#10 - Fear
"Symbiosis"

By John Stevenson

The headlines swirled through Spider-Man’s head, more and more murders. Since his meeting with the Monster Hunters on Friday night, there had been seven more murders involving brutal beatings and missing brains. It was now Sunday night. Venom’s patience was wearing thin, he wanted Spider-Man and he wanted him soon.

The Monster Hunters had thus far held to their end of the bargain. They had managed to round up an anti-symbiote arsenal that included flame-throwers and sonic guns, as well as variants on those two weapons which included grenades, mines and even a temporary holding cell that emitted an ultra-high sound frequency and whose walls were formed of a plasma which had all the same physical properties as fire.

The only thing they were missing now was Venom and that created a small problem. Spidey had an eerie feeling that if he simply swung around for long enough the monster would find him with little trouble. However, that wasn’t at all convenient. In order for his plan to work, Spider-Man had to find a way to get Venom to a pre-determined location.

The wall-crawler released a web-line and fired another one. He could see his destination just up ahead.

Peter Parker, the man behind the mask, had come up with a plan to draw out Venom. The simplicity of it was what made it beautiful. The easiest way to meet with someone was to leave him or her a message, and that was just what Spider-Man intended to do.

A few more weblines, and Spidey would reach his destination.

J. Jonah Jameson rubbed his temples as he resisted the urge to shout in a blind fury. Normally, he would have done just that, but considering there was no one in the room it was a moot point. As a matter of fact, there were very few people on the floor. On a Sunday night, most were at home enjoying the last few hours of their weekend before the new week started.

While it was true that JJJ was a workaholic and that in the past twenty-five years of his life he had probably spent more time in a newsroom than in his own home, even he would have liked to be home with his wife on this particular night. Unfortunately, the recent murder string had created a media frenzy and the aging publisher was forced to work overtime to compensate for the incompetence of his own staff. He sometimes wondered how this many buffoons had come to be in his employment.

If only overtime had been the extent of the publisher’s problems, but he had much more on his mind. For one, although it seemed no one in the media was willing to say it out loud, the party responsible for the recent murders was surely Venom. A creature that had wanted JJJ dead for several years.

In addition to the stress of being the possible target of a psychotic murderer with superhuman powers, JJJ also had something else he would have liked to get off his chest…

The Daily Bugle publisher stood from his desk and walked towards the door to his office, a set of pictures in hand that he intended to make his photographer eat. As he reached for his door, Jameson heard a gush of wind through his open window followed by the unmistakable sound of someone clearing his throat.

He turned to face a man clad in red and blue. Most people probably would have been startled by this, but the publisher of the Daily Bugle had become accustomed to these drop-in visits by a certain wall-crawler.

“On your way out flat top? On your way back bring me a cup of coffee. Two creams, one sugar, please,” Spider-Man quipped as usual.

“What do you want?” Jameson said trying his hardest to plaster on his trademark scowl. He half-succeeded.

“Business as usual, huh, cigar breath? Well, it’s just as well, I don’t want to stick around too long. It’s a nightmare getting that cigar stench out of my spandex. Anyway, back to the point. I need a favor. I need you to print this in tomorrow’s paper. Preferrably front page.”

Spider-Man reached forward and handed Jameson a picture. The publisher took a look at it and nearly swallowed his cigar. The picture was one of Spider-Man in his old black costume on the roof of a church.

“What the heck is this supposed to be?”

Spider-Man’s tone became serious, “A message.”

Jameson stayed silent for a moment. He understood perfectly.

Spider-Man began to worry. He wasn’t quite sure how to interpret the man’s silence. It would be easy for him to refuse to publish the photo.

“I’ll do it.”

Spidey came close to letting out a sigh of relief, but caught himself just in time. “Well, looks like you might be getting wiser with old age after all, brush head.”

Spider-Man turned to jump out the open window, but was stopped by the publisher’s voice over his shoulder.

“Don’t pull anything stupid, wall-crawler. I don’t want to see any innocent people getting hurt. Nobody had better lose a father or a husband because of your shenanigans.”

Spider-Man threw himself out the window with a suspicion that he had been having a lot lately, “He knows.”

“Mr. Parker!” a voice called from down the hall.

Peter spun around and saw a middle-aged Pakistani man walking towards him.

“Hello, Mr. Dall. How are you?” Peter said as friendly as possible.

“I’m just fine, thank you. Where may I ask are you off to?”

Peter became slightly nervous. “I was just on my way home, Sir. It’s 5:30.”

The man laughed and slapped a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “I know that Mr. Parker, but since you’ve started working here, I don’t think you’ve ever left here on time. Then again, I can probably count on my ten fingers the number of times you’ve gotten here on time as well.”

Peter laughed uncomfortably.

“In any case, it’s good that you’re off to see your wife and baby. I just wanted to tell you that I’d like to speak to you one on one when you get the chance. Make an appointment with my secretary at your earliest convenience. Have a nice evening Mr. Parker.”

“Uhhh… thank you. You too, Mr. Dall,” Peter said as he watched his boss walk away.

He would have liked to have taken the time to stop and ponder what that meant, but he had an important meeting to attend, and unfortunately it wasn’t with his wife or his baby daughter. It was with a super-powerful, psychotic, murderous creature.

That morning on his way to work, Peter had picked up the Daily Bugle. JJJ had delivered. The front page of the Bugle bore the headline, “What are the heroes doing to stop the murders?”

Beneath the headline to the left was an article written by a Bugle reporter on special assignment. To the right of the article was a smattering of superhero photos including some of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and a handful of other big name superheroes. The second largest of the photos was the one Peter had handed the publisher in his office.

The photo was taken during the night and showed Spider-Man in his black costume clinging to the wall of a very familiar church. In the top right-hand corner of the picture, a large clock was visible, the clock read midnight.

To anyone paying attention, the inclusion of a picture of Spider-Man in his black costume on the front page of the Bugle would have seemed odd, but Peter hoped that to the monster known as Venom, it would be a significantly clear message.

Peter took a cab home from work to avoid any unforeseen entanglements that might arise if he used his usual form of transportation. Upon arriving at his residence, he tried to eat, but found that he could hardly get the food down. He avoided talking to MJ as much as possible because the less she knew about what would happen tonight, the better. He put his daughter to sleep, kissed his wife goodbye and set out for the church.

Peter arrived at the holy building at 10:30 pm. The Monster Hunters were already there when he arrived. He found them setting up various pieces of equipment throughout the church, which was luckily deserted.

The one whom Peter had thought looked like Will Smith walked up to him.

“Spider-Man, everything’s almost ready. We just have a few final touch-ups to do, and we’re set to go.”

Peter looked around and saw that most of the devices that were in place were at least in part familiar to him. Most of them looked like things that had been used in the past to fight the symbiotes with a few modifications here and there.

The man before him, Peter noticed, seemed very calm and collected. He found it odd that this man who probably had little to no experience in fighting threats in Venom’s class could be so calm, while the Amazing Spider-Man who was arguably the most experienced super-hero of the modern age, had butterflies, goosebumps and probably a half dozen other symptoms of nerves.

“Do you realize,” Peter began, “That you and your men could very well die tonight?”

The Monster Hunter shrugged his shoulders. “I’m quite confident that we can handle Venom.”

While most people would have thought the man brave, Peter preferred to consider him foolhardy.

The black man fixed Spider-Man, “I haven’t heard you make any of your world famous quips yet, Spider-Man. I hope you’re up to this.”

“Only a fool doesn’t acknowledge his fears. Being afraid is being smart. And in this line of work, if you’re not smart, you don’t live very long. That one was free, but the next tip is going to cost you.”

With that Peter turned around and went up to the bell tower to assume his post.

11:30 pm.

With every passing moment, the knot in Peter’s stomach got tighter and tighter. Venom could very well show up at any minute, or he could not show up at all. The uncertainty of it all was an added stressor.

From his spot on top of the bell tower, Spider-Man turned his head for what must have been the millionth time expecting to see nothing more than a black sky. Unfortunately, Spidey was not to be allowed that privelege.

A massive black form swung in the air and landed heavily on the church roof. The darkness made it hard to discern Venom’s actual form, but his razor sharp teath, white eyes, and the white symbol on his chest made it undisputable that it was indeed the monster.

Peter shivered involuntarily. The memory of the beating that Venom had handed to him not long ago was fresh in his mind and the pain was not all together gone from his ribs. The fact that his spider-sense didn’t work against Venom added to his feeling of vulnerability. With a deep breath, Peter Parker calmed his nerves as best he could before diving into the fight quite literally.

The colorful hero jumped from the tower in a nosedive. He performed a single twist in the air which allowed him to land softly on his feet, about fifteen feet away from Venom.

“Hey, Buzzard Breath. Nice of you to show up. I wasn’t sure if the message might be a little over your head,” Spider-Man intoned trying to loosen up for the imminent fight.

“There was a time when we would be angered by your attempts to mock us Spider-Man, but no more. We are at peace with the idea that tonight you will die,” Venom hissed.

As the man-monster spoke, Spider-Man took in his appearance. He still couldn’t believe his eyes. Venom has always been among the most intimidating foes Spider-Man had faced, but this was taking things to a whole new level. If there had been lights around them, Spidey would have thought that it was a trick of the lights, but they were in darkness, and Spidey knew his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. Venom was in fact physically bigger than he had ever been. The villain was without a doubt around the 7-foot height and judging by his freakishly muscled body, probably tipped the scale somewhere near 400 pounds.

“Y’know Venom, I’m not sure what scares me the most, the fact that you’re so stupid you think that after all the times I’ve kicked your butt you’ll actually win, or the fact that you actually think you’re enlightened.”

“I hope your pathetic attempts at jokes amuse you because it will be the last happiness you know before you die,” and with that overly-dramatic line Venom lunged at Spider-Man with a quickness that was rivaled by only a handful of individuals on the planet.

Without his spider-sense, the wall-crawler was slowed by a fraction of a second. That fraction was enough to allow Venom to score a glancing hit. Spider-Man tried rolling with the blow and landed sprawled several feet away. Not stopping to catch his breath, Spidey jumped to his feet in the nick of time as Venom created a whole in the spot he had been lying with the heel of his foot.

Even though he barely knicked me, that hit was a doozy. He’s even stronger than he was a few days ago, Spidey thought.

Venom’s tongue lashed around wildly in a grotesque version of a smile. The monster fired his equivalent of a web. Spider-Man tried leaping out of the way, but once again was a fraction of a second too slow. The extended strand of the Venom symbiote – which by now could very well be the Venom/Carnage symbiote – wrapped itself around Spidey’s ankle. The wall-crawler barely avoided whiplash as he was yanked in the opposite direction of his momentum.

Spider-Man grunted hard as he hit the wall of the bell tower and proceeded to go through it. Not allowing him a moment’s respite, Venom leaped into the hole after him. Just as the monster came upon him, Peter kicked upwards with all the force he could muster driving Venom back out of the hole. Spider-Man made it to his feet and his jaw almost dropped as he saw that Venom was standing with his hands on his hips. The blow that should have ripped the thing’s head off had barely fazed it.

Peter expected the man-monster to utter some poetic phrase about his imminent demise, but it seemed that Venom was not in a chatty mood as he lunged once again for the red-and-blue clad hero. This time Spider-Man got out of the way in time, ducking the first punch and responding with a hay maker that knocked Venom off balance but did little more.

This is getting me nowhere, Peter thought, I’ve got to remember the plan and get him in position.

Spider-Man used the moment of time he had bought himself to leap over Venom and run along the church roof. To his amazement, he didn’t get far before Venom actually caught up to him and tripped him up with a “web.”

A terrible laugh erupted from Venom’s lips, “The Amazing Spider-Man is trying to flee us!”

Peter judged his position as best he could and figured he was missing another fifteen feet to get Venom in position, if he was going to do something, he would have to do it now. Venom grabbed him by the back of the neck in a massive palm and lifted him high off the ground. With a quick movement of his wrist, Spider-Man fired a webline that impacted inches from the spot on the roof where he needed to be. Summoning all of his strength, he pulled on the line and pulled himself free of Venom’s one-handed grip. Then, Peter somersaulted to the point where his web had impacted.

“It’s never that simple with me, slime breath,” Spider-Man goaded. “If you want me, you still have to come and get me.”

Finally starting to show the impatience that super-villains are reknowned for, Venom charged towards the wall-crawler. In the instant before his mass would have collided with Spider-Man, the monster was hit with a three-pronged assault. A concentrated beam of ultra-sonic energy poured forth from one of the church’s four towers, a concentrated beam of plasma came from another, and Spider-Man let loose with a monstrous hay-maker.

Eddie Brock screamed in agony as the two symbiotes that he hosted were exposed to their greatest weaknesses. Venom fell to one knee, shaking. With a great effort, the monster raised its two great fists in the air and brought them down onto the roof creating a hole, which he promptly fell through.

The leader of the Monster Hunters stepped out from behind a tower, a flame-thrower in hand. “Did we get him?”

“I don’t know,” Spider-Man responded, “Looks like I get to go check.”

Peter jumped through into the church and landed several feet below expecting to see Venom semi-conscious. Instead, he saw some debris and nothing else.

“What the--?” Spider-Man started, but was cut off by a crazed roar coming from the rooftop.

Peter fired a web at the ceiling and shimmied up it as quickly as he could. He heard, “I’m not afraid of you, you freak!” Followed by the sound of flames being discharged from a flamethrower. Swinging through the hole in the ceiling he heard the sound of machinery being ripped in half. Now on the roof, Spider-Man saw Venom holding the leader of the Monster Hunters by the neck in one hand, the other hand, a massive fist at the ready. The flamethrower lay several feet away in two pieces.

Spider-Man took a running head start before flinging himself through the air to cover the distance in as short a time as possible. Venom’s fist flew forward and connected once, then twice before Spider-Man tackled the monster to the ground. Peter acted quickly. He straddled his opponent and began ramming his fists down on Venom’s head like pistons. He had decided quite some time ago that he could not afford to hold back his strength against Venom, but now he reached for every ounce of strength he could find, raining down blows that shook the building to its foundation.

Just as Peter thought he had gained the upperhand, Venom shifted his weight, throwing Spider-Man off of him. The two opponents got to their feet again, although Peter noticed that Venom did so a little bit more slowly.

Suddenly, the five other members of the Monster Hunters burst onto the roof and encircled the face-off.

Venom laughed his terrible laugh once more. “Have you come so that we can let you join in the same fate as your friend?” he cocked his thumb back at the Monster Hunter’s leader.

Peter took his eye off Venom for the first time and looked at the man’s body. Immediately, he wished he hadn’t. Where the man had once had a face, there was an unrecognizable bloody mess. His nose had quite literally been smashed inward. If he wasn’t dead, he would never be anything more than a vegetable.

Suddenly, with quickness that took the Monster Hunters off guard, Venom attacked. He cleared away one with a back hand, another had his head smacked onto the roof and a third was kicked away like a football. Before Venom could reach the last two remaining Monster Hunters, Spider-Man managed to intervene. Coming off of a handspring, he sent both of his heels square into Venom’s chest. He followed up with a combination of punches that knocked the black-clad psychopath off of his feet. Peter then grabbed one of Venom’s ankles and began spinning. Once he had enough momentum, Spider-Man let go and Venom flew through the air and impacted with the church’s north tower.

Peter was beginning to tire, but he knew he couldn’t leave Venom a moment of respite, so he made his way to the prone form. Venom was the first to make a move. He came up swinging. Spider-Man ducked a powerful roundhouse and came up inside with an upper cut that snapped Venom’s head back. Peter tried to press his advantage and wound up to deliver another blow, but Venom’s hand shot forth like a spear and wrapped itself around his neck so tightly that it came close to crushing his windpipe. Venom pouned Peter’s head with his free hand.

Spider-Man would have liked to worry about the super-powerful punches he was on the receiving end of, but instead he was trying to concentrate on the oxygen that wasn’t making its way into his lungs. Peter’s vision began to blur and the black was creeping up on the edges of his vision.

Not again, this can’t happen again, Peter thought to himself. Even as he thought this, the part of his vision that he could still see through was getting smaller and smaller.

I’m sorry, MJ. I’m sorry, May, Peter thought as his vision went completely black.

Then, the pressure around his neck loosened and finally stopped all together. Spider-Man fell to his knees and breathed in the fresh air in long ragged breaths. After several moments, his blurred vision began to return. He looked up and saw Venom’s huge form, two feet away from him, his hands where his ears should have been. The two remaining Monster Hunters had managed to muster enough of their wits to get a sonic cannon working. Even though it was taking two of them to operate it, Spidey was glad they were able to do it.

Venom crouched low and swung his arms back. Spider-Man recognized the action. He was about to split. Like a spring allowed to release, Venom’s knees straightened and his arms swung forward, the momentum carrying him into the air. He was six feet off the rooftop when a webline snagged his ankled, halted all of his forward momentum and brought him crashing back down. In a heartbeat, Spider-Man was on top of him, he went back to his previous strategy of raining down blow after blow. The sonic cannon still hadn’t let up. With every passing moment, the air filling Peter’s lungs brought him more and more strength. As he continued his pounding, he noticed that Venom’s muscles were limp. He slowed his assault for a moment to regard his opponent. He could have sworn that Venom had actually gotten smaller.

“Keep pouring it on,” Spider-Man cried out as he jumped off Venom and made his way to one of the weapons left behind by the unconcscious Monster Hunters. He grabbed a sonic grenade in one hand and a large futuristic looking gun in the other. He tossed the sonic grenade at Venom’s prone figure. The combined assault of the grenade and the cannon delivered the desired effect.

Venom cried out in agony and as seconds passed the blue-black costume he wore began to flow with life. Soon it rippled over him like the sea during an angry storm. Finally, the costume took on a form apart from that of Eddie Brock’s. The waves subsided as the symbiote began to tear away from Brock’s body. Spider-Man was now certain that Brock had gotten ridiculously smaller since the beginning of the fight. In addition, he could not be sure if it were a trick of the starlight or not, but the blue-black Venom symbiote seemed to now be purplish in color.

The symbiote tried to escape from its weakened host, but without a person to sustain it, it was not strong enough or fast enough to make a decent get-away.

Spider-Man fired the futuristic looking gun. A red bolt erupted from the muzzle. When it struck the fleeing symbiote, it exploded in a flash of red that blinded everyone for a fraction of a second. When they could see again, the symbiote was encased in a reddish-tinted prism that it could not seem to escape.

Peter Parker exhaled heavily having not noticed he had been holding his breath. It was… over? The sound of whooshing air hit Peter’s ears almost a full second before his brain could process what was going on. In an instant the church roof was buzzing with men in black suits as an aircraft hovered above.

The Monster Hunter who had been firing the sonic cannon ran up to Spider-Man and grabbed his right hand in a firm handshake.

“Thank you for your help, Spider-Man, we couldn’t have done this without you,” he said heartily.

“What’s going -,” Spidey had begun when his Spider-Sense buzzed. A jolt stung his right palm and coursed through his arm until it wracked his entire body with pain. The consciousness that Spidey had fought so deperately to keep just minutes before, slipped away from him.

When Spider-Man awoke, it was morning and his wife was leaning over him. Through his grogginess, Peter wondered if maybe the whole thing had been a dream, but as soon as he moved, he knew it had not been. His body ached in places that had not been created to feel pain.

“MJ, where are we?”

“We’re on a church roof, Tiger,” she said soothingly.

“What are you doing here?”

“I got worried, silly. I’m so glad you’re okay,” MJ said hugging him tightly. Maybe too tightly for his aching muscles.

With a great effort, Peter made his way to his elbows and returned her embrace. Not for long though. He needed to make his way to his feet and figure out what happened.

MJ began explaining, “When I got here, I saw you lying here, and I saw Eddie Brock over there.”

Peter observed the church roof and saw all the damage that had been done to it. There were holes, scorch marks and blood evenly distributed. On his feet now, Peter used MJ as a crutch as he made his way towards Eddie Brock’s body. He knelt and felt for a pulse. The man was alive… barely. The symbiote was gone, Brock’s physical condition was precarious and Peter feared that his psychological condition was far worse.

A stain of dried blood, larger and darker than the others caught Peter’s attention. He recalled the Monster Hunter that had died without showing any fear, and still Peter refused to call him courageous.

“Fear’s the only thing that keeps us alive,” Peter said aloud.

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