The transition from high school seniors to university students was supposed to be the final hurdle of the "Quiet Years." With the world's attention fixed on the flashy exploits of Tony Stark in Manhattan and the burgeoning legend of Superman, the borough of Queens remained a sanctuary.
With the subtle intervention of Nick Fury—who ensured their transcripts were as flawless as their cover stories—Brody, Peter, and Gwen moved into the next phase of their lives at **Empire State University (ESU)**. Even Mary Jane Watson, through a combination of her own talent and a little "logistical luck" from the Kents' SHIELD contacts, joined them in the sprawling urban campus.
For Brody, ESU was a fresh challenge. He was now adapted to a permanent **200G load**, his suit humming beneath his varsity jacket like a dormant engine. He walked through the crowded quads with Gwen on his arm, the two of them looking like the quintessential college couple. To the professors, Brody was a brilliant, if stoic, engineering student. To Gwen, he was the anchor that kept her world from drifting away.
The academic year was defined by one name: **Dr. Curtis Connors**.
As a world-renowned geneticist at Oscorp and a guest lecturer at ESU, Connors was the idol of every science student on campus. For Peter, Connors was a mentor who understood the burden of brilliance. For Brody, however, Connors was a red flag.
"His Ki is erratic, Pete," Brody whispered as they sat in the back of a packed lecture hall. "It's not just the missing arm. There's a frantic energy in his blood. He's pushing himself toward something, and it isn't just a prosthetic."
Peter, eyes glued to his notebook, sighed. "He's trying to change the world, Brody. He thinks reptilian limb regeneration is the key to curing every human disability. You can't fault a guy for having ambition."
"I fault a guy for being desperate," Brody countered, his eyes narrowing as he watched Connors' hand tremor while he adjusted a slide. "Desperation leads to shortcuts. And shortcuts in genetics usually end in a funeral."
The prophecy came true faster than even Brody expected.
The incident started in the sub-levels of the Oscorp labs, where Connors, under immense pressure from the board and his own failing health, injected himself with the cross-species serum. The transformation wasn't the clean, miraculous success he had envisioned. It was a violent, primal regression.
The "Lizard" was born in a roar of green scales and shattered glass.
The creature's first instinct was to hunt the source of its pain, and that trail led directly back to ESU. It happened during a late-night study session in the biology wing. Gwen and MJ were finalizing a research paper when the reinforced windows exploded inward.
A seven-foot-tall monstrosity of muscle and claw lunged from the shadows, its yellow eyes fixed on Gwen. In the original echoes of another timeline, this was the moment Gwen Stacy would have been cornered, terrified, and scarred.
But this timeline had an anchor.
Before the Lizard's claws could even breach the air near Gwen, Brody was there. He didn't use a flashy energy blast or a Superman-style flight. He simply stood
between the creature and the girls, his feet cracking the tile floor as he braced himself against the **200G weight** of his own body.
The Lizard struck with enough force to overturn a car. Brody didn't move. He caught the creature's wrist in a grip that made the reptilian bones groan.
"Get them out of here, Pete!" Brody barked, his voice echoing with the authority of a Saiyan Prince.
Peter, already shifting into his Spider-Man reflexes, grabbed MJ and Gwen, swinging them up toward the safety of the ceiling rafters. But Gwen didn't look away. She watched as Brody—the boy who usually worried about breaking chairs—became a wall of immovable iron.
"Dr. Connors, I know you're in there," Brody said, his voice cold. He didn't let go of the creature's arm, even as its tail whipped around to strike his ribs. The tail hit Brody like a sledgehammer hitting a mountain; the tail bruised, but Brody didn't flinch.
"Sssssstop... interfering!" the Lizard hissed, its voice a guttural mockery of the man it used to be.
"I can't do that," Brody replied. He pivoted, using the creature's own momentum to slam it into the reinforced concrete floor. He wasn't trying to kill it—his Saiyan instincts wanted a fight, but his Kent heart wanted to save the man.
Spider-Man dropped from the ceiling, landing beside Brody. "Brody, don't kill him! It's the serum, it's messing with his brain!"
"I'm not killing him, Pete," Brody said, his eyes glowing with a faint, dangerous jade light. "I'm grounding him."
The battle in the biology wing was short and brutal. While Spider-Man used his webs to bind the creature's limbs and distract its heightened senses, Brody provided the raw physical force to keep the Lizard contained. Every time the creature tried to lunge at Gwen, it met the 200G-tempered shield of Brody's body.
In this version of the story, there was no tragedy in the lab. There was no terror for Gwen. She stood her ground, watching her partner protect the innocent with a surgical precision that balanced his terrifying power.
The night ended with the Lizard retreating into the sewers, wounded and confused, but with the girls completely unharmed. Brody stood in the wreckage of the lab, his jacket torn but his expression unchanged. He looked up at Gwen, who was climbing down from the rafters.
"You okay?" he asked, his voice softening instantly.
Gwen walked over, ignoring the destruction around them, and placed her hand on his chest. She could feel the steady, thrumming heat of his heart, unhurried even after a fight with a monster.
"I told you, didn't I?" she whispered, a small, proud smile on her lips. "The world isn't going to break as long as you're standing in front of it."
As the sirens of the NYPD began to wail in the distance, Brody looked at Peter. The secret of the Lizard was out, and the peace of ESU was gone. The "Quiet Years" hadn't just ended; they had been torn apart by claws.