CHAPTER 10
LATER THAT NIGHT…
"You found it once, you can find it again, witch!" barked Venom at his 'catch of the day'. He had taken Black Cat back to the Hardy Penthouse to use the surveillance equipment.
No guesses as to why.
"Don't call me that, you big fat sack of crap!" Felicia yelled back, turning from her laptop screen. It was ridiculous, she thought, that she was a hostage in her own home. And to Venom! Spidey had outsmarted this guy plenty of times, why couldn't she?
Venom came up behind her and whispered to her through dirty-great-big clenched teeth. "You will help us or we'll squeeze you till you pop and eat out your brainsss…" The hissing effect Venom added to the end of his sentence caused Black Cat to shudder uncontrollably. She couldn't help it, this guy creeped her out. His tongue swept past her face and licked her cheek like a dog lapping up water. She jerked to the side to avoid it and caught sight of its length. It was at least fifty centimetres long, pink and covered in a greenish slime. The look of disgust on Cat's face said it all.
"Actually, we might do that anyway…if you attempt to do anything but help us…" The symbiotic psycho gave her a huge grin and licked the edges of his razor-sharp teeth in eagerness of his upcoming feast.
"Yeah, like I'd let you do that, jackass…" Cat murmured, unaware that Venom could hear every word she was saying.
"And there's the something else!" Venom cried and he lunged toward Felicia, grabbing hand at the ready. His fingers extended into more snake-like tendrils and coiled around Black Cat's waist and arms, lifting her from her chair.
Bringing her closer to him, the lethal protector told his meal "We're gonna enjoy thisss" before wrapping his tongue once around her neck, crushing her body as he did so. The tip of Venom's tongue coiled once more around Felicia's neck before moving to her ear, ready to enter the 'all-you-can-eat-brain-buffet' part of the meal. The fear in Felicia's mind slowly began to fade to a trance of tranquillity as the air in her lungs was increasingly being squeezed from her body.
Just before she lost consciousness, a banshee-like "BEEEEEEEEEEP" erupted from the computer's speakers, and Venom turned to see what the noise was indicating.
The picture on the screen caused him to unravel his tentacles from around Black Cat and drop her in shock. And no, before you ask, his tongue was not still around her neck because then he'd have to drag her across the floor to get to the screen, wouldn't he. His tongue's not as long as it is on the cover of Venom #1, pencilled by Francisco Herrera, y'know!
Sorry, I did the geek thing there, didn't I? On with the show…
On the laptop screen was a CCTV image from the roof of the building that they were in. Strange, thought Venom, cat burglars don't normally wear alien armour and have spears. We thinks that there's the tasty snack that we have been looking for…
Venom turned to the motionless body of Felicia Hardy and knelt down beside her. She was still breathing, but clearly unconscious. "Looks like your equipment helped us find the 'Predator' after all, miss kitty-kat…we've got a score to settle with that alien jerk, but when we're finished," he dog-licked her check again but she didn't stir, "we'll be sure to finish our sssnack…"
The Symbiote creature leapt backward and through the nearest window. Crawling up the outside wall to the roof, Venom spotted the Predator sneaking around on the opposite side of the ledge.
Like a lion on the prowl, Venom charged at the Predator, only to find that it was aware of his presence. In mid jump, Venom was struck in the chest by an electronic discus. Like an alien Frisbee o' death, it sliced through the layer of symbiote and cut Brock with a deep gash in his belly.
Venom went hurtling backwards, and fell one floor into Felicia's rooftop garden. It was as big as an eighth of Central Park, filled with the prettiest rose bushes and blooming cherry trees.
The image of wonder was ruined by Venom landing in a patch of petunias, blood trailing behind him from his wound.
The Predator leapt from the floor above and, with a mighty roar, loomed over his opponent. Venom glanced up at him and smirked. Using the combined healing abilities of Eddie Brock and the alien Symbiote, Venom caused the gash to vanish in seconds, fully healed.
"We're not that easy, butt-brain! You'll have to do better than a spinning disc!" Venom beamed, proud in the knowledge that if this was the most damage the alien could dish out, then it was clear who would win.
Poor Venom, the naïve moron…
The Predator ran at his prey, spear in hand, ready to strike. "Didn't ya hear us, bub? We don't go down that ea-"
Their sentence was cut short by the creature's blow, as the Predator had used the spear to hoist himself upwards by pushing it into the ground, landing with a powerful kick on top of Venom's head. The force of the attack stunned Venom and he hit the ground hard.
As the Predator regained his balance, Venom rose to his feet and shot a webline from his wrist. It connected with the Predator's mask, and Venom yanked as hard as he could. The alien shot forward, mask askew, and its face met Venom's fist with great force. Stumbling backward, the creature's mask fell to the side as it clutched its face in agony.
Venom casually strolled over to the mask, and stood on it as hard as he could. It took some muscle, and a little extra body weight but, eventually, the metallic helmet shattered into five pieces.
This was the first of Venom's many mistakes this battle.
The creature looked up in shock, as if an alarm bell had gone of in his head, and he stared with astonishment at his ex-mask before glaring with pure hatred at Venom. Venom stared back at the Predator's face in repulsion.
Its forehead was twice the size of a normal human's and stretched from above the alien's eyes to the back of its head, a strange scar in the centre, dreadlocks hanging all around the edge of it. A bunch of snout-like wrinkles were perched between its sunken eyes of yellow and red. Spots covered its face, the occasional black 'hair' sprouting from its reptilian pores. But the most striking facial feature was the Predators mouth. The bottom and top jaws were filled with small-but-deadly teeth, but at each corner of its mouth was a pincer-like mandible, if that's the right word. These could be compared to a bug, but they were totally unique. Overall, this thing was hideous.
Venom summed up the creatures look in a single insult. Turning to the Predator, he said "You are on ugly motherf-"
This was Venom's second mistake. The enraged creature had leapt upward and planted its fist in Venom's face, its wrist blades extending on the opposite hand, which slashed at Venom a second later.
The Predators left hand grasped Venom's neck and swung him into a tree trunk. Racing over, the alien head butted our antihero in the jaw and elbowed him in the eye. Pain seared through the symbiotes body, its healing factor unable to keep up with this whirlwind of hurt.
More punches followed, blow after blow causing Venom to cough up more and more blood. Eventually, the Predator paused and gave the Predator equivalent of a triumphant grin to Venom. It fixed him with its unforgiving stare once more and spoke with a croaky voice that sounded like Venom's own vocals with more of a hissing to them.
"Rarrr…we're not that easy, butt-brain!"
"Well let's make it hard, then!" announced a voice from behind the Predator, and it turned to face the intruder.