Author's Note: A note to a guest, I would message you directly but you don't have an account so I cant. I do not have a set writing schedule. I likely never will, I write on whatever story takes my fancy that morning for as long as I can around work and life at home, both of which have been crazy hectic lately. PS I will be going offline for a few days this week and next for my move. I own nothing.
43. Backfire
It had been a good plan it really had. But Piper had the sinking suspicion that Venom had overheard most or even all of it. The symbiote was a lot smarter than she'd given it credit for. It had followed her and Luke, which she counted as a positive. Luke was practically indestructible and better her than someone else had been her philosophy for a while now, not that anyone knew that. Venom roared as it punched Luke through several walls sending him sprawling. Piper drew a shock arrow and fired straight at Venom's face as Luke pulled himself to his feet three rooms away.
Venom caught the arrow and Piper pressed the button on the bow that activated the hardware. The black monster shrieked as electricity coursed through it for a moment. The arrow snapped in its grip and the mass of black sludge roiled as the charge in the arrow was spent.
"Harry, I know you're in there. We're gonna get you out I promise." Venom lashed out and Piper didn't quite dodge in time. Claws bit into her side and she went flying. Luke leapt just in time to catch her before she would have struck a wall. She swore as she felt something crawling around the wound. She flicked on the Widows Bite and punched herself in the side. She screamed as electricity coursed through her and Luke watched stunned as the small amount of symbiote that had been attempting to crawl into the wound on her side evaporated. Piper struggled to her feet as the claw marks in her side dripped blood. She was still shaking from her self-electrocution, Natasha's Widow Bites packed more of a punch than she'd been expecting. Luke tossed her arm around his shoulder and ran, mostly carrying Piper away from Venom as it hissed then roared pulling itself back to its feet. Hopefully the others had reached the lab.
Sam blasted the door off the lab and frowned. There had been nothing to get in their way as they made their way up two floors worth of vents. Not even a peep. This place was creepy, no matter how cool it was. It didn't help that last time he'd been at Stark Tower he'd almost lost a team member. The image of Piper, sans costume, falling out the window of Stark Tower with a scream was not something he'd soon forget. There was no one in the lab when they reached it so Ava began to pull apart the bottom of the console Piper had told her about. Nova tapped his foot in mid-air.
"They should be here by now." Danny nodded.
"I agree. Piper knows this place much better than we do." There was a roar that shook the whole building and Sam and Danny froze, Ava was still frantically working under one of the tables. There was silence for a moment, ticking on it felt like forever. A scream echoed off the walls and Sam made to move for the door. Danny grabbed his foot.
"The spider was very specific that we shouldn't go after her. She knows what she's doing." Sam frowned.
"Does she though?" The door to the lab burst open and Luke came barreling through supporting a nearly unconscious Piper. She looked up her eyes slightly glassy and Sam swore flying over to them and hesitating. The gash in her side was bag, a trail of blood lead the way they'd come and her shirt was trash. She shrugged herself off Luke's arm and snatched a Bunsen burner off one of the tables, ignoring her injury she flipped to the top of a table and flicked the burner on at one of the sockets Sam hadn't notices. An alarm blared and a set of metal doors descended, a large radioactive symbol on them, in front of both doors to the lab. Once they were in place Piper sighed and sat down hard on the table wobbling slightly. Sam swore getting a better look at her injuries in the red blaring lights. It was deep and singed around the edges.
"Solo lab Quarantine. I wasn't sure it would work since I've already isolated these three floors." Luke nodded at her.
"I'm not sure that's gonna hold him though." Piper nodded.
"Probably not but it'll buy us a few minutes." She took a deep breath and hopped off the table swearing under her breath as she jostled her injury. Sam made to help her but she shook her head at him and ducked under the table with Ava. There was a few minutes of tense silence before the floor underneath them shook and the test tubes rattled. Another second of silence, then another boom. Several tubes fell to the floor and shattered. Then a different kind of boom sounded and Piper froze calling out from under the table where she and Ava were rewiring something, Sam hadn't really understood her plan.
"JARVIS! Was that a repulsor blast?" The AI's voice was still not coming from a source Sam could find.
"Yes Miss Parker. The Avengers are attempting to breach the quarantine protocol." Piper swore and moved again a litany of curses in different languages floating out from under it.
"Put me through to Dad now!" Sam was about to protest when a staticky voice he recognized from their field trip not even a week ago came over the speakers.
"Piper! Are you ok! We're trying to get in." Piper swore as she moved again.
"NO! Whatever you do, do not break the quarantine, if you do this thing gets loose and the whole city is in danger." The response was almost immediate.
"What thing!?" Piper swore as a shower of sparks forced Ava out from under the console.
"The thing from Harry's party is back. I don't know what it is, it calls itself Venom." There was an angry gasp over the speakers.
"I'm gonna vaporize it!" Piper stuck two wires together with a frown.
"No! You can't! There's a person in that thing. I have a plan." The floor shook again and this time it cracked and the black mass that was Venom began to seep through tearing off chunks of the floor as it went.
"Piper, don't you dare take this thing on alone." Sam swore and grabbed Luke and Danny off the floor as it began to collapse under them.
"Who said I was alone?" Her grin was strained as she connected the last two wires.
"Tiger! The jump cables we need, in that cabinet!" Ava leapt from table to table trying to evade the sea of wriggling blackness that was tearing the floor apart in the middle of the room. She barely made it to the top of the cabinet ripping the door off and grabbing two long jumper cables and throwing them across the room to Piper as Tony Star continued to freak out over the speakers and the alarm kept blaring. Piper dove back under the console as with a triumphant roar Venom pulled itself into the room and the repulsor fire grew louder and more concentrated. Sam shot a blast at Venom but the large creature wasn't paying him any attention. Instead it grabbed Piper by her legs and yanked pulling her out from under the console with a surprised cry. Tony shouted over the speakers but Piper wasn't listening. Sam spotted the jumper cables connected to the base of the devices around Piper's wrists.
"Give him back you son of a bitch!" Piper shouted as she drove her fists into Venom's arms activating the Widow's Bite as she did.
Lightning arced around the room as Venom shrieked and bubbled. A much more feminine scream of pain sounded under the inhuman screech and Sam made to lunge forwards but another arch of lightning stopped him. Then the black mass evaporated and the lighting stopped the lights in the lab had gone out. The sound of rending metal was horrible and each of them clapped their hands to their ears as the quarantine wall to their left was torn apart like it was made of wrapping paper. A large green angry figure stood there seemingly ready to rip anything that displeased him apart like he had the wall. Light poured in and the team finally spotted Piper. She was laying bleeding on the floor out cold. Harry Osborn had landed next to her, he was starting to stir. A flash of red and gold flew past the Hulk and landed next to Piper. His hands hovered over her wounds for a moment before he turned to the Hulk.
"Big guy, I know you're upset but she need's Bruce right now." The Hulk huffed and looked like he was going to roar again but then he spotted the blood pooling under Piper. He whimpered and began to shrink. Moments later Bruce Banner was standing shirtless holding his torn pants in one hand blinking slightly before spotting Piper and rushing forwards. He shoved Tony out of the way to check over his patient. Danny made to step forwards to explain what he could but a hand landed on his shoulder and he looked up into the face of the Black Widow. She shook her head at him.
"You can tell us what happened later. They need to focus right now." Danny nodded. There was a noise at the hole the Hulk had made and seconds later Hawkeye was rushing in closely followed by Thor carrying Captain America. The team would have been star struck under better circumstances. There was a groan and Harry sat up rubbing his head.
"What happened?" He looked around blinking confusedly for a moment before he spotted Piper and choked out a scream. Hawkeye grabbed him by the shoulder before he could make it to her. Harry was shaking from head to toe.
"I didn't do that did I?" A voice came from the hole in the wall.
"We'll figure it out son, for the moment you need to come with me." Everyone save Bruce and Tony turned to the voice and saw Nick Fury standing in the debris.