Beyond Responsibility

Chapter 11: Trigger Part 2

Trigger: Verb

1. To cause an event or situation to happen or exist; to initiate, actuate, or set off, such as with an explosion.

2. To cause an intense and usually negative reaction in someone.

≈*≈

Spider-Man was leisurely swinging through Naruhata en route to the Oscorp building. He was getting close. Thankfully, up till now his trip had been uninterrupted, that is if he pretended not to notice the myriad reactions—overwhelmingly negative for the most part—of the civilians commuting below him as he swung through the streets.

"Public quirk use is illegal, ya crook!"

"Why don't you just take a cab like everyone else?"

"Vigilante filth!"

"Go jump off a bridge!"

Spidey ignored them.

"How can I ever get homesick when confronted with so much New York hospitality? Guess derision transcends all borders." He quipped to himself as he swung between the skyscrapers and turned a corner. ≈*≈

"I said, wait up!"

Spider-Man's attention was immediately turned towards the source of the sound. At first he was confused about why his spider-sense would blare at what appeared to be an adolescent pop idol bounding after a salaryman. That is until he caught sight of-

"Is that a dragon?"

Spider-Man adjusted his trajectory and intercepted the lizard creature before it could swoop down and attack the girl, kicking it out of the air and into a nearby alleyway. He then jumped out of his swing and landed at the alley's entrance to block off the villain's escape.

While they wore human clothes, the reptilian villain crouching on all fours seemed anything but. It leered at him with draconic eyes, its belly low to ground as it turned towards him, craning its long thick neck adorned with a line of dorsal spikes, and baring a row of pointed teeth. Its feral expression belying any semblance of humanity its street clothes would suggest. Combine that with its leathery bat wings, and the thing looked more like a pterodactyl than any animal alive today, human or not.

"Alright, let's get this over with. I'm Spider-Man. Me: hero. You: villain. We fight, you lose, yatta yatta yatta, just go ahead and monologue about your whole schtick so I can beat you up already, capiche? Or are you just gonna sit there and give me the evil eye like you're doing your best Sauron impersonation?"

GRIISSAAAAWWK! It screeched at him, black tongue flailing around in its gaping maw.

"Ah, lizard brained too. Must be one of those transformation quirks that makes the user go berserk. In that case all I gotta do is bash the lizard till he lies down, simple enough."

He jumped up as the lizard villain lunged at him, scurrying through the alleyway with surprising speed. But fortunately for him, his spider-sense had given him plenty of warning to jump above the attack. With the lizard scuttling past beneath him, Spidey attached two weblines to the floor to ground slam himself down onto the lizard's back. With his opponent now pinned beneath him, he wrapped his arms around its thick neck to further subdue them.

The oversized reptile squirmed and thrashed against Spider-Man as he tried to wrestle it to the ground, but they couldn't shake the arachnid off their back. So instead the lizard wrapped their prehensile tail around Spider-Man's waist and threw him off, slamming him against the back wall.

In an instant, the lizard twisted around to face Spider-Man, now on its hind legs, leaving Spider-Man cornered.

Crap, forgot about the tail. Faster than I expected too. The lizard lunged again, swiping with a claw that Spider-Man only had time to block by raising an arm before he could react. He quickly retreated immediately afterwards by jumping into a series of back handsprings straight up the back wall of the alleyway to put some distance between them.