Chapter Ten: Ending the Nightmare

Raven was suddenly grabbed from behind by a slimy, black arm. Venom grabbed her so fast she didn't even have time to call for help. He pulled her off the Queensborro Bridge and began webbing his way through the streets of New York. Raven struggled and tried to scream but gagged on the horrid taste in her mouth.

She kept a lookout of where they were headed and it seemed their destination was a group of abandoned warehouse buildings located near the Bridge. Abruptly, she was thrown to the ground where she struggled to her feet, trying to ready her powers to do battle. A vicious kick sent her flying across the abandoned room and into the wall. She evaded a punch and used her dark aura to block some of the blows.

She rose into the air and readied her attack. Her eyes glowed white as she stared down at Venom who glared at her. "You're going to pay for this!" The alien let its huge tongue snake out of its mouth, hissing in defiance.

"Just try and stop me kid, I intend to finish you off!" He shot a string of webs out at her.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she unleashed her powers, grabbing a lose pipe off the wall, she hurled it at him. He karate chopped it out of the way, splitting it in half. Using his superpowers, he latched some of his web onto it and sent the pieces flying back at her. Raven surrounded herself with her powers, shielding herself from the metal objects.

Raven then pulled huge chunks of concrete out of the wall and slammed them into Venom, or would have, had he not used his acrobatic skills to avoid them. He used his webs to yank her out of the air and slam her into the ground. She quickly jumped to her feet, striking quickly with her fists. He blocked her blows and spun kicked around, his leg colliding with her midsection. Raven stumbled backward. Venom slammed her into a wall and used his webs to throw her into the air; his fist knocked the wind out of her as her body hit the ground.

Breathing hard, Raven felt his hands beginning to crush her neck. She was gasping for breath when suddenly a figure swung down and slammed itself into Venom, sending him sprawling into a wall. "Spiderman, what are you doing here?" she asked. The last place she had seen him was at Xavier's school when they had had a meeting. He had gone off to investigate something and she hadn't seen him since.

"Oh, I was in the neighborhood," he said as he helped her to her feet, he launched himself at Venom, performing a summersault kick, which he blocked. Spiderman slammed his fist into Venom's face as Venom slammed his knee into Spiderman's chest. Raven had managed to catch her breath, and joined him.

Venom hissed viciously, letting his tongue fly out of his mouth as he licked his lips with a sense of sadistic glee. "Hey Venom, didn't your mommy ever tell you not to stick out your tongue?" he asked sarcastically. Venom glared at him.

"Shut up, Parker! I'll finish you off too when I'm finished with her!"

"Do you have to joke with him?" Raven asked, in monotone sarcasm.

"Hey, it makes my life more interesting," he said. Raven shrugged. Just what she needed; another comedian, she decided to ignore him.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she hurled beams of wood and concrete at Venom as he battled Spiderman. The two were punching and kicking with reckless abandon, each trying to surpass the other and gain the upper hand. A piece of concrete flew at Venom but he barely managed to dodge it and it nearly collided with Spiderman as jumped out of the way.

"Hey! Watch where you're throwing that!" Spiderman protested. "You almost hit me!"

"So sorry," Raven said in monotone, she had to keep her emotions focused and stay calm. Anger wasn't an emotion she was supposed to feel, it opened her up to her father Trigon's influence and her emotions were dangerous in those situations. But as the battle continued it seemed to her that they weren't able to defeat him. As much as she tried to suppress her emotions, a small amount of anger began building within her.

Venom suddenly shot out huge, thick strands of web at Raven, wrapping her in a cocoon like mass of wet spider web. She began struggling to get out as Venom turned his attention to Spiderman. Spiderman used his web to grab venom and throw him into the wall, Venom however, also possessing the powers of Spiderman, latched himself onto the wall, crawling up quickly, and he leapt down, kicking hard. Suddenly, Spiderman flew across the room and landed in a pile of debris. He was still awake until Venom knocked him unconscious. Now it was just the two of them.

"Now it's time to die you little brat!" he hissed in her face. "What's the matter, kid? Afraid?" he sneered in her face, relishing his apparent victory. She was growing frustrated and angry, and at this point she boiled over, she hated him more than she had hated anyone in a long time. She hated him for trying to kill her and she hated him for trying to kill Beast Boy, at last she snapped. Web exploded as her aura went out like a shock wave. Venom flew back and hit the ground stunned.

She saw Spiderman was waking up, he blinked in surprise as she began to grow taller, Venom too was surprised, though his face couldn't show it very well except for his glaring eyes. Her eyes began to change as their glow went from white to a dark, dangerous shade of red. Also, two more red eyes appeared, bringing about a truly frightening visage. Large black tentacles sprouted from within the folds of her cloak, shooting out at Venom with incredible speed.

Venom tried to dodge the tentacles but they latched onto him with a vise grip. Venom was struggling wildly to break away from them but it was no use. The tentacles dragged him closer and closer to her cloak. Her cloak seemed very large now and Spiderman watched in shock as he was dragged into it.

"Hey kid, what are you doing?" he asked in shock.

"What's the matter? Afraid of me now?" Raven asked Venom in a voice that didn't sound like hers at all. Venom just struggled, but said no words as he shot out web latching them onto the wall in hopes of killing his momentum so he could keep himself from coming closer and closer to the folds of her cloak. Suddenly he vanished completely beneath her cloak

Spiderman ran over to Raven, he couldn't grab her arms to stop her so he decided to try to get her attention another way, "Hey, kid! Stop it, you got him!" She didn't seem to hear him at all.

Suddenly, there was a puff of blue smoke as Nightcrawler and Beast Boy appeared. Spiderman looked up in surprise. "How did you know where to find us?"

"We had the others spread out from the bridge and we went looking for the two of you," Beast Boy said. "With all the noise you make when you two fight, with your wisecracking and her shouting "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" all the time, it was kinda easy to figure out where you were." Beast Boy looked at Raven, his eyes going wide. "Whoa."

He ran over to Raven; "Raven, Rae, stop it!" he shouted.

"I tried that already, she did even hear me!" Spiderman shouted at him. Beast Boy morphed into a rhino and rammed himself into her, knocking her off her feet. She hit the ground and Spiderman watched in amazement as she shrunk back down to her normal size and as the wind blew her cloak away from Venom revealing what she had done to him.

"Beast Boy?" Raven asked in a groggy voice, "what happened?"

"You kinda got ticked and totally—Raven look out!" Venom suddenly sprang up from his position on the ground and slammed his fist into Raven's midsection. Raven flew across the warehouse as Beast Boy morphed into an eagle and grabbed her, setting her down gently, he looked at her, "You okay?" he asked, concerned.

"I'll be fine, I just have to stay calm," Raven said between gasps.

"I'm surprised you didn't kill him," Beast Boy said as Venom and Spiderman fought each other viciously.

"I almost did," Raven said.

"Don't worry, you checked yourself in time."

Beast Boy nodded and morphed into a T Rex, stomping towards the alien symbiont. Nightcrawler also leapt into action, teleporting himself so he could do hand-to-hand combat with the villain. Beast Boy let out a loud roar that shook the entire building. Venom began looking around in a panic as Nightcrawler's tail smashed into his chest.

"Raven, tell your friend not to stop what he's doing!" Spiderman shouted loudly.

"Why?" Raven asked.

"The alien symbiont will separate from Eddie Brock if there is loud noise or fire near him," Spiderman shouted. So that was why Venom stayed far away from Pyro back when they had abducted her in the alley

"Raven, here!" Nightcrawler suddenly threw something at her. She used her powers to grab it. Pyro's lighter, she knew exactly what to do with. Venom was afraid of Pyro's powers. "You don't like fire, Venom; I think it's time to play with it. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" A small flame sprouted out from it as Raven used her telekinesis to amplify its power. She sent a red hot inferno of a fireball straight into Venom. Screaming, Eddie Brock hit the ground, his alien symbiont separated from him, leaving him defenseless.

"Don't worry, Eddie. There's a nice jail cell with your name on it," Spiderman said. As he and Nightcrawler kept watching him. The police came and carted Eddie Brock off to jail as Spiderman made a hasty exit. "They don't like me all that much," he said as he webbed his way out of the warehouse district.

Just then the Titans ran up, along with the X-Men. "Raven!" Robin shouted, "We wondered what happened to you! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she replied. "I think we should get back to Xavier's school. He's expecting us you know."