Gotham Spider

Chapter 23: Venom

Matt's arm began to distort itself. The black from inside his veins began breaking out through his skin and began engulfing his arm. The substance latched onto him and made an ungodly noise that sounded like his bones were snapping and his arm was extending into a thin, boney clawed arm. The rest of the substance began to burst out of his body through some scars he had, especially from the hole in his chest. His back began to twist and pop as he himself grew the extra few feet to match the 9 foot stature of the Venom monster. His neck bulged a bit as the black slime began flowing out of his mouth, congealing around his mouth to actually make a twisted mouth of black razor-like teeth.

His eyes dilated as they then turned black and the substance began oozing out from behind his eyes. As if he was crying while this transformation was occurring. I then noticed that Matt's spine seemed to burst out of his back from how the monster suddenly had spines growing out of its back that matched a spinal column. His legs snapped and bent in unnatural ways as they seemed to extend into thin stalks that the monster stood itself up on. The monster was soon standing in front of me in my own apartment. A new set of veins appearing to form a twisted spider on the front while the head mutated to include a twisted set of eyes. The monster made that gurgling noise as it stared down at me. It tilted its head to the side, as if it was confused as to who I was. It opened its mouth, a black snake like tongue slinking out of the black abyss of teeth and going towards me.

Is this thing trying to scare me? If it is...It's kind of working.

The monster snapped its head to the side and saw the red and blue of my Spider-Man suit. It looked back at me and made a screech that was inhuman at the least and purely demonic at the worst. It shot a tendril out of its chest that threw me out of the window and out onto the street. Venom jumped onto the street, towering above me as the light from the street lamp shone down upon it. I tried to move back, but Venom stretched its arm out at me rapidly, pinning me to the ground and holding me there. It got its face close to mine and I began to panic, trying to find something I could use to defend myself. I felt a manhole cover and I knew what to do with it. I used my powers to stick my hand to the cover and with a swift yank, I ripped it from the ground and hit Venom across the face with the cover.

Venom seemed disoriented for a moment, but a moment was all I needed to run back into my apartment and quickly put my suit on. I used one of my newer gadgets, the concussive blast on Venom. I was hoping that this Venom still has the weakness to sound that the normal Venom has. My fears were soon realized as Venom was only flinching slightly from the blasts themselves. Other than those reactions, there was no actual disruption to its form. If anything, I think I just pissed Venom off. Venom screamed at me and sprouted arms and hands from its back that it used to carry itself away at a high speed. I could barely get another glimpse of it before it was gone.

Barbara came through on my mask, looking concerned at how I was cut up from greeting the street with my face through a window. Basically, I was cut up and bruised.

"What happened to you?" She asked, adjusting her glasses to see if her eyes were playing tricks on her.

"Venom happened. Venom...happened," I responded, still a bit shaken about what just happened.

"You saw Venom? What happened?" Barbara asked, more concern seeping into her voice.

"He's my brother," I said, still staring out into space.

"WHAT?!" She shouted, which snapped me out of my trance.

"Yeah. I'll tell you later. See you Barbara," I said as I went to disconnect the call.

"Mark! Mark, don't you dare-" She couldn't finish her statement because I cut her off. I started swinging through the city, trying to listen out for something, anything that would help me find Venom. Maybe some of Venom's screeching, maybe someone screaming about a monster...anything at all. I swung for hours, until the crack of dawn...nothing. As far as I know, my brother doesn't exist anymore...or maybe he does, but he doesn't care enough to try and control the other personality anymore. Either way...I need to find him.