Part Eight

            Manhattan was in flames. Smoke poured from the streets like blood seeping from the wounds of an injured creature. The moon was beginning to give way to the sun, the night had nearly ended.

            Venom raised the city bus over his head. He groaned under the weight but stood strong. He flung the massive automobile towards the Lizard standing over a pile of debris.

            The Lizard jumped vertically into the air and straightened his body out so that he passed straight through the bus, smashing the windows with his entry and exit. The bus collided against the wall of an apartment building ripping through the bricks and concrete.

            "This is going nowhere!" Venom roared, "Crawl back to your hole, Connors. We have more important matters to handle!"

            "I assssure you, nothing isss more important than I!" The Lizard replied furiously. His body was a maze of wounds and gashes. The green hide that protected him was soaked in blood yet he still fought on. "No excussses you pathetic tick, we finisssh thisss!"

            With those words a building several blocks down the street which they had fought in collapsed from the damage their battle had wrought. Smoke flooded into the streets sending survivors every which way.

            Venom fired off a web-line that rammed itself straight through Lizard's chest. The latter grabbed the line in pain and pulled it and Venom towards him. "It won't be that easy, for either of us."

            "This is very interesting." Otto remarked staring at the black fragment under the microscope in his study, "Very interesting."

            Peter wrapped bandages around his arms and chests with meticulous care. "It's very interesting right up until it tries to kill you."

            Otto laughed, "I suppose so." He smiled gently, "The creature's a symbiote? It just bonded with the rat cells I introduced. Quite amazing, the rate of bonding is unheard of. You don't suppose I could get a larger sample, do you?"

            "I'll look into it after I beat the snot out of Venom. You found any weaknesses?" Peter inquired.

            "Well you've already told me it hates sonic noise and it seems adverse to high temperatures. The creature nearly jumped off the dish when I placed a flame under the glass." Otto rubbed his jaw tapping into his brilliant mind in search of an answer. After a moment he frowned and returned to the microscope, "I may need more time."

            Peter flexed his arm and winced in pain and what may be a torn muscle. A large crashing noise came from the city outside the window. "You'd better hurry; I don't know how much more Manhattan can take."

            The Lizard raised the torn remnants of motorcycle over his heads and flung it into the gut of his unstoppable opponent.

            Venom shrugged the attack off and laughed menacingly, "Are you getting desperate, Connors?"

            "Not at all." The Frankenstein-like monster replied trying to sound confident even though his heart was threatening to leave his chest, it was pumping blood to his wounded body as hard as it could.

            From the implant in his brain he could hear members of S.H.I.E.L.D talking back and forth trying to keep up with the influx of news. "Connors, where are you, damn it!" Jan asked her tone rather harsh.

            "I could asssk you the sssame quessstion." The Lizard said deflecting one of Venom's blows and landing an uppercut on Venom's jaw sending the monster into the side of a grocery store on a street corner.

            The sun has risen, it was morning in the city and the battle showed no signs of ending. They were evenly matched and evenly determined to leave this engagement alive and their enemy a fallen corpse.

            "We can barely keep up with your movements!" Jan replied angrily, it sounded as if she was onboard a helicopter. "Hold on, stay still for a second we're getting a signal from your tracker."

            Venom tagged Lizard across the jaw and one of his impressively sharp teeth landed on the ground covered in blood. "Easssier ssaid than done." The Lizard grabbed Venom by his neck and slammed him against a light pole.

            "We've got you, Connors." Jan reported excitedly. She was young, inexperienced. Fury would have never allowed such emotion to come through over an open channel, not with the men listening. "We're on our way; ETA is twenty minutes. Just hold him there."

            Mary Jane walked up the steps from the warm basement of the Parker home wearily dressed in her striped pajamas. She rubbed her eyes trying to adjust to the sudden light. She had slept well, tired from completing her science midterms. The loud knocking on the front door had woken her and she felt like giving the person responsible a good piece of her mind.

            She opened the door considerably irritated and not afraid to show it. "Gwen?" MJ said perplexed at seeing the blond standing on the other side of the door looking just as annoyed. "Do you have any idea how early it is?"

            "Hello, MJ, is Peter here?" She asked.

            "I don't know, I went to sleep early I assumed he had come back later in the night." MJ answered hiding whatever jealousy and protectiveness she was feeling well enough for Gwen not to notice.

            Gwen sighed, "Oh. Well if he's here I'll wait here until he wakes up. We need to have a good long talk."

            MJ frowned, angered at what she perceived to be her competition, "Do you want to sit down?"

            "Thanks." She replied awkwardly. Gwen moved over to the couch situated in front of the television, "Do you mind?"

            "No, I-I just woke up." MJ said before a very loud yawn escaped her lips despite any effort that she made.

            Gwen nodded, "So you haven't heard? Manhattan's become a war zone. They say Spider-Man got the worst of it." 

            "What?" She asked concerned suddenly as any remaining feeling of laziness was expunged from her body in moments and adrenaline began to pump through her body. "What are you talking about?"

            "Look." She said turning the television on, "It's on all the channels."

            The anchor looked exhausted from a long night and any lack of make-up to make her look attractive for the viewers was obviously missing. A lot of fantasies would be ruined this morning. "The police have asked for anyone with medical training to report to the designated centers immediately. If you're just tuning in this is the situation: Late last night, the known vigilante Spider-Man and another unknown individual, perhaps a mutant, began attacking one another in the city streets. This engagement ended with Spider-Man being defeated according to eye witnesses but a third individual who government officials report as a known mutant formerly Dr. Curt Connors, most notorious for the deadly Zoo slayings last summer in Florida and who was last reported to be in a special maximum security prison. Already, the city estimates over a dozen dead and property damage in the millions."

            MJ grimaced her face had become like stone. "They don't say what happened to Spider-Man! Why didn't they say anything?"

            Gwen shrugged, "I don't know. They said he got beaten, I guess that mean's he's dead."

            "This is the first image taken of the unknown aggressor." The Anchor said before an image was splayed across the screen.

            MJ's mouth hung open. She had seen that black face before, those white eyes, that symbol over its hateful heart. "Oh my God."

            Peter finished stitching his costume up. Though it was visibly beaten and somewhat make-shift and of poor quality it was once more whole. "Thanks, Doc Ock for the cloth and needle." He said pulling the mask back over his face.

            It was odd but for some reason he felt comfortable here. He and Octavius shared a common bond for science and knowledge; they understood the other despite several fundamental differences between them. Besides, Ock had already seen his face on that night he tangled with Electro.

            "How's the analysis coming along?" Peter inquired stepping over towards Otto fully geared out in his costume. He still was concerned at how little web-fluid was left in his shooters. 

            "It's been most difficult but I believe I've found a weakness in the sample." Otto said with a grin indicating the pride he must be feeling at his accomplishment. "Quite simply the sample feeds off of adrenaline."       

            "Adrenaline?" Peter asked, "Of course, that's why it's so aggressive. It keeps you on the edge to feed itself." Though it had been an emotional experience the scientist in him appreciated the evolution the symbiote.  "So I need to find a way to cut that source off; that should weaken the suit."

            "I have already found a way." Otto raised a medical syringe in his hands full of some clear liquid, "This is an adrenaline blocker. You'll need to find a way to get close enough to use it, not easy at all I imagine."

            "Brother, you have no idea." Peter replied grabbing the syringe, "But thanks, you've given me a fighting chance which is more than I came into that fight with." He moved towards the window, "Remind me to nominate you for the Nobel Prize if this works will you?"

            Otto laughed, "I will."