AN: Hey everybody, Mark C here. This is the penultimate chapter to our story here and I hope you like it. I would like to dedicate this chapter to my writing partner, htbthomas. We had a great time writing this story together and she let me run wild with this chapter. Enjoy.
The Devil You Don't Know
Chapter 11: Turning Point
Scooping his two captives and holding them under one arm, Venom leapt forward with a snarl. He took off swinging, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the location of that telephone call. But he wasn't quite through toying with Spider-Man, not yet anyway.
"Where do you think you're taking us?" Mary Jane demanded to know, her bravado masking fear.
"Don't you worry your pretty head over that, Red," Venom growled. Truth be told, he wasn't completely sure where they were going, since both of his hideouts had probably been compromised.
May struggled in vain to free herself from Venom's now-hardened web cocoon, which only came up to their shoulders. "Sakes alive, young man," the old woman said sharply. "I don't understand why you have to go around kidnapping helpless women. With all those powers, you should be helping people, like my—"
He cut her off viciously.
"Shut your pie hole – and that goes for you too, Red. We ain't nothin' like your beloved nephew. The only thing we're doing with these powers is taking care of ourselves."
With his free arm, he fired a web strand and swung his way to a nearby rooftop with his passengers. Gotta change plans, and quickly, he thought anxiously. Before we know it, Parker'll be right on our tail…
His captives suddenly got very quiet. He looked to see what the matter was…
Wham! A pair of armored boots slammed Venom in the back. The force of the blow made him lose his grip on his captives, sending him off the roof and through a window of a neighboring building.
"Are you two all right?" Peter asked, slicing them out of their cocoons with the mechanical waldoes.
"We're fine, Tiger," replied Mary Jane, relieved, as she shrugged her way out of hers.
"Who knows what that ruffian would've done to us if you hadn't shown up," May added.
His family now safe, he had but one loose end to tie up. "Will you two be all right up here?" He nodded toward the site of Venom's crash landing. "I need to take care of tall, dark and gruesome."
"Just be careful," MJ replied, eyes full of strength tempered by deep concern for her husband's safety.
"Aren't I always?" he replied as he jumped off the roof and swung down toward the smashed window in search of his arch-foe.
But Spider-Man could find no trace of Venom, even with his enhanced night vision and the audio receptors hidden in his mask. "Oh, where, oh, where has my little Venom gone? Oh, where, oh, where can he be?" he mocked in a singsong voice as he continued his search.
"We're right behind you, Spider-prick," Venom said, lunging at the startled wallcrawler.
Even with his new heightened spider-sense, Spider-Man was not able to overcome the advantage that Venom had always had over him – the ability to neutralize his precognition. Venom easily tackled him, knocking the wind out of him. Like a punch-drunk boxer, Spider-Man struggled to his feet. But the former Scorpion had other ideas.
"Let's see how you like being tossed through something, webhead," Venom growled. He grabbed Spider-Man by the arm and leg and hurled him around like a discus. Instead of going through a window, Spidey went through a wall.
It's times like these that I just absolutely love this new costume, Spider-Man thought as he got up from the debris. It can really take the punishment… but I don't want to keep putting that to the test. Through the dust, he noticed a figure coming towards him. Uh oh, round two coming up.
"Well, that was fun," the slimy black symbiote sneered as he approached. "We'd sure like to see that again."
This time, Spider-Man was ready. He fired two extra-thick strands of webbing as Venom came into optimum range. With the force of cannonballs, the semi-fluidic projectiles struck his enemy in the mid-section, knocking him backwards. Seeing that the weblines were stuck fast, Spider-man yanked Venom towards him like he was roping a bull at a rodeo. As soon as he had Venom in close enough, he delivered two powerful punches to Venom's head, sending him hurtling backward through the hole he had made and out onto the street below.
Spider-Man peered cautiously through the gaping hole. Thankfully, no one else was around. But looking down, he could just make out the look on his opponent's face. I think I just made him angrier… oh, well. Once more into the breach, he thought as he jumped out of the opening to face Venom again.
Although it had been a long drop, the fall hadn't hurt Venom. It only made him more furious. He ripped a lamppost right out of the pavement, and swatted Spider-Man out of the air. The force of the blow sent Spider-Man careening across the street and into a nearby building. Unable to recover in time to fire a webline, Spider-Man fell more than three stories to the sidewalk below.
"We're going to squash you like the bug that you are," Venom threatened, as he brandished the ruined streetlight like a hockey stick.
As he lay prone on the concrete, Venom swung his weapon. Acting on pure survival instinct, Spider-Man suddenly reached out and caught it forcefully between his hands. "How many times do I have to tell you," Spider-Man said exasperatedly, as if talking to a dunce. He quickly webbed Venom's hands to the pole, and, turning the tables on the monstrous black symbiote, Spider-Man violently swung the creature back and forth between two concrete walls facing each other across an alley. " I'm… not… a bug… I'm… an… arachnid!" he shouted, accentuating each word upon impact.
Unfortunately, Venom was able to shake off the effects of the last couple of blows fairly quickly. He freed himself from Spider-Man's webbing and pulled a huge chunk of wall from a nearby building, hurling it towards Spider-Man in one massive heave.
"Nyah, nyah. Missed me," Spider-Man taunted from his perch on the side of a building across the street as he intercepted the enormous bulk with a web net.
Furious, Venom ripped up a huge slab of asphalt from the street and hurled it toward Spider-Man. Just as before, Spidey caught it in a web and threw it right back striking Venom squarely in the chest. The force of the blow sent Venom careening into a fire hydrant, knocking it over and opening up a geyser.
"What's the matter, Venny? Itsy bitsy spider too much for you?"
Venom let out a blood-curdling yell. Uh oh, now I've done it, Peter thought, as the enraged symbiote clad maniac threw an abandoned car at him. He barely got out of the way in time. Debris from the car crashing into the edifice rained down everywhere. However, that was the least of his problems. The embedded car caught fire and exploded with a resounding boom,taking a good part of the building with it.
As he hit the ground, Spider-Man created a web-shield to protect himself from the falling debris. But no sooner had he landed when he suddenly found himself hurtling through the air once more. Venom had thrown him with such force that he smashed through the wall of another building, destroying a sign that read, 'Condemned. Scheduled for demolition in 60 days'. Gargan bounded in after him and tried to pound him mercilessly until the wallcrawler delivered a double boot to the stomach that would have knocked a bank vault door right off its hinges.
As he shook off the effects of the beating he had taken from Venom, Spider-Man decided the time had come. Slowly getting up, he released the waldoes.
Venom glanced over the mechanical arms contemptuously. "What the hell are those things for? You gonna tickle me to death or something?"
"Not exactly," Spider-Man replied grimly as the waldoes released a sonic wave aimed right at his enemy.
"YYYEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Venom screamed, unable to tolerate the sonic blasts being trained on him. To Spider-Man's relief, the symbiote began to slowly separate from Gargan.
"Stop, please stop!" Gargan shouted. "The pain… Oh, the pain!"
Serves you right for hurting my friends and family, Spider-Man thought, never ceasing his attack until the symbiote was completely off of Gargan, who was now out cold. Once the sonics were turned off, he noticed that the building they were in was creaking rather loudly and that plaster was falling from the ceiling. The walls began to shake and then part of the ceiling came crashing down.
"I guess it's time we got out of here," Spider-Man said as he slung Gargan over his shoulder and exited the building. Unbeknownst to the wallcrawler, a small part of the symbiote attached itself to Gargan's foot.
Once outside and a safe distance away, Spider-Man placed Gargan on the ground just as the building collapsed completely.
"I guess that's one less building the city needs to worry about," Spider-Man remarked, watching the dust rise from what was left of the foundation.
"But you still have to worry about us," a revived Venom said, standing behind Spider-Man.
Spider-Man turned around and was sent flying by a fist to the jaw. Twisting in midair, Spider-Man tried to use the sonics in the waldoes again… they fired a short burst… but then fizzled out as he landed on the ground a few feet from Venom. Did they overload? Damn, there wasn't time to field-test the things…
Now, what? Peter thought, as Venom once again advanced on him. And where the heck is Felicia? I could really use her help right now… But both of their heads turned quickly as a piercing scream rang out a block or so away.
