In Which She Confronts A Menace
Catherine stared at Peter's back as they headed down the landing pad of Stark's building. His spine was straight, almost rigid in the morning light. The kid she knew walked with a slump, the causal teen nonchalance even as Spider-Man. That was one of the reasons that the articles could never figure out his age. How could someone who appeared so young be so brave?
She swallowed but the pain didn't go away.
They had taken a helicopter ride from the IC to work. Tony didn't know how dangerous this situation was. Instead he was cutting it up with the kid, mentioning the newest drama with the engagement party. This week it was the speeches. Apparently Pepper's maid of honor wanted to make a thirty minute speech. Peter, or Venom, humored him.
It could happen any moment. The adrenaline hadn't stopped pumping since they had left the lab. Now she knew the extent of the facade, it was so evident. Everything that Venom did grated against her.
"Boy, that's a tough one, Mr. Stark." Venom walked abreast to Tony. Peter always walked ever so slightly behind him.
Tony lead them towards the offices. They were going to take Venom straight into heart of Stark's had assumed that Catherine would want to do more of an examination to make sure all the "ick" was gone. No one had given her a chance to say otherwise.
"I know that we are the best power couple but Pepper says it might be rude to turn it into a fifteen minute powerpoint presentation instead."
She interjected, politeness trying to cover the panic."Could I have a word?"
"What's a matter, Ms. Catherine?" Peter's focus jerked to her.
He wasn't wearing his suit anymore. Tony had put some acceptable "pleb" clothes the helicopter. Now he just looked like a mockery of the kid she knew.
Damn. Catherine felt like she breathing sand.
"Tony had a medical question earlier and I've realized the answer." She tried to be relaxed about it, forcing her shoulders to drop low. "I thought that I should tell him before I forgot again."
If Tony thought this was strange, he didn't lead on. "Well, let's hold on that thought for later."
A flicker of a smile on the kid's face made her blood boil.
The hallway turned to the elevator lobby. She needed to stop this. There was sensitive equipment in the building. If Venom came out, not only could it possibly kill both of them before Tony could suit up, it could make a mess bigger than one building.
"Tony."
He swiped for the elevator. Peter moved and leaned against the wall, all hips and proud shoulders. She wanted to shake the billionaire to pay attention.
"So. Game plan." He clapped his hands as they waited for the elevator. "I'm glad they got Mr. Gooey Goo out of Peter. Now, here's the real question: kid, are you feeling okay?"
What the hell?
"Yeah."
Those stab wounds were nowhere near healed.
"Great. Catherine, we're going to the lab instead. Yesterday some propulsion tech was causing me problems and Peter might be able to have some rookie luck with it."
Yesterday, Tony had been with her. The apartment attack had been early in the morning and then they had spent the rest of the day figuring out how to get him back.
There was no propulsion tech testing.
Peter nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like fun!"
It was a weekday. Clearly, Venom forgot that school might be a concern.
She had been in the propulsion lab. The walls were insulated and there was extra security. It was build for an accidental explosion and it was possibly the only place that Venom might not be able to smash out of easily.
They stepped in the elevator. Whatever game Venom was playing, she hoped that it wouldn't come out now. Peter pressed the button for the first floor.
"Oh no, kid. It's only two floors down."
"Oh sorry." Then he glanced at her. "Sorry, Ms. Catherine. I know you told me to stop apologizing."
She tightened her hand on her hip, bruising the skin underneath. He wasn't sorry. Venom was mocking her. Momentum took the metal box down too quickly. It was too late, the elevator dropped past the propulsion floor before Tony pressed the button. They would have to ride it all the way down.
Tony didn't talk. He stayed quiet.
He very much knew.
She watched the number trickle down.
Tony's toe tapped against the floor.
When the door opened for the ground level, there was a good chance that Venom was going to bolt. She could grab Spider-Man's arm and probably get some broken fingers in return. That action could even make Venom appear. There was no point.
The numbers were in the single digits now.
"Peter," she said quietly and then stopped. What could she say? He wasn't really him listening.
"Yes, Ms. Catherine?" He turned to her, showing his face in the view of a security camera in the elevator.
She needed to say something, anything.
"Peter-"
The door binged and opened, filling the room with the light and noise from the lobby. Instantly, his attention was gone from her. He rotated on his toes, leaned forward to run and jerked to a stop.
Aunt May stood in front of doors. Her eyes were wide, relief and angry crumbling through. Peter stiffened. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. They stumbled back a few steps into the lobby in silence.
Catherine was frozen.
"You're alright."
His hands were stopped in the air, fingers half curled and hovering over her back.
"You weren't at home. You weren't at school." She held him tighter. "I called here and they said you were being rescued?"
Peter didn't move.
"All this time I was gone, I kept worrying about you."
Aunt May's hand grasped his head, tucking him closer to her.
Catherine couldn't breath.
"I'm so glad that your okay," she said into his shoulder.
His hands fell onto her back and then they collapsed as they touched. The body softened in her arms.
"Aunt May?"
Catherine knew that high pitched lonely voice. It was Peter's. It was really Peter's.
Something was clicking in her mind. It couldn't be that easy. Catherine looked at Tony. He had a strange expression on his face.
"I'm here." She squeeze tighter. "I've been worrying so much."
"No," he said softly, "wait. I can't-"
He stumbled back drunk, trying to get away. "No, I've got to go. I can't stay. I've got to get away from here."
Peter's face was full of confusion and a morbid amount of panic. A red stain had formed on his stomach again. He touched it and then backed out, further out away from elevator and into the busy lobby. That broke the spell. They could move again.
"Peter, you're hurt." Aunt May chased him. Catherine glanced at Tony. He was staring out the south entrance. An Iron Man suit was approaching slowly. It made waves around the people it but it hadn't caused enough ruckus to draw Venom's attention.
"I'm okay." Peter held out his slick hands and kept backing away. He started to blabber. If this was any other time, she might have realized how much she missed it. "Something bad is happening. It keeps happening. Ms. Catherine said something…about something and I know she's right but I keep forgetting things."
Peter was going pale in the artificial lights. Blood dipped to the white tile.
They were all out of the elevator now. Staff stopped, creating a semicircle around them, most of them were looking at Tony but their attention was rapidly shifting to Peter. The whispered were blending into a dangerous low monotone.
"Please." Peter wrapped an arm around his stomach. A frantic sort of energy came off of him. It was so strong that it pushed May back, forcing her to keep her distance.
Tony's voice was level next to her as they shadowed him. "That's right kid. Right now, we need you to hold it together."
There were so many people.
"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm trying. Ms. Catherine-" The words ran together and he held his head. He fell back into himself.
And then that battle was lost.
Catherine managed to drag May back as Venom rippled into shape in front of them. Tony broke off to the left. She could hear the suit mimic the motion to meet him. Fear drove up into her throat but she swallowed it away. May was in some form of shock, only a strangled sound left her mouth and Catherine pulled her further back.
"Well, you all are most certainly annoying."
The monster crouched down in front of them. It leaned on its fingers. The tiles underneath them crackled under the pressure. The blood ran in between the cracks. The pupilless eyes focused on them as it cocked its head.
"You, female relative, I know you. I should thank you. You've tore a hole so wide in this child that four of us could fit in. For that reason, I shall let you run away and continue to survive."
Catherine knew it. Her fingers fell from May's arm. Peter didn't know. He was just a kid. All their criticism and guidance. Peter had taken it the wrong way. He thought that they wanted him to stop. Venom had probably even twisted the words even more in his mind.
People were moving in the distance. Faintly, she saw staff desperately trying to push out of the building.
Venom's head turned to her. "You, on the other hand. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice…"
Catherine did what felt impossible. She turned away from Venom. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she did it. The words it was saying cut off in a hiss.
"What do you think of Spider-Man?" She asked May. Catherine grasped her shoulder, trying to ground herself in all this nonsense.
May's face crumpled as she tried to look at her and the monster at once. "What?"
May tried to jerk away, to run back towards the elevator. Catherine pulled her back. This had to work. This had to be the solution.
Venom was still. A tile snapped as it moved a step forward. "What are you doing strange human?"
"How do you feel about Spider-Man?" She asked again and seeing that was going nowhere immediately, she sputtered another question. "Do you hate him?"
"Of course not." May answered it without thinking, exactly what Catherine wanted.
The effect was immediate. Venom screamed, a hollow and terrible sound, and it tore backwards. She saw the surface skin flicker and writhe on top of itself.
Catherine's chest pounded and her hand loosened on May. She couldn't help the little smile that came across her face.
There it was.
They had it.
Iron Man ripped across the room, thrusters filling the lobby with smoke. Venom pulled itself together but as it did that, Tony smashed down into it, pinning it into the ground.
"May…" Catherine breathed. "Come on. Tell me what you think."
May swallowed, her eyes flickering around like she couldn't quite grasp what was happening.
Venom was pushing up against Iron Man, digging into the concrete of the floor. Dust was floating in the air now.
"He's…" May opened and closed her mouth a few items. Her hands were fists.
"He's good at what he does." Catherine started for her.
She nodded. "He's an amazing Spider-Man."
Venom hissed in front of them. She could see Tony was struggling to keep the monster under control. It was only a matter of time.
"He's been a little dumb lately," May said, "but he's really helps so many people. Did you know he got me flowers once?"
That did it, another ripple. This one must have been more painful than the last as Venom twisted around under the pressure, curling in on itself. The teeth bulged out, curling out into the air as it screamed
"He saved a little kid last week from a car accident. He held onto him until his parents came." She laughed with a choke at the end. "He amused him with dumb magic tricks."
Venom held on then with only a slight ripple, pushing hard against Iron Man bucking him off. A claw came lashing out towards them and they stumbled back from it. It threw up a cloud of dust as it was slammed back down into the ground.
"Yeah?" Catherine asked.
May nodded and waved her hands in front of herself as she tried to build sentences. "The only reason that I'm been trying to get him to slow down is because I was…because I want him to be smart, to use that big brain, to keep being Spider-Man but safely. How could I forgive myself if something happened to him?"
It loosened, the blackness splitting wildly all over.. The head started to loose definition. Tony took hold of an arm and it spooled out into strands that he couldn't hold onto. Catherine felt herself shaking. Everyone was gone now. The building was clear enough that Catherine could ask the question that she really wanted to.
"What do you think of Peter being Spider-Man?"
Venom yelled then, again, a unhinged sound, contorting into a string, trying to get to them.
"He's being so incredibly brave." Fear fell away from May. She turned towards the mess and stood solidly against the terror.
"He's everything that Ben and I hoped that he would turn out to be."
Venom collapsed, all sense of definition gone. Muscles melted away into liquid, attempting to ooze away. Iron Man's hands grasped something solid and with one thorough yank, the blackness peeled away. Catherine saw it let go of Peter, the tendrils held on anything, thinning and stretching until there was nothing left of it connected to the kid.
Catherine ran forward and grabbed Peter as he fell. They tripped backwards until she ended up falling on the floor, Peter propped up against her. That was the second time that she had caught him that day.
He was limp and she grasped desperately against his neck for a pulse. It fluttered against her fingers. She felt his lungs expand and contract against her chest. Already he was coming to as he started to move weakly. He was alive.
May leaned down in front of them. "Peter?"
"May?" He responded weakly and then looked up. "Ms. Catherine?"
Catherine didn't stand a chance as May pulled the boy away from her. As confused and sluggish as he seemed, he did have the sense to put his arms around her. Catherine snuck a look at Tony. He was outside his suit, leaning against it with one hand. Venom was nowhere to be seen. One of the arms of Iron Man twitched.
"May…get off me…" Peter said weakly, "I'm alright."
The Iron Man suit gave a jerk and blasted off through one of the entrances. Tony looked exhausted as he gave her a thumbs up.
"No, you were literally a black goo monster a few seconds ago. You are clearly not alright."
"May…"
He fought her for a second longer before giving up. May kept her eyes closed but by how closely she held the kid, she knew how close they had come to something terrible. Peter finally pushed back and May let him go.
Catherine hung back. It could wait a moment.
"Peter, are you okay?" She asked when the silence dragged on a moment too long. For such a causal question, her tone serious.
Peter adjusted his seat on the floor, bringing up a knee between them. He pushed back his hair and stared at the floor. Then he blinked, squinted and looked up at her. "Did you mean that? Are you really proud of me?"
May's face broke into a smile and she pinched his nose. "Of course I am, you silly goose."
He swayed with the touch but the goofy smile came over his face too."Then I'm okay too."
"But don't push your luck. I still might take away your suit, quit my job and homeschool you." Her voice wobbled and then she shook her head, pulled back and laughed at him. "Even if we moved to the countryside. You won't ever stop. You'll save the cows from being tipped."
Peter laughed with her. The sounds were strange and echoed around in the destroyed lobby. How could these two people be giggling like school children?
Catherine shot a look at Tony and he mouthed: "They're crazy."
She nodded.
In the middle of all this chaos, these two sat on the floor and laughed at each other until the police arrived.
Only two chapters after this. One is a lot of conclusions and the last (and favorite Catherine/Peter chapter ever) serves as an almost epilogue. I can't believe how close to the end we are. How did that happen? I wish I could talk about the ff I'm writing now but I'm not quite...there yet.
Posting chapters near the end like this always make me really nervous. Finally, I've laid all my cards (per se) on the table. What do you think? Did I do Venom justice?
Thank you for reading as always. Thank you for coming this far with me. -Quin