Venomous

chapter 10: fire

Summary:

Tony fights for Peter.
Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text
Tony stared at the black mass of... whatever in front of him. It had Peter inside of it... it was using him as a host. Something like that, anyway. It made Tony sick just to think about. He had to get his kid of out there... NOW.

He paused. Did he just call Peter his kid AGAIN? Tony shook his head. No time to worry about what he was calling his ki—THE kid right now. First, he needed to save him.

"Where's Peter?" Tony demanded. He needed to be 100% sure that Peter was inside that weird ass mass before he tried anything. He didn't want to hurt him.

The symbiote began to pace the floor, its tongue flipping around in the air. Tony scrunched up his nose. Why the hell had Peter gone near this thing in the first place?

"Why should I tell you?" It replied.

Tony was just about done with this. "Hm, because I ASKED, and if you don't tell me, the fine people of this church are gonna have to scrape your sorry gooey ass off the wall." He growled.

The symbiote laughed softly. The sound made Tony's skin crawl, and he was beginning to regret not letting Strange come along with him.

"Oh, you don't want to do that, Mr. Stark."

Tony hated the way its voice sounded like Peter's. He could hear bits and pieces of the kid in there, the way it called him 'Mr. Stark' in the same way Peter did... it made him angry. Only the kid got to call him that.

Okay, that wasn't true. But that THING sure as hell wasn't allowed to use Peter to talk to him. No way.

"Mhm, and why's that?" Tony demanded, clenching his fists tightly.

The thing suddenly lashed out, growing about twice it's previous size and throwing itself towards Tony. "BECAUSE HE'S MINE!"

It shot a piece of itself at Tony and sent him flying into the wall behind him. Tony grunted and his mask came down. Now it was time to get serious.

Tony and the symbiote both flew out of the bell tower and into the air. Of course, the symbiote couldn't actually fly... so it tackled Tony midair and began trying to rip his suit open. Tony almost laughed.

He pointed his repulser at the thing and fired at its head. It screamed in pain as it was torn apart, and Tony got a glance at Peter's brown hair underneath. "Peter!" Tony yelled, wondering if the kid could even hear him.

If he could, he didn't respond. The symbiote grew back around Peter and his hair disappeared from view.

Tony reaches up and wrapped his hand around the thing's neck, not wanting to hurt Peter. They both lost their sense of direction and went crashing through the roof of the church.

"Fuck!" Tony cursed as he was sent flying to the ground, the symbiote had its hands around his neck and was on top of him.

"You have no idea what you are dealing with. I am VENOM. I am a symbiote. My power is BEYOND your world!"

It had some of itself wrapped around Tony's wrists, pinning him to the ground. And Tony had to admit, the fucker was strong. Tony didn't have time for this, though. And he didn't CARE that it was from outer space. He had dealt with aliens before. This asshole was no different.

"Listen, PAL," Tony growled, turning his hand to face Venom. "I don't care WHAT you are, or WHERE you came from... But if you mess with Peter..." He blasted it with his repulser again. "YOU MESS WITH ME!"

The symbiote, apparently called Venom, quickly backed away after being hit with the blast and swung itself up into the rafters of the church, trying to regain its composure.

Tony smirked. He had found its weakness. "Not a fan of fire, huh?" He asked, spotting a piece of wood that was on fire. He picked it up. "Okay, I can work with that."

He used the wood to set one of the pews on fire and then picked it up. He flew up to the rafters and brought the pew down on Venom with all his strength. The symbiote screamed, trying to get as far away from the fire as possible.

"No! Nononono!" It began to sink down and used itself to move Peter out of its skin and away from the fire. Peter hung upside down, still stuck in Venom's goo.

Tony saw the kid, who seemed relatively unharmed and sighed with relief. But it was strange, was Venom... protecting Peter? Did it move Peter out of the way of harm of the fire?

Peter's eyes began to flutter open, and he glanced around, confused. He looked up and saw that he was covered in Venom. He began to panic.

"Peter!"

The young hero looked to his mentor and his eyes lit up with hope, but he was still terrified. "Mr. Stark- MMF!" Venom used itself to cover Peter's mouth and to keep the boy silent while it tried to deal with the fire.

It tried to pull Peter back up into itself, but Tony wasn't having it. He reached up and grabbed Peter's wrist and pulled. He wrapped his arms around the kid's waist, unwilling to let Peter be taken from him again.

Peter's eyes were brimming with tears as Tony fought to get the symbiote off of him.

"LET GO." Tony demanded slowly, darkly. It scared Peter to see him so angry. Was he mad at Peter for not telling him about Venom? Would he get rid of Peter once this was all over? Would he take away the suit again? Peter's head was swimming.

"NEVER!"

Tony scowled and blasted at the symbiote again, but it avoided the blast and Tony cursed under his breath. He then looked from the symbiote to Peter. This idea was crazy, which was why it HAD to work.

Tony held his hand up and pointed the repulser at Peter's head. "M-Mr. Stark?" Peter's voice was small and scared and it broke Tony's heart, but this was the only way to save the kid.

"I said let go." He told the symbiote.

Venom stared at Tony. "You're bluffing."

"That a risk you're willing to take?" Tony replies.

Venom hesitated. It didn't want to let Peter go, but if Tony hurt the kid, then it would hurt Venom, too. He had to protect them both. He released Peter from its hold and suddenly Peter gasped, as though in pain.

The fire grew bigger, and a large rafter collapsed on top of Venom, trapping it. It cried out in pain as the fire made it to its body.

Tony held Peter close to his chest and blasted quickly out of the church. He found the nearest roof and landed, gently setting Peter down, but still holding the boy in his arms, afraid to let go.

Peter opened his eyes and looked at Tony and Tony looked at Peter. They stared at each other for a moment and when Peter finally opened his mouth to speak, Tony cut him off by engulfing him in a hug.

It surprised Peter at first. Tony had never hugged him before. This was... new. And Peter liked it. He wrapped his arms around his mentor's neck and held on tight.

He began to shake, allowing himself to cry into Tony's shoulder. "I-I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." He cried.

"Shh, it's okay, bud," Tony replied softly. "It's okay..." he looked back over to the church. The firefighters had arrived and were beginning to put the fire out. The smoke climbed high into the sky and Tony relaxed a bit knowing that thing was still trapped inside.

"It's over."

Notes:

NOT THE LAST CHAPTER!