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.
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