On Halloween night, New York becomes wilder than usual, with bright lights and carnival crowds becoming the main city scenery.
In a dark alley where no one was paying attention, the sewer manhole cover was opened, and Professor Lizard crawled out from underneath.
Breathing the fresh air outside freely, Connors felt that he was really alive. During this time, he was suffocated to death in the sewers. Except for Peter Parker who occasionally came to draw his blood for experiments, the only one who worked with him was The only company is sewer rodents.
He looked at the light in the distance, hesitated in the shadows for a long time, and finally decided to take this step.
When he came to the crowded street, no one screamed in fear, but it was true that a giant lizard about 1.8 meters tall wearing a white coat was walking on the street and it was hard not to take a second look.
Connors was walking alone and aimlessly in the direction of the crowd. He noticed his reflection in the window. The lizard monster seemed to be out of place with everyone.
Ouch, a soft-haired Bernese dog barked at him, then bared its teeth and leaned down in a posture of preparing to attack. This loyal dog that protected its owner smelled the danger signal released by Professor Lizard and desperately wanted to drive him away. .
Fortunately, his owner was a sensible woman. She quickly pulled the dog's leash and shouted angrily: "Bud, no! Bud!"
She apologized guiltily: "Sorry, my dog is usually very docile. I don't know what happened today. Maybe it was too noisy for him to feel uneasy."
It's me who's upsetting him, Connors thought, but he said, "It doesn't matter. I have pets that don't listen to me sometimes."
"Oh? Do you like pets too?"
"I guess so."
If you like doing experiments on them, then Connors really likes pets.
"Since you are playing a lizard monster, I guess you must like lizards."
"I know them. They are cold-blooded reptiles," Professor Connors responded.
"That's actually kind of cool," the woman said.
Then they chatted for a while, and Connors didn't know why he wanted to chat with a strange woman. It was probably because he hadn't talked to a normal person for a long time. As for Peter Parker, he is not considered a normal person. Normal people would not swing a net at an altitude of 10,000 meters.
Before leaving, the woman left her phone number, and Connors wasn't sure if he would call her. After all, he wasn't a nice person.
At the intersection, Connors was stunned. The traffic light sounded urgently, reminding passers-by to cross the road as soon as possible.
"Mom, why doesn't he leave?"
"It's not polite, don't point your finger at people."
The mother and son, wearing the same skeleton costumes, quickly passed by Professor Connors, as if they wanted to escape from this weird guy as quickly as possible.
Unconsciously, Connors returned to the apartment where he originally lived. The apartment was deserted, and there were still some leftover but rotten sandwiches in the refrigerator.
He sighed and tossed the sandwiches in the trash.
He didn't know what he should do. He had obviously been looking forward to Halloween for a long time, but when it actually came, he didn't feel very happy.
I couldn't get into the carnival atmosphere.
Just when he was bored on the sofa, there was a knock on the door.
"Trick or treat!" A group of cute children holding bags looked at Professor Connors expectantly.
Their innocent smiles did not diminish because of their lizard appearance. Instead, they revealed a kind of admiration for "your outfit is so cool."
Professor Connors was caught off guard. He had not prepared any candy. There seemed to be toffee at home, but he couldn't find it when he looked for it.
So he returned to the children and took out the few dollars he had left in his white coat, preparing to replace the candy and let them use the money to buy what they wanted to eat.
Just when he was about to drop the money into their bag of candy.
"Really? Are you really willing to disappoint these children?" Peter Parker, wearing a spider uniform, suddenly appeared from nowhere: "You know these children's money will be confiscated by their parents, right?"
Peter Parker took out a large pile of candy from his backpack and filled each child's bag to the top.
The children thanked him with satisfaction and left. All the children praised Peter Parker's costume as very cool. They didn't know that they missed the real Spider-Man, otherwise they would regret it and not be able to sleep.
Of course, there was also a child who also praised Professor Lizard. He liked the feeling of the scaly skin.
After the children went to the next house to ask for candy, Connors asked Peter angrily: "Are you following me?"
Peter had no intention of covering up: "That's right. For Professor Lizard, I think this is the most basic defense."
He has already set up sensors at various exits of the sewer. As long as Professor Connors comes out of the sewer, Peter will receive the message immediately.
Even though tonight was Halloween, he had to get there as soon as possible. He just found an excuse to buy candy from Aunt May and went out.
As Spider-Man, he cannot let Connors act freely without restraint, and he cannot yet trust Professor Connors to be safe for the citizens of New York.
Although Connors was dissatisfied, he was not helpless. After all, he was still waiting for Peter Parker to cure his "lizard disease."
"Since when?" Connors asked in a bad tone.
"Before you talked to the beautiful woman on the street, my drone was watching you secretly. It can be seen that she has a crush on you." Peter said coquettishly.
Connors stared at Peter seriously: "She just apologized to me."
Peter pointedly pointed out: "She also left you a phone number. I think this can prove something."
Connors said dullly: "I won't call her."
Peter saw that Connors was still afraid to open up to others because of his appearance as a lizard monster.
"Except for your appearance, don't you think you still have some good qualities? You have smart talents and superb knowledge. Before you turned into a lizard, you were still my professor and had a good job. As a human being, you can be said to be Successful people."
Connors lowered his head in despair, then raised his head and stared at Peter and said, "That's all in the past. Now I have nothing."
Peter retorted: "You have nothing, you have lost confidence in yourself. You think others will have prejudices against you, but this is also your prejudice against people."
“When I showed up as the oldest student in a class at the State University of New York, what I felt was not stereotypes, but inclusion. Those students didn’t care about a middle-aged man. On the contrary, they thought I was also learning. s right."
"I think the person who cares most about Professor Lizard is none other than yourself, right?"
Connors couldn't refute that he couldn't help but care about the fact that he turned into a lizard monster. He even wished he could pull off this layer of skin.
In fact, Connors is such a sensitive person, he will care about any emotions and opinions of others towards him, when he breaks his arm, when he becomes Professor Lizard.
That's why he works hard to become a normal person in the eyes of others, but this seems to make himself worse and makes his life a tragedy.
Peter handed Connors a piece of candy: "Think about those kids, they think you're cool. Don't let them down, please."
Connors looked at Peter Parker who was swinging away with his net in the distance. He didn't know if Peter really left or was spying on him.
He thought thoughtfully and finally stuffed the candy into his pocket.
