Spider-Man. The House Of Venom

The paperwork went through, the cheque cleared, and now Peter was almost out of money.

By the time he'd paid taxes, fees, and a lot of hidden charges, he had less than twenty-thousand dollars left.

While that might have sounded like a lot it wasn't.  Not After he paid for materials and supplies to finish the warehouse and the workshops. By his calculations, he would be completely broke.

With all the repair work that needed to be done. He realized that getting seventy-five thousand knocked off the price had been a con. It would take more than that in maintenance just to make it clean let alone livable.

He needed a job, it didn't have to pay well but it had to pay. If he could find somewhere close by, that would be even better as he could save on travel costs.

Peter had meant to venture around the area his new home was in for a while now.

The area was clean, saying a lot of a semi-industrial warehouse district. There were plenty of truckers coming and going and that meant truck services.

Not just auto parts but conveniences for them as well. Not that it was all good. He had been approached by a good amount of hookers, but that wasn’t what Peter was looking for.

A lot of places like this needed temp workers. A large haul coming in needed an extra pair of hands paid in cash and then forgotten.

He could make a few hundred a week just hauling boxes or sweeping floors. If he got desperate or an emergency came up he could look for something temporary. That didn't solve his problem though. What he really needed was a steady income. It was in the window of a Seven-Eleven near the warehouse that he spotted an advert for a full-time position.

It wasn’t going to be perfect but it suited what he wanted.

It offered good pay and flexible hours. But Peter guessed that a second hard sales lot in the middle of Brooklyn wouldn’t be completely legit. He was hoping though that it would be a good way to score second-hand goods and tools.

Clutching the advert in hand he made his way to the entrance, under the large yellow and black sign.

"Aleksei's Auto and Mechanical Scrap."

"We buy any used or broken items."

Unlike Peter's lots, this one was empty of a large building and was covered in a large plastic roof. Underneath he could see the more weather-resistant items laid out.

Along one side were offices like his, with signs hanging over letting people know what was inside. As he walked past, he could see workers in the doorways to deter thieves.

He was now here not just to try and find a job, but to scout out any useful machinery for his starter company.

At the back was a long thin building. It was split into three. One had ‘Main Office’ above it while the other two were open work areas. He saw a car frame being taken apart by someone with a cutting torch.

He was about to head to the office when he spotted a fat bearded man lifting a server case onto a bench. Peter stopped and watched as he lifted a crowbar, and was about to slide it into the side.

Raising his eyebrows in alarm Peter shouted, "Hey, hey you, wait, stop, no," and started running towards him.

He either didn't hear or didn't care and Peter had no choice but to grab the crowbar out of his hands. "Hey wait," and as the man reached back for a lump hammer, Peter raised his hands in defence.

“What'n the fuck'r you doin?" the man drawled as he waved the hammer at Peter, he moved his headphones down and yelled, "Hey boss, we gots a thief."

"Hey no, no. You're about to make a huge mistake, I can explain."

Holding up the crowbar, Peter backed away. It was a misunderstanding and he really didn't want to hurt the man.

A short but well-built and heavily balding man came out of the office, wiping his hands on an already dirty rag. "Oh come on Bens, it's a kid. Hey, what you doin huh? Bens get back to work, and you, you can fuck off." The man had little patience after being disturbed,

"Wait, sir, the server case. Your uh. The employee was about to crack it with a crowbar"

The bald guy shrugged, "So?"

"Well, it's an Oscorp Azura server shell, those have anti-theft devices inside. If the case is damaged they send out a signal and then destroy the drives so they can’t be used again," Peter explained. “Even a scrapped one has a small backup power cell, in case, uh, they get stolen.”

The man frowned, "Is that so?"

"Uh yeah, I did some work on a broken one before. Plus the specs of the case were leaked online a few years ago, that's why Oscorp ditched them. The Mark Two is bolted to Oscorps server room," Peter began to explain but the older man interrupted him,

"Yeah, kid. I don't care. Can you fix it?" He waved the rag at the advert in Peter's hand and realising he was giving Peter a chance to prove himself, he nodded.

Peter crumpled the job application in his hand "yeah, yeah I can but uh, can you not you know, hit me with the hammer as I do?"

"Yeah, Bennie here is only interested in the case, you must'a just uh, startled him is all." Bennie nodded and put his headphones back on, "so Mr uh,"

"Parker, Peter Parker." Peter offered out his hand but the man just looked at it, his own hands greasy.

“Aleksei, Aleksei Sytsevich, Owner. So Parker, get to it, you need anything for this?",

"uh." Peter looked at the workbench he spotted the screwdriver he needed. "No, as long as Mr Bennie doesn't mind me using his tools I'm fine."

"Mr Bennie?" Aleksei laughed, "Nah, it's just Bennie and sure, go ahead."

Peter grabbed the flathead screwdriver and ran his fingers along the bottom of the case. He stopped when he found the screw latch he was looking for. He carefully angled the screwdriver's head and then inserted it into the slot and pushed. There was a clunk and on the side of the case a panel had slid out.

Looking for a box knife, Peter extended the blade and slid it between the panel and the server housing. He gently drew back until the transmitted popped free of its glue. Once it was free Peter lifted the case panel to one side and lay it down.

"Uh, do you have any? Oh never mind." Peter grabbed a pair of snips. Gently teasing the wires apart he found the alarm wire and clipped it.

"All done," he said as he passed the transmitter to Bennie, who slipped it into an antistatic bag. "Uh, the alarm is disabled now, but the transmitter can be reprogrammed, if you know how."

Peter wasn't dumb. He'd just committed a felony in front of someone. The cases were military hardware. Used to control and fly drones. As such, you needed a massive amount of licenses and other paperwork to handle them. So them being here was defiantly illegal. If a junkyard in Brooklyn had something like that, he was the reincarnation of Jesus.

Aleksei nodded. "Bennie, take care of it while me and Pete here have a little chat, my office is a bit more private for these kinda things."

Aleksei ushered Peter into the cramped and cluttered office space. It was more like a holding pen for repairable items and paperwork than a meeting area. Most of the furniture looked second-hand, and Peter wrinkled his nose at the ashtray sat on the desk.

Aleksei lifted an old engine block off a seat and motioned for Peter to sit. As Peter made himself comfortable, Alexi got into a large leather chair behind his desk.

"So, you want the job, ’cause it's yours. No set hours, no set pay. You get 10% of the selling price of whatever you fix once they sell, and you keep your mouth shut about what you're fixin'. If that is acceptable, then start when you can and I'll pay you when things move.”

From the look on his face, this was non-negotiable. No wonder no one wanted this job. It was fine if he could repair a big-ticket item but toasters and other junk would make him nickels and dimes. The advert was obviously a scam to get a few free hours of work from someone desperate. Peter was desperate but 10% wasn’t enough.

"Twenty if I take it in trade. I'm looking for a few things for my company." He hoped Aleksei would see the value of his skills.

"Oh yeah, whatcha makin?"

"I dunno yet but uh, I own the warehouse on 2nd Avenue,"

Aleksei snorted, "The methdeath place huh? Hope you didn't pay much for that, we did the clean-up on it and boy that place's a mess."

Peter had to agree, mainly on the state it was in and definitely not on the man's definition of ‘clean’. "Yeah, but it's fine. I’ll just want small things. I saw you got some portable offices still flat-packed, how about those for the server case?"

Aleksei snorted, "you know Pete those are uh about five grand new, and I got five. That's a lot of missing work you're talking about."

"Umm, Mr Aleksei, boss sir, no. Those drives are Oscorp military spec. Valued at fifty thousand dollars each. The tracking I just disabled would have the feds and a whole bunch of cops here if they'd been set off. Plus there's what ten drives in that case, so half a million, even twenty per cent of that is,"

“Is that so?” Aleksei paused and then waved his hand, "yeah yeah okay, I get it, okay, take 'em. You're killin me here, killin me. You need ‘em delivered?" Peter looked a little guilty and nodded, "fine, fine. But you better be worth it. Hey Bennie, get the flatpack offices for the kid, there's five in the back."

"Four," Bennie shouted back,

"uh it seems one's being used, so four okay?" Peter nodded. "Fine now get outta here, come in tomorrow and we'll get you started. I got a few small things you can work on to try you out, and you know, speak a little more kid, we don’t bite here." Aleksei laughed and opened a drawer in his desk.

“Here,” and counted out ten bills, tapping them on the desk he passed them over to Peter. He stared at the man handing him a thousand dollars. “An advance, cause you know, one’s missin, but you better be here tomorrow, or uh,” and he gave Peter a look.

Peter smiled and nodded, and Aleksei raised an eyebrow “uh sorry, yes, thanks, uh boss,” and Aleksei just shook his head.

Peter was over the moon as they worked out the deal. He’d just scored four offices he could turn into not just a home for himself but workshops, and a thousand bucks.

It was a start and once he managed to get the warehouse cleaned up, he could get a few tenants in. It was his backup plan in case his business failed and would give him income while he got it off the ground.

Checking out plans for his own home had given him the idea. He had eight offices with some minor bullet damage and one in pristine condition.

The extra offices would give him space to work in while he rented out the others.

Students would be best, he thought to himself.

They were less fussy and he could charge a decent amount for what would basically be a room with amenities. Less hassle to build but would still earn him a decent amount each month,

He just needed to get it to work and make it appealing to rent.

Aleksei watched as Peter Parker, his latest employee, wandered through the scrapyard. He would stop every now and again to check something that must have some value to him.

He rubbed a hand over his face as he thought back to what the kid had said. Aleksei reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a large survival knife. He sighed as he hid it under some paperwork.

Bennie should have been more careful than that, and he should have paid more attention to what he had been given to dispose of. The Feds here would have ruined everything.

"Hey Bennie, come here a moment wouldja?"

He needed answers.