All characters appearing in Spider-Man are copyrighted to Marvel Entertainment and Stan Lee. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of TVfan.
Note: this story is continued from the end of "All the King's Men" and will run through my version of Marvel's Civil War. If you wish to know the exact plot of my version of the "Civil War", you will need to read my story in the Captain America section titled, "Civil War", although it should not be necessary to understand the events of this story.
The Laws of Terror and Joy
By TVfan
Chapter 3: Dealing with a Venomous Scorpion
The Bronx
"Come on, man," a strange looking man, with one brown and one blue eye, begged from a drug dealer inside an old dilapidated building along the river between the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, "Gimmie that China White."
"Freak, you ain't paid up for the drugs you soaked up last week," the dealer answered, "I ain't givin' you anything till you pay up, and if you keep beggin' you'll be paying for this week's supply in advance."
The addict lunged forward, dropping to his knees as he did so.
"Come on man," Freak answered, "I need that China White! I need it bad!"
"And I need your money, now pay up!" the dealer ordered and began to wrestle with something under his coat, producing a handgun, "Or I'll bust you up good and take whatever you have that I can sell."
Freak then gulped in fear as he didn't want to die, when the door suddenly flew off its hinges and landed between him and the drug dealer. Both then looked up to see several men dressed in black robes standing in the doorway. Their skin, what little they could see of it looked awfully white. Freak immediately backed away, sensing that these guys were dangerous.
"What the…?" the dealer spoke in surprise as the Scriers entered the room, "Who the hell are you?!"
"The new owners of this building," the lead Scrier spoke in a cold voice, "You will remove yourselves immediately if you value your lives."
"What about my China White?" Freak asked nervously.
"You had best seek you foul addictions elsewhere," the lead Scrier answered him, "Now, do I need to repeat myself?"
"No, sir," Freak said quickly and ran out the door as the Scriers moved aside to give him an exit.
The Scriers then turned to face the dealer, who had only changed targets for his handgun from Freak to the Scriers.
"I don't know who you freaks are, but that man owes me a lot of money," the dealer growled.
"And if you wish to live to collect on his debts, you will leave now," the lead Scrier said firmly, "We will not ask you again."
The dealer only answered by pulling the trigger on his gun. Unfortunately, the lead Scrier moved far faster then he thought possible and by the time he had completed his squeezing of the trigger, his hand had been deflected upward, and his shot went harmlessly into the ceiling above them. The lead Scrier then pivoted on one foot and delivered a kick that sent the dealer flying into the far wall of the room. As he struggled to pull himself up, the lead Scrier grabbed him by the neck.
"Fool," the lead Scrier said to the drug dealer as another Scrier crushed the man's neck with a single blow.
The lead Scrier then threw the dead body toward the door.
"Dispose of him," the lead Scrier ordered, "the rest of you are to clean this building out and remove all the drug paraphernalia you can find. Our brotherhood does not run on such substances."
Avengers Tower
"Ouff!" Steven Rogers, the hero known as Captain America grunted as he bounced off the wall of the 'gym' that was part of Avengers Tower.
His sparring partner at the moment turned from her position and moved closer to him.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Mary Jane spoke quickly, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Steve answered, "The room is padded to help prevent anyone from getting hurt while training."
"Yeah, but it probably isn't a good idea for me to throw my teacher around the room," Mary Jane answered him.
Events had seemed to calm down since she and Peter had finished off the Scriers in Newark as Arachne and Spider-Man. The work on the play was progressing along well, and they would be ready for their first performance in a week or two. In the meantime, she and Peter hadn't come across anything more then a common street criminal on their patrols, and she continued to train in some basic form of martial arts to help her deal with more super powered criminals more effectively.
"You mastered the move," Steve answered, "and I think you don't truly 'need' any more. It's good that you've been willing to train with your husband and even asking me to help. But you have good control and with your powers, knowing the military training I received in hand to hand combat by heat isn't necessary."
"But what about those that have more training?" Mary Jane asked.
"Most of the heroes that rely on martial arts training rely on it because they do not have any superhuman powers that can help them," Steve told her, "From what Peter's told me, you're just as strong and just as fast as he is, in addition to sharing several other powers. The training helps, but by mastering your powers, you'll probably do well against most villains that your husband traditionally runs into, and continued experience will help against the rest. My lessons may even help a bit."
"I just want to make sure I know what I'm doing, considering that I'm still paving new roads so to speak for me," Mary Jane told him.
"And you're doing a good job," Steve nodded, "I'd think that I'd agree with Peter is that all you need is time to get 'comfortable' with all of this."
"And you believe I've mastered everything I need?" Mary Jane asked.
"All the basic moves that I know," Steve nodded, "You might now be able to give your husband a real run for his money when you spar against one another."
"Thanks for everything," Mary Jane told the star spangled avenger.
The Bronx
The Scriers carefully gathered inside their commandeered building and each one of them gave a collective sigh. The building was of very poor quality and any attempt to improve it would take time and require large sums of money, which for the moment they lacked. On top of this, their primary mission was to destroy Spider-Man and Arachne, and unfortunately the two spider themed heroes had bested them and there were now only ten Scriers left for the entire New York area. They could not afford to tangle with them again.
The new leader of the group slowly cleared his throat to speak, "I'm sure the Council will provide us with the funds needed to turn this dump into a real base of operations, but in the meantime, we have important work to do."
The other Scriers nodded.
"The Council has authorized the resumption of an earlier failed experiment," the new Manhattan Leader spoke, "and we are to contact Mac Gargan. Any information that can be presented about where he is and how to go after him, will be helpful."
"According to our files he is the criminal known as the Scorpion," one of the Scriers commented, "and that needs to be updated as he has bonded with our symbiote. According to the news channels, he's in Riker's right now for kidnapping Parker's Aunt."
"Yes, as part of Osborn's last great scheme to kill Spider-Man," the new Manhattan leader grumbled, "the man always did play more then do any real actual work."
The Manhattan leader then turned to the others.
"Is there any way we can get there without arousing suspicion?" the new Manhattan leader asked.
"I'm afraid not, sir," a different Scrier spoke up, "Ever since the Raft break out and our breaking Fisk out of Riker's, security there has been tightened. We'll probably have to fight our way in. Thankfully that is possible if we all go."
"And Gargan can help us fight back out again," a third Scrier commented.
Avengers Tower
Peter, meanwhile, was focused on looking over the photographs he had taken of the 'evidence' of the Scrier's plans, hoping to learn a little bit about them and what they were planning. He was certain they wouldn't cause him any more trouble, but it might be good to get an idea of what they were working on. Unfortunately, the photographs didn't help him much as several of the Scrier's plans were in folders, and all he had was the outside, and on many of the others, the plans were written in fine print. And of course, he didn't have an easy straight on view of each set of plans, so the small letters were distorted by the angle that his camera had taken the picture of them.
"No one ever said life was perfect," Peter sighed and tried to transfer the photo images onto a computer, hoping that the computer technology would be able to straighten everything out.
Peter was thankful that the technology in the Avengers Tower was advanced enough that he only had to press one or two buttons to do all the sorting. As he set the photos in the device he stood up and stretched. It would take time for the computer to sort everything out, and he wasn't sure that he would be able to get everything. That made him wish he could have picked up the paper plans themselves, but he was certain that Maria Hill wouldn't have let him do that. He was privately certain she though he was too stupid to read anything.
He simply put that out of his mind. It would be dinner time soon, and he didn't want to be concerned with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director, who he didn't think was really all that dangerous to him. He found Aunt May setting out a pot roast as he entered the dinning area.
"Smells good, Aunt May," Peter said as he walked in.
"It should be, you've always liked it before," Aunt May commented, "How was your day?"
"Pretty good, no major crime in the city that I could find," Peter shrugged, "I'm mostly tinkering with the photos that I took of the Scriers's plans and stuff."
"You're not obsessing on them are you?" Aunt May asked suspiciously.
"I more curious then anything else," Peter answered, "The Scriers are beaten. If there are any still in the New York area, they aren't a threat to anyone and by the time they are, they will have forgotten all about trying to get revenge on me and MJ."
"So why are you trying figure out what their plans were?" Aunt May asked.
"Curiosity," Peter sighed, "I sorta want to see what I've stopped."
"I trust you're not letting this consume all of your time?" Aunt May questioned as Mary Jane entered the room.
"Letting what consume your time?" Mary Jane asked.
"Looking at the plans that he photographed from the Scriers," Aunt May told her.
"It's just something I've been doing to satisfy my own curiosity," Peter tried to defend himself.
"Well, remember that you have school to teach tomorrow," Mary Jane reminded her husband, "So you can't go off studying them all night."
"Yes, dear," Peter answered in a submissive voice, "So, how was your day?"
"Pretty good," Mary Jane answered, "We're getting close to being ready for dress rehearsals for the play and Steve thinks learned all I can from him in terms of what to do."
"So, you mastered the kung-fu?" Peter asked, making hand gestures with his knife and fork.
"Not mastered, but I know how to do it, and that all I need is practice," Mary Jane told him, "and with the Scriers beaten and no other major foe out there, all I'll have to practice on are common criminals. Unless you want to spar with me."
"Not tonight," Peter sighed, "I don't want to end up going in to teach with a black eye."
"But you're perfectly willing to go out and search for some bad guy if you know that one of them is up to something," Mary Jane commented.
"Come on, that's different," Peter commented, "You know that those bad guys could do far worse if they aren't stopped."
"I know," Mary Jan smiled, "I'm only teasing."
Riker's Island
Mac Gargan sat alone in his cell with a pleased smile on his face. He didn't like being in prison, but the cell he was in was for only the most powerful super villains that were incarcerated in Riker's. And he liked the 'respect' that got him. In the past, when he had been the Scorpion, after being defeated by Spider-Man, he was stripped of his armor and weapons and sent to an average cell. Now that he had the Venom symbiote, he was in a stronger cell, and from his point of view was considered more dangerous, and he liked being dangerous.
"Hey there, man, we don't want to hurt you," Gargan yelled through the force field window that allowed him to look out and a guard to look in, "we just want to gnaw on your skull for awhile!"
The guard standing outside ignored him.
"Come on!" Gargan yelled again, "Quit ignoring me! Shake in fear or something!"
"I have no reason to be afraid of a many behind three inch thick titanium walls and an electronic force field that would burn your symbiote to ashes if you tried to go through it," the guard answered coldly, "now shut up. I'm tired of listening to you brag about how you're 'Venom' now. Whoop-de-do."
"You wouldn't say that if I were out there," Gargan growled.
"But you're not," the guard answered, "Now, shut up."
Gargan silently growled to himself and walked back to the bench that doubled as his bed. He then silently added 'my prison guard' to a short list of people he wanted to kill as Venom as soon as he got out of jail. In fact the only two names on the list at present were 'my prison guard' and Spider-Man. It wasn't a long list, but Gargan actually preferred it that way.
Outside the prison, the ten Scriers moved up close to the wall and moved toward the main gate. Each one carried a short sword and various spy type equipment that they would need to break into the prison. They moved quickly and tried to remain in the shadows. Once they got to the gate, they knew that they could no longer remain hidden.
"Remember," the new Manhattan Leader spoke, "Move quickly and do not allow them the opportunity to strike. Gargan will deal with any other policeman that try to stop us on our way out."
The others nodded and quickly prepared to move. The new Manhattan Leader started the attempt by throwing two gas grenades into the closest watch tower, and the following 'explosion' of smoke quickly filled the small watchtower and forced the guards in it to leave. The Scriers then sprung into direct action. Using ropes and grappling irons, they scaled the wall of the prison and landed inside the 'yard' of the prison and quickly ran for the main gates that lead to the interior of the prison.
Alarms sounded as they reached the gate to find it locked tight, and several of the other Scriers could see that the other guard towers were preparing to fire on them.
"Can you cut their lock?" one Scrier asked as he was forced to use his sword to deflect a bullet fired at him.
"They're fools who think science is the best weapon," the new Manhattan Leader said confidently and took a slash at the gate with his sword.
The gate then opened as the new Manhattan Leader's sword had cut through the lock. They then rushed in to find two guards rushing forward with nightsticks drawn. The first was killed when a Scrier swung his sword at shoulder height and the other was disarmed by the new Manhattan leader, who used his sword to cut his nightstick in half and knocked the guard to the floor with a sweeping kick. He then placed the tip of his sword to the man's neck.
"Where is Mac Gargan?" the Manhattan Scrier leader demanded.
"He's in the central area," the guard gulped, praying silently that he wouldn't be killed, "Maximum security."
The new Manhattan leader then kicked the guard knocking him unconscious.
"Let's go," the lead Scrier ordered.
Gargan, meanwhile listened to the alarms wail through the facility. He could guess that someone was being 'broken out', but he could only guess at who. He curiously looked out the 'window' to his cell, hoping to get a look at whoever had entered. After a few moments, he saw several men wearing black robes appear from down the hallway and moving toward his guard.
The guard pulled out a sonic blaster type weapon that had been made to stop the Venom symbiote and fired it at the men. The concentrated blast of sound waves knocked one of the robed men back, and Gargan recoiled in pain, as the noise reverberated through the walls and into his cell, but it didn't stop them. A different robed man managed to get close enough with his sword to slash through device. As Gargan recovered inside his cell he watched his guard fly into the outside of the window to his cell and then fall to the ground.
"Greetings, Scorpion," one of the men spoke outside his cell.
"I'm VENOM now!" Gargan growled as he pulled his symbiotic costume out from underneath his skin.
"Yes, of course," the robed man answered, "We are Scriers, representatives of the Brotherhood of Scriers, and we have a proposition for you."
"We're listening," Gargan answered.
"In exchange for your freedom, you must kill Spider-Man and Arachne," the lead Scrier spoke.
"Arachne?" Gargan asked.
"Spider-Man's present partner," the lead Scrier told him, "A female with red hair. Both she and Spider-Man are to die."
"I'd do that for free," Gargan answered, "if you just let me out."
"Very well," the lead Scrier answered, "Your aide will be required in battling our way out of this prison. Then we will lead you to our headquarters where we will explain everything."
Avengers Tower
Peter and Mary Jane settled down peacefully for night as they turned on the local news to see what was going on in the world. The day had been calm for them and almost a real day off. As the news came on, they were greeted with a story that suddenly erased all hope that things had been peaceful.
"Earlier this evening, the prison of Riker's Island was the victim of a direct assault and breakout of the criminal Mac Gargan, currently known as Venom," the reporter spoke, "this is the second time that someone has attacked Riker's Island, with the first being the attack in which Wilson Fisk was kidnapped from his cell some months ago. Now Fisk has been returned to his cell, but now Gargan has been broken out of Riker's which will potentially raise the level of danger that New Yorkers currently face."
"What is being done to find Gargan and the people that sprung him now?" a studio reporter asked.
"Police have begun a frantic search, and have found no sign of Gargan, or his rescuers," the reporter answered, "We urge that everyone remain calm, but also urge that everyone take the necessary precautions."
"What about what is being done concerning the attacks on Riker's Island?" the studio reporter asked.
"That is currently under investigation," the reporter answered.
Mary Jane then sat back into her pillow and sighed heavily.
"I suppose you'll be looking for him tomorrow," Mary Jane sighed as she looked over at Peter.
"After my school day is done," Peter sighed, "It's too late for me to go out now, not without being miserable tomorrow morning, and it's also too late to call the school to ask for a substitute."
"And I have rehearsals tomorrow," Mary Jane told him, "and even if I didn't, I'm not confident about going after Venom alone."
"Don't sell yourself short," Peter commented, "Gargan was never really that great a threat to me and the symbiote's greatest advantage over me is the fact that my spider-sense can't detect it, which I think has something to do with when I wore it. Just because Gargan is 'Venom' now, it doesn't mean that he isn't a loser anymore, and besides, you never wore the symbiote, therefore, your spider-sense should detect him."
Mary Jane sat silently for a moment.
"The only reason that I'd prefer that we capture him is that hopefully we can separate him from the symbiote and let S.H.I.E.L.D. or somebody find a way to dispose of it permanently," Peter continued, "Gargan is harmless. Really."
"Overconfident are we now, Mr. Parker?" Mary Jane asked.
"It's the truth," Peter answered.
"Uh-huh," Mary Jane replied, "After my rehearsal, I'll meet you on the roof of the building across the street from the school. Okay?"
"Right," Peter nodded.
The next morning was a swift one. Peter was up fairly early and quickly got dressed for work. He kissed MJ's cheek before leaving her to sleep for a little while longer. He then quickly ate breakfast and left for work. Mary Jane didn't wake up until he was in the elevator to go down to the ground floor. As she came out into the kitchen, Mary Jane found Aunt May and Jarvis eating breakfast.
"Morning," Mary Jane greeted them, "You two okay?"
"We're fine, dear," Aunt May answered her, "I'm afraid Peter's already left though."
"I assumed that he would on a day that he is teaching," Mary Jane answered, "and with Gargan on the loose we might be a little late in getting back today."
"I take it the two of you will be searching for him then?" Jarvis asked and after Mary Jane nodded, he added, "I'll let the other Avengers know of your plans."
Midtown High School
Peter found the school day to go fairly peacefully, which is just how he liked it. His morning classes went by without any trouble and he soon found himself seated at his table in the lunchroom eating the day's school lunch. It was one of the few things he disliked about being in school again, but it was certainly better then going nine rounds against the worst villains he had ever faced. After a few moments, he looked up to see Flash approaching with a woman he recognized as the new school nurse following him.
"Hey, Flash, how's phys ed going?" Peter asked, "anyone looking to be a champ yet?"
"It'll be years before I get the program working again," Flash groaned, "Especially since I need to comply with all these new rules they've come up with."
"Now, now," Arrow spoke, "Those rules are there for a reason."
"I know," Flash answered, "but it will take a lot of time for full progress to be made."
"Well, hopefully everything works out well for you," Peter commented, "I'm sure it would excite everyone to see the school doing well again."
Flash nodded and sat down with his food and waited for Arrow to sit down next to him. The two had been dating for awhile now, although, Flash still occasionally asked Peter for ideas on how to impress her. He was happy that he had found someone, and at least glad that Flash had decided to be friendly with him. That way, Peter could try his best to update Flash on his life since high school, or at least as much as he could. It was the only thing that Peter could think of to deal with Flash's amnesia. Everything else he had tried had failed, and while Flash's amnesia hadn't caused any serious problems, yet, he decided it wouldn't be worth it to push trying to hard to get him to seek treatment. Especially since he didn't know how much official treatment would actually help.
"So, how have the two of you been doing?" Peter asked politely, "I mean, surely you must be tired of hearing how Flash single handedly saved Midtown's team when he went here as student."
"He does overstate his achievements," Arrow answered, "but I guess it's a loveable quality. You certainly can't say he lacks confidence."
"You should have seen him before he asked you out," Peter chuckled, "He…"
"That's enough of that," Flash cut him off, "Being confident is a good thing. Let's just leave it at that."
"Okay," Peter nodded, "We still have our afternoon classes to teach anyway. Can't chat and small talk too much."
Peter liked his afternoon classes best. Most of the kids in the morning classes were still half asleep, and continuously made him wonder if they were still up, even after he had finished his rounds as 'Spider-Man' on some nights. Of course, the afternoon classes were also excited about the end of the school day, but they were at least fully awake and Peter could at least try to keep them focused on the lesson.
"Okay, class," Peter began his class, "today we're going to finish up what we got to last time on the pH scale. Can anyone remember what 'pH' stands for?"
"Percent hydrogen," one of his students answered.
"Very good," Peter answered, "Now, I'm going to trust you all remember how the pH scale works in its representation of acids and bases. I'm now going to demonstrate how they interact with one another."
Peter then brought up two beakers from a shelf and placed them on the table in front of him. He then set a third beaker between them.
"Now, acids and bases are on opposite ends of the pH scale," Peter continued, "and when a strong acid meets a strong base, the two will balance out to make water, which is neutral on the pH scale. A weak base or a weak acid will only lessen the effects of a strong acid or base, and thus, more of a weak acid or base must be used to neutralize a strong acid or base…"
"So are you saying there needs be two of you to stop us?" a deep voice questioned from outside the door before the school's principal was thrown through it, knocking the door down and upsetting Peter's demonstration.
The damage that was being done to the table and the floor was soon unimportant as Peter moved to check on the principal and look to see who had spoken. The principal was fine, for the moment, if he was unconscious, but that wasn't the main thing. The person who had thrown him through the door was Venom as Peter quickly recognized the black and white suit, even in its new design, the Venom symbiote was easily recognizable.
"Venom!" Peter spoke in shock, with some fear for his students evident in his voice.
"Yes, it is us, Spider-Man," Venom said pointedly, "Or should we call you Parker at the moment? We've never been straight on how you people like to call yourselves."
This only terrified the frightened students more.
"You've gone nuts," Peter accused, and knowing he'd have to lie to protect his identity, "attacking a school full of innocent kids and calling me 'Spider-Man'."
"Oh of course," Venom smiled, "but then, that's the point isn't it?"
Venom then lunged over the table and Peter only just barely rolled out of the way with the principal in his arms.
"Get out of here!" Peter ordered to the other students, "Quickly!"
Peter then quickly handed the unconscious principal to a couple of male students.
"Take him with you," Peter instructed, "I'll try to hold him off."
"But that's a super villain, man," the student answered.
"Yes we are!" Venom announced as he grabbed Peter from behind, while his class fled the room, with two male students dragging the unconscious principal out.
Once the students were out of the room, Peter focused his attention on Venom.
"You're sick, Gargan, you know that?" Peter growled as he elbowed him, "There are innocent people here."
The blow made Venom stumble back a few steps, but the only important thing was that it made him release his grip on Peter.
"There is your problem," Venom answered, "You think we're like Brock. Torn between killing you and protecting the innocent. We aren't. The innocent are far to easy a target for us!"
"Well, isn't that just dandy," Peter growled as he moved into a portion of the room where the security cameras in the halls wouldn't catch him changing into costume.
Theater
Mary Jane settled prepared to head for a nearby bathroom to change into her Arachne costume. She didn't want to use one of the dressing rooms as she was certain that she couldn't sneak that far through the building without being spotted. The bathroom, however, was near an exit. She felt she could sneak a few steps.
The rehearsal had gone well, as she had expected them to. So far, the peaceful atmosphere that had settled on New York since the defeat of Fisk and the Scriers had made balancing being Arachne and being an actress fairly easy. Although there was a feeling in the back of her mind that dealing with Venom would soon do as much damage to her life, as being Spider-Man had complicated Peter's life. She hoped that feeling was wrong though.
She ran into Chloe as she neared the door to the bathroom. The other actress looked concerned about something.
"You okay, Chloe?" Mary Jane asked as she got within talking distance.
She jumped slightly but soon nodded, "Oh, I'm fine. It's just that I just saw a news report on the 'break room' TV that can't be good. Apparently Venom has attacked a school in Midtown."
"Midtown…" Mary Jane spoke, suddenly on full alert.
"Yeah," Chloe answered, "The news reporter said they evacuated the school, but the guy seems to have fortified himself inside it, and may even have a hostage."
"Oh man," Mary Jane gasped, now certain that she had to get down there.
"Yeah, I'm sorry I can't stay and talk, but I have a dental appointment in half an hour and I need to get going," Chloe told MJ and hurried out the door.
Mary Jane then ducked into the bathroom and began to change into her costume. Arachne was soon web slinging as quickly as possible toward Midtown High.
Midtown High
Spider-Man ducked down as Venom threw another table at him from inside an emptied classroom that their battle had moved into. He was eternally grateful that one of his students had pulled a fire alarm, getting everyone else out. That way, his fight with Venom wouldn't be directly endangering students. Of course, the fact that Venom had attacked him while he was in civilian attire and while his students were present was not something that he wanted.
But then, as Gargan had said earlier, he wasn't Brock. Brock had always seen himself as a victim, innocent, and thus, he could deal with Brock fairly easily. Brock rarely fought him where he would deliberately endanger someone innocent, which many times both he and Brock could agree on who was innocent. Of course, Brock took even the slightest offenses pretty hard and as a result, there were many that Spider-Man considered innocent that Venom did not, and there were also a few that while they weren't innocent in Spider-Man's eyes, he never thought they were deserving of the 'punishment' Venom wanted to hand down to them.
Gargan was different, and he guessed he would have to get used to one of his most dangerous, and yet also one of his 'pushovers', to go after innocents.
"Hold still!" Venom roared as Spider-Man back flipped and landed on the ceiling of the room.
"Why?" Spider-Man taunted, "Give me one good reason for me to stand still."
Spider-Man had quickly decided to exploit another of Gargan's weaknesses. Gargan assumed that because he ha gained Venom's powers he was now invincible and that nothing should be able to even escape him. He thought he could win the fight with an easy one punch knockout, and not even Brock had ever been quite that powerful. As a result of his overconfidence, Gargan was bound to make mistakes that would give Spidey an edge in the long run.
Venom leaped up with the intention of driving his fists through the section of the ceiling that Spider-Man was clinging to, and through Spider-Man, himself, as well. Spider-Man barely managed to avoid that fate, and Venom ended up driving his fists into the ceiling. Spider-Man bounced back of the floor and landed a kick against Venom's midsection that drove the rest of his body into the ceiling. He hoped that the electrical wires in the ceiling would give him extensive electrical burns and separate the symbiote from Gargan, but he had no luck in that regard. Venom landed on the other end of the room and looked extremely angry. He grabbed a couple of student desks and then threw them at the webbed avenger.
"Great," Spider-Man grumbled as he dove out the door and back into the hallway, "I am not getting paid well enough for this."
Venom was close behind him.
Outside, Arachne found a great deal of confusion outside the school. The police had arrived and set up barricades, but no one that she could see had anything that might be a threat to Venom. Deciding to take the direct approach, she hopped down from the side of a building across the street and landed just behind one of the police cruisers.
"Is anyone still in there?" Arachne asked, surprising both of the cops near her, making them jump.
"What are you doing here?" one of the cops demanded, eyeing Arachne suspiciously.
"I saw on the news that the criminal known as Venom attacked this school," Arachne answered, "He's one of my partner's greatest enemies, and you're asking me why I'm here? I'm here to stop him? Now, is there anyone still inside?"
"We're pretty sure Venom still is," the other cop answered, "the only potential hostage that is in there is a science teacher, although we think Venom's already killed him. We're mostly waiting for that freak to come out."
"You do know that hand guns aren't dangerous to Venom, right?" Arachne asked.
"It won't kill him, but surely it'll slow him down long enough for us to cart him away," the first cop commented.
Arachne sighed, "I'm going in. Call S.H.I.E.L.D. or somebody who has more experience in restraining super powered criminals. Your bullets won't stop Venom and cuffs won't hold him. By the time he's down they'll be here."
Arachne slowly began to walk towards the school's front doors. She was then surprised by something she heard one of the policeman say from behind her.
"Go for it, Arachne!" the cops cheered.
That made her sigh. If Peter had been beside her in costume, they would have shot at him. It privately made her wonder why so many people liked Arachne and hated Spider-Man. It was weird.
Spider-Man, meanwhile was still trying to find a way to stop Venom as quickly as possible. Venom continued to overestimate his own ability that allowed him to land some good blows on him, but they did not do Venom any serious harm. Eventually, Venom landed a swinging punch that sent him flying into the school's glass trophy case.
"We have you now!" Venom said triumphantly and was prepared to stamp the life out of Spider-Man when a new voice cut him off.
"Oh no you don't," came Arachne's voice from the other end of the hallway.
Venom turned to see Arachne coming down the hallway. She fired a webline that caught his arms, and Venom soon felt him pull on the line, pulling him back.
"You certainly now how to get in trouble, tiger," Arachne commented to Spider-Man as he recovered and got up.
"Well excuse me for being a popular target," Spider-Man quipped back.
Venom then looked at both Spider-Man and Arachne as they took up positions on either side of him.
"I'm going to kill both of you, so it doesn't matter that you're both here," Venom growled.
"Very good then," Spider-Man shrugged as he leaped up, bounced off the ceiling and landed a strong kick on Venom's chest while Arachne dropped low and took his feet out from under him.
The blows took him to the ground, and before he could recover, Spider-Man began wrapping him up in webbing. Spider-Man then used his webbing to throw Venom into a wall. That disoriented Venom, and he wasn't prepared for what happened next. Arachne came first, landing a blow to his gut while Spider-Man followed with a kick to the face, knocking him out. Venom landed hard and on his back when they were done.
"See," Spider-Man commented, "No problem."
"Yeah, you've practically destroyed the school," Arachne retorted, "and he was about to kill you when I arrived."
"I would have got away," Spider-Man answered back.
"Well, the police believe you're dead," Arachne told him, "And they don't know that Spider-Man is here. You might want go and get changed back into your civilian cloths before heading out."
"So will you explain beating him all by your lonesome, then?" Spider-Man asked in an almost teasing voice.
"I'll say he did something stupid, like throwing a punch he couldn't land and he ended up punching through a electrical wire or something," Arachne answered, "He's done enough damage that he must have done that somewhere. You can simply say that for you it had been a running fight. You running for cover and throwing obstacles in his path. That might explain all the damage."
"I guess," Spider-Man sighed.
Outside the police watched nervously from behind their cars. One S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had arrived in a hovercar with a set of electro-cuffs and some large blaster type weapon, but that was it. That didn't give them much in the way a confidence, but it was the best they were going to get. They were preparing to go into the school and deal with Venom, themselves, when suddenly, the doors opened, revealing Arachne helping a man walk out of the school building and dragging the webbed up and unconscious Venom behind them.
As they approached, Arachne slowly helped the man forward.
"Here is the man you thought Venom killed," Arachne spoke.
"What happened?" one of the policemen asked.
"He appeared to lead Venom on quite a chase, although the crook ended up destroying much of the school," Arachne told them, "It's a miracle he survived."
"I'll say," a second policeman answered and motioned that they would take Peter and help him to a curb to be looked at.
"Meanwhile," Arachne spoke as she lifted up Venom, "We need to separate him from the symbiote and find out who broke him out of Riker's."
"And why do you need to know?" the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent asked suspiciously.
"Because whoever broke him out had to be fairly powerful," Arachne answered, "Thus, it may require a hero to deal with it."
"You'll need to wake him up first," the first policeman pointed out.
"Don't worry," the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent replied, "He'll probably wake up once we begin taking the symbiote off of him. The pain of separation and all that."
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent then pulled out what looked like a small portable robotic vacuum cleaner from inside the backpack he was carrying. He placed the tube on the ground near Venom's head and set the rest of the device on the ground. He then activated the device, making a great noise that so far, didn't wake up the knocked out villain.
"You might wish to stand behind me," the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent said to Arachne as he readied the sonic blaster.
After Arachne moved, the agent fired the weapon directly onto Venom. The sonic blaster did, in fact, wake Venom up, but it had already begun to break the symbiote's bond with Gargan and was being sucked into the vacuum, along with the nearby dirt and dust in the air near it. Gargan screamed in and rolled around on the ground as the agent's sonic blaster forced the symbiote to break its bond with him. After a few moments, the agent turned the sonic blaster off and stopped the vacuum, while also sealing it up, trapping the symbiote inside.
"There," the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent spoke, "I'll be taking the symbiote for further study, you can do what you like with Gargan."
"Okay, that sounded creepy," Arachne commented and grabbed Gargan by the shoulders and lifted him into the air, "Okay… who broke you out of jail?"
"I ain't telling you anything," Gargan swore, sounding more like he was frustrated that he had lost again.
"Come now, you've already lost," Arachne spoke to him, "and I have to already be an enemy of whoever it was as they sent you to kill me. You can't be hiding anything really secretive."
"You and Spider-Man have recently been fighting them," Gargan answered back, "You should already know or at least suspect who busted me out. That is all I'm going to say."
"You'd better let us take him," one of the policemen said, "we can handle him now, and not everyone in our unit likes superheroes."
Arachne sighed and handed Gargan, who now carried an intense look of depression, to the officers and quickly swung away. She was soon headed back to Avengers Tower, where she assumed Peter was headed as soon as he could get away from his care takers.
Scrier Base, the Bronx
The new Manhattan leader sat quietly in what was now their planning room. Much of their work had been limited to cleaning and repairing the building they had occupied. It took awhile to remove the odor that the drug dealers had left in their wake, and it took almost as long to deal with the addicts that almost routinely came to their door expecting to get a handout. Now, all that had been cleaned up, and the building was being repaired so that it could be used as a viable base.
The plans he was working on, however, were limited to observing the actions undertaken in the hopes of defeating Spider-Man and Arachne. They couldn't do much more then that at the moment. There were too few in the New York area to engage in any of the projects that they had done for Osborn or for the Council in the past.
"Sir?" a voice spoke up, and he turned to see one of the other Scriers standing in the doorway.
"What is it?" the new Manhattan leader asked.
"I'm afraid to report that Gargan's attempt has failed," the Scrier answered, "He stormed the Midtown High School grounds as we instructed, but he failed. Both Spider-Man and Arachne beat him, and from what I could see when he was brought out, they won fairly easily."
"Brock always was better as Venom," the new Manhattan leader sighed, "but then, he would never deliberately endanger innocent children. So I guess there is a trade off."
"What do we do now, sir?" the other Scrier asked.
"I do not know," the new Manhattan leader sighed, "We had all we could do to break Gargan out of prison. Does he still have the Venom symbiote?"
"No, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent took possession of the symbiote," the other Scrier reported.
"Blast," the Manhattan leader growled, "We'll have to make contacts throughout the city. See if we can get some other villains to deal with them then or something. That will require more information and time."
"What of Spider-Man and Arachne?" the other Scrier asked, "They may deduce that some of us escaped being caught in the Newark base."
"We can not afford to lose any more to them," the Manhattan leader answered, "and contact with the Council will be scarce for the time being. We must limit ourselves to observation. We can not and must not engage them."
"Of course, sir," the other Scrier answered.
Avengers Tower
Mary Jane sighed as she watched Peter pace through the living room set aside for the Avengers to use. Other then her mask, she was still in costume, and her face looked extremely concerned.
"Well, at least the Venom symbiote is in custody and Gargan is going back to jail," Mary Jane spoke.
"Yeah, but he's ruined the school," Peter answered, "It'll be weeks before it's able to open again. We've got to catch the low lifes that sprung him, or else they'll cause more and more trouble."
"But Gargan didn't tell us who sprung him," Mary Jane pointed out, "We have no idea where to start looking."
"He did say that it was someone we were already fighting," Peter answered back.
"But that could be anyone," Mary Jane reminded him, "Since I've gained my powers as Arachne, we've fought the Hobgoblin, Tracer, Kingpin and his organization, the Green Goblin, the Scriers, and now Venom. That's a fairly long list of villains."
"True, but the mechanisms Tracer used to insure his immortality has been destroyed, and we have the rest of him," Peter answered, "and both Goblins have been incarcerated again, and Venom was just arrested. So that narrows everything down to either the Kingpin or the Scriers."
"But we put Fisk back in jail, and we only just trounced the Scriers," Mary Jane sighed.
"We caught Fisk, but most of his lieutenants have probably been released by now," Peter answered, "and we only beat the Scriers that were in Newark. That doesn't mean that there might have been a small number of them, supposedly on the lookout for us."
"So which is it?" Mary Jane sighed.
"Most likely the second," Peter answered, "Fisk doesn't bear grudges against someone that he'd risk something like this. Besides, the break out from Riker's had none of the Kingpin's 'touch' as it were, that leaves the Scriers."
"But we beat them," Mary Jane said.
"Only those in Newark," Peter answered, "Apparently, the rest of the organization wants to fight us and is having these last 'hold outs' find whatever super human muscle they can find to do the dirty work for them. While they try to regroup."
"So what do we do then?" Mary Jane asked, "If this small group of Scriers is still carrying on their last set of orders, they may eventually attack us directly."
"No, they're not strong enough to risk a battle with the Avengers," Peter answered, "they'll likely try to get other super villains to try and get them to fight us for them. In New York, the Scriers are nothing more then an annoyance now, at least for the time being."
The was a short silence between the two for a few moments before Peter continued.
"I'm going to keep looking at the photographs I got of their base in Newark," Peter spoke, "I might get a map or something where I can at least mark down where these last couple of Scriers are deciding to hide out, and at least get the names of some of their plans. Otherwise, I'd say that we try to live life as normally as possible."
"You're not going off the deep end on this?" Mary Jane asked.
"I can't really," Peter sighed, "Hunting down fifty people in a group is fairly easy. Hunting down one to ten people isn't. We're probably bound to run into them sooner or later anyway. The best we can do is simply wait, for now. It'll probably be a long while before everything quiets down."
To Be Continued…