"The Hunt for the Doctor" - Part Three

 

Part Three

            Well…here we go again.

            The ape and Silurian turncoats (not that they wear coats) went by the names of “Koba” (the ape) and “Lelnon” (the Silurian). Their motive for betraying each of their own kind, as well as the peace treaty between their two species, was – believe it or not – me. Apparently, Shredder and Krang arrived in Craig’s world much, much earlier than Ryan, Yaz, Graham, and I did. And they managed to recruit the two most treacherous members of the ape and Silurian factions, just for the purpose of capturing me.

            Once again, I was brought to the Technodrome – and so was poor little Craig.

            “Let him go,” I beseeched to Koba and Lelnon. “He has nothing to do with this.”

            They ignored my plea, forcing Craig and I inside. I gave him a look of reassurance, hoping that it would calm him. But, from what I saw, the lad was plenty calm the entire time. He must’ve been through far more perilous situations than this before with Neas.

            I should mention that the Technodrome looked a lot different than when I last saw it. Sometime between now and then, it had received a massive upgrade, appearing more intimidating in design.

            This change reflected on Shredder and Krang.

            The two commanders of the Foot were more menacing than ever. Shredder’s armor was darker in style and his blades were sharper than ever. Krang’s android body now lacked the human features it had before, looking entirely automated with four arms instead of two. The belly region where he was ported had become a glass bubble that incased him with some sort of amniotic fluid.

            “Welcome, Doctor!” he greeted me, no longer from his own body but a speaker built into his android body that sounded like a cross between a Dalek and a Cyberman.

            “I see you boys got a makeover…I don’t like it,” I snapped at them.

            “Too bad,” Shredder told me, his voice much hoarser this time. “It was all made possible through a sample of symbiote, spawned by your venomous friend.” He showed me a canister that contained the same black liquid substance Venom’s whole body was made of, swirling with life and trying to get free.

            After this presentation of “Show and Tell,” Krang ordered Lelnon, “Confiscate her sonic screwdriver.” It seemed the symbiote made the living brain more intelligent – that or he just learned from past experience.

            While Lelnon took my sonic out of my coat, Koba asked in regard to Craig, “What about the human child?”

            “I scanned him, just as you entered,” Krang said. “His trinkets pose no threat.”

            I could swear I heard Craig softly scoff after Krang made that last claim.

            While Krang took my sonic from Lelnon and slotted it into his android body (no gonna say where he slotted it), Shredder operated the Technodrome to leave Craig’s dimension and go to Dimension X. Even though I couldn’t see what it looked like from the windowless interior of the Technodrome, just from the name, I assumed it to be a rather exotic place (in alien terms).

            A moment later, Craig and I witnessed a platoon of Foot soldiers escorting a team of Ninja Turtles that I’d not encountered before. They were a bit more dynamic in appearance than the ones I met in the first world Ryan, Graham, Yaz, and I arrived within the infinite D.C. And yet, somehow, they were more animated.

            “Behold, Doctor, the last of those pesky Ninja Turtles to exist in the entire multiverse,” Shredder declared. “You scoured countless worlds to find ones to help you, only to find each and every one ravaged to its core! How does it feel to know your efforts to survive the hunt for you were all in vain?”

            “They aren’t in vain,” I boldly contended. “I still have friends out there who’ll come for me.”

            “You’ll be dead by the time they find you,” Krang invalidated my assertion.

            “Dimension X is between dimensions – virtually unreachable,” Shredder said. “No sonic, no TARDIS, no friends, and no escape. Again, I ask you, Doctor: how does it feel to be utterly devoid of all hope?”

            I wanted to come up with a snarky retort…something to show him that he was wrong. But he was right.

            Without my sonic, without my TARDIS, without my fam…I was hopeless.

            “I wouldn’t sound so smug, if I were you,” I heard Craig say, right before I noticed him give a couple of taps against the chrome-tiled floor with the base of his staff. I had no idea why he did it at first, until the Technodrome was suddenly hit with a massive tremor.

            And then, a giant metal fist busted through the nearest wall!

            I later discovered that giant metal fist to have belonged to a Megazord, the Power Rangers’ humanoid battle robot. Both it and the team themselves arrived in Dimension X with tons of reinforcements that included Caesar and the apes, the Silurians, and even Venom and the Spider-Squad! All of them stormed right into Shredder and Krang’s fortress, tearing away at their Foot soldiers with assistance from the last surviving Ninja Turtles team.

            Venom did the most damage of them all, barreling through a cavalcade of Foot soldiers like they were bowling pins. He snatched one by the leg and proceeded in swinging him around like a ragdoll and swatting at the soldier’s comrades. I would’ve thought this maneuver was a bit excessive and even inhumane, if the soldiers weren’t androids that broke apart as one body smashed against another.

            The Spider-Squad and the apes utilized their combined agility, leaping and kicking the Foot soldiers every which way. Ironically, the Homo sapiens worked together, just like the Homo reptilia and Homo amphibia did. The Silurians assisted the Turtles in downing more than a few Foot soldiers – the former gunning down every one in their sights and the latter using their signature ninja prowess and weaponry.

            In the midst of the fight, I looked to Craig and asked, “What did you do?”

            “The Byzinium crystal,” Craig indicated the item at the top of his staff. “Neas gave it back to me after the war. It’s super-sonic-powered now and can bust through any dimensional barriers…like, say, the ones around this dimension.”

            If Neas were here right now, I’d hug him. But, since he wasn’t, Craig sufficed.

            We disengaged from our embrace when Venom landed with a loud stomp right beside us; a few of the chrome tiles reverberated beneath our very feet. “Doctor,” he said before spitting out the head of a Foot soldier he bit off.

            “Mr. Venom,” I responded with a smile. “Still committing to your cause, I see.”

            Venom chuckled at my reference.

            Craig was a little confused. “What cause you guys talkin’ about?”

            “I’ll explain later,” I promised him. I then turned back to Venom and curiously queried, “How did you lot manage to know exactly where we are?”

            “Our offspring – the symbiote,” he explained. “We could sense it beyond our reality. So we had the Parkers recalibrate the Collider to bring us to it…that’s how we reunited with your friends in the blue box.”

            “My fam?” I shouldn’t have sounded so surprised they were there, too, since they did succeed in bringing the Power Rangers. I didn’t see them or the TARDIS among the cavalry, so I assumed they were somewhere safe.

            “TRAITOR!” Someone roared in the midst of battle – only after the fact did I realize that someone to have been Caesar. He, Hinlema, and their ape and Silurian clans had Koba and Lelnon cornered. Neither of the traitors put up any resistance, proving to be the cowards they were when they surrendered almost instantly.

            Shredder and Krang were all who were left in the conflict.

            Fighting them proved to be a challenge for the last surviving Ninja Turtles, presumably due to this being a Shredder and Krang more powerful and vicious than the ones to come from their world. They wouldn’t last much longer, unless I came up with a plan.

            Luckily, I did.

            First, I told Venom that since Shredder, Krang, and the Technodrome itself were powered by the same symbiotic substance his body was made of, he would know its weaknesses. I had the biggest, brightest smile on my face when he told me that the symbiote was vulnerable to high sonic energy – the same type of energy that powered Craig’s little staff.

            Knowing that what I was about to have Craig do would affect Venom, I allowed him to retreat with the rest of the Spider-Squad, as well as the apes and the Silurians. As soon as they were away, I instructed Craig to tap the base of his staff against the floor – just like he did earlier – only this time with much greater force.

            The lad followed my instruction with flawless effort.

            Before we knew it, the entire foundation of the Technodrome began to fall apart from the emitted wave of super-sonic energy that rendered the symbiote unstable. Shredder and Krang dropped to their knees in agony – the latter’s android body crumbled to pieces. Within those pieces was my sonic screwdriver, which I retrieved straightaway.

            Craig, the Turtles, and I escaped the rapidly corroding Technodrome before the whole thing deteriorated into nothingness, along with the two Foot commanders, thus ending the hunt for me.

-------------------

            Once E.T. returned the TARDIS (and my fam) back to me, I worked in bringing all the allies I made in this journey back to their respective worlds. Apparently, E.T. managed to link the TARDIS with something known as the “Morphing Grid,” under the advisement of the Blue Power Ranger, Billy Cranston. This Morphing Grid was a true wonder to behold. It was twice as powerful as the infinite D.C. with multiversal energy, just with a little less potency that wouldn’t overwhelm my TARDIS.

            Craig’s world was the last that we landed in, dropping him, Caesar, Hinlema, and their clans off to give Koba and Lelnon the proper trial they deserved for their crimes against me.

            “Thank you, Craig,” I told my new friend. “You truly are amazing. Neas would be proud of what you’ve done for me.”

            “If you see him…I mean, if you see her anywhere, can you let her know that I look forward to another adventure in the infinite D.C.?”

            I didn’t want him to know how unlikely that would be.

            Neas and I followed different paths – me in time and space and Neas beyond it.

            “I have a feeling she’ll find you before I find her.” It was enough of a guarantee for Craig to eagerly accept.

            And like so, I returned to the infinite dimensional corridor with Ryan, Yaz, Graham, and E.T., unsure of whether our next destination will be back in our own dimension or somewhere else…beyond the vortex.

NEXT WEEK...

"The Hunt for the Doctor" - Part Two

 

Part Two

            Silurians. Or “Homo reptilia,” as I’d like to call them.

            I’ve dealt with their lot many times before. And, every time, I’m caught in the middle of a war between them and their counterparts, the Homo sapiens. The only difference now, here in the world of “Craig of the Creek,” the Homo sapiens were actual apes – bestowed with genetically enhanced intelligence that made them act and even talk like their human cousins. They were led by a chimpanzee named “Caesar,” who had a cold, hardened glare in his eyes that shook my soul, looking into them.

            Craig first encountered Caesar and his ape clan at the same time he first met Neas and his father, Aznavorian (who was in her “Rania” regeneration). The apes and the Silurians were victims of the interdimensional rift, randomly arriving in Craig’s world through a hole torn into the infinite D.C.

            From what Craig told me, the apes and the Silurians warred right from the start, refugees of other worlds fighting for the sanctuary of the creek. Had it not been for Neas (with a little help from Craig) and the peace he managed to bring between them via treaty, Craig’s world would’ve certainly been overtaken.

            But, now, that peace treaty has been broken. Whether it was an ape or a Silurian who broke it had been the cause of the new dispute. The Silurians were capable of peace but also treachery. As far as the apes, Craig told me how loyal they were but would have more than enough reason to betray the treaty.

            “It was an ape!” declared the Silurian leader, whose name I caught as “Hinlema.”

            “Apes do not go back on their word,” Caesar countered (even his deep, raspy voice was chilling to hear).

            “Neither do Silurians!” Hinlema hissed.

            They were about to tear each other apart right there and then in front of all the children of the creek. Luckily, I stepped in between them. “Okay, okay! It’s clear one of you has a mole,” I discerned.

            “A…mole?” Caesar grunted in confusion of the term.

            “It means ‘traitor’,” Craig translated for me. “Someone doesn’t want there to be peace between you guys.”

            “Who’d be fool enough to break the treaty?” Hinlema inquired. “Certainly not a Silurian!” That last crack made Caesar and a few other apes growl in offense, their grips tightening on their sharpened spears.

            To Hinlema’s inquiry, I reassured, “That’s what I’m going to find out.”

            “And I’ll find out with her,” Craig volunteered, firmly planting the base of his staff in the ground as he did. I can see why Neas admires this brave lad so much.

            It seemed the Silurians did just as much, considering that Hinlema said in response to Craig’s volunteering, “We trust you will find the traitor, Craig of the Creek.” She then looked at me judgmentally and added, “As for you, Doctor…your reputation has been a curse to our people. Be warned – if the traitor is not found, the fault will not lie on Craig of the Creek…but on you!”

            Her judgment was harsh but fair. I’ve failed to help the Silurians a few times in the past. There was only one I could think of that I truly succeeded in helping, but she was in Victorian London solving mystery with her wife and a potato man.

            Before Craig and I set off on our investigation, I instructed Ryan, Yaz, and Graham to take Neas’s coordinates to the Power Rangers and give them to E.T., the only other person who could pilot my TARDIS to their specific dimension. It still impresses me how that little alien can do it – in the infinite dimensional corridor of all places!

            Once Craig was alone with me, he seized the moment in asking me about Neas. “Doctor? Was Neas dying when I last saw him?”

            His question struck me with surprise.

            The best I could tell him was, “Yes, he was…if he looked the way you described.”

            Craig wasn’t too disappointed. He knew a little about regeneration when he met one of Neas’s successors – a young English brunette named “Maureen.” In fact, he brought her up when he assumed, “So, the next time I see Neas, he’ll be Maureen?”

            I merely shrugged and told him, “I guess so. I’m not all that keen on Neas’s personal timeline and where you fit in it.”

            Nonetheless, Craig understood. “It’s O.K. He…I mean, she made me a promise,” he recollected with a hopeful smile. I remembered the promise he was talking about – the one Maureen made to him after our adventure on Abydos. It gave him the reassurance he needed to continue looking to Neas as his special friend from beyond the stars.

            We suddenly heard movement within the nearby foliage. Someone was watching us. I instructed Craig to get behind me; instead, he maintained a firm stance in front of me, as if to protect me from whatever or whoever was peeping in on us. I blindly aimed my sonic, even though it wouldn’t have done much good (for one, I was surrounded by wood…yeah, I know, I really need to work on that feature).

            “Show yourself!” I challenged our mysterious watcher.

            “You would not want that,” a voice in the foliage grunted. It sounded much like Caesar’s, only twice as daunting.

            “We’re not afraid of you!” Craig warned.

            “Oh, little human…neither are we of you,” another voice said from the foliage. This one was feminine and hissed like a Silurian.

            Craig and I were tailed by two figures.

            They stepped out in the sunlight with guns pointed right at us.

            As I suspected, one of them was a Silurian while the other was an ape with a scar over his right eye.

            It was safe to say that we found our traitor…or traitors.

"The Hunt for the Doctor" - Part One

 

Part One

            Anyone who knows me well enough would realize that being hunted by some dangerous psychopaths is like a walk in the park for me. Whether it’s Daleks, Sontarans, or even the Master, I was always prepared for the worst predators. But this was literally new territory for me. This was a hunt inside the infinite dimensional corridor (“Infinite D.C.” for short).

            I initially told Yaz, Ryan, and Graham that I needed the help of the Gladiator of Gallifrey – a Time Lord fluent in multiversal (not a word, I know) matters. She (sometimes he) went by many names in association with the faces they regenerated with; but the synonymous one – the one they were born with – was “Neas.”

            I needed Neas’s help now more than ever, especially after what I discovered when I made an attempt in recruiting any Ninja Turtles in whatever dimension I could find to help. Shredder and Krang must’ve known that would be my first thought, ‘cause every dimension that we went with a team of turtle ninjas was eviscerated.

            Neas was my only hope.

            I was fortunate enough to be familiar with the inner-workings of Neas’s Type-Z model TARDIS. Aznavorian (Neas’s father) once shared the schematics with me when we were kids back on Gallifrey. Using this knowledge, I had my TARDIS make a trans-dimensional scan for Neas’s. Not exactly a quick-and-easy feat, since my TARDIS isn’t properly equipped for interdimensional travel. It takes a great deal just to reach Gallifrey within the pocket universe I put it in.

            When I did finally make contact, we saw a little boy on the monitor…a little boy who I became well-acquainted with many lives before. “Well, bless me! Craig Williams!” I exclaimed. “Been a long time since we saw each other on Abydos.”

            He cringed at me through what I assumed to be his smartphone. “Do I know you?”

            Of course, he wouldn’t have. When Craig last saw me, I was a man with puffy white hair and an inverness cape. “Oh, right,” I realized my mistake by then. “It’s me. The Doctor. Neas’s friend. Remember?”

            His little face lit on the monitor. “Oh, right! You’re the one who blew up that alien pyramid ship yesterday!”

            “You blew up an alien pyramid?” I heard the surprised Graham ask behind me.

            “Yes, I did. Now hush. I’m havin’ a conversation with an old friend.” I brazenly told him before returning my attention to Craig. “I’d really love to catch up with ya, Craig, but I really need to talk to Neas.”

            “You just missed him,” Craig told me (not the news that I wanted to hear). “We had a family barbecue at my house. He said it’s gonna be the last one he’d have there. Do you know what he meant by that? He didn’t really look so good, come to think of it. His skin was almost like it was glowing. And then there was this huge biker guy and this kid with him. And even you were…”

            I didn’t want to be rude and interrupt him as he was so eagerly explaining Neas’s whole visit – which sounded to be on the verge of his regeneration – but these were dire times. It turned out that I didn’t have to say anything, because Craig got right to the point and said, “Anyways, he told me that you’d call me for help, shortly after you guys finished the war.”

            Now it was my turn to cringe. “War? What war?”

            I realized only after the fact what war he was talking about. I heard about it in most of the lives that I met Neas in. I won’t go into the details about it. Just know that it’s a war that would continue to haunt Neas more than the Time War ever haunted me – and it seems as if I’ll have a part to play in it, sooner or later.

            “On second thought, never mind about that,” I quickly told Craig. “I’m bringin’ my TARDIS to your world right now. Just let me lock onto your location through your phone.”

            I worked my magic and materialized the TARDIS out of the dimensional corridor and into Craig’s reality. We arrived in a clearing, surrounded by forestation. Craig was standing there, mouth gaping open in awe with his phone in hand, when we stepped out of the box. As soon as he got over the shock, he opened his arms wide and jubilantly said, “Welcome to the creek!”

            “Glad to be here!” I told him before I introduced him to Ryan, Yaz, and Graham.

            “Where’s your other friend? That nice girl?” Craig asked, referring to Jo Grant (my “assistant” back in my U.N.I.T. days).

            “She’s…somewhere happy.” Truthfully, I only hoped Jo was just that. Last I saw her, she appeared to be living happily.

            Once we got past all the pleasantries, we went to business.

            Neas kept Craig well-informed on what to do in the event that I reached out to him for help. He gave the lad dimensional coordinates that he instructed him to pass over to me. “He said they’d take you to some people called the ‘Power Rangers’,” Craig said.

            Another team of childhood superheroes that Ryan and Yaz were more than familiar with. “Oh, my days!” the former cheered like a giddy child. “First, we got to meet the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, now we’re gonna meet the Power Rangers?! I had the biggest crush on Kimberly when I was a kid!”

            “It was Jason for me,” Yaz shared in his overexcitement.

            Graham, on the other hand, was a bit annoyed. “When we gonna meet real heroes, like Danger Mouse or Paddington?”

            “Ooh! I’d love to meet Paddington one day!” I professed, momentarily distracted from the task at hand. When I got my focus again, I used my sonic to download the coordinates Neas left on Craig’s smartphone (which was super upgraded to connect with Neas’s TARDIS at any time, hence how I managed to call Craig rather than Neas). “Awesome! Thank you again, Craig!” I wanted to hug him, but my fam and I were in too much of a rush.

            Not that we would’ve gotten near my TARDIS had Craig not stopped us to say, “Yeah, uh, before you guys leave, could you maybe…settle a little dispute that we’ve been having here at the creek?”

            I really didn’t have the time to get involved in a children’s quarrel, not with this hunt out for me. But I also didn’t want to leave Craig – a friend of Neas – to deal with a problem that I could’ve easily helped him out with. It was the least I could do after he helped me with these coordinates to the Power Rangers.

            So we followed him to another part of the creek where there were many other children – other residents – gathered for what looked to be some sort of tribunal.

            Except it wasn’t just children gathered there.

            There were also vastly intelligent apes and a species I was well-acquainted with: the Silurians.

"Into the Spider-Verse" - Part Three

 

Part Three

            Once again captured by the bad guys, I was brought to the Six’s hideout: a research facility on the far side of town, owned by Norman Osborn. There, I had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting the rest of the villainous group: another creature that was similar in nature to Venom (only more sinister-looking), a lizard man, and a man whose body was propelled by robotic tentacles like an octopus.

            “So, this is the Sinister Six,” I named them (although I believe that’s the name already meant for them). “Or is it more like ‘Fearsome Five’ now?”

            “SHUT YOUR MOUTH!” I clearly triggered the surviving goblin man, who arrived at the facility shortly after the vulture man and I had. “You killed the son that I wish I had in my dimension – fearless and vindictive! I swear I will avenge him…by killing you!”

            “We’re all for that idea!” the Venom clone backed. “We’ll sever her head from her body and deliver it to Shredder and Krang. As far as the body…well…it has been awhile since we’ve feasted.” His tongue, twice as revolting as Venom’s, oozed with delight at the very notion of eating my body. I was surrounded by psychopaths that all had it in for me, all ‘cause of a stupid bounty placed by a couple of stupid cartoon baddies.

            But one of them did put a muzzle on their bloodlust – the octopus man. “We’re bringing her in alive,” he declared. “Right now, let’s worry about getting a gateway into Dimension X opened.” He appeared to be the Six’s resident expert on interdimensional tech, using the facility’s resources (which were fluent in interdimensional properties in this dimension) to create a portal into this “Dimension X,” which must’ve been the home of Shredder and Krang…or just Krang.

            “Typical Saturday Morning villain trope,” I criticized this master plan of theirs. “I’ll escape again like I did before…with my friends’ help.”

            “The game has changed this time, Doctor,” the lizard man told me (he had a British accent of his own). “Shredder and Krang aren’t the same men as before. They’ve become much bolder versions of themselves while scouring all of the multiverse for you.”

            I scoffed, not buying a word of it. “Those two? Don’t make me laugh.”

            The lizard man only just smirked at me and told me what I already knew: “There’s a hunt out for you, Doctor. Fortunately, we beat the rest of them to the punch.”

            “Did somebody say ‘punch’?” a familiar, wise-cracking voice said right before Peter B. leaped in and struck the lizard man across the face.

            He didn’t come alone. He was accompanied by four other Spider-Men. There, of course, was young Miles Morales. And then there were the other three: a Spider-Man with a highly-detailed costume (the “webs” on it were third-dimensional), a Spider-Girl dressed in a white-hooded costume (complete with turquoise ballerina slippers), and a Spider-Man in an armored costume.

            That third one recognized me somehow, as he swung over me and shouted, “Nice seein’ ya again, Doc!” Perhaps we met at a time that I haven’t yet experienced? That was always the case (particularly with my wife, River Song).

            Venom arrived with the Spider Squad. This must’ve been the team he was referring to. Together, they engaged in battle with the remaining members of the Six – except for the octopus man, who was busy putting the final touches into his dimensional portal. I made a move to stop him with my sonic, but it only attracted his attention.

            He had one of his robotic tentacles snatch me by the arm I intended to use the sonic with and hoist me up a few feet off the floor. “Now, now, Doctor,” he taunted me. “Shredder and Krang warned me about your sonic tech, so I took the liberty of making my machine ‘sonic proof’.”

            “But is it spider proof?” I heard Miles ask.

            I didn’t see him anywhere in sight…and neither did the octopus man…until the sneaky lad materialized near the machine, having cloaked himself. He then short-circuited it by merely putting his hand against it, unleashing some sort of electric charge (I had no idea he could do that!).

            The effect created a power vacuum within the lab, sucking most of everything into the portal, including the remaining members of the Six. The whole ordeal gave me flashbacks to a time in one of my previous lives I’d rather not go into for this narrative.

            Anyways, I was nearly sucked in myself, had it not been for good ol’ Miles.

            Venom shut down the machine, pounding it to scrap metal with his bare hands, trapping the Six within whatever dimension they went to.

            After all the excitement, I heard the TARDIS engines reverberate through the area and witnessed my oldest friend’s arrival there, bringing Ryan, Yaz, and Graham. “How were you able to pilot the TARDIS?” I asked them on the very rare circumstance.

            “E.T. got us here,” Graham told me.

            That little alien is just full of tricks. ^_^ <--Me proud face!

            I thanked Venom and the Spider Squad for their efforts in stopping the remaining Six members and promised to return each of them (minus Miles) to their respective dimensions.

            But this was all far from over.

            If what that lizard man told me was all true, even the part about Shredder and Krang being “much bolder” than before, then I was gonna have to take the fight to them to end this interdimensional hunt for me.

            And I was gonna need help…I was gonna need the Gladiator of Gallifrey!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO BE CONCLUDED IN...

"Into the Spider-Verse" - Part Two

Part Two

            If you’d told me that I’d wake up this morning (assuming that I have mornings to wake up to…or that I wake up from anything) and stand face-to-face with the ugliest alien creature that I’ve ever come across, I would’ve figured that’d be saying a lot from someone who’s seen Zygons and Sontarans, among many alien races.

            But this “Venom” (as it called itself) was different…an interesting different.

            In one second, he was a man named Eddie Brock. In the next, he was a hulking eight-foot creature with white eyes, razor sharp teeth, a long disgusting tongue (that’d make even Gene Simmons blush), and slimy black “skin” that pulsated.

            Peter and Miles fought it just as it manifested from Brock.

            My fam and I were right in the thick of it, dodging debris that dislodged from portions of the ravaged Collider equipment that Venom hopped all his massive weight onto while clotheslining a swinging Miles. He then took poor Miles by the leg and flung his body at Peter, who attempted to swing in with a kick towards Venom. The two Spider-Men collided and crashed to the floor.

            With no one else left to oppose him, Venom set his sights on me (for some reason). He then leapt my way and snatched me, carrying me out of the chamber and away from the subterranean levels of the city. I could hear Graham, Yaz, and Ryan protesting until their voices deafened in the distance.

            They sounded scared. I never liked hearing them scared like that.

            Venom brought me to the top of the Queensboro Bridge. I gotta admit the view from there was breathtaking. And I would’ve enjoyed it better had it not been for the monstrous alien beast that decided to have a private conversation with me.

            “We’re not gonna hurt you,” he established first and foremost.

            “Well, that’s reassuring,” I said in all seriousness (with a hint of sarcasm). “How ‘bout tellin’ me now why you picked this cozy lil’ spot for us to chat – so far away from my friends?”

            “You saw why,” he said, referencing the brief scuffle he had with the two Spider-Men. “In their world, we’re the bad guy. But, in our world, we’re not. Eddie helped us to see that we can be better than who we were before. Now we’re gonna prove that committing to a greater cause.”

            “Oh, yeah?” I tried not to sound too cynical. “And what’s that?”

            “Saving your lifffffffe.” His long disgusting tongue slithered for quite a while, and he hissed, too (I could smell the putrid mix of chocolate and…tater tots? Did he or Brock eat them both at the same time or one after the other?!).

            The urge to vomit crept up my esophagus, but I managed to keep it down. “Alright, I catch your drift…Blimey! Do I catch your drift! So, if I may ask, Mr. Venom, what is it that my life needs saving from?”

            “There’s a hit out on you from a couple of creeps named Shredder and Krang.”

            I shouldn’t have been so surprised. The samurai and the stomach brain possessed interdimensional technology. So, of course, they’d come after me. “And lemme guess,” I told Venom, “There’s a ‘handsome reward’ for whomever brings me in – dead or alive – first.”

            “Correct,” Venom confirmed.

            This certainly brings back old memories of the Pandorica. (Loooong story!)

            “But we will protect you, Doctor,” Venom vowed. “With our help, the Six will not come anywhere near you.”

            “The Six?” I reiterated the enigmatic group name, hoping that Venom would elaborate.

            Thankfully, he did.

            “That’s what we call them. Six enemies of Spider-Man from six different realities and times. When Shredder and Krang discovered our plan for protecting you from the Six, they looked into Spider-Man’s history and gathered the worst of his adversaries to thwart us.”

            It all made sense, except for one thing: “But they’re the enemies of Spider-Man, not Venom. Why would they gather nearly all of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery just to stop you alone?”

            “Because we are not alone.”

            It took me a bit, but I finally began to understand what he meant. The “we” he was referring to wasn’t just him and Eddie Brock. They were part of another team – one consisted of heroes to oppose the mercenaries Shredder and Krang organized.

            Before I could question Venom more about it…

            BOOM!!!

            A fiery explosion erupted near us, taking out part of the top platform of the Queensboro Bridge that we stood on. Momentarily rocked by it, I recovered fast enough to see two green goblins rocketing through the air on jet-powered gliders. One was dressed in a metallic suit of armor (complete with a goblin-designed helmet), while the other was a goblin in genetic form (mutated with pale, patchy green skin and stained teeth).

            Venom was able to lunge onto the glider of the suited goblin, pummeling him and damaging his glider until he was forced to retreat. Meanwhile, using my sonic, I managed to disable the mutated goblin’s glider, causing him to lose control of it. Unfortunately, he crashed it right alongside the bridge. His body flew right off it, tumbling across the platform where I stood until it stopped at my feet.

            Getting a closer look at the mutant goblin, I realized that he was a young man (about Ryan or Yaz’s age). From a distance, his grotesque mutation made him appear much older. I did my best to try and save his life, but due to his complex, mutated biology, there was nothing I could’ve done.

            Before he died from his wounds, he gravelly told me, “There is…no escaping…from…the Six.”

            I only knew this young man for less than a minute. He seemed like a bold and yet foolish soul. His warning was intended to intimidate me; but, if he lived long enough, he would’ve discovered that I was not so easily scared.

            I am, however, easy to abduct.

            That’s exactly what happened while my attention was still on the goblin kid’s dead body. Huge steel “talons” clamped down over my arms, lifting me off the platform and high – very high – into the sky. As the night wind whipped my hair all about, I gazed up through the golden locks partially obscuring my view to see my abductor: a man in an aviator-styled exo-suit, equipped with a winged, detachable steel harness that allowed him (and, by extension, me) to fly. I couldn’t get a good look at his face, since it was hidden beneath the equivalent of a flight helmet.

            He hauled me off to parts unknown – or presumably the lair of the Six. I could almost see Venom watching helplessly far back in the distance, clinging to the side of the Queensboro Bridge.