Sticky Step Fifteen: Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), 100 Queens Park - Part 2: Rock vs. Lizard

Having frightened off all of the Royal Ontario Museum's staff and patrons while fighting with Majestic Rat (along with his loyal rat subjects and Gruber the gator) and now having the entire museum to himself, Bodyrocks tries to find his girlfriend, Josie. Suddenly, the Human-Lizard appears with Stieb the gator as backup and tells the marauding monstrosity that she'd run off in a panic with the rest of the terrified bystanders.

Bodyrocks searches for his lost love among the floating fossils of ancient sea creatures.

Bodyrocks, recognizing Lucas' outfit from their encounter earlier in the week, immediately recalls the chain of events that had led him to seek out the experimental medical treatment in the first place and which ultimately transformed him into the craggy, spiked man-creature now terrorizing the ROM.

The Human-Lizard prepares for a mammoth showdown with Bodyrocks.

Of course, Lucas had undergone the exact same treatment several days earlier and with far greater results. Instead of transforming into an uncontrollable monster (or, at least in the case of Johnny, becoming even more of an uncontrollable monster), he was granted regenerative abilities and, testing that this is still the case by allowing Stieb to take a bite of his arm, Lucas easily taunts Bodyrocks into a rematch.

The deadly duel begins, but who will survive and what will be left of them?

Bodyrocks gets a devastating first shot in and effortlessly tosses the Human-Lizard toward the hanging fossils of several sea creatures on display, suspended from the ceiling.

Uh, you do know those are sea creatures, right Johnny?

Lucas manages to avoid the hanging fossils and, buying some time to allow his healing power to take effect, uses his lean frame and sticky extremities to cling to the wall and ceiling, keeping out of reach of the rampaging reptilian wrecking machine below.

The Human-Lizard plays hard to get . . .

It's a good plan, but when the Human-Lizard leaps onto one of the suspended skeletons, he overestimates the amount of weight it can support and the whole works come crashing down to the museum's floor.

. . . while jumping from one suspended skeleton to another.

While one remaining museum curator chastises the Human-Lizard for recklessly destroying a priceless artifact, Bodyrocks takes advantage of the distraction to land what appears to be a killing blow, impaling Lucas on one of his many shoulder horns.

Bodyrocks make a kabob out of Lucas and makes a run for the end zone . . .

In a murderous rage, Bodyrocks charges the museum's fourth floor window to deposit the Human-Lizard's carcass onto the street below, but could it really be that easy to defeat Toronto's pluckiest super-hero?

. . . or, in this case, the fourth floor window!

Next up: The battle of the ROM comes to a close in Part 3: Rock vs. Hard Place!

-DE

Sticky Step Fourteen: Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), 100 Queens Park - Part 1: Rock vs. Rat

And now, the beginning of a Human-Lizard battle so huge, I had no choice but to break it up into three parts to fully cover it. While Lucas is enjoying dinner with his family at Golden Diamond Chinese Restaurant, Bodyrocks decides to show his girlfriend, Josie, that he can appreciate Toronto's culture as much as anyone.

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) at 100 Queens Park.

Not surprisingly, Bodyrocks' idea of culture is looking at the dinosaur fossils on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, but as he makes clear to the ticket agent inside the front entrance, there's no way he's going to pay to see them. Things turn ugly fast, so one of Majestic Rat's emergency patrol rats seeks out Lucas to let him know the Human-Lizard is needed. Leading him through Queen's Park and past the monument to Edward VII, they make haste to reach the museum before disaster strikes.

The equestrian statue of King Edward VII in Queens Park.

The equestrian statue of Edward VII was originally created by the English sculptor, Thomas Brock, shortly after the king's death in 1910 for the Imperial Durbar in Delhi, India (a mass assembly meant to commemorate the succession of the Emperor and Empress of India, King George V and Queen Mary). Afterwards, in 1919, the statue was installed in Delhi's King Edward VII Park (since renamed Netaji Subhash Park), but was removed, sold and reinstalled in Toronto's Queen's Park between the years 1967-9 where it remains to this day, standing at the centre of the park's several radial footpaths.

Bodyrocks and Majestic Rat squaring off in front of dinosaur skulls in the ROM.

Back at the ROM, Majestic Rat (along with several patrol rats and Stieb the alligator) attempts to hold off Bodyrocks, but Johnny quickly overpowers Majestic and sends him hurtling through the glass windows of the now-iconic Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, which was added to the ROM's main building during a massive renovation of the museum and unveiled in 2007.

The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.

Arriving at the ROM's entrance just as Majestic breaks his fall by landing on Gruber, his other alligator subject, the Human-Lizard quickly runs inside with Gruber as backup, unaware that he's about to face down an all too familiar foe, who's now enhanced by an all too familiar reptilian regenerative power . . .

Enter: The Human-Lizard!

Next up: The royal rumble at the ROM continues in Part 2: Rock vs. Lizard!

-DE