Chapter 29: Venom Spider Man
When the Winter Soldier arrived in front of Venom Spider-Man, the black clad figure sprang up with a backward flip.
"This body is incredible," Venom Spider-Man mused, flexing his fingers as he studied his hands. "Are the beings on this planet all this strong?"
The Winter Soldier instantly raised his shotgun.
"What's that?" Venom Spider-Man asked curiously, glancing at the weapon.
The Winter Soldier gave no reply. He pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A storm of pellets tore through the air. Venom Spider-Man remained perfectly calm as a layer of living symbiote surged over his body, forming a dark shield. The bullets slammed into it and bounced away, sending ripples through the viscous surface.
Seeing that the shotgun was completely ineffective, the Hydra agents exchanged uneasy looks.
"That monster has fused with Spider-Man," one of them muttered. "His suit's changed, and his fighting style looks more like the creature now."
"Stay sharp," Crossbones ordered grimly. "If anything goes wrong, we pull out immediately."
Something about tonight felt increasingly wrong to him. First the appearance of a bizarre creature, and now its fusion with Spider-Man.
"Doctor Zola only said Spider-Man would appear here tonight and that we were to eliminate him," Crossbones murmured to himself. "He never mentioned anything this abnormal."
Venom Spider-Man picked up a bullet from the ground, and with a slight squeeze, the bullet turned to dust.
"You don't seem very welcoming?" Venom Spider-Man said.
A flicker of shock crossed the Winter Soldier's eyes. Spider Man hadn't been capable of anything like this before.
He discarded the shotgun, drew a combat knife, and charged forward, his mechanical arm whirring as he swung.
Venom Spider-Man slipped aside again and again. With spider sense guiding him, the Winter Soldier's strikes were meaningless.
After dodging another attack, Venom Spider-Man countered with a straight punch aimed at the Winter Soldier's head.
The blow carried a piercing wind.
Every instinct in the Winter Soldier screamed danger. He knew that taking that punch head on would mean death.
He hurled the knife toward Venom Spider-Man while his metal arm slammed into a nearby tree, using it as leverage to wrench himself backward and create distance.
Venom Spider-Man sidestepped the knife effortlessly. His speed was like a streak of black lightning skimming the ground.
From his wrist, a thick, sticky strand of black webbing shot out. It was no longer the familiar white thread, but something alive, more like a writhing tentacle. The web did not target the Winter Soldier. Instead, it wrapped around the tree beside him.
"Left!"
The warning barely formed in the Winter Soldier's mind before the tree let out a sharp crack. Wrenched free by brute force, the trunk snapped in half and swept toward him with a roaring rush of air.
The Winter Soldier's pupils contracted. His mechanical arm lashed out, smashing the flying trunk apart in a single punch. Splinters exploded outward like shrapnel.
But behind the curtain of shattered wood, Venom Spider-Man was already there.
He had closed the distance completely. The massive white eye lenses loomed inches from the Winter Soldier's face.
"What exactly are you?" the Winter Soldier asked, stunned.
He had carried out thousands of missions, but never once had he encountered something as unsettling as Venom Spider-Man.
"Venom!" Venom Spider-Man roared, his voice echoing with a feral snarl.
"And your arm… It looks delicious." he added.
A fist coated in black symbiote screamed through the air, tearing at it as it slammed straight toward the Winter Soldier's face.
The Winter Soldier barely had time to react. He raised his mechanical arm to block.
Clang!
A loud bang exploded in the quiet grove.
A force beyond resistance surged through his arm. It felt as though he had been struck by a speeding truck. His body was hurled backward, crashing through two small trees before slamming hard into the ground.
"Ghk…"
The Winter Soldier lay weakly on the ground, a mouthful of blood spurting from his mouth.
Before he could even begin to rise, a black shadow loomed over him once more.
Venom Spider-Man dropped from above, both feet coming down with devastating force.
The Winter Soldier rolled desperately to the side.
Boom!
The spot where he had been lying caved in, leaving behind a deep crater.
Seizing the opening, he drew another knife and drove it upward into Venom Spider-Man's calf.
The blade sank in, but the resistance felt wrong. It was like stabbing into dense, elastic rubber. The black substance immediately writhed, trying to envelop and swallow the knife.
Venom Spider-Man did not even flinch. He glanced down at the knife embedded in his leg.
"Heh… heh… heh…"
A strange, chilling laugh bubbled from his throat.
With a casual motion, he pulled the knife free and tossed it aside like a piece of trash. The wound was instantly sealed as the flowing black matter covered it.
"Is that all you've got, food?" Venom Spider-Man sneered, tilting his head. The white lenses of his mask narrowed, making him look even more cruel.
More thick, viscous black "webs" erupted from his body.
Relying on elite combat instincts and the raw power of his mechanical arm, the Winter Soldier dodged and blocked frantically among the trees.
Some trunks were pierced clean through by the black webbing. Others were torn apart outright by sheer force.
The battle turned into a one-sided hunt
Firearms were useless. Knives barely slowed him. Even close quarters combat meant nothing in the face of overwhelming strength and rapid regeneration.
Not far away, the remaining Hydra agents watched the lopsided battle in mounting terror.
"This isn't working," one agent whispered, his voice shaking. "The Winter Soldier is completely outmatched. Spider-Man is terrifying. He's worse than Captain America."
Crossbones' hands trembled slightly, sweat slicking his palms.
He had been envious of the Winter Soldier's power just moments ago, but now Spider-Man was crushing it.
"Withdraw," Crossbones ordered through clenched teeth.
"What about the Winter Soldier?"
"Leave him," Crossbones replied coldly.
With that command, the Hydra squad retreated in disciplined silence, abandoning the battlefield.
The Winter Soldier made a single mistake.
A black tendril lashed out and wrapped around his right ankle, yanking him upside down and hoisting him into the air, straight in front of Venom Spider-Man.
He struggled violently. The mechanical arm whined as it strained to tear through the sticky restraint, but the black substance was impossibly tough, refusing to give way.
Venom Spider-Man slowly approached, his huge white eye mask observing the dangling Winter Soldier up close.
As he drew closer, the Winter Soldier noticed a massive change on Venom Spider-Man's face.
A huge black mouth lined with jagged teeth split open across his face, viscous saliva dripping down.
"It seems not everyone on this planet is strong," Venom Spider-Man growled, his voice twisted and monstrous. "My host is simply a special case."