Chapter 108: Friendship Shattered / Anti-Venom is Born
Four hundred meters from the Queens Police Department, on the seventeenth floor of an apartment building with windows facing the precinct, a curtain shifted slightly.
A sniper rifle equipped with a suppressor extended its barrel through the gap, aimed directly at the Queens police station.
Crossbones, Brock Rumlow, slowly adjusted the rifle, aligning the crosshairs of his scope with the interrogation room holding Eddie Brock.
Typical interrogation rooms were deliberately windowless, designed to increase psychological pressure on suspects through claustrophobic confinement.
However, the recent influx of criminals had overwhelmed the precinct. Batman had delivered a steady stream of offenders to Queens and Manhattan precincts, while Black Cat had worked with police to sweep up the remnants of Kingpin's organization in one coordinated strike.
Two nights ago, the FEAST shelter incident had resulted in every shelter resident being detained as a potential suspect, requiring individual interrogation.
The sheer volume had forced the Queens precinct to repurpose rooms with windows as makeshift interrogation spaces.
Eddie Brock's interrogation room happened to have a bright, clear window.
Unfortunately for Crossbones, Eddie currently sat near the door being questioned by Officer Bullock, temporarily out of the scope's view.
"Come on, come on..." Brock Rumlow muttered impatiently under his breath.
For a world-class mercenary, a veteran Hydra operative, and an elite combat master, silently eliminating one unemployed reporter should have been effortless.
But five days had passed since he received orders relayed through General Ross.
Eddie Brock had spent three days in the crowded, heavily monitored FEAST shelter, and now a day and a half locked in the police station.
Time was running out. Brock Rumlow refused to waste another moment on this insignificant journalist.
He had far more important matters to attend to. Black Widow was already in position at the Adirondack Mountains base north of New York, while Rumlow remained stuck here watching a nobody.
Rather than waiting for Eddie to leave the station for a cleaner kill, Rumlow chose the direct approach: one bullet from four hundred meters to send him to God.
Thump. Thump. Brock Rumlow's heartbeat remained perfectly steady, showing no change even as Eddie Brock's figure gradually appeared in the scope after his interrogation ended.
He had executed countless similar missions for Hydra. Silencing witnesses was routine work for Crossbones.
Through the scope, Eddie Brock's form moved slowly. Crossbones watched Eddie's mouth open and close, apparently talking to someone.
But the interrogation had ended. Eddie Brock could only be talking to himself.
Crossbones didn't overthink it. He calculated wind speed, gravity, and every variable that might affect the bullet's trajectory, then squeezed the trigger without hesitation.
Four hundred meters was nothing for a sniper rifle, especially this cutting-edge weapon from Stark Industries. The bullet required less than half a second to reach its target.
The round struck exactly where Crossbones intended. Eddie Brock staggered backward two steps, his face frozen in disbelief.
The next moment, Crossbones couldn't help cursing into his scope. "What the hell?"
Through the magnified view, Eddie Brock's figure vanished, replaced by something exponentially larger than the reporter's slight frame. A creature with a pearl-white body covered in irregular black markings, its face predominantly dark, filled the scope.
Mission compromised. Crossbones Rumlow immediately withdrew the rifle, no longer watching.
Through the scope, he had clearly seen that thing emerge from Eddie Brock's transformation. Whatever it was, it exceeded the threat level one operative could handle alone.
"Is General Ross a complete idiot? That's no reporter. That's a goddamn monster! Could that be the Batman everyone's been talking about?"
Crossbones' hands moved with practiced efficiency, disassembling the sniper rifle into components and packing them into a guitar case. Without alerting anyone in the apartment building, he departed for the Hydra facility in the Adirondack Mountains.
Inside the Queens precinct, Eddie Brock had struggled to answer any questions during his interrogation. Something in his head kept making noise, preventing him from concentrating on the officer's questions.
But after Officer Bullock left, Eddie gradually began to hear the voice in his mind more clearly.
"Accept me. Let us become one. Together, we'll kill that bastard!"
"Kill who?" Eddie felt a headache building as he asked in a low voice.
"Venom! Kill Venom, that bastard who abandoned you!" the voice in Eddie's mind declared. "I can feel the hatred in your heart. Your hatred for the one who just gave you power but abandoned you the next moment exceeds everyone else..."
"Let us kill him!"
"Who are you?" Eddie's words cut off abruptly. Something felt wrong inside his body.
He couldn't breathe. His lungs had been torn into sponge-like shreds by the massive impact of the sniper round.
Organ fragments sprayed from the bowl-sized exit wound in his chest where the bullet had torn through. Blood flooded his chest cavity from the vacuum pressure.
In less than one second, Eddie Brock would collapse on the floor, never to rise again.
But in that fraction of a second, massive amounts of pearl-white symbiote matter erupted from within Eddie Brock's body, spreading rapidly to encase his entire form.
The bullet-shredded chest cavity sealed at incredible speed. Eddie Brock's eyes shifted from death-gray back to vibrant life as the symbiote completely encased him.
"Who am I?" The white-based symbiote with irregular black surface patterns and a pitch-black face opened its enormous maw. "I am Anti-Venom."
....
"Oh? So our philanthropist Peter Parker finally decided my Jericho missile is worth his investment after all?"
Previously, Tony Stark had offered Peter Parker the chance to invest in the missile development based on their reasonably friendly relationship. Batman had coldly refused.
Now Batman opened the conversation specifically about that missile, making Tony Stark instinctively look down on this flip-flopping opportunist.
Tony's words dripped with barbs, not bothering to spare Batman's feelings.
He even had Jarvis turn on the television, raising the volume to pointedly ignore Batman.
Batman looked directly at Tony Stark. He showed no anger at Tony's cutting remarks or dismissive behavior. His voice remained calm and measured.
"No, I was inspired by your Jericho missile."
"What?" Tony Stark tilted his head slightly, unable to comprehend what inspiration Peter Parker could possibly derive from a missile.
"You mentioned your new weapon is a cluster missile capable of saturated bombardment of target areas, correct?" Batman said. "Its construction must be extraordinarily precise. No one else in the world could build it except you."
"That's right. It's my masterpiece." Tony Stark smiled with satisfaction.
Stark was smiling. Batman wasn't. His expression remained serious, as if discussing an important academic problem.
"However, that made me consider a more fundamental question. If such a precision weapon's effectiveness depends on perfect coordination of every individual munition..."
"Then the reliability of any basic component becomes critically important, doesn't it?"
Tony Stark stopped lounging against the sofa. He couldn't help sitting up straighter.
He didn't believe Peter Parker, a young man juggling school and running Parker Industries, would waste time coming here to discuss philosophy.
"Of course. Like the strongest fortress, the gate has to be top quality too. What's your point, Peter?"
Batman's face showed a friendly smile, as if he'd simply come to chat as friends.
"You know how it is. When someone learns network technology, they can't resist treating various government systems as hacking targets for the sense of achievement."
"I'm the same. Before I gave you that AI model, I had already hacked into New York's police system. I still check it occasionally like reading the news."
"Ha ha ha..." Tony laughed. If they weren't sitting on separate sofas, he would definitely reach over and clap Batman on the shoulder. "Like when someone hacked into America's hydroelectric plant control systems last year?"
Batman nodded.
"Exactly. Though that wasn't me."
Tony Stark laughed even harder.
"Of course it wasn't you... that was me."
In just a few exchanges, the tension between them evaporated completely. Tony Stark even felt their relationship had grown closer.
After laughing heartily for a while, Tony rubbed his slightly sore facial muscles, letting his smile fade.
"Peter, just say what you want to say directly. No need to keep circling around."
"You still haven't told me the real reason you said you came here about the Jericho missile."
Batman controlled his facial muscles expertly, making his expression appear uncommonly sincere, his voice carrying genuine concern between friends.
"What I wanted to say is this: yesterday when I hacked into the New York police system, I discovered something. Police recently took down the notorious Kingpin's criminal organization in Hell's Kitchen and seized a shipment of weapons."
"Those weapons came from a Stark Industries military contractor."
"Tony, your company has a problem. It's no longer under your precise control. You need to shut down production immediately and root out the source."
Tony Stark's eyebrows immediately furrowed. He could hear that Peter Parker had discovered an issue and genuinely wanted to help. Tony nodded.
"My sales contracts include strict end-user agreements. Some middleman or corrupt officer in the chain must have screwed up."
"My legal team will handle it."
Batman leaned forward, staring intently at Tony Stark, using body language to make his posture more imposing.
"Tony, you need to shut down the military factories. At least pause Stark Industries operations. Your weapons flowing into the black market won't be that simple. You need to thoroughly audit every transaction within the company."
"Shut down? Do you know how many jobs, how much stock value that represents?"
Tony Stark refused decisively, as definitively as Batman had rejected investing in the Jericho missile days earlier.
"You can't demand that I, a businessman, stop my business just because my weapons reached the black market and hurt people."
"I use weapons to ensure this country's security. I'm working toward peace, Peter."
"You're not working for peace, Tony. You're just an arms dealer. Don't use morality to justify it," Batman's voice remained calm but forceful. "The problem now is your company has been compromised..."
At that moment, the television Tony Stark had turned on earlier interrupted with breaking news.
"Breaking news: Queens Police Department attacked by sniper fire. Eddie Brock, one of the suspects in the FEAST shelter incident two nights ago, transformed into a white creature and disappeared. Police only recovered a single sniper bullet at the scene."
"We don't yet know what prompted this attack, but there's no question the sniper's actions constitute a declaration of war against the New York Police Department."
Batman and Tony Stark both looked at the television screen. A close-up showed the recovered bullet.
Batman knew with certainty it was a Stark Industries round. Having hacked Stark's systems, he could identify it immediately.
But he couldn't say so. That might expose his identity as Batman.
He looked at Tony Stark. The playboy spread both hands and sank back into the sofa.
Batman said nothing more. He rose and left Stark Tower.
The path of friendly persuasion had reached its end.
Batman knew that as Peter Parker, he could do nothing more.
Now it was time for Batman to take the stage.
****
advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces