A Different Kind of Family

Chapter 14: A Collision

Steve watched helplessly as the beast, Venom, easily dodged his shield. He braced for impact and rolled as he finally hit the ground, already sprinting to where his shield had embedded itself in the wall. Tony was right behind him already aiming his repulsors at the beast. Venom only smiled as he swung right at Steve. The super soldier barely had time to react as he had just gotten his shield lose as the fist comes down. The blow takes him back a few feet but he's already charging at Venom again. Cap swings his shield at Venom's head and kicks the beast in the stomach. It doesn't topple Venom but it does push him back a few feet and with his attention on Cap, Tony has a chance to rapid fire at him. Venom jumps and flips around the blasts but one singes his arm. He hisses in pain as the black ooze reattaches itself back together, but not before Tony sees a flash of tan. Skin, he thinks, someones inside there. Venom screeches and flings himself at Tony as he's momentarily distracted, clawing and ripping at his armor. Tony simply spins in his suit and blasts the beast away with his arch reactor. Venom screeches once more as it gets flung into a wall. It hisses and stands back up, the hole in it's black armor crawling and stitching itself back together. It only smiles as the chest of the person inside of Venom is revealed. A science pun shirt? Was Peter wearing that this morning? Tony quickly shakes his head and goes back to fighting Venom. By now Natasha has brought the quinjet as close as she can get to the building. As Tony lands a punch to Venom's chest Thor jumps into action. His hammer comes flying past both Steve and Tony but Venom ducks at the last minute; doing a flip onto the ceiling. "What the Hell?" The three of them stand stunned for a few seconds before they come back to reality. Steve tries throwing his shield again but Venom only smiles and jumps away from it, now sticking to a wall. The beast screeches and suddenly multiple black tentacles are advancing on the Avengers. One snakes around Cap's ankle and he's yanked off his feet. Another grabs at Tony's arm and yanks at the armor while another one quickly crawls up his body. "Oh no you don't.." Tony grunts as he flies upward and shoots at the tentacle holding his arm. He then begins to wrestle with the tentacle that has now made his way up to his neck. "I don't," Tony heats up his repulsors as he gets his hands around the tentacle. It withers and burns away at the heat, "remember," he blasts another tentacle that was trying to hit him, "these things!" 

Cap grunts as he slams his shield down on the tentacle that had him by the legs, "Seems we," he dodges another tentacle as it swings at him, "didn't get," he slams his foot down on another tentacle and picks back up his shield to squish it with the others, "the memo." The two turn back to Venom who is currently fighting Thor in hand to hand combat. He swings his hammer but it's like the beast knows where he's going to hit and dodges it easily and counterattacks. Venom sees an opening and punches out his right arm but Thor quickly dodges it and brings his hammer down hard on the beasts arm before it has time to dodge. A sickening crunch is heard and the beast launches backwards sticking to the wall again. It holds it's broken arm and simply smiles as they watch horrified as the black ooze snaps it back into place and covers it once more. 

Venom chuckles, "Are you sure you want to do that, Avengers?"

Tony lands next to Steve and Thor, his face plate retracting, "The Hell do you mean?"

Venom smiles and tilts it's head, "Come now Iron Man, I thought you would have figured it out by now."

Tony's worry is only getting stronger and stronger, "What do you mean?" The panic is coming now, he can feel it. Something feels terribly wrong.

Venom only smiles wider, his tongue hanging out, "Why don't I show you?" The black ooze suddenly climbs higher and there in the middle of it's chest is Peter. The boy is pale and the black like tentacles were still sticking to him like a gum to someone's shoe. Venom only chuckles as he watches the horrified Avengers faces, "Wouldn't want to hurt Peter now, would you..?" Venom cocks his head to the side as his tiny red eyes slit even more. The black ooze slowly lowers itself back around Peter and Venom is whole again. He wastes no time and brings his arm up pressing down his two middle fingers and suddenly there's a black web sticking Tony's hand to the wall. The beast only laughs as it watches Tony yank at the string. But before Venom could do more there was a sudden flash of green and Venom was gone. Hulk roared as he beat down on the beast as they continued to break through wall after wall. Venom dug in his feet and pushes against the Hulk's fists and he lifts Hulk off the ground and tosses him to the ground. This only makes Hulk angrier and he struggles under Venom's grip. Seeing no other way out the Hulk smashes down his fist and suddenly they're both falling to the floor underneath them. Hulk wastes no time as he whips his arm around and flips Venom over making sure the beast was the one to hit the ground, not him. They land with a loud thud and Hulk is already throwing punches left and right. The Hulk lands a blow to its face and one to its chest but when he goes in for more Venom easily catches his hands. Venom only smiles as it slowly forces itself up from the crater they had created in the floor. Hulk only looks on in terror as he is unable to do anything. Venom's smile only grows as its grip on the Hulk's hands only get tighter and tighter. He tries to pull from his grasp but Venom is stronger than the last time he fought it. A flicker of fear crosses the Hulk's face as Venom squeezes with all his might on the Hulk's hand. His hands popped like bubble wrap, one after another, a sickening sound like stepping on a cockroach. The Hulk screams and falls to his knees; he had never felt so much pain before, so much fear before. Venom only smiles as he tosses Hulk aside and webs back up to where he had left his other play things. Never had the beast had so much fun before, and never had he felt so powerful before, so good and thriving with unknown energy and power. What else could they do, together? 

An inhumane scream echoed through the building as just as quickly as it had disappeared it reappeared. A raging Hulk not behind it. "Shit."

"Everything okay in there guys?" Even Natasha could feel the tension out on the jet.

"Big guys down." Was that fear she heard in Steve's voice?

"Do you guys need back up..?"

"No. Stay in the jet Nat." 

"Should I contact the others?" She just wanted to do something; she felt helpless just staying in the jet.

"I already had Friday contact them. They'll be here soon..hopefully." But before they could continue their conversation Venom lunged straight at Cap. It flung webs at him left and right as it jumped and flipped over Tony's blasts. Cap held up his shield to brace for impact but it never came. Thor had jumped straight at the beast, lighting trailing behind him as he slammed his hammer right into the beasts side. There was a loud crunch as the creature went barreling through the walls landing in a heap of drywall. The trio quickly rushed towards the fallen heap of black. "Did that do the trick..?" Tony let his face plate come up once more as he stared down at Venom.

"Don't let your guard down.." Cap slowly approached the beast; it wasn't moving. Had they done it? Was all they needed to do was give it a good shock? 

Thor simply smiled, "Nothing can beat my hammer," he flips the hammer in his hand happily as he stands triumphantly.

"We still don't know how to get Peter out of there..."

"We can lock them up until then. Don't we still have that cube we held Loki in..?"

Tony nearly smacked himself for not thinking of that first, he really needed a coffee. "Think it can hold him?"

Thor simply scoffed, "It was made to hold a god. I think it can hold a little monster."

Now it was Tony who scoffed as he rolled his eyes, "Little my ass."

"Language.." Steve looks down at Venom, "there are children present."

Steve's comment only makes Tony roll his eyes again, "I doubt he can hear us."

Steve smirks slightly and points a finger at Tony's face, "I. Don't. Care." and with that side Steve goes and picks the beast up the best he can and starts to head to the elevator. Hopefully it still worked, he did not feel like taking 29 flights of stairs to get down to the basement.