A/N: I hope everyone's having a good new year so far.
Chapter 3-3
The Night Before
"That Spider-Man, I swear I'm going to kill him. He says he is my friend and that he is doing this so he can protect innocent people and then he goes and does this to me? He robs a fucking bank!"
"Eddie, we are just as frustrated as you are. The spider betrayed us. It is time to make him pay."
"No check he writes up will ever make up for this. Nor how much blood he spills or anything else."
"Then why don't we squash him like the bug he is and become him? We can be the Lethal Protector of New York City."
"Yes, let's do that. Let's kill him, DESTROY him until not a single cell remains, and then we become him. That'll be the best way to piss on his grave. We won't leave him alive because leaving him alive will come back to bite us on the fucking ass."
"And what about the cat."
"Fuck her, forget about it. We'll worry about David and then we'll get her next."
"I didn't mean that, I mean what should we do to get around her? If she uses her bad luck powers on us, we could be separated."
"Then let's avoid her."
"We could do that, Eddie, but I have a better idea. Are you ready to bond with me, on a PERSONAL level?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You and I are bonded, yes, but it is not permanent. If I'm separated from you in a dangerous situation, we both could die. But I have a solution."
"Go on."
"Let me bond to you on a DNA level. When this happens, no matter what, if Black Cat uses her bad luck powers on you, then I may separate from your body but I will be able to grow a new body over yours."
"I didn't know you could do that.'
"It's an innate ability in my family. But each ability is different and I haven't had the time to test out this kind of ability."
"On a human?"
"On anyone."
"Oh well, first time for everything. Bond to my blood and we'll go after the spider."
"Okay then. Let me make a wound on your tongue real quick. Say 'ah'."
Present
Mercy is reserved for those who deserve it.
Spidey leaps for Kraven, who jumps out of the way, but Spidey reaches out, grabs him by the hair, and yanks on him. Kraven grabs Spidey and throws him back. Spidey lands on his feet and skids to a stop. He looks up and charges for him. Kraven frontflips out of Spidey's path and Spidey collides with a Demon.
Spidey and the Demon fall to the ground, where Spidey quickly rips out a chunk of cement out of the ground and hammers it down on the Demon.
Spidey webs an empty car to him and tosses it at Kraven. Kraven jumps out of the way and holds his hands in surrender.
"Spider," Kraven calls, "I do not wish to fight you in a public place with so many people."
Spidey jumps on Kraven, who catches the spider and bodyslams him. Spidey kicks him in the chest and sends him flying back. He lands inside a jewelry store and breaks a glass counter. Spidey picks himself up and stares for a moment before his spider-sense goes off.
There's another car of Demons coming his way.
Coming around the corner was Felicia Hardy, who slowed to a stop after seeing the Demons, and quickly winked at them.
All four traffic lights at the intersection turn green. The Demons barely had any time to stop in time as a police car crashed into them.
One of the Demon cars made it through the intersection unscathed and the four Demons ran up to Spidey, each one wielding a glowing weapon.
The first two Demons come at him with glowing swords. Spidey webs their faces up and tosses them into a pawn. Both men survive but do not get up for a while. The third and fourth Demon had a whip and brass knuckles respectively.
The Whip Demon stops ten feet short of Spidey and holds his hand back. Spidey web-yanks the Ax Demon towards him and puts him in the path of the Whip Demon's whip. The Demon is cut in half like a knife through clay and falls apart. Spidey leaps into the pawn shop and spots a junction box behind the counter to his right.
"Hey, whipper, I've been wondering something. Is your whip extra long because you're compensating for something?"
The Whip Demon launches the whip at Spidey. He ducks and the whip hits the junction box. The junction box electrocutes the Demon and causes the negative energy on the whip to flash on and off like strobe lights before the Demon collapses and the whip returns to its normal color.
Interesting.
The recovering Demons wielding the swords recover and charge at Spidey from behind. Without looking, Spidey webs their faces once more and webs their sword hilts to their hands. Spidey grabs the first one and leaps to the ceiling, taking the Demon with him, and impales the sword through a lightbulb, letting go of his enemy at the very last second to avoid getting shocked. The Demon gives off a muffled scream as he's electrocuted and the glowing negative sword returns to its original color.
Just one more little test.
The last Demon rips the webbing off his face and charges for Spidey. Spidey web-yanks a taser from a display case to himself and tases the Demon in the chest. The Demon goes down but the negative light in the sword remains.
Electricity, huh?
Spidey grabs the glowing sword and touches the light on it.
Huh, I'm making physical with the glowing sword, yet, I'm not being corrupted. This means… for Mr. Negative to corrupt people, he is the one who has to make physical contact; anyone under his influence can spread the corruption.
Spidey decapitates the Demon before him and blindly throws the sword at Kraven the hunter to his right. Unsurprisingly, Kraven catches it by clapping his hands and catching it by the very tip.
Kraven drops the sword. "Spider-Man."
Spidey turns toward him. "Don't even think about using Talk-no-Jutsu on me."
"I was going to say that we should not fight in public with innocent people. But here we are, in a store, with no innocents around."
"Yeah," Spidey nods, "let's do it. Let's kill each other."
Kraven's an interesting fella. He wants to kill me, to hunt me, yet, he won't put innocent people in danger. If he's unwilling to fight in a public place… then I can use that against him. Or, at the very least, I can use innocent people against him.
"No…" a new voice comes through. "We want him firssst."
Spidey looks ahead of him and flinches. "Wow," He eyes his new opponent up and down. "Nice to see you again."
"We…" Anti-Venom steps through the front door, "will… kill… you."
Spidey eyes both Kraven and Anti-Venom.
Kraven the Hunter and Anti-Venom, my two strongest opponents, fighting me at the same time. It could make for the fight of a century. But I'm smart enough to know I can't take them on at the same time. That's why…
"Kraven, do you want to give me a hand here?" Spidey looks at him. "After all, I am the apex predator you want to kill but how can you kill me when this guy killed me?! Where's the honor in dying by your sword if I'm killed by him?"
Kraven draws his knife. "I suppose, Spider."
"Plus, you know I won't kill innocent but Negative Venom is a different story. If he kills an innocent person, that's on you."
Kraven waves his sword. "Da."
"Traitor…"
Spidey and Kraven lunge for Anti-Venom.
Anti-Venom punches Kraven without looking before catching Spidey by the throat and throwing him out of the store. Spidey crashes into a cab and picks himself up. Anti-Venom leaps on Spidey and pushes him against the cab. He holds Spidey down and punches him a few times. Spidey endures the blows before breaking his left hand out and punching Anti-Venom in the jaw. Anti-Venom flinches from the strike and Kraven throws a sword at the back of Anti-Venom's head. The sword impales him and exits through the space between his upper lip and nose but he's still standing. Spidey hammers his fist into the side of Anti-Venom's face and sends him flying to the side. Anti-Venom picks himself up and rips the sword from him, his face regenerating to its original look.
Spidey dodges the sword Anti-Venom throws before tendrils yank him to Anti-Venom. Anti-Venom wraps his hands around Spidey and bodyslams him. Spidey kicks Anti-Venom in the groin, making Anti-Venom gasp in pain. With the symbiote crying in pain, Spidey launches him off of him by kicking him in the chest with both feet. Spidey retreats some and keeps a distance from Anti-Venom. He looks behind him and sees Felicia Hardy hiding behind a wall. She looked ready to use her bad luck powers on Anti-Venom before Spidey held his hand up.
Can't risk Eddie being outed in a public place.
Anti-Venom lunges for Spidey, who barely misses and feels Spidey kick him with one foot into a cab. The cab launches into the air and would've crushed a bystander had Kraven not jumped in and pulled the old man by the last second.
An old man with white hair and black sunglasses (Stan Lee) looked up at his savior. "Thank you, young man."
Kraven looks at him. "You're in the wrong place at the wrong time, old man."
"Yeah, I get that a lot." The old man retreats from the area.
Spidey and Anti-Venom grapple each other in the middle of the street and Anti-Venom delivers several more punches to Spidey, hitting him square in the face. With his arms pinned, Spidey grits his teeth.
In slow-motion, Spidey headbutts Anti-Venom's incoming fist. Anti-Venom's first bounces off and the symbiote winces a little.
I've always been a little hard-headed.
Spidey quickly looks up at Felicia, points to himself, and nods.
Felicia smiles and winks at Spidey.
A gargoyle overhead disconnects and falls in Spidey's direction. Spidey punches Anti-Venom before leaping out of the way. He web-yanks Anti-Venom forward by three feet and the gargoyle crashes on the symbiote's head. The symbiote winces and backhands Spidey into a garbage truck.
I can't have my beloved kitty use her bad luck powers on Anti-Venom without risking his identity being outed, but... if she uses her bad luck powers on, then I can push Anti-Venom into whatever disaster that was supposed to happen to me. It goes without saying I have to be careful; my spider-sense may not alert me of any danger from Venom, but it will from other environmental dangers and THAT is where I win.
Spidey removes himself from the garbage truck and keeps his eyes on Anti-Venom as he stalks him. His spider-sense goes off. Anti-Venom lunges for him and Spidey leaps into the air. A semi-truck abandoned by the driver at the very last second strikes Anti-Venom and crushes him against the wall. Spidey lands to the ground and helps the driver to his feet and urges him to run off.
Anti-Venom pushes the semi off of him with one hand and runs for Spidey.
A fire hydrant bursts from the ground launches into the air, and is about to fall on Spidey's head. Spidey leaps back as Anti-Venom is going to grab him and the fire hydrant hits Anti-Venom hard on the scalp. The symbiote loses its coordination for a second but still goes for Spidey. Spidey continues to leap back until he crashes through a window of a store selling stereos, speakers, and music equipment. Anti-Venom uses a tendril to yank a taxi to him and throws it inside.
Spidey leaps off the wall and dives through the cab's open windows. The cab crashes through the wall and into a kitchen belonging to a neighboring store. Gas leaks out of the fuel tank and heads for the propane.
Spidey's senses warn him of the fire about to break out.
"Aww, you got me a taxi cab for my birthday, how kind of you. But now, I want to give you something, Venom: my apologies."
Anti-Venom growls and clenches his fists. He stomps into the store and blocks the only exit.
Come on, Venom, just a little closer.
Anti-Venom lunges for Spidey faster than he could react and grabs him by the throat. This time, instead of punching him, he hammers Spidey into the wall like a ragdoll. He holds onto him takes him through the hole in the wall and goes over to the stove where there is a pot of boiling water.
Come on, blow up already.
Anti-Venom slams Spidey down on the stove, which is still burning, and grabs the pot of boiling water. Anti-Venom holds the pot over Spidey's face and begins waterboarding the vigilante. Spidey closes both his eyes and mouth behind the mask and does his best not to breathe.
A lightbulb from the ceiling falls and lands on the leaking puddle of gasoline. The lightbulb makes a spark, causing the gasoline to light up near the cab's fuel tank and a propane tank.
Checkmate.
The kitchen goes up in flames and engulfs both Spidey and Anti-Venom in flames. Anti-Venom howls at the top of his lungs and releases Spidey as the flames hug him like an annoying younger brother. Spidey escapes Anti-Venom's grip and rushes out of the kitchen and back into the stereo store. His suit catches fire and climbs up the fabric, reaching his shoulder and turning Spidey into something of a walking ball of fire. Spidey leaps into the stream of water left behind when the fire hydrant bursts out of the ground and puts out the flames.
After jumping over the stream a few times, the flames finally go out but not without giving some damage to his costume. Though some of his skin was shown through small burnt-off patches of his suit, there was no visible damage.
Experience has taught me that whenever I go into a burning building, no matter how careful I am, I'm going to get burned. That's why I made my suit resistant to fire. It can still burn but only during extreme heat exposure and for a long period.
Spidey turns and web-yanks more of the wall off of the kitchen so Anti-Venom can see the stream of fire. Seeing that fire was beginning to consume Anti-Venom from all over, Spidey quickly shoots two webs at the symbiote and yanks him over to the water stream.
"And don't say I don't do anything for you, Venom," Spidey proclaims aloud as the water douses the fires on Anti-Venom. "If you have any reservations, I'll be at the power station on 31st Street. I'll be hanging around for about an hour or so. If you're going to follow, try and keep up."
Anti-Venom looks at him, his left eye peeled away to reveal half of Eddie's face, his eyes still glowing pitch black.
Spidey looks over to Felicia and nods to her. Spidey leaps into the air and swings off, Anti-Venom following close behind.
Felicia stays behind and observes the damage to the kitchen and stereo store.
"I didn't mean to cause a fire," Felicia tells herself, "after all, kitties don't like playing with fire."
Looking to her left, she sees Kraven the Hunter pulling several people out of an overturned cab. When he finishes that job, he just... leaves. He leaves the area without saying a word.
Felicia stares after him before heading to a motorcycle someone left behind when the shooting started. The bike was still on and she quickly got on. She revs the bike up and heads for the power plant on 31st Street.
Spidey swings across multiple skyscrapers as Anti-Venom follows close behind. Spidey keeps looking over his shoulder every now and then to try not to drop his guard around Anti-Venom. He was still cursed with bad luck as debris started to fall from whenever he was swinging but he would always trick Anti-Venom into getting hit by the debris first. Once he was sure that his bad luck curse wore off, Spidey picked up speed on swinging for the power station he mentioned earlier.
If electricity rids things of negative energy, then I gotta zap Venom with as much electricity as I can.
Spidey makes it to the power station and lands in the center next to a control panel. Spidey looks back and spots Anti-Venom landing behind him. Spidey clenches his fists and backs away.
The environment around them has several power lines and power poles stationed throughout and evenly apart with several high-voltage fences and gates warding unauthorized civilians away.
There are two things I can do right now: I can shock Venom and risk a power outage or I can hold out and have Felicia use her bad luck powers. Right now, I think I should shock him. As long as I keep the collateral damage around the power lines to a minimum, then the city should be fine.
Anti-Venom punches Spidey before he can react. He hits Spidey several more times and pushes him into a wall belonging to a building with a sign on the front door saying 'Employees Only'. The good news was that there was a junction box to Spidey's left.
Anti-Venom pushes Spidey harder against the wall and prepares to hit him again when -
Spidey punches the junction box and electrocutes himself and Anti-Venom. Spidey winces and forces his eyes open to see what Anti-Venom's reaction was... and he wasn't surprised; Anti-Venom was barely showing any reaction to the electricity... but his color was flickering between white and black like a light switch.
Anti-Venom pushes Spidey through the wall and launches him into the small building. Even though he was no longer touching the junction box, it still took Spidey half a second to comprehend his situation. He manages to adjust his body as he is thrown and lands on his feet. They were now in some kind of room with several monitors and bookshelves.
That junction box didn't have enough juice to finish the job.
Anti-Venom steps through the hole he just made. "Hurtsss, doesssn't it?"
"Well, you know me, Venom: I've always been a sucker for pain."
"Then it'sss win-win for both of usss."
I gotta get him back outside.
Spidey and Anti-Venom collide with each other and exchange punches. Anti-Venom grabs Spidey by the foot and throws him around like a ragdoll. He hammers the hero into the ground like a sledgehammer before spinning around and tossing him into the closest wall. Not giving the vigilante a chance to recover, he leaps after Spidey and drives both of his knees into his chest when he makes contact. Landing on top of him, Anti-Venom rips a computer from the wall and hammers it into Spidey's face.
Spidey punches a hole through the monitor on the third strike and uses a web to web-yank himself away. Anti-Venom chucks the computer at Spidey like a dodgeball, who manages to dodge it. He heads for the bookshelf and throws the entire thing at Spidey. Spidey leaps over it, web-yanks it while it is still in the air, and tosses it back.
Anti-Venom makes an X with his forearms across his chest and absorbs the force of the thrown bookshelf. The bookshelf collapses and Anti-Venom growls.
"You should put more power in your attacks, Venom."
"Nah, we're afraid if we do, you'll fall asssleep on usss."
Spidey chuckles. "I'm insomniac."
"Maybe we ssshould tessst that theory."
"Let's do that, big boy."
"Hey gentlemen, is there room for a threesome in here?"
Both spider figures turn to see Felicia climbing through the hole the duo made earlier. She bats an eye and looks at Anti-Venom. "I'm a lonely little kitten looking for my owner; will you be my owner?"
She winks at him.
The symbiote sinks into itself and reveals Eddie. The symbiote leaps off of Eddie's body and lands on the floor, returning to its normal black color before crawling over to Spidey.
"Hello, my old friend." Spidey dips his hand into the incoming symbiote and it bonds to him, preparing any damage to his body and returning him to a familiar black suit. "And here I was thinking that black was out of style. Except on lovely kittens, of course."
"Black suits you, Spider," Felicia chuckles. "Don't you agree, Eddie?"
Eddie slowly opens his eyes and exhales deeply. His eyes wander for a bit before landing on SPidey. Almost like a mother recognizing her long-lost son for the first time, he gulps before smiling. "What, you thought that by forcing the symbiote off of us, you'd beat us?"
One moment later, goo seeps out of Eddie's mouth like a spider crawling out and spreads down his face. It travels down his neck and covers his body before making him Venom again. He wasn't Anti-Venom until a few seconds later when the black goo took on a glowing white hue.
"What?" Spidey blinks behind his mask, "how is that possible?"
"Sssimple, Ssspider... we ssshare a clossse bond with each other."
"Obviously. Any chance you can stand still so I can punch your lights out?" Spidey notices something.
Even though the symbiote on Eddie returned to its negative energy, it appears that the symbiote bonded to me isn't. I also can't hear Venom's voice in my head and it doesn't appear like Venom has any control over the symbiote on my body. If he did, he would've used it against me already. Not only that... but how did Eddie regenerate a whole new symbiote on his body? So many unanswered questions; I can only hope some of them can be answered with a mouth rinsed with a fist.
"Funny, we were going to asssk you the sssame thing."
Spidey launches himself at Anti-Venom and they wrestle once more. Anti-Venom grabs Spidey by the hands and kicks him over a table, knocking over a few monitors. Spidey stands up and assumes a fighting position.
"Man, Venom, and here I was thinking you put power behind your punches."
Anti-Venom swings at him. Spidey dodges and using the same attack, kicks Anti-Venom through the wall and outside. Anti-Venom picks himself up as Spidey closes in on him.
"Hurtsss, doesssn't it?" Spidey hisses.
Anti-Venom cocks his head. "Well done, Ssspider, you're finally ssspeaking our language."
"Ooh, I've always wanted to be multilingual."
Spidey launches two webs at the walls around the hole, catapults himself forward, and delivers a double front kick to Anti-Venom's chest. He absorbs the blow before catching Spidey by the neck. This time, Spidey breaks out of his grasp and punches the symbiote. The symbiote reels back and hits Spidey in the stomach. Spidey shoulders into Anti-Venom's stomach and trips him on his feet. Anti-Venom fires tendrils at Spidey and traps him like a fly in a web. With a burst of raw strength and a war cry, Spidey breaks out of the tendrils and continues to fight Anti-Venom.
Anti-Venom punches Spidey in the face with all his might and goes in for another strike. Spidey catches his fist with one hand and flips the giant being over. Spidey steps back as he shoots more tendrils in his direction, missing them by half an inch. Spidey backs away and makes sure that he is standing behind an electric fence before calling out to Anti-Venom.
"You know, they say the suit makes the man. And you're no man at all, Venom."
Anti-Venom looks at him. "You're right... we are not a man at all. We are sssomething elssse, sssomething better."
"Then prove it. You're strong and everything but you have no power behind your punches. Why don't you come to me with everything you've got? how about that."
As Spidey speaks, the symbiote on him leaps off, shrivels up, and dies on the ground. Spidey watches the being die before remembering his opponent in front of him. He looks up at the very last second to see Anti-Venom jumping for him.
Spidey launches himself into the electric fence and takes the full effects of the electricity. He screams for a split second before holding his hands out to fire a web at Anti-Venom. Unfortunately, the electricity fries his web-shooters and renders him helpless.
"Nice try, Ssspider."
If you think this is a good try, wait till you see this.
Spidey quickly lifts his mask and shoots a line of webbing from his mouth at Anti-Venom. He catches the creature by the chest and the electricity travels along the web and shocks Anti-Venom.
Anti-Venom screams and claws at his head. It looks up at the sky and screeches, like an alien calling for help from above.
Spidey removes the end of the web from his mouth and attaches it to the spider symbol on his chest. He looks to several overhead power lines in the area and shoots two more lines of webbing from his mouth and the power lines, making sure to hit the conductors and pull the webs out of his mouth before he could be electrocuted. He now had three webs on him: two connected to two separate overhead powerlines traveling down the web, shocking him, and a web attached between his and Anti-Venom's chest, electrocuting both of them.
Anti-Venom's color begins flickering once more between white and black and even as he collapses to his knees, Anti-Venom could not pull the web off his chest. It continued to look in the sky and give a cry of anguish that seemed to echo all over New York City before he returned to his normal black color.
Spidey releases the webbing from his hands before removing himself from the electric fence. "Venom."
Venom collapses on his side and rolls on his back. Looking up at the sky, the Venom symbiote shrinks into itself and reverts the being to Eddie Brock once more.
"Eddie," Spidey calls out and kneels beside him. "Eddie." He hones in his senses and... "Your heart is still beating, Eddie. Come on, Eddie, wake up." He puts his ear to his chest to count his heart rate. "Your heartbeat is about 90 beats per minute; you're okay man." Spidey looks around and sees Felicia finally coming out of her hiding corner.
She approaches Spidey and kneels beside him. "How is he?"
Spidey removes his mask, becoming David once more. "He's alive."
"Good." Felicia rubs her chin. "If we call the police or ambulance, there's a chance he could turn to Venom in public."
"And we need to be sure that the negative energy in him is all gone. We need to get him out of here."
"Any chance that you can carry three people at once, Spider?"
He looks at her. "I can always make room for you, kitty." He looks down. "But first... now that everything's calmed down... I must wonder... how in god's name did this all happen?" He looks to her once more. "Why did Yuri betray me, where did Kraven go, and where is Silk?"
"We'll find her soon enough," she assures him.
"I know we will. I'm going to take Eddie here to the safe house. In case he gets to any ideas, I'll set something up so he can't go anywhere or attack."
"Good."
"And I'm sorry to say kitty, but I won't be able to carry you web-swinging. besides, you got here on your own so you should be fine."
"Harsh, Spider."
"But true."
David puts on his mask and throws Eddie on his shoulder. He pulls up his suit by the front to pull out a spare Spider-Man mask and puts it over Eddie's face to conceal him. "I'll see you at the safe house. Stay safe, kitty."
"You too, Spider."
With Yuri 2
When the emergency services finally arrived at the scene, including ambulances and firefighters, Yuri 2 sat back and leaned against a police cruiser. She takes out her cell phone and dials up a certain individual.
"How's it going, M?"
"what's the situation like downtown?"
"A lot of collateral damage. Companies are going to be spending a lot of money to repair these damages."
"Maybe I'll spare some money just for the sake of publicity."
"And you should. Also, the surviving Demons said they saw Spider-Man and Venom fight. That means..."
"Everything is going according to plan. It's time to move on to the next phase of the plan."
"I'm excited."
"And what of your brother."
"He left."
"His loss."
"What is the next phase of this operation, M?"
"Jameson and Peletier. Time to take them down once and for all. But to do that, we're going to need a distraction... a BIG distraction."
"Don't worry, M, I'm sure you can think of a distraction."
Mr. Negative laughs on the other end. "I already have."