As confident as the Wood Oak natives were, Spider-Man could not share in their optimism. Venom stayed not because they were caught by surprise, but because they saw the grenade as harmless.

Sparkling hope lit up the faces of Axel, Blaze, and Eddie as Venom disappeared in a fog of smoke large enough to cover an elephant.

"We did it," Blaze said in a frail, elderly voice. "All we have to do is find Mr. X and this will all be over."

They were so happy in their delusions, false yet understandable hopes, that Spider-Man almost did not want to tell them the truth. But, after some hesitation, the truth revealed itself.

The smog cleared. First it exposed Venom's chest with the same symbol as Spider-Man's, though much bigger. Then the veil lifted on the rest of their bulk. There Venom stood, undaunted, without so much as a scratch on their form.

Axel and Blaze, still on the ground, lost their sparkle, while Eddie's face served as a study in pure, seizing fear. Spider-Man, despite knowing better, was disappointed anyway.

"I-Impossible…" Eddie said, his eyes shaking as Blaze's did as both struggled to believe what they had just witnessed.

"That thing can't be human," Axel said. "Not one bit."

"You're right. We aren't human. But that's about all you'll get from us, because we're done toying with you!

Venom stalked towards their prey with a tongue far too big for their hungry maw. Their jaw hung to the point where any normal human's would have broken. Each pounding footstep shook the floor beneath them, jogging Axel and Blaze's husks of bodies around.

Spider-Man stepped out in front of him, arms outstretched.

"You are in my way. Move aside."

"This is between you and me. Always has been. Always will be." Spider-Man needed only one finger to point at the boy and Axel and Blaze, a tangled mess of male and female limbs. "So leave them out of this."

"We see what you're doing." Venom laughed like how sour candy tasted; acidic and sweet. "Suffering in their place, in the hopes that they won't have to."

Spider-Man offered no response in any way, body language so lax it was impossible to read.

"How very noble. But once you've forfeited your life, you won't have a way to stop us."

Venom used the back of their hand as a flyswatter to slap Spider-Man across the face. He swerved back and forth, body helpless but to twist to the impact like a twisted metronome. Flecks of spittle flew with him.

What happened next, Eddie turned away from, but his ears told him enough. Howling, like a crying wolf, Spider-Man reduced to his knees. Bile being coughed up. Or maybe blood.

Axel and Blaze, out of, call it morbid fascination or the bond of their shared experience, lacked the desire to look away. Axel especially.

A familiar energy began to rise in Axel. It started out faint, no more powerful than nature's smallest creations, bugs crawling on open leaves.

Spider-Man spat out a puddle of what was definitely, no doubts anymore, blood.

The energy began to ascend further, travelling in invisible lines up his legs. For Axel, it did not travel fast enough.

He pounded his fist against the ground as Venom pounded Spider-Man's face in for what had to be the hundredth time, and yet, it never felt any less visceral.

He was supposed to be a hero, by all accounts. One who fought for truth and justice because few else would. But in his present state Axel fought no one, and worse, was a bystander to someone who was fighting. Someone who tried.

The energy continued in a hurried climb, getting ahead of itself, reaching Axel's core and touching the deepest part of his soul. Here Axel recognised a change. This energy had no set course and did not flow through his veins like running water. It rushed in all directions and filled his fingertips, the base of his skull, the void behind his eyes, all of him. Where his strength ended and this new power began, Axel wasn't sure.

"It's a good thing Mary Jane can't see you now," Venom said to a Spider-Man who had been sent far past the point of caring or being able to respond. All the while, they, both of them, never accounted for Axel getting up.

Heat emanated from him in waves, as a field that both repelled others from him and served as a method of self-protection. No one could see it, and Axel had only just learned of its existence, but Blaze was the first one to recognise a change in him.

"Something's up with you, Axel." Blaze's voice came out muffled, speaking into the ground. "What's going on?"

"I don't know." He flexed the muscles in his hands, watched veins pump up as they ran along. "This power, it's like nothing else. Not even my Grand Upper."

"Mind sparing me some?"

Axel paused for a brief thought. He wasn't so sure this newfound strength worked that way, wasn't sure it worked at all to begin with, but he had to try. For Spider-Man.

For Blaze.

Axel gripped Blaze and, like she had done for him minutes ago, like he held her after many a scrape and fall, helped her up.

Standing together, hand in calloused hand, they faced the beast, that monster undeserving of a name.

Venom dropped a weightless Spider-Man and turned to face the pair. Their eyes, unlike Axel's for once, were blank. Empty circles. Axel's read an intensity that would burn the world down if it let him, but for now that wrath was directed to one target.

"This doesn't seem like the scrawny weakling from earlier," Venom noted, and maybe it was reading too deep, a show of overconfidence, but Axel detected a slight trickle of fear in Venom's tone.

"Scrawny?" Blaze smacked Axel where a layer of fat would be for most men, for him a hard wall of stone that bounced the playful hit right off. "Hello? Are you seeing these abs?" She burned with the same smouldering intensity as he did.

"It doesn't matter." Venom shook their head to confirm. "Elektra and that robot Smythe built whittled you both down. You don't stand a chance against us!"

They turned to share a whisper.

"You go for their head." Axel.

"Right. I'll go for the spider on their chest. Looks like it might be a weak point." Blaze.

Eddie had done his part. Spider-Man had more than fulfilled his purpose and bought them time in the process.

They were on their own now.

The pair unlinked from each other. Venom, believing in their heart of blackened hearts that any threat Axel and Blaze presented was minimal, left their core open. In fact, they left themselves further open to attack by squatting down into a sumo-like stance.

Axel jumped. He redirected the energy roiling about inside of him squarely into one fist, the aura around it now visible and a blinding crimson. In those last few seconds of hellish intensity before he struck, Axel saw it, even on a face as alien as Venom's; realisation that the tides may not be turning in their favour.

For Blaze, raw strength, part her own and part Axel's, coursed through both fists. She stopped her momentum right under where Venom cast their shadow and then acted in tandem with Axel.

"DRAGON SMASH!" Axel cried.

"HISHOUSOUZAN!" Blaze cried with him.

Axel's body gave way to a sequence of hooks and crosses to Venom's head at such a frenetic pace that the creature had no choice but to follow their momentum. Axel couldn't even see his own hands ahead of him, only two blurs smouldering in retribution.

Venom roared in unison to the heat of Axel's flame, more than they ever had to his less flashy attacks. It only got worse from there. Blaze added her own attack into the mix, her Hishouzan, which came in the form of two blades that drove into their chest. They caught a glimpse of her smiling before Axel sent their head spinning the other way.

A meaty sound as she withdrew, pulling out from a wound. Axel had since landed next to her, but they held off on congratulating each other so soon. Even if the effects of their attacks made themselves clear.

Black skin rippled and hissed while Venom's actual mouth did not move. The impression Blaze made on their chest, the symbol ruptured, attempted to fix itself but the layers sliding over each other could not cover the space. And then an odd thing happened.

Odd things had been happening all day and for most of last night, but this one, more than the others, threw Axel and Blaze for a loop. The same Venom who slammed them not on, but into the ground, now cowered and backed away from a fight. Even their skin seemed to be revolted, in constant motion, fidgeting and unable to keep still.

"You- you can't have hurt me," Venom said in absolute disbelief. "It's not possible!"

One jump from Axel closed any gap between him and Venom. Blaze, and Eddie for that matter, stayed on the sidelines. Finishing the monster off, that was on him now.

"And here's the finisher…Grand Upper!"

Axel, lending his entire body to the final blow, slammed into Venom's jaw and the subsequent impact knocked them clean into the air. When Venom landed it was on a desk that buckled to their weight and split in two.

Wisps of crimson shimmered around his fist for a while before disappearing. Yet, their energy, or at least some small part of it, never left Axel. Otherwise he would not have been still standing.

"We did it," Blaze said, a trembling whisper.

There were so many questions in her mind about Venom, even though she knew full well they had no interest in being a subject of her wonder. If they really were an alien, what planet did they come from? Were there more Venoms? Why did they leave their planet? How had they gotten themselves involved with Mr. X?

She shouldn't have been surprised when another mystery had opened up, that Venom wouldn't go quietly, wrapped in a box with a bow on top. For now, however, she stood by Axel and Eddie as the three of them stood over Venom. They had won, and for Blaze, that was enough.

Venom began turning back and forth while muttering to themselves. None of the three gathered around them had any clue what they meant, perhaps speaking in some alien language, until what they thought to be Venom's body shifted in form. It downsized from a living suit of armour to a black orb, devoid of any definition or shade.

Who Venom was, or who their host was, turned out to be like them. Like Axel, specifically, a muscular blonde, except his face cut harder lines and he had a thick bush for a beard.

"No!"

He leaned forward, but Venom stayed out of reach, no more than a fingertip away.

"Don't leave me! Please!"

At that moment, the alien rolled away and headed for the door. Axel, Blaze, and Eddie watched, wordless, as the blonde man dressed only in his boxers followed Venom while yelling more pleas for the creature to cooperate.

Blaze was the first to pick her mouth up and use it for purposes other than gawking.

"Do you think we'll ever find out where they came from? The alien and that guy…wearing him?"

"I doubt it," Axel said. "And I can live without knowing."

While Axel and Blaze pondered the origins of Venom, Eddie rushed to Spider-Man's side. The urge to cry pulsed within him, begging to be let out, but a sniffle kept those urges bunkered down. Eddie, his expression screwed, shook him back and forth.

"We did it," he said, to the formation of an automatic smile. "We beat Venom."

Spider-Man did not respond. Eddie rolled him over, now laying on his back, his breathing inaudible if it was there at all.

"Spider-Man? Spider-Man, c'mon! You gotta get up!"

The tears were there, stored behind his eyes.

It wasn't supposed to end like this. They were supposed to all be fine.

"Eddie? Is that you?"

Eddie's expression unscrewed itself and he would have hugged Spider-Man, if either of their bodies had the strength for it.

"You're okay!" His smile wide, teeth gleaming.

"Okay is a strong word, but I can manage."

On his own power, Spider-Man jumped from a squat into a standing position.

Where Eddie expressed his joy in words, Axel showed his in unspoken gestures, a firm handshake into a one-armed hug.

They'd gone through the grunts, then the high-ranking officers, and now the right-hand man.

All that remained was the snake's head.

Blaze had picked up, from one half of the desk, a timer that indicated five minutes. No detective skills were needed to know that having five minutes could not be a good omen.

It was no coincidence, then, that the next five minutes happened very quickly and still much faster than they appeared to any involved.

Axel, while on the search for any clues or notes that might lead him in the right direction, happened upon a metal panel in the carpeting.

"Look," he said, pointing at it.

"What is that thing?"

"Only one way to find out, Eddie."

Axel kicked the latch and the panel flipped open, revealing a woman along with a man in a yellow shirt soaked all the way through.

Adam. Axel said it in his head so loud he thought the words left his mouth.

Blaze had volunteered to be the first one down until Eddie came forward and she stepped aside.

Following after Eddie, Spider-Man, Axel, and Blaze, in that exact order, entered.

This room somehow beat the last one in terms of how unwelcoming it was. Harsh lights surrounded the four on all sides, no escape from the giant bulbs or the spotlight they created.

Also not helping matters, they had landed bang in the middle of Mr. X's vicinity.

Slick hair, greased back with ungodly amounts of gel. The kind of suit only stolen money could buy. A Tommy gun, aimed straight ahead. If slimeball had a place in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Spider-Man imagined Mr. X would be the face of it.

"So ya finally decided to show up, and with minutes to spare." Mr. X laughed a snorting laugh. Blaze had to squint, partly because he preferred not seeing his face, and also because the room seemed to be out to blind her.

"You're the one whose time's about to run out. You're just huffing too much hair gel to realise."

Spider-Man's quip got a smirk out of Axel. Last time he had beaten Mr. X up and left it at that, no jokes or humour before the demise, but this was not an unwelcome change.

"Spider-Man!"

The Spider wheeled his head around so fast that he feared giving himself whiplash. Suspended over a swimming pool with her arms in shackles and her bare feet hanging loose just above the water was Mary Jane, his redheaded angel. An angel even when she screamed.

"I talked you up a big game, so you'd better prove it! Nail that bastard!"

"Will do, honey!" He turned back to Mr. X. "Now, where were we?"

"My favourite part. The funeral service."

Mr. X cocked his Tommy gun and opened fire. While he laughed his head off, seas of bullets punctured the air as they flew through it.

Blaze and Axel dropped to their knees. Even Spider-Man only had enough time to fall flat after Mr. X fired a bullet that nicked his shoulder.

"Damn. We're stuck," Axel said.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Spider-Man said, and caught Eddie skating away.

Mr. X changed focus. Every last bit of lead he had, he poured into unloading at a new target. This target had moves, though, could jump to the side, veer to the right, and dived behind one end of the pool for cover.

Eddie, crouching, whispered to the man in chains above him. In some ways his back being turned made him glad. The waterworks really would have started flowing otherwise.

"Adam?" Eddie's voice cracked mid-whisper.

"That you, little bro?"

It was stupid, really stupid, but it made Eddie want to cry, his brother sounding the same after everything he went through to get to him. Every kidnapping, every threat to his life, every time when it would have been so much smarter to head home and turn tail.

"It's me, big bro. We're gonna get you out of here."

"Better do it fast. I think those piranhas are hungering for lunch."

On the other side of the room, Axel, Blaze, and Spider-Man were witnesses to the exact moment when Mr. X's heart dropped. It was the kind no camera could hope to capture intact, too pure and perfect.

His jaw staggered as his gun stopped pumping lead. Now all he had left was a weapon with no firepower and a very damp suit.

"Venom!" He leaked hair grease, pouring down in brown rivulets. "Elektra! Rocky! You get down here right now!"

"They're- they're not getting up anytime soon, man," Spider-Man said, saving them all the trouble of hearing him sputter and call out to the unconscious.

"Y-Signals! Galsia!"

It was apparent to everyone but Mr. X that he had nowhere left to go and no one else he could turn to, for he continued pleading into the abyss. Y-Signals, Galsias, Nora, Elektra, all were called, none arrived.

Blaze tried to block him out. And just when she thought the display could not get any more pathetic, Mr. X dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together.

"Please! I'll give you whatever you want! Is it money, huh? You wanna be rich, Axel? Blaze? Spider-Man?"

Spider-man and Blaze shared a look of he just doesn't get it as Axel, having enough, walked up to Mr. X.

"Please- please don't kill me! I'll do whatever you want! Give you whatever you want!" He needed only to bounce to be a ball now, curled up on the floor. From where Axel stood it looked as if the man shrank.

"Relax. I'm not gonna kill you."

Mr. X, uncurling, blinked through watery eyes.

"Really?"

Axel had a little smirk on the end of his face. Before Mr. X could figure out why, he directed all his anger, all his frustration, through a punch that crumpled his face.

"Yeah!" Spider-Man cheered. "Now that's a victory punch!"

Axel pulled his fist out and it stung. For a second he wondered who the punch had hurt more, but taking one look at Mr. X's face told him that he had come out on top.

It also told him Mr. X would not be attracting anyone like Elektra and Nora to his side anytime soon.

With what had to be less than a minute to spare, the group only had the time for a hasty rescue.

Spider-Man, getting a sharp gasp out of Blaze, clutched her by her shoulders. "What I'm about to say is gonna sound nuts, but you need to trust me as much as I'm trusting you. Alright?"

Blaze's nodding was only slightly less forceful than Spider-Man's grip on her shoulders.

He whispered the plan into her ear. Mary Jane shrieked, swung in one direction to avoid a piranha nipping at her heel.

Blaze focused her energy into a glow around her fists, but it took an extra bit of willpower, the belief that she could, to convert that energy from a blade to a bullet that broke the shackles holding Mary Jane's arms.

Then she dropped down into the vat of water with at least a hundred piranhas snapping their jaws.

In her last few moments of life, Mary Jane screamed…

…only to find herself alive, not dead, in the arms of her angel in red and blue. With her heart thrumming against the seat of her chest, Mary Jane gave her husband a light jab to the stomach.

"Gosh," she gasped, "you scared me half to death."

"But you're fully alive now. That's what matters.."

Spider-Man lowered his wife, saving the heartfelt reunion for later.

Blaze, making a gun with her hands, fired off another energy bullet for Adam's shackles. The man in freefall flailed for his life, until Spider-Man scooped his weight up in one arm, swung around by using the chain attached to the ceiling to reverse his momentum, and landed with Adam none the worse for wear. Other than his shirt being soaked through. And the area under his eyes being weighed down by tiredness.

Axel and Blaze ran over to the others in time to hear a countdown reach zero as they all stood together.

United again.

Now they could celebrate.

"It's over," Axel said, voice lowering, until he yelled in a burst of happiness:

"It's over!"

Eddie and Blaze cheered with him. Spider-Man and Mary Jane hugged each other and she held on without the want to let go again, her arms vines, tangled around the broadness of his back.

Eddie stuck his tongue out to suggest disgust, but of course, the truth betrayed the reality he put on as a front. Spider-Man deserved, like all the cool heroes, to get the girl in the end. In Eddie's mind, he deserved the world.

Axel caught Blaze watching the two before she caught him, and Blaze blinked in pleasant surprise, and Axel blushed, not her. So Nora had been wrong. He wasn't such a dolt after all.

While the lovers had their reunion, Adam took Eddie's cap and ruffled his little brother's formerly neat hair.

"So you let the little devil come with." Adam took his sunglasses off at Axel. "He get into any trouble?"

Axel and Blaze thought back. Adam's little brother had been held at knifepoint, taken hostage by an old man dressed as a bird, and almost had the pulp squeezed out of him by a boxer the size of a small house.

None of this Adam found out, because Axel and Blaze thought better about telling him and only shrugged their shoulders when he asked if they were sure.

"So, any ideas of what we're doing with that psycho?"

Mary Jane loosened her hold and gestured with her thumb pointing at, who else, Mr. X, still passed out.

"Honey?" Spider-Man asked with a tilt of his head. "You still have your phone, right?"

"Mr. X threw it in with the piranhas so I couldn't try calling anyone."

"No worries." Blaze held up hers. "Mine's still intact."

"Thanks." Mary Jane took the phone from Blaze. "Hey, aren't you cold in that?"

"Well I was planning on bringing a jacket."

Axel, Blaze, Eddie, Adam, and even Spider-Man, became idle as Mary Jane punched in a set of numbers and waited on the line. She passed the phone to Spider-Man as soon as someone picked up.

"Yeah, it's me. Listen, something's gone down in Wood Oak and we could really use cleanup…"

Eddie, a child again, let curiosity get the better of him.

"Who's he calling?" He asked, propelling his voice to carry upwards to Mary Jane.

"S.H.I.E.L.D."

"What's a S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"Not what." Mary Jane chuckled. "Who. They're the ones who can handle things from here. The messy stuff."

It almost didn't feel real. Not being needed, not having a Mr. X to take down. Home, over the course of a day, had become brawling on the streets and knocking heads together. Home was not peace and quiet.

"So we can go home?" Eddie asked, regardless.

"Yes," Axel said, wiping tears from his eyes. "Let's."

**GAME OVER.**

And that's the end, folks. Or it would be, but things haven't quite wrapped up yet. Next time, the true finale in...Postgame!