CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Face of Liberty
"Do-dooo… do-dooo… do-dooo… do-dooo... Some folks are born, maaaade to wave the flag. Ooh, the red, white, and bluuuue. And when the band plays 'Hail to the Chief,' ooh they point the cannon at yooouuu. It aint me, It aint me, It aint no something something son. It aint me, It aint me, I aint no fortunate one…"
"Wilson, shut up!"
He looked over at Venom in the co-pilot seat. He was being a Grumpy Gus. Did it really make him insane to sing a song every now and then? Did it make him insane that he tried to keep a positive demeanor? Did it really make him insane that he had once forced meatloaf down the throat of a hogtied vegetarian? Well, maybe. But that was beside the point.
"Oh come on! 'Fortunate One' by Credence Clearwater Revival? That awesome Vietnam helicopter scene in 'Forrest Gump'? You guys are the crazy ones. Missing one of Tom Hanks' best performances."
He quieted down. Partly because he didn't feel like singing anymore, and partly because that was where the song stopped in the movie, and he hadn't bothered to look it up. He looked over at Venom, and it occurred to him; he knew why Venom was being a jerk. Maybe Hunter rejected him inside the Hive? It was a perfect situation, after all. Isolated with nobody to hear, inside a dark cave where they could die at any minute. And then there was Spider-Man coming back… man, this was starting to sound like a Hollywood love-triangle drama. Maybe he just needed some sympathy? He looked over at Venom and whispered.
"You know, I'm always here if you need to talk."
"What?"
"I know how you feel. Love triangles suck."
"Wilson, if you weren't flying the helicopter right now, we'd rip your head off and feed your body to the blades!"
He pulled back. Apparently he wasn't in the mood to talk. Oh well. That joke was running a bit long anyway. He returned some of his attention to the helicopter. All the little levers seemed to be in the right positions, and none of the lights were blinking. So, he was pretty much in the clear. He called back to Hunter.
"So, how are we coming on tracking the old girl?"
He intently watched his view screen, looking for any signs of the Empress. There was a slight heat trail, but that gave only a vague indication of her heading: forward. She was too intelligent. Using a ship detonation to escape the planetoid should have been enough to convince him, but that escape was too much. He was certain this was not natural Xenomorph development. It must have either been a secret training program, or genetic tampering. Neither would have surprised him. He responded to Deadpool's question.
"Continue in this direction."
"That should be easy. We're coming up on another ol' girl, and she's quite a bit bigger."
Another Empress? A larger one? Impossible. He moved forward between the pilot and co-pilot seats. Spider-Man slid open the side door and looked out. They were approaching something indeed. A small island with a very large pigmented monument at its center. He raised his view screen and focused on the island. She was there. Without a doubt. But he could not pinpoint where.
The Statue of Liberty. The symbol of freedom that hundreds of immigrants saw as they entered the United States for the first time. How ironic that foreign aliens and space aliens couldn't come into the big apple without seeing it. But his amusement was replaced with worry. If the Empress was there, they would have to fight very carefully to avoid trashing the statue. Great. A picture of Spider-Man destroying the Statue of Liberty would be an early Christmas present for J.J. Jameson.
The sky was darkening again. It was probably about one-thirty now. So much for a 'High Noon' showdown. More like 'slightly-after-noon.' And where's the fun in that? They were coming up pretty fast. These S.H.I.E.L.D. choppers really hauled. Soon enough, they were hovering just over the island at the base of the statue. He jumped down to the ground, followed by Hunter and Venom. Deadpool was about to set the helicopter down when his spider-sense went off. Venom cried.
"Beneath us!"
He felt the ground shake violently. Seeing Hunter shaken to his knees, he grabbed him before web-slinging to a nearby tree and pulling them toward it. The ground split apart as the Empress dug up through. Deadpool reeled the chopper back and steadied it before flying in a circle over their heads, waiting for a shot with the cannons. He landed on his feet, and looked up at her. Holy crap! She must have been forty feet tall! He noticed some kind of growths along the sides of her back. Probably thicker armor.
Hunter pushed away from him and he watched as Hunter charged forward, spear drawn. Her massive tail swept just under him as he leaped over it. Next came the giant clawed hand, which he spun and dodged to the left. He got right up to her side and stabbed downward into one of the growths. She screamed and he pulled the spear out as she swerved toward him. If not for his enhanced senses, he probably would have missed the Empress's speed. She moved to bite Hunter, but he used the spear to hold her mouth back, pinning him to the ground. Despite the hit, hunter was holding her back!
Finally he came to his senses and fired a web line to her head and, pulling himself forward, kicked the side of her giant crowned head. It was a good hit, but she barely flinched. He grabbed on to the back of her crown and tried to jerk her head away from Hunter, but, he wasn't strong enough! He saw Venom climb up next to him.
"We must pin her down!"
He looked back as Venom attached several web lines to the dorsal spikes and leaned to the right. He picked up the idea and did the same. Together they leaped backward to the ground and used the leverage, along with their own strength, to unbalance the Empress and topple her over. Hunter rolled away just as Deadpool came back around, aiming the guns.
"Say ello to my fully-automatic little friends!"
He squeezed the triggers on the controls. Sometimes he thought there was nothing better than letting loose a little automatic Hell on your enemies. Kinda like squeezing the throttle and going full-speed on a motorcycle. The giant bullets tore through the ground around the downed Empress. Apparently she got bigger, faster, AND uglier. He moved into a hovering position as she tried to squirm away from the gunfire. He watched as the bullets collided with her armor. There were a few hits and splatters of green blood, but for the most part they just seemed to be bouncing off!
"I love a challenge! I get to use the big stuff."
He found a bunch of switches marked 'missiles' and flipped two of them. The chopper reeled backward a bit with the force as two missiles flew from tubes on either side of the helicopter. But the Empress suddenly jerked free of Venom and Spider-Man's webs and dodged both missiles, letting the explosions send all of his friends into the air.
"Oops."
They shook their head as they recovered from the blast. That trigger-happy moron! They looked over to see Hunter recovering well. They gave a short glance toward Parker. He was fine. Damn it. They stood back up and watched through the smoke created by Wilson's missiles as the Empress climbed up onto the elevated base of the statue. She was getting away!
They ran through the smoke and watched as Wilson engaged her again with the machine guns. She merely spat a blob of spit at the helicopter, blinding it and sending it backward. They looked away as Wilson tried to maintain control of the chopper. The Empress was scaling the statue! They fired a web line up and followed her, sticking to the massive copper robe. Their psychic xeno-sense was stronger than ever, and they directed all their hate toward her.
They leaped forward and grabbed on to her spikes. As they beat away at her with no effect, they realized that the only way they could hope to hurt her would be to cut her. The pain would subside, and they would heal. They extended their claws and slashed away. They dug first into her back, just barely drawing blood through all the armor. They felt the burning, but moved through the pain. They moved up her back and stabbed higher and higher, until they approached her neck. They raised their arm to slash downward, but they suddenly felt their wrist restrained. What is this? They looked up and saw she had reached back and grabbed their claw with one of her own. As they tried to jerk away from her grip, they felt her massive tail smack them in the side, sending them down toward the concrete two stories below. They quickly spun a web line and swung down to the base where Parker and Hunter were standing.
Damn. He should have anticipated her attack. But that didn't matter now. Deadpool and his helicopter had disappeared. Probably around the other side of the statue. As Venom's attack indicated, there was no way to keep her from climbing the statue without destroying it. He had to follow her. His readings showed the statue was hollow. There must be a way up from the interior. He looked around and spotted a door at the base. He ran toward it and attempted to open it. It was locked. He raised his leg and placed a solid kick against the center of the two doors and the lock came free. It was dark inside, but his night-vision would aid with that. Good. He turned back to Spider-Man and Venom.
"Pursue her to the top. I will be there shortly."
With that, he ran inside. As he passed through a small archway, and alarm went off. Possibly a weapon-detector. He extended his blades and destroyed the device before following the cold tile hallway to a stairway. He looked up. It led all the way to the top. He only hoped he wouldn't be too late as he began bounding up the stairs.
Hunter ran off before he could say anything. How exactly were they going to do this? If they attacked her, they risked knocking her off the statue. She looked pretty sturdy. The best they could probably do would be to wear her down. He looked over at Venom.
"Well, how are we…?"
He was already gone. He looked up and saw him attacking the her.
"Well, I guess that answers that question."
He fired a web line upward and clung to the statue. He watched as Venom avoided an attack and landed next to him.
"We are like flies to her. Our claws can barely get through her armor."
"And it doesn't look like we're going to change her course at all."
"If we can only weaken her, then so be it."
Venom leaped toward her and he followed. If they cold slow her down a bit, that would give Hunter more time to reach the top. He didn't know how fast he could climb, but for a normal person that was a long walk.
He leaped forward toward her. She was speeding up now toward the top. He climbed up toward her head and his spider-sense let him dodge her swinging claws. Apparently the direct approach was out. He leaped backwards off the statue and when he was far enough away from it, he fired a line and used the momentum to swing all the way around it. He looked down for a split second and saw the helicopter on the ground below. It looked like Deadpool was cleaning the window.
He came around the other side of the statue at speed and extended his leg into a strong kick into the Empress's side. He felt her shake against the hit and quickly leaped away again, avoiding her tail. As he landed a safe distance away, he noticed that the growths were quickly expanding. Egg sacs maybe?
He watched as Venom scratched and clawed away, avoiding her attacks. They were getting nowhere fast. She was barely even phased by their attacks, and they hadn't slowed her down at all. She was almost to the face now. But if they couldn't slow her down here, maybe they could trap her at the top.
He fired a web up to the crown and pulled himself up. He began spraying webbing all over the top of the head. Hopefully this stuff would keep her trapped long enough for Hunter to arrive.
He could hear the Empress's claws scraping against the exterior of the statue as he ran up the steps. He tried to control his breathing as his heartbeat pounded in his ears. His knees ached again. Damn these stairs. As he ran, he formulated a plan in his mind. If there wasn't significant damage inflicted by Venom & Spider-Man by the time he reached the top, it would be clear his weapons would not be of much help. Even the skin around her growth sacs was tough. The only option would be to use his bomb. Thankfully he had conserved it.
He stopped and stole a glance upward. Not far to go now. And the scratching against the statue told him his quarry wasn't much further away. It was then that it occurred to him; why would she climb the statue in the first place when she could have easily just swam away? Perhaps to lure them up to the top and leap off to escape, stranding them there? Maybe to simply have a smaller space in which to kill them? Or did she have other thoughts?
He reached the final level, looked out through the view window, and looked down. She was still a distance below him. He locked on is targeting reticle and fired a plasma bolt. But she leaped to the side and the bolt only struck her lower tail. Curses. She screeched in pain and she moved to the other side of the statue. The tail was still intact, but the blast had burned away the barbed tip.
As the tail moved out of his field of vision, he moved his leg over the edge of the window and lifted himself outside, clutching the top of the statue's giant crown. He lifted himself up quickly and reached the top just as she did. But the side she climbed onto was covered with Spider-Man's webbing. Clever. He quickly tried to align his targeting reticle, but lost his balance as the Empress struggled against the webbing, shaking the statue. He pulled his spear from his belt and extended it into the metal to hold him steady. He looked up in time to see one of her claws coming toward him.
As they sat on the raised arm of the statue, they fired a web line and caught the Empress's claw before it could reach Hunter. It gave him time to fire his weapon and blast the hand off. The bitch screamed in pain as she climbed up fully on top of the statue. She pulled her arm to the side, yanking them off their perch.
As they landed on the head in a roll, they avoided her tail as it came down. It seemed Hunter had blasted that as well. They could practically feel their connection with her being this close, and they could hear faint whispers in their head that were not their own.
As Spider-Man fired web upon web on top of her to hold her down, they ran forward and raked their claws down the side of her ugly face. The whispers intensified and grew louder. She squirmed against Spider-Man's webs and it felt as if she were shaking the statue! In an effort to stabilize her, they grabbed her jaw and pointed the mouth safely downward. If she had eyes, they would be staring deeply into them.
Now the whispering had become a numb pressure in their skull and suddenly the voice became clearer. All the other sounds seemed to fall away and become fuzzy. They heard Hunter's words.
"Venom, move! I require a clear shot!"
But the words had lost their meaning. The whispering had drowned everything out. And it suddenly became clear. The bitch… the Empress… was speaking to them.
"Why must we be enemies? We are the same. Considered monsters by those who presume to call themselves good. We both do only what we must to survive."
Their thoughts became words in their head.
"No. You murder people to spawn, and only hunger for death and destruction!"
"I only hunger for prosperity for my kind. Is that such a terrible thing? You yourself feed off of a human host. So a few meaningless beings must die for my kind to exist. These humans do the same thing to lesser creatures. And why do you hate us? We have done nothing to you, or the symbiote kind. If anything, we have renewed your lust for destruction and vengeance. Spider-Man is the one you have yearned to kill for so long."
"How do you know that?"
"I can see into your mind. Your language… your planet… it's wonderful. Aid me in taking it from these inferior fools, and I will see to it that you will have everything you desire. Beginning with the death of Spider-Man."
He stopped spraying his webbing. It looked like Eddie had calmed her down, whatever he was doing. He steadied himself on top of the torch and looked down at Hunter. He looked anxious.
"Venom!"
What was Eddie doing? He looked back over and watched as he suddenly extended a tendril and knocked Hunter to the ground. He moved to restrain him when his spider-sense tingled again and he heard his webs snap. He saw the Empress's tail coming at him and leaped him into the air as the tail destroyed the false flames on the torch.
"Oh, man! I am NOT paying for that!"
He fired a web in mid-air and secured her tail to the torch. He landed on the tip of one of the crown points in time to see Venom rip Hunter's cannon off his shoulder and crush it. What the Hell was going on?
"Eddie, what are you DOING?!"
His spider-sense rang like crazy as Venom extended his claws, roared, and pounced.
Author's Note: Sorry, no big finish yet. But I'm going to try my damnedest to finish this battle in Chapter 30. And after that, the end of the story. We seem to have quite a turning of the tables here, and I hope you'll all join me (and review) for the conclusion to this titanic tag-team battle for New York City, and the planet Earth, atop the Statue of Liberty. Until next time, thanks for reading and have a nice day!
