Part Five:
"Revenge"
Spider-Man opened the window to his apartment later that evening when the sun had gone down so no-one would see his approach. He stepped inside.
Earlier that day when he web-slung from the area, he had been careful to conceal himself around the side of the building. This time he didn't need to do that because it was dark.
He took off his mask and Mary Jane was waiting there to greet him with a hug. But then she took a few steps back and held her nose. "Been fighting, Peter?" she asked. "You stink."
"Story of my life," he smiled. "It's amazing how much a person sweats when fighting against fire." Mary Jane had a confused look on her face. "I'll tell you about it later after I have a shower. I'm starting to make the plants welt."
Peter started to strip and left a path of clothes leading to the bathroom. He would scrub every inch of himself before he left. He didn't want to repulse MJ when he returned.
Ten minutes later, Peter stood in the threshold of the bedroom, the bathroom light casting his shadow across the floor in an otherwise completely darkened room. He was wearing only a towel and his hair was slicked back. Suddenly, the nightside table switched on and he saw Mary Jane baring it all.
"Come here my hero," she said, and Peter dropped the towel. He got into bed and kissed her with a passion only he could deliver and an excitement that made her eyes widened. "Easy tiger," she said jokingly.
"Don't you want to hear what happened today?"
Mary Jane kissed him, and by the kiss, he knew that his adventures today could wait. Let the lovemaking begin.
A putrid odour awoke Vulture from an unwanted slumber. The smell was so repugnant that he snorted disgusted. It smelled like rotten vegetables and garbage. He felt a slight chill on his face as he regained his senses.
He opened his eyes, but couldn't see anything. Either it was dark where he was or the impact from the fall temporarily made him blind. But when he tried to turn his head to get a feel of where he was, he couldn't move his neck. Something was strapped across it.
Then he concluded he couldn't move his arms and legs as well. He was tied down.
He flexed his muscles in an attempt to break the bindings and heard the recognizable sound of leather stretching. Underneath his hands he felt the cool touch of wood. He was strapped to a wooden table in a very dark place.
But how? The last thing he remembered was falling from the sky after plummeting to the ground after being hit by—something. He wasn't in Central Park now, because he couldn't see any stars. He felt it was after dark.
He tried to 'Flame-on!' as Johnny Storm would say. Perhaps he had retained some of its ability, but nothing happened. The power was completely gone.
Am I in a psychiatric ward tied to a bed with the lights off? No, I know how that feels. Then where the hell Am I?
"Hello? Is anyone there?" But no one answered. Then he heard a door slam shut and the creak of footsteps on a wooden floor. Someone was here in the room with him. "I demand to know the meaning of this!" He said into the dark. "Who dares do this to me? I am Adrian Toomes!"
"We know who you are," a signal male voice replied, but the person used a pronoun instead of a noun to announce himself and his voice sounded gruff and sinister. Was there more than one person in the room with him and he was the only one that replied?
"Release me or feel my wrath!" Toomes said. "I'm a very powerful monarch in this community."
"Wrath?" the other replied, then laughed. "We will show you the meaning of wrath. You betrayed us, Toomes."
Toomes had a vision of all twelve Board Members of Toomes Industries standing around the table and serving him with a hostile takeover bid of his company. But they wouldn't threaten him in this manner, this was too sadistic. Besides he couldn't sign anything strapped to a table.
Regardless of the circumstances, he wouldn't be forced out as CEO of Toomes Industries. It was his company. He created it and no one was going to use scare tactics on him. "I won't sign anything, you hear me?" He said firmly into the dark. "You'll have to kill me before I relinquish control of my company over to you colloquialists. Toomes Industries is mine!"
There was silence for a moment. Toomes swallowed nervously. He was starting to feel that whoever was in the room with him was not on the Board of his company.
"We are not interested in your business," the other said.
Suddenly a light flicked on in the dimly brightened room. It blinded Toomes for a moment, then his vision started to clear, and he found himself staring at a wooden ceiling. Then he started to feel the individual in the room with him loosen the binds that strapped him to the table, his face darkened. First Toomes' legs and then one arm. Then the man stepped back into a darkened corner and left Toomes free the rest.
Toomes unbound his neck and his other arm. He rubbed his neck and got off the table. The room was barren of all things except for a few abandoned wooden crates in a far corner like in a warehouse. Light shined through cracks in the walls, so he concluded he was in building made of wooden walls. Perhaps an old factory or other such similar location? He would determine that after he got out.
But who brought him here in the first place was foremost on his mind? And who released him?
"I demand to know who you are!" Then he started to get frustrated and a little uneasy. "Fine! You've had your fun." And Toomes started to make his way to the door.
But then stopped when he heard someone say, "Justice will be served, Toomes. You betrayed us in the park."
Toomes looked back in the direction where the voice came from and saw the faint outline of the person that partially freed him, standing in the same darkened corner. Moonlight cascaded through a hole in the wall and illuminated half the person's body. "What are you babbling around? I have betrayed no one."
"You betrayed us, Toomes. You betrayed us in the park. And justice will be serviced, by us. You promised we could kill Spiderman." He spoke in a snarling kind of tone.
The man then stepped out from the shadows and walked towards Toomes. He had short blond hair and was very muscular. He wore jeans and a sandy coloured shirt. Toomes knew the man only by reputation. He was Eddie Brock, ex-photographer hound for the Daily Bugle. He was fired due to Spiderman's interference with a case he was involved in, but then disappeared soon. But Toomes had never promised Eddie Brock anything.
He found, lied, and had promised Spiderman to. . .
An alien cast enveloped Eddie Brock and Toomes was soon faced with Venom. Toomes started to back away.
"You betrayed us, Toomes," Venom said. "And now justice will be served."
The light that seeped through the cracks in the walls bounced off Venom's razor sharp teeth. For a moment he looked like a great white shark. But the situation Toomes was in was much, much worse. He was pitted against an individual so hideous by reputation that few people survived.
"Venom," Toomes pleaded, arms out for distance. "You have to understand, Spiderman's been my enemy far longer than yours. It was within my rights to destroy him."
Venom swiped his hand through the air at Toomes and ripped his costume across the chest.
Toomes hissed in pain as blood begin to ooze from the razor claw animalistic wounds. Venom came closer to Toomes and Toomes continued to back away, soon pinned against a wall. He quickly ducked as Venom reached for him and fled beneath the table he had been strapped to. But then scurried away, as Venom struck down with both arms onto the table with enough force of a wrecking ball, breaking it in half. On the floor, Toomes froze with fear as the 6'2 Venom came towards him. The only thing he could see through the dark now were Venom's horrible glowing white eyes with their sights to murder.
"I'll give you equity in my company. I'll make you Chairman of the Board. I'll give you anything you desire. I'm Adrian Toomes and I can make it happen!"
"I want justice!" Venom spat out. "Give me that!"
Venom pounced on Toomes like a puma would its prey and Toomes let out a blood curdling scream. Blood spattered against the dirt filled walls as Venom got his justice.
END