Age Of Carnage

Chapter 9


The Phantom wasn't popular in any sort of thing, hero or villain; in fact, he was nothing.

And that was fine to him. Sure, he wanted fame, money, and women, but he had to give it to his friend, risking your life for people that don't care about you seemed selfless, and Phantom was beyond that, he was selfish.

However, Carnage had caught his attention. Like himself, the Symbiote vigilante had eluded the Justice League quite a bit. However, a clear difference between Carnage and himself was, that Phantom had to be discrete about things, while Carnage didn't care and left blood trails and intestines out for all to see. It only left one emotion within him.

Immense jealousy

Phantom's cloak billowed in the night wind, it was peaceful out right now. Like it should always be. The moment heroes came into the picture, more and more people got hurt and better yet, died. Phantom was no longer the oblivious kid he was, no, he was better than that. He now knew that the world needed a drastic change.

But he didn't have the guts to change it.

He was just a vigilante, doing what needed to be done, but he felt like this wasn't enough. So now Phantom cleans up the mess behind Carnage without the Symbiote's knowledge. He was Carnage's shadow.

Currently, Phantom was tracking the Queen Of Spades, a member of the Royal Flush Gang. They weren't anything special, just a couple of thieves that have some high-tech weaponry. Phantom had tracked the Queen to a warehouse, one of the Black Masks' warehouses to be exact, which didn't surprise Phantom, the man did hire the gang after all.

Phantom didn't understand what Black Mask was planning, Black Mask didn't seem like the type to plan out something so distinctive, Phantom thought he was more like a brawn...almost trigger-happy guy, not the secretive, eluding man.

Phantom dipped himself into his shadow and began to travel to the warehouse, taking no longer than a few seconds to get from point A to Point B. As long as there was a shadow, he could always travel to it, of course, a major drawback was the fact that if there were no shadows present or if the target is in another dimension or continent.

Phantom looked at the warehouse, and to the sides. It seemed like it wasn't guarded, which told Phantom that this was one of those fake warehouses to cover up the real business. Phantom grinned from ear to ear as he walked silently into the open warehouse. He quickly moved behind a large rack to cover his presence. Poking an eye out, Phantom saw the Queen with someone else, most likely another member of the gang.

"Jack! You're the reason we failed!"

"What? Don't blame me, you're the one who said stay behind!" Jack fended as he felt like he wasn't to blame for the group's major loss.

Phantom snickered, so that was Jack of Spades, honestly, the gambling card motif is slightly overboard. They made sure not to fit in with the crowd.

Phantom wasn't here to gawk.

"I don't see the others with you, did you leave them behind?"

"Of course, I left them behind, Carnage is a monster!" Queen said with a slight amount of fear dripping in her voice. The way Carnage easily tore through Ace, their well-built android, and the way his teeth gnashed and his large, pale white eyes moved, she was so grossed out by them.

Jack threw his hands up in annoyance. "How're we supposed to tell Black Mask? He paid us handsomely to capture Carnage."

"I don't care! I just want to go home and sleep."

Phantom crept up behind the Queen and quickly grabbed her by the neck. Jack's eyes widened as he saw Phantom standing behind the Queen, his grip was firm on her neck.

"W-Who are you! A partner of Carnage perhaps?" Jack stuttered, he was affrighted by Phantom's presence. He didn't even see Phantom walk up!

"You can say that, but you can call me Phantom and I've come to kill this lady here," Phantom voiced in an echo as he tightened the grip on the Queen's neck. The Queen's face scrunched as she felt her neck veins move uncomfortably.

Jack eyed Phantom, hoping to find some sort of lies within the words he spewed, but he didn't, not a shed of a joke. The gravity of the situation caused Jack's legs to begin to tremble at the sight of Phantom's clear white eyes, it was like staring into the void, full of nothingness. How can anyone have such soulless eyes?

"W-We can strike a deal…no need to kill her," Jack said with quaking lips.

Phantom began to hum. He felt like he should indulge. "What do you have in mind, Jack," Phantom said as he used his free hand to create a pitch-black blade.

Jack didn't have his weapon with him at this moment, he was completely helpless here. Maybe his deal could save the life of the Queen, although he didn't have anything useful to give. Maybe a bargain?

Yeah, maybe that'll work!

"I don't have anything to give you…yet."

"I see," Phantom said. There was no sound of disappointment in his tone.

Jack watched as Phantom brought the blade to the Queen's neck and he quickly brought up his hands to stop Phantom. "WAIT!"

"You said you didn't have anything to offer, why should I wait? Are you stalling?" Phantom's voice began to echo, with a bit more exasperation.

"How about you join us! We could supply you with high-tech weaponry, money, you name it!"

Phantom narrowed his pupilless eyes and frowned. "You think you can coarse me? You're a bunch of thieves, you don't have a steady flow of income, you steal to make a living, your weapons, however, are unique, but as you can see, I can create all my weapons with my Meta powers."

Jack's arms flopped back to the sides and his head dropped. He didn't have anything else to bribe with, he could only grind his teeth, making a nasty sound as he did. "Then kill her, get it over with."

"YOU BASTARD! I'M THE REASON YOU'RE HERE!" The Queen shouted.

Phantom clicked his teeth and threw the Queen into Jack. "It seems I did more than I hoped."

The Queen quickly got off of Jack and went to strike Phantom, but her body completely phased threw Phantom. "What the hell?" The Queen turned her head, her eyes met Phantom's for the first time and the sight of nothingness sent a shiver threw her spine.

"Originally, I was going to kill you, Queen Of Spades, but seeing as how you saw Jack's ultimate choice, I think I did enough to cause a dent in your group. As you can tell, Jack doesn't care about you if he ran out of options so fast."

"You did all this because…you want us to disband?" Jack said as he fell onto the ground.

"You're not exactly the best group out here in the world. Sure, you may have defeated some League members, but that doesn't make you strong if your victories are inconsistent," Phantom said with a catatonic stare. "However, you did bring up a great deal."

"W-Which?"

"Money…you see, money is the root of all things in our world, that's why I'm here to offer you a deal, Royal Flush Gang."

The Queen nodded her head, signaling for Phantom to continue. "You see, I'm nothing more than a Phantom, and I can't do much during the day, so I need a group able to handle the work that needs to be done during the day."

"Your Meta powers don't work during the day?"

"More like it's restricted, but yes."

"Why're you telling us?"

Phantom smiled at the Queen's uncertainty. "Because I believe trust is the key to the future, human nature is based on trust. So, what do you say…do we have a deal?"

Queen and Jack looked at each other before nodding their heads. This caused Phantom to smile, one that would put the Joker to shame.

"Good."


Darius made it to his house about an hour after his little scuffle with the Royal Flush Gang. Darius didn't expect to learn that Black Mask was the reason for them going after him, but at the same time, he couldn't be too surprised, he's been messing with the Crime Lords' operations ever since he started protecting his turf more seriously. Despite all that, Darius had never run across any major problems.

And by problems, he means the Justice League.

Sure, what he was doing was aligned with heroism, but he sometimes didn't agree with the Justice League. Realistically, getting rid of the problem at the root is more beneficial, it was obvious the justice system is flawed. You have literal maniacs getting out of jail every other week and stirring up more problems and damage.

Darius partly blamed the heroes for the reason villains exist. Darius did some research and found out villains like Livewire were the product of a hero's carelessness. Superman is nothing more than a bad link in society for all he's worth. Humans have grown accustomed to a hero society so much so that kids were out and about getting themselves killed because they think they can do the things their favorite heroes could do.

It wasn't that easy.

Darius made sure to get that through to Wade's head. However, Darius knew his friend was hardheaded and ambitious, and a mix of that was bound to have results. Darius just hoped his friend was safe.

Darius took off his tracksuit, which left him in his boxers. Darius' body was chiseled and ripped, however, he was still slim. His face was carved into a perfect shape, it wasn't round nor oval, it was just right. Darius moved his head in a circular motion and cracked his neck. Darius used a tendril to place the Amulet on the kitchen counter.

He was home. Every day he prayed he could say that, because he knew what he was doing was reckless and almost inhumane. Darius shot another tendril to the remote on his bed and turned on the TV.

Darius flipped through the channel until he hit Syfy. He didn't have anything else to watch, he already knew the news would talk about the heroes and how they stopped the villains.

It was galling to hear about it every day.

Darius ran to the shower, he didn't have the luxury to be up all night, he needed to meet his client tomorrow.


"So you up and left us behind to rot? Why should I not hurt you where you stand?" The calm yet clearly displeased voice came from King, who was tapping his shoes at a rapid pace as he stared at the Queen. Beside him was Ten and the trashed Ace.

Queen slanted her eyes. "I have my own life to worry about as well, fool. I wasn't the one who charged in recklessly at that monster."

"Fool? You bitch, I'm the king!" Jack cackled, getting King's attention. King turned to look at Jack. "What're you laughing at?"

Jack continued to chuckle for a few minutes, before stopping as his face went stern. "You're no longer the King."

King blinked before bringing a hand to his chest and laughing, throwing his head back. "And you think you're qualified? You're an idiot."

Ten just blinked uncaringly at the subject between the two idiots, in her opinion. Her mind drifted somewhere else, and that was to Carnage. It wasn't the love type of drift, but one out of immense curiosity and wonderment. She'll have to stick around New York City more to sate her curiosity about the vigilante.

"What a big happy family you all are," A voice echoed throughout the Warehouse.

King and Ten both went on alert, but Queen and Jack stood there unbothered by the voice.

"So, you're King," The voice whispered into King's ears getting King to run forward and turn with his scepter in hand.

"Who the fuck is there!"

The shadows began to move before leaving the floor and swirling in the air. King and Ten just looked at the moving shadows with wide eyes.

"My name is Phantom," Phantom appeared as the shadows solidified. "I'm here to take your spot. You've led this group to nothing but dust and dirt. Everyone laughs at you now."

"W-Who do you think you are?" King stammered. "I won't tolerate this!"

King shot a blast out of his scepter at Phantom, but the blast went through Phantom. King's eyes stretched as he was startled that his attack didn't do a thing to Phantom.

"Brash, hasty, and an idiot. Those are qualities an egotistical King has, and that's why I'm here to set this group free from your shackles. I'm willing to let you leave with your pride, or you can die because of it, you have those two options."

The rest of the Royal Flush Gang regrouped behind Phantom, completely leaving King alone.

"You all would betray me!" King said to them, but they didn't answer him.

Phantom beamed a conquering smirk. "It seems the people have given us their votes. You're hereby just another man to live amongst the weak."


END

Short, but I wanted this to be a more Phantom/Wade-focused chapter. Phantom has plans and taking over the Royal Flush Gang is just a small piece of that. The next few chapters will be focused on Phantom. If anyone is wondering if this story takes place in any sort of timeline, not really, however, some stuff from the comics I took inspiration from but the story is completely original. I know a LOT of people on here have that itch for a story that follows canon, and I'm here to tell you, that this isn't that story.

The Royal Flush Gang looks like their Justice League: Doom designs while Ten is Wanda Wayland (Her old Comic look)

Now, before I get into anything else, let me answer these three reviews.

Guest - Well, I assume you read the title of this story, it's more focused on Carnage than Venom. Venom is in the story but he hasn't made his debut just yet. Soon he will.

Jimmybob2 - It's not a Harem anymore, I'll go back and re-edit chapters stating that. I do agree some of them are cringe, only because the writer hasn't fleshed out the characters imo, a harem could work but for the sake of MY story, I decided to cut that out. Also, several good stories have Supergirl paired with an Anti-Hero OC, etc. Again, counts on the writer, this is fanfiction, after all. loosen up.

Death Fury - Thanks for being a recurring reader/reviewer, glad you enjoyed the chapter and I hoped you enjoyed this chapter.

Once again, I welcome all reviews, since that just shows me people reading a chapter of the story. Even if they're negative.

The final pairing is strictly Darius x Karen Starr/Power Girl and for Wade/Phantom, I'm still managing that, but I'm open to suggestions.

With that, all done, leave a review!