Back to GatefoldIssue #4 by Kevin Hardwick
August 2017 |
The amount of people that could be squeezed into Times Square in New York was staggering. Flash Thompson had grown up here, but even to him it was still an amazing sight. As a kid he had been to the Square several times, but never during New Year’s Eve. Confetti blanketed the sky, sparkling glow sticks littered the sidewalks, and the music from several famous performers filled the air. Depending on which end of the street you were on, you were either treated to pop or country.
Flash, currently draped in the black symbiote that mimicked basic combat armor and a mask, had a nice view of the festivities, and an even nicer view of the famous ball that would soon be dropped. It was about an hour until the magic time of night, when the scores of people below would cheer recklessly and kiss wildly. Security would be heightened, but a few extra guards were nothing to someone with the suite of abilities granted from the alien symbiote.
From atop 5 Times Square he could see only a portion of the celebration. It was impossible to guess how many people were actually packed beneath him. There was no way to know for sure where Black Tarantula’s forces were lying in wait to use the stolen pscholar technology to turn all of them into permanently obedient slaves.
Their information could even be tainted. Paladin, his handler with Silver Sable’s Wild Pack, had managed to extract the time and location of pscholar’s use from one of Black Tarantula’s lieutenants, a mercenary named Bullet. But who was to say that this wasn’t some elaborate trap? They had been hunting down Black Tarantula’s underground forces for months. It was just as likely that this was a ruse as it was legitimate.
Bullet had told Paladin that the plan was to launch pscholar on New Year’s Even in Times Square, but where specifically?
“Shouldn’t we engage the Avengers or something?” Venom asked.
His ear piece chirped a response. “This isn’t really their thing,” Paladin said. “We can handle this.”
“Sure, you’re back in the van. Of course you think that we can handle this.”
“Hey, I’ve done my share of fields ops before, kid. I know that the real work comes from support.”
“Okay, then show me some of this real work. Tell me where I’m supposed to be looking. It’s insane out here.”
“Sable’s tech guys have been looking through the schematics we grabbed,” Paladin said. “They said we need to monitor radio waves within a specific frequency to pinpoint where the thing is.”
“Won’t that mean they’ve already turned it on?”
“No, there’s a power-up sequence. When we detect the radio waves you’ll have about five minutes to move in.”
“And then?”
“Then shut it down. Or we’ll all be working for the bad guys.”
Venom wanted to laugh, but the situation was a little too dire for that. It seemed like an impossible task. He was thankful that he had gotten to spend some time with old friends the night before, taking advantage of being back in New York again. While it had been nice to catch up, he had wanted to warm them away from the city, but knew that he couldn’t. Leaking his awareness would put more people in danger and possibly tip off Black Tarantula, who was probably monitoring the situation from somewhere in South America.
He had been arguing for an op to take him to South America for a while now, but Silver Sable wouldn’t go for it. There were more pressing matters to take care of before catching Black Tarantula on his home turf. He had to admit that she was right. Getting the pscholar tech back was vital and absolutely superseded catching Black Tarantula. For now.
All of this running around the world, secret spy business and he hadn’t even seen the real bad guy face to face yet. He almost wished he was back in his special forces outfit, because at least then the operations were more up front. None of this cloak and dagger stuff.
“Look alive,” Paladin said. “I got something.”
“Radio waves?”
“Yep, and they’re coming from the big ball itself.”
Venom looked at the reflective orb that was poised at the top of another building overlooking Times Square.
“A little obvious, don’t you think?”
“Do I sound like I care? Just get moving! Five minutes! Tick, tock!”
# # # # # # # # # #
Paladin adjusted the camera mounted on top of the surveillance van he was sitting in, but just as soon as he had issued the order to Venom he had lost him. The symbiote was perfect urban camouflage. It was like the shadows just engulfed him.
He muted the radio connection so that he could make a call without distracting Thompson. Grabbing his secure satellite phone, he connected with his boss, the sleek Silver Sable, who was sitting in one of her many embassies somewhere in Africa. The Wild Pack’s business took her everywhere, and with their widespread mercenary network, she could be up to anything and in the room with practically anyone.
“Paladin,” she said once the connection went through. It had to have been early in the morning where she was, but she sounded wide awake.
“We’ve located the source of the pscholar technology,” Paladin said. “We should have it wrapped up in a few minutes.”
“Excellent. Our employer will be very happy to hear that.”
“Any chance you’ll tell me who that would be?”
She tsked. “You know the rules. All you need to know is that they pay their bills on time and their agenda aligns with our own. Now, tell me about our boy.”
“No other flashes of the symbiote taking over his personality since we last talked,” Paladin said. “No pun intended. If anything he’s more focused; more streamlined. Are we still going to pull it off of him after this mission?”
“I think we have to,” she said. “No other subject has lasted this long wearing the symbiote. Flash Thompson is a strong host, there’s no doubt about that, but if we don’t extract him soon there’s a good chance he’ll end up being eaten alive from the inside out. You saw what happened to the others.”
He recalled. It hadn’t been pretty. Seeing the black tar tendrils stabbing out from within the host, literally eviscerating them from within, was a terrible sight to behold. Thompson was a good man. He didn’t deserve that.
“I still say we should warn him,” Paladin said.
“We would compromise his focus and thereby compromise the mission. Keep me appraised.”
She cut the connection and Paladin was left holding a dead satellite phone. He glanced at the screen inside the van and adjusted the camera to zoom in on the ball, which was nearly ready to begin its descent. Still no sign of Venom. According to his watch they had about two minutes left until pscholar went live.
A knock on the side door of the van. He instantly gripped his gun. No one knew they were here and Thompson couldn’t possibly be coming back without radioing first. He wished he could angle the camera down at the door, but it didn’t have the range of motion.
Paladin took a deep breath and ripped the door open, hoping that it was nothing more than drunk partiers knocking on the wrong vehicle.
# # # # # # # # # #
Racing against the clock. Thanks to the symbiote, Venom could cover the distance to the dropping ball within seconds. He barely had to exert himself to jump from the tip of his building to where the ball was suspended. One gentle push of the symbiote allowed him to leap two blocks. The power was incredible and he was relying on it more and more.
Below him the revelers were basking in their own insipid filth. How he wanted to simply fall to their level, both physically and metaphorically, and begin feasting on their carcasses. It had been so long since he had tasted flesh, so long since he--
He shook his head. What the hell was he thinking? What was happening to him?
He landed at the base of the tower and looked up at the very icon of the New Year. He remembered watching it come down as a kid as Dick Clark rocked out with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Sylvester Stallone. If he didn’t destroy it, however, half of the city was going to be under Black Tarantula’s control.
The landmark was meaningless to him. Better to destroy it and allow the debris to fall on the worthless specimens below--
No. That wasn’t right. Why was he thinking stuff like that?
A flare of danger to his right. A black-garbed warrior, hidden in the darkness, lunged for him. A slice of a sword would have cut through his arm, but tendrils from the symbiote grabbed the sword instinctively and pulled it away, tossing it out of reach.
Venom reached for the ninja’s chest, but his arm was deflected with a forceful blow. Then another ninja was on top of him, and another, and another. He was buried in his enemies and how he wished he could just begin chewing on their appendages, feasting.
But there was something stopping him. The host? No. Yes. Perhaps. There was a mission at stake. A goal. Venom flexed an the ninjas fell off of his form. He grabbed the closest one and tossed him up at the descending ball with enough force to crack both the housing and the ninja’s spine. The corpse dropped back down and Venom caught it, swinging it around in a circle to push away more encroaching ninjas.
He let go and the body hurled into two others. They were stunned, giving him a chance to leap up to the ball and tear it open with ferocity. He yanked the pieces away easily and saw the pscholar device within. It matched the look of the schematics he had seen. With only second left, he raked a clawed hand across its circuitry. The electronics were useless and as the countdown passed him by he remained in control of his own faculties.
He dropped back down and the ninjas allowed him his space. He felt a growing growl from within and wanted to claim the spoils of his victory. He wanted to tear into their flesh and grind their bones beneath his teeth.
From the street the crowd was roaring uncontrollably. They had a perfect view of what he had just done. News helicopters overhead may have even gotten footage of him committing what would look like extreme vandalism.
He was breathing heavily and a red tongue had lashed out of his helmet, lapping at the air like a snake trying to locate its prey.
No. This was wrong. Flash reigned in the symbiote, realizing that he was losing control. They had warned him of this, but he knew that he was stronger than this alien weapon. While it was alive and had some sort of intelligence all its own, he knew that in the end it was just a tool to complete his mission. He was an agent of the Wild Pack. This symbiote was his to command, not the other way around.
The ninjas kept their distance, as if they knew that if they came closer that it would be the end of them. They did not flee, however. They stayed, sounding Venom, waiting for something.
Just as Venom was about to make a move of his own and end the stalemate, one of the ninjas pressed a hand to his ear and nodded. The rest drained away into the shadows while that one stepped forward, extending something to Venom. A smartphone.
He took it and was stunned to see Paladin on the screen. Or rather, a battered and severely bruised Paladin. His goggles were cracked and his purple body armor, a trademark of his, had been slashed and torn.
“Leave me, kid,” Paladin muttered just before he spat out a wad of blood.
“How…”
The image on the phone shook, as if the whoever was holding it on the other end of the connection was moving their smartphone away from Paladin. After a moment of blurred images Venom saw he was standing over the kneeling Paladin.
“Black Tarantula!” Venom said.
The master assassin and crime lord was here in New York. He felt the symbiote surge as their emotions intertwined. Black Tarantula had been squirreled away in South America for so long that everyone said it was nearly impossible to get to him. Now he was here, now he was out in the open. This was the chance, his one chance.
“My people have been collecting information on you and your group,” Black Tarantula said. “I find it interesting that a mercenary cell is so interested in me. Tell me, who hired you? Tell me and I may let your friend live.”
“Go to hell.”
“Your friend said as much. I wonder, do you even know who is paying you to track me? I would question their motivation to say the least, especially if my superiors wouldn’t even let me in on that little secret.”
“Was this all of a tactic to draw me out?” Venom asked.
“Does it matter now? I was concerned about how much you actually know about my operations. But now I have your van and your friend. I have access to your database. But what I don’t have…is you. You intrigue me. A single soldier is somehow able to thwart a good portion of my operations. Interesting to say the least.”
“What do you want?”
“For that you’ll have to continue doing what you’re doing. Track me, if you can, only without your friend here. If you’re able to keep up with us, perhaps I’ll have an offer for you that you can’t resist.”
The feed cut away and Venom instantly was on the move. He leapt off of the building and retraced his steps to head back to the van but as he suspected, it was vacant. The door had been nearly ripped off and hung on just one hinge. There was blood on the side of the van, but otherwise there was no trace of anyone. Paladin was gone. The inside of the van had been torn apart.
Black Tarantula had gotten away. In the distance he heard sirens. They could have been for him, but with all of the partiers just around the corner it was impossible to tell. He couldn’t stay here, though, regardless. He took off into the night, trying to formulate his next move.
Whatever that move might be, it would involve the swift death of Black Tarantula, who had spent too much time on this world as far as Venom was concerned.
TO BE CONTINUED! Pscholar may have been foiled, but now Black Tarantula is aware of Venom and has access to learn everything there is to know about this pesky thorn in his side. There’s only one thing Flash Thompson can do: take the fight to the enemy. Since the Wild Pack has effectively been infiltrated, he’ll have to go rogue, but not without help in the form of another spider-themed hero.
Flash, currently draped in the black symbiote that mimicked basic combat armor and a mask, had a nice view of the festivities, and an even nicer view of the famous ball that would soon be dropped. It was about an hour until the magic time of night, when the scores of people below would cheer recklessly and kiss wildly. Security would be heightened, but a few extra guards were nothing to someone with the suite of abilities granted from the alien symbiote.
From atop 5 Times Square he could see only a portion of the celebration. It was impossible to guess how many people were actually packed beneath him. There was no way to know for sure where Black Tarantula’s forces were lying in wait to use the stolen pscholar technology to turn all of them into permanently obedient slaves.
Their information could even be tainted. Paladin, his handler with Silver Sable’s Wild Pack, had managed to extract the time and location of pscholar’s use from one of Black Tarantula’s lieutenants, a mercenary named Bullet. But who was to say that this wasn’t some elaborate trap? They had been hunting down Black Tarantula’s underground forces for months. It was just as likely that this was a ruse as it was legitimate.
Bullet had told Paladin that the plan was to launch pscholar on New Year’s Even in Times Square, but where specifically?
“Shouldn’t we engage the Avengers or something?” Venom asked.
His ear piece chirped a response. “This isn’t really their thing,” Paladin said. “We can handle this.”
“Sure, you’re back in the van. Of course you think that we can handle this.”
“Hey, I’ve done my share of fields ops before, kid. I know that the real work comes from support.”
“Okay, then show me some of this real work. Tell me where I’m supposed to be looking. It’s insane out here.”
“Sable’s tech guys have been looking through the schematics we grabbed,” Paladin said. “They said we need to monitor radio waves within a specific frequency to pinpoint where the thing is.”
“Won’t that mean they’ve already turned it on?”
“No, there’s a power-up sequence. When we detect the radio waves you’ll have about five minutes to move in.”
“And then?”
“Then shut it down. Or we’ll all be working for the bad guys.”
Venom wanted to laugh, but the situation was a little too dire for that. It seemed like an impossible task. He was thankful that he had gotten to spend some time with old friends the night before, taking advantage of being back in New York again. While it had been nice to catch up, he had wanted to warm them away from the city, but knew that he couldn’t. Leaking his awareness would put more people in danger and possibly tip off Black Tarantula, who was probably monitoring the situation from somewhere in South America.
He had been arguing for an op to take him to South America for a while now, but Silver Sable wouldn’t go for it. There were more pressing matters to take care of before catching Black Tarantula on his home turf. He had to admit that she was right. Getting the pscholar tech back was vital and absolutely superseded catching Black Tarantula. For now.
All of this running around the world, secret spy business and he hadn’t even seen the real bad guy face to face yet. He almost wished he was back in his special forces outfit, because at least then the operations were more up front. None of this cloak and dagger stuff.
“Look alive,” Paladin said. “I got something.”
“Radio waves?”
“Yep, and they’re coming from the big ball itself.”
Venom looked at the reflective orb that was poised at the top of another building overlooking Times Square.
“A little obvious, don’t you think?”
“Do I sound like I care? Just get moving! Five minutes! Tick, tock!”
# # # # # # # # # #
Paladin adjusted the camera mounted on top of the surveillance van he was sitting in, but just as soon as he had issued the order to Venom he had lost him. The symbiote was perfect urban camouflage. It was like the shadows just engulfed him.
He muted the radio connection so that he could make a call without distracting Thompson. Grabbing his secure satellite phone, he connected with his boss, the sleek Silver Sable, who was sitting in one of her many embassies somewhere in Africa. The Wild Pack’s business took her everywhere, and with their widespread mercenary network, she could be up to anything and in the room with practically anyone.
“Paladin,” she said once the connection went through. It had to have been early in the morning where she was, but she sounded wide awake.
“We’ve located the source of the pscholar technology,” Paladin said. “We should have it wrapped up in a few minutes.”
“Excellent. Our employer will be very happy to hear that.”
“Any chance you’ll tell me who that would be?”
She tsked. “You know the rules. All you need to know is that they pay their bills on time and their agenda aligns with our own. Now, tell me about our boy.”
“No other flashes of the symbiote taking over his personality since we last talked,” Paladin said. “No pun intended. If anything he’s more focused; more streamlined. Are we still going to pull it off of him after this mission?”
“I think we have to,” she said. “No other subject has lasted this long wearing the symbiote. Flash Thompson is a strong host, there’s no doubt about that, but if we don’t extract him soon there’s a good chance he’ll end up being eaten alive from the inside out. You saw what happened to the others.”
He recalled. It hadn’t been pretty. Seeing the black tar tendrils stabbing out from within the host, literally eviscerating them from within, was a terrible sight to behold. Thompson was a good man. He didn’t deserve that.
“I still say we should warn him,” Paladin said.
“We would compromise his focus and thereby compromise the mission. Keep me appraised.”
She cut the connection and Paladin was left holding a dead satellite phone. He glanced at the screen inside the van and adjusted the camera to zoom in on the ball, which was nearly ready to begin its descent. Still no sign of Venom. According to his watch they had about two minutes left until pscholar went live.
A knock on the side door of the van. He instantly gripped his gun. No one knew they were here and Thompson couldn’t possibly be coming back without radioing first. He wished he could angle the camera down at the door, but it didn’t have the range of motion.
Paladin took a deep breath and ripped the door open, hoping that it was nothing more than drunk partiers knocking on the wrong vehicle.
# # # # # # # # # #
Racing against the clock. Thanks to the symbiote, Venom could cover the distance to the dropping ball within seconds. He barely had to exert himself to jump from the tip of his building to where the ball was suspended. One gentle push of the symbiote allowed him to leap two blocks. The power was incredible and he was relying on it more and more.
Below him the revelers were basking in their own insipid filth. How he wanted to simply fall to their level, both physically and metaphorically, and begin feasting on their carcasses. It had been so long since he had tasted flesh, so long since he--
He shook his head. What the hell was he thinking? What was happening to him?
He landed at the base of the tower and looked up at the very icon of the New Year. He remembered watching it come down as a kid as Dick Clark rocked out with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Sylvester Stallone. If he didn’t destroy it, however, half of the city was going to be under Black Tarantula’s control.
The landmark was meaningless to him. Better to destroy it and allow the debris to fall on the worthless specimens below--
No. That wasn’t right. Why was he thinking stuff like that?
A flare of danger to his right. A black-garbed warrior, hidden in the darkness, lunged for him. A slice of a sword would have cut through his arm, but tendrils from the symbiote grabbed the sword instinctively and pulled it away, tossing it out of reach.
Venom reached for the ninja’s chest, but his arm was deflected with a forceful blow. Then another ninja was on top of him, and another, and another. He was buried in his enemies and how he wished he could just begin chewing on their appendages, feasting.
But there was something stopping him. The host? No. Yes. Perhaps. There was a mission at stake. A goal. Venom flexed an the ninjas fell off of his form. He grabbed the closest one and tossed him up at the descending ball with enough force to crack both the housing and the ninja’s spine. The corpse dropped back down and Venom caught it, swinging it around in a circle to push away more encroaching ninjas.
He let go and the body hurled into two others. They were stunned, giving him a chance to leap up to the ball and tear it open with ferocity. He yanked the pieces away easily and saw the pscholar device within. It matched the look of the schematics he had seen. With only second left, he raked a clawed hand across its circuitry. The electronics were useless and as the countdown passed him by he remained in control of his own faculties.
He dropped back down and the ninjas allowed him his space. He felt a growing growl from within and wanted to claim the spoils of his victory. He wanted to tear into their flesh and grind their bones beneath his teeth.
From the street the crowd was roaring uncontrollably. They had a perfect view of what he had just done. News helicopters overhead may have even gotten footage of him committing what would look like extreme vandalism.
He was breathing heavily and a red tongue had lashed out of his helmet, lapping at the air like a snake trying to locate its prey.
No. This was wrong. Flash reigned in the symbiote, realizing that he was losing control. They had warned him of this, but he knew that he was stronger than this alien weapon. While it was alive and had some sort of intelligence all its own, he knew that in the end it was just a tool to complete his mission. He was an agent of the Wild Pack. This symbiote was his to command, not the other way around.
The ninjas kept their distance, as if they knew that if they came closer that it would be the end of them. They did not flee, however. They stayed, sounding Venom, waiting for something.
Just as Venom was about to make a move of his own and end the stalemate, one of the ninjas pressed a hand to his ear and nodded. The rest drained away into the shadows while that one stepped forward, extending something to Venom. A smartphone.
He took it and was stunned to see Paladin on the screen. Or rather, a battered and severely bruised Paladin. His goggles were cracked and his purple body armor, a trademark of his, had been slashed and torn.
“Leave me, kid,” Paladin muttered just before he spat out a wad of blood.
“How…”
The image on the phone shook, as if the whoever was holding it on the other end of the connection was moving their smartphone away from Paladin. After a moment of blurred images Venom saw he was standing over the kneeling Paladin.
“Black Tarantula!” Venom said.
The master assassin and crime lord was here in New York. He felt the symbiote surge as their emotions intertwined. Black Tarantula had been squirreled away in South America for so long that everyone said it was nearly impossible to get to him. Now he was here, now he was out in the open. This was the chance, his one chance.
“My people have been collecting information on you and your group,” Black Tarantula said. “I find it interesting that a mercenary cell is so interested in me. Tell me, who hired you? Tell me and I may let your friend live.”
“Go to hell.”
“Your friend said as much. I wonder, do you even know who is paying you to track me? I would question their motivation to say the least, especially if my superiors wouldn’t even let me in on that little secret.”
“Was this all of a tactic to draw me out?” Venom asked.
“Does it matter now? I was concerned about how much you actually know about my operations. But now I have your van and your friend. I have access to your database. But what I don’t have…is you. You intrigue me. A single soldier is somehow able to thwart a good portion of my operations. Interesting to say the least.”
“What do you want?”
“For that you’ll have to continue doing what you’re doing. Track me, if you can, only without your friend here. If you’re able to keep up with us, perhaps I’ll have an offer for you that you can’t resist.”
The feed cut away and Venom instantly was on the move. He leapt off of the building and retraced his steps to head back to the van but as he suspected, it was vacant. The door had been nearly ripped off and hung on just one hinge. There was blood on the side of the van, but otherwise there was no trace of anyone. Paladin was gone. The inside of the van had been torn apart.
Black Tarantula had gotten away. In the distance he heard sirens. They could have been for him, but with all of the partiers just around the corner it was impossible to tell. He couldn’t stay here, though, regardless. He took off into the night, trying to formulate his next move.
Whatever that move might be, it would involve the swift death of Black Tarantula, who had spent too much time on this world as far as Venom was concerned.
TO BE CONTINUED! Pscholar may have been foiled, but now Black Tarantula is aware of Venom and has access to learn everything there is to know about this pesky thorn in his side. There’s only one thing Flash Thompson can do: take the fight to the enemy. Since the Wild Pack has effectively been infiltrated, he’ll have to go rogue, but not without help in the form of another spider-themed hero.