NOVEL FROG Arc Sixteen. Chapter Four Hundred Seventy-Three. Black Out
Venom sat on a gargoyle, with Storm hovering nearby. They had been told 'hands-off' by Laura and her team. Apparently having two heavy hitters shadowing their team did two things. It scared away any potential criminals, and Peter had laughed, it 'cramped their style'.
He did understand though. This was now Laura's responsibility. He had retired and moved on to running his business, and she made sure the streets were safe. If Hulk walked around, shouting 'Don't be Bad!' at villains, it would have the same effect. Not that anyone had seen Hulk for years. Bruce still teleconferenced with Gwen, but as it was her business, and not his, Peter stayed out of it.
"How are things in Genosha," Venom asked as they sat watching Talon lay into a mugger. She had at least stopped using her claws after Logan explained cross-contamination. She might have super healing but it didn't stop blood and other material from getting into her body. Even his old costume had three small sponges on the back of his gloves. They weren't there to stop him from wrecking them. They wiped his claws clean while he retracted them. Even he didn't want bad guy guts in his arms.
"It is," Storm paused, "difficult. There are things happening I cannot tell you, as Charles has forbidden it. It is nothing serious, or at least, not for you."
"As long as whatever stupid idea Charles had this time doesn't affect." Venom made a gesture at the small group busy fighting what was one mugger originally and was now six. "I don't care."
"They brought friends," Storm commented. "Do we help?"
Venom shook his head and leant back on the gargoyle, "Nah, Talon yelled at me the first time I did. Seems one thing we didn't count on was unionised muggers."
Storm frowned, "Really?"
Venom shrugged but nodded. "They got wise that heroes patrol individually, so started working in pairs. Then fours, and now this." It started a war of escalation. A couple of guys with tasers for the bulletproof heroes, and nets for the fast ones. They learned, and crime maybe paid a little less these days but it still paid. That wasn't even the supervillains. Ordinary crooks kitted themselves to take on the low to mid-tier heroes, and it worked.
"As sad as it is, they won't really hurt them, just bash a few egos. They know if they put one of those three in hospital, then you or me will be out looking for whoever did it."
Storm frowned and grumbled, "That is not a good thing Venom. A peace like that only works if both sides stick to it. "
"Like anything else then. The US won't touch Latveria, as long as Doom stays put, and Russia is pretty much the Red Room now. Every side stays within its own little box. It's just bigger."
Storm floated next to him and Venom shuffled over to let her sit down. "That is not a pleasant thought Venom. A cold war is still a war." She gave a small laugh as he sprayed a little webbing on the top of the gargoyle. After a few seconds, it hardened into a small cushion, which she sat on.
"What? These things are cold. I read sitting on cold concrete gives you haemorrhoids."
Storm laughed. "That is a myth, but it is more comfortable." They watched as the trio dealt with the muggers. Snapped pictures of their faces and then webbed them to a lampost. Venom saw Talon's phone light up as she called the cops.
"And another no-show. It's been two weeks since that last sighting." Venom stopped as his senses were flooded with an unusual amount of energy. "Wait." An area, near the Bronx, suddenly lit up with a huge amount of electromagnetic energy. "I think our guy’s about to show up."
"I agree, even I can feel that." Storm lifted herself, and touched her earpiece, "We have a possible incursion. Venom and I are going to investigate." Her earpiece clicked back twice with an affirmative. Talon and the X-Force would wait unless they were needed.
"Give me a lift?" Venom asked as he stood and stretched, but with a small grin, Storm whipped up a wind that encapsulated the pair.
It didn't take long for them to reach the battle. Venom could see the streets lit up with energy as Mysterio fought another Sentinel. "He's giving off a lot of juice," Venom shot out a line and left the cocoon of air, "I'll go in first. If he takes out....."
As soon as he hit the energy field his world went white.
12.13.99.66.150,13.11.99.66.150,14.10.99.66.150,15.09.99.66.150,16.07.99.66.150,17.06.99.66.150,18.05.99.66.150,19.04.99.66.150,20.03.99.66.150,21.02.99.66.150,22.01.99.66.150,23.00.99.66.150,24.00.99.66.150.
Numbers filled his mind, flashing in an ever-changing sequence. They dug into his mind like icepicks. Each one pulsed a flash of searing power as his mind tried to understand what it was receiving. Venom never felt the impact as he plummeted to the ground, smashing into the concrete.
"Venom!" Storm shouted and down towards him. She clicked her mic, "We have a medical emergency. Venom is down." She turned him over and found he was limp in her arms. There was no sign of trauma, his armour protected him from the fall but he was unresponsive. "I need a telepath here. He is in shock or unconscious. There is nothing I can do."
"On my way," Talon responded. She shot out a line and landed, "He's....he's, I have no idea what the hell that is, it's just numbers and garbage."
Storm touched her earpiece again, "Medical priority one. Blink." A portal opened nearby, "Talon. Go with him. I will deal with Mysterio and the Sentinel."
As the portal opened, Talon lifted Venom bridal style and carried him through. On the other side, Beast started to work. Talon nodded at Storm, who lifted off.
"I cannot work through his armour, can you help?" Beast asked Laura as her armour morphed not regular clothing.
"Don't know, his mind is doing something, but." She touched a hand to his arm, Talon?
We can try but he is not responding.
Just eat the damn thing, Talon growled.
We reveal we can influence each other, even him.
And if he dies? So don't care. "Uh, Hank. Doctor-patient confidentiality, and I will find out," Laura warned Beast who just nodded. At her hand, where she was touching Venom's arm, the black thinned and then vanished. Talon spread herself over Peter and ate away his armour, leaving him naked on the gurney.
Beast began to hook up various sensors to his body, each one registering on a different machine. "Heart rate is elevated, as is blood pressure, but." He lifted his glasses, "I am showing an abnormally high level of brain activity. What was he doing when this occurred?"
"He just swung not the area where Mysterio was fighting. I tried to reach him but it's just numbers and garbage in his thoughts."
"Describe them."
Laura repeated the sequence, as well as she could.
"Hmm," Beast tilted his head. "If I could hazard a guess but those sound like vectors." Laura gave him a blank stare. "Three repeating number sequences that altered as he moved. Is it possible he tapped into a data source and is trying to process the information?"
Laura gave Beast another blank stare, "How the fuck would I know? I don't even know what the hell a vector is."
"Spatial coordinates in a three-axis layout," Beast explained but Laura shrugged. "X, Y, and Z, three-dimensional coordinates."
"So where stuff is, you could have just said that." Beast rolled his eyes, "And no idea. Pete uses his powers all the time now. He even complains it's too quiet in the warehouse because of the faraway cage."
"Faraday," Beast corrected her as he opened one of Peter's eyes and shone a light into it. His pupil stayed blown. "Well, then there is nothing short of erasing his mind from the moment it happened. He is suffering a small seizure, trying to process information in a manner he is unused to. As a doctor, I can only recommend we keep him quiet and safe. If he starts to crash or deteriorate then we need to address this again."
⁂
An excited Mysterio landed in the headquarters of Alkali-Transigen, "I got it Doc, I got it."
Zander Rice turned, "And what exactly, do you have, Mister Beck."
"The sample you need." The bowl-shaped helmet slid back and Beck was ginning, "I met one of the more powerful ones, she even shook my hand." His eyes shone a bright blue for a moment and two beams of light shot out from them. A Three-dimensional image, in crystal clarity, formed. Storm was shooting lightning at the Sentinal. Once Mysterio defeated it, she shook his hand, just like all the rest had.
"Very good. And her power level?" Zander asked. This might be it, but he didn't want to betray his expectations.
"Off the charts. The scanner you built topped out at nine thousand, and she was still fighting."
"Impressive, the sample if you please." Zander moved over to his workbench where Beck followed.
Beck lay his hand face down on the table and the armour split apart. Underneath, within the gauntlet was a small plate. Zander brought over a strange vice, lowered it and it clipped onto the back of the plate. As it lifted, he swung it around and over to another contraption. It lowered and a series of small needles sprang out and sprayed a blood sample into a glass beaker.
"Not a very large sample," Zander sneered, but Beck just snorted and shook his head.
"You know someone would feel those right. I don't care what you say, even a micron thick is big enough." Beck moved over to a stand, and stepping on it, the armour split apart and he stepped free. He frowned, "Not good though, there's a glitch in my telemetry."
Zander was busy leaning over the beaker, feeding a small pipette into it and lifting samples, one drop at a time. "And that is my concern why? The samples are viable, one million dollars per drop, as we agreed."
"Final payment? Already?" Blue light shone from Beck's eyes, "there." The scene showed Venom hitting his broadcast field and falling, "Huh, how about that."
Even Zander stood straight and watched, "He has the ability to see through your illusions?"
Beck laughed, "Nope, nobody can, they're tuned to mimic human visual signals. They aren't illusions, it's a hypnotic suggestion combined with a visual stimulus. He can see the data." They watched the scene where Venom hit the field and collapsed. "Dropped him like a stone. He's trying to understand raw data, he's probably in an aphasic coma right now."
"Interesting but ultimately useless. Our business is concluded, and this is our last meeting." Zander stared at the readout on the machine he had fed the blood into. He moved over and tapped a new formula into a different machine, and as it flashed green, he smiled. "Project Dessert is complete."
Beck snorted, Project Dessert was a play on words. They were hiding a de-powering Formula in the candy bars, one to strip an Augment of their power. Beck thought the plan was stupid as even he could do the math. The amount in each bar was low enough to avoid detection but it would take forty to fifty years for it to work. Zander was going for the long game, way too long in his opinion.
"So, The company?"
Zander stepped back, "We will be using AIM to deliver the cure to the population. Stacy might notice if we tamper with her products but as long as the FDA approves ours we'll be fine. Transigen is yours but if you screw up, then we'll what do you Americans say, throw you under the bus."
Beck snorted, "I don't care. As long as you pay me." He had his own plans. Get famous, get rich, and show Stark who was the worthless asshole.
