The Anti-Venom Saga

It’s ya boy Cal again.

It’s been another hour, and the squad has been assembled, moving out to San Francisco.

I teleported everyone there, our destination being the parking lot of the local Foundation branch.

That’s where we are right now. We arrived less than a minute ago, so we’re still standing in the parking lot.

Cetteville and San Francisco are roughly in the same time zone, so it’s still daytime here.

Okay, so we’ve finally established what our city is actually CALLED, but I don’t think the readers know which STATE Cetteville is in. All they really know is that it’s closer to the West Coast than the East Coast.

Cetteville’s in a state of disorder, I’d say.

That’s such a cop-out answer and you know it.

Complain about it another time, Niv.

We have more pressing matters at the moment.

Yeah, I know. But we’re gonna have to address that whole issue sooner or later.

Take it from here, Maestro.

Gladly.

“Okay, Venom’s probably waiting for us in their saferoom, so let’s get in there, gang.”

Taarn folds two of his six arms, the Mania Klyntar in battle suit form. Black and white, with a big white spider symbol on the back.

“My Klyntar’s looking forward to catching up with Venom’s. They’re something like cousins.”

His other four arms are holding a pair of sonic cannons. He and his Klyntar know that the Klyntar’s weaknesses to fire and sonics are psychosomatic, but Carnage probably doesn’t.

Me and Marley have copied Symona’s sonic screaming--

ALL screaming is sonic screaming, haven’t I said that before?

But the point is that the two of us no longer need sonic cannons to blast the Klyntar off someone.

Kinda wish we met Symona before the Citadel of Calvins, but hey, I made do with what I could find.

Sarul grins, the Bellikose Klyntar likewise in battle suit form. Black and blue, with no symbol on the back. He’s holding a sonic cannon with one hand.

“Hey, I already knew that the Venom and Mania Klyntar are related, I’m the one who introduced you to Mania.”

Kirk, appearing to wear a new black and red battle suit with his power limiting rings, checks the time on his COMP.

“I hope we can get this wrapped up quickly. I’ve got a date with Karla tonight.”

Reilly shrugs. She’s got a sonic cannon strapped to the back of her own battle suit, red and blue, with a different spider symbol on the back. And she’s wearing a new pair of red fingerless gloves, with a web pattern. They don’t do anything except look cool.

“Remember last time we were on business in San Francisco? It went on all night. Wait, what were you doing that night, Kirk? You weren’t in the squad that time.”

Kirk grins a shit-eating grin as he strolls down Memory Lane.

“I was chasing Carnage fluffies in a military truck, General Lucas gave me permission to borrow the truck. Chasing someone down the sloping streets of San Francisco in a military truck just resonated with me. Ich kann es einfach nicht erklären.”

He looks around.

“I don’t know why, but I just think this city is so cool. Cal, San Francisco would have been a much better venue for our first encounter. Don’t you feel the same way?”

I smirk at him.

“We don’t choose the ballroom, Kirk. We just dance. Life plays the song, we make the dance. It’s been like that forever.”

“Fair enough, but I still don’t know why I keep looking for rails to grind on. Or why I feel like I should have a gun and a motorbike. I’ve already got energy spears and superspeed…”

Marley looks up at Kirk.

“Fig-yuw it owt watew, Kiwk. We gut biz-niz tu att-end tu.”

I nod in agreement.

“Yeah, so let’s get inside already.”

Across the street, inside a convenience store, Michelle watches Calvin and his squad enter the Foundation.

“Not as many as last time…”

“Hey lady, are you gonna buy something already or what?”

Michelle turns to the employee behind the counter, who is looking at her with an annoyed expression.

Since Pax sent Michelle to Idaho, she hasn’t really been carrying cash on her. She had free room and board at Boise’s branch of the Peacemakers.

So she didn’t come in here to buy anything this time, it’s just a good place to watch the Foundation’s parking lot without being spotted.

And she happens to recognize the employee from the Carnage attack. She was buying coffee here when the ChaotiX arrived that night.

“You were a lot more polite last time I was here. You need to work on your customer service skills.”

The employee scoffs at Michelle.

“Yeah, well, they still don’t pay me enough to care, and you haven’t bought anything today, so you’re not a customer right now. Either buy something or fuck off, bi--”

SHUNK

“Eep.”

In the blink of an eye, Michelle has manifested All-White and driven it through the counter.

“By all means, finish that sentence. See what happens.”

“…Oh shit, is this a robbery?”

“…Fuck it, never mind. Don’t say a word about this to anyone.”

Michelle demanifests the Biosword and runs out of the store.

Once she’s gone, the cashier looks at the damage Michelle did to the counter.

“Damnit. This is gonna come out of my pay, isn’t it?”

I lead the squad into Venom’s Foundation room, finding the symbiotic fluffy waiting for us, in Venom mode.

“Caw, gwad yu cud make it.”

They look at Kirk, examining his new battle suit.

“…Huh. Su yu am--”

Kirk nods.

“Ja, it’s a very recent development. We’ll get to that later. First, we have business. Cal, what’s the plan?”

I take a few steps over to the open balcony door, staring at the street outside.

I think this is one of those times when we should shut our traps for a bit. Who’s up for a round of imaginary pool?

That would be lovely.

I’ll play whoever wins the first round.

And we’ll just watch, because we’re not in the mood to put all of those imaginary blindfolds on.

Cal, you’re up.

Thank you.

“Right now, the plan is to watch and wait, because there’s little we can do as things are at this point in time. Until we can pinpoint Carnage and/or his spawn’s location, we can’t fight the former or talk to the latter. I’ve got Suzy looking into shipments between Ohio and California, since the new Klyntar’s host is most likely from Ohio. A herd was attacked by Carnage near New Altepetl City, which is on the former site of Spaghetti Land.”

The lingering bits of red Klyntar biomass, almost indistinguishable from normal blood to the untrained eye, were the proverbial smoking gun.

I turn away from the balcony, looking around at the squad.

“So we can assume that both Carnage and his spawn are coming here from Ohio, and I’ve had Val calculate the travel time. By car, it’s a thirty-five hour drive, assuming one doesn’t make any detours. On foot, it would take a human around nineteen days to make that trip, and presumably, it would take the average fluffy even longer.”

Marley looks up at me.

“But Cawnage nu am da av-uh-wage fwuffy.”

“Exactly, and he might be clever enough to hitch a ride in a plane, like the Mask of Arachnus did, and like Hans and Argyrum did. That trip would only take around four hours. We should probably warn the people at San Francisco International Airport to be on the lookout for Carnage… tell them not to engage if they find him, but he might kill them anyway…”

“We wud sug-gest ee-kwip-in da hoomins at da aiw-powt with antee-Kwintaw weppuns, but Cawnage haf biwt up a wee-siss-tance.”

I turn to Venom, smirking again.

“Don’t forget about our anti-Klyntar force fields. We can deploy the Eye of the Storm Maneuver again if we have to. Are you capable of sensing if Carnage or his spawn are near?”

Venom shrugs.

“Nu ess-ack-wee. It am hawd tu ess-spwain. But da Kwin-taw can SMEWW eech udda, wemembew?”

Sarul nods, patting his chest with his free hand.

“Yeah, I had to use scent suppressant last time so Carnage wouldn’t know about my other.”

I can’t sense Klyntar, and I’m partially empowered by a Klyntar codex. Oop, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.

It's fine, that’s a useful contribution.

We’ve got the power to sense the energy of living things in general, but Carnage’s fluffy body was pretty much dead by the time he attacked San Francisco, barely held together by Klyntar biomass.

That, and he was missing his head.

Point is, I don’t know what Carnage’s fluffy half’s life force felt like on its own, because I’ve never had a chance to sense it. I only met him after Venom had bitten his head off, and the red Klyntar had performed a goddamn miracle in bringing him back to quasi-life.

He was basically some kind of… symbiotic zombie.

A… symbie? Zombiote? Nah, that just sounds dumb. Gah, I did it again!

Don’t sweat it, Niv.

Thing is, Klyntar life force is very distinctive. It’s much like that of a draak.

Not like a Darkling, though. I’m not sure those things are alive or undead.

And we can somehow sense the unlife force of the undead, and the power of artificial beings like robots.

I’m not complaining, it would be bullshit if we couldn’t sense an android’s power just because they’re artificial.

Yeah, tell me about it. But let’s not veer off topic again. We do that too often.

I couldn’t pinpoint Carnage’s location during his attack on San Francisco because all of the fluffies he had infected felt like him. His life force was smothering their own, and they were swarming the streets. The whole damn city felt like him.

Like back on Devil Island, where I couldn’t pinpoint the red Stone of Octavo because everything it was powering felt like it.

It’s a needle in a big stack of needles situation.

Or like Dave and Slayer’s chili farts, overpowering every other smell in the room, and all of the surrounding rooms.

If there’s just one of Carnage this time, we might be able to sense him coming.

At this point, his mind is fluffy, but his body, and therefore his life force is all Klyntar, right? I remember what that feels like from last time.

And I can sense the emotions of people around me with telepathy, Carnage’s default emotional state is homicidal mania.

Or… flufficidal mania…

But if we can’t sense him coming, there’s more than one way to skin a fluffy. Speaking metaphorically, of course.

Well, not entirely metaphorically, in this specific case.

“I’ll have to ask Sander and the Nerd Squad if they’ve made any progress with those bits of Carnage we have. Oh, and I almost forgot, Slayer wants a turn with Carnage, I’ll have to call him and Dave in if we capture the little bastard.”

Venom grins up at me.

“An yu wiww haf tu gib us time to git sum pop-cownies bee-fowe Swayew git stawt-ed.”

“I’ve got a capsule full of bags of popcorn in my capsule case, Little V. Hopefully, we can deal with Carnage before his spawn even gets here. We’re finding bits of him as fast as he’s hiding them, fucker’s just as persistent as Hans was.”

“We neba weawwy MET Hans.”

Marley sighs, clearly remembering our many encounters with Hans and his neural backups.

“Be gwad yu neba met Hans, Venom. He wuz wit-uh-wah-wee wowse den Hit-wuw.”

Miles up in the sky, a plane flies to San Francisco.

And in the cargo hold, Carnage grins.

He’s halfway there. He got into the plane without being caught, and now, all he has to do is get out without being caught, once the plane lands.

As much as he’d like to make sure there aren’t any witnesses the brutal and bloody way, right now, remaining unnoticed is vital.

He knows that Venom has powerful allies. Venom is a ChaotiX member, after all, and Carnage hasn’t forgotten his previous encounter with the ChaotiX.

If he knows about his spawn, they know too.

So Carnage is fully expecting the ChaotiX to interfere, that he’ll be racing them to his spawn, and he’s using this time to try and think of a plan.

He doesn’t have enough strength to orchestrate another invasion of San Francisco at the moment. If he starts turning other fluffies into extensions of himself again, the ChaotiX will immediately figure out what he’s doing.

His best hope is that something else will come up to distract the ChaotiX.

Unbeknownst to the psychotic symbiotic fluffy, the Catch-22 has become a three-way one. Possibly a Catch-33.

But really, Carnage thinks he’ll win no matter what.

If his real body is destroyed again, the fragments of his Klyntar spread across several states will survive. He’ll be able to try again, once the heat dies down.

If even one of those fragments remains, Carnage effectively has unlimited extra lives.

And he already built up enough strength to remake his true body once.

All he needs is the… raw materials, and they are more than abundant.

Every fluffy alive has what Carnage needs to build another body. They’re all just meat to him now. Biomatter that can easily be reformatted, and the fluffy genome has proven to be very pliable indeed.

As long as there are fluffies, Carnage will always find a way to claw his way back from death.

And as long as there is Venom, Carnage will always have a reason to claw his way back from death.

He simply refuses to die while Venom still lives, but dragging his progenitor down with him is still a win to him.

However, Carnage’s preferred outcome is the one where he’s alive and both halves of Venom are dead.

Along with Calvin and the rest of the ChaotiX.

Carnage hasn’t forgotten the trick Calvin and Venom pulled on him, either.

After finishing a quick recap of our many encounters with Hans for Venom’s benefit, I step out onto the balcony, reaching for the pouch on my battle suit that I usually keep a few spliffs in.

But I pause, my hand an inch away from the pouch.

“I should probably stay sober for now--”

vrrrrrrrrrr

When I feel my phone vibrate in another pouch, I take it out, seeing a text from an unknown number.

When I read it, I gasp again.

Elsewhere, the truck driver unknowingly giving the spawn of Carnage gets closer and closer to San Francisco.

He left Ohio behind early this morning, and he’s been driving all afternoon, barring the occasional break to refuel at a truck stop.

And he’ll be driving all night, hopefully arriving in San Francisco late tomorrow afternoon.

If it’s nighttime by the time he gets there, he intends to spend the night at a hotel before he hits the road again.

As the driver reaches for the box of donuts in the passenger seat, his hand brushes up against something slimy.

He turns, seeing a red tendril grabbing the donut he was about to eat, extending all the way through the open passenger side window, out of the back of the red and dark blue symbiotic fluffy clinging to the outside of the door.

The fluffy gives the driver the awkward smile of a toddler caught with a pudgy hand in the cookie jar.

“We can ess-spwain--”

VROOM

As the truck drives away, the symbiotic fluffy is left sitting on the side of the freeway, unceremoniously kicked out of their ride.

The truck is going as fast as the driver can without breaking the speed limit, so there’s no way the symbiotic fluffy can catch up now.

“Aw, nutsies.”

Neither host nor symbiote knows where exactly in America they’ve been ditched, all they know is that they’re still far away from San Francisco.

Host and symbiote sigh in sync as they start waddling down the side of the freeway.

They can’t keep up with the truck, and it’s already a dot in the distance, but they remember which way it was going.

They won’t make it very far on fo-- on hoof, but maybe they can find another ride.

The Klyntar speaks up in its host’s mind.

“Why didn’t we just kill him and take the… tuh… truck?”

The host replies out loud, his voice distorted.

“Fiwst of aww, da twuck nee a hoomin tu make it gu. FWUFFY nu knu how tu make a twuck gu. Du YU?”

He was a toughy of his herd, but since the brutal attack which he alone survived, he is a fluffy without a herd.

“An sekkund, it wudda bin wong tu kiww him. He did nuffin wong.”

“He kicked us out!”

“Yuh, but we WUZ wide-in in him twuck wif-owt pew-mish-un. We shudda jus AWSKED him if he cud gib us a wide.”

The Klyntar replies in a tone that conveys that it would be pouting like a sullen toddler, if that were possible.

“Well, alright, but I don’t think any of those weird tall people would give us a ride if we ask nicely. You’ve seen what we look like, right? They’ll probably run screaming.”

“Jus wet FWUFFY du da tawk-in, otay? Cuz fwuffy awweady gut a ai-dee-yuh…”