flash/gwen carnage tracking Who: Venom and Spider-Gwen Where: New York When: recently! What: tracking down Carnage isn't such a good idea Warnings: Carnage gore rawr
Flash tried not to eat too much pizza, which might have sent off some alarms in Gwen’s head. But, he had been treated like a junk food king all through his hospital stay and he was actually sort of concerned the Venom suit wouldn’t fit. Or worse, Venom would reject his fat ass. Of course this was like a fluffy bunny wondering if it was cute enough. Flash was still in pretty great shape and the extra pounds of love people packed on him barely showed. He was just nervous. What happened to the leeeeggssss??? Venom would hiss and then laugh that underwater laugh as it wrapped black ink until he had new ones. The black goop alien was his nightlight most of the time, his purpose, but it had the tendency to be kind of a dick.
“Okay let’s do this.” Flash burped loudly and then rolled himself into the other room where they were keeping his suit. He had enough upper body strength that he could pull the damn thing on himself and he really didn’t want the help. Flash had one too many sponge baths at the hospital and most of them weren’t given to him by some young hot nurse.
Once he was alone, Flash pulled the suit out of its lockbox and draped the black thing over his lap. It looked like a simple bodysuit made out of thin fabric; not at all like the hulking monster football player he turned into when he put it on. It was so small, so light and it made him realize that not everything needed to behave as it appeared. The wheelchair, the stupid heroics that got him here, that didn’t make up all of who he was. The suit, the way that it worked with him and him alone. That was something to be proud of, if only he could get himself to feel pride about anything to do with himself again.
He held the suit up and got ready to change when the arms started vibrating. The alien recognized him and the black goop swirling around in the center piece hissed and sang at him. FLASSSSHHH was all he could hear it say. No questions, no taunting. Just his name like a cat meowing to get inside. Flash smiled, he couldn’t help it and he pulled the suit close in a hug he was glad no one could see. FFFFLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSH it sang and the chest piece pushed and pushed until it was on him. Suddenly the arms of the suit turned to goop and covered his entire body, wiggling and waving like poked jello.
In seconds, Flash was on his feet and a few inches taller than he had ever been. Giant black boots, armor like a space marine and those spikey shoulderpads that could tear into brick walls if he felt like spearing anything. A white spider stretched over his chest; a much more menacing depiction of any logo Peter had ever worn. Guns, holsters, utility belts and things that went BOOM formed on his armor and white circles around his eyes. “Let’s not tell Gwen you can do that, eh?” Flash whispered and the black goop giggled wetly in response. No let’s not.
When he walked back into the room Gwen was in, Flash had transformed to Venom. And, he was feeling pretty good. “Tell me I’m a fat brony or I’m going to be high on power the rest of the night.” Flash’s voice was wetly distorted by alien weirdness.
Gwen had been fussing over Flash since he'd come home and, okay, so fussing included a willingness to accept the high-fat laden foods that she associated with the brony, and all without too much lecturing about cholesterol and the effect of grease on human arteries. She hadn't pulled out one book with medical slides of clogged veins and damaged hearts. She'd been absolutely nice about it, which was a sure indication that she was worried about the boy that had come home from the hospital in a chair. She managed to never be sad or pitying around him, but the food thing totally gave it away without her even realizing it. Then, when he didn't eat the pizza that was often 'mistakenly' delivered, she just worried more. But her worry was silent, and she didn't bring anyone else into it, and that was just an indication of how much she valued Flash's friendship. If Harry or Peter were acting weird, she would call in the others without hesitation, but this was Flash, and Flash deserved some privacy. Weird and totally illogical, but she was better about the illogical thing since her little spider mutation - maybe illogical just came with irradiated spider bites; that was a total possibility and would explain so much about Peter Parker.
But, Gwen was worried - that was the point. So, when Flash seemed willing to put on the Venom suit that was totally a win in her opinion. Anything that got him out and moving was good, and she really did want to be there when he tried it, in case something went wrong. She didn't think anything would go wrong, because she knew how the goop worked. Goop - her scientific word. But it could become anything Flash needed it to become, and in this case she was counting on functional legs. And she was going to confess about spider things anyway, and a demonstration was always easier than words for the girl that was still kind of catching up on that whole 'social skills' thing.
She'd been going out nights, after Flash went to bed, looking for Carnage. So far, nothing, but it meant her own suit was in her bag, itching to be put on, and while Flash went and became a menacing version of Spider-Man, and she slipped on her own suit.
White and black, blue and reddish-pink, she perched on the open windowsill on teal, and she waited for him to come out. Okay, so she was listening to make sure nothing terrible happened, too, but mostly she was just waiting.
He walked out talking about being a fat brony, and she just tipped her head to the side, like she was trying to decide on that fat brony thing. "Fat chance!" Bad puns were kind of a requirement. And that's all he got, because he looked okay. Legs? Check! Totally taller than she remembered, but that would be tasteless. Ixnay on the alltertay. She tipped her hooded head back, and without warning (and, okay, maybe she held her breath a little), she dropped off the sill and down, the snickt of her shooters indicating that she'd gone down and across to the squatter building beside the Gramercy high-rise she called home.
“Dude what.” It was a flat question with watery growl behind it. Gwen was his best friend and all but the chatty Peter thing was nothing like her. Gwen’s voice was barely recognizable and coming from the girl spider freaked him the fuck out. “Dude!” Flash reached out a hand when she tipped her head back, but she was already gone. Another string of what the fucks! and he took a running leap out the window after her.
The velocity of falling felt good, it felt like that rush before you did something really fucking stupid. He closed his eyes and enjoyed it for a second before releasing black webbing out of his wrist and looked up to find her. The white made it pretty fucking easy. Another web and this time he turned into that black liquid blob, speeding up his ascent towards the nearby rooftop so it slingshotted him up in the air, letting him do a cool man flip before landing. The blob of black goo wiggled back into his usual Venom form just as he landed. “How long have you-? How fucking long?” Flash asked as she made it up to the rooftop.
Flash had gotten over the need to protect Gwen, but he was a little hurt that she didn’t think he needed to know about this until now. “Were you seriously just waiting until something like Carnage happened and you needed my help? Shit, Gwen.” He sighed with a big WHATEVER kind of shrug like he was trying really, really hard to play tough instead of butthurt over this.
Gwen tried to decide how bad dude what and Dude! was as a reaction while she fell, then the jerk of the webs made her heart skip for a second (they always did), and she slung up onto the cornice of the nearby building. She crouched there, watching him fall and goop and slingshot, and behind the white mask she was watching him with a fair amount of concert. Her attention slipped between the suit's integrity on solidifying, on his legs, on the trajectory of the slingshot and whether it was in any way altered by Venom's need to compensate for the missing appendages. She breathed a sigh of relief when she couldn't immediately notice anything wrong.
She webbed up to the building where the slingshot was leading him, snikt, and she might not have gotten anything else about this spider thing down, but she'd gotten really good at nailing her landings as long as she was away from the distraction of heavy traffic. She landed on the ledge beside him, crouch and a smile behind the white, but his immediate question (with the added bonus of swear words!) let her know this wasn't going to go as smoothly as telling Peter. Well, at least he couldn't see the smile? Okay, no. Serious, Stacy. Time to be serious.
Lying wasn't even something that crossed her mind, despite knowing that the extended time period of not-telling wasn't going to make anything better. "Since before the zombie door," she confessed, and she waited for him to do the math in his head (he was always really bad at math). "I didn't use it much until recently, though, I kind of hated the heights at first, and I was scared to use it. I still haven't figured out anything but the slinging thing. And I didn't tell you now because of Carnage," she protested through the mask. "I didn't tell anyone," she added, though she really wasn't sure it would make it better.
Flash rubbed his face, the black rippling under his fingers. “Since before the zombie door.” Flash repeated after her and nodded along, hell of sarcastic. Of course Gwen didn’t see what the problem was. He loved her, but she was so fucking stupid when it came to other people sometimes. He didn’t really know how many months that was, but the fact that it was months was enough to make him pissy. “I could have helped you. With all of this shit. I know you’re all girl power, but I’ve been training with these powers for a long time. And, I’m supposed to be your best friend. I don’t keep any shit from you.” Flash lowered his hands with a huff and looked away from her.
“I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. We’ve got bigger things to worry about.” Flash’s gaze flickered up towards the city and he closed his eyes, making his entire face pure black. He could feel this weird prickling in the back of his skull. An angry thing, like a drive-by youtube comment on his deadlifts (which were excellent, you fuck freddyswell21). The black goop that comprised him started to vibrate, drops pulling away from his body as if gravity simply did not apply anymore. He opened his eyes again, white circles turning to look at her. “Venom’s freaking out. It’s- it’s like I can taste plastic. Is Carnage made out of plastic? And don’t ask me why I know what plastic tastes like.”
"I wasn't sure I wanted to do anything with it. Until I messed up in the Silent Hill door, which brought my number of scientific catastrophes to three, I was going to ignore it. I tried the webs a few times, and I decided I was a better asset to the world as a scientist. But then I almost killed Mr. Rogers, Harry, and you, and now I'm thinking maybe I overestimated my scientific ability. I don't want to put anyone in danger again, so practical science seems like a bad idea. In the face of that, it seemed kind of stupid not to try to figure things out, so I've been trying," she explained. She wasn't great with social interactions, but she thought the explanation was a sound one, but she didn't actually expect him to be okay with it. "Peter was upset too," she admitted.
The strange thing about his whole droplet-vibration thing wasn't that he knew what plastic tasted like, because she could totally see Flash as the kid that ate anything he got his hands on. No, it was the fact that Venom sensed something, and she hadn't. She'd thought her spidey senses would help with the Carnage thing, because she didn't realize that her spider abilities were just another bubble universe's variation of Peter's abilities. Ergo, just like Peter, she couldn't sense Carnage at all. She could hear him in her head if she was close enough, but that was it. She hadn't heard anything, and she hadn't sensed anything, so she'd assumed he wasn't in the city. The closest she'd found to something questionable was some upstate farmer who'd lost a herd of over a hundred cattle. "Even when Otto had him, the testing I could do was limited. I don't think so. I know he's strong, Flash. Really strong."
Flash squinted at her as she rambled about science and almost killing people and that debt to society that always hung over her head. He waved a hand at her because it really didn’t matter what her excuse was. “I’ve been in and out of the doors. I know you don’t think you can rely on me to stick around.” Flash didn’t bullshit with Gwen and he expected her to do the same with him. The only problem was that they were both really skilled at avoiding. Especially him. People were easily misdirected by dude bro shit to forget why they were worried about him. “It’s cool. Thank you for telling me now before I tried to ask Spider-Woman out or some shit. That’d be awkward as fuck.”
He looked at his hands and suddenly went quiet as Venom crawled in waves up and down his body. A nod and it was clear that he was having a conversation with the alien goop, which by pretty much any standard was insane. Most people treated Venom as a mindless, caged monster. Flash knew it was more like a tiger. Friendly, loving and then sometimes playing turned into killing. It was about respecting Venom and knowing the limits of what it and he could do.
“Don’t call Carnage he.” Flash warned because he didn’t even do that with Venom. “Do you think we can take it? You and I, with our powers?”
"It didn't have anything to do with your location at any given time, Flash," she said honestly. "I just didn't want to tell anyone." She lifted her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug, because it was really as simple as that. "It felt weird. It's totally Peter's thing, and I kind of stole it, and I thought things with this Peter would be like with every Peter before - aka, bad. And then it just got harder and harder to fess up once time passed. There's a scientific term for that, but I won't bug you with it right now." She tried for a smile behind the white mask. "Bug. Hah?" She leaned a little closer to Venom and all that black. "Where I got the powers, you were totally renting me warehouse space for a band. How nuts is that? And you would never ask dork-me out. I thought for sure you would figure out, since you gave me a hard time about flirting with Peter on the journals." Okay, so maybe she hadn't been as obvious as she'd thought? Well done, Stacy! "Oh, that other girl with the spider powers needs a place to stay. Feeling hospitable, brony?"
She always called the symbiote he, and anyone who knew about the thing (really knew) didn't like it. "It's a bad habit. I talked to him- it a lot when it was in the lab with me at Oscorp." She considered his question with tip of white hood to the side. "I don't know how to do anything but sling, Flash, and Peter's going to be really pissed if he's not involved." A few blocks off, people began laying on their horns in long bursts, loud enough for it to carry as a long sound of 'something's wrong here.' "I told Jason, so he would stay out of the door. I think Carnage liked him a lot." She hadn't read any comics about the symbiote, and she knew nothing about Cletus, but she knew Carnage liked the angry Gotham boy and his guns and killing sprees.
He gave a loud UGH at her bug joke. Gwen didn’t do stupid jokes before, but to be fair they had been pretty serious teenagers and young adults. Flash had a shell of easy going, but when he cracked jokes they ended up being really, really dark. So, he had to get used to this weird playful side of Gwen that used to only shine through once and a while, that he used to have to work really hard for. “I didn’t think you’d keep something that big from me.” Flash said and there was that seriousness again, he couldn’t help it. “We have the color scheme of enemies anyway. Black-” he pointed to himself “And white.” He thumbed towards her and sighed. “New girl? Alright.” He didn’t even question it. Why bother? And, maybe it was a bad sign that Flash didn’t ask if she was hot.
Flash’s body vibrated gooey spikes and he shivered until he was more hulking Venom beast than man. Teeth formed where there wasn’t any before, a tongue lolling out and then Flash slowly got it back under control. Goop rolling over his body like it was under his skin until he found his regular form again. He turned towards the noise. “Jason sounds like a douchebag.” He said automatically because Flash didn’t really approve of any Gwen exs except maybe Peter. But, Peter was going to break his own damned heart when Gwen died. “I can-” Flash started and then grabbed his head. There was a pounding between his ears like someone turned up the tv really loud. He crouched down, elbows resting on his knees as he tried not to scream or howl at the pain. “He- it I can feel it. It’s close. It’s- we need to at least make sure it doesn’t find a host yet.” Voice even and controlled like a good SHIELD agent. Work through the pain, soldier. You’re a Thunderbolt.
The humor was as much a part of the suit as, well, the suit. In high school, before here, when things had been easier, she and Peter had joked a lot. It was impossible not to joke with Peter Parker. But here, she'd fallen back on science and microscopes, because it hadn't been easy. Blows to ego and self-esteem, finding out about fate and then living it, and she'd found other ways to cope and express herself - namely, science. And things were still dark and terrible, but dwelling hadn't ever been her way. Okay, so maybe she was paranoid about Mary Jane and dying, but hope was kind of important, and she'd forgotten along the way. Now, Peter was here, joking like he always did. And the humor she'd found when she'd gotten the suit in the first place, that seemed a really good way to make everyone positive she wasn't Gwen Stacy when she was suited up. It had totally worked; even her friends couldn't tell it was her. "I'm just not great with social stuff. I didn't do it on purpose," she promised, and she was rapidly realizing this thing about keeping secrets never worked out well. Like not telling Harry about Emily, when the confession did come (after way too long) it was always worse because of the duration of quiet. "We'll never be enemies," she said with good amount of force, and she just looked at him (not that he could tell) when he didn't ask even one question about Cindy. "Have you seen Mary Jane?" Because that was always the way to make him feel better, right?
But then he grabbed his head, just as she'd been about to embark on a verbal journey defending Jason Todd; she'd just been cobbling together her salient points. She jumped up to a crouch (not sitting anymore, nope), and she looked around to try to determine a direction. But she wasn't good at this yet, and all she had was the sound of the honking horns to go on.
She doubted Carnage came with honked horns as warning, so she looked over at the hulking black goo-boy, and she didn't even consider saying she should stay behind (because, you know, maybe death). She just nodded. "Lead. I can keep up." What she lacked in skill, she could totally make up for in stubborn.
Flash closed his eyes and tried to feel where the taste of plastic was coming from. He didn’t use his Venom senses consciously very often. It was usually while in combat and all his reflexes were simply heightened. Everything about Venom felt natural to him, like home even and that would have freaked anyone out if he ever said that aloud. Not that it was really his fault. Who was always there? Gwen and Venom. Without fail. “Nah man. I’ll always do what you say.” Flash admitted and shook his head at the idea of them being enemies. She’d have to do a lot worse than keep a superpower secret from him to make him hate her.
He pointed in the direction away from the cars and started swinging. “There’s other street level heroes, right?” Flash asked as he swang close enough to talk. Gwen was new to the webs and heights and all that shit, he’d have to keep that in mind. “We should start a fucking network. Like, hey I see something happening on this street but I’m busy with some other shit, can you handle it?” Flash thought it was a pretty damn good idea.
The subject of MJ made him quiet down for a second and then: “She’s real pushy.” Flash was usually the one asking for attention or hook ups with MJ when they were growing up. Having the tables turned on him was weird. “I think she likes me, but I also think she’s run out of options. Peter won’t touch her with a ten foot pole, Harry’s kind of a weirdo. So,why not Flash?” He flung himself towards a rootop and started scouting around the alleys under it. “She’s taking me on a date, though. Finally wore me down.”
She didn't think Flash would do what she said. Okay, when it came to scientific things he usually deferred to her, but she figured he'd insist on taking the lead here, and it would be justified. Not only could he sense the symbiote, but she'd kind of messed up with Carnage in the past. If he really thought Peter couldn't handle it, she thought he'd insist, but he didn't, and she just tipped her head, features lost behind that white mask, and considered. "He thinks we feel he's incompetent," she said finally. "If he does this with you, then he'll feel better and you can keep him safe." Because this symbiote, she didn't know how it compared to the one Peter faced in the comics, but it was nasty. Cruel and chaotic and hungry, and maybe all the time it had spent locked up with her and Otto had made it worse. Maybe it's time with Jason, who Gwen knew was violent and bloodthirsty beneath all that James Dean charm, had made it worse. She couldn't imagine Peter facing it alone, which was hypocritical, since she'd faced it alone, and she hadn't even been possession of any powers at the time.
He pointed, and her webs snikt out after him. Swinging and talking, that was new. When she'd run into Mr. Murdock out here, she'd stopped swinging to talk to him. Now, she just tried to keep up, a few slips here and there, snikts of her webs and near misses that she corrected in time. But it was good practice, the multitasking as her webs caught cornices and fire escapes while she listened and responded (okay, a little delayed maybe, but she kept up mostly). "Hels was supposed to talk to you about that." Snikt. "About a team."
She let him have his moment of quiet before he replied about Mary Jane, and she landed on the rooftop beside him a second later. "I know. She's way pushier than the old one," she admitted, worry carrying through past white. "She's a lot pushy." And Peter wasn't very good at saying no, but she didn't actually say that aloud. If Jason hadn't been able to say no, then Peter was kind of doomed. And if someone said no to Mary Jane, then she got angry and pouted; it was a really terrible combination if you were interested in anyone she was interested in. "If she likes you, then she has really good taste, brony," she said honestly, balancing on the edge of the roof behind him as he looked down at the alleys below. "Peter's weird about her. I think he'd cave if he spent time with her, so he just won't do it." She didn't mention Harry, because she hadn't heard from Harry in a long time, and that usually meant just one thing. And it was a good thing he couldn't see the expression behind the mask, because she was worried for him; he would hate that.
Flash wasn’t ready to lead, even if that was what this “mission” called for. He had already warned Peter that his way of handling it was more along the lines of what General Ross taught him. Results, bigger picture, get the job done by any means necessary. Carnage could soak New York in blood and death, so it only made sense to him to use as much force as possible to solve the problem. That wasn’t what the spiders would want though and it’d likely ruffle Avenger feathers, so he was going to hang back until things got out of control. “You and Pete can figure shit out.” He said to the head turn. “I’m the muscle. That’s how it’s always been.” Flash was going to leave it at that. He’d have to.
Flash shrugged at the mention of Hels and figured he probably didn’t fit in with the rest of the hero crew anyway. “As long as there’s a team going. Bunch of people with powers should at least communicate.” He figured and was a little relieved there was someone else heading that project. Another excuse for him to stay indoors and play video games until someone needed him to punch a thing or track down blood sucking plastic. That totally worked for him.
Gwen’s uneasy swinging didn’t go unnoticed and he wondered if she could handle this shit. He could feel Carnage working through an apartment complex across the way, the kind of place full of drug dealers and thugs that were dangerous to feel tough, to survive. They’d have to wait for a scream or start stealthing through the apartment to find it. And, again, he wasn’t sure if Gwen could handle the shit she’d find in there. “Uh, I lost it.” Flash held his forehead like it hurt and he walked to the other side of the roof. “Maybe that way?”
Gwen was terrible at social cues. She had limited social skills, and she was terrible at comforting or empathy. She liked logic when it came to feeling better, like solid answers were more trustworthy than kinds words and hugs could ever be. She wasn't sure when that started, but she thought it was probably here, where kind words and hugs could all turn out to be lies that couldn't be trusted. But even with all that, she could tell Flash wasn't okay, and she wasn't really surprised. He'd been pretending everything was cool, but you didn't just lose your legs and be okay. And stuff was weird with him and Peter, but she didn't get why.
But she followed along quietly, keeping up as best she could (and she wasn't that bad) until he said he'd lost Carnage. Then, she stopped, whipping over to the nearest cornice and using it to flip herself up onto the roof edge with a growing grace that wasn't inherent yet. Well, it could be, but there was that whole fear of heights thing to contend with.
She didn't believe he'd lost Carnage, not for a minute, and she watched him walk to the other side of the roof. A second later, she tugged the white mask up to her forehead, and she was looking at him knowingly by the time he turned back. "One. You're not just the muscle, and you never have been just the muscle, Flash Thompson. Two. Hels was supposed to talk to you because we figured there should be a core few people who led the group, like the founders of Hogwarts, and she was going to ask you to be one. Three. You didn't lose it." And for good measure. "What's wrong? Is it Peter?" Because that was the only weird thing she'd noticed lately - well, beyond I lost my legs weird. Oh, and not asking if Cindy was cute. That too.
“Dude, I’ve always been just the muscle. I can shoot, I can fight, I can get shit done. Ever since we were teenagers dealing with this shit for the first time, that’s who I was. That’s who I’m always going to be.” Flash’s body wobbled like jell-o, pulling in jagged spikes towards the apartment complex. He pressed the heel of his palm to his forehead and slowly got it back under control. When he turned to look at her, he saw her mask pulled up and that helped ground him a little bit. Talking to Spider-Woman didn’t totally feel like talking to Gwen and he didn’t know why. He knew it must have been the same with Venom, but he didn’t like tables turned on him at fucking all.
“Secondly, I didn’t hear anything from her, so you guys can start Hogwarts on your own. I’m good like I am. The only team I ever did well with were a bunch of murderers and assholes.” Flash clenched his fists and he never once brought Venom back enough for her to see his face. “What’s wrong? Seriously? You have the fucking balls to ask me what’s wrong?” Flash made a sweeping gesture at his legs. “I’m fucked up. You want me to say it out loud? I’m fucked up. And, you know what? I was fucked up before my legs, too. Do you know what happens to people who fight crime, real fucked up crime like I do? You stop feeling shit. You stop thinking you can change anything. The only thing that matters is the mission and if they die, well fuck they probably were meant to. I’m just a spoke in a fucking wheel. You and Pete and MJ all are innocent little fuckers who should stick to purse thieves and Osborn flavored super villains.”
Flash’s voice was looudd, too loouud and there was a hiss from the black around his shoulders that whispered, “Quiet, quuieett. Brother can hear you.” The voice was barely loud enough for Gwen to catch and it didn’t sound masculine. It was wet and full of teeth like a swamp queen waiting under the docks. Flash listened, he actually stopped yelling and looked down at his hands as drops of black tried to melt right off. He paused, took a deep breath and closed his fist. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you to see what I’ve seen. I want you to tell me what to do and I’ll get it done.”
"You can fight, and you can get things done, but you're not just the muscle. You see things in a practical way that's often more beneficial than my science or Peter's.. whatever we're saying Peter brings to the table. His optimism and morals? We're all equally important, Flash Thompson, and you can get angry all you like, that isn't going to change." The wobbling jello didn't scare her; she'd been around Venom too much to be scared, and maybe that was its own kind of stupid optimism. As for pulling the mask up, it was just easier for her. She loved the suit, and she loved the freedom of the webs, but she still wasn't accustomed to looking at life through the lenses.
"Hey!" She was as loud as he was, her voice a higher register, but no quieter for being female. "Hels and I talked, and she said she would talk to you. I was waiting for her to do that. Why are you being angry at me about this?" she asked, and she huffed into the cold-Spring air after. "I thought it was a good idea, us all talking, because the Avengers boss us around. I just happened to be talking to Hels at the time that I thought of it. I wouldn't ever exclude you, Flash. You're the first person I would involve, even before Peter. I trust you most." Which was absolutely and completely true. Maybe she was supposed to trust the bug boy most, but Flash had always been there, and Flash would never let her down; Peter had, a bunch of times. Even this one had, both with Mary Jane and Silent Hill.
He turned, and he yelled, and she stood her ground there, balancing in white, her hood fallen back. "That's not true," she said, stubbornly. Her toes dug into brick, and her stance said she wasn't backing down. "We're all fucked up in different ways, but you feel things, and you aren't just a spoke. I don't believe that, what you're saying about the mission and people dying. You wouldn't let any of your friends die. You went into a door just to help a stranger, Flash, and that's caring, so don't tell me things I know aren't true. Maybe they're easier for you to believe right now, but they aren't true!" She gave him a hard look, so much certainty in her cornflower blue eyes. He'd never convince her that he was less that what she knew him to be.
But she did go quiet when Venom (hi, Venom) hissed. Her voice was soft when she responded. "We're going to do this togeth-"
But she stopped there, because the whisper in her head was a greeting - Hello - and it sounded like a threat, and she had no idea if Flash could hear that, if Venom could, but she looked over her shoulder slowly, blonde hair sliding over the white and black of her suit.
Across from them, on the opposite building, the shadows moved.
“Right, the first person you involve, even if I’m the last guy to find out about your Spider powers. Maybe Peter and Hels and whoever the fuck else is on Twerp Avengers will be a better match for you and your shitty spidey jokes.” Flash kept telling himself over and over to stop being pissed at Gwen, that super powers and swinging from the highest building were fucking hard on her, but he was still hurt. And the reasoning for it popped up in his head, an unfinished thought that he told himself to keep quiet. But, Flash was really, really shitty at keeping his mouth shut. “You have no idea what it feels like knowing the one person in my life that I can’t live without is going to die. Probably really fucking soon. You don’t fucking get it and you never will. I’m the only guy you know who really loves you, and there’s nothing I can do to save you. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves, Gwen!”
And, he was fucking ready to leave. He knew living with her was a bad idea, that living with anyone was a shitty move on his part. No one wanted to be around wheelchair!Flash and eventually it was better if Gwen and Peter kept each other happy and hopeful until she fucking died without ever, ever coming back. Maybe SHIELD would take him back, maybe Captain America would let him crash at the Avenger tower or some shit. He’d figure it out and then wait around for Gwen to tell him he- no Venom was needed.
A step back and then it felt like something was crawling around his feet. Venom hissed something in his ear and then spiked like a cat scared by a shadow. “Shit. Shit.” Flash was too pissed to think clearly beyond I should get my guns out and Venom was freaking out. “Let me let meeehehe.” Venom hissssssed and Flash watched as his hands turned into veils of black liquid, his body morphing into a giant, melting mass. Shark teeth growing to form a drooling smile and white filling in his eyes. “Get back.” Flash’s voice sounded through with slippery wetness mixed with a demon sort of growl. “There!” And he pointed to a sudden leap of red behind her and he made a running leap towards the other apartment rooftop.
"You're being a jerk on purpose, Flash Thompson," she said with impressively minimal lip wibble. She'd known Flash during his bully years. She'd seen him every single day during his bully years, after school for free tutoring that was really just an excuse for him to stay out of the house (and away from his dad) longer. She knew when he was hurt, and she knew he was like an injured pitbull - likely to bite, and this was him biting, making fun of her jokes (she knew they weren't the greatest, okay?). "I wasn't keeping it from you on-" But then he exploded, and she just watched, because what else could she do? She couldn't tell him it wasn't true, that she wasn't going to die. She couldn't tell him that they'd find a way to save themselves, because they hadn't been able to save his legs, had they? It was that fatalistic talk that Peter couldn't stand, but that she knew was true, and now she knew Flash believed it too. His belief made it all more real, because she always believed the things he said without question. She stood there and tried not cry (badly - she was totally crying). "Maybe some version of me will come back, like Mary Jane." Because really, that was all she had. It was something she'd maybe started clinging to recently. Maybe some version of her would come back. And she knew he was right about him loving her, because she knew he did. Not like that, but maybe that was why he was always there. She couldn't lose him to Mary Jane, not like she could everyone else. "You're going to be okay, Flash, no matter what." She said it forcefully, despite the tears. "You promise me," she insisted, and maybe she shouldn't. Maybe asking him for that wasn't fair, but she wasn't being very logical up on that roof.
She followed his step back with her own step forward, and then she stopped when she heard that voice and saw the moving shadows.
They had no containment unit. She was so totally unprepared for this.
Venom hissed, and Flash yelled and pointed. Gwen knew she should stay where she was, but she had a sonic on her (habit), and it was kind of the only thing she thought either of them had that could actually do anything to Carnage. So, thoughtless, she snikt her webs after him, toward the red glob that was visible as it moved closer to a streetlight. It wasn't a shadow anymore. No, it was so much worse.
Her webs caught on the edge of the roof above the red mass, and she tried to keep track of Flash (of Venom) to make sure she wasn't in the way. Above, she looked down in time to see the red goop slithering up the stone building and toward the roof, and her head was filled with vicious promises in his whisper; he sounded like Jason.
Okay, roof bad idea. But she pulled out the sonic instead of slinging away, and then she remembered the sonic would hurt Flash, and she froze.
“Oh, yeah, right! If some other Flash showed up you’d totally be cool with him, right? No difference? He’d just magically become your best friend in my place? Bullshit. BULLSHIT.” Flash was crying too, and even though there was black over his face to shield it, she could hear the water in his voice that wasn’t from Venom. The yelling made him feel better, though and it made it so much easier just to calm down. “I don’t want to fight.” Which translated to I don’t know how much time we have. “I’m not going to be okay.” She wanted him to lie and normally he would. But, not right then. Maybe Peter was destined to be happy with MJ, but Flash never had anything after the comics. It didn’t matter how hard he tried to be good or how many people he tried to be close with. She was destined to die and he was destined for simple, bland, human misery.
But, there was red across the street pounding and screaming at his senses, so the rest of this fight would have to wait. It was probably for the best; it was a lot easier to pretend shit didn’t get to him without the suit and when the stakes didn’t feel so high. So, he let Venom take the wheel at first. It was a little like having control of only one stick in a video game, while someone else controlled the aiming and button mashing.
There was a man standing like a zombie on the roof when he landed. Mouth open wide and eyes filled with fear and panic. “Sir-” Flash tried and just as his clawed hand started to morph back to human fingers, a red ooze crawled into the man’s mouth and started to feast.
Venom hissed and jerked backwards, looking to the left to see Gwen still standing on the other rooftop. The man was being slowly disassembled by Carnage, bones popping and blood guzzling until there was a tiny red stain on the ground. From it, red ooze grew from nothing like a rising shadow, long and leaner than Venom with threads of red wiggling out in the open air. Venom shoved forward with might, but Carnage took the blow easily and hit back twice as hard. The two traded blows, but a well-fed Carnage would always beat Venom. Red spikes dug into Venom, tasting its alien sibling and then pushed him nearly off the roof. Rolling into a black ball, Flash convinced Venom to let him take his soldier form, to let him have control for Round 2.
It was then that he lost the taste of plastic in his mouth. “What the f-” Flash reached for a fire grenade on his utility belt, but he had no way of knowing where the fuck Carnage went. The red mass was just gone. “I can’t-” He had already pulled the pin to the grenade, but there wasn’t anything to throw it at. “Fuck!” Flash tossed the live grenade up, morphed into black goo and surrounded it as the thing gave off a gassy little boom.
Venom deflated to the ground and he sat up, looking around for Carnage that was probably long gone. “He played us- I mean it. It played us! FuuuuuucccKKKK!”
She began to tell him how totally not okay she would be with another Flash, because it wasn't like Peter, who'd disliked her in every iteration. Flash liked her, he was hers, and she didn't want him getting replaced. She was about to tell him that, despite the fact that he was crying behind the black that hid his features. "We're not done talking about this," she insisted when he said he didn't want to fight, because this was a fight they were going to have, even if they were balanced on top of a roof in - she'd lost track of what part of New York they were in. It didn't matter, this argument was happening, and -
Later. This argument was happening later.
Right, after she was done watching the goop turn into bones and blood, and then disassembled, and she knew it wasn't real. He hadn't bonded with anyone, and this was just something he'd consumed at one point, and the fact that it looked like-
Okay, nope. Not real. She was about to risk using the sonic when Flash reached for the grenade, she waited there, perched, because she trusted Flash to know how to handle this better than she did. But then Flash was yelling, and the grenade was going up. Gwen watched for a second, and then the red was just feet away. She didn't see it move, and she didn't see it change from disfigured man to goop again. It didn't try to turn into anything solid as it slithered toward her. Maybe because she could hear the taunts in her head, promises and whispers of death and pain that were only for her, without the need of a mouthpiece. She scuttled backward, and she wasn't practiced enough with webs or her abilities to think to use them; it wasn't instinct for her, not yet.
She yanked the sonic out, and she pressed the button on it hard and repeatedly. She could hear a screech in her ears, laughter too, and it was the laughter that made her stomach drop out. Move, Stacy. Move. But then the grenade went off in that unimpressive little boom, causing her to look away, and Carnage was gone by the time Gwen looked back.
Flash was sitting up down below, and her knees wobbled as she snikt a line to a low escape, and then down to Flash's side, where she landed in a crouch. She'd never pulled her mask back over her face, and the hoodie was still back - but she didn't care. "What happened? What do you mean?" she asked, worried, because things couldn't get worse - could they?
Flash was too busy dealing with the grenade to focus on the screech of noise across from him, even if Venom had a harder time cobbling him back together. He looked over to see the white hooded spider near him and he reached for her instinctively. One hand to hold her arm, like he was making sure it was her and not Carnage. “I can’t sense it anymore.” Flash said simply, soldier tone activated. “It needed to lure me in and, I don’t fucking know, taste me?” He visibly shivered like the thought of it gave him the creeps and then slowly sat up. Back to being brony Flash.
“It stuck its things in me and then,” Flash snapped his fingers, “The scent of him was gone. Completely. Can it really learn how to do shit like that?” Flash felt even less helpful than he was before. Stupid Flash Thompson, rushing in guns blazing only to get his legs cut off or lose all his value to the team. “It’s way stronger than Venom. I let it have more control than I usually do and it still couldn’t get a good swing in. We might be fucked.” He wasn’t upset about that, though. Not so secretly, Flash kind of dug having a real challenge.
She just looked down at the hand that grabbed her arm, trusting him entirely, but what he said next didn't make her feel any better about anything. "Fuck," she whispered, like she was aware that swearing was something she seldom did, and she'd done it like two or three times in a row. But Flash being able to sense Carnage was their on ace-in-the-hole, and now it was totally gone. But, okay, they'd figure it out. Right? Right. She was trying to think about the last Peter, about anything the Doc Ock version of him might have said, since he'd captured Carnage first (with her help, thank you very much), but the sonics were the best thing she knew, and she needed him in a host they could overpower and contain.
"It's a lot stronger than Venom," she said, and she rocked back onto her heels. "You weren't here when he- it was, but I did a lot of comparative analysis then, and I don't think Venom can take him. I don't think Peter can. Maybe the two of you? All I know is it took a familiar host, one that responded to the people trying to contain it, to capture it before. It was Jason's family. They knew him, and he knew them, and he retained some semblance of himself, or I would be totally dead." She let that hang there between them, and then she stood. At least Flash sounded better, like maybe figuring this out was something to look forward to.
Gwen wasn't so sure.
"But it messed him forever. We can't let Jason near it." She still remembered the memories at Halloween, and how screwed up Jason still was about consuming people - she didn't blame him. She sighed. "And I need to get better at this." She motioned to herself, suit and webs and white hood. She was prepared to die, mostly, but she didn't want to get eaten. She turned her concerned face back to him. "You're okay?" She held a hand out to help him up, not that he needed it, but the tremble in her gloved hand said the contact would totally make her feel better.
He took her hand and got to his feet, brushing himself off as Venom finally seemed to turn solid. If she touched him, she’d feel the alien trying to imitate fibers, protective substances and leather. Almost enough that she wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. “Good news is that Venom is less freaked out. The connection was making it act erratic.” Not that he needed to spell that out for her since she had witnessed it for herself, but it was worth mentioning. Flash put his hands on his hips and sighed out at New York, at the already dried bloodstain across from them.
“I’m okay. We need to figure out who that guy is and see if he has family to notify. Can you get a sample? Might have left some Carnage residue.” Flash paced away from her and tried to think of what Ross would do. Get it somewhere he didn’t mind fighting in. A place where lives could be lost and it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe a prison? How would they even lure it there? Gwen? Shit, he didn’t want to use her as bait that was fucked. “Okay, we keep the doors closed. Don’t let DC dudes over here, or at least not Jason. You, me and Parker need to start training tomorrow. Can you manage not making out in front of me if you two are in the same room together?” Flash tried for a joke, his voice even lifted like it did when he was being an asshole. Something hurt when he thought about it, but Flash pushed that the fuck out of his mind immediately.
“I need you to look at Venom, too. See if it’s infected. I can’t let anything happen to it.” There was actual concern in his voice for the alien goop. It happened sometimes, especially when people called it too dangerous or didn’t really understand what it could do. Yeah, Venom unleashed would be a bad situation for everyone, but it wasn’t out for blood like Carnage was. And, to Flash? It was like a best friend to him.
She held onto his hand long enough to feel calmer, and the scientist that still lived within her (tentative these days) marveled in the way the symbiote recreated itself. She stared at his hand for a few seconds, that old nerd interest on her features, high school, and when she'd come to their tutoring sessions babbling about something amazing she'd learned that he totally had no interest in whatsoever. But she'd always had that level of interest in Venom, and it had been the draw with Carnage originally. Flash was gone, but Carnage was just another symbiote, and Flash had given it to her before he left. She'd messed up along the way, but originally it had just been some weird extension of the brony that wasn't around anymore.
Gwen let go of his hand before she got weepy again, because weeping was totally not okay in the middle of a crisis. She looked back at what remained of the man that had been torn apart from the inside, and she wondered how many more casualties would stretch behind him. She really had hoped it was just Carnage cloning someone or something, but the bloodstain said otherwise, and she didn't have much on her to take a good sample with. But she'd improvise, and she started moving toward the gunk that was left behind. "We can get into the PD database using my dad's old credentials. Whoever he is, someone will report him missing soon enough, and you'll recognize him. You were close when-" Right.
"No one from DC," she nodded, "and I don't think we should let Mr. Rogers take over," she added, though she wasn't actually sure if he'd agree. "If we need to give it a host or something, I can do it. Just, let's figure out a way to get it out of me first, okay?" They'd done it with Jason; they could do it again if they needed to. But the training suggestion got a nod, one followed by a shove to his shoulder when he mentioned her and Peter making out. "We both know that me dating Peter is a terrible idea, and I'm not making out with him. We kissed, and I freaked and ran," she said truthfully, unaware that the subject weirded him out at all. "He's going to get with Mary Jane anyway. I can tell. He's scared to be around her." She said it like that totally explained everything - and with Peter it kind of did.
She collected the sample, and she was quiet for a few seconds as she crouched and thought about the man splattered across ground. Then, she stood, and she gave him a reassuring look. "Yeah. Let's go home and I'll check Venom out." She smiled at him a little, and then she tugged her mask down. "Give me a lift?" She had samples and no pockets, so webslinging was out of the question - and maybe it was for old time's sake, too, just a little.
Venom didn’t know how to tell someone that their family member was eaten by an alien, so even if they wanted to keep the Captain out of it, he might ask the Avenger for advice on that. Maybe even convince Capt to come along because who could get pissed at the red, white and blue? “We handle this.” He agreed and then he pointed “You’re the last resort.” He warned and fuck he knew that they could come up with ten different ways to save her from it but none of them would actually work. Handing her to Carnage was tempting fate way, way too much right?
Flash couldn’t help but chuckle at her comment about Peter and he shook his head with a sigh. The gossip shit usually pissed him the fuck off because it was frustrating and pointless, but here it was sort of comforting. Like things were somehow normal with a crazy monster on the loose. “Nah man, he’s in it to win it.” Flash made a punch in-punch out motion with his fist and the suit of bro armor, bromor was on good and tight.
He turned and smiled when she asked for a lift. “I hope you haven’t gotten fat since last time, dude. Venom is only so strong.” Flash joked and then bent down so she could put her arms around his shoulders and he could swing off into the New York City night.