In Which Chaos Ensues

"So the kid is on the run, high on this baloney." Tony stared at the black mass writhing in the container in his lab. Catherine could see him trying to find a way to sear this thing off the face of the planet. Knowing the man, he was coming up with some very scientific and satisfying ways.

Venom had retreated into the sewers and stayed there. Since it was better to know what they were up against, they had left him there with FRIDAY ready to tell them if it made any locational changes. It felt like a mockery to see the Spider-Man symbol in the city on the screen.

The dark circles under Tony's eyes were purple in the light. Hers weren't looking any better. Last time she checked, it was nearing four in the morning.

After arriving in the lab, Tony insisted that Catherine sleep for "his sanity" as they waited for test results. She wasn't sure why. She had only been loudly trying to figure out the parasitic and anatomical nature of Venom.

Catherine fought him all the way as he convinced her to look at the room he called the "crash pad."

It was certainly utilitarian, just a bed, a light and a mini fridge. Somehow it looked better than any bed she had ever seen. He had left with the strict instructions to page if anything came in. Her alarm woke her up just after her head hit the pillow. The sleep had been desperately deep. It almost reminded her of her ER days.

Now she was up again with a steaming cup of coffee and a sassy attitude.

Catherine took another drink of her coffee. "Can we not blame Peter? It called itself Venom."

"Venom?" He squinted at her.

"Venom."

The test results were displayed holographically in front of them and neither one of them liked what they saw.

He pulled up the chemical structure of the thing, blowing it up. "What kinda dumb name is that?"

"You are one to talk." She laughed shortly before his stare cut her short.

"Excuse me?"

She waved the coffee. "Iron Man. You were named after the substance that you created your first suit out of. It's not even iron anymore, is it? Didn't you say you were moving towards titanium nano-pieces or something?"

"Smart gold-titanium nano-particles but it doesn't matter," he sputtered, "plus the media did that. I didn't."

"So 'I am Iron Man' means nothing to you?"

That got him to take a step back, annoyed completely. "I don't have time for this. I have a engagement party I need to stress over. Not this."

"Right."

Tony minimized the information. "Okay. Look. From that blood test you did, Peter got…Venom right after busting out of that lab. You were saying it developed in him?"

"It started out as microorganism and read like the flu. It probably needed time to grow. It's why we've seen a behavior change in the kid lately. Now…well, it's a bouncing baby boy or something."

Something. She wanted to be more scientific but acknowledging that Peter had been infected by an alien substance was harder than she ever wanted to admit. She couldn't address her personal feelings. All she could concentrate on was what to do next.

They both stared at another screen across the room. The map of NYC showed the dot hovering in the sewers.

"We were supposed to go cake tasting today. Pepper is going to kill me." The statement was soft afterthought out of Tony.

Catherine wanted to say that he'd done worse but she was already pushing her luck. Instead she took another chug of her coffee. The bandage flexed against her neck. That thing had almost strangled her and then punctured a lung. Now she was going to see it again soon.

"Any calls from the aunt yet?"

Catherine shook her head. "No but I expect that'll happen soon. Venom is starting to hit the news. A 'Spider-Man look-a-like' they are saying."

"That's cute."

"Adorable." The coffee was just as strong as their sarcasm.

"Sir." FRIDAY lit up part of the map. "I wanted to inform you that four large black vans have exited the Intervention of Ecology center. They appear be sweeping the city."

Tony smiled at her. "Let's get going and pick up the kid. We'll figure out to extract it later."

She lifted her mug in a mock salute.

Catherine held her breath as she turned around the corner and into the alleyway. Red light streaked across the bricks in small lines. The sun started to rise about an hour ago. Dead leaves crunched under her shoes. She risked a glance upwards. The Iron Man suit peaked over the edge of the nearest roof. She adjusted her ear piece. It was only in case of emergencies. Venom or Peter or both would be able to hear the chatter.

They were trying to make this easy. They both said that this was going to be easy. She swallowed but her throat was dry. This was nowhere near easy.

"Peter?"

The tracker had lead them here. Peter hadn't moved for the last half an hour. It appeared as if he was skittering between hiding places as the IE swept the area. Her shoes pushed against trash as she walked around a row of dumpsters. It had be Stark's brilliant idea that since Peter clearly tried to keep the monster from eating her, it might pause before attacking.

The pause would be enough for Iron Man to sneak behind and blast the big fellow with enough electricity to knock it out. If it was just Peter, she would try to reason with him.

"Peter?" She looked behind the dumpsters.

Peter looked up from his seat against the wall.

His asked quietly, "Ms. Catherine?"

He looked awful. His eyes were red rimmed. Dirt and blood were smudged all over his face. Worse of all, he seemed unsure of her, as if he couldn't quite see that she was there. The fabric against his stomach looked stiff and black was flaking off of it. She had to use all her will power to drag her eyes away from that wound.

She paused, not wanting to scare him. "Hey. It's just me."

He watched her hands as she brought them up between them.

"I don't know what's happening, Ms. Catherine." He clutched his head. "It's so confusing."

She walked a few steps forward. "I know but I'm here. I'm going to help you."

Part of her wanted to look up. To see Tony creeping closer to both of them. It made her anxious. Surely since Venom was at bay, he wouldn't electrocute Peter.

"Do you know what's happening? Do you know why I'm here?" His voice cracked on the last question.

She crouched down in front of him. She looked at his face. Peter was lost, so incredibly lost that he had stopped looking for answers. She filled herself with confidence and tried to give that over to him. She knew what she was doing. He was going to be okay. Catherine, the nurse practitioner, was going to help. She had to.

"You don't remember?"

He opened his mouth and an empty sound came out. Peter searched her face for answers and she couldn't force a smile on her face. It was too much. Instead, she reached out and grasped his hand. His fingers remained limp and then they took hold of hers.

"I need you to come with me, kid. I can explain some of it on the way," she said the words as gently as she could, "does that make sense?"

She could see him about to say yes. The word was on the tip of his tongue and then fear took over his face as he turned violently upwards. Blackness swallowed the hand and the kid that she had been holding. Iron Man dropped directly on the writhing mass that was Venom.

"Tony!" She screamed as they interlocked again, smashing into the bricks to the right and left of her. She ran from the violence. It was over. A piece of a building few over her shoulder. She pushed down the yell of frustration . She had been so close. Tony had to go and ruin it.

She barely got out of the way as Venom was catapulted out of the alley, smashing into three cars before pulling himself to a halt. The police sirens started droning off in the distance. She plastered herself against a window as Iron Man took aim and fired.

The car burst into flame but Venom was already gone, screaming angrily as it wheeled away down the street.

A van blared its horn as it drove directly into the monster. The steel and the black curled around each other, crunching into the ground, supports and glass snapping on every impact. It rolled back down the street back towards her and the waiting Iron Man.

Peter was somewhere in there. Her fingers dug hard into her palm. Helpless. Here she was again.

The van tumbled again but she saw claws dig into the metal and Venom's feet planted into the ground. For all his intelligence, Tony appeared to not realize that the van had gained a new target until it was thrown directly at him. The ball of metal smashed into him, driving him into a building.

Venom's mouth was wide as it watched the crash. It hissed and postured at the the hole in the wall before tearing off down the street. It didn't even seem to to notice her.

The burning hole smoked as she ran up to it.

There was no way that she could get inside. Instead she watched as Tony cracked apart the van and fell out steaming onto the asphalt in front of her. He waved her off as he laid on his back. Parts of the suit were red hot.

"I liked the kid more when he was just not listening to me." The speaker crackled.

"Yeah, me too." Catherine wiped her face and it felt slick. There was ash on her hands.

"I'll get up in a minute. Some compressors are overheated. Note for the future, make the suit strong enough for large fireball explosions."

"Don't be in the tests for that please."

Tires and crashes screeched off in the distance, getting further and further away.

"Ohhhhh I will." Tony moved an arm and she could see the stiffness in the joints. "Only so you can keep your job."

"How thoughtful of you."

There was gunfire now. A light tapping sound that echoed from building to building.

"Are you done being lazy?"

The guns cut out suddenly.

"Yup."

Smoke and ash fell off the suit as he got up. Most of it had returned to its normal color but a sheet of gray remained over Iron Man. The blue eyes locked onto hers and then the suit blasted off, back towards the broken cars and yelling people.

Catherine didn't wait. There was too much to do. Peter was completely in Tony's hands now.

She started to address the injuries around her. People were pulling themselves out of cars, heads bleeding and mouths screaming. She had no control over what happened with Venom and Iron Man so she did what she could elsewhere. Someone hurried a fit aid kit from a kitchen out to her as she triaged the patients, applied pressure and stopped as much major bleeding as she could.

These people, this was Venom's fault and it made her hate the thing more.

The ambulances started to come, filing in neatly one after another. She helped, feeling herself fall into a rhythm with the EMTs. They spoke the same language as she did.

They didn't question her qualifications. It was about urgency and the smudges of blood that were left behind on the concrete and her hands.

Time stretched and then all at once contracted.

Tony reappeared in front of her. His arms were empty. She stopped staring at the sight that she didn't expect. He landed roughly, taking a few extra steps. The gurney rolled past her with one of the last of the injured. Her hand drew off the bed and she stayed still on the spot.

Catherine felt something in her stomach. She shoved it down as the face plate popped open.

He tried to speak a few times and finally the words came out. "The lab got him."

His eyes roamed across hers. She stared at him like he had told her that he had killed the kid instead.

"What?"

Tony shook his head. "They know something we don't. By the time I got there, they had both it and Peter out for the count."

She could see it. Peter unconscious and dragged away into a black van, never to be seen again. How could this happen?

"Then you fight them instead," She shouted at him.

His voice was soft. "They said if I didn't leave, they'd kill the kid."

"And you believed them?"

"They had strapped.." He paused. "They had strapped a bomb vest to him. Of course I believed them."

"Then you shoot them Tony."

He shook his head. "Not that many Catherine. I couldn't find the detonator. One mistake and the kid would have been dead."

She wanted to scream and punch him. She wanted to rip him to pieces before she turned on herself. What stopped her was the man, not the suit. There was a crack in the expression on Tony's face, showing a mirror of the panic and fear. It leaked out. He had tried to stop it but it was spreading anyways.

The sirens cried out in the distance as they left the scene. Her fingers curled into a fist slick with sweat and blood. She couldn't look at him. She couldn't look at anything. Even the ground was too solid and sharp.

Her fingers uncurled, letting go and going slack.

They had lost.

Worse than that, they had lost Peter Parker.

And they had failed him.

Sometimes I feel like I have a lot to say about a chapter. Other times I just feel like it's a more somber nodding and "yup, we're rolling along". This happened to be one of those.

So I just wanted to take this to say thank you for all the love for Catherine and co. Inserting a character into any universe is always such a risk and it usually can go badly (trust me, I've written them) so thank you so much for embracing Catherine Crow, her brutal honestly and a soft spot for a teenage kid. An author usually loves their characters but it is a whole other level of joy to see someone else like them too.

So thanks.

Let me know what you think? Did you expect this? What do you think they are going to do to get out of this one?

Thank you for reading as always. - Quin