Part Five
Venom clasped his hands around Peter's throat, "This should be sweet." It began to apply pressure to the thin connection and cooed eagerly. Peter reached out desperately pounding the monster's face with his fist.
To its credit it seemed to absorb the blows and shrug them off without a moment's thought.
Peter gasped for air as he clasped Venom's skull in his hands and pushed with every ounce of strength in his battered body. He needed to get out of this, Venom was having a free-for-all and there was nothing he could do to stop him.
"Just let it come, Parker. This was inevitable, we all knew it." Venom said with a glimmer of madness in its eyes.
Peter roared vainly doing what he could to fend his attacker off, "Help me!" He screamed feeling the stress on his skull beginning to intensify.
"They won't help." Venom snickered, "They don't care about you. To them you're just a disposable freak, if it's not one costumed freak it's another." He shook his head disgusted, "All you ever had was us and you threw that away."
"Get off of me!" Peter demanded landing another reckless punch on Venom's face, "This doesn't have to be like this!"
Venom laughed, "You've gotten stupid; you should know what you took from us most of all. It has to be this way." Just a few more moments and Peter's skull would give up and crack open. "If you think this'll end here you're sadly mistaken. We're going to find that redhead and tear her limb from limb, who knows maybe she'll get a kick out of it." It leaned forward, "Something tells us, MJ's a little kinky."
"Argh!" Peter wrapped his arms around Venom's neck managing to get him in a headlock, "You'll never touch her!" He flung the symbiote into the wall behind him, shattering brick and steel. Mustering what strength he could he pushed the car away from him with his legs.
Slowly but surely, Peter rose back to his feet. The portion of his costume that covered his knees had been torn away revealing bloody legs underneath. He spun around and spotted Venom staggering back up.
"I'll kill you!" Spider-Man descended on Venom in moments with adrenaline pumping through his veins. He landed a right across the creature's jaw and followed up with an uppercut to his gut.
When Venom swung back instinctively, Peter ducked and snuck a blow in with a roundhouse kick. "There's nothing to you is there?" He blocked another attack and landed a mighty punch to Venom's forehead. "You're just a big blob of a temper tantrum that gets pissed when things don't go his way."
Venom grabbed Peter's fist in his hand, "You don't know anything about us." It hit Peter with a punch to the lower portion of his jaw. "But we know about you!"
The crowd watched with interest as the battle between these two titans progressed. There was little emotional investment, Venom had done little to threaten them directly and they didn't care what happened to Spider-Man at the conclusion of this.
Peter fell frantically back down on the street like a rag-doll that had been tossed too high. Landing on his back he realized that one of his ribs where cracked. He wondered for a moment, in between of Venom's jabs and kicks, why the hell did he do this anymore? Would May really be disappointed if he ran and hid away from the world? She wouldn't want this.
The sounds of police sirens roaring down the streets was a welcome one. Peter smiled as he held his stomach painfully and the flashing lights beamed on his skin. "It's about time." He muttered.
Venom snarled, "No, Parker is ours!" It picked Spider-Man up by his ankle and pulled him off the ground. "Don't worry; we picked a special place for us to finish this." It moved towards a manhole and easily pulled the lid off, "Just rest, Parker, you might as well get you're strength back."
Seconds before the cops flooded the scene, Venom vanished beneath the streets with his prey in tow.
"We have a sighting!" One agent yelled loudly in the command center of a veritable fortress situated in the middle of New York City.
Jan rose up from the workstation where she had been coordinating efforts when members of S.H.I.E.L.D. stunned, "Where?" She demanded.
"Downtown in an incident with Spider-Man, the police already responded but they lost him!" The agent added.
Jan grimaced, "Spider-Man was involved?"
The Lizard emerged from the shadows in an ever-so-dramatic manner, seeming away and proud of his theatrics. "It'sss asss I predicted. The sssuit would never stray far from it'sss original hossst, their bond can never be broken."
"Get Iron-Man ready! Go to Condition Red!" Jan barked angrily, "The upgrades to his suit should make sure this ends quickly. I don't want a repeat of last time people so make sure we have our bases covered!"
Sirens blared all over the interior of the base, "Iron-Man? I wasssn't aware he wasss a member of SsssH.I.E.L.D., intriguing." Lizard tapped his chin evaluating Jan intently. "I think I'll tag along with him for insurance."
Jan grimaced, "It's not necessary."
Lizard laughed, "I didn't asssk your permission, girl." He turned away from her with a smirk across his face.
"Don't walk through that door, Connors, you're still our property." Jan stated strongly.
"Fury wasss prideful too, look at where he ended up. I'll do asss I pleassse and you'll allow me becaussse without Venom I can't perfect my ssserum and you have nothing." Lizard hissed, "Thisss dissscusssion isss over." He left the command center carelessly assured of his newfound power.
He felt like he was being born again. Peter had been safe, wrapped in darkness and now he was being thrust into reality, a cruel place with crueler people in it. He rolled over on his back and found he was staring at a blinking light, long since devoid of purpose.
Peter raised his head and surveyed his surroundings. "Jeez, this just gets better and better." He was lying on train tracks in New York City's wonderful subway system. What little illumination there was down here was being provided by dim lights.
This section of track was abandoned if the dust that was disturbed with his every movement was any indication. "Venom?" He called out, "Are you there?"
"Where you are we will always be there." A voice responded from the darkness gleefully, "What do you think of our home? We were forced to hide here after you exiled us."
"Hey, I'm sure you could have done something with yourself if you tried, I hear Burger King is hiring." Peter replied.
Venom laughed back from the shadows constantly moving faster than Peter could listen. "That was funny. Although Brock disagrees with us."
"Brock?" Peter grimaced, "What's he got to do with anything?"
"No, I guess you couldn't have known. It's poetic justice in a way." Venom said lightly, "After we ran from your murderous rage, we came into contact with Brock and bonded almost immediately. Once we were in direct contact he did little to stop us."
"He's in there willingly?" Peter inquired brushing off dirt from the shredded exterior of his costume.
"Yes or at least what's left of him." Venom answered, "You see, Brock was never good for the bonding, it takes a certain kind of physiology and mental strength." Venom emerged from the darkness of the subway tunnel with his mask retracted, "Brock lacked both of these."
"Jesus Christ." Peter stammered staring at the suit's new host, "What have you done?"
"You were an ideal host, Parker. We're using this host as a sort of stepping stone along the way." Brock was no longer a man or at least his own man. His face looked like someone had run blades across it repeatedly, revealing torn muscle under his cheeks while the blackness of the suit poured into his wounds. Almost half of his jaw was gone revealing bone and his meaty throat. "He'll be gone soon but we can go on without him long enough to find a new host."
Peter gulped slowly, "Why are you keeping me alive." His heart had never pumped harder in his life.
Venom grinned, "We are going to attack you and we are not going to stop until one of is dead."