CHAPTER 11

FELICIA HARDY'S PENTHOUSE, FIVE MINUTES AGO

That was great, thought Spider-man, as he landed with a gentle 'thud' on the wall outside Felicia's bedroom on the top floor. It's rare for me and Mary Jane to bond like that, have a normal day out. Watch a film, eat some popcorn, play tonsil hockey on the back row seats, go home and…ha ha…

Peter quickly put the happy memories to the back of his head and focused on the task at hand; he had to thank Felicia for her help and healing, but explain that nothing could happen between them because he was happy with MJ and didn't want to lose that relationship.

Then why did he feel unsure about that? What he had for Felicia was physical, surely? Or was there more to it…?

Suddenly, there came a loud 'BEEEEEP' noise from inside Felicia's room, and Spidey scuttled to the window to see what the matter was. At first it looked like someone was crushing her, then the attacker came near to her, before moving toward the window.

Spider-man got in just I time to see the attacker leap through the glass. He lay on top of Felicia to stop any shards hitting her and noticed that she was in her Black Cat costume. Is that why she was attacked; an enemy had come to kill Cat, not Felicia Hardy?

As he started to get off of her, Cat awoke with a start. The level of embarrassment in Peter's mind reached its peak as Black Cat stared up at her dream man. She was secretly over the moon, but resisted the urge to reveal that fact. After a moments silence, Felicia spoke.

"Er…hi."

"Yeah, er…hi…" Peter replied sheepishly.

"D'you…d'you mind getting off of me? Coz, er…"

"Oh! Yeah, yeah…sure."

There was a pause.

"Er, Spidey…"

"Oh, sorry!" Peter picked himself up off of Felicia and stood up straight, trying to act as if nothing had happened. As Black Cat rose, she noticed that the red part of Spider-man's mask had got redder.

"So, what's happened? Who was that?" asked Spidey.

Black Cat could only just think straight; the loss of air from the tentacles crush on her had caused her mind to go all woozy. "Er, oh god…it was Venom. He came to use my surveillance gear to find the Predator and I called him a sack of crap…he did a python hug on me and he was…he…"

Her face became a portrait of horror as she recalled what Venom had planned for her. The feel of his tongue around her neck and in her ear was still there in her head; she shivered suddenly. "What?" Peter asked, "What did he do?"

"He…my brai-…he was gonna…eat…" She burst into tears. The fear of his return caused her to panic and cry. If the experience hadn't been bad enough, she would have to go through it again.

'We'll be sure to finish our sssnack…'

"When I find him I'm going to kick his nuts so hard that his head falls off!" Spider-man exclaimed. Suddenly, there came a 'THUD' from outside in the garden area and Spidey heard the hiss of Venom enter through the broken window.

"Now's your chance; he's still h-here…" Black Cat whimpered and sat on her bed, knees under her chin, rocking gently. Spider-man realized that it would be better if she was out of harm's way.

"Look," he said to Felicia, "why don't you go to the lounge and get in a big armchair by the fire, or something. Y'know, have some wine, get drunk…forget about Venom. I'll make sure he's gone in the next five minutes."

"Okay." Felicia wiped her eyes, got off the bed and made her way to the door. Before she shut it behind her, however, she re-entered the room. "Pe-…Spider-man?"

"Yes?"

"He…he said that, when he's finished, he'll come back for me and…I…I'm scared." She was glad to get it off her chest, and gave a short sigh of relief.

"Then I'll make sure that I'm the one that finishes." said Peter confidently, determined to keep his friend happy. She forced herself to smile, but the terror shone through all the while. She left the room and shut the door.

She doesn't realise, does she? I mean it. This is the end for Venom. He's attacked Mary Jane and Felicia in one day. But that's one day too much. He's going down.

Spider-man leapt out of the window hole and scaled the wall up to the roof. From here, he got the best seat in the house. The Predator was in the garden, beating the crap out of Venom, who wasn't putting up much of a fight, probably because he was pretty beat up as it was.

The alien hurled Venom into a tree trunk, hit him a few times, then stood before the villain and said, in its strange Venom-like voice, "Rarrr…we're not that easy, butt-brain!"

Spidey couldn't help but intervene. "Well let's make it hard, then!" he yelled at the creature, and it turned to look at him.

Its face was gross. Seriously gross. From the beady little eyes to the pincer-mouth, this thing was hideous. Spidey used this as an excuse for a little insult.

"Hey, Tim Burton called. It seems that Jack Skellington has voted you prettiest freak in all of Halloween Town!"

The creature's reply was a feral one; it simply let out a tremendous roar and, using a control panel on its left wrist, raised the cannon on its back and fired at the bug.

Thanks to his spider sense, Spider-man was expecting this to happen, and dodged the attack easily. Unfortunately, the Predator had planned this to happen.

The Smartdisc (killer Frisbee) sliced the side of Spidey's arm enough to stop him from landing on all fours. Instead, he collapsed and held his arm in pain; the cut was deep.

Why the hell do I get involved in these things! Argh!

Venom saw this distraction as the perfect opportunity to strike. Pulling both of his legs up to his chin, he brought them forward at the same time with the force of the Juggernaut heading to the toilet after too much chilli. Colliding with Predator's stomach, the kick caused the alien to slam into the tree opposite, knocking it over. The tree came down upon the nearest apartment window and it shattered into a million pieces, each as big as a video cassette. Well, it was a big window.

Several shards found their way to parts of the Predator that were not armour protected. Bright green blood oozed out of the window wounds and the alien whimpered in pain.

It was then that Venom picked up a shard and slammed it into the Predator's arm. The alien let out a nightmarish shriek of agony so loud it could be heard far away in space.

It huddled over for a second, trying desperately to recover from the pain, but to no avail. For a moment it hunched, twitching uncontrollably. Then, in one swift motion, it pulled the shard from its arm, blood flowing in gallons, and dug it into Venom's hand.

The scream that came from the lethal protector's mouth was an echo of the one that had come from the Predator several seconds before. It was cut short, however, as the symbiote surrounding Eddie Brocks palm smashed the glass and pushed it away from his fingers.

"That's it. That is IT!" Venom roared as he lifted the creature up by the neck, much to its surprise, and hurled it over the roof.

Spidey acted as fast as he could. Crawling to the edge of the rooftop, he shot a webline with his uninjured arm. It stuck to the Predator's ankle and held fast.

Now, here was the problem.

Spider-man was struggling to keep hold of the Predator (the weight was too much for one arm to cope with), but now Venom was creeping up behind him.

"Drop it, Parker. We've won; it is time for it to die!"

"No!" Spidey replied, "No one deserves to die but you! You're the one who's done more damage than this Star Trek reject!"

"If you're talking about my methods…that's my own business. This creature is our business!"

Spider-man did not move. This creature did what it was doing for an unknown reason, what was to say that it wasn't going to turn out good? But Venom, he did what he felt like, and it would go on forever if Spider-man didn't stop him.

What the hell do I do?

"Playtime's over!" Venom announced, and charged at Spidey, knocking him and the Predator off of the roof.

The several hundred feet were no match for Spider-man; injured or not.

One webline secured a safe landing for our hero, but the Predator was not so fortunate. It fell all the way, and out of sight. Police witness reports would later say that it hit the ground and just vanished into thin air. A trail of its blood was left on the floor, but it was supposedly spread as the Predator fell. A cry of pain and anger was heard as it fell, and it echoed about the street for some minutes after its disappearance.

This was the last New York City would see of the Predator.

For now.