Chapter Seventeen – Targets of Vengeance
"When's the funeral?" Harry asked as we walked through the campus. The wind was icy today and there was a good few inches of snow on the ground.
"March first is the plan." Flash replied as he tightened his scarf around his neck. He had taken the lead on comforting Betty and therefore had been the most in the loop about the arrangements of Ned's memorial.
"Any idea who'll do the speeches?" Liz questioned. I was shocked she could ask without her teeth chattering – although she looked great in the miniskirt and tights I'd have been freezing.
I didn't listen to Flash's response; I was on edge. Venom hadn't set off my spidey-sense so if he were to attack I'd have no warning. I looked around quickly, adjusting my crimson beanie as an excuse for my head movements. Surely Jameson wasn't Eddie's only target, so who else? Were we safe? What about his family? He definitely seemed to have it out for Spider-Man. I wasn't sure if that suit, the symbiote, could give away my identity. Steven had said that the creature could communicate with the host, but what form that took he had no idea.
We reached a fork in the path which is where Harry and I said goodbye to Flash and Liz as they went to the humanities buildings for history and architecture, whilst Harry and I headed across the cold ground towards our biophysics and biochemistry classes. We walked in silence, quietly heading towards our majors, until a small three note tone told me that Harry had got a message. He pulled his phone out and quickly looked at it, then swiped and dismissed the text. A few more seconds passed.
"Felicia and I aren't a thing anymore." He told me, still facing forward.
"How come?" I asked. "You were into her?"
He shook his head. "She was great, and funny, and honestly Pete her body-"
"Do you need some time alone?" I smirked.
"Sorry." He had a small grin on his face. "It wasn't right."
"What do you mean?"
"Her and I together at the moment." Harry said after a moment. "I'm not in the right place to date, and obviously if she can just treat Eddie like that she has some work to do."
I placed my hand on his shoulder. "That's big of you man. I'm proud of you." My phone beeped and I took my hand from Harry's shoulder and put it in my pocket, pulling it out.
"Don't get going after her though." Harry chuckled. "Otherwise you'll make me cry."
"Not my type." I replied swiping down on my phone screen.
"Yeah you like taller girls don't you?" Harry admitted. "What was Gwen? Five ten? Put you to shame bro."
"Something like that." I agreed. Had I been focussing more then I'd probably have felt a pain in my chest at the mention of Gwen. My attention, however, was on the message I had just received. It was from Cat, and just said 'i need help, meet in three hours – urgent x'. A second message came through with an address.
I turned and looked at Harry. "Can you promise me something?"
"You're not going to try and get me to stop smoking weed again are you?" He joked.
"Be careful." I said, ignoring his comment.
He put his hand on my shoulder. "I'll promise if you promise the same thing."
I nodded. "Deal."
"Good. You're not allowed to die until I have Pete, remember that." Harry said. He was referencing something we had joked about years ago, that because he was older it was his job to die first. He had confessed to me once whilst drunk that he didn't think he'd be able to handle life without his best friend, but I hadn't ever mentioned that conversation to him.
"Knowing some of the shit you get into I'll be dying right next to you." I joked. I felt better knowing Harry had at least agreed to be careful, even if he probably wouldn't follow it. I checked my phone as we entered the lecture building. Two hours and fifty minutes until I'd see what had spooked the Cat…
/\/\/\/\
/\/\/\/\
/\/\/\/\
She was waiting for me on the roof of a small building in East Harlem, near to the Harlem River. I landed on the icy room and steadied myself momentarily, then looked at her properly. Her arms were crossed over her chest and there was a definite look of anxiety on her face.
"Sorry I'm late, traffic was awful." I joked.
Her black lips broke into a small smile. "Knock it off, I'm trying to be serious."
I held my arms out semi-apologetically. "So what's up?"
"I'll show you." She walked across the roof to an open skylight and dropped down. I paused for a moment, considering whether I was breaking and entering, before shrugging and jumping after her.
The room I landed in was a mess: what would have once been a cozy studio apartment was now in disarray, with cupboards smashed and thrown everywhere, ornaments shattered, and the bedding ripped apart. A large mirror occupied the wall in front of the now feather covered double bed – the word 'whore' was scrawled on the front of the mirror in black marker. It looked as if an animal had been in here.
"What happened?" I asked, slowly turning to look round the room.
"You ever break up with a toxic ex and they destroy a hoodie of yours?" Cat asked me. "Well this is what mine did."
"Shit." I muttered.
"I'm going to trust you." Cat said. "Because I feel like I can."
I turned to look at her, and she pulled down her hood and removed her golden tinted goggles. I tried to stifle my intake of breath, and once again was happy for my mask for revealing my look of surprise, as I locked eyes with Felicia Hardy.
"Who's your ex?" I asked, waiting for the answer that I already knew.
"Complete psycho called Eddie Brock." Felicia walked over to her bed and sat down. "But there's something not right."
I followed her to the bed and leant against a shelving unit which looked like it once held a variety of busts and small statues; no doubt ones which she had stolen but were now in pieces on the floor. "I can tell." I said looking around, feigning ignorance of what Brock had now become.
"No, something really not right." She pulled a laptop from a drawer next to her bed and opened the lid. "I have a camera in here just in case, and have a look at this." She spun the laptop around and I took it. The black and white footage showed Brock kicking the door down and striding in. He looked unshaved and unkept – the last few days had taken its toll on him. He walked round the corner to the kitchen area, then back into frame, screaming Felicia's name. Upon finding that she wasn't in the building his mass suddenly expanded, the symbiote almost bursting through his skin and enveloping his body in the black mass of muscle and teeth, before going on a rampage across the apartment.
"I fought him last night." I said. "He's abducted J. Jonah Jameson from the Daily Bugle, as well as killing lots of others."
"He's going to come back." Felicia said closing the laptop case. "When I broke up with him he did some dramatic shit about 'declaring his revenge' which I thought was just big talk, but now it looks like he has the power to."
The memory came back to me: Brock confronting Felicia and Harry at the party, then storming off shouting about Jameson. I had to push the direction towards that conversation without giving away that I was there. "Did he mention anyone else?"
"Yeah, as well as me and Jameson he mentioned you, and the guy I broke up with Eddie for."
"What's his name?"
"Harry Osborn." Felicia replied. "He and I broke up this morning. He wanted a break anyway but as soon as I came home to this I cut him off completely. Made me feel like he was less at risk, you know, from Brock."
"He's calling himself Venom now." I said, sitting next to Felicia on the bed.
"What a fucking loser." Felicia sneered.
"I'll find Osborn."
"Thanks." Felicia said turning to look at me. "Originally I was dating him just to get close and steal, same as how I was dating Brock to get access to the university, but Harry is a decent guy. I wish I didn't have to break up with him."
"I'll sort him, but I'm worried about you right now." I looked at the destruction around. "Venom will be back, and he'll be angry."
"Then let's set a trap." Cat told me. "Use me as bait."
"I don't like that idea."
"Would you rather use Osborn?" I shook my head, and Felica continued. "The docks tomorrow. I'll send Brock a message, and you lie in wait."
I nodded and stood up. "I'm going to find Osborn then we'll coordinate."
"He'll be at university right now."
I nodded, then shot a string of webbing through the skylight and pulled myself out.
/\/\/\/\
/\/\/\/\
/\/\/\/\
When I reached the university, it was swarming with cops. I swore under my breath. I'm too fucking late. I made my way over the rooftops towards the building where Harry's psychology lecture was, which he had after biochemistry. As I feared this is where the biggest concentration of police were, and the quad outside the building was now filled with stretchers and body bags. I punched the building, cracking the bricks and ripping the knuckles of my suit. I breathed deeply, trying to calm myself down, then sent Cat at text: 'Osborn's gone'.
Slipping the phone away I looked back down towards the police swarming around, spying for one specific officer. After a few minutes I spotted him making his way through the crowd and into the building: Captain Stacey. It had been a while since I had spoken to him – since Gwen's death I made a point to avoid him, but this was urgent. Making my way inside the building through one of the upper windows I listened to the sounds of police, until finally finding the Captain flanked by two officers. I dropped down and both pulled their guns, aiming at me. I held my arms up.
"Captain, I'm here to help."
He regarded me carefully. Gwen shared a lot of similarities to her father – he too was tall with pale blue eyes, but his blonde hair was now mostly grey. He and I had a difficult relationship: prior to Gwen's death he saw me as a menace and a nuisance. When his daughter had died though, he had softened. He saw me as the figure who did his best to save his daughter. I had no doubt that if he knew I was the reason she was dead he would probably feel differently... I felt my thoughts turn to my feelings when I had Gwen's dead body in my arms, and wondered if soon I'd be holding Harry's.
No. Now was the time to focus.
Captain Stacey held his arms out, calming down the two beat cops with him. "At ease." He commanded gruffly. "You two go to the scene. I'll catch up."
They nodded and walked off as Stacey approached me, holding his hand out. I took it in his firm grip and shook it. It reminded me of the first time I met him when Gwen and I had just started dating.
"It was the same thing that attacked the Daily Bugle wasn't it?" I asked.
Stacey nodded. "The very same. Took off with Harry Osborn." The Captain paused. "His father took my daughter from me – you'd have thought that I'd be happy the Goblin's son is at risk, but I'm not. I feel for that kid."
"That's cause you're a good person." I told him. He nodded. "The monster is calling himself Venom. He's Eddie Brock – I ran into him last night."
"How do you know?"
"You have to trust me." I said. "He's after revenge. That's why he took Jameson too."
"I'll have people check him out, see if we can find where he's staying." Stacey told me – the statement comforted me, even if I doubted how successful the NYPD would be. Footsteps echoed down the hallway. "You'd better get out of here."
I nodded and raised two finger to my head in a salute and quickly made my way out the building. I felt my phone vibrate and pulled it out, checking Cat's reply: 'lets get this fucker'.
Song Recommendation: WHENEVER - F0URPL4Y