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The fight at Fisherman’s Wharf was still going, but the gunmen had already been dealt with.
Evan checked the situation and spoke to Venom.
“That’s enough.
Time to leave.”
Running into Spider-Man had been an accident.
Sparring with him had been satisfying.
On the surface, they looked evenly matched, but Evan knew the truth.
Venom had not used anything lethal.
In a way, he had been letting Peter keep up.
At Evan’s signal, Venom created distance and landed on the side of a building.
“Friend,” Venom called, “we have things to do.
Next time.”
He turned to go.
Then his body stiffened.
His eyes shifted down to the street.
Several black luxury cars tore into the Wharf and braked hard.
Doors opened.
Twenty-four large men stepped out.
All twenty-four looked up at Venom.
“Symbiotes,” Venom said.
He smelled them immediately.
Evan’s evolution had sharpened their shared senses too.
From this far away, the scent of his own kind still came through clearly.
“Run or fight?” Venom asked.
Evan considered it for one breath.
Then he sent one cold thought through the bond.
‘Kill.’
“Good,” Venom said, excitement sharpening his voice.
Black tendrils shot from his body and latched onto the building, pulling him away from Spider-Man and toward the docks.
“Trying to run?” shouted the biggest man below.
“Not happening.”
He was Black, broad as a door, and carried himself like he expected violence to obey him.
His name was Grave, one of Riot’s trusted enforcers.
He saw Venom moving away and assumed he was fleeing.
“After him.”
At Grave’s command, different-colored symbiote matter crawled over the twenty-four men and swallowed them whole.
In seconds, two dozen monsters hit the walls and began climbing.
Evan was not running.
He was choosing a stage.
Under his direction, Venom raced toward the massive crane on the Wharf and climbed to the top of the steel frame.
From there, half the city could see him.
More importantly, half the city could see what came next.
“Evan,” Venom said, amused and wary at once.
“You do realize killing up here turns us into public enemy number one, right?”
Venom had been on Earth long enough to learn one useful rule: survive longer by staying quiet.
Evan let half his face emerge from the black suit.
A strange smile sat on his mouth.
“Public enemy?
Maybe.
But someone needs to tell the world your people have invaded Earth.”
“Oh,” Venom said.
“That’s the game.
In that case, this is a beautiful hunting ground.”
The twenty-four symbiotes reached the crane and surged toward them.
“Venom,” Evan said, sinking back inside, “they are yours.
Kill them.
Eat them.
Make it terrifying.”
“With pleasure.”
Venom roared and lunged.
By then, San Francisco was watching.
News crews pushed as close as police would allow.
Helicopters circled.
Phones pointed upward from every street and pier.
Then the slaughter began.
Venom became a demon made of black muscle and teeth.
One arm reshaped into a massive ax and split a symbiote from shoulder to hip.
The other became a spear and drove through another, pinning it against the steel.
No matter how he killed them, the ending was always the same.
He grabbed the body.
He shoved it into his mouth.
He chewed.
Blood and black flesh spilled between those huge white teeth and fell down the crane in wet streaks.
Below, people turned away and vomited against walls, cars, and each other.
The scene was too brutal.
Too visible.
Too impossible to explain away.
The most horrifying part was the imbalance.
One monster stood at the top.
Twenty-four came for him.
The twenty-four were the ones being massacred.
Inside a S.H.I.E.L.D.
command center, Nick Fury watched the livestream in silence, one eye narrowed.
At Stark Industries, Tony Stark watched the same feed over a steak dinner.
When Venom tore into another symbiote, Tony looked down at the meat on his plate and quietly set his fork aside.
At the Life Foundation’s symbiote lab, Carlton Drake and Riot watched too.
Drake trembled with rage.
“That damned Venom,” Riot snarled through him.
“He is devouring our own.
Unforgivable.
Send the word to every symbiote hidden on this planet.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.