The Kingdom Chapter Four

REIGN OF SYMBIOTES
Part 1: The Kingdom
A Fan-Fiction epilogue based on the game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Story by Orion Petitclerc

CHAPTER 4
THE CALM

Black Cat tried her best to silently sneak back into the new throne room, but her presence did not go unnoticed.  “You know, it’s hard to get past me without my Spider-Sense going crazy,” said Spider-Man as he emerged from behind his grand seat of power.  “You’ve been gone for an hour without telling me.  Lovers don’t go and sneak off on their partners out of the blue, especially lovers in such an important leadership position.”
“There were just a couple of cornered mice that this kitty wanted to play with,” purred Black Cat.  “Nothing that would concern you, my love.”  Felicia winced as she slowly sat in her chair, clenching her abdomen.
“Those mice must have been big,” said Spidey.  He sniffed the air once, “I smell another symbiote…not one of ours, either.  What were you up to, Cat?”
“Recall our old friend Toxin?”
“Rings a bell.  What about him?”
“He got in the way of those mice I wanted,” said Cat.  “He’s still trying to be the good little symbiote.  I wonder when he’ll get the message that he is above those normal humans.”
“I sense your holding back on something, Cat,” Spidey sternly stated.  “I don’t need a super power to tell that you were specifically drawn to this group of ‘mice.’”
Felicia quickly grinned and giggled, “I just felt like doing a bit of hunting, that’s all dear.  What’s so wrong with having a little fun?”
Spidey studied her for a few moments, approached her and bent down to kiss her, his mask retracting accordingly.  “Just don’t run off like that ever again, okay?  It’s hard enough ruling a kingdom with just the two of us.”
“Speaking of issues, what’s the progress on our establishment?” Cat asked.
“I was finally able to win Rhino into our kingdom.  The knucklehead’s got a soft, twistable brain, so it was easy.  Daredevil and Spider-Woman’s clans are still our largest issues, but with all the minor tribes quickly joining our cause New York will soon be ours.”
“Mmm, perfect.  I told you this city could be ours,” cooed Felicia.
“It won’t just be the city, Cat,” said Spidey.  His voice suddenly, but almost unnoticeably changed, “I want to rule the world.”
***
“Sir, the test results are back,” reported a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist.  “We’ve confirmed that the subject’s symbiote has been altered on a genetic scale.  The ‘Anti-Venom’ is capable of ridding a host of its invading symbiote completely by destroying it without causing harm to the host.  However, when we recreated the experiment with another test subject, the result was not the same; the symbiote was completely destroyed, but the host was left in a permanent comatose state.  This was not the same result for another test subject, but it still concluded with adverse side-effects on the host’s part.  We’ve concluded that whenever Mr. Li’s powers are used on a cloned spawn of the original Venom symbiote, the result will be unpredictable, and possibly fatal.”
Colonel Fury sighed.  “Another dead end.  We can’t mass-produce Li’s power—it would mean risking the lives of all the civilians.  What about Brock?  What about his cancer?”
“We’ve found no trace of cancer, sir.  In fact, we haven’t found any trace of a threat, immediate or not, to Brock’s system.  Not even a strain of the common cold.  It seems as if his altered symbiote is producing super anti-bodies that protect Brock from…well, everything.”
“So Li’s power reset Brock’s system and the symbiote is acting like a cure-all suit—and we can’t reproduce the entire process that made the Anti-Venom,” Fury turned to an operative manning a communications station.  “Contact Black Widow.  Tell her to retrieve the Tinkerer from the brig and report with him to me.”
The operative acknowledged the order and went on with the task.  “I guess it's back to plan A again,” said Fury, but he was interrupted before he could finish his thought by another operative.
“Sir, we have reports of commotion near the Stark Tower complex.”
***
“Hold on to something,” yelled Cage.  He accelerated and plowed through a swarm of crawlers, the pick-up truck bouncing and rumbling over the bodies.  A mother in the back of the truck flew out from behind, screaming.  She was caught mid-air by Toxin swinging behind.
“Got ya’, honey!” smiled Toxin.  The woman stared at his smile half scared and half unsure.  Toxin planted her back on the pick-up and landed on the roof of the cab, poised ready for action.  “The tower is just up ahead,” he pointed out to Cage.  A Smiley symbiote suddenly jumped from a building, aiming its jaws at Toxin.  It was stopped short by a shotgun blast from Mary Jane in the passenger seat.
“Got your back,” she said.  Toxin smiled and gave a thumbs-up to Mary Jane.
“Here we go,” yelled Cage.  The truck sped through the energy barrier surrounding Stark Tower.  Toxin, however, did not go through.  He screeched in pain as he was thrown back, shocked from the barrier.
As the truck screeched to a halt, Mary Jane bolted from the truck towards Toxin.  “Pat!  Cage, we’ve got to help him,” she yelled.
“We can’t, that barrier is supposed to keep symbiotes out, and that means Toxin, too.”  Mary Jane passed through the barrier and blasted at the surrounding symbiotes, clearing a path to the stunned Toxin.
“Stay away from him, monsters,” she shouted as she fired the shotgun.  After another blast, the gun clicked, depleted of ammunition.  “Toxin!  Come on, wake up!  You need to get up,” Mary Jane shouted as she shook the fallen hero.  The symbiotes surrounded the two and advanced, hissing and screeching.  A crawler jumped at Mary Jane, and she braced herself, screaming.  
A blast of gold energy knocked the symbiote fifty feet away.  The sky darkened, thunder boomed and lightning struck the horde of symbiotes.  Iron Man and Thor descended upon the helpless pair, and Black Widow emerged from behind the barrier, firing her SMG’s at the symbiotes.
“Fall back, we’ll cover you,” said Iron Man to Mary Jane.
“Not without Toxin!  I won’t leave him like this,” she yelled back.
“He is one of them.  He is the enemy,” Thor boomed.
“No, he’s different!  He had his symbiote before the invasion!  He’s a hero like you!”
“We don’t have time—!” yelled Black Widow, but Mary Jane interrupted her.
“I’m telling you, he’s our friend!  We can’t leave without him!”
Black Widow cursed in Russian.  “Fine, but just this once.”  She radioed an operative, “Lower the northwest barrier.  All guard units, be ready for battle!”
A few seconds later, the energy barrier whined and disappeared.  Suddenly, hordes of symbiotes rushed the unsuspecting guards.  Mary Jane and Black Widow dragged Toxin to the tower.  As they passed between the barrier generators, Black Widow yelled in the comm., “Raise the shield!”
The generators hummed to life, but the overwhelming horde of symbiotes overtook the guards and destroyed the generators, which in turn widened the breach in the perimeter due to the domino effect of generators going offline.  Alarms blared, and evacuation orders were being issued.
“The shields are offline, the base is taken!  Fallback to the emergency transports,” shouted Black Widow.  She and Mary Jane head towards a near-by drop ship while Iron Man and Thor cover their backs.  
“I need back-up over here,” yelled Cage from twenty yards away.  He brawled with Smileys and other symbiote brutes, attempting to keep them away from the small group of civilians at the pick-up truck.  Before any of the heroes could assist the group, a large horde of symbiotes plowed through Cage and the civilians.
“Cage!  No!” screamed Mary Jane.
“We must get to the drop ship!  They’re lost; we can’t help them now,” said Black Widow.  Mary Jane looked back at where Cage used to be and turned to make her way to the ship.  Both she and Black Widow hauled Toxin into the drop ship, which immediately took off right before a horde of crawlers could reach it.  The drop ship sped away from city with Thor and Iron Man as escort.  Mary Jane looked back at the city.  Manhattan was lost.