Arc Two. Chapter Forty-Six. Catch And Release (NSFW)

The pair swung silently across the New York skyline and the adrenaline was surging within them, Huntress had grabbed onto Venom and he carried them both while her hands were busy. She was hugging him tightly, her arms wrapped around him and her head rested on his shoulder, her eyes had closed and to Venom she seemed almost content.

Venom couldn't decide what to make of her. Huntress and Felicia seemed to be two completely different people, Felicia was grating and arrogant whereas Huntress was almost submissive and very docile. Once things were settled, once they were back home he would talk with her, the change was grating and MJ had brought up her borderline abuse a few times, Huntress was welcome but Felicia was not.

They decided rather than giving the gangs a chance to mount a defence that they would head straight to the second building on their list. Midtown was quiet enough that there were only two places Peter and Felicia had agreed they needed to go and now suited up, Venom and Huntress would hit them both.

This place, however, was in Hell's Kitchen, and as a notorious crackhouse, it sold cheap and scored big. It didn't matter who you were, you could buy the cheapest nastiest shit or the purest whitest snow and the cops took a serious cut to look the other way. George Stacy knew about it but couldn't touch this place and its brazenness offended Peter.

"This one, we go in the front door, from the notes they've got wires and alarms on the roof plus security on each floor, even if we worked down no one will run, lots of drugs, lots of cash."

Huntress put a hand on Venom's shoulder, "this one, are you sure?"

And he nodded. "Too many lives, Huntress, too many broken lives," was all he said, but she knew what he meant.

The two bottom windows had steel bars over them, rusty but still a barrier, no difference though as even unbarred they figured each floor had steel shutters on the inside. The door at the front was a simple wooden door but again, they knew different. A massive steel plate and a fitted cage were hidden behind its slightly chipped exterior. This would need muscle to get in, but Venom had other plans.

He still had the acid made by Gwen, designed to make short work of silicon but he also had one for metals. He didn't know if Sandman was just made of rocks or if he could control other minerals and with a quick flick of the wrist, two cartridges were webbed to the top of the windows, their contents hissing as they softened the steel.

Venom counted to 30, the acid was strong and he had no doubt Gwen wasn't lying when she said not to wait too long. Eyeing a skyscraper he shot out a line and swung, feet first at the bars. The ones he hit screeched in torture as his weight, enhanced by his speed, caused them to buckle, and they snapped inwards as he slammed into the glass, it coming away from the frame entirely. Rather than shattering, the window was bulletproof and his momentum had simply taken the whole frame out, crumpling it inwards.

Guns were raised and the shouting started. Bullets flew and Venom crouched down, covering his face with an arm, letting the small rounds bounce harmlessly off him. Huntress swung in, landed and then leapt up to the ceiling. The room had four guards and a doorman, two on each side and one in the middle to answer the door.

She saw him reach down and pull out a garishly golden pistol and shooting a web at time gummed it to his hand, "go left," she said as she swung down to the right. Venom dived, rolling forwards and as he came up shot two lines at the automatics in the guard's hands, yanking them away. One pulled a knife but Venom webbed his feet to the ground and floored him with a punch. A line shot out and the second guards were pulled forwards, knocked cold and then webbed down.

Huntress, unwilling to test if she was also bulletproof, was weaving under the barrels of the guard's guns, she swiped up and the long tubes were separated from the stocks and a roundhouse kick sends the first guard into the second, following suit she webbed them to the floor, in a pile.

The final guard had his hands up, talking in Spanish, which Venom had no clue about, "uh no Habla Espanol?" he said.

"It's Mexican, dumbass," and she spoke to the man, "Nah, he's just telling us we're fucked, is all," and she webbed him to the wall behind him and then with a chop to the neck rendered him unconscious.

The second-floor of the four-story building was all rooms, filled with rotting sickening corpses to Venom's senses. The drug the addicts injected here smelled bad and the foulness of whatever it did to them made him think of decaying meat left in the sun, but there was nothing here and most of the junkies were passed out. If anyone registered their presence then none dared to move as they went room to room. On the third floor, they found the same, nicer rooms but still the same shitty foul odour of corruption and foetid rot.

The doorway to the fourth floor was barred, a large security gate across the stairwell. "Money and boss," Venom said and Huntress nodded, the guards must have pulled back and barricaded themselves in once the fighting started. This was where the big guns would be and where the real challenge would be faced. The door had a dimple pull handle and it ran on rails, Venom couldn't hear anything from behind the door and they guessed it would be a standoff until someone acted, "I'll pull the door, you stay back."

Venom braced against the floor and with a grunt pulled the door from its rail, there was a ting as bullets hit off the thick steel plate but Venom had to stand firm. "Two shooters at the top of the stairs," Huntress reported as Venom held the door for her.

"Me first, then you, straight up." Venom said and Huntress moved to the side. As he didn't need it anymore he placed the door to one side and with a nod she nodded back, he stepped out into the stairwell.

BOOM, a large calibre round hit him square in the chest and sent him flying "Pete!" Huntress shouted, the symbskin around his white spider was deformed, a huge crater with a squashed round in it. He shook his head and picked the round up with two fingers. The skin was already reforming, "that hurt," and in his anger, the maw split open, "we will hurt you back," he shouted and lept through the doorway, as he grabbed onto the walls his claws dug in and he lept, from side to side, the rounds missing as they fired. Huge divots of plaster sprayed as bullets flew and as Huntress watched a man, carrying a hunting rifle, large calibre and thick barreled, was flung down the stairs, blood pooling from a wound on his face. She shook her head and webbed him to the floor. The rifle was a single-shot hunting rifle, large calibre with no magazine but it still needed to be dealt with, and webbing its barrel up, she made a note to collect it later.

The rest of the men were not so lucky. As she rounded the stairs, Venom was slashing and throwing bodies around, shotguns blasted holes in the walls but he simply moved, webbed and then switched targets. Anyone, stupid enough to get close was used as a shield and then thrown at another assailant. It was a mess of claws and bullets and Venom had lost all semblance of style in fighting and was a whirling dervish of blood and fury, these men never stood a chance and never got an opportunity to surrender.

As the last man fell, bleeding heavily from several slash wounds Venom roared in triumph as Huntress watched, each time he subdued an opponent she webbed them down, a reminder to keep out their way and they took the hint. She did note that none of them was seriously hurt, the wounds were skin deep and painful, yes but he avoided the throat and wrists, preferring to mark them on their chest or face. Some would have scars long after tonight to remind them, even after she and Venom had left.

Venom unslung the tote bag and finding the safe, "Ladies first," but Huntress shook her head,

"not this one, find someone with the code or I'll need time to crack it. Hey assholes, safe code or else I start chopping off dicks." And soon enough after showing her wicked claws, they got the code.

Cash and bricks of brown and white powder were bundled into the bag, the safe was empty of anything else, other than ammo and a few explosives, which Venom relieved them of. A shuttered window provided their escape route as they could both hear sirens in the distance, more for their first heist rather than this one, but better safe than sorry. A place like this might have silent alarms and help or worse might be on the way.

They swung out of the building onto a nearby rooftop, Gwen would take care of the drugs, the guns could be repurposed or just disposed of and the explosives were safer off the streets. As they swung away into the night, the excitement of the night had caught up with them and Huntress swung over and kissed Venom. As they let the symbskin part enough, he pulled her towards him, and she could feel his heat from their closeness.

"Uh Venom?" she asked and he pulled her tightly to him sliding a hand over her ass and pulling her into a very obvious bulge. Huntress was welcome and Felicia would learn to be nicer to MJ, but for now, after the raid, the adrenaline coursed through him and he only wanted one thing from her.

"Do you want to fuck?" Venom asked her and Huntress had already split and she felt the tip of his erection pressing against her entrance, she didn't even answer as she guided him into her and they swung away, the tote bag webbed to Venom's back and Huntress's legs wrapped around his waist. She needed to be nicer, she needed to let them in, and as she wrapped her legs around him she whispered, "please," and she imagined that he held her a little bit tighter.

She felt a connection to him, not just physically and as she held tightly onto him she felt warmth, a sense of belonging and she realised that she needed to stop pushing him, and the others away. Her obvious attraction to Gwen was creating hostility, her lack of connection to MJ doing the same, and as he lost herself in the pleasure she never even noticed them land.

Feeling a loss as he moved out of her she was surprised as he turned her and pressed her against the water tower that supplied the warehouse. He thrust into her from behind, uncaring and not gently, took her once more. Holding her up as her legs became jelly and buckled under her, as her cries rang out across the rooftops she lost herself, and she no longer cared what he did, only that he didn't stop. She felt him release inside her, filling her with the heat and passion she craved but was disappointed as he left her there. He had simply walked away, his message to her as clear as day.

Alone and empty she realised she wanted this. She wanted him, the warehouse, the friends, and the family. If she didn't change, she would lose everything and that thought terrified her more than anything.