Avenging Justice 2:
Caught Between an Ultron and a Doomsday
Part XXXIV
Earth, New York, New York City
Spider-Man was searching for the perfect spot. Web slinging through the high rises and huge buildings was quicker than running across the streets, or taking the subway. It was also one of the many perks of being Spider-Man, which came with a laundry list of cons too. However, that led to needing a place to change. Aunt May would be meeting up with him for dinner. He couldn't show up in the red and blue, she didn't need to worry about him more than she did.
He found a small spot and leapt down towards it. Thanks to his powers, what would have caused an injury in a normal person, did nothing to him. He'd land, change quickly and make his way down to street level. Then there was checking on his account, making sure there was enough for rent. Maybe after that, he'd have enough for food, webbing supplies, and if he was lucky, a lottery ticket. That was if the famous Parker luck didn't trash his chances.
What he wasn't expecting was the sudden lateral movement, but he reacted before his mind registered. Shooting out a web, he pulled himself into a new trajectory, just in time to see a black shape in his peripheral vision. Letting go of his current, strand, he sent another out, and then yanked it hard.
Barely making contact before the hard yank, the webbing strand attached to the roof just in time. Rolling into a ball, Spider-Man impacted with the roof and sprang back up, just over him the large black shape landed where he would have been. Just as quickly the huge goliath leapt back and straight at the wall crawler.
Spider-Man felt fear stab into his guts, his Spider-Sense wasn't going off. He just managed to get out of the way, as a massive fist cratered the rooftop he was on. There were no warnings, his sense had never failed him. It had given him the preternatural ability to dodge most attacks coming his way. Yet, whatever this thing was, there was nothing. How had this happened?
"Surprise, Spider-Man!" the huge figure growled as it stood up, giving Spider-Man a visage to haunt his nightmares. "It is time for you to die."
About as big and tall as the Rhino, this new threat wore all black and had a huge maw of spikey teeth. Then there was the slimy, disgusting tongue, slithering out and the swept up eyes. They looked like a more vicious version of his mask's eyes, and already his mind was putting the pieces together. What really got him, was the stylized white spider on the chest and back of the new attacker. He recognized that, and he knew he'd be late meeting Aunt May.
Venom lashed out with his clawed hands, and when that missed, shot out his own "webbing." He caught Spider-Man, and then he yanked the hated enemy's legs out from under him. Impressively, the Spider caught himself, and vaulted up on just upper body strength. Little that did, as he was still caught. Venom reacted, and pulled, bringing Spider-Man towards him. He lashed out, and felt impact. He realized it was glancing, but the grunt of pain from Spider-Man made it worth it.
"Jameson is right, you are a menace," growled Venom. He yanked Spider-Man forward again, only for the wall crawler to finally break the webbing. "You hurt the innocent, we protect them!"
"Listen, Big, Dark and Ugly, This isn't really a good time for me, can we reschedule this for tomorrow after never?" Spider-Man quipped.
As if to answer his question, a large air conditioning unit came flying at his head. He easily dodged that one, and winced as he thought about the poor people inside looking their air. That lasted just long enough for one of Venom's fists to smash into his ribs, and Spider-Man yelped in pain. Reflexively, he thrust back, and hit the bigger thing. Only, its tongue came up, licked the spot and smiled bigger.
The next blow sent Spider-Man rocketing off the rooftop and over two more. He landed with a hard thump, and only his adrenaline got him up in time. A massive black foot slammed down, and he did the first reflexive thing he could. Spider-Man shot out two globs of webbing into the face of his attacker, only for his blood to run cold. Without missing a beat, Venom launched out a front stomp kick. Spidey found himself crashing over the brick ledge and falling.
Before he could even put a web line out, Venom crashed into him, and then them both into the next building's outer wall. Spider-Man was pushing past the pain, forcing his lungs to draw in air, and thus the next few hits came without warning. Thankfully, being in spots like this before, his body had developed a pretty good reflex. Taking all his might, he rammed his right hand into the thing's maw and that sent Venom flying off of him.
Not wasting time, he leapt off and made distance. He didn't have long as Venom was right on his tail. Changing direction, he sent himself hurtling down an alleyway, before leaping up, and through a hidden opening. Venom followed, but was a half second behind him. Again, he did this around another building, despite his ribs and bruised body's protests. Once more, Venom was just slightly behind him.
At the next hidden corner, Spider-Man turned and waited. Just as Venom rounded, he unleashed a savage mule kick and sent the bigger into the sky. Taking the initiative, Spider-Man found a small undetectable corner and hid. He needed to think, strategize and see how badly hurt he was. He knew that this thing had to be stopped, but he'd taken a beating in a short amount of time.
"Now, now, Spider-Man, don't be shy," Venom landed just feet from where Spider-Man was hidden. "We can find you, we know all your secrets. There is no place you can hide, Parker." Spider-Man nearly fell from where he was stuck to the underside of the raised bird coop. "We wanted to make the world better, but you rejected us. We wanted to expose evil doers, but you got us fired!" Venom continued. "You are an obstacle to justice, and we're the ones to stop you."
Spider-Man's head was spinning, but the pieces were coming together in his mind. He had gone back looking for the black good, with his good thermos to put it in. However, he hadn't found it, and had hoped it was gone for good. However, the Parker luck was in full effect. It had bonded with someone else, this alien goo. The remark about getting them fired, that struck Peter as close. He had an idea, but unfortunately it would be extremely dangerous to test it out. Then again, being Spider-Man was extremely dangerous, so what was new?
"Brock, Eddie Brock, is that you?" Spider-Man asked as he came out, webbing Venom's feet to the roof. "You've got to get that off of you, it's dangerous!"
Venom lunged, but found their feet secured. With a quick swipe of their claws, they were freed and going after the hated spider. He was keeping his distance, and doing a fair job of dodging them. He was hurt though, and he'd tired soon. Then they'd eat his spleen for what he'd done to them. Their hatred blinded them as he led them to the street level. They landed hard, just as he busted in a nearby car window.
That was when Venom screamed in pain as the loud car alarm blasted their ears. Punching through the hood, they ripped the battery out, and the vile noise was gone. Turning, their mouth open, dagger teeth showing, they saw Spider-Man on a nearby light pole with several strands of webbing. A millisecond was all it took for the danger to become apparent, but he reacted before they could.
Spider-Man quickly pulled up and let go of his webbing. While Venom had been distracted with the first car, he had webbed up strands to the others parked on both sides of the street. Now, they all were quickly pulled up and fell, causing motion sensors and other sensors inside to trigger more of the car alarms. The sonic sound was enough to make him wish he'd though of something else, or that he couldn't hear.
For Venom, it was worse. The Symbiote and man pulled at the side of their head, where his ears were. Ripples wound through Venom, oddly taking the shape of the sound waves from the alarm systems. Blindly, they attacked the nearest call, but never touched the metal of the car. Instead, they found themselves body slammed to the ground.
Spider-Man launched up into the air, coming back down hard onto them. Immediately he started punching, and ripping where he could. Pieces of the Symbiote were thrown off, as he fought and dug Eddie Brock out of the alien suit. Meanwhile New Yorkers watched the battle, some even pulling out their phones to record. Spider-Man didn't have time though to worry about that, or how Jameson was going to use this against him. He needed to save Brock and end this alien threat.
Venom threw out a wild punch, and sent Spider-Man away, immediately they began to escape. They needed to regroup, and come back at the Web Crawler another way. He was a tricky target, and if he hadn't cheated, they would have had him! However, the other was too weak, still reeling from the sonic assault. They'd come back for him, and then the world would be down one menace, with many more to go.
What really surprised them, was being thrown into a nearby church belltower. They thrust out their clawed hands, felt them tear through something and a grunt of pain. Then came more pain to them, as the bell began ringing incessantly. Venom sent out several tendrils to stop it, but only managed to change the tempo and cause it to ring even more. In great pain, they launched and aimed at the source of their torture.
Hitting hard, they felt a shift and the bell temporarily stopped ringing, before it began to fall. Hurt, in pain, Venom leapt off. They collapsed in a heap, shivering and groaning. Eddie forcing himself up, and scooping up the pooling form of his other. He saw Spider-Man land and instantly forced himself to ready for a fight. However, instead Spider-Man shot out several strands of webbing and latched onto something below him.
Knowing this was their chance, Venom weakly made their way behind him, and raised their clawed hands. All was fair in love and war, and he was attempting to get the bell back up, to hurt them. He should have run, gotten away. They could appreciate the bravery, but this was the false machismo of a false hero. One who would kill, hurt, lie to be lauded by the masses. Only they knew the truth, and it was time to end this!
"Spider-Man! Watch out, behind you!" Venom heard a child say below.
He looked and several school children were being evacuated as Spider-Man held the bell aloft over them. Venom instantly went to Spider-Man being responsible for this, but then they remembered, he hadn't broken the bell. They had, trying to stop the noise, to stop the pain. They didn't know the children were below, they were protectors. To put children in danger would be inconceivable.
"At least wait for the kids to get out," Spider-Man managed to say between gritted teeth. "Then you can do whatever you want, I won't be in a position to fight back."
Venom growled, "We protect the innocent, from the guilty!"
They shot out their own webbing and started to pull up the bell. Every so often the bell would ring, but between the two of them, they got it back up and secured with minimal ringing. Spider-Man fell back, and Venom could see the torn suit, the blood, but also that the cursed Spider was at his mercy. However, he had protected the innocent, knowing Venom could have killed him. Why, was this a trick? They needed to think.
"This isn't over, Spider-Man," Venom said as he leapt out into the New York skyline.
Despite himself, Spider-Man managed, "Oh Goody! Just what a guy needs, a stalker alien. I have all the luck."