Arc Ten. Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Five. Strike While The Iron Is Hot

As they circled each other, the faint glowing light coming from around Venom's wrist, he felt the shockwave of a massive psychic attack, Webb had been backed into a corner, and was finally using his powers properly. Sending out a discrete message he directed Flash to the warehouse, where hopefully he could get the help he needed.

As Venom tilted his head and sent his message Iron Man attacked, two drones fired off missiles while Iron Man blasted at him with his disruptor.

Venom felt the burns as the beam hit his armour.. Part of him flaked off, and even the energy curtain in Wakanda hadn't been as painful as this. Gritting his teeth, Venom dodged another blow, backflipping away as the beam flashed towards him, taking away the armour covering his leg.

Venom cursed. That damn disruptor was small, and could only target a limb. Tony would have to get lucky and hit his head for it to be anything more of an annoyance. What was irking Venom most was its effectiveness. A larger version would probably disintegrate him with one shot, and he shuddered to think what it would do to a normal symbiote and its unlucky host.

Thankfully he had realised the gap in his powers, and Liv had prepared him. He concentrated and thicker armoured greeves slid down from the back. The Mark Three was in testing but now seemed like a good time as any. And as a repulsor black hit and bounced off the vibranium alloy plating, Venom grinned.

As a drone fired he let it hit the charging plates on his back and the bright repulsor rings on his wrist lit up and he fired at Venombuster.

"To slow," and the suit jetted to one side and he turned to fire, stripping the symbskin armour from Venom's hand and reducing the skin to ash, the cold air bit into his fingers as a biting pain, and Venom snarled, the Mark Three armour was still gloveless, Liv was working on a solution to his natural stickiness and web powers, but hadn't cracked it just yet.

Taking a breath Venom knew he had to do something, his stamina was immense, and after all his upgrades and the arc reactor he could fight for hours, but replacing parts was tiring and painful. "Enough" he yelled, and the pack on his back lit up. A short burst took him to one drone, where a bladed arm split its aroused shell through the centre, removing the arc reactor. His senses were working overtime, cutting off his vision and relying on the electronic signatures of each armour. Short controlled bursts, randomly in various directions.

Tracking software was only as good as the sensors controlling it, and as he worked his way around each suit, he wondered how he was being tracked. With the only armour either doing it best to avoid him and Tony taking pot shots with the cellular disruptor Venom figured it must be a satellite.

Liv, can you track and find out if a Stark Satellite is overhead, he's got me pinned and I need to blind him.

I can, but it will take time, if its a spycam, then your camouflage should be enough to fool it, heat for your flight pack, photons for the arc reactor,

Venom laughed, I have an idea, how high is it?

It would be in a high orbit, sorry dear, but you'd never reach it before you suffocated,

He had thought of taking a suit up high and detonating it, hopefully taking the satellite out with it, but it was probably at twelve thousand feet, with the other GPS satellites and was way too high.

Right, plan B then.

Venom shot straight up, dragging four suits of armour behind him as their orders to contain and capture took them just as high. In the lower atmosphere, Venom recoated his armour black, and cut all power to every system, letting ice coat him, track me now shithead. As he fell, he used his old tricks.

A web shot out and snagged the bottom of a suit, and using it as leverage Venom whipped around it, trying it with a web, and as he landed on its back, he pressed his hand to its head and sliced open it's central processing unit, slaving the armour to himself.

Laying flat on it, he surfed towards another suit, and a thin razor-sharp tendril shot out and took out both jet boots, sending the unit plummeting to the ground.

Venom felt slightly guilty about that, but if Tony was going to argue about being in trouble for using the legion in a civilian area, then he shouldn't be using his damn legion in a civilian area.

Tony was swearing, he could see the Legion drones flying around, trying to track and locate Parker, but he had fooled his tracking somehow. There was no heat or radiation coming from anywhere in the sky, and as he checked each drone he cursed. To him, he could see every one of them on his tracker, their Friend or Foe system and a transponder keeping them on his HUD, but one unit wasn't registering to the satellite above, it was dark to its camera, and he figured Peter must have hijacked it. He watched as it would fly close to another drone, that drone would register as disabled, and then it would jet off.

Smartass, Tony thought to himself, but he had also learned. He knew Peter was a technopath and instilled several redundant systems into each drone, and this one was in case of hostile take over. Completely separate from the main core, a small explosive charge was mounted in a stable and completely seal ring around the armours arc reactor, and sending a kill signal it exploded, sending a black shadow flying.

Tony had a choice to make, Peter was right, nothing good ever came of locking people up. Sure, they needed oversight, but this went past that and right into fascism.

They didn't want Peter for his flagrant use of his powers, they wanted him for his secrets, even Tony felt that when they tried to seize the Iron Man technology. Do as we tell you or else they had said, and that irked Tony.

So when Ross and his gamma goons turned up at the tower, waving subpoenas and warrants, his newest lawyer just muttered and fumbled before they barged their way in and held Jocasta and Vision at gunpoint. He was left with no choice but to agree to this little drama.

This was the one time he wrote a script and stuck to it. While his security was airtight, having the government breathing down your neck meant not taking any chances, and with the stakes, he couldn't risk anything on even a ninety-nine per cent chance he wouldn't get caught.

He just had to hope that Peter would put aside their little feud and listen. Peter was brilliant, if misguided. The personal stuff could be forgiven but he had to act fast.

"Reroute power to the sub sonar systems and load program one. Repeat and goddammit Pete, don't a smart dumb guy."

As Venom's senses kept a track of the Legion and Venombuster, he could feel the pulses, coming from Tony's active scan, but in a strange rhythm.

Is that binary? He thought, oh screw him.

Not safe, hostages, help, help, help

Oh, godammit Venom thought. No wonder Stark wasn't trying very hard, there were a few times the disruptor blasts could have been a little higher and could have taken his head out, and he had no way to stop a tracking satellite completely.

Venom decided to risk it and he felt for the Stone, please don't have a stupid vibranium helmet. As his attempts scattered from Tony's armour he figured if it wasn't vibranium he had one of those damn helmets Shaw used. Stupid dumbass motherfricking tin can asshole. Peter sent out a flurry of expletives, all aimed at Tony but he knew he wasn't getting past the armour. Right, then we do this the hard way.

Tony was tracking the dark shadow as it sent out webbing and latched onto a nearby building. It was scattering almost everything, but even in the dark shadows, it was still a presence. He just couldn't track it with anything other than his eyes.

A spotlight on his shoulder lit up, illuminating the area he saw the shadow last, and as he swept it over the side of the building, the flicker of movement and the early warning impact collision alarm went off, but it was too late. Peter had lept from drone to drone, keeping himself cold and dark until he could get close enough.

"Got you," it whispered and Tony felt the stabbing pain in his chest as it plunged a blade through his armour.

Tony, yeah I know, but listen, we need to make it look good, if you're honest, then just think and I'll hear you,

Tony had the reactor removed, but the hole remained. The original magnet wasn't needed anymore but he still had a huge wound in his chest where it had sat. Even with bio neutral materials, it was still weaker than the bone it replaced, and Venom's symbskin leeched into it.

Sorry, but I do owe you for blasting me earlier,

Tony shook as the pain threatened to overwhelm him, but as the pair floated, he heard the voice once more,

Explain yourself right damn now or I stab further in,

Please, they have Jocasta, I had to. This is bigger than us Pete, and I had no choice. Vision was supposed to stop you.

That was the dumbest plan ever, and the beating?

We thought your mom would stop you. Ross thought going after your mom would stop you. Pete listen. This is bigger than just the Sentinels. They want us out here killing each other, they want us to be fighting. Us fighting gives them more excuses to tighten the laws.

Well, duh. Malik is Hydra, so what's new?

You, you knew?

Well, not about the fake-out, that was a surprise, but I've been expecting Doom or Hydra or some other moron to try something. You are right, and powers aren't to be played with, but this goes past that. There are kids Tony, and you should have fought, you should have come to me and we could have done this together.

They took Jo! I had no choice,

I learned the hard way, Tony. There is always a choice. They wouldn't have hurt her.

You don't know that!

Peter's mind was flooded with reports and emails from Helen Cho. Her neural cloning of a human brain into synthezoid pathways had failed at every turn. She had reached out to Tony, to let her examine Jocasta or Vision, and he had blown her off. She had wanted to do a deep dissection of one of the three, and Tony had point blankly refused. So, she had taken the next alternate route, and blamed Tony for her work's failure, blamed his attack on Korea as to why her models failed, and that the three working prototypes were seized illegally. All Coulson did afterwards was apply pressure.

Peter snorted, yeah, that was stupid, so now what?

Tony coughed, and his lips stained with blood,

I kinda want you to take your hand out of my chest.

Peter, he heard a softer voice call to him,

It's fine, stay away. He told it,

Peter Parker! What The Hell Do You Think You Doing!

It was like being punched in the head. Whoever was sending was not only breaking through his interference but actually hammering at his mind.

Dammit, he's fine, we're just talking,

Are you an idiot? Oh, don't answer that, of course you are. It's me, darling, and you spoiled my daring rescue, I was hoping to get your heart all a flutter, and not find you fisting Tony Stark,

Peter looked at his hand in Tony's chest, and the blood flowing from the cracks in his armour.

It's uh, really not what it looks like, He'll live, he might not like me for a while but it's he sent and as he stood, call an ambulance for Tony, and he sighed. It was painful as Tony gritted his teeth and they lowered themselves to the ground,

"Thanks, jackass. That hurt," Tony wheezed as the symbskin in his chest retracted, leaving behind a dose of Peter's healing cells.

"Yeah yeah, quit whining, it was your plan." Venom said as he lay Tony down on the sidewalk.

"My plan was not for you to paralyse me and stick your hand in my chest." Tony tried to reboot his armour, and activate its life support systems, but Peter had done a number on its systems and as a precaution to being hijacked, it had forcefully shut down.

"It worked, and now you get to have pretty nurses tend your tired and broken heart, kiss your whatever better," Venom said, as he lifted the faceplate clear to let Tony see.

Tony rolled his eyes, "not helping, Maya will kill me if I even,"

Venom lifted a hand, "Yeah, dude. Don't care. Sentinels and uh, dammit, the big guy."

Closing his eyes, Venom stood as he checked Tony one last time, as he opened his eyes, he felt it. A huge signal heading towards him. The burning heat and the rage, and he knew that he had finally caught the attention of the biggest fish.