Greetings boils and ghouls, and welcome back to the Crypt! This is your old pal the Crypt Keeper, inviting you to a completely different kind of terror tale. It's a nice tidbit of a deranged serial killer who finally gets his comeuppance after years of terrorizing people. When his latest spree has unfortunate consequences, it brings to mind the term revenge is a dish best served cold. So without further ado, I bring you…
Maximum Vengeance
It was a cold, chilly night in Manhattan as thousands of citizens made their way to the nearest subway, coffee shop or vehicle to escape the bitter cold, when a loud bloodcurdling shriek rang out, signaling the panicked civilians running for their lives as a deadly figure appeared. The notorious symbiote serial killer Carnage.
"ahhh, I just LOVE a good fly by winter killing! It just chills my emotions to the bone!" Carnage cackled, his sadistic sense of humor dripping through his veins as he sighted for his next victim… then it hit him. Ever since his escape from Arkham Asylum, Carnage had desired revenge on one very familiar web-slinger. And the opportunity for Carnage had arisen.
"Peter, dinner's done. Let's get this meal going." Mary Jane Parker called out, her womb showing through her dress as she finished setting up the table for the meal when the sounds of crashing and an agonizing groan echoed, silencing the prolonged dullness in the air. Frightened, Mary Jane rushed upstairs only to shriek in fear on what she saw. "Hello? Operator? Yes, I need an ambulance here now! My husbands been seriously injured! Please, I-I don't have much time!" Mary Jane sobbed worriedly before a red-gloved hand patted her shoulder.
"It's alright ma'am. I'll take it from here." Daredevil calmly replied, hoisting up Peter Parker's battered and bleeding form as he sped to the nearest medical centre. As soon as Daredevil arrived with his very important cargo, a large roster of Avengers and X-Men soon entered the lobby.
"This is so awful. Who would do such a terrible thing?" Mockingbird sobbed, dabbing her left eye with a handkerchief as she watched Peter in his hospital room being quarantined. Comforting her was Hawkeye. Behind the two was a very concerned and very, very pissed off set of heroes who just wanted to know the name of the bastard responsible for the very incident.
"Tell me doc, were there any, and I mean any evidence at all to who did this?" Silver Surfer asked sternly, his voice breaking due to his grief. "yes. We found a strange piece of a symbiote on Parker's chest." An intern answered. Only one name connected to that piece of alien form: Carnage
"That no-good, lowdown, despicable, rotten hell-spawned son of a BITCH! I'll KILL him for this!" Wolverine growled, about to sheath his claws before Hulk held him back. "Not yet Logan. We need to find out exactly why Carnage did it before we can permanently smoke him out." Cyclops responded
"Scott… In case you've forgotten, that lunatic is a serial killer for crying out loud! He commits murders because he thinks it's FUN! He'll never tell us why, because there is no bit of humanity in that monster!" Songbird snapped, Cyclops coming to terms with the Avenger's comment. "You may be right, but Carnage is out there. Look what he did to Spider Man. He may go after my daughter next!" Ant-Man II piped up
"He will most definitely not." Phoenix snorted. "why? My Cassie isn't strong enough to handle that maniac! She'll be dead before she can even scream for help!" Ant-Man II spat. Phoenix groaned and said "Scott… don't you think you're blowing this a tiny bit out of proportion? Cassie is off on vacation in Brazil. Even if Carnage tried to go there, he'd be instantly arrested and executed."
"Oh yeah, that'll make me happy." Longshot sarcastically commented. "and what are you saying?" Iceman wondered, Dazzler finally exhaling "Don't you guys get it? We can't put Carnage back in the slammer! He always, always finds a way to escape! There's only one way to make absolutely sure Carnage never terrorizes us ever again: we have to kill him."
"Dazzler, have you gone crazy?!" Cyclops shouted. "Yeah, um, we don't kill bad guys. Except for Deadpool, Silver Surfer and Ghost Rider, but don't you think we'd be pushing the envelope if we knocked off Carnage in front of millions of witnesses?" Iceman quizzed
"That may be true; but here's another point of view: Millions of lives will be saved, the streets will be less messy, and everyone else that Carnage allies with will back off and leave us alone because they'll know we mean business." Phoenix explained, the group nodding in agreement.
"It still doesn't sound right… but it is the best way to get rid of him." Cyclops agreed. "Good. So tomorrow, at daybreak, we start looking for Carnage. We track him, hunt him, capture him, and after we pay him back for what he did to webhead… we'll get him out of the way once and for all!" Ghost Rider ordered, barking "Now who's with me?!" All heroes raised their hands.
"Good! At daybreak, we move! Let nobody and I mean nobody stand in our way! For this isn't no save the world assignment… this… is personal!" Wolverine growled, cocking his revolver.
The next morning at daybreak as Ghost Rider had planned, the large army of heroes locked and loaded their weapons and set out on their hunt. After getting some tips from reliable sources, the group found Carnage's hiding place: his house.
"There it is. That's where the little cockroach lives, all right." Elektra growled, spitting on the dirt before the team moved in toward the front door. "Juggernaut, you know what to do." Cyclops commented, as the bulky armored mutant charged through the front wall, obliterating the front structure and destroying a good amount of the back wall. "Ok, we're in. Now remember: when we find him, we do not kill him yet." Cyclops replied, nodding to Sabretooth who had a large sound system in his hand.
"This'll draw the bastard out." Black Panther commented, hooking up the wires to the sound system as everyone else covered their ears as Blade activated the stereos.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO! THE NOISE! PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!" Carnage's screams pierced through the walls, the heroes triumphant in cornering him. And it only took nineteen seconds for Ghost Rider to burn the symbiote with his flamethrower and one good, powerful bash on the head with a bat to subdue Carnage… for now.
"Place a bag over his head. Get him into the car. If he moves, shoot his legs." Ghost Rider ordered, as She-Hulk and Thor placed Carnage's paralyzed body into the car trunk.
"where… where am I?" Carnage weakly rasped, feeling a dripping on his forehead. Carnage gasped to see his own blood trickling from the gaping wound as the heroes surrounded him with a murderous glare.
"Carnage… you have pissed us off for the last time." Captain America hissed, Madame Hydra's grin widening as she unraveled her bullwhip. "We all know what happened with what you did to Spider-Man. And it is time to get even!" Phoenix added, taking a cleaver and made a large chop at his leg.
"AAAAAHHH" Carnage shrieked in pain. "Yeah, that's it. You enjoyed hurting one of us, now let's see how you like it!" Deadpool cackled, Phoenix revealing a hot branding iron. "Hold him down!" Daredevil barked as Juggernaut and Colossus restrained Carnage as Iron Man slugged the villain repeatedly before letting Thor, Captain America and Wolverine have a turn.
"I love this." Phoenix sighed, taking a sip of wine contently as Carnage screamed in pain as Elektra repeatedly impaled him with her swords. "P-please, show mercy!" Carnage begged, as he was broken beyond repair.
"You should've thought of that when you battered my husband." Mary Jane snarled, striking Carnage brutally with a crowbar. Ghost Rider then cocked his handgun. "Ok Phoenix, he's all yours." Sabretooth barked as Jean came forward with a giant chainsaw in her hands.
"Finally… I get to chop you into pieces. And Carnage… it wasn't professional. This was simply good revenge." Phoenix taunted, a nightmarish smile forming on her face as she revved the chainsaw. A massive ear-splitting scream echoed throughout the skies as Carnage was finally brought to justice.. for good.
"well kiddies, at least Carnage finally learned his lesson on picking on someone his own size!" The Crypt Keeper snickered as he sat in his crypt with the branding iron beside the table. "As for poor Spider Man, he eventually recovered and decided to be allies with Venom. Maybe now the two will be doing ebony and irony! Hahahhahahhahahahahah!" the corpse cackled fiendishly