In Which We Have an Unexpected Guest
Catherine always imagined her patience as a scalpel.
Modern scalpels looked like box cutters so she liked to imagine the classic 440c stainless steel scalpel. The one you see in movies.
That piece of metal was one solid cast. It was silver, thin, strong, and in the right hands, could be used effectively. Her patience was that tool. She could use to help the people. Sometimes Tony Stark would do his best to bend it but a scalpel barely changed under pressure. It felt cold to the touch and solid in the palm.
It had a job.
Catherine's heart pounded in her chest. Adrenaline ran high in her from Peter rolling in on her living room floor. Her body shook. The edges of the room spun.
Catherine wouldn't have called it shock. It was too far gone for that. She was spinning in space, untethered. Frustration and anger ran through her The black thing rose to its feet in her living room almost brushing the ceiling. Lights shimmered off its skin and the jaw moved, the teeth grinding as it watched her.
Her scalpel bent in her mind. She had been trying so hard to keep everything under control. This was the result?
There was nothing like it. Wearily her mind could identify parts, a pectoral or an anterior tibial muscle flaring under the skin. A white spider was tattooed across its chest in a strange parody. Veins were close to the surface, rolling with white blood inside.
Finger joints crackled as it flexed under her unhinged stare.
Then she remembered that Peter was in that thing. That thought yanked against her, snagging and grounding her.
"Well?" The thing, Venom, growled, "I hider the child's healing, we need outside assistance. I can stop the damage but not repair it yet."
After everything, after the fights, the stress, the sleepless nights, and the pool of blood at her feet now, she felt that scalpel snap.
Three things occurred in quick succession. Catherine pressed the panic button on her watch. She rose to her feet from the crouch and with all her strength, she socked the monster in the face with every ounce of her anger.
The impact almost drove her back and her hand flashed with pain and went numb. She didn't have a moment to think logically. Catherine didn't expect it to work but it happened before she had a chance to think it through. Venom stumbled, not ready for the blow. Then it slipped on the blood on the floor and fell hard against the wood paneling.
"Get the hell out of Peter," she heard herself yell.
This kid had gone through enough. This was utter bullshit.
It didn't say anything. The fall had stunned it. A long tongue curled uselessly outside its mouth.
Her phone was ringing across the room. Probably Tony or FRIDAY responding to her call.
Her brain was moving quick now. She had to extract him.
The thing wasn't going to be down for long. Catherine went to her kitchen. All her joints felt uncoordinated. Catherine slammed against her counter, going too fast for her own good. She grasped the decorative pan that she never used on her stove and pulled the largest knife from her block.
If she was right, Peter was in the main chest cavity. If physics were still true.
The phone started ringing again.
"Just get here Tony," she shouted as she knelt down next to the giant body. "I'm out of my league."
That didn't stop the ringing but it made her feel better.
She put the knife aside and took the pan in both hands. She could do this.
She slammed the saute pan hard against the thing's gruesome face trying to hit what might be a temple. Even if she hit Peter, which she wasn't really thinking about, it wouldn't kill him. The steel smacked down and the head rolled, eyes still torn slits. The pan jumped out of her hand and clattered to the floor. Her fingers stung.
It was truly out for the count now.
The phone finally died.
"Okay. Okay. Okay." She muttered as she took up the steel shook wildly. She took deep breaths, calming herself down. Do the next thing. She could panic later.
Venom was huge, impossibly as large as her old dining room table and even unconscious the danger leaked off of it. Peter could be be suffocating inside. The hilt of the knife was slippery in her hand and she hovered over the thing's chest. The edge moved to the side for a parallel cut. Then it moved again, back to the original spot.
This was nuts.
Catherine rubbed her face with her arm. A claw twitched reflexively. She needed to guess the depth into the cavity and then what? Rip Peter out? She was a nurse practitioner not a surgeon. There was no general anesthesia, no clamps, no retractors. She was holding a kitchen knife for god's sake.
It was too late. Glossy eyes snapped open. Its arm moved and clamped around her throat in one slick motion. The knife fell from her hand as her toes left the ground.
"Betrayal by kitchen utensils," It hissed, drool coming down the sharp chin. "I told you that humans are not to be trusted."
She clutched the arm as her apartment lowered around her. Her mouth moved to form words but nothing came out. Her throat was crushed in the grip. Her feet kicked out towards Venom but she couldn't reach. She wanted to be brave and hang resolutely but it wasn't coming out now. All that was left was the hand around her throat and the air caught in her lungs. She choked and struggled.
"I saw no fear." It muttered to itself as it peered closer. The breath was icy cold against her face. She dug her nails into the damp flesh.
"Peter-" She sputtered and then the fingers tightened even harder. Black spots dotted the corners of her vision.
"Shhhhhh…" Venom's teeth clicked only inches away from her. "I'm trying to convince the child to let me eat you. Exclaiming is not helpful."
Catherine flexed her neck as much as she could and spat out. "Peter!"
Her spine creaked and stretched. Her hips swung making the pain even sharper.
The aggression twisted on Venom's face, changing to a softer anger. Her eyes dipped. The arm slipped from her blurred. A sigh of disappointment came from the monster. Another hand gripped her shirt before letting her neck go. Cold air jolted down her system. She curled forward around the claws, needing to hold onto something, and almost coughed up her dinner.
"The child says you will still help."
She looked up it. Her eyes were smarting and tears ran down her cheeks. After all of this? She was supposed to help this monster?
It lowered her slowly until her toes touched the ground again. Her feet flattened the ground but she wasn't able to stand. Her head was still spinning as she clutched the only solid thing in her grasp.
The fingers were still held tight to her shirt. In several places, they had busted through and she could feel the digits drag moisture against her collarbone. Her heart was right there. One stray movement and she was sure it could puncture the organ.
Venom was relaxed, teeth lost in its mouth as it studied at her. Air moved roughly through her throat as she leaned against her support. Without it, she may have fallen over.
"Well? Will you help?" It asked slowly and deliberately.
She stared blankly at the symbol on its chest. Peter was in there somewhere. He wasn't lost. This thing would have killed her already if that was the case.
"I'll help him." The words felt raw and she tasted blood.
The fingers loosened but did not let go. "You will help us."
"I will-"
The window shattered and a beam of light sliced neatly through the arm holding her. They fell together with a wet slap to the ground. She gasped as the weight of the hand hit her straight on.
Iron Man flew in. The jets immediately burning into the floor.
"I didn't know you were practicing this sort of medicine doctor," Tony said as he warmed up for another shot. Venom screamed and was rounding on the new opponent. The arm was growing back, the mass liquefying up the stump.
"Tony, don't shoot to kill. Peter is in there." Catherine used the last of the air in her lungs compressing her diaphragm completely. The room spun again.
The Iron Man mask tilted. "What now?"
Venom took that opportunity to jump forward and slammed the entirety of its mass into the suit. She heard Stark yell and then they were falling back, busting through her drywall and into her bedroom. Her arms were shaky as she started to try to get to her feet. The wood floor met her as she fell back down.
Then she saw the separated arm start to loose definition next to her. It melted into a black mass. She was hallucinating. She had to be. The black goo rolled over itself, reaching forward with tendrils and pulling itself towards Venom. The floor shook as the fight increased in front of her. The black slime started to gain momentum and then a piece of it swerved, ripped off and threw itself at her.
Catherine barely stumbled out of the way.
It splatted against her wall, flattening with the force but then started to build towards another attack like an animal without bones.
She swallowed, her hair falling in front of her face as she turned towards it. Again it attacked and she dodged it. It was a blob on her floor, regrouping. Grasping her abandoned pan, she clapped it down over the thing. It thunked against it. Her hair fell over her face. Something cold dripped down her neck. She was bleeding.
Iron Man and Venom rolled back into her destroyed living room. Somebody was banging at the door. This should be a dream.
"Did I hear you right?" Stark blasted the monster into her kitchen cabinets. "Peter Parker is in there?"
It screamed at them, teeth flashing and spit flying in broken lights. Her bag of cheat potato chips exploded. Pieces of Lays were all over the floor.
"Use that big brain and look at its chest," She yelled and held down the pan. It was banging against the metal now violently.
Iron Man shrugged. "I mean, I thought it was just a charlatan or a fan boy?"
Venom ripped her fridge off the wall and threw it at him. It didn't land. Instead the fridge planted fully into her TV. Iron Man grunted noncommittally and then the black thing ran at him again. They disappeared back into the rubble of her apartment.
The larger goo had paused in its crawl back to Venom. It was twisted comically as it had just seen her.
Shit.
It started towards her with frantic yanks. The mass left a wet trail like a snail. She looked for the knife. It was across the room. If she moved, the thing underneath would get loose and then everything would be even worse. It gained momentum and then exploded into fiery strings.
Tony burned it to pieces right before it made it to her. The suit hummed and clicked mechanically. Dust filled the air. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Venom, Peter, the thing, whatever it was, bust through the remaining glass and wall and fall out the window.
A web shot out of its arm and it disappeared from view.
They looked at each other for a moment. Catherine tried to process. The pieces were all there but none of them fit together. Her apartment had disappeared. She didn't recognized the space anymore. It was a good thing she never decorated.
The thing thunked under her pan.
Iron Man's head cocked and he pointed at her chest. "You okay there doc?"
She fell back and glanced down. Her shirt was covered in blood. The adrenaline was covering it up. Her fingers groped for the wounds. She found a set of lacerations streaking across her collarbone.
"Just a scratch." It came out as a whisper between her swallowing air.
Tony put his foot on the skittering pot. "Good. We can't have you die right now. The tracker is still working on Spider-Man's suit so FRIDAY will keep an eye on that McDonald's ripoff toy. You've got some explaining to do."
She wasn't listening. he apartment was destroyed, wholly and completely. Part of her realized it. The other part still thought it was a dream, a strange illusion. The loss seeped in her.
She got up and stumbled across the burnt, broken and destroyed place that she called home for a couple months. The coffee table was gone, the couch in two pieces but her wine bottle was somewhat intact. She pulled it off the floor, dusted it off and took a long drink directly from the bottle.
"Okay. Listen up then."
Is it particularly morbid to say that I enjoyed writing this chapter? I've building towards the Venom "reveal" since the beginning and to actually get to play with that character is so fun. Plus action scenes are hard for me but I'm (usually) happy with them in the end.
As for Venom himself, I know there is probably a little confusion on which Venom I'm drawing on. Let's just say it is a combo of 2007's and the Sony's for now.
I'm so thankful that the holidays are over. I've finally been able to write again. It feels so good.
So. What do you think of all this tomfoolery? Leave me a review if you want. I love to hear from you. It truly makes my day.
Thank you for reading as always. -Quin