Chapter 13: Berserker!

Chapter 13:

June 1st,2011:

I came home last night at about 11 PM, so I didn't do any work. I just washed up and slept till 9 AM. As usual, after Venom's bonding with me, I woke up fresh as fuck, and feeling stronger. It felt like Venom was slowly making me stronger. Well, good for me.

I spent the day studying the pieces of the Destroyer I had brought with me. I didn't learn much from it, only an estimation of how hot it'll have to get to melt, which was a lot, close to 5000 C. Also, it was not Uru, as I had assumed. It was similar to Uru, but not the same. I can't exactly do anything with it, so I throw it into a corner to use later, for when I have a way to stabilise that much heat in a furnace.

"Dumbass. Just because you can't melt it doesn't mean it's useless. Bring it here." Saying this, Venom covers my whole body. I go to the pieces and pick them up. They were in total of about 5 litres in volume. It was a lot to bring something hidden on you, but Venom was like an infinite storage device, so I didn't have to worry. I see the metal slowly getting absorbed into us. Venom sort of eats the metal, except he doesn't use his mouth, he does it like he did the suit.

Oh! He's absorbing it! He was trying to assimilate the not-Uru into our body, which along with the unstable molecules will mean that I can make a whole suit with it! Amazing!

"Venom, that's amazing! Why didn't you do it before?" I ask Venom once he's done eating every piece of the not-Uru. Seriously I need a new name for it. I'll call it Praedium, from the word Praedo, which means destroyer.

"I'd already seen in your mind, that you wanted to study it. So I didn't absorb it. And didn't you tell me not to absorb anything without asking first?" Venom grumbles.

I sigh aloud at that. But yes, I did tell him that. "Well then, let's see what you can do with that Praedium. A suit? Weapons? Shield?" I say, excited.

Venom sighs loudly and says, "It's not that simple. Right now I could only make like a few types of weapons. The full body suit will take time and practice."

I sigh sadly, of course it'll take time, I ask him to demonstrate a few weapons, for which he gives me different swords, a quarter staff, an axe which suspiciously looks like the Stormbreaker and even a replica of Mjolnir, all from my memories. And you know the best part? Since Venom had already been in Mjolnir, he absorbed some of its energy, which I suspect to be the Odin-Force. And Praedium, like Uru is a great conductor of energy, as seen by the Destroyer using his beam of energy.

So I can theoretically replicate that ability. It's still theoretical obviously, but I'll try to do something with that Odin-Force. It may even turn out to amplify my Bio-electricity, so I could use it like Thor's thunder.

Technically Mjolnir gave Thor's physical prowess to Peter, while he indirectly gave me its mythical powers, though it's only if I can manipulate thunder. I'll see after a few months of practice. I put up half hour per day to practice manipulation of Praedium to make different weapons, and an hour of my workout to practice using those weapons, in my schedule.

It was when I was practicing making swords that I suddenly remembered, "Siri, check online to see if any F1 race is scheduled to be held in Monaco. Filter it with Tony Stark's company sponsoring one of the cars." Iron Man 2 started with the Senate Hearing and the race in Monaco which Whiplash attacks. They were close to this time, I think.

"Yes, sir. Searching. One result found. There's a Grand Prix World racing event at the Circuit de Monaco race track, scheduled for tomorrow. Would you like me to buy a ticket?" Siri answers. Well, it's tomorrow? That's fucking close. And I can't go. Peter's coming to try and test his strength tomorrow.

"No, Siri. Thanks for asking though. You should keep an eye on the news that mentions that event. Now that I think, did Tony Stark go to a Senate hearing recently?" I ask after thinking for a bit.

"Yes, sir. It was presided by Senator Sterns." Saying this, Siri brings out the News about the hearing detailing how Tony played the Senator as well as his buddy Hammer. Hammer's going to get destroyed real soon. That reminds me,

"Siri, how much stocks do I own in Hammer Industries?" I ask.

"17% Boss." Siri asks after checking.

"Good. I want you to start selling all our stocks in Hammer industries. Start buying them up again in a week, and buy up as much as you can. Tell Bernard to do the same through Oscorp." I tell her, after thinking for a bit.

Siri sounds confused when she says, "Sure boss. But why not just buy them out now?"

"Patience, Siri. Hammer is going to make a big mistake in the coming week. So the prices of their stocks will decrease in a week. Which is why I want you to buy stocks after that. Then, I'll make them an offer to buy them out." I smirk, just imagining the money I could make.

"Sure, if you say so, sir." Siri mumbles out.

The next day, at 6, Peter comes to my house, excited as fuck. He had finally gotten stronger and wanted to test it.

"What's got your ass so excited?" I ask as soon as he's inside.

"I'm finally going to test out my new strength! Of course I'm excited!" Peter shrieks out.

"Didn't you go out as Spider-Man and beat someone or something up?" I ask.

"Well there was this dumbass in a big ass rhino armour calling himself The Rhino roaming around downtown and flipping cars, but the robot got destroyed so easily! It was not even a little bit challenging. The fight was over in like, 2 minutes." Peter mumbles out.

So he fought The Rhino? For his new strength, of course it'll seem easy for him. "So what happened to that guy? And how'd he even get the armour? I don't think he was really smart enough to build something like that if he lost in 2 minutes." I ask after seeing the fight Siri shows me.

Peter crinkles his nose, and says, "Turns out it was stolen from Hammer Industries. They were one of the ones they made trying to replicate Stark's Iron Man suit. Just look at that, man. Iron Man suit is so awesome and compact. And they made it so bulky and weak. No wonder no one likes Hammer tech."

"Yeah.. but if they made one suit, that got stolen, how many more would they have made? And how many of those will get stolen later?" I ask, thinking of Scorpion.

"Meh.. we'll deal with them. Now let's fight!" Peter exclaims.

I stop him before he can punch me to see how far I'll go, and say, "Whoa, hold it! I want you to meet someone first. Venom," Venom pokes his head out of my shoulder, which causes Peter to jump high into the air and stick to the ceiling. I laugh loudly at that, and am about to continue when Peter interrupts me, still on the ceiling,

"What the fuck is that? Is it coming out of your shoulder? How's it coming out of your shoulder?"

"Firstly, he is Venom. He's a symbiotic being from outer space, and is currently sharing this body with me. So yes, he's coming out of my shoulder, or more appropriately, our shoulder. He can take over my body, but I know he won't, so don't worry about that." I explain, while Venom is curiously looking at Peter.

"Okay.. and how did a symbiotic being from outer space get inside your body? And why does that not freak you out?" Peter asks, pointing at Venom.

I continue saying, "Well he came at the same time as the hammer and was hiding inside it. When you picked up the hammer and the lightning bolt struck us, Venom was pushed into me. He waited until you were gone to introduce himself to me. And it doesn't freak me out because we bonded, meaning we shared both our memories. I know what he's done and he knows what all I've done. And we can now do this," saying that I suit up and bring out two swords.

"Wow that's so cool! Hello Venom!" to which Venom mumbles out, "Hello."

Peter looks at me in anticipation, "How can I get one?" Peter asks, excitedly.

"Uh.. bad idea Pete. Venom is like one of the only few good ones on his planet, he came here on a fluke, and he's luckily a good one. We can't say for sure that the next one will be good. And why the fuck do you need a symbiot, you're already fucking awesome." I say. Peter and a symbiot is a really bad idea.

"Yeah okay." Peter says, dejected. But then looks up and asks, "What did you even get up to after I came home? There was a news report of some form of explosion near the town?"

And then I explain him everything that happened. How Thor's friends and I fought the robot Destroyer, how Thor gained his hammer and powers back, and how he defeated it. I even show him some knives made from Praedium to showcase Venom's ability.

"That's- that's- that's amazing! You fought with a God? I mean not the God, but a God?" Peter looks at me like I'm the God, but I still correct him,

"Gods actually. All 5 of them were Gods. Famous ones too. Lady Sif and the Warriors Three, and Thor. Thor was so strong, you know? I couldn't even dent that robot, but Thor, he straight up destroyed it." I was amazed by Thor's strength. I mean, I knew how strong he was, but to look at it, in person? That's another matter entirely.

Peter looks amazed too. Then he looks excited and says, "Hey let's go fight now! I want to know how strong I've become. Let's go!"

Turns out, he got a lot stronger thanks to Mjolnir. He could now lift 80 tons, run at 62mph, and his punch was a lot stronger than before. But strength isn't everything, so we fight.

The first two fights, I win in 5 minutes each, but mostly because of my skill and Venom's senses. He doesn't technically have eyes, so he can see everything around him. I give Pete advices after each match.

The third fight goes on for close to half hour. Good, he's learning. I trick him, and win again. The forth fight, Peter wins within a minute. He just punches one of my punches and breaks my fist. Then, when I'm distracted, throws me to the ground.

After the fight, when I'm healed and he's apologized close to a hundred times, I ask him to train to try and control his strength. Any regular goon will die if he punches them as it is. We had already controlled our strengths when the Spider bit us, so it wasn't anything new.

"Hey, Pete? If you had an option of a melee weapon, which one would you use?" I ask him suddenly.

Peter gets shocked but thinks on it, and says, "Eskrima Sticks. But I'll probably never even use them. It's just so I'm not completely fighting depending on my fists and kicks. Why?"

I avoid his eyes and say, "Oh, no reason. For curiosity's sake, can you draw it's design for me?"

Peter narrows his eyes at me, but nods. I think, he suspects I'm going to make him a pair of batons. I think to myself.

'No shit, Sherlock!' Venom grumbles inside my head.

I ignore him and see Peter nod at me. He'll probably send a picture to me later, but I don't mind. I'll probably just make him those when I have Vibranium. That way I can enhance it to include some toys, like Taser and knock out gas. Plus it'll be lighter that way.

"Don't get your hopes up, this soon, buddy. I don't have appropriate metal to make them with yet. And I don't have that much Praedium on me." Maybe if there was more.. Asgardian Metal.. on... Earth?

Holy crap! Shit! The Berserker Staff! It was made from Uru, I think. One of them was hiding as a human! What was his name? That history professor? Rudolph? Gandalf? Randolph? Not now! For now, talk with Peter!

As soon as Peter goes home I look for the Black Book, which I find hidden in its usual place. I search in everything regarding the show Agents of Shield that I wrote down and there it is. I read what's written there, and just throw it down after the first few sentences.

The staff is made from a rare metal from Asgard, which could be Praedium. I thought it was made from Uru. I should have realised it sooner. Why would they give foot soldiers weapons that are made from the metal that is reserved for kings? Fucking idiotic of me, to be honest. But, it's still Asgardian metal, even if it turns out that it's not Praedium or Uru, it'll be useful. So I read some more.

The staff is currently in three pieces, which are hidden in some National Park in Norway, a crypt in Spain and a monastery in Ireland. Of course I know only general locations. Why the fuck would I have memorized the exact names of each spots! I even quit the show after the first season, so thank Stan, I at least remembered this much when writing everything down.

But, fuck! I don't have that much time now. I could ask the Professor Eliot Randolph to tell me the locations of the Staff pieces, but I doubt he'll just tell me.

There should be something in common with Uru and Praedium, right? All three are Asgardian?

"Siri. Bring up the scans I had made of the Hammer in New Mexico and compare it with this metal. Find a common factor. Anything. Vibration frequency, energy signature, radiation, search all the factors." Saying this I keep a knife made from Praedium on the table for Siri to scan.

About 15 minutes later Siri speaks, "They both emit a faint amount of energy, which while of different amplitudes, have the same frequency. Also, they vibrate at close frequencies. The hammer's vibration frequency is a little higher than the knife's."

I think about how I can go about this. I could make a scanner for that specific signature. Though I don't have enough time to travel at each of those three locations.

"Siri? Contact our Europe branch and tell them to put all their spectrometers on their roofs. I'll write up a tracking algorithm for that frequency. In the meanwhile, you start hacking every spectrometer that's connected to a computer in Norway, Spain and Ireland. Tell me once its done."

It takes me two hours to write an algorithm to track down the energy signature of Praedium and Uru, Dr Banner was smart to write it within a few minutes, and it takes Siri 6 hours to hack into all the necessary spectrometers. I really underestimated the amount of Spectrometers in Europe. Our Europe branch had called Bernard to confirm the order to place their Spectrometers up on their roofs, which he cleared up with me.

Finally after 6 hours, I was ready to upload the program into the spectrometers.

"Siri, do it. Search all over Norway, Spain and Ireland for anything similar to this metal." I tell her after uploading the algorithm in my computer.

Siri uploads the program through the network of Spectrometers and says, "Yes, boss. Scanning initiated. Estimated time for completion of scan 3 hours."

Fuck! That's a lot less than what I'd assumed, I'd have to wait. Thank God!

"Prepare the jet for take off, Siri. We're going on a trip across Europe." I tell her after a while. I should probably leave now, so that I can return by the next Stark Expo.

I had already built a prototype stealth mode for my jet, but it was not yet complete. Meaning I couldn't decrease it's size to include me. It was stable, thankfully, and the only ones who could detect me would be Shield and Stark. I'd honestly forgotten about it. Maybe I should work on it once I'm back.

"Siri, start seeing if you can improve the stealth tech in my jet. Recalibrate it for now and start working on it later. I'll join you when I return." Saying this, I get out of the lab and lock it up. I go into my room and take a long shower, and prepare for my trip. I call Peter and Bernard that I'm going on a trip for a few days, but don't tell them where. Then I call Coulson and tell him to ignore my illegal travel as a favour. I'll pay for it later, probably, but I don't care.

As soon as the scans are done Siri gives me the locations. Surprisingly there are 4 such locations in those 3 countries. I drive to my private Air strip and get in the plane. After kicking my regular pilot out, and giving him a thousand bucks to keep his mouth shut, I have Siri take me to Norway first, and have her turn on the stealth mode in mid air. I don't want it to be known that I have stealth tech.

Norway had 2 locations with similar energy readings as Praedium and uru. One was in the Trillemarka National Park and the other in St Olav's Church in Avaldsnes, Haugesund, which frankly, is a mouthful. Both locations were 230 miles away from each other, which is troublesome.

Reaching Norway takes me 7 hours which I spend learning Norwegian, eating and even sleeping for a bit. I land the jet halfway between the two points in Norway in an open field near a mountain range, whose name I don't bother with.

After walking for close to 2 hours, I reach a small town. There I use my broken Norwegian that I'd learnt on the way here to rent a car, which thanks to me throwing my money around, doesn't require any documents. It just cost me 10 times the required price. Fucking rip-offs.

After a 3 hour drive I reach St Olav's Church in Haugesund. I shower and rest for a bit in the nearby towns inn and then enter the church. I start looking for anything weird looking, which considering it's Norway, is a lot. Though I am thankful that its not Sunday, so the church was empty.

'Psst. Harry?' Venom whispers in my mind.

'Why are you whispering? No one can hear you!' I speak inside my head. God this is weird.

'Oh! Right. It's below us, I can feel it.' He says. Huh, below us, on the ground floor. I can't exactly wander down there, so I say,

'Can you go and bring it? Eat it for now or something?' I ask Venom, hopefully.

Please say yes, please say yes..

'Fine! But you have to give me extra chocolate today. Deal?' Venom grumbles.

I roll my eyes at him and say, 'Yeah, sure bud, now go!'

I smile at the pastor when he looks at me and start praying. Can't exactly look like I'm up to something, now can I? Meanwhile, Venom separates from my body through my leg and goes into the ground. Huh. I didn't know he could do that.

About 30 minutes later Venom returns and tells me in my mind that he found it and brought it. I get up from the pew and go out. Once I'm in the inn, I speak out loud after closing the window,

"Well get it out!"

Ugh. That sounds so wrong. Unfortunately Venom understands it too, so he laughs out loud at me, but brings out a wooden box. The box was locked, but I make a break the lock and open the box to find a dagger. It looks like it was made from the same material, but didn't have anything to identify it by. It was a plain looking dagger, metallic silver in colour, with a golden handle. Not even a name on it. I search the box for anything to identify it by, but nothing.

"Where did you even find it? And how did no one else find it?" I ask Venom.

Venom sounds very smug when answering, "It was buried. About 150 meters below us. It was in a cave, but the cave didn't have any big openings I could find."

I think for a bit, and say, "Can you take me there? Like how you went?" I'm really curious about a cave so deep underground, and it was probably old. Venom grumbles, but agrees to take me there.

That night, I get out of the inn and go near the church, where Venom covers my body and takes control of it. Then he changes my body to be somehow, liquid like. I don't know how he does it, and I'm too afraid to know. We travel underground in that form for close to 15 minutes, which was probably slower than when he went alone, when we suddenly drop down and I get control of my body back.

I bring out the torch and my camera and start scanning the room for anything interesting. I only find one interesting thing in the cave. It was a skeleton. An honest to god skeleton, which was wearing some armour. It looks Asgardian, the armour. But which Asgardian? I don't remember any Asgardian name known to disappear on Earth.

I snap a few pictures of the skeleton, looking at which I find out that he died after being stabbed through the chest. Although looking at the stab angle I can tell that he stabbed himself. The suicide weapon was what looked like a steel weapon. Why an Asgardian was using steel dagger to commit suicide when he had the Praedium dagger, I can't say.

I give the man a proper burial, I don't exactly know Asgardian customs yet, say a small prayer in his stead for a peaceful journey and take a look around again. There was nothing else of interest. So I take the dagger with me and return the same way as I came.

The guy probably got trapped in the cave, either accidentally or someone trapped him there, seeing no way out and even trying to punch through, which left a few dents in the ceiling and the walls, he decided to give up and call it quits. Sad really. For an Asgardian, dying in battle was the greatest deed, so dying alone, trapped in a cave? That shit ought to be really depressing.

The next day I drive the car to the National Park, where I spend 2 hours just walking around, hoping to find it. Finally when I'm about to scream in frustration, Venom points me in the right direction, in which I walk for 15 more minutes.

Once he points me to the right tree, I let Venom guide me and walk up the tree's surface to where the staff is. When I reach the point, I cut the tree in that location and pluck out the staff, being careful not to touch it directly, and drop it on the ground. Then I scratch out the impressions the staff left on the tree and jump down.

I wrap the staff piece in a cloth and carry it back to the car and first drop it on the plane. Then I return the car to the rental shop and walk back to the jet.

"Hey, Siri. I'm back! Anything interesting happened while I was gone?" I ask as soon as I enter the jet.

"Yes, boss. Tony Stark drove in the Grand Prix World race in Monaco, about 6 hours ago, where the race track was attacked by a person using a light armour. Here's the video. His name is Anton Vanko, son of Ivan Vanko, who worked with Howard Stark in building the Arc Reactor. Anton had a miniature arc reactor running his whips as you can see." Siri answers, while showing me the feed of the race.

Well, it's started. The events of Avengers are coming closer. "Keep an eye on the situation. Also, see if you can get the old 1970s plans for the Stark Expo."

Siri hums and says, "Yes boss. Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yes. Yes I did, Siri. This," I show her the staff by opening the cloth a little, "is one of the 3 parts of an Asgardian weapon, called a Berserker's Staff. A really apt name, as it enhances any person, be it human or an Asgardian, by doubling their strength. But there's a side effect. It brings out all the rage and bad memories, really traumatic experience, actually. I want to find all three of them, to either study, or melt down. And the other two are in Ireland and Spain. So let's go now Siri. Start up the jet."

Siri hums and looks at me concerned, and says, "Be careful with something like that, Boss." And then she starts the jet to go to Ireland.

All in all, I spent 2 days in Norway, which, while boring, were not completely wasted. Going to Ireland takes me 3 hours, as it was only one location here, I park the plane close to the Monastery, and enter it. Once again having Venom take over my body, I get to the place where its kept. I'm out of there within the hour of entering the monastery, so it was a progress. Though this heist was a little boring.

After 4 more hours, I reach the Spanish crypt that Siri had indicated. Thankfully getting that piece back was easy too. Again, I wrap the third piece in a cloth and bring it onto the plane.

"Siri, let's go home, now. Wake me up when we get there, please." I say after keeping all three pieces of the staff, safe, and separate. They were a boring 4 days. But at least I got the staff in my possession.

Now I'll have to wield it without going berserk. Should be easy, right?