Ricochet could hear Venom high above him, probably destroying something valuable. Andy rolled his chair forward and out peered out the office doorway, knowing the elevator was just around the hall corner.
However, as soon as he scooted towards it, all the noise stopped. It took a moment for Ricochet to realize that it was a scare tactic, and that it was working. He propelled himself to his goal with agonizing slowness, every squeaky turn of his wheels giving away his position.
Scoot… Scoot… Scoot…
"Ricocheeeeeeet," echoed the monster's voice form seemingly everywhere. Andy jumped at the noise, inching ahead with all his willpower, but still not quickly enough.
Scoot… Scoot… Scoot…
"There's a 'super' in front of my 'villain' status for a REASON, Ricochet…"
Scoot… Scoot… Scoot…
"How much worse do you really want to make your final hours?" At this point, the dentist could discern that Venom's voice was coming from the stairwell behind him. The corner was so close, if he could just get behind it…
"I know I'm not supposed to eat for an hour, but hey, you can make exceptions sometimes, right?"
Scootscootscoot!
Andy grabbed the wall and yanked himself around it, hoping it would conceal him from Venom's position. It was all he could do to keep from screaming.
Silence.
Then, from right beside him, "You dumbass, I can smell you."
"GAAAAAAAAH!" said Ricochet, shooting himself backwards. He held his hands in front of him on reflex, still clasping the broken drill. At the sight of it, Venom roared and jumped, landing on a wall twenty feet away.
A low growl reverberated from the depths of his chest. "Let it go, human, before we make you."
Andy's brain suddenly grasped that his aggressor didn't know the drill was useless. Seizing the moment, he started heading for the elevator, pointing the drill as menacingly as he could at Venom. "Yeah, SURE you will! What can you do? You can't even stand a little noise!"
"Unless the right motivation came along… we are quite fond of revenge."
The elevator made a small ding! as it reached their floor. Ricochet tore down the warning 'Do Not Enter' tape over the doors and scooted inside. "Sorry, smart-guy. Revenge ain't on the menu!" Andy made the mistake of saluting with the hand holding the drill before he disappeared from view, revealing the instrument's dangling cord.
"Hmph, someone's new at one-liners." Said Venom. Then his eyes narrowed. "………Waaaaait…"
"Close, close, close, CLOSE!" Andy commanded in a horse whisper, furiously pounding the 'Close Doors' button.
The floor shook as Venom charged towards the elevator. "WHY YOU PIECE OF--"
Ding! said the elevator, closing right as Venom's claws left dents in it's doors. The machine started heading downwards at a good pace. It wasn't until he was several stories lower that Andy exhaled. He noticed that the elevator was working fine.
"Huh, I wonder what needed to be repaired…" he contemplated aloud.
Above, Ricochet could hear the sound of metal being ripped to shreds, then something very heavy falling very fast—
Ker-THUNK! Venom crashed through the roof of the elevator, and actually went halfway through the floor, causing the whole thing to lean dangerously towards him. The impact caused the lights to flicker, and a cheerful tune on the piano could be heard.
"It was the music?" shouted Andy, holding as tight as he could to the railing.
"GNAAAR, we HATE elevators!" yelled Venom, unable to reach his prey from his position and deeply gouging everything within reach. Ricochet might as well have been looking into the business end of a very, very, angry blender.
Sinking in his claws as deep as he could into the floor, Venom pulled himself closer to the dentist and started trying to grab him. Andy's webbed body was weighed down by the chair, but he had enough adrenaline to fuel an airplane, and enough resolution to stay alive to dangle there for months.
"Warning, weight exceeded. Warning, weight exceeded. Warning, weight exceeded," said the elevator's pleasant, female voice recording, the elevator giving an oppressive lurch as the cables started to give from the trauma.
"SHUT UP!" Venom bellowed, yanking out the wiring in the walls and causing the voice to lower several octaves before it stopped.
The villain looked at the wires in his claws and grinned even wider than usual. Before Andy could muster the courage to wonder why his assailant had a sudden mood swing, Venom used the wires like a whip, wrapping them around the dentist's ankles and pulling himself up.
Ricochet, pumped as he was, could have held them both up—however he executed a crazy scheme instead. He let go and fell towards Venom, crushing him momentarily between his chair and the elevator wall. The impact made the villain to lose his balance, and he fell through the hole in the floor, bringing Andy with him. The end result was the dentist holding the both of them up with his fingers in the claw marks, dangling in an elevator shaft, and extremely scared.
"IEEEEEEEE!" screamed Ricochet, certain his joints were coming apart.
"Exhilarating, isn't it!" said Venom, certain of victory. "And this," he continued, climbing up the chair and reaching wit his free hand, "is for you." He ripped his claws into Andy's gut, relishing the sound his victim made in agony and laughing maniacally. He was about to see how deep he could dig before breaking his new toy, when the machine holding the both of them aloft shook again as another cable gave way. Venom lost his balance, and his claw tore down Andy's entire front right-hand side, causing immense pain but also setting the dentist free of his web-based bondage.
Suddenly Ricochet had the upper hand, his legs gripping the chair and Venom dangling below it. Grimacing from the pain in his torso, Andy raised them both up with his legs, wishing he had done more sit-ups, and said, "Let me return the favor!"
He kicked down with his remaining strength, hearing a satisfying Swak! as it struck Venom in the face. He watched both fall into the darkness, which was eventually followed by a heavy impact on the bottom.
Andy sighed, grateful that he wouldn't die by the monster, but also knowing he didn't have enough energy remaining to haul himself to safety. His fingers began cramping up, his arms started to shake, his sweat mixing with the blood of his wounds and dripping down his shoes into the gaping pit below.
Just then, he heard a popping sound above him. For a fleeting instant, he felt weightless, like he was floating in midair. In the next instant, he was inside the elevator, fully aware that he was in midair, and swiftly falling towards the earth.
He would have screamed some more, except he was losing his voice, and the free-fall promptly stopped, causing him to land in a belly-flop. So he swore profusely instead.
The elevator started heading skyward—slowly at first, then gaining in speed, much faster than by any sane mechanism. Andy was thus pressed down by the mounting pressure, deducing, despite the blood loss, that Venom had caught the elevator and was now heading towards the uppermost floor.
In a matter of seconds, the ceiling of the building was breached by the busted machine, held aloft by the supervillain. Venom shook the elevator until Andy fell out, then tossed it aside.
Ricochet could only crawl away, leaving a red smear in his wake. Venom advanced, angry because his head hurt but still looking forward to having a nice breakfast, so he took his time.
Andy took out the keys-on-a-string, swinging them around like a weapon. "Oowaaaaah!" he said, poorly impersonating a martial arts master, "Don't come any closer! I know key-fu!"
Venom effortlessly flicked them away. "Game over, human, but points for effort." he said, sinking his claws into Ricochet's calf and dragging him closer. "Brains taste better with less blood, especially those with a PHD."
"Hey!" said Andy, feebly trying to shake his limb loose, "I have an IDDCP!"
"…Whatever. Stop talking." The villain placed his foot over Andy's sternum and began to press down, using his immense girth to slowly stop his heart.
Along with the massive pain, Andy's vision was starting to blur. He knew he was going to faint soon (which, considering the circumstances was likely a very good thing), but just behind Venom he could see something coming closer…
Realizing what it was, Ricochet managed to gasp a question. "D… Do you believe in karma?"
This made Venom pause. "Karma? What-"
Before he could finish, Venom was knocked into next week by none other than the webbed one himself, Spider-man. "You ok?" he asked the fallen dentist, who clearly wasn't.
"Inhale, cough, wheeze!" said Andy, holding out a thumbs-up.
"Good. Stay here." Spidey walked over to Venom, who was lying on his back some distance away. He crouched in front of him and said, with his voice set to mocking mode, "Who's all up way too early? You are! Yes you are! That's a cute necklace you have there, isn't it? Is it a pretty little flower? Yes, it's a pwetty wittle fwower!"
Spider-man emphasized his point by poking the villain in the head. Venom growled his warning, but Spidey was nowhere near slowing down. "And look, your teeth are so nice and pearly! I can see myself in them, even! My, how straight and not-sharp looking they are! Wow, that's a nice change. Who's on a non-human diet now? WHO'S on a non-human diet now? You are! Yes you--"
Spider-man shut up only because Venom had grabbed his head and flung him off the skyscraper. He used this to his advantage by webbing Venom, sticking to the side of the building, then yanking the strands as hard as he could. Despite his comparatively larger stature, the villain could not resist the hero's strength and was flung through the parking lot roof, landing on the only car parked within it and setting off the alarm.
The piercing wail of the automobile aggravated Venom's symbiote once again. He roared in rage and pain then picked up the car and folded it in half. Unbeknownst to him, an air horn was stashed in the front seat, which then pelted the villain with all the force in its can.
The force of the din was too much to bear. Beyond even screaming now, Venom leapt away, unable to coordinate himself enough to websling and constantly jumping through buildings instead of onto them. It was in this manner that Venom escaped into the sunrise, cursing and falling and causing residents to throw boots at him.
"…Well, that was lucky!" said Spider-man, seemingly to himself. He leapt upwards, did about five ten-point acrobatics, and then landed next to Andy. "I think you need a tune-up. Let's get you to a hospital." He lifted the dentist up, putting one arm over his shoulder and getting ready to take off.
"W-wait…" Andy sputtered, "Jus… Just tell me that wasn't my car…"
"Oh, right! These fell on my head." Spider-man said, taking out a pair of keys-on-a-string. He held them out in the general direction of the car (which was still sounding out a muffled alarm) and pressed the button. The wreck beeped twice in recognition, and Andy finally fainted.
"Man," groaned Spidey, "I had a checkup scheduled this morning!"
The next thing Ricochet remembered was bright lights and people in masks. The doctors in this super-city were fully used to seeing terrible and strange wounds in the citizenry, but even they looked worried. Several surgeries and bags of blood later, Andy was left in his room to recuperate, though he was told later that his right leg may never regain full use due to his extensive injuries.
This compared to death, however, was anything but a burden to him. Not only had he faced one of the most feared creatures in the area and lived to tell about it, but there was a picture of him and Spider-man along with flowers and cards on his desk. The photograph was taken after he had passed out, so Spidey had to hold his head up, but that along with the elevator on the roof, humongous claw-marks everywhere, the busted car, and his destroyed office were more than enough proof to back up his story (which, at this point, was all over the news).
"I hope insurance covers super-human damage," he thought to himself.
"Andy!" cried a familiar voice. At first he thought it might be another interviewer, but to Ricochet's delight it was Claire who had come to visit. She wrapped her arms around him, ignoring his whines of protest. "Andy, I was so worried! I'm so glad you're alive! Andy…" she continued, leaning back to survey his lesions, stricken by the severity of his condition. "Oh my…You didn't do this because of what I said…did you?"
"No, no, no, no, no, no," he said, waving off her concern and avoiding her gaze. Claire, aware of his inability to lie, lifted an eyebrow in disbelief. "…Well… a little, actually… but hey, I'm alive! And I have bragging rights like no other dentist around, right?"
Claire looked downhearted, but tried to be optimistic. "The whole city's impressed, that's for sure… Still, I wonder if it was a good idea for the media to give out your identity like that—"
"Dr. Ricochet?" inquired a nurse, peeking her head inside. "Sorry to interrupt, but we have dozens of baskets for you today."
"Baskets? From whom?" he asked, unaware of anyone besides Claire who cared that much, let alone dozens of them.
"There's…" the nurse said, reading the numerous cards, "…one from a Matt Murdock, one from a Henry Pym, a Janet Van Dyne, a Steve Rogers, a Professor Xavier, a Peter Parker…the list goes on! You've become quite the celebrity, Doctor." she finished, wheeling in an entire cart full of get-well baskets, most of which were filled with money and requests for appointments. There was even a piece of stag meat from a person named Logan, but it hadn't been wrapped so it got tossed.
"Who are those people, Andy?" Claire asked, amazed at the uncharacteristic generosity from strangers.
"Hmmm…" he said, reading a Thank You note from someone named Felicia Hardy. He had heard about most of these people, but why had they bothered to give him any—
He jumped at the realization. "They're everywhere…" he thought to himself, "And they're grateful! To me!"
"Andy? You ok?" asked Claire, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" he replied, beaming. "Looks like karma works after all."