Spider-Man. The House Of Venom

Black Cat growled as she tore the newspaper apart. She held the pieces of a grainy but serviceable photo in her hands. It was her in her armoured catsuit with the ‘Black Cat Menace’ subheading.

Her mugshot, along with Spider-Man and Tarantula, was on every copy of the Daily Bugle she could find.

What was worse was that they had mainly gone for a pissed-off, frustrated housewife angle for her. God forbid she might have other reasons for hunting scumbags than feminist-fueled manhate.

She snorted as well. Sexual deviant? You try getting a latex suit to fit when you've just gone through a growth spurt. Assholes.

From the rooftop, she spied her target. That kid was back at Aleksei's and she needed to find out who he was.

She’d still never gotten a good look at his face, but he was skinny, wearing jeans and a short jacket, and had no bike or car. She pegged him as one of the drug dealers or one of the kids they paid to get supplies or do courier jobs.

She snorted as she watched him lift a heater of some kind. As if that fooled anyone, that a scrawny kid could lift something that heavy. It was a stupid plant or some scheme and as she watched him hoist it onto one shoulder she began to follow him.

She trailed him across the rooftops to the warehouse district. Right to the methdeathplace. Even she couldn't be that obvious.

Pick a better hideout moron, she thought to herself and shook her head.

The cops would check here first if anything suspicious came up and she shook her head at his stupidity. A suspicious package, a lone kid and an abandoned drug lab seemed too easy.

Great, she thought as she flexed her fingers, letting the razor claws extend and retract. Someone to vent on a little after that nonsense the Bugle printed.

She waited, a patient hunter. It would be dark soon and she made herself comfortable and closed her eyes. She meditated waiting until her prey revealed itself.

⁂

After manhandling the heater into the warehouse Peter shifted to Venom. The water heater wasn't heavy but holding it in one hand while he worked was a lot easier with super strength. Throwing it onto his shoulder he leapt and climbed out onto the roof where the main water junction was.

The water heater he had taken from Aleksei was the original model. It still had all its bolts, and only needed to be reattached to the panel it had been taken from. It was a simple job and finished by sealing all the connections.

Finally, hot water, Venom laughed to himself. It would be great now that he had the facilities again.

He had the felt underlay and the tiles needed to fit the wet rooms, and now with running water could start on them next.

With hot water, he could even start spending a night there, and maybe let Gwen stay longer than a few hours.

Venom's strength meant fixing and attaching the heater would be easy. Once it was done he'd shift back to Peter to do the fiddly wiring and welding jobs.

He was carefully moving the large cylinder into place when the first attack struck.

Venom had been too busy thinking about taking a shower with Gwen that he hadn’t paid any mind to the presence behind him. Seagulls and other large birds would circle overhead, and he learned to ignore them. Just as they ignored him once they realised he had no food.

The razor-sharp blades across his back brought a hiss from his throat. The second attack he dodged, rolling to the side, and spinning into a low crouch he saw his attacker.

She was stunning, wearing a tight black leather or latex bodysuit that hid nothing. Venom couldn't help but notice her muscular figure, but was more distracted by her two enormous breasts.

The pictures in the Bugle were nothing to seeing the actual woman herself. JJ wasn't kidding when he said some were too risque to print, as the outfit did nothing but enhance and display.

Her hair was bushy and light silver in colour. Held in place with a half mask. He could only see the steel grey of her eyes under it. She was scarily beautiful.

Snap out of it Parker, he admonished himself, you've got Gwen.

"Why?" was all he asked her.

"You took out Marko, now the kid?" She motioned towards the warehouse, "You tell me why?"

Venom was confused, the kid? Did she think he was here to hurt himself?

He realised that with the symbskin he looked nothing like Parker, his height and build were all wrong. "Parker is nothing to us, we protect him, so why?"

Black Cat was stunned, "Parker? Peter Parker?"

No, that couldn't be right. She would admit that when Gwen mentioned the warehouse she zoned out. Peter this, Peter that, blah blah. She wasn't interested and was looking at more important things. Now she wished she had listened. She half-remembered the warehouse and a junkyard job.

Shit, she cursed, That was Peter, and this is his place.

"No problem then, big guy, we good?" She raised her hands to surrender. If Peter knew Venom then it was a good thing, and she didn't want to make him her enemy.

He crouched and held up one hand letting his fingernails extend into sharp claws. "We will be." Then he leapt.

Venom was mad. When he shifted from Parker the anger at Gwen's dad rose. His anger at Flash rose, and the memory of Gwen's chest made something rise.

He'd tried to burn off the excess energy by doing this. He ran at first, but that didn't work. He tried just lifting it. But that failed and in frustration, he decided that work wouldn't help but it would at least be a distraction.

This woman cat thing attacked him and she would prove to be a better one.

He had wanted someone to test himself against. Juggling eggs were fine but the real test would be taking this bitch down a peg without hurting her. Well, after the claws on his back, hurt her too badly.

He also felt something else stir within him. The way her muscles tightened the leather costume she wore.  The way her muscular legs as she backed away brought forth another feeling. One that Gwen’s teasing had left unfulfilled. He might have just found a good way to work out some of his frustrations.

Black Cat saw the claw coming at her face and her heart almost stopped in her chest. She brought up a forearm and deflected the blow. She allowed it to slide along her arm as she ducked under the huge biceps of this creature.

Its mouth had split open and its grinning maw was filled with the most horrendous teeth she had imagined.

As she ducked she drove a knee into its stomach, hoping to wind it but he laughed as it grabbed her thigh.

"Mmm, nice." it crooned at her, as its hand massaged her thigh.

The damn brute was feeling her up. The indignation didn't last long as it lifted her up and slammed her into the rooftop.

The wind was knocked out of her and she struggled under his grip. His hand was wrapped around her thigh, squeezing it every now and again.

damn pervert, she thought and she brought her other knee up and smashed it into his head.

Reeling back he bellowed and Black Cat managed to get to her feet. She was faster and she whipped around and caught him on the side of the head with a  roundhouse kick.

He staggered and fell to one hand but shook his head and glowered at her.

He had a longer reach than her and was stronger but she was faster. As he swung his thick fists at her, she weaved under them and scored lines across his biceps with her claws. Whatever his suit was made from sealed back up within seconds.

He swung again and she thought amateur,

They were unskilled and not used to fighting another person. Her luck gave out though and as she moved to avoid a swipe at her head he thudded a fist into her side.

She hoped that was the material of her corset cracking and not her ribs as the pain exploded the air from her lungs.

Shit, she thought to herself.  It was now hard to breathe in the tight outfit, and another like that would definitely break her ribs.

She had no doubt she would win but she couldn't take the chance and had to escape. His thick arms swung at her again and again and she dodged and weaved out of his reach.

He hissed at her in frustration, and Venom knew he had been right. Hitting a trained fighter was much harder than an unsuspecting mugger.

As he bellowed at her she took the chance to back off. She kept a variety of small pellets in her belt. Smoke bombs, flash bangs, trackers, painkillers, and a variety of small throwing knives.

Taking out a knife she threw it straight for his head. When he turned his head to avoid it, she threw a smoke bomb at her feet and a flashbang at his face.

She had already dived off the roof and thudded into the ground when the bomb went off. His screech was loud and sounded very angry. Uncaring she took off into a sprint, needing to get as much distance between him and her as possible.

"We will find you, Yes we will. We are VENOM!" he bellowed at the night air.

His eyes stung from the flashbang she'd thrown and even now he had bright spots in his vision that refused to clear.  He closed his eyes and as the air was still and the night was quiet, he headed back into the warehouse.

He now knew he had a weakness. Bright lights and loud noises. Even if he had to wear a second mask underneath his symbskin he couldn't let anyone exploit them.

⁂

Black Cat stopped on a warehouse roof a mile or so away from where she had fought Venom. She tentatively touched her side and while not broken her ribs were bruised.

Her back was killing her from his slam and she checked herself for more injuries.

Only my pride, she thought as she remembered the monster grabbing her thigh. and she examined the black residue on her hand claws, watching as it crumbled into a fine dust.

Damn, she thought, a self-repairing suit would have been handy.

Fumbling around in her belt she pulled out a couple of capsules, breaking them between her teeth. She leaned against the air duct and took a shallow breath. As the ache in her side vanished and it became easier to breathe she stood. Clutching her side, she began to hobble back home.

If Venom was connected to Peter she needed to rethink her plan, maybe even see if he would be willing to help her. Her father had always warned her about working with a crew, but right now she needed the help.

If Peter was getting mixed up with Aleksei, then he would need her help. If he owed her, she might get him to recruit Venom for her.

Why didn't that idiot ask whoever was under there for help with Flash? I mean, that guy was massive. she snorted. A massive asshole. but groaned as even the gentle laugh made her side hurt.

⁂

In the distance a blue and red-suited man watched the pair fight. He had followed the strange woman, his Black Cat, first to a junkyard and then to a warehouse. He felt bad that he had been stalking her but he needed the money and she was much more interesting than Tarantula.

She was attractively built. Even if her face was hidden by a mask and pictures of her sold much better than a muscle-bound thug.

It was a sad truth of the industry. Even if Jonah had angled the woman as some pissed-off feminist, he knew she was after something.

Unlike Tarantula she kept away from the streets. Instead, she scoured the neighbourhoods for targets, and it was always the same M.O.

Usually attacking a woman. Usually had a history of violent crime and was attached to one of the larger crime families. She was hunting for something, and he knew it was probably the shadowy figure known only as Kingpin.

He stumbled upon her and her target and hoped just to get some decent pics, this, however, was gold. His camera memory was full. Not just of pictures of his own dazzling saves. Now he had a full HD video of two super brutes slugging it out on a warehouse rooftop.

Sure he'd been too far away to hear what they were talking about. It didn't matter though, as J.J. wouldn't care. Swinging fists and throwing kicks would be all he could care about.

More importantly, it was payday for Eddie. An actual video of the pair would sell better than the grainy and shaking Hulk versus the army phone videos. He had taken his time and made sure it was the best quality he could get without being discovered.

He drooled as he imagined the steak he could buy with these pictures. Oh yeah, he would make Jameson pay through the nose for these, and the syndication rights for the clips.  Plus he had a name, one clear message yelled louder than their conversation.

He had been so busy checking the files that he had lost the Black Cat as she dived off the warehouse. He had tried to sneak closer but didn't want to alert Tarantula to his presence but found he was gone as well.

It didn't matter. He could imagine the headline in tomorrow's edition,

“Black Cat Vs Tarantula. Super-Villain Show-Down”

Venom. Phff, What a stupid name, Spider-Man thought. Tarantula was much cooler.