Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Venom, Justice League or any other DC/Marvel material. Sean Kruger and Global Tech belong to Dragonlord0.

Enjoy!

The music in the club was so loud it was almost deafening. The throngs of dancers and clubbers moved in one giant mass, arms waving, bodies in constant motion. Everyone was so into doing what they were doing that they didn't notice the security guards patrolling through the club disappearing one by one.

Four men slowly pushed their way through the crowd, carrying a bright purple colored box. The partygoers all split apart thinking that it would be something of a surprise. The four men put the box down in the center of the dance floor and stood around it reaching into packs and pulling out gas masks, sliding them over their heads. The crowd stared curiously for a moment when suddenly the speakers in the club screeched loudly as the turntable's needle was dragged across the record it was playing. The crowd all groan, holding their ears then turned to face the stage. The DJ lay on the ground of the stage, his leg twitching and a man dressed in a bright purple suit stood in front of the turntable dragging the needle back and forth.

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but your regularly scheduled night of fun and debauchery has been cancelled. Tonight I am proud to announce…"

The Joker smiled as Harley walked up behind him holding an uzi by her side.

"…the Jok-tastic-laughing-scream-death-a-thon!"

The Joker laughed as gas mask wearing men throughout the club pulled guns and fired into the air. The clubbers screamed in terror and dropped to their knees, holding their hands above their heads. A few of them tried to run for the exits, but Joker's men stepped out pushing them back into the crowd, keeping them at bay with their guns. A tapping suddenly filled the sound system. Everyone turned to see the Joker tapping on the microphone.

"I'm afraid to say, that there is no escape tonight. It's like a crappy airline movie. You can't change the channel."

The Joker laughed wildly as the clubbers screamed in terror again.

Elsewhere

Eddie sat on the ledge of a tall building resting his right arm on his right knee as he observed the people on the streets going about their night, others running in hopes of avoiding whatever crime is imminent at this time of night. It was all so similar to what San Francisco had been before Venom had come along.

'This city is still as ugly as ever since we left.' Venom sneered.

"If I didn't know for a fact that this place is a cesspool, I'd say it was almost normal." Eddie muttered. But that didn't bother him much; from what he had heard, he simply needed to wait about an hour before someone set off a bomb or took the city hostage or some other insane scheme.

It was then that his phone started ringing, and he took it out to answer. "Hello?"

From the other line spoke Poison Ivy. "Eddie. We need to talk."

"About what, Pam?"

"About Harley."

Eddie sighed when he heard this. He knew Ivy didn't want Harley to be on Venom's hit list. Seeing as the Joker was on it being at the top. "Alright, what about her?"

"I do appreciate you wanting to help her as much as I do, but when you promised me that I would be the one to kill the Joker, I was worried about what would happen after." Eddie waited for her to continue. "So I thought you should do the honors. And it needs to be you." she finished.

Eddie smiled a little. "We already planned on killing that pasty shit; but why does it need to be us?"

"Personally I'd like to kill him myself, but deep down I have a feeling that Harley would hate me, even if in secret. If you kill him, it would seem more… professional and not personal like with me. By doing so, Harley would need to 'imprint' on someone else." Ivy told him.

Eddie thought about it. "Do you want her to imprint on me, or you?"

"Either one works. If she imprints on me, she'll forgive you some day. If she imprints on you, she'll never leave your side." Ivy told him.

Eddie nodded. "I've never met the Joker in person so I can't find him yet. He's been under the radar for a while now, but once we find him we'll kill him ourselves, Ivy. Count on it."

"Thank you Eddie. I look forward to seeing him dead." Ivy said as she ended the call, leaving Eddie to his thoughts.

'It's sickening.' Venom snarled.

"What?" Eddie asked.

'That a woman like Harley would throw her life away to become a toy to be played with and then broken by some demented piece of shit that doesn't even return her feelings! She deserves better than that. What she needs is a guy who respects her, trusts her, pleases her, not some asshole who orders or pushes her around like some stray dog.'

"That's the thing about relationships, V. Nobody can choose who they fall in love with." Eddie muttered, his mind now focused on finding the Joker. "Now, if I were an unhinged clown, where would I be?"

The scanner in his phone suddenly started ringing in his pocket. Taking out his electronic device, Eddie turned it up.

"Attention all units, hostage situation at the Heaven and Hell Club! Known assailants, The Joker Gang. Use extreme caution. Do not attempt to intervene, SWAT is en route!"

Eddie's eyes widened at the mention of the clown's name before he smirked.

"Ready to have the best night of your life?" Eddie asked as the symbiote slowly formed over him.

'Hell. Yes.'

Batcave

Far beneath the grounds of stately Wayne Manor, Batman sat in front of his massive bank of computers observing some recent reports on Venom. For the sake of comfort, Bruce has removed his mask and cowl.

Coming down the stairs from the Wayne family mansion is Bruce's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, carrying a tray with a tea cup. He pours a cup for his employer and hands it to him.

"It seems that your competition is getting fiercer, sir." the ever-loyal butler spoke.

"He commits murder, Alfred. He's just as bad as the people he's killing." Bruce said.

"Would him sparing Mr. Dent say otherwise?"

Bruce stopped as he stared at one of the screens showing footage of Venom knocking out Two-Face and setting him on the ground. He felt a sense of relief that his old friend was spared, but nevertheless let out a sigh as he focused on the task at hand.

"Still, he has to be stopped before he goes too far. And it's going to be difficult with Global Tech backing him up."

Getting up from the chair, he walked over to the worktable assorted with various tools and unfinished gadgets until he came across one that resembled a large gun with blue rings at the front of the device. This one was saved for the event of another Man-Bat attack.

"The Sonic Cannon might be the only chance we have at taking Venom down." Bruce said as he picked up the weapon.

"How do you intend on luring out Mr. Brock and our extraterrestrial friend?" Alfred asked.

Before Bruce could answer, alarms started going off around the Batcave, and he quickly jumped from the table and moved to the nearest computer, typing a few keys. Bruce quickly turned back around and slipped his cowl back on.

"It's the Joker."

Alfred stared momentarily at him as Batman moved to the Batmobile.

"Do be careful, sir."

"Don't worry, Alfred."

Batman jumped into the black vehicle and turned it on, its engine roaring to life, and then punched it, roaring it out from the cave.

Heaven and Hell Club

Joker stood on the stage, walking back and forth looking at the watch on his hand. A constant ring of a phone at the bar suddenly caused him to spin around.

"Will one of you idiots answer that phone already?!"

One of his men shrugged and lifted the shotgun he was carrying, putting it on his shoulder, then walked over to the bar lifting the phone up after pulling his gas mask off to talk.

"Uh… hello?"

The man quickly turned back to the Joker.

"It's the cops, boss. They want to know if we have any demands."

Joker smiled, grabbing the uzi from Harley, firing it into the air wildly. The crowd screamed as the bullets impacted in a group of lights above the stage showering sparks down on top of the Joker. Tossing the gun back to Harley, he looked back at the thug who stared at him confused for a second then lifted the receiver backup to his head.

"Guess not…"

"Hang up the phone!" the clown ordered.

"Uh… ok…"

The thug quickly hung the phone up, pulling his gas mask back over his head. The Joker looked back at his watch.

"Screw it… ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?"

The crowd all looked up at the Joker.

"Since our esteemed pointy-headed guest has apparently decided to not respond to my invitation, I have decided to cancel the party."

One of the clubbers spoke up.

"So are you letting us go?"

The Joker started to chuckle, then broke out into a long laugh, pulling out a small remote.

"Not quite!"

Clicking the button on the remote, the box in the center of the club suddenly started to play jack in the box music… slowly speeding up. Harley pulled a gas mask over her own head as the Joker stared on smiling. The giant jack in the box suddenly popped open revealing a giant Joker head. The crowd simply remained silent for a moment… then suddenly green gas began spraying out from the head.

"But look at it this way… at least you'll all die with a smile on your face!"

The crowd shrieked in terror as some started to try to go for the exits only for Joker's men to start firing, killing some of them. The Joker let off a long laugh, but was cut off suddenly as the massive skylight overhead exploded. A large figure dropped straight down. While falling, several tendrils shot from his body in all directions, snagging the guns out of the Joker's thug's hands. Smashing onto the jack in the box, he pushed it back into its container, then leapt off and shut the lid back, cutting off the gas. The green gas that had escaped quickly vented out through the broken skylight overhead. Joker frowned as he looked down at Venom, who glared back at him.

"You're not Batman." the clown growled. "This was supposed to be between me and Bats!"

"Well, sorry to spoil your fun." Venom snarled. "But your reign over Gotham ends tonight!"

Joker's men rushed forward at Venom, but in a blur the Lethal Protector began moving through them taking them down one by one. He lunged towards two thugs and kicked the one on his right, snapping his neck and grabbed the other thug by the head and twisted it, letting the body fall to the floor. He lunged toward another thug, grabbing his leg before hurling him into another thug, sending them crashing into the wall. He snagged another goon's legs out from under him before slamming his foot on his gut, instantly killing the thug. Another thug tried sneaking up on him, only for a tendril to shoot out from Venom's back and slam the man into the DJ's station, electrocuting the goon to death as several sparks fly everywhere around the stage. The last goon swung a bat at Venom's side, resulting in the weapon breaking off. The goon swallowed a lump as Venom slowly turned to face him with a glare before he bit off the man's head, letting the body stumble to the floor.

With the men taken care of, Venom turned his attention to the Joker and slowly walked towards him, only for Harley to step in front of him with her mallet in hand.

"Stay away from my Puddin', drooley!" Harley declared.

Venom just continued to walk as she charged at him and swung her mallet, only for it to break into tiny pieces upon impact. She looked at her broken weapon for a moment before tossing it aside and got into a stance.

"Give us your best shot, blondie." Venom challenged. "We promised Ivy we'd go easy on you."

That certainly got her attention as her eyes widened at the mention of her friend.

"Made you look!" Venom shouted before shooting a tendril at Harley and pinned her against the wall beside the Joker, who raised his uzi at Venom.

As soon as the Joker fired, however, Venom shot another tendril at the clown, sending him crashing into the wall. The Lethal Protector walked towards the clown and grabbed him by the neck before pinning him against the wall.

"When will you learn that hogging all the attention will get yourself killed one day?" he asked sinisterly.

The Joker weakly smiled and replied, "What can I tell you? You're becoming too much of a distraction to these people!"

"Don't worry, you'll be all over the headlines soon enough!" Venom retorted before opening his maw, ready to bite down on the clown once and for all, relishing the look of shock and fear on the clown's face.

Before he could sink his teeth, a small metal object landed next to the two. Venom narrowed his eyes as he saw it was a Batarang.

"Good news, clown. You get to live a little longer." Venom snarled at the Joker before releasing his grip on the Joker and Harley, and then faced down Batman, who had been standing right behind them.

"Batsy, you do care!" the Joker cheered, which caused the Dark Knight to direct his glare towards him.

"Stay out of this, Joker. I'm handling this."

Venom and Batman stared each other down, while the hostages backed up against the wall as they watched the stand-off.

"You just don't know when to stay out of our business, do you?" Venom snarled. "One minute, we're in the middle of putting the clown out of Gotham's misery, and suddenly you come to fuck it all up as usual."

"I won't let you kill anyone else." Batman glared. "Stand down. Now."

That was it. Venom savagely growled and shouted, "We're done with your lecturing, old man! If you won't let us kill the Joker, then we'll just have to teach you a lesson!"

Batman simply readied for battle in response while Venom roared angrily and charged at the Caped Crusader.

Batman hurriedly backflipped over the Lethal Protector and threw some Batarangs at his opponent's back, exploding upon impact, causing Venom to tumble to the floor. Batman jumped on top of him and began to lay multiple punches to the face. Like last time, these punches had no effect on Venom.

In fact, it pissed him off even more.

Venom caught his opponent's next punch and leapt to his feet before swinging the Dark Knight over his head and slamming him into the ground.

Venom grabbed hold of Batman's leg and tossed him across the room before lunging after him, only for the Dark Knight to quickly throw a smoke pellet into his face, causing him to roar as he tried to regain his sight.

As soon as his vision cleared, Venom was greeted with a powerful kick to the face from Batman, knocking him to the ground.

Venom shook his head to regain his senses before looking back at Batman, who had pulled out a gun-like device from the side of his utility belt, and the Lethal Protector's eyes widened as he slowly figured out what it was.

Batman fired the Sonic Cannon, which emitted an incredibly loud screeching noise, causing the clubbers to cover their ears while Venom fell to the floor screaming in pain as the symbiote pulsed and shook in agony.

That was when he remembered something.

From within him, something began to move from his torso until it stopped at the top of his right hand, where the Sonic Nullifier emerged as it stuck to the symbiote.

With whatever strength he could muster before he could writhe away from his host, Venom placed his clawed finger on the button and pressed, and he suddenly felt the sound being blocked out as the Nullifier took effect as his strength returned.

Batman only stared in shock as Venom started shrugging off the effects of the Sonic Cannon, that he failed to see a tendril yank the Cannon out of his hands as it powered off.

"That… wasn't… pleasant!" Venom growled, breaking the Sonic Cannon over his knee in two before he shot a tendril at Batman, pulling him over and delivering a clothesline that brought the Dark Knight to the ground.

Panting heavily from the loud assault from earlier, Venom looked around to see that the Joker and Harley were gone. Irritated that his target had escaped, Venom walked over to Batman and picked him up by the cape before staring him dead in the eyes.

Outside, Gordon, along with Gotham's best, were tensing up as they heard the commotion coming from inside the club as a crowd formed outside the building, while the other cops were holding back the several reporters that were broadcasting the event. Everyone was on edge hoping that Batman would stop this madness.

Just then, the wall busted open with a figure flying out of the hole before crashing into one of the police cars. Another figure walked out of the hole just made. Venom stepped out with a glare, his white jagged eyes piercing the hearts of anyone who looked into them.

Venom looked at the crowd, noticing that the police had their guns trained on him in case he tried anything before looking at the injured Batman.

"You're in trouble now, Batshit!" he hissed. "We had the clown and you let him get away! Well, he would've tasted funny anyway. On the other hand, at least we settled with Scarecrow a little while ago, and he won't be the only one to be put out of Gotham's misery either."

Batman got up, bleeding from the mouth. "What makes you think you can be a hero by killing thousands of criminals?" he demands, to which Venom scowled at the same question.

"To end this cycle." Venom told him coldly. "If you're supposed to be vengeance, then why didn't you avenge the second Robin after the Joker tortured him and left him to burn? All because you thought, in your words, 'it'd be too damned easy'? That if you go down that place, you'll never come back? This is the real world! Your outdated morals are the reason people are dying, and you still think your way still works when it doesn't!"

The many bystanders looked on with shocked looks on their faces, hanging onto every word Venom said to the Dark Knight, while a few were recording the event.

"Admit it, you and the so-called Justice League have taken the lives of thousands, if not, maybe millions of innocents! The blood that the likes of the Joker have spilled is on your hands! Simply because you refused to do what is necessary and end their evil. So we should be asking you and the Justice League… who are you… to sacrifice others if you can't even sacrifice yourselves? People die because of your choices of letting the most unrepentant filth live. Yes, you can't save them all, but you can make sure that it never happens again. Yet you let it happen, again, again and again… and none of you care." Venom finished his rant. "The Joker got away tonight because of you. And he'll be killing much more people next time. And if that happens, it'll all be on you."

Venom was the only one who noticed the reporters writing things down including the recently arrived Vicki Vale, all of whom were shocked at the information given as the camera crews kept rolling, "Well, that's enough of airing your dirty laundry. If you'll excuse us, we have other business to attend to."

With another leap, Venom climbed across a building and disappeared into another part of the city, leaving Batman no choice but to bail as he limped towards the Batmobile before entering the vehicle and driving off, while the police entered the club to secure the rescued hostages and collect the injured/dead goons.

With that, the cameras switched off, leaving a fuming and angered Justice League… and a curious populace. What if Venom was right? What if the JLA's "justice" wasn't helping anything?

Regardless of the answer, Venom will have to wait for the results of his handiwork to come into light.

Shame the Joker got away thanks to Batman's interference. But worry not, readers! He will get his dues real soon. In the meantime, Venom will just have to be satisfied that he publicly humiliated and called out the Batman and by extension the Justice League on their failures to bring true justice and their morals which have condemned countless innocents, and we'll see how it will affect their reputation next time.

In the next chapter, we'll see how Wonder Woman is holding up after discovering the plans for the new task force, while Eddie/Venom regroup with their allies, and a surprise awaits back at the mansion. As always, stay tuned!