Sergei Kravinoff moved through the subterranean labyrinth of New York City in absolute silence. The world's greatest hunter did not mind the stench of raw sewage and rotting garbage. To him, the damp, echoing concrete tunnels were simply another jungle.
He paused, lowering himself to a crouch. He ran a calloused finger along a deep, jagged groove carved into the brick wall. He rubbed the residue between his thumb and forefinger, bringing it to his nose. It smelled of acidic musk and ozone. He scanned the ground, picking up a single, pale green scale the size of a saucer.
Kraven allowed a tight smile to cross his face. The trail was fresh.
If he were being honest, Kraven respected Spider-Man's tactical judgment. The boy was right to suspect Norman Osborn was pulling the strings behind this outbreak. But Kraven deeply disagreed with the vigilante's emotional state. Spider-Man was entirely too anxious about this prey. He treated the Lizard like a delicate patient that needed rescuing.
Kraven knew better. No matter how much human intellect remained trapped inside the creature's skull, the enemy was fundamentally an animal. And animals were prisoners to their biological habits. Instinct was a weakness. A hunter simply had to exploit that weakness to break the beast.
"Perhaps I will simply kill him myself," Kraven murmured into the dark.
Spider-Man wanted to cure his friend. But to Kraven, this wasn't a rescue mission. This was the ultimate hunt. If Spider-Man's target suffered a fatal, "accidental" laceration to the jugular during the capture, the web-slinger would just have to accept the reality of the food chain.
Assuming, of course, the hunter could actually bring the beast down.
Kraven stood up, rolling his broad shoulders. He gripped the custom spear in his right hand. He had forged the weapon specifically for this contract in a private New York foundry. The broad, leaf-shaped blade was cast from pure adamantium. It was the only material sharp enough to effortlessly shear through hyper-dense reptilian dermal plating.
"Alright, monster," Kraven whispered, his eyes gleaming in the dim light. "Let me see where you hide."
Three miles down the sewer line, the Lizard was sleeping.
His temporary den was a rusted, abandoned subterranean laboratory. Early that morning, while prowling the dark waters, the Lizard's forked tongue had tasted a familiar, metallic tang in the air. He had followed the scent profile straight to Otto Octavius's old, forgotten workspace.
The human mind buried beneath the scales, the brilliant Dr. Connors, had immediately recognized the equipment. But the dominant, reptilian brain only felt a crushing, agonizing sense of biological isolation. He was an apex species of one. He needed a pack. He needed a family.
He needed the dispersal serum.
Earlier in the day, the Lizard had surveyed the cramped lab. He had paused to stare at a heavy glass capacitor in the corner. His heightened senses told him something dark and alive had been trapped inside it very recently, but the cylinder was currently empty. The beast quickly lost interest, turning his attention to the chemical workstations.
He needed raw genetic material to synthesize the aerosol serum. Without hesitation, the Lizard had reached back, gripped his own massive, muscular tail with both clawed hands, and violently bit down. Bone crunched. Thick, dark blood spilled onto the metal floor.
He had collected his own blood in a massive beaker, dragging his bleeding stump to the centrifuge. The biochemical purification process was incredibly complex, but the residual genius of Curt Connors handled it effortlessly. He synthesized the pure, volatile mutation serum in under an hour.
Cobbling together an atmospheric nebulizer from Otto's spare parts was child's play.
By the time the serum was boiling in the vats, the Lizard's metabolism had plummeted. The sheer caloric output of rapidly regenerating a new tail demanded fuel. He hadn't resorted to eating people. The human side of him fought that line tooth and nail. Instead, the beast had devoured its own severed tail to stop the immediate hunger pangs, then crawled through the drainage pipes to the Hudson River to gorge on bottom-feeding fish.
He had stayed submerged for hours, moving agonizingly slow along the muddy riverbed to evade the orbital surveillance sweeps of the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.
Now, the afternoon sun had long set, and the Lizard was back in the lab. The newly regenerated tail flicked anxiously behind him. His masterwork was finished.
He dragged a thick, waterproof plastic tarp out of the river muck, laying it flat on the lab floor. He carefully packed the heavy, cylindrical nebulizer device and several pressurized glass vials of the glowing blue serum. He was preparing to move under the cover of night. He needed a high vantage point to gas the city.
A heavy boot scuffed against the concrete behind him.
The Lizard whipped around, letting out a low, vibrating hiss.
Sergei Kravinoff stood in the archway of the laboratory. The hunter didn't flinch at the sight of the nine-foot-tall, super-soldier-enhanced reptile. In fact, Kraven's eyes widened with pure, intoxicating reverence.
What a terrifying, magnificent beast.
Kraven had hunted alpha male lions on the Serengeti, but lions were lazy, arrogant creatures. He had hunted Siberian tigers and Kodiak bears, but they were either stealthy cowards or slow, lumbering brutes. For an ordinary man, those animals were nightmares. But for Kraven those predators were boring.
But the monster towering in front of him? It was perfect. The creature possessed raw, impossible strength. The reptilian eyes held no weariness, no laziness—only a pure, unadulterated desire to kill.
"New York is a wonderful city!" Kraven laughed, his deep voice booming off the metal walls.
Kraven didn't hesitate. He lunged forward, thrusting the adamantium spear with bone-shattering force. He didn't aim for the beast; he aimed for the payload. The razor-sharp tip pierced the heavy plastic tarp, driving straight through one of the pressurized glass vials.
Blue liquid exploded over the tarp, instantly vaporizing into the damp air.
The Lizard looked at the destroyed serum. His slit-pupils dilated. He threw his head back and unleashed a deafening, earth-shaking roar.
Kraven bared his teeth and roared right back. "Come on, monster! Show me what you are!"
The Lizard lunged.
The sheer speed of the massive creature defied physics. Kraven dropped flat, feeling the razor-sharp claws shear the air millimeters above his head. He rolled across the wet concrete, leaving the spear behind and drawing the heavy adamantium hunting knife from his waist.
He needed to destroy the rest of the serum so the Spider wouldn't have to panic.
The Lizard spun, dropping low and whipping his massive, muscular tail in a sweeping arc. Kraven didn't dodge. He braced his boots against the floor and lunged directly into the strike. He wrapped both arms around the thick, scaly appendage. The kinetic force was like getting hit by a freight train. Kraven was lifted entirely off his feet and slammed violently into the brick wall.
Stone cracked around him. Kraven gasped, the wind knocked from his lungs, but his grip didn't slip. He knew amputating the tail was useless against the healing factor. He needed to inflict paralyzing pain.
Kraven drove the adamantium knife to the hilt directly into the nerve cluster at the base of the tail, twisting the blade viciously. At the exact same moment, he slammed a magnetized GPS tracker directly onto the beast's scales.
The Lizard shrieked, violently jerking the tail back and ripping the knife from Kraven's hand.
Kraven hit the ground and instantly bounced back to his feet, vaulting over a rusted desk. He launched himself toward the remaining serum vials strapped in a makeshift harness over the Lizard's massive shoulder.
The reptile reacted instantly. A massive, green hand swiped horizontally, aimed straight for Kraven's head.
Kraven ducked under the swing, drew his secondary blade, and slashed upward in a flawless, brutal arc. The adamantium steel sheared cleanly through bone and scale. The Lizard's severed hand hit the floor with a wet thud.
The beast didn't even scream. Instead of retreating, the Lizard lunged directly into the pain. Its massive jaws snapped shut, the jagged teeth sinking deep into Kraven's left shoulder.
Armor tore. Flesh punctured. Hot blood poured down Kraven's chest.
"Yes! That is it! Fight me!" Kraven screamed, laughing wildly despite the agonizing pain.
Ignoring his trapped shoulder, Kraven drove his blade straight across the Lizard's thick neck. The adamantium sliced deep into the scales. Dark blood sprayed across the laboratory.
Gurgling, the Lizard was forced to open its jaws to breathe, releasing the hunter. Kraven immediately reached out, his bloody hand closing around the makeshift harness holding the nebulizer and the remaining vials.
The Lizard, realizing it was losing the payload, spun violently. The regenerating stump of its tail slammed into Kraven's chest, sending the hunter flying backward. Kraven crashed through a wooden table, splintering it into kindling.
When Kraven pushed himself out of the wreckage, he realized the Lizard hadn't followed up the attack. The beast had prioritized the mission. Bleeding heavily, missing a hand, and clutching the nebulizer, the monster bolted out of the laboratory archway, vanishing into the dark tunnel.
Kraven lay in the ruins of the lab. He looked down at his right hand. He had managed to tear two of the blue serum vials from the harness during the struggle.
He let out a raspy, blood-flecked laugh, reaching up to tap the comms unit in his ear.
"Spider," Kraven groaned, pushing himself up to a seated position against the wall. "This is Kraven. The prey is flushed. He is heading for the east bank of the Hudson River. You can intercept him from the water."
Kraven! Are you alright? What's his status? Peter's voice crackled frantically over the radio.
"He is carrying the dispersal device," Kraven reported, picking up the two intact vials. "But I have two of the serum charges. And I planted a tracker deep into the scales of his tail. You will not lose him."
Kraven took a deep breath, wincing as a sharp, burning sensation began to radiate outward from the massive bite wound on his shoulder. "He is a magnificent beast, Spider. It is a profound pity I was hired to track him, rather than hunt him." Kraven chuckled, coughing up a small speck of blood. "Be cautious. The reptile is highly venomous. The bite burns."
Venomous? Kraven, you need a medic right now!
"I am fine," Kraven grunted, feeling the ancient, mystical elixirs in his bloodstream kicking into overdrive, super-heating his body to burn out the foreign toxins. "The enhancements in my blood are already neutralizing the venom. I will heal."
Kraven cut the comms. He leaned his head back against the cold brick, smiling into the dark. If he hadn't been focused on securing the serum, he could have gutted the beast. A prepared Kraven could indeed kill a Lizard.