Arc Seven. Chapter Two Hundred One. Weapon X-Treme

While Peter had simply ignored his own collar, even if they improved the design to make it stronger against telepaths his power was to control anything with a neural connection. A collar, even without the Mind Stone, was simply no match for him.

As he reached out with the Mind Stone to sever Emma from her collar he found he didn't have to. Emma's own powers had stopped it from working, and he realised she was more powerful than she was letting on. Even Wanda had taken time to adjust and break free. Emma had done it in moments, and with apparently no effort.

He had thought of freeing Azazel, but with the man's true loyalties clouded, he thought better of it. Before he could disable him however, he vanished and a moment later, reappeared and grabbed Emma before vanishing again, only to reappear moments later.

Peter had watched Nightcrawler, and after discussing with both Wanda and Laura, he waited and as the air began to vibrate slightly as his power displaced it, he simply stuck out an arm. As Azazel looked down in disbelief Peter found himself impaling the man through the chest. He wheezed and as Peter pulled his arm out, he crumpled and died on the floor. It was not great but he was still out of the fight and kicking him away, he turned to Shaw.

Shaw growled, "He was my best man you ass, and now I have to kill you." but Peter laughed,

"You can try," and he grabbed the metal collar from around his wrist and ripped it free, "won't be easy though"

"Collar doesn't work huh?" and Peter smiled as his armour slid over him.

"Nope," and as he struck Shaw the man simply took it, pulled back his fist and struck Venom with the same amount of force, blasting him back into a trolley of medical supplies.

Shaw adjusted his cuffs, "You know, I can absorb and redirect any energy, I thought you would have known that. Let me guess, Charles and Selene?" and As Venom stood, Shaw clicked his fingers and a series of tanks along the far wall opened.

"Always have a backup plan. We aren't in New York. Hiding a secret lab in the city would be stupid, as was coming here alone." As the tanks drained they hissed and opened. Out stepped a young and muscular man, thick black hair and wiry muscles. As Venom watched, three blades slid out from their hands.

"Like them? Weapon X, or Logan, Wolverine, you know, whatever you want to call him," and Shaw sat on the edge of a cheap office desk, "Still, good enough to kill a nobody," and as the ten men advanced on Venom he stood patiently waiting for them. As he waited, two long symbskin blades grew from his forearms.

As the first swung, Venom ducked under it, swung around behind the clone, picked him up and slammed him into the ground, face first.

"Yeah. That won't work. See, healing, adamantium skeleton, and razor-sharp claws. Brute force won't do much, except maybe piss him off." but Venom leapt at the second one, stuck a bladed arm through his stomach and pulled he split and fell in two halves. Shaw picked up the desk phone and hit a button "yeah, can I get a sample team in Lab Seven, bring some bags." and put the phone down.

Shaw frowned and looked at the first clone, the back of his head was still burning and as he watched the clone was reduced to ash, as was the second. As Venom weaved and ducked around each clone, he struck out and the wounds he sliced into their bodies burned and reduced them to grotesque metal skeletons.

"Yeah, regeneration only works if you don't reduce each cell to ash." Venom explained as the blades began to glow slightly,

Shaw stood, "Extremis?"

and Venom took a step back in surprise, "I'm going to kill Aldrich," he spat

Shaw laughed, "Blame Stark, he does so like his explosions. Who throws a perfectly good serum away? So it kills people, so do cars, and you don't see protests against them." and as Venom finished off the last of the cloned Logans Shaw raised a hand, "Aha ah ah, I have plenty more where that came from. Not just Logan, or Emma, how about we do this like civilised men. We talk." and Venom shrugged.

"You're experimenting on people, making MGH, there isn't much to talk about." Venom replied and Shaw scrunched up his face in disgust,

"Is that what this is about? Some stupid drug?" Shaw stood and waved a hand at Venom, "like you tested each version of the formula until you got it right. Oh I know, The Stacy formula right? and we have the Stark formula and the Erskine formula and the Red Room formula, so don't give me that crap." Shaw ranted, "every scientist in the world right now is testing drugs and weapons, so I picked New York, so I picked someone you knew, you're just as bad." and as Shaw looked at him, he smiled, "and just a bit dumb."

As Venom stared at him the door burst open and a lot more of the Weapon X clones rushed in, trying to overpower him. "See, this is why you don't talk during a fight. Everyone expects the villain to monologue, but really, it's just a good way to stall for time."

Venom smiled, and leaning down he picked up some of the metal bones, "thanks for the upgrade" and as they slipped into the armour he roared and they glowed as the Extremis formula spread through them. As the group crowded and slashed at him he returned the favour, slashing back.

"Won't work on this group. See, the Super Soldier Formula doesn't really work on mutants. Extremis though, well, meet Weapon X-Treme." and as Venom slashed off an arm the wound cauterised but in a flow of lava flesh regrew and the clone simply tilted its head at him as the claws slid out once more.

"Nice try though." and Shaw motioned over at the door, where the group he called were waiting, "Oh, try not to carve off small pieces, bigger chunks last longer" and the man and his team waited as the X-treme clones and Venom fought,

While the X-Clones were numerous they were also slow and dumb. The process had taken the man's abilities but not his memories and they fought simply by slashing and trying to overwhelm Venom.

As he rolled, webbed down limbs, blinded and sprayed caustic fluid the number slowly whittled down. Even a regenerator could be tied up. Missing a limb was no issue if you couldn't move in the first place.

As Venom stood panting, surrounded by cocooned, wriggling clones, only the blades from the hands sticking out but webbed down Shaw looked over and shook his head.

"Well, those were just disappointing. A bit of fireproof sticky tape and my supposedly superior clone army get taken out by one stupid asshole."

Venom was panting and making sure each of the clones was secure. Using the Stone he blasted away whatever consciousness they had, and while he might regret that later, leaving them in any condition to fight was too much of a risk.

"I'd blame their creator." As Venom examined the adamantium claws he had grabbed earlier it felt similar to the metal bar he had collected months ago. Maybe an alloy he thought but as he advanced on Shaw, the man raised a hand again.

"Oh come on, fight, not talk," but Shaw lifted a grenade and held it by the pin.

Stopping, Venom shook his head, "That won't hurt me." but Shaw laughed and as he pulled the pin, Venom watched as the explosion spread out and then drew back into Shaw, who seemed to glow and then shimmer with energy.

"Yeah, Got a whole belt of them, I can absorb any energy, without hurting myself. So you'll stay there unless you want me to use them all." Shaw motioned to his belt, where Venom could see the bandolier full of small grenades, at least ten he could see.

As the group at the door watched Shaw explode and collect the energy from a grenade and the large black-clad Venom assimilate the adamantium claws from a dead clone they turned and fled the battle, unwilling to die for their employer.

Venom huffed, "So what, we stand here and wait for you to summon more clones because that won't work. You know how this ends. Only one of us is walking out of here, and absorbing energy is a great power, but it's useless."

Shaw laughed and let some of the energy escape, punched down and cracked the table, "Oh, I think not. And we're waiting, I told you, monologuing is only good as a time-waster, and I've got back up, what do you have?"

Venom shrugged, "An ability to absorb and connect to an electronic device, such as I dunno, a transmitter capable of punching through the shitty countermeasures you've got here."

As Venom waited, in full contact with not just Emma but everyone else in his team he knew they were almost there.

Shaw's secret base was an old abandoned military complex in Alkali Lake, located in Canada. Heavily fortified and well hidden, but if you had a telepathic link, and a way to dampen a transmitter until you really needed it, it wouldn't matter.

Venom already knew the teams were on their way, Charles, while staying away from the fighting, was acting as a relay point. His mental powers were the most developed and his ability to hold multiple conversations telepathically allowed the two teams to coordinate effectively.

The Brotherhood, The X-Men and Sword were all aboard one of the X-Men's jets, taking a small detour to collect Emma before heading to the Canadian Lake, and all Venom had to do was hold out until they got there.

Shaw huffed and snorted smart, "so while I was talking, you were stalling. Pity though, One last batch. I was saving them, they're supposed to be my secret weapon. But, if you're out for blood, I'd rather it was yours and not mine."

Three containers at the end of the room hissed and out stepped a woman, and two men.

She looked a lot like Emma, naked he could see in detail just how perfect Shaw had made her. Her thick brown hair fell like hay around her shoulders, and it was more like Livs than Emma but the body shape and the breasts were definitely a copy of hers, Peter didn't even take a guess as to what size they were, and even wondered if the alphabet of bra sizes went that high. "It ain't nice to stare, sugar, but I guess you get a little taste of heaven, before I send you to hell." and she winked, running a hand down her front and circling one of her crinkled nipples, "If you can survive it."

The two men were like night and day. One was similar in size to Cain, massive muscles sculpted onto a huge frame. "Dah, I vould like to take on ziz Venom" and the third man, was muscular, toned but wiry and as Venom shook his head, thank the stars he wasn't as happy to see him,

"It's my Rogues gallery. The pinnacle of my research, each one perfect in every way, a counter to any stupid power you might think you have. Rogue, Gambit and Colossus." as Shaw pulled more pins on grenades, "but I don't think we'll do any more talking, you three, get rid of the pests outside while I take out Venom, no survivors."

Shaw stepped in front of Venom, "I'm more than enough to deal with you," and Venom watched as the blast of energy flowed into him and his jacket ripped as his muscles grew.

As the three grabbed tight bodysuits from lockers situated next to each tank, Rogue pulled on a pair of white gloves, the back studded with wicked-looking studs, Colossus grew and a thick metal plating seemed to cover him, while Gambit grabbed a bo staff and for some reason a pack of cards. Before Venom could intercept them Shaw stepped and punched him, throwing him back through the table and into the wall.

"You don't get to leave just yet. You might think it's a shit power, but you've seen nothing yet."