Chapter 22: CH-22. Killing the leader
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Because if this wasn't Earth, there was nothing he could do.
There was no possibility of self-rescue or returning to Earth.
"What is that?"
At this moment, Tony suddenly saw an object floating in the darkness ahead. Unable to resist, he used the Iron Man suit's engine to get closer.
As he approached, Tony was stunned. There were actually several corpses!
It was unclear how long these bodies had been floating in space. The humanoid forms had decayed, revealing bones. They wore space uniforms from an unknown civilization and each had a strangely shaped laser gun on their chest.
Some even had tail or wing-like structures!
Tony's eyelids twitched, and his heart filled with shock.
These were the bodies of aliens!
Back at the hotel.
The lights were off, and the room was dark and quiet, with only a few rays of silver light falling on the windowsill.
Kara, who was lying on the bed, suddenly opened her eyes and turned slightly to look outside the window.
Was it an illusion?
She thought she'd just heard the growl of some unknown creature from the other side of New York City—a growl filled with a dark, evil energy.
This was one of the downsides of Kryptonian super-hearing: sometimes, unwanted sounds flooded her ears.
As she woke from her sleep, Kara often found herself questioning what was real and what was merely a dream.
In terms of ability control, she wasn't as skilled as her cousin Clark. After all, as Superman, Clark had fully mastered Kryptonian powers and could control them at will. But Kara, in order to blend into the human world, had always kept her Kryptonian abilities hidden.
If that roar she heard was real...
"Senior, is everything okay?" Kara wondered aloud, sitting up. But just then, she felt someone's hands and feet brush against her body from the other side of the bed.
Kara froze and looked back.
It was Gwen, who had turned in her sleep and was now using Kara as a human pillow.
Gwen's sleeping posture was far from graceful or composed. She had tossed off the blanket, and her shirt had shifted, exposing her pale midriff.
With a sigh, Kara reached over and covered Gwen with the blanket.
Gwen, murmuring in her sleep with a sweet smile, mumbled, "Mike…"
"Senior, you really are shameless." Kara muttered softly, giving Gwen a slight frown. She glanced at the window one more time before closing her eyes.
After all, even if that roar had been real, it was too far away to have anything to do with Mike.
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Having dealt with the second symbiote, Mike set the unconscious Peter down on the ground. Aunt May, still rattled from the encounter, immediately rushed over and pulled Peter into her arms.
"He's fine." Mike reassured her, before leaping forward in his black cat form. He sprinted over lampposts and walls, making agile leaps. Though not as fast as his previous three-in-one state, he quickly disappeared down the street.
Only one symbiote remained, the leader of them all. It wasn't over until that one was defeated.
From Venom, Mike had learned the location of the last symbiote, which hadn't moved all night.
Five minutes later.
At the Drake Biogenics facility in the Bronx.
Arriving at the gates of the factory, Mike sensed a violent tremor in the ground. His cat eyes glinted with a faint green light as he saw, deep within the base, a spaceship igniting its thrusters, preparing for launch.
The third symbiote, the leader of them all, was attempting to escape…
Inside the spacecraft, Dr. Drake—the founder of Drake Biogenics—sat alone at the controls. His eyes and neck were dark, signaling that he was now the host of the last symbiote.
His motivation to leave Earth was simple: he had felt the deaths of his two symbiote subordinates and witnessed the power of the three-in-one Mike in the news.
No matter how proud the symbiote leader was, he knew he couldn't match Mike's strength and realized he was the next target. The only option was to flee Earth.
"What kind of monster is Venom attached to, to be that strong?" Drake muttered, shame and fear distorting his expression as he plotted his escape.
'I'll be back. Just wait!' He thought, while outwardly calm as he set the spaceship's trajectory.
The ship ascended, its thrusters blazing, and climbed to over a hundred meters.
Then, it suddenly trembled as if struck.
"He's here." Drake whispered, his face paling.
Outside the spacecraft, a small black cat was latched onto the hull, claws firmly embedded in the metal.
"Now that you're here, don't think about leaving." Mike opened his mouth wide, and eight tentacles tipped with small teeth emerged. With the symbiote's strength and toughness, they looked like the legendary Kraken's tentacles.
Crash!
The tentacles smashed into the spacecraft's metal shell, leaving dents and sparking electricity.
"No! Don't!" Drake screamed inside, feeling trapped, helpless.
If the third symbiote had known Mike was no longer in his three-in-one form but was only merged with Kerry, perhaps a fair fight would have been possible.
But instead, he was met with blazing heat as flames engulfed the spacecraft's cabin.
Boom!
The spacecraft ascended to 500 meters, then exploded, becoming a massive fireball in the night sky. The fierce flames consumed the symbiote known as Riot within.
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Inside the research base, within a locked office building, a man was rifling through documents in a dark archive room.
Eddie Brock had once been a famous reporter in New York, until he uncovered Drake Biogenics' inhumane experiments with alien creatures. But instead of praise, he was fired. Now, he was here to expose the truth.
"Got it!" Eddie muttered, pulling out a document from the safe. He tucked it into his jacket and prepared to leave.
But just then, the entire building began to shake. Dust fell from the ceiling, and furniture trembled.
"What's going on?" Eddie looked out the window to see the spaceship launch.
Then, the craft burst into flames high above, its fiery debris falling back toward the base.
In shock, Eddie instinctively grabbed his camera and began filming. As he watched, he caught a glimpse of a small black shadow darting past the wreckage.
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In a strange dimension.
"Energy level critical."
"Warning: energy critically low…"
The light in Tony's chest and eye sockets dimmed. With power almost depleted, he could only keep the suit's engine at a low power, drifting among floating alien corpses.
"Is this where I die?" Tony murmured, lost in thought. Around him floated countless alien remains.
These creatures' clothes and weapons were unlike anything on Earth.
The existence of these alien corpses confirmed Tony's suspicions: other complex civilizations thrived beyond Earth.
The Avengers initiative was the right course, but it was too late for him.
With a sigh, Tony turned on his helmet's built-in camera. His face appeared, weary yet resolute.
"Record a personal message for Pepper."
In the faint light, Tony spoke, "If you're seeing this, I didn't make it."
He continued, his voice breaking, "Pepper, living in an era of alien invasions, I should have been prepared. One moment I was in New York, the next, I'm lost out here. But I did my best."
"But I don't say this to complain. I just… I just want to tell you… I love you very much."
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Back on Earth, at Drake's base.
Mike leapt down, landing lightly on the ground as debris from the exploded spaceship rained around him.
The third and final symbiote was defeated. Now all three were dead, with Venom dormant within him.
"It's over." He muttered, kicking off with his claws and sprinting back to Queens, where Gwen and Kara were staying.
Only halfway there, Mike, merged with Kerry, suddenly remembered something important.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Without stopping, he opened his mouth mid-leap and spat a red-and-gold figure down to the ground below.
BANG!
Tony's Iron Man suit clanged as it landed heavily, freed from Mike's clutches, and the little black cat sprinted off into the night.