Issue #43 (April 2018) Written by JD Mathis Featuring:
Scorpian
Carnage
Clash
Shocker
"Chaos in the Motor City"
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
For what seemed like hours, three high-tech aerial velocity attack crafts, or H.A.V.A.Cs for short, remained cloaked high above an old set of industrial warehouses. Inside each of them housed what seemed like a small army of heavily armed mercenaries awaiting orders that would soon come from the lead aircraft.
In the lead aircraft, a large muscular man known only as Slate stood in front of a holographic display screen staring at the men in front of him. “All right listen up, cause I am not gonna go over this a second time,” he shouted at the men and then turned his attention to another bald man to his side. “You’re up Gargan.”
Mac Gargan, known also as the deadly Scorpion, moved to the side of the screen so everyone could see the information that would be coming up on the main screen as well as the screens on the other two aircrafts. “Our target is located here in the middle of this warehouse,” he said pointing at the screen. “Heat signatures say we have one humanoid target located within the complex.”
“Humanoid?” one of the soldiers asked a bit confused.
“Yes, as in not quite human but still human enough,” the bald man standing to the opposite side of Gargan stated. “Shut up and listen.”
Once everyone was quite Gargan went back to what he was talking about. “The rest of the surrounding area is clear of any unwanted eyes. This is our target,” Gargan then switched to the next screen that revealed a holographic image of the symbiotic mass murder known as Carnage. For a brief moment, everyone besides a select few went silent as they stared at the image before them. “Carnage. Most of, or probably all, of you have heard of him at some point, and everything you have heard is correct, he is as dangerous as they come.”
“How do we know it’s actually him?” someone from the back asked.
“Because I tracked him here,” replied Gargan. “Before I was the Scorpion, I was a private detective and a damn good one, but even an amateur could track Carnage if they looked for the right clues to follow. There have been about a dozen missing person cases and half of them have turned up dead over the past several months. Anyone else would have chalked it up to normal Detroit crime rates, but it was the over fifty missing animals that told me Carnage was here,” explained Gargan. “Bottom line symbiotes like Carnage need to feed and life force straight from the tap are the best way to do what needs to be done.”
Slate stepped forward and took control of the confined space. “We’ve deployed sonic screamer pods and flame wall generators around the parameter of the building Carnage is currently located in as a last line of defense should he try and escape,” explained Slate. “You've all been equipped with sonic cannons and flamethrowers. Two of the things we know that can harm a symbiote more than anything else.”
“Three groups will surround and come in from all sides of the building,” Gargan continued as he motioned towards the building lay out for everyone to see. “Work as a unit and taking Carnage down will be a piece of cake.”
“And remember we want to symbiote the meat sack it’s attached too isn't important,” Slate stated. “Take is down,” commanded Slate.
With the order given the three H.A.V.A.Cs began landing on different sides of the building. The hatch doors hissed open and out poured the mercenaries who began moving into position and awaiting orders.
As Slate watched for a moment, Gargan walked to a metal container and placed his palm against it releasing the pressure locks. As the door slid open and upward it revealed a heavily armored Scorpion suit inside.
“Poor saps don't even realize there nothing more than cannon fodder,” Gargan said as he stepped into the armor. Once inside the armor began to close around and lock into place.
“With the money they were paid up front I'm sure they aren't gonna ask many questions partner,” a man with a southern accent commented as he and another man walked in front of the aircrafts entrance ramp. “Them boys just wanna earn a paycheck.”
“Clash, is everything in order?” Slate asked.
“Systems have been calibrated and triple checked,” answered Clash as he tapped the data pad on his wrist gauntlet. “A sonic sound barrier is currently being generated around the building. With the special noise cancellers I've supplied everyone with it won't affect us but it'll give Carnage one hell of a headache once it's fully activated.”
Slate was silent for a moment, with only a slight grin on his face as he stared at the building in front of him. “Good,” he finally said as he began walking forward. “Time to turn up the music and disturb the neighbors.”
SOMETIME BEFORE THE ASSAULT STARTS
Inside the old abandoned warehouse, the born and bred redneck serial killer known as Cletus Kassady laid in his makeshift bed with dreams or murder and mayhem dancing in his head.
It hadn't been that long since his last tussle with another of the so called super heroes that ended with him almost gutting the guy before fleeing to Michigan for a bit of rest and relaxation. A few murders here and there along with a couple dozen animal mutilations and Cletus felt like he had made himself at home.
As he slept, the reddish black tendrils that belonged to his other half the alien spawned symbiote could be seen moving around its hosts skin and wriggling in the air as well. The organisms heightened senses could tell something was not right in the air tonight.
“Hmmm what's this?” Cletus questioned as he began to awaken from his peaceful slumber. His eyes opened slowly and yawned for a moment as he sat up.
“Well what do you know,” he said to his other as he took the can of opened Red Bull and guzzled it down while scratching the mop of red hair on the top of his head. “Looks like we got us some company,” the reddish black tendrils of the Carnage symbiote began to make their way around and over the body of Cletus Kasady covering every inch of him.
“I guess we should be neighbor like and welcome them with open arms,” Cletus said as the symbiote covered his face in Carnages horrifying mask of that's what one would call it. Razor sharp blades formed at the end of Carnages fingers as he extended his arms outward and stretched for a moment.
Once he smothered the flames from the small fire he had made earlier, the room became dark once more besides the occasional beams of moonlight that shined through the cracks in the buildings rooftop.
“And heeeere weeee goooo,” Carnage said with a slight evil laughter as he disappeared into the shadows.
OUTSIDE THE WAREHOUSE
Slate, flanked by Shocker and Clash, stood by with the heavily armored Scorpion behind him and watched as the troops of heavily armed mercenaries surrounded the building. Once in position they awaited their orders.
“Clash turn up the volume and let's see if we can't catch us a psychopath,” said Slate. He then motioned for the troops to move in and begin the assault.
Tapping away at the gauntlet on his wrist Clayton Cole aka Clash activated the sonic generators that he and Shocker built which not only created a barrier of sonic sound waves around the building but also pumped the warehouse full of Sonics which the symbiote hated.
“Sonic emitters are up and running,” stated Clash.
“Alright boys let's have us a bit of fun,” Shocker said as he and the others began following the others into the warehouse.
Inside the warehouse Carnage was eagerly awaiting his newest play things to come on in for them to play when all of the sudden his other half began to writhe in pain from the sonic emitters pumping deadly sound waves into the building.
Several soldiers had already made their way into the building and they were the first to be greeted by a cornered and hurting Carnage. A deadly combination in its own right.
The razor sharp blades weapons Carnage produced slid into the men's bodies like a hot knife through butter and then after a moment out again splattering blood over the surrounding area.
“Contact on the right!!”
Sonic blasts erupted into the air.
“Two men down!!”
Streams of flames illuminated the darkness.
“Target sonics on the right!!”
Men could be heard screaming to their teammates as they tried to cover each other's backs and fight off the attacks by Carnage.
Fighting through the pain of the sonics Carnage continued to move through the shadows of the building like a shark swimming through water to get to its prey. From above a group of four men tendrils slithered down from the rafters and around the men's necks. As they tightened small razors formed and began cutting into their necks severing the heads from the men's bodies instantly. Blood sprayed the immediate area instantly. If one could see in the dark they would see the tongue of the super powered serial killer flick out and catch some of the blood like a child would catch a snowflake savoring the experience.
Carnage would usually smile as he savored each and every blood-curdling scream but at the moment the pain was starting to get to him as his other half was being weakened.
“Let's turn the party up a notch,” Carnage said as he swung down, snatched a soldier from the ground, and took back into the rafters. The man's screams for help were soon muffled as part of the symbiote filled his mouth smothering him instantly. “And what do we have here?” The homicidal maniac asked as he searched the man's combat uniform. “Oohhh boy party poppers!!”
Taking a couple of the grenades from the soldiers vest Carnage pulled the pins and launched them outside the building and with some kind of sadistic luck they landed towards one of the sonic emitters.
BOOOM!!!!
“One of the emitters is down!” Clash exclaimed as the alert sounded on his wrist gauntlet.
“Time to get our hands dirty boys,” said Slate as he charged the sonic cannon he carried. “Get ready,” he said as they moved into the building.
The inside of the warehouse was a bit more illuminated thanks to the fires that had been created from the soldiers flamethrowers. Dead mercenaries, body parts, and blood could be seen in all directions as the flames flickered across the shadows.
“I reckon Carnage is all warmed up for us now,” Shocker quipped as he stepped over what he could only guess was what remained of a human leg.
“Warmed up for what?” Carnage asked as he slithered from the shadows his long tongue sliding over his razor sharp teeth. The reddish black symbiote flowed over his body like liquid armor as tendrils of all sizes wriggled in the air.
“For us kicking your ass and taking that blob back to our boss,” Slate replied as he took aim.
“Fun,” was the only thing Carnage said as he leapt up into the air. Streams of blades shot forward in a wild and chaotic pattern of attacks. Some were meet with sonic attacks coming from Slate, Shocker, and Clash. While others struck the armored body of Scorpion.
“You alien freaks aren't so tough if you just do a little homework,” Slate commented as fired a shot that knocked Carnage to the ground but not before he fired a blade that sliced through the gun after the shot was taken.
Tossing the weapon to the ground Slate rushed forward and met Carnage head on, punching the alien creature multiple times in the face and body. Carnage fought back punching, kicking, and clawing at the man before him. However he soon noticed that no matter how hard he tried to claw and cut into his opponent no blood was drawn.
“No blood, no fun,” Carnage could be heard saying between attacks. Two streams of symbiote webbing shot forward, attached to Slated legs, and with a quick jerking motion pulled his attacker to the floor.
Just as Carnage was, about to pounce down and go for Slates eyes with razor sharp finger extended a combination of sonic and sound waves shot through the air.
“Press the attack, Shocker!” Clash could be heard yelling as he smashed his hands together once more.
“Scorpion, get ready!” Shocker yelled as he released a massive wave of vibro energy towards the target.
Carnage screeched in pain and leapt into the air in order to dodge the oncoming attack. He was caught off guard as the armored Scorpion who held on tight as they crashed to the ground tackled him in midair. Once on the ground Scorpion dropped his two massive claws like a hammer onto the psychopath. As the claws were about to come down once more the symbiote shot forward and pushed the heavily armored man off of itself.
As Scorpion slid backwards, Slate leapt over his armored compatriot the plan was to deliver a nice solid punch, however his plan did not work out as planned as Carnage sidestepped and smashed Slate with a symbiotic sledgehammer knocking him to the ground. Picking Slate up from the ground Carnage threw him at the others in hopes of creating a distraction so he could escape. While Scorpion caught Slate midair, Carnage turned to leave but was caught off guard as Clash and Shocker appeared in his way.
“Where ya going killer?” Shocker asked as the both fired a barrage of sonic and sound waves at Carnage.
Carnage shrieked in pain and grabbed his head as the symbiote began to pull away from parts of Cletus Kasady’s body in order to escape the pain. The two men kept pouring on the attacks causing the symbiote immense pain and the man inside even more pain as his other half tried to tear itself free from Cletus's body.
“NOOOOO!!” Carnage screamed and lashed out wildly trying to slash and claw at anything that he could get his hands on at the moment.
“The alien slimes starting to give way” commented Slate. “Scorpion you know what to do. You guys get the containment sphere ready to use.”
“Gotcha boss,” Shocker said as he used his head to motion for a few of the surviving men to bring a large containment device closer to the action.
Scorpion walked towards the screaming Cletus Kasady, the large tail of his armor raised into the air and in a blink of an eye movement, the tail shot forward, the stinger piercing the back of its prey's neck and injecting a super strong sedative that could bring down the Hulk.
For Carnage time seemed to slow down to crawl and the world around him began to spin uncontrollable. Within seconds, he passed out cold on the cold dirty floor, the symbiote still being bombarded by sound and a sonic attack tried to escape but was quickly captured in the containment sphere. Stopping his attack Clash typed in a series of command codes into his gauntlet, locked the pressurized clocks in place, and activated the sonic dampeners with in to keep the symbiote dormant and contained.
“Well?” Slate asked.
“Everything's working like it was designed too,” Clash replied as he checked the readouts on the sphere.
“Good, get this thing on the craft and secured for transport,” Slate ordered to Clash and a few remaining soldiers. “I wanna get this freak back to the blacksite and locked up.”
While Clash and the soldiers moved the containment sphere out of the building and to the transport carefully, Slate and the others stood outside the building looking over the chaos and destruction left behind them.
“Shocker take some of the men and get the emitters gathered up and back on the transport,” ordered Slate.
‘Good work gentlemen,’ a voice said over their com units. ‘Expect a sizable bonus in your accounts.’
“Now that's what I like to hear,” Shocker commented.
“You and me both buddy,” Scorpion said after the mouthpiece retracted from his helmet. “Drinks are on me when we get boys.”
‘That's going to have to wait Mister Gargan,’ the voice continued. ‘Clash and Shocker take the transport and accompany the package back to the secure site.’
“Yes ma'am,” Clash replied as he waited for the others to board the transport.
‘Slate take the second transport and join me for a debriefing.’
“Right away boss,” replied Slate. “What about Gargan?”
‘I have a special assignment for him,’ the voice replied. ‘Scorpion first I want you to level the area and burn it to the ground. No evidence can be left behind. Understood?’
“I read you loud and clear boss lady,” replied Scorpion.
As he turned to board, the last transport the voice continued in his earpiece separate from the others. ‘Once that is done, you are to follow the coordinates I'm sending you and meet up with the others for a special mission briefing.’
“Nice seeing the old man getting his hands dirty again,” Scorpion said with a smirk as his armor opened up, releasing him from it once again. “Even if it is without the goblin shtick,” he continued as he locked the suit in place and closed the hatch.
‘That maybe but I've come to learn that Mr Osborn has proven to be far more dangerous now that he is thinking completely clearly,’ the woman's voice commented before going quite once more.
“Makes you wonder how he got his head so cleaned up of the spider webs?” he asked himself aloud as he fired up the H.A.V.A.Cs engines.
Gargan pondered that same question for what seemed like forever here recently. Ever since he was approached and recruited by Norman several months ago, he began to wonder what changed in the old man's head. He feared the answer but the detective in him could not help but wonder.
Lifting into the air Gargan placed the aircraft in invisibility mode and then locked onto the warehouse and released several missiles that demolished the warehouse and set everything ablaze at the same time. When he was satisfied that nothing would be left, he took off towards his next mission.
While Gargan took off for places, unknown two things were happening nearby the warehouse.
One a lone figure stood in the shadows watching the fire consume the warehouse through a pair of binoculars. His facial features hidden by the shadows and mask that concealed him from any one that may be looking from below and above.
“I missed them again,” he said displeased at himself and the situation.
Taking out a cellphone, he dialed 911. “Yes I would like to report a fire down at the old warehouse district. My name? Yes my name is,” he didn't answer and just ended the call.
Dialing another number as he walked away he quickly connected with the local airport. “Yes I would like to book a trip back to New York on your earliest flight,” he said as he disappeared into the shadows.
And two unbeknownst to anyone else a tiny piece of Carnages symbiote had separated from its host and slithered its way into a nearby sewer grate and was soon swept away into the darkness.
Not the end, but only the beginning. To find out what happens to Carnage make sure you check out coming issues of Amazing Spider-Man. And more on the mystery figure coming soon to the pages of Max 2000!