive, Spider-Man had only mobility.
His webbing barely slowed the creature.
The scales were too dense.
"Enough of this!"
The Lizard lunged, jaws snapping.
Peter was mid-swing — no leverage, nowhere to push.
The maw rushed toward him.
At the last instant, he planted both feet against the creature's chin and kicked off.
He redirected—
—but the tail struck.
BANG!
Peter was launched through two interior walls.
Dust and debris swallowed him.
The Lizard roared in triumph and advanced.
Then stopped.
Its pupils shifted.
Down the hall.
Joren stood where he had been the entire time.
Hands in pockets.
Unmoved.
Unafraid.
Ignored.
The sensation enraged the creature more than resistance.
A low growl vibrated from its throat.
"Why… are you not afraid?"
Joren did not answer.
He pulled his hat brim lower.
The Lizard's fury ignited.
It abandoned the rubble where Peter lay and charged.
Claw raised.
Intent to tear him apart.
The strike descended—
ORA.
Star Platinum manifested beside Joren in a flash of bluish-purple light.
Its fist drove forward.
BOOM—!!!
The impact thundered through the corridor.
The Lizard's head snapped back at a grotesque angle.
Its massive body lifted off the ground and flew backward, crashing into the stairwell wall.
Concrete cracked.
Dust exploded into the air.
Two bloodstained teeth spun across the floor…
…and stopped at Joren's feet.
Silence followed.