Arc Five. Chapter One Hundred Forty-Eight. Dirty Pair

Tony was angry. Not only did this little shit come here and taunt him but now he finds out the bastard is actually Venom. As he rolled backwards he slid up and stepped into a new Iron Man Suit he had been designing, and it was about to get its test run.

Tony, you're a fucking mess, the redhead Natasha something had said, I mean, you barely lasted five minutes and for what? As she leaned in closer, I know MJ and her boyfriend, Parker, you met him at Shield HQ and he's a much better lay than you'll ever be, and as she looked down and snorting, a look of derision on her face, bigger there too. She walked away leaving Tony in his shame and anger.

Of course, Tony Stark wasn't taking that lying down and bedded as many willing women as he could find, even the female understudy for MJ's part. A cute redhead that looked enough like her he could vent. After he just tossed them to one side, he could never treat Pepper like that, but how could he tell her, how could he explain the tremors, the nightmares, and the pain. Nobody would understand what he had been through.

In the end, it was watching Pepper being, being abused by that asshole that boiled his blood, not because of what she was doing but he saw something on her face for the first time. Ecstasy, and as she came over and over again, he smashed the screen until his knuckles were raw and bloody.

"Jarvis, bring the weapon systems online and activate the Iron Legion Protocols." and the armour whirred into life, the repulsors at each palm lighting up. Iron Man had gone past angry but now he knew that Parker shit was Venom, he could kill him no problem, hell, they'd give him a medal for offing the turd.

As the armour closed around Iron Man and it whirred, several suits next to him also activated, their helmet lights coming on, flickering as they connected to the Iron Legion Network and Venom stood and watched as they stepped forwards from their cradles,

"You touched something you shouldn't have," and as the repulsors whined on three suits of Iron Man armour, Venom crossed his arms as they blasted him through the lab wall and out into the corridor.

The usual workers that filled the halls of Stark Industries screamed and panicked as the fire alarm and the sprinkler systems all went off. Bodies filled the corridors as Venom shook himself free of the foam-filled plasterboard walls, Stark Tower might be future-proofed but it still used regular construction designs, if more modern.

"So what if I did? She broke up with you," and brushing off the dust he took a more defensive stance. While Iron Man just used his last chance with Venom he wasn't about to start a fight in the middle of a tower block.

The carpet burned and tore as the three Iron Man suits hovered a few inches above them, "We are only on a break, and you took advantage of her," and Iron Man and the drones fired once more, catching Venom on the arms again and sending him back through another wall.

While it was tiresome to let this jackass take swing after swing, Venom knew he would be better fighting where there was more space to manoeuvre, and eyeing a tempered glass window, shrugged,

"Oh boo hoo, so Pepper gets dick from someone who isn't a selfish jackass. You know, it even surprised me when she came back for seconds, I mean, I filled her with so much 'oof'-" Iron Man roared and all three bots fired once more, sending Venom back and into the glass window which buckled and cracked with the force.

"Good" and elbowing the pane it caved, and with one hand he pulled and threw it into the office. "Now we can fight,'' and sending out a web line Venom swung out into the New York skyline.

Seeing the empty office Iron Man accessed the suits weapon systems and small micro missile launchers all locked onto Venom, firing. Several impacted and exploded on the window frame but enough went screeching in the sky that Venom twisted and twirled to avoid them.

Sending out a blanket of webbing he caught them and as the air filled with dust and debris he swung away, heading towards Times Square hoping he wouldn't fight down there, but Iron Man proved him wrong.

Following, Iron Man flew at full speed into Venom, catching him around the waist and as he grabbed on Iron Man flew straight up, taking them both into the lower atmosphere.

Having been in the bay, even the lower oxygen count and the freezing temperatures didn't phase Venom and instead, as Iron Man pushed them further and further up he began to coat him in a thin layer of sticky but watery webbing, knowing the freezing temperatures would gum up the armour.

While it was definitely a much higher class and make of suit, it still suffered the same problems as any armour. Joints needing mobility and flexibility. As Venom aimed for vulnerable areas, even Iron Man began to panic.

"Jarvis, give me a report on the suit," Iron Man had never been up this high before. "Jarvis?" but he got no reply, even the connection to the Iron Legion system was offline, its icon flashing red in the corner of his vision. and as his systems began to flicker red and the sensors for the suits integrity began to flash a warning, he had no choice but to give Venom one last push and then stop his accent.

Venom flipped him the bird and sent out a web line, tying himself to Iron Man, as he pulled, his considerable strength acted against the thrusters in the armour and Iron Man found himself being pulled further into space.

Venoms pulled himself closer and spread a hand on Iron Man's chest, and the black of his symbskin began to leech into its systems. Venom hoped he could get to Iron Man through the suit, he had lost his temper when Iron Man acted out, and the fight was just as much his fault as Iron Mans.

"Stop being a child," scrolled across his HUD, "Pepper broke up with you because of shit like this," and even after grabbing Venoms hand and firing his repulsors at point-blank range Venom refused to let go. "Calm down and we can talk."

The HUD in Iron Man's helmet suddenly lit up. "Emergency override accepted. Loading Friday," and a small jingle played and a soft woman's voice sounded. "Thank goodness it's Friday. Well boss, you're in a pickle, but hold on. Release in three, two and one, hold onto your hat." and the back of the armour opened, sliding apart and Tony took a deep breath before he started to plummet.

Holding the now empty shell, Venom's connection began to register a power build-up "son of a bit-" and the suit exploded.

Tony felt the biting wind tear into his frozen limbs and as the second suit came up below him the third gently flipped him over and free-falling he guided himself into it. As it pressurised around him and warm air began to circulate, "I gotcha boss, don't worry."

"What the hell Friday, where's Jarvis?" Tony spluttered as the suit began to return feeling to his limbs,

"Iron Legion Protocols are being assimilated into Jarvis core program, so he's offline boss."

"Dammit," Iron Man swore, flexing his fingers, "are any other units available?" Talk? He didn't want to talk to that asshole, he wanted to smear him over the sidewalk. Nobody made a fool of him, and if Venom wanted a fight, he would get one.

"Sorry boss, only these two were online before the crash, it's all you've got."

"It's fine, fine." and the repulsors fired up and Iron Man levelled out. "Active scan, find that son of a bitch for me Friday." and a small reticule began to scan over the cloudy sky.

Venom was not having a good time, the explosion had taken off most of the symbskin around his arm and the cold wind had turned it to a dark blue colour. With no feeling in his hand, even Venom knew that the explosion coupled with frostbite was going to take a while to heal. Of course, falling for several thousand feet wasn't going to make that easier either, and as he spread out a symbskin wingsuit he tried to orient himself to land at least somewhere near New York.

"There you are, you bastard," and as Iron Man locked onto Venom he watched him gliding down beneath the clouds and then fired. The last of his shoulder missiles streaked towards his target.

As the dozen micro missiles impacted against Venom, individually they had little effect, his symbarmour being more than enough to take the impact but together they tore holes in the glide suit and he began to tumble and fall towards the cityscape. Unsure of where he was falling and sure of what he would hit, Venom sent out blind webs, hoping to snag onto anything and swing away the momentum he was gaining.

It didn't matter as Iron Man thudded into him, the pair taking turns in diving and slamming into Venom as he spun and tumbled, dizzy and with little to focus on Venom had no choice but to wait until he was closer to the ground and try to correct his flight.

Closing his eyes and letting the world fade into the singular whistling noise of the wind Venom slowed his breathing, panicking about falling so fast would get him nowhere and as the whistle changed as either Iron Man or his drone came in for another hit he let out two webs, uncaring if the wrapped around him as he fell and only that they latched onto his current target.

As Venom and Iron Man tangled together with webbing his plan worked and even with the extra weight Iron Man righted himself and this time however Venom refused to interface with the armour. "Stop being a dick," he said and Iron Man replied by raising his hands and firing two blasts at him, joined by two from the drone and even stuck together Venom tumbled away, snagging himself on the webbing.

It didn't matter, with the world now the right way he could see they were closing in on the highest buildings in the New York skyline and releasing the web from his wrist Venom used Iron Man as a springboard and launched himself towards them. Giving Iron Man the finger before shooting out a web he heard the man yell something but streamlining himself he shot faster and faster away from him.

Releasing a cloud of webbing as a parachute Venom shot a web out, grabbed the building and swung around, facing to where he had left Iron Man. He felt the vibrations of both drone and original and leaping he avoided the repulsor blasts from both.

Shooting webbing at both he watched Iron Man weave away with some grace, not just a dick then, he thought and silently praised Iron Man. He could see the three suits, lit up like lights to his senses but Iron Man had plenty of flight time whereas Peter preferred to fight on the ground. Even as he struck out with the harness, a second suit landed on his back and surgically cut the arm away before pushing off him, taking it with it. Venom could fight, but in the air, Iron Man would win. He hesitated on using the Mind Stone, mentally grappling with someone while freefalling would end up messy for them both, and decided against it.

As he sprayed the air with webbing and swung out towards Times Square, Venom vowed that he would not be caught unaware again. Getting too stupid, he thought to himself. Once Harry had been dealt with, he thought his problems would magically vanish but instead, Shield, Iron Man, and the mutants had all appeared and his life became complicated again. Iron Man barrelled and as Venom shot a web out he returned fire with a repulsor and Venom took a hit to the chest but caught Iron Man with a web on one of his boots. As he spun the other drone came over to stabilize him and even with the spin Venom was in a better position and he fired off two webs, one to catch a building and one at the drone, covering its visor.

They probably share telemetry, Venom thought, but it didn't hurt to make sure.

Venom swung up and landed on one of the drones back and using the tar web he gummed up the remaining boots. As it sparked and burned through the webbing, all it did was hiss and eventually splutter. Using his weight he pushed down and vaulted from the back of the drone and stuck to a nearby building to watch as Iron Man and the drone circled down and onto the street.

Venom smiled, he wasn't being altruistic, he just didn't want to add millions of dollars in property damage to his already less than clean record, and as Iron Man landed and pushed the drone away Venom dived and smashed both fists into the shoulders of the drone, crushing it into the sidewalk and vaulting back, spun and landed on his feet in front of Iron Man.

"You fucked her!" Iron Man yelled and he blasted Venom back into a shop window, shrugging off the glass Venom leapt at him and had to twist in the air to avoid another repulsor beam. "You fucked her like she didn't matter. Like I don't matter. Pepper was mine and you touched her with those, those filthy hands of yours," and as Venom closed in he swung at Iron man, who deflected the blow.

"Friday, begin analyst of Venom fighting pattern,"

As he swung and put dents in the Iron Man suit a small reticule waved and dotted over the screen of Iron Man's HUD.

"Analysis complete," and he began his counterattack.

As Venom swung Iron Man ducked and shot a repulsor blast into his chest, followed by another from the second drone into his back. As he staggered, Iron Man swung and connected with his jaw, sending him down on one knee and the drone jumped and smashed a fist into the stunned Venom, knocking him to the ground.

Rolling and springing back up, "Pussy, you hit like a pussy, and according to Pepper, you fuck like one too," and Iron Man roared and both fired more blasts at Venom. Venom could only take so much, and if Iron Man wouldn't stand down, he would make him.

"Give it up, you can't win, I told you, those don't hurt." and as Iron Man raised his hands again, Venom was knocked and spun as a disc of some kind smashed into his head, ricocheted and hit Iron Man as well, spinning him around and knocking him over.

"He can't hurt you but I can," said a new voice and Venom saw a well-muscled and red, white, and blue wearing very tall and very muscular man. His costume adorned with the American flag was clean and neatly pressed. As the shield ricocheted from Iron Man to the drone it returned and the man caught it and with a practised move slid it back onto his arm.

"You will both stand down. Under the provision of the New York Accords, you are both under arrest for unauthorised combat in a civilian zone using Enhanced human capabilities."

"And who are you? Stars and Stripes?" Iron Man asked, but the man shook his head.

"No Mr Stark," and as he spoke Venom watched as vehicles, emblazoned with the Shield logo surrounded the trio and soldiers with energy weapons similar to the ones in Sokovia marched out, keeping them trained on the pair.

"I'm Captain America."