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Y.A.R.N.
Peter and Miles webbed up the last goon and surveyed the area around them from the final part of their patrol before they regrouped and then headed home.
All thugs captured?
Check.
No items stolen?
Check.
Police on scene?
Check.
They both swung away and made their way to Peter's apartment to catch up as there had been little time to talk as of late. Miles had been working hard in his classes and then patrolling when he had free time. Peter had made sure that Miles got as much rest as was necessary and told him that he had to focus on his classes as would have a much easier time if he got through college without constant vigilantism getting in the way. Miles had protested that was being hypocritical, but Peter told him it wasn't the same as there wasn't someone else he trusted to cover him while he was living a normal life. Peter trusted Miles while also had to work on the other things on his plate like how he was still teaching Mary Jane on how to fight with programmable matter as well as his work with Horizon Labs. He also had made time for Harry who was feeling much better and was able to work through his sickness thanks to the lingering symbiote samples in his body holding him together and abating the worst of the disease.
Peter bit into a chocolate bar as Viri squirmed in pleasure at the flavor and chemicals that he eagerly assimilated from Peter's body. As it turned out, while Viri and most symbiotes needed only to bond to a host to survive, but certain chemicals were enjoyable to symbiotes and Peter tried to give as much as he could without spoiling Viri. Plus, the more Peter was able to stay healthy, the better Viri would be able to support him as Spider-Man.
MJ found it hilarious that was trying to stop himself from spoiling his alien partner.
What even is his life?
Miles was perched on one of the desks, end of his pen in his mouth as he reviewed an essay he was working on. Peter was working on the Specialized Tactile Recharge Interface and Kilowatt Enhancement — or S.T.R.I.K.E for short — suit he had been making for Miles. He still had some of the programmable matter leftover and was trying to code its interface so Miles would have the best of both suits in his patrol. He had already managed to have a bsic idea of how to bond them, he just needed to have Miles test it out. It's so easy for them to say that Peter's helping Miles in schoolwork and Miles is being mentored.
It's true regardless of the subject matter differing slightly, Mrs. Morales didn't exactly disapprove or approve of Miles being Spider-Man or Kid Arachnid, but knowing Peter was making sure to protect Miles as best as he could, took a load off her mind. It also helped that she was sure that Peter would never let Miles go out anywhere without the best protection Peter could give.
Suddenly the police cut-in switch goes crazy.
"A creature has attacked The Raft and is attempting to escape the facility! It had been halted at Rykers but is going to overwhelm the security force soon!" A voice cries frantically, "All units to Rykers immediately!"
Peter stomach plummeted as he shares one panicked glance before they both sprinted out of the apartment respective suits forming.
"Viri!"
"Of course Peter!" Viri replied quickly.
Viri bled through and into the Iron Spider Suit and Peter didn't wait for Miles as he shouted, "I'm going on ahead!"
Venom growled in anger at the security trying to stop him.
It had been relatively easy to get out of the med bay of the Raft and leap into the river, but the alarm had blared before he got totally clear. They managed to herd him to Rykers before he realized what had happened and led to the current predicament of the him needed to fight his way out. He hadn't released anyone, couldn't they just ignore him or something?
He lunged out of the way of a hail of bullets and snarled as he leapt at the guard and knocked him out with a swift haymaker.
Troublesome guards.
Yuri had been the first to hear and see The Raft had been breached and blitzed over there to see how to stop a potential outbreak.
Either way, it didn't matter at the moment as the most important thing was stopping him before he released any of the inmates. There was no way she would relive the The Devil's Breath Breakout if she had any say in the matter.
Then she arrived and realized it was the violent creature that had encased Kid Arachnid before Spider-Man managed to free him from it.
This wasn't going to be fun.
She launched herself at the villain, guns drawn and firing at the symbiote. Venom let out a cry of surprise at the bolts hitting him but simply stumbled to side before turning to the approaching vigilante. He realized who it was as Miles had already talked with Peter about who was in the suit and Venom had all of his memories. Yuri Watanabe would be a wonderful person to use to hurt Spider-Man and so he would gut the former officer.
"Wraith…" He rasped with guttural pleasure, "You'll make for decent warm-up."
She landed and fired at Venom who was already closing in on her with a hand swinging at her head. It was only years of working in the police, martial arts training, and her own lightning reflexes than allowed her to duck away from the blow that slashed through the air. She backpedaled fast, realizing her handguns were doing little more than amusing Venom as he barreled right through the barrage of bullets with no trouble. She used her greaves to launch herself into the air to gains some ground only for a web-line — how? — to snag one of her writhing whips and swing her down into the earth. She grunted as her whips managed to catch her and cushion the fall as she was suddenly realized she may have been fighting Spider-Man or Kid Arachnid except this time they weren't going to stop till she was dead.
She rolled to the side just to avoid a heavy stomp that burrowed Venom's foot into the concrete where her head had been. She threw out a grenade and used her hand to push herself back to her feet and used her tech to gain distance. There was an explosion of orange lightning that had everyone flinch, but when the light died down, Venom was not as damaged as Yuri had hoped. Oh it did hurt him enough to sting, but Venom had simply braced himself by crossing his arms in front of his face as orange arcs of electricity crackled over his body. He slowly lowered his arms and snarled at Wraith with rage as he walked after her, taking his time as Wraith floundered for a strategy that she could use to hold her ground.
"Not bad." Venom growled, "But not enough."
Yuri's biggest problem was the gap in power that was too wide.
Her new tech and training regiment was nothing to scoff at, but at the same time she knew in the back of her head that she was at a massive disadvantage in the superhero community even with her tech. There were other non-powered heroes who were classified right up with literal gods — Black Widow and Hawkeye of the Avengers came to mind — but they also had Tony Stark working on their technology and weapons. Even with the programmable matter and Sable tech incorporated into her suit, she was only closing the gap and trying to even the playing field.
That didn't mean she was going to give up.
She pulled her whip free and slashed it through the air twice as orange electricity crackled through the length of the weapon. Venom immediately charged and she twisted at him, whip slamming into his side with a loud crack. Venom staggered with the blow, more electricity crackling along his limbs. Since the guns weren't effective enough to slow him down, she switched tactics to her melee weapons that seemed to work better on him. She lashed out with her weapon and Venom raised his arm to block only for the whip to wrap around his arm. Yuri tried to throw him like she had seen some of the escapees do to police officers, but Venom remained rooted the ground and instead grabbed her whip and yanked. Yuri was pulled off her feet into a punishing clothesline that had her choking and gasping on the impact as she flopped behind him.
Venom turned to finish her by stomping her to paste when she threw two metal discs at him while massaging her throat. They erupted with electrical whip cords that wrapped around Venom, causing him to convulse and fall to his knees while the unexpected shocks held him stiff. Yuri ignored the aching in her throat and drew her sable batons, repeatedly striking Venom over the head with them with and her programmable matter whips as much finesse and force as she could muster. Venom head swung from side to side with each impact, rage rising as he began to flex and force the electrical cords off of him. She didn't have any sonic weapons or any intense heat weapons — while the electrical weapons hurt as they enhanced the strength of her strikes — so she didn't have a reliable way to take him down. He ripped through the cords and grabbed her face before she could disengage and lifting her into the air. She struggled as she grabbed his fingers and arm, ineffectually pounding on his limb as she tried to get free. Her whips writhed around her as they smacked and wrapped around Venom's limb in an attempt to get him to let go of Wraith.
"Goodbye Wraith." Venom cackled as he began to squeeze, "I'm sure they will bury you with honor after they reassemble your skull."
Yuri let out a muffled scream of pain as she knew her skull was going to give.
Suddenly and explosion rocked the area around them and Venom let go as he howled at the pain of the high temperature and Yuri was sent flying a few feet away. Her programmable matter shifted so that her whips would slow her flight and gently lay her on the ground. She looked and was relieved that The Raft security forces were firing on Venom with rockets that were much more effective than her weapons. She scrambled to her feet and took a deep breath, cataloguing her effectiveness against Venom so far. It had not gone well, her weapons did little more than annoy him and it seem explosions were the only thing to have the desired effect.
Venom had already started moving before the second salvo could be launched and leapt at the tower from where the guards were firing. He crashed into the tower in a mass of writhing tendrils and began lashing out at guards, knocking them off the tower or using his tendrils to impale them before they could react. Yuri launched herself after him and flipped to land a drop-kick with her momentum slamming him against the wall. While Venom was momentarily dazed, Wraith grabbed a handful of regular grenades that a guard had dropped and threw it at the stunned Venom. Yuri dropped in a crouch and threw herself off the tower to the grounds below while throwing out another grenade from her arsenal as she tried to draw Venom away from the injured guards.
It worked as Venom roared in pain at the explosions and lunged after Yuri, intent on ripping her apart. After that it was a dangerous game of tag where Venom sprinted after Yuri while Yuri's tech was the only thing keeping her ahead of the murderous symbiote. She lobbed grenades at Venom who avoided them with enviable agility for what seemed to be a hulking monstrosity that looked like it could snap her like a twig. Yuri leapt for the roofs and managed to twist to avoid another web dragging her back down as she quickly pulled the pin on two grenades and wait for Venom to catch up. As he leaped to the edge Yuri threw the grenades followed by another capture disc as he landed on the roof.
The tow explosions send Venom careening back off the roof to land painfully on the ground.
Venom took a moment to take a deep breath before roaring and blitzing up the building at full speed, no longer interested in toying with Wraith. He was in her face before she could prepare and kicked her across the roof, Yuri letting out a cry of pain as she felt a rib or to snap under the force. She tried to rise only for Venom to place a foot on her back and push her down harshly into the ground, jarring her broken bones. She wheezed and her whips tried to attack Venom but he simply caught them with his tendrils and pressed down on Yuri's back harder.
"End of the line Watanabe." He hissed and Yuri froze as he uttered her name.
Suddenly Venom looked away only to see a foot crash into hhis face and send him flying.
Spider-Man landed in a graceful crouch before rising to glare at Venom, "Get off my friend."
Peter wasn't too proud to admit he was scared of another outbreak from the Raft, the last thing he wanted to deal with was another Sinister Six incident. Even if the Rhino was in a coma after Miles' friend Phin stabbed him, there was no doubt a number of people who would be happy to throw their hat in for the opening in the team. Herman Schultz the Shocker, Quentin Beck a.k.a. Mysterio, Lonnie Thompson as Tombstone, maybe even a less powerful villain like Chameleon or The Kingpin would be bad. Peter could take them with his Iron Spider suit and Viri, but the chance of one of them making a break for the city while fighting the other villains was too high a possibility.
"Focus on the obvious threat now Peter." Viri advised, "If it comes down to another Sinister Six incident, you can worry about it then, but let stop the first escapee."
"Right." Peter said, "I just really don't need this right now."
He made it over to Rykers only for his heart to skip a beat as he saw Venom — who the hell had Venom taken over now? — standing on top of Wraith, pressing down while Yuri was groaning in pain.
He blitzed right into Venom with a kick that sent the symbiote sprawling and landed protectively in front of Yuri. Part of him wanted to talk to Yuri about what the hell did she think she was doing, but Venom came first as the obvious threat. Peter would hunt down Yuri later and try to convince her that it wasn't too late to stop, that she didn't need to try to clean the streets as a vigilante when she was a fantastic cop.
"Yuri." He said, "You help the guards who are injured, leave Venom to me."
Yuri bristled, but she wasn't even remotely surprised that Spider-Man could tell it was her under the mask. They knew each other well enough and even with the voice modulator and mask, Spider-Man was smart enough to know she would do this. Plus their last conversation hadn't exactly been subtle about her intentions to do what needed to be done to keep people safe.
Either way, she could help the injured security and it would be a lot easier and more fruitful than trying to fight Venom.
As Yuri left to tend to the wounded Peter stared Venom down as the black symbiote got to his feet.
"Parker and his pet…" Venom growled softly, "What an unpleasant surprise."
"Get off the person you've taken over now." Peter ordered sharply, "You have no right to the body."
"Have you no shame after so callously trying to dominate Kid Arachnid?" Viri snarled angrily at Venom.
Venom smiled body already healing from the exposure to the heat of the explosions and Wraith's attacks, "Considering this person has no conscious or awareness left, it's in far better use in my hands than being kept alive by machines."
"What are you talking about?" Peter demanded, "What do you mean the person has no consciousness?"
Venom drew his symbiote away from the face to reveal Otto Octavius' face, but there was no reaction from that act. Otto head lolled to the side limply as his eyes remained closed, soft breaths coming from pale lips and sunken cheeks. He didn't do anything for the several moments while Venom waited before once again covering the face to form his usual appearance.
"Whatever mind was here is gone." Venom replied, grinning at the horror all but radiating from Spider-Man at the sight of his once-upon-a-time-mentor's face, "This body is just a husk of flesh and bone. Even if there was someone in a coma, there'd be a mind to dominate. This isn't the same. Why let a perfectly good body go to waste when I can make better use of it?"
Peter didn't know what to believe at Venom's claim, the idea that Otto's mind was just gone was absurd.
But there were reasons to believe what Venom was saying.
Otto would never let himself be controlled like a puppet, no matter what he could gain out of it, him claiming to be responsible of all the attacks on Norman's assets was proof of that. He'd boast and brag about how had attained something even greater than his arms or something along those lines. But if Venom was telling the truth about Otto's body no longer having a conciousness, where had the mind gone? Even when Miles was trapped within Venom he was aware of what was happening and fought to release himself from Venom's control. He needed answers but there was nothing he could do about them at this moment in time, he'd have to look into it with Viri later.
Peter shook off the worries and dropped into his stance, "That doesn't matter right now. What does is the fact that you need to go down."
Venom readied himself, "With no one fighting me from the inside, I know I can take you and 'Viribus' Parker! You may even be a good host after I leave you half dead!"
"Peter." Viri said firmly as they charged each other, "Kick his ass."