Chapter 25: CH-25
He tapped the side of his helmet, "Once the vault is open, convene on my location." Too long and the cops would show, even longer and the army would show once they knew supers were involved and sure they could take them but a clean getaway was preferable.
"ETA one minute, vault penetrated, securing the package," came the reply.
He needed to stall Venom, checking the scanners he heard no chatter about the diner, so that was still under control, five minutes and in his mind a plan formulated. "Rhino back off, get him to stay away from you, the others are on the way," Rhino grunted, sure he was muscle but he took orders well enough.
Ocks arms would snake and dart out without warning, forcing Venom back, away from Rhino. If he lept Rhino intercepted the leap and brought him back to the ground before rolling back towards Ock, his arms waving menacingly to keep him safe.
The monster was strong and fast but with two they could keep him contained long enough for their friends to finish with the vault, they didn't have time to play games with the muscled freak, even if all Ock wanted was to drag him into a lab to see what made him tick.
Venom sprang up onto his feet and spun webs at Ock, trying to disable at least one of his arms but as his back exploded into a ball of pain, his muscles tensing from the electricity thatstunned and paralysed him, he knew he'd been played. Through the haze of pain, he saw there were two more men, one brown and roughly textured like sand, his face familiar to Venom and the other an armoured bald black man with wires and tubes running over his body, lines of electric current running through them.
Doc Ock lurched forwards and incapacitatedVenom, wrapping all four limbs around him. He could feel the strain on his harness but for now, it was holding. "Well, don't just stand there, help me" Rhino saw the links of Docs arms flex and buckle as Venom's muscles bulged.
Venom strained against the limbs but they had coiled around him, holding him tightly. He'd been too wrapped up with Rhino to notice the others moving behind him. The man, dressed up in tight body armour had sparks flitting between his fingers, a human taser had shocked him causing all of his muscles tospasm and lock up. Venom had neverconsidered electrocution would bypass the symbskin armour, so now he had another issue to solve.
"Electro, light him up, Doc, aim for the Prius on the right," Rhino called out, pointing off to a parked car.
Doc Ock lifted Venom to the complaint of his harness and launched him at the car. He flattened it as he hit and once he gained his bearings he was prepared to launch himself towards Ock until he felt the lightning arc its way towards him, pain flowed through his body and Venom screamed as it lit his nerves with sparkling agony. The electricity arced to nearby cars, setting off their alarms and the piercing sounds set Venom's nerves alive with mind splitting pain.
Steam rose off his body as the gauntleted villain let the arcing electricity die. "Hah! Take that you freaky fuck," he called and before Venom could recover, he was punted by Rhino towards Ock. Taking him by the foot he slammed Venom over and over into the pavement, cracking the thick concrete with each slam and Venom felt himself back out.
"I have an idea. Bring him" Ock slammed him into the ground once more and motioned back to the diner. "Marko, this him?" He motioned to the unconscious Venom,
"It's Sandman now, and yeah, that's him."
"Good, have fun, Sandman. Electro get the package and let's move. Rhino, are you staying?" Ock had already guessed that Rhino would stay, he had issues with being the biggest and toughest and Venom had pushedthat button.
"I'm staying boss, got meat to tenderise." Rhino flexed his hands and then balled them into giant meaty fists.
Ock snorted, "Have fun you two, oh, and get his mask off, let all these nice people see who's under there" Rhino grinned. "Sure boss, won't take long".
The two of them, Ock and Electro, made their way to a van parked across from the bank, strolling as if it was another day at the office. Flicking on his police scanner the alarms set off by Electro had alerted the owners who, finding their precious cars were now scrap, called the police. Even if Rhino and Sandman got cornered there was nothing to tie them to the bank job they'd just pulled.
Sandman had wrapped his gritty body around Venom and Rhino was using him as a punching bag, laying heavy blows to his chest andstomach. Venom was out for the count, the electricity disrupting his muscles, locking them into frozen ropes of pain. He wasn't even registering each of the blows being rained onto him, his mind retreating into itself.
But even through all that, it was an intense agony that brought him back into consciousness. He coughed and blood filled his mouth. Through half-shut eyes he saw Rhino standing over him, thick grey fingers digging into the symbskin on his chest. As his thick fingers dug into the symbskin a large chunk, the white spider emblem on his chest, ripped free and a grinning Rhino threw it into the diner. Screams followed as the patrons backed away from the torn and oozing pile of goop. The pain drew him back to the land of the living and he saw Gwen and the others standing at the broken window in shock, watching him being pummeled by these two monsters.
Sandman laughed as Rhino landed punch after punch into Venoms bare chest, "yeah fuck that asshole up Rhino," he hollered in joy watching Venom suffer as he had.
Venom laughed, asshole? There are only two assholes here. He thickened the skin on his chest, drawing on all the dead material aroundhis body, thickening it into something thatRhinos fists couldn't break. A plate thickened on his forehead and he slammed his head back first, stunning the Sandman and the forwards, as Sandman's grip loosened ever so slightly Venom's head slammed into Rhinos. The horn on his helmet crumbed with the impact and Venom laughed, "Aww, seems you lost your horn, the ladies will be disappointed." He started to exude web fluid, thick tendrils from his back snaking over Sandman, not a line but sticky thick gel, like tar, and Sandman found himself the one being held.
"Yes, we are Venom and you are nothing." Freeing his hand, a thick gauntlet of hardened skin coated it and he slammed it into Rhino's jaw. Sandman was trying to free his body but the thick tar was holding him fast. Venom began to cover them both in more of the tar and Sandman began to panic, moving his core body away from Venom. Screaming he had to leave several chunks of himself behind but it was too late, he could move but his powers were severely limited. Rhino shrugged off his blow, "So you still got some tricks huh?" before Venom slugged him again,
"No talk, more fight," he retorted and his hardened fists began to slam into Rhino, heheard Sandman yell "Move" at the people behind him and as he turned to make sureGwen and the others were okay. Rhino capitalised on this and body-slammed him into the ground. Lifting him by the ankle he swung and threw him back into the diner, the panicked crowd of people scattering as he smashed through the door.