Spider-Man. The House Of Venom

It didn't matter to Mysterio when they set the cannon up. A simple colour switch made sure it would always show as offline, even if it was fully charged. If it went off and killed anyone, that was their problem.

He was happy to let them get some of the glory, but the real prize, humiliating that bitch, and dealing with a Hulk, was his.

"Good job men," he called out, "But I can take it from here."

His cameras picked up on the rude gesture the commander made.

It's like that huh? he thought, then screw you. He was going to be magnanimous, but it seemed that some people didn't respect their heroes.

One of the Reavers watched as an ETF member pushed a young woman to the ground. He had never seen her before but she had the armband, and a blue arm, so she was one of them.

"Hey, fuck face, what the hell?" he shouted. The officer gave him the finger and pointed his gun at the woman.

"Stay down and shut the hell up."

Nope, he was tired of this. He was tired of getting his life back on course only to be handed a thousand-dollar fine for breaking a guy's hand. Even Matt Murdock said it was excessive, and couldn't do anything about it. His life was in the shitter when the Reavers saved him, and he wasn't going to let anyone take that away from him. So, he ran, picked up speed, and smashed his very real, very heavy fist into the guy's face. Which sparked a riot.

Seeing one of their own go down to a sneak attack, the ETF holstered their guns and unclipped their ETF issue batons. They were telescopic and electrified. They were supposed to be for self-defence against Enhanced, but they worked really well on regular people. Two clubbed the man who attacked their friend, as others now fended off more of the Reavers.

Mysterio snorted, Sucks to be you guys.

"Fear not citizens. While your law seems to be overly aggressive, I shall still deal with Hulk."

The Hulk growled, yelled and pounced. Mysterio deftly spun out of the way, "Quantum Bola!" he yelled and a circle of energy shot from his gauntlet. It shot towards the Hulk, wrapping itself around him. "Now friend, that is pure Quantum Buranium. Even a Sentinel could never break it."

The Hulk strained against the bands, yelling and shouting.

"Now, We can take you somewhere safe." Touching his wrist, a portal sprang into life, "My friends might be able to cure you. We can manipulate..."

Mysterio stopped as a slow, sarcastic clapping was heard.

"Oh, no, keep going."

Mysterio spotted the trio. One was covered in white powder, no, it was ice. the other looked bored, and the last, the cone clapping was Yukio.

"Thank you, stranger, but your help is not needed," Mysterio said as the Hulk floated through the portal.

"Oh, I think it is." Yukio put a hand on her companion's shoulders, "Stay back and do not do anything. This is a Danger Room."

"What the hell Yuki?" Nega said, "Nobody can do that."

Yukio turned and smiled, "You may not like me right now, but trust me. Nothing here is real." Electricity sparked around her hand. As she knelt down, the grass which should have blacked, stayed perfectly green.

"So someone figured it out. It doesn't matter. I still control everything." Mysterio boomed as he lifted from the ground, "And you can't stop me."

Yukio watched as Ice Man and Negasonic seemed to shimmer and vanish. She could still feel them. She could with anything giving off an electrical charge, but to her eyes, they just weren't there. It was time to put her training to use. Using her powers in ways she had never considered.

When she first met Peter, she felt the aura he gave off. It was a draft of raw power, but she also felt it flare when she mentioned her powers. Normally people were just 'Oh cool, sparkles' but he seemed horrified, and she wanted to know why. Not one for studying, she too was horrified when she picked up and read a physics textbook. The damage she could do just by being careless was terrifying.

Charles adopted one of Peter's sayings. With great power comes great responsibility. He made it part of their ethics class. It had three parts. Using their powers for good. Realising the dangers their powers were and making the choice to use them, or to not use them at all. It was the final one that Yukio had been ignoring. Learning why their powers worked, and making sure they were using them correctly. Now, when she looked back, she didn't know why. She loved physics. She loved her powers, and using them in strange and unique ways made her proud.

The chain she carried around with her, to focus her powers, unwrapped itself from her wrist. She had been talking to Liv and had a new cable. Insulated, with a copper core and a silver tip. It was springy like a whip, but her powers allowed her to strengthen it. It would be nice to make it all of silver, which was more conducive, but she couldn't afford it. Copper would do.

It shot out and struck something invisible, and a drone shimmered for a second before it darted away.

"Oh, I think I'll do just fine." Her whip snaked out, arcing through the air, and to everyone, it seemed to hit nothing. To Yukio, however, she felt it hit something solid, something brimming with power. Power she took.

In the mansion, they tried and experiment. Yukio removed the electrons from an object. She cried when she saw the cute Norwegian black sat in its cage and refused. She glared at Hank as he sat a pot plant down, and then sat holding it, refusing to let them use it as well. In the end, Hank sacrificed his bagel for the experiment. It crumbled into a fine grey powder as she pulled power from it.

"Well, it's not like we know what would happen if we remove electrons. It's scientifically impossible. We can see the effects of reactions, even radiation. But that," he swept up some of the dust from Yukio’s hand, "is probable inert carbon and a few trace elements." He grinned, "Maybe even radioactive elements."

After that, there was no removing electrons from anything. But she could move them. Anything with a battery was easy enough to drain, and as her whip hit the drone, it sputtered and died. The power flowed through the whip and into her. With a flick of her hand, she arced out a charged blast that took out another drone.

She smiled at Mysterio, "See?"

He was not amused though, "Bitch!" The telemetry he was receiving stated the whip was only two meters long. Short enough his drones could keep distance and still seriously hurt her. Not just her, "See if you can defend your friends when they think you're attacking them."

"My friends aren't idiots," Yukio snarked back. After Peter and Wolfsbane, the professor stepped up their training. Lessons on how to deal with illusionary, intangible, invisible, and imaginary foes. A small smile crept over Yukio's face as she felt the air around her getting colder. Bobby was lowering the temperature around himself. That let him see which enemies were fake, and which ones were real, simply by the heat they were giving off. Powers that created illusions, even in the mind often forgot small details. Some people saw the world differently and used it to their advantage. "You have lost."

A bright beam of energy shot out of nowhere, and Yukio knew Negasonic was there. She was being cloaked by something, but the beam of energy was too fast to mask.

"I will not be defeated by some skank from a magazine!" Mysterio yelled.

"I am not a skank," Yukio had to sidestep as a blast brushed past her, almost lifting her from her feet. She could feel the increase in power from whatever technology Mysterio was using. While she couldn't see it, she could definitely feel it. As her whip snapped out, and she felt no resistance, she knew it was a pressure cannon and not a projectile.

But it wasn't enough. Bobby was like her, limited in the area he could affect. Nega could generate an energy blast but had no way to actually sense the energy. They were short-range attackers, and Mysterio could use his devices to keep them at range. Nega would tie eventually, and as the saying went. They needed to stay lucky, Mysterio only needed to be lucky once.

But there was another saying, if it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid.

Yukio began to charge the air around her. She didn't need to create a field to manipulate, electronics had one very simple flaw.

She screamed as the air around her cracked with power. Arcs of electricity played over her uniform turned to ash as she dragged the charge from it. Her skin glowed and the hair on her body stood on end as she drew more and more power into herself. Staring at Mysterio with glowing eyes, she spread her arms and the world exploded.

Pain crippled her lungs, and she crouched, holding herself. Blasting out that much power hurt, her very core ached as she depleted the power in her body, but it wasn't enough. She had no doubt Mysterio shielded his tech, and with a scream, she drew power again.

Blasts of air thudded into her defenceless body as Mysterio tried to recover. The drones were now visible around her. Blasts streaked out from Negasonic as she now had a target, while Ice Man threw up shields of ice to protect her.

It still wasn't enough, and Yukio curled into a ball in pain, coughing blood as she was bombarded.

"Yuki!" Negasonic shouted but Yukio was too busy concentrating to hear her.

The air charged once more. As her body twisted and contorted, there was another flash. Fuelled by pain and anger, this time everything electronic around her exploded.

The Park went dark. Every transformer blew out, and every circuit, unshielded or not felt the blast. Those closest were the worst hit.

Reavers fell, clutching limbs that overloaded or caught fire. Donald screamed as his hand blacked at the joint and caught fire.

The ETF equipment was toast. In the ATV, the larger rifles ignited and set the van ablaze. The smaller pistols whined as their power packs discharged. One trooper screamed as his pistol exploded, taking his leg with it.

"You bastard!" Negasnoic yelled and Ice Man shot out a large blast of ice, rooting Mysteio to the drone he rode on. Her whole body seemed to catch fire and a blast erupted from her chest, striking Mysterio. He was blasted from the drone and landed heavily on the grass. Negasonic began to charge again as he tried to sit up. The blast had torn open his armour and it was bent and twisted, with bloody chunks stuck to it.

Ice Man grabbed her and pulled her back "No, I'll do it. Take care of Yukio." He pressed on the earpiece they always carried, "Home Base, Code Black. Emergency Priority One." He surveyed the carnage. There were casualties everywhere and on both sides. Mysterio was hurt and weakly struggled to rise. Ice Man blasted him, coating him in a thin layer of ice. He was stuck to the ground, and the ice was painful but would stop the bleeding.

⁂

It did not take long for Beck's trial to be organised. The Courts recognised that holding dangerously powered criminals was a risk. Getting them to trial, and dealt with was a priority. The longer they held a super-powered prisoner increased the chances of a breakout.

Quentin was held at Camp Gamma, where he watched the court over teleconferencing. That was another new rule. Prisoners were no longer moved to a courthouse where they could potentially escape. In extreme cases, even Habeas Corpus was suspended, if it was proven a powered was too dangerous.

Xander refused to press charges. “Why should I? I had no idea he was dangerous, and keeping someone's secret identity is not a crime. I would look to find out why Quentin did those things. Rather than blame him, you should look for the real perpetrators.”

Instead, they called Peter in to testify. He had a miraculous recovery. It was a miracle all right, as it was MJ trying not to have a mental breakdown at the fact she was lying during a trial. She knew Peter's tech backwards though. It was part of her job to know, and she could cite specs all day. Which was what she was doing. She might not be the real Peter, but she wasn't going to do anything that Peter wouldn't have.

"While Mister Parker is not a medical profession, he is the inventor of the system the Defendant is using." The prosecutor stood, staring at Peter in the witness box. "In your expert opinion. Is Mister Beck liable for the crimes he committed, or like the defence has proven, is he a victim of a faulty implant?"

Peter closed his eyes, "The system is fine. We tested it over and over. Mister Beck is a victim, but only of his own hubris. The system requires a lubricant, one safely enclosed within the limb. It also requires a power source, and also safely enclosed within the limb. In my own system, the interface is biologically inert, so it doesn't react to anything."

"That is all very good Mister Parker, but how is it relevant to this case."

Peter took a sip of water." Mister Beck's implants have both a lubricant and a power source. When we trialled that kind of system, it was fatal if left unchecked. I have permission to share medical data. This is not from my system but another patient, suffering similar symptoms."

"The Prosecution calls into evidence medical data, TS."

Peter was handed a pointer, and a television was turned on. "We all know who this is, but." The image changed to what was clearly Tony Starks chest. "Mister Stark kindly provided these. We see here." The image changed from his chest reactor to one taken after a month. The skin around the implant was red and puffy. "The reactor did not play well with the surrounding tissue." He clicked again, and it changed. The skin had a green tinge and there were lines of black edging their way across his chest. "Heavy metal poisoning and infection from lubricant leakage." He clicked again, and the last picture was a horror show. Around the reactor were green pustules, and thick lines of black, collapsed into his chest. "Severe tissue necrosis, and in the file, Tony mentioned an extortionary amount of pain. Once the problem was solved." The last picture showed his chest, clean, with a small number of scars, where a skin graft had been performed.

"So, in your expert opinion."

"The implants will have done severe damage to Quentin Beck's ocular cavity. He is in constant pain, and suffering from delusions, psychosis, and infection."

"So, this is not his fault?"

Peter laughed, "Oh no, it is. Tony put that in his chest because he had shrapnel making its way to kill him. Quentin put this in his head because he didn't want to be blind. He knew the risks and did it anyway. Quentin likes to remind people of how smart he is, and he is smart enough to know what damage the implants would do."

Nobody was surprised that Quentin Beck was found guilty. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Raft.